THE
HEISTORY OF SCOTLAND
DURING THE REIGNS OF
QUEEN MARY AND OF KING JAMES VI
TILL HIS
ACCESSION TO THE CROWN OF ENGLAND.
WITH A
REVIEW  OF THE SCOTTISH  HIISTORY
PREVIOUS TO THAT PERIOD:
AND AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING ORIGIN:AL LETTERS.
BY WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D.D
PRINCIPAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, ETC. ETC.
COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME.
NEW YORK:
DERBY & JACKSON, 119 NASSAU  STREET.
CINC INNAT[:-H. W. DERBY.
1856.




PRINTED  BY
E. N. GROSSMAN,
82 & 84 Beekman St.




PREFACE
TO
THE FIRST EDITION.
I DELIVER this book to the world with all the diffidence and anxiety
natural to an author on publishing his first performance. The time I have
employed, and the pains I have taken, in order to render it worthy of the
public approbation, it is, perhaps, prudent to conceal, until it be known
whether that approbation shall ever be bestowed upon it.
But as I have departed, in many instances, from former historians, as I
have placed facts in a different light, and have drawn characters with new
colours, I ought to account for this conduct to my readers; and to produce
the evidence on which, at the distance of two centuries, I presume to con.
tradict the testimony of less remote, or even of contemporary historians.
The transactions in Mary's reign gave rise to two parties, which were
animated against each other with the fiercest political hatred, embittered
by religious zeal. Each of these produced historians of considerable merit,
who adopted all their sentiments, and defended all their actions. Truth
was not the sole object of these authors. Blinded by prejudices, and
heated by the part which they themselves had acted in the scenes they de
scribe, they wrote an apology for a faction, rather than the history of their
country. Succeeding historians have followed these guides almost implicitly, and have repeated their errors and misrepresentations. But as the
same passions which inflamed parties in that age have descended to their
posterity; as almost every event in Mary's reign has become the object of
doubt or of dispute; the eager spirit of controversy soon discovered, that
without some evidence more authentic and more impartial than that of
such historians, none of the points in question could be decided with certainty. Records have therefore been searched, original papers have been
produced, and public archives, as well as the repositories of private men
have been ransacked by the zeal and curiosity of writers of different parties. The attention of Cecil to collect whatever related to that period, in
which he acted so conspicuous a part, hath provided such an immense store
of original papers for illustrating this part of the English and Scottish history, as are almost sufficient to satisfy the utmost avidity of an antiquary.
Sir Robert Cotton (whose library is now the property of the public) made
great and valuable additions to Cecil's collection; and from this magazine,
Digges, the compilers of the Cabbala, Anderson, Keith, Haynes, Forbes,
have drawn most of the papers which they have printed. No history of
Scotland, that merits any degree of attention, has appeared since these
collections were published. By consulting them, I have been enabled, in
many instances, to correct the inaccuracies of former historians, to avoid
their mistakes, and to detect their misrepresentations.
But many important papers have escaped the notice of those industrious
collectors; and, after all they have produced to light, much still remained
in darknes.s, unobserved or unpublished. It was my duty to search for
these; and I found this unpleasant task attended with considerable utility.
The library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh contains not only
a large collection of original papers relating to the affairs of Scotland, but




v                         PREFACE.
copies of others no less curious, which have been preserved by Sir Robert
Cotton, or are extant in the public offices in England. Of all these the
curators of that library were pleased to allow me the perusal.
Though the British museum be not yet open to the public, Dr. Birch,
whose obliging disposition is well known, procured me access to that noble
collection, which is worthy of the magnificence of a great and polished
nation.
That vast and curious collection of papers relating to the reign of Elizabeth, which was made by Dr. Forbes, and of which he published only
two volumes, having been purchased since his death by the Lord Viscoun'
Roysfon, his lordship was so.good as to allow me the use of fourteen volumes in quarto, containing that part of them which is connected with my
subject.
Sir Alexander Dick communicated to me a very valuable collection of
original papers, in two large volumes. They relate chiefly to the reign of
James. Many of them are marked with Archbishop Spotiswood's hand;
and it appears from several passages in his History, that he had perused
them with great attention.
Mr. Calderwood, an eminent presbyterian clergyman of the last century,
compiled a History of Scotland from the beginning of the reign of James
V. to the death of James VI. in six large volumes: wherein he has inserted
many papers of consequence, which are no where else to be found. This
History has not been published, but a copy of it, which still remains in
manuscript, in the possession of the church of Scotland, was put into my
hands by my worthy friend the Rev. Dr. George Wishart, principal clerk
of the church.
Sir David Dalrymple not only communicated to me the papers which
he has collected relating to Gowrie's conspiracy; but, by explaining to me
his sentiments with'regard to that problematical passage in the Scottish
history, has enabled me to place that transaction in a light which dispels
much of the darkness and confusion in which it has been hitherto involved.
Mr. Goodall, though he knew my sentiments with regard to the conduct
and character of Queen Mary to be extremely different from his own, communicated to me a volume of manuscripts in his possession, which contains
a great number of valuable papers copied from the originals in the Cottonian Library and Paper Office, by the late Reverend Mr. Crawford,
Regius Professor of Church History in the University of Edinburgh. I
likewise received from him the original Register of letters kept by the
Regent Lennox during his administration.
I have consulted all these papers, as far as I thought they could be of
any use towards illustrating that period of which I write the history. With
what success I have employed them to confirm what was already known,
to ascertain what was dubious, or to determine what was controverted, the
Public must judge.
1 might easily have drawn, from the different repositories to which I had
access, as many papers as would have rendered my Appendix equal in
size to the most bulky collection of my predecessors. But I have satisfied myself with publishing a few of the most curious among them, to which
I found it necessary to appeal as vouchers for my own veracity. None of
these, as far as I can recollect, ever appeared in any former collection.
I have added A/ Critical Dissertation concerning the JMurder of King
Henry, and the Genuineness of the Queen's Letters to Bothzwell. The facts
and observations which relate to Mary's letters, I owe to my friend Mr.
John Davidson, one of the Clerks to the Signet, who bath examined this
point with his usual acuteness and industry




PREFACE
TO
TIlE ELEVENTH EDITION
IT is now twenty-eight years since I published the History of Scotland.
During that time I have been favoured by my friends with several remarks
upon it; and various strictures have been made by persons who entertained
sentiments different from mine, with respect to the transactions in the reign
of Queen Mary. From whatever quarter information came, in whatever
mode it has been communicated, I have considered it calmly and with
attention. Wherever I perceived that I had erred, either in relating
events, or in delineating characters, I have, without hesitation, corrected
those errors. Wherever I am satisfied that my original ideas were just and
well founded, I adhered to them; and resting upon their conformity to
evidence already produced, I enter into no discussion or controversy in order
to support them. Wherever the opportunity of consulting original papers,
either in print or in manuscript, to which I had not formerly access, has
enabled me to throw new light upon any part of the History, I have made
alterations and additions, which, I flatter myself, will be found to be of some
Importance.
COLLEGE OF EDINBURGH,
March 5, 1787








THE
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
BOOK I.
CONTAINING A REVIEW  OF THE SCOTTISH HISTORY PREVIOUS TO THE
DEATH OF JAMES V.
THE first ages of the Scottish History are dark and fabulous. Nations,
as well as men, arrive at maturity by degrees, and the events which happened during their infancy or early youth, cannot be recollected, and
deserve not to be remembered. The gross ignorance which anciently
covered all the north of Europe, the continual migrations of its inhabitants, and the frequent and destructive revolutions which these occasioned,
render it impossible to give any authentic account of the origin of the different kingdoms now established there. Every thing beyond that short
period to which well attested annals reach is obscure; an immense space
is left for invention to occupy; each nation, with a vanity inseparable
from human nature, hath filled that void with events calculated to display
its own antiquity and lustre. History, which ought to record truth and to
teach wisdom, often sets out with retailing fictions and absurdities.
The Scots carry their pretensions to antiquity as high as any of their
neighbours. Relying upon uncertain legends, and the traditions of their
bards, still more uncertain, they reckon up a series of kings several ages
before the birth of Christ; and give a particular detail of the occurrences
which happened in their reigns. But with regard to the Scots, as well as
the other northern nations, we receive the earliest accounts on which we
can depend, not from their own, but from the Roman authors [81]. When
the Romans, under Agricola, first carried their arms into the northern parts
of Britain, they found it possessed by the Caledonians, a fierce and warlike people; and having repulsed rather than conquered them, they erected
a strong wall between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, and there fixed the
boundaries of their empire [121]. Adrian, on account of the difficulty o,
defending such a distant frontier, contracted the limits of the Roman province in Britain, by building a second wall, which ran between Newcastle
and Carlisle. The ambition of succeeding emperors endeavoured to
recover what Adrian had abandoned; and the country between the two
walls was alternately under the dominion of the Romans and that of the
Caledonians. About the beginning of the fifth century, the inroads of the
Goths and other barbarians obliged the Romans, in order to defend the
centre of their empire, to recall tnose legions which guarded the frontier
provinces; and at that time they quitted all their conquests in Britain.
421.] Their long residence in the island had polished, in some degree,
the rude inhabitants, and the Britons were indebted to their intercourse
with the Romans, for the art of writing and the use of numbers, without
which it is impossible long to preserve the memory of past events.
North Britain was, by their retreat, left under the dominion of the Scots
and Picts. The former, who are not mentioned by any Roman author




8                      THE HISTORY                      [BooK I
before the end of the fourth century, were probably a colony of the Celtm
or Gauls; their affinity to whom appears from their language, their manners, and religious rites; circumstances more decisive with regard to the
origin of nations than either fabulous traditions or the tales of ill-informed
and credulous annalists. The Scots, if we may believe the common
accounts, settled at first in Ireland; and extending themselves by degrees,
landed at last on the coast opposite to that island, and fixed their habitations
there. Fierce and bloody wars were, during several ages, carried on
between them and the Picts [838]. At length, Kenneth II., the sixty-ninth
king of the Scots (according to their own fabulous authors), obtained a
complete victory over the Picts, and united under one monarchy all the
country from the wall of Adrian to the Northern Ocean. The kingdom
henceforward became known by its present name, which is derived from
a people who at first settled there as strangers, and remained long obscure
and inconsiderable.
From  this period the History of Scotland would merit some attention,:
were it accompanied with any certainty. But as our remote antiquities
are involved in the same darkness with those of other nations, a calamity
peculiar to ourselves has thrown almost an equal obscurity over our more
recent transactions. This was occasioned by the malicious policy of Edward I. of England. Towards the end of the thirteenth century, this
monarch called ih question the independence of Scotland; pretending that
the kingdom was held as a fief of the crown of England, and subjected
to all the conditions of a feudal tenure. In order to establish his claim,
he seized the public archives, he ransacked churches and monasteries, and
getting possession, by force or fraud, of many historical monuments, which
tended to prove the antiquity or freedom of the kingdom, he carried some
of them into England, and commanded the rest to be burnt.* A universal
oblivion of past transactions might have been the effect of this fatal event,
but some imperfect chronicles had escaped the rage of Edward; foreign
writers had recorded some important facts relating to Scotland; and the
traditions concerning recent occurrences were fresh and worthy of credit.
These broken fragments John de Fordun, who lived in the fourteenth century, collected with a pious industry, and from them gleaned materials
which he formed into a regular history. His work was received by his
countrymen with applause: and, as no recourse could be had to more
ancient records, it supplied the place of the authentic annals of the kingdom. It was copied in many monasteries, and the thread of the narrative
was continued, by different monks, through the subsequent reigns. In the
beginning of the sixteenth century, John Major, and Hector Boethius pub
lished their histories of Scotland, the former a succinct and dry writer, the
latter a copious and florid one, and both equally credulous. Not many
years after, Buchanan undertook the same work; and if his accuracy and
impartiality had been, in any degree, equal to the elegance of his taste,
and to the purity and vigour of his style, his history might be placed on
a level with the most admired compositions of the ancients. But, instead
of rejecting the improbable tales of chronicle writers, he was at the
utmost pains to adorn them; and hath clothed, with all the beauties and
graces of fiction, those legends, which formerly had only its wildness and
extravagance.
The History of Scotland may properly be divided into four periods.
The first reaches from the origin of the monarchy go the reign of Kenneth
1I. The second, from Kenneth's conquest of the Picts to the death of
Alexander III. The third extends to the death of James V. The last,
from thence to the accession of James VI. to the crown of England.
The first period is the region of pure fable and conjecture, and ought
* Innes, Essay 552.




OF SCOTLAND.                                  -9
to be totally neglected, or abandoned to the industry and credulity of antiquaries.  Truth begins to dawn in the second period, with a light, feeble
at first, but gradually increasing, and the events which then happened may
be slightly touched, but merit no particular or laborious inquiry. In the
third period, the History of Scotland, chiefly by means of records pre —
served in England, becomes more authentic: not only are events related,
hut their causes and effects explained; the characters of the actors are
displayed; the manners of the age described; the revolutions in the constitution pointed out: and here every Scotsman should begin not to read
only, but to study the history of his country. During the fourth period,
the affairs of Scotland were so mingled with those of other nations, its
situation in the political state of Europe was so important, its influence on
the operations of the neighbouring kingdoms was so visible, that its history
becomes an object of attention to foreigners; and without some knowledge
of the various and extraordinary revolutions which happened there, they
cannot form a just notion with respect either to the most illustrious events,
or to the characters of the most distinguished personages in the sixteenth
century.
The following history is confined to the last of these periods: to give
a view  of the political state of the kingdom  during that which immediately preceded it is the design of this preliminary book. The imperfect knowledge which strangers have of the affairs of Scotland, and the
prejudices Scotsmen themselves have imbibed, with regard to the various
revolutions in the government of their country, render such an introduction
equally necessary to both.
The period from the death of Alexander III. to the death of James V
contains upwards of two centuries and a half, from the year one thousand
two hundred and eighty-six, to the year one thousand five hundred and
forty-two.
It opens with the famous controversy concerning the independence of
Scotland. Before the union of the two kingdoms, this was a question of
much importance. If the one crown had been considered, not as imperial
and independent, but as feudatory to the other, a treaty of union could
not have been concluded on equal terms, and every advantage which the
dependent kingdorn procured must have been deemed the concession of a
sovereign to his vassal. Accordingly, about the beginning of the present
century, and while a treaty of union between the two kingdoms was negotiating, this controversy was agitated with all the heat which national animosities naturally inspire.  What was then the subject of serious concern,
the union of the two kingdoms has rendered a matter of mere curiosity.
But though the objects which at that time warmed and interested both
nations exist no longer, a question which appeared so momentous to our
ancestors cannot be altogether indifferent or uninstructive to us.
Some of the northern counties of England were early in the hands of the
Scottish kings, who, as far back as the feudal customs can be traced, held
these possessions of the kings of England, and did homage to them on that
account.  This homage, due only fobr the territories which they held in
England, was in nowise derogatory from their royal-dignity. Nothing is
more suitable to feudal ideas than that the same person should be both a
lord and a vassal, independent in one capacity, and dependent in another.$
The crown of England was, without doubt, imperial and independent,
* A very singular proof of this occurs in the French History, Arpin sold the vicomte of the city of
Bourges to Philip I., who did homage to the count of Sancerre for a part of these lands, which held
ofthat nobleman, A. D. 1100. I believe that no example of a king's doing hornage to one of his own
subjects is to he met with in the histories either of England or Scotland. Philip le Bel abolished this
practice in France, A, D. 1302. Henault. Jbbrege Chronol. Somewhat similar to this, is a charter
of the Abbot of Melross, A. D. 1535, constituting James V. the Bailiff or Steward of that Abbey, vesting in him all the powers which pertained to that office, and requiring him to be answerable to the
A bhot for his exercise of the same, A.rcelir. publ. Edin.
VOL. III. —2



10                    THE HISTORY
though the princes who wore it were, for many ages, the vassals of the
kings of France; and, in consequence of their possessions in that kingdom,
bound to perform all the services which a feudal sovereign has a title to
exact. The same was the condition of the monarchs ot Scotland: free
and independent as kings of their own country, but, as possessing English
territories, vassals to the kings of England. The English monarchs, satsfied with their legal and uncontroverted rights, were, during a long period,
neither capable nor had any thoughts of usurping more. England when
conquered by the Saxons, being divided by them into many small kingdoms, was in no condition to extend its dominion over Scotland, united at
that time under one monarch. And though these petty principalities were
gradually formed into one kingdom, the reigning princes, exposed to con
tinual invasions of the Danes, and often subjected to the yoke of those
formidable pirates, seldom turned their arms towards Scotland, and were
little able to establish new rights in that country. The first kings of the
Norman race, busied with introducing their own laws and manners into the
kingdom which they had conquered, or with maintaining themselves on the
throne which some of them possessed by a very-dubious title, were as little
solicitous to acquire new authority, or to form new pretensions in Scotland.
An unexpected calamity that befell one of the Scottish kings first encouraged
the English to think of bringing his kingdom under dependence. William,
surnamed the Lion, being taken prisoner at Alnwick, Henry II., as the price
of his liberty, not only extorted from him an exorbitant ransom, and a
promise to surrender the places of greatest strength in his dominions, but
compelled him to do homage for his whole kingdom. Richard I., a generous prince, solemnly renounced this claim of homage; and absolved
William from the hard conditions which Henry had imposed. Upon the
death of Alexander III., near a century after, Edward I., availing himself
of the situation of affairs in Scotland, acquired an influence in that kingdom
which no English monarch before him ever possessed, and imitating the
interested policy of Henry, rather than the magnanimity of Richard, revived
the claim of sovereignty to which the former had pretended.
Margaret of Norway, granddaughter of Alexander, and heir to his crown,
did not long survive him. The right of succession belonged to the descendants of David earl of Huntingdon, third son of King David I. Among
these, Robert Bruce, and John Baliol, two illustrious competitors for the
crown, appeared. Bruce was the son of Isabel, earl David's second
daughter; Baliol, the grandson of Margaret the eldest daughter. According to the rules of succession which are now established, the right of Baliol
was preferable; and notwithstanding Bruce's plea of being nearer in blood
to earl David, Baliol's claim, as the representative of his mother and grandmother, would be deemed incontestable. But in that age the order of succession was not ascertained with the same precision. The question
appeared to be no less intricate than it was important. Though the prejudices of the people, and perhaps the laws of the kingdom favoured
Bruce, each of the rivals was supported by a powerful faction. Arms
alone, it was feared, must terminate a dispute too weighty for the laws to
decide. But, in order to avoid the miseries of a civil war, Edward was
chosen umpire, and both parties agreed to acquiesce in his decree. This
had well nigh proved fatal to the independence of Scotland; and the nation,
by its eagerness to guard against a civil war, was not only exposed to that
calamity, but almost subjected to a foreign yoke. Edward was artful,
brave, enterprising, and commanded a powerful and martial people,,at
peace with the whole world. The anarchy which prevailed in Scotland,
and the ambition of competitors ready to sacrifice their country in order to
obtain even a dependent crown, invited him first to seize and then to subject the kingdom. The authority of an umpire, which had been unwarily
bestowed upon him, and from which the Scots dreaded no dangerous con



OF SCOTLAND.                              11
sequences, enabled him to execute his schemes with the greater facility.
Under pretence of examining the question with the utmost solemnity, he
summoned all the Scottish barons to Norham; and, having gained some
and intimidated others, he prevailed on all who were present, not excepting Bruce and Baliol, the competitors, to acknowledge Scotland to be a fief
of the English crown, and to swear fealty to him as their Sovereign or Liege
Lord. This step led to another still more important. As it was vain to
pronounce a sentence which he had not power to execute, Edward
demanded possession of the kingdom, that he might be able to deliver it to
him whose right should be found preferable; and such was the pusillanimity of the nobles, and the impatient ambition of the competitors, that both
assented to this strange demand, and Gilbert de Umfraville, earl of Angus,
was the only man who refused to surrender the castles in his custody to the
enemy of his country. Edward, finding Baliol the most obsequious and
the least formidable of the two compdtitors, soon after gave judgment in
his favour. Baliol once more professed himself the vassal of England, and
submitted to every condition which the sovereign whom he had now
acknowledged was pleased to prescribe.
Edward, having thus placed a creature of his own upon the throne of Scotland, and compelled the nobles to renounce the ancient liberties and independence of their country, had reason to conclude that his dominion was
now fully established. But he began too soon to assume the master: his
new vassals, fierce and independent, bore with impatience a yoke to which
they were not accustomed. Provoked by his haughtiness, even the passive
spirit of Baliol began to mutiny. But Edward, who had no longer use for
such a pageant king, forced him to resign the crown, and openly attempted
to seize it as fallen to himself by the rebellion of his vassal. At that critical
period arose sir William Wallace, a hero, to whom the fond admiration of
his countrymen hath ascribed many fabulous acts of prowess, though his
real valour, as well as integrity and wisdom, are such as need not the
heightenings of fiction. He, almost single, ventured to take arms in defence
of the kingdom, and his boldness revived the spirit of his countrymen. At
last, Robert Bruce, the grandson of him who stood in competition with
Baliol, appeared to assert his own rights, and to vindicate the honour of his
country. The nobles, ashamed of their former baseness, and enraged at
the many indignities offered to the nation, crowded to his standard. In
order to crush him at once, the English monarch entered Scotland at the
head of a mighty army. Many battles were fought, and the Scots, though
often vanquished, were not subdued. The ardent zeal with which the
nobles contended for the independence of the kingdom, the prudent valour
of Bruce, and above all, a national enthusiasm inspired by such a cause,
baffled the repeated efforts of Edward, and counterbalanced all the advantages which he derived from the number and wealth of his subjects.
Though the war continued with little intermission upwards of seventy
years, Bruce and his posterity kept possession of the throne of Scotland,
and reigned with an authority not inferior to that of its former monarchs.
But while the sword, the ultimate judge of all disputes between contending nations, was employed to terminate this controversy, neither Edward
nor the Scots seemed to distrust the justice of their cause; and both appealed
to history and records, and from these produced, in their own favour, such
evidence as they pretended to be unanswerable. The letters and memorials addressed by each party to the pope, who was then reverenced as the
common father, and often appealed to as the common judge of all Christian
princes, are still extant. The fabulous tales of the early British history,
the partial testimony of ignorant chroniclers, supposititious treaties and charters, are the proofs on which Edward founded his title to the sovereignty
of Scotland; and the homage done by the Scottish monarchs for their lands
In England is preposterously supposed to imply the subjection of their




12                     THE HISTORY
whole kingdom.*  Ill founded, however, as their right was, the English
did not fail to revive it, in all the subsequent quarrels between the two
kingdoms; while the Scots disclaimed it with the utmost indignation.  To
this we must impute the fierce and implacable hatred to each other, which
long inflamed both. Their national antipathies were excited, not only by
the usual circumstances of frequent hostilities, and reciprocal injuries; but
the English considered the Scots as vassals who had presumed to rebel;
and the Scots, in their turn, regarded the English as usurpers who aimed
at enslaving their country.
1306.] At the time when Robert Bruce began his reign in Scotland, the
same form of government was established in all the kingdoms of Europe.
This surprising similarity in their constitution and laws demonstrates that
the nations which overturned the Roman empire, and erected these kingdoms, though divided into different tribes and distinguished by different
names, were either derived originally from the same source, or had been
placed in similar situations. When we take a view of the feudal system
of laws and policy, that stupendous and singular fabric erected by them,
the first object that strikes us is the king. And when we are told that he
is the sole proprietor of all the lands within his dominions, that all his
subjects derive their possessions from him, and in return consecrate their lives
to his service; when we hear that all marks of distinction and titles of
dignity flow from him as the only fountain of honour; when we behold
the most potent peers, on their bended knees, and with folded hands,
swearing fealty at his feet, and acknowledging him to be their Sovereig'n
and their Liege Lord; we are a-pt to pronounce him a powerful, nay, an
absolute monarch. No conclusion, however, would be more rash, or worse
founded. The geniurs of the feudal government was purely aristocratical.
With all the ensigns of royalty, and with many appearances of despotic
power, a feudal king was the most limited of all princes.
Before they sallied out of their own habitations to conquer the world,
many of the northern nations seem not to have been subject to the government of kings;t and even where monarchical government was established,
the prince possessed but little authority. A general, rather than a king,
his military command was extensive, his civil jurisdiction almost nothing.4
The army which he led was not composed of soldiers, who could be
compelled to serve, but of such as voluntarily followed his standard.~
These conquered not for their leader, but for themselves; and, being free
in their own country, renounced not their liberty when they acquired new
settlements. They did not exterminate the ancient inhabitants of the
countries which they subdued; but, seizing the greater part of their lands,
they took their persons under protection. The difficulty of maintaining a new conquest, as well as the danger of being attacked by new
invaders, rendering it necessary to be always in a posture of defence, the
form of government which they established was altogether military, and
nearly resembled that to which they had been accustomed in their native
country. Their general still continuing to be the head of the colony, part of
the conquered lands were allotted to him; the remainder, under the name
of beneficia or fiefs, was divided among his principal officers. As the
common safety required that these officers should, upon all occasions, be
ready to appear in arms, for the common defence, and should continue
obedient to their general, they bound themselves ro take the field, when
called, and to serve him with a number of men, in.proportion to the extent
of their territory. These great officers again parcelled out their lands
among their followers, and annexed the same condition to the grant. A
feudal kingdom was properly the encampment of a great army military
* Anderson's Historical Essay concerning the Independency, &c.  t COes. lib. vi. c. 23.
I Tacit. de Mor. Germ. c 7.11    Ccas. lib. vi. c. 23.




OF SCOTLAND.                              13
Ideas predominated, military subordination was established, and the possession of land was the pay which soldiers received for their personal
service. In consequence of these notions, the possession of land was
granted during pleasure only, and kings were elective. In other words,
an officer disagreeable to his general was deprived of his pay, and the
person who was most capable of conducting an army was chosen to command it. Such were the first rudiments or infancy of feudal government.
But long before the beginning of the fourteenth century, the feudal
system had undergone many changes, of which the following were the
most considerable. Kings, formerly elective, were then hereditary; and
fiefs, granted at first during pleasure, descended from father to son, and
were become perpetual. These changes, not less advantageous to the
nobles than to the prince, made no alteration in the aristocratical spfrit of
the feudal constitution. The king, who at a distance seemed to be invested
with majesty and power, appears on a nearer view to possess almost none
of those advantages which bestow on monarchs their grandeurand authority.
His revenues were scanty; he had not a standing army; and the jurisdiction he possessed was circumscribed within very narrow limits.
At a time when pomp and splendour were little known,/even in the
palaces of kings; when the officers of the crown received scarcely any
salary besides the fees and perquisites of their office; when embassies to
foreign courts were rare; when armies were composed of soldiers who
served without pay; it was not necessary that a king should possess a
great revenue; nor did the condition of Europe, in those ages, allow its
princes to be opulent. Commerce made little progress in the kingdoms
where the feudal government -was established. Institutions which had no
other object but to inspire a martial spirit, to train men to be soldiers, and
to make arms the only honourable profession, naturally discouraged the
commercial arts. The revenues, arising from the taxes imposed on the
different branches of commerce, were by consequence inconsiderable; and
the prince's treasury received little supply from a source, which, among a
trading people, flows with such abundance as is almost inexhaustible. A
fixed tax was not levied even on land: such a burden would have appeared
intolerable to men who received their estates as the reward of their valour,
and who considered their service in the field as a full retribution for what
they possessed. The king's demesnes, or the portion of land which he
still retained in his own hands unalienated, furnished subsistence to his
court, and defrayed the ordinary expense of government.*  The only
stated taxes which the feudal law obliged vassals to pay to the king, or
to those of whom they held their lands, were three: one when his eldest
son was made a knight; another, when his eldest daughter was married;
Ind a third, in order to ransom him if he should happen to be taken
prisoner. Besides these, the king received the feudal casualties of the
ward, marriage,. &c. of his own vassals. And, on some extraordinary
occasions, his subjects granted him an aid, which they distinguished by
the name of a benevolence, in order to declare that he received it not in
consequence of any right, but as a gift flowing from their good will.t All
these added together produced a revenue so scanty and precarious as
naturally incited a feudal monarch to aim at diminishing the exorbitant
power and wealth of the nobility, which, instead of enabling him to carry
~n his schemes with full effect, kept him in continual indigence, anxiety,
and dependence.
Nor could the king supply the defect of his revenues by the terror of
nis arms. Mercenary troops and standing armies were unknown as long
as the feudal government subsisted in vigour. Europe was peopled with
* Craig. de Feud. lib. i. Dieg. 14. Du Cange Gloss. voc. Dominicum.  * Dal Cange, voc
Auxilium.




14                         THE HISTORY                              [Boox 1.
soldiers. The vassals of the king, and the sub-vassals of the barons, were
all obliged to carry arms. While the poverty of princes prevented them
from fortifying their frontier towns, while a campaign continued but a few
weeks, and while a fierce and impetuous courage was impatient to bring
every quarrel to the decision of a battle, an army without pay, and with little
discipline, was sufficient for all the purposes both of the security and of the
glory of the nation.  Such an army, however, far from being an engine at the
king's disposal, was often no less formidable to him than to his enemies.
The more warlike any people were, the more independent they became;
and the same persons being both soldiers and subjects, civil privileges and
immunities were the consequence of their victories, and the reward of
their martial exploits. Conquerors, whom mercenary armies, under our
present forms of government, often render the tyrants of their own people,
as well as the scourges of mankind, were commonly under the feudal
constitution the most indulgent of all princes to their subjects, because they
stood most in need of their assistance. A prince, whom even war and
victories did not render the master of his own army, possessed hardly any
shadow of military power during times'of peace. His disbanded soldiers
mingled with his other subjects; not a single man received pay from him;
many ages elapsed even before a guard was appointed to defend his person; and destitute of that great instrument of dominion, a standing army,
the authority of the king continued always feeble, and was often conemptible.
Nor were these the only circumstances which  contributed toWards
depressing the regal power. By the feudal system, as has been already
observed, the king's judicial authority was extremely circumscribed. At
first, princes seem to have been the supreme judges of their people, and,
In person, heard  and determined all controversies among  them.  The
multiplicity of causes soon made it necessary to appoint judges, who, in
the king's name, decided matters that belonged to the royal jurisdiction.
But the barbarians, who overran Europe, having destroyed most of the
great cities, and the countries which they seized being cantoned out among
powerful chiefs, -who were blindly followed by numerous dependents,
whom, in return, they were bound to protect from  every injury; the
administration of justice was greatly interrupted, and the execution of any
egal sentence became almost impracticable.  Theft, rapine, murder, and
disorder of all kinds prevailed in every kingdom  of Europe, to a degree
almost incredible, and scarcely compatible with the subsistence of civil
society.  Every offender sheltered himself under the protection of some
powerful chieftain, who screened him from the pursuits of justice. To
apprehend and to punish a criminal often required the union and effort of
half a kingdom." In order to remedy these evils, many persons of distinction were intrusted with the administration of justice within their own
territories. But what we may presume was, at first, only a temporary
grant, or a personal privilege, the encroaching spirit of the nobles gradually
converted into a right, and rendered hereditary.  The lands of some were,
~ A remarkable instance of this occurs in the following history, so late as the year one thousand
five hundred and sixty-one. Mary, having appointed a court of justice to be held on the borders, the
inhabitants of no less than eleven counties were summoned to guard the person who was to act as
judge, and to enable him to enforce his decisions. The words of a proclamation, which afford such
convincing proof of the feebleness of the feudal government, deserve our notice-" And because
it is necessary for the execution of Her Highness' commandments and service, that her justice be
well accompanied, and her authority sufficiently fortified, by the concurrence of a good power of
her faithful subjects-Therefore commands and charges all and sundry Earls, Lords, Barons, Freeholders, Landed men, and other Gentlemen, dwelling within the said counties, that they and every
one of them, with their kin, friends, servants, and household men, well bodin in feir of war in the
most substantial manner, [i. e. completely armed and provided,] and with twenty days' victuals, to
meet and to pass forward with him to the borough of Jedburgh, and there fo remain during the said
space of twenty days, and to receive such direction and commands as shall be given to them in our
Wovereign Lady's name, for quietness of the country: and to put the same in execution under the
pain of losing their life, lands, and goods." Keith's Hist. of Scotland, 198.




OF SCOTLAND                               15
in process of time, erected into Baronies, those of others into Regalities.
The jurisdiction of the former was- extensive; that of the latter, as the
name implies, royal and almost unbounded. All causes, whether civil or
criminal, were tried by judges, whom the lord of the regality appointed;
and if the king's courts called any person within his territory before them,
the lord of regality might put a stop to their proceedings, and by the
privilege of repledging, remove the cause to his own court, and even punish
his vassal if he submitted to a foreign jurisdiction.*  Thus almost every
question, in which any person who resided on the lands of the nobles was
interested, being determined by judges appointed by the nobles themselves,
their vassals were hardly sensible of being in any degree subject to the
crown. A feudal kingdom was split into many small principalities, almost
independent, and held together by a feeble and commonly an imperceptible bond of union. The king was not only stripped of the authority
annexed to the person of a supreme judge, but his revenue suffered no small
diminution by the loss of those pecuniary emoluments which were in that
age due to the person who administered justice.
In the same proportion that the king sunk in power, the nobles rose
towards independence. Not satisfied with having obtained an hereditary
right to their fiefs, which they formerly held during pleasure, their ambition aimed at something bolder, and, by introducing entails, endeavoured,
as far as human ingenuity and invention can reach that end, to render their
possessions unalienable and everlasting. As they had full power to add to
the inheritance transmitted to them from their ancestors, but none to diminish it, time alone, by means of marriages, legacies, and other accidents,
brought continual accessions of wealth and of dignity; a great family, like
a river, became considerable from the length of its course, and, as it rolled
on, new honours and new property flowed successively into it. Whatever
influence is derived from titles of honour, the feudal barons likewise possessed in an ample manner. These marks of distinction are, in their own
nature, either official or personal, and being annexed to a particular charge,
or bestowed by the admiration of mankind upon illustridus characters,
ought to be appropriated to these. But the son, however unworthy, could
not bear to be stripped of that appellation by which his father had been
distinguished. His presumption claimed what his virtue did not merit;
titles of honour became hereditary, and added new lustre to nobles already
in possession of too much power. Something more audacious and more
-xtravagant still remained. The supreme direction of all affairs, both
civil and military, being committed to the great officers of the crown, the
fame and safety of princes, as well as of their people, depended upon the
fidelity and abilities of these officers. But such was the preposterous
ambition of the nobles, and so successful even in their wildest attempts to
aggrandize themselves, that in all the kingdoms where the feudal institu
tions prevailed, mdst of the chief officers of state were annexed to great
families, and held, like fiefs, by hereditary right. A person whose undutiful behaviour rendered him odious to his prince, or whose incapacity
exposed him to the contempt of the people, often held a place of power
and trust of the greatest importance to both. In Scotland, the offices
of Lord Justice General, Great Chamberlain, High Steward, High Constable, Earl Marshal, and High Admiral, were all hereditary; and in many
counties, the office of Sheriff was held in the same manner.
Nobles, whose property was so extensive, and whose power was so
great, could not fail of being turbulent and formidable. Nor did they want
instruments for executing their boldest designs. That portion of their
lands, which they parcelled out among their followers, supplied them with
a numerous band of faithful and determined vassals; while that which' Craig. lib i;i. Dieg. 7.




i6                     THE  HISTO RY                     [BooK I.
they retained in their own hands enabled them to live with a princely
splendour. The great hall of an ambitious baron was often more crowded
than the court of his sovereign. The strong castles, in which they resided,
afforded a secure retreat to the discontented and seditious. A great part
of their revenue was spent upon multitudes of indigent but bold retainers.
And if at any time they left their retreat to appear in the court of their
sovereign, they were accompanied, even in times of peace, with a vast
train of armed followers. The usual retinue of William, the sixth Earl of
Douglas, consisted of two thousand horse. Those of the other nobles were
magnificent and formidable in proportion. Impatient of subordination, and
forgetting their proper rank, such potent and haughty barons were the
rivals rather than the subjects of their prince. They often despised his
orders, insulted his person, and wrested from him his crown. The history
of Europe, during several ages, contains little else but the accounts of the
wars and revolutions occasioned by their exorbitant ambition.
But, if the authority of the barons far exceeded its proper bounds in the
other nations of Europe, we may affirm that the balance which ought to
be preserved between a king and his nobles was almost entirely lost in
Scotland. The Scottish nobles enjoyed, in common with those of other
nations, all the means for extending their authority, which arise from the
aristocratical genius of the feudal government. Besides these, they possessed advantages peculiar to themselves: the accidental sources of their
power were considerable; and singular circumstances concurred with the
Spirit of the constitution to aggrandize them. To enumerate the most
remarkable of these will serve'both to explain the political state of the
kingdom, and to illustrate many important occurrences in the period now
under our review.
I. The nature of their country was one cause of the power and inde
pendence of the Scottish nobility. Level and open countries are formed
for servitude. The authority of the supreme magistrate reaches with ease
to the mrost distant corners; and when nature has erected no barrier, and
affords no retreat, the guilty or obnoxious are soon detected and punished.
Mountains, and fens, and rivers, set bounds to despotic power, and amidst
these is the natural seat of freedom and independence. I-n such places did
the Scottish nobles usually fix their residence. By retiring to his own
castle, a mutinous baron could defy the power of his sovereign, it being
almost impracticable to lead an army, through a barren country, to places
of difficult access to a single man. The same causes which checked the
progress of the Ronman arms, and rendered all the efforts of Edward I.
abortive, often protected the Scottish nobles from the vengeance of their
prince; and they owed their personal independence to those very mountains and marshes which saved their country from being conquered.
II. The want of great cities in Scotland contributed not a little to
increase the power of the nobility, and to weaken that of the princo
Wherever numbers of men assemble together, order must be established
and a regular form of government instituted; the authority of the magis
trate must be recognised, and his decisions meet with prompt and full
obedience. Laws and subordination take rise in cities: and where there
are few cities, as in Poland, or none, as in Tartary, there are few or no
traces of a well arranged police. But under the feudal governments,
commerce, the chief means of assembling mankind, was neglected; the
nobles, in order to strengthen their influence over their vassals, resided
among them, and seldom appeared at court, where they found a superior,
or dwelt in cities, where they met with equals. In Scotland, the fertile
counties in the South lying open to the English, no town situated there
could rise to be great or populous, amidst continual inroads and alarms;
the residence of our monarchs was not fixed to any particular place
many parts of the country were barren and uncultivated; and in conse




OF SCOTLAND.                             17
quence of these peculiar circumstances, added to the general causes flow
ing from the nature of the feudal institutions, the towns in Scotland were
extremely few, and very inconsiderable. The vassals of every baron
occupied a distinct portion of the kingdom, and formed a separate and
almost independent society. Instead of giving aid towards reducing to
obedience their seditious chieftain, or any whom he took under his protection, they were all in arms for his defence, and obstructed the opera
tions of justice to the utmost. The prince was obliged to connive at
criminals whom he could not reach; the nobles, conscious of this advantage, were not afraid to offend; and the difficulty of punishing almost
assured them of impunity.
III. The division of the country into clans had no small effect in rendering the nobles considerable. The nations which overran Europe were
originally divided into many small tribes; and when they came to parcel
out the lands which they had conquered, it was natural for every chieftain to bestow a portion, in the first place, upon those of his own tribe or
family. These all held their lands of him; and as the safety of each indlvidual depended on the general union, these small societies clung together,
and were distinguished by some common appellation, either patronymical
or local, long before the introduction of surnames, or ensigns armorial.
But when these became common, the descendants and relations of every
chieftain assumed the same name and arms with him; other vassals were
proud to imitate their example, and by degrees they were communicated;
to all those who held of the same superior. Thus clanships were formed;.
and in a generation or two, that consanguinity, which was, at first, In a great
measure imaginary, was believed to be real. An artificial union was con
verted into a natural one; men willingly followed a leader, whom they,
regarded both as the superior of their lands and the chief of their blood
and served him not only with the fidelity of vassals, but with the affectior
of friends. In the other feudal kingdoms, we may observe such unions a,
we have described, imperfectly formed; but in Scotland, whether they
were the production of chance, or the effect of policy, or introduced by the
Irish colony above mentioned, and strengthened by carefully preservin,
their genealogies both genuine and fabulous, clanships were universal
Such a confederacy might be overcome, it could not be broken; and no.
change of manners or of' government has been able, in some lparts of the
kingdom, to dissolve associations which are founded upon prejudices soi
natural to the human mind.  How formidable were nobles at the head of
followers, who, counting that cause just and honourable which their chief
approved, rushed into the field at his command, ever ready to sacrifice
their lives in defence of his person or of his fame! Against such men a
king contended with great disadvantage; and that cold service which
money purchases, or authority extorts, was not an equal match for their
ardour and zeal.
IV. The smallness of their number may be mentioned among the causes
of the grandeur of the Scottish nobles. Our annals reach not back to the
first division of property {n the kingdom; but so far as we can trace the,
matter, the original possessions of the nobles seem to have been extensive.
The ancient Thanes were the equals and the rivals of their prince. Many
of the earls and barons, who succeeded them, were masters of territories
no less ample. France and England, countries wide and fertile, afforded
settlements to a numerous and powerful nobility. Scotland, a kingdom
neither extensive nor rich, could not contain many such overgrown propri
etors. But the power of an aristocracy always diminishes in proportion
to the increase of its numbers; feeble if divided among a multitude, irresistible if centred in a few. When nobles are numerous, their operations
nearly resemble those of the people; they are roused only by what they
feel, not by what they apprehend; and submit to many arbitrary and
VOL. III. —3




18                     THE HISTORY                      [BOOK I.
oppressive acts, before they take arms against their sovereign. A small
body, on the contrary, is more sensible and more impatient; quick in
discerning, and prompt in repelling danger, all its motions are as sudden
as those of the other are slow. Hence proceeded the extreme jealousy
with which the Scottish nobles observed their monarchs, and the fierceness
with which they opposed their encroachments. Even the virtue of a
prince did not render them less vigilant, or less eager to defend their
rights; and Robert Bruce, notwithstanding the splendour of his victories,
and the glory of his name, was upon the point of experiencing the vigour
of their resistance, no less than his unpopular descendant James III
Besides this, the near alliance of the great families, by frequent intermarriages, was the natural consequence of their small number; and as consanguinity was, in those ages, a powerful bond of union, all the kindred.of a nobleman interested themselves in his quarrel as a common cause;
and every contest the king had, though with a single baron, soon drew
npon him the arms of a whole confederacy.
V. Those natural connections, both with their equals and with their
inferiors, the Scottish nobles strengthened by a device, which, if not peculiar
to themselves, was at least more frequent among them than in any other:nation. Even in times of profound peace, they formed associations, which,
when made with their equals, were called leagues of mutual defence; and
when with their inferiors, bonds of manrent. By the former, the contracting
parties bound themselves mutually to assist each other, in all causes and
against all persons. By the latter, protection was stipulated on the one
hand, and fidelity and personal service promised on the other.? Self-preservation, it is probatle, forced men at first into these confederacies; and,
while disorder and rapine were universal, while government was unsettled,
and the authority of laws little known or regarded, near neighbours found
it necessary to unite in this manner for their security; and the weak were
kobliged to court the patronage of the strong. By degrees, these asso-,ciations became so many alliances offensive and defensive against the
throne; and as their obligation was held to be more sacred than any tie
whatever, they gave much umbrage to our kings, and contributed not a
little to the power and independence of the nobility. In the reign of James'I. William, the eighth earl of Douglas, entered into a league of this kind
with the earls of Crawford, Ross, Murray, Ormond, the lords Hamilton,
1Balveny, and other powerful barons; and so formidable was this combi-nation to the king, that he had recourse to a measure no less violent than
unjust, in order to dissolve it.
VI. The frequent wars between England and Scotland proved another,cause of augmenting the power of the nobility. Nature has placed no
barrier between the two kingdoms; a river, almost every where fordable,
divides them towards the east; on the west they are separated by an
imaginary line. The slender revenues of our kings prevented them from
fortifying or placing garrisons in the towns on the frontier; nor would the
jealousy of their subjects have permitted such a method of defence. The
barons, whose estates lay near the borders, considered themselves as bound,
both in honour and interest, to repel the enemy. The wardenships of the
different marches, offices of great power and dignity, were generally
bestowed on them. This gained them the leading of the warlike counties
in the south; and their vassals, living in a state of perpetual hostility, or
enjoying at'best an insecure peace, became more inured to war than even
the rest of their countrymen, and more willing to accompany their chieftain
in his most hardy and dangerous enterprises. It was the valour, no less
than the number of their followers, that rendered the Douglases great
The nobles in the northern and midland counties were often dutiful ano
* Act 30, Parl. 1424. Act 43, Parl 1555




OF SCOTLAND.                              19
obsequious to tne crown, but our monarchs always found it impractica.,,e
to subdue the mutinous and ungovernable spirit of the borderers. In all
our domestic quarrels, those who could draw to their side the inhabitants
of the southern counties, were almost sure of victory; and conscious of t'fis
advantage, the lords who possessed authority there, were apt to forget the
duty which they owed their sovereign, and to aspire beyond the rank of
subj ects.
VII. The calamities which befell our kings contributed more than any
other cause to diminish the royal authority. Never was any race of
monarchs so unfortunate as the Scottish. Of six successive princes, frotm
Robert III. to James VI., not one died a natural death; and the minorities,
during that time, were longer and more frequent than ever happened n
any other kingdom. From Robert Bruce to James VI., we reckon ten
princes; and seven of these were called to the throne while they were
minors, and almost infants. Even the most regular and best established
governments feel sensibly the pernicious effects of a minority, and either
become languid and inactive, or are thrown into violent and unnatural convulsions. But under the imperfect and ill-adjusted system of government
in Scotland these effects were still more fatal; the fierce and mutinous
spirit of the nobles, unrestrained by the authority of a king, scorned all
subjection to the delegated jurisdiction of a regent, or to the feeble commands of a minor. The royal authority was circumscribed within narrower
limits than ever; the prerogatives of the crown, naturally inconsiderable,
were reduced almost to nothing; and the aristocratical power gradually
rose upon the ruins of the monarchical. Lest the personal power of a
regent should enable him to act with too much vigour, the authority
annexed to that office was sometimes rendered inconsiderable by being
divided; or, if a single regent was chosen, the greater nobles, and the
heads of the more illustrious families, were seldom raised to that dignity.
It was often conferred upon men who possessed little influence, and excited
no jealousy. They, conscious of their own weakness, were obliged to
overlook some irregularities, and to permit others; and, in order to support
their authority, which was destitute of real strength, they endeavoured to
gain the most powerful and active barons, by granting them possessions
and immunities, which raised them to still greater power. When the king
himself came to assume the reigns of government, he found his revenues
wasted or alienated, the crown lands seized or given away, and the nobles
so accustomed to independence, that, after the struggles of a whole reign,
he was seldom able to reduce them to the same state in which they had
been at the beginning of his minority, or to wrest from them what they had
usurped during that time. If we take a view of what happened to each
of our kings, who was so unfortunate as to be placed in this situation, the
truth and importance of this observation will fully appear.
The minority of David II. the son of Robert Bruce, was disturbed by
the pretensions of Edward Baliol, who, relying on the aid of England, and
on the support of some disaffected barons among the Scots, invaded the
kingdoin. The success which at first attended his arms obliged the young
king to retire to France; and Baliol took possession of the throne. A small
body of the nobles, however, continuing faithful to their exiled prince,
drove Baliol out of Scotland; and after an absence of nine years David
returned from France, and took the government of the kingdom into his
own hands. But nobles, who were thus wasting their blood and treasure
in defence of the crown, had a right to the undisturbed possession of their
ancient privileges; and even some title to arrogate new ones. It seems to
have been a maxim in that age [1329], that every leader might claim as
his own the territory which his sword had won from the enemy. Great
acquisitions were gained by the nobility in that way: and to these the
gratitude and liberality of David added, by distributing among such as




0o                    TfTHE HISTORY                    [BooK I
adhered to him the vast possessions which fell to the crown by the forfeiture
of his enemies. The family of Douglas, which began to rise above the
other nobles in the reign of his father, augmented both its power and its
property during his minority.
1405.] James I. was seized by the English during the continuance of a
truce, and ungenerously detained a prisoner almost nineteen years. During
that period the kingdom was governed, first by his uncle Robert, Duke of
Albany, and then by Murdo, the son of Robert. Both these noblemen
aspired to the crown; and their unnatural ambition, if we may believe
most of our historians, not only cut short the days of prince David, the
king's eldest brother, but prolonged the captivity of James. They flattered
themselves that they might step with less opposition into a throne, when
almost vacant; and dreading the king's return as the extinction of their
authority, and the end of their hopes, they carried on the negotiations for
obtaining his liberty with extreme remissness. At the same time they
neglected nothing that could either soothe or bribe the nobles to approve
of their scheme. They slackened the reins of government; they allowed
the prerogative to be encroached upon; they suffered the most irregular acts
of power, and even wanton instances of oppression, to pass with impunity;
they dealt out the patrimony of the crown among those whose enmity they
dreaded or whose favour they had gained; and reduced the royal authority to a state of imbecility, from which succeeding monarchs laboured in
vain to raise it.
1437.] During the minority of James II. the administration of affairs,
as well as the custody of the king's person, were committed to Sir William
Crichton and Sir Alexander Livingston. Jealousy and discord were the
effects of their conjunct authority, and each of thern, in order to strengthen
himself, bestowed new power and privileges upon the great men whose
aid he courted; while the young earl of Douglas, encouraged by their
divisions, erected a sort of independent principality within the kingdom;
and, forbidding his vassals to acknowledge any authority but his own, he
created knights, appointed a privy council, named officers civil and military, assumed every ensign of royalty but the title of king, and appeared
in public with a magnificence more than royal.
1460.] Eight persons were chosen to govern the kingdom during the
minority of James 111. Lord Boyd, however, by seizing the person of the
young king, and by the ascendant which he acquired over him, soon engrossed the whole authority. He formed the ambitious project of raising
his family to the same pitch of power and grandeur with those of the prime
nobility; and'he effected it. While intent on this, he relaxed the vigour
of government, and the barons became accustomed once more to anarchy
and independence. The power which Boyd had been at so much pains
to acquire was of no long continuance, and the fall of his family, according
to the fate of favourites, was sudden and destructive; but upon its ruins
the family of Hamilton rose, which soon attained the highest rank in the
kingdom.
As the minority of James V. was longer, it was likewise more turbulent
than those of the preceding kings. And the contending nobles, encouraged
or protected either by the king of France or of England, formed themselves into morte regular factions, and disregarded more than ever the
restraints of older and authority. The French had the advantage of seeing
one, devoted to their interest, raised to be regent. This was the duke
of Albany, a native of France, and a grandson of James II. But Alexan.
der Lord Home, the most eminent of all Scottish peers who survived the
fatal battle of Flowden, thwarted all his measures during the first years of
his administration i and the intrigues of the queen dowager, sister of
Henry VIII. rendered the latter part of it no less feeble. Though supported by French auxiliaries the nobles despised his authority, and,




OF SCOTLAND.                             21
regardless either of his threats or his entreaties, peremptorily refused two
several times to enter England, to the borders of which kingdom he had
led them. Provoked by these repeated instances of contempt, the regent
abandoned his troublesome station, and, retiring to France, preferred the
tranquillity of a private life to an office destitute of real authority. Upon
his retreat, Douglas, earl of Angus, became master of the king's person,
and governed the kingdom in his name. Many efforts were made to
deprive him of his usurped authority. But the numerous vassals and
friends of his family adhered to him, because he divided with them the
power and emoluments of his office; the people reverenced and loved the
name of Douglas; he exercised, without the title of regent, a fuller and
more absolute authority than any who had enjoyed that dignity; and
the ancient but dangerous pre-eminence of the Douglases seemed to be
restored.
To these, and to many other causes, omitted or unobserved by us, did
the Scottish nobility owe that exorbitant and uncommon power, of which
instances occur so frequently in our history. Nothing, however, demonstrates so fully the extent of their power as the length of its duration.
Many years after the declension of the feudal system in the other kingdoms of Europe, and when the arms or policy of Princes had, every
where, shaken or laid it in ruins, the foundations of that ancient fabric
remained, in a great measure, firm and untouched in Scotland.
The powers which the feudal institutions vested in the nobles soon
became intolerable to all the princes of Europe, who longed to possess
something more than a nominal and precarious authority.  Their impatience to obtain this precipitated Henry III. of England, Edward II. and
some other weak princes, into rash and premature attempts against the
privileges of the barons, in which they were disappointed or perished.
Princes of greater abilities were content to mitigate evils which they
could not cure; they sought occupation for the turbulent spirit of their
nobles in frequent wars; and allowed their fiery courage to evaporate in
foreign expeditions which, if they brought no other advantage, secured at
least domestic tranquillity. But time and accidents ripened the feudal
governments for destruction. Towards the end of the fifteenth century,
and beginning of the sixteenth, all the princes of Europe attacked, as if'
by concert, the power of their nobles. Men of genius then undertook
with success what their unskilful predecessors had attempted in vain.
Louis XI. of France, the most profound and the most adventurous genius
of that age began, and in a single reign almost completed the scheme of
their destruction. The sure but concealed policy of Henry VII. of England, produced the same effect. The means, indeed, employed by these
monarchs were very different. The blow which Louis struck was sudden
and fatal. The artifices of Henry resembled those slow poisons which
waste the constitution but become not mortal till some distant period.
Nor did they produce consequences less opposite. Louis boldly added to
the crown whatever he wrested from the nobles. Henry undermined his
barons by encouraging them to sell their lands, which enriched the commons, and gave them a weight in the legislature unknown to their predecessors. But while these great revolutions were carrying on in two kingdoms with which Scotland was intimately connected, little alteration happened there; our kings could neither extend their own prerogative nor
enable the commons to encroach upon the aristocracy; the nobles not only
retained most of their ancient privileges and possessions, but continued to
make new acquisitions.
This was not owing to the inattention of our princes, or to their want
of ambition. They were abundantly sensible of the exorbitant power of
the nobility, and extremely solicitous to humble that order. They did
not, however, possess means sufficient for accomplishing this end. The




~22                       qTHE HISTORY                             [BooK I.
resources of our monarchs were few, and the progress which they made
was of course inconsiderable. But as the number of their followers, and
the extent of their jurisdiction, were the two chief circumstances which
rendered the nobles formidable; in order to counterbalance the one, and
to restrain the other, all our kings had recourse to nearly the same expedients.
I. Among nobles of a fierce courage and of unpolished manners, surrounded with vassals bold and licentious, whom  they were bound  oy
interest and honour to protect, the causes of discord were many and
unavoidable. As the contending parties could seldom agree in acknowledging the authority of any common superior or judge, and their impatient spirit would seldom wait the slow decisions of justice, their quarrels
were usually terminated by the sword.  The offended baron assembled
his vassals, and wasted the lands or shed the blood of his enemies. To
forgive an injury was mean; to forbear revenge infamous or cowardly."
Hence quarrels were transmitted from father to son, and, under the name
of deadly feuds, subsisted for many generations with unmitigated rancour.
It was the interest of the crown to foment rather than to extinguish these
quarrels; and by scattering or cherishing the seeds of discord among the
nobles, that union, which would have rendered the aristocracy invincible,
and which must at once have annihilated the prerogative, was effectually
prevented. To the same cause our kings were indebted for the success
with which they sometimes attacked the most powerful chieftains. They
employed private revenge to aid the impotence of public laws, and arming
against the person who had incurred their displeasure those rival families
which wished his fall, they rewarded their service by sharing among them
the spoils of the vanquished. But this expedient, though it served to
humble individuals, did not weaken the body of the nobility. Those
who were now the instruments of their prince's vengeance became, in a
short time, the objects of his fear. Having acquired power and wealth
by serving the crown, they, in'their turn, set up for independence: and
though there might be a fluctuation of power and of property; though old
families fell, and new ones rose upon their ruins; the rights of the aristocracy remained entire, and its vigour unbroken.
II. As the administration of justice is one of the most powerful ties
between a king and his subjects, all our monarchs were at the utmost
pains to circumscribe the jurisdiction of the barons, and to extend that of
the crown. The external forms of subordination natural to the feudal
system  favoured this attempt.  An appeal lay from the judges and courts
of the barons to those of the king. The right, however, of judging in
the first instance belonged to the nobles, and they easily found means to
defeat the effects of appeals, as well as of many other feudal regulations.
The royal jurisdiction was almost confined within the narrow limits of the
king's demesnes, beyond which his judges claimed indeed much authority,
bu,t possessed next to none. Our kings were sensible of these limitations,
and bore them with impatience. But it was impossible to overturn in a
moment what was so deeply rooted; or to strip the nobles at once of
privileges which they had held so long, and which were wrought almost
* The spirit of revenge was encouraged, not only by the manners, but, what is more remarkable,
by the laws of those ages. If any person thought the prosecution of an injury offered to his family
too troublesome or too dangerous, the Saliqlle laws permnitted him publicly to desist from demanding
vengeance; but the same laws, in order to punish his cowardice and want of affection to his fanlily,
deprived him of the right of succession. Henault's Abrege Chronol. p. 81. Among the AngloSaxons we find a singular institution distinguished by the name of sodalitisum; a voluntary 4isociation, the object whereof was the personal security of those who joined in it, and wkiri: the
feebleness of government at that time rendered necessary. Among other regulations, which are
contained in one of these still extant, the following deserves notice: " If any associate shall either
eat or drink with a person who has killed any member of the sodalitium, unless in the presence of
the king, the bishop, or the count, and unless he can prove that he did not know the person, let hima
pay a great fine." Hickes, Disscrt. Epistolar. apud Thesaur. Ling. Septentr. vol. i. p. 21




OF SCOTLAND.                                         23
into the frame of the feudal constitution. To accomplish this, however,
was an object of uniform and anxious attention to all our princes. James
I. led the, way here, as well as in other instances, towards a more regular
and perfect police.  He made choice, among the estates of parliament, of
a certain  number of persons, whom  he  distinguished by  the  names of
Lords of Sesszon, and appointed them  to hold courts for determining civil
causes three times in the year, and forty days at a time, in whatever place
he pleased to name. Their jurisdiction extended to all matters which
formerly came under the cognizance of the king's council, and, being a
committee of parliament, their decisions were final.  James II. obtained
a law, annexing all regalities which should be forfeited to the crown, and
declaring the right of jurisdiction to be unalienable for the future.  James
III. imposed severe penalties upon those judges appointed by the barons,
whose decisions should be found on a review  to be unjust; and, by many
other regulations, endeavoured to extend the authority of his own court.%
James IV., on pretence of remedying the inconveniences arising from the
short terms of the Court of Session, appointed otherjudges called Lords of
Dail9 Council. The Session was an ambulatory court, and met seldom:
the Daily Council was fixed, and sat constantly at Edinburgh; and, though
not composed of members of parliament, the same powers which the
Lords of Session enjoyed were  vested in it.  At last James V. erected a
new court that still subsists, and which he named the College of Justice,
the judges or Senators of which were called Lords of Council and Session.
This court not only exercised the same jurisdiction which formerly belonged to the Session and Daily Council, but new rights were added.
Privileges of great importance were granted to its members, its forms
were prescribed, its terms fixed, and regularity, power, and splendour conferred upon it.t  The persons constituted judges in all these different courts
had, in many respects, the advantage of those who presided in the courts
of the barons; they were more eminent for their skill in law, their rules
of proceeding were more uniform, and their decisions more consistent.
Such judicatories became the objects of confidence and of veneration.
Men willingly submitted their property to their determination, and their
encroachments on the jurisdictions of the nobles were popular, and for that
reason successful. By devices of a similar nature, the jurisdiction of the
nobles in criminal causes was restrained, and the authority of the Court
of Justiciary extended.  The crown, in this particular, gaining insensibly
upon the nobles, recovered more ample authority; and the king, whose
jurisdiction once resembled that of a baron rather than that of a sovereign,:
* Act 26. P. 1469. Act 94. P. 1493. Act 99. P. 1487.  t Keith, App. 75, &c.. The most perfect idea of the feudal system of government may be attained by attending to the
state of Germany, and to the history of France. In the former, the feudal institutions still subsist
with great vigour; and though altogether abolished in the latter, the public records have been so
carefully preserved, that the French lawyers and antiquaries have been enabled, with more certainty
and precision than those of any other country in Europe, to trace its rise, its progress, and revolutions. In Germany every principality may be considered as a fief, and all its great princes as
vassals, holding of the Emperor. They possess all the feudal privileges; their fiefs are perpetual;
their jurisdictions within their own territories separate and extensive; and the great offices of the
empire are all hereditary, and annexed to particular families. At the same time the emperor retains
many of the prerogatives of the feudal monarchs. Like them, his claims and pretensions are innlInerable, and his powers small; his jurisdiction within his own demesnes or hereditary countries
is complete; beyond the bounds of these it is almost nothing; and so permanent are feudal principles, that although the feudal system be overturned in almost every particular state in Germany,
and although the greater part of its princes have become absolute, the original feudal constitution
of the Empire still remains, and ideas peculiar to that form of government direct all its operations,
and determine the rights of all its princes. Our observations, with regard to the limited jurisdction of kings under the feudal governments, are greatly illustrated by what happened in France.
The feebleness and dotage of the descendants of Charlemagne encouraged the peers to usurp an
independent jurisdiction. Nothing remained in the hands of the crown; all was seized by them.
When Hugh Capet ascended the throne, A. D. 987, tihe kept possession of his private patrimony,
the Comte of Paris; and all the jurisdiction which the kings his successors exercised for some time,
was within its territories. There were only four towns in France where he could establish Grands
Baillis, or royal judges: all the other lands, towns, and bailliages, belonged to the nobles. The
methods to which the French mlonarchs had recourse for extending their jurisdiction were exactly




24                     THE HISTORY                       [BooK I.
came more and more to be considered as the head of the community, and
the supreme dispenser of justice to his people. These acquisitions of nfur
kings, however, though comparatively great, were in reality inconsiderable; and, notwithstanding all their efforts, many of the separate jurisdictions possessed by the nobles remained in great vigour; and their final
abolition was reserved to a distant and more happy period.
But besides these methods of defending their prerogatiVe and humbling
the aristocracy, which may be considered as common to all our princes,
we shall find, by taking a view of their reigns, that almost every one of
our kings, from Robert Bruce to James V., had formed some particular
system for depressing the authority of the nobles, which was the object
both of their jealousy and terror. This conduct of our monarchs, if we
rest satisfied with the accounts of their historians, must be considered as
flowing entirely from their resentment against particular noblemen; and
all their attempts to humble them must be viewed as the sallies of private
passion, not as the consequences of any general plan of policy. But though
some of their actions may be imputed to those passions, though the different
genius of the men, the temper of the times, and the state of the nation,
necessarily occasioned great variety in their schemes; yet, without being
chargeable with excessive refinement, we may affirm that their end was
uniformly the same; and that the project of reducing the power of the
aristocracy, sometimes avowed and pursued with vigour, sometimes con
cealed or seemingly suspended, was never altogether abandoned.
No prince was ever more indebted to his nobles than Robert Bruce
Their valour conquered the kingdom, and placed him on the throne. His
gratitude and generosity bestowed on them the lands of the vanquished.
Property has seldom undergone greater or more sudden revolutions than
those to which it was subject at that time in Scotland. Edward I. having
forfeited the estates of most of the ancient Scottish barons, granted them
to his English subjects. These were expelled by the Scots, and their
lands seized by new masters. Amidst such rapid changes confision was
unavoidable; and many possessed their lands by titles extremely defective.
During one of those truces between the two nations, occasioned rather by
their being weary of war than desirous of peace, Robert formed a scheme
for checking the growing power and wealth of the nobles. He summoned
them to appear and to show by what rights they held their lands. They
assembled accordingly; and the question being put, they started up at
once, and drew their swords; "By these," said they, "we acquired our
lands, and with these we will defend them." T'he king, intimidated by
their boldness, prudently dropped the project. But so deeply did they
resent this attack upon their order, that, notwithstanding Robert's popular
and splendid virtues, it occasioned a dangerous conspiracy against his life.
David his son, at first an exile in France, afterward a prisoner in England, and involved in continual war with Edward IlI. had not leisure to
attend to the internal police of his kingdom, or to think of retrenching the
privileges of the nobility.
Our historians have been more careful to relate the military than the
civil transactions of the reign of Robert II. Skirmishes and inroads ot
little consequence they describe minutely: but with regard to every thing
that happened during several years of tranquillity, they are altogether
silent.
The feeble administration of Robert II1. must likewise be passed over
slightly. A prince of a mean genius, and of a frail and sickly constituticn:
was not a fit person to enter the lists with active and martial barons, or to
attempt wresting from them any of their rights..qniiar to those emnrioved ovour rmnces. Henauitcs Abreae. n. 617. &r. De:'Esonr ae,.Loin, liv..
xxX. cb. 2). &c.




OF SCOTLAND.                                25
The civil transactions fn Scotland are better known since the beginning
of the reign of James I., and a complete series of our laws supplies the
defects of our historians. The English made some amends for their injustice in detaining that prince a prisoner, by their generous care of his
education. During his long residence in England, he had an opportunity
of observing the feudal system in a more advanced state, and refined from
many of the imperfections which still adhered to it in his own kingdom.
He saw there, nobles great, but not independent; a king powerful, though
far from absolute: he saw a regular administration of government; wise
laws enacted; and a nation flourishing and happy, because all ranks of
men were accustomed to obey them.  Full of these ideas, he returned
into his native country, which presented to him a very different scene.
The royal authority, never great, was now contemptible, by having been
so long delegated to regents.  The ancient patrimony and revenues of the
crown were almost totally alienated. During his long absence the name
of king was little known, and less regarded.  The license of many years
had rendered the nobles independent. Universal anarchy prevailed.
The weak were exposed to the rapine and oppression of the strong. In
every corner some barbarous chieftain ruled at pleasure, and neither feared
the king nor pitied the people.*
James was too wise a prince to employ open force to correct such
inveterate evils.  Neither the men nor the times would have borne it. He
applied the gentler and less offensive remedy of laws and statutes. In a
parliament held immediately after his return, he gained the confidence of
his people by many wise laws, tending visibly to re-establish order, tranquillity, and justice in the kingdom.  But at the same time that he endeavoured to secure these blessings to his subjects, he discovered his intention
to recover those possessions of which the crown had been unjustly bereaved;
and for that purpose obtained an act by which he was empowered to summon such as had obtained crown lands during the three last reigns, to produce
the rights by which they held them.4 As this statute threatened the property of the nobles, another which passed in a subsequent parliament
aimed a dreadful blow at their power.  By it the leagues and combinations
which we have already described, and which rendered the nobles so
formidable to the crown, were declared unlawful.T. Encouraged by this
success in the beginning of his enterprise, James's next step was still
bolder and more decisive. During the sitting of parliament he seized, at
once, his cousin Murdo, duke of Albany, and his sons; the earls of
Douglas, Lennox, Angus, March, and above twenty other peers and barons
of prime rank. To all of them, however, he was immediately reconciled,
except to Albany and his sons, and Lennox.  These were tried by their
peers, and condemned; for what crime is now unknown. Their execution
struck the whole order with terror, and their forfeiture added considerable
possessions to the crown.  He seized, likewise, the earldoms of Buchan
and Strathern, upon different pretexts; and that of Mar fell to him  by
inheritance. The patience and inactivity of the nobles, while the king
was proceeding so rapidly towards aggrandizing the crown, are amazing.
The only obstruction he met with was froin a slight insurrection headed
by the duke of Albany's youngest son, and that was easily suppressed.
The sFlendour and presence of a king, to which the great men had been
long unaccustomed, inspired reverence: James was a prince of great
abilities, and conducted his operations with much prudence.  He was in
* A cotemporary monkish writer describes these calamities very feelingly in his rude Latin: " In
diebus illis, non erat lex in Scotia, sed quilibet potentiorum juniorem oppressit; et totum regnum
fuit unum latrocinium; homicidia, depraedationes, incendia, et caetera maleficia remanserunt irapunita; et justitia relegata extra terminos regni exulavit." Chartular. Morav. apud Innes Essay,
vol. i, p. 272.
t Act 9. P. 1424.                    + Act 30. P. 1424.
VOL III.-4




~26                    THE  HISTORY                      L[BOOR  [.
friendship with England, and closely allied with the French king: he was
adored by the people, who enjoyed unusual security and happiness under
his administration: and all his acquisitions, however fatal.to the body of
the nobles, had been gained by attacks upon individuals; were obtained
by decisions of law, and, being founded on circumstances peculiar to the
persons who suffered, might excite murmurs and apprehensions, but
afforded no colourable pretext for a general rebellion. It was not so with
the next attempt which the king made. Encouraged by the facility with
which he had hitherto advanced, he ventured upon a measure that irritated
the whole body of the nobility, and which the events show either to have
been entered into with too much precipitancy, or to have been carried on
with too much violence. The father of George Dunbar, earl of March,
had taken arms against Robert III. the king's father; but that crime had
been pardoned, and his lands restored by Robert duke of Albany. James,
on pretext that the regent had exceeded his power, and that it was the
prerogative of the king alone to pardon treason, or to alienate lands
annexed to the crown, obtained a sentence declaring the pardon to be void,
and depriving Dunbar of the earldom. Many of the great men held lands
by no other right than what they derived from grants of the two dukes of
Albany. Such a decision, though they had reason to expect it in consequence of the statute which the king had obtained, occasioned a general
alarm. Though Dunbar was at present the only sufferer, the precedent
might be extended, and their titles to possessions which they considered
as the rewards of their valour, might be subjected to the review of courts
of law, whose forms of proceeding and jurisdiction were in a martial age
little known, and extremely odious. Terror and discontent spread fast
upon this discovery of the king's intentions; the common danger called on
the whole order to unite, and to make one bold stand before they were
stripped successively of their acquisitions, and reduced to a state of' poverty
and insignificance. The prevalence of these sentiments among the nobles
encouraged a few desperate men, the friends or followers of those who
had been the chief sufferers under the king's administration, to form a conspiracy against his life. The first uncertain intelligence of this was brought
him while he lay in his camp before Roxburgh castle. He durst not confide in nobles, to whom he had given so many causes of disgust, but instantly dismissed them and their vassals, and retiring to a monastery near
Perth, was soon after murdered there in the most cruel manner. All our
historians mention with astonishment this circumstance, of the king's disbanding his army at a time when it was so necessary for his preservation.
A king, say they, surrounded with his barons, is secure from secret treason,
and may defy open rebellion. But those very barons were the persons
whom he chiefly dreaded; and it is evident, from this review of his administration, that he had greater reason to apprehend danger than to expect
defence from their hands. It was the misfortune of James, that his maxims
and manniers were too refined for the age in which he lived. Happy! had
he reigned in a kingdom more civilized; his love of peace, of justice, and
of elegance, would have rendered his schemes successful; and, instead of
perishing because he had attempted too much, a grateful people woula
have applauded and seconded his efforts to reform and improve them.
Crichton, the most able man of those who had the direction of affairs
during the minority of James II., had been the minister of James I., and
well acquainted with his resolution of humbling the nobility. He did not
relinquish the design, and he endeavoured to inspire his pupil with the
same sentiments. But what James had attempted to effect slowly and by.egal means, his son and Crichton pursued with the impetuosity natural a.
Scotsmen, and with the fierceness peculiar to that age. William, the sixtrl
earl of Douglas, was the first victim to their barbarous policy.'That young
nobleman (as we have already observed), contemning the authority of ae




OF SCOTLAND.                               27
infant prince, almost openly renounced his allegiance, and aspired to independence. Crichton, too high spirited to bear such an insult, but too weak
to curb or bring to justice so powerful an offender, decoyed him by many
promises to an interview in the castle of Edinburgh, and, notwithstanding
these, murdered both him and his brother. Crichton, however, gained little
by this act of treachery, which rendered him universally odious. William,
the eighth earl of Douglas, was no less powerful, and no less formidable to
the crown. By formling the league which we already mentioned with the
earl of Crawford and other barons, he had united against his sovereign
almost one half of his kingdom. But his credulity led him into the same
snare which had been fatal to the former earl. Relying on the king's
promises, who had now attained to the years of manhood, and having
obtained a safe conduct under the great seal, he ventured to meet him in
Stirling Castle. James urged him to dissolve that dangerous confederacy
into which he had entered; the earl obstinately refused. "If you will
not," said the enraged monarch, drawing his dagger, "6 this shall;" and
stabbed him to the heart. An action so unworthy of a king filled the nation
with astonishment and with horror. The earl's vassals ran to arms with
the utmost fury, and dragging the safe conduct, which the king had granted
and violated, at a horse's tail, they marched towards Stirling, burned the
town, and threatened to besiege the castle. An accommodation however
ensued; on what terms is not known. But the king's jealousy, and the
new earl's power and resentment, prevented it from being of long continuance. Both took the field at the head of their armies, and met near Abercorn. That of the earl, composed chiefly of borderers, was far superior to
the king's both in number and in valour;,and a single battle must, in all probability, have decided whether the house of Stuart or of Douglas was
henceforth to possess the throne of Scotland. But while his troops impatiently expected the signal to engage, the earl ordered them  to retire tc
their camp; and sir James Hamilton of Cadyow, the person in whom he
placed the greatest confidence, convinced of his want of genius to improve
an opportunity, or of his want of courage to seize a crown, deserted him
that very night. This example was followed by many; and the earl,
despised or forsaken by all, was soon driven out of the kingdom, and obliged
to depend for his subsistence on the friendship of the king of England.
The ruin of this great family, which had so long rivalled and overawed the
crown, and the terror with which such an example of unsuccessful ambition
filled the nobles, secured the king, for some time, from opposition; and the
royal authority remained uncontrolled and almost absolute. James did not
suffer this favourable interval to pass unimproved; he procured the consent
of parliament to laws more advantageous to the prerogative, and more subversive of the privileges of the aristocracy, than were ever obtained by any
former or subsequent monarch of Scotland.
By one of these, not only all the vast possessions of the earl of Douglas
were annexed to the crown, but all prior and future alienations of crown
lands were declared to be void; and the king was empowered to seize
them at pleasure, without any process or form of law, arid. oblige the possessors to refund, whatever they had received from them.J.  A dreadful
instrument of oppression in the hands of a prince!
Another law prohibited the wardenship of the marches to be granted
hereditarily; restrained, in several instances, the jurisdiction of that office;
and extended the authority of the king's courts.4
By a third, it was enacted that no regality, or exclusive right of administering justice within a man's own lands, should be granted in time to come,
without the consent of parliament;4. a condition which implied almost an
express prohibition. Those nobles who already possessed that great priAct 41. P. 1455.  t Ibid. Act. 42.  t Act 43, P. 1455.




28                    THE HISTORY                       [BOOK I
vilege would naturally be solicitous to prevent it from becoming common,
by being bestowed on many. Those who had not themselves attained it
would envy others the acquisition of such a flattering distinction, and both
would concur in reJecting the claims of new pretenders.
By a fourth act, all new grants of hereditary offices were prohibited, and
those obtained since the death of the last king were revoked.?
Each of these statutes undermined some of the great pillars on which the
power of the aristocracy rested. During the remainder of his reign this
prince pursued the plan which he had begun with the utmost vigour; and
had not a sudden death, occasioned by the splinter of a cannon which burst
near hint at the siege of Roxburgh, prevented his progress, he wanted neither
genius nor courage to perfect it; and Scotland mnight, in all probability,
have been the first kingdom in Europe which would have seen the subversion of the feudal system.
James III. discovered no less eagerness than his father or grandfather to
humble the nobility; but, far inferior to either of them in abilities and
address, he adopted a plan extremely impolitic, and his reign was disastrous, as well as his end tragical. Under the feudal governments, the
nobles were not only the king's ministers, and possessed of all the great
offices of power or of trust; they were likewise his companions and favourites, and hardly any but they approached his person or were entitled to his
regard. But James, who both feared and hated his nobles, kept them at
an unusual distance, and bestowed every mark of confidence and affection
upon a few mean persons, of professions so dishonourable as ought to have
rendered them unworthy of his presence. Shut up with these in his castle
of Stirling, he seldom appeared in public, and amused himself In architecture, music, and other arts, which were then little esteemed. The nobles
beheld the power and favour of these minions with indignation. Even the
sanguinary measures of his father provoked them less than his neglect.
Individuals alone suffered by the former; by the latter, every man thought
himself injured because all were contemned. Their discontent was much
heightened by the king's recalling all rights to crown lands, hereditary
offices, regalities, and every other concession which was detrimental to his
prerogative, and which had been extorted during his minority. Combinations
among themselves, secret intrigues with England, and all the usual pre.
paratives for civil war, were the effects of their resentment. Alexander
duke of Albany, and John earl of Mar, the king's brothers, two young men of
turbulent and ambitious spirits, and incensed againstJames,who treated them
with the same coldness as he did the other great men, entered deeply into
all their cabals. The king detected their designs before they were ripe
for execution, and, seizing his two brothers, committed the duke of Albany
to Edinburgh Castle. The earl of Mar, having remonstrated with too much
boldness against the king's conduct, was murdered, if we may believe our
historians, by his command. Albany, apprehensive of the same fate, made
his escape out of the castle and fled into France. Concern for the king's
honour, or indignation at his measures, were perhaps the motives which
first induced him to join the malecontents. But James's attachment to
favourites rendering him every day more odious to the nobles, the prospect
of the advantages which might be derived from their general disaffection,
added to the resentment which he felt on account of his brother's death and
his own injuries, soon inspired Albany with more ambitious and criminal
thoughts. He concluded a treaty with Edward IV. of England, in which
he assumed the name of Alexander king of Scots; and, in return for the
assistance which was promised him towards dethroning his brother, he
bound himself, as soon as he was put in possession of the kingdom, to swear
fealty and do homage o the English monarch, to renounce the ancient alli* Act 44.




OF SCOTLAND.                              29
ance with France, to contract a new one with England, and to surrender
some of the strongest castles and most valuable counties in Scotland.*
That aid, which the duke so basely purchased at the price of his own
honour and the independence of his country, was punctually granted him,
and the duke of Gloucester with a powerful army conducted him towards
Scotland. The danger of a foreign invasion obliged James to implore the
assistance of those nobles whom he had so long treated with contempt.
Some of them were in close confederacy with the duke of Albany, and
approved of all his pretensions. Others were impatient for any event
which would restore their order to its ancient pre-eminence. They seemed,
however, to enter with zeal into the measures of their sovereign for the
defe ice of the kingdom against its invaders,t and took the field at the
head of a powerful army of their followers, but with a stronger disposition
to redress their own grievances than to annoy the enemy; and with a fixed
resolution of punishing those minions whose insolence they could no longer
tolerate. This resolution they executed in the camp near Lauder, with a
military despatch and rigour. Having previously concerted their plan, the
earls of Angus, Huntly, Lennox, followed by almost all the barons of chief
note in the army, forcibly entered the apartment of their sovereign, seized
all his favourites except one Ramsay, whom they could not tear from the
king, in whose arms he took shelter, and, without any form of trial, hanged
them instantly over a bridge. Among the most remarkable of those who
had engrossed the king's affection, were Cochran, a mason; Hommil, a
tailor; Leonard, a smith; Rogers, a musician; and Torsifan, a fencing
master. So despicable a retinue discovers the capriciousness of James's
character, and accounts for the indignation of the nobles when they beheld
the favour due to them bestowed on such unworthy objects.
James had no reason to confide in an army so little under his command,
and, dismissing' it, shut himself up in the castle of Edinburgh. After
various intrigues, Albany's lands and honours were at length restored to
him, and he seemed even to have regained his brother's favour by some
important services. But their friendship was not of long duration. J ames
abandoned himself once more to the guidance of favourites; and the fate
of those who had suffered at Lauder did not deter others from courting
that dangerous pre-eminence. Albany, on pretext that an attempt had
been made to take away his life by poison, fled from court, and, retiring to
his castle at Dunbar, drew thither a greater number of barons than attended
on the king himself. At the same time he renewed his former confederacy
with Edward; the earl of Angus openly negotiated that infamous
treaty; other barons were ready to concur with it; and if the sudden
death of Edward had not prevented Albany's receiving any aid from England, the crown of Scotland would probably have been the reward of this
unworthy combination with the enemies of his country. But, instead of
any hopes of reigning in Scotland, he found, upon the death of Edward,
that he could not reside there in safety; and flying first to England and
then to France, he seems from that time to have taken no part in the affairs
of his native country. Emboldened by his retreat, the king and his ministers multiplied the insults which they offered to the nobility. A standing
guard, a thing unknown under the feudal governments, and inconsistent
with the familiarity and confidence with which monarchs then lived amidst
their nobles, was raised for the king's defence, and the command of it
iven to Ramsay, lately created earl of Bothwell, the same person who
had so narrowly escaped when his companions were put to death at Lauder  As if this precaution had not been sufficient, a proclamation was
issued, forbidding any person to appear in arms within the precincts of the
court;T which, at a time when no man of rank left his own house without
* Abercr. Mart. Atch. vol. ii. p. 443.  t Black Acts, fol. 65   f Ferrerius, 398




30                    THE  HISTORY                       [Boox I.
a numerous retinue of armed followers, was, in effect, debarring the nobles
fromn all access to the king. James, at the same time, became fonder ot
retirement than ever, and sunk ini indolence or superstition, or attentive
only to amusements, devolved his whole authority upon his favourites. So
many injuries provoked the most considerable nobles to take arms; and
having persuaded or obliged the duke of Rothesay, the king's eldest son,
a youth of fifteen, to set himself at their head, they openly declared their
intention of depriving James of a crown, of which he had discovered
himself to be so unworthy. Rous-d by this danger, the king quitted his
retirement, took the field, and encountered them near Bannockburn; but
the valour of the borderers, of whom the army of the malecontents was
chiefly composed, soon put his troops to flight, and he himself was slain in
the pursuit. Suspicion, indolence, immoderate attachment to favourites,
and all the vices of a feeble mind, are visible in his whole conduct; but
the character of a cruel and unrelenting tyrant seems to be unjustly affixed
to him by our historians. His neglect of the nobles irritated, but did not
weaken them; and their discontent, the immoderate ambition of his two
brothers, and their unnatural confederacies with England, were sufficient
to have disturbed a more vigorous administration, and to have rendered a
prince of superior talents unhappy.
The indignation which many persons of rank expressed against the conduct of the conspirators, together with the terror of the sentence of excommunication which the pope pronounced against them, obliged them to use their
victory with great moderation and humanity. Being conscious how detestable the crime of imbruing their hands in the blood of their sovereign
appeared, they endeavoured to regain the good opinion of their country
men, and to atone for the treatment of the father by their loyalty and duty
towards the son. They placed him instantly on the throne, and the whole
kingdom soon united in acknowledging his authority.
James IV. was naturally generous and brave; he felt in a high degree
all the passions which animate a young and noble mind. He loved magnificence, he delighted in war, and was eager to obtain fame. During his
reign, the ancient and hereditary enmity between the king and nobles
seems almost entirely to have ceased. He envied not their splendour,
because it contributed to the ornament of his court; nor did he dread their
power, which he considered as the security of his kingdom, not as an object
of terror to himself. This confidence on his part met with the proper
return of duty and affection on theirs; and, in his war with England, he
experienced how much a king beloved by his nobles is able to perform.
Though the ardour of his courage and the spirit of chivalry, rather than
the prospect of any national advantage, induced him to declare war against
England, such was the zeal of his subjects for the king's glory, that he
was followed by as gallant an army as ever any of his ancestors had led
upon English ground. But though James himself formed no scheme dangerous or detrimental to the aristocracy, his reign was distinguished by
an event extremely fatal to it; and one accidental blow humbled it more
than all the premeditated attacks of preceding kings. In the rash and
unfortunate battle of Flowden a brave nobility chose rather to die than to
desert their sovereign. Twelve earls, thirteen lords, five eldest sons of
noblemen, and an incredible number of barons, fell with the king.?  The
whole body of the nobles long and sensibly felt this disaster; and if a
prince of full age had then ascended the throne, their consternation and
feebleness would-have afforded him advantages which no former monarch
ever possessed.
But James V., who succeeded his father, was an infant of a year old;
and though the office of regent was conferred upon his cousin the duke of
* Aber. ii. 540




OF SCOTLAND.                              31
Albany, a man of genius and enterprise, a native of France, and accustomed
to a government where the power of the king was already great; though
he made many bold attempts to extend the royal authority; though he put
to death lord Home, and banished the earl of Angus, the two noblemen of
greatest influence in the kingdom, the aristocracy lost no ground under his
administra'tion. A stranger to the manners, the laws, and the language of
the people whom he was called to rule, he acted, on some occasions, rather
like a viceroy of the French king than the governor of Scotland; but the
nobles asserted their own privileges, and contended for the interest ot
their country with a boldness which convinced him of their independence,
and of the impotence of his own authority. After several unsuccessful
struggles, he voluntarily retired to France; and the king being then in his
thirteenth year, the nobles agreed that he should assume the government,
and that eight persons should be appointed to attend him by turns, and to
advise and assist him in the administration of public affairs. The earl oi
Angus, who was one of that number, did not long remain satisfied with
such divided power. He gained some of his colleagues, removed others,
and intimidated the rest. When the term of his attendance expired, he
still retained authority, to which all were obliged to submit, because none
of them were in a condition to dispute it. The affection of the young
king was the only thing wanting to fix and perpetuate his power. But an
active and high-spirited prince submitted with great impatience to the
restraint in which he was kept. It ill suited his years or his disposition to
be confined as a prisoner within his own palace; to be treated with no
respect, and to be deprived of all power. He could not on some occasions
conceal his resentment and indignation. Angus foresaw that he had much
to dread from these; and as he could not gain the king's heart, he resolved
to make sure of his person. James was continually surrounded by the
earl's spies and confidants; many eyes watched all his motions, and observed every step he took. But the' king's eagerness to obtain liberty
eluded all their vigilance. He escaped from Falkland, and fled to the
castle of Stirling, the residence of the queen his mother, and the only
place of strength in the kingdom which was not in the hands of the Douglases. The nobles, of whom some were influenced by their hatred to
Angus, and others by their respect for the king, crowded to Stirling, and
his court was soon filled with persons of the greatest distinction. The
earl, though astonished at this unexpected revolution, resolved at first to
make one bold push for recovering his authority, by marching to Stirling
at the head of his followers; but he wanted either courage or strength to
execute this resolution. In a parliament held soon after, he and his adherents were attainted, and, after escaping from many dangers, and enduring
much misery, he was at length obliged to fly into England for refuge.
James had now not only the name, but, though extremely young, the
full authority of a king. He was inferior to no prince of that age in
gracefulness of person, or in vigollr of mind. His understanding was
good, and his heart warm; the former capable of great improvement, and
the latter susceptible of the best impressions. But, according to the usual
fate of princes who are called to the throne in their infancy, his education
had been neglected. His private preceptors were more ready to flatter
than to instruct him. It was the interest of those who governed the kingdom to prevent him from knowing too much. The earl of Angus, in order
to divert him from business, gave him an early taste for such pleasures as
afterwards occupied and engrossed him more than became a king. Accordingly, we discover in James all the features of a great but uncultivated
spirit. On the one hand, violent passions, implacable resentment, anl
immoderate desire of power, and the utmost rage at disappointment. On
the other, love to his people, zeal for the punishment of private oppress



THE HISTORY                       [Boox I.
ors, confidence in his favourites, and the most engaging openness and
affability of behaviour.
What he himself had suffered from the exorbitant power of the nobles
led him early to imitate his predecessors in their attempts to humble them.
The plan he formed for that purpose was more profound, more systematic,
and pursued with greater constancy and steadiness, than that of any of his
ancestors: and the influence of the events in his reign upon those of the
subsequent period renders it necessary to explain his conduct at greater
length, and to enter into a more minute detail of his actions. He had
penetration enough to discover those defects in the schemes adopted by
former kings, which occasioned their miscarriage. The examples of
James 1. had taught him that wise laws operate slowly on a rude people,
and that the fierce spirit of the feudal nobles was not to be subdued by
these alone. The effects of the violent measures of James II. convinced
him that the oppression of one great family is apt either to excite the suspicion and resentment of the other nobles, or to enrich with its spoils some
new family, which would soon adopt the same sentiments, and become
equally formidable to the crown. He saw, from the fatal end of James III.,
that neglect was still more intolerable to the nobles than oppression, and
that the ministry of new men and favourites was both dishonourable and
dangerous to a prince. At the same time, he felt that the authority of the
crown was not sufficient to counterbalance the power of the aristocracy,
and that without some new accession of strength he could expect no better
success in the struggle than his ancestors. In this extremity he applied
himself to the clergy, hoping that they would both relish his plan, and
concur, with all their influence, in enabling him to put it in execution.
Under the feudal government, the church, being reckoned a third estate,
had its representatives in parliament; the number of these was considerable, and they possessed great influence in that assembly.  The superstition of former kings, and the zeal of many ages of ignorance, had
bestowed on ecclesiastics a great proportion of the national wealth; and
the authority which they acquired by the reverence of the people was
superior even to that which they derived fiom their riches.  This powerful body, however, depended entirely on the crown. The popes, notwithstanding their attention, to extend their usurpations, had neglected
Scotland as a distant and poor kingdom, and permitted its kings to exercise
powers which they disputed with more considerable princes.  The Scottish monarchs had the sole right of nomination to vacant bishoprics and
abbeys;" and James naturally concluded, that men who expected prefer
ment from  his favour would be willing to merit it by promoting his
designs. Happily for him, the nobles had not yet recovered the blow
which fell on their order at Flowden; and if we may judge either from
their conduct or from the character given of them by Sir Ralph Sadler,
the English envoy in Scotland, they were men of little genius, of no experience in business, and incapable of acting either with unanimity or with
Vigour. Many of the clergy, on the other hand, were distinguished by
their great abilities, and no less by their ambition. Various causes of
disgust subsisted between them  and the martial nobles, who were apt to
view the pacific character of ecclesiastics with some degree of contempt,
and who envied their power and wealth. By acting in concert with the
king, they not only would gratify him, but avenge themselves, and hoped
to aggrandize their own order by depressing those who were their sole
rivals. Secure of so powerful a concurrence, James ventured to proceed
with greater boldness. In the first heat of resentment he had driven the
iarl of Angus out of the kingdom; and, sensible that a person so far supevior to the other nobles in abilities, might create many obstacles which
* Epist. Reg. Scot. i. 197, &c. Act 125. P. 1540.




OF SCOTLAND.                              23
would retard or render ineffectual all his schemes, he solemnly swore that
he would never permit him to return into Scotland; and, notwithstanding
the repeated solicitations of the king of England, he adhered to his vow
with unrelenting obstinacy. He then proceeded to repair the fortifications
of Edinburgh, Stirling, and other castles, and to fill his magazin s with
arms and ammunition. Having taken these precautions by way of
defence, he began to treat the nobility with the utmost coldness and
reserve. Those offices which they were apt from long possession to con
sider as appropriated to their order, were now bestowed on ecclesiastics,
who alone possessed the king's ear, and, together with a few gentlemen of
inferior rank to whom he had communicated his schemes, were intrusted
with the management of all public affairs. These ministers were chosen
with judgment; and cardinal Beatoun, who soon became the most eminent among them, was a man of superior genius. These served the king
with fidelity; they carried on his measures with vigour, with reputation,
and with success. James no longer concealed his distrust of the nobles,
and suffered no opportunity of mortifying them to escape. Slight offences
were aggravated into real crimes, and punished with severity. Every
accusation against persons of rank was heard with pleasure, every appearance of guilt was examined with ri-our, and every trial proved fatal to
those who were accused: the banishing Hepburn, earl of Bothwell, for
reasons extremely frivolous, beheading the eldest son of lord Forbes without sufficient evidence of his guilt, and the condemning lady Glamis, a
sister of the earl of Angus, to be burned for,the crime of witchcraft, of
which, even that credulous age believed her innocent, are monuments both
of the king's hatred of the nobility, of the severity of his government, and
of the stretches he made towards absolute power. By these acts ot
authority he tried the spirit of the nobles, and how much they were willing to bear. Their patience increased his contempt for them, and added
to the ardour and boldness with which he pursued his plan. Meanwhile
they observed the tendency of his schemes with concern and with resentment; but the king's sagacity, the vigilance of his ministers, and the want
of a proper leader, made it dangerous to concert any measures for their
defence, and impossible to act with becoming vigour. James and his
counsellors, by a false step which they took, presented to them, at length,.
an advantage which they did not fail to improve.
Motives, which are well known, had prompted Henry VIII. to disclaim
the pope's authority, and to seize the revenues of the regular clergy. His
system of reformation satisfied none of his subjects. Some were enraged
because he had proceeded so far, others murmured because he proceeded
no farther. By his imperious temper, and alternate persecutions of the
zealots for popery and the converts to the protestant opinions, he was
equally formidable to both. Henry was afraid that this general dissatisfaction of his people might enc6urage his enemies on the continent to
invade his kingdom. He knew that both the pope and the emperor
courted the friendship of the king of Scots, and endeavoured to engage
him ir an alliance against England. He resolved, therefore, to disappoint
the effects of their negotiations, by entering into a closer union with his
nephew. In order to accomplish this, he transmitted to James an elaborate memorial, presenting the numerous encroachments of the See of
Rome upon the rights of sovereigns;~ and that he might induce him more
certainly to adopt the same measures for abolishing papal usurpation,
which had proved so efficacious in England, he sent ambassadors into
Scotland, to propose a personal interview with him at York. It was
plainly James's interest to accept this invitation; the assistance Qf so
powerful an ally, the high honours which were promised him, and tie
* Strype, Eccles. Mem. 1. App 155;
VoL. III. —5




?34                    THE  HISTORY                      [BOOx I.
liberal subsidies he might have obtained, would have added no little dignity to his domestic government, and must have greatly facilitated the
execution of his favourite plan. On the other hand, a war with England,
which he had reason to apprehend if he rejected Henry's offers of friendship,
was inconsistent with all his views. This would bring him to depend on
his barons; an army could not be raised without their assistance: to call
nobles incensed against their prince into the field was to unite his enemies,
to make them sensible of their own strength, and to afford them an opportunity of revenging their wrongs. James, who was not ignorant that all
these consequences might follow a breach with England, listened at first
to Henry's proposal, and consented to the interview at York. But the
clergy dreaded a union which must have been established on the ruins of
the church. Henry had taken great pains to infuse into his nephew his
own sentiments concerning religion, and had frequently solicited him, by
ambassadors, to renounce the usurped dominion of the pope, which was
no less dishonourable to princes than grievous to their subjects. The
clergy had hitherto, with great address, diverted the king from regarding
these solicitations. But in an amicable conference Henry expected, and
-they feared, that James would yield to his entreaties, or be convinced by
his arguments. They knew that the revenues of the church were an:alluring object to a prince who wanted money, and who loved it; that the
pride and ambition of ecclesiastics raised the indignation of the nobles;
that their indecent lives gave offence to the people; that the protestant
opinions were spreading fast throughout the nation; and that a universal
defection from the established church would be the consequence of giving
the smallest degree of encouragement to these principles. For these rea-:sons they employed all their credit with the king, and had recourse to,every artifice and insinuation, in order to divert him from a journey which
must have been so fatal to their interest. They endeavoured to inspire
him with fear, by magnifying the danger to which he would expose his
person by venturing so far into England without any security but the word
of a prince, who, having violated every thing venerable and sacred in religion, was no longer to be trusted; and by way of compensation for the
sums which he might have received from Henry, they offered an annual
donative of fifty thousand crowns; they promised to contribute liberally
towards carrying on a war with England, and flattered him with the prospect of immense riches, arising from the forfeiture of persons who were to
be tried and condemned as heretics. Influenced by these considerations,
James broke his agreement with Henry, who, in expectation of meeting
him, had already come to York; and that haughty and impatient monarch
resented the affront, by declaring war against Scotland. His army was
soon ready to invade the kingdom. James was obliged to have recourse
to the nobles for the defence of his dominions. At his command they
assembled their followers, but with the same dispositions which had ani
mated their ancestors in the reign of James III., and with a fiull resolution
of imitating their example by punishing those to whom they imputed the
grievances of which they had reason to complain; and if the king's ministers had not been men of abilities, superior to those of James III., and of
considerable interest even with their enemies, who could not agree among
themselves what victims to sacrifice, the camp of Fala would have been as
remarkable as that of Lauder, for the daring encroachments of the nobility,on the prerogative of the prince. But though his ministers were saved
by this accident, the nobles had soon another opportunity of discovering
to the king their dissatisfaction with his government, and their contempt
of his authority. Scarcity of provisions, and the rigour of the season,
having obliged the English army which had invaded Scotland to retire,
James imagined that he could attack them with great advantage in their
retreat: but the principal barons, with an obstinacy and disdain which




OF SCOTLAND,                              35
greatly aggrava ed their disobedience, refused to advance a step bey'ondthe limits of their own country. Provoked by this insult to himself, and
suspicious of a new conspiracy against his ministers, the king instantly dis
banded an army which paid so little regard to his orders, and returned
abruptly into the heart of the kingdom.
An ambitious and high-spirited prince could not brook such a mortifying
affront. His hopes of success had been rash, and his despair upon a disappointment was excessive. He felt himself engaged in an unnecessary
war with England, which, instead of yielding hirm the laurels and triumphs
that he expected, had begun with such circumstances as encouraged the
insolence of his subjects, and exposed him to the scorn of his enemies.
He saw how vain and ineffectual all his projects to humble the nobles had
been; and that, though in times of peace a prince may endeavour to
depress them, they will rise during war to their former importance and
dignity. Impatience, resentment, indignation, filled his bosom by turns
The violence of these passions altered his temper, and perhaps impaired'
his reason. He became pensive, sullen, and retired. He seemed through
the day to be swallowed up in profound meditation, and through the
night he was disturbed with those visionary terrors which make impression
upon a weak understanding only, or a disordered fancy. In order to revive
the king's spirits, an inroad on the western borders was concerted by his
ministers, who prevailed upon the barons in the neighbouring provinces to
raise as many troops as were thought necessary, and to enter the enemy's
country. But nothing could remove the king's aversion to his nobility,
or diminish his jealousy of their power. He would not even intrust them
with the command of the forces which they had assembled; that was
reserved for Oliver Sinclair his favourite, who no sooner appeared to take
possession of the dignity conferred upon him, than rage and indignation
occasioned a universal mutiny in the army. Five hundred English, who
happened to be drawn up in sight, attacked the Scots in this disorder.
Hatred to the king and contempt of their general produced an effect to
which there is no parallel in history. They overcame the fear of death,
and the love of liberty; and ten thousand men fled before a number so far
inferior, without striking a single blow. No man was desirous of a victory
which would have been acceptable to the king and to his favourite; few
endeavoured to save themselves by flight; the English had the choice of
what prisoners they pleased to take; and almost every person of distinction
who was engaged in the expedition remained in their hands.* This
astonishing event was a new proof to the king of the general disaffection
of the nobility, and a new discovery of his own weakness and want of
authority. Incapable of bearing these repeated insults, he found himself
unable to revenge them. The deepest melancholy and despair succeeded
to the furious transports of rage, which the first account of the rout of his'
army occasioned. All the violent passions which are the enemies of life
preyed upon his mind, and wasted and consumed a youthful and vigorous
constitution.  Some authors of that age impute his untimely death' to
poison; but the diseases of the mind, when they rise to a height, are iften
mortal; and the known effects of disappointment, anger, and resentment
upon a sanguine and impetuous temper sufficiently account for his unhappy
fate. " His death (says Drummond) proveth his mind to have been raised'
to a high strain, and above mediocrity; he could die, but could not digest
a disaster."  Had James survived this misfortune, one of two things nust
have happened: either the violence of his temper would have engaged
him openly to attack the nobles, who would have found in Henry a wviling
* According to an account of this event in the Hamilton MSS. about thirty were killed, above a
thousand were taken prisoners; and among them a hundred and fifty persons of condition. Vol.
ii. 286. The small number of the English prevented their taking more prisoners.




36                     THE HISTORY                        [BooK 1.
and powerful protector, and have derived the same assistance from him
which the malecontents, in the succeeding reign, did from his daughter
Elizabeth; in that case, a dangerous civil war must have been the certain
consequence.  Or, perhaps, necessity might have obliged him to accept of
Henry's offers, and be reconciled to his nobility. In that event, the church
would have fallen a sacrifice to their union; a reformation, upon Henry's
plan, would have been established by law; a great part of the temporalities of the church would have been seized; and the friendship of the
king and barons would have been cemented by dividing its spoils.
Such were the efforts of our kings towards reducing the exorbitant power
of the nobles. If they were not attended with success, we must not fbr
that reason conclude that they were not conducted with prudence.  Every
circumstance seems to have combined against the crown.  Accidental
events concurred with political causes, in rendering the best concerted
measures abortive. The assassination of one king, the sudden death of
another, and the fatal despair of a third, contributed, no less than its own
natural strength, to preserve the aristocracy from ruin.
Amidst these struggles, the influence which our kings possessed in their
parliaments is a circumstance seemingly inexplicable, and which merits
particular attention. As these assemblies were composed chiefly of the
nobles, they, we are apt to imagine, must have dictated all their decisions;
but, instead of this, every king found them obsequious to his will, and
obtained such laws as he deemed necessary fbr extending his authority.
All things were conducted there with despatch and unanimity; and in none
of our historians do we find an instance of any opposition formed against
the court in parliament, or mention of any difficulty in carrying through
the measures which were agreeable to the king. In order to account for
this singular fact, it is necessary to inquire into the origin and constitution
of parliament.
The genius of the feudal government, uniform in all its operations, produced the same effects in small as in great societies; and the territory of a
baron was, in miniature, the model of a kingdom. He possessed the right
of jurisdiction; but those who depended on him being free men, and iot
slaves, could be tried by their peers only; and, theref(ore, his vassals were
bound to attend his courts, and to assist both in passing and executing his
sentences. When assembled on these occasions, they established, by mutual
consent, such regulations as tended to the welfare of their small society;
and often granted, voluntarily, such supplies to their superior as his necessities required. Change now a single name; in place of baron substitute
king, and we behold a parliament in its first rudiments, and observe the first
exertions of those powers which its members now possess as judges, as
legislators, and as dispensers of the public revenues. Suitable to this
idea, are the appellations of the king's court,? and of the king's great
council, by which parliaments were anciently distinguished; and suitable
to this, likewise, were the constituent members of which it was composed.
In all the feudal kingdoms, such as held of the king in chief were bound,
by the condition of their tenure, to attend and to assist in his courts. Nor
was this esteemed a privilege, but a service.t It was exacted likewise
of bishops, abbots, and the greater ecclesiastics, who, holding vast possessions of the crown, were deemed subject to the same burden. Parliaments
did not continue long in this state. Cities gradually acquired wealth, a
considerable share of the public taxes were levied on them, the inhabitants
grew into estimation, and, being enfranchised by the sovereign, a place in
parliament was the consequence of their liberty, and of their importance.
But as it would have been absurd to confer such a privilege, or to impose
* Du Cange, voc. Curia.  t Du Cange, voc. Piacitum, col. 519. Magna Charta, art. 114.
Act, Jac. I. 1.t45. cap. 52.




OF SCOTLAND.                                    27
such a burden on a whole community, every borough was permitted to
choose one or two of its citizens to appear in the name of the corporation;
and the idea of representation was first introduced in this manner.  An
innovation still more important naturally followed. The vassals of the
crown were originally few in number, and extremely powerful; but as it
is Impossible to render property fixed and permanent, many of their possessions c!me, gradually, and by various methods of alienation, to be split
and parcelled out into different hands. Hence arose the distinction between
the greater and the lesser barons. The former were those who retained
their original fiefs undivided; the latter were the new and less potent vassals of the crown. Both were bound, however, to perform all feudal
services, and, of consequence, to give attendance in parliament.  To the
lesser barons, who formed no inconsiderable body, this was an intolerable
grievance.  Barons sometimes denied their tenure, boroughs renounced
their right of electing, charters were obtained containing an exemption
from attendance; and the anxiety with which our ancestors endeavoured
to get free from the obligation of sitting in parliament is surpassed by that
only with which their posterity solicit to be admitted there.. In order to
accommodate both parties at once, to secure to the king a sufficient number
of members in his great council, and to save his vassals from an unnecessary burden, an easy expedient was found out.  The obligation to personal
attendance was continued upon the greater barons, from which the lesser
barons were exempted, on condition of their electing in each county a
certain number of representatives, to appear in their name.  Thus a parliament became complete in all its members, and was composed of lords
spiritual and temporal, of knights of the shires, and of; burgesses. As
many causes contributed to bring government earlier to perfection in England than in Scotland; as the rigour of the feudal institutions abated
sooner, and its defects were supplied with greater facility in the one
kingdom  than in the other; England led the way in all these changes,
and burgesses and knights of the shire appeared in the parliaments of
that nation before they were heardcof in ours.  [1326.] B3ulgesses were first
admitted into the Scottish parliaments by Robert Bruce;* and in the
preamble to the laws of Robert III., they are ranked among the constituent
members of that assembly. [1427.] The lesser barons were indebted to
James I. for a statute exempting them from personal attendance, and permitting them to elect representatives: the exemption was eagerly laid
hold on; but the privilege was so little valued that, except one or two
instances, it lay neglected during one hundred and sixty years;: and James
VI. first obliged them to send representatives regularly to parliamentj.
A  Scottish parliament, then, consisted anciently of great barons, of
ecclesiastics, and a few  representatives of boroughs.  Nor were these
divided as in England into two houses, but composed one assembly, in
which the Lord Chancellor presided.1 In rude ages, when the science of
government was extremely imperfect among a martial people, unacquainted
with the arts of peace, strangers to the talents which make a figure in
debate, and despising them, parliaments were not held in the same estimation as at present; nor did haughty barons love those courts in which
they appeared with such evident marks of inferiority.  Parliaments were
* Abercromby, i. 635.  t Essays on Brit. Antiq. Ess. II. Dalrymp. Hist. of Feud. Prop. ch. 8.
S In England, the peers and commons seem early to have met in separate houses; and James I.,
who v as fond of imitating the English in all their customs, had probably an intention of introducing
some considerable distinction between the greater and lesser barons in Scotland; at least he determined that their consultations should not be carried on under the direction of the same president;for by his law, A. D. 1327, it is provided, " that out of the commissioners of all the shires shall be"*
chosen a wise and expert man, called the common speaker of the parliament, who shall propose all
and sundry needs and causes pertaining to the commons in the parliament or general council." No
such speaker, it would seem, was ever chosen and by a subsequent law the Chancellor was declared
perpetual president of parliament.




38                        -THE HISTORY                           [BooK 1.
often hastily assembled, and it was, probably, in the king s power, by the
manner in which he issued his writs for that purpose, to exclude such, as
were averse from his measures.  At a time when deeds of violence were
common, and the restraints of law and decency were little regarded, no
man could venture with safety to oppose the king in his own court. The
great barons, or lords of parliament, were extremely few; even so late as
the beginning of the reign of James VI.,?  they amounted only to fiftythree. The ecclesiastics equalled them in number, and being devoted
implicitly to the crown, for reasons which have been already explained,
rendered all hopes of victory in any struggle desperate.  Nor were the
nobles themselves so anxious as might be imagined, to prevent acts of parliament favourable to the royal prerogative: conscious of their own
strength, and of the king's inability to carry these acts into execution
without their concurrence, they trusted that they might either elude or
venture to contemn them; and the statute revoking the king's property, and
annexing alienated jurisdictions to the crown, repeated in every reign, and
violated and despised as often, is a standing proof of the impotence of
laws when opposed to power. So many concurring causes are sufficient,
perhaps, to account for the ascendant which our kings acquired, in parliament.  But, without having recourse to any of these, a single circumstance,
peculiar to the constitution of the Scottish parliament, the mentioning of
which we have hitherto avoided, will abundantly explain this fact, seen;
ingly so repugnant to all our reasonings concerning the weakness of the
king, and the power of the nobles.
As far back as our records enable us to trace the constitution of our
parliaments, we find a committee distinguished by the name of Lords of
Articles. It was their business to prepare and to digest all matters which were
to be laid before the parliament. There was rarely any business introduced
into parliament, but what had passed through the channel of this committee; every motion for a new law was first made there, and approved
of or rejected by the members of it; what they approved was formed
into a bill, and presented to parliament; and it seems probable, that what
they rejected could not be introduced into the house. This committee
owed the extraordinary powers vested in it to the military genius of the
ancient nobles: too impatient to submit to the drudgery of civil business,
too impetuous to observe the forms or to enter into the details necessary in
conducting it, they were glad to lay that burden upon a small number,
while they themselves had no other labour than simply to give or to refuse
their assent to the bills which were presented to them.  The lords of
articles, then, not only directed all the proceedings of parliament, but possessed a negative before debate.  That committee was chosen and constituted in such a manner as to put this valuable privilege entirely into the
king's hands. It is extremely probable, that our kings once had the sole
right of nominating the lords of articles.t They came afterwards to be
elected by the parliament, and consisted of an equal number out of each
* And. Coil],. vol. i. pref. 40.
t It appears from authentic records, that a parliament was appointed to be held March 12, 1566,
and that the lords of articles were chosen and met on the 7th, five days before the assembling of parliament. If they could be regularly elected so long before the meeting of parliament, it is natural to
conclude that the prince alone possessed the right of electing them. There are two different accounts
of the manner of their election at that time, one by Mary herself, in a letter to the Archbishop of
Glasgow: " We, accompanied with our nobility for the time, past to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh,
for holding of our parliament on the 7th day of this instant, and elected the lords articulars." If
we explain these words according to the strict grammar, we must conclude that the queen herself
elected them. It is, however, more probable that Mary meant to say, that the nobles then present
with her, viz. her privy counsellors and others, elected the lords of articles. Keith's Hist. of Scotland, p. 331. The other account is Lord Ruthven's, who expressly affirms that the queen herself
elected them. Keith's Append. 126. Whether we embrace the one or other of these opinions is of
no consequence. If the privy counsellors and nobles attending the court had a right to elect the
lords of articles, it was equally advantageous for the crown, as if the prince had had the sole nomi
nation of them.




OF  SC'OTLAND                                          39
estate, and most commonly of eight temporal and eight spiritual lords, of
eight representatives of boroughs. and of the eight great officers of the
crown.  Of this body, the eight ecclesiastics, together with the officers of
the crown, were entirely at the king's devotion; and it was scarce possible
that the choice could fall on such temporal lords and burgesses as would
unite in  opposition  to his measures.  Capable either of influencing their
election, or of gaining them when elected, the king commonly found the
lords of articles no less obsequious to his will than his own privy council;
and, by means of his authority with them, he could put a negative upon
his parliament before debate, as well as after it; and, what may seem
altogether incredible, the most limited prince in Europe actually possessed,
in one instance, a prerogative which the most absolute could never attain.To this account of the internal constitution of Scotland,'it will not be
improper to add a view of the political state of Europe at that period,
where the following history commences. A thorough knowledge of that
general system, of which every kingdom in Europe forms a part, is not
less requisite  towards  understanding  the  history of a  nation  than  an
acquaintance with  its peculiar government and  laws.  The  latter may
enable us to comprehend domestic occurrences and revolutions; but without the former, foreign transactions must be altogether mysterious and
unintelligible.  By attending to this, many dark  passages in our history
may be placed in a clear light; and where the bulk of historians have seen
only the effect, we -may be able to discover the cause.
The subversion of the feudal government in France, and its declension
in the neighbouring kingdoms, occasioned a remarkable alteration in the
political state  of Europe.  Kingdoms, which  were  inconsiderable  when
broken, and parcelled out among nobles, acquired firmness and strength by
being united into a regular monarchy. Kings became conscious oT their
own power and importance.  They  meditated  schemes of conquest, and
engaged in wars at a distance.  Numerous armies were raised, and great
taxes imposed for their subsistence. Considerable bodies of infantry were
" Having deduced the history of the Committee of Lords of Articles as low as the subject of
this preliminary book required, it may be agreeable, perhaps, to some of my readers, to know the
subsequent variations in this singular institution, and the political use which our kings made of
these. When parliaments became more numerous, and more considerable by the admission of the
representatives of the lesser barons, the preserving their influence over the lords of articles became,
likewise, an object of greater importance to our kings. James VI., on pretence that the lords of
articles could not find leisure to consider the great multitude of affairs laid before them, obtained an
act, appointing four persons to be named out of each estater, who should meet twenty days before
the commencement of parliament,[a] to receive all supplications, &c. and, rejecting what they thought
frivolous, should engross in a book what they thought worthy the attention of the lords of articles.
No provision is made in the act for the choice of this select body; and the king would, of course,
have claimed that privilege. In 1633, when Charlles I. was beginning to introduce those innovations
which gave so much offence to the nation, he dreaded the opposition of his parliament, and, in order
to prevent that, an artifice was made use of to secure the lords of articles for the crown. The temporal peers were appointed to choose eight bishops, and the bishops eight peers; these sixteen met
together, and elected eight knights of the shire, and eight burgesses, and to these the crown officers
were added as usual. If we can only suppose eight persons of so numerous a body as the peers of
Scotland were become by that time attached to the court, these, it is obvious, would be the men
whom the bishops would choose, and of consequence the whole lords of articles were the tools and
creatures of the king. This practice, so inconsistent with liberty, was abolished during the civil
war; and the statute of James VI. was repealed. After the restoration, parliaments became more
servile than ever. What was only a temporary device, in the reign of Charles I., was then converted into a standing law. "For my part," says the author from whom I have borrowed many of
these particulars,' I should have thought it less criminal in our Restoration Parliament, to have
openly bestowed upon the king a negative before debate, than, in such an underheard artificial manner, to betray their constituents and the nation."  Essays on Brit. Antiq. 55. It is probable, however, from a letter of Randolph's to Cecil, 10 Aug. 1560, printed in the Appendix, that this parliament had some appearanceofancient precedent to justifytheir unworthy conduct. Various questions
concerning the constituent members of the Scottish parliament; concerning the era at which the
representatives of boroughs were introduced into that assembly; and concerning the origin and
power of the committee of lords of articles, occur, and have been agitated with great warmth.
Since the first publication of this work, all these disputed points have been considered with calm
ness and accuracy in Mr. Wight's Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of Parliament, &c. 4to edit.
p. 17, &c.
[al Act 222. P. 1594.




40                     THE  HISTORY                      [Boo. I.
kept in constant pay; that service grew to be honourable; and cavalry, in
which the strength of European armies had hitherto consisted, though
proper enough for the short and voluntary excursions of barons who served
at their own expense, were found to be unfit either for making or defending
any important conquest.
It was in Italy that the powerful monarchs of France and Spain and
Germany first appeared to make a trial of their new strength. The
division of that country into many small states, the luxury of the people,
and their effeminate aversion to arms invited their more martial neighbours
to an easy prey. The Italians, who had been accustomed to mock battles
only, and to decide their interior quarrels by innocent, and bloodless victories, were astonished, when the French invaded their country, at the sight
of real war; and, as they could not resist the torrent, they suffered it to
take its course, and to spend its rage. Intrigue and policy supplied the
want of strength. Necessity and self-preservation led that ingenious people to the great secret of modern politics, by teaching them how to balance
the power of one prince, by throwing that of another into the opposite
scale. By this happy device, the liberty of Italy was long preserved.
The scales were poised by very skilful hands; the smallest variations were
attended to, and no prince was allowed to retain any superiority that could
be dangerous.
A system of conduct, pursued with so much success in Italy, was not
long confined to that country of political refinement. The maxim of preserving a balance of power is founded so much upon obvious reasoning,
and the situation of Europe rendered it so necessary, that it soon became
a matter of chief attention to all wise politicians. Every step any prince
took was observed by all his neighbours. Ambassadors, a kind of honourable spies, authorized by the mutual jealousy of kings, resided almost constantly at every different court, and had it in charge to watch all its motions.
Dangers were foreseen at a greater distance, and prevented with more
ease. Confederacies were formed to humble any power which rose above
its due proportion. Revenge or self-defence were no longer the only
causes of hostility, it became common to take arms out of policy; and war,
both in its commencement and in its operations, was more an exercise of
the judgment than of the passions of men. Almost every war in Europe
became general, and the most inconsiderable states acquired importance,
because they could add weight to either scale.
Francis I., who mounted the throne of France in the year one thousand
five hundred and fifteen, and Charles V., who obtained the Imperial crown
in the year one thousand five hundred and nineteen, divided between them
the strength and affections of all Europe. Their perpetual enmity was not
owing solely either to personal jealousy, or to the caprice of private passion, but was founded so much in nature and true policy that it subsisted
between their pwsterity for several ages. Charles succeeded to all the
dominions of the house of Austria. No family had ever gained so much by
wise and fortunate marriages. By acquisitions of this kind, the Austrian
princes rose, in a short time, from- obscure counts of Hapsbourg, to be
archdukes of Austria, and kings of Bohemia, and were in possession of the
Imperial dignity by a sort of hereditary right. Besides these territories
in Germany, Charles was heir to the crown of Spain, and to all the dominions which belonged to the house of Burgundy.  The Burgundian provinces engrossed, at that time, the riches and commerce of one half of
Europe; and he drew from them, on many occasions, those immense sums,
which no people without trade and liberty are able to contribute. Spain
furnished him a gallant and hardy infantry, to whose discipline he was
indebted for all his conquests. At the same time, by the discovery of the
new world, a vein of wealth was opened to him, which all the extrava
gance of ambition could not exhaust. These advantages rendered Charles




OF SCOTLAND.                              41
the first prince in Europe; but he wished to be more, and openly aspired
to universal monarchy. His genius was of that kind which ripens slowly,
and lies long concealed; but It grew up, without observation, to an unexpected height and vig'our. He possessed, in an eminent degree, the
characteristic virtues of all the different races of princes to whom he was
allied. In forming his schemes, he discovered all the subtlety and penetration of Ferdinand his grandfather; he pursued them with that obstinate
and inflexible perseverance which has ever been peculiar to the Austrian
blood; and in executing them he could employ the magnanimity and boldness of his Burgundian ancestors. His abilities were equal to his power;
and neither of them would have been inferior to his designs, had not Providence, in pity to mankind, and in order to.preserve them from the worst
of all evils, universal monarchy, raised up Francis I. to defend the liberty
of Europe. His dominions were less extensive, but more united than the
emperor's. His subjects were numerous, active, and warlike, lovers of
glory, and lovers of their king. To Charles, power was the only object of
desire, and he pursued it with an unwearied and joyless industry. Francis
could mingle pleasure and elegance with his, ambition; and, though he
neglected some advantages, which a more phlegmatic or more fi'ugal prince
would have improved, an active and intrepid courage supplied all his
defects, and checked or defeated many of the emperor's designs.
The rest of Europe observed all the motions of these mighty rivals with
a jealous attention. On the one side, the Italians saw the danger which
threatened Christendom, and, in order to avert it, had recourse to the expedient which they had often employed with success. They endeavoured
to divide the power of the two contending monarchs into equal scales, and,
by the union of several small states, to counterpoise him whose power
became too great. But what they concerted with much wisdom, they
were able to execute with little vigour; and intrigue and refinement were
feeble fences against the encroachments of military power.
On the other side, Henry VIII. of England held the balance with less
delicacy, but with a stronger hand. He was the third prince of the age
in dignity and in power; and the advantageous situation of his dominions,
his domestic tranquillity, his immense wealth and absolute authority rendered him the natural guardian of the liberty of Europe. Each of the
rivals courted him with emulation; he knew it to be his interest to kedep
the balance even, and to restrain both by not joining entirely with either
of them. But he was seldom able to reduce his ideas to practice; he was
governed by caprice more than by principle; and the passions of the man
were an overmatch for the maxims of the king. Vanity and resentment
were the great springs of all his undertakings, and his neighbours easily
found the way, by touching these, to force him upon many rash and inconsistent enterprises. His reign was a perpetual series of blunders in
politics; and while he esteemed himself the wisest prince in Europe, he
iwas a constant dupe to those who found it necessary, and could submit to
flatter him.
In this situation of Europe, Scotland, which had hitherto wasted her
strength in the quarrels between France and England, emerged from her
obscurity, took her station in the system, and began to have some influence
upon the fate of distant nations. Her assistance was frequently of consequence to the contending parties, and the balance was often so nicely
adjusted that it was in her power to make it lean to either side. The part
assigned her, at this juncture, was to divert Henry from carrying his arms
into the continent. That prince having routed the French at Guinegat and
invested Terouenne, Francis attempted to divide his forces, by engaging
James IV. in that unhappy expedition which ended with his life. For the
same reason Francis encouraged and assisted the duke of Albany to ruin
the families of Angus and Home, which were in the interest of England,
VOL. III.-6




42                     THE  HMISTORY                     [BooK I.
and woul willingly have persuaded the' Scots to revenge the death of their
king, and to enter into a new war with that kingdom   Henry and Francis
having united not long after against the emperor, it was the interest of both
kings that the Scots should continue inactive; and a long tranquillity was
the effect of their union. Charles endeavoured to break this, and to
embarrass Henry by another inroad of the Scots. For this end he made
great advances to James V., flattering the vanity of the young monarch by
electing him a Knight of the Golden Fleece, and by offering him a match
in the Imperial family; while, in return for these empty honours, he
demanded for him to renounce his alliance with France, and to declare
war against England. But James, who had much to lose, and who could
gain little by closing with the emperor's proposals, rejected them with
decency, and keeping firm to his ancient allies, left Henry at full liberty to
act upon the continent with his whole strength.
Henry himself began his reign by imitating the example of his ancestors
with regard to Scotland. He held its power in such extreme contempt
that he was at no pains to gain its friendship; but, on the contrary, he
irritated the whole nation, by reviving the antiquated pretensions of the
crown of England to the sovereignty over Scotland. But his own
experience, and the examples of his enemies, gave him a higher idea
of its importance. It was impossible to defend an open and extensive
frontier against the incursions of an active and martial people. During
any war on the continent, this obliged him to divide the strength of his
kingdom. It was necessary to maintain a kind of army of observation in
the north of England; and, after all precautions, the Scottish borderers,
who were superior to all mankind in the practice of irregular war, often
made successful inroads, and spread terror and desolation over many
counties. He fell, at last, upon the true secret of policy, with respect to
Scotland, which his predecessors had too little penetration to discover, or
too much pride to employ. The situation of the country, and the bravery
of the people, made the conquest of Scotland impossible; but the national
poverty, and the violence of faction, rendered it an easy matter to divide
and to govern it. He abandoned, therefore, the former design, and resolved
to employ his utmost address in executing the latter. It had not yet
become honourable for one prince to receive pay from another, under the
more decent name of a subsidy. But, in all ages, the same arguments
have been good in courts, and of weight with ministers, factious leaders,
and favourites.'What were the arguments by which Henry brought over
so many to his interest during the minority of James V. we know by the
original warrant still extant,* for remitting considerable sums into Scotland.
By a proper distribution of these, many persons of note were gained to
his party, and a faction, which held secret correspondence with England,
and received all its directions from thence, appears henceforward in our
domestic contests. In the sequel of the history, we shall find Henry
labouring to extend his influence in Scotland. His successors adopted the
same plan, and improved upon it. The affairs of the two kingdoms
became interwoven, and their interests were often the same. Elizabeth
divided her attention almost equally between them; and the authority
which she inherited in the one was not greater than that which she acquired
in the other.
* Burn. Hist. Ref. vol. i. p. 7.




OF SCOTLAND.                              43
BOOK II.
1542.] MARY, Queen of Scots, the daughter of James V. and Mary of
Guise, was born [Dec. 8] a few days before the death of her father.
The situation in which he left the kingdom  alarmed all ranks of men
with the prospect of a turbulent and disastrous reign. A war against
England had been undertaken without necessity, and carried on without
success. Many persons of the first rank had fallen into the hands of the
EngJlsh, in the unfortunate rout near the frith of Solway, and were still
prisoners at London. Among the rest of the nobles there was little union
either in their views or in their affections; and the religious disputes, occasioned by the opinions of the Reformers, growing every day more violent,
added to the rage of those factions which are natural to a form of government nearly aristocratical.
The government of a queen was unknown in Scotland, and did not
imprint much reverence in the minds of a martial people. The government of an infant queen was still more destitute of real authority; and the
prospect of a long.and feeble minority invited to faction by the hope of
impunity. James had not even provided the common remedy against the
disorders of a minority, by committing to proper persons the care of his
daughter's education, and the administration of affairs in her name
Though he saw the clouds gathering, and foretold that they would quickly
burst into a storm, he was so little able to disperse them, or to defend his
daughter and kingdom against the imminent calamities, that, in mere
despair, he abandoned them both to the meicy of fortune, and left open
to every pretender the office of regent, which he could not fix to his own
satisfaction.
Cardinal Beatoun, who had for many years been considered as prime
minister, was the first that claimed that high dignity; and, in support of
his pretensions, he produced a testament,? which he himself had forged in
the name of the late king; and, without any other right, instantly assumed
the title of regent. He hoped by the assistance of the clergy, the countenance of France, the connivance of the queen dowager, and the support
of the whole popish faction, to hold by force what he had seized on by
fraud. But Beatoun had enjoyed power too long to be a favourite of the
nation. Those among the nobles who wished for a reformation in religion
dreaded his severity, and others considered the elevation of a churchman
to the highest office in the kingdom as a depression of themselves. At
their instigation, J.ames Hamilton earl of Arran, and next heir to the queen,
roused himself from his inactivity, and was prevailed on to aspire to that
station to which proximity of blood gave him a natural title. The nobles,
who were assembled for that purpose, unanimously conferred on him the
office of regent; and the public voice applauded their, choice.']
No two men ever differed more widely in disposition and character than
the earl of Arran and cardinal Beatoun. The cardinal was by nature of
immoderate ambition: by long experience he had acquired address and
refinement; and insolence grew upon him from continual success. His
high station in the church placed him in the way of great civil employments;
his abilities were equal to the greatest of these: nor did he reckon any of
them to be above his merit. As his own eminence was founded upon the
power of the church of Rome, he was a zealous defender of that superstition,
and for the same reason an avowed enemy to the doctrines of the Reformers.
* Saddler's Lett. 161. Haynes, State Papers, 486.    t Epist. Reg. Scot, vol. ii. p. 308




44                     TlHE  HISTORY                    [iooK 1I.
Political motives alone determined him to support the one or to oppose the
other. His early application to public business kept him unacquainted
with the learning and controversies of the age; he gave judgment, however, upon all points in dispute, with a precipitancy, violence, and rigour,
which contemporary historians mention with indignation.
The character of the earl of Arran was, in almost every thing, the reverse
of Beatoun's. He was neither infected with ambition nor inclined to
cruelty; the love of ease extinguished the former, the gentleness of his
temper preserved him from the latter. Timidity and irresolution were
his predominant failings; the one occasioned by his natural constitution,
and the other arising from a consciousness that his abilities were not equal
to his station. With these dispositions he might have enjoyed and adorned
private life; but his public conduct was without courage, or dignity, or
consistence; the perpetual slave of his own fears, and, by consequence,
the perpetual tool of those who found their advantage in practising upon
them. But, as no other person could be set in' opposition to the cardinal, with any probability of success, the nation declared in his favour
with such general consent that the artifices of his rival could not withstand
its united strength. 
The earl of Arran had scarce taken possession of his new dignity, when
a negotiation was opened with England, which gave birth to events of
the most fatal consequence to himself and to the kingdom. After the death
of James, Henry VIII. was no longer afraid of any interruption from
Scotland to his designs against France; and immediately conceived hopes
of rendering this security perpetual, by the marriage of.Edward his only
son with the young queen of Scots. He communicated his intentions to
the prisoners taken at Solway, and prevailed on them to favour it, by the
promise of liberty, as the reward of their success. In the mean time he
permitted them to return into Scotland, that, by their presence in the parliament which the regent had called, they might be the better able to per
suade their countrymen to fall in with his proposals. A cause intrusted to
such able and zealous advocates, could not well miss of coming to a happy
issue. All those who feared the cardinal, or who desired a change in religion, were fond of an alliance which afforded protection to the doctrine
which they had embraced, as, well as to their own persons, against the
rage of that powerful and haughty prelate.
But Henry's rough and impatient temper was incapable of improving
this favourable conjuncture. Address and delicacy in managing the fears,
and follies, and interests of men were arts with which he was utterly unacquainted. The designs he had formed upon Scotland were obvious from
the marriage which he had proposed, and he had not dexterity enough to
disguise or to conceal them. Instead of yielding to the fear or jealousy of
the Scots, what time and accident would soon have enabled him to recover,
he at once alarmed and irritated the whole nation, by demanding that the
queen's person should be immediately committed to his custody, and that
the government of the kingdom should be put into his hands during her
minority.
Henry could not have prescribed more ignominious conditions to a conquered people, and it is no wonder they were rejected, with indignation,
by men who scorned to purchase an alliance with England at the price of
their own liberty. [1543.] The parliament of Scotland,' however, influenced by the nobles who returned from England; desirous of peace with
that kingdom; and delivered, by the regent's confining the cardinal as a
prisoner, from an opposition to which he might have given rise; consented
to a treaty of marriage and of union, but upon terms somewhat more
equal [March 12]. After some dark and unsuccessful intrigues, by which
his ambassador endeavoured to carry off the young queen and cardinal
Beatoun into England, Henry was obliged to give up his own proposals




OF SCO rLAND.                                   46
and to accept ot theirs. On his side he consented that the queen should
continue to reside in Scotland, and himself remain excluded from  any
share in the government of the kingdom. On the other hanld, the Scots
agreed to send their sovereign into England as soon as she attained the full
age of ten years, and instantly to deliver six persons of the first ranK to
be kept as hostages by Henry till the queen's arrival at his court.
The treaty was still so manifestly of advantage to England, that the
regent lost much of the public confidence by consenting to it.  The cardinal, who had now recovered liberty, watched for such an opportunity of
regaining credit, and he did not fail to cultivate and improve this to the
utmost. He complained loudly that the regent had betrayed the kingdom
to its most inveterate enemies, and sacrificed its honour to his own ambition.  He foretold the extinction of the true Catholic religion, under the
tyranny of an excommunicated heretic; but, above all, he lamented to
see an ancient kingdom consenting to its own servitude, descending into
the ignominious station of a dependent province; and, in one hour, the
weakness or treachery of a single man surrendering every thing for which
the Scottish nation had struggled and fought during so many ages.  These
remonstrances of the  cardinal were  not without effect.  They  were
addressed to prejudices and passions which are deeply rooted in the
human heart.  The same hatred to the ancient enemies of their country,
the same jealousy of national honour, and pride of independence, which,
at the beginning of the present century, went near to prevent the Scots
from consenting to a union with England, upon terms of great advantage,
did, at that time, induce the whole nation to declare against the alliance
which had been concluded. In the one period, a hundred and fifty years
of peace between the two nations, the habit of being subjected to the
same king, and governed by the same maxims, had considerably abated
old animosities, and prepared both people for incorporating.  In the other,
injuries were still fresh, the wounds on both sides were open, and, in the
warmth of resentment, it was natural to seek revenge, and to be averse
from reconcilement.  At the union in one thousand seven hundred and
seven, the wisdom of' parliament despised the groundless murmurs occasioned by antiquated prejudices; but in one thousand five hundred and
forty-three, the complaints of the nation were better founded, and urged
with a zeal and unanimity, which it is neither just nor safe to disregard.
A rash measure of the English monarch added greatly to the violence ot
this national animosity. The Scots, relying on the treaty of marriage and
union, fitted out several ships for France, with which their trade had been
interrupted for some time.  These were driven by stress of weather to
take refuge in different ports of England; and Henry, under pretext that
they were carrying provisions to a kingdom witn which he was at war,
ordered them to be seized and condemned as lawful prizes.* The Scots,
astonished at this proceeding of a prince whose interest it was manifestly
at that juncture to court and to sooth them, felt it not only as an injury
but as an insult, and expressed all the resentment natural to a high-spirited
people.t  Their rage rose to such a height, that the English ambassador
* Keith, 32. 34. Epist. Reg. Scot. ii. App. 311. Hamilton MSS. vol. i. p. 389.
In the MS. collection of papers belonging to the duke of Hamilton, Sir Ralph Sadler desclutss
the spirit of the Scots as extremely outrageous. In his letter from Edinburgh, September 1, 1543,
he eays, " The stay of the ships has brought the people of this town, both men and women, and
especially the merchants, into such a rage and fisry, that the whole town is commoved against me,
and swear great oaths, if their ships are not restored, that they would have their amends of me a.J
mine, and that they would set my house here on fire over my head, so that one of us should not
escape alive; and also it hath much incensed and provoked the people against the governor, saying,
that he hath coloured a peace with Your Majesty only to undo them. This is the unreasonableness
of the people which live here in such a beastly liberty that they neither regard God nor goverl or
nor yet justice, or any good policy, doth take place among them; assuring Your Highness that, unless the ships be delivered, ihere will be none abiding here for me without danger." Vol. i. 451.
In his letter of September 5, he writes that the rage of the people still continued so violent,'; that
neither I nor any of my folks dare go out of my doors; rend the provost of the town, who hath




46                      THE HISTORY                        [BooK II.
could hardly be protected from it. One spirit seemed now to animate al
orders of men. The clergy offered to contribute a great sum towards
preserving the church from the dominion of a prince, whose system of
reformation was so fatal to their power.  The nobles, after having mortified the cardinal so lately in such a cruel manner, were now ready to
applaud and to second him, as the defender of the honour and liberty of
his country.
Argyll, Huntly, Bothwell, anid other powerful barons, declared openly
against the alliance with England.  By their assistance, the cardinal seized
on the persons of the young queen and her mother, and added to his party
the splendour and authority of the royal name.? He received, at the
same time, a more real accession to his strength, by the arrival of Matthew
Stewart earl of Lennox, whose return from France he had earnestly solicited. This young nobleman was the hereditary enemy of the house of
Hamilton., He had many claims upon the regent, and pretended a right
to exclude him, not only from succeeding to the crown, but to deprive him
of the possession of his private fortune. The cardinal flattered his vanity
with the prospect of marrying the queen dowager, and affected to treat
him with so much respect that the regent became jealous of him as a rival
in power.
This suspicion was artfully heightened by the abbot of Paisley, who
returned into Scotland some time before the earl of Lennox, and acted in
concert with the cardinal. He was a natural brother of the regent, with
whom he bad great credit; a warm  partisan of France, and a zealous
defender of the established religion. He took hold of the regent by the
proper handle, and endeavoured to bring about a change in his sentiments
by working upon his fears. The desertion of the nobility, the disaffection
of the clergy, and the rage of the people; the resentment of France, the
power of the cardinal, and the pretensions of Lennox, were all represented
with aggravation, and with their most threatening aspect.
Meanwhile, the day appointed for the ratification of the treaty with
England, and the delivery of the hostages approached, and the regent was
still undetermined in his own mind. He acted to the last with that irresolution and inconsistence -vhich is peculiar to weak men when they are so
unfortunate as to have the chief part in the conduct of difficult affairs.
On the 25th of August he ratified a treaty with Henry,4 and proclaimed
the cardinal, who still continued to oppose it, an enemy to his country.
On the third of September he secretly withdrew from Edinburgh, met
with the cardinal at Callendar, renounced the friendship of England, and
declared for the interests of France.t
Henry, in order to gain the regent, had not spared the most magnificent
promises. He had offered to give the princessElizabeth in marriage to his
eldest son, and to constitute him king of that part of Scotland which lies
beyond the river Forth. But upon finding his interest in the kingdom to
be less considerable than he had imagined, the English monarch began to
treat him with little respect. The young queenwas now in the custody of his
enemies, who grew every day more numerous and more popular. They
formed a separate court at Stirling, and threatened to elect another regent.
The French king was ready to afford them his protection, and the nation,
out of hatred to the English, would have united in their defence. In this
itulation the regent could not retain his authority without a sudden change
of his measures; and though he endeavoured, by ratifying the treaty, to
much ado to stay them from assaulting me in my house, and keepeth watch therefore nightly, hath
sent to me sundry times, and prayed me to keep myself and my folks within, for it is scant in his
power to repress or resist the fury of the people. They say plainly, I shall never pass out of the
town alive, except they have their ships restored. This is the rage and beastliness of this nation,
which God keep all honest men from." Ib. 471.
* Keith's Hist. of Scotl. 30,    Rymer, Ford. xv. p. 4.:  Sadler, 339. 356. Hamilton MSS.
i. 470, &c.




OF SCOTLAND..47
preserve the appearances of good faith with England, he was obliged to
throw himself into the arms of the party which adhered to France. 
Soon after this sudden revolution in his political principles, the regent
changed his sentiments concerning religion. The spirit of controversy was.hen new and warm; books of that kind were eagerly read by men of every
rank; the love of novelty, or the conviction of truth, had led the regent to
express great esteem for the writings of the Reformers; and having been
powerfully supported by those who had embraced their opinions, he, in
order to gratify them, entertained, in his own family, two of the most noted
preachers of the Protestant doctrine, and. in his first parliament, consented
to an act, by which the laity were permitted to read the scriptures in a
language which they understood."  Truth needed only a fair hearing to be
an overmatch for error. Absurdities, which had long imposed on the ignorance and credulity of mankind, were detected and exposed to public ridicule; and, under the countenance of the regent, the reformation made great
advances. The cardinal observed its progress with concern. and was at
the utmost pains to obstruct it. He represented to the regent his great
imprudence in giving encouragement to opinions so favourable to Lennox's
pretensions; that his own legitimacy depended upon the validity of a sentence of divorce, founded on the pope's authority; and that by suffering it
to be called in question, he weakened his own title to the succession, and
furnished his rival with the only argument by which it could be rendered
doubtful.t These insinuations made a deep impression on the regent's
timorous spirit, -iwho, at the prospect of such imaginary danger, was as
much startled as the cardinal could have wished; and his zeal for the protestant religion was not long proof against his fear.  He publicly abjured
the doctrine of the reformers in the Franciscan church at Stirling, and
declared not only for the political but the religious opinions of his new
confidents.
The protestant doctrine did not suffer much by his apostacy.. It had
already taken so deep root in the kingdom  that no discouragement or
severity could extirpate it. The regent indeed consented to every thing
that the zeal of the cardinal thought necessary for the preservation of the
established religion. The reformers were persecuted with all the cruelty
which superstition inspires into a barbarous people. Many were condemned to that dreadful death which the' church has appointed for the
punishment of its enemies; but they suffered with a spirit so nearly resem
bling the patience and fortitude of the primitive martyrs that more were
converted than terrified by such spectacles.
The cardinal, however, was now in possession of every thing his ambition could desire; and exercised all the authority of a regent, without the
envy of the name. He had nothing to fear from the earl of Arran, who,
having by his inconsistency forfeited the public esteem, was contemlned by
one half the nation, and little trusted by the other. The pretensions of thp
earl of Lennox were the only thing which remained to embarrass him. He
had very successfully made use of that nobleman to work upon the regent's
jealousy and fear; but as he no longer stood in need of such an instrument,
he was willing to get rid of him with decency. Lennox soon began to suspect his intention; promises, flattery, and respect were the only returns he
* Keith, p. 36, 37.
t The pretensions of the earl of Lennox to the succession were thus founded. Mary, the daughter
of James II., was married to James lord Hamilton, whom James III. created earl of Arran on that
account. Elizabeth, a daughter of that marriage, was the wife of Matthew earl of Lennox, and
the present earl was her grandson. The regent was likewise the grandson of the princess Mary.
But his father having married Janet Beatoun the regent's mother, after he had obtained a divorce
from Elizabeth Home his former wife, Lennox pretended that the sentence of' divorce was unjust.
and that the regent, being born while Elizabeth,Home was still alive, ought to be considered as
illegitimate. Crawf. Peer. 192.




48                      T HE HISTORY                     [BooK 11.
had hitherto received for substantial services; but at last the cardinal's
artifices could no loneer be concealed, and Lennox, instead of attaining
power and dignity himself, saw that he had been employed only to procure these for another. Resentment and disappointed ambition urged him
to seek revenge on that cunning prelate, who, by sacrificing his interest,
had so ungenerously purchased the earl of Arran's friendship. He withdrew, for that reason, from court, and declared for the party at enmity
with the cardinal, which, with open arms, received a convert who added
io much lustre to their cause.
The two factions which divided the kingdom were still the same, without
any alterations in their views or principles; hut, by one of those strange
revolutions which were frequent in that age, they had in the course of a
few weeks changed their leaders. The regent was at the head of the partisans of France and the defenders of popery, and Lennox in the same station with the advocates for the English alliance and a reformation in religion. The one laboured to pull down his own work, which the other
upheld with the same hand that had hitherto endeavoured to destroy it.
Lennox's impatience for revenge got the start of the cardinal's activity.
He surprised both him and the regent by a sudden march to Edinburgh
with a numerous army; and might easily have crushed them before they
could prepare for their defence. But he was weak enough to listen to proposals for an accommodation; and the cardinal amused him so artfully, and
spun out the treaty to such a length, that the greater part of the'earl's
troops, who served, as is usual wherever the feudal institutions prevailed,
at their own expense, deserted himrn; and in concluding a peace, instead of
giving the law, he was obliged to receive it. A second attempt to retrieve
his affairs ended yet more unfortunately. One body of his troops was cut
to pieces, and the rest dispersed; and with the poor remains of a ruined
party, he must either have submitted to the conqueror, or have fled out of
the kingdom, if the approach of an Engolish army had not brought him a
short relief.
Henry was not of a temper to bear tamely the indignlty with which he
had been treated, both by the regent and parliament of Scotland, who, at
the time when they renounced their alliance with him, had entered into a
new and stricter confederacy with France. The rigour of the season
retarded for some time the execution of his vengeance. But, in the spring
[1544], a considerable body of infantry, which was destined for France,
received orders to sail for Scotland, and a proper number of cavalry was
appointed to join it by land. The regent and cardinal little expected such
a visit.  They had trusted that the French war would find employment
for all Henry's forces, and, fromn an unaccountable security, were wholly
unprovided for the defence of the kingdom. The earl of Hertford, a leader
fatal to the Scots in that age, commanded his army, and landed it, without
opposition, a few miles from Leith. He was quickly master of that place
[May 3]; and, marching directly to Edinburgh, entered it with the same
ease. After plundering the adjacent country, the richest and most open in
Scotland, he set on fire both these towns, and, upon the approach of some
troops gathered together by the regent, put his booty on board the fleet,
and with his land forces retired safely to the English borders; delivering
the kingdom in a few days from the terror of an invasion, concerted with
little policy, carried on at great expense, and attended with no advantage.
If Henry aimed at the conquest of Scotland, he gained nothing by this
expedition; if the marriage he had proposed was still in his view, he lost
a great deal. Such a rough courtship, as the earl of -Huntly humorously
called it, disgusted the whole nation; their aversion for the match grew
into abhorrence; and, exasperated by s( many indignities, the Scots were




OF SCOTLAND.                                           49
never at any period more attached to France, or more alienated from
Enlgland.*
The earl of Lennox alone, in spite of the regent and French king, continued a correspondence with England, which ruined his own interest,
without promoting  Henry's.t   Many of his own vassals, preferring their
duty to their country before their affection to him, refused to concur in
any design to favour the public enemy.  After a few  feeble and unsuccessful attempts to disturb the regent's administration, he was obliged to
fly for safety to the court of England, where Henry rewarded services
which he had the inclination but not the power to perform, by giving him
in marriage his niece the Lady Margaret Douglas. This unhappy exile,
however, was destined to be the father of a race of kings. He saw his
son lord Darnly mount the throne of Scotland, to the perpetual exclusion
of that rival who now  triumphed in his ruin.  From  that time his posterity
have held the sceptre in two kingdoms, by one of which he was cast out
as a criminal, and by the other received as a fugitive.
Meanwhile hostilities were continued by both nations, but with little
vigour on either side. The historians of that age relate minutely the circumstances of several skirmishes and inroads, which, as they did not
produce any considerable effect, at this distance of time deserve no
remembrance.4   At last an end was put to this languid and inactive war,
* The violence of national hatred between the English and Scots in the sixteenth century was
such as can hardly be conceived by their posterity. A proof of the fierce resentment of the Scots
is contained in the note on page 45. The instructions of the Privy Council of England to the
earl of Hertford, who commanded the fleet and army which invaded Scotland, A. D,. 1544, are dictated by national animosity no less excessive. I found them in the collection of papers belonging to
the duke of Hamilton, and they merit.pyublication, as they exhibit a striking picture of the spirit of
that period.
The Lords of the Council to the Earl of Hertford, Lieutenant in Scotland,.S/pril 10, 1544
The instruction begins with observing, that the king had originally intended to fortify Leith and
keep possession of it; but, after mature deliberation, he had finally determined not to make any
settlement in Scotland at present, and therefore he isdirected not to make any fortification at Leith,
or any other place:
" But only for that journey to put all to fire and sword, burn Edinburgh town, so used and defaced, that when you have gotten what you can of it, it may remain for ever a perpetual memory
of the vengeance of God lightened upon it, for their falsehood and disloyalty. Do what you can
out of hand, and without long tarrying to beat down or overthrow the castle; sack all the houses
and as many towns and villages about Edinburgh as ye may conveniently. Sack Leith, and subvert it, and all the rest, putting man, woman, and child to fire and sword, without exception, when
any resistance shall be made against you; and this done, pass over to the Fifeland, and extend like
extremities and destruction to all towns and villages whereunto you may reach conveniently; not
forgetting, among all the rest, so to spoil and turn upside down the cardinal's town of St, Andrew's
as the upper sort may be the nether, and not one stoke stand upon another, sparing no creature alive
within the same, specially such as either in friendship or blood be allied unto the cardinal; and if ye
see any likelihood to win the castle, give some stout essay to the same, if it ble your fortune to get
it, raze and destroy it piecemeal; and after this sort, spending one month there, spoiling and de
stroying as aforesaid, with the wise foresight that His Majesty doubteth not ye will use that your
enemies take no advantage of you, and that you enterprise nothing but what you shall see may be
easily achieved, His Majesty thinketh verily, and so all we, ye shall find this journey succeedeth
this way most to His Majesty's honour," &c.
These barbarous orders seem to have been executed with a rigorous and unfeeling exactness, as
appears from a series of letters from lord Hertford, in the same collection, giving a full account of
all his operations in Scotland. They contain several curious particulars, not mentioned by the
writers of that age, and with which both the historians of the city of Edinburgh were unacquainted:.
)ut they are of too great length to be inserted here.
t Rymer, xv. p. 22.
J; Though this war was distinguished by no important or decisive action, it was, however, ex-.remely ruinous to individuals. There still remain two original papers, which give us some idea of
the miseries to which some of the most fertile counties in the kingdom were exposed by the sudden
and destructive incursions of the borderers. The first seems to be the report made to Henry by the,
English wardens of the marches for the year 1544, and contains their exploits from the 2d of July
to the 17th of November. The account it gives of the different inroads, or forrays as they are
called, is very minute; and in conclusion, the sum total of mischief they did is thus computed:
Towns,,towers, stedes, barnekyns, parish churches, bastel-houses, cast down or burnt, 192; Scots
slain, 403; prisoners taken, 816; nolt, i. e. horned cattle taken, 10,386; sheep, 12,49~; nags and
geldings, 1296; goats, 200; bolls of corn, 850; insight gear, i. e. household furniture, net reckoned.
Haynes's State Papers, 43.
The other contains an account of an inroad by the earl of Hertford, between the 8th and 23d ofl
September, 1545: the narrative is more~general, but it appears that he had burnt, razed, and destroyed, in the counties of Berwick and Roxburgh only, monasteries and friar-houses, 7; castles, towers,
VOL. III. —7




60                     TH1E  HISTORY                     [BooK I1.
by a peace, in which England, France, and Scotland were comprehended.
enry laboured to exclude the Scots from the benefit of this treaty, and
to reserve them for that vengeance which his attention to the affairs of the
continent had hitherto delayed. But although a peace with England was
of the last consequence to Francis 1., whom the Emperor was preparing
to attack with all his forces,,he was too generous- to abandon allies who
had served him with fidelity, and he chose rather to purchase Henrv's
friendship with disadvantage to himself than to leave them exposed to
danger. By yielding some things to the interest, and more to the vanity
of that haughty prince; by submission, flattery, and address, he at length
prevailed to have the Scots i.cluded in the peace agreed upon.
An event which happened a short time before the conclusion of this
peace rendered it more acceptable to the whole nation. Cardinal Beatoun
had not used his power with moderation equal to the prudence by which
he attained it. Notwithstanding his great abilities, he had too many of the
passions and prejudices of an angry leader of a faction to govern a divided
people with temper. His resentment against one party of the nobility,
his insolence towards the rest, his severity to the reformers, and, above all,
the barbarous and illegal execution of the famous George Wishart, a man
of honourable birth and of primitive sanctity, wore out the patience of a
fierce age; and nothing but a bold hand was wanting to gratify the public
wish by his destruction. Private revenge, inflamed and sanctified by a
false zeal for religion, quickly supplied this want. Norman Lesly, the
eldest son of the earl of Rothes, had been treated by the cardinal with
iQjustice and contempt. It was not the temper of the man, or the spirit of
-the times, quietly to digest an affront. As the profession of' his adversary
screened him from the effects of what is called an honourable resentment,
he resolved to take that satisfaction which he could not demand.  This
resolution deserves as much censure as the singular courage and conduct
with which he put it in execution excite wonder. The cardinal at that
time resided in the castle of St. Andrew's, which he had fortified at great
*expense, and, in the opinion of the age, had rendered it impregnable. His
retinue was numerous, the town at his devotion, and the neighbouring
country full of his dependents. In this situation, sixteen persons undertook to surprise his castle, and to assassinate himself; and their success
was equal to the boldness of the attempt. [May 20, 1546.] Early in the
morning they seized on the gate of the castle, which was set open to the
workmen who were employed in finishing the fortifications; and having
placed sentries at the door of the cardinal's apartment, they awakened
his numerous domestics one by one; and turning them out of the castle,
they without noise or tumult, or violence to any other person, delivered
their country, though by a most unjustifiable action, from an ambitious man,
whose pride was insupportable to the nobles, as his cruelty and cunning
were great checks to the reformation.
His death was fatal to the Catholic religion, and to the French interest
in Scotland. The same zeal for both continued among a great party in
the nation, but, when deprived of the genius and authority of so skilful a
leader, operated with less effect.  Nothing can equal the consternation
which a blow so unexpected occasioned among such as were attached to
him; while the regent secretly enjoyed an event which removed out of
his way a rival, who had not only eclipsed his greatness but almost extinguished his power. Decency, however, the honour of the church, the;mportunity of the queen dowager and her adherents, his engagements with
France, and, above all these, the desire of recovering his eldest son, whom
and piles, 16; market towns, 5; villages, 243; milns, 13; hospitals, 3; all these were cast down or
burnt. Haynes, 52. As the Scots were no less skilful in the practice of irregular war, we may
conclude that the damage which they did in England was-not inconsiderable,; and that their raids
were no less wasteful than the fosrays of the English.




OF SCOTLAND.                                            51
the cardinal had detained for some time at St. Andrew's in pledge of' his
fidelity, and who, together with the castle, had fallen into the hands of the
conspirators, induced him to take arms in order to revenge the death of a,
man whom he hated.
He threatened vengeance, but was unable to execute it. One part of
military science, the art of attacking fortified places, was then imperfectly.
understood in Scotland. 2The weapons, the discipline, and impetuosity of
the Scots, rendered their armies as unfit for sieges as they were active in
the field. A hundred and fifty men, which was the greatest number the
conspirators ever assembled, resisted all the efforts of the regent for five
months,* in a place which a single battalion, with a few battering cannon,'would now  reduce in a few hours.  This tedious siege was concluded by
a truce.  The regent undertook to procure for the conspirators an absolution
from the pope, and a pardon in parliament; and upon obtaining these,
they engaged to surrender the castle, and to set his son at liberty.
It is probable, that neither of them was sincere in this treaty. On both
sides they sought only to amuse, and togain time.  The regent had applied
to France for assistance, and expected soon to have the conspirators at
mercy. On the other hand, if Lesly and his associates were not at first
incited by Henry to murder the cardinal, they were in the sequel powerfullly supported by him. Notwithstanding the. silence of contemporary
historians, there are violent presumptions of the former; of the latter
there  is undoubted  certalnty.4   During the  siege, the  conspirators had
received  from  England supplies both  of money and  provisions; and  as
Henry was preparing to renew his proposals concerning the marriage and
the union he had projected, and to second his negotiations with a numerous
army, they hoped, by concurring with  him, to be in a situation in which
they would no longer need a pardon, but might claim  a reward.4
* Epist. Reg. Scot. 2. 379.              1 Keith, 60.: In the first edition of this work, I expressed my suspicion of a correspondence between the
murderers of cardinal Beatoun and Henly VIII., prior to their committing that crime. In the
papers of duke Hamilton is contained the clearest evidence of this, which I publish not only to
establish that fact, but as an additional confirmation of the remarks which I made upon the fre
quency of assassination in that age, and the slight opinion which men entertained concerning it
The Earl of Hertford to the King's JIMajesty, JViewcastle, ~.pril 17, 1544.
Pleaseth Your Highness to understand, that this day arrived with me the earl of Hertford, a Scottishman called Wishart, and brought me a letter from the lord of Brinstone [i. e. Crichton laird of
Brunstan] which I send Your Highness herewith, and, according to his request, have taken order
for the repair of the said Wishart to Your Majesty by post, both for the delivery of such letters as
he hath to Your Majesty from the said Brinstone, and also for the declaration of his credence, which,
as I perceive by him, consisteth in two points, one that the lord of Grange, late treasurer of Scotland'the master of Rotlles, the earl of Rothes' eldest son, and John Charteris, would attempt either to
apprehend or slay the cardinal, at some time when he shall pass through the Fifeland, as he doth
sundry times in his way to St. Andrew's, and in case they can so apprehend him will deliver him
unto Your Majesty, which attemplate, he saith, they would enterprise,'if they knew Your Majesty's
pleasure therein, and what supportation and maintenance Your Majesty would minister unto them,
after the execution of the same, in case they should be pursued by any of their enemies; the other
is, that in case Your Majesty would grant unto them a convenient entertainment to keep 1000 or
1500 men in wages for a month or two, they journeying with the power of the earl Marshal, the
said Mr of Rothes, the laird of Calder, and the other the lord     friends, will take upon
them, at such time as your Majesty's army shall be in Scotland, to destroy the abbey and town of
Arbroath, being the cardinal's, and all the other bishops' houses and countries on that side of the
water thereabout, and to apprehend all those which they say be the principal impugnators of amity
between England and Scotland; for which they should have a good opportunity, as they say, when'
the power of the said bishops and abbots shall resort towards Edinburgh to resist Your Majesty's
army. And for the execution of these things, the sai4 Wishart saith, that the earl Marshal aforenamed and others will capitulate with Your Majesty in writing under their hands and seals, afore
they shall desire any supply or aid of money at Your Majesty's hands. This is the effect of his
credence, with sundry other advertisements of the great division that is at this present within the
realm of Scotland, which we doubt not he will declare unto Your Majesty at good length. Hamilton
MSS. vol. iii. p. 38.
J'. B. This is the letter of which Dr. Mackenzie, vol. iii. p. 18. and bishop Keith, Hist. p. 44,
published a fragment. It does not authorize us to conclude that Mr. George Wishart, known by
the name of the Martyr, was the person who resorted to the earl of Hertford. It was more probably John Wishart of Pitarrow, the chief of that name, a man of abilities, zealously attached to
the reformed doctrine, and deenly engaged in all the intrigues and operations of that busy period.
Keith 96. 117. 119. 315.




62                     THE  H ISTORY                   [BooI  I,.
Jan. 28, 1547.] The death of Henry blasted all these hopes. It happened in the beginning of next year, after a reign of greater splendour than
true glory; bustling, rather than active; oppressive in domestic government, and in foreign politics wild and irregular. But the vices of this
prince were more beneficial to mankind than the virtues of others.
His rapaciousness, his profusion, and even his tyranny, by depressing the
ancient nobility, and by adding new property and power to the commons,
laid or strengthened the foundations of the English liberty. His other
passions contributed no less towards the downfal of popery, and the establishment of religious freedom in the nation. His resentment led him to
abolish the power, and his covetousness to seize the wealth, of the church;
and by withdrawing these supports, made it easy, in the following reign,
to overturn the whole fabric of superstition.
Francis I. did not long survive a prince who had been alternately his
rival and his friend; but his successor Henry II. was not neglectful of the
French interest in Scotland. He sent'a considerable body of men, under
the command of Leon Strozzi, to the regent's assistance. By their long
experience in the Italian and German wars, the French had become as
dexterous in the conduct of sieges as the Scots were ignorant; and as the
boldness and despair of the conspirators could not defend them against
the superior art of these new assailants, they, after a short resistance, surrendered to Strozzi, who engaged, in the name of the king his master, for
the security of their lives; and, as his prisoners, transported themn into
France. The castle itself, the monument of Beatoun's power and vanity,
was demolished, in obedience to the canon law, which, with admirable
policy, denounces its anathelnas even against the houses in which the
sacred blood of a cardinal happens to be shed, and ordains them to be
laid in ruins.?
The archbishopric of St. Andrew's was bestowed by the regent upon his
natural brother John Hamilton,'abbot of Paisley.
The delay of a few weeks would have saved the conspirators. Those
ministers of Henry VIII. who had the chief direction of affairs during the
minority of his son Edward VI., conducted themselves with regard to Scotland, by the maxims of their late master, and resolved to frighten the Scots
into a treaty which they had not abilities or address to bring about by any
other method.
But before we proceed to relate the events which their invasion of
Scotland occasioned, we shall stop to take notice of a circumstance unobserved by contemporary historians, but extremely remarkable for the
discovery it makes of the sentiments and spirit which then prevailed
among the Scots.'The conspirators against cardinal Beatoun found the
regent's eldest son in the castle of St. Andrew's; and as they needed the
protection of the English, it was to be feared that they might endeavour to
purchase it, by delivering to them this important prize. The presumptive
heir to the crown in the hands of the avowed enemies of the kingdom
was a dreadful prospect. In order to avoid it, the parliament fell upon a
very extraordinary expedient. By an act made on purpose, they excluded
"the regent's eldest son from all right of succession, public or private. so
long as he should be detained a prisoner, and substituted in his place his
other brothers, according to their seniority, and in failure of them, those
who were next heirs to the regent."t Succession by an hereditary right
is an idea so obvious and so popular that a nation seldom ventures to make
a breach in it, but in cases of extreme necessity. Such a necessity did the
parliament discover in the present-situation. Hatred te England, founded
on the memory of past hostilities, and heightened by the smnart of recent
injuries, was the national passion. This dictated that uncommon statute,
* Burn. Hist. Ref. 1. 338.   t Epist. Reg. Scot. 2. 359.




OF SCOTLAND.                              b3
by which the order of lineal succession was so remarkably broken. The
modern theories, which represent this right as divine and unalienable, and
that ought not to be violated upon any consideration whatsoever, seem to
have been then altogether unknown.
In the beginning of September, the earl of Hertford, now duke ot
Somerset, and protector of England, entered Scotland at the head of
eighteen thousand men; and, at the same time, a fleet of sixty ships
appeared on the coast to second his land forces. The Scots had for some
time observed this storm gathering, and were prepared for it. Their, army
was almost double to that of the enemy, and posted to the greatest advantage on a rising'ground above Musselburgh, not far from the banks of the
river Eske. Both these circumstances alarmed the duke of Somerset, who
saw his danger, and would willingly have extricated himself out of it, by a
new overture of peace, on conditions extremely reasonable. But this
moderation being imputed to fear, his proposals were rejected with the
scorn which the confidence of success inspires; and if the conduct of the
regent, who commanded the Scottish army, had been, in any degree,
equal to his confidence, the destruction of the English must have been
inevitable. They were in a situation precisely similar to that of their
countrymen under Oliver Cromwell in the following century..:The Scots
had chosen their ground so well that it was impossible, to force them to
give battle; a few days had exhausted the. forage and provision of a
narrow country; the fleet could only fuirnish a scanty and precarious subsistence: a retreat, therefore, was necessary: but disgrace, and perhaps
ruin, were the consequences of retreating.
On both these occasions, the national heat and impetuosity of the Scots
saved the English, and precipitated their own country into the utmost
danger. The undisciplined courage of the private men became impatient
at the sight of an enemy. The general was afraid of nothing, but that
the English might escape from him by flight; and [Sept. 10], leaving his
strong camp, he attacked the duke of Somerset near Pinkey, with no
better success than his rashness deserved. The protector had drawn up
his troops on a gentle eminence, and had now the advantage of ground on
his side. The Scottish army consisted almost entirely of infantry, whose
chief weapon was a long spear, and forthat reason- their files were very
deep, and their ranks close. They advanced towards the enemy in three
great bodies, and,- as they passed the river, were considerably exposed to the
fre of the English fleet, which lay in the bay of Musselburgh, and had drawn
near the shore. The English cavalry, flushed with an advantage which they
had gained in a skirmish some days before, began the attack with more
impetuosity than good conduct. A body so firm and.compact as the Scots
easily resisted the impression of cavalry, broke them, and drove them off
of the field. The English infantry, however, advanced; and the Scots
were at once exposed to a flight of arrows, to a fire in flank from four
hundred foreign fusileers, who served the enemy, and to their cannon,
which were planted behind the infantry on the highest part of the eminence.
The depth and closeness of their order making it impossible for the Scots
to stand long in this situation, the earl of Angus, who commanded the vanguard, endeavoured to change his ground, and to retire towards the main
body. But his friends, unhappily, mistook his motion for a flight, and fell
into confusion. At that very instant the broken cavalry, having rallied,
returned to the charge; the foot pursued the advantage they had gained;
the prospect of victory redoubled the ardour of both: and, in a moment,
the rout of the Scottish army became universal and irretrievable. The
encounter in the field was not long or bloody; but, in the pursuit, the
English discovered all the rage and fierceness which national ant.pathy,
Kfindled by long emulation and inflamed by reciprocal injuries, is apt to
inspireo  The pursuit was continued for five hours, and to a great distance




54                           THE HISTORY                             LBooK II.
All the three roads by which the Scots fled were strewed with spears, and
swords, and targets, and covered with the bodies of the slain. Above ten
thousand men fell on this day, one of the most fatal Scotland had ever
seen. A few were taken prisoners, and among these some persons of
distinction. The protector had it now in his power to become master of
a kingdom, out of which, not many hours before, he was almost obliged
to retire with infamy.?
But this victory, however great, was of no real utility, for want of skil
or of leisure to improve it. Every new injury rendered the Scots more averse
from a union with England; and the protector neglected the only measure
which would have made it necessary for them to have given their consent
to it. He amused himself in wasting the open country, and in taking or
building several petty castles; whereas, by fortifying a few places which
were accessible by sea, he would have laid the kingdom open to the
English, and in a short time the Scots must either have accepted of his
terms, or have submitted to his power. By such an improvement of it,
the victory at Dunbar gave Cromwell the command of' Scotland. The
battle of Pinkey had no other effect but to precipitate the Scots into new
engagements with France. The situation of the English court may,
indeed, be pleaded in excuse for the duke of Somerset's conduct.  That
cabal of his enemies, which occasioned his tragical end, was already
formed; and while he triumphed  in Scotland, they secretly undermined
his power and credit at home. Self-preservation, therefore, obliged him
to prefer his safety before his fame, and to return without reaping the fruits
of his victory. At this time, however, the cloud blew over; the conspiracy by which he fell was not yet ripe for execution; and his presence
suspended its effects for some time.  The supreme power still remaining
in his hands, he employed it to recover the opportunity which he had lost.
{April, 15418.] A body of troops, by his command, seized and fortified
Haddingtoun, a place which, on account of its distance from  the sea, and
from  any English garrison, could not be defended without great expense
and danger.
Meanwhile the French gained more by the defeat of their allies than the
English by their victory. After the death of cardinal Beatoun, Mary of
Guise, the queen dowager, took a considerable share in the direction of
affairs. She was warmly attached, by blood and by inclination, to the
French interest; and, in order to promote it, improved with great dexterity
every event which occurred. The spirit and strength of the Scots were
broken at Pinkey; and in an assembly of nobles which met at Stirling to
consult upon the situation of the kingdom, all eyes were turned towards
* The following passage, in a curious and rare journal of the protector's expedition into Scotland,
written by W. Patten, who was joined in commission with Cecil, as judge martial of the army, and
printed in 1548, deserves our notice; as it gives a just idea of the military discipline of the Scots at
that time. "But what after I learned, specially touching their order, their armour, and their manner as well of going to offend, as of standing to defend, I have thought necessary here to utter.
Hackbutters have they few or none, and appoint their fight most commonly always a foot. They
come to the field well furnished all with jack and skull, dagger and buckler, and swords all broad
and thin, of exceeding good temper, and universally so made to slice, that as I never saw none so
good, so I think it hard to devise the better. Hereto every man his pike, and a great kercher wrapped
twice or thrice about his neck, not for cold, but for cutting. In their array towards joining with
the'enemy, they cling and thrust so near in the fore rank, shoulder and shoulder together, with
their pikes in both their hands straight afore them, and their followers in that order so hard at their
backs, laying their pikes over their foregoers' shoulders, that, if they do assail undiscovered, no
force can well withstand them. Standing at defence they thrust shoulders likewise so nigh together,
the fore ranks well nigh to kneeling, stoop low before, their fellows behind holding their pikes with
both hands, and therewith in their left their bucklers, the one end of their pike against their right
foot, and the other against the enemy breast-high; their followers crossing their pike points with
them forward; and thus each with other so nigh as space and place will suffer, through the whole
ward, so thick, that as easily shall a bare finger pierce through the skin of an angry hedgehog, as
any encounter the front of their pikes." Other curious particulars are found in this journal, from
which Sir John Hayward has borrowed his account of this expedition. Life of Edward VI.
279, &c.
The length of the Scotch pike or spear was appointed by Act 44. p. 1471, to be six ells i e,
eighteen feet six inches.




OF SCOTLAND.                              55
France, no prospect of safety appearing but in assistance from that quarter. But Henmy II. being then at peace with England, the queen represented that they could not expect him to take part in their quarrel, but
upon views of personal advantage; and that without extraordinary concessions in his favour, no assistance, in proportion to their present exigencies, could be obtained. The prejudices of the nation powerfully seconded
these representations of the queen. What often happens to individuals
took place among the nobles in this convention; they were swayed
entirely by their passions; and in order to gratify them, they deserted
their former principles, and disregarded their true interest. In the violence
of resentment, they forgot that zeal for the independence of Scotland,
which had prompted them to reject the proposals of Henry VIII.; and, by
offering, voluntarily, their young queen in marriage to the dauphin, eldest
son of Henry II.; and, which was still more, by proposing o send her
immediately into France to be educated at his court, they granted, from a
thirst of vengeance, what formerly they would not yield upon any consideration of their own safety. To gain at once such a kingdoln as Scotland was a matter of no small consequence to France. Henry, without
hesitation, accepted the offers of the Scottish ambassadors, and prepared
for the vigorous defence of his new acquisition. Six thousand veteran soldiers, under the command of Monsieur Desse, assisted by some of the
best officers who were formed in the long wars of Francis I., arrived at
Leith. They'served two camnpaigns in Scotland, with a spirit equal to
their former fame. But their exploits were not considerable. The Scots,
soon becoming jealous of their designs, neglected to support them with
proper vigour. The caution of the English, in acting wholly upon the
defensive, prevented the French from attempting any enterprise of consequence; and obliged them  to exhaust their strength in tedious sieges,
undertaken under many disadvantages. Their efforts, however, were not
without some benefit to the Scots, by compelling the English to evacuate
Haddingtoun, and to surrender several small forts which they possessed in
different parts of the kingdom.
But the effects of these operations of his troops were still of greater
importance to the French king. The diversion which they occasioned
enabled him to wrest Boulogne out of the hands of the English; and the
influence of his army in Scotland obtained the concurrence of parliament
with the overtures which had been made to him, by the assembly of
nobles at Stirling, concerning the queen's marriage with the dauphin, and
her education in the court of France. In vain did a few patriots remonstrate against such extravagant concessions, by which Scotland was reduced
to be a province of France; and Henry, from an ally, raised to be master
of the kingdom; by which the friendship of France became more fatal
than the enmity of England; and every thing was fondly given up to the
one, that had been bravely defended against the other. A point of so
much consequence was hastily decided in a parliament assembled [June 5]
in the camp before Haddingtoun: the intrigues of the queen dowager, the
zeal of the clergy, and resentment against England, had prepared a great
party in the nation for such a step; the French general and ambassador,
by their liberality and promises, gained over many more. The regent
hinimelf was weak enough to stoop to the offer of a pension from France,
together with the title of duke of Chatelherault in that kingdom. A considerable majority declared for the treaty, and the interest of a faction was
preferred before the honour of the nation.
Having hurried the Scots into this rash and fatal resolution, the source
of many calamities to themselves and to their sovereign, the French
allowed them no time for reflection or repentance. The fleet which had
brought over their forces was still in Scotland, and without delay convoyed
the queen into France. Mary was then six Years old, and by her educa




5B                    THE  HISTORY                     [3Boo  11.
tion in that court, one of the politest but most corrupted in Europe, she
acquired every accomplishment that could add to her charms as a woman,
and contracted many of those prejudices which occasioned her misfortunes
as a queen.
From  the time that Mary was Cput into their hands, it was the interest
of the French to suffer war in Scotland to languish.. The recovery of the
Boulonnois was the object which the French king had most at heart; but
a slight diversion in Britain was sufficient to divide'the attention and
strength of the English, whose domestic factions deprived: both their arms
and councils of their accustomed vigour. The government of England
had undergone a great revolution. The duke of Somerset's power had
been acquired with too much violence, and was exercised with too little
moderation to be of long continuance. Many good qualities, added to
great love of his country, could not atone for his ambition in usurping the
sole direction of affairs. Some of the most eminent courtiers combined
against him; and the earl of Warwick their leader, no less ambitious but
more artful than Somerset, conducted his measures with so much dexterity
as to raise himself upon the ruins of his rival. Without the invidious
name of protector, he succeeded to all the power and influence of which
Somerset was deprived, and he quickly found peace to be necessary for
the establishment of his new authority, and the execution of the vast
designs he had conceived.
Henry was no stranger to Warwick's situation, and improved his knowledge of it to good purpose, in conducting the negotiations for a general
peace. He prescribed what terms he pleased to the English minister, who
scrupled at nothing, however advantageous to that monarch and his allies.
[AMarch 24, 1550.] England consented to restore Boulogne and its dependencies to France, and gave up all pretensions to a treaty of marriage with
the queen of Scots, or to the conquest of her country. A few small forts,
of which the English troops had hitherto kept possession, were razed;
and peace between the two kingdoms was established on its ancient
foundation.
Both the British nations lost power, as well as reputation, by this
unhappy quarrel. It was on both sides a war of emulation and resentment, rather than of interest; and was carried on under the influence of
national animosities, which were blind to all advantages. The French,
who entered into it with greater coolness, conducted it with more skill;
and by dexterously availing themselves of every circumstance which
occurred, recovered possession of an important territory which they had
lost, and added to their monarchy a new kingdom. The ambition of the
English minister betrayed to them the former; the inconsiderate rage of
the Scots against their ancient enemies bestowed on them the latter; their
own address and good policy merited both.
Immediately after the conclusion of the peace the French forces left
Scotland, as much to their own satisfaction as to that of the nation. The
Scots soon found that the calling to their assistance a people more powerful than themselves was a dangerous expedient. They beheld, with the
utmost impatience, those who had come over to protect the kingdonm
taking upon them to command in it; and on many occasions they repented
the rash invitation which they had given. The peculiar genius of the
French nation heightened this disgust, and prepared the Scots to throw off
the yoke, before they had well begun to feel it. The French were in that
age, what they are in the present, one of the most polished nations in Eu
rope. But it is to be observed, in all their expeditions into foreign countries, whether towards the south or north, that their manners have been
remarkably incompatible with the manners of every other people. Barbarians are tenacious of their own customs, because they want knowledge
and taste to discover the reasonableness and propriety of customs which




OF, SCOTLAND                              57
differ from them. Nations which hold the first rank in politeness are fre.
quently no less tenacious out of pride. The Greeks were so in the ancient
world; and the French are the same in the modern. Full of themselvesflattered by the imitation of their neighbours; and accustomed to consider
their own modes as the standards of elegance; they scorn to disguise, or
to lay aside, the distinguishing manners of their own nation, or to make
any allowance for what may differ from them among others. For this
reason the behaviour of their armies has, on every occasion, been insupportable to strangers, and has always exposed them to hatred, and often
to destruction. In that age they overran Italy four several times by their
valour, and lost it as often by their insolence. The Scots, naturally an
irascible and high-spirited people, and who, of all nations, can least bear
the most distant insinuation of contempt, were not of a temper to admit
all the pretensions of such assuming guests. The symptoms of alienation
were soon visible; they seconded the military operations of the French
troops with the utmost coldness; their disgust grew insensibly to a degree
of indignation that could hardly be restrained; and, on occasion of a very
slight accident, broke out with fatal violence. A private French soldier
engaging in an idle quarrel with a citizen of Edinburgh, both nations took
arms with equal rage, in defence of their countrymen. The provost of
Edinburgh, his son, and several citizens of distinction, were killed in the
fray; and the French were obliged to avoid the fury of the inhabitants by
retiring out of the city. Notwithstanding the ancient alliance of France
and Scotland, and the long intercourse of good offices between the two
nations, an aversion for the French took its rise at this time among the
Scots, the effects whereof were deeply felt, and operated powerfully
through the subsequent period.
From the death of cardinal Beatoun, nothing has been said of the state
of religion. While the war with England continued, the clergy had no
leisure to molest the protestants; and they were not yet considerable enough
to expect any thing more than connivance and impunity. The new doctrines were still in their infancy; but during this short interval of tranquillity
they acquired strength, and advanced by large and firm steps towards a
full establishment in the kingdom. The first preachers against popery in
Scotland, of whom several had appeared during the reign of James V.,
were more eminent for zeal and piety than for learning. - Their acquaintance with the principles of reformation was partial, and at second hand;
some of them had been educated in England; all of them had borrowed
their notions from the books published there; and in the first dawn of the
new light, they did not venture far before their leaders. But in a short
time the doctrines and writings of the foreign reformers became generally
known; the inquisitive genius of the age pressed forward in quest of truth;
the discovery of one error opened the way to others; the downfal of one
impostor drew many after it; the whole fabric, which ignorance and superstition had erected in times of darkness, began to totter; and nothing was
wanting to complete its ruin, but a daring and active leader to direct the
attack. Such was the famous John Knox, who, with better qualifications
of learning, and more extensive views than any of his predecessors in
Scotland, possessed a natural intrepidity of mind, which set him above fear.
He began his public ministry at St. Andrew's, in the year one thousand
five hundred and forty-seven, with that success which always accompanies
a bold and popular eloquence. Instead of amusing himself with lopping
the branches, he struck directly at the root of popery, and attacked both
the doctrine and discipline of the established church with a vehemence
peculiar to himself, but admirably suited to the temper and wishes of
the age.
An adversary so formidable as Knox would not have easily escaped the
rage of the clergy, who observed the tendency and progress of his opinions
VOL. III.-8




~8                    T' H E  n I S T O R Y             [BOOK II.
with the utmost concern. But, at first, he retired for safety into the castle
of St Andrew's, and, while the conspirators kept possession of it, preached
publicly under their protection. The great revolution in England, which
followed upon the death of Henry VIII., contributed no less than the zeal
of Knox towards demolishing the popish church in Scotland. Henry had
loosened the chains, and lightened the yoke of popery. The ministers of
his son Edward VI. cast them off altogether, and established the protestant
religion upon almost the same footing whereon it now stands in that kingdom. The influence of this example reached Scotland, and the happy
effects of ecclesiastical liberty in one nation inspired the other with an
equal desire of recovering it. The refbrmers had, hitherto, been obliged
to conduct themselves with the utmost caution, and seldom ventured to
preach, but in private houses, and at a distance from court; they gained
credit, as happens on the first publication of every new religion, chiefly
among persons in the lower and middle rank of life. But several noblemen, of the greatest distinction, having, about this time, openly espoused
their principles, they were no longer under the necessity of acting with the
same reserve; and, with more security and encouragement, they had likewise greater success. The means of acquiring and spreading knowledge
became more common, and. the spirit of innovation, peculiar to that period,
grew every day bolder and more universal.
Happily for the reformation this spirit was still under some restraint.
It had not yet attained firmness and vigour sufficient to overturn a system
founded on the deepest policy, and supported by the most formidable
power. Under the present circumstances, any attempt towards action
must have been fatal to the protestant doctrines; and it is no small proof
of the authority as well as penetration of the heads of the party, that they
were able to restrain the zeal of a fiery and impetuous people, until that
critical and mature juncture when every step they took was decisive and
successful.
Meanwhile their cause received reinforcement from two different quarters whence they never could have expected it. The ambition of the
house of Guise, and the bigotry of Mary of England, hastened the subversion of the papal throne in Scotland; and, by a singular disposition of Providence, the persons who opposed the reformation in every other part of
Europe with the fiercest zeal were made instruments for advancing it in
that kingdom.
Mary of Guise possessed the same bold and aspiring spirit which distinguished her family. But in her it was softened by the female character,
and accompanied with great temper and address. Her brothers, in order
to attain the high objects at which they aimed, ventured upon such daring
measures as suited their great courage. Her designs upon the supreme
power were concealed with the utmost care, and advanced by address and
refinements more natural to her sex. By a dexterous application of those
talents, she had acquired a considerable influence on the councils of a nation
hitherto unacquainted with the government of women; and, without the
smallest right to any share in the administration of affairs, had engrossed the
chief direction of them into her own hands. But she did not long rest
satisfied with the enjoyment of this precarious power, which the fickleness
of the regent, or the ambition of those who governed him, might so easily
disturb; and she began to set on foot new intrigues, with a design of under
mining him, and of opening to herself a way to succeed him in that high
dignity. Her brothers entered warmly into this scheme, and supported it
with all their credit at the court of France. The French king willingly
concurred in a measure, by which he hoped to bring Scotland entirely
under management, and, in any future broil with England, to turn its whole
force against that kingdom.
In order to arrive at the desired elevation, the queen dowager had only




THE HISTORY                              59
one ot two ways to choose; either violently to wrest the power out of the
hands of the regent, or to obtain it by his consent. Under a minority, and
among a warlike and factious people, the former was a very uncertain and
dangerous experiment. The latter appeared to be no less impracticablle
To persuade a man voluntarily to abdicate the supreme power; to descend
to a level with those above whom he was raised; and to be content with
the second place where he hath held a first, may well pass for a wild and
chimerical project. This, however, the queen attempted; and the prudence of the attempt was sufficiently justified by its success.
The regent's inconstancy and irresolution, together with the calamities
which had befallen the kingdom under his administration, raised the prejudices both of the nobles and of the people against him to a great height;
and the queen secretly fomented these with much industry. All who wished
for a change met with a gracious reception in her court, and their spirit of
disaffection was nourished by such hopes and promises as in every age
impose on the credulity of the factious. The favourers of the reformation
being the most numerous and spreading body of the regent's enemies, she
applied to them with a particular attention; and the gentleness of her disposition, and seeming indifference to the religious points in dispute, made
all her promises of protection and indulgence pass upon them for sincere
Finding so great a part of the nation willing to fall in with her measures
[Oct.], the queen set out for France, under pretence of visiting her daughter,
and took along with her those noblemen who possessed the greatest power
and credit among their countrymen. Softened by the pleasures of an elegant court, flattered by the civilities of the French king and the caresses
of the house of Guise, and influenced by the seasonable distribution of a
few favours, and the liberal promise of many more, they were brought to
approve of all the queen's pretensions.'While she advanced by these slow but sure steps, the regent either did
not foresee the danger which threatened him, or neglected to provide
against it. The first discovery of the train which was laid came from two
of his own confidants, Carnegie of Kinnaird, and Panter bishop of Ross,
whom the queen had gained over to her interest, and then employed as
the most proper instruments for obtaining his consent. The overture was
made to him in the name of the French king, enforced by proper threatenings, in order to work upon his natural timidity, and sweetened by every
promise that could reconcile him to a proposal so disagreeable. On the
one hand, the confirmation of his French title, together with a considerable
pension, the parliamentary acknowledgment of his right of succession to
the crown, and a public ratification of his conduct during his regency, were
offered him. On the other hand, the displeasure of the French king, the
power and popularity of the queen dowager, the disaffection of the nobles,
with the danger of an after reckoning, were represented in the strongest
colours.
It was not possible to agree to a proposal so extraordinary and unexpected, without some previous struggle; and, had the archbishop of St.
Andrew's been present to fortify the irresolute and passive spirit of the
regent, he, in all probability, would have rejected it with disdain. Happily for the queen, the sagacity and ambition of that prelate could, at this
time, be no obstruction to her views. He was lying at the point of death,
and in his absence the influence of the queen's agents on a flexible temper
counterbalanced several of the strongest passions of the human mind, and
obtained his consent to a voluntary surrender of the supreme power.
Dec. 1551.] After gaining a point of such difficulty with so much ease:
the queen returned into Scotland, in full expectation of taking immediate
possession of her new dig'nlty. But by this time the archbishop of St.
Andrew's had recovered of that distemper which the ignorance of the
Scottish physicans had pronounced to be incurable. This he owed to the




60                      OF SCOTLAND.
assistance of the famous Cardan, one of those irregular adventurers in philosophy, of whom  Italy produced so Irany about this period. A bold
genius led him to some useful discoveries, which merit the esteem of a more
discerning age; a wild imagination engaged him in those chimerical sciences
which drew  the admiration of his contemporaries.  As a pretender to
astrology and magic, he was revered and consulted by all Europe; as a
proficient in natural philosophy, he was but little known. The archbishop,
it is probable, considered him as a powerful magician, when he applied to
him for relief; but it was his knowledge as a philosopher, which enabled
him to cure his disease?.
Together with his health, the archbishop recovered the entire government of the regent, and quickly persuaded him to recall that dishonourable
promise which he had been seduced by the artifices of the queen to grant.
However great her surprise and indignation were, at this fresh instance of
his inconstancy, she was obliged to dissemble, that she might have leisure
to renew her intrigues with all parties; with the protestants, whom she
favoured and courted more than ever; with the nobles, to whom she rendered herself agreeable by various arts; and with the regent himself, in
order to gain whom  she employed every argument.  But, -whatever
impressions her emissaries might have made on the regent, it was no easy
matter to overreach or to intimidate the archbishop. Under his management
the negotiations were spun out to a great length, and his brother maintained his station with that address and firmness which its importance so
well merited.  The universal defection of the nobility, the growing power
of the protestants, who all adhered to the queen dowager, the reiterated
solicitations of the French king, and, above all, the interposition of the
young queen, who was now entering the twelfth year of' her age, and
claimed a right of nominating whom she pleased to be regent,t obliged
him at last to resign that high office, which he had held many years. He
obtained, however, the same advantageous terms for himself, which had
been formerly stipulated.
It was in the parliament which met on the tenth of April, one thousand
five hundred and fifty-four, that the earl of Arran executed this extraordinary resignation; and at the same time Mary of Guise was raised to that
dignity, which had been so long the object of her wishes.  Thus, with
their own approbation, a woman and a stranger was advanced to the
supreme authority over a fierce and turbulent people, who seldom submitted, without reluctance, to the legal and ancient government of their
native monarchs.
1553.] While the queen dowager of Scotland contributed so much
towards the progress of the reformation by the protection which she
afforded it, from motives of ambition, the English queen, by her indiscreet
zeal, filled the kingdom with persons active in promoting the same cause.
Mary ascended the throne of England on the death of her brother Edward
[July 6], and soon after married Philip II. of Spain. To the persecuting
spirit of the Romish superstition, and the fierceness of that age, she added
the private resentment of her own and of her mother's sufferings, with
which she loaded the reformed religion; and the peevishness and severity
of her natural temper carried the acrimony of all these passions to the
utmost extreme. The cruelty of her persecution equalled the deeds of
those tyrants who have been the greatest reproach to human nature. The
bigotry of her clergy could scarce keep pace with the impetuosity of her
zeal.  Even the unrelenting Philip was obliged, on some occasions, to
* Cardan himself was more desirous of being consideree as an astrologer than a philosopher; in
his book De Genituris, we find a calculation of the archtlshop's nativity, from which he pretends
both to have predicted his disease, and to have effected his cure. He received from the archbishop
a reward of 1800 crowns! a great sum in that age. Doe Vita sua, p. 32~.
t Lesley, de Reb. Gest. Scot. ap. Jebb. 1. 187.




OF SCOTLAND.                               61
mitlgate the rigour of her proceedings. Many among the most eminent
reformers suffered for the doctrines which they had taught; others fled
from the storm. To the greater part of these Switzerland and Germany
opened a secure asylum; and not a few, out of choice or necessity, fled
into Scotland.'What they had seen and felt in England did not abate the
warmth and zeal of their indignation against popery. Their attacks were
bolder and more successful than ever; and their doctrines made a rapid
progress among all ranks of men.'Ihese doctrines, calculated to rectify the opinions and to reform the
manners of mankind, had hitherto produced no other effects; but they
soon began to operate with greater violence, and proved the occasion not
only of subverting the established religion, but of shaking the throne and
endangering the kingdom. The causes which facilitated the introducLion of these new opinions into Scotland,. and which disseminated them so
fast through the nation, merit, on that account, a particular and careful
inquiry. The reformation is one of the greatest events in the history of
mankind, and, in whatever point of light we view it, it is instructive and
interesting.
The revival of learning in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries roused
the world from that lethargy in which it had been sunk for many ages.
The human mind felt its own strength, broke the fetters of authority by
which it had been so long restrained, and, venturing to move in a larger
sphere, pushed its inquiries into every subject with great boldness and
surprising success.
No sooner did mankind recover the capacity of exercising their reason
than religion was one of the first objects which drew their attention. Long
before Luther published his famous Theses, which shook the papal throne,
science and philosophy had laid open to many of the Italians the imposture
and absurdity of the established superstition. That subtle and refined
people, satisfied with enjoying those discoveries in secret, were little disposed to assume the dangerous character of reformers, and concluded the
knowledge of truth to be the prerogative of the wise, while vulgar minds
must be overawed and governed by popular errors. But, animated with
a more noble and disinterested zeal, the German theologian boldly erected
the standard of truth, and upheld it with an unconquerable intrepidity,
which merits the admiration and gratitude of all succeeding ages.
The occasion of Luther's being first disgusted with the tenets of the
Romish church, and how, from a small rupture, the quarrel widened into
an irreparable breach, is known to every one who has been the least conversant in history. From the heart of Germany his opinions spread, with
astonishing rapidity, all over Europe; and, wherever they came, endangered or overturned the ancient but ill founded system. The vigilance
and address of the court of Rome, co-operating with the power and bigotry
of the Austrian family, suppressed these notions on their first appearance
in the southern kingdoms of Europe. But the fierce spirit of the north,
irritated by multiplied impositions, could neither be mollified by the same
arts nor subdued by the same force; and, encouraged by some princes
from piety, and by others out of avarice. it easily bore down the feeble
opposition of an illiterate and immoral clergy.
The superstition of popery seems to have grown to the most extravagant
height in those countries which are situated towards the different extremities of Europe. The vigour of imagination, and sensibility of firame,
peculiar to the inhabitants of southern climates, rendered them susceptible
of the deepest impressions of superstitious terror and credulity. Ignorance
and barbarity were no less favourable to the progress of the same spirit
among the northern nations. They knew  little, and were disposed to
believe every thing. The most glaring absurdities did not shock their




6e                       TTHE HISTOR Y                         [BooK 11.
gross understandings, and the most improbable fictions were received with
implicit assent and admiration.
Accordingly, that form of popery which prevailed in Scotland was of
lhe most bigoted and illiberal kind. Those doctrines which are most apt
to shock the human understanding, and those legends which furthest
exceed belief, were proposed to the people without any attempt to palliate or disguise them; nor did they ever call in question the reasonableness of the one, or the truth of the other.
The power and wealth of the church kept pace with the progress of
superstition; for it is the nature of that spirit to observe no bounds in its
respect and liberality towards those whose character it esteems sacred.
The Scottish kings early demonstrated how much they were under its
influence, by their vast additions to the immunities and riches of the
clergy. The profuse piety of David I., who acquired on that account the
name of Saint, transferred almost the whole crown lands, which were at
that time of great extent, into the hands of ecclesiastics. The example of
that virtuous prince was imitated by his successors.  The spirit spread
among all orders of men, who daily loaded the priesthood with new possessions.  The riches of the church all over Europe were exorbitant; but
Scotland was one of those countries wherein they had furthest exceeded
the just proportion.  The Scottish clergy paid one-half of every tax imposed on land; and as there is no reason to think that in that age they
would be loaded with an unequal share of the burden, we may conclude
that, by the time of the reformation, little less than one-half of the national
property had fallen into the hands of a society, which is always acquiring,
and can never lose.
The nature, too, of a considerable part of their property extended the
influence of the clergy.  Many estates throughout the kingdom, held of
the church; church lands were let in lease at an easy rent, and were possessed by the younger sons and descendants of the best families." The
connexion between superior and vassal, between landlord and tenant,
created dependencies, and gave rise to a union of great advantage to the
church; and, in estimating the influence of the popish ecclesiastics over
the nation, these, as well as the real amount of their revenues, must be
attended to, and taken into the account.
This extraordinary share in the national property was accompanied with
proportionable weight in the supreme council of the kingdom. At a time
when the number of the temporal peers was extremely small, and when
the lesser barons and representatives of boroughs seldom attended parliaments, the ecclesiastics formed a considerable body there.  It appears firom
the ancient rolls of parliament, and from the manner of choosing the lords
of articles, that the proceedings of that high court must have been, in a
great measure, under their direction.t
The reverence due to their sacred character, which was often carried
incredibly far, contributed not a little towards the growth of their power.
The dignity, the titles, and precedence of the popish clergy are remarkable, both as causes and effects of that dominion which they had acquired
over the rest of mankind. They were regarded by the credulous laity as
beings of a superior species; they were neither subject to the same laws,
nor tried by the same judges.t  Every guard that religion could supply,
was placed around their power, their possessions, and their persons; and
* Keith, 521. Note (b).  t Spots. Hist. of the Church of Scotland, 449.: How far this claim of the clergy to exemption from lay jurisdiction extended appears from a
remarkable transaction in the parliament held in 1546. When that court was proceeding to the
forfeiture of the murderers of cardinal Beatoun, and were about to include a priest, who was one
of the assassins, in the general sentence of condemnation, odious as the crime was to ecclesiastics,
a delegate appeared in name of the clerical courts, and repledged or claimed exemption of him
from the judgment of parliament, as a spiritual man. This claim was sustained; and his name is
~ot inserted in the act of forfeiture. Epist. Reg. Scot. ii. 350. 361.




OF  SCOTLAN.                             63
endeavours were used, not without success, to represent them all as equally
sacred.
The reputation for learning, which, however inconsiderable, was wholly
engrossed by the clergy, added to the reverence which they derived from
religion.  I he principles of sound philosophy and of a just taste were
altogether unknown; in place of these were substituted studies barbarous
and uninstructive: but as the ecclesiastics alone were conversant in them,
this procured them esteem; and a very slender portion of knowledge drew\
the admiration of rude ages, which knew little. War was the sole profession of the nobles, and hunting their chief amusement; they divided
their time between these: unacquainted with the arts, and unimproved
by science, they disdained any employment foreign from military affairs,
or which required rather penetration and address than bodily vigour.
Wherever the former were necessary the clergy were intrusted; because
they alone were properly qualified for the trust. Allnost all the high
offices in civil government devolved, on this account, into their hands.
The lord chancellor was the first subject in the kingdom, both in dignity
and in power. From the earliest ages of the monarchy to the death of
cardinal Beatoun, fifty-four persons had held that high office; and of these
forty-three had been ecclesiastics.* The lords of session were supreme
judges in all matters of civil right; and, by its original constitution, the
president and one half of the senators in this court were churchmen.
To all this we may add, that the clergy being separated froln the rest
of mankind by the law of celibacy, and undistracted by those cares, and
unincumbered with those burdens which occupy and oppress other men,
the interest of their order became their only object, and they were at full
leisure to pursue it.
The nature of their functions gave them access to all persons, and at all
seasons. They could employ all the motives of fear and of hope, of terror
and of consolation, which operate most powerfully on the human mind.
They haunted the weak and the credulous; they besieged the beds of the
sick and of the dying; they suffered few to go out of the world without
leaving marks of their liberality to the church, and taught them to compound with the Almighty for their sins, by bestowing riches upon those
who called themselves his servants.
When their own industry, or the superstition of mankind failed of producing this effect, the ecclesiastics had influence enough to call in the aid
of law;.  When a person died intestate, the disposal of his effects was
vested in the bishop of the diocess, after paying his funeral charges and
debts, and distributing among his kindred the sumrs to which they were
respectively entitled; it being presumed that no Christian would have
chosen to leave the world without destining some part of his substance to
pious uses.t As men are apt to trust to the continuance of life with a
fond confidence, and childishly shun every thing that forces them to think
of their mortality, many die without settling their affairs by will; and the
right of administration in that event, acquired by the clergy, must have
proved a considerable source both of wealth and of power to the church.
At the same time, no matrimonial or testamentary cause could be tried
but in the spiritual courts, and by laws which the clergy themselves had
framed. The penalty, too, by which the decisions of these courts were
enforced, added to their authority. A sentence of excommunication was
no less formidable than a sentence of outlawry. It was pronounced on
many occasions, and against various crimes; and, besides excluding those
upon whom it fell from Christian privileges, it deprived them of all their
rights as men or as citizens; and the aid of the secular power concurred
* Crawf. Office of State.  t Essays on Brit. Antiq. 174. Annals of Scotland, by Six
David Dalrylnple vol. i. Append. No. ii.




64                         THE HISTORY                           [BOOK II.
with the superstition of mankind, in rendering the thunders of the church
no less destructive than terrible.
To these general causes may be attributed the immense growth both of
the wealth and power of the popish church; and, without entering into
any more minute detail, this may serve to discover the foundations on
which a structure so stupendous was erected.
But though the laity had contributed, by their own superstition and
profuseness, to raise the clergy from  poverty and obscurity to riches and
eminence, they began, by degrees, to feel and to murmur at their encroachments. No -wonder haughty and martial barons should view the power
and possessions of the church with envy; and regard the lazy and inactive
character of churchmen with the utmost contempt; while, at the same
time, the indecent and licentious lives of the clergy gave great and just
offence to the people, and considerably abated the veneration which they
were accustomed to yield to that order of men.
Immense wealth, extreme indolence, gross ignorance, and, above all, the
severe Injunctions of celibacy, had concurred to introduce this corruption
of morals aInong many of the clergy, who, presuming too much upon the
submission of the people, were at no pains either to conceal or to disguise
their own vices.  According to the accounts of the reformers, confirmed
by several popish writers, the most open and scandalous dissoluteness ot
manners prevailed among the Scottish clergy."  Cardinal Beatoun, with
the same public pomp which is due to a legitimate child, celebrated the
marriage of his natural daughter with the earl of Crawford's son;t and, it
we may believe Knox, he publicly continued to the end of his days a
criminal correspondence with her mother. who was a woman of rank.
The other prelates seem not to have been more regular and exemplary than
their primate..
Men of such characters ought, in reason, to have been alarmed at the
first clamours raised against their own morals, and the doctrines of the
church, by the protestant preachers; but the popish ecclesiastics, either
out of pride or ignorance, neglected the proper methods for silencing them.
Instead of reforming their lives, or disguising their vices, they affected to
despise the censures of the people.  While the reformers,.,by their mortifications and austerities, endeavoured to resemble the first propagators
of Christianity, the popish clergy were compared to all those persons who
are most infamous in history for the enormity and scandal of their crimes.
On the other hand, instead of mitigating the rigour, or colouring over
the absurdity, of the established doctrines; instead of attempting to found
them upon Scripture, or to reconcile thern to reason; they left them without
any other support or recommendation than the authority of the church,
and the decrees of councils. The fables concerning purgatory, the virtues
of pilgrimage, and the merits of the saints were the topics on which they
insisted in their discourses to the people; and the duty of preaching being
left wholly to monks of the lowest and most illiterate orders, their compositions were still more wretched and contemptible than the subjects on
which they insisted.   While the reformers were attended by crowded
and  admiring audiences, the popish preachers were either universally
deserted, or listened to with scorn.
* Winzet. ap. Keith, Append. 202. 205. Lesley de Reb. Gest. Scot. 232.
t The marriage articles, subscribed with his own hand, in which he calls her my daughter, are
gill extant. Keith, p. 42.
$ A remarkable proof of the dissolute manners of the clergy is found in the public records. A
greater number of letters of legitimation was granted during the first thirty years after the reformation than during the whole period that has elapsed since that time. These were obtained by
the sons of the popish clergy. The ecclesiastics, who were allowed to retain their benefices
alienated them to their children; who, when thev acquired wealth, were dtsirous that the stain of
illegitimacy might no longer remain upon their families. In Keith's CatatloLteof Scottish Bislops,
we find several instances of such alienations of church lands, by the popish incunmbelts to their
natural children.




OF SCOTLAND.                                65
The only device which they employed, in order to recover their declining
reputation or to confirm  the wavering faith of the people, was equally
imprudent and unsuccessfill.  As many doctrines of their church had
derived their credit at first from the authority of false miracles, they now
endeavoured to call in these to their aid.*  But such lying wonders, as
were beheld with unsuspicious admiration, or heard with implicit faith,
in times of darkness and of ignorance, met with a very different reception
in a more enlightened period.  The vigilance of the refolrmers detected
these impostures, and exposed not only them, but the cause which needed
the aid of such artifices, to ridicule.
As the popish ecclesiastics became more and more the objects of hatred
and of contempt, the discourses of the reformers were listened to as so
many calls to liberty; and, besides the pious indignation which they
excited against those corrupt doctrines which had perverted the nature of
true Christianity; besides the zeal which they inspired for the knowledge
of truth, and the purity of religion; they gave rise also, among the Scottish nobles, to other views and passions. They hoped to shake off the
yoke of ecclesiastical dominion, which they had long felt to be oppressive,
and which they now discovered to be unchristian.  They expected to
recover possession of the church revenues, which they were now taught
to consider as alienations made by their ancestors with a profusion no less
undiscerning than unbounded.  They flattered themselves, that a check
would be given to the pride and luxury of the clergy, who would be
obliged, henceforward, to confine themselves within the sphere peculiar
to their sacred character. An aversion from the established church, which
flowed from so many concurring causes, which was raised by considerations of religion, heightened by motives of policy, and instigated by prospects of private advantage, spread fast through the nation, and excited a
spirit that burst out, at last, with irresistible violence.
Religious considerations alone were sufficient to have roused this spirit.
The points in controversy with the church of Rome were of so much
importance to the happiness of mankind, and so essential to Christianity,
that they merited all the zeal with which the reformers contended in
order to establish them.  But the reformation having been represented
as the effect of some wild and enthusiastic frenzy in the human mind, this
attempt to account for the eagerness and zeal with which our ancestors
embraced and propagated the protestant doctrines, by taking a view of
the political motives alone which influenced them, and by showing how
naturally these prompted them  to act with so much ardour, will not, perhaps, be deemed an unnecessary digression. We now return to the course
of the history.
1554.] The queen's elevation to the office of regent seems to have
transported her, at first, beyond the known prudence and moderation of
her character.  She began her administration by conferring upon foreigners
several offices of trust and of' dignity; a step which, both from the inabifity
of strangers to discharge these offices with propriety, and from the envy
which their preferment excites among the natives, is never attended with
good consequences. Vilmort was made comptroller, and intrusted with
the management 6f the public revenues; Bonot was appointed governor
of Orkney; and Rubay honoured with the custody of the great seal, and
the title of vice-chancellor.t  It was with the highest indignation that
the Scots beheld offices of the greatest eminence and authority dealt out
among strangers.+  By these promotions they conceived the queen to
have offered an insult both to their understandings and to their courage;
to the former, by supposing them unfit for those stations which their ances*Spotswood, 69.        t Lesley de Reb. Gest. Scot. 189.
+ The resentment of the nation against the French rose to such a height, that m? act of partial
meent was passed on purpose to restrain or moderate it. Parl. 6. Q. Mary, S.
VOL. IlI.-9




66                    THE  HISTORY                    [Boo0K II.
tors had filled with so much dignity; to the latter, by imagining that they
were tame enough not to complain of an affront, which, in no former age,
would have been tolerated with impunity.
While their minds were in this disposition, an incident happened which
inflamed their aversion from French councils to the highest degree. Ever
since the famous contest between the houses of Valois and Plantagenet,
the French had been accustomed to embarrass the English, and to divide
their strepgth by the sudden and formidable incursions of their allies, the
Scots. But, as these inroads were seldom attended with any real advantage to Scotland, and exposed it to the dangerous resentment of a powerful
neighbour, the Scots began to grow less tractable than formerly, and
scrupled any longer to serve an ambitious ally at the price of their own
quiet and security. The change, too, which was daily introducing in the
art of war rendered the assistance of the Scottish forces of less importance
to the French monarch. For these reasons, Henry having resolved upon
a war with Philip II., and foreseeing that the queen of England would
take part in her husband's quarrel, was extremely solicitous to secure in
Scotland the assistance of some troops, which would be more at his command than an undisciplined army led by chieftains who were almost
independent. In prosecution of this design, but under pretence of relieving
the nobles from the expense and danger of defending the borders, the!queen regent proposed in parliament [1555], to register the value of
Jands throughout the kingdom, to impose on them a small tax, and to
apply that revenue towards maintaining a body of regular troops in constant pay. A fixed tax upon land, which the growing expense of governmrent had introduced into almost every part of Europe, was unknown at
that time, and seemed altogether inconsistent with the genius of feudal
policy. Nothing could be more shocking to a generous and bravo nobility
than the intrusting to mercenary hands the defence of those territories
which had been acquired or preserved by the blood of their ancestors.
They received this proposal with the utmost dissatisfaction. About three
hundred of the lesser barons repaired in a body to the queen regent, and
represented their sense of the intended innovation with that manly and,determined boldness which is natural to a free people in a martial age.
Alarmed at a remonstrance delivered in so firm a tone, and supported by
such formidable numbers, the queen prudently abandoned a scheme which
-she found to be universally odious. As the queen herself was known
perfectly to understand the circumstances and temper of the nation, this
measure was imputed wholly to the suggestions of her foreign counsellors;
land the Scots were ready to proceed to the most violent extremities
against them.
The French, instead of extinguishing, added fuel to the flame. They
nad now commenced hostilities against Spain, and Philip had prevailed
on the queen of England to reinforce his army with a considerable body
of her troops. In order to deprive him of this aid, Henry had recourse, as
he projected, to the Scots; and attempted to excite them to invade England. But as Scotland had nothing to dread from a princess of Mary's
character, who, far from any ambitious scheme of disturbing her neighbours, was wholly occupied in endeavouring to reclaim her heretical
subjects; the nobles, who were assembled by the queen regent at Newbattle, listened to the solicitations of the French monarch with extreme
coldness, and prudently declined engaging the kingdom in an enterprise
so dangerous and unnecessary. What she could not obtain by persuasion,
the queen regent brought about by a stratagem. Notwithstanding the
peace which subsisted between the two kingdoms, she commanded her
French soldiers to rebuild a small fort near Berwick, which was appointed,
by the last treaty, to he razed. The garrison of Berwick sallied out,
interrupted.the work, and ravaged the adjacent country. This insult




OF SCOTLAND.                              67
roused the fiery spirit of the Scots, and their promptness to revenge the
least appearance of national injury dissipated, in a moment, the wise and
pacific resolutions which they had so lately formed. War was determined,
and orders instantly given for raising a numerous army. But before their
forces could assemble, the ardour of their indignation had time to cool,
and the English having discovered no intention to push the war with
vigour, the nobles resumed their pacific system, and resolved to stand
altogether upon the defensive. [1556.] They marched to the barKs of
the Tweed, they prevented the incursions of the enemy; and having done
what they thought sufficient for the safety and honour of their country,
the queen could not induce them, either by her entreaties or her artifices,
to advance another step.
While the Scots persisted in their inactivity, D'Oysel, the commander
of the French troops, who possessed entirely the confidence of the queer,
regent, endeavoured, with her connivance, to engage the two nations in hostilities. Contrary to the orders of the Scottish general, he marched over
the Tweed with his own soldiers, and invested Werk Castle, a garrison of
the English. The Scots, instead of seconding his attempt, were enraged
at his presumption. The queen's partiality towards France had long been
suspected; but it was now visible that she wantonly sacrificed the peace
and safety of Scotland to the interest of that ambitious and assuming ally.
Under the feudal governments, it was in camps that subjects were accustomed to address the boldest remonstrances to their sovereigns. While
arms were in their hands they felt their own strength; and at that time all
their representations of grievances carried the authority of commands. On
this occasion the resentment of the nobles broke out with such violence,
that the queen, perceiving all attempts to engage them in action to be vain,
abruptly dismissed her army, and retired with the utmost shame and disgust; having discovered the impotence of her own authority, without effecting any thing which could be of advantage to France.
It is observable that this first instance of contempt for the regent's
authority can, in no degree, be imputed to the influence of the new opinions
in religion. As the queen's pretensions to the regency had been principally supported by those who favoured the reformation, and as she still
needed them for a counterpoise to the archbishop of St. Andre w's, and the
partisans of the house of Hamilton; she continued to treat them with great
respect, and admitted them to no inconsiderable share in her favour and
confidence. Kirkaldy of Grange, and the other surviving conspirators
against cardinal Beatoun were about this time recalled by her from banish
ment; and, through her connivance, the protestant preachers enjoyed an
interval of tranquillity, which was of great advantage to their cause.
Soothed by these instances of the queen's moderation and humanity, the
protestants left to others the office of remonstrating; and the leaders of the
opposite factions set them the first example of disputing the will of their
sovereign.
As the queen regent felt how limited and precarious her authority was,
while it depended on the poise of these contrary factions, she endeavoured
to establish it on a broader and more secure foundation, by hastening the
conclusion of her daughter's marriage with the dauphin. Amiable as the
queen of Scots then was, in the bloom of youth, and considerable as the
territories were, which she would have added to the French monarchy;
reasons were not wanting to dissuade Henry from completing his first plaln
of marrying her to his son. The constable Montmorency had employed
all his interest to defeat an alliance which reflected so much lustre on the
princes of Lorrain. He had represented the impossibility of maintaining
order and tranquillity among a turbulent people, during the absence of their
* Strype's Memor. iii. Append. 274. Lesly, 196




68                      T H E HISTORY                       [Boox If.
sovereign; and for that reason had advised Henry to bestow the young
queen upon one of the princes of the blood, who, by residing in Scotland,
might preserve that kingdom a useful ally to France, which, by a nearer
union to the crown, would become a mutinous and ungovernable province.*
But at this time the constable was a prisoner in the hands of the Spaniards,
the princes of Lorr.ain were at the height of their power; and their'influence, seconded by the charms of the young queen, triumphed over the prudent but envious remonstrances of their rival.
Dec. 14, 1557.1 The French king accordingly applied to the parliament of
Scotland, which appointed eight of its memberst to represent the whole
body of the nation, at the marriage of the queen. Among the persons on
whom the public choice conferred this honourable character were some of
the most avowed and zealous advocates for the reformation; by which
may be estimated the degree of respect and popularity which that party
had now attained in the kingdom. The instructions of the parliament to
tlhose commissioners still remain,+ and do honour to the wisdom and integrity of that assembly. At the same time that they manifested, with respect
to the articles of marriage, a laudable concern for the dignity and interest
of their sovereign, they employed every precaution which prudence could
dictate, for preserving the liberty and independence of the nation, and for
securing the succession of the crown in the house of Hamilton.
With regard to each of these, the Scots obtained whatever satisfaction
their fear or jealousy could demand. The young queen, the dauphin, and
the king of France ratified every article with the most solemn oaths, and
confirmed them by deeds in form under their hands and seals.  But on the
part of France, ail this was one continued scene of studied and elaborate
deceit.  Previous to these public transactions with the Scottish deputies,
AMary had been persuaded to subscribe privately three deeds, equally unjust
and invalid; by which, failing the heirs of her own body, she conferred the
kingdom of Scotland, with whatever inheritance or succession might accrue
to it, in free gift upon the crown of France, declaring all promises to the
contrary, which the necessity of her affairs, and the solicitations of her
subjects, had extorted, or might extort from her, to be void and of no
obligation.~ As it gives us a proper idea of the character of the French
court under Henry II., we may observe that the king himself, the keeper
of the: great seals, the duke of Guise, and the cardinal of Lorrain were the
persons engaged in conducting this perfidious and dishonourable project.
T'he queen of Scots was the only innocent actor in that scene of iniquity.
Her youth, her inexperience, her education in a foreign country, and her
deference to the will of her uncles, must go far towards vindicating her,
in the judgment of every impartial person, from any imputation of blame
on that account.
This grant, by which Mary bestowed the inheritance of her kingdom
upon strangers, was concealed with the utmost care from her subjects.
They seem, however, not to have been unacquainted with the intentionof the
French to overturn the settlement of the successsion in favour of the duke
of Chatelherault.  The zeal with which the archbishop of St. Andrew's
opposed all the measures of the queen regent, evidently proceededfrom
the fears and suspicions of that prudent prelate on this head.II
April 14, 1558.]  The marriage, however, was celebrated with great
pomp; and the French, who had hitherto affected to draw a veil over their
designs upon Scotland; began now to unfold their intentions without any
* Melv. Mem. 15.
t Viz. The archbishop of Glasgow, the bishop of Ross, the bishop of Orkney, the earls of Rothes
and Cassils, lord Fleming, lord Seton, the prior of St. Andrew's, and John Erskine of Dun.
$I Keith, Append. 13.     ~ Corps Diplomat. tom. v. 21. Keith, 7.3.
I] Ahout this time the French seem to have had some design of reviving the earl of Lennox's
retensionsto the succession, in order to intimidate and alarm the duke of Chatelherault.-Haynes,
15. 219. Forbes's Collect. vol. i. 189.




OF SCOTLAND.                                    69
drsguise. In the treaty of marriage, the deputies had agreed that the
dauphin should assume the name of king of Scotland. This they considered only as an honorary title; but the French laboured to annex to it
some solid privileges and power. They insisted that the dauphin's title
should be publicly recognised; that the crown matrimonial should be conferred upon him; and that all the rights pertaining to the husband of a
queen should be vested in his person. By the laws of Scotland, a person
who married an heiress, kept possession of her estate during his own life,
if he happened to survive her and the children born of the marriage.*
This was called the courtesy of Scotland.  The French aimed at applying
this rule, which takes place in private inheritances, to the succession of the
kingdom; and that seems to be implied in their demand of the crown
matrimonial, a phrase peculiar to the Scottish historians, and which them
have neglected to explain.j  As the French had reason to expect difficulties in carrying through this measure, they began with sounding the deputies
who were then at Paris.  The English, in the marriage articles between
their queen and Philip of Spain, had set an example to the age, of that prudent
jealousy and reserve with which a foreigner should be admitted so near
the throne. Full of the same ideas, the Scottish deputies had, in their
oath of allegiance to the dauphin, expressed themselves with remarkable
caution.4  Their answer was in the same spirit, respectful but firm; and
discovered a fixed resolution of consenting to nothing that tended to introduce any alteration in the order of succession to the crown.
Four of the deputies~ happening to die before they returned into Scotland, this accident was universally imputed to the effects of poison, which
was supposed to have been given them by the emissaries of the house of
Guise. The historians of all nations discover an amazing credulity with
respect to rumours of this kind, which are so well calculated to please the
malignity of some men, and to gratify the love of the marvellous which is
natural to all, that in every age they have been swallowed without examination, and believed contrary to reason. No wonder the Scots should easily
give credit to a suspicion which received such strong colours of probabilhty, both from their own resentment and from the known character of
the princes of Lorrain, so little scrupulous about the justice of the ends
which they pursued, or of the means which they employed. For the
honour of human nature, however, it must be observed, that as we can dis
cover no motive which could induce any man to perpetrate such a crime,
so there appears no evidence to prove that it was committed. But the
Scots of that age, influenced by national animosities and prejudices, were
incapable of examining the circumstances of the case with calmness, or of
judging concerning them with candour. All parties agreed in believing
the French to have been guilty of this detestable action; and it is obvious
how much this tended to increase the aversion for them, which was growing among all ranks of men.
Notwithstanding the cold reception which their proposal concerning the
crozwn matrimonial met with from the Scottish deputies, the French ventured to move it in parliament. The partisans of the house of Hamilton,
suspicious of their designs upon the succession, opposed it with great zeal
* Reg. Mag. lib. ii. 58.
t As far as I can judge, the husband of the queen, by the grant of the crowon matrimonial, a(.
quired a right to assume the title of king, to have his name stamped upon the current coin, and to
sign all public instruments together with the queen. In consequence of this, the subjects took an
oath of fidelity to him. Keith, Append. 20. His authority became, in some measure, co-ordinate
with that of the queen; and without his concurrence, manifested by signing his name, no public
deed seems to haye been considered as valid. By the oath of fidelity of the Scottish commissioners to the dauphin, it is evident that, in their opinion, the rights belonging to the crown matrimonial subsisted only during the continuance of the marriage. Keith, Append. 20. But the
conspirators against Rizio bound themselves to procure a grant of the crown matrimonial to Darnly,
during all the days of his life. Keith, Append. 120. Good. i. 227.
$ Keith, Append. 20.    ~ The bishop of Orkney, the earl of Rothes, the earl of Camilp,
and lord Fleming.




70                       TEHE HISTCORY                      [Boos IL.
But a party, which the feeble and unsteady conduct of their leader had
brought under much disreputation, was little able to withstand the influ
ence of France, and the address of the queen regent, seconded, on this
occasion, by all the numerous adherents of the reformation. Besides, that
artful princess dressed out the French demands in a less offensive garb, and
threw in so many limitations as seemed to render them of small consequence. These either deceived the Scots, or removed their scruples; and
in compliance to the queen they passed an act, conferring the crown
matrimnonial on the dauphin; and with the fondest credulity trusted to the
frail security of words and statutes, against the dangerous encroachments
of power.*
The concurrence of the protestants with the queen regent, in promoting
a measure so acceptable to France, while the popish clergy, under the
influence of the archbishop of St. Andrew's, opposed it with so much
violence,4 is one of those singular circumstances in the conduct of parties,
for which this period is so remarkable. It may be ascribed, in some
degree, to the dexterous management of the queen, but chiefly to the
moderation of those who favoured the reformation.  The protestants were
by this time almost equal to the Catholics, both in power and in number;
and, conscious of their own strength, they submitted with impatience to
that tyrannical authority with which the ancient laws armed the ecclesiastics against them. They longed to be exempted from this oppressive
jurisdiction, and publicly to enjoy the liberty of professing those opinions,
and of exercising that worship, which so great a part of the nation deemed
to be founded in truth and to be acceptable to the Deity. This indulgence,
to which the whole weight of priestly authority was opposed, there were
only two ways of obtaining. Either violence must extort it from the
reluctant hand of their sovereign, or by prudent compliances they might
expect it from her favour or her gratitude.  The former is an expedient
for the redress of grievances, to which no nation has recourse suddenly;
and subjects seldom venture upon resistance, which is their last remedy,
but in cases of extreme necessity. On this occasion the reformers wisely
held the opposite course, and by their zeal in forwarding the queen's
designs, they hoped to merit her protection.  This disposition the queen
encouraged to the utmost, and amused them so artfully with many promises,
and some concessions, that, by their assistance, she surmounted in parliament the force of a national and laudable jealousy, which would otherwise
have swayed with the greater- number.
Another circumstance contributed somewhat to acquire the regent such
considerable influence in this parliament. In Scotland, all the bishoprics,
and those abbeys which conferred a title to a seat in parliament, were in
the gift of the crown.t  From  the time of her accession to the regency,
the queen had kept in her own hands almost all those which became
vacant, except such as were, to the great disgust of the nation, bestowed
upon foreigners. Among these, her brother the cardinal of Lorraln had
obtained the abbeys of Kelso and Melross, two of the most wealthy
foundations in the kingdom.~ By this conduct she thinned the ecclesiastical bench,li which was entirely under the influence of the archbishop of
St. Andrew's, and which, by its numbers and authority, usually had great
weight in the house, so as to render any opposition it could give at that
time of little consequence.
* The act of parliament is worded with the utmost care, with a view to guard against any
breach of the order of succession. But the duke, not relying on this alone, entered a solemn protestation to secure his own right. Keith, 76. It is plain that he suspected the French of having
some intention to set aside his right of succession; and, indeed, if they had no design of that kind,
the eagerness with which they urged their demand was childish.
t Melv. 47.      f See Book I.       0 Lesly, 202.
1I It appears from the rolls of this parliament, which Lesly calls a very full one, that only seven
bishops and sixteen abbots were present.




OF SCOTLAND.                                 71
The earl of Argyll, and James Stewart, prior of St. Andrew's, one of the
most powerful, and the other the most popular leader of the Protestants,
were appointed to carry the crown and other ensigns of royalty to the
dauphin. But from this they were diverted by the part they were called
to act in a more interesting scene, which now begins to open.
Before we turn towards this, it is necessary to observe, that on the
seventeenth of November, one thousand five hundred and fifty-eight, Mary
of England finished her short and inglorious reign. Her sister Elizabeth
took possession of the throne without opposition; and the protestant
religion was once more established by law in England. The accession of
a queen, who, under very difficult circumstances, had given strong indications of those eminent qualities which, in the sequel, rendered her reign
so illustrious, attracted the eyes of all Europe. Among the Scots, both
parties observed her first motions with the utmost solicitude, as they easily
foresaw that she would not remain long an indifferent spectator of their
transactions.
Under many discouragements and much oppression, the reformation
advanced towards a full establishment in Scotland. All the low country,
the most populous, and at that time the most warlike part of the kingdom,
was deeply tinctured with the protestant opinions; and if the same
impressions were not made in the more distant counties, it was owing to
no want of the same dispositions among the people, but to the scarcity of
preachers, whose most indefatigable zeal could not satisfy the avidity ot
those who desired their instructions. Among a people bred to arms, and
as prompt as the Scots to act with violence; and in an age when religious
passions had taken such strong possession of the human mind, and moved
and agitated it with so much violence, the peaceable and regular derneanour of so numerous a party is astonishing. From the death of Mr. Patrick
Hamilton, the first who suffered in Scotland for the protestant religion,
thirty years had elapsed, and during so long a period no violation of public
order or tranquillity had proceeded from that sect;* and though roused
and irritated'by the most cruel excesses of ecclesiastical tyranny, they
did in no instance transgress those bounds of duty which the law prescribes
to subjects. Besides the prudence of their own leaders, and the protection
which the queen regent, from political motives, afforded them, the moderation of the archbishop of St. Andrew's encouraged this pacific disposition.
That prelate, whose private life contemporary writers tax with great
irregularities, governed the church, for some years, with a temper and
prudence of which there are few examples in that age. But some tiire
before the meeting of the last parliament, the archbishop departed from
those humane maxims by which he had hitherto regulated his conduct;
and, whether in spite to the queen, who had entered into so close a union
with the protestants, or in compliance with the importunities of his clergy,
he let loose all the rage of persecution against the reformed; sentenced
to the flames an aged priest, who had been convicted of embracing the
protestant opinions; and summoned several others, suspected of the same
crime, to appear before a synod of the clergy, which was soon to convene
at Edinburgh.
Nothing could equal the horror of the protestants at this unexpected
and barbarous execution, but the zeal with which they espoused the defence
of a cause that now seemed devoted to destruction. They had immediate recourse to the queen regent; and as her success in the parliament,
which was then about to meet, depended on their concurrence, she rc-t
only sheltered them from the impending storm, but permitted them &he
exercise of their religion with more freedom than they had hitherto
* The murder of cardinal Beatoun was occasioned by private revenge; and being contrived and
executed by sixteen persons only, cannot with justice be imputed to the whole protestant party.
t Knox, Buchanan, Keith, 208.




72                     THE  HISTORY                     [BooK I1.
enjoyed. Unsatisfied with this precarious tenure by which they held
their religious liberty, the protestants laboured to render their possession
of it more secure and independent. With this view they determined to
petition the parliament for some legal protection against the exorbitant
and oppressive jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts, which, by their
arbitrary method of proceeding, founded in the canon law, were led to
sentences the most shocking to humanity, by maxims the most repugnant
to justice. But the queen, who dreaded the effect of a debate on this
delicate subject, which could not fail of exciting high and dangerous passions, prevailed on the leaders of the party, by new and more solemn
promises of her protection, to desist from any application to parliament,
where their numbers and influence would, in all probability, have procured
them, if not entire redress, at least some mitigation of their grievances.
They applied to another assembly, to a convocation of the popish clergy,
but with the same ill success which hath always attended every proposal
for reformation addressed to that order of men. To abandon usurped
power, to renounce lucrative error, are sacrifices which the virtue of individuals has, on some occasions, offered to truth; but from any society of
men no such effort can be expected. The corruptions of a society recommended by common utility, and justified by universal practice, are viewed
by its members without shame or horror; and reformation never proceeds
from themselves, but is always forced upon them by some foreign hand.
Suitable to this unfeeling and inflexible spirit was the behaviour of the
convocation in the present conjuncture. All the demands of the protestants were rejected with contempt; and the popish clergy, far from endeavouring, by any prudent concessions, to sooth and to reconcile such a
numerous body, asserted the doctrines of their church, concerning some
of the most exceptionable articles, with an ill timed rigour, which gave
new offence.*
1559.] During the sitting of the convocation, the protestants first began
to suspect some change in the regent's disposition towards them. Though
joined with them for many years by interest, and united, as they conceived,
by the strongest ties of affection and of gratitude, she discovered, on this
occasion, evident symptoms, not only of coldness, but of a growing disgust
and aversion. In order to account for this, our historians do little more
than produce the trite observations concerning the influence of prosperity
to alter the character and to corrupt the heart. The queen, say they,
having reached the utmost point to which her ambition aspired, no longer
preserved her accustomed moderation, but, with an insolence usual to the
fortunate, looked down upon those by whose assistance she had been
enabled to rise so high. But it is neither in the depravity of the human
heart nor in the ingratitude of the queen's disposition that wue must search
for the motives of her present conduct. These were derived from another
and a more remote source, which, in order to clear the subsequent transactions, we shall endeavour to open with some care.
The ambition of the princes of Lorrain had been no less successful than
daring; but all their schemes were distinguished by being vast and
unbounded. Though strangers at the court of France, their eminent qualities had raised them, in a short time, to a height of power superior to
that of all other subjects, and had placed them on a level even with the
princes of the blood themselves. The church, the army, the revenue,
were under their direction. Nothing but the royal dignity remained
unattained, and they were elevated to a near alliance with it, by the marriage of the queen of Scots to the dauphin. In order to gratify their own
vanity, and to render their niece more worthy the heir of France, they set
on foot her claim to the crown of England, which was founded on pretences not unplausible.
~ Keith, S1




OF SCOTLAND.                               73
The tragical amours and marriages of Henry VIII. are known to all the
world. Moved by the caprices of his love or of his resentment, that
impatient and arbitrary monarch had divorced or beheaded four of the six
queens whom he married. In order to gratify him, both his daughters
had been declared illegitimate by an act of parliament; and yet, with that
fantastic inconsistence which distinguishes his character, he, in his last
will, whereby he was empowered to settle the order of succession, called
both of them to the throne upon the death of their brother Edward, and
at the same time, passing by the posterity of his eldest sister Margare
queen of Scotland, he appointed the line of succession to continue in the
descendants of his younger sister, the dutchess of Suffolk.
In consequence of this destination, the validity whereof was admitted by
the English, but never recognised by foreigners, Mary had reigned in England without the least complaint of neighbouring princes. But the same
causes which facilitated her accession to the throne were obstacles to the
elevation of her sister Elizabeth, and rendered her possession of it precarious and insecure. Rome trembled for the catholic faith under a protes
tant queen of such eminent abilities. The same superstitious fears alarmed
the court of Sphin. France beheld with concern a throne, to which the
queen of Scots could form so many pretensions, occupied by a rival, whose
birth, in the opinion of all good catholics, excluded her from any legal
right of succession. The impotent hatred of the Roman pontiff, or the
slow councils of Philip II. would have produced no sudden or formidable
effect. The ardent and impetuous ambition of the princes of Lorrain, who
at that time governed the court of France, was more decisive, and more to
be dreaded. Instigated by them, Henry, soon after the death of Mlary,
persuaded his daughter-in-law and her husband to assume the title of
king and queen of England. They affected to publish this to all Europe.
They used that style and appellation in public papers, some of which still
remain.'  The arms of England were engraved on their coin and plate,
and borne by them on all occasions. No preparations, however, were
made to support this impolitic and premature claim. Elizabeth was
already seated on her throne; she possessed all the intrepidity of spirit,
and all the arts of policy, which were necessary for maintaining that station. England was growing into reputation for naval power. rlhe marine
of France had been utterly neglecte'd; and Scotland remained the only
avenue by which the territories of Elizabeth could be approached. It
was on that side, therefore, that the princes of Lorrain determined to make
their attack;t and, by using the nalne and pretensions of the Scottish
queen, they hoped to rouse the English catholics, formidable at that time
by their zeal and numbers, and exasperated to the utmost against Elizabeth on account of the change which she had made in the national
religion.
It was in vain to expect the assistance of the Scottish protestants to
dethrone a queen whom all Europe began to consider the most powerful
guardian and defender of the reformed faith. To break the power and
reputation of that party in Scotland became, for this reason, a necessary
step towards the invasion of England. With this the princes of Lorrain
resolved to open their scheme. And as persecution was the only method
for suppressing religious opinions known in that age, or dictated by the
despotic and sanguinary spirit of the Romish superstition, this, in its utmost
violence, they determined to employ. The earl of Argyll, the prior of
St. Andrew's, and other leaders of the party, were marked out by them
for immediate destruction;I and they hoped, by punishing them, to intimidate their followers. Instructions for this purpose were sent from France
to the queen regent. That humane and sagacious princess condemned a
nders. Diplom. Scot. Nos. 68 and 164.  t Forbos's Collect. i. 253. 269 279. 404.: Ib. i. 152t
VOL. III. —10




74                     THE T   HISTORY                   [LooK IL.
measure which was equally violent and impolitic. By long residence in
Scotland, she had become acquainted with the eager and impatient temper
of the nation; she well knew the power, the number, and popularity of
the protestant leaders; and had been a witness to the intrepid and unconquerable resolution which religious fervour could inspire. What then
could be gained by rousing this dangerous spirit, which hitherto all the
arts of policy had scarcely been able to restrain? If it once broke loose,
the authority of a regent would be little capable to subdue, or even tv
moderate its rage. If, in order to quell it, foreign forces were called in
this would give the alarm to the whole nation, irritated already at the
excessive power which the French possessed in the kingdom, and sus
picious of all their designs. Amidst the shock which this might occasion
far from hoping to exterminate the protestant doctrine, it would be well it
the whole fabric of the established church were not shaken, and perhaps
overturned from the foundation. These prudent remonstrances made no
impression on her brothers; precipitant, but inflexible in all their resolu
tions, they insisted on the full and rigorous execution of their plan. Mary,
passionately devoted to the interest of France, and ready, on all occasions,
to sacrifice her own opinions to the inclinations of her brothers, prepared
to execute their commands with implicit submission;* and, contrary to
her own judgment and to all the rules of sound policy, she became the
instrument of exciting civil commotions in Scotland, the fatal termination of
which she foresaw and dreaded.
From the time of the queen's competition for the regency with the duke
of Chatelherault, the popish clergy, under the direction of the archbishop
of St. Andrews, had set themselves in opposition to all her measures. Her
first step towards the execution of her new scheme was to regain their
favour. Nor was this reconcilement a matter of difficulty. The popish
ecclesiastics, separated from the rest of mankind by the law of celibacy,
one of the boldest and most successful efforts of human policy; and combined among themselves in the closest and most sacred union, have been;accustomed, in every age, to sacrifice all private and particular passions to
the dignity and interest of their order. Delighted on this occasion with
the prospect of triumphing over a faction, the encroachments of which they
had long dreaded, and animated with the hopes of re-establishing their
declining grandeur on a firmer basis, they at once cancelled the memory of
past injuries, and engaged to second the queen in all her attempts to check
the progress of the reformation. The queen, being secure of their assistance, openly approved of the decrees of the convocation, by which the
principles of the reformers were condemned; and at the same time she
issued a proclamation, enjoining all persons to observe the approaching
festival of Easter according to the Romish ritual.
As it was no longer possible to mistake the queen's intentions, the pro
testants, who saw the danger approach, in order to avert it, employed the
earl of Glencairn, and sir Hugh Campbell of London, to expostulate with
her concerning this change towards severity, which their former services
had so little merited, and which her reiterated promises gave them no reason to expect. She, without disguise or apology, avowed to them her
resolution of extirpating the reformed religion out of the kingdom. And,
upon their urging her former engagements with an uncourtly but honest
boldness, she so far forgot her usual moderation, as to utter a sentiment,
which, however apt those, of royal condition may be to entertain it, prudence should teach them to conceal as much as possible. "The promises
of princes," says she, " ought not to be too carefully remembered, nor the
performance of them exacted, unless it suits their own conveniency."
The indignation which betrayed the queen into this rash expression was
* Melv. 48. Mem. de Castelnau, ap. Jebb, vol. ii. 446.




OF SCOTLAND.                              75
nothing in comparison of that with which she was animated upon hearing
that the public exercise of the reformed religion had been introduced into
the town of Perth. At once she threw off the mask, and issued a mandate,
summoning all the protestant preachers in the kingdom to a court of justice,
which was to be held at Stirling on the tenth of May. The protestants,
who, from their union, began about this time to be distinguished by the
name of the CONGREGATION, were alarmed, but not intimidated by this
danger; and instantly resolved not to abandon the men to whom they were
indebted for the most valuable of all blessings, the knowledge of truth. At
that time there prevailed in Scotland, with respect to criminal trials, a
custom, introduced at first by the institutions of vassalage and clanship,
and tolerated afterwards under a feeble government: persons accused of
any crime were accompanied to the place of trial by a retinue of their
friends and adherents, assembled for that purpose from every quarter of
the kingdom. Authorized by this ancient practice, the reformed convened
in great numbers to attend their pastors to Stirling. The queen dreaded
their approach with a train so numerous, though unarmed; and in order to
prevent them from advancing, she empowered John Erskine of Dun, a
person of eminent authority with the party, to promise in her name that
she would put a stop to the intended trial, on condition the preachers and
their retinue advanced no nearer to Stirling. Erskine, being convinced
himself of the queen's sincerity, served her with the utmost zeal; and.the
protestants, averse from proceeding to any act of violence, listened with
pleasure to so pacific a proposition. The preachers, with a few leaders of
the party, remained at Perth; the multitude which had gathered from
different parts of the kingdom  dispersed, and retired to their own
habitations.
But, notwithstanding this solemn promise, the queen, on the tenth of
May, proceeded to call to trial the persons who had been summoned, and,
upon their non-appearance, the rigour of justice took place, and they were
pronounced outlaws. By this ignoble artifice, so incompatible with regal
dignity, and so inconsistent with that integrity which should prevail in all
transactions between sovereigns and their subjects, the queen forfeited the
esteem and confidence of the whole nation. The protestants, shocked no
less at the indecency with which she violated the public faith, than at the
danger which threatened themselves, prepared boldly for their own defence. Erskine, enraged at having been made the instrument for deceiving
his party, instantly abandoned Stirling, and repairing to Perth, added to
the zeal of his associates, by his representations of the queen's inflexible
resolution to suppress religion.?'
The popular rhetoric of Knox powerfully seconded his representations;
he having been carried a prisoner into France, together with the other persons taken in the castle of St. Andrew's, soon made his escape out of that
country; and residing sometimes in England, sometimes in Scotland, had
at last been driven out of both kingdoms by the rage of the popish clergy,
and was obliged to retire to Geneva. Thence he was called by the leaders of the protestants in Scotland; and, in compliance with their solicitations, he set out for his native country, where he arrived a few days before
the trial appointed at Stirling. Hle hurried instantly to Perth, to share
with his brethren in the common danger, or to assist them in the common
cause. While their minds were in that ferment which the queen's perfidiousness and their own danger occasioned, he mounted the pulpit, and
by a vehement harangue against idolatry, inflamed the multitude with the
utmost rage. The indiscretion of a priest, who, immediately after Knox's
sermon, was preparing to celebrate mass, and began to decorate the altar
for that purpose, precipitated them into immediate action. With tumultu
* Keith, p. 84.




76                     THE  HISTORY                      [BooK lI.
ary but irresistible violence they fell upon the churches in that city, overturned the altars, defaced the pictures, broke in pieces the images; and
proceeding next to the monasteries, they in a few hours laid those sumptuous fabrics almost level with the ground. This riotous insurrection was
not the effect of any concert or previous deliberation; censured by the
reformed preachers, and publicly condemned by persons of most power
and credit with the party, it must be regarded merely as an accidental
eruption of popular rage.*
But to the queen dowager these proceedings appeared in a very different light. Besides their manifest contempt for her authority, the protestants had violated every thing in religion which she deemed venerable or
holy; and on both these accounts, she determined to inflict the severest
vengeance on the whole party. She had already drawn the troops in
French pay to Stirling; with these, and what Scottish forces she could levy
of a sudden, she marched directly to Perth, in hopes of surprising the protestant leaders before they could assemble their followers, whom, out ot
confidence in her disingenuous promises, they had been rashly induced to
dismiss. Intelligence of these preparations and menaces was soon conveyed to Perth.  The protestants would gladly have soothed the queen,
by addresses both to herself and to the persons of greatest credit in her
court; but, finding her inexorable, they with great vigour took measures
for their own defence. Their adherents, animated with zeal for religion,
and eager to expose themselves in so good a cause, flocked in such numbers to Perth that they not only secured the town fiom danger, but within
a few days were in a condition to take the field, and to face the queen,
who advanced with an army seven thousand strong.
Neither party, however, was impatient to engage. The queen dreaded
the event of a battle with men whom the fervour of religion raised above
the sense of fear or danger. The protestants beheld with regret the earl
of Argyll, the prior of St. Andrew's, and some other eminent persons of
their party, still adhering to the queen; and, destitute of their aid and
counsel, declined hazarding an action, the ill success of which might have
proved the ruin of their cause. The prospect of an accommodation was
for these reasons highly acceptable to both sides: Argyll and the prior,
who were the queen's commissioners for conducting the negotiation, seem
to have been sincerely desirous of reconciling the contending factions;
and the earl of Glencairn, arriving unexpectedly with a powerful reinforcement to the congregation, augmented the queen's eagerness for peace. A
treaty was accordingly concluded, in which it was stipulated that both
armies should be disbanded, and the gates of Perth set open to the queen;
that indemnity should be granted to the inhabitants of that city, and to all
others concerned in the late insurrection; that no French garrison should
be left in Perth, and no French soldier should approach within three miles
of that place; and that a parliament should immediately be held, in order
to compose whatever difference might still remain.t
May 29.] The leaders ot the congregation, distrustful of the queen's
sincerity, and sensible that concessions, flowing not from inclination, but
extorted by the necessity of her affairs, could not long remain in force,
entered into a new association, by which they bound themselves, on the
first infringement of the present treaty, or on the least appearance of danger to their religion, to reassemble their followers, and to take arms in
defence of what they deemed the cause of God and of their country.;
The queen, by her conduct, demonstrated these precautions to be the
result of no groundless or unnecessary fear. No sooner were the protestant forces dismissed than she broke every article in the treaty. She introduced French troops into Perth, fined some of the inhabitants, banished
* Knox. Hist. 127, 128.  t Keith, 89. Knox, 238.




OF SCOTLAND.                              77
others, removed the magistrates out of office; and on her retiring to Stir
ling, she left behind her a garrison of six hundred men, with orders to allow
the exercise of no other religion than the Roman catholic. The situation
of Perth, a place at that time of some strength, and a town among the
most proper of any in the kingdom for the station of a garrison, seems to
have allured the queen to this unjustifiable and ill-judged breach of public
faith; which she endeavoured to colour by alleging that the body of men
left at Perth was entirely composed of native Scots, though kept in pay
by the king of France.
The queen's scheme began gradually to unfold; it was now apparent
that not only the religion but the liberties of the kingdom were threatened;
and that the French troops were to be employed as instruments for subduing the Scots, and wreathing the yoke about their necks. Martial as the
genius of the Scots then was, the poverty of their country made it impossible to keep their armies long assembled; and even a very small body of
regular troops might have proyed formidable to the nation, though consisting wholly of soldiers. But what number of French forces were then in
Scotland, at what times and under what pretext they returned, after having
left the kingdom in one thousand five hundred and fifty, we cannot with
any certainty determine. Contemporary historians often select with little
judgment the circumstances which they transmit to posterity; and with
respect to matters of the greatest curiosity and importance, leave succeed
ing ages altogether in the dark. We may conjecture, however, from some
passages in Buchanan, that the French and Scots in French pay amounted
at least to three thousand men, under.the command of Monsieur D'Oysel,
a creature of the house of Guise; and they were soon augmented to a
much more formidable number.
The queen, encouraged by having so considerable a body of well disciplined troops at her command, and instigated by the violent counsels of
D'Oysel, had ventured, as we have observed, to violate the treaty of Perth,
and by that rash action once more threw the nation into the most dangerous
convulsions. The earl of Argyll and the prior of St. Andrew's instantly
deserted a court where faith and honour seemed to them to be no longer
regarded; and joined the leaders of the congregation, who had retreated
to the eastern part of Fife. The barons from the neighbouring counties
repaired to them, the preachers roused the people to arms, and wherever
they came, the same violent operations, which accident had occasioned at
Perth, were now encouraged out of policy. The enraged multitude was
let loose, and churches and monasteries, the monuments of ecclesiastic
pride and luxury, were sacrificed to their zeal.
In order to check their career, the queen, without losing a moment, put
her troops in motion; but the zeal of the congregation got the start once
more of her vigilance and activity. In that warlike age, when all men
were accustomed to arms, and on the least prospect of danger were ready
to run to them, the leaders of the protestants found no difficulty to raise an
army. Though they set out from St. Andrew's with a slender train of a
hundred horse, crowds flocked to their standards from every corner of the
country through which they marched; and before they reached Falkland,
a village only ten miles distant, they were able to meet the queen with
superior force.*
The queen, surprised at the approach of so formidable a body, which
was drawn up by its leaders in such a manner as added greatly in appearance to its numbers, had again recourse to negotiation. She found, however, that the preservation of the protestant religion, their zeal for whicn
had at first roused the leaders of the congregation to take arms, was not
the only object they had now in view. They were animated with the
* Knox. 141




78                       THE H1ISTORY                         [BooK II.
warmest love of civil liberty, which they conceived to be in imminent
danger from  the attempts of the French forces; and those two passions
mingling, added reciprocally to each other's strength.  Together with
more enlarged notions in religion, the reformation filled the human imind
with more liberal and generous sentiments concerning civil government.
The genius of popery is extremely favourable to the power of princes.
The implicit submission to all her decrees, which is exacted by the Romish
church, prepares and breaks the mind for political servitude; and the
doctrines of the reformers, by overturning the established system of superstition, weakened the firmest foundations of civil tyranny.  That bold
spirit of inquiry, which led men to reject theological errors, accompanied
them in other sciences, and discovered every where the same manly zeal
for truth.  A new study, introduced at the same time, added greater force
to the spirit of liberty.  Men became more acquainted with the Greek and
Roman authors, who described exquisite models of free government, far
superior to the inaccurate and oppressive system established by the feudal
law; and produced such illustrious examples of public virtue as wonderfully suited both the circumstances and spirit of that age.  Many among
the most eminent reformers were themselves considerable masters in
ancient learning; and all of them eagerly adopted the maxims and spirit
of the ancients with regard to government.* The most ardent love of
liberty accompanied the protestant religion throughout all its progress; and
wherever it was embraced, it roused an independent spirit, which rendered
men attentive to their privileges as subjects, and jealous of the encroachments of their sovereigns.  Knox and the other-preachers of the reformation infused generous sentiments concerning government into the minds of
their hearers; and the Scottish barons, naturally free and bold, were
prompted to assert their rights with more freedom and boldness than ever.
Instead of obeying the queen regent, who had enjoined them to lay down
their arms, they demanded not only the redress of their religious grievances,
but, as a preliminary toward settling the nation, and securing its liberties,
required the immediate expulsion of the French troops out of Scotland.
It was not in the queen's power to make so important a concession without
the concurrence of the French monarch; and as some time was requisite
in order to obtain that, she hoped during this interval to receive-such reinforcements from France, as would insure the accomplishment of that design
which she had twice attempted with unequal strength.   [June 13.]
Meanwhile, she agreed to a cessation of arms for eight days, and before
the expiration of these, engaged to transport the French troops to the
south side of the Forth; and to send commissioners to St. Andrew's, who
should labour to bring all differences to an accommodation. As she hoped,
by means of the French troops, to overawe the protestants in the southern
countries, the fbrmer article in the treaty' was punctually'executed; the
latter, having been inserted merely to amuse the congregation, was no
longer remembered.
By these reiterated and wanton instances of perfidy, the queen lost all
credit with her adversaries; and no safety appearing in any other cause,
they again took arms with more inflamed resentment, and with bolder and
more extensive views. The removing of the French forces had laid open
tc them all the country situated between Forth and Tay.  The inhabitants
of Perth alone remaining subjected to the insolence and actions of the garrison which the queen had left there, implored the assistance of the con* The excessive admiration of ancient policy was the occasion of Knox's famous book concerning the Govcrnment of Women, wherein, conformable to the maxims of the ancient legislators,
wvhick modern experience has proved to be ill founded, he pronounces the elevation of women to
the supreme authority to ibe utterly destructive of good government. His principles, authorities,
and examples were all drawn from ancient writers. The same observation may be made with
regard to Buchanan's dialogue, De.Juie Reg'ni apud Scotos. It is founded, not on the maxims of
feudal, but of ancient republican government.




OF' SCOTLAND.                             79
gregation for their relief. Thither they marched, and having without
effect required the queen to evacuate the town in terms of the former
treaty, they prepared to besiege it in form. The queen employed the
earl of Huntly and lord Erskine to divert them from this enterprise. But
her wonted artifices were now of no avail; repeated so often, they could
deceive no longer; and, without listening to her offers, the protestants
continued the siege, and soon obliged the garrison to capitulate.
After the loss of Perth, the queen endeavoured to seize Stirling, a place
of some strength, and, from its command of the only bridge over the
Forth, of great importance. But the leaders of the congregation, having
intelligence of her design, prevented the execution of it by a hasty march
thither with part of their forces. The inhabitants, heartily attached to the
cause, set open to them the gates of their town. Thence they advanced,
with the same rapidity, towards Edtinburgh, which the queen, on their
approach, abandoned with precipitation, and retired to Dunbar.
The protestant army, wherever it came, kindled or spread the ardour
of reformation, and the utmost excesses of violence were committed upon
churches and monasteries. The former were spoiled of every decoration,
which was then esteemed sacred; the latter were laid in ruins. We are
apt, at this distance of time, to condemn the furious zeal of the reformers,
and to regret the overthrow of so many stately fabrics, the monuments of
our ancestors' magnificence, and among the noblest ornaments of the
kingdom. But amidst the violence of a reformation, carried on in opposition to legal authority, some irregularities were unavoidable; and perhaps
no one could have been permitted more proper to allure and interest the
multitude, or more fatal to the grandeur of the established church. How
absurd soever and ill, founded the speculative errors of popery may be,
some inquiry and attention are requisite towards discovering them. The
abuses and corruptions which had crept into the public worship of that
church lay more open to observation, and by striking the senses excited
more universal disgust. Under the long reign of heathenism, superstition
seemed to have exhausted its talent of invention, so that vhen a superstitious spirit seized Christians, they were obliged to imitate the heathens
in the pomp and magnificence of their ceremonies, and to borrow from
them the ornaments and decorations of their temples. To the pure and
simple worship of the primitive Christians there succeeded a species of
splendid idolatry, nearly resembling those pagan originals whence it had
been copied. The contrariety of such observances to the spirit of Christianity was almost the first thing, in the Romish system, which awakened
the indignation of the reformers, who, applying to these the denunciations
in the Old Testament against idolatry, imagined that they could not
endeavour at suppressing them with too much zeal. No task could be
more acceptable to the multitude than to overturn those seats of superstition;
they ran with emulation to perform  it, and happy was the man whose
hand was most adventurous and successful in executing a work deemed so
pious. Nor did their leaders labour to restrain this impetuous spirit of
reformation. Irregular and violent as its sallies were, they tended directly
to that end which they had in view; for, by demolishing the monasteries
throughout the kingdom, and setting at liberty their wretched inhabitants,
they hoped to render it impossible ever to rebuild the one, or to reassemble
the other.
But amidst these irregular proceedings, a circumstance which does
honour to the conduct and humanity of the leaders of the congregation
deserves notice. They so far restrained the rage of their followers, and
were able so to temper their heat and zeal that few of the Roman
Catholics were exposed to any personal insult, and not a single man suffered
death-*
* Lesley, an. Jebb vol. i. 231




bo                      THE  HISTOR Y                    [Book II.
At the same time we discover, by the facility with  which these great
revolutions were effected, how violently the current of national favour ran
towards the reformation. No more than three hundred men marched out
of Perth, under the earl of Argyll and prior of St. Andrew's;" with this
inconsiderable force they advanced. But wherever they came the people
Joined them in a body; their army was seldom less numerous than five
thousand men; the gates of every town were thrown open to receive them;
[June 29] and, without striking a single blow, they took possession of the
capital of the kingdom.
This rapid and astonishing success seems to have encouraged the
reformers to extend their views, and to rise in their demands. Not satisfied
with their first claim of toleration for their religion, they now openly aimed
at establishing the protestant doctrine on the ruins of popery. For this
reason they determined to fix their residence at Edinburgh; and, by their
appointment, Knox, and some other preachers, taking possession of the
pulpits, which had been abandoned by the affrightened clergy, declaimed
against the errors of popery with such fervent zeal as could not fail ot
gaining many proselytes.
In the mean time the queen, who had prudently given way to a torrent
which she could not resist, observed with pleasure that it now began to
subside. The leaders of the congregation had been above two months in
arms, and by the expenses of a campaign, protracted so long beyond the
usual time of service in that age, had exhausted all the money which a
country, where riches did not abound, had been able to supply. The
multitude, dazzled with their success, and concluding the work to be
already done, retired to their own habitations. A few only of the more
zealous or wealthy barons remained with their preachers at Edinburgh.
As intelligence is procured in civil wars with little difficulty, whatever
was transacted at Edinburgh was soon known at Dunbar. The queen,
regulating her own conduct by the situation of her adversaries, artfully
amused them with the prospect of an immediate accommodation; while,
at the same time, she by studied delays spun out the negotiations for that
purpose to such a length that, in the end, the party dwindled to an inconsiderable number; and, as if peace had been already re-established,
became careless of military discipline. The queen, who watched for such
an opportunity, advanced unexpectedly, by a sudden march in the night,
with all her forces, and, appearing before Edinburgh, filled that city with
the utmost consternation.  The protestants, weakened by the imprudent
dispersion of their followers, durst not en;counter the French troops in the
open field; and were even unable to defend an ill fortified town against
their assaults.  Unwilling, however, to abandon the citizens to the queen's
mercy, they endeavoured, by facing the enemy's army, to gain time for
collecting their own associates. But the queen, in spite of all their resistance, would have easily forced her way into the town, if the seasonable
conclusion of a truce had not procured her admission without the effusion
of blood.
Their dangerous situation easily induced the leaders of the congregation
to listen to any overtures of peace; and as the queen was looking daily
for the arrival of a strong reinforcement from France, and expected great
advantages from a cessation of arms, she also agreed to it upon no unequal
conditions. Together with a suspension of hostilities, from the twentyfourth of July to the tenth of January, it was stipulated in this treaty that
on the one hand the protestants should open the gates of Edinburgh next
morning to the queen regent; remain in dutiful subjection to her govern
ment; abstain from  all future violation of religious houses; and give no
interruption to the established clergy, either in the discharge of their func* Keith, 94




OF SCOTLAND.                             PSI
tions, or in the enjoyment of their benefices. On the other hand, the
queen agreed to give no molestation to the preachers or professors of the
protestant religion; to allow the citizens of Edinburgh, during the cessa
tion of hostilities, to enjoy the exercise of religious worship according to
the form most agreeable to the conscience of each individual; and to
permit the free and public profession of the protestant faith in every part
of the kingdomn.? The queen, by these liberal concessions in behalf ot
their religion, hoped to sooth the protestants, and expected, from indulging
their favourite passion, to render them more compliant with resp'ct to
other articles, particularly the expulsion of the French troops out of Scotland. The anxiety which the queen expressed for retaining this body of
men rendered them more and more the objects of national jealousy and
aversion. The immediate expulsion of them was therefore demanded
anew, and with greater warmth, but the queen, taking advantage of the
distress of the adverse party, eluded the request, and would consent to
nothing more than that a French garrison should not be introduced into
Edinburgh.
The desperate state of their affairs imposed on the congregation the
necessity of agreeing to this article, which, however, was very far from
giving thein satisfaction.  Whatever apprehensions the Scots had conceived, from retaining the French forces in the kingdom, were abundantly
justified during the late commotions. A small body of those troops, maintained in constant pay, and rendered formidable by regular discipline,
had checked the progress of a martial people, though animated with zeal
both fbr religion and liberty.  The smallest addition to their number, and
a considerable one was daily expected, might prove fatal to the public
liberty, and Scotland might be exposed to the danger of being reduced
from an independent kingdom, to the mean condition of a province annexed
to the dominions of its powerful ally.
In order to provide against this imminent calamity, the Duke of Chatelherault and Earl of Huntly, immediately after concluding the truce,
desired an - interview with the chiefs of the congregation. These two
noblemen, the most potent at that time in Scotland, were the leaders of
the party which adhered to the established church. They had followed
the queen during the late commotions; and, having access to observe
more narrowly the dangerous tendency of her counsels, their abhorrence
of the yoke which was preparing for their country surmounted all other
considerations, and determined them rather to endanger the religion which
they professed than to give their aid towards the execution of her pernicious designs. -They proceeded filrther, and promised to Argyll, Glencairn, and the Prior of St. Andrew's, who were appointed to meet them,
that if the' queen should, with her usual insincerity, violate any article in
the treaty of truce, or refuse to gratify the wishes of the whole nation, by
dismissing her French troops, they would then instantly join with their
countrymen in compelling her to a measure, which the public safety, and
the preservation of their liberties rendered necessary.t
July 8.] About this time died Henry II. of France; just when he had
adopted a system, with regard to the affairs of Scotland, which would, in!
all probability, have restored union and tranquillity to that kingdom.+
Towards the close of his reign, the princes of Lorrain began visibly to
decline in favour, and the constable Montmorency, by the assistance of the
dutchess of Valentinois, recovered that ascendant over the spirit of hi,.
master, which his great experience, and his faithful though often unfortu
nate services seemed justly to merit. That prudent minister imputed the
insurrections in Scotlalnd wholly to the duke of Guise and the cardinal ot
Lorrain, whose violent and precipitant counsels could not fail of transport* Keith, 98. Maitland, Hist of Edin. 16, 17.  t Knox, 154.  ~ Melv 40.
VOL. III. —11




8a2                   THE  HISTORY                      [BooK II.
ing beyond all bounds of moderation men whose minds were possessed
with that jealousy which is inseparable from the love of civil liberty, or
inflamed with that ardour which accompanies religious zeal. Montmorency, in order to convince Henry that he did not load his rivals with any
groundless accusation, prevailed to have Melvil,? a Scottish gentleman of
his retinue, despatched into his native country, with instructions to observe
the motions both of the regent and of her adversaries; and the king agreed
to regulate his future proceedings in that kingdom by Melvil's report.
Did history indulge herself in these speculations, it would be amusing tc
inquire what a different direction might have been given by this resolution
to the national spirit; and to what a different issue Melvil's report, which
would have set the conduct of the malecontents in the most favourable
light, might have conducted the public disorders. Perhaps, by gentle
treatment and artful policy, the progress of the reformation might have
been checked, and Scotland brought to depend upon France. Perhaps,
by gaining possession of this avenue, the French might have made their
way into England; and, under colour of supporting Mary's title to the
crown, they might not only have defeated all Elizabeth's measures in favour
of the reformation, but have re-established the Roman catholic religion,
and destroyed the liberties of that kingdom. But into this boundless field
-of fancy and conjecture the historian must make no excursions; to relate,real occurrences, and to explain their real causes and effects, is his peculiar
and only province.
The tragical and untimely death of the French monarch put an end to
-all moderate and pacific measures with regard to Scotland. The duke of
Guise, and the cardinal his brother, upon the accession of Francis II., a
prince void of genius and without experience, assumed the chief direction,of French affairs. Allied so nearly to the throne, by the marriage of
their niece the queen of Scots'with the young king, they now wanted but
-little of regal dignity, and nothing of regal power. This power did not
ong remain inactive in their hands. The same vast schemes of ambition,
-which they had planned out under the former reign, were again resumed;
and they were enableck by possessing such ample authority, to pursue them
with more vigour and greater probability of success. They beheld, with
infinite regret, the progress of the protestant religion in Scotland; and, sensible what an unsurmountable obstacle it would prove to their designs, they
bent all their strength to check its growth before it rose to any greater height.
For this purpose they carried on their preparations with all possible expedition, and encouraged the queen their sister to expect, in a short time, the
arrival of an army so powerful as the zeal of their adversaries, however
desperate, would not venture to oppose.
Nor were the lords of the congregation either ignorant of those violent
counsels which prevailed in the court of France since the death of Henry,
or careless of providing against the danger which threatened them from
that quarter. The success of their cause, as well as their personal safety,
depending entirely on the unanimity and vigour of their own resolutions,
they endeavoured to guard against division, and to cement together more
closely by entering into a stricter bond of confederacy and mutual defence.
Two persons concurred in this new association, who brought a great accession both of,reputation and of power to the party. These were the duke
-o Chatelherault, and his eldest son the earl of Arran. This young noble-man, having resided some years in France, where he commanded the Scottish guards, had imbibed the protestant opinions concerning religior.
Hurried along by the heat of youth and the zeal of a proselyte, he had
uttered sentiments with respect to the points in controversy which did not
suit the temper of a bigoted court, intent at that juncture on the extinction
* The author of the memoirs.




OF SCOTLAND.                              83
of the protestant religion; in order to accomplish which the greatest excesses
of violence were committed.  The church was suffered to wreak its
utmost fury upon all who were suspected of heresy. Courts were erected
in different parts of France to take cognizance of this crime; and by their
sentences several persons of distinction were condemned to the flames.
But, in order to inspire more universal terror, the princes of Lorrain re
solved to select, for a sacrifice, some persons whose fall might convince all
ranks of men that neither splendour of' birth nor eminence in station could
exempt from punishment those who should be guilty of this unpardonable
transgression. The earl of Arran was the person destined to be the
anhappy victim." As he was allied to one throne, and the presumptive
heir to another; as -he possessed the first rank in his own country, and
enjoyed an honourable station in France; his condemnation could not fail
of making the desired impression on the whole kingdom. But the cardinal
of Lorrain having let fall some expressions which raised Arran's suspicions
of the design, he escaped the intended blow by a timely flight. Indignation, zeal, resentment, all prompted him to seek revenge upon these persecutors of himself and of the religion which he professed; and as he passed
through England, on his return to his native country, Elizabeth, by hopes
and promises, inflamed those passions, and sent him back into Scotland
animated with the same implacable aversion to France which possessed a
great part of his countrymen. He quickly communicated these sentiments
to his father the duke of Chatelherault, who was already extremely disgusted with the measures carrying on in Scotland; and as it was the fate
of that nobleman to be governed in every instance by those about him, he now
suffered himself to be drawn from the queen regent; and, having joined the
congregation, was considered from that time as the head of the party.
But with- respect to him, this distinction was merely nominal. James
Stewart, prior of St. Andrew's, was the person who moved and actuated
the whole body of the protestants, among whom he possessed that unbounded
confidence which his strenuous adherence to their interest and his great
abilities so justly merited. He was the natural son of James V., by a
daughter of Lord Erskine; and as that amorous monarch had left several
others a burden upon the crown, they were all destined for the church,
where they could be placed in stations of dignity and affluence. In consequence of this resolution the priory of St. Andrew's had been conferred
upon James; but, during so busy a period, he soon became disgusted with
the indolence and retirement of a monastic life; and his enterprising genius
called him forth to act a principal part on a more public and conspicuous
theatre. The scene in which he appeared required talents of different
kinds: military virture and political discernment were equally necessary
in order to render him illustrious. These he possessed in an eminent
degree. To the most unquestionable personal bravery he added great skill
in the art of war, and in every enterprise his arms was crowned with success. His sagacity and penetration in civil affairs enabled him, amidst the
reeling and turbulence of factions, to hold a prosperous course; while his
boldness in defence of the reformation, together with the decency and even
severity of his manners, secured him  the reputation of being sincerely
attached to religion, without which it was impossible in that age to gain
ascendant over mankind.
It was not without reason that the queen dreaded the enmity of a man so
capable to obstruct her designs. As she could not, with all her address,
make the least impression on his fidelity to his associates, she endeavoured
to lessen his influence, and to scatter among them the seeds of jealousy
and distrust, by insinuating that the ambition of the prior aspired beyond
the condition of a subject, and aimed at nothing less than the crown itself
* Thuan. lib. xxiv. p. 462. Edit. Francof.




~84             YTHE HISTORY                      [BooK II.
An accusation so improbable gained but little credit. Whatever thoughts
of this kind the presumption of unexpected success, and his elevation to
the highest dignity in the kingdom, may be alleged to nave inspired at any
subsequent period, it is certain that at this junctpre he could form no such
vast design. To dethrone a queen, who was lineal heir to an ancient race
of monarchs; who had been guilty of no action by which she could forfeit
the esteem and affection of her subjects; who could employ, in defence of
her rights, the forces of -a kingdom much more powerful than her own;
and to substitute in her place a person whom the illegitimacy of lis birth,
by the practice of all civilized nations, rendered incapable of any inheritance either public or private; was a project so chimerical as the most
extravagant ambition would hardly entertain, and could never conceive to
be practicable. The promise too, which the prior made to Melvil, of residing constantly in France, on condition the public grievances were
redressed;% the confidence reposed in him by the duke of Chatelherault
and his son, the presumptive heirs to the crown; and the concurrence of
almost all the Scottish nobles in promoting the measures by which he gave
offence to the French court, go far towards his vindication from those illegal
and criminal designs, with the imputation of which the queen endeavoured
at that time to load him.
The arrival of a thousand French soldiers compensated, in some degree,
for the loss which the queen sustained by the defection of the duke of
Chatelherault. These were immediately commanded to fortify Leith, in
which place, on account of its commodious harbour, and its situation in the
neig.hbourhood of Edinburgh, and in a plentiful country, the queen resolved
to fix the head-quarters of her foreign forces. This unpopular measure,
by the manner of executing it, was rendered still more unpopular. In
order to bring the town entirely under their command, the French turned
out a great part of the ancient inhabitants, and, taking possession of the
houses which they had obliged them to abandon, presented to the view of
the Scots two objects equally irritating and offensive; on the one hand, a
number of their countrymen expelled their habitations by violence, and
wandering without any certain abode; on the other, a colony of foreigners,
settling with their wives and children in the heart of Scotland, growing
into strength by daily reinforcements, and openly preparing a yoke, to
which, without some timely exertion of national spirit, the whole kingdom
must of' necessity submit.
It was with deep concern that the lords of the congregation beheld this
bold and decisive step taken by the queen regent; nor did they hesitate a
moment, whether they should employ their whole strength in one generous
effort, to rescue their religion and liberty from impending destruction.
But, in order to justify their own conduct, and to throw the blame entirely
on their adversaries, they resolved to preserve the appearances of decency
and respect towards their superiors, and to have no recourse to arms without the most urgent and apparent necessity. [Sept. 29.] They joined, with
this view, in an address to the regent, representing, in the strongest terms,
their dissatisfaction with the measures she was pursuing, and beseeching
her to quiet the fears and jealousies of the nation by desisting from fortifying
Leith. The queen, conscious of her present advantageous situation, and
elated with the hopes of fresh succours, was in no disposition for listening
to demands utterly inconsistent with her views, and urged with that bold
importunity which is so little acceptable to princes.t
The suggestions of her French counsellors contributed, without doubt,
to alienate her still further from any scheme of accommodation. As the
queen was ready on all occasions to discover an extraordinary deference
to the opinions of her countrymen, her brothers, who knew her sec et dis* Wlelvil, 54.  t Haynes, 211.




OF SCOTLAND.                              85
approbation of the violent measures they were: driving on, took care to
place near her such persons as betrayed her, by their insinuations, into many
actions, which her own unbiassed judgment would have highly condemned.
As their success in the present juncture, when all things were hastening
towards a crisis, depended entirely on the queen's firmness, t'ne princes of
Lorrain did not trust wholly to the influence of their ordinary agents'; but,
in order to add the greater weight to their councils, they called in aid the
ministers of religion; and, by the authority of their sacred character, they
hoped effectually to recommend to their sister that system of severity
which they had espoused.* With this view, but under pretence of confounding the protestants by the skill of such able masters in controversy,
they appointed several French divines to reside in Scotland. ~ At the head
of these, and with the character of legate from the pope, was Pelleve
bishop of Amiens, and afterwards archbishop and cardinal of Sens, a furious bigot,t servilely devoted to the house of Guise, and a proper instrument for recommending or executing the most outrageous measures.
Amidst the noise and danger of civil arms, these doctors had little opportunity to display their address in the use of their theological weapons.
But they gave no small offence to the nation by one of their actions. They
persuaded the queen to seize the church of St. Giles in Edinburgh, which
had remained ever since the late truce in the hands of the protestants;
and having, by a new and solemn consecration, purified the fabric from the
pollution with which they supposed the profane ministrations of the pro
testants to have defiled it, they, in direct contradiction to one article in the
late treaty, re-established there the rites of the Rornish church. This,
added to the indifference, and even contempt, with which the queen received their remonstrances, convinced the lords of the congregation, that it
was not only vain to expect any redress of their grievances at her hands,
but absolutely necessary to take arms in their own defence.
The eager and impetuous spirit of the nation, as well as every consideration of good policy, prompted them to take this bold step without delay.
It was but a small part of the French auxiliaries which had as yet arrived
The fortifications of Leith, though advancing fast, were still far from being
complete. Under these circumstances of disadvantage, they conceived it
possible to surprise the queen's party, and, by one sudden and decisive
blow, to prevent all future bloodshed and contention.  [Oct. 6.] Full of
these expectations, they advanced rapidly towards Edinburgh with a numerous army. But it was no easy matter to deceive an adversary as vigilant
and attentive as the queen regent. With her usual sagacity, she both foresaw the danger, and took the only proper course to avoid it. Instead of
keeping the field against enemies superior in number, and formidable on
a day of battle by the ardour of their courage, she retired into Leith,
and determined patiently to wait the arrival of new reinforcements. Slight
and unfinished as the fortifications of that town then were, she did not
dread the efforts of an army provided neither with heavy cannon nor with
military stores, and little acquainted with the method of attacking any
place fortified with more art than those ancient towers erected all over the
kingdom in defence of private property against the incursions of banditti.
Nor did the queen meanwhile neglect to have recourse to those arts
which she had often employed to weaken or divide her adversaries. By
private solicitations and promises she shook the fidelity or abated the ardour
of some. By open reproach and accusation she blasted the reputation and
diminished the authority of others. Her emissaries were every where at
work, and, notwithstanding the zeal for religion and liberty which then
animated the nation, they seem to have laboured not without success,
We find Knox, about this period, abounding In complaints of the lukewarm
* Lcyley, 215. Castelnau, ap. Jebb. vol. ii. 446. 473.  t Davila,'Brantome




8b                   TTHiE  HISTO RY                   [BooK 1I.
and languid spirit which had begun to spread among his party.*  But ik
their zeal slackened a little, and suffered a momentary intermission, it soon
blazed up with fresh vigour, and rose to a greater height than ever.
The queen herself gave occasion to this, by the reply which she made.to a new remonstrance from the lords of the congregation. Upon their
arrival at. Edinburgh, they once more represented to her the dangers arising
from the increase of the French troops, the fortifying of Leith, and her
other measures, which they conceived to be destructive to the peace and
liberty of the kingdom; and in this address they spoke in a firmer tone,
and avowed more openly than ever their resolution of proceeding to the
utmost extremities, in order to put a stop to such dangerous encroachments.
To a remonstrance of this nature, and urged with so much boldness, the
queen replied in terms no less vigorous and explicit. She pretended that
she was not accountable to the confederate lords for any part of her conduct; and upon no representation of theirs would she either abandon measures which she deemed necessary, or dismiss forces which she found useful, or demolish a fortification which might prove of advantage. At the
same time she required them, on pain of treason, to disband the forces
which they had assembled.
This haughty and imperious style sounded harshly to Scottish nobles,
impatient, from their national character, of the slightest appearance of
injury; accustomed, even from their own monarchs, to the most respectful
treatment; and possessing, under an aristocratical form of government,
such a share of power, as equalled at all times; and often controlled, that
of the sovereign. They were sensible at once of the indignity offered to
themselves, and alarmed with this plain declaration of the queen's intentions; and as there now remained but one step to take, they wanted
neither public spirit nor resolution to take it.
But, that they might not seem to depart from the established forms of
the constitution, for which, even amidst their most violent operations, men
always retain the greatest reverence, [Oct. 21.] they assembled all the
peers, barons, and representatives of boroughs, who adhered to their party.
These formed a convention, which exceeded in number, and equalled in
dignity, the usual meetings of parliament. The leaders of the congregation laid before them the declaration which the queen had given in answer
to their remonstrance; represented the unavoidable ruin which the measures she therein avowed and justified would bring upon the kingdom;
and requiring their direction with regard to the obedience due to an administration so unjust and oppressive, they submitted to their decision a
question, one of the most delicate and interesting that can possibly fall
under the consideration of subjects.
This assembly proceeded to decide with no less despatch than unanimity.
Strangers to those forms which protract business, unacquainted with the
arts which make a figure in debate, and much more fitted for action than
discourse, a warlike people always hasten to a conclusion, and bring their
deliberations to the shortest issue. It was the work but of one day to
examine and to resolve this nice problem, concerning the behaviour of subjects towards a ruler who abuses his power. But, however abrupt their
proceeding may appear, they were not destitute of solemnity. As the
determination of the point in doubt was conceived to be no less the office
of divines than of laymen, the former were called to assist with their
opinion. Knox and Willox appeared for the whole order, and pronounced,
without hesitation, both from the precepts and examples in Scripture, that
it was lawfill for subjects not only to resist tyrannical princes, but to deprive
them of that authority which, in their hands, becomes an instrument for
destroying those whom the Almighty ordained them to protect. The
* Knox, 180.




OF SCOTLAND.                                    87
decision of persons revered so highly for their sacred character, but more
for their zeal and their piety, had great weight with the whole assembly.
Not satisfied with the common indiscriminate manner of signifying consent, every person present was called in his turn to declare his sentiments;
and rising up in order; all gave their suffrages, without one dissenting voice,
for depriving the queen of the office of regent, which she exercised so
much to the detriment of the kingdom.*
This extraordinary sentence was owing no less to the love of liberty
than to zeal for religion. In the act of deprivation, religious grievances
are slightly mentioned; and the dangerous encroachments of the queen
upon the civil constitution are produced by the lords of the congregation,
in order to prove their conduct to have been not only just but necessary.
The introducing foreign troops into a kingdom at peace with all the world;
the seizing and fortifying towns in different parts of the country; the promoting strangers to offices of great power and dignity; the debasing the
current coin:  the subverting the ancient laws; the imposing of new and
burdensome taxes; and the attempting to subdue the kingdom, and to oppress its liberties, by open and repeated acts of violence, are enumerated
at great length, and placed in the strongest light. On all these accounts,
the congregation maintained, that the nobles, as counsellors by birthright
to their monarchs, and the guardians and defenders of the constitution, had
a right to interpose; and therefore, by virtue of this right, in the name of
the king and queen, and with many expressions of duty and submission
towards them, they deprived the queen regent of her office, and ordained
that, for the future, no obedience should be given to her commands.t
Violent as this action may appear, there wanted not principles in the
constitution, nor precedents in the history of Scotland, to justify and to
author;ze it.  Under the aristocratical form  of government established
among the Scots, the power of the sovereign was extremely limited. The
more considerable nobles were themselves petty princes, possessing extensive jurisdictions, almost independent of the crown, and followed by numerous vassals, who, in every contest, espoused their chieftain's quarrel, in
opposition to the king.  Hence the many instances of the impotence of
regal authority, which are to be found in the Scottish history. In every
age, the nobles not only claimed, but exercised, the right of controlling the
king. Jealous of their privileges, and ever ready to take the field in defence of them, every error in administration was observed, every encroachment upon the rights of the aristocracy excited indignation, and no prince
ever ventured to transgress the boundaries which the law had prescribed
to prerogative, without meeting resistance, which shook or overturned his
throne. Encouraged by the spirit of the constitution, and countenanced
by the example of their ancestors, the lords of the congregation thought it
incumbent on them, at this juncture, to inquire into the maleadministration
of the queen regent, and to preserve their country from being enslaved
or conquered, by depriving her of the power to execute such a pernicious
scheme.
The act of deprivation, and a letter from the lords of the congregation
to the queen regent, are still extant.~ They discover not only that mascu* Knox, 184.
t The standard of money in Scotland was continually varying. In the 16th of James V., A. D
1529, a pound weight of gold, when coined, produced ~108 of current money. But under the
queen regent's administration, A. D. 1556, a pound weight of gold, although the quantity of alloy
was considerably increased, produced ~144 of current money. In 1529, a pound weight of silver,
when coined, produced ~9 2s.; but in 1556, it produced ~13 current money. Ruddiman. PrEefat.
ad Anders. Diplomat. Scotita. p. 80, 81; from which it appears, that this complaint, which the
malecontents often repeated, was not altogether destitute of foundation.
$ M. Castelnau, after condemning the dangerous counsels of the princes of Lorrain, with regard
to the affairs of Scotland, acknowledges, with his usual candour, that the Scots declared war
against the queen regent, rather from a desire of vindicating their civil liberties tian from anyv
motive of religion. Menr. 446.          Q Knox, 184.




88                   THE  HISTORY                      [Book III.
line and undaunted spirit, natural to men capable of so bold a resolution,
but are remarkable for a precision and vigour of expression, which we are
surprised to meet with in an age so unpolished. The same observation
may be made with respect to the other public papers of that period. The
Ignorance or bad taste of an age may render the compositions of authors
by profession obscure, or affected, or absurd: but the language of business
is nearly the same at all times; and wherever men think clearly, and are
thoroughly interested, they express themselves with perspicuity and force.
BOOK IlWI
1559.] The lords of the congregation soon found that their zeal had
engaged them in an undertaking which it was beyond their utmost ability
to accomplish. The French garrison, despising their numerous but irregular forces, refused to surrender Leith, and to depart out of the kingdom;
nor were these sufficiently skilful in the art of war to reduce the place by
force, or possessed of the artillery or magazines requisite for that purpose;
and their followers, though of undaunted courage, yet, being accustomed
to decide every quarrel by a battle, were strangers to the fatigues of a
long campaign, and soon became impatient of the severe and constant duty
which a siege requires. The queen's emissaries, who found it easy to
mingle with their countrymen, were at the utmost pains to heighten their
disgust, which discovered itself at first in murmurs and complaints, but, on
occasion of the want of money for paying the army, broke out into open
mutiny. The most eminent leaders were hardly secure from the unbridled
insolence of the soldiers; while some of inferior rank, interposing too
rashly in order to quell them, fell victims to their rage. Discord, consternation, and perplexity reigned in the camp of the reformers. The duke,
their general, sunk, with his usual timidity, under the terror of approaching danger, and discovered manifest symptoms of repentance for his rashness in espousing such a desperate cause.
In this situation of their affairs, the congregation had recourse to Elizabeth, from whose protection they could derive their only reasonable hope
of success. Some of their more sagacious leaders, having foreseen that
the party might probably be involved in greal difficulties, had early endeavoured to secure a resource in any such exigency, by entering into a secret
correspondence with the court of England.?  Elizabeth, aware of the
dangerous designs which the princes of Lorrain had formed against her
crown, was early sensible of how much importance it would be, not only
to check the progress of the French in Scotland, but to extend her own
influence in that kingdom;t and perceiving how effectually the present
insurrections would contribute to retard or defeat the schemes formed against
England, she listened with pleasure to these applications of the malecontents, and gave them private assurances of powerful support to their cause.
Randolph4,* an agent extremely proper for conducting any dark intrigue,
was despatched into Scotland, and residing secretly among the lords of the
congregation, observed and quickened their motions. Money seemed to
be the only thing they wanted at that time; and it was owing to a seasonable remittance from England,~ that the Scottish nobles had been enabled
to take the field, and to advance towards Leith. But as Elizabeth was
distrustful of the Scots, and studious to preserve appearances with France,
* Burn. list. Ref. 3. Append. 278. Keith, Append. 21. L  See Append. No. 1.  $ Keith)
Append. 29.   ~ Knox, 214. Keith, Append. 44.




OF SCOTLAND.                              89
her subsidies were bestowed at first with extreme frugality. The subsistence of an army, and the expenses of a siege, soon exhausted this penurious
supply, to which the lords of the congregation could make little addition
from their own funds; and the ruin and dispersion of the party must have
instantly followed.
In order to prevent. this, Cockburn of Ormiston, was sent, with the
utmost expedition, to the governors of the town and castle of Berwick.
As Berwick was at that time the town of greatest importance on the
Scottish frontier, sir Ralph Sadler and sir James Crofts, persons of considerable figure, were employed to command there, and were intrusted with
a discretionary power of supplying the Scottish malecontents, according
to the exigency of their affairs.  From  them Cockburn received fotur
thousand crowns, but little to the advantage of his associates. The earl
of Bothwell, by the queen's instigation, lay in wait for him on his return,
dispersed his followers, wounded him, and carried off the money.
This unexpected disappointment proved fatal to the party. In mere
despair, some of the more zealous attempted to assault Leith; but the
French beat them back with disgrace, seized their cannon, and, pursuing
them to the gates of Edinburgh, were on the point of entering along with
them. All the terror and confusion which the prospect of pillage or of
massacre can excite in a place taken by storm, filled the city on this occasion. The inhabitants fled from the enemy by the opposite gate; the
forces of the congregation were irresolute and dismayed; and the queen's
partisans in the town openly insulted both. At last, a few of the nobles
ventured to face the enemy, who, after plundering some houses in the
suburbs, retired with their booty, and delivered the city from this dreadful
alarm.
A second skirmish, which happened a few days after, was no less unfortunate.  The French sent out a detachment to intercept a convoy of
provisions which was designed for Edinburgh. The lords of the congregation having intelligence of this, marched in all haste with a considerable
body of their troops, and falling upon the enemy between Restalrig and
Leith, with more gallantry than good conduct, were almost surrounded by
a second party of French, who advanced in order to support their own
men. In this situation a retreat was the only thing which could save the
Scots; but a retreat over marshy ground, and in the face of an enemy
superior in number, could not long be conducted with order. A body of
the enemy hung upon their rear, horse and foot fell into the utmost confusion, and it was entirely owing to the overcaution of the French that
any of the party escaped being cut in pieces.
On this second blow, the hopes and spirits of the congregation sunk
altogether. They did not think themselves secure even within the walls
of Edinburgh, but instantly determined to retire to some place at a great
distance from the enemy. In vain did the prior of St. Andrew's, and a
few others, oppose this cowardly and ignominious flight. This dread of
the present danger prevailed over both the sense of honour and zeal for
the cause. [Nov. 6.] At midnight they set out from Edinburgh in great
confusion, and marched without halting till they arrived at Stirling.*
During this last insurrection, the great body of the Scottish nobility
joined the congregation. The lords Seton and Borthwick were the only
persons of rank. who took arms for the queen, and assisted her in defending
Leith.t Bothwell openly favoured her cause, but resided at his own house
The earl of Huntly, conformable to the crafty policy which distinguished
his character, amused the leaders of the congregation, whom he had
engaged to assist, with many fair promises, but never joined them with a
single man.: The earl of Morton, a member of the congregation, fluctuated
* Keith, Append. 21-45.   t Ibid. Append. 31.   t Ibid. Append. 33. Knox, 222.
VOL. III. —12




90                     THE HISTORY                     [BooX III
in a state of irresolution, and did not act heartily for the common cause
Lord Erskine, governor of Edinburgh castle, though a protestant, main
tained a neutrality, which he deemed becoming the dignity of his office,
and having been intrusted by parliament with the command of the principal
fortress in the kingdom, he resolved that neither faction should get it into
their hands.
A few days before the retreat of the congregation, the queen suffered
an irreparable loss by the defection of her principal secretary, William
Maitland of Lethington. His zeal for the reformed religion, together with
his warm remonstrances against the violent measures which the queen was
carrying on, exposed him so much to her resentment, and to that of her
French counsellors, that he, suspecting his life to be in danger, withdrew
secretly from Leith, and fled to the lords of the congregation;* and they
with open arms received a convert, whose abilities added both strength
and reputation to their cause. Maitland had early applied to public business admirable natural talents, improved by an acquaintance with the
liberal arts; and, at a time of life when his countrymen of the same
quality were following the pleasures of the chase, or serving as adventurers
in the armies of France, he was admitted into all the secrets of the cabinet,
and put upon a level with persons of the most consummate experience in
the management of affairs. He possessed, in all eminent degree, that
intrepid spirit which delights in pursuing bold designs, and was no less
master of that political dexterity which is necessary for carrying them on
with success. But these qualities were deeply tinctured with the neighbouring vices. His address sometimes degenerated into cunning; his
acuteness bordered upon excess; his invention, overfertile, suggested to
him, on some occasions, chimerical systems of policy, too refined for the
genius of his age or country-; and his enterprising spirit engaged him in
projects vast and splendid, but beyond his utmost power to execute. All
the cotemporary writers, to whatever faction they belong, mention him
with an admiration which nothing could have excited but the greatest
superiority of penetration and abilities.
The precipitate retreat of the congregation increased to such a degree
the terror and confusion which had seized the party at Edinburgh, that
before the army reached Stirling it dwindled to an inconsiderable number. The spirit of Knox however still remained undaunted and erect;
and having mounted the pulpit, he addressed to his desponding hearers an
exhortation which wonderfully animated and revived them. The heads
of this discourse are inserted in his history,4 and afford a striking example
of the boldness and freedom of reproof assumed by the first reformers, as
well as a specimen of his own skill in choosing the topics most fitted to
influence and rouse his audience.
A meeting of the leaders being called, to consider what course they
should hold, now that their own resources were all exhausted, and their
destruction appeared to be unavoidable without foreign aid, they turned
their eyes once more to England, and resolved to implore the assistance of
Elizabeth towards finishing an enterprise, in which they had so fatally
experienced their own weakness, and the strength of their adversaries.
Maitland, as the most able negotiator of the party, was employed in this
embassy. In his absence, and during the inactive season of the year, it
was agreed to dismiss their followers, worn out by the fatigues of a campaign which had so far exceeded the usual time of service. But, in order
to preserve the counties most devoted to their interest, the prior of St.
Andrew's, with part of the leaders, retired into Fife. The duke of Chatelherault, with the rest, fixed his residence at Hamilton. There was little
need of Maitland's address or eloquence to induce Elizabeth to take his
* Knox 192.    t Ibid. 193.




OF SCOTLAND.                              91
country under her protection. She observed the prevalence of the French
counsels, and the progress of their arms in Scotland, with great concern;
and as she well foresaw the dangerous tendency of their schemes in that
kingdom, she had already come to a resolution with regard to the part she
herself would act, if their power there should grow still more formidable
In order to give the queen and her privy council a full and distinct view
of any important matter which might come before them, it seems to have
been the practice of Elizabeth's ministers to prepare memorials, in which
they clearly stated the point under deliberation, laid down the grounds of
the conduct which they held to be most reasonable, and proposed a method
for carrying their plan into execution. Two papers of this kind, written
by sir William Cecil with his own hand, and submitted by the queen to
the consideration of her privy council, still remain; they are entitled,
" A short discussion of the weighty matter of Scotland," and do honour
to the industry and penetration of that great minister. The motives which
determined the queen to espouse so warmly the defence of the congrega
tion, are represented with perspicuity and force; and the consequences ot
suffering the French to establish themselves in Scotland are predicted with
great accuracy and discernment.
He lays it down as a principle, agreeably to the laws both of God and
of nature, that every society hath a right to defend itself, not only from
present dangers, but from such as may probably ensue; to which he adds,
that nature and reason teach every prince to defend himself by the same
means which his adversaries employ to distress him. Upon these grounds
he establishes the right of England to interpose in the affairs of Scotland,
and to prevent the conquest of that kingdom, at which the Frehch openly
aimed. The French, he observes, are the ancient and implacable enemies
of England. Hostilities had subsisted between the two nations for many
centuries. No treaty of peace into which they entered had ever been
cordial or sincere. No good effect was therefore to be expected from the
peace lately agreed upon, which, being extorted by present necessity,
would be negligently observed, and broken on the slightest pretences. In
a very short time France would recover its former opulence; and though
now drained of men and money by a tedious and unsuccessful war, it would
quickly be in a condition for acting, and the restless and martial genius of
the people render action necessary. The princes of Lorrain, who at that
time had the entire direction of French affairs, were animated with the
most virulent hatred against the English nation. They openly called in
question the legitimacy of the queen's birth, and, by advancing the title
and pretensions of their niece the queen of Scotland, studied to deprive
Elizabeth of her crown. With this view they had laboured to exclude
the English from the treaty of Chateau en Cambresis, and endeavoured to
conclude a separate peace with Spain. They had persuaded Henry II.
to permit his daughter-in-law to assume the title and arms of queen of.England; and even since the conclusion of the peace, they had solicited
at Rome, and obtained a bull, declaring Elizabeth's birth to be illegitimate.
Though the wisdom and moderation of the constable Montmorency had
for some time checked their career, yet these restraints being now removed
by the death of Henry II. and the disgrace of his minister, the utmost
excesses of violence were to be dreaded from their furious ambition, armed
with sovereign power. Scotland is the quarter where they can attack
England with most advantage. A war on the borders of that country
exposes France to no danger; but one unsuccessful action there may
hazard the crown, and overturn the government of England. In political
conduct, it is childish to wait till the designs of an enemy be ripe for
execution. The Scottisn nobles, after their utmost efforts, have been
* Burn. vol. iii. Append. 233. Forbes, i. 387 c. Keith, Append. 21.




THRE HISTORY                     [BooK III.
obliged to quit the field; and, far from expelling the invaders of their
liberties, they behold the French power daily increasing, and must at last
cease from struggling any longer in a contest so unequal. The invading
of England will immediately follow the reduction of the Scottish malecontents, by the abandoning of whom to the mercy of the French, Elizabeth will open a way for her enemies into the heart of her own kingdom,
and expose it to the calamities of war and the danger of conquest.
Nothing therefore remained but to meet the enemy while yet at a distance
from England, and, by supporting the congregation with a powerful army
to render Scotland the theatre of the war, to crush the designs of the
princes of Lorrain in their infancy, and, by such an early and unexpected
effort, to expel the French out of Britain, before their power had time to
take root and grow up to any formidable height. But as the matter was of
as much importance as any which could fall under the consideration of' an
English monarch, wisdom and mature counsel were necessary in the first
place, and afterwards vigour and expedition in conduct; the danger was
urgent, and by losing a single moment might become unavoidable.?
~ These arguments produced their full effect upon Elizabeth, who was
jealous, in an extreme degree, of every pretender to her crown, and nc
less anxious to preserve the tranquillity and happiness of her subjects.
From these motives she had acted in granting the congregation an early
supply of money; and from the same principles she determined, in their
present exigency, to afford them more effectual aid. One of Maitland's
attendants was instantly despatched into Scotland with the strongest assurances of her protection, and the lords of the congregation were desired
to send commissioners into England to conclude a treaty, and to settle the
operations of the campaign with the duke of Norfolk.j
Meanwhile the queen regent, from whom no motion of the congregation
could long be concealed, dreaded the success of this negotiation with the
court of England, and foresaw how little she wduld be able to resist the
united efforts of the two kingdoms. For this reason she determined, if
possible, to get the start of Elizabeth; and by venturing, notwithstanding
the inclemency of the winter season, to attack the malecontents in their
present dispersed and helpless situation, she hoped to put an end to the
war before the arrival of their English allies.
A considerable body of her French forces, who were augmented about
this time by the arrival of the Count de Martigues, with a thousand veteran
foot, and some cavalry, were commanded to march to Stirling. Having
there crossed the Forth, they proceeded along the coast of Fife, destroying
and plundering, with excessive outrage, the houses and larnds of those whom
they deemed their enemies. Fife was the most populous and powerful
county in the kingdom, and most devoted to the congregation, who had
hitherto drawn friom thence their most considerable supplies, both of men
and provisions; and therefore, besides punishing the disaffection of the
inhabitants by pillaging the country, the French proposed to seize and
fortify St. Andrev's, and to leave in it a garrison sufficient to bridle the
mutinous spirit of the province, and to keep possession of a port situated
on the main ocean.+
But on this occasion the prior of St. Andrew's, lord Ruthven, Kirkaldy
of Grange, and a few of the most active leaders of the congregation,
performed, by their bravery and good conduct, a service of the utmost
importance to their party. Having assembled six hundred horse they
infested the French with continual incursions, beat up their quarters, intercepted their convoys of provisions, cut off their straggling parties, and so
* The arguments which the Scots employed, in order to obtain Elizabeth's assistance, are urged
with great force in a paper of Maitland's. See Append. No. 11.
t Keith, 114 Rymer, xv. p. 569.     $ Haynes, 221, &c.




OF SCOTLAND                               93
harassed them with perpetual alarms that they prevented them for more
than three weeks from advancing.'
1560.] At last the prior, with his feeble party, was constrained to retire,
and the French set out from Kirkaldy, and began to move along the coast
towards St. Andrew's. [Jan. 23.] They had advanced but a few miles
when, from an eminence, they descried a powerful fleet steering its course
up the Frith of Forth. As they knew that the Marquis D'Elbeuf was at
that time preparing to sail for Scotland with a numerous army, they
hastily concluded that these ships belonged to them, and gave way to the
most immoderate transports of joy on the prospect of this long expected
succour. Their great guns were already fired to welcome their friends,
and to spread the tidings and terror of their arrival among their enemies,
when a small boat from the opposite coast landed, and blasted their premature and shortlived triumph, by informing them that it was the fleet of
England which was in sight, intended for the aid of the congregation,
and was soon to be followed by a formidable land army.t
Throughout her whole reign Elizabeth was cautious, but decisive; and,
by her promptitude in executing her resolutions, joined to the deliberation
with which she formed them, her administration became remarkable no
less for its vigour than for its wisdom. No sooner did she determine to
afford her protection to the lords of the congregation, than they experienced the activity, as well as the extent of her power. The season of
the year would not permit her land army to take the field; but lest the
French should, in the mean time, receive new reinforcements, she instantly
ordered a strong squadron to cruise in the Frith of Forth. She seems, by
her instructions to Winter her admiral, to have been desirous of preserving
the appearances of friendship towards the French.t But these were only
appearances; if any French fleet should attempt to land, he was commanded to prevent it by every act of hostility and violence. It was the
sight of this squadron which occasioned at first so much joy among the
French, but which soon inspired them with such terror as saved Fife from
the effects of their vengeance. Apprehensive of being cut off from their
companions on the opposite shore, they retreated towards Stirling with
the utmost precipitation, and in a dreadful seasoin, and through roads almost
impassable, arrived at Leith, harassed and exhausted with Tatigue.~
The English fleet cast anchor in the road of Leith, and continuing in that
station till the conclusion of peace, both prevented the garrison of Leith
from receiving succours of any kind, and considerably facilitated the
operations of their own forces by land.
Feb. 27.] Soon after the arrival of the English squadron, the commissioners of the congregation repaired to Berwick, and concluded with the
duke of Norfolk a treaty, the bond of that union with Elizabeth which
was of so great advantage to the cause. To give a check to the dangerous
and rapid progress of the French arms in Scotland was the professed design
of the contracting parties. In order to this the Scots engaged never to
suffer any closer union of their country with France; and to defend themselves to the uttermost against all attempts of conquest. Elizabeth, on
her part, promised to employ in Scotland a powerful army for their
assistance, which the Scots undertook to join with all their forces; no place
in Scotland was to remain in the hands of the English; whatever should
be taken from the enemy was either to be razed or kept by the Scots at
their choice; if any invasion should be made upon England, the  scots
were obliged to assist Elizabeth with part of their forces; and, to ascertain their faithful observance of the treaty, they bound themselves to
deliver hostages to Elizabeth, before the march of her army into Scotland:
in conclusion, the Scots made many protestations of obedience and loyalty
* Knox, 202.    t Ibid.   +* Keith, Append. 45. Haynes, 231.    ~ Knox, 203




'34                     THE  HISTO RY                    [BooK II1.
towards their own queen, in every thing not inconsistent with their
religion and the liberties of their country.~
The English army, consisting of six thousand foot and two thousand
horse, under the command of lord Gray of Wilton, entered Scotland early
in the spring. The members of the congregation assembled from all parts
of the kingdom  to meet their new allies; and having joined them, with
great multitudes of their followers, they advanced together towards Leith
[April 2]. The French were little able to keep the field against an enemy
so much superior in number. A strong body of troops, destined for their
relief, had been scattered by a violent storm, and had either perished on
the coast of France, or with difficulty had recovered the ports of that
kingdorn.t  But they hoped to be able to defend Leith till the princes of
Lorrain should make good the magnificent promises of assistance with
which they daily encouraged them; or till scarcity of provisions should
constrain the English to retire into their own country. In order to hasten
this latter event, they did not neglect the usual, though barbarous precaution
for distressing an invading enemy, by burning and laying waste all the
adjacent country.4 The zeal, however, of the nation frustrated their intentions: eager to contribute towards removing their oppressors, the people
produced their hidden stores to support their friends; the neighbouring
counties supplied every thing necessary; and, far from wanting subsistence, the English found in their camp all sorts of provisions at a cheaper
rate than had for some time been known in that part of the kingdom.~
On the approach of the English army the queen regent retired into the
castle of Edinburgh. Her health was now in a declining state, and her
mind broken and depressed by the misfortunes of her administration. To
avoid the danger and fatigue of a siege, she committed herself to the protection of lord Erskine. This nobleman still preserved his neutrality, and
by his integrity and love of his country merited equally the esteem of both
parties. He received the queen herself with the utmost honour and
respect, but took care to admit no such retinue as might endanger his command of the castle.11
April 6.] A few days after they arrived in Scotland, the English invested
Leith.  The garrison shut up within the town was almost half as numerous
as the army which sat down before it, and by an obstinate defence protracted the siege to a great length. The circumstances of this siege, related
by cotemporary historians, men without knowledge or experience in the
art of war, are often obscure and Imperfect, and at this distance of time
are not considerable enough to be entertaining.
At first the French endeavoured to keep possession of the Hawk Hill, a
rising ground not far distant from the town, but were beat from it with
great slaughter [April 15], chiefly by the furious attack of the Scottish
cavalry. Within a few days the French had their full revenge; having
sallied out with a strong body, they entered the English trenches, broke
their troops, nailed part of their cannon, and killed at least double the
number they had lost in the former skirmish. Nor were the English more
fortunate in an attemptwhich they made to take the place by assault [May 7];
they were met with equal courage, and repulsed with considerable loss.
From the detail of these circumstances by the writers of that age, it is easy
to-observe the different characters of the French and English troops. The
former, trained to war during the active reigns of Francis I. and Henry II.,
defended themselves not only with the bravery but with the skill of veterans. The latter, who had been more accustomed to peace, still preserved the intrepid and desperate valour peculiar to the nation, but discovered few marks of military genius or of experience in the practice of.
* Knox, 217. Haynes, 253, &c.  t Mem. de Castel. 450.  + Knox, 225.  Q Id. ibid.
11 Forbes' Collect vol. i. 503. Keith, 122.




OF SCOTLAND.                                    93
war.  Every misfortune or disappointment during  the siege must be
imputed to manifest errors in conduct. The success of the besieged in
their sally was owing entirely to the security and negligence of the English; many of their officers were absent; their soldiers had left their statlcons; and thei_ trenches were almost without a guard.? The ladders,
which had been pi vided for the assault, wanted a great deal of the necessary length; and the troops employed in that service were ill supported.
The trenches were opened at first in an improper place; and as it was
found expedient to change the ground, both time and labour were lost.
The inability of their own generals, no less than the strength of the French
garrison, rendered the progress of the English wonderfully slow.  The
long continuance, however, of the siege, and the loss of part of their magazines by an accidental fire, reduced the French to extreme distress for
want of provisions, which the prospect of relief made them bear with
admirable fortitude.
While the hopes and courage of the French protracted the siege so far
beyond expectation, the leaders of the congregation were not idle. By
new associations and confederacies they laboured to unite their party more
perfectly. By publicly ratifying the treaty concluded at Berwick, they
endeavoured to render the alliance with England firm  and indissoluble.
Among the subscribers of these papers we find the earl of Huntly, and
some others, who had not hitherto concurred with the congregation in any
of their measures.t Several of these lords, particularly the earl of Huntly,
still adhered to the popish church; but, on this occasion, neither their religious sentiments nor their former cautious maxims were regarded; the tor
rent of national resentment and indignation against the French hurried
them on.1
June 10.1 The queen regent, the instrument rather than the cause of
involving Scotland in those calamities under which it groaned at that time,
died during the heat of the siege. No princess ever possessed qualities
more capable of rendering her administration illustrious, or the kingdom
happy.  Of much discernment and no less address; of great intrepidity
and equal prudence; gentle and humane, without weakness; zealous for
her religion, without bigotry; a lover of justice, without rigour.  One
circumstance, however, and that too the excess of a virtue rather than any
vice, poisoned all these great qualities, and rendered her government
unfortunate and her name odious. Devoted to the interest of France, her
native country, and attached to the princes of Lorrain, her brothers, with
most passionate fondness, she departed, in order to gratify them, from
every maxim which her own wisdom or humanity would have approved.
She outlived, in a great measure, that reputation and popularity which had
smoothed her way to the highest station in the kingdom; and many examples of falsehood, and some of severity, in the latter part of her administration, alienated from her the affections of a people who had once placed in
her an unbounded confidence. But, even by her enemies, these unjustifiable actions were imputed to the facility, not to the malignity of her
nature; and while they taxed her brothers and French counsellors with
rashness and cruelty, they still allowed her the praise of prudence and of
lenity.~ A few days before her death she desired an interview with the
prior of St. Andrew's, the earl of Argyll, and other chiefs of the congre* Haynes, 294. 298. 305, &c.    t Burn, vol. iii. 287. Knox, 221. Haynes, 261. 263.
t The dread of the French power did on many occasions surmount the zeal which the catholic
nobles had for their religion. Besides the presumptive evidence for this, arising from the memorial
mentioned by Burnet, Hist. of the Reformation, vol. iii. 281, and published by him, Append. p. 278,
the instructions of Elizabeth to Randolph her agent put it beyond all doubt that many zealcus papists
thought the alliance with England to be necessary for preserving the liberty and independence of
the kingdom. Keith, 158. Huntly himself began a correspondence with Elizabeth's ministers,
bcfore the march of the English army into Scotland. Haynes's State Papers, 261. 263. See
ippend. No. IIT.             ~ Buchanan, 324.,




96                      THE  HISTORY                    [BooK 1II
gation. To them she lamented the fatal issue of those violent counsels
which she had been obliged to follow; and, with the candour natural to a
generous mind, confessed the errors of her own administration, and begged
forgiveness of those to whom they had been hurtful; but at the same time
she warned them, amidst their struggles' for liberty and the shock of arms,
not to lose sight of the loyalty and subjection which were due to their
sovereign.* The remainder of her time she employed in religious meditations and exercises. She even invited the attendance of Willox, one of
the most eminent among the reformed preachers, listened to his instructions
with reverence and attention,t and prepared for the approach of death
with a decent fortitude.
Nothing could now save the French troops shut up in Leith but the immediate conclusion of a peace, or the arrival of a powerful army from the
continent. The princes of Lorrain amused their party in Scotland with
continual expectations of the latter, and had thereby kept alive their hopes
and their courage; but, at last, the situation of France, rather than the terror of the English arms, or the remonstrances of the Scottish malecontents,
constrained them, though with reluctance, to turn their thoughts towards
pacific counsels. The protestants in France were at that time a party
formidable by their number, and more by the valour and enterprising genius of their leaders. Francis II. had treated them with extreme rigour,
and discovered, by every step he took. a settled resolution to extirpate their
religion, and to ruin those who professed it. At the prospect of this danger
to themselves and to their cause, the protestants were alarmed, but not
terrified. Animated with zeal, and inflamed with resentment, they not
only prepared for their own defence, but resolved, by some bold action, to
anticipate the schemes of their enemies; and as the princes of Lorrain
were deemed the authors of all the king's violent measures, they marked
them out to be the first victims of their indianation. [March 15.]   Hence,
and not from disloyalty to the king, proceeded the famous conspiracy of
Amboise; and though the vigilance and good fortune of the princes of
Lorrain discovered and disappointed that design, it was easy to observe
new storms gathering in every piovince of the kingdom, and ready to burst
out with all the fury and outrage of civil war. In this situation the ambition of the house of Lorrain was called off from the thoughts of foreign
conquests, to defend the honour and dignity of the French crown; and,
instead of sending new reinforcements into Scotland, it became necessary
to withdraw the veteran troops already employed in that kingdom.4
In order to conduct an affair of so much importance and delicacy, the
princes of Lorrain made choice of Monluc, bishop of Valence, and of the
sieur de Randan. As both these, especially the former, were reckoned
inferior to no persons of that age in address and political refinement, Elizabeth opposed to them ambassadors of equal abilities; Cecil, her prime
minister, a man perhaps of the greatest capacity who had ever held that
office; and Wotton, dean of Canterbury, grown old in the art of negotiating under three successive monarchs. The interests of the French and
English courts were soon adjusted by men of so great dexterity in business;
and as France easily consented to withdraw those forces which had been
the chief occasion of the war, the other points in dispute between that
kingdom  and England were not matters of tedious or of difficult discussion.
The grievances of the congregation, and their demands upon their own
sovereigns for redress, employed longer time, and required to be treated
with a more delicate hand. After so many open attempts, carried on by'
command of the king and queen, in order to over'turn the ancient constitution, and to suppress the religion which they had embraced, the Scottish
nobles could not think themselves secure without fixing some new barrier
* Lesley, de Rebus Gest, Scot. 222.    t Knox, 228.:  Lesley, 224.




OF SCOTLAND.                              97
against the future encroachments of regal power. But the legal steps
towards accomplishing this were not so obvious. The French ambassadors considered the entering into any treaty with subjects, and with
rebels, as a condescension unsuitable to the dignity of a sovereign; and
their scruples on this head might have put an end to the treaty, if the
impatience of both parties for peace had not suggested an expedient, which
seemed to provide for the security of the subject, without derogating from
the honour of the prince. The Scottish nobles agreed, on this occasion, to
pass from the point of right and privilege, and to accept the redress of
their grievances as a matter of favour. Whatever additional security their
anxiety for personal safety or their zeal for public liberty prompted them
to demand was granted in the name of Francis and Mary, as acts of their
royal favour and indulgence. And, lest concessions of this kind should
seem precarious, and liable to be retracted by the same power which had
made them, the French ambassador agreed to insert them in the treaty
with Elizabeth, -and thereby to bind the king and queen inviolably to
observe them.*
In relating this transaction, cotemporary historians have confounded the
concessions of Francis and Mary to their Scottish subjects, with the treaty
between France and England; the latter, besides the ratification of former
treaties between the two kingdoms, and stipulations with regard to the
time and manner of removing both armies out of Scotland, contained an
article to which, as the source of many important events, we shall often
have occasion to refer. The right of Elizabeth to her crown is thereby
acknowledged in the strongest terms; and Francis and Mary solemnly engaged neither to assume the title nor to bear the arms of king and queen
of England in any time to come.t
July 6.] Honourable as this article was for Elizabeth herself, the conditions she obtained for her allies the Scots were no less advantageous to
them. Monluc and Randan consented, in the name of Francis and Mary,
that the French forces in Scotland should instantly be sent back into their
own country, and no foreign troops be hereafter introduced into the kingdomr without the knowledge and consent of parliament; that the fortifications of Leith and Dunbar should immediately be razed, and no new fort
be erected without the permission of parliament; that a parliament should
be held on the first day of August, and that assembly be deemed as valid
in all respects as if it had been called by the express commandment of the
king and queen; that, conformable to the ancient laws and customs of the
country, the king and queen should not declare war or conclude peace
without the concurrence of parliaIent; that, during the queen's absence,
the administration of government should be vested in a council of twelve
persons, to be chosen out of twenty-four named by parliament, seven of
which council to be elected by the queen, and five by the parliament; that
hereafter the king and queen should not advance foreigners to places of
trust or dignity in the kingdom, nor confer the offices of treasurer or comptroller of the revenues upon any ecclesiastics; that an act of oblivion,
abolishing the guilt and memory of all offences committed since the sixth
of March, one thousand five hundred and fifty-eight, should be passed in
the ensuing parliament, and be ratified by the king and queen; that the
king and queen should not, under the colour of punishing any violation of
their authority during that period, seek to deprive any of their subjects of
the offices, benefices, or estates which they now hold; that the redress due
to churchmen, for the injuries which they had sustained during the late
insurrections, should be left entirely to the cognizance of' parliament.
With regard to religious controversies, the ambassadors declared that they
would not presume to decide, but permitted the parliament, at their first
* Keith, 13-4, &c.  t Ibid. Rymer, xv. p. 581, 591, &c. Haynes, 325-364.
VOL. III.* —13




98                    THE  HISTORY              O        [Boo:K III.
meeting, to examine the points in difference, and to represent their sense
of them to the king and queen.?
To such a memorabl. period did the lords of the congregation, by their
courage and perseverance, conduct an enterprise which at first promised a
very different issue. From beginnings extremely feeble, and even contemptible, the party grew by degrees to great power; and, being favoured
by many fortunate incidents, baffled all the efforts of their own queen,
aided by the forces of a more considerable kingdom. The sovereign
authority was by this treaty transferred wholly into the hands of the congregation; that limited prerogative which the crown had hitherto pos-t
sessed, was almost entirely annihilated; and the aristocratical power,
which always predominated in the Scottish government, became supreme
and incontrollable. By this treaty, too, the influence of France, which
bhad long been of much weight in the affairs of Scotland, was greatly
diminished; and not only were the present encroachments of that ambitious
ally restrained, but by confederating with England, protection was provided
against any future attempt from the same quarter. At the same time, the
controversies in religion being left to the consideration of parliament, the
protestants might reckon upon obtaining whatever decision was most
f-avourable to the opinions which they professed.
A few days after the conclusion of the treaty, both the French and English armies quitted Scotland.
The eyes of every man in that kingdom were turned towards the approaching parliament. A meeting, summoned in a manner so extraordinary,;at such a critical juncture, and to deliberate upon matters of so much consequence, was expected with the utmost anxiety.
A Scottish parliament suitable to the aristocratical genius of the govern
inent, was properly an assembly of the nobles. It was composed of
bishops, abbots, barons, and a few commissioners of boroughs, who met
all together in one house. The lesser barons, though possessed of a right
to be present, either in person or by their representatives, seldom exercised
it. The expense of attending, according to the fashion of the times, with.a numerous train of vassals and dependants; the inattention of a martial:age to the forms and detail of civil government; but, above all, the exorbitant authority of the greater nobles, who had drawn the whole power
-into their own hands, made this privilege of so little value as to be
almost neglected. It appears from the ancient rolls that, during times of
tranquillity, few commissioners of boroughs, and almost none of the lesser
barons, appeared in parliament. The ordinary administration of government was abandoned, without scruple or jealousy, to the king and to the
greater barons. But in extraordinary conjunctures, when the struggle for
liberty was violent, and the spirit of opposition to the crown rose to a
height, the burgesses and lesser barons were roused from their inactivity,
and stood forth to vindicate the rights of their country. The turbulent
reign of James III. affords examples in proof of this observation.+, The
public indignation, against the rash designs of that weak and ill-advised
prince, brought into parliament, besides the greater nobles and prelates, a
considerable number of the lesser barons.
The same causes occasioned the unusual confluence of all orders of men'to the parliament, which met on the first of August. The universal pas-,sion for liberty, civil and religious, which had seized the nation, suffered
few persons to remain unconcerned spectators of an assembly, whose acts
wvere likely to prove decisive with respect to both. From all corners of
the kingdom men flocked in, eager and determined to aid, with their voices
in the senate, the same cause which they had defended with their swords
in the field. Besides a full convention of peers, temporal and spiritual,
* Keith, 137, &c.   t Ibid, 147.




OF SCOTLAND.                                99
there appeared the representatives of almost all the boroughs, and anove
a hundred barons, who, though of the lesser order, were gentlemen of the
first rank and fortune in the nation.*
The parliament was ready to enter on business with the utmost zeal.
when a difficulty was started concerning the lawfulness of the meeting.
No commissioner appeared in the name of the king and queen, and no
signification of their consent and approbation was yet received.  These
were deemed by many essential to the very being of a parliament. But
in opposition to this sentiment, the express words of the treaty of Edinburgh were urged, by which this assembly was declared to be as valid, in
all respects, as if it had been called and appointed by the express command of the king and queen. As the adherents of the congregation greatly
outnumbered their adversaries, the latter opinion prevailed.  Their boldest
leaders, and those of most approved zeal, were chosen to be lords of the
articles, who formed a committee of ancient use and of great importance
in the Scottish parliament.t  The deliberations of the lords of the articles
were carried on with the most unanimous and active zeal. The act of
oblivion, the nomination of twenty-four persons, out of whom the councl,
intrusted with supreme authority, was to be elected; and every other thing
prescribed by the late treaty, or which seemed necessary to render it
effectual, passed without dispute or delay. The article of religion employed longer time, and was attended with greater difficulty. It was
brought into parliament by a petition from those who adopted the principles of the reformation. Many doctrines of the popish church were a
contradiction to reason, and a disgrace to religion; its discipline had
become corrupt and oppressive; and its revenues were both exorbitant
and ill applied. Against all these the protestants remonstrated with the
utmost asperity of style, which indignation at their absurdity, or experience
of their pernicious tendency could inspire; and, encouraged by the number as well as zeal of their friends, to improve such a favourable juncture,
they aimed the blow at the whole fabric of popery, and besought the par
liament to interpose its authority for rectifying these multiplied abuses.+
Several prelates, zealously attached to the ancient superstition, were
present in this parliament. But, during these vigorous proceedings of the
protestants, they stood confounded and at gaze; and persevered in a silence
which was fatal to their cause. They deemed it impossible to resist or
divert that torrent of religious zeal, which was still in its full strength;
they dreaded that their opposition would irritate their adversaries and excite them to new acts of violence; they hoped that the king and queen
would soon be at leisure to put a stop to the career of their insolent subjects, and that, after the rage and havoc of the present storm, the former
tranquillity and order would be restored to the church and kingdom.
They were willing, perhaps, to sacrifice the doctrine, and even the power
of the church, in order to ensure the safety of their own persons, and to
preserve the possession of those revenues which were still in their hands.
From whatever motives they acted, their silence, which was imputed to
the consciousness of a bad cause, afforded matter of great triumph to the
protestants, and encouraged them  to proceed with more boldness and
alacrity.~
The parliament did not think it enough to condemn those doctrines mentioned in the petition of the protestants; they moreover gave the sanction
of their approbation to a confession of faith presented to them by the
reformed teachers;11 and composed, as might be expected from such a per* Keith, 146.
t From an original letter of Hamilton, archbishop of St. Andrew's, it appears that the lords of
articles were chosen in the manner afterwards appointed by an act of parliament, 1633. —Ieith pf
487. Spottiswood seems to consider this to have been the common practice. Hist. 149
X Knox, 237.    O Ibid. 253.   1{ Id. ibid,




1Xe                    THE  HISTORY                   [Boox 111l
formance at that juncture, on purpose to expose the absurd tenets and prac
tices of the Romish church. By another act the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts was abolished, and the causes which formerly came under
their cognizance were transferred to the decision of civil judges.* By a
third statute, the exercise of religious worship, according to the rites of the
Romish church, was prohibited. The manner in which the parliament
enforced the observation of this law discovers the zeal of that assembly;
the first transgression subjected the offender to the forfeiture of his goods)
and to a corporal punishment at the discretion of the judge  banishment
was the penalty of the second violation of the law; and a third act of disobedience was declared to be capital.t Such strangers were men at that
time to the spirit of toleration, and to the laws of humanity; and with such
indecent haste did the very persons who had just escaped the rigour of
ecclesiastical tyranny, proceed to imitate those examples of severity of
which they themselves had sojustly complained.
The vigorous zeal of the parliament overturned in a few days the ancient
system of religion, which had been established so many ages. In reforming the doctrine and discipline of the church the nobles kept pace with the
ardour and expectations even of Knox himself. But their proceedings
with respect to these were not more rapid and impetuous than they were
slow and dilatory when they entered on the consideration of ecclesiastical
revenues. Among the lay members, some were already enriched with the
spoils of the church, and others devoured in expectation the wealthy benefices which still remained untouched. The alteration in religion had
afforded many of the dignified ecclesiastics themselves an opportunity of
gratifying their avarice or ambition. The demolition of the monasteries
having set the monks at liberty from their confinement, they instantly dispersed all over the kingdom, and commonly betook themselves to some
secular employment. The abbot, if he had been so fortunate as to embrace
the principles of the reformation from conviction, or so cunning as to espouse
them out of policy, seized the whole revenues of the fraternity; and, except what he allowed for the subsistence of a few superannuated monks,?
applied them entirely to his own use. The proposal made by the reformed
teachers, for applying these revenues towards the maintenance of ministers,
the education of youth, and the support of the poor, was equally dreaded
by all these orders of men. They opposed it with the utmost warmth, and
by their numbers and authority easily prevailed on the parliament to give
no ear to such a disagreeable demand.~  Zealous as the first reformers
were, and animated with a spirit superior to the low considerations of
interest, they beheld these early symptoms of selfishness and avarice among
their adherents with amazement and sorrow; and we find Knox expressing
with the utmost sensibility of that contempt with. which they were treated
by many from whom he expected a more generous concern for the success
of religion and the honour of its ministers.ll
A difficulty hath been started with regard to the acts of this parliament
concerning religion. This difficulty, which at such a distance of time is of
no importance, was founded on the words of the treaty of Edinburgh. By
that the parliament were permitted to take into consideration the state of
religion, and to signify their sentiments of it to the king and queen. But
instead of presenting their desires to their sovereigns in the humble form of
a supplication or address, the parliament converted them into so many acts;
which, although they never received the royal assent, obtained all over the
kingdom the weight and authority of laws. In compliance with their injunctions the established system of religion was every where overthrown,
and that recommended by the reformers introduced in its place. The par
" Keith, 152.  t Knox, 254.   * Keith, 496. Append. 190,191.   Q See Append. No. IV.
U Knox, 239. 256.




OF SCOTLAND.                               101
tlalty and zea. of the people overlooked or supplied any defect in the
form of these acts of parliament, and rendered the observance of them more
universal than ever had been yielded to the statutes of the most regular or
constitutional assembly.  Lv those proceedings it must, however, be confessed that the parliament, or rather the nation, violated the last article in
the tieaty of Edinburgh, and even exceeded the powers which belong to
subjects. But when once men have been accustomed to break through the
common boundaries of subjection, and their minds are inflamed with the
passions which'civil war inspires, it is mere pedantry or ignorance to measure their conduct by those rules which can be applied only where government is in a state of order and tranquillity. A nation, when obliged to
employ such extraordinary efforts in defence of its liberties, avails itself cf
every thing which can promote this great end; and the necessity of the case,
as well as the importance of the object, justify any departure from the
common and established.rules of the constitution.
In consequence of the treaty of Edinburgh, as well as by the ordinary
forms of business, it became necessary to lay the proceedings of parliament
before the king and queen. For this purpose sir James Sandilands of
Calder, lord St. John, was appointed to repair to the court of France.
After holding a course so irregular, the leaders of the congregation had no
reason to flatter themselves that Francis and Mary would ever approve
their conduct, or confirm it by their royal assent. The reception of their
ambassador was no other than they might have expected. He was treated
by the king and queen with the utmost coldness, and dismissed without
obtaining the ratification of the parliament's proceedings. From the princes
Lorrain, and their partisans, he endured all the scorn and insult which
it was natural for them to pour upon the party he represented.?
Though the earls of Morton, Glencairn, and Maitland of Lethington, the
ambassadors of the parliament to Elizabeth their protectress, met with a
very different reception, they were not more successful in one part of the
negotiation intrusted to their care. The Scots, sensible of the security
which they degived from their union with England, were desirous of rendering it indissoluble. With this view they empowered these eminent.leaders of their party to testify to Elizabeth their gratitude for that seasonable and effectual aid which she had afforded them; and at the same time
to beseech her to render the friendship between the nations perpetual, by
condescending to marry the earl of Arran, who, though a subject, was
nearly allied to the royal family of Scotland, and, after Mary, the undoubted
heir to the crown.
To the former part of this commission Elizabeth listened with the utmost
satisfaction, and encouraged the Scots, in any future exigency, to hope. for
the continuance of her good offices; with regard to the latter, she discovered
those sentiments to which she adhered throughout her whole reign. Averse
from marriage, as some maintain, through choice, but more probably out
of policy, that ambitious princess would never admit any partner to the
throne; but, delighted with the entire and uncontrolled exercise of power,
she sacrificed to the enjoyment of that the hopes of transmitting her crown
to her own posterity.  The marriage with the earl of Arran could not be
attended with any such extraordinary advantage as to shake this resolution; she declined it therefore, but with many expressions of good will
towards the Scottish nation, and of respect for Arran himself.t
Towards the conclusion of this year. distinguished by so many remarkable events, there happened one of great importance.  On the fourth of
December died Francis II., a prince of a feeble constitution, and-of a mean
understanding. As he did not leave any issue by the queen, no incident
Knox, 255. Buch. 327. State papers published by lord Hardwicke, vol. i. p. 125, &c
1 Burn. 3. Append. 308. Keith, 154, &c.




102                   THE  HISTORY                     [BooK 111.
could have been more fortunate to those who, during the late commotions
in Scotland, had taken part with the congregation. Mary, by the charms
of her beauty, had acquired an entire ascendant over her husband: and as
she transferred all her influence to her uncles the princes of Lorrain, Francis followed them implicitly in whatever track they were pleased to lead
him. The power of France, under such direction, alarmed the Scottish
malecontents with apprehensions of danger no less formidable than well
founded. The intestine disorders which raged in France, and the seasonable interposition of England in behalf of the congregation, had hitherto
prevented the princes of Lorrain from carrying their designs upon Scotland
into execution. But, under their vigorous and decisive administrations, it
-was impossible that the commotions in France could be of long continuance, and many things might fall in to divert Elizabeth's attention, for the
future, from the affairs of Scotland. In either of these events, the Scots
would stand exposed to all the vengeance which the resentment of the
French court could inflict. The blow, however long suspended, was unavoidable, and must fall at last with redoubled weight.  From this prospect and expectation of danger, the Scots were delivered by the death of
Francis; the ancient confederacy of the two kingdoms had already been
broken, and by this event the chief bond of union which remained was
dissolved. Catherine of Medicis, who, during the minority of Charles
IX. her second son, engrossed the entire direction of the French councils,
was far from any thoughts of vindicating the Scottish queen's authority.
Catherine, and Mary had been rivals in power during the reign of Francis
II., and had contended for the government of that weak and inexperienced
prince; but as the charms of the wife easily triumphed over the authority
Of the mother, Catherine could never forgive such a disappointment in her
favourite passion, and beheld now, with secret pleasure, the difficult and
perplexing scene on which her daughter-in-law was about to enter. Mary
overwhelmed with all the sorrow which so sad a reverse of fortune could
occasion; slighted by the queen-mother;~ and forsaken by the tribe of
courtiers, who appear only in the sunshine of prosperity, retired to Rheims,
and there in solitude indulged her grief, or hid her indignation. Even the
princes of Lorrain were obliged to contract their views; to turn them from
foreign to domestic objects; and, instead of forming vast projects with
regard to Britain, they found it necessary to think of acquiring and establishing an interest with the new administration.
It is impossible to describe the emotions of joy which, on all these
accounts, the death of the French monarch excited among the Scots.
They regarded it as the only event which could give firmness and stability
to that system of religion and government which was now introduced;
and it is no wonder cotemporary historians should ascribe it to the imme
diate care of Providence, which, by unforeseen expedients, can secure the
peace and happiness of kingdoms, in those situations where human prudence and invention would utterly despair.t
About this time the protestant church of Scotland began to assume a
regular form. Its principles had obtained the sanction of public authority,
and some fixed external policy became necessary for the government and
preservation of the infant society. The model introduced by the reformers
differed extremely from that which had been long established. The
motives which induced them to depart so far from the ancient system
deserve to be explained.
The licentious lives of the clergy, as has been already observed, seerr.
to have been among the first things that excited any suspicion concerning
the truth of the doctrines which they taught, and roused that spirit of
inquiry which proved fatal to the, popish system. As this disgust at the
* Henault, 340. Casteln. 454.  Knox, 259.




OF SCOTLAND.                              103
vices of ecclesiastics was soon transferred to their persons, and shifting
from them, hy no violent transition, settled at last upon the offices which
they enjoyed; the effects of the reformation would naturally have extended
not only to the doctrine, but to the form of government in the popish
church; and the same spirit which abolished the former would have overturned the latter. But in the arrangements which took place in the
different kingdoms and states of Europe, in consequence of the reformation, we may observe something similar to what happened upon the first
establishment of Christianity in the Roman empire. In both periods, the
form of ecclesiastical policy was modelled, in some measure, upon that
of the civil government. When the Christian church was patronised and
established by the state, the jurisdiction of the various orders of the
ecclesiastics, distinguished by the names of patriarchs, archbishops, and
bishops, was made to correspond with the various divisions of the empire:
and the ecclesiastic of chief eminence in each of these possessed authority,
more or less extensive, in proportion to that of the civil magistrate who
presided over the same district. When the reformation took place, the
episcopal form of government, with its various ranks and degrees of
subordination, appearing to be most consistent with the genius of monarchy,
it was continued, with a few limitations, in several provinces of Germany,
in England, and in the northern kingdoms. But in Switzerland and some
parts of the Low-Countries, where the popular form of government allowed
more full scope to the innovating genius of the reformation, all pre-eminence
of order in the church was destroyed, and an equality established more
suitable to the spirit of republican policy. As the model of episcopal
government was copied from that of the Christian church as established
in the Roman empire, the situation of the primitive church, prior to its
establishment by civil authority, seems to have suggested the idea, and
furnished the model of the latter system, which has since been denominated
Presbyterian. The first Christians, oppressed by continual persecutions,
and obliged to hold their religious assemblies by stealth and in corners,
were contented with a form of government extremely simple.  The
influence of religion concurred with the sense of danger, in extinguishing
among them the spirit of ambition, and in preserving a parity of rank,
the effect of their sufferings, and the cause of many of their virtues.
Calvin, whose decisions were received among many protestants of that
age with incredible submission, was the patron and restorer of this
scheme of ecclesiastical policy. The church of Geneva, formed under
his eye and by his direction, was deemed the most perfect model of
this government; and Knox, who during his residence in that city, had
studied and admired it, warmly recommended it to the imitation of his
countrymen.
Among the Scottish nobility, some hated the persons, and others coveted
the wealth of the dignified clergy. By abolishing that order of men, the
former indulged their resentment, and the latter hoped to gratify their
avarice. The people, inflamed with the most violent aversion to popery,
and approving of every scheme that departed farthest from the practice
of the Romish church, were delighted with a system so admirably suited
to their predominant passion: while the friends of civil liberty beheld with
pleasure the protestant clergy pulling down with their own hands that fabric
of ecclesiastical power which their predecessors had reared with so much
art and industry; and flattered themselves that, by lending their aid to
strip churchmen of their dignity and wealth, they might entirely deliver the
nation from their exorbitant and oppressive jurisdiction. The new mode
of government easily made its way among men thus prepared, by their
various interests and. passions, for its reception.
But, on the first introduction of his system, Knox did not deem it expedient




104                    THE  HISTORY                     [Book IfI.
to depart altogether from the ancient form.*  Instead of bishop 3, he pro
posed to establish ten or twelve superintendents in different p; rts of the
kingdom. These, as the name implies, were empowered to inspect the
life and doctrine of the other clergy   They presided in the inferior judicatories of the church, and performed several other parts of the episcopal
function. Their jurisdiction, however, extended to sacred things only;
they claimed no seat in parliament, and pretended no right to the dignity
or revenues of the former bishops.
The number of inferior clergy, to whom  the care of parochial duty
could be committed, was still extremely small; they had embraced the
principles of the reformation at different times, and from various motives;
during the public commotions, they were scattered, merely by chance,
over the different provinces of the kingdom, and in a few places only were
fbrmed into regular classes or societies. [Dec. 20.] The first general
assembly of the church, which was held this year, bears all the marks of
an infant and unformed society.'The members were but few in number,
and of no considerable rank; no uniform or consistent rule seems to have
been observed in electing them. From a great part of the kingdom no
representatives appeared.  In the name of some entire counties but one
person was present; while, in other places, a single town or church sent
several members. A convention so feeble and irregular could not possess
extensive authority; and, conscious of their own weakness, the members
put an end to their debates, without venturing upon any decision of much
importance.t
1561.] In order to give greater strength and consistence to the presbyterian plan, Knox, with the assistance of his brethren, composed the first
book of discipline, which contains the model or platform of the intended
policy.$  [Jan. 15.] They presented it to a convention of estates, which
was held in the beginning of this year. Whatever regulations were proposed, with regard to ecclesiastical discipline and jurisdiction, would have
easily obtained the sanction of that assembly; but a design to recover
the patrimony of the church, which is there insinuated, met with a very
different reception.
In vain did the clergy display the advantages which would accrue to
the public by a proper application of ecclesiastical revenues. In vain did
they propose by an impartial distribution of this fund, to promote true
religion, to encourage learning, and to support the poor. In vain did they
even intermingle threatenings of the divine displeasure against the unjust
detainers of what was appropriated to a sacred use. The nobles held
fast the prey which they had seized; and, bestowing upon the proposal
the name of a devout imagination, they affected to consider it as a project
altogether visionary, and treated it with the utmost scorn.~
This convention appointed the prior of St. Andrew's to repair to the
queen, and to invite her to return into her native country, and to assume
the reins of government, which had been too long committed to other hands.
Though some of her subjects dreaded her return, and others foresaw dangerous consequences with which it might be attended,ll the bulk of them
desired it with so much ardour that the invitation was given with the
greatest appearance of unanimity. But the zeal of the Roman catholics
got the start of the prior in paying court to Mary; and Lesly, afterwards
bishop of Ross, who was commissioned by them, arrived before him  at
the place of her residence.~  Lesly endeavoured to infuse into the queen's
mind suspicions of her protestant subjects, and to persuade her to throw
herself entirely into the arms of those who adhered to her own religion.
For this purpose he insisted that she should land at Aberdeen; and, as the
~ Spotswood, 158.  t Keith, 498.  1 Spots. 152.  g Knox, 256.    II See
Append. No. V.  T' Lely, 227.




OF SCOTLAND.                              105
protestant doctrines had made no considerable progress in that part of the
kingdom, he gave her assurance of being joined in a few days by twenty
thousand men; and flattered her that, with such an army, encouraged by
her presence and authority, she might easily overturn the reformed church,
before it was firmly settled on its foundations.
But, at this juncture, the princes of Lorrain were not disposed to li. ten
to this extravagant and dangerous proposal. Intent on defending themse yes
against Catherine of Medicis, whose insidious policy was employed in
undermining their exorbitant powers, they had no leisure to attend to the
affairs of Scotland, and wished their niece to take possession of her kingcom with as little disturbance as possible.  The French officers too, who
had served in Scotland, dissuaded Mary from all violent measures; and,
by representing the power and number of the protestants to be irresistible,
determined her to court them by every art; and rather to employ the.eading men of that party as ministers than to provoke them, by a fruitless
opposition to become her enemies." Hence proceeded the confidence and
affection with which the prior of St. Andrew's was received by the queen.
His representation of the state of the kingdom gained great credit; and
Lesly beheld with regret the. new channel in which court favour was
likely to run.
Another convention of estates was held in May. The arrival of an
ambassador from France seems to have been the occasion of this meeting.
He was instructed to solicit the Scots to renew their ancient alliance with
France, to break their new confederacy with England, and to restore the
popish ecclesiastics to the possession of their revenues and the exercise of
their functions. It is no easy matter to form any conjecture concerning the
intentions of the French court in inaking these extraordinary and ill-timed
propositions.  They were rejected with that scorn which might well have
been expected from the temper of the nation.t
In this convention, the protestant clergy did not obtain a more favourable
audience than formerly. and their prospect of recovering the patrimony of
the church still remained as distant and uncertain as ever. But with regard
to another point, they found the zeal of the nobles in no degree abated.
The book of discipline seemed to require that the monuments of popery,
which still remained in the kingdom, should be demolished;I and; though
neither the same pretence of policy, nor the same ungovernable rage of
the people, remained to justify or excuse this barbarous havoc, the convention, considering every religious fabric as a relic of idolatry, passed
sentence upon them by an act in form; and persons the most remarkable
for the activity of their zeal were appointed to put it in execution.
Abbeys, cathedrals, churches, libraries, records, and even the sepulchres
of the dead, perished in one common ruin. The storm of popular insurrection, though impetuous and irresistible, had extended only to a few
counties, and soon spent its rage; but now a deliberate and universal rapine
completed the devastation of every thing venerable and magnificent which
had escaped its violence.~
In the mean time Mary was in no haste to return into Scotland. Accustomed to the elegance, splendour, and gayety of a polite court, she still
fondly lingered in France, the scene of all these enjoyments, and contemplated with horror the barbarism of her own country, and the turbulence
of her subjects, which presented her with a very different face of things.'rhe impatience, however, of her people, the persuasions of her uncles,
but, above all, the studied and mortifying neglect with which she was
treated by the queen-mother, forced her to think of beginning this disagree
able voyage.ll  But while she was preparing for it there were sown
* Melv. 61.   t Knox, 269. 273.   t Spotswood, 153.    S Ibid. 174.   11 Brantome
Jebb. vol. ii. 482.
VoL. III.-14




106                   THE  HISTORY                     [Boo3 III
between her and Elizabeth the seeds of that personal jealousy and discord
which imbittered the life and shortened the days of the Scottish queen.
The ratification of the late treaty of Edinburgh was the immediate
occasion of this fatal animosity; the true cause of it Jay much deeper.
Almost every article in that treaty had been executed by both parties
with a scrupulous exactness. The fortifications of Leith were demolished,
and the armies of France and England withdrawn within the appointed
time. The grievances of the Scottish malecontents were redressed, and
they had obtained whatever they could demand for their future security.
With regard to all the3e, Mary could have little reason to decline, or
Elizabeth to urge, the ratification of the treaty.
The sixth article remained the only source of contest and difficulty.
No minister ever entered more deeply into the schemes of his sovereign,
or pursued them with more dexterity and success, than Cecil. In the
conduct of the negotiation at Edinburgh, the sound understanding of this
able politician had proved greatly an overmatch for Monluc's refinements
in intrigue, and had artfully induced the French ambassadors, not only to
acknowledge that the crowns of England and Ireland did of right belong
to Elizabeth alone, but also to promise, that in all times to come Mary
should abstain from using the title or bearing the arms of those kingdoms.
The ratification of this article would have been of the most fatal consequence to Mary. The crown of England was an object worthy of her
ambition. Her pretensions to it gave her great dignity and importance in
the eyes of all Europe. By many, her title was esteemed preferable to
that of Elizabeth. Among the English themselves, the Roman catholics,
who formed at that time a numerous and active party, openly espoused
this opinion; and even the protestants, who supported Elizabeth's throne,
could not deny the queen of Scots to be her immediate heir.' A proper
opportunity to avail herself of all these advantages could not, in the course
of things, be far distant, and many incidents might fall in, to bring this
opportunity nearer than was expected. In these circumstances, Mary, by
ratifying the article in dispute, would have lost the rank she had hitherto
held among neighbouring princes; the zeal of her adherents must have
gradually cooled; and she might have renounced from that moment, all
hopes of ever wearing the English crown.*
None of these beneficial consequences escaped the penetrating eye of
Elizabeth, who, for this reason, had recourse to every thing by which she
could hope either to sooth or frighten the Scottish queen into a compliance
with her demands; and if that princess had been so unadvised as to ratify
the rash concessions of her ambassadors, Elizabeth, by that deed, would
have acquired an advantage which, under her management, must have
turned to great account. By such a renunciation, the question with regard
to the right of succession would have been left altogether open and undecided; and, by means of that, Elizabeth might either have kept her rival
in perpetual anxiety and dependence, or, by the authority of her parliament, she might have broken in upon the order of lineal succession, and
transferred the crown to some other descendant of the royal blood. The
former conduct she observed towards James VI., who during his whole
reign she held in perpetual fear and subjection. The latter and more
rigorous method of proceeding wouldl in all probability, have been
employed against Mary, whom for many reasons she both envied and
hated.
Nor was this step beyond her power, unprecedented in the history, or
inconsistent with the constitution of England. Though succession by
hereditary right be an idea so natural and so popular that it has been established in almost every civilized nation, yet England affords many memo* Haynes, 373, &c.




OF SCOTLAND.                                     107
rable instances of deviation from that rule.  The crown of that kingdom
having once been seized by the hand of a conqueror, this invited the bold
and enterprising in every age to imitate such an illustrious example of
fortunate ambition.  From  tile time of William  the Norman, the regular
course of descent had seldom continued through three successive reigns.
Those princes, whose intrigues or valour opened to them a way to the
throne, called in the authority of the great council of the nation to confirm their dubious titles. Hence parliamentary and hereditary right became
in England of equal consideration.  That great assembly  claimed and
actually possessed a power of altering the order of regal succession; and
even so late as Henry VIII. an act of parliament had authorized that
capricious monarch to settle the order of succession at his pleasure. The
English, jealous of their religious liberty, and averse from  the dominion of
strangers, would have eagerly adopted the passions of their sovereign, and
might have been easily induced to exclude the Scottish line from the right
of succeeding to the crown.  These seem to have been the views of both
queens, and these were the difficulties which retarded the ratification of
the treaty of Edinburgh.
But, if the sources of their discord were to be traced no higher than
this treaty, an inconsiderable alteration in the words of it might have
brought the present question to an amicable issue. The indefinite and
ambiguous expression, which Cecil had inserted into the treaty, might
have been changed into one more limited but more precise; and Mary,
instead of promising to abstain from bearing the title of queen of England
in all times to come, might have engaged not to assume that title during
the life of Elizabeth, or the lives of her lawful posterity.s
Such an amendment, however, did not suit the views of either queen.
Though Mary had been obliged to suspend for some time the prosecution
of her title to the English crown, she had not however relinquished it.
She determined to revive her claim on the first prospect of success, and
was unwilling to bind herself, by a positive engagement, not to take advan
tage of any such fortunate occurrence.  Nor would the alteration have
been more acceptable to Elizabeth, who, by agreeing to it, would have
tacitly recognised the right of her rival to ascend the throne after her
decease. But neither the Scottish nor English queen durst avow these
secret sentiments of their hearts. Any open discovery of an inclination to
disturb the tranquillity of England, or to wrest the sceptre out of Elizabeth's hands, might have proved fatal to Mary's pretensions.  Any suspicion of a design to alter the order of succession, and to set aside the
claim of the Scottish queen, would have exposed Elizabeth to much and
deserved censure, and have raised up against her many and dangerous
enemies.  These, however carefully concealed or artfully disguised, were,
in all probability, the real motives which determined the one queen to
solicit, and the other to refuse, the ratification of the treaty in its original
form; while neither had recourse to that explication of it, which, to a
* This expedient for terminating the differences between Elizabeth and Mary wasso obvious that
it could not fail of presenting itself to the view of the English ministers.
"There hath been a matter secretly thought of, (says Cecil in a letter to Throkmorton. July 14,
1561,) which I dare communicate to you, although I mean never to be an author thereof; and that
is, if an accord might be made betwixt our mistress and the Scottish queen, that this should by
parliament in Scotland, &c. surrender unto the queen's Majesty all matters of claim, and unto the
heirs of her body; and in consideration thereof, the Scottish queen's interest should be acknowledged in default of heirs of the body of the queen's Majesty. Well, God send our mistress a husband, and by time a son, that we may hope our posterity shall have a masculine succession. This
matter is too big for weak folks, and too deep for simple. The Queen's Majesty knoweth of it."
Hardw. State Pap. 1. 174. But with regard to every point relating to the succession, Elizabeth was
so jealous and so apt to take offence, that her most confidential ministers durst not urge. her to
advance one step farther than she herself chose to go. Cecil, mentioning some scheme about the
succession, if the queen should not marry or leave issue, adds, with his usual caution: " This song
bath many parts; but, for my part, I have no skill but in plain song." Ibid. 178.




108                     THE  HISTORY                    [BooK III.
heart unwarped oy political interest, and sincerely desirous of union and
concord, would have appeared so obvious and natural.
But, though considerations of interest first occasioned this rupture between
the British queens, rivalship of another kind contributed to widen the
breach, and female jealousy increased the violence of their political hatred.
Elizabeth, with all those extraordinary qualities by which she equalled or
surpassed such of her sex as have merited the greatest renown, discovered
an admiration of her own person, to a degree which women of ordinary
understandings either do not entertain, or prudently endeavour to conceal.
Her attention to dress, her solicitude to display her charms, her love of
flattery, were all excessive. Nor were these weaknesses confined to that
period of life when they are more pardonable. Even in very advanced
years, the wisest woman of that, or perhaps of any other age, wore the
garb and affected the manners of a girl." Though Elizabeth was as much
inferior to Mary in beauty and gracefulness of person, as she excelled her
in political abilities and in the arts of government, she was weak enough
to compare herself with the Scottish queen;t and as it was impossible
she could be altogether ignorant how much Mary gained by the comparison,
she envied and hated her as a rival by whom she was eclipsed. In judging
of the conduct of princes, we are apt to ascribe too much to political
motives, and too little to the passions which they feel in common with the
rest of mankind. In order to account fbr Elizabeth's present as well as
subsequent conduct towards Mary, we must not always consider her as a
queen, we must sometimes regard her merely as a woman.
Elizabeth, though no stranger to Mary's difficulties with respect to the
treaty, continued to urge her, by repeated applications, to ratify it.j
Mary, under various pretences, still contrived to gain time, and to elude
the request. But while the one queen solicited with persevering importunity, and the other evaded with artful delay, they both studied an extreme
politeness of behaviour, and loaded each other with professions of sisterly
love, with reciprocal declarations of unchangeable esteem and amity.
It was not long before Mary was convinced, that among princes these
expressions of friendship are commonly far distant from  the heart.  In
sailing from France to Scotland, the course lies along the English coast.
In order to be safe from the insults of the English fleet, or in case of tempestuous weather, to secure a retreat in the harbours of that kingdom,
Mary sent M. D'Oysel to demand of Elizabeth a safe conduct during her
voyage. This request, which decency alone obliged one prince to grant
to another, Elizabeth rejected, in such a manner as gave rise to no slight
suspicion of a design, either to obstruct the passage, or to intercept the
person of the Scottish queen.~
Mary in a long conference with Throkmorton, the English ambassador
in France, explained her sentiments concerning this ungenerous behaviour
of his mistress, in a strain of dignified expostulation, which conveys an idea
of her abilities, address, and spirit, as advantageous as any transaction in
her reign. Mary was at that time only in her eighteenth year; and as
Throkmorton's account of what passed in his interview  with her, is
addressed directly to Elizabeth,II that dexterous courtier, we may be well
assured, did not embellish the discourse of the Scottish queen with any
colouring too favourable.
Whatever resentment Mary might feel, it did not retard her departure
from France. She was accompanied to Calais, the place where she.
embarked, in a manner suitable to her dignity, as the queen of two powerful kingdoms. Six princes of Lorrain, her uncles, with many of the most
eminent among the French nobles were in her retinue. Catherine, who
* Johnston, Hist. Rer. Britan. 346, 347. Carte, vol. iii. 699. Catalogue of Roywa and Noble
Authors, article Essex.' Melvil, 98.    t Keith, 157. 160, &c.   Q Ibid. 171. Camden
See Appendix, No, VI.  1I Cabbala, p. 374. Keith, 170, &c.




OF SCOTLAND.                                   109
secretly rejoiced at her departure, graced it with every circumstance of
magnificence and respect.  After bidding adieu to her mourning attendants, with a sad heart, and eyes bathed in tears, Mary left that kingdom,
the short but only scene of her life in which fortune smiled upon her.
While the French coast continued in sight, she intently gazed upon it, and
musing, in a thoughtful posture, on that height of fortune whence she had
fallen, and presaging, perhaps, the disasters and calamities which embittered the remainder of her days, she sighed often, and cried out "Farewell, France!  Farewell, beloved country, which  I shall never more
behold!"  Even when the darkness of the night had hid the land from her
view, she would neither retire to the cabin, nor taste food, but commanding
a couch to be placed on the deck, she there waited the return of day with
the utmost impatience. Fortune soothed her on this occasion; the galley
made little way during the night. In the morning, the coast of France
was still within sight, and she continued to feed her melancholy with the
prospect; and, as long as her eyes could distinguish it, to utter the same
tender expressions of regret."  At last a brisk gale arose, by the favour of
which for some days, and afterwards under the cover of a thick fog, Mary
escaped the English fleet, which, as she apprehended, lay in wait in order
to intercept her;t and on the nineteenth of August, after an absence of
near thirteen years, landed safely at Leith in her native kingdom.
Mary was received by her subjects with shouts and acclamations ofjoy,
and with every demonstration of welcome and regard.  But as her arrival
was unexpected, and no suitable preparation had been made for it, they
could not, with all their efforts, hide from  her the poverty of the country,
and were obliged to conduct her to the palace of Holyrood-house with little
pomp.  The queen, accustomed from  her infancy to splendour and magnificence, and fond of them, as was natural to her age, could not help
observing the change in her situation, and seemed to be deeply affected
with it..
Never did any prince ascend the throne at a juncture which called for
more wisdom in council, or more courage and steadiness in action. The
rage of religious controversy was still unabated. The memory of past
oppression exasperated the protestants; the smart of ancient injuries rendered the papists desperate; both were zealous, fierce, and irreconcilable.
The absence of their sovereign had accustomed the nobles to independence 
and, during the late commotions, they had acquired such an increase of
wealth, by the spoils of the church, as threw great weight into the scale
of the aristocracy, which stood not in need of any accession of power.
The kingdom had long been under the government of regents, who exercised a delegated jurisdiction, attended with little authority, and which
inspired no reverence. A state of pure anarchy had prevailed for the two
last years, without a regent, without a supreme council, without the power,
or even the form, of a regular government.~ A licentious spirit, unacquainted with subordination, and disdaining the restraints of law and justice,
had spread through all ranks of men.  The influence of France, the ancient
ally of the kingdom, was withdrawn or despised. The English, of enemies become confederates, had grown into confidence with the nation, and
* Brantome, 483. He himself was in the same galley with the queen.
Goodal, vol. i. 175. Camden insinuates, rather than affirms, that it was the object of the English fleet to intercept Mary. This, however, seems to be doubtful. Elizabeth positively asserts
that, at the request of the king of Spain, she had fitted out a few ships of slender force, in order to
clear the narrow seas of pirates, which infested them; and she appeals for the truth of this to Mary's
own ministers. App. No. VI. Cecil, in a letter to Throkmorton, Aug. C6,'561, infoirms him, that
" the queen's ships, which were upon the seas to cleanse them of pirates, saw her [i. e. Mary], ard
saluted her galleys, and staying her ships examined them of pirates, and dismissed them gently.
One Scottish ship they detained as vehemently suspected of piracy." Hard. State Papers, i. 176.
Castelnau, who accompanied Mary in this voyage, confirms the circumstance of her galleys being
in sight of the English fleet. Mem. ap. Jebb. xi. 455.
I Brant. 484      KS Kcith Appendix, 92.




110                    T H E HISTORY                  [BooK III.
had gained an ascendant over all its councils. The Scottish monarchs did
not derive more splendour or power from the friendship of the former than
they had reason to dread injury and diminution from the interposition of
the latter. Every consideration, whether of interest or of self-preservation,
obliged Elizabeth to depress the royal authority in Scotland, and to create
the prince perpetual difficulties, by fomenting the spirit of dissatisfaction
among the people.
In this posture were the affairs of Scotland when the administration fell
into the hands of a young queen, not nineteen years of age, unacquainted
with the manners and laws of her country, a stranger to her subjects, without experience, without allies, and almost without a friend.
On the other hand, in Mary's situation we find some circumstances
which, though they did not balance these disadvantages, contributed however to alleviate them; and, with skilful management might have produced
great effects. Her subjects, unaccustomed so long to the residence of their
prince, were not only dazzled by the novelty and splendour of the royal
presence, but inspired with awe and reverence. Besides the places of
power and profit bestowed by the favour of a prince, his protection, his
familiarity, and even his smiles, confer honour and win the hearts of men.
From all corners of the kingdom the nobles crowded to testify. their duty
and affection to their sovereign, and studied by every art to wipe out the
memory of past misconduct, and to lay in a stock of future merit. The
amusements and gayety of hey court, which was filled with the most
accomplished of the French nobility, who had attended her, began to soften
and polish the rude manners of the nation. Mary herself possessed many
of those qualifications which raise affection and procure esteem. The
beauty and gracefulness of her person drew universal admiration, the elegance and politeness of her manners commanded general respect. To all
the charms of her own sex she added many of the accomplishments of the
other. The progress she had made in all the arts and sciences, which
were then deemed necessary or ornamental, was far beyond what is commonly attained by princes; and all her other qualities were rendered more
agreeable by a courteous affability, which, without lessening the dignity
of a prince, steals on the hearts of subjects with a bewitching insinuation.
From these circumstances, notwithstanding the threatening aspect of
affairs at Mary's return into Scotland; notwithstanding the clouds which
gathered on every hand, a political observer would have predicted a very
different issue of her reign; and, whatever sudden gusts of faction he
might have expected, he would never have dreaded the destructive vio-.ence of that storm which followed.
While all parties were contending who should discover the most dutiful
attachment to the queen, the zealous and impatient spirit of the age broke
out in a remarkable instance. On the Sunday after her arrival the queen
commanded mass to be celebrated in the chapel of her palace. The first
rumour of this occasioned a secret murmuring among the protestants who
attended the court; complaints and threatening soon followed; the servants
belonging to the chapel were insulted and abused; and, if the prior of St.
Andrew's had not seasonably interposed, the rioters might have proceeded
to the utmost excesses.*
It is impossible, at this distance of time, and under circumstances so
very different, to conceive the violence of that zeal against popery which
then possessed the nation. Every instance of condescension to the papists
was deemed an act of apostacy, and the toleration of a single mass pronounced to be more formidable to the nation than the invasion of ten
thousand armed men.t Under the influence of these opinions many protestants would have ventured to go dangerous lengths; and, without
* Knox, 284. Haynes,                Knox, 287.




OF SCOTLAND.                            111
attempting to convince their sovereign by argument, or to reclaim her by
indulgence, would have abruptly denied her the liberty of worshipping
God in that manner which alone she thought acceptable to him. But the
prior of St. Andrew's, and other leaders of the party, not only restrained
this impetuous spirit, but, in spite of the murmurs of the people and the
exclamations of the preachers, obtained for the queen and her domestics the
undisturbed exercise of the Catholic religion. Near a hundred years after
this period, when the violence of religious animosities had begun to subside, when time and the progress of learning had enlarged the views of
the human mind, an English House of Commons refused to indulge the
wife of their sovereign in the private use of the mass. The protestant
leaders deserve, on this occasion, the praise both of wisdom and of moderation for conduct so different. But, at the same time, whoever reflects
upon the encroaching and sanguinary spirit of popery in that age, will be
far from treating the fears and caution of the more zealous reformers as
altogether imaginary, and destitute of any real foundation.
The leaders of the protestants, however, by this prudent compliance
with the prejudices of their sovereign, obtained from her a proclamation
highly favourable to their religion, which was issued six days after her
arrival in Scotland [Aug. 25]. The reformed doctrine, though established
over all the kingdom by the parliament, which met in consequence of the
treaty of pacification, had never received the countenance or sanction of
royal authority. In order to quiet the minds of those who had embraced
that doctrine, and to remove any dread of molestation which they might
entertain, Mary declared, " that until she should take final orders concerning
religion, with advice of parliament, any attempt to alter or subvert the
religion which she found universally practised in the realm, should be
deemed a capital crime."   Next year a second proclamation to the same
effect was published.t
The queen, conformably to the plan which had been concerted in France,
committed the administration of affairs entirely to protestants. Her council
was filled with the most eminent persons of that party; not a single papist
was admitted into any degree of confidence.t The prior of St. Andrew's
and Maitland of Lethington seemed to hold the first place in the queen's
affection, and possessed all the power as well as reputation of favourite
ministers. Her choice could not have fallen upon persons more acceptable
to her people; and, by their prudent advice, Mary conducted herself with
so much moderation, and deference to the sentiments of the nation, as could
not fail of gaining the affection of her subjects,~ the firmest foundation of
a prince's power, and the only genuine source of his happiness and glory.
A cordial reconcilement with Elizabeth was another object of great
importance to Mary; and though she seems to have had it much at heart,
in the beginning of her administration, to accomplish such a desirable conjunction, yet many events occurred to widen rather than to close the breach.
The formal offices of friendship, however, are seldom neglected among
princes; and Elizabeth, who had attempted so openly to obstruct the
queen's voyage into Scotland, did not fail, a few days after her arrival, to
command Randolph to congratulate her safe return. Mary, that she might
be on equal terms with her, sent Maitland to the English court, with many
ceremonious expressions of regard for Elizabeth.11 Both the ambassadors
were received with the utmost civility; and on each side the professions
of kindness, as they were made with little sincerity, were listened to with
proportional credit.
Both were intrusted, however, with something more than mere matter
of ceremony. Randolph urged Mary, with fresh importunity, to ratify the
treaty of Edinburgh. Maitland endeavoured to amuse Elizabeth, by apo* Keith, 504.   t Ibid. 510  Knox, 285    Q Lesley, 235.  11 Keith, 181, &c.




112                    THE  HISTORY                     LBook I11.
logizing for the dilatory conduct of his mistress with regard to that point
The multiplicity of public affairs since her arrival in Scotland, the im
portance of the question in dispute, and the absence of many noblemen,
with whom she was obliged in decency to consult, were the pretences
iffered in excuse for her conduct; the real causes of it were those which
have already been mentioned. But, in order to extricate herself out of
these difficulties, into which the treaty of Edinburgh had led her, Mary
was brought to yield a point, which formerly she seemed determined never
to give up. She instructed Maitland to signify her willingness to disclaim
any right to the crown of England, during the life of Elizabeth, and the
lives of her posterity; if, in failure of these, she were declared next heir
by an act of parliament.*
Reasonable as this proposal might appear to Mary, who thereby precluded herself from disturbing Elizabeth's possession of the throne, nothing
could be more inconsistent with Elizabeth's interest, or more contradictory
to a passion which predominated in the character of that princess. Notwithstanding all the great qualities which threw such lustre on her reign,
we may observe, that she was tinctured with a jealousy of her right to
the crown, which often betrayed her into mean and ungenerous actions.'The peculiarity of her situation heightened, no doubt, and increased, but
did not infuse, this passion. It descended to her from Henry VIl. her
grandfather, whom, in several features of his character, she nearly resembled. Like him, she suffered the title by which she held the crown to
remain ambiguous and controverted, rather than submit it to parliamentary
discussion, or derive any addition to her right from such authority. Like
him, she observed every pretender to the succession, not only with that
attention which prudence prescribes, but with that aversion which suspicion
inspires.  The present uncertainty with regard to the right of succession
operated for Elizabeth's advantage, both on her subjects and on her rivals.
Among the former, every lover of his country regarded her life as the
great security of the national tranquillity; and chose rather to acknowledge
a title which was dubious than to search for one that was unknown.  The
latter, while nothing was decided, were held in dependence, and obliged
to court her. The manner in which she received this' ill-timed proposal
of the Scottish queen was no other than might have been expected. She
rejected it in a peremptory tone, with many expressions of a resolution
never to permit a point of so much delicacy to be touched.
Sept. 1.] About this time the queen made her public entry into Edinburgh
with great pomp. Nothing was neglected that could express the duty and
affection of the citizens towards their sovereign. But, amidst these (lemonstrations of regard, the genius and sentiments of the nation discovered
themselves in a circumstance, which, though inconsiderable, ought not be
overlooked.  As it was the mode of the times to exhibit many pageants at
every public solemnity, most of these, on this occasion, were contrived to
be representations of the vengeance which the Almighty had inflicted upon
idolaters.t Even while they studied to amuse and to flatter the queen, her
subjects could not refrain from testifying their abhorrence of that religion
which she professed.
To restore the regular administration of justice, and to reform the internal
policy of the country, became the next object of the queen's care. The
laws enacted for preservation of public order, and the security of private
property, were nearly the same in Scotland as in every other civilized
country. But the nature of the Scottish constitution, the feebleness of
legal authority, the exorbitant power of the nobles, the violence of faction1
and the fierce manners of the people, rendered the execution of these laws
feeble, irregular, and partial. In the counties which border on England,
* Camden, 387. Buch. 329.  t Keith, 189.




OF SCOTLAND.                             113
this defect was most apparent; and the consequences of it most sensibly
felt. The inhabitants, strangers to industry, averse from labour, and unacquainted with the arts of peace, subsisted chiefly by spoil and pillage,
and, being confederated in septs or clans, committed these excesses not
only with impunity, but even with honour. During the unsettled state of
the kingdom from the death of James V. this dangerous license had grown
to an unusual height; and the inroads and rapine of those freebooters were
become no less intolerable to their own countrymen than to the English.
To restrain and punish these outrages was an action equally popular in
both kingdoms. The prior of St. Andrew's was the person chosen for this
important service, and extraordinary powers, together with the title of the
queen's lieutenant, were vested in him for that purpose.
Nothing can be more surprising to men accustomed to regular government, than the preparations made on this occasion. They were such as
might be expected in the rudest and most imperfect state of society. The
freeholders of eleven several counties, with all their followers completely
armed, were summoned to assist the lieutenant in the discharge of his
office. Every thing resembled a military expedition, rather than the progress of a court of justice.*  T'he prior executed his commission with such
vigour and prudence as acquired him a great increase of reputation and
popularity among his countrymen. Numbers of the banditti suffered the
punishment due to their crimes; and, by the impartial and rigorous administration of justice, order and tranquillity were restored to that part of
the kingdom.
During the absence of the prior of St. Andrew's, the leaders of the
popish faction seem to have taken some steps towards insinuating themselves into the queen's favour and confidlence.t But the archbishop of St.
Andrew's, the most remarkable person in the party for abilities and political
address, was received with little favour at court; and, whatever secret
partiality the queen might have towards those who professed the same
religion with herself, she discovered no inclination at that time to take the
administration of affairs out of the hands to which she had already committed it.
The cold reception of the archbishop of St. Andrew's was owing to his
connexion with the house of Hamilton; from which the queen was much!
alienated. The duke of Guise and the cardinml could never forgive the
zeal with which the duke of Chatelhe-rault and his son the earl of Arranr
had espoused the cause of the congregation. Princes seldom view their
successors without jealousy and distrust. The prior of St. Andrew's, perhaps, dreaded the duke as a rival in power. All these causes concurred
in infusing into the queen's mind an aversion for that family. The duke,,
indulging his love of retirement, lived at a distance from court, without
taking pains to insinuate himself into favour; and though the earl of Arran
openly aspired to marry the queen, he, by a most unpardonable act of
imprudence, was the only nobleman of distinction who opposed Mary's
enjoying the exercise of her religion; and, by rashly entering a public
protestation against it, entirely forfeited her favour.t At the same time,,
the sordid parsimony of his father obliged him either to hide himself in
some retirement, or to appear in a manner unbecoming his dignity as first
prince of the blood, or his high pretensions as suitor to the queen.~  His
love inflamed by disappointment, and his impatience exasperated by
neglect, preyed gradually on his reason, and, after many extravagancses,
broke out at last in ungovernable frenzy.
Dec. 20.1  Towards the end of the year, a convention of estates was
held, chiefly on account of ecclesiastical affairs. The assembly of the
church, which sat at the same time, presented a petition, containing many
* Keith, 198.  t Ibid. 203.:  Keith, 201. 204. Knox, 286.  Q Keith, -196.
VOL. IlI. —15




114                    THE  HISTORY                    [Boo.III.
demands with respect to the suppressing of popery, the encouraging the
protestant religion, and the providing for the maintenance of the clergy )
The last was a matter of great importance, and the steps taken towards, it
deserve to be traced.
Though the number of protestant preachers was now considerably
increased, many more were still wanted, in every corner of the kingdom.
No legal provision having been made for them, they had hitherto drawn a
scanty and precarious subsistence from the benevolence of their people.
To suffer the ministers of an established church to continue in this state of
indigence and dependence was an indecency equally repugnant to the principles of religion and to the maxims of sound policy; and would have
justified all the imputations of avarice with which the reformation was then
loaded by its enemies. The revenues of the popish church were the only
fund which could be employed for their relief; but, during the three last
years, the state of these was greatly altered. A great majority of abbots,
priors, and other heads of religious houses, had, either from a sense of duty,,or from views of interest, renounced the errors of popery; and, notwith
standing this change in their sentiments, they retained their ancient reve-.nues. Almost the whole order of bishops, and several of the other dignitaTies, still adhered to the Romish superstition; and, though debarred fiom
every spiritual function, continued to enjoy the temporalities of their benefices. Some laymen, especially those who had been active in promoting
the reformation, had, under various pretences, and amidst the license of
civil wars, got into their hands possessions which belonged to the church.'Thus, before any part of the ancient ecclesiastical revenues could be applied
towards the maintenance of the protestant ministers, many different interests'were to be adjusted; many claims to be examined; and the prejudices and
passions of the two contending parties required the application of a delicate
bhand. After much contention, the following plan was approved by a
majority of voices, and acquiesced in even by the popish clergy themnselves. An exact account of the value of ecclesiastical benefices throughout
the kingdom was appointed to be taken. The present incumbents, to
whatever party they adhered, were allowed to keep possession; two-thirds'of their whole revenue were reserved for their own use, the remainder was
annexed to the crown; and out of that the queen undertook to assign a suffi-:cient maintenance for the protestant clergy.1'
As most of the bishops and several of' the other dignitaries were still'firmly attached to the popish religion, the extirpation of the whole order,
rather than an act of such extraordinary indulgence, might have been
expected from the zeal of the preachers, and from that spirit which had'hitherto animated the nation. But, on this occasion, other principles
obstructed the operations of such as were purely religious. Zeal for
liberty, and the love of wealth, two passions extremely opposite, concurred
in determining the'protestant leaders to fall in with this plan, which
deviated so manifestly from the maxims by which they had hitherto regu
lated their conduct.
If the reformers had beein allowed to act without control, and to level all
distinctions in the church, the great revenues annexed to ecclesiastical dignities could not, with any colour ofjustice, have been retained by those in
whose hands they now were; but must either have been distributed among
the protestant clergy, who performed all religious offices, or must have
fallen to the queen, from the bounty of whose ancestors the greater part of
them was originally derived. The former scheme, however suitable to the'religious spirit of many among the people, was attended with manifold
danger. T'he popish ecclesiastics had acquired a share in the national
property, which far exceeded the proportion that was consistent with the
* Keith, 21i   t Ibid Append. 175 IKnox, 194.




OF SCOTLAND.                            115
happiness of the kingdom; and the nobles were determined to guard against
this evil, by preventing the return of those possessions into the hands of the
church. Nor was the latter, which exposed the constitution to more imminent hazard, to be avoided with less care. Even that circumscribed prerogative, which the Scottish kings possessed, was the object of jealousy to
the nobles. If they had allowed the crown to seize the spoils of the
church, such an increase of power must have followed that accession of
property as would have raised the royal authority above control, and have
rendered the most limited prince in Europe the most absolute and independent. The reign of Henry VIII. presented a recent and alarming
example of this nature. The wealth which flowed in upon that prince,
from the suppression of the monasteries, not only changed the maxims of
his government, bult the temper of his mind; and he who had formerly sub,
mitted to his parliaments, and courted his people, dictated from that time
to the former with intolerable insolence, and tyrannized over the latter with
unprecedented authority. And if his policy had not been extremely shortsighted, if he had not squandered what he acquired, with a profusion equal
to his rapaciousness, and which defeated his ambition, he might have
established despotism in England cn a basis so broad and strong as all the
efforts of the subjects would never have been able to shake. In Scotland,
where the riches of the clergy bore as great a proportion to the wealth of
the kingdom, the acquisition of church lands would have been of no less
importance to the crown, and no less fatal to the aristocracy. The nobles,
for this reason, guarded against such an increase of the royal power, and
thereby secured their own independence.
Avarice mingled itself with their concern for the interest of their order
The reuniting the possessions of the church to the crown, or the bestowing
them on the protestant clergy, would have been a fatal blow, both to those
nobles who had, by fraud or violence, seizect part of these revenues, and to
those abbots and priors who had totally renounced their ecclesiastical character. But as the plan which was proposed gave some sanction to their
usurpation, they promoted it with their utmost influence. The popish
ecclesiastics, though the lopping off a third of their revenues was by no
means agreeable to them, consented, under their present circumstances, to
sacrifice a part of their possessions, in order to purchase the secure enjoyment of the remainder; and, after deeming the whole irrecoverably lost,
they considered whatever they could retrieve as so much gain. Many of
the ancient dignitaries were men of noble birth; and, as they no longer
entertained hopes of restoring the popish religion, they wished their own
relations, rather than the crown or the protestant clergy, to be enriched
with the spoils of the church. They connived, for this reason, at the
encroachments of the nobles; they even aided their avarice and violence;
they dealt out the patrimony of the church among their own relations, and,
by granting feus and perpetual leases of lands and tithes, gave, to the
utmost of their power, some colour of legal possession to what was formerly
mere usurpation. Many vestiges of such alienation still remain." The
nobles, with the concurrence of the incumbents, daily extended their encroachments, and gradually stripped the ecclesiastics of their richest and
most valuable possessions. Even that third part, which was given.qp in
order to silence the clamours of the protestant clergy, and to be some equm
valent to the crown for its claims, amounted to no considerable sum. The
thirds due by the more powerful nobles, especially by such as had embraced
the reformation, were almost universally remitted. Others, by producing
fraudulent metals; by estimating the corn, and other payments in kind at
an under value; and by the connivance of collectors, greatly diminished
the charge against themselves:t and the nobles had much reason to be satis
* Keith, 507. Spotsw. 175.  t Ibid. Append. 188. Spotsw. 183




116'1 HE:HISTO RY                 [BooK II1.
fled with a device which, at so small expense, -secured to them such valuable possessions.
Nor were the protestant clergy considerable gainers by this new regulation; they found it to be a more easy matter to kindle zeal than to extinguish avarice. Those very men, whom formerly they had swayed with
absolute authority, were now deaf to all their remonstrances. The prior
of St. Andrew's, the earl of Argyll, the earl of Morton, and Maitland, all the
most zealous leaders of the congregation, were appointed to assign, or as
it was called, to modi~fy their stipends. A hundred merks Scottish was the
allowance which their liberality afforded to the generality of ministers.
To a few three hundred merks were granted.?  About twenty-four thousand pounds Scottish appears to have been the whole sum allotted for the
maintenance of a national church established by laew, and esteemed
throughout the kingdom the true church of God.t Even this sum was paid
with Tittle exactness, and the ministers were kept in the same poverty and
dependence as formerly.
1562.] Tfhe gentleness of the queen's administration, and the elegance
of her court, had mitigated, in some degree, the ferocity of the nobles, and
accustomed them to greater mildness and humanity; while, at the same
time, her presence and authority were a check to their factious and tumultuary spirit. But, as the state of order and tranquillity was not natural to
the feudal aristocracy, it could not be of long continuance; and this year
became remarkable for the most violent eruptions of intestine discord and
animosity.
Among the great and independent nobility of Scotland, a monarch could
possess little authority, and exercise no extensive or rigorous jurisdiction.
The interfering of interest, the unsettled state of property, the frequency
of public commotions, and the fierceness of their own manners sowed
among the great families the seeds of many quarrels and contentions
These, as we have already observed, were frequently decided not by law
but by violence. The offended baron, without having recourse to the
monarch, or acknowledging his superior authority, assembled his own followers, and invaded the lands of his rival in a hostile manner. Together
with his estate and honours, every nobleman transmitted some hereditary
feud to his posterity, who were bound in honour to adopt and to prosecute
it with unabated rancour.
Such a dissension had subsisted between the house of Hamilton and the
earl of Bothwell, and was heightened by mutual injuries during the late
commotions.J  The earl of Arran and Bothwell happening to attend the
court at the same tine, their followers quarrelled frequently in the streets
of' Edinburgh, [February] and excited dangerous tumults in that city. At
last, the mediation of their friends, particularly of Knox, brought about a
reconcilement, but an unfortunate one to both these noblemen..~
A few days after, Arran camne to Knox, and, with the utmost terror and
confusion, confessed first to him, and then to the prior of St. Andrew's, that,
in order to obtain the sole direction of affairs, Bothwell, and *his kinsmen
the Hamiltons, had conspired to murder the prior, Maitland, and the other
favourites of the queen. The duke of Chatelherault regarded the prior
as a rival, who had supplanted him in the queen's favour, and who filled
that place at the helm, which he imagined to be due to himself, as first
prince of the blood. Bothwell, on account of the personal injuries which
he had received from  the prior during the hostile operations of the two
contending parties, was no less exasperated against him. But whether he
and the Lamniltons had agreed to cement their new alliance with the blood
of their common enemy, or whether the conspiracy existed only in the
fiantic and disordered imagination of the earl of Arran, it is impossible,
* Knox, 301.  t Keith, Append. 188.  i Keith, 215.    Ibid. 305.




OF SCOTLAND                              117
amidst the contradiction of historians and the defectiveness of reccrds,
positively to determine. Among men inflamed with resentment and impatient for revenge, rash expressions might be uttered, and violent and criminal expedients proposed; and on that foundation Arran's distempered
tancy might rear the whole superstructure of a conspiracy. All the persons accused denied their guilt with the utmost confidence. But the
known characters of the men, and the violent spirit of the age, added
greatly to the probability of the accusation, and abundantly justify the conduct of the queen's ministers, who confined Bothwell, Arran, and a few ot
the ringleaders in separate prisons, and obliged the duke to surrender the
strong castle of Dumbarton, which he had held ever since the time of his
resigning the office of regent.*
The designs of the earl of Huntly against the prior of St. Andrew's were
deeper laid, and produced more memorable and more tragical events.
George Gordon earl of Huntly, having been one of the nobles who conspired against James III., and who raised his son James IV. to the throne,
enjoyed a great share in the confidence of that generous prince.t By his
bounty, great accessions of wealth and power were added to a family
already opulent and powerful. On the death of that monarch, Alexander
the next earl, being appointed lord-lieutenant of all the counties beyond
Forth, left the other nobles to contend for offices at court; and retiring to
the north, where his estate and influence lay, resided there in a kind of
princely independence. The chieftains in that part of the kingdom dreaded
the growing dominion of such a' dangerous neighbour, but were unable to
prevent his encroachments. Some of his rivals he secretly undermined,
others he subdued by open force. His estate far exceeded that of any
other subject, and his superiorities and jurisdictions extended over many
of the northern counties. With power and possessions so extensive, under
two long and feeble minorities, and amidst the shock of civil commotions,
the earls of Huntly might have indulged the most elevated hopes. But,
happily for the crown, an active and enterprising spirit was not the characteristic of that family; and, whatever object their ambition might have
in view, they chose rather to acquire it by political address than to seize
it openly and by force of arms.
The conduct of George the present earl, during the late commotions,
had been perfectly suitable to the character of the family in that age,
dubious, variable, and crafty. While the success of the lords of the congregation was uncertain, he assisted the queen regent in her attempts to
crush them. When their affairs put on a better aspect, he pretended to
join them, but never heartily favoured their cause. He was courted and;
feared by each of the contending parties; both connived at his encroachments in the north; and by artifice and force, which he well knew how to
employ alternately and in their proper places, he added every day to the
exorbitant power and wealth which he possessed.
I-e observed the growing reputation and authority of the prior of St
Andrew's with the greatest jealousy and concern, and considered him as a
rival who had engrossed that share in the queen's confidence, to which his
own zeal for the popish religion seemed to give him a preferable title.
Personal injuries soon increased the misunderstanding occasioned by rivalship in power. The queen having determined to reward the services of
the prior of St. Andrew's, by creating him an earl, she made choice of
Mar, as the place whence he should take his title; and, that he migh' be
better able to support his new honour, bestowed upon him at the same
time the lands of that name. These were part of the royal demesnes,,+
but the earls of Huntly had been permitted, for several years, to keep
possession of them.~ [Feb. 1.] On this occasion the earl not only com* Knox. 307, 308.  t Crawf. Officers of State, 56.  1 Crawf. Peer. 297.  Q Buch. 334.




118                   THE  HISTORY                     [BooK III.
plained, with some reason, of the loss which he sustained, but had rea.
cause to be alarmed at the intrusion of a formidable neighbour into the
heart of his territories, who might be able to rival his power, and excite his
oppressed vassals to shake off his yoke.
June 27.] An incident, which happened soon after, increased and confirmed Huntly's suspicions. Sir John Gordon, his third son, and lord Ogil.
vie, had a dispute about the property of an estate. This dispute became
a deadly quarrel. They happened unfortunately to meet in the streets of
Edinburgh; and being both attended with armed followers, a scuffle
ensued, in which lord Ogilvie was dangerously wounded by Sir John.
The magistrates seized both the offenders, and the queen commanded
them to be strictly confined. Under any regular government, such a
breach of public peace and order would expose the person offending to
certain punishment. At this time some severity was necessary in order to
vindicate the queen's authority from an insult the most heinous which had
been offered to it since her return into Scotland. But in an age accustomed
to license and anarchy, even this moderate exercise of her power, in ordering them to be kept in custody, was deemed an act of intolerable rigour;
and the friends of each party began to convene their vassals and dependents, in order to overawe or to frustrate the decisions of justice.*  Meanwhile Gordon made his escape out of prison, and flying into Aberdeenshire,
complained loudly of the indignity with which he had been treated; and
as all the queen's actions were at this juncture imputed to the earl of Mar,
this added not a little to the resentment which Huntly had conceived
against that nobleman.
Aug.] At the very time when these passions fermented, with the utmost
violence, in the minds of the earl of Huntly and his family, the queen happened to set out on a progress into the northern parts of the kingdom.
She was attended by the earls of Mar and Morton, Maitland, and other
leaders of that party. The presence of the queen in a country where no
name greater than the earl of Huntly's had been heard of, and no pci:ver
superior to his had been exercised, for many years, was an event of itself
abundantly mortifying to that haughty nobleman. But while the queen
was entirely under the direction of Mar, all.her actions were more apt to
be misrepresented, and construed into injuries; and a thousand circumstances could not but occur to awaken Huntly's jealousy, to offend his
pride, and to inflame his resentment. Amidst the agitation of so many
violent passions, some eruption was unavoidable.
On Mary's arrival in the north, Huntly employed his wife, a woman
capable of executing the commission with abundance of dexterity, to sooth
the queen, and to intercede for pardon to their son. But the queen peremptorily required that he should again deliver himself into the hands of justice, and rely on her clemency. Gordon was persuaded to do so; and
being enjoined by the queen to enter himself prisoner in the castle of
Stirling, he promised likewise to obey that command. Lord Erskine,
Mar's uncle, was at that time governor of this fort. The queen's severity
and the place in which she appointed Gordon to be confined, were interpreted to be new marks of Mar's rancour, and augmented the hatred of
the Gordons against him.
Sept. 1.] Mean time, sir John Gordon set out towards Stirling; but
instead of performing his promise to the queen, made his escape from his
guards, and returned to take the command of his followers, who were
rising in arms all over the north. These were destined to second and
improve the blow, by which his father proposed, secretly and at once, to
cut off Mar, Morton, and Maitland, his principal adversaries. The time
and place for perpetrating this horrid deed were frequently appointei* Keith, 23.




OF SCOTLAND.                             119
but the executing of it was wonderfully prevented, by some of those unforeseen incidents which so often occur to disconcert the schemes and to intimi
date the hearts of assassins.* Huntly's own house, at Strathbogie, was
the last and most convenient scene appointed for committing the intended
violence. But on her journey thither, the queen heard of young Gordon's
fight and rebellion, and, refusing in the first transports of her indignation
to enter under the father's roof, by that fortunate expression of her resentment saved her ministers from unavoidable destructions.
The ill success of these efforts of private revenge precipitated Huntly into
open rebellion. As the queen was entirely under the direction of his rivals,
it was impossible to compass their ruin without violating the allegiance
which he owed his sovereign. On her arrival at Inverness, the commanding officer in the castle, by Huntly's orders, shut the gates against ner
-Mary was obliged to lodge in the town, which was open and defenceless
but this too was quickly surrounded by a multitude of the earl's followers.4
The utmost consternation seized the queen, who was attended by a very
slender train. She every moment expected the approach of the rebels,
and some ships were already ordered into the river to secure her escape.
The loyalty of the Munroes, Frasers, Mackintoshes, and some neighbouring clans, who took arms in her defence, saved her from this danger. By
their assistance, she even forced the castle to surrender, and inflicted on the
governor the punishment which his insolence deserved.
This open act of disobedience was the occasion of a measure more gall
ing to Huntly than any the queen had hitherto taken. Lord E:skine
having pretended a right to the earldom of Mar, Stewart resigned it in his
favour; and at the same time Mary conferred upon him the title of earl of
Murray, with the estate annexed to that dignity, which had been in the
possession of the Earl of [Huntly since the year 1548.~ From this encroachment upon his domains he concluded that his family was devoted to
destruction; and, dreading to be stripped gradually of all those possessions
which, in reward of their services, the gratitude of the crown had bestowed
on himself, or his ancestors, he no longer disguised his intentions, but, in
defiance of the queen's proclamation, openly took arms. Instead of yield
ing those places of strength, which Mary required him to surrender, his
followers dispersed or cut in pieces the parties which she despatched to
take possession of them;lI and he himself advancing with a considerable
body of men towards Aberdeen, to which place the queen was now
returned, filled her small court with consternation. Murray had only a
handful of men in whom he could confide.~  In order to form the appearance of an army, he was obliged to call in the assistance of the neighbouring barons; but as most of these either favoured Huntly's designs, or stood
in awe of his power, from them no cordial or effectual service could be
expected.
Oct. 28.] With these troops, however, Murray, who could gain nothing
by delay, marched briskly towards the exemy. He found them at Corichie, posted to great advantage; he commanded his northern associates
instantly to begin the attack; but on the first motion of the enemy they
treacherously turned their back; and Huntly's followers, throwing aside
their spears and breaking their ranks, drew their swords and rushed forward to the pursuit. It was then that Murray gave proof, both of ste- dy
courage and prudent conduct. He stood immoveable on a rising ground
with the small but trusty body of his adherents, who, presenting their
spears to the enemy, received them with a determined resolution which
they little expected. The Hiohland broad sword is not a weapon fit tc
encounter the Scottish spear. Yn every civil commotion, the superiority of
* Keith, 230    t Knox, 318.   T Crawf. Officers of State, 87, 88.   Q Crawf. Peer. 359
It Knox, 319:   1T Keith, 230.




120                           THE HISTORY                               [BOOK III.
the latter has been evident, and has always decided the contest.  On this
occasion the irregular attack of Huntly's troops was easily repulsed by
Murray's firm  battalion.  Before they recovered from  the confusion occasioned by this unforeseen resistance, Murray's northern troops, who had
fled so shamefully in the beginning of the action, willing to regain their
credit with the victorious party, fell upon them, and  completed the rout
Huntly himself, who was extremely corpulent, was trodden to death in the
pursuit. His sons, sir John and Adam, were taken, and Murray returned
in triumph to Aberdeen with his prisoners.
The trial of men taken in actual rebellion  against their sovereign was
extremely  short.  Three  days after the  battle, sir John  Gordon was
beheaded  at Aberdeen.  His brother Adam  was pardoned on' account of
his youth.  Lord Gordon, who had been privy to his father's designs, was
seized  in the south, and upon  trial found guilty of treason; but, through
the queen's clemency, the punishment was remitted. The first parliament
proceeded against this great family with the utmost rigour of law, and
reduced their power and fortune to the lowest ebb.~
As the fall of the earl of Huntly is the most important event of this year,
it would have been improper to interrupt the narrative by taking notice of
lesser transactions, which may now be related with equal propriety.
In the beginning of summer, Mary, who was desirous of entering into a
more intimate correspondence and familiarity with Elizabeth, employed
Maitland to desire a personal interview  with her, somewhere in the north
of England.  As this proposal  could not be rejected with  decency, the
time, the  place, and  the  circumstances of the meeting were  instantly
agreed upon.  But Elizabeth was prudent enough  not to admit into her
kingdom a rival who outshone herself so far in beauty and gracefulness of
person; and who excelled so eminently in all the arts of insinuation and
address. Under pretence of being confined to London, by the attention
which she was obliged to give to the civil wars in France, she put off the
* This conspiracy of the earl of Huntly is one of the most intricate and mysteriouspassages in
the Scottish history. As it was a transaction purely domestic, and in which the English were little
interested, few original papers concerning it have been found in Cecil's collection, the great storehouse of evidence and information with regard to the affairs of this period.
Buchanan supposes Mary to have formed a design about this time of destroying Murray, and of
employing the power of the earl of Huntly for this purpose. But his account of this whole transaction appears to be so void of truth, and even of probability, as to deserve no serious examination.
At that time Mary wanted power, and seems to have had no inclination to commit any act of
violence upon her brother.
Two other hypotheses have been advanced, in order to explain this matter; but they appear to be
equally removed from truth.
I. It canno.t be well conceivdd, that the queen's journey to the north was a scheme concerted by
Murray, in order to ruin the earl of Huntly. 1. Huntly had resided at court almost ever since the
queen's return. Keith, 198, Append, 175, &c. This was the proper place in which to have seized
him. To attack him in Aberdeenshire, the seat of his power and in the midst of his vassals, was
a project equally absurd and hazardous. 2. The queen was not accompanied with a body of troops
capable of attempting any thing against Huntly by violence: her train was not more numerous than
was usual in times of greatest tranquillity. Keith, 330. 3. There remain two original letters with
regard to this conspiracy; one from Randolph the English resident, and another from Maitland,
both directed to Cecil. They talk of Huntly's measures as notoriously treasonable. Randolph
mentions his repeated attempts to assassinate Murray, &c. No hint is given of any previous resolutlion formed by Mary's ministers to ruin Huntly and his family. Had any such design ever existed,
it was Randolph's duty to have discovered it; nor would Maitland have laboured to conceal it from
the English secretary, Keith, 229. 232.
II. To suppose that the earl of Huntly had laid any plan for seizing the queen and her ministers
seems to be no less improbable. 1. On the queen's arrival in the north, le laboured, in good earnest,
to gain her favour, and to obtain a pardon for his son. Knox, 318. 2. He met the queen, first at
Aberdeen, and then at Rothemay, whither he would not have ventured to come, had he harboured
any such treasonable resolution. Knox, 318 3. His conduct was irresolute and wavering, like
that of a man disconcerted by an unforeseen danger, not 1ilke one executing a concerted plan. 4. The
most considerable persons of his clan submitted to the queen, and found surety to obey her commands. Keith, 226. Had the earl been previously determined to rise in arms against the queen,
or to seize her ministers, it is probable he would have imparted it to his principal followers, nor
would they have deserted him in this manner.
For these reasons I have, on the one hand, vindicated the'earl of Murray from any deliberate
intention of ruining the family of Gordon: and on the other hand, I have imputed the violent conduct of the earl of Huntly to a sudden start of resentment, without charging him with any pro.
meditated purpose of rebellion.




OF SCOTLAND.                             121
Rntervlew for that season," and prevented her subjects from seeing the
Scottish queen, the charms of whose appearance and behaviour she envied,
and had some reason to dread.
During this year, the assembly of the church met twice. [June 2,
Dec. 25.] In both these meetings were exhibited many complaints of the
poverty and dependence of the church; and many murmurs against the
negligence or avarice of those who had been appointed to collect and to
distribute the small fund appropriated for the maintenance of preachers.t
A petition, craving redress of their grievances, was presented to the queen;
but without any effect. There was no reason to expect that Mary would
discover any forwardness to grant the request of such suppliants. As her
ministers, though all most zealous protestants, were themselves growing
rich on the inheritance of the church, they were equally regardless of the
indigence and demands of their brethren.
156 3.] Mary had now continued above two years in a state of widow
hood. Her gentle administration had secured the hearts of her subjects,
who were impatient for her marriage, and wished the crown to descend in
the right line from  their ancient monarchs. She herself was the most
amiable woman of the age; and the fame of her accomplishments, together
with the favourable circumstance of her having one kingdom already in
her possession, and the prospect of mounting the throne of another,
prompted many different princes to solicit an alliance so illustrious. Scotland, by its situation, threw so much weight and power'into whatever
scale it fell that all Europe waited with solicitude for Mary s determination; and no event in that age excited stronger political fears and
jealousies; none interested more deeply the passions of several princes,
or gave rise to more contradictory intrigues, than the marriage of the
Scottish queen.
The princes of the house of Austria remembered what vast projects
the French had founded on their former alliance with the queen of Scots;
and though the unexpected death, first of Henry and then of Francis, had
hindered these from taking effect, yet if Mary should again make choice
of a husband among the French princes, the same designs might be revived
and prosecuted with better success.
In order to prevent this, the emperor entered into a negotiation with the
cardinal of Lorrain, who had proposed to marry the Scottish queen to the
archduke Charles, Ferdinand's third son. The matter was communicated
to Mary; and Melvil, who at that time attended the elector Palatine,
was commanded to inquire into the character and situation of the archduke.T
Philip II., though no less apprehensive of Mary's falling once more into
the hands of France, envied his uncle Ferdinand the acquisition of so
important a prize; and, as his own insatiable ambition grasped at all the
kingdoms of Europe, he employed his ambassador at the French court to
solicit the princes of Lorrain in behalf of his son Don Carlos, at that time
the heir of all the extensive dominions which belonged to the Spanish
monarchy.~
Catherine of Medicis, on the other hand, dreaded the marriage of the
Scottish queen with any of the Austrian princes, which wo Ild have added
se much -to the power and pretensions of that ambitik.2s race. Her
jealousy of the princes of Lorrain rendered her no less averse from an
alliance which, by securing to them the protection of the emperor or king
of Spain, would give new boldness to their enterprising spirit, and enable.hem to set the power of the crown, which they already rivalled, at open
defiance: and as she was afraid that these splendid propcoals of' the AusT Keith, 216.   t Knox, 311. 323.    $ Melv. 63 65. Keith, 239. See Append. No. VII, Castelnau, 461. Addit. a Labour. 501. 503.
VoL. III.-16




122                   THE  HISTORY                    [Boor  IlI
trian family would dazzle the young queen, she instantly despatched
Castelnau into Scotland, to offer her in marriage the duke of Anjou, the
brother of her former husband, who soon after mounted the throne of
France.*
Mary attentively weighed the pretensions of so many rivals. The archduke had little to recommend him but his high birth. The example of
Henry VIII. was a warning against contracting a marriage with the brother
of her former husband; and she could not bear the thoughts of appearing
in France, in a rank inferior to that which she had formerly held in that
kingdom. She listened, therefore, with partiality, to the Spanish propositions, and the prospect of such vast power and dominions flattered the
ambition of a young and aspiring princess.
Three several circumstances, however, concurred to divert ]lary from
any thoughts of a foreign alliance.
The first of these was the murder of her uncle the duke of Guise. The
violence and ambition of that nobleman had involved his country in a civi
war; which was,conducted with furious animosity and various success.
At last the duke laid siege to Orleans, the bulwark of the protestant
cause; and he had reduced that city to the last extremity, when he was
assassinated by the frantic zeal of Poltrot. This blow proved fatal to the
queen of Scots. The young duke was a minor; and the cardinal of Lorrain, though subtle and intriguing, wanted that undaunted and enterprising
courage, which rendered the ambition of his brother so formidable.
Catherine, instead of encouraging the ambition or furthering the pretensions
of her daughter-in-law, took pleasure in mortifying the one, and in disappointing the other. In this situation, and without such a protector, it became
necessary for Mary to contract her views, and to proceed with caution;
and, whatever prospect of advantage might allure her, she could venture
upon no dangerous or doubtful measure.
The second circumstance which weighed with Mary was the opinion
of the queen of England. The marriage of the Scottish queen interested
Elizabeth more deeply than any other prince; and she observed all her
deliberations concerning it with the most anxious attention. She herself
seems early to have formed a resolution of living unmarried, and she discovered no small inclination to impose the same law on the queen of Scots.
She had already experienced what use might be made of Mary's power
and pretensions to invade her dominions, and to disturb her possession of
the crown. The death of Francis II. had happily delivered her from
this danger, which she determined to guard against for the future with the
utmost care. As the restless ambition of the Austrian princes, the avowed
and bigoted patrons of the catholic superstition, made her, in a particular
manner, dread their neighbourhood, she instructed Randolph to remon
strate, in the strongest terms, against any alliance with them; and to acquaint
Mary, that as she herself would consider such a match to be a breach ot
the personal friendship in which they were so happily united; so the
English nation would regard it as the dissolution of that confederacy which
now subsisted between the two kingdoms; that, in order to preserve their
own religion and liberties, they would, in all probability, take some step
prejudicial to her right of succession, which, as she well knew, they neither
wanted power nor pretences to invalidate and set aside. This threatening
was accompanied with a promise, but expressed in very ambiguous terms,
hat if Mary's choice of a husband should prove agreeable to the English
nation, Elizabeth would appoint proper persons to examine her title to the
succession, and, if well founded, command it to be publicly recognised.
She observed, however, a mysterious silence concerning the person on
whom she wished the choice of the Scottish queen to fall. The revealng
* Castelnau, 461.




OF SCOTLAND                             123
of the secret was reserved for some future negotiation. Meanwhile she
threw out some obscure hints, that a native of Britain, or one not of princely
rank, would be her safest and most inoffensive choice.*  An advice, offered
with such an air of superiority and command, mortified, no doubt, the pride
of the Scottish queen. But, under her present circumstances, she was
obliged to bear this indignity. Destitute of all foreign assistance, and
intent upon the English succession, the great object of her wishes and
ambition, it became necessary to court a rival, whom, without manifest
Imprudence, she could not venture to offend.
The inclination of her own subjects was another, and not the least
considerable circumstance, which called for Mary's attention at this conjuncture. They had been taught, by the fatal experiment of her former
marriage, to dread a union with any great prince, whose power might be
employed to oppress their religion and liberties. They trembled at the
thoughts of a match with a foreigner; and if the crown should be
strengthened by new dominions and alliances, they foresaw that the royal
prerogative would soon be stretched beyond its ancient and legal limits.
Their eagerness to prevent this could hardly fail of throwing them once
more into the arms of England. Elizabeth would be ready to afford them
her aid towards obstructing a measure so disagreeable to herself. It was
easy for them to seize the person of the sovereign. By the assistance of
the English fleet, they could render it difficult for any foreign prince to land
in Scotland.  The Roman catholics, now an inconsiderable party in the
kingdom, and dispirited by the loss of the earl of Huntly, could give no
obstruction to their designs.  To what violent extremes the national
abhorrence of a foreign yoke might have been carried is manifest from
what she had already seen and experienced.
For these reasons Mary laid aside, at that time, all thoughts of foreign
alliance, and seemed willing to sacrifice her own ambition, in order to
remove the jealousies of' Elizabeth, and to quiet the fears of her own
subjects.
The parliament met this year, for the first time since the queen's return
into Scotland.  [May 26.] Mary's administration had hitherto been
extremely popular. Her ministers possessed the confidence of the nation;
and by consequence, the proceedings of that assembly were conducted
with perfect unanimity. The grant of the earldom of Murray to the
prior of St. Andrew's was confirmed; the earl of Huntly, and several of
his vassals and dependants, were attainted: the attainder against Kirkaldy
of Grange, and some of his accomplices in the murder of cardinal Beatoun,
was reversed:t the act of oblivion, mentioned in the treaty of Edinburgh,
received the royal sanction. But Mary, who had determined never to
ratify that treaty, took care that this sanction should not be deemed any
acknowledgment of its validity; she granted her consent merely in condescension to the lords in parliament, who on their knees besought her to
allay the jealousies and apprehensions of her subjects by such a gracious
law.-.
No attempt was made in this parliament, to procure the queen's assent
to the laws establishing the protestant religion. Her ministers, though
zealous protestants themselves, were aware that this could not be urged
without manifest danger and imprudence. She had consented, through
their influence, to tolerate and protect the reformed doctrine. They had
even prevailed on her to imprison and prosecute the archbishop of St.
Andrew's, and prior of Withorn, for celebrating mass contrary to her
proclamation.~ Mary, however, was still passionately devoted to the
Romish church; and though, from political motives, she had granted a
temporary protection of opinions which she disapproved, there were no
* Keith, 242. 245.  t Knox, 330.  + Parl. 9 Q. Mary, c. 67. Spotsw 188.  ~ Keith, 239




124                    TII E  HI S TOR Y                [BooK III
grounds; to hope that she would agree to establish them for perpetuity,
The moderation of those who professed it was the best method for reconciling the queen to the protestant religion. Time might abate her bigotry.
Her prejudices might wear off gradually, and at last she might yield to
the wishes of her people, what their importunity or their violence could
never have extorted. Many laws of importance were to be proposed in
parliament; and to defeat all these, by such a fruitless and ill-timed
application to the queen, would have been equally injurious to individuals
and detrimental to the public
The zeal of the protestant clergy was deaf to all these considerations of
prudence or policy. Eager and impatient, it brooked no delay: severe
and inflexible, it would condescend to no compliances. The leading men
of that order insisted, that this opportunity of establishing religion by law
was not to be neglected. They pronounced the moderation of the courtiers
apostacy; and their endeavours to gain the queen they reckoned criminal
and servile. Knox solemnly renounced the friendship of the earl of Murray, as a man devoted to Mary, and so blindly zealous for her service as
to become regardless of those objects which he had hitherto esteemed
most sacred.  This rupture, which is a strong proof of Murray's sincere
attachment to the queen at that period, continued above a year and a half.*
The preachers, being disappointed by the men in whom they placed
the greatest confidence, gave vent to their indignation in their pulpits.
These echoed more loudly than ever with declamations against idolatry;
with dismal presages concerning the queen's marriage with a foreigner;
and with bitter reproaches against those who, from interested motives, had
deserted that cause which they once reckoned it their honour to support.
The people, inflamed by such vehement declamations, which were
dictated by a zeal more sincere than prudent, proceeded- to rash and
unjustifiable acts of violence. [Aug.] During the queen's absence, on a
progress into the west, mass continued to be celebrated in her chapel at
Holyrood-house. The multitude of those who openly resorted thither
ga,ve great offence to the citizens of Edinburgh, who, being free from the
restraint which the royal presence imposed, assembled in a riotous manner,
interrupted the service, and filled such as were present with the utmost
consternation. Two of the ringleaders in this tumult were seized, and a
day appointed for their trial.t
Oct. 8.] Knox, who deemed the zeal of these persons laudable, and
their conduct meritorious, considered them as sufferers in a good cause; and
In order to screen them from danger, he issued circular letters, requiring
all who professed the true religion, or were concerned for the preservation
of it, to assemble at Edinburgh, on the day of trial, that by their presence
they might comfort and assist their distressed brethren.!  One of these
letters fell into the queen's hands. To assemble the subjects without the
authority of the sovereign was construed to be treason, and a resolution
was taken to prosecute Knox for that crime, before the privy council.
[Dec. 15.] Happily for him, his judges were not only zealous protestants,
but the very men who, during the late commotions, had openly resisted
and set at defiance the queen's authority. It was under precedents drawn
from their own conduct that Knox endeavoured to shelter himself. Nor
would it have been an easy matter to these counsellors to have found out
a distinction, by which they could censure him without condemning themselves. After a long hearing, to the astonishment of Lethington and the
other courtiers,~ he was unanimously acquitted. Sinclair,- bishop of Ross,
and president of the Court of Session, a zealous papist, heartily concurred
with the other counsellors in this decision;l a remarkable fact, which
shows the unsettled state of government in that age; the low condition to
Knox, 331.  T Ibid, 335.  * Ibid. 336.  g Calderw. MS. Hist. i. 832. I[ Knox, 343.




OF SCOTLAND.                             126
which regal authority was then' sunk, and the impunity with which sub.
jects might invade those rights of the crown which are now held sacred.
1564.] The marriage of the Scottish queen continued still to be the
object of attention and intrigue. Though Elizabeth, even while she wished
to direct Mary, treated her with a disgustful reserve; though she kept her,
without necessity, in a state of suspense; and hinted often at the person
whom she destined to be her husband, without directly mentioning his
name; yet Mary framed all her actions to express such prudent respect for
the English queen, that foreign princes began to imagine that she had given
herself up implicitly to her direction.s  The prospect of this union alarmed
Catherine of Medicis. Though Catherine had taken pleasure all along in
doing ill offices to the queen of Scots; though soon after the duke of
Guise's death, she had put upon her a most mortifying indignity, by stopping
the payment of her dowry, by depriving her subject the duke of Chatelherault of his pension, and by bestowing the command of the Scottish
guards on a Frenchman;i she resolved, however, to prevent this dangerous
conjunction of the British queens. For this purpose she now employed
all her art to appease Mary,4 to whom she had given so many causes of
offence. The arrears of her dowry were instantly paid; more punctual
remittances were promised for the future; and offers made, not only to
restore but to extend the privileges of the Scottish nation in France. It
was easy for Mary to penetrate into the motives of this sudden change;
she well knew the character of her mother-in-law, and laid, little stress
upon professions of friendship which came from a princess of such a false
and unfeeling heart.
The negotiation with England, relative to the marriage, suffered no
interruption from this application of the French queen. As Mary, in compliance with the wishes of her subjects,'and pressed by the strongest
motives of interest, determined speedily to marry, Elizabeth was obliged
to break that unaccountable silence which she had hitherto affected. rI he
secret was disclosed, and her favourite lord Robert Dudley, afterwards
earl of Leicester, was declared to be the happy man whom she had
chosen to be the husband of a queen courted by many princes.~ Elizabeth's wisdom  and penetration were remarkable in the choice of her
ministers; in distinguishinA her favourites, those great qualities were less
conspicuous. She was influenced in two cases so opposite, by merit of
very different kinds. Their capacity for business, their knowledge, their
prudence, were the talents to which alone she attended in choosing her
ministers; whereas beauty and gracefulness of person, polished manners,
and courtly address, were the accomplishments on which she bestowed
her favours. She acted in the one case with the wisdom of a queen, in
the other she discovered the weakness of a woman. To this Leicester
owed his grandeur. Though remarkable neither for eminence in virtue
nor superiority of abilities, the queen's partiality distinguished him on
every occasion.  She raised hinm to the highest honours, she bestowed
on him the most important employments, and manifested an affection so
disproportionate to his merit, that, in the opinion of that age, it could be
accounted for only by the power of planetary influence.l1
The high spirit of the Scottish queen could not well bear the first overture of a match with a subject. Her own rank, the splendour of her
former marriage, and the solicitations at this time of so many powerful
princes, crowded into her thoughts, and made her sensibly feel how humbling and disrespectful Elizabeth's proposal was. She dissembled, however, with the English resident; and though she declared, In strong terms,
what a degradation she would deem this alliance, which brought along
with it no advantage that could justify such neglect of her own dignity,
* Keith, 248.  t Ibid. 244.  t See Append. No. VIII.  Q Keith, 251.  11 Cainden, 549




126                   T H E  H ISTORY                  [BooKr II1.
she mentioned the earl of Leicester, notwithstanding, in terms full of
respect.*
Elizabeth, we may presume, did not wish that the proposal should be
received in any other manner. After the extraordinary marks she had
given of her own attachment to Leicester, and while he was still in the
very height of favour, it is not probable she could think seriously of
bestowing him upon another. It was not her aim to persuade, but only to
amuse Mary.t Almost three years were elapsed since her return into Scotland; and though solicited by her subjects, and courted by the greatest
princes in Europe, she had hitherto been prevented from marrying, chiefly
by the artifices of Elizabeth. If at this time the English queen could have
engaged Mary to listen to her proposal in favour of Leicester, her power
over this creature of her own would have enabled her to protract the
negotiation at pleasure; and, by keeping her rival unmarried, she would
have rendered the prospect of her succession less acceptable to the
English.
Leicester's own situation was extremely delicate and embarrassing. To
gain possession of the most amiable woman of the age, to carry away this
prize from so many contending princes, to mount the throne of an ancient
kingdom, might have flattered the ambition of a subject much more considerable than him. He saw all these advantages no doubt; and, in secret,
they made their full impression on him. But, without offending Elizabeth,
he durst not venture on the most distant discovery of his sentiments, or
take any steps towards facilitating his acquisition of objects so worthy of
desire.
On the other hand, Elizabeth's partiality towards him, which she was
at no pains to conceal,t might inspire him with hopes of attaining the
supreme rank in a kingdom more illustrious than Scotland. Elizabeth had
often declared that nothing but her resolution to lead a single life, and his
being born her own subject, would have hindered her from choosing the
earl of Leicester for a husband. Such considerations of prudence are,
however, often surmounted by love; and Leicester might flatter himself,
that the violence of her affection would at length triumph both over the
maxims of policy and the scruples of pride. These hopes induced him,
now and then, to conclude the proposal of his marriage with the Scottish
queen to be a project for his destruction; and he imputed it to the malice
of Cecil, who, under the specious pretence of doing him honour, intended
to ruin him in the good opinion both of Elizabeth and Mary.~  i
A treaty of marriage, proposed by one queen, who dreaded its success,
listened to by another, who was secretly determined against it; and
scarcely desired by the man himself, whose interest and reputation it was
calculated, in appearance, to promote; could not, under so many unfavourable circumstances, be brought to a fortunate issue. Both Elizabeth and
Mary continued, however, to act with equal dissimulation. The former,
notwithstanding her fears of losing Leicester, solicited warmly in his behalf.
The latter, though she began about this time to cast her eyes upon another
subject of England, did not at once venture finally to reject Elizabeth's
favourite.
The person towards whom Mary began to turn her thoughts was Henry
Stewart lord Darnly, eldest son of the earl of Lennox. That nobleman,
having been driven out of Scotland, under the regency of the duke of
(,natelherault, had lived in banishment for twenty years. His wife, lady
Margaret Douglas, was Mary's most dangerous rival in her claim upon the
English succession. She was the daughter of Margaret, the eldest sister
of Henlry VI1I. by the earl of Angus, whom that queen married after the
death of her husband James IV. In that age, the right and order of sue* Keith, 252  t Melv. 104, 105  t Ibid.'93, 94.   ~~ Ibd. 101.




OF SCOTLAND.                             127
tession was not settled with the same accuracy as at present. Time, and
the decision of almost every case that can possibly happen, have at last
introduced certainty into a matter, which naturally is subject to all the
variety arising from the caprice of lawyers, guided by obscure and often
imaginary analogies. The countess of Lennox, though born of a second
marriage, was one degree nearer the royal blood of England than Mary.
She was the daughter, Mary only the granddaughter of Margaret  Vthis
was not the only advantage over Mary which the countess of Lennox
enjoyed. She was born in England, and, by a maxim of law in that coultry, with regard to private inheritances, " whoever is not born in England,
or at least of parents who, at the time of his birth, were in the obedience
of the king of England, cannot enjoy.ay inheritance in the kingdom."*
This maxim, Hales, an English lawyer, produced in a treatise which he
published at this time, and endeavoured to apply it to the right of succession to the crown. In a private cause these pretexts might have given
rise to a long and doubtful litigation; where a crown was at stake, such
nice disputes and subtilties were to be avoided with the utmost care. If
Darnly should happen to contract an alliance with any of the powerful
families in England, or should publicly profess the protestant religion,
these plausible and popular topics might be so urged as to prove fatal to
the pretensions of a foreigner and of a papist.
Mary was aware of all this; and, in order to prevent any danger from
that quarter, had endeavoured to cultivate a friendly correspondence with
the family of Lennox. In the year one thousand five hundred and sixtytwo,t both the earl and the lady Margaret were taken into custody by
Elizabeth's orders, on account of their holding a secret correspondence
with the Scottish queen.
From the time that Mary became sensible of the difficulties which
would attend her marrying a foreign prince, she entered into a still closer
connexion with the earl of Lennox,+ and invited him to return into Scotland. This she endeavoured to conceal from Elizabeth; but a transaction
of so much importance did not escape the notice of that discerning princess. She observed but did not interrupt it. Nothing could fall in more
perfectly with her views concerning Scottish affairs. She was pleased to
see the pride of the Scottish queen stoop at last to the thoughts of taking
a subject to her bed. Darnly was in no situation to excite her jealousy ol
her fears  His father's estate lay in England, and by means of this pledge
she hoped to keep the negotiation entirely in her own hands, to play the
same game of artifice and delay, which she had planned out, if her recommendation of Leicester had been more favourably received.
As before the union of the two crowns no subject of one kingdom could
pass ihto the other without the permission of both sovereigns; no sooner
did Lennox, under pretence of prosecuting his wife's claim upon the earldom of Angus, apply to Elizabeth for her license to go into Scotland, than
he obtained it. Together with it, she gave him letters, warmly recommending his person and cause to Mary's friendship and protection.~ But
at the same time, as it was her manner to involve all her transactions with
regard to Scotland in some degree of perplexity and contradiction, she
warned Mary, that this indulgence of Lennox might prove fatal to herself,
as his return could not fail of reviving the ancient animosity between him
and the house of Hamilton.
This admonition gave umbrage to Mary, and drew from her an angry,eply, which occasioned for some time a total interruption of all correspondence between the two queens.1 Mary was not a little alarmed at
this, she both dreaded the effects of Elizabeth's resentment, and felt sen* Carte, Hist. of Eng. vol. iii. 422.   t Camden, 389.   + Ibid. 396.    I Keith, 2.55. 268.
J Ibid. 253. Melv. 83




128                    THE  HISTORY                     LBooic 11.
slb.y the disadvantage of being excluded from a free intercourse with Eng.
land, where her ambassadors had all along carried on, with some success,
secret negotiations, which increased the number of ner partisans, and
paved her way towards the throne. In order to remove the causes of the
present difficulty, Melvil was sent express to the court of England. He
otund it no difficult matter to bring about a reconcilement; and soon reestablished the appearance, but not the confidence, of friendship, which
was all that had subsisted for some time between the two queens.
During this negotiation, Elizabeth's professions of love to Mary, and
Melvil's replies in the name of his mistress, were made in the language of
the warmest and most cordial friendship. But what Melvil truly observes
with respect to Elizabeth, may be extended without injustice to both
queens. "There was neither plain dealing nor upright meaning, but great
dissimulation, envy, and fear."
Lennox, however, in consequence of the license which he had obtained,
set out for Scotland, and was received by the queen, not only with the
respect due to a nobleman so nearly allied to the royal family, but treated
him with a distinguished familiarity which could not fail of inspiring him
with more elevated hopes.  The rumour of his son's marriage to the queen
began to spread over the kingdom; and the eyes of all Scotland were
turned upon him as the father of their future master. The duke of Chatelherault was the first to take the alarm. He considered Lennox as the
ancient and hereditary enemy of the house of Hamilton; and, in his grandeur, saw the ruin of himself and his friends. But the queen interposed
her authority to prevent any violent rupture, and employed all her influence to bring about an accommodation of the differences.t
The powerful family of Douglas no less dreaded Lennox's return, from
an apprehension that he would wrest the earldom of Angus out of their
hands. But the queen, who well knew how dangerous it would be to irritate Morton, and other great men of that name, prevailed on Lennox to
purchase their friendship by allowing his lady's claim upon the earldom
of Angus to drop.$T
After these preliminary steps, Mary ventured to call a meeting of parliament. [Dec.]  The act of forfeiture passed against Lennox in the year
one thousand five hundred and forty-five was repealed, and he was pub
licly- restored to the honours and estate of his ancestors.~
June 25, Dec. 25.] The ecclesiastical transactions of this year were not
considerable.  In the assemblies of the church, the sane complaints of
the. increase of idolatry, the same representations concerning the poverty
of the clergy'were renewed. The reply which the queen made to these
and her pronmises of redress, were more satisfying to the protestants than
any they had hitherto obtained.ll  But notwithstanding her declarations in
their favour, they could not help harbouring many suspicions concerning
Mary's designs against their religion. She had never once consented to
hear any preacher of the reformed doctrine.  She had abated nothing of
her bigoted attachment to the Romish faith. The genius of that superstition, averse at all times from toleration, was in that age fierce and unrelenting. Mary had given her friends on the continent repeated assurances of
her resolution to re-establish the catholic church.~  She had industriously
avoided every opportunity of ratifying the acts of parliament one thousand
five hundred and sixty, in favour of the reformation. Even the protection
which, ever since her return, she had afforded the protestant religion, was
merely temporary, and declared. by her own proclamation, to be of force
only "till she should take some final order in the matter of religion."*
The vigilant zeal of the preachers was inattentive to none of these circum* Melv 104.  t Keith, 259.  * Ibid. -268. Note (b).  p See Append. No. IX   Il Keith,
533.539  If Carte, vol. iii. 415.  H* Keith, 504. 510.




0()   SCOTLAND.                           129
stances The coldness of their principal leaders, who were at this time
entirely devoted to the court, added to their jealousies and fears. These
they uttered to the people, in language which they deemed suitable to the
necessity of the times, and which the queen reckoned disrespectful and
insolent. In a meeting of the general assembly, Maitland publicly accused
Knox of teaching seditious doctrine, concerning the right of subjects to
resist those sovereigns who trespass against the duty which they owe to
the people. Knox was not backward tojustify what he had taught, and
upon this general doctrine of resistance, so just in its own nature, hut so
delicate in its application to particular cases, there ensued a debate, which
admirably displays the talents and character of both the disputants; the
acuteness of the former, embellished with learning, but prone to subtilty.
the vigorous understanding of tile latter, delighting in bold sentiments, and
superior to all fear.*
1565.]  Two years had already been consumed in fruitless negotiations
concerning the marriage of the Scottish queen. Mary had full leisure and
opportunity to discern the fallacy and deceit of all. Elizabeth's proceedings
with respect to it. But, in order to set the real intentions of the English
queen in a clear light, and to bring her to some explicit declaration of her
sentiments, Mary at last intimated to Randolph [Feb. 5], that, on condition
her right of succession to the crown of England were publicly acknowledged, she was ready to yield to the solicitations of his mistress in behalf
of Leicester.t Nothing could be further than this from the mind and intention of Elizabeth. The right of succession was a mystery, which, during
her whole reign, her jealousy preserved untouched and unexplained. She
had promised, however, when she first began to interest herself in the:
marriage of the Scottish queen, all that was now demanded. How to
retreat with decency, how to elude her former offer, was on that account
not a little perplexing.
The facility with which lord Darnly obtained permission to visit the
court of Scotland, was owing, in all probability, to that embarrassment.
From the time of Melvil's embassy, the countess of Lennox had warmly
solicited this liberty for her son. Elizabeth was no stranger to the ambitious hopes with which that young nobleman flattered himself. She had
received repeated advices from her ministers, of the sentiments which Mary
began to entertain in his favour.t It was entirely in her power to prevent
his stirring out of London. In the present conjuncture, however, nothing
could be of more advantage to her than Darnly's journey into Scotland.
She had already brought one actor upon the stage, who under her Inanagement had, for a long time, amused the Scottish queen. She hoped, no less
absolutely, to direct-the motions of Darnly, who was likewise her subject -
and again to involve Mary in all the tedious intricacies of negotiation.
These motives determined Elizabeth and her ministers to yield to the
solicitations of the countess of Lennox.
But this deep laid scheme was in a moment disconcerted. Such unexpected events, as the fancy of poets ascribes to love, are sometimes really
produced by that passion. An affair which had been the object of so many
political intrigues, and had moved and interested so many princes, was at
last decided by the sudden liking of two young persons. Lord Darnly
wvas at this time in the first bloom and vigour of youth. In beauty and
gracefulness of' person he surpassed all his contemporaries; he excelled
eminently in such arts as add ease and elegance to external form, and
which enabled it not only to dazzle but to please. Mary was of an age,
and of a temper, to feel the full power of these accomplishmenta. The
impression which Lord Darnly made upon her was visible from the timle
of their first interview [Feb. 13]. The whole business of the court was to
* Knox, 349    t Keith, 269.:   Ibid. 259. 261. 266.
VoL III -17




130                    THE  HISTORY                   [BOOK IIl.
amuse and entertain this illustrious guest;? and in all those scenes of gayety,
Darnly, whose qualifications were altogether superficial and showy,
appeared to great advantage. His conquest of the queen's heart became
complete; and inclination now prompted her to conclude her marriage, the
first thoughts of which had been suggested by considerations merely political.
Elizabeth contributed, and perhaps not without design, to increase the
violence of this passion. Soon after Darnly's arrival in Scotland, she, in
return to that message whereby Mary had signified her willingness to accept
of Leicester, gave an answer in such terms as plainly unravelled her original intention in that intriguet She promised, if the Scottish queen's
marriage with Leicester should take place, to advance him to great honours;
but, with regard to Mary's title to the English succession, she would neither
suffer any legal inquiry to be made concerning it, nor permit it to be publicly recognised, until she herself should declare her resolution never to
marry. Notwithstanding Elizabeth's former promises, Mary had reason to
expect every thing contained in this reply; her high spirit, however, could
not bear with patience such a cruel discovery of the contempt, the artifice
and mockery, with which, under the veil of friendship, she had been so long
abused. She burst into tears of indignation, and expressed, with the utmost
bitterness, her sense of that disingenuous craft which had been employed
to deceive her.4
T'he natural effect of this indignation was to add to the impetuosity with
which she pursued her own scheme. Blinded by resentment as well as
iby love, she observed no defects in the man whom she had chosen; and;began to take the necessary steps towards accomplishing her design, with
-all the impatience natural to those passions.
As Darnly was so nearly related to the queen, the canon law made it,necessary to obtain the pope's dispensation before the celebration of the
marriage. For this purpose she early set on foot a negotiation with
the court of Rome.~
She was busy, at the same time, in procuring the consent of the French
king and his mother. Having communicated her design, and the motives
wnich determined her choice, to Castelnau the French ambassador, she,employed him, as the most proper person, to bring his court to fall in with'her views. Among other arguments to this purpose, Castelnau mentioned
Mary's attachment to Darnly, which he represented to be so violent and
deep-rooted, that it was no longer in her own power to break off the
match.ll Nor were the French ministers backward in encouraging Mary's
passion. Her pride would never stoop to an alliance with a subject of
France. By this choice they were delivered from the apprehension of a
match with any of the Austrian princes, as well as the danger of too close
a union with Elizabeth; and as Darnly professed the Roman Catholic religion, this suited the bigoted schemes which that court adopted.
While Mary was endeavouring to reconcile foreign courts to a measure
which she had so much at heart, Darnly and his father, by their behaviour,
were raising up enemies at home to obstruct it. Lennox had, during the
former part of his life, discovered no great compass of abilities or political
wisdom; and appears to have been a man of a weak understanding and
violent passions. Darnly was not superior to his father in understanding,
and all his passions were still more impetuous.~  To these he added that
insolence, which the advantage of external form, when accompanied with
ino quality more valuable, is apt to inspire. Intoxicated with the queen's
favour, he began already to assume the haughtiness of a king, and to put
on that imperious air, which majesty itself can scarcely render tolerable.
It was by the advice, or at least with the consent of Murray and his
* Knox, 369.  t Keith, Append. 158.: Ibid. Append. 159   ~ Camd 396.  I] Cas
teln, 464.  If Keith, 272, 273.




OF  SCOTLAND.                            131'
party, that Lennox had been invited into Scotland:* and yet, no sooner did
he acquire a firm footing in that kingdom than he began to enter into secret
cabals with those noblemen who were known to be avowed enemies to
Murray, and, with regard to religion, to be either neutrals, or favourers ot
Vopery.t Darnly, still more imprudent, allowed some rash expressions
Concerning those favours which the queen's bounty had conferred upon
Hurray to escape him:.
But, above all these, the familiarity which Darnly cultivated with David
Rizio, contributed to increase the suspicion and disgust of the nobles.
The low birth and indigent condition of this man placed him in a station in which he ought naturally to have remained unknown to posterity.
But what fortune called him to act and to suffer in Scotland, obliges history to descend fronm its dignity, and to record his adventures. fie was
the son of a musician in Turin, and having accompanied the Piedmont-se
ambassador into Scotland, gained admission into the queen's family by his
skill in music. As his dependent condition had taught him suppleness of
spirit and insinuating manners, he quickly crept into the queen's favour, and
(her French secretary happening to return at that time into his own
country) was preferred by her to that office. He now began to make a
figure in court, and to appear as a man of consequence. The whole train
of suitors and expectants, who have an extreme sagacity in discovering the
paths which lead most directly to success, applied to him. His recommendations were observed to have great influence over the queen, and he
grew to be considered not only as a favourite, but as a minister. Nor was
iRizio careful to abate that envy which always attends such an extraordi
nary and rapid change of fortune. He studied, on the contrary, to display
the whole extent of his favour. He affected to talk often and familiarly
with the queen in public. He equalled the greatest and most opulent subjects, in richness of dress, and in the number of his attendants. He discovered, in all his behaviour, that assuming insolence with which unmerited
prosperity inspires an ignoble mind. It was with the utmost indignation
that the nobles beheld the power, it was with the utmost difficulty that
they tolerated the arrogance of this unworthy minion. Even in the queen's
presence they could not forbear treating him with marks of contempt.
Nor was it his exorbitant power alone which exasperated the Scots.
They considered him, and not without reason, as a dangerous enemy to
the protestant religion, and suspected that he held, for this purpose, a secret
correspondence with the court of Rome.~
It was Darnly's misfortune to fall under the management of tnls man,
who, by flattery and assiduity easily gained on his vanity and inexperience. All Rizio's influence with the queen was employed in his behalf,
and contributed, without doubt, towards establishing him more firmly in
her affectlons.ll But whatever benefit Darnly might reap from his patronage, it did not counterbalance the contempt, and even infamy, to which he
was exposed on account of his familiarity with such an upstart.
Though Darnly daily made progress in the queen's affection, she con,
ducted herself, however, with such prudent reserve, as to impose on Randolph, the English resident, a man otherwise shrewd and penetrating. It
appears from his letters at this period, that he entertained not the least
suspicion of the intrigue which was carrying on; and gave his court
repeated assurances, that the Scottish queen had no design of marrying
Darnly.~  In the midst of this security, Mary despatched Maitland to signify her intention to Elizabeth, and to solicit her consent to the marriage
with Darnly. This embassy was the first thing that opened the eyes ot
Randolph.
* Knox, 367, Keith, 274.   t Keith, 272.; Ibid. 274.   Q Buchan 340. Melv. 19i
Melv. 11.   r1 Keith, 273, and Append. 159.




132                      THIE  HISTORY                     [BooK III.
April 18.] Elizabeth affected the greatest surprise at this sudden resolution of the Scottish queen, but without reason. The train was laid' by
herself, and she had no cause to wonder when it took effect. She expressed
at the same time her disapprobation of the match in the strongest terms;
and pretended to foresee many dangers and inconveniences arising from it
to both kingdoms. But this too was mere affectation. Mary had often
and plainly declared her resolution to marry. It was impossible she could
make any choice more inoffensive. The danger of introducing a foreign
interest into Britain, which Elizabeth had so justly dreaded, was entirely
avoided. Darnly, though allied to both crowns, and possessed of lands in
both kingdoms, could be formidable to neither. It is evident from all these
circumstances, that Elizabeth's apprehensions of danger could not possibly
be serious; and that in all her violent declarations against Darnly, there
was much more of grimace than of reality."
There were not wanting, however, political motives of much weight to
induce that artful princess to put on the appearance of great displeasure.
Mary, intimidated by this, might perhaps delay her marriage; which
Elizabeth desired to obstruct with a weakness that little suited the dignity
of her mind and the elevation of her character. Besides, the tranquillity
of her own kingdom was the great obiect of Elizabeth's policy; and, by
declaring her dissatisfaction with Mary's conduct, she hoped to alarm that
party in Scotland which was attached to the English interest, and to
encourage such of the nobles as secretly disapproved the match, openly to
oppose it. The seeds of discord would by this means be scattered
through that kingdom.  Intestine commotions might arise.  Amidst these,
Mary could form none of those dangerous schemes to which the union of
her people might have prompted her. Elizabeth would become the
umpire between the Scottish queen and her contending subjects; and
England might look on with security, while a storm which she had raised,
wasted the only kingdom which could possibly disturb its peace.
May 1.] In prosecution of this scheme, she laid before her privy council
the message from the Scottish queen, and consulted them with regard to
the answer she should return.  Their determination, it is easy to conceive,
was perfectly conformable to her secret views. They drew up a remonstrance against the intended match, full of the imaginary dangers with
which that event threatened the kingdom.t  Nor did she think it enough
to signify her disapprobation of the rmeasure, either by Maitland, Ml\ary's
ambassador, or by Randolph, her own resident in Scotland: in order to add
more dignity to the farce which she chose to act, she appointed sir Nicholas Throgmorton her ambassador extraordinary. She commanded him to
declare, in the strongest terms, her dissatisfaction with the step which
Mary proposed to take; and at the same timne to produce the determination of the privy council as an evidence that the sentiments of the nation
were not different firom her own.  Not long after she confined the countess
of Lennox as a prisoner, first in her house, and then sent her to the Tower.t
Intelligence of all this reached Scotland before the arrival of the English
ambassador.  In the first transports of her indignation, Mary resolved no
longer to keep any measures with Elizabeth; and sent orders to Maitland,
who accompanied Throgmorton, to return instantly to the English court,
and in her name to declare to Elizabeth that, after having been amused so
long to so little purpose; after having been fooled and imposed on so
grossly by her artifices; she was now resolved to gratify her own inclina* Even the historians of that age acknowledge, that the marriage of the Scottish queen with a
subject was far from being disagreeable to Elizabeth. Knox, 369. 373. Buchan. 339. Castelnau,
who at that time was well acquainted with the intrigues of both the British courts, asserts, upon
grounds of great probability, that the match was wholly Elizabeth's own work; Casteln. 462; and
that she rejoiced at the accomplishment of it, appears fiom the letters of her own ambassadors
Keith, 280. 288.
t Keith, 274. See Append. No. X.  I Ibid. Append. 161.




OF SCOTLAND.                             133
tlon, and to ask no other consent but that of her own subjects, in the choice
of a husband. Maitland, with his usual sagacity, foresaw all the effects of
such a rash and angry message, and ventured rather to incur the displeasure
of his mistress, by disobeying her commands, than to be made the instrument of tearing asunder so violently the few remaining ties which still
linked together the two queens.*
Mary herself soon became sensible of her error. She received the English ambassador with respect; justified her own conduct with decency;
and though unalterable in her resolution, she affected a wonderful solicitude
to reconcile Elizabeth to the measure; and even pretended out of complaisance towards her, to put off the consummation of the marriage for
some months.t It is probable, however, that the want of the pope's dis.
pensation, and the prospect of gaining the consent of her own subjects,
were the real motives of this delay.
This consent Mary laboured with the utmost industry to obtain. The
Earl of Murray was the person in the kingdom, whose concurrence was of
the greatest importance; but she had reason to fear that it would not be
procured without extreme difficulty. From the time of Lennox's return
into Scotland, Murray perceived that the queen's affections began gradually to be estranged from him. Darnly, Athol, Rizio, all the court favourites, combined against him. His ambitious spirit could not brook this diminution of his power, which his former services had so little merited. He
retired into the country, and gave way to rivals with whom he was unable
to contend.   The return of the earl of Bothwell, his avowed enemy, who
had been accused of a design upon his life, and who had resided for some
time in foreign countries, obliged him to attend to his own safety. No
entreaty of the queen could persuade him to a reconcilement with that
noblemian. He insisted on having him brought to public trial, and prevailed, by his importunity, to have a day. fixed for it. Bothwell durst not
appear in opposition to a man, who came to the place of trial attended by
five thousand of his followers on horseback. He was once more constrained to leave the kingdom; but, by the queen's command, the sentence
of outlawry, which is incurred by nonappearance, was not pronounced
against him.~
Mary, sensible, at the same time, of how much importance it was to gain
a subject so powerful and so popular as the earl of Murray, invited him
back to court [May 8], and received him with many demonstrations of
respect and confidence. At last she desired him to set an example to her
other subjects by subscribing a paper containing a formal approbation of
her marriage with Darnly. Murray had many reasons to hesitate, and even
to withhold his assent. Darnly had not only undermined his credit with the
queen, but discovered, on every occasion, a rooted aversion to his person
By consenting to his elevation to the throne, he would give him such an
accession of dignity and power as no man willingly bestows on an enemy.
The unhappy consequences which might follow upon a breach with England, were likewise of considerable weight with Murray. He had always
openly preferred a confederacy with England, before the ancient alliance
with France. By his means, chiefly, this change in the system of national
politics had been brought about. A league with England had been established; and he could not think of sacrificing, to a rash and youthful passion,
an alliance of so much utility to the kingdom; and which be and the other
nobles were bound by every obligation to maintain.ll Nor was the interest
of religion forgotten on this occasion. Mary, though surrounded by protestant counsellors, had found means to hold a dangerous correspondence
with foreign catholics. She had even courted the pope's protection, who
* Keith, Append. 160.   t Keith, 278.: Ibid. 272.274. Append. 159.   Q Ibid. 160
blaid. 169




134.                 THE  HISTORY                     [Boox III.
had sent her a subsidy of eight thousand crowns.E  Though Mary had
hitherto endeavoured to bridle the zeal of the reformed clergy, and to set
the queen's conduct in the most favourable light, yet her obstinate adherence to her own religion could not fail of alarming him; and by her resolution to marry a papist, the hope of reclaiming her, by a union with a
protestant, was for ever cut off.t Each of these considerations had its influence on Murray, and all of them determined him to decline complying at
that time with the queen's request.
The convention of nobles, which was assembled a few days after
tMay 14], discovered a greater disposition to gratify the queen. Many oI
them, without hesitation, expressed their approbation of the intended
match; but as others were startled at the same dangers which had
alarmed Murray, or were influenced by his example to refuse their consent,
another convention was appointed at Perth, in order to deliberate more fully
concerning this matter.:
Meanwhile Mary gave a public evidence of her own inclination, by
conferring upon Darnly titles of honour peculiar to the royal family.
The opposition she had hitherto met with, and the many contrivances
employed to thwart and disappoint her inclination, produced their
usual effect on her heart, they confirmed her passion, and increased its
violence. The simplicity of that age imputed an affection so excessive to
the influence of witchcraft.~ It was owing, however, to no other charm
than the irresistible power of youth and beauty over a young and tender
heart. Darnly grew giddy with his prosperity. Flattered by the love of
a queen, and the applause of many among her subjects, his natural haughtiness and insolence became insupportable, and he could no longer bear
advice, far less contradiction. Lord Ruthven happening to be the first
person who informed him that Mary, in order to sooth Elizabeth, had delayed for some time creating him duke of Albany, he, in a frenzy of rage,
drew his dagger, and attempted to stab him.ll It required all Mary's
attention to prevent his falling under that contempt to which such behaviour deservedly exposed him.
In no scene of life was ever Mary's own address more remarkably displayed. Love sharpened her invention, and made her study every method
of gaining her subjects. Many of the nobles she won by her address, and
more by her promises. On some she bestowed lands, to others she gave
new titles of honour.~T She even condescended to court the protestant
clergy; and having invited three of their superintendents to.Stirling, she
declared, in strong terms, her resolution to protect their religion, expressed
her willingness to be present at a conference upon the points in doctrine
which were disputed between the protestants and papists, and went so far
as to show some desire to hear such of their preachers as were most remarkable for their moderation."*  By these arts the queen gained wonderfully
upon the people, who, unless their jealousy be raised by repeated injuries, are always ready to view the actions of their sovereign with an indulgent eye.
On the other hand, Murray and his associates were plainly the dupes of
Elizabeth's policy. She talked in so high a strain of her displeasure at the
intended match; she treated lady Lennox with so much rigour; she wrote
to the Scottish queen in such high terms; she recalled the earl of Lennox
and his son in such a peremptory manner, and with such severe denunciations of her vengeance if they should presume to disobey;tt that all these
expressions of aversion fully persuaded them of her sincerity. This belie
fortified their scruples with respect to the match, and encouraged them to
oppose it. They began with forming among themselves bonds of con* Keith, 2i95 Melv. 114.  t Keith, Append. 160.  T Keith, 283. Knox, 373.  O Keitk
M3,  11 [bid Append. 100  If Lbid Q83.  *a Knox, 373.  tt Keith, 285, 281s.




OF SCOTLAND.                                           135
tederacy and mutual defence; they entered into a secret correspondence
with the English resident, in order to secure Elizabeth's assistance when it
should become needful;* they endeavoured to fill the nation with such
apprehensions of danger as might counterbalance the influence of those arts
which the queen had employed.
Besides these intrigues, there were secretly carried on, by both parties,
dark designs of a more criminal nature, and more suited to the spirit of the
age.  Darnly, impatient of that opposition, which he imputed wholly to
Murray, and resolving at any rate to get rid of such a powerful enemy,
formed a plot to assassinate  him  during the meeting of the convention at
Perth. Murray, on his part, despairing of preventing the marriage by any
other means, had, together with the duke of Chatelherault and the earl of
Argyll, concerted measures for seizing Darnly, and carrying him a prisoner
into England.
If either of these conspiracies had taken effect, this convention might
have been attended with consequences extremely tragical; but both were
rendered abortive by the vigilance or good fortune of those against whom
they were formed.  Murray, being warned of his danger by some retainers
to the court, who still favoured his interest, avoided the blow by not going
to Perth.  Mary, receiving intelligence of Murray's enterprise, retired with
the utmost expedition, along  with  Darnly, to  the  other side  of Forth.
Conscious, on both sides, of guilt, and inflamed with resentment, it was
impossible they could either forget the violence which themselves had
meditated, or forgive  the  injuries  intended  against them.  From   that
moment all hope of reconcilement was at an end, and their mutual enmity
burst out with every symptom  of implacable hatred.t' Keith, 289. 292. 298.
t The reality of these two opposite conspiracies has given occasion to many disputes and much
contradiction. Some deny that any design was formed against the life of Murray; others call in
question the truth of the conspiracy against Darnly. There seems, however, to be plausible reasons
for believing that there is some foundation for what has been asserted with regard to both; though
the zeal and credulity of party-writers have added to each many exaggerated circumstances. The
following a*:guments render it probable that some violence was intended against Murray:
I. 1. This is positively asserted by Buchanan, 341. 2. The English resident writes to Cecil, that
Murray was assuredly informed that a design was formed of murdering him at Perth, and mentions
various circumstances concerning the manner in which the crime was to be committed. If the
whole had been a fiction of his own, or of Murray, it is impossible that he could have written in
this strain to such a discerning minister. Keith, 287. 3. Murray himself constantly and publicly
persisted in affirming that such a design was formed against his life. Keith, App. 108. He was
required by the queen to transmit in writing an account of the conspiracy which he pretended had
been formed against his life. This he did accordingly: but,' when it was brought to Her Majesty
by her servants sent for that purpose, it appears be Her Highness and her council, that his purgation
in that behalf was not so sufficient as the matter required."  Keith, App. 109. He was therefore
summoned to appear within three days before the queen in Holyrood-house; and, in order to encourage him to do so, a safe conduct was offered to him. Ibid. Though he had once consented to
appear, he afterwards declined to do so. But whoever considers Murray's situation, and the character of those who directed Mary's councils at that time, will hardly deem it a decisive proof of
his guilt, that he did not choose to risk his person on such security. 4. The furious passions of
Darnly, the fierceness of his resentment, which scrupled at no violence, and the manners of the age,
render the imputations of such a crime less improbable.
II. That Murray and his associates had resolved to seize Darnly, on his return from Perth, appears
with still greater certainty; 1. From the express testimony of Melvil, 112; although Buchanan, p.
341, and Knox, p. 377, affect, without reason, to represent this as an idle rumour. 2. The question
was put to Randolph, Whether the governor of Berwick would receive Lennox and his son, if.they
were delivered at that place. His answer was, " that they would not refuse their own, i. e. their
own subjects, in whatsoever sort they came unto us, i. e. whether they returned to England voluntarily, as they had been required, or were brought thither by force." This plainly shows, that some
such design was in hand, and Randolph did not discourage it by the answer which he gave. Keith,
290. 3. The precipitation with which the queen retired, and the reason she gave for this sudden
flight, are mentioned by Randolph. Keith, 291. 4. A great part of the Scottish nobles, and among
these the earls of Argyll and Rothes, who were themselves privy to the design, assert the reality of
the conspiracy. Good. vol. ii. 358.
All these circumstances rendered the truth of both conspiracies probable. But we may observe
how far this proof, though drawn from public records, falls short, on both sides, of legal and fornial
evidence. Buchanan and Randolph, in their accounts of the conspiracy against Murray, differ
widely in almost every circumstance. The accounts of the attempt upon Darnly are not more cansistent. Melvil alleges, that the design of the conspirators was to carry Darnly a prisoner into England; the proposal made to Randolph agrees with this. Randolph says, that they intended to carry
the queen to St. Andrew's, and Darnly to castle Campbell. The lords, in their declaration, affirm
the design of the conspirators to have been to murder Darnly and his father, to confine the queen




136                       THE H I STORY                        [BOOK ll.
On Mary's return to Edinburgh, she summoned her vassals by proclamation, and solicited them by her letters to repair thither in arms, for the
protection of her person against her foreign and domestic enemies.?  She
was obeyed with all the promptness and alacrity with which subjects run
to defend a mild and popular administration.. This popularity, however,
she owed in a great measure to Murray, who had directed her administra
tion with great prudence.  But the crime of opposing her marriage obliterated the memory of his former services; and Mary, impatient of contradiction, and apt to consider those who disputed her will as enemies to her
person, determined to let him feel the whole weight of her vengeance.
For this purpose she summoned him to appear before her upon a short
warning, to answer to such things as should be laid to his charge.t At
this very time, Murray and the lords who adhered to him were assembled
at Stirling, to deliberate what course they should hold in such a difficult
conjuncture. But the current of popular favour ran so strongly against
them, and, notwithstanding some fears and jealousies, there prevailed in
the nation such a general disposition to gratify the queen in a matter which
so nearly concerned her, that, without coming to any other conclusion than
to implore the queen of England's protection, they put an end to their
ineffectual consultations, and returned every man to his own house.
Together with this discovery of the weakness of her enemies, the confluence of her subjects from all corners of the kingdom afforded Mary an
agreeable proof of her own strength.  While the queen was in this prosperous situation, she determined to bring to a period an affair which had
so long engrossed hei heart and occupied her attention.  On the twentyninth of July she married lord Darnly. The ceremony was performed in
the queen's chapel, according to the rites of the Romish church; the pope's
bull dispensing with their marriage having been previously obtained.$
She issued at the same time proclamations, conferring the title of king of
the Scots upon her husband, and commanding that henceforth all writs at
law should run in the joint names of king and queen.6  Nothing can be a
stronger proof of the violence of Mary's love, or the weakness of her counsels, than this last step.  Whether she had any right to choose a husband
without consent of parliament, was, in that age, a matter of some dispute;11
that she had no right to confer upon him, by her private authority, the title
and dignity of king, or by a simple proclamation to raise her husband to
be the master of her people, seems to be beyond all doubt. Francis II.,
indeed, bore the same title. It was not, however, the gift of the queen,
but of the nation; and the consent of parliament was obtained before he
ventured to assume it. Darnly's condition, as a subject, rendered it still
more necessary to have the concurrence of the supreme council in his favour.
Such a violent and unprecedented stretch of prerogative, as'the substituting
a proclamation in place of an act of parliament, might have justly alarmed
the nation. But at that time the queen possessed so entirely the confidence
of her subjects, that notwithstanding all the clamours of the malecontents,
no symptoms of general discontent appeared on that account.
Even amidst that scene of joy which always accompanies successfil
in Lochleven during life, and to usurp the government. To believe implicitly whatever they find in
an ancient paper is a folly to which, in every age, antiquaries are extremely prone. Ancient papers,
however, often contain no more than the slanders of a partv, and the lie of the day. The declaration of the nobles referred to is of this kind; it is plainly rancorous, and written in the very heat
of faction. Many things asserted in it are evidently false or exaggerated. Let Murray and his confederates be as ambitious as we can suppose, they must have had some pretences, and plausible
ones too, before they could venture to imprison their sovereign for life, and to seize the reins of
government; but, at that time, the queen's conduct had afforded no colourable excuse for procoeding
to such extremities. It is likewise remarkable, that in all the proclamations against Murray, of
which so many are published in Keith, Appendix, 108, &c. neither the violent attempt upon Darnly,
nor that which he is alleged to have formed against the queen herself, is ever once mentioned.
* Keith, 298.    t Ibid. Append. 108.   t Keith, 302.   i Anderson, i. 83. See Append
No. XI g   j Buchan. 341




O   SCOTLAND.                                 137
lve, Mary did not suffer the course of her vengeance against the malecontent nobles to be interrupted.  Three days after the marriage, Murray
was again summoned to court, under the severest penalties, and, upon his
non-appearance, the rigour of justice took place, and he was declared an
outlaw.*  At the same time the queen set at liberty lord Gordon, who,
ever since his father's insurrection in the year one thousand five hundred
and sixty-two, had been detained a prisoner; she recalled the earl ot
Sutherland, who, on account of his concern in that conrpiracy, had fled into
Flanders; and she permitted Bothwell to return again into Scotland. The
first and last of these were among the most powerful subjects in the kingdom, and all of them-animated with implacable hatred to Murray, whom
they deemed the enemy of their families and the author of their own
sufferings. This common hatred became the foundation of the strictest
union with the queen, and gained them an ascendant over all her councils.
Murray himself considered this confederacy with his avowed enemies, as
a more certain indication than any measure she had yet taken, of her inexorable resentment.
The malecontents had not yet openly taken up arms.t  But the queen
having ordered her subjects to march against them, they were driven to the
last extremity. They found themselves unable to make head against the
numerous forces which Mary had assembled; and fled into Argyleshire,
in expectation of aid from Elizabeth, to whom they had secretly despatched
a messenger in order to implore her immediate assistance.4
Meanwhile Elizabeth endeavoured to embarrass Mary by a new decla
ration of disgust at her conduct. She blamed both her choice of lord
Darnly, and the precipitation with which she had concluded the marriage.
She required Lennox and Darnly, whom she still called her subjects, to
return into England; and at the same time she warmly interceded in behalf
of Murray, whose behaviour she represented to be not only innocent but
laudable.  This message, so mortifying to the pride of the queen, and so
full of contempt for her husband, was rendered still more insupportable by
the petulant and saucy demeanour of Tamworth, the person who delivered
it.~ Mary vindicated her own conduct with warmth, but with great
strength of reason; and rejected the intercession in behalf of Murray,
not without signs of resentment at Elizabeth's pretending to intermeddle
in the internal government of her kingdom.11
She did not, on that account, intermit in the least the ardour with which
she pursued Murray and his adherents.~  They now appeared openly in
arms; and, having received a small supply in money from Elizabeth,"?
were endeavouring to raise their followers in the western counties. But
Mary's vigilance hindered them from assembling in any considerable body.
All her military operations at that time were concerted with wisdom,
executed with vigour, and attended with success.  In order to encourage
her troops, she herself marched along with them, rode with loaded pistols,tt
and endured all the fatigues of war with admirable fortitude. Her alacrity
inspired her forces with an invincible resolution, which, together with their
superiority in number, deterred the malecontents from facing thetn in the
field: but, having artfully passed the queen's army, they marched with
* Keith, 309, 310.
t After their fruitless consultation in Stirling, the lords retired to their own houses. Keith, 304.
Murray was still at St. Andrew's on July 22. Keith, 306. By the places of rendezvous, appointed
for the inhabitants of the different counties, August 4, it appears that the queen's intention was to
march into Fife, the county in which Murray, Rothes, Kirkaldy, and other chiefs of the malecontents, resided. Keith, 310. Their flight into the west, Keith, 312, prevented this expedition, and
the former rendezvous was altered. Keith, 310.
t Keith, 312. Knox, 380.  $ Camd. 398.    11 Keith, Append. 99.
ir The most considerable persons who joined Murray were, the duke of Chatelherault, the earls
of Argyll, Glencairn, Rothes, lord Boyd and Ochiltree; the lairds of Grange, Cunninghamhead,
Balcomie, Carmylie, Lawers, Bar, Dreghorn, Pitarrow, Comptroiler, and the Tutor of Picttu.
Knox, 382.
** Knox, 380,              tt Keith, Append. 164
VOL. III.-18




138                    THE  HISTO R Y                  [BooK IIl.
great rapidity to Edinburgh, and endeavoured to rouse the inhabitants of
that city to arms. [Aug. 31.] The queen did not suffer them to remain
long unmolested; and on her approach they were forced to abandon that
place, and retire in confusion towards the western borders.,
As it was uncertain, forl some time, what route they had taken, Mary em
ployed tlat interval in providing for the security of the counties in the
heart of the kingdom. She seized the places of strength which belonged
to the rebels; and obliged the considerable barons in those shires which
sne most suspected, to join in associations for her defence.t Having thus
left all the country behind her in tranquillity, she, with an army eighteen
thousand strong, marched towards Dumfries, where the rebels then were.
During their retreat, they had sent letters to the queen from almost every
place where they halted, full of submission, and containing various overtures towards an accommodation. But Mary, who determined not to let
slip such a favourable opportunity of crushing the mutinous spirit of her
subjects, rejected them with disdain. As she advanced, the malecontents
retired; and having received no effectual aid from Elizabeth,J they
despaired of any other means of safety, fled into England [Oct. 20], and
put themselves under the protection of the earl of Bedford, warden of
the marches.
Nothing which Bedford's personal friendship for Murray could supplyI
was wanting to render their retreat agreeable. But Elizabeth herself
treated them with extreme neglect. She had fully gained her end, and,
by their means, had excited such discord and jealousies among the Scots
as would, in all probability, long distract and weaken Mary's councils.
Her business now was to save appearances, and tojustify herself to the
ministers of France and Spain, who accused her of fomenting the troubles
in Scotland by her intrigues. The expedient she contrived for her vindication strongly displays her own character, and the wretched condition of
exiles, who are obliged to depend on a foreign prince. Murray, and
Hamilton, Abbot of Kilwinning, being appointed by the other fugitives
to wait on Elizabeth, instead of meeting with that welcome reception which
was due to men who, out of confidence in her promises, ard in order to
forward her designs, had hazarded their lives and fortunes, could not even
obtain the favour of an audience, until they had meanly consented to
acknowledge, in the presence of the French and Spanish ambassadors, that
Elizabeth had given them no encouragement to take arms. No sooner did
they make this declaration than she astonished them with this reply: " You
have declared the truth; I am far from setting an example of rebellion to
my own subjects, by countenancing those who rebel against their lawful
prince. The treason of which you have been guilty is detestable; and as
traitors I banish you from my presence."~  Notwithstanding this scene of
farce and of falsehood, so dishonourable to all the persons who acted a part
in it, Elizabeth permitted the malecontents peaceably to reside in her
dominions, supplied them secretly with money, and renewed her intercession with the Scottish queen in their favour.ll
The advantage she had gained over them did not satisfy Mary; she
resolved to follow the blow, and to prevent a party which she dreaded
from ever recovering any footing in the nation. With this view, she called
a meeting of parliament; and, in order that a sentence of forfeiture might
be legally pronounced against the banished lords, she summoned them, by
public proclamation, to appear before it.~
Dec. 1.] The duke of Chatelherault, on his humble application, obtained
a separate pardon; but not without difficulty, as the king violently opposed
it. He was obliged, however, to leave the kingdom, and to reside for some
time in France.*
* Keith, -A5.  t Ibid. 113,  t See Append. No. XII. XIII. tI MeIv. 11.
II Kno. 389.    IT Keith, 329    ** Knox, 389.




OF SCOTLAND.                             139
The numerous forces which Mary brought into the field, the vigour with
which she acted, and the length of time she kept them in arms, resemble
the efforts of a prince with revenues much more considerable than those
which she possessed. But armies were then levied and maintained by
princes at small charge. The vassal followed his superior, and the superior
attended the monarch, at his own expense. Six hundred horsemen, however, and three companies of foot, besides her guards, received regular pay
from the queen. This extraordinary charge, together with the disbursements occasioned by her marriage, exhausted a treasury which was far
from being rich. In this exigency, many devices were fallen upon for
raising money. Fines were levied on the towns of St. Andrew's, Perth,
and Dundee, which were suspected of favouring the malecontents. An
unusual tax was imposed on the boroughs throughout the kingdom; and a
great sum was demanded of the citizens of Edinburgh, by way of loan.
This unprecedented exaction alarmed the citizens. They had recourse
to delays, and started difficulties, in order to evade it. These Mary
construed to be acts of avowed disobedience, and instantly committed
several of them to prison. But this severity did not subdue the undaunted
spirit of liberty which prevailed among the inhabitants. The queen was
obliged to mortgage to the city the superiority of the town of Leith, by
which she obtained a considerable sum of money.*  The thirds of ecclesiastical benefices proved another source whence the queen derived some
supply. About this time we find the protestant clergy complaining more
bitterly than ever of their poverty. The army, it is probable, exhausted
a great part of that fund which was appropriated for their maintenance.t
The assemblies of the church were not unconcerned spectators of the
commotions of this turbulent year. In the meeting held the twenty-fourth
of June, previous to the queen's marriage, several of the malecontent
nobles were present, and seem to have had great influence on its decisions.
The high strain in which the assembly addressed the queen can be imputed
only to those fears and jealousies with regard to religion, which they
endeavoured to infuse into the nation. The assembly complained, with
some bitterness, of the stop which had been put to the progress of the
reformation by the queen's arrival in Scotland; they required not only
the total suppression of the popish worship throughout the kingdom, but
even in the queen's own chapel; and, besides the legal establishment ot
the protestant religion, they demanded that Mary herself should publicly
embrace it. The queen, after some deliberation, replied, that neither her
conscience nor her interest would permit her to take such a step. The
former would for ever reproach her for a change which proceeded from
no inward conviction; the latter would suffer by the offence which her
apostacy must give to the king of France, and her'other allies on the
continent.*
It is remarkable, that the prosperous situation of the queen's affairs during
this year, began to work some change in favour of her religion. The earls
of Lennox, Athol, and Cassils, openly attended mass; she herself afforded
the catholics a more avowed protection than formerly; and, by her permission, some of the ancient monks ventured to preach publicly to the
people.~
u Knox, 383. 386.   tMaitl. Hist. of Edinburgh, 27.,+ Knox, 376  I lbid. 389, 390




140                   THE  HISTORY                    [Booi IV
]       K'BOOK IV
1566.]1 As the day appointed for the meeting of parliament approachect,
Mary and her ministers were employed in deliberating concerning the
course which it was most proper to hold with regard to the exiled nobles.
Many motives prompted her to set no bounds to the rigour of justice.
The malecontents had laboured to defeat a scheme, which her interest conspired with her passions in rendering dear to her; they were the leaders
of a party whose friendship she had been obliged to court, while she held
their principles in abhorrence; and they were firmly attached to a rival,
whom she had good reason both to fear and to hate.
But, on the other hand, several weighty considerations might be urged.
The noblemen whose fate was in suspense, were. among the most powerful
subjects in the kingdom; their wealth great, their connexions extensive,
and their adherents numerous. They were now at her mercy, the objects
of compassion, and suing for pardon with the most humble submission.
In those circumstances, an act of clemency would exalt the queen's character, and appear no less splendid among foreigners than acceptable to
her own subjects. Mary herself, though highly incensed was not inexorable; but the king's rage was implacable and unrelenting.  They were
solicited in behalf of the fugitives from various quarters. Morton, Ruthven,
Maitland, and all who had been members of the congregation, were not
forgetful of their ancient union with Murray and his fellow-sufferers; nor
neglectfull of their safety, which they deemed of great importance to the
kingdom. Melvil, who at that time possessed the queen's confidence,
seconded their solicitations. And Murray., having stooped so low as to
court Rizio, that favourite, who was desirous of securing his protection
against the king', whose displeasure he had lately incurred, seconded the
intercessions of his other friends with the whole of his influence.* The
interposition of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, who had lately been Elizabeth's
ambassador in Scotland, in behalf of the exiles, was of more weight than
all these, and attended with more success. Throgmorton, out of enmity
to Cecil, had embarked deeply in all the intrigues which were carried on
at the English court, in order to undermine the power and credit of that
minister. He espoused, for this reason, the cause of the Scottish queen,
towards whose title and pretensions the other was known to bear little
favour; and ventured, in the present critical juncture, to write a letter to
Mary, containing the most salutary advices with regard to her conduct.
He recommended the pardoning of the earl of Murray and his associates,
as a measure no less prudent than popular. "An action  of this nature,"
says he, " the pure effect of your majesty's generosity, will spread the
fame of your lenity and moderation, and engage the Enoglish to look
towards your accession to the throne, not only without prejudice. but with
desire. By the same means, a perfect harmony will be restored among
your own subjects, who, if any rupture should happen with England, will
serve you with that grateful zeal which your clemency cannot fail of
Inspiringt"
These prudent remonstrances of Throgmorton, to which his reputation
for wisdom and known attachment to the queen added great authority,
made a deep impression on her spirit. Her courtiers cultivated this happy
disposition, and prevailed on her, notwithstanding the king's inflexible
temper, to sacrifice her own private resentment to the intercession of her
subjects and the wishes of her friends..  With this view the parliament,
* Melv. 125.        t Ibid. 119.       t Itid. 125.




OF SCOTLAND.                              141
which had been called to meet on the 4th of February, was prorogued to
the 7th of April;" and in the mean time she was busy in considering the
manner and torm in which she should extend her favour to the lords who
were under disgrace.
Though Mary discovered on this occasion a mind naturally prone to
humanity and capable of forgiving, she wanted firmness, however, to
resist the influence which was fatally employed to disappoint the effects of
this amiable disposition. About this time, and at no great distance from
each other, two envoys arrived from the French king. The former was
intrusted with matters of mere ceremony alone; he congratulated the
queen on her marriage, and invested the king with the ensigns of the order
of St. Michael. T'he instructions of the latter related to matters of more
importance, and produced greater effects.t
An interview between Charles IX. and his sister the queen of Spain had
been often proposed; and after many obstacles arising from the opposition
of political interest, was at last appointed at Bayonne. Catherine of
Medicis accompanied her son: the duke of Alva attended his mistress.
Amidst the scenes of public pomp and pleasure, which seemed to be the
sole occupation of both courts, a scheme was formed, and measures concerted, for exterminating the HEugonots in France, the protestants in the
Low Countries, and for suppressing the reformation throughout all Europe.'
The active policy of pope Pius IV. and the zeal of the cardinal of Lorrain,
confirmed and encouraged dispositions so suitable to the genius of the
Romish religion, and so beneficial to their own order.
It was an account of this holy league which the second French envoy
brought to Mary, conjuring her at the same time, in the name of the king
of France and the cardinal of Lorrain, not to restore the leaders of the
protestants in her kingdom to power and favour, at the very time when the
(atholic princes were combined to destroy that sect in all the countries ol
FEurope.~
Popery is a species of false religion, remarkable for the strong possession
it takes of the heart. Contrived by men of deep insight in the human
character, and improved by the experience and observation of many successive ages, it arrived at last to a degree of perfection which no formex
system  of superstition had ever attained. There is no power in the
understanding, and no passion in the heart, to which it does not present
objects adapted to rouse and to interest them. Neither the love of plea
sure which at that time prevailed in the court of France, nor the pursuits
of ambition which occupied the court of Spain, had secured them from the
dorninion of bigotry. Laymen and courtiers were agitated with that
furious and unmerciful zeal which is commonly considered as peculiar to
ecclesiastics; and kings and ministers thought themselves bound in conscience to extirpate the protestant doctrine. Mary herself was deeply
tinctured with all the prejudices of popery; a passionate attachment to that
superstition is visible in every part of her character, and runs through all
the scenes of her life; she was devoted too with the utmost submission
to the princes of Lorrain, her uncles; and had been accustomed from her
infancy to listen to all their advices with a filial respect. The prospect
of restoring the public exercise of her own religion, the pleasure of complying with her uncles, and the hopes of gratifying the French monarch,
whom the present situation of her affairs in England made it necessary to
court, counterbalanced all the prudent considerations which had formerly
weighed with her. She instantly joined the confederacy. which had been
formed for the destruction of the protestants, and altered the whole plan of
her conduct with regard to Murray and his adherents. I[
* Good vol. i. 224.   t Keith, 325, Append. 167.   ~ Thuan. lib. 37.    Q Melv. 26.
il See Append; No XIV.




142                        THE HISTORY:BooK IV
To this fatal resolution may be imputed all the subsequent calamities of
Mary's life. Ever since her return into Scotland, fortune may be said to
have been propitious to her rather than adverse; and if her prosperity did
not rise to any grea height, it had, however, suffered no considerable interruption. A thick and settled cloud of adversity, with few gleams of hope,
and none of real enjoyment, covers the remainder of her days.
The effects of the new system which Mary had adopted were soon
visible. The time of the prorogation of parliament was shortened; and
by a new proclamation the 12th of March was fixed for its meeting.*
Mary resolved, without any further delay, to proceed to the attainder ol
the rebel lords, and at the same time determined to take some steps
towards the re-establishment of the Romish religion in Scotland.j. The
lords of the Articles were chosen, as usual, to prepare the business which
was to come before the parliament. They were all persons in whom the
queen could confide, and bent to promote her designs. The ruin of Murray and his party seemed now inevitable, and the danger of the reformed
church imminent, when an event unexpectedly happened which saved both.
If we regard either the barbarity of that age, when such acts of violence
were common, or the mean condition of the unhappy person who suffered,
the event is little remarkable; but if we reflect upon the circumstances
with which it was attended, or upon the consequences which followed it,
it appears extremely memorable; and the rise and progress of it deserve
to be traced with great care.
Darnly's external accomplishments had excited that sudden and violent
passion which raised him to the throne. But the qualities of his mind corresponded ill with the beauty of his person. Of a weak understanding,
and without experience, conceited, at the same time, of his own abilities,
and ascribing his extraordinary success entirely to his distinguished merit;
all the queen's favour made no impression on such a temper.  All her gentleness could not bridle his imperious and ungovernable spirit. All her
attention to place about him persons capable of directing his conduct,
could not preserve him from rash and imprudent actions.+  Fond of all the
amusements, and even prone to all the vices of youth, he became by degrees
careless of her person, and a stranger to her company. To a woman, and
a queen, such behaviour was intolerable. The lower she had stooped in
order to raise him, his behaviour appeared the more ungenerous and criminal; and in proportion to the strength of her first affection was the violence
with which her disappointed passion now operated.  A few months after
the marriage their domestic quarrels began to be observed. The extravagance of Darnly's ambition gave rise to these. Instead of being satisfied
with a share in the administration of government, or with the title of king,
which Mary, by an unprecedented stretch of power had conferred on him,
he demanded the crown matrimonial with most insolent importunity.~
Though Mary alleged that this gift was beyond her power, and that the
authority of parliament must be interposed to bestow it, he wanted either
* Keith, 326.
t It is not on the authority of Knox alone, that we charge the queen with the design of re-esta
blishing the Romarr Catholic religion, or at least of exempting the professors of it from the rigour of
those penal laws to which they were subjected. He indeed asserts that the altars, which would
have been erected in the church of St. Giles, were already provided, 394. 1. Mary herself, in a letter
to the archbishop of Glasgow, her ambassador iln France, acknowledges, " that in that parliament
she intended to have done some good, with respect to restoring the old religion." Keith, 331. 2.
The spiritual lords, i. e. the popish ecclesiastics, had, by her authority, resumed their ancient place in
that assembly. Ibid. 3. She had joined the confederacy at Bayonne. Keith, Append. 167. - 4. She
allowed mass to be celebrated in diflerent parts of the kingdom, ibid.; and declared that she would
have mass free for all men that would hear it. Good. vol. i. 274. 5. Blackwood, who was furnished by the archbishop of Glasgow with materials for writing his JIlartyre de.JIamie, affirms, that
the queen intended to have procured, in this parliament, if not the re-establishment of the catholic
religion, at least something for the ease of catholics. Jebb, vol. ii. 204.  ~ Good, vol. i. 222.
~) Keith, 329. Id. App. 165, 166. Knox, 404. The eagerness of the king to obtain the croton
atrimonial is not surprising, when the extent of the powers which that title conveyed, as explained in the text and note, p. 69, is taken int- consideration.




OF SCOTLAND                             143
understanding to comprehend, or temper to admit so just a defence; and
often renewed and urged his request.
Rizio, whom the king had at first taken into great confidence, did not
humour him in these follies. By this he incurred Henry's displeasure; and
as it was impossible for Mlary to behave towards her husband with the
same affection which distinguished the first and happy days of their union,
he imputed this coldness, not to his own behaviour, which had so well
merited it, but to the insinuations of Rizio. Mary's own conduct confirmed
and strengthened these suspicions. She treated this stranger with a familiarity, and admitted him to a share in her confidence, to which neither his
first condition nor the office she had lately bestowed on him gave him any
title. He was perpetually in her presence, intermeddled in every business,
and, together with a few favourites, was the companion of all her private
amrusements. The haughty spirit of Darnly could not bear the intrusion
of such an upstart; and impatient of any delay, and unrestrained by any
scruple, he instantly resolved, to get rid of him by violence.
At the same time another design, which took its rise from very different
motives, was carrying on against the life of Rizio. Morton, Ruthven,
Lindsay, and Maitland, were the contrivers of it. In all former commotions they had been strictly united with Murray, though in the late insurrection they had deserted him for various reasons. Morton was nearly
allied to the family of Angus; and, during the minority of the present earl,
acted as chief of the name of Douglas. Ruthven was married to the
king's aunt. Lindsay's wife was of the same blood. All these had warmly
concurred with the queen in promoting a marriage which did so much
honour to the house of Douglas, and naturally expected that, under a king
of their own blood, the chief management of affairs would be committed
to them. Maitland, with his usual sagacity, foresaw that Murray's opposition to the match would prove dangerous and ineffectual; but whoever
ruled at court, he hoped, by his dexterity and talents, to render himself
necessary and of importance. They were all equally disappointed in their
expectations. The king's headstrong temper rendered him incapable of
advice. The queen could not help distrusting men who had been so long
and so intimately connected with Murray, and gave herself up entirely to
such counsellors as complied with all her inclinations. The return of' that
nobleman and his followers was therefore the only event which would restore Morton, Maitland, and their associates, to their former ascendant over
the queen's councils. For this reason, nothing could be more mortifying
to them than the resolution which Mary had taken to treat the exiles with
rigour. This they imputed to Rizio, who, after he had engaged to aid
Murray with all his interest, was now the most active instrument in promoting the measures which were concerted for the ruin of that nobleman.
This officious zeal completed the disgust which they had conceived against
him, and inspired them with thoughts of vengeance in no wise suitable to
justice, to humanity, or to their own dignity.
While they were ruminating upon their scheme, the king communicated
his resolution to be avenged of Rizio to lord Ruthven, and implored his
assistance, and that of his friends, towards the execution of this design.
Nothing could be more acceptable to them than this overture. They saw
at once all the advantages they would reap by the concurrence of such an
associate. Their own private revenge upon Rizio would pass, they hoped,
for an act of obedience to the king; and they did not despair of obtaining
the restoration of their banished friends, and security for the protestant
religion, as the price of their compliance with his will.
But as Henry was no less fickle than rash, they hesitated for some time,
and determined to advance no further, without taking every possible pre.
caution for their own safety. They did not, in the mean time, suffer the
king's resentment to abate. Morton, who was inferior to no man of that




144                         THE HISTORY                             [B ooK 1V.
intriguing age in all the arts of insinuation and address, took the young
prince under his management.  He wrought upon his ruling passion, ambition, to obtain the matrimonial crown. He represented Rizio's credit
with the queen to be the chief and only obstacle to his success in that
demand. This minion alone, he said, possessed her confidence; and out
of complaisance to him, her subjects, her nobility, and even her husband,
were excluded froIn any participation of her secret councils. Under the
appearance of a confidence merely political, he insinuated, and the king
perhaps believed, that a familiarity of a quite different and very criminal
nature might be concealed.* Such various and complicated passions raged
in the king's bosom  with the utmost fury.  lIe became  more impatient
than ever of any delay, and even threatened  to strike the intended blow
with his own hand. At last, preliminaries were settled on both sides, and
articles for their mutual security agreed upon. The king engaged to prevent the attainder of the banished lords, to consent to their return into
Scotland, to obtain for them an ample remission of all their crimes, and to
support, to the utmost of his power, the religion which was now established
in the kingdom. On their parts, they undertook to procure the crown
matrimonial for Henry, to secure his right of succession if the queen should
die before him without issue, and to defend that right to the uttermost
against whatever person should presume to dispute it; and if either Rizio
or any other person should happen to be killed in prosecuting the design,
the king promised to acknowledge himself to be the author of the enterprise, and to protect those who were embarked in it.t'
Nothing now remained but to concert the plan of operation, to choose
the actors, and to assign them their parts in perpetrating this detestable
crime. Every circu.mstance here paints and characterizes the manners and
men of that age, and fills us with horror at both.  The place chosen for
committing such a deed was the queen's bedchamber.  Though Mary was
now  in the sixth month of her pregnancy, and though Rizio might have
been seized elsewhere without any difficulty, the king pitched upon this
place that he might enjoy the malicious pleasure of reproaching Rizio with
his crimes before the queen's face. The earl of Morton, the lord high
chancellor of the kingdom, undertook to direct an enterprise, carried on in
defiance of all the laws of which he was bound to be the guardian.  The
lord Ruthven, who had been confined to his bed for three months by a very
dangerous distemper, and who was still so feeble that he could hardly
walk, or bear the weight of his own armour, was intrusted with the executive part; and while he himself needed to be supported by  two  men,
he came abroad to commit a murder in the presence of his sovereign.
On the 9th of March, Morton entered the court of the palace with a
hundred and sixty men: and without noise, or meeting with any resistance, seized  all the gates.  While the queen was at supper with the
* Of all our historians, Buchanan alone avowedly accuses Mary of a criminal love for Rizio,
340. 344. Knox slightly insinuates that such a suspicion was entertained, 391. Melvil, in a conversation with the queen, intimates that he was afraid her familiarity with Rizio might be liable to
misconstruction, 110. The king himself seenls, both by Melvil's account, and by his expostulation
with the queen, which Ruthven mentions, to have given credit to these suspicions. Melv. 127.
Keith, Append. 123, 124. That the king's suspicions were strong, is likewise evident from tie
paper published, Append. No. XV. But in opposition to these suspicions, and they are nothihg
more, we may observe that Raulet, the queen's French secretary, was dismissed from her service;,
and Rizio advanced to that office, in December, 1564. Keith, 268. It was in consequence of thls
preferment, that he acquired his great credit with the queen. Melv. 107. Darnly arrived in Scotland about two months after. Keith, 269. The queen immediately conceived for him a passion,
which had all the symptoms of genuine and violent love. Rizio aided this passion, and promotel
the marriage with all his interest. Melv. 111 During some months after the marriage, the queen 4
fondness for Darnly continued. She soon proved with child. From this enumeration of circua.stances, it appears almost mnpossible that the queen, unless we suppose her to have been a woln.n
utterly abandoned, could carry on any criminal intrigue with Rizio. But the silence of Randolph
the English resident, a man abundantly ready to mention and to aggravate Mary's faults, and who
does not once insinuate that her confidence in Rizio concealed any thing criminal, is in itself a sufficient vindication of her innocence.         t Good, vol. i.' 266.




OF.SCOTLAND.                            145
countess of Argyll, Rlzio, and a few other persons, the king suddenly
entered the apartment by a private passage. At his back was Ruthven,
clad in complete armour, and with that ghastly and horrid look which long,sickness had given him. Three or four of his most trusty accomplices
followed him. Such an unusual appearance alarmed those who were
present. Rizio instantly apprehended that he was the victim at whom the
blew was aimed; and in the utmost consternation retired behind the
-queen, of whom he laid hold, hoping that the reverence due to her person
might prove some protection to him. The conspirators had proceeded too
far to be restrained by any considerations of that kind. Numbers of armed
men rushed into the chamber. Ruthven drew his dagger, and with a
furious mien and voice commanded Rizio to leave a place of which he
was unworthy, and which he had occupied too long. Mary employed
tears, and entreaties, and threatenings, to save her favourite. But notwithstanding all these, he was torn from her by violence, and before he
could be dragged through the next apartment, the rage of his enemies put
an end to his life, piercing his body with fifty-six wounds.,
Athol, Huntly, Bothwell, and other confidants of the queen, who had
apartments in the palace, were alarmed at the uproar, and filled with the
utmost terror on their own account; but either no violence was intended
against them, or the conspirators durst not shed the noblest blood in the kingdom in the same illegal manner with which they had ventured to take the life
of a stranger. Some of them were dismissed, and others made their escape..
The conspirators in the mean time kept possession of the palace, and
guarded the queen with the utmost care. A proclamation was published
by the king, prohibiting the parliament to meet on the day appointed; and
measures were taken by him for preventing any tumult in the city.t Murray, Rothes, and their followers, being informed of every step taken against
Rizio, arrived at Edinburgh next evening. Murray was graciously received both by the king and queen: by the former, on account of the
articles which had been agreed upon between them; by the latter, because
she hoped to prevail on him, by gentle treatment, not to take part with the
murderers of Rizio. Their power she still felt and dreaded; and the insult
which they had offered to her authority, and even to her person, so far
exceeded any crime she could impute to Murray that, in hopes of wreaking her vengeance on them, she became extremely willing to be reconciled
to him. The obligations, however, which Murray lay under to men who
had hazarded their lives on his account, engaged him to labour for their
safety. The queen, who scarce had the liberty of choice left, was persuade-d to admit Morton and Ruthven into her presence, and to grant them
the promise of pardon in whatever terms they should deem necessary for
their own security.
The king, meanwhile, stood astonished at the boldness and success ot
his own enterprise, and uncertain what course to hold. The queen observed
his irresolution, and availed herself of it. She employed all her art to
disengage him from his new associates. His consciousness of the insult
which he hadil offered to so illustrious a benefactress inspired him with uncommon facility and complaisance. In spiteof all the warnings he received
to distrust the quemn's artifices, she prevailed on him [March 11] to dismiss
the guards which the conspirators had placed on her person; and that
same night he made his escape along with her, attended by three persons
only, and retired to Dunbar. The scheme of their flight had been communicated to Huntly and Bothwell, and they were quickly joined by them
and several other of the nobles. Bothwell's estate lay in that corner of
the kingdom, and his followers crowded to their chief in such numbers as
soon enabled the queen to set the power of the conspirators at defiance
* See Appendix, No. XV.              t Keith, Appendix, 126.
VOL. II. —19




146                   THE  HISTORY                     [BooK IV.
This sudden flight filled them with inexpressible consternation. The
nad obtained a promise of pardon; and it now appeared from the queens
conduct, that nothing more was intended by this promise than to amuse
them and to gain time. They ventured, however, to demand the accomplishment of it; but their messenger was detained. a prisoner, and the
queen, advancing towards Edinburgh at the head of eight thousand men,
talked in the highest strain of resentment and revenge.  She had the
address, at the same time, to separate Murray and his associates from the
conspirators against Rizio. Sensible that the union of these parties would
form a confederacy which might prove formidable to the crown, she expressed great willingness to receive the former into favour; towards the
latter she declared herself inexorable. Murray and his followers were no
less willing to accept a pardon on her terms  The conspirators against
Rizio, deprived of every resource, and incapable of resistance, fled precipitately to Newcastle [March 10], having thus changed situations with
Murray and his party, who left that place a few days before.
No man so remarkable for wisdom, and even for cunning, as the earl of
Morton, ever engaged in a more unfortunate enterprise. Deserted basely'by the king, who now denied his knowledge of the conspiracy by public
proclamations, and abandoned ungenerously by Murray and his party,? he
was obliged to fly from his native country, to resign the highest office, and'to part with one of the most opulent fortunes in the kingdom.
On her return to Edinburgh, Mary began to proceed against those con-,cerned in the murder of Rizio with the utmost rigour of law. But, in
praise of her clemency, it must be observed, that only two persons, and
these of no considerable rank, suffered for this crime.+
In this conspiracy there is one circumstance which, though somewhat
detached, deserves not to be forgotten. In the confederacy between the
king and the conspirators, the real intention of which was assassination, the
preserving of the reformed church is, nevertheless, one of the most considerable articles; and the same men, who were preparing to violate one of
the first duties of morality, affected the highest regard for religion. History relates these extravagances of the human mind, without pretending
to justify, or even to account for them; and, regulating her own opinions by
the eternal and immutable laws of justice and of virtue, points out such inconsistencies as features of the age which she describes, and records them
for the instruction of ages to come.
As this is the second instance of deliberate assassination which has,occurred, and as we shall hereafter meet with many other instances of the
same crime, the causes which gave rise to a practice so shocking to
humanity deserve our particular attention. Resentment is, for obvious and
wise reasons, one of the strongest passions in the human mind. The
natural demand of this passion is, that the person who feels the injury
should himself inflict the vengeance due on that account. The permitting
this, however, would have been destructive to society; and punishment
would have known no bounds, either in severity or in duration. For this
reason, in the very infancy of the social state, the sword was taken out of
private hands, and committed to the magistrate. But at first, while laws
aimed at restraining, they really strengthened the principle of revenge.
The earliest and most simple punishment for crimes was retaliation; the
offender forfeited limb for limb, and life for life. The payment of a compensation to the person injured succeeded to the rigour of the former institution. In both these the gratification of private revenge was the object
of law; and he who suffered the wrong was the only person who had a
right to pursue, to exact, or to remit the punishment. While laws allowed
such full scope to the revenge of one party, the interests of the other were
* Melv. 130.         t Keith, Appendix, 130. 334.




OF SCOTLAND.                             147
not neglected. If the evidence of his guilt did not amount to a full proof,
or if he reckoned himself to be unjustly accused, the person to whom a
crime was imputed had a right to challenge his adversary to single combat,
and, on obtaining the victory, vindicated his own honour. In almost every
considerable cause, whether civil or criminal, arms were appealed to, in
defence, either of the innocence or the property of the parties. Justice
had seldom occasion to use her balance; the sword alone decided every
contest. TIhe passion of revenge was nourished by all these means, and
grew, by daily indulgence, to be incredibly strong. Mankind became
habituated to blood, not only in times of war, but of peace; and from this
as well as other causes, contracted an amazing ferocity of temper and of
manners. This ferocity, however, made it necessary to discourage the
trial by combat; to abolish the payment of compensations in criminal
cases; and to think of some milder method of terminating disputes con
cerning civil rights. The punishments for crimes became more severe,
and the regulations concerning property more fixed; but the princes whose
province it was to inflict the one, and to enforce the other, possessed little
power. Great offenders despised their authority; smaller ones sheltered
themselves under the jurisdiction of those from whose protection they
expected impunity. The administration of justice was extremely feeble
and dilatory. An attempt to punish the crimes of a chieftain, or even of'
his vassals, often excited rebellions and civil wars. To nobles, haughty
and independent, among whom the causes of discord were many and
unavoidable, who were quick in discerning an injury, and impatient to
revenge it; who deemed it infamous to submit to an enemy, and cowardly
to forgive him; who considered the right of punishing those who had
injured them as a privilege of their order and a mark of independence; such
slow proceedings were extremely unsatisfactory.  The blood of their
adversary was, in their opinion, the only thing which could wash away an
affront: where that was not shed, their revenge was disappointed, their
courage became suspected, and a stain was left on their honour. That
vengeance, which the impotent hand of the magistrate could not inflict,
their own could easily execute.  Under governments so feeble, men
assumed, as in a state of nature, the right of judging and redressing their
own wrongs; and thus assassination, a crime of all others the most
destructive to society, came not only to be allowed, but to be reckoned
honourable.
The history of Europe, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
abounds with detestable instances of this crime. It prevailed chiefly among
the French and Scots, between whom there was a close intercourse at that
time, and a surprising resemblance in their national characters. In 1407,
the only brother of the king of France was murdered publicly in the streets
of Paris; and so far was this horrible action from meeting with proper
punishment, that an eminent lawyer was allowed to plead in defence of it
before the peers of France, and avowedly to maintain the lawfulness of assassination. In 1417, it required all the eloquence and authority of the famous
Gerson, to prevail on the council of Constance to condemn this proposition,
" That there are some cases in which assassination is a virtue more meritorious in a knight than in a squire, and more meritorious in a king than in
a knight."*  The number of eminent persons who were murdered in
France and Scotland, on account either of private, or political, or religious
quarrels, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, is almost incredible
Even after those causes, which first gave rise to this barbarous practice,
were removed; after the jurisdiction of magistrates, and the authority of
laws, were better established, and become more universal; after the progress of learning and philosophy had polished the manners and humanized
* L'Enfant, Hist. Cone. de Const.




148                        THE 3HISTORY                         LBoox IV.
the minds of men, this crime continued in some degree. It was towards
the close of the:seventeenth century before it disappeared in France.  The
additional vigour, which the royal authority acquired by the accession of
James VI. to the throne of England, seems to have but a stop to it in
Scotland.
The influence, however, of any national custom, both on the understanding and on the heart, and how far it may go towards perverting or extinguishing moral principles of the greatest importance, is remarkable.  T'he
authors of those ages have perfectly imbibed the sentiments of their
contemporaries with regard to assassination: and they who had leisure to
reflect and to judge appear to be more shocked at this crime than the
persons who committed it durino' the heat and impetuosity of passion.
Buchanan describes the murder ofcardinal Beatoun and of Rizio, without
expressing those feelings which are natural to a man, or that indignation.which became an historianD.   Knox, whose mind was fiercer and mnore
unpolished, relates the death of Beatoun and of the duke of Guise, not
only without censure, but with the utmost exultation.t  On. the other hand,
the bishop of Ross, mentions the assassination of' the earl of Murray with
some degree of applause..  Blackwood dwvells upon it with the most
indecent triumph, and ascribes it directly to the hand of God.~  Lord
Ruthven, the principal actor in the conspiracy against Rizio, -wrote an
account of it some short time before his own death, and'in all his long
narrative there is not one expression of regret, or one symptoim  of coimpunction, for a crime no less dishonourable than barbarous.11   Morton,
equally guilty of the same crime, entertained the same sentiments concerning it; and in his last moments, neither he'himself nor the lnxinisters who
attended him  seem  to have considered it as an.?,ction, which called for
repentance; even then he talks of David's slaughter as coolly as if it had
been an innocent or commendable deed.~   The vices of another age
astonish and shock us; the vices of our own become familiar, and excite
little horror.*"   I return from fhis digression to the course of the history
The charm which had at first attached the queen to Darnly, and held
them  for some time in a happy union, was now entirelv dissolved; and
love no longer covering his follies and vices with its friendly veil, they
appeared to Mary in their full dimension and defornity.tt  Though Htenryt
published a proclamation disclaiming any knowvledge bf the conspiracy
against Rizio, the queen was fully convinced that he was not only accessary to the contrivance, but to the commission of that odious crime.4   That
very power which, with liberal and unsuspicious fondness, she had conferred upon him, he had employed to insult her authority, to limit her
prerogative, and to endanger her person.  Such an outrage it was imlpos-:sible any woman could bear or forgive. Cold civilities, secret distrust,'frequent quarrels, succeeded to their former transports of affection and confidence. The queen's favours were no longer conveyed through his hands.
The crowd of expectants ceased to court his patronage, which they found
to avail so little. Among the nobles, some dreaded his filrious temper,
others complained of his perfidiousness; and all of them despised the'weakness of his understanding and the inconstancy of his heart. The
* Buchan. 295. 345.    t Knox. 334.    t Anders. 3. 84.    S Jebb. ii. 263    11 Keith,
Append. 119.   IT Crawf. Mem. Append.
*k In the first accounts of Rizio's murder sent to England, there seem to have been mingled (as is
usual in relating extraordinary events) some circumstances which afterwards appeared to be false:'amonng others, that a friar named Black had been slain at the same time with Rizio. Packhurst,
bishop of Norwich, in communicating this intelligence to his correspondent Bullinger, an eminent
reformed divine of Zurich, expresses no condemnation of the murder of Rizio, and exults over the
supposed death of the friar in terms which, in our times, will appear as shocking as they are
puerile: "Fraterculus luidam,'nomine Black, papistarumrn antesignanus, eodem tempore in aula
occiditur: Sic niger hic nehbulo, nigra quoque morte peremptus, invitus nigrum subito descendit in
Orcum." Burn. Hist. of Reform. iii. App. 360.
It See Appendix, No. XVI.  +,: Keith,350.




OF SCOTLAND.                                 149
people themselves observed some parts of his conduct which little suited
the dignity of a king. Addicted to drunkenness, beyond what the manners
of that age could bear, and indulging irregular passions, which even the
licentiousness of youth could not excuse, he, by his indecent behaviour,
provoked the queen to the utmost; and the passions which it occasioned
often forced tears from  her eyes, both in public and private.*- Her aversion for him increased every day, and could be no longer concealed. He
was often absent from court, appeared there with little splendour, and was
trusted with no power. Avoided equally by those who endeavoured to
please the queen, who favoured Morton and his associates, or who adhered
to the house of Hamilton, he was left almost alone in a neglected and
unpitied solitude..
About this time a new favourite grew into great credit with the queen,
and soon gained an ascendant over her heart, which encouraged his enterprising genius to form designs that proved fatal to himself, and the occasion of all Mary's subsequent misfortunes. This was James Hepburn, earl
of Bothwell, the head of an ancient family, and, by his extensive possessions and numerous vassals, one of the most powerful noblemen in the
kingdom. Even in that turbulent age, when so many vast projects were
laid open to an aspiring mind, and invited it to action, no man's ambition
was more daring than Bothwell's, or had recourse to bolder or more singular expedients for obtaining power.j   When almost every person of
distinction in the kingdom, whether papist or protestant, had joined the
congregation in opposing the dangerous encroachments of the French upon
the liberties of the nation, he, though an avowed protestant, adhered to
the queen regent, and acted with vigour on her side. The success which
attended the arms of the congregation having obliged him to retire into
France, he was taken into the queen's service, and continued with her till
the time of her return into Scotland.~  From that period, every step of his
conduct towards Mary was remarkably dutiful; and, amidst all the shiftings of faction, we scarcely ever find him holding any course which could
be offensive to her. When Murray's proceedings with regard to her marriage gave umbrage to the queen, she recalled Bothwell from that banishment into which she had been obliged with reluctance to drive him, and
considered his zeal and abilities as the most powerful supports of her
authority.  When the conspirators against Rizio seized her person, he
became the chief instrument of recovering her liberty, and served her, on
that occasion, with so much fidelity and success as made the deepest
impression on her mind, and greatly increased the confidence which she
had hitherto placed in him.ll  Her gratitude loaded him with marks ot
her bounty; she raised him to offices of profit and trust, and transacted no
matter of importance without his advice.; By complaisance and assiduity
he confirmed and fortified these dispositions of the queen in his favour,
and insensibly paved the way towards that vast project which his immoderate ambition had perhaps already conceived, and which, in spite of
many difficulties, and at the expense of many crimes, he at last accom
plished.
The hour of the queen's delivery now approached. As her palace was
defended only by a slender guard, it seemed imprudent to expose her
person, at this time, to the insults she might suffer in a kingdom torn by
* Keith, 329.   t Melv. 131, &c.: The enterprising spirit of Bothwell was so conspicuous as to procure him several marks of
distinction during his residence in France. Hardwick's State Papers, i. 143. Throgmorton, the
English ambassador at Paris, and one of the most sagacious ministers employed by Elizabeth, points
him out as a person who was to be dreaded and observed. " The earl of Bothwell," says he in a
letter, Nov. 28, 1560, " is departed to return into Scotland, and hath made boast that he will do great
things, and live in Scotland in despite of all men. He is a glorious, rash, and nazardous young
mnan; and therefore it were meet that his adversaries should both have an eye to him, and also keet
him short." Ibid. p. 149.
Q Anders i 90.  1[ Ibid. 92, 93.    I Melv. 133. Knox, 396.




150                    THE  HISTO RY                   [BOOK IV.
factions and prone to mutiny. For this reason the privy council advised
the queen to fix her residence in the castle of Edinburgh, the strongest
fortress in the kingdom, and the most proper place for the security of her
person.*  In order to render this security more perfect, Mary laboured to
extinguish the domestic feuds which divided some of the principal nobles.
Murray and Argyll were exasperated against Huntly and Bothwell by
reciprocal and repeated injuries. The queen by her authority and entrea
ties, effected a reconcilement among them, and drew from them a promise
to bury their discords in everlasting oblivion. This reconcilement Mary
bad so much at heart that she made it the condition on which she again
received Murray into favour.t
On the 19th of June, Mary was delivered of her only son James, a
prince whose birth was happy for the whole island, and unfortunate to her
alone. His accession to the throne of England united the two divided
kingdoms in one mighty monarchy, and established the power of Great
Britain on a firm foundation; while she, torn early from her son by the
cruelty of her fate, was never allowed to indulge those tender passions,
nor to taste those joys which fill the heart of a mother.
Melvil was instantly despatched to London with an account of this event
It struck Elizabeth, at first, in a sensible manner, and the advantage and
superiority which her rival had acquired by the birth of a son forced tears
from her eyes. But before Melvil was admitted to an audience, she had
so far recovered the command of herself, as to receive him not only with
decency but with excessive cheerfulness; and willingly accepted the invi
tation which Mary gave her, to stand godmother to her son.+
As Mary loved splendour and magnificence, she resolved to celebrate the
baptism of the young prince with great pomp; and for that purpose sent
invitations of the same kind to the French king, and to the duke of Savoy,
the uncle of her former husband.
The queen, on her recovery, discovered no change in her sentiments
with respect to the king.~  The death of Rizio, and the countenance he
had given to an action so insolent and unjustifiable, were still fresh in her
memory. She was frequently pensive and dejected.lI Though Henry
sometimes attended at court, and accompanied her in her progresses
through different parts of the kingdom, he met with little reverence from
the nobles, while Mary treated. him with the greatest reserve, and did not
suffer him to possess any authority.~T The breach between them became
every day more apparent." Attempts were made towards a reconcilement, particularly by Castelnau, the French ambassador; but, after such ax.
violent rupture, it was found no easy matter to bind the nuptial knot anew;
and, although he prevailed on the king and queen to pass two nights
together,tt we may, with great probability, pronounce this appearance of
union, to which Castelnau trusted, not to have been sincere; we know with
certainty that it was not lasting.
Bothwell, all this while, was the queen's prime confidant. Without his
participation no business was concluded. and no favour bestowed. Together with this ascendant over her councils, Bothwell, if we may believe
the cotemporary historians, acquired no less sway over her heart. But at
what precise time this ambitious lord first allowed the sentiments of a lover
to occupy the place of that duty and respect which a subject owes his
sovereign; or when Mary, instead of gratitude for his faithful services, felt
a passion of another nature rising in her bosom, it is no easy matter to
determine. Such delicate transitions of passion can be discerned only by
those who are admitted near the persons of the parties, and who can view
the secret workings of the heart with calm and acute observation. Neither
* Keith, 335,   t Ibid. 336. Append. 139.   $ Melv. 138.. See Append. No. XVII.
11 Melv. 148.   ~T Keith, 350 Melv 132    ** Keith Append. 169.  o* Keith, 169.




OF SCOTLAND.                            15'
Knox nor Buchanan enjoyed these advantages. Their humble station
allowed them only a distant access to the queen and her favourite. And
the ardour -of their zeal, as well as the violence of their prejudices, rendered their opinions rash, precipitate, and inaccurate. It is by the effects
of this reciprocal passion, rather than by their accounts of it, that subsequent historians can judge of its reality.
Adventurous as Bothwell's project to gain the queen may appear, it was
formed and carried on under very favourable circumstances. Mary was
young, gay, and affable. She possessed great sensibility of temper, and was
capable of the utmost tenderness of affection. She had placed her love on
a very unworthy object, who requited it with ingratitude, and treated her
with neglect, with insolence, and with brutality. All these she felt and
resented. In this situation, the attention and complaisance of a man who
had vindicated her authority and protected her person, who entered into all
her views, who soothed all her passions, who watched and improved every
opportunity of insinuating his design and recommending his passion,? could
hardly fail of making an impression on a heart of such a frame as Mary's.
The haughty spirit of Darnly, nursed up in flattery and accustomed to
command, could not bear the contempt under which he had now fallen,
and the state of insignificance to which he saw himself reduced. But, in
a country where he was universally hated or despised, he could never hope
to form a party which would second any attempt he might make tc
recover power. He addressed himself, therefore, to the pope, and to the
kings of France and Spain, with many professions of his own zeal for the
Catholic religion, and with bitter complaints against the queen, for neglecting to promote that interest:t and, soon after, he took a resolution,
equally wild and desperate, of embarking on board a ship which he provided, and of flying into foreign parts. It is almost impossible to form any
satisfactory conjecture concerning the motives which influence a capricious
and irregular mind. He hoped, perhaps, to recommend himself to the
Catholic princes on the continent by his zeal for religion, and that they
would employ their interest towards reinstating him in the possession of
that power which he had lost. Perhaps he expected nothing more than
the comfort of hiding the disgrace, under which he was now fallen, among
strangers, who had never been witnesses of his former prosperity.
He communicated the design to the French ambassador,- Le Croc, and
to his father the Earl of Lennox. They both endeavoured to dissuade him
from it, but without success. Lennox, who seems, as well as, his son, to
have lost the queen's confidence, and who, about this time, was seldom at
court, instantly communicated the matter to her by a letter. Henry, who
had refused to accompany the queen from Stirling to Edinburgh, was likewise absent from court. He arrived there, however, on the same day she
received the account of his intended flight. But he was more than usually
wayward and peevish; and, scrupling to enter the palace unless certain
lords who attended the queen were dismissed, Mary was obliged to meet
him without the gates. At last he suffered her to conduct him into her
own apartment. She endeavourcd to draw from him the reasons of the
strange resolution which he had taken, and to divert him from it. In spite,
however, of all her arguments and entreaties, he remained silent and
inflexible. Next day the privy council, by her direction, expostulated
with him on the same head. He persisted, notwithstanding, in his sullen,
ness and obstinacy; and neither deigned to explain the motives of his conduct, nor signified any intention of altering it. As he left the apartment,
he turned towards the queen, and told her that she should not see his
face again for a long time. A few days after, he wrote to Mary, and men
tioned two things as grounds of his disgust. She herself, he said, no longer
r Anders. i. 93 94.   t Knox, 399,




152                       THE HISTORY                          [BoOK IV.
admitted him  into any confidence, and had deprived him  of all power;
and the nobles, after her example, treated him with open neglect, so that
he appeared in every place without the dignity and splendour of a king,.
Nothing could be more mortifying to Mary than this intended flight of
the king's, which would have spread the infamy of their domestic quarrel
all over Europe.  Compassion for a monarch, who would then appear to
be forced into exile by her neglect and ill usage, might have disposed mankind to entertain sentiments, concerning the causes of their discord, little
to her advantage. In order, therefore, to prepossess the minds of her allies,
and to screen her reputation from  any censure with which Darnly might
endeavour to load it, the privy council transmitted a narrative of this whole
transaction both to the king and to the queen-mother of France. It was
drawn with great art, and sets Mary's conduct in the most favourable
point of view.*
About this time the license of the borderers called for redress; and
Mary resolving to hold a court of justice at Jedburgh, the inhabitants of
several adjacent counties were summoned to attend their sovereign in
arms, according to custom., Bothwell was at that time lieutenant or
warden of all the marches, an office among the most important in the
kingdom; and, though usually divided into three distinct governments,
bestowed by the queen's favour upon him  alone.  In order to display his
own valour and activity in the discharge of this trust, he attempted to
seize a gang of banditti, who, lurking among the marshes of Liddesdale,
infested the rest of the country. But while he was laying hold upon one
of those desperadoes [Oct. 16], he was wounded by him in several places,
so that his followers were obliged to carry him to Hermitage castle.
Mary instantly flew thither with an impatience which has been considered
as marking the anxiety of a lover, but little suited the dignity of a queen.{
Finding that Bothwell was threatened with no dangerous symptom, she
returned the same day to J edburgh.  The fatigue of such a journey, added
to the anguish of mind she had suffered on Bothwell's account, threw her
next morning into a violent fever.~ Her life was despaired of; but her
youth, and the vigour of her constitution, resisted the malignity of her
disease.  During the continuance of the queen's illness, the king, who
resided at Stirling, never came near Jedburgh:11 and when he afterwards
thought fit to make his appearance there [Nov. 5], he met with such a
cold reception as did not encourage him to make any long stay.5[ Mary
soon recovered strength enough to return along the eastern borders to
Dunbar.
While she resided in this place, her attention was turned towards England. Elizabeth, notwithstanding her promise and even proclamations to
the contrary, not only allowed, but encouraged Morton and his associates
to remain in England."  Mary, on the other hand, offered her protection to
several English fugitives.  Each queen watched the motions of the other
with ajealous attention, and secretly countenanced the practices which were
carrying on to disturb the administration of her rival.
For this purpose  Mary's ambassador, Robert Melvil, and her other
emissaries were extremely active and successful.  We may ascribe, in a
* Keith, 345. 347.  t Ibid. 353. Good. vol. i. 302.: The distance between Jedburgh and Hermitage is eighteen Scottish miles, through a country
alnlost impassable. The season of the year was far advanced. Bothwell seems to have been
wounded in a scuffle, occasioned by the despair of a single man, rather than any open insurrec.tion
of the borderers. It does not appear that the queen was attended by any considerable train. had
any military operation been necessary, as is supposed, Good. vol, i. 304, it would have been extrermely improper to risk the queen's person in an expedition against thieves. As soon as the queen
found Bothwell to be in no danger, she instantly returned; and after this we hear no inore of the
insurrection, nor have we any proof that the rioters took refuge in England. As there is no further
evidence with respect to the motives of this extraordinary journey, the reader must judge what
degree of credit is due to Knox and Buchanan, who ascribe it to the queen's love of Bothwell.
Q Keith, 351, 352    11 Ibid. Append. 133.    Tf Knox, 400.    ** Cald. vol. ii. p. 15.




OF SCOTLAND.                              153
good degree, to their intrigues, that spirit which appeared in the parliament
of England, and which raised a storm that threatened Elizabeth's domestic
tranquillity more than any other event of her reign, and required all her art
and dexterity to allay it.
Elizabeth had now reigned eight years without discovering the least
Intention to marry. A violent distemper with which she had lately been
seized, having endangered her life, and alarmed the nation with the
prospect of all those calamities which are occasioned by a disputed and
dubious succession, a motion was made, and eagerly listened to in both
houses, for addressing the queen to provide against any such danger in
times to come, either by signifying her own resolution to marry, or by consenting to an act establishing the order of succession to the crown.* Her
love to her subjects, her duty to the public, her concern for posterity, it
was asserted, not only called upon, but obliged her to take one of these
steps. The insuperable aversion which she had all along discovered fol
marriage made it improbable that she would choose the former; and if
she complied with the latter request, no title to the crown could, with any
colour of justice, be set in opposition to that of the Scottish queen. Elizabeth was sagacious enough to see the remotest consequences of this motion,
and observed them with the greatest anxiety. Mary, by refusing so often
to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh, had plainly intimated a design of embracing the first promising opportunity for prosecuting her right to the
English crown; and, by her secret negotiations, she had gained many to
favour her title.t All the Roman Catholics ardently wished for her succession. Her gentleness and humanity had removed many of those apprehensions which the protestants entertained on account of her religion.  The
court faction, which envied-the power of Cecil, and endeavoured to wrest
the administration out of his hands, advanced the pretensions of the Scottish queen in opposition to him., The union of the two kingdoms was a
desirable object to all wise men in both nations; and the birth of the young
prince was a security for the continuance of this blessing, and gave hopes
of its perpetuity.
Under these circumstances, and while the nation was in such a temper,
a parliamentary declaration of Mary's title would have been highly detrimental to Elizabeth. The present unsettled state of the succession left
much in her power. Her resentment alone might have gone far towards
excluding any of the competitors from the crown; and the dread of this
had hitherto restrained and overawed the ambition of the Scottish queen.
But if this check should be removed by the legal acknowledgment of her
title, Mary would be more at liberty to pursue her dangerous designs, and
to act without fear or reserve. Her partisans were already meditating
schemes for insurrections in different parts of the kingdom;t and an act of
parliament recognising the rights of that princess, whose pretensions they
favoured, would have been nothing less than a signal to arms; and, notwithstanding Elizabeth's just title to the affections of her subjects, might
have shaken and endangered her throne.
While this matter remained in suspense in both houses, an account of it
was transmitted to Mary by Melvil, her ambassador. As she did not want
advocates for her right, even among those who were near Elizabeth's
person, she endeavoured to cultivate the disposition which appeared towards
settling the right of succession in her favour, by a letter to the privy
counsellors of England. She expressed in it a grateful sense of Elizabeth's
friendship, which she ascribes chiefly to their good offices with their
sovereign in her behalf. She declared her resolution to live in perpetual
amity with England, without urging or pursuing her claim upon the crown
any further than should be agreeable to the queen. But, at the same time
* D'Ewes' Journ of Parl. 105.  t Melv. 136.   1 Ibid. 147.
Vo:.. III.20




154                    THE HISTORY                     [BOOK IV.
as her right of succession was undoubted, she hoped it would be examined
with candour, and judged of with impartiality. The nobles who attended
her wrote to the English privy council in the same strain.* Mary artfully
gave these letters the air of being nothing more than a declaration of her
own and of her subjects' gratitude towards Elizabeth. But, as she could
not be ignorant of thejealousy and fear with which Elizabeth observed the
proceedings of parliament, a step so uncommon as this, of one prince's
entering into public correspondence with the privy counsellors of another,
could not be otherwise construed than as taken with anl intention to encourage
the spirit which had already been raised among the English. In this light
it seems to have appeared to Elizabeth herself.t But the disposition of
her people rendering it necessary to treat Mary's person with great decency,
and her title with much regard, she mentioned it to her only in the softest
lanouage.
Nothing, however, could be a more cruel mortification to a princess of
Elizabeth's character than the temper which both houses of parliament
discovered on this occasion. She bent all her policy to defeat or elude
the motion. After allowing the first heat of their zeal to evaporate, she
called into her presence a certain number of each house. She soothed and
caressed them; she threatened and promised; she remitted subsidies
which were due, and refused those which were offered; and, in the end,
prevailed to have this formidable motion put off for that session. Happily
for her, that conduct of the Scottish queen, and the misfortunes which
befell her, prevented the revival of such a motion in any future parliament.:
Meantime, in order to preserve the reputation of impartiality, and that
she might not drive Mary into any desperate measure, she committed to
the tower one Thornton who had published something derogatory to the
right of the Scottish line;~ and signified her displeasure against a member
of the house of commons, who seemed by some words in a speech, to
glance at Mary.ll
Amidst all her other cares, Mary was ever solicitous to promote the
interest of that religion which she professed,. The re-establishment of the
Romish doctrine seems to have been her favourite passion; and though the
design was concealed with care and conducted with caution, she pursued
it with a persevering zeal. At this time she ventured to lay aside somewhat of her usual reserve; and the aid which she expected from the
popish princes, who had engaged in the league of Bayonne, encouraged
her to take a step which, if we consider the temper of the nation, appears
to be extremely bold. Having formerly held a secret correspondence
with the court of Rome, she now resolved to allow a nuncio from the pope
publicly to enter her dominions. Cardinal Laurea, at that time bishop o.
lMondovi, was the person on whom Pius V. conferred this office, and along
with him he sent the queen a present of twenty thousand crowns.~ It is
not the character of the papal court to open its treasury upon distant or
imaginary hopes. The business of the nuncio into Scotland could be no
other than to attempt a reconciliation of that kingdom to the Romish see.
Thus Mary herself understood it; and, in her answer to a letter which
she received from the pope, after expressing her grateful sense of his
paternal care and liberality, she promises that she would bend her whole
strength towards the re-establishment and propagation of the Catholic faith;
that she would receive the nuncio with every possible demonstration of
respect, and concur with the utmost vigour in all his designs towards promoting the honour of God, and restoring peace to the kingdom; that she
would celebrate the baptism of the prince according to the ceremonies
* Keith, 354. Append. 136.   t Keith, 357.   + D'Ewes' Journ. 104-130. Camd. 399.
Melv. 119. Haynes, 446., Camd. 401.  I Haynes, 449.  IF Vita Card. Laur. ap. Bumn
vol. iii. p. 325.




OF SCOTLAND.                              15s
which the Romish ritual prescribes, hoping that her subjects would be
taught, by this example, again to reverence the sacraments of the church,
which they had so long treated with contempt; and that she would be
careful to instil early into her son the principles of a sincere love and attachment to the Catholic faith.* But though the nuncio was already arrived
at Paris, and had sent over one of his attendants with part of the money,
the queen did not think the juncture proper for his reception. Elizabeth
was preparing to send a magnificent embassy into Scotland, against the
time of the prince's baptism, and, as it would have been improper to offend
her, she wisely contrived, under various pretences, to detain Laurea at
Paris.t The convulsions into which the kingdom was thrown soon after
made it impossible for him to pursue his journey any further.
At the very time that Mary was secretly carrying on these negotiations
for subverting the reformed church, she did not scruple publicly to employ
her authority towards obtaining for its ministers a more certain and comfortable subsistence.T During this year she issued several proclamations
and acts of council for that p.urpose, and readily approved of every scheme
which was proposed for the more effectual payment of their stipends
This part of her conduct does little honour to Mary's integrity; and though
justified by the example of princes, who often reckon falsehood and deceit
among the necessary arts of government, and even authorized by the pernicious casuistry of the Roman church, which transfers breach of faith to
heretics from the list of crimes to that of duties; such dissimulation, however, must be numbered among those blemishes which never stain a truly
great and generous character.
As neither the French nor Piedmontese ambassadors were yet arrived,
the baptism of the prince was put off from time to time. Meanwhile,
Mary fixed her residence at Craigmillar.~ Such retiremeat, perhaps,
suited the present temper of her mind, and induced her to prefer it before
her own palace of Holyrood-house.  Her aversion for the king grew every
day more confirmed, and was become altogether incurable. A deep
melancholy succeededto that gayety of spirit which was natural to her.
The rashness and levity of her own choice, and the king's ingratitude and
obstinacy, filled her with shame and with despair. A variety of passions
preyed at once on a mind, all whose sensations were exquisite, and all its
emotions strong, and often extorted from her the last wish of the unfortunate, that life itself might come to an end.ll
But as the earl of Bedford, and the count de Brienne, the English and
French ambassadors, whom she had long expected, arrived about this
time, Mary was obliged to suppress what passed in her bosom, and to set
out for Stirling, in order to celebrate the baptism of her son. Bedford was
attended by a numerous and splendid train, and brought presents from
Elizabeth, suitable to her own dignity, and the respect with which she
affected, at that time, to treat the queen of Scots. Great preparations had
been made by Mary, and the magnificence displayed by her on this occasion exceeded whatever had been formerly known ill Scotland. The
ceremony itself was performed [Dec. 17], according to the rites of the
Romish church   But neither Bedford nor any of the Scottish nobles, who
professed the protestant religion, entered within the gates of the chapel.~V
The spirit of that age, firm and uncomplying, would not, upon any inducement, condescend to witness an action which is deemed idolatrous.
Henry's behaviour at this juncture perfectly discovers the excess of his
caprice, as well as of his folly. He chose to reside at Stirling, but confined hiimsP!f to his own apartment; and, as the queen distrusted every
nobleman who ventured to converse with him, he was left in absolute soli* Conei Vita Marine, ap. Jebb, vol. ii. p. 51.    t Keith, Append. 135.    $ Keith, 561, 562
Iinox. 401 t  i Keith, 355'   Ibid. Pref vii    1I Keith, 360.




156                          THE HISTORY                             [BooK IV.
tude,  Nothing could be more singular, or was less expected, than his
choosing to appear in a manner that both published the contempt under
which he had fallen, and, by exposing the queen's domestic unhappiness to
the observation of so many foreigners, looked like a step taken on purpose
to mortify and to offend her.  Mary felt this insult sensibly; and notwithstanding all her efforts to assume the gayety which suited the occasion,
and which was necessary for the polite reception of her guests, she was
sometimes obliged to retire, in order to be at liberty to indulge her sorrow,
and give vent to her tears.* The king still persisted in his design of
retiring into foreign parts, and daily threatened to put it into execution.g
The ceremony of witnessing the prince's baptism was not the sole business
of Bedford's embassy. His.instructions contained an overture which ought
to have gone far towards extinguishing those jealousies which had so long
subsisted between the two queens. The treaty of Edinburgh, which had
been so often mentioned, was the principal occasion of these. The spirit,
however, which had  risen to such  a height in the late  parliament, the
power of the party which favoured the Scottish queen's title, the number
and activity of her agents in different parts of the kingdom, alarmed Elizabeth, and induced her to forego alny advantage which the ambiguous and
artful expressions in that treaty might afford her. Nothing was now
demanded of Mary, but to renounce any title to the crown of England:
during Elizabeth's life and the lives of her posterity; who, on the other
hand, engaged  to take  no step which  might prove  injurious to Mary's
claim upon the succession.:
Mary could  not with  decency  reject a proposition so equitable; she
insisted, however, that Elizabeth should order the right upon which she
claimed, to be legally examined and publicly recognised, and particularly
that the testament of' Henry VIII., whereby he had excluded the descendants of his eldest sister, the queen of Scotland, from the place due to them
in the order of succession, might be produced, and  considered  by  the
English nobility.  Mary's ministers had credulously embraced an opinion,
that this testament, which they so justly conceived to be injurious to their
mistress, was a mere forgery; and on different occasions had urged Elizabeth to produce it.  Mary would have suffered considerably  by gaining
this point. The original testament is still extant, and not the least doubt
can be entertained of its genuineness and authenticity. But it was not
Elizabeth's intention to weaken or to set aside the title of the house of
Stuart. She aimed at nothing more than to keep the question concerning
the succession perplexed and undecided; and by industriously eluding this
request, she did, in one respect, real service to Mary's cause.~
* Keith, Pref. vii.
t Camden affirms, 401, that Bedford was commanded by Elizabeth not to give Darnly the title of
king. As this was an indignity not to be borne either by Mary or her husband, it hath been asserted
to be the cause of the king's absence from the ceremony of his son's baptism. Keith, 360. Good.
319. But, 1. No such thing is to be found among Bedford's instructions, the original of which still
remrains. Keith, 356. 2. Bedford's advice to the queen by Melvil is utterly inconsistent with Camden's assertion. Melv. 153. Melvil's account is confirm,:d by Elizabeth's instructions to Sir Henry
Norris, where she affirms that she commanded Bedford tc employ his best offices towards reconciling
Mary to her husband, which she had attempted to no p.rpose. Digges's Compl. Ambas. p. 13. A
paper published, Appendix No. XVIII. proves the san e thing. 3. Le Croc the French resident
mentions the king's absence, but without giving that reason for it, which has been founded on Camden's words, though, if that had been the real one, it is hardly possible to conceive that he should
have neglected to mention it. Le Croc's first letter is dated December 2, some time prior to the
arrival of the earl of Bedford in Scotland; and when his instructions, either public or secret, could
hardly be known. Le Croc plainly supposes tliat the discord between the king and queen was the
cause of his absence from the baptism, and his account of this matter is that which [ have followed.
Ket..h, Pref. vii. 4. He informs his court, that on account of the difference between the king and
the queen, he had refused to hold any further correspondence with the former, though he appears, in
many instances, to have been his great confidant. Ibid. 5. As the king was not present at the
baptism, he seems to have been excluded from any share in the ordinaly administration of business.
Two acts of privy council, one on the 20th, and the other on the 21st of December, are found in
Keith, 562. They both run in the queen's name alone. The king seems not to have been present.
This could not 1~' owing to Elizabeth's instructions to Bedford.
t Keith, 356        Q Rymer, xv. p. 110. Keith, 358. Note (c). Murden, 368.




O F SCOTLAND.                            157
A few days after the baptism of the prince, Morton and all the other
conspirators against Rizio obtained their pardon, and leave to return into
Scotland. Mary, who had hitherto continued inexorable to every treaty
in their behalf, yielded at last to the solicitations of Bothwell."  He could
hope for no success on those bold designs on which his ambition resolved
to venture, without drawing aid from every quarter. By procuring a
favour for Morton and his associates, of which they had good reason to
despair, he expected to secure a band of faithful and determined adherents.'The king still remained at Stirling in solitude and under contempt.
His impatience in this situation, together with the alarm given him by the
rumour of a design to seize his person and confine him in prison,4 was the
occasion of his leaving that place in an abrupt manner, and retiring to his
father at Glasgow.
Two assemblies of the church were held during this year [June 25,
Dec. 25]. New complaints were made, and upon good grounds, of the
poverty and contempt under which the protestant clergy were suffered to
languish. Penurious as the allotment for their subsistence was, they had
not received the least part of what was due for the preceding year.
Nothing less than a zeal ready to endure and to suffer every thing for a
good cause, could have persuaded men to adhere to a church so indigent
and so neglected. The extraordinary' expenses occasioned by the prince's
baptism had exhausted the queen's treasury, and the sums appropriated
for the subsistence of the clergy were diverted into other channels. The
queen was therefore obliged to prevent the just remonstrances of the
assembly, by falling on some new method for the relief of the church.
Some sympt-oms of liberality, some stretch towards munificence, might have
been expected in an assignment which was made with an intention of
soothing and silencing the clergy. But both the queen and the nobles held
fast the riches of the church which they had seized. A sum which, at the
highest computation, can hardly be reckoned equal to nine thousand
pounds sterling,~ was deemed sufficient for the maintenance of a whole
national church, by men who had lately seen single monasteries possessed
of revenues far superior in value.
The ecclesiastics in that age bore the grievances which affected themselves alone with astonishing patience; but, wherever the reformed religion
was threatened, they were extremely apt to be alarmed, and to proclaim,
in the loudest manner, their apprehensions of danger. A just occasion of
this kind was given them a short time before the meeting of the assembly.
The usurped and oppressed jurisdiction of the spiritual courts had been
abolished by the parliament in the year one thousand five hundred and
sixty, and commissaries were appointed to hear and determine the causes
which formerly came under their cognizance.ll Among the few acts of that
parliament to which Alary had paid any regard, this was one. She had
confirmed the authority of the commissaries, and had given them instructions for directing their proceedings,~ which are still of great authority in
that court. From the time of their first appointment, these judges had continued in the uninterrupted exercise of their function, when of a sudden the
queen issued a proclamation, restoring the archbishop of St. Andrew to his
ancient juri.sdiction, and depriving the commissaries of all authority."?
A motive, which cannot be justified, rendered the queen not unwilling to
venture upon this rash action. She had been contriving for some time how
to re-establish the popish religion; and the restoring the ancient ecclesiastics to their former jurisdiction seemed to be a considerable step
towards that end. The motive which prompted Bothwell, to whose influence over the queen, this action must be chiefly imputed,tt was still more
* Good. vol. i. 140. Melv. 154.  t Keith, Pref. viii.  $ Keith, 562.  O Ibid
11 Ibid. 152.    1' Ibid. 251.   ** Knox 403.  tf Id. ibid




1S8                        THE HISTORY                            [Book IV.
criminal.  His enterprising ambition had already formed tnat bold design,
which he soon after put in execution; and the use which we shall hereafter
find him making of that authority which the popish ecclesiastics regained,
discovers the reasons of his present conduct in contributing to revive their
power. The protestant clergy were not unconcerned spectators of' an
event which threatened their religion with unavoidable destruction; but,
as they despaired of obtaining the proper remedy from the queen herself,
they addressed a remonstrance to the whole body of the protestant nobility,
full of that ardent zeal for religion, which the danger to which it was
exposed at that time seemed to require.* What effects this vehement
exhortation might have produced, we have no opportunity of judging, the
attention of the nation being quickly turned towards events of another and
more tragical nature.
Immediately upon the king's leaving Stirling, and before he could reach
Glasgow, he was seized with a dangerous distemper. The symptoms
which attended it were violent and unusual, and in that age it was commonly imputed to the effects of poison.t It is impossible, amidst the contradictions of historians, to decide with certainty concerning its nature or its
cause.   His life was in the utmost danger; but, after lingering for some
weeks, the vigour of his constitution surmounted the malignity of his disease.
Mary's neglect of the king on this occasion was equal to that with which
he had treated her during her illness at Jedburgh. She no longer felt that
warmth of conjugal affection which prompts to sympathy, and delights in
all those tender offices which sooth and alleviate sickness and pain.  At
this juncture she did not even put on the appearance of this passion. Notwithstanding the king's danger, she amused herself with excursions to dif
ferent parts of the country, and suffered near a month to elapse before she
visited him at Glasgow. By that time the violence of the distemper was
over, and the king, though weak and languishing, was out of all danger.
The breach between Mary and her husband was not occasioned by any
of those slight disgusts which interrupt the domestic union, without dissolving it altogether. Almost all the passions which operate with greatest
violence on a female mind, and drive it to the most dangerous extremes,
concurred in raising and fomenting this unhappy quarrel.  Ingratitude for
the favours she had bestowed, contempt of her person, violations of the
marliage-vow, encroachments on  her power, conspiracies against her
favourites, jealousy, insolence, and obstinacy, were the injuries of which
Mary had great reason to complain. She felt them with the utmost sensibility; and, added to the anguish of disappointed love, they produced those
symptoms of despair which we have already described.  Her resentment
against the king seems not to have abated from the time of his leaving Stirling.  In a letter written with her own hand to her amrbassador in France,
on the day before she set out for Glasgow, no tokens of sudden reconcilement appear. On the contrary [Jan. 20], she mentions, with some bitterness, the king's ingratitude, the jealousy with'which he observed her
* Keith, 567.   t Melv. 154. Knox, 401.
i Buchanan and Knox are positive that the king had been poisoned. They mention the black
and putrid pustules which broke out all over his body. Buchanan adds, that Abernethy, the king's
physician, plainly declared that poison was the cause of these symptoms, and that the queen refused
to allow her own physician to attend him. Buch. 349. Knox, 401. 2. Blackwood, Causin, &c.
Jebb, vol. ii. 59. 214, assert that the small pox was the disease with which the kingwas seized. Ile
is called a Pokish man in the queen's letter. Good. vol. ii. 15. The reason given by French Paris
for lodging the king at the Kirk of Field, viz. lest the young prince should catch the infection if he
staid in the palace, seems to favotr this opinion. Anders. vol. ii. 193. Carte mentions it as a proof
of Mtary's tenderness to her husband, that though she never had the small-pox herself, she ventured
to attend him, vol. iii. 446. This, if it had been true, would have afforded a good pretence for not
visiting him sooner; but Mary had the small-pox in her infancy. Sadler's Letters, p. 330. An additional proof of this is produced from a poem of Adrian Turnebus, by the publisher of ancient
Scottish poems, p. 308. 3. Bishop Lesley affirms, that the king's disease was the French pox.
Keith, 364. Note (b). In that age this disease was esteemed so contagious that persons infected with
it were removed without the walls of cities.




OF SCOTLAND.                             159
actions, and the inclination he discovered to disturb her goN ernment; and
at the same time talks of all his attempts with the utmost-scorn.?
After this discovery of Mary's sentiments, at the time of her departure
from Edinburgh to Glasgow, a visit to the king, which had been neglected
when his situation rendered it most necessary, appears singular; and it
could hardly be expected that any thing but marks of jealousy and distrust
should appear in such an interview. This, however, was far from being
the case; she not only visited Henry, but, by all her words and actions,
endeavoured to express an uncommon affection for him: and though this
made impression on the credulous spirit of her husband, no less flexible on
some occasions than obstinate on others; yet to those who are acquainted
with the human heart, and who know how seldom and how slowly such
wounds in domestic happiness are healed, this sudden transition will appear
with a very suspicious air, and will be considered by them as the effect
of artifice.
But it is not on suspicion alone that Mary is charged with dissimulation
in this part of her conduct. Two of her famous letters to Bothwell were
written during her stay at Glasgow, and fully lay open this scene of iniquity. He had so far succeeded in his ambitious and criminal design, as to
gain an absolute ascendant over the queen; and, in a situation such as
Mary's, merit not so conspicuous, services of far inferior importance, and
address much less insinuating than Bothwell's, may be supposed to steal
imperceptibly on a female heart, and entirely to overcome it. Unhappily,
among those in the higher ranks of life, scruples with regard to conjugal
fidelity are, often, neither many nor strong: nor did the manners of that
court in which Mary had been educated contribute to increase or to fortify
them. The amorous turn of Francis I. and Henry I1., the licentiousness of
the military character in that age, and the liberty of appearing in all companies, which began to be allowed to women, who had not yet acquired
that delicacy of sentiment and those polished manners which alone can
render this liberty innocent, had introduced among the French an astonishing relaxation in domestic morals. Such examples, which were familiar to
Mary from her infancy, could hardly fail of diminishing that horror of vice
which is natural to a virtuous mind. The king's behaviour would render
the first approach of forbidden sentiments less shocking; resentment and
disappointed love would be apt to represent whatever soothed her revenge
as justifiable on that account; and so many concurring causes might, almost
imperceptibly, kindle a new passion in her heart.
But, whatever opinion we may form with regard to the rise and progress
of this passion, the letters themselves breathe all the ardour and tenderness
of love. The affection which Mary there expresses for Bothwell, fully
accounts for every subsequent part of her conduct; which, without admitting this circumstance, appears altogether mysterious, inconsistent, and
inexplicable. That reconcilement with her husband, of which, if we allow
it to be genuine, it is impossible to give any plausible account, is discovered,
by the queen's own confession, to have been mere artifice and deceit. As
her aversion for her husband, and the suspicious attention with which she
observed his conduct, became universally known, her ears were officiously
filled, as is usual in such cases, with groundless or aggravated accounts ot
his actions. By some she was told, that the king intended to seize the
person of the prince his son, and in his name to usurp the government; ty
others she was assured that he resolved instantly to leave the kingdom;
that a vessel was hired for this purpose, and lay in the river Clyde ready
to receive him.t The last was what Mary chiefly dreaded. Henry's
retiring into a foreign country must have been highly dishonourable to the
queen, and would have entirely disconcerted Bothwell's measures. While
* Keith, Pref. viii.  t lb. ibid.




160                    THE  HISTORY                     [BoOK IV.
he resided at Glasgow, at a distance from her, and in that part of the king 
dom where the interest of his family was greatest, he might with more
facility accomplish his designs. In order, therefore, to prevent his executing any such wild scheme, it was necessary to bring him to some place
where he would be more immediately under her own eye. For this purpose, she first employed all her art to regain his confidence, and then proposed to remove him to the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, under pretence
that there he would have easiey access to the advice of physicians, and that
she herself could attend him without being absent from her son.*  The
king was weak enough to suffer himself to be persuaded; and, being still
feeble and incapable of bearing fatigue, was carried in a litter to Edinburgh.
The place prepared for his reception was a house belonging to the provost of a collegiate church, called Kirk of Field. It stood almost upon
the same spot where the house belonging to the principal of the university
now stands. Such a situation, on a rising ground, and at that time in an
open field, had all the advantages of healthful air to recommend it; but,
on the other hand, the solitude of the place rendered it extremely proper
for the commission of that crime, with a view to which it seems manifestly
to have been chosen.
Mary continued to attend the king with the most assiduous care. She seldom was absent from him through the day; she slept two nights in the chamnber under his apartment. She heaped on him so many marks of tenderness
and confidence, as in a great measure quieted those suspicions which had
so long disturbed him. But while he was fondly indulging in dreams of
the return of his former happiness, he stood on the very brink of destruction. On Sunday, the 9th of February, about eleven at night, the queen
left the Kirk of Field, in order to be present at a masque in the palace.
At two next morning the house in which the king lay was blown up with
gunpowder. The noise and shock which this sudden explosion occasioned
alarmed the whole city. The inhabitants ran to the place whence it came.
The dead body of the king, with that of a servant who slept in the same
room, was found lying in an adjacent garden without the city wall,
untouched by fire, and with no bruise or mark of violence.
Such was the unhappy fate of Henry Stewart lord Darnly, in the twentyfirst year of' his age. The indulgence of fortune, and his own external
accomplishments, without any other merit, had raised him to a height of
dignity of which he was altogether unworthy. By his folly and ingratitude, he lost the heart of a woman who doted on him to distraction. His
insolence and inconstancy alienated from  him such of the nobles as had
contributed most zealously towards his elevation. His levity and caprice
exposed him to the scorn of the people, who once revered him as the
descendant of their ancient kings and heroes. Had he died a natural death,
his end would have been unlamented, and his memory have been forgotten; but the cruel circumstances of his murder, and the shameful remissness in neglecting to avenge it, have made his name to be remembered
with regret, and have rendered him the object of pity, to which he had
otherwise no title.
Every one's imagination was at work to guess who had contrived and
executed this execrable deed. The suspicion fell, with almost general
consent, on Bothwell;t and some reflections were thrown out, as if the
queen herself were no stranger to the crime. Of Bothwell's guilt there
remains the fullest evidence that the nature of the action will admit. The
queen's known sentiments with regard to her husband gave a great appearance of probability to the imputation with which she was loaded4.
Two days after the murder a proclamation was issued by the queen,
* Good. vol. ii. 8.   t Melv. 155. Anders. vol. ii. 156.   $ See dissertation concernIng the
murder o: Henry Darnly, and the genuineness of Mary's letters to Bothwell. Appendix.




OF SCOTLAND.                             161
offering a considerable reward to any person who should discover those
who had been guilty of such a horrid and detestable crime;* and though
Bothwell was now one of the greatest subjects in the kingdom, formidable
on account of his own power, and protected by the queen's favour, it was
impossible to suppress the sentiments and indignation of the people.
Papers were affixed to the most public places of the city, accusing him
of the murder, and naming his accomplices; pictures appeared to the
same purpose; and voices were heard in the middle of the night charging
him with that barbarous action. But the authors of these rumours did not
confine their accusations to Bothwell alone; they insinuated that the queen
herself was accessary to the crime.f This bold accusation, which so directly
attacked Mary's reputation, drew the attention of her council; and, by
engaging them in an inquiry after the authors of these libels, diverted them
from searching for the murderers of the king.+ It could scarce be expected that Mary herself would be extremely solicitous to discover those
who had rid her of a husband whom she had so violently hated. It was
Bothwell's interest, who had the supreme direction of this, as well as of
all other affairs, to stifle and suppress whatever evidence should be offered,
and to cover, if possible, the whole transaction under the veil of darkness.liC of silence. Some inquiry, however, was made, and some persons
called before the council; but the examination was conducted with the
most indecent remissness, and in such a manner as to let in no light upon
that scene of guilt.~
It was not her own subjects alone who suspected Mary of having been
accessary to this unnatural crime; nor did an opinion so dishonourable to
her character owe its rise and progress to the jealousy and malice of her
factious nobles. The report of' the manner and circumstances of the king's
murder spread quickly over all Europe; and even in that age, which was
accustomed to deeds of violence, it excited universal horror. As her
unhappy breach with her husband had long been matter of public discourse, the first co!jectures which were formed with regard to his death
were extremely to her disadvantage. Her friends, at a loss what apology
to offer for her conduct, called on her to prosecute the murderers with the
utmost diligence, and expected that the rigour of her proceedings would
prove the best and fullest vindication of her innocence.ll
Lennox at the same time incited Mary to vengeance with incessant importunity. This nobleman had shared in his son's disgrace, and being
treated by Mary with neglect, usually resided at a distance from court.
Roused, however, by an event no less shocking to the heart of a father,
than fatal to all his schemes of ambition, he ventured to write to the queen
[Feb. 21], and to offer his advice with respect to the most effectual method
for discovering and convicting those who had so cruelly deprived him of
a son, and her of a husband. He urged her to prosecute those who were
guilty with vigour, and to bring them to a speedy trial; he declared his
own suspicion of Bothwell, and of those who wvere named as his accomplices; he required that, out of regard to decency, and in order to encourage evidence to appear against them, the persons accused of such an atrocious crime should be committed to custody, or at least excluded from her
court and presence.1
Mary was then at Seaton, whither she had retired after the burial of the
king, whose body was deposited among the monarchs of Scotland, in a
private but decent manner."  The former part of the earl's demand could
not on any pretence be eluded; and it was resolved to bring Bothwell
immediately to trial. But, instead of confining him to any prison, Mary
admitted him into all her councils, and allowed a person, universally
* Anders. vol. i. 36.  t Ibid. 156.  $ Ibid. 38..  Ibid. vol. iv. part ii. 167- 16&
Keith, Pref. ix.    fT Ibid. 369, &c.    ** Anders. vol. i.;23.
VOL IlI.-21




162                       T H E HISTOR Y                        LBooK IV.
reputed the murderer of her husband, to enjoy all the security, the dignity,
and the power of a favourite.* The offices which Bothwell-already possessed, gave him the command of all the south of Scotland. The castle
of Edinburgh, however, was a place of so much consequence, that he
wished earnestly to have it in his own power. The queen, in order to
prevail on the earl of Mar to surrender it, consented to put the person of
the young prince in his hands [March 19], and immediately bestowed the
government of that important fortress upon Bothwell.t So many steps in
her conduct inconsistent with all the rules of prudence and of decency,
must be imputed to an excess either of folly or of love.  Mary's known
character fully vindicates her from the former; of the latter many and
striking proofs soon appeared.
No direct evidence had yet appeared against Bothwell; but as time
might bring to light the circumstances of a crime in which so many accomplices were concerned, it was of great importance to hurry over the trial,
while nothing more than general suspicions, and uncertain surmises, cduld
be produced by his accusers. For this reason, in a meeting of privy council held on the 28th of March, the 12th of April was appointed for the day
of trial. Though the law allowed, and the manner in which criminal
causes were carried on in that age, required a much longer interval, it
appears from several circumstances that this short space was considerably
contracted, and that Lennox had only eleven days' wvarning to prepare for
~accusing a person so far superior to himself both in power and in favour +
No man could be less in a condition to contend with an antagonist who
was thus supported. Though Lennox's paternal estate had been restored,to him when he was recalled into Scotland, it seems to have been considerably impaired during his banishment. His vassals, while he resided in
England, had been accustomed to some degree of independence, and he:had not recovered that ascendant over them which a feudal chief usually
possessed. He had no reason to expect the concurrence o'f any of those
factions into which the nobles were divided.  During the short period of
his son's prosperity, he had taken such steps as gave rise to an open breach
with Murray and all his adherents. The partisans of the house of Hamilton
were his hereditary and mortal enemies.  Huntly was linked in the closest
confederacy with Bothwell; and thus, to the disgrace of the nation, Lennox
stood alone in a cause where both honour and humanity called so loudly on
his countrymen to second him.
It is remarkable too, that Bothwell himself was present, and sat as a
member of that meeting of privy council which gave directions with regard
to the time and manner of his own trial; and he still enjoyed not only full
liberty, but was received into the queen's presence with the same distinguished familiarity as formerly.~
Nothing could be a more cruel disappointment to the wishes and resentment of a father than such a premature trial; every step towards which
seemed to be taken by directions from the person who was himself accused
of the crime, and calculated on purpose to conceal rather than to detect his
* Anders. vol. i. 40, &c.  T Ibid. vol. i. Pref. lxiv. Keith, 379.
$ The act of privy council, appointing the day of Bothwell's trial, bears date March the 28th,
M'hich happened on a Thursday. Anders. vol. i. 50. The queen's warrant to the messengers, empowering them to summon Lennox to be present, is dated on the 29th. Anders. vol. ii. 97. He;was summoned by public proclamation at the cross of Edinburgh on the same day. Ibid. 100. He
was summoned at his dwelling-houses in Glasgow and Dumbarton the 30th of March, the 1st and'2d days of April. Ibid. 101. He was summoned at Perth, April 1st. Ibid. 102. Though Lennox
resided at that time forty miles from Edinburgh, the citation might have been given lim sooner.,Such an unnecessary delay aftbrds some cause for suspicion. It is true, Mary, in her letter, March;24th, in-r.ted Lennox to come to Edinburgh the ensuing week; this gave him warning some days
sooner, ilat she intended to bring on the trial without delay. But the precise time could not be
legally or certainly known to Lennox sooner than ten or twelve days before the day on which he
was required to appear. By the law and practice of Scotland, at that time, parties were summoned
in cases of treason, forty days previous to the trial.
Anders. vol. i. 50. 52.




OF SCOTLAND.                            1bs
guilt. Lennox foresaw what would be the issue of this mock inquiry, and
with how little safety to himself, or success to his cause, he could venture
to appear on the day prefixed. In his former letters, though under expressions the most respectful, some symptoms of his distrusting the queen
may be discovered. He spoke out now in plain language. He complained
of the injury done him, by hurrying on the trial with such illegal precipitation. He represented once more the indecency of allowing Bothwell not
only to enjoy personal liberty, but to retain his former influence over her
councils. He again required her, as she regarded her own honour, to give
some evidence of her sincerity in prosecuting the murderer, by confining
the person who was on good grounds suspected to be the author of it;
and, till that were done, he signified his own resolution not to be present
at a trial, the manner and circumstances of which were so irregular and
unsatisfactory.*
He seems, however, to have expected little success from this application
to Mary; and therefore at the same time besought Elizabeth to interpose,
in order to obtain such a delay as he demanded.t Nothing can be a
stronger proof how violently he suspected the one queen than his submitting
to implore the aid of the other, who had treated his son with the utmost
contempt, and himself and family with the greatest rigour. Elizabeth, who
was never unwilling to interpose in the affairs of Scotland, wrote instantly
to Mary, advised her to delay the trial for some time, and urged in such
strong terms the same arguments which Lennox had used, as might have
convinced her to what an unfavourable construction her conduct would be
liable, if she persisted in her present method of proceeding. 
Neither her entreaties, however, nor those of Lennox could prevail to
have the trial put off. On the day appointed Bothwell appeared, but with
such a formidable retinue, that it would have been dangerous to condemn,
and impossible to punish him. Besides a numerous body of his friends
and vassals, assembled, according to custom, from different parts of the
kingdom, he was attended by a band of hired soldiers, who marched with
flying colours along the streets of Edinburgh.~ A court of justice was
held with the accustomed formalities. An indictment was presented against
Bothwell, and Lennox was called upon to make good his accusation. In his
name appeared Robert Cunningham, one of his dependants. He excused
his master's absence, on account of the shortness of the time, which prevented his assembling his friends and vassals, without whose assistance he
could not, with safety, venture to set himself in opposition to such a powerful antagonist. For this reason, he desired the court to stop proceeding,
and protested, that any sentence which should be passed at that time ought
to be deemed illegal and void. Bothwell, on the other hand, insisted that
the court should instantly proceed to trial. One of Lennox's own letters,
in which he craved of the queen to prosecute the murderers without delay,
was produced. Cunningham's objections were overruled; and the jury,
consisting of peers and barons of the first rank, found Bothwell not guilty
of the crime.
No person appeared as an accuser, not a single witness was examined,
nor any evidence produced against him. The jury, under these circumstances, could do nothing else but acquit him. Their verdict, however,
was far from gratifying the wishes or silencing the murmurs of the people.
Every circumstance in the trial gave grounds for suspicion, and excited
indignation; and the judgment pronounced, instead of being a proof of
Bothwell's innocence, was esteemed an argument of his guilt. Pasquinades
and libels were affixed to different places, expressing the sentiments of the
public with the utmost virulence of language.
* Anders. vol. i. 52.   t Good. vol. ii. 352.   4 Anders. Pref. 60. See Appendix, No. XIX
t Andera. vol i. 135




164                    T H    HISTORY                  [BooK IV.
The jury themselves seem to have been aware of the censure to which
their proceedings would be exposed; and, at the same time that they
returned their verdict acquitting Bothwell, the earl of Caithness protested,
in their name, that no crime should be imputed to them on that account,
because no accuser had appeared, and no proof was brought of the indictment. He took notice likewise, that the 9th instead of the 10th of February
was mentioned in the indictment, as the day on which the murder had
been committed: a circumstance which discovers the extreme inaccuracy
of those who prepared the indictment; and at a time when men were
disposed, and not without reason, to be suspicious of every thing, this small
matter contributed to confirm and to increase their suspicions.*
Even Bothwell himself did not rely on the judgment which he had
obtained in his favour as a full vindication of his innocence. Immediately
after his acquittal, he, in compliance with a custom which was not then
obsolete, published a writing, in which he offered to fight in single combat
any gentleman of good fame, who should presume to accuse him of being
accessary to the murder of the king.
Mary, however, continued to treat him as if he had been cleared by the
most unexceptionable and satisfactory evidence. The ascendant he had
gained over her heart, as well as over her councils, was more visible than
ever; and Lennox, who could not expect that his own person could be safe
in a country where the murderer of his son had been absolved without:?egard to justice, and loaded with honours in contempt of decency, fled
with precipitation towards England.f
Two days after the trial [April 14], a parliament was held, at the opening of which the queen distinguished Bothwell, by appointing him to carry
the sceptre before her.4 Most of the acts passed in this assembly were
calculated on purpose to strengthen his party, and to promote his designs.
He obtained the ratification of all the possessions and honours which the
partiality of the queen had conferred upon him; and the act to that effect
contained the strongest declarations of his faithflul services to the crown in
all times past. The surrender of the castle of Edinburgh by Mar was
confirmed. The law of attainder against Huntly was repealed, and he
and his adherents were restored to the estates and honours of their ancestors.
Several of those who had been on the jury which acquitted Bothwell
obtained ratifications of the grants made in their favour; and as pasquinades
daily multiplied, a law passed whereby those into whose hands any paper
of that kind fell, were commanded instantly to destroy it; and if, through
their neglect, it should be allowed to spread, they were subjected to a
capital punishment, in the same manner as if they had been the original
authors.~
But the absolute dominion which Bothwell had acquired over Mary's
mind appeared in the clearest manner, by an act in favour of the protestant
religion, to which at this time she gave her assent. Mary's attachment to
the Romish faith was uniform and superstitious; she had never laid aside
the design, nor lost the hopes, of restoring it. She had of late come under
new engagements to that purpose, and in consequence of these had ventured upon some steps more public and vigorous than any she had formerly
taken. But though some of these circumstances were unknown to Bothwell, there were powerful motives which prompted him at this juncture
to conciliate the good will of the protestants, by exerting himself in order
Vto procure for them some additional security in the exercise of their religion.
That which they enjoyed at present was very precarious, being founded
entirely on the royal proclamation issued soon after the arrival of the queen
in Scotland, which in express terms was declared to be only a temporary
regulation. From that period, neither the solicitations of the general
+ Bothw. Trial, Anders. vol. ii. 97, &c.  t Keith, 378. Note (d).  t Id. Ibid.  S Ibid. 386.




OF SCOTLAND.                                          165
assemblies of the church, nor the  entreaties of her people, could extort
from Mary any concession in favour of the protestant religion, on which
the professors might rest with greater confidence.  This, however, by the
more powerful influence of Bothwell, they now obtained. An act was
passed in this parliament, repealing all the laws, canon, civil, and municipal,
adverse to the reformed religion, and exempting such as had embraced it
from the penalties to which they might have been subjected by these laws,
either on account of their past conduct or present profession; declaring at
the same time that their persons, estates, honours, and benefices, were
taken under public protection against every court, civil or ecclesiastical,
that might attempt to molest them on account of their religious sentiments.
Thus the protestants, instead of holding their sacred rights by no better
tenure than a declaration of royal indulgence, which might be revoked at
pleasure, obtained legal and parliamentary protection in the exercise of
their religion.  By prevailing on the queen to assent to this law, Bothwell
seems to have flattered himself that he would acquire such merit, both
with the clergy and with the people, as might induce them to favour his
ambitious schemes, and to connive at what he had done, or might do, in
order to accomplish them. The protestants accordingly, though this act
was far from amounting to a legal establishment of the reformed faith
seem to have considered it as an additional security of such importance
that it was published among the laws enacted in a parliament held towards
the close of this year, under very different leaders.*
* I am indebted to the accuracy of Sir David Dalrymple, for pointing out (Remarks on the History of Scotland, ch. 9.) a considerable error into whlich I had fallen with respect to this act, by
supposing it to be so favourable to the doctrine of the reformation that the parliament, which met
Dec. 15, could substitute nothing stronger or more explicit in its place, and thought it sufficient to
ratify it word for word. This error I have now corrected; but, after considering the act with particular attention, though I am satisfied that it neither established the reformed religion or the religion of the state, nor abolished popery, yet it granted such new and legal security to the protestants,
as was deemed, in that age, an acquisition of great value. The framersof the law seen manifestly
to have viewed it in that light. After reciting, " that the queen, since her arrival, had attempted
nothing contrary to the state of religion which she found publicly and universally standing, on
which account she was most worthy to be served, honoured, and obeyed, &c.-" the act goes on,
" that as she intends to continue the same goodness and government in all times coming, the professorsof the religion aforesaid may and shall have occasion to praise God for her happy and gracious
government, &c.: and to effect that, the professors of the religion aforesaid may assure themselves
to be in full surety thereof, and of their lands, lives, &c. and may with the better will jeopard and
hazard their lives and goods in Her Highness's service, against all enemies to her, and to the commonweal of this realm, &c. therefore our sovereign, with the advice of the whole estates in parliament, &c." then follow the statutory clauses mentioned in the text. The intention of passing the
act is apparent, and it is drawn with great art. This art is peculiarly manifest in the concluding
clause. In her first proclamation the queen had declared, that it should continue in force only until
she should take final order concerning religion with the advice of parliament. In this act the intention of taking further order concerning religion is mentioned, probably with a view to please the
queen; but it is worded with such studied dexterity, that the protection granted by this law is no
longer to be regarded as temporary, or depending upon the queen taking such final order. Part. 1.
K. Ja. VI. c. 31. In the same light of an important acquisition of security to the reformed religion,
this act is represented by the privy council in a proclamation issued May 23, 1567. Keith, 571.
Mary's principal adherents, in a paper subscribed by them, Sept. 12, 1568, declare, that she, " by
the advice of the three estates, had satisfied the desire of the whole nobility in an act concerning all
the points of religion passed in the parliament held April, 1567." Goodall, ii. 357. The same is
asserted to be the intention and effect of this act in another public paper in the year 1570. Haynes,
621. This act is perfectly conformable to that system of policy by which Bothwell seems to have
regulated his conduct both before and after this time, with a view of gaining the protestants, particularly the clergy, by acts of indulgence and favour. On the 3d of October, 1566, when Bothwell's credit was very considerable, the queen. in a meeting of privy council, where he was present,
took measures for securing to the protestant clergy more regular payment of their stipends; and on
the 20th of December of that year, granted an assignation of a considerable sum to be applied for
the support of the mninistry. Keith, 360, 361, 362. In a meeting of privy council, Jan. 10, 1567,
when all public transactions were entirely conducted by Bothwell, an act was passed in order to
provide for the sustentation of ministers in boroughs, and Bothwell is named as one of the commissioners for carrying it into execution, with power to impose a tax on such boroughs as had no
ministers, for raising a stipend. Keith, 570. In another meeting of privy council, May 23, 1557,
the queen, after mentioning the declarationwhich she had made in the year 1561, of her resolution
to maintain that religion which she found established in the kingdom, and after taking notice of
what additional security it had acquired by the late act of April 19, with a view of giving still
further satisfaction to the protestants, she declared that all licenses which had been obtained from
her by any persons, permitting them to exercise the rights of popish worship, were now revoked and
annulled. Keith, 570-572. It deserves to be remarked, that, favourable as all these acts were to




166                       THE HISTORY                          [Book IV.
Every step taken by Bothwell had hitherto been attended with all the
success which his most sanguine wishes could expect.  He had entirely
gained the queen's heart; the murder of the king had excited no public
commotion; he had been acquitted by his peers of any share in that crime;
and their decision had been in some sort ratified in parliament. But in a
kingdom where the regal authority was so extremely limited, and the
power of the nobles so formidable, he durst not venture on the last action,
towards which all his ambitious projects tended, without their approbation.
In order to secure this, he immediately after the dissolution of parliament
[April 19] invited all the nobles who were present to an entertainment.
Having filled the house with his friends and dependents, and surrounded it
with armed men,? he opened to the company his intention of marrying
the queen, whose consent, he told them, he had already obtained; and
demanded their approbation of this match, which he said, was no less
acceptable to their sovereign than honourable to himself.t  Huntly and
Seaton, who were privy to all Bothwell's schemes, promoted them with
the utmost zeal; and the popish ecclesiastics, who were absolutely devoted
to the queen, and ready to sooth her passions, instantly declared their
satisfaction with what he had proposed. The rest who dreaded the exorbitant power which Bothwell had acquired, and observed the queen's
growing affection towards him in all her actions, were willing to make a
merit of yielding to a measure which they could neither oppose nor defeat.
Some few were confounded and enraged. But in the end Bothwell, partly
by promises and flattery, partly by terror and force, prevailed on all who
were present to subscribe a paper which leaves a deeper stain than any
occurrence in that age on the honour and character of the nation.
This paper contained the strongest declarations of Bothwell's innocence
and the most ample acknowledgment of his good services to the kingdom
If any future accusation should be brought against him on account of the
king's murder, the subscribers promised to stand by him as one man, and
to hazard their lives and fortunes in his defence. They recommended
him to the queen as the most proper person she could choose for a husband:
and if shed should condescend to bestow on him that mark of her regard,
they undertook to promote the marriage, and to join him with all their
forces in opposing any person who endeavoured to obstruct it.* Among
the subscribers of this paper we find some who were the queen's chief
confidants, others who were strangers to her councils, and obnoxious to her
displeasure; some who faithfully adhered to her through all the vicissitudes
of her fortune, and others who became the principal authors of her sufferings; some passionately attached to the Romish superstition, and others
zealous advocates for the protestant faith.~ No common interest can be
supposed to have united men of such opposite principles and parties, in
recommending to their sovereign a step so injurious to her honour, and so
fatal to her peace.  This strange coalition was the effect of much artifice,
and must be considered as the boldest and most masterly stroke of Bothwell's address.  It is observable, that amidst all the  altercations and
mutual reproaches of the two parties which arose in the kingdom, this unworthy transaction is seldom mentioned. Conscious, on both sides, that in
this particular their conduct could ill bear examination, and would redound
little to their fame, they always touch upon it unwillingly, and with a
the reformation, some bishops, whose ardent zeal for the old doctrines history reeords, were present
in those meetings of privy council in which they were passed. From considering all these particulars, one need not wonder that a law 4' anent cassing (as its title bears), annulling, and abrogating
of all laws, acts, and constitutions, conone, civile, and municipal, with other constitutions, contrare
to the religion now professit within the realme," confirmed by the royal assent of the queen, should
be published among the statutes securing the protestant religion. We find accordingly, in a very
rare edition of the acts of parliament, imprintit at Edinburgh by Robert Lekprevik, printar to the
king's majestie, 6 day of April, 1568, the act of April 19, inserted among the acts of the regent's par
liamentin December.
* Good. vol. ii 141  t Anders. vol. i 94.    + Ibid. 177.    Q Keitb, 382.




OP SCOTLAND.                                           167
tender hand, seeming desirous that it should remain In darkness, or be
buried in oblivion.  But as so many persons, who, both at that time and
ever after, possessed the queen's favour, subscribed this paper, the sus
picion becomes strong, that Bothwell's ambitious hopes were neither  in
known to Mary, nor disapproved by her.:
These suspicions are confirmed by the most direct proof.  Melvil at
that time enjoyed a considerable share in her favour.  He, as well as his
brother, kept a secret correspondence in England with those who favoured
her pretensions to that crown.  The rumour of her intended marriage with
Bothwell, having spread early in that kingdom, excited universal indignation; and Melvil received a letter from  thence, which represented, in the
strongest terms, what would be the fatal effects of such an imprudent step.
He put this letter into the queen's hands, and enforced it with the utmost
warmth. She not only disregarded those remonstrances, but communicated the matter to Bothwell; and Melvil, in order to save his life, was
obliged to fly from court, whither he durst not return till the earl's rage
began to abater   At the same time Elizabeth warned Mary of the danger
and infamy to which she would expose herself by such an indecent choice;
but an advice from her met with still less regard.T
Three days after the rising of parliament, Mary went from  Edinburgh
to Stirling, in order to visit the prince her son.  Bothwell had now brought
his schemes to full maturity; and every precaution being taken which
could render it safe to enter on the last and decisive step, the natural impetuosity of his spirit did not suffer him  to deliberate any longer.  Under
pretence of an expedition against the freebooters on the borders, he assembled his followers; and marching out of Edinburgh with a thousand horse
[April 241, turned  suddenly  towards Linlithgow, met the queen  on hex
return near that place, dispersed her slender train without resistance,
seized on her person, and conducted her, together with a few of her
courtiers, as a prisoner to his castle of Dunbar. She expressed neither
surprise, nor terror, nor indignation, at such an outrage committed on her
person, and such an insult offered to her authority, but seemed to yield
without struggle or regret.t Melvil was at that time one of her attendants;
* Of all the different systems with regard to this transaction, that of Camden seems to be theleast
accurate, and the worst founded. He supposes that Bothwell was hated by Murray, Morton, &c.
who had been his associates in the murder of the kIing, and that they now wanted to ruin him. He
affirms, at the same time, that the subscriptions to this paper were obtained by them out of fear that
Bothwell might sink in his hopes, and betray the whole bloodysecret, 404. But beside the absurdity
of supposing that any man's enemies would contribute towards raising him to such high dignity, on
the uncertain hopes of being able afterwards to deprive him of it; besides the impossibility of accomplishing such a marriage, if it had been either unknown to the queen, or disagreable to her; we
may observe that this supposition is destroyed by the direct testimony of the queen herself, who
ascribes ths consent of the nobles to Bothwell's artifices, who purchased it by giving them to understand that we were content therewith. Anders. vol. i. 94.99. It would have been no small advantage
to Mary, if she could have represented the consent of the nobles to have been their own voluntary
deed. It is still more surprising to find Lesley ascribing this paper to Murray and his faction. Anders. vol. i. 26. The bishop himself was one of the persons who subscribed it. Keith, 383. The
king's commissioners, at the conference held at York, 1568, pretended that none of the nobles, except the earl of Huntly, would subscribe this paper till a warrant from the queen was produced, by
which they were allowed to do so; this warrant they had in their custody, and exhibited. Anders.
vol. iv. part 2. 5. This differs from Buchanan's account, who supposes that all the nobles present
subscribed the paper on the 19th, and the next day they obtained the approbation of what they had
done, by way of security to themselves, 355.
t Melv. 156. According to Melyil, Lord Herries likewise remonstrated against the marriage, and
conjured the queen on his knees, to lay aside all thoughts of such a dishonourable alliance, 156.
But it has been observed that Herries is one of the nobles who subscribed the bond, April 19. Keith,
383. 2. That he is one of the witnesses to the marriage articles between the queen and Bothwell,
May 14. Good. vol.ii. 61.'3. That he sat in council withllBothwell, May 17. Keith, 386. But this
remonstrance of Lord Herries against the marriage happened before those made by Mt'vil himself,
157. Melvil's remonstrance must have happened some time before the meeting of parliament; for,
after offending Bothwell, he retired from court; he allowed his rage time to subside, and had again
joined the queen when she was seized, April 24. 158. The time which must have elapsed, by this
account of the matter, was perhaps sufficient to have gained Herries from being an opposer to become a promoter of the marriage. Perhaps Melvil may have committed some mistake with regard
to this fact, so far as relates to Lord Herries. HIe could not well be mistaken with regard to what
bimself did.               4+ Anders. vol. ii 106.             ~ Keith, 383.




169                       THE HISTORY                          [BooK 1V.
and the officer by whom  he was seized informed him  that nothing was
done without the queen's own consent.* If we mnay rely on the letters
published in Mary's name, the scheme had been communicated to her, and
every step towards it was taken with her participation and advice.r
Both the queen and Bothwell thought it of advantage to employ this
appearance of violence. It afforded her a decent excuse for her conduct;
and while she could plead that it was owing to force rather than choice,
she hoped that her reputation, among foreigners at least, would escape
without censure, or be exposed to less reproach. Bothwell could not help
distrusting all the methods which had hitherto been used for vindicating
him froml any concern in the murder of the king.  Something was still
wanting for his security, and for quieting his guilty fears.  This was a
pardon under the great seal. By the laws of Scotland the most heinous
crime must be mentioned by name in a pardon, and then all lesser offences
are deemed to be included under the general clause, and all other crimes
wuhcrtsoever.1 To seize the person of the prince, is high treason; and
Bothwvell hoped that a pardon obtained for this would extend to every
thing of which he had been accused.~
Bothwell having now got the queen's person into his hands, it would
have been unbecoming either a politician or a man of gallantry to have delayed consummating his schemes.  The first step towards this was to have
his marriage with Lady Jane Gordon, the earl of Huntly's sister, dissolved,
In order to accomplish that, in a manner consistent with the ideas of the
queen on one hand, and with the sentiments of his countrymen on the other,
two different processes became necessary; one founded on the maxims of
the canon law, the other accommodated to the tenets of the reformed
church.  Bothwell accordingly commenced a suit, in his own name, in the
spiritual court of the archbishop of St. Andrew's [April 27], the jurisdiction of which the queen had restored, by a special commission granted
for this purpose, and pleaded that Lady Jane and himself, being cousins
within the prohibited degrees, and having married without a papal dispensation, their union was null from the beginning.s At the same time he
prevailed with Lady Jane to apply to the protestant Court of Commissaries
for a divorce, on account of his having been guilty of adultery. The in —
fluence of Bothwell was of equal weight in both courts. In the course of
four days, with the same indecent and suspicious precipitancy, the one
declared the marriage to be illegal and null, the other pronounced a sentence of divorce.~
While this infamous transaction was carrying on, the queen resided at
Dunbar, detained as a prisoner, but treated with the greatest respect.
Soon after [May 3], Bothwell, with a numerous train of his dependents,
conducted her to Edinburgh; but, instead of lodging her in the palace of
Holyrood-house, he conveyed her to the castle, oFwhich he was governor.
The discontent of the nation rendered this precaution necessary. In a
house unfortified, and of easy access, the queen might have been rescued
without difficulty out of his hands.  In a place of strength she was secured
from all the attempts of his enemies.
* Melv. 158.   t Good. vol. ii. 37.  f Parl. 6. Jac. IV. c. 62.   5 Anders. vol. iv. part ii. 61.
l[ In her own time, it was urged as an aggravation of the queen's guilt, that she gave her consent
to marry the husband of another woman; and the charge has been often repeated since. But according to Mary's own ideas, consonant to the principles of her religion, the marriage of Bothwell
with lady Jane Gordon was unlawful and void, and she considered them as living together not in
the hallowed bonds of matrimony, but in a state of criminal intercourse. -Bothwell's addresses,
which struck her protestant subjects not only as indecent but flagitious, could not appear in the
same light to her; and this may be pleaded in extenuation of the crime imputed to her of having
listened to them. But it will not exempt her from the charge of great imprudence in this unfortunate step. Mary was well acquainted with the ideas of her subjects, and knew what they would
think of her giving ear for a moment to thecourtship of a nman lately married under her own eye in
the church of her palace. Appendix, No. XX. Every consideration should have restrained her
from this union, which to her people must have appeared odious and shocking. Remarks on the
History of Scotland, p. 199, &c,.       IT Anders. i. 132. Append. No. XX.




OF SCOTLAND.                             169
One small difficulty still remained to be surmounted. As the queen was
kept in a sort of captivity by Bothwell, a marriage concluded in that condition might be imputed to force, and be held invalid. In order to obviate
this, Mary appeared in the court of session, and in presence of the chancellor and other judges, and several of the nobility, declared that she was
now at full liberty; and though Bothwell's violence in seizing her person
had at first excited her indignation, yet his respectful behaviour since that
time had not only appeased her resentment, but determined her to raise him
to higher honours.*
What these were soon became public. The title of duke of Orkney
was conferred upon Bothwell; and on the 15th of May his marriage with
the queen, which had so long been the object of his wishes, and the motives
of his crimes, was solemnized. The ceremony was performed in public,
according to the rites of the protestant church, by Adam Bothwell, bishop
of Orkney, one of the few prelates who had embraced the reformation, and
on the same day was celebrated in private according to the forms prescribed
by the popish religion.j  The boldness with which Craig, the minister
who was commanded to publish the banns, testified against the design; the
small number of the nobles who were present at the marriage, and the
sullen and disrespectful silence of the people when the queen appeared in
public, were manifest symptoms of the violent and general dissatisfaction
of her own subjects. The refusal of Du Croc, the French ambassador, to
be present at the nuptial ceremony or entertainment discovers the sentiments of her allies with regard to this part of her conduct; and although
every other action in Mary's life could be justified by the rules of prudence, or reconciled to the principles of virtue, this fatal marriage would
remain an incontestable proof of her rashness, if not of her guilt.
Mary's first care was to offer some apology for her conduct to the courts
of France and England. The instructions to her ambassadors still remain,
and are drawn by a masterly hand. But, under all the artificial and false
colouring she employs, it is easy to discover, not only that many of the
steps she had taken were utnjustifiable, but that she herself was conscious
that they could not be justified.1
The title of king was the only thing which was not bestowed upon Bothwell. Notwithstanding her attachment to him, Mary remembered the
inconveniences which had arisen from the rash advancement of her former
husband to that honour. She agreed, however, that he should sign, in token
of consent, all the public writs issued in her name.~  But, though the queen
withheld from him the title of king, he possessed, nevertheless, regal power
in its full extent. The queen's person was in his hands; she was surrounded
more closely than ever by his creatures; none of her subjects could obtain
audience without his permission; and, unless in his own presence, none
but his confidents were permitted to converse with her.ll The Scottish
monarchs were accustomed to live among their subjects as fathers or as
equals, without distrust, and with little state; armed guards standing at the
doors of the royal apartment, difficulty of access, distance and retirement,
were things unknown and unpopular.
These precautions were necessary for securing to Bothwell the power
whick he had acquired. But, without being master of the person of the
young prince, he esteemed all that he had gained to be precarious and
uncertain. The queen had committed her son to the care of the earl ot
Mar. The fidelity and loyalty of that nobleman were too well known to
expect that he would be willing to put the prince into the hands of the
man who was so violently suspected of having murdered his father. Bothwell, however, laboured to get the prince into his power, with an anxiety
which gave rise to the blackest suspicions. All his address, as well as
Anders. i. 87.   t Ibid. 136. ii, 276.  + Ibid. 89.    ) Good. ii. 60.    1 And. i. 136
VoL. III. —22




170                    THE  HISTORY                    [BooK IV.
authority, were employed to persuade or to force Mar into a compliance
with his demands.? And it is no slight proof both of the firmness and dexterity of that nobleman, that he preserved a life of so much importance to
the nation, from being in the power of a man, whom fear or ambition might
have prompted to violent attempts against it.
The eyes of the neighbouring nations were fixed, at that time, upon the
great events which had happened in Scotland during three months.: a king
murdered with the utmost cruelty, in the prime of his days, and in his
capital city; the person suspected of that odious crime suffered not only tc
appear publicly in every place, but admitted into the presence of the
queen, distinguished by her favour, and intrusted with the chief direction
of her affairs; subjected to a trial which was carried on with most shameless partiality, and acquitted by a sentence which served only to confirm
tho suspicions of his guilt; divorced. from his wife, on pretences frivolous
or indecent; and, after all this, instead of meeting with the ignominy due
to his actions, or the punishment merited by his crimes, permitted openly,
and without opposition, to marry a queen, the wife of the prince whom he
had assassinated, and the guardian of those laws which he had been guilty
of violating. Such a quick succession of incidents, so singular and so
detestable, in the space of three months, is not to be found in any other
history. They left, in the opinion of foreigners, a mark of infamy on the
character of the nation. The Scots were held in abhorrence all over
Europe; they durst hardly appear any where in public; and, after suffering so many atrocious deeds to pass with impunity, they were universally
reproached as men void of courage, or of humanity, as equally regardless
of the reputation of their queen and the honour of their country.t
These reproaches roused the nobles, who had been hitherto amused by
Bothwell's artifices, or intimidated by his power. The manner in which
he exercised the authority which he acquired, his repeated attempts to
become rmaster of the prince's person, together with some rash threatenings
against him, which he let fall,t added to the violence and promptitude of
their resolutions. A considerable body of them assembled at Stirling, and
entered into an association for the defence of the prince's person. Argyll,
Athol, Mar, Morton, Glencairn, Home, Lindsay, Boyd, Murray of Tullibardin, Kirkaldy of Grange, and Maitland the secretary, were the heads of
this confederacy.~ Stewart, earl of Athol, was remarkable for a uniform
and bigoted attachment to popery; but his indignation on account of the
murder of the king, to whom he was nearly allied, and his zeal for the
safety of the prince, overcame, on this occasion, all considerations of religion, and united him with the most zealous protestants. Several of the
other nobles acted, without question, from a laudable concern for the safety
of the prince and the honour of their country. But the spirit which some
of them discovered during the subsequent revolutions leaves little room to
doubt, that ambition or resentment were the real motives of their conduct;
and that, on many occasions, while they were pursuing ends just and
necessary, they were actuated by principles and passions altogether
unjustifiable.
The first accounts of this league filled the queen and Bothwell with great
consternation. They were no strangers to the sentiments of the nation with
respect to their conduct; and though their marriage had not met with public
opposition, they knew that it had not been carried on without the secret
disgust and murmurings of all ranks of men. They foresaw the violence
with which this indignation would burst out, after having been so long suppressed; and, in order to prepare for the storm, Mary issued a proclama
tion [May 28], requiring her subjects to take arms, and to attend her hus* Melv. 160. Buch. 361.   t Anders. vol. i. 128. 134. Melv. 163. See Appendix, No. XXI
Mclv. 161.   ~ Keith, 394.




OF SCOTLAND.                             171
band by a day appointed. At the same time she published a sort of manifesto, in which she laboured to vindicate her government from those imputations -with which it had been loaded, and employed the strongest terms
to express her concern for the safety and welfare of the prince her son.
Neither of these produced any considerable effect. Her proclamation was
ill obeyed, and her manifesto met with little credit."
The confederate lords carried on their preparations with no less activity,
and with much more success. Among a warlike people, men of so much
power and popularity found it an easy matter to raise an army. They
were ready to march before the queen and Bothwell were in a condition to
resist them. The castle of Edinburgh was the place whither the queen
ought naturally to have retired, and there her person might have been perfectly safe. But the confederates had fallen on means to shake or corrupt
the fidelity of sir James Balfour, the deputy governor, and Bothwell durst
not commit to him  such an important trust. He conducted the queen
[June 61, to the castle of Borthwick; and on the appearance of lord Home,
with a body of his followers, before that place, he fled with precipitation
to Dunbar, and was followed by the queen disguised in men's clothes.
The confederates advanced towards Edinburgh, where Huntly endeavoured,
in vain, to animate the inhabitants to defend the town against them. They
entered without opposition, and were instantly joined by many of the
citizens, whose zeal became the firmest support of their cause.t
In order to set their own conduct in the most favourable light, and to
rouse the public indignation against Bothwell, the nobles published a
declaration of the motives which had induced them to take arms. All
Bothwell's past crimes were enumerated, all his wicked intentions displayed and aggravated, and every true Scotchman was called upon to join
them in avenging the one and preventing the other.
Meanwhile Bothwell assembled his forces at Dunbar; and as he had
many dependents in that corner, he soon gathered such strength that he
ventured to advance towards the confederates. Their troops were not
numerous; the suddenness and secrecy of their enterprise gave their friends
at a distance no time to join them; and, as it does not appear that they
were supported either with money or fed with hopes by the queen of
England, they c6uld not have kept long in a body. But, on the other hand,
Bothwell durst not risk a delay.~ His army followed him with reluctance
in this quarrel, and served him with no cordial affection; so that his only
hope of success was in surprising the enemy, or in striking the blow before
his own troops had leisure to recollect themselves, or to imbibe the same
unfavourable opinion of his actions which had spread over the rest of the
nation. These motives determined the queen to march forward with an
inconsiderate and fatal speed.
On the first intelligence of her approach, the confederates advanced to
meet her. They found her forces drawn up almost on the same ground
which the* English had occupied before the battle of Pinkie [July 15].
The numbers on both sides were nearly equal; but there was no equality
in point of discipline. The queen's army consisted chiefly of a multitude,
hastily assembled, without courage or experience in war. The troops of
the confederates were composed of gentlemen of rank and reputation, fol-.owed by their most trusty dependents, who were no less brave than
zeaious.l1
Le Croc, the French ambassador, who was in the field, laboured, by
negotiating both with the queen and the nobles, to put an end to the
quarrel without the effusion of blood. He represented to the confederates
the queen's inclination towards peace, and her willingness to pardon the
* Keith, 387..95, 396.  r Ibid. 398.: Anpers.;vol. i. 128. l  Keith, 401
A Calder. vol. ii. 48, 49




172                   THE HISTORY                    [BooxK IV.
offences which they had committed. Morton replied with warmth, that
they had taken arms not against the queen, but against the murderer of her
husband; and if he were given up to justice, or banished from her presence,
she should find them ready to yield the obedience which is due from subjects to their sovereign. Glencairn added, that they did not come to ask
pardon for any offence, but to punish those who had offended. Such
haughty answers convinced the ambassador that his mediation would be
ineffectual, and that their passions were too high to allow them to listen to
any pacific propositions, or to think of retreating after having proceeded
so far.*
The queen's army was posted to advantage on a rising ground. The
confederates advanced to the attack resolutely, but slowly, and with the
caution which was natural on that unhappy field. Her troops were alarmed
at their approach, and discovered no inclination to fight. Mary endeavoured to animate them; she wept, she threatened, she reproached them
with cowardice, but all in vain. A few of Bothwell's immediate attendants were eager for the encounter; the rest stood wavering and irresolute,
and some began to steal out of the field. Bothwell attempted to inspirit
them, by offering to decide the quarrel, and to vindicate his own innocence,
in single combat iwith any of his adversaries. Kirkaldy of Grange, Murray
of Tullibardin, and lord Lindsay, contended for the honour of entering the
lists against him. But this challenge proved to be a mere bravado. Either
the consciousness of guilt deprived Bothwell of his wonted courage, or the
queen, by her authority, forbad the combat.t
After the symptoms of fear discovered by her followers, Mary would
have been inexcusable had she hazarded a battle. To have retreated in
the face of an enemy who had already surrounded the hill on which she
stood with part of their cavalry, was utterly impracticable. In this situation, she was under the cruel necessity of putting herself into the hands
of those subjects who had taken arms against her. She demanded an
interview with Kirkaldy, a brave and generous man, who commanded an
advanced body of the enemy. He, with the consent and in the name of
the leaders of the party, promised that, on condition she would dismiss
Bothwell from her presence, and govern the kingdom by the advice of her
nobles, they would honour and obey her as their sovereign.
During this parley, Bothwell took his last farewell of the queen, and
rode off the field with a few followers. This dismal reverse happened
exactly one month after that marriage which had cost him so many crimes
to accomplish, and which leaves so foul a stain on Mary's memory.
As soon as Bothwell retired, Mary surrendered to Kirkaldy, who conducted her towards the confederate army, the leaders of which received
her with much respect; and Morton, in their name, made ample professions
of their future loyalty and obedience.~ But she was treated by the common soldiers with the utmost insolence and indignity. As she marched
along, they poured upon her all the opprobrious names which are bestowed
only on the lowest and most infamous criminals. Wherever she turned
her eyes, they held up before her a standard, on which was painted the
dead body of the late king, stretched on the ground, and the young prince
kneeling before it, and uttering these words, "Judge and revenge my cause,
O Lord!"  Mary turned with horror from such a shocking sight. She
began already to feel the wretched condition to which a captive prince is
reduced. She uttered the most bitter complaints, she melted into tears,
and could hardly be kept from sinking to the ground. The confederates
conducted her towards Edinburgh; and, in spite of many delays, and after
looking, with the t'ondness and credulity natural to the unfortunate, for some
extraordinary relief, she arrived there. The streets were covered with
Keith, 401.  t Cald. vol. ii. 50.: Good. vol. ii. 164. Melv. 165.   O Ibid. vol ii. 165




OF SCOTLAND.                              173
multitudes, whom zeal or curiosity had drawn together, to behold such an
unusual scene. The queen, worn out with fatigue, covered with dust, and
bedewed with tears, was exposed as a spectacle to her own subjects, and
led to the provost's house. Notwithstanding all her arguments and
entreaties, the same standard was carried before her, and the same insults
and reproaches repeated.*  A woman, young, beautiful, and in distress, is
naturally the object of compassion. The comparison of their present
misery with their former splendour, usually softens us in favour of illustrious
sufferers. But the people beheld the deplorable situation of their sovereign with insensibility; and so strong was their persuasion of her guilt,
and so great the violence of their indignation, that the sufferings of their
queen did not, in any degree, mitigate their resentment, or procure her
that sympathy which is seldom denied to unfortunate princes.
BOOK V.
1567.] THE confederate lords had proceeded to such extremities against
their sovereign that it now became almost impossible for them either to
stop short or to pursue a course less violent. Many of the nobles had
refused to concur with them in their enterprise; others openly condemned
it A small circumstance might abate that indignation with which the
multitude were at present animated against the queen, and deprive them
of that popular applause which was the chief foundation of their power.
These considerations inclined some of them to treat the queen with great
lenity.
But, on the other hand, Mary's affection for Bothwell continued as, violent as ever; she obstinately refused to hearken to any proposal for dissolving their marriage, and determined not to abandon a man, for whose
love she had already sacrificed so much.t If they should allow her to
recover the supreme power, the first exertion of it would be to recall
Bothwell; and they had reason, both from his resentment, from her conduct, and from their own, to expect the severest effects of her vengeance.
These considerations surmounted every other motive; and, reckoning
themselves absolved by Mary's incurable attachment to Bothwell, from the
engagements which they had come under when she yielded herself a
prisoner, they, without regarding the duty which they owed her as their
queen, and without consulting the rest of the nobles, carried her next evening, under a strong guard, to the castle of Lochlevin, and signed a warrant
to William Douglas, the owner of it, to detain her as a prisoner.  This
castle is situated in a small island in the middle of a lake. Douglas, to
whom it belonged, was a near relation of Morton's, and had married the
earl of Murray's mother. In this place, under strict custody, with a few
attendants, and subjected to the insults of a haughty woman, who boasted
daily of being the lawful wife of James V., Mary suffered all the rigour
and miseries of captivity.4
Immediately after the queen's imprisonment the confederates were at
the utmost pains to strengthen their party; they entered into new bonds of
association; they assumed the title of Lords of the Secret Council, and
without any other right arrogated to themselves the whole regal authority.
One of their first acts of power was to search the city of Edinburgh for such
as had been concerned in the murder of the king. This show of zeal
* Melv. 166. Buch. 364.  t Keith, 419. 446. 449. MeIv. 167. See Append. No. XXII
Keith, 403. Note (b).




174                    THE HISTORY                       [BooK V.
gain,ed reputation to themselves, and threw an oblique reflection on the
queen for her remissness. Several suspected persons were seized. Captain Blackadder and three others were condemned and executed. But no
discovery of importance was made. If we believe some historians, they
were convicted by sufficient evidence; if we give credit to others, their
sentence was unjust, and they denied, with their last breath, any knowledge of the crime for which they suffered.*
An unexpected accident, however, put into the hands of Mary's enemies
what they deemed the fullest evidence of her guilt. Bothwell having left
in the castle of Edinburgh a casket containing several sonnets and letters
written with the queen's own hand, he now sent one of his confidents to
bring to him this precious deposite. But as his messenger returned, he
was intercepted, and the casket seized by Morton.t  The contents of it
were always produced by the party as the most ample justification of their
own conduct; and to these they continually appealed as the most unanswerable pioof of their not having loaded their sovereign with the imputation of imaginary crimes.1
But the confederates, notwithstanding their extraordinary success, were
still far from being perfectly at ease. That so small a part of the nobles
should pretend to dispose of the person of their sovereign, or to assume
the authority which belonged to her, without the concurrence of the rest,
was deemed by many of that body, to be unprecedented and presumptuous. Several of these were now assembled at Hariilton, in order to
deliberate what course they should hold in this difficult conjuncture. The
confederates made some attempts towards a coalition with them, but without effect. They employed the mediation of the assembly of the church,
to draw them to a personal interview at Edinburgh, but with no better
success. That party, however, though its numbers were formidable, and
the power of its leaders great, soon lost reputation by the want of unanimity and vigour: all its consultations evaporated in murmurs and complaints, and no scheme was concerted for obstructing the progress of the
confederates.~
There appeared some prospect of danger from another quarter. This
great revolution in Scotland had been carried on without any aid from
Elizabeth, and even without her knowledge.[l Though she was far from
being displeased at seeing the affairs of that kingdom embroiled, or a rival
whom she hated reduced to distress; she neither wished that it should be
in the power of the one faction entirely to suppress the other, nor could
she view the steps taken by the confederates without great o6ence. Notwithstanding the popular maxims by which she governed her own subects, her notions of royal prerogative were very exalted.  The confederates had, in her opinion, encroached on the authority of their sovereign, which they had no right to control, and had offered violence to her
person, which it was their duty to esteem sacred. They had set a dangerous example to other subjects, and Mary's cause became the common
cause of princes.~ If ever Elizabeth was influenced with regard to the
affairs of Scotland by the feelings of her heart, rather than by considerations of interest, it was on this occasion. Mary, in her present condition,
degraded from her throne, and covered with the infamy attending an
accusation of such atrocious crimes, could be no longer the object of
Elizabeth's jealousy, either as a woman or as a queen. Sympathy with
a sovereign in distress seems, for a mnoment, to have touched a heart not
very susceptible of tender sentiments; and while these were yet warm, she
despatched Throkmorton into Scotland, [June 30,] with power to negotiate
both with the queen and with the confederates. In his instructions there
* Cald. vol. ii. 53. Crawf. Ilem. 35.   t Anders. vol. ii. 92. Good. vol. ii. 90.   + See Dissertation at the end of the History.    g Keith, 407.   ]l Id. 415.' Id. 412. 415




OF SCOTLAND.                             175
appears a remarkable solicitude for Mary's liberty, and even for her reputatic i; and the terms upon which she proposed to re-establish concord
between the queen and her subjects, appear to be so reasonable and well
digested, as might have ensured the safety and happiness of both. Zealous as Throkmorton was to accomplish this, all his endeavours and
address proved ineffectual. He found not only the confederate nobles, but
the nation in general, so far alienated from the queen, and so much offended
with the indecent precipitancy of her marriage with the reputed murderer
of her former husband, as to be incapable of listening to any proposition in
her favour.
During the state of anarchy occasioned by the imprisonment of the
queen, and the dissolution of the established government, which afforded
such ample scope for political speculation, four different schemes had beeni
proposed for the settlement of the nation. One, that Mary should be replaced upon the throne, but under various and strict limitations. The
second, that she should resign the crown to her son, and, retiring out of
the kingdom, should reside, during the remainder of her days, either in
England or in France. The third, that Mary should be brought to public
trial for her crimes, and, after conviction, of which no doubt was entertained, should be kept in perpetual imprisonment. The fourth, that after
trial and condemnation, capital punishment should be inflicted upon her.
Throkmorton, though disposed, as well by his own inclination as in conformity to the spirit of his instructions, to view matters in the light most
favourable to Mary, informed his court, that the milder schemes, recommended by Maitland alone, would undoubtedly be reprobated, and one of
the most rigorous carried into execution.
In justification of this rigour, the confederates maintained that Mary's
affection for Bothwell was still unabated, and openly avowed by her; that
she rejected with disdain every proposal for dissolving their marriage;
and declared, that she would forego every comfort, and endure any
extremity, rather than give her consent to that measure. While these
were her sentiments, they contended, that concern for the public welfare,
as well as attention to their own safety, rendered it necessary to put it out
of the queen's power to restore a daring man, exasperated by recent injuries, to his former station, which must needs prove fatal to both. Notwithstanding their solicitude to conciliate the good will of Elizabeth, they foresaw clearly what would be the effect, at this juncture, of Throkmorton's
interposition in behalf of the queen; and that she, elated with the prospect
of protection, would refuse to listen to the overtures which they were
about to make to her. For this reason they peremptorily denied Throkmorton's access to their prisoner; and what propositions he made to them
in her behalf, they either refused or eluded.*
Meanwhile they deliberated with the utmost anxiety concerning the
settlement of the nation, and the future disposal of the queen's person.
Elizabeth, observing that Throkmorton made no progress in his negotiations with them, and that they would listen to none of his demands in
Mary's favour, turned towards that party of the nobles who were assembled at Hamilton, incited them to take arms in order to restore their queen
to liberty, and promised to assist them in such an attempt to the utmost of
her power.t But they discovered no greater union and vigour than for
merly, and, behaving like men who had given up all concern either for
their queen or their country, tamely allowed an inconsiderable part of
their body, whether we consider it with respect to numbers or to power, to
settle the government of the kingdom, and to dispose of the queen's person at pleasure. Many consultations were held, and various opinions
arose with regard to each of these. Some seemed desirous of adhering to
* Keith, 417 427.   t See Append. No. XXIII.




176                     THE HISTORY                        [Book V.
the plan fn which the confederacy was at first formed; and after punishing the murderers of the king, and dissolving the marriage with Bothwell;
after providing for the safety of the young prince, and the security of the
protestant religion; they proposed to re-establish the queen in the possession of her legal authority. The success with which their arms had been
accompanied inspired others with bolder and more desperate thoughts,
and nothing less would satisfy them than the trial, the condemnation, and
punishment of the queen herself, as the principal conspirator against the
life of her husband and the safety of her son:, the former was Maitland's
system, and breathed too much of a pacific and moderate spirit, to be
agreeable to the temper or wishes of the party. The latter was recommended by the clergy, and warmly adopted by many laics; but the
nobles durst not, or would not, venture on such an unprecedented and audacious deed.t
Both parties agreed at last upon a scheme, neither so moderate as the
one, nor so daring as the other.  Mary was to be persuaded or forced to
resign the crown; the young prince was to be proclaimed king, and the
earl of Murray was to be appointed to govern the kingdom, during his
minority, with the name and authority of regent.  With regard to the
queen's own person, nothing was determined. It seems to have been the
intention of the confederates to keep her in perpetual imprisonment; but,
in order to intimidate herself, and to overawe her partisans, they still
reserved to themselves the power of proceeding to more violent extremes.
It was obvious to foresee difficulties in the execution of this plan. Mary
was young, ambitious, high spirited, and accustomed to command.  To
induce her to acknowledge her own incapacity for governing, to renounce
the dignity and power which she was born to enjoy, to become dependent
on her own subjects, to consent to her own bondage, and to invest those
persons whom she considered as the authors of all her calamities with that
honour and authority of which she herself was stripped, were points hard
to be gained. These, however, the confederates attempted, and they did
not want means to ensure success. Mary had endured, for several weeks,
all the hardships and terror of a prison; no prospect of' liberty appeared;
none of her subjects had either taken arms, or so much as solicited her
relief;+ no person, in whom she could confide, was admitted into her
presence; even the ambassadors of the French king, and queen of England,
were refuised access to her. In this solitary state, without a counsellor or
a friiend, under the pressure of distress and the apprehension of danger, it
was natural for a woman to hearken almost to any overtures.  The confederates took advantage of her condition and of her fears. They employed
lord Lindsay, the fiercest zealot in the party, to communicate their scheme
to the queen, and to obtain her subscription to those papers which were
necessary for rendering it effectual. He executed his commission with
harshness and brutality.  Certain death was before Mary's eyes if she
refused to comply with his demands. At the same time she was informed
by Sir Robert Melvil, in the name of Athol, Maitland, and Kirkaldy, the
persons among the confederates who were most attentive to her interest,
that a resignation extorted by fear, and granted during her imprisonment,
was void in law, and might be revoked as soon as she recovered liberty.
Throkmorton, by a note which he found means of conveying to her,
suggested the same thing.~ Deference to their opinion, as well as concern
for her own safety, obliged her to yield to every thing which was required,
and to sign all the papers which Lindsay presented to her. By one of
* Keith, 420, 421, 422. 582.
The intention of putting the queen to death seems to have been carried on by some of her
subjects: at this time we often find Elizabeth boasting that Mal y owed her life to her interposition.
Digges's Compl. Amb. 14, &c. See Append. No. XVIII.; Keith, 425.    ~ Ibid. 425. Note (b). Melv. 169.




OF SCOTLAND.                             177
these she resigned the crown, renounced all share in the go ernment of
the kingdom, and consented to the coronation of the young king. By
another [July 24], she appointed the earl of Murray regent, and conferred
upon him all the powers and privileges of that high office. By a third,
she substituted some other noblemen in Murray's place, if he should refuse
the honour which was designed for him. Mary, when she subscribed these
deeds, was bathed in tears; and while she gave away, as it were with her
own hands, the sceptre which she had swayed so long, she felt a pang of
grief and indignation, one of the severest perhaps which can touch the human
heart.*
The confederates endeavoured to give this resignation all the weight and
validity in their power, by proceeding without delay to crown the young
rince. The ceremony was performed at Stirling, on the twenty-ninth of
July, with much solemnity, in presence of all the nobles of the party, a
considerable number of lesser barons, and a great assembly of the people.
From that time all public writs were issued, and the government carried
on, in the name of James VI.t
No revolution so great was ever effected with more ease, or by means
so unequal to the end. In a warlike age, and in less time than two months,
a part of the nobles who neither possessed the chief power, nor the greatest
wealth in the nation, and who never brought three thousand men into the
field, seized, imprisoned, and dethroned their queen, and, without shedding
a single drop of blood, set her son, an infant of a year old, on the throne..
During this rapid progress of the confederates, the eyes of all the nation;
were turned on them with astonishment; and various and contradictory opinons were formed concerning the extraordinary steps which they had taken.
Even under the aristocratical form of government which prevails in
Scotland, said the favourers of the queen, and notwithstanding the exorbitant privileges of the nobles, the prince possesses considerable power, and
his person is treated with great veneration. No encroachments should be
made on the former, and no injury offered to the latter, but in cases where'the liberty and happiness of the nation cannot be secured by any other
means. Such cases seldom exist, and it belongs not to any part, but to the
whole, or at least to a majority of the society, to judge of their existence
By what action could it be pretended that Mary had invaded the rights or
property of her subjects, or what scheme had she formed against the
liberty and constitution of the kingdom? Were fears, and suspicions, and
surmises, enough to justify the imprisonment and the deposing a queen to
whom the crown descended from so long a race of monarchs? The principal author of whatever was reckoned culpable in her conduct was now
driven from her presence. The murderers of the king might have been
brought to condign punishment, the safety of the prince have been secured,
and the protestant religion have been established, without wresting the
sceptre out of her hands, or condemning her to perpetual imprisonment.
Whatever right a free parliament might have had to proceed to such a
rigorous conclusion, or whatever name its determination might have merited,
a sentence of this nature, passed by a small party of the nobility, without
acknowledging or consulting the rest of the nation, must be deemed a
rebellion against the government, and a conspiracy against the person of
their sovereign.
The partisans of the confederates reasoned very differently. It is evident, said they, that Mary either previously gave consent to the king's
murder, or did afterwards approve of that horrid action. Her attachment
to Bothwell, the power and honours which she has conferred upon him,
the manner in which she suffered his trial to be carried on, and the indecent speed with which she married a man stained with so many crimes,
* Keith, 430. Crawf. Mem. 38.   t Keith, 437.
VOL. III.- 23




178                    THE  HISTO R Y                  [Boox V.
raise strong suspicions of the former, and put the latter beyond all doubt
To have suffered the supreme power to continue in the hands of an ambitious man, capable of the most atrocious and desperate actions, would have
been disgraceful to the nation, dishonourable to the queen, and dangerous
to the prince. Recourse was therefore had to arms. The queen had
been compelled to abandon a husband so unworthy of herself. But her
affection t-ward him still continuing unabated; her indignation against the
authors of this separation being visible, and often expressed in the strongest
terms; they, by restoring her to her ancient authority, would have armed
her with power to destroy themselves, have enabled her to recall Bothwell,
and have afforded her an opportunity of pursuing schemes fatal to the
nation with greater eagerness, and with more success. Nothing therefore
remained, but by one bold action to deliver themselves and their country
from all future fears. The expedient they had chosen was no less respectful to the royal blood, than necessary for the public safety. While one
prince was set aside as incapable of governing, the crown was placed on
his head who was the undoubted representative of their ancient kings.
Whatever opinion posterity may form on comparing the arguments of
the two contending parties, whatever sentiments we may entertain concerning the justice or necessity of that course which the confederates held,
it cannot be denied that their conduct, so far as regarded themselves, was
extremely prudent. Other expedients, less rigorous towards Mary, might
have been found for settling the nation; but, after the injuries which they
Lad already offered the queen, there was none so effectual for securing
-their own safety, or perpetuating their own power.
To a great part of the nation, the conduct of the confederates appeared
siot only wise, but just. The king's accession to the throne was every
where proclaimed, and his authority submitted to without opposition.
Though several of the nobles were still assembled at Hamilton, and
seemed to be entering into some combination against his government, an
association for supporting it was formed, and signed by so many persons
of power and influence throughout the nation, as entirely discouraged theattempt.*
The return of the earl of Murray, about this time, added strength to the
party, and gave it a regular and finished form. Soon after the murder of
the king, this nobleman had retired into France, upon what pretence historians do not mention. During his residence there, he had held a close
correspondence with the chiefs of the confederacy, and, at their desire, he
now returned. He seemed, at first, unwilling to accept the office of regent.
This hesitation cannot be ascribed to the scruples either of diffidence or of
duty. Murray wanted neither the abilities nor the ambition which might
incite him to aspire to this high dignity. He had received the first accounts
of his promotion with the utmost satisfaction; but, by appearing to continue
for some days in suspense, he gained time to view with attention the
ground on which he was to act; to balance the strength and resources of
the two contending factions; and to examine whether the foundation, on
which his future fame and success must rest, were sound and firm.
Before he declared his final resolution, he waited on Mary at Lochlevin.'This visit, to a sister, and a queen, in a prison, from which he had neither
any atention to relieve her, nor to mitigate the rigour of her confinement,
mnay be mentioned among the circumstances which discover the great
-want of delicacy and refinement in that age. Murray, who was naturally
rough and uncourtly in his manner,t expostulated so warmly with the
queen concerning her past conduct, and charged her faults so home upon
her, that Mary, who had flattered herself with more gentle and brotherly
treatment from him,. melted into tears, and abandoned herself entirely to
* Anders. vol. ti. 23L    t Keith, 96.




OF SCOTLAND.                             179
despair.*  This interview, from which Murray could reap no political
advantage, and wherein he discovered a spirit so severe and unrelenting
may be reckoned among the most bitter circumstances in Mary's life,
and is certainly one of the most unjustifiable steps in his conduct.
Soon after his return from Lochlevin, Murray accepted the office ot
regent, and began to act in that character without opposition [Aug. 22].
Amidst so many great and unexpected events, the fate of Bothwell, the
chief cause of them all, hath been almost forgotten. After his flight from
the confederates, he lurked for some time among his vassals in the neighbourhood of Dunbar. But finding it impossible for him to make head, in
that country, against his enemies, or even to secure himself from their pursuit, he fled for shelter to his kinsman the bishop of Murray; and when
he, overawed by the confederates, was obliged to abandon him, he retired
to the Orkney Isles. Hunted from place to place, deserted by his friends,
and accompanied by a few retainers as desperate as himself, he suffered at
once the miseries of infamy and of want. His indigence forced him upon
a course which added to his infamy. He. armed a few small ships, which
had accompanied him from Dunbar, and, attacking every vessel which fell
in his way, endeavoured to procure subsistence for himself and his followers by piracy. Kirkaldy and Murray of Tullibardin were sent out
against him by the confederates; and, surprising him  while he rode at
anchor, scattered his small fleet, took a part of it, and obliged him to fly
with a single ship towards Norway. On that coast he fell in with a vessel
richly laden, anld imrmediately attacked it; the Norwegians sailed with
armed boats to its assistance; and, after a desperate fight, Bothwell and
all his crew were taken prisoners. His name and quality were both
unknown, and he was treated at first with all the indignity and rigour
which the odious crime of piracy merited. His real character was soon
discovered; and though it saved him from the infamous death to which his
associates were condemned, it could neither procure him liberty, nor mitigate the hardships of his imprisonment. He languished ten years in this
unhappy condition; melancholy and despair deprived him of reason, and
at last he ended his days unpitied by his countrymen, and unassisted by
strangers.t  Few  men ever accomplished their ambitious projects by
worse means, or reaped from them less satisfaction. The early part of his
life was restless and enterprising, full of danger and of vicissitudes. His
enjoyment of the grandeur, to which he attained by so many crimes, was
extremely short, imbittered by much anxiety, and disquieted by many
fears. In his latter years, he suffered the most intolerable calamities to
which the wretched are subject, and from which persons who have moved
in so high a sphere are commonly exempted.
The good effects of Murray's accession to the regency were quickly
felt. The party forming for the queen was weak, irresolute, and disunited;
and no sooner was the government of the kingdom in the hands of a man
so remarkable both for his abilities and popularity, than the nobles ot
whom it was composed, lost all hopes of gaining ground, and began to
treat separately with the regent. So many of them were brought to acknowledge the king's authority that scarce any appearance of opposition
to the established government was left in the kingdom. Had they adhered
to the queen with any firmness, it is probable, from Elizabeth's'disposition
at that time, that she would have afforded them such assistance as might
have enabled them to face their enemies in the field. But there appeared
so little vigour or harmony in their councils that she was discouraged fromr
espousing their cause; and the regent, taking advantage of their situation,
obliged them to submit to his government, without granting any terms
either to themselves or to the queen.:
* Keith, 445, 446.  t Melv. 168.  t Keith, 447. 450. 463.




180                  THE HISTORY                       [BooK V
The regent was no less successful in his attempt to get into his hands the
places of strength in the kingdom. Balfour, the deputy governor, surrendered the castle of Edinburgh; and as the reward of his treachery, in
deserting Bothwell his patron, obtained terms of great advantage to him
self. The governor of Dunbar, who discovered greater fidelity, was soon
forced to capitulate: some other small forts surrendered without resistance,
This face of tranquillity in the nation encouraged the regent to call a
meeting of parliament [Dec. 15]. Nothing was wanting to confirm the
king's authority, and the proceedings of the confederates, except the
approbation of this supreme court; and after the success which had
attended all their measures, there could be little doubt of obtaining it.
The numbers that resorted to an assembly which was called to deliberate
on matters of so much importance, were great. The meeting was opened
with the utmost solemnity, and all its acts passed with much unanimity.
Many, however, of the lords who had discovered the warmest attachment to
the queen were present. But they had made their peace with the regent.
Argyll, Huntley, and Herries, acknowledged, openly in parliament, that
their behaviour towards the king had been undutiful and criminal." Their
compliance, in this manner, with the measures of the regent's party was
either the condition on which they were admitted into favour, or intended
as a proof of the sincerity of their reconcilement.
The parliament granted every thing the confederates could demand,
either for the safety of their own persons, or the security of that form of
government which they had established in the kingdom. Mary's resignation
of the crown was accepted, and declared to be valid. The king's authority, and Murray's election, were recognised and confirmed. The imprisoning the queen, and all the other proceedings of the confederates, were
pronounced lawful. The letters which Mary had written to Bothwell
were produced, and she was declared to be accessary to the murder of
the king.t At the same time, all the acts of parliament of the year 1560,
in favour of the protestant religion, were publicly ratified; new statutes to
the same purpose were enacted; and nothing that could contribute to root
out the remains of popery, or to encourage the growth of the reformation,
was neglected
It is observable, however, that the same parsimonious spirit prevailed in
this parliament as in that of' the year 1560. The protestant clergy, notwithstanding many discouragements, and their extreme poverty, had for
seven years performed all religious offices in the kingdom. The expedients
fallen upon for their subsistence had hitherto proved ineffectual, or were
intended to be so. But notwithstanding their known indigence, and the
warm remonstrances of the assembly of the church, which met this year,
the parliament did nothing more for their relief than prescribe some new
regulations concerning the payment of' the thirds of benefices, which did
not produce any considerable change in the situation of the clergy.
A few days after the dissolution of parliament [Jan. 3], four of Bothwell's dependents were convicted of being guilty of the king's murder,
and suffered death as traitors. Their confessions brought to light many
circumstances relative to the manner of committing that barbarous crime;
but they were persons of low rank, and seem not to have been admitted
into the secrets of the conspiracy.4
Notwithstanding the universal submission to the regent's authority, there
still abounded in the kingdom many secret murmurs and cabals.'l he partisans of the house of Hamilton reckoned Murray's promotion an injury to
the duke of Chatelherault, who, as first prince of the blood, had, in their
opinion, an undoubted right to be regent. The length and rigour of Mary's
* Anders. vol. iv. 153. See Appendix, No. XXIV.   t Good. vol. ii. 66. Anders. vol. ii. 206
t Anders. vol. ii. 165.




OF SCOTLAND.                             181
suffermgQ began to move many to commiserate her case. All who leaned
to the anc ent opinions in religion dreaded the effects of Murray's zeal.
And he, though his abilities were great, did not possess the talents requisite for soothing the rage or removing the jealousies of the different factions. By insinuation, or address, he might have gained or softened many
who had opposed him; but he was a stranger to these gentle arts. His
virtues were severe; and his deportment towards his equals, especially
after his elevation to the regency, distant and haughty. This behaviour
offended some of the' nobles, and alarmed others. The queen's faction,
which had been so easily dispersed, began again to gather and to unite,
and was secretly favoured by some who had hitherto zealously concurred
with the confederates&
Such was the favourable disposition of the nation towards the queen,
when she recovered her liberty, in a manner no less surprising to her
friends than unexpected by her enemies. Several attempts had been made
to procure her an opportunity of escaping, which some unforeseen accident,
or the vigilance of her keepers had hitherto disappointed. At last, Mary
employed all her art to gain George Douglas, her keeper's brother, a youth
of eighteen. As her manners were naturally affable and insinuating, she
treated him with the most flattering distinction: she even allowed him to
entertain the most ambitious hopes, by letting fall some expressions, as if
she would choose him for her husband.4 At his age, and in such circumstances, it was impossible to resist such a temptation. He yielded, and
drew others into the plot. On Sunday, the 2d of May, while his brother
sat at supper, and the rest of the family were retired to their devotions,
one of his accomplices found means to steal the keys out of his brother's
chamber, and, opening the gates to the queen and one of her maids, locked
them behind her, and then threw the keys into the lake. Mary ran with
precipitation to the boat which was prepared for her, and, on reaching the
shore, was received with the utmost joy by Douglas, lord Seaton, and Sir
James Hamilton, who with a few attendants waited for her. She instantl7y
mounted on horseback, and rode full speed towards Niddrie, lord Seaton s
seat in West Lothian. She arrived there that night without being pursued
or'interrupted. After halting three hours, she set out for Hamilton; and
travelling at the same pace she reached it next morning.
On the first news of Mary's escape, her friends, whom, in their present
disposition, a much smaller accident would have roused, ran to arms. In a
few days, her court was filled with a great and splendid train of nobles,
accompanied by such numbers of followers as formed an army above six
thousand strong. In their presence she declared that the resignation of the
crown, and the other deeds which she had signed during her imprisonment,
were extorted from her by fear. Sir Robert Melvil confirmed her declaration; and on that, as well as on other accounts, a council of the nobles
and chief men of her party, pronounced all these transactions void and illegal. At the same time [May 8], an association was formed for the defence
of her person and authority, and subscribed by nine earls, nine bishops,
eighteen lords, and many gentlemen of distinction.+ Among them were
several who had been present in the last parliament, and who had signed
the counter-association in defence of the king's government: but such sudden changes were then so common as to be no matter of reproach.
At the time when the queen made her escape, the regent was at Glasgow, holding a court of justice. An event so contrary to their expectations, and so fatal to their schemes, gave a great shock to his adherents.
Many of them appeared wavering and irresolute; others began to carry
on private negotiations with the queen; and some openly revolted to her
side. In so difficult a juncture, where his own fame and the being of the
* Melv. 179.  t Keith, 469. 481. Note.  I Keith, 475.




1892                 T HE HISTORY                     (BooK V
party depended on his choice, the regent's most faithful associates were
divided in opinion. Some advised him to retire. without loss of time, to
Stirling. The queen's army was already strong, and only eight miles distant; the adjacent country was full of the friends and dependants of the
house of Hamilton, and other lords of the queen's faction; Glasgow was
a large and unfortified town; his own train consisted of no greater number
than is usual in times of peace; all these reasons pleaded for a retreat.
But, on the other hand, arguments were urged of no inconsiderable weight
The citizens of Glasgow were well affected to the cause; the vassals Of
Glencairn, Lennox, and Semple, lay near at hand, and were both numerous and full of zeal; succours might arrive from other parts of the kingdom in a few days; in war, success depends upon reputation, as much as
upon numbers; reputation is gained, or lost, by the first step one takes:
on all these considerations, a retreat would be attended with all the ignominy of a flight, and would at once dispirit his friends, and inspire his enemies with boldness. In such dangerous exigences as this, the superiority
of Murray's genius appeared, and enabled him both to choose with wisdom and to act with vigour. He declared against retreating, and fixed his
head-quarters at Glasgow. And while he amused the queen for some
days by pretending to hearken to some overtures which she made for -ac
commodating their differences, he was employed with the utmost industr
in drawing together his adherents from different parts of the kingdom. He
was soon in a condition to take the field; and, though far inferior to the
enemy in number, he confided so much in the valour of his troops and the
experience of his officers, that he broke off the negotiation, and determined
to hazard a battle.?
At the same time [May 13], the queen's generals had commanded her
army to move. Their in-tention was, to conduct her to Dumbarton castle,
a place of great strength, which the regent had not been able to wrest out
of the hands of lord Fleming the governor; but if the enemy should endeavour to interrupt their march, they resolved not to decline an engagement. In Mary's situation, no resolution could be more imprudent. A
part only of her forces was assembled. Huntly, Ogilvie, and the northern clans, were soon expected; her sufferings had removed or diminished
the prejudices of many among her subjects; the address with which she
surmounted the dangers that obstructed her escape, dazzled and interested
the people; the sudden confluence of so many nobles added lustre to her
cause; she might assuredly depend on the friendship and countenance of
France; she had reason to expect the protection of England; her enemies
could not possibly look for support from that quarter. She had much to
hope from pursuing slow and cautious measures; they had every thing to
fear.
But Mary, whose hopes were naturally sanguine, and her passions impetuous, was so elevated, by her sudden transition from the depth of distress to such an unusual appearance of prosperity, that she never doubted
of success. Her army, which was almost double to the enemy in number,
consisted chiefly of the Hamiltons and their dependants. Of these the
archbishop of St. Andrew's had the chief direction, and hoped, by a victory, not only to crush Murray, the ancient enemy of his house, but to get
the person of the queen into his hands, and to oblige her either to marry
one of the duke's sons, or at least to commit the chief direction of her
affairs to himself. His ambition proved fatal to the queen, to himself, and
to his family.t
Mary's imprudence in resolving to fight was not greater than the ill conduct ox her generals in the battle. Between the two arfdies, and on the
road towards Dumbarton, there was an eminence called Langside.Hill.
* Buchan. 369    t Anders. vol. iv. 32. Melv. 15




OF SCOTLAND.                             183
This the regent had the precaution to seize, and posted his troops in a
small village, and among some gardens and enclosures adjacent. In this
advantageous situation, he waited the approach of the enemy, whose superiority In cavalry could be of no benefit to them on such broken ground.
The Hamiltons, who composed the vanguard, ran so eagerly to the attack,
that they put themselves out of breath, and left the main battle far behind.
The encounter of the spearmen was fierce and desperate; but as the forces
of the Hamilton's -were exposed, on the one flank, to a continued fire'from
a body of musqueteers, attacked on the other by the regent's most choice
troops, and not supported by the rest of the queen's army, they were soon
obliged to give ground, and the rout immediately became universal. Few
victories in a civil war, and among a fierce people, have been pursued
with less violence, or attended with less bloodshed. Three hundred fell
in the field: in the flight almost none were killed. The regent and his
principal officers rode about, beseeching the soldiers to spare their countrymen. The number of prisoners was great, and among them many persons of distinction. The regent marched back to Glasgow, and returned
public thanks to God for this great, and, on his side, almost bloodless
victory.?
During the engagement, Mary stood on a hill at no great cdstance, and
beheld all that passed in the field, with such emotions of mind as are not
easily described. When she saw the army, which was her last hope,
thrown into irretrievable confusion, her spirit, which all her past misfortunes had not been able entirely to subdue, sunk altogether. In the utmost
consternation, she began her flight; and so lively were her impressions of
fear, that she never closed her eyes till she reached the abbey of Drundrenan in Gallowy, full sixty Scottish miles from the place of battle.t
These revolutions in Mary's fortune had been no less rapid than singular.
In the short space of eleven days she had been a prisoner at the mercy of
her most inveterate enemies; she had seen a powerful army under her
command, and a numerous train of nobles at her devotion: and now she
was obliged to fly, in the utmost danger of her life, and to lurk, with a few
attendants, in a corner of her kingdom. Not thinking herself safe even in
that retreat, her fears impelled her to an action, the most unadvised, as
well as the most unfortunate, in her whole life. This was her retiring into
England; a step, which, on many accounts ought to have appeared to her
rash and dangerous.
Before Mary's arrival in Scotland, mutual distrust and jealousies had
arisen between her and Elizabeth. All their subsequent transactions had
contributed to exasperate and inflame these passions. She had endeavoured,
by secret negotiations and intrigues, to disturb the tranquillity of Elizabeth's
government, and to advance her own pretensions to the English crown.
Elizabeth, who possessed great power, and acted with less reserve, had
openly supported Mary's rebellious subjects, and fomented all the dissensions
and troubles in which her reign had been involved. The maxims of policy
still authorized that queen to pursue the same course; as, by keeping Scotland in confusion, she effectually secured the peace of her own kingdom.
The regent, after his victory, had marched to Edinburgh, and, not knowing what course the queen had taken, it was several days before he thought
of pursuing her.t She might have been concealed in that retired corner
amrrong subjects devoted to her interest, until her party, which was dipersed
rather than broken by the late defeat, should gather such strength that she
could again appear with safetyat their head. There was not any danger
which she ought not to have run, rather than throw herself into the hands
of an enemy, from whom she had already suffered so many injuries, and
who was prompted, both ly inclination and by interest, to renew them
* Keith, 477.   t Ibid. 481.' + Crawf. Meem. 59




184                    THE HISTORY                       LBooK V.
But, on the other hand, during Mary's confinement, Elizabeth had
declared against the proceedings of her subjects, and solicited for her
liberty, with a warmth which had all the appearance of sincerity. She
had invited her to take refuge in England, and had promised to meet her in
person, and to give her such a reception as was due to a queen, a kinswoman, and an ally.?  Whatever apprehension Elizabeth might entertain
of Mary's designs while she had power in her hands, she was at present the
object, not of iear, but of pity; and to take advantage of her situation
would be both ungenerous and inhuman. The horrors of a prison were
fresh in Mary's memory; and if she should fall a second time into the hands
of her subjects, there was no injury to which the presumption of success
might not embolden them to proceed. To attempt escaping into France
was dangerous, and, in her situation, almost impossible; nor could she bear
the thoughts of appearing as an exile and a fugitive in that kingdom where.he had once enjoyed all the splendour of a queen. England remained her
only asylum; and in spite of the entreaties of lord Herries, Fleming, and
her other attendants, who conjured her, even on their knees, not to confide
in Elizabeth's promises of generosity, her infatuation was invincible, and
she resolved to fly thither. Herries, by her command, wrote to Lowther
the deputy governor of Carlisle, to know what reception he would give
her; and, betbfore his answer could return, her fear and impatience were so
great that she got into a fisher-boat [May 16], and, with about twenty
attendants, landed at Wirkington in Cumberland, and thence she was conducted with many marks of respect to Carlisle.t
As soon as Mary arrived in England, she wrote a long etter to the queen,
representing, in the strongest terms, the injuries which she had suffered
from her own subjects, and imploring that pity and assistance which her
present situation demanded.+  An event so extraordinary, and the conduct
which might be proper in consequence of it, drew the attention, and
employed the thoughts of Elizabeth and her council. If their deliberations had been influenced by considerations of justice or generosity alone,
they would not have found them long or intricate. A queen, vanquished
by her own subjects, and threatened by them with the loss of her liberty
or of her life, had fled from their violence, and thrown herself into the arms
of her nearest neighbour and ally, from whom she had received repeated
assurances of friendship and protection.  These circumstances entitled her
to respect and to compassion, and required that she should either be
restored to her own kingdom, or at least be left at ftull liberty to seek aid
from any other quarter. But w+ith Elizabeth and her counsellors the
question was not, what was most j ust or generous, but what was most beneficial to herself and to the English nation. Three different resolutions might
have been taken, with regard to the queen of Scots. To reinstate her in her
throne was one; to allow her to retire into France was another; to detain
her in England was a third. Each of these drew consequences after it, of
the utmost importance, which were examined, as appears from papers still
extant,~ with that minute accuracy which Elizabeth's ministers employed
in all their consultations upon affairs of moment.
To restore Mary to the full exercise of the royal authority in Scotland,
they observed, would render her more powerful than ever.  The nobles
who were most firmly attached to the English interest would quickly feel
the utmost weight of her resentment. As the gratitude of princes is seldom
strong or lasting, regard to her own interest might soon efface the memory
of her obligations to Elizabeth, and prompt her to renew the alliance of the
Scottish nation with France, and revive her own pretensions to the English
crown. -Nor was it possible to fetter and circumscribe the Scottish queen,
* Camd. 489. Anders. vol. iv. 99. 120. Murdin, 369,  t Keith, 483. Anders. vol. iv. 2
t Auders. vol. iv. 29.    g Ibid. 34. 99. 102.




OF SCOTLAND.                             1I8a
Dy any conditions that would prevent these dangers. Her party in Scotland was numerous and powerful. Her return, even without any support
from England, would inspire her friends with new zeal and courage; a
single victory might give them the superiority, which they had lost by a
single defeat, and render Mary a more formidable rival than ever to
Elizabeth.
The dangers arising from suffering Mary to return into France were no
less obvious. The French king could not refuse his assistance towards
restoring his sister and ally to her throne. Elizabeth would, once more,
see a foreign army in the island, overawing the Scots, and ready to enter
her kingdom; and, if the commotions in France, on account of religion,
were settled, the princes of Lorrain might resume their ambitious projects,
and the united forces of France and Scotland might invade England where
it is weakrest and most defenceless.
Nothing therefLore remained but to detain her in England; and to permit her
either to live at liberty there, or to confine her in a prison. The former was
a dangerous experiment. Her court would become a place of resort to
all the Roman Catholics, to the disaffected, and to the lovers of innovation.
Though Elizabeth affected to represent Mary's pretensions to the Englist
crown as ill founded, she was not ignorant that they did riot appear in tha.
light to the nation, and that many thought them preferable even to her own
title. If the activity of her emissaries had gained her so many abettors,
her own personal influence was much more to be dreaded. her beauty,
her address, her sufferings, by the admiration and pity which they would
excite, could not fail of making many converts to her party.Y
It was indeed to be apprehended, that the treating Mary as a prisoner
would excite universal indignation against Elizabeth; and that by this
unexampled severity towards a queen, who implored and to whom she had
promised her protection, she would forfeit the praise of justice and
humanity, which was hitherto due to her administration. But the English
monarchs were often so solicitous to secure their kingdom against the Scots,
as to be little scrupulous about the means which they employed for that
purpose. Henry IV. had seized the heir of the crown of Scotland, who
was forced by the violence of a storm to take refuge in one of the ports of
his kingdom; and, in contempt of the rights of hospitality, without regarding his tender age, or the tears and entreaties of his father, detained him a
prisoner for many years. This action, though detested by posterity, Elizabeth resolved now to imitate. Her virtue was not more proof than that
of Henry had been, against the temptations of interest; and the possession
of a present advantage was preferred to the prospect of future fame. The
satisfaction which she felt in mortifying a rival, whose beauty and accomplishments she envied, had, perhaps, no less influence than political
considerations in bringing her to this resolution. But at the same time, in
order to screen herself from the censure which this conduct merited, and
to make her treatment of the Scottish queen look like the effect of necessity
rather than of choice, she determined to assume the appearance of concern
for her interest, and of deep sympathy with her sufferings.
With this view [May 20], she instantly despatched Lord Scrope, warden
of the west marches, and sir Francis Knollys, her vice-chamberlain, to the
queen of Scots, with letters full of expressions of kindness and condolence.
But, at the same time, they had private instructions to watch all her motions.
and to take care that she should not escape into her own kingdom.t On their
arrival, Mary demanded a personal interview with the queen, that she
might lay before her the injuries which she had suffered, and receive from
her those friendly offices which she had been encouraged to expect. They
answered, that it was with reluctance, admission into the presence of their
* Anders. vol. iv 5. 6i0.   t Ibid. vol. iv. 36. 70. 92.
VOL. III-24




186                     THE HISTORY                       [BooK V.
sovereign was at present denied her; that while she lay under the imputation of a crime so horrid as the murder of her husband, their mistress, to
whom he was so nearly allied, could not, without bringing a stain upon her
own reputation, admit her into her presence; but as soon as she had cleared
herself from that aspersion, they promised her a reception suitable to her
dignity, and aid proportioned to her distress.*
Nothing could be more artful than this pretence; and it was the occasion
of leading the queen of Scots into the snare in which Elizabeth and her
ministers wished to entangle her.' Mary expressed the utmost surprise at
this unexpected manner of evading her request; but, as she could not
believe so many professions of friendship to be void of sincerity, she frankly
offered to submit her cause to the cognizance of Elizabeth, and undertook
to produce such proofs of her own innocence, and of the falsehood of the
accusations brought against her, as should fully remove the scruples, and
satisfy the delicacy of the English queen. This was the very point to
which Elizabeth laboured to bring the matter. In consequence of this
appeal of the Scottish queen, she now considered herself as the umpire
between her and her subjects, and foresaw that she would have it entirely
in her own power to protract the inquiry to any length, and to perplex and
involve it in endless difficulties. In the mean time, she was furnished with
a plausible reason for keeping her at a distance from court, and for refusing
to contribute towards replacing her on the throne. As Mary's conduct had
been extremely incautious, and the presumptions of her guilt were many
and strong, it was not impossible her subjects might make good their
charge against her; and if this should be the result of the inquiry, she
would thenceforth cease to be the object of regard or of compassion, and
the treating her with coldness and neglect would merit little censure. In
a matter so dark and mysterious, there was no probability that Mary could
bring proofs of her innocence so incontested as to render the conduct of the
English queen altogether culpable; and, perhaps, impatient under restraint,
suspicion of Elizabeth's partiality, or the discovery of her artifices, mighi
engage Mary in such cabals as would justify the using her with greater
rigour.
Elizabeth early perceived nmany advantages which would arise from an
inquiry into the conduct of the Scottish queen, carried on under her direc
tion. There was some danger, however, that Mary might discover heI
secret intentions too soon, and, by receding from the offer which she had
made, endeavour to disappoint them. But, even in that event, she determined not to drop the inquiry, and had thought of several different
expedients for carrying it on. The countess of Lennox, convinced that
Mary was accessary to the murder of her son, and thirsting for that vengeance which it was natural for a mother to demand, had implored Elizabeth's justice, and solicited her, with many tears, in her own name and in
her husband's, to bring the Scottish queen to a trial for that crime.t The
parent of the unhappy prince had a just right to prefer this accusation; nor
could she, who was their nearest kinswoman, be condemned for listening
to so equitable a demand. Besides, as the Scottish nobles openly accused
Mary of the same crime, and pretended to be able to confirm their charge
by sufficient proof, it would be no difficult matter to prevail on them to
petition the queen of England to take cognizance of their proceedings
against their sovereign; and it was the opinion of the English council, that
it would be reasonable to comply with the request.: At the same time,
the obsolete claim of the superiority of England over Scotland began to
be talked of; and, on that account, it was pretended that the decision of
that contest between Mary and her subjects belonged of right to Elizabeth.~ But, though Elizabeth revolved all these expedients in her mind,
* Anders. vol. iv. 8. 55.  t Camd. 412. Haynes, 469.. And. vol. iv. part i. 37.   ~ Ibid




OF SCOTLAND.                            187
and kept them in reserve to be made use of as occasion might require, she
wished that the inquiry into Mary's conduct should appear to be undertaken purely in compliance with her own demand, and in order to vindicate her innocence; and so long as that appearance could be preserved,
none of the other expedients were to be employed.
When Mary consented to submit her cause to Elizabeth, she was far
from suspecting that any bad consequences could follow, or that any dangerous pretensions could be founded on her offer. She expected that
Elizabeth herself would receive and examine her defences;% she meant
to consider her as an equal, for whose satisfaction she was willing to
explain any part of her conduct that was liable to censure, not to acknowledge her as a superior, before whom she was bound to plead her cause.
But Elizabeth put a very different sense on Mary's offer. She considered
herself as chosen to be judge in the controversy between the Scottish queen
and her subjects, and began to act in that capacity. She proposed to
appoint commissioners to hear the pleadings of both parties, and wrote to
the regent of Scotland to empower proper persons to appear before them
in his name, and to produce what he could allege in vindication of his
proceedings against his sovereign.'Mary had hitherto relied with unaccountable credulity on Elizabeth's
professions of regard, and expected that so many kind speeches would at
last be accompanied with some suitable actions.  But this proposal
entirely undeceived her. She plainly perceived the artifice of Elizabeth's
conduct, and saw what a diminution it would be to her own honour to
appear on a level with her rebellious subjects, and to stand together with
them at the bar of a superior and a judge. She retracted the offer which
she had made, and which had been perverted to a purpose so contrary to
her intention. She demanded, with more earnestness than ever, to be
admitted into Elizabeth's presence; and wrote to her [July 13], in a strain
very different from what she had formerly used, and which fully discovers
the grief and indignation that preyed on her heart. " In my present situation," says she, " I neither will nor can reply to the accusations of my
subjects. I am ready, of my own accord, and out of friendship to you, to
satisfy your scruples, and to vindicate my own conduct. My subjects are
not my equals; nor will I, by submitting my cause to a judicial trial,
acknowledge them to be so. I fled into your arms, as into those of my
nearest relation and most perfect friend. I did you honour, as I imagined,
in choosing you preferably to any other prince, to be the restorer of an
injured queen. Was it ever known that a prince was blamed for hearing
in person, the complaints of those who appealed to his justice, against the
false accusations of their enemies? You admitted into your presence my
bastard brother, who had been guilty of rebellion; and you deny me that
honour! God forbid that I should be the occasion of bringing any stain
upon your reputation! I expected that your manner of treating me would
have added lustre to it. Suffer me either to implore the aid of other
princes, whose delicacy on this head will be less, and their resentment of
my wrongs greater; or let me receive from your hands that assistance
which it becomes you, more than any other prince, to grant; and, by that
benefit, bind me to yourself in the indissoluble ties of gratitude.t
This letter somewhat disconcerted Elizabeth's plan, but did not divert
her from the prosecution of it. She laid the matter before the privy council [June 20], and it was there determined, notwithstanding the entreaties
and remonstrances of the Scottish queen, to go on with the inquiry into her
conduct; and, until that were finished, it was agreed that Elizabeth could
not, consistently with her own honour, or with the safety of her government, either give her the assistance which she demanded, or permit her to
~ Anders, vol. iv. 10.  t Ibid. part i. 94.




188                    THIE HISTORY    ~                 [Boox V.
retire out of the kingdom. Lest she should have an opportunity of
escaping, while she resided so near to Scotland, it was thought advisable
to remove her to some place at a greater distance from the borders.,
While the English court was occupied in these deliberations, the regent
did not neglect to improve the victory at Langside. That event was-of the
utmost importance to him. It not only drove the queen herself out of the
kingdom, but left her adherents dispersed, and without a leader, at his
mercy. He seemed resolved, at first, to proceed against them with the
utmost rigour. Six persons of some distinction, who had been taken pri
soners in the battle, were tried and condemned to death, as rebels against
the king's government. They were led to-the place of execution, but, by
the powerful intercession of Knox, they obtained a pardon. Hamilton of
Bothwelhaugh was one of the number, who lived to give both the regent
and Knox reason to repent of this commendable act of lenitrt
Soon after the regent marched with an army, consisting of four thousand
horse and one thousand foot, towards the west borders. The nobles in
this part of the kingdom were all the queen's adherents; but as they had
no force sufficient to obstruct his progress, he must either have obliged
them to submit to the king, or would have laid waste their lands with fire
and sword. But Elizabeth, whose interest it was to keep Scotland in confusion, by preserving the balance between the two parties, and who was
endeavouring to sooth the Scottish queen by gentle treatment, interposed
at her desire. After keeping thefield two weeks, the regent, in compliance to the English ambassador, dismissed his forces; and an expedition,
which might have proved fatal to his opponents, ended with a few acts of
severity.T
The resolution of the English privy council, with regard to Mary's person, was soon carried into execution; and, without regarding her remonstrances or complaints, she was conducted to Boldon, a castle of lord
Scrope's, on the borders of Yorkshire~ [July 13]. In this place her correspondence with her friends in Scotland became more difficult, and any
prospect of making her escape was entirely cut off. She now felt herself
to be completely in Elizabeth's power, and though treated as yet with the
respect due to a queen, her real condition was that of a prisoner. Mary
knew what it was to be deprived of liberty, and dreaded it as the worst
of all evils. While the remembrance of her late imprisonment was still
lively, and the terror of a new one filled her mind, Elizabeth thought it a
proper juncture to renew her former proposition [July 28], that she would
suffer the regent and his adherents to be called into England, and consent
to their being heard in defence of their own conduct. She declared it to
be far from her intention to claim any right of judging between Mary and
her subjects, or of degrading her so far as to require that she should answer
to their accusations. On the contrary, Murray and his associates were
summoned to appear, in order to justify their conduct in treating their
sovereign so harshly, and to vindicate themselves from those crimes with
which she had charged them. On her part, Elizabeth promised, whatever
should be the issue of this inquiry, to employ all her power and influence
towards replacing Mary on her throne, under a few limitations by no means
unreasonable. Mary, deceived by this seeming attention to her dignity
as a queen, soothed, on one hand, by a promise more flattering than any
which she had hitherto received from Elizabeth, and urged on the other,
by the feelings which were natural on being conducted into a more interior part of England, and kept there in a more rigorous confinement, complied at length with what Elizabeth required, and promised to send commissioners to the conferences appointed to be held at York.ll
* Anders. vol. iv. part i. 102.    t Cald. vol. ii. 99.; Ibid.    ( Anders. vol. iv. 14.
tSee Appendix, No. XXV.  I Ibid. vol. iv. part i. p. 11, 12, &c. 109, &c. Haynes, 468, &c. State
Trials, Edit. Hargrave, i. 90.




OF SCOTLAND.                              189
In order to persuade Elizabeth that she desired nothing so much as to
render the union between them as close as possible, she showed a disposition to relax somewhat in one point; with regard to which, during all her
past and subsequent misfortunes, she was uniformly inflexible. She
expressed a great veneration for the liturgy of the church of England; she
was often present at religious worship, according to the rites of the
reformed church; made choice of a protestant clergyman to be her chaplain; heard him preach against the errors of popery with attention and
seeming pleasure; and discovered all the symptoms of an approaching
conversion.'  Such was Mary,'s known and bigoted attachment to the
popish religion that it is impossible to believe her sincere in this part of
her conduct; nor can any thing mark more strongly the wretchedness of
her condition, and the excess of her fears, than that they betrayed her into
dissimulation, in a matter concerning which her sentiments were, at all
other times, scrupulously delicate.
At this time the regent called a parliament [Aug. 18], in order to pro
ceed to the forfeiture of those who refused to acknowledge the king's
authority. The queen's adherents were alarmed, and Argyll and Huntly,
whom Mary had appointed her lieutenants, the one in the south, and the
other in the north of Scotland, began to assemble forces to obstruct this
meeting. Compassion for the queen, and envy at those who governed in
the king's name, had added so much strength to the party that the regent
would have found it difficult to withstand its efforts. But as Mary had
submitted her cause to Elizabeth, she could not refuse, at her desire, to
command her friends to lay down their arms, and wait patiently until
matters were brought to a decision in England. By procuring this cessation of arms, Elizabeth afforded as seasonable relief to the regent's faction,
as she had formelly given to the queen's.t
The regent, however, would not consent, even at Elizabeth's request, to
put off the meeting of parliament.4  But we may ascribe to her influence,
as well as to the eloquence of Maitland, who laboured to prevent the one
half of his countrymen from exterminating the other, any appearances of
moderation which this parliament discovered in its proceedings.  The
most violent opponents of the king's government were forfeited; the rest
were allowed still to hope for favour.~
No sooner did the queen of Scots submit her cause to her rival, than
Elizabeth required the regent to send to York deputies properly instructed
for vindicating his conduct, in presence of her commissioners. It was not
without hesitation and anxiety that the regent consented to this measure.
His authority was already established in Scotland, and confirmed by parliament. To suffer its validity now to be called in question, and subjected
to a foreign jurisdiction, was extremely mortifying.  To accuse his sovereign before strangers, the ancient enemies of the Scottish name, was an
odious task. To fail in this accusation was dangerous; to succeed in it
was disgraceful. But the strength of the adverse faction daily increased.
lie dreaded the interposition of the French king in its behalf. In his situation, and in a matter which Elizabeth had so much at heart, her commands were neither to be disputed nor disobeyed.]1
The necessity of repairing in person to York added to the ignominy ol
the step which he was obliged to take. All his associates declined the
office; they were unwilling to expose themselves to the odium and dangie
with which it was easy to foresee that the discharge of it would be
attended, unless he himself consented to share these in common with them.
[Sept. 18.] The earl of Morton, Bothwell bishop of Orkney, Pitcairn commendator of Dunfermling, and lord Lindsay, were joined with him in com.
* Anders. vol iv. part i. 113. Haynes, 509. See Appendix, No. XXVI.    t Anders. vol. iv.
125.  t See Appendix, XXVII.    6 Buch. 371.  11 Ibid. 3792. See Append. No. XX'V]HL




190                   THE  HISTORY                      [Boox V.
mission. Macgill of Rankeilor, and Balnaves of Hallhill, two eminent
civilians, George Buchanan, Murray's faithful adherent, a man whose
genius did honour to the age, Maitland, and several others, were appointed
to attend them as assistants. Maitland owed this distinction to the regent's
fear, rather than to his affection. He had warmly remonstrated against this
measure. He wished his country to continue in friendship with England,
but not to become dependent on that nation. He was desirous of re-establishing the queen in some degree of power, not inconsistent with that which
the king possessed; and the regent could not, with safety, leave behind
him a man, whose views were so contrary to his own, and who, by his
superior abilities, had acquired an influence in the nation, equal to that
which others derived from the antiquity and power of their families.*
Mary empowered Lesley bishop of Ross, lord Lavingston, lord Boyd,
lord Herries, Gavin Hamilton commendator of Kilwilnning, sir John Gordon
of Lochinvar, and sir James Cockburn of Stirling to appear In her name.]
Elizabeth nominated Thomas Howard duke of Norfolk, Thomas Radcliff earl of Sussex, and sir Ralph Sadler, her commissioners to hear both
parties.
The 4th of October was the day fixed for opening the conference. The
great abilities of the deputies on both sides, the dignity of the judges before
whom they were to appear, the high rank of the persons whose cause was
to be heard, and the importance of the points in dispute, rendered the
whole transaction no less illustrious than it was singular. The situation in
which Elizabeth appeared on this occasion strikes us with an air of magnificence. Her rival, an independent queen, and the heir of an ancient
race of monarchs, was a prisoner in her hands, and appeared, by her
ambassadors, before her tribunal. The regent of Scotland, who represented the majesty, and possessed the authority of a king, stood in person
at her bar. And the fate of a kingdom, whose power her ancestors had
often dreaded, but could never. subdue, was now at her disposal.
The views, however, with which the several parties consented to this
conference, and the issue to which they expected to bring it, were
extremely different.
Mary's chief object was the recovering her former authority. This
induced her to consent to a measure against which she had long struggled.
Elizabeth's promises gave her ground for entertaining hopes of being
restored to her kingdom; in order to which she would have willingly
made many concessions to the king's party; and the influence of the English queen, as well as her own impatience under her present situation,
might have led her to many more.] The regent aimed at nothing but
securing Elizabeth's protection to his party, and seems not to have had
the most distant thoughts of coming to any composition with Mary. Elizabeth's views were more various, and her schemes more intricate. She
seemed to be fill of concern for Mary's honour, and solicitous that she
should wipe off the aspersions which blemished her character. This she
pretended to be the intention of the conference; amusing Mary, and eluding
the solicitations of the French and Spanish ambassadors in her behalf, by
repeated promises of assisting her, as soon as she could venture to do so
without bringing disgrace upon herself. But under this veil of friendship
and generosity, Elizabeth concealed sentiments of a different nature. She
expected that the regent would accuse Mary of being accessary to the
murder of her husband. She encouraged him, as far as decency would
permit, to lake this desperate step.~ And as this accusation might terminate in two different ways, she had concerted measures for her fuiture conduct suitable to each of these. If the charge against Mary should appear
* Buch. 371. Anders. vol. iv. 35. Melv. 186. 188.  t Anders vol. iv. 33.  t Ibid. vol. iv.
part ii. 33. Good. vol. ii. 337.  Q Anders. vol. iv. part ii.. 45. Haynes, 487




OF SCOTLAND.                             191
to be well founded, she resolved to pronounce her unworthy of wearing a
crown, and to declare that she would never burden her own conscience
with the guilt of an action so detestable as the restoring her to her kingdom.,  If it should happen, that what her accusers alleged did not amount
to a proof of guilt, but only of maleadministration, she determined to set on
foot a treaty for restoring her, but on such conditions as would render her
hereafter dependent, not only upon England, but upon her own subjects.t
As every step in the progress of the conference, as well as the final result
of it, was in Elizabeth's own power, she would still be at liberty to choose
which of these courses she should hold; or, if there appeared to be any
danger or inconveniency in pursuing either of them, she might protract the
whole cause by endless delays, and involve it in inextricable perplexity.~
The conference, however, was opened with much solemnity. But the
very first step discovered it to be Elizabeth's intention to inflame, rather
than to extinguish, the dissensions and animosities among the Scots. No
endeavours were used to reconcile the contending parties, or to mollify the
fierceness of their hatred, by bringing the queen to offer pardon for what
was past, or her subjects to promise more dutiful obedience for the future.
On the contrary, Mary's commissioners were permitted to prefer a complaint against the regent and his party, containing an enumeration of their
treasonable actions, of their seizing her person by force of arms, committing her to prison, compelling her to resign the crown, and making use of
her son's name to colour their usurpation of the whole royal authority; and
of all these enormities they required such speedy and effectual redress as
the injuries of one queen demanded from the justice of another.$
It was then expected that the regent would have disclosed all the circumstances of that unnatural crime to which he pretended the queen had
seen accessary, and would have produced evidence in support of his charge.
But, far from accusing Mary, the regent did not even answer the complaints
brought against himself. He discovered a reluctance at undertaking that
office, and started many doubts and scruples, with regard to which he
demanded to be resolved by Elizabeth herself.~ His reserve and hesitation were no less surprising to the greater part of the English commissioners
than to his own associates. They knew that he could not vindicate his
own conduct without charging the murder upon the queen, and he had
not hitherto shown any extraordinary delicacy on that head. An intrigue,
however, had been secretly carried on, since his arrival at York, which
explains this mystery.
The duke of Norfolk was, at that time, the most powerful and most
popular man in England. His wife was lately dead; and he began already
to form a project, which he afterwards more openly avowed, of mounting
the throne of Scotland by a marriage with the queen of Scots. He saw
the infamy which would be the consequence of a public accusation against
Mary, and how prejudicial it might be to her pretensions to the English
succession. In order to save her from this cruel mortification, he applied
to Maitland, and expressed his astonishment at seeing a man of so much
reputation for wisdom, concurring with the regent in a measure so dishonourable to themselves, to their queen, and to their country; submitting
the public transactions of the nation to thejudgmentof foreigners; and publishing the ignominy and exposing the faults of their sovereign, which.they were
bound, in good policy, as well as in duty, to conceal and to cover. It was
easy for Maitland, whose sentiments were the same with the duke's, to
vindicate his own conduct. He assured him that he had employed all his
credit to dissuade his countrymen from this measure; and would still contribute, to the utmost of his power, to divert them from it. This encouraged
Norfolk to communicate the matter to the regent.  He repeated and
* Anders. vol. iv. part ii. 11   t Id. Ibid. 16: Id. Ibid. 52.  ~ Haynes, 478.




192                    THE HISTORY                       [Boox V.
enforced the same arguments which he had used with Maitland. He
warned him of the danger to which he must expose himself by such a
violent action as the public accusation of his sovereign. Mary would
never forgive a man who had endeavoured to fix such a brand of infamy
on her character. If she ever recovered any degree of power, his destruction would be inevitable, and he would justly merit it at her hands. Nor
would Elizabeth screen him from this, by a public approbation of his
conduct. For, whatever evidence of Mary's guilt he might produce, she
was resolved to give no definitive sentence in the cause. Let him only
demand that the matter should be brought to a decision immediately after
hearing the proof, and he would be fully convinced how false and insidious
her intentions were, and, by consequence, how improper it would be for
him to appear as the accuser of his own sovereign." The candour which
Norfolk seemed to discover in these remonstrances, as well as the truth
which they contained, made a deep impression on the regent. He daily
received the strongest assurances of Mary's willingness to be reconciled
to him, if he abstained from accusing her of such an odious crime, together
with the denunciations of her irreconcileable hatred, if he acted a contrary
part.t All these considerations concurred in determining him to alter his
purpose, and to make trial of the expedient which the dulke had suggested.
He demanded, therefore [Oct. 9], to be informed, before he proceeded
further, whether the English commissioners were empowered to declare
the queen guilty, by a judicial act; whether they would promise to pass
sentence, without delay; whether the queen should be kept under such
restraint, as to prevent her from disturbing the government now established
in Scotland; and whether Elizabeth, if she approved of the proceedings
of the king's party, would engage to protect it for the future?t The paper
containing these demands was signed by himself alone, without communicating it to any of his attendants, except Maitland and Melvil.~ But, lest
so many precautions should excite any suspicion of their proceedings, from
some consciousness of defect in the evidence which he had to produce
against his sovereign, Murray empowered Lethington, Macgill, and Buchanan, to wait upon the duke of Norfolk, the earl of Sussex, and sir Ralph
Sadler, to lay before themn, not in their public characters as commissioners,
but as private persons, Mary's letters to Bothwell, her sonnets, and all the
other papers upon which was founded the charge of her being accessary
to the murder of the king, and to declare that this confidential communication was made to them, with a view to learn whether the queen of
England would consider this evidence as sufficient to establish the truth of
the accusation. Nothing could be more natural than the regent's solicitude
to know on what footing he stood. To have ventured on a step so uncommon and dangerous, as the accusing his sovereign, without previously
ascertaining that he might take it with safety, would have been unpardonable imprudence. But Elizabeth, who did not expect that he would have
moved any such difficulty, had not empowered her commissioners to give
him that satisfaction which he demanded. It became necessary to transmit
the articles to herself, and by the light in which Norfolk placed them, it
is easy to see that he wished that they should make no slight impression
on Elizabeth and her ministers. " Think not the Scots," said he, " overscrupulous or precise. Let us view their conduct as we would wish our
own to be viewed in a like situation. The game they play is deep; their
estates, their lives, their honour, are at stake.  It is now in their own
power to be reconciled to their queen, or to offend her irrecoverably; and,
in a matter of so much importance, the utmost degree of caution is not
excessive. I1
* Melv 187. Haynes, 573.   t Anders. vol. iv. part ii. 77. Good. vol. ii. 157. See Append.
No. XXIX.    I Anders. vol. iv. part ii. 55. State Trials, i. 91, &c.   ~ Anders. vol. iv. part
li. 56 /leM, 1A90!} Anders. vol. iv. 77.




OF SCOTLAND.                              193
While the English commissioners waited for fuller instructions with
regard to the regent's demands, he gave an answer to the complaint which
had been offered in the name of the Scottish queen. It was expressed in
terms perfectly conformable to the system which he had at that time
adopted. It contained no insinuation of the queen's being accessary to the
murder of her husband; the bitterness of style peculiar to the age was,onsiderably abated; and though he pleaded, that the infamy of the
marriage with Bothwell made it necessary to take arms in order to dissolve
it; though Mary's attachment to a man so odious justified the keeping her
for some time under restraint; yet nothing more was said on these subjects
than was barely requisite in his own defence. The queen's commissioners
did not fail to reply.?  But while the article with respect to the murder
remained untouched, these were only skirmishes at a distance, of no consequence towards ending the contest, and were little regarded by Elizabeth
or her commissioners.
The conference had, hitherto, been conducted in a manner which disappointed Elizabeth's views, and produced none of those discoveries which
she had expected. The distance between York and London, and the
necessity of consulting her upon every difficulty which occurred, consumed
much time.  Norfolk's negotiation with the Scottish regent, however
secretly carried on, was not, in all probability, unknown to a princess to
remarkable for her sagacity in penetrating the designs of her enemies,
and seeing through their deepest schemes.4 Instead, therefore, of returning
any answer to the regent's demands, she resolved to remove the conference
to Westminster, and to appoint new commissioners, in whom she could
more absolutely confide. Both the queen of Scots and the regent were
brought, without difficulty, to approve of this resolution.
We often find Mary boasting of the superiority in argument obtained
by her commissioners during the conference at York, and how, by the
strength of their reasons, they confounded her adversaries, and silenced
all their cavils.~  The dispute stood, at that time, on a footing which rendered her victory not only apparent, but easy. Her participation of the
guilt of the king s murder was the circumstance upon which her subjects
must have rested, as a justification of their violent proceedings against her;
and, while they industriously avoided mentioning that, her cause gained
as much as that of her adversaries lost by suppressing this capital argument
Elizabeth resolved that Mary should not enjoy the same advantage ir
the conference to be held at Westminster. She deliberated with the
utmost anxiety, how she might overcome the regent's scruples, and persuadt
him to accuse the queen. She considered of the most proper method for
bringing Mary's commissioners to answer such an accusation; and as shf
foresaw that the promises with which it was necessary to allure the regent
and which it was impossible to conceal from the Scottish queen, woul~
naturally exasperate her to a great degree, she determined to guard her
more narrowly than ever; and, though lord Scrope had given her no reason
to distrust his vigilance or fidelity, yet, because he was the duke of Norfolk's brother-in-law, she thought it proper to remove the queen as soon as
possible to Tuthbury in Staffordshire, and commit her to the keeping of
the earl of Shrewsbury, to whom that castle belonged.lI
Mary began to suspect the design of this second conference; and, notwithstanding the satisfaction she expressed at seeing her cause taken more
immediately under the queen's own eye,~ she framed her instructions to
her commissioners in such a manner as to avoid being brought under the
necessity of answering the accusation of her subjects, if they should be so
desperate as to exhibit one against her.** These suspicions were soon con* Anders. vol. iv. part ii. 64. 80.   t Good. vol. ii. 160. Anders. vol. iii. 24,   t Hayne;s
484. Anders. vol. iv. 94.    8 Good. vol. i. 186. 284. 350.    il Haynes, 487.'Ir Anders
vol. iv. part ii. 95.  ** Good. vol. ii. 349.
Vot.. III.-25




194                     THE HISTORY                      [Book V.
firmed by a circumstance extremely mortifying.  The regent having
arrived at London, in order to be present at the conference, was immediately admitted into Elizabeth's presence, and received by her, not only
with respect, but with affection. This Mary justly considered as an open
declaration of the queen's partiality towards her adversaries. In the first
emotions of her resentment [Nov. 221, she wrote to her commissioners, and
commanded them to complain, in the presence of the English nobles, and
before the ambassadors of foreign princes, of the usage she had hitherto
met with, and the additional injuries which she had reason to apprehend.
Her rebellious subjects were allowed access to the queen, she was excluded from her presence; they enjoyed full liberty, she languished under
a long imprisonment; they were encouraged to accuse her, in defending
herself she laboured under every disadvantage. For these reasons she
once more renewed her demand, of being admitted into the queen's presence; and if that were denied, she instructed them to declare, that she
recalled the consent which she had given to the conference at Westminster,.and protested, that whatever was done there should be held to be null and
invalid.*
This, perhaps, was the most prudent resolution Mary could have taken.
The pretences on which she declined the conference were plausible, and:the juncture for offering them well chosen. But either the queen's letter
-did not reach her comrnmissioners in due time, or they suffered themselves to.be deceived by Elizabeth's professions of regard for their mistress, and:consented to the opening of the conference.'4
To the commissioners who had appeared in her name at York [Nov. 25],
Elizabeth had added Sir Nicholas Bacon, keeper of the great seal, the,earls of Arundel and Leicester, lord Clinton, and Sir William Cecil.4  The
difficulties which obstructed the proceedings at York were quickly removed. A satisfying answer was given to the regent's demands; nor was'he so much disposed to hesitate, and raise objections as formerly. His
negotiation with Norfolk had been discovered to Morton by some of Mary's
attendants, and he had communicated it to Cecil.~  His personal safety,.as well as the continuance of his power, depended on Elizabeth. By
favouring Mary, she might at any time ruin him; and by a question which
she artfully started, concerning the person who had a right, by the law of
Scotland, to govern the kingdom during a minority, she let him see, that,even without restoring the queen, it was an easy matter for her to deprive
him of the supreme direction of affairs.ll These considerations, which
were powerfully seconded by most of his attendants, at length determined
the regent to produce his accusation against the queen.
He endeavoured to lessen the obloquy with which he was sensible this
action would be attended, by protesting that it was with the utmost reluctance he undertook this disagreeable task; that his party had long suffered
their conduct to be misconstrued, and had borne the worst imputations in
silence, rather than expose the crimes of their sovereign to the eyes of
strangers; but that now the insolence and importunity of the adverse faction forced them to publish what they had hitherto, though with loss to
themselves, endeavoured to conceal.~ These pretexts are decent; and the
considerations which he mentions had, during some time, a real influence
upon the conduct of the party; but, since the meeting of parliament held
in December, they had discovered so little delicacy and reserve with respect
to the queen's actions, as renders it impossible to give credit to those stud ied
professions. The regent and his associates were drawn, it is plain, partly
by the necessity of their affairs, and partly by Elizabeth's artifices, into a
situation where no liberty of choice was left to them; and they were
* Good. vol. ii. 184.   t Anders. vol. iii 25.   + Ibid. vol. iv. part ii. 99.    ( Melvil, 191.
Hayncs. 844.  IT Andems vol. iv. part ii. 115.




OF SCOTLAND.                              195
obliged either to acknowledge themselves to be guilty of rebellion, or to
charge Mlary with having been accessary to the commission of murder.
The accusation itself was conceived in the strongest terms. Mary was
charged, not only with having consented to the murder, but with being
accessary to the contrivance and execution of it. Bothwell, it was pretended, had been screened from the pursuits of justice by her favour; and
she had formed designs no less dangerous to the life of the young prince,
than subversive of the liberties and constitution of the kinZdom. If any
of these crimes should be denied, an offer was made to produce the most
ample and undoubted evidence in confirmation of the charge."
At the next meeting of the commissioners [Nov. 29], the earl of Lennox
appeared before them; and after bewailing the tragical and unnatural murder of his son, he implored Elizabeth's justice against the queen of Scots,
whom he accused upon oath, of being the author of that crime, and
produced papers, which, as he pretended, would make good what he
alleged. The entrance of a new actor on the stage so opportunely, and
at a juncture so critical, can scarce be imputed to chance. This contrivance was manifestly Elizabeth's, in order to increase, by this additional
accusation, the infamy of the Scottish queen.t
Mary's commissioners expressed the utmost surprise and indignation at
the regent's presumption in loading the queen with calumnies [Dec. 4],
which, as they affirmed, she had so little merited. But, instead of attempting to vindicate her honour, by a reply to the charge, they had recourse to
an article in their instructions, which they had formerly neglected to mention in its proper place. They demanded an audience of Elizabeth; and
having renewed their mistress's request of a personal interview, they protested, if that were denied her, against all the future proceedings of the
commissioners.4  A protestation of this nature, offered just at the critical
time when such a bold accusation had been preferred against Mary, and
when the proofs in support of it were ready to be examined, gave reason
to suspect that she dreaded the event of that examination. This suspicion
received the strongest confirmation from another circumstance: Ross and
Herries, before they were introduced to Elizabeth, in order to make this
protestation, privately acquainted Leicester and Cecil, that as their mistress
had, from the beginning, discovered an inclination towards bringing the
differences between herself and her subjects to an amicable accommodation, so she was still desirous, notwithstanding the regent's audacious accusation, that they should be terminated in that manner.~
Such moderation seems hardly to be compatible with the strong resentment which calumniated innocence naturally feels; or with that eagerness
to vindicate itself which it always discovers.  In Mary's situation, an offer
so ill timed must be considered as a confession of the weakness of her
cause. The known character of her commissioners exempts them from
the imputation of folly, or the suspicion of treachery. Some secret conviction, that the conduct of their mistress could not bear so strict a scrutiny
as must be made into it, if they should reply to the accusation preferred
by Murray against her, seems to be the most probable motive of this imprudent proposal, by which they endeavoured to avoid it.
It appeared in this light to Elizabeth [Dec. 4], and afforded her a pretence for rejecting it. She represented to Mary's commissioners, that in
the present juncture, nothing could be so dishonourable to their mistress as
an accommodation; and that the matter would seem to be huddled up in
this manner, merely to suppress discoveries, and to hide her shame; nor
was it possible that Mary could be admitted, with any decency, into her
presence, while she lay under the infamy of such a public accusation.
* Anderson, vol iv part ii. 119:   t Id ibitd 122.: Id. ibid. 133.158, &c.  6 Ibid. iv 13,
Cabbala, 157.




196           -    THE HISTORY                           [BooK V.
Upon this repulse Mary's commissioners withdrew; and as they had
declined answering, there seemed now to be no further reason for the regent's producing the proofs in support of his charge. But without getting
these into her hands, Elizabeth's schemes were incomplete; and her artifice for this purpose was as mean, but as successful, as any she had hitherto
employed. She commanded her commissioners to testify her indignation
and displeasure at the regent's presumption in forgetting so far the duty ot
a subject, as to accuse his sovereign of such atrocious crimes. He, in order
to regain the good opinion of such a powerful protectress, offered to show
that his accusations were not malicious or ill grounded. Then were produced and submitted to the inspection of the English commissioners, the
acts of the Scottish parliament in confirmation of the regent's authority,
and of the queen's resignation; the confessions of the persons executed for
the king's murder; and the fatal casket which contained the letters, sonnets, and contracts that have been so often mentioned.
As soon as Elizabeth got these into her possession, she laid them before
her privy council [Dec. 14], to which she joined on this occasion several
noblemen of the greatest erminence in her kingdom; in order that they
might have an opportunity of considering the mode in which an inquiry ot
such public imnportande had been hitherto conducted, as well as the amount
of the evidence now  brought against a person who claimed a preferable
right of succession to the English crown. In this respectable assembly all
the proceedings in the conferences at York and Westminster were review.
ed, and the evidence produced by the regent of Scotland against his sovereign was examined with attention. In particular, the letters and other
papers said to be written by the queen of Scots, were carefully compared,
4for the manner of writing and orthography," with a variety of letters
which Elizabeth had received at different times from the Scottish queen;
and, as the result of a most accurate collation, the members of the privy
council, and noblemen conjoined with them, declared that no difference
between these could be discovered." Elizabeth having established a fact
so unfavourable to her rival, began to lay aside the expressions of friendship and respect which she had hitherto used in all her letters to the Scottish queen. She now wrote to her in such terms, as if the presumptions of
her guilt had amounted almost to certainty; she blamed her for refusing to
vindicate herself from an accusation which could not be left unanswered,
without a manifest injury to her character; and plainly intimated, that
unless that were done, no change would be made in her present situation.t
She hoped that such a discovery of her sentiments would intimidate Mary,
who was hardly recovered from the shock of the regent's attack on her
reputation, and force her to confirm her resignation of the crown, to ratify
Murray's authority as regent, and to consent that both herself and her son
should reside in England, under English protection. This scheme Elizabeth had much at heart; she proposed it both to Mary and to her commissioners, and neglected no argument or artifice that could possibly recom.
mend it. Mary saw how fatal this would prove to her reputation, to her
pretensions, and even to her personal safety. She rejected it without hesi.
tation. " Death," said she, "is less dreadful than such an ignominious
step. Rather than give away, with my own hands, the crown which de..
scended to nle from my ancestors, I will part with life; but the last words
I utter, shall be those of a queen of Scotland."$
At the same time she seems to have been sensible how open her reputation lay to censure, while she suffered such a public accusation to remain
unanswered; and though the conference was now dissolved, she empowered her commissioners to present a reply to the allegations of her ene* Anderson, vol. iv. part ii. 170, &e.   t Id. ibid. 179. 183. Good. vol. ii. 260.  t IIaynes,
497. See Append. No. XXX. Good. vol. ii. 274. 301,




OF SCOTLAND.                             197
mles, in which she denied in the strongest terms me crimes imputed to
her; and recriminated upon the regent and his party, by accusing them of
having devised and executed the murder of the kings [Dec. 24]. The
regent and his associates asserted their innocence with great warmth.
Mary continued to insist on a personal interview, a condition which she,
knew would never be granted.4  Elizabeth urged her to vindicate her own
honour. But it is evident from the delays, the evasions, and subterfuges, to
which both queens had recourse by turns, that Mlary avoided, and Elizabeth did not desire to make any further progress in the inquiry.
The regent was now impatient to return into Scotland, where his adversaries were endeavouring, in his absence, to raise some commotions. Before he set out [Feb. 2], he was called into the privy council to receive a
final declaration of Elizabeth's sentiments. Cecil acquainted him, in her
name, that, on one hand, nothing had been objected to his conduct, which
she could reckon detrimental to his honour, or inconsistent with his duty;
nor had he, on the other hand, produced any thing against his sovereign,
on which she could found an unfavourable opinion of her actions; and, for
this reason, she resolved to leave all the affairs of Scotland precisely in the
same situation in which she had found them at the beginning of the conference. The queen's commissioners were dismissed much in the same
manner.I
After the attention of both nations had been fixed so earnestly on this
conference upwards of four months, such a conclusion of the whole appears,
at first sight, trifling and ridiculous. Nothing, however, could be more
favourable to Elizabeth's future schemes. Notwithstanding her seeming
impartiality, she had no thoughts of continuing neuter; nor was she at
any loss on whom to bestow her protection. Before the regent left London, she supplied him with a considerable sum of money, and engaged to
support the king's authority to the utmost of her power.~  Mary, by her
own conduct, fortified this resolution. Enraged at the repeated instances
of Elizabeth's artifice and deceit, which she had discovered during the
progress of the conference, and despairing of ever obtaining any succour
from her,. she endeavoured to rouse her own adherents in Scotland to arms,
by imputing such designs to Elizabeth and Murray, as could not fail to
inspire every Scotchman with indignation. Murray, she pretended, had
agreed to convey the prince her son into England; to surrender to Elizabeth the places of greatest strength in the kingdom; and to acknowledge
the dependence of the Scottish upon the English nation. In return for
this, Murray was to be declared the lawful heir to the crown of Scotland;
and, at the same time, the question with regard to the English succession
was to be decided in favour of the Earl of Hartford, who had promised
to marry one of Cecil's daughters. An account of these wild and chimerical projects was spread industriously among the Scots. Elizabeth, perceiving it was calculated on purpose to bring her government into disreputation, laboured to destroy its effects by a counter proclamation, and
became more disgusted than ever with the Scottish queen.I1
The regent, on his return, found the kingdom in the utmost tranquillity.
But the rage of the queen's adherents, which had been suspended in
expectation that the conference in England would terminate to her advantage, was now ready to break out with all the violence of civil war. They
were encouraged too by the appearance of a leader, whose high quality
and pretensions entitled him to great authority in the nation. This was
the duke of Chatelherault, who had resided for some years in France, and
was now sent over by that court with a small supply of money, in hopes
that the presence of the first nobleman in the kingdom would strengthen
* Good. ii. 285.    f Ibid. 283. Cabbala, 157.    t Good. ii 315. 333.    f Ibid. i% 313.
Carte iii. 478.    1' Haynes, 500. 503. See Append. No. XXXI.




198                    THE HISTORY                      [BOOK V.
the queen s party. Elizabeth had detained him  in England for some
months, under various pretences, but was obliged at last to suffer him to
proceed on his journey. Before his departure [Feb. 25], Mary invested
him with the high dignity of her lieutenant general in Scotland, together
with the fantastic title of her adopted father.
The regent did not give him time to form his party into any regular
body. He assembled an army with his usual expedition, and marched to
Glasgow. The followers of Argyll and Huntly, who composed the chief
part of the queen's faction, being seated in corners of the kingdom very
distant from each other, and many of the duke's dependants having been
killed or taken in the battle of Langside, the spirit and strength of his'adherents were totally broken, and an accommodation with the regent was
the only thing which could prevent the ruin of his estate and vassals. This
was effected without difficulty, and on no unreasonable terms. The duke
promised to acknowledge the authority both of the king and of the regent;
and to claim no jurisdiction in consequence of the commission which he
had received from the queen. The regent bound himself to repeal the
act which had passed for attainting several of the queen's adherents: to
restore all who would submit to the king's government to the possession of
their estates and honours; and to hold a convention, wherein all the differences between the two parties should be settled by mutual consent. The
duke gave hostages fbr his faithful performance of the treaty; and, in
token of their sincerity, he and lord Herries accompanied the regent to
Stirling, and visited the young king. The regent set at liberty the prisoners taken at Langside.*
Argyll and Huntly refused to be included in this treaty. A secret negotiation was carrying on in England, in favour of the captive queen,
with so much success that her affairs began to wear a better aspect, and
her return into her own kingdom seemed to be an event not very distant.
The French king had lately obtained such advantages over the Hugonots,
that the extinction of that party appeared to be inevitable, and France, by
recovering domestic tranquillity, would be no longer prevented from protecting her friends in Britain. These circumstances not only influenced
Argyll and Huntly, but made so deep an impression on the duke, that he
appeared to be wavering and irresolute, and plainly discovered that he
wished to evade the accomplishment of the treaty. The regent saw the
danger of allowing the duke to shake himself loose, in this manner, from
his engagements; and instantly formed a resolution equally bold and politic. He commanded his guards to seize Chatelherault in his own house
in Edinburgh, whither he had come in order to attend the convention agreed
upon; and, regardless either of his dignity as the first nobleman in the
kingdom and next heir to the crown, or of the promises of personal security,
on which he had relied, committed him and lord Herries prisoners to the
castle of Edinburgh.t A blow so fatal and unexpected dispirited the party.
Argyll submitted to the king's government, and made his peace with the
regent on very easy terms; and Huntly being left alone,was at last obliged
to lay down his arms.
Soon after, lord Boyd returned into Scotland, and brought letters to the
regent, both from the English and Scottish queens. A convention was held
at Perth, in order to consider them. Elizabeth's letter contained three
different proposals with regard to Mary; that she should either be restored
to the full possession of her former authority; or be admitted to reign
jointly with the king her son; or at least be allowed to reside in Scotland
in some decent retirement, without any share in the administration of government. These overtures were extorted by the importunity of Fenedon
the French ambassador, and have some appearance of being favourable
* Cabbala,!61. Crawf. Mem. 106  t Crawf. Mem. 111. Melv. 202.




OF SCOTLAND.                              199
to the captive queen. They were, however, perfectly suitable to Eliza.
beth's general system with regard to Scottish affairs. Among propositions so unequal and disproportionate, she easily saw where tne choice
would fall. The two former were rejected; and long delays must necessarily have intervened, and many difficulties have arisen, before every
circumstance relative to the last could be finally adjusted.*
Mary, in her letter, demanded that her marriage with Bothwell should
be reviewed by the proper judges, and, if found invalid, should be dissolved by a legal sentence of divorce.  This' fatal marriage was the principal source of all the calamities she had endured for two years; a divorce
was the only thing which could repair the injuries her reputation had suffered by that step. It was her interest to have proposed it early; and it is not
easy to account for her long silence with respect to this point. Her particular motive for proposing it at this time began to be so well known,
that the demand was rejected by the convention of estates.t  They imputed it not so much to any abhorrence of Bothwell, as to her eagerness
to conclude a marriage with the duke of Norfolk.
This marriage was the object of that secret negotiation in England
which I have already mentioned. The fertile and projecting genius of
Maitland first conceived this scheme. During the conference at York, he
communicated it to the duke himself, and to the bishop of Ross. The
former readily closed with a scheme so flattering to his ambition. The
latter considered it as a probable device for restoring his mistress to liberty,
and replacing her on her throne. Nor was Mary, with whom Norfolk
held a correspondence by means of his sister lady Scrope, averse from a
measure, which would have restored her to her kingdom with so much
splendour.T The sudden removal of the conference from York to Westminster suspended, but did not break off this intrigue. Maitland and
Ross were still the duke's prompters and his agents; and rDany letters and
love-tokens were exchanged between him and the queen of Scots.
But as he could not hope, that under an administration so vigilant as
Elizabeth's such an intrigue could be kept long concealed, he attempted to
deceive her by the appearance of openness and candour, an artifice which
seldom fails of success. He mentioned to her the rumour that was spread
of his marriage with the Scottish queen; he complained of it as a groundless
calumny; and disclaimed all thoughts of that kind, with many expressions
full of contempt both for Mary's character and dominions. Jealous as
Elizabeth was of every thing relative to the queen of Scots, she seemns to
have credited these professions.~  But, instead of discontinuing the negotiation, he renewed it with greater vigour, and admitted into it new associates. Among these was the regent of Scotland. He had given great
offence to Norfolk, by his public accusation of the queen, in breach of the
concert into which he had entered at York. He was then ready to return
into Scotland. The influence of the duke in the north of England was
great. The earls of Northumberland and'Westmorland, the most powerful
noblemen in that part of the kingdom, threatened to revenge upon the
regent the injuries which'he had done his sovereign. Murray, in order to
secure a safe return into Scotland, addressed himself to Norfblk; and after
some apology for his past conduct, he insinuated that the duke's scheme of
marrying the queen his sister was no less acceptable to him than beneficial
to both kingdoms, and that he would concur with the utniost'ardour in
promoting so desirable an event. l Norfolk heard him with the credulity
natural to those who are passionately bent upon any design  fie wrote to
* Spotswood, 230.
t Spotsw. 231. In a privy council, held July 30, 1569, this demand was considered; and, of
fifty-one members present, only seven voted to comply with the queen's request. Records Priv
Counc. MS. in the Lyon Office, p. 148.
Camd. 419. Haynes, 573. State Trials, i. 73.    Q Haynes, 574. State Trials, i.79, 890..
if Andets. iii. 34.




200                    THu   HISTO RY                   [BooKV.
the two earls to desist from any hostile attempt against Murray, and to that
he owed his passage through the northern counties without disturbance.
Encouraged by his success in gaining the regent, he next attempted to
draw the English nobles to approve his design. The nation began to
despair of Elizabeth's marrying. Her jealousy kept the question with
regard to the right of succession undecided. The memory of the civil
wars which had desolated England for more than a century, on account oi
the disputed titles of the houses of York and Lancaster, awas still recent.
Almost all the ancient nobility had perished, and the nation itself had been
brought to the brink of destruction in that unhappy contest. The Scottish
queen, though her right of succession was generally held to be undoubted,
might meet with formnidable competitors. She might marry a foreign and
a popish prince, and bring both liberty and religion into danger. But, by
marrying her to an Englishman, a zealous protestant, the most powerful
and most universally beloved of all the nobility, an effectual remedy seemed
to be provided against all these evils. The greater part of the peers, either
directly or tacitly, approved of it, as a salutary prqject. The earls of Arundel,
Pembroke, Leicester, and lord Lumley, subscribed a letter to the Scottish
queen, written with Leicester's hand, in which they warmly recommended
the match, but insisted, by way of preliminary, on Mary's promise, that
she should attempt nothing, in consequence of her pretensions to the English crown, prejudicial to Elizabeth, or to her posterity; that she should
consent to a league, offensive and defensive, between the two kingdoms;
that she should confirm the present establishment of religion in Scotland,
and receive into favour such of her subjects as had appeared in arms
against her. Upon her agreeing to the marriage and ratifying these articles,
they engaged that the English nobles would not only concur in restoring her
immediately to her own throne, but in securing to her that of England in
reversion. Mary readily consented to all these proposals, except the
second, -with regard to which she demanded some time for consulting her
ancient ally the French king.?
The whole of this negotiation was industriously concealed from Elizabeth. Her jealousy of the Scottish queen was well known, nor could it
be expected that she would willingly come into a measure which tended
so visibly to save the reputation and to increase the power of her rival.
But, in a matter of so much consequence to the nation, the taking a few
steps without her knowledge could hardly be reckoned criminal; and
while every person concerned, even Mary and Norfolk themselves, declared, that nothing should be concluded without obtaining her consent,
the duty and allegiance of subjects seemed to be fully preserved. The
greater part of the nobles regarded the matter in this light. Those who
conducted the intrigue had further and more dangerous views. They saw
the advantages which Mary would obtain by this treaty, to be present and
certain; and the execution of the promises which she came under, to be
distant and uncertain. They had early communicated their scheme to the
kings of France and Spain, and obtained their approbation.t A treaty
concerning which they consulted foreign princes, while they concealed it
from their own sovereign, could not be deemed innocent. They hoped,
however, that the union of such a number of the chief persons in the
kingdom would render it necessary for Elizabeth to comply; they flattered
themselves that a combination so strong would be altogether irresistible;
and such was their confidence of success, that when a plan was concerted
in the north of England for rescuing Mary out of the hands of her keepers,
Norfolk, who was afraid that if she recovered her liberty her sentiments
in his favour might change, used all his interest to dissuade the conspirators
from attempting it.1
Anders. vol. iii. 51. Camd. 420.  t Anders. vol. ili. 63.  1 Camnd. 420




OF SCOTLAND.                             201
In this situation did the affair remain, when Lord Boyd arrived from
England; and, besides the letters which he produced publicly, brought
others in ciphers from Norfolk and Throkmorton, to the regent, and to
Maitland. These were full of the most sanguine hopes. All the nobles
of England concurred, said they, in fDavouring the design. Every preliminary was adjusted; nor was it possible that a scheme so deep laid, conducted with so much art, and supported both by power and by numbers,
could miscarry, or be defeated in the execution. Nothing was now wanting
but the concluding ceremony. It depended on the regent to hasten that,
by procuring a sentence of divorce, which would remove the only obstacle
that stood in the way. This was expected of him, in consequence of his
promise to Norfolk; and if he regarded either his interest or his fame, or
even his safety, he would not fail to fulfil these engagements.2
But the regent was now in very different circumstances from those which
had formerly induced him to affect an approbation of Norfolk's schemes.
He saw that the downfall of his own power must be the first consequence
of the duke's success; and if the queen, who considered him as the chief
author of all her misfortunes, should recover her ancient authority, he could
never expect favour, nor scarce hope for impunity. No wonder hle declined
a step so fatal to himself, and which would have established the grandeur
of another on the ruins of his own. This refusal occasioned a delay.
But, as every other circumstance was settled, the bishop of Ross, in the
name of his mistress, and the duke, in person, declared, in presence of the
French ambassador, their mutual consent to the marriage, and a contract
to this purpose was signed, and intrusted to the keeping of the ambassador.t
The intrigue was now in so many hands, that it could not long remain
a secret. It began to be whispered at court; and Elizabeth calling the
duke into her presence [Aug. 13], expressed the utmost indignation at his
conduct, and charged him to lay aside all thoughts of prosecuting such a
dangerous design. Soon after Leicester, who perhaps had countenanced
the project with no other intention, revealed all the circumstances of
it to the queen. Pembroke, Arundel, Lumley, and Throkmorton, were
confined and examined. Mary was watched more narrowly than ever;
and Hastings, earl of Huntingdon, who pretended to dispute with the
Scottish queen her right to the succession, being joined in commission with
Shrewsbury, rendered her imprisonment more intolerable by the excess
of his vigilance and rigour.1 The Scottish regent, threatened with Elizabeth's displeasure, meanly betrayed the duke; put his letters into her
hands, and furnished all the intelligence in his power.~ The duke himself
retired first to Howard House, and then, in contempt of the summons to
appear before the privy council, fled to his seat in Norfolk. Intimidated
by the imprisonment of his associates; coldly received by his friends in that
county; unprepared for a rebellion; and unwilling perhaps to rebel; he
hesitated for some days, and at last obeyed a second call, and repaired to
Windsor [Oct. 3]. He was first kept as a prisoner in a private house, and
then sent to the tower. After being confined there upwards of nine months,
he was released upon his humble submission to Elizabeth, giving her a
promise, on his allegiance, to hold no further correspondence with the
queen of Scots.ll During the progress of Norfolk's negotiationls, the queen's
partisans in Scotland, who made no doubt of their issuing in her restoration
to the throne, with an increase of authority, were wonderfully elevated.
MIaitland was the soul of that party, and the person whose activity and
ability the regent chiefly dreaded. He had laid the plan of that intrigue
which had kindled such combustion in England. He continued to foment
the spirit of disaffection in Scotland, and had seduced from the regent lord
Haynes, 520. Spotsw. 230. See Append. No. XXXII.   ] Carte, vol. iii. 486.  4 Haynea
525, 526. 530. 532.  & See Appendix, No. XXXIII.  If Havnes 5 525 97
VOL. III.-26




202                   THE HISTORY                       [BooK V.
Home, Kirkaldy, and several of his former associates. While he enjoyed
liberty, the regent could not reckon his own power secure. For this
reason, having by an artifice allured Maitland to Stirling, he employed
Captain Crawford, one of his creatures, to accuse him of being accessary
to the murder of the king; and under that pretence he was arrested and
carried as a prisoner to Edinburgh. He would soon have been brought to
trial, but was saved by the friendship of Kirkaldy, governor of the castle,
who, by pretending a warrant for that purpose from the regent, got him
out of the hands of the person to whose care he was committed, and conducted him into the castle, which from that time was entirely under Maitland's command.*  The loss of a place of so much importance, and the
defection of a man so eminent for military skill as Kirkaldy, brought the
regent into some disreputation, for which, however, the success of his ally
Elizabeth, about this time, abundantly compensated.
the intrigue carried on for restoring the Scottish queen to liberty having
been discovered and disappointed, an attempt was made to the same purpose by force of arms; but the issue of it was not more fortunate. The
earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, though little distinguished
by their personal abilities, were two of the most ancient and powerful of
the English peers. Their estates in the northern counties were great, and
they possessed that influence over the inhabitants, which was hereditary
in the popular and martial families of Percy and of Nevil. They were
both attached to the popish religion, and discontented with the court,
where new men and a new system prevailed. Ever since Mary's arrival
in England, they had warmly espoused her interest; and zeal for popery,
opposition to the court, and commiseration of her sufferings, had engaged
them in different plots for her relief. Notwithstanding the vigilance of
her keeper, they held a close correspondence with her, and communicated
to her all their designs.4  They were privy to Norfolk's schemes; but the
caution with which he proceeded did not suit their ardour and impetuosity.
The liberty of the Scottish queen was not their sole object. They aimed
at bringing about a change in the religion, and a revolution in the government of the kingdom. For this reason they solicited the aid of the king
of Spain, the avowed and zealous patron of popery in that age. Nothing
could be more delightful to the restless spirit of Philip, or more necessary
towards facilitating his schemes in the Netherlands than the involving
England in the confusion and miseries of a civil war. The duke of Alva,
by his direction, encouraged the two earls, and promised, as soon as they
either took the field with their forces, or surprised any place of strength,
or rescued the queen of Scots, that he would supply them both with
money and a strong body of troops. La Mothe, the governor of Dunkirk,
in the disguise of a sailor, sounded the ports where it would be most
proper to land. And Chiapini Vitelli, one of Alva's ablest officers, was
despatched into England, on pretence of settling some commercial differences between the two nations; but in reality that the rebels might be sure
of a leader of experience as soon as they ventured to take arms.$
The conduct of this negotiation occasioned many meetings and messages between the two earls. Elizabeth was informed of these; and
though she suspected nothing of their real design, she concluded that they
were among the number of Norfolk's confidants. They were summoned,
for this reason, to repair to court. Conscious of guilt, and afraid of discovery,
they delayed giving obedience. A second and more peremptory order
was issued [Nov. 91. This they could not decline, without shaking off
their allegiance; and, as no time was left for deliberation, they instantly
erected their standard against their sovereign. The re-establishing the
Spotsw. 232.   t HIayne 595 MrI'den, 44. 62, &c.: Carte, vol. iii. 489, 490.
Carnd. 421.




OF SCOTLAND.                             203
Catholic religion; the settling the order of succession to the crown; the
defence of the ancient nobility; were the motives which they alleged to
justify their rebellion.* Many of the lower people flocked to them with such 
arms as they could procure; and, had the capacity of their leaders been
in any degree equal to the enterprise, it must have soon grown to be
extremely formidable. Elizabeth acted with prudence and vigour, and
was served by her subjects with fidelity and ardour. On the first rumour
of an insurrection, Mary was removed to Coventry, a place of strength,
which could not be taken without a regular siege; a detachment of the
rebels, which was sent to rescue her, returned without success. Troops
were assembled in different parts of the kingdom; as they advanced, the
malecontents retired. In their retreat their numbers dwindled away, and
their spirits sunk. Despair and uncertainty whither to direct their flight,
kept together for some time a small body of them among the mountains
of Northumberland; but they were at length obliged to disperse, and the
chiefs took refuge among the Scottish borderers [Dec. 21]. The two earls,
together with the countess of Northumberland, wandering for some days
in the wastes of Liddisdale, were plundered by the banditti, exposed to
the rigour of the season, and left destitute of the necessaries of life.
Westmorland was. concealed by Scott of Buccleugh and Ker of Ferniherst,
and afterwards conveyed into the Netherlands. Northumberland was
seized by the regent, who had marched with some troops towards the
borders, to prevent any impression the rebels might make on those mutinous
provinces.t
Amidst so many surprising events, the affairs of the church, for two
years, have almost escaped our notice. Its general assemblies were held
regularly; but no business of much importance employed their attention.
As the number of the protestant clergy daily increased, the deficiency of
the funds set apart for their subsistence became greater, and was more
sensibly felt. Many efforts were made towards recovering the ancient
patrimony of the church, or at least as much of it as was possessed by the
popish incumbents, a race of men who were now not only useless but
burdensome to the nation. But though the manner in which the regent
received the addresses and complaints of the general assemblies was very
different from that to which they had been accustomed, no effectual remedy
was provided; and while they suffered intolerable oppression, and groaned
under extreme poverty, fair words and liberal promises were all they
were able to obtain4.
Elizabeth now began to be weary of keeping such a prisoner as the
queen of Scots. During the former year, the tranquillity of' her government had been disturbed, first by a secret combination of some of her
nobles, then by the rebellion of others; and she often declared, not without
reason, that Mary was the hidden cause of both. Many of her own subjects
favoured or pitied the captive queen; the Roman catholic princes on the
continent were warmly interested in her cause.. The detaining her anyr
longer in Engiand, she foresaw, would be made the pretext or occasion of
perpetual cabals and insurrections among the former; and might expose
her to. the hostile attempts of the latter. She resolved, therefore, to give
up Mary into the hands of the regent, after stipulating with him, not only
that her days should not be cut short, either by a judicial sentence or by
secret violence, but that she should be treated in a manner suited to her
rank; and, in order to secure his observance of this, she required that six
of the chief noblemen in the kingdom should be sent into England as
hostages.~ With respect to the safe custody of the queen, she relied on
Murray'.s vigilance, whose security, no less than her own, depended on
preventi,.g Mary from re-ascending the throne. The negotiation for this
* Strype, vol. i. 547.  t Cabbala. 171. Camd. 422.  1 Cald. vol. i. ii. &c. kc,   Haynes, 524




204                    THE  HISTORY                     LBooX V.
purpose was carried some length, when it was discovered by the vigilance
of the bishop of Ross, who, together with the French and Spanish ambassadors, remonstrated against the infamy of such an action, and represented the
surrendering the queen to her rebellious subjects to be the same thing as if
Elizabeth should, by her own authority, condemn her to instant death.
This procured a delay; and the murder of the regent prevented the revival
of that design."
Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh was the person who committed this barbarous action. He had been condemned to death soon after the battle of
Langside, as I have already related, and owed his life to the regent's
clemency. But part of his estate ha.d been bestowed upon one of the
regent's favourites, who seized his house, and turned out his wife naked,
in a cold night, into the open fields, where, before next morning, she
became furiously mad. This injury made a deeper impression upon him
than the benefit which he had received, and from that moment he vowed
to be revenged upon the regent. Party-rage strengthened and inflamed his
private resentment. His kinsmen, the Hamiltons, applauded the enterprise. The maxims of that age justified the most desperate course which
he could take to obtain vengeance. He followed the regent for some time,
and watched for an opportunity to strike the blow. He resolved at last to
wait till his enemy should arrive at Linlithgow, through which he was to
pass in his way from Stirling to Edinburgh. He took his stand in a wooden
gallery, which had a window towards the streets; spread a feather bed on
the floor, to hinder the noise of his feet from being heard; hung up a black
cloth behind him, that his shadow might not be observed from without.;
and after all this preparation calmly expected the regent's approach, who
had lodged during the night in a part of the town not far distant. Some
indistinct information of the danger which threatened him had been conveyed to the regent, and he paid so much regard to it that he resolved to
return by the same gate through which he had entered, and to fetch a compass round the town. But as the crowd about the gate was great, and he
himself unacquainted with fear, he proceeded directly along the street;
and, the throng of the people obliging him to move very slowly, gave the
assassin time to take so true an aim, that he shot him with a single bullet
through the lower part of his belly, and killed the horse of a gentleman
who rode on his other side. His followers instantly endeavoured to break
into the house whence the blow had come, but they found the door strongly
barricaded; and before it could be forced open, Hamilton had mounted a
fleet horse, which stood ready for him at a back passage, and was got far
beyond their reach. The regent died the samne night of his wound. 
There is no person in that age about whom historians have been more
divided, or whose character has been drawn in such opposite colours.
Personal intrepidity, military skill, sagacity, and vigour in the administration of civil affairs, are virtues which even his enemies allotwed him to have
possessed in an eminent degree. His moral qualities are more dubious,
and ought neither to be praised nor censured without great reserve, and
many distinctions. In a fierce age he was capable of using victory with
humanity, and of treating the vanquished with moderation. A patron of
Icarning, which, among martial nobles, was either unknown or despised.
Zealous for religion, to a degree which distinguished him even at a time
when professions of that kind were not uncommon. His confidence in his
friends was extreme, and inferior only to his liberality towards them, which
knew no bounds. A disinterested passion for the liberty of his country,
prompted him to oppose the pernicious system which the princes of Lorrain had obliged the queen-mother to pursue. On Mary's return into
Scotland, he served her with a zeal and affection, to which he sacrificed
* CGarte, vol. iii. 491. Anders. vol, iii. 84.  t Buchan, 385. Crawf. Meam, 12-. Cabbala, 171o




OF SCOTLAND.                             205
the friendship of those who were most attached to his person. But, on the
other hand, his ambition was immoderate; and events happened that
opened to him vast projects, which allured his enterprising genius, and led
him to actions inconsistent with the duty of a subject. His treatment of the
queen, to whose bounty he was so much indebted, was unbrotherly and
ungrateful. The dependence on Elizabeth, under which he brought
Scotland, was disgraceful to the nation. He deceived and betrayed Norfolk with a baseness unworthy of a man of honour. His elevation to such
unexpected dignity inspired him with new passions, with haughtiness and
reserve; and instead of his natural manner, which was blunt and open, he
affected the arts of dissimulation and refinement. Fond, towards the end
of his life, of flattery, and impatient of advice, his creatures, by soothing
his vanity, led him astray, while his ancient friends stood at a distance, and
predicted his approaching fall. But amidst the turbulence and confusion
of that factious period, he dispensed justice with so much impartiality, he
repressed the licentious borderers with so much courage, and established
such uncommon order and tranquillity in the country, that his administration
was extremely popular, and he was long and affectionately remembered
among the commons, by the name of the good regent.
B00K VI.
1570.]  THE unexpected blow, by which the regent was cut off, struck
the king's party with the utmost consternation. Elizabeth bewailed his
death as the most fatal disaster which could have befallen her kingdom;
and was inconsolable to a degree that little suited her dignity. Mary's
adherents exulted, as if now her restoration were not only certain, but near
at hand. The infamy of the crime naturally fell on those who expressed
such indecent joy at the commission of it: and, as the assassin made his
escape on a horse which belonged to lord Claud Hamilton, and fled
directly to Hamilton, where he was received in triumph, it was concluded
that the regent had fallen a sacrifice to the resentment of the queen's party,
rather than to the revenge of a private man. OI1 the day after the murder,
Scott of Buccleugh, and Ker of Ferniherst, both zealous abetters of the
queen's cause, entered England in a hostile manner, and plundered and
burned the country, the inhabitants of which expected no such outrage.
If the regent had been alive, they would scarce have ventured on such an
irregular incursion, nor could it well have happened so soon after his
death, unless they had been privy to the crime.
This was not the only irregularity to which the anarchy that followed the
regent's death gave occasion. During such general confusion, men hoped
for universal impunity, and broke out into excesses of every kind. As it
was impossible to restrain these without a settled form of government, a
convention of the nobles was held, in order to deliberate concerning the
election of a regent [Feb. 12]. The queen's adherents refused to be present at ile meeting, and protested against its proceedings. The king's
own party was irresolute, and divided in opinion. Maitland, whom I(irkaldy had set at liberty, and who obtained from the nobles then assembled
a declaration acquitting him of the crime which had been laid to his charge,
endeavoured to bring about a coalition of the two parties, by proposing to
admit the queen to the joint administration of government with her son.
Elizabeth, adhering to her ancient system with regard to Scottish affairs,
laboured, notwithstanding the solicitations of Mary's friends,* to multiply
* See Appendix, No. XXXIV.




0)6s                    T H E HISTOR Y                   [BooK VI.
and to perpetuate the factions which tore in pieces the kingdom. Randolph, whom she despatched into Scotland on the first news of the regent's
death, and who was her usual agent for such services, found all parties so
exasperated by mutual injuries, and so full of irreconcilable rancour, that it
cost him little trouble to inflame their animosity. The convention broke
up without comling to any agreement; and a new meeting, to which the
nobles of all parties were invited, was appointed on the 1st of May.?
Meantime, Maitland and Kirkaldy, who still continued to acknowledge
the king's authority, were at the utmost pains to restore some degree of
harmony among their countrymen.  They procured for this purpose an
amicable conference among the leaders of the two factions. But while the
one demanded the restoration of the queen, as the only thing whch could
re-establish the public tranquillity; while the other esteemed the king's
authority to be so sacred that it was on no account to be called in question
or impaired; and neither of them would recede in the least point from
their opinions, they separated without any prospect of concord. Both were
rendered more averse from reconcilement, by the hope of foreign aid.
An envoy arrived from France with promises of powerful succour to the
queen's adherents; and, as the civil wars in that kingdom seemed to be
on the point of terminating in peace, it was expected that Charles would
soon be at liberty to fulfil what he promised. On the other hand, the earl
of Sussex was assembling a powerful army on the borders, and its operations could not fail of adding spirit and strength to the king's party.j
Though the attempt towards a coalition of the factions proved ineffectual, it contributed somewhat to moderate or suspend their rage; but they
soon began to act with their usual violence. Morton, the most vigilant and
able leader on the king's side, solicited Elizabeth to interpose, without
delay, for the safety of a party so devoted to her interest, and which stood
so much in need of her assistance. The chiefs of the queen's faction,
assembling at Llnlithgow [April 10], marched thence to Edinburgh; and
Kirkaldy, who was both governor of the castle and provost of the town,
prevailed on the citizens, though with some difficulty, to admit them
within the gates.  Together with Kirkaldy, the earl of Athole and Maitland acceded almost openly to their party; and the duke and lord Herries, having recovered liberty by Kirkaldy's favour, resumed the places
which they had formerly held in their councils. Encouraged by the
acquisition of persons so illustrious by their birth, and so eminent for their
abilities, they published a proclamation, declaring their intention to support the queen's authority, and seemed resolved not to leave the city
before the meeting of the approaching convention, in which, by their numbers and influence, they did not doubt of securing a majority of voices on
their side.$
At the same time they had formed a design of kindling war between
the two kingdoms. If they could engage them in hostilities, and revive
their ancient emulation and antipathy, they hoped not only to dissolve a
confederacy of great advantage to the king's cause, but to reconcile their
countrymen to the queen, Elizabeth's natural and most dangerous rival.
With this view they had, immediately after the murder of the regent,
prompted Scott and Ker to commence hostilities, and had since instigated
them to continue and extend their depredations. As Elizabeth foresaw,
on the one hand, the dangerous consequences of rendering this a national
quarrel; and resolved, on the other, not to suffer such an insult on her
government to pass with impunity; she issued a proclamation, declaring
that she imputed the outrages which had been committed on the borders
not to the Scottish nation, but to a few desperate and ill designing persons;
that with the former she was resolved to maintain an inviolable friendship,
* Crawf. Mem. 131. Calderw. ii. 157,   t Crawfs Mem. 134.    X Ibid. 137. Cald. ii. 176.




OF SCOTLAND.                             o07
whereas the duty which she owed to her own subjects obliged her to
chastise the licentiousness of the latter.* Sussex and Scrope accordingly
entered Scotland, the one on the east, the other on the west borders, and
laid waste the adjacent countries with fire and sword.t Fame magnified
the number and progress of their troops; and Mary's adherents, not thinking themselves safe in Edinburgh, the inhabitants whereof were ill affected
to their cause, retired to Linlithgow [April 28]. There, by a public proclamation, they asserted the queen's authority, and forbad giving obedience to any but the duke, or the earls of Argyll and Huntly, whom she
had constituted her lieutenants in the kingdom.
The nobles, who continued faithful to the king, though considerably
weakened by the defection of so many of their friends, assembled at
Edinburgh on the day appointed. They issued a counter proclamation,
declaring such as appeared for the queen enemies of their country; and
charging them with the murder both of the late king and of the regent
[May 1]. They could not, however, presume so much on their own
strength as to venture either to elect a regent, or to take the field against
the queen's party; but the assistance which they received from Elizabeth
enabled them to do both. By her order sir William Drury marched into
Scotland with a thousand foot and three hundred horse; the king's adherents
joined him with a considerable body of troops; and advancing towards
Glasgow, where the adverse party had already begun hostilities by attacking the castle, they forced them to retire, plundered the neighbouring
country, which belonged to the Hamiltons, and after seizing some of their
castles, and razing others, returned to Edinburgh.
Under Drury's protection the earl of Lennox returned into Scotland.
It was natural to commit the government of the kingdom to him during the
minority of his grandson. His illustrious birth, and alliance with the royal
family of England as well as of Scotland, rendered him worthy of that
honour. His resentment against Mary being implacable, and his estate
lying in England, and his family residing there, Elizabeth considered him
as a man who, both from inclination and from interest, would act in concert with her, and ardently wished that he might succeed Murray in the
office of regent. But, on many accounts, she did not think it prudent to
discover her own sentiments, or to favour his pretensions too openly. The
civil wars in France, which had been excited partly by real and partly by
pretended zeal for religion, and carried on with a fierceness that did it real
dishonour, appeared now to be on the point of coming to an issue; and
after shedding the best blood and wasting the richest provinces in the kingdom, both parties desired peace with an ardour that facilitated the negotiations which were carrying on for that purpose. Charles IX. was known
to be a passionate admirer of Mary's beauty. Nor could he in honour
suffer a queen of France, and the most ancient ally of his crown, to languish
in her present cruel situation without attemnpting to procure her relief. He
had hitherto been obliged to satisfy himself with remonstrating, by his
ambassadors, against the indignity with which she had been treated. But
if he were once at full liberty to pursue his inclinations, Elizabeth would
have every thing to dread from the impetuosity of his temper and the
power of his arms. It therefore became necessary for her to act with some
reserve, and not to appear avowedly to countenance the choice of a regent,
in contempt of Mary's authority. The jealousy and prejudices of the
Scots required no less management. Had she openly supported Lennox's
claim; had she recommended him to the convention, as the candidate of
whom she approved; this might have roused the independent spirit of the
nobles, and by too plain a discovery of her intention she might have
defeated its success. For these reasons she hesitated long, and retpw:ed
* Calderw. ii. 181.  t Cabbala, 174.




320                    TI E  HISTORY                     [Boon  VI.
ambiguous answers to all the messages which she received from the king's
party. A more explicit declaration of her sentiments was at last obtained,
and an event of an extraordinary nature seems to have been the occasion
of it. Pope Pius V. having issued a bull, whereby he excommunicated
Elizabeth, deprived her of her kingdom, and absolved her subjects from
their oath of allegiance, Felton, an Englishman, had the boldness to affix it
on the gates of the bishop of London's palace. In former ages a pope,
moved by his own ambition, or pride, or bigotry, denounced this fatal sentence against the most powerful monarchs; but as the authority of the court
of Rome was now less regarded, its proceedings were more cautious; and
it was only when they were roused by some powerful prince that the
thunders of the church were ever heard. Elizabeth, therefore, imputed this
step which the pope had taken, to a combination of the Roman catholic
princes against her, and suspected that some plot was formed in favour of
the Scottish queen. In that event she knew  that the safety of her own
kingdom depended on preserving her influence in Scotland; and in order
to strengthen this she renewed her promises of protecting the king's adherents, encouraged them to proceed to the election of a regent, and even
ventured to point out the earl of Lennox as the person who had the best
title. That honour was accordingly conferred upon him in a convention
of the whole party held on the 12th of July.?
The regent's first care was to prevent the meeting of the parliament,
which the queen's party had summoned to convene at Linlithgow. Having
effected that, he marched against the earl of Huntly, Mary's lieutenant in
the north, and forced the garrison which he had placed in Brechin to surrender at discretion. Soon after he made himself master of some other
castles. Emboldened by this successful beginning of his administration,
as well as by the appearance of a considerable army, with which the earl
of Sussex hovered on the borders, he deprived Maitland of his office of
secretary, and proclaimed him, the duke, Huntly, and other leaders of the
queen's party, traitors and enemies of their country.t
In this desperate situation of their affairs, the qieen's adherents had
recourse to the king of Spain,+ with whom Mary had held a close correspondence ever since her confinement in England.  They prevailed on the
duke of Alva to send two of his officers to take a view of the country, and to
examine its coasts and harbours; and obtained from them a small supply
of money and arms, which were sent to the earl of Huntly.~  But this aid,
so disproportionate to their exigencies, would have availed them little.
They. were indebted for their safety to a treaty which Elizabeth was
carrying on, under colour of restoring the captive queen to her throne.
The first steps in this negotiation had been taken in the month of May;
but hitherto little progress was made in it. The peace concluded between
the Roman catholics and Hugonots in France, and her apprehensions that
Charles would interpose with vigour in behalf of his sister-in-law, quickened Elizabeth's motions. She affected to treat her prisoner with more
indulgence, she listened more graciously to the solicitations of foreign
ambassadors in her favour, and seemed fully determined to replace her on
the throne of her ancestors. As a proof of her sincerity, she laboured to
procure a cessation of arms between the two contending factions in Scotland. Lennox, elated with the good fortune which had hitherto attended
his administration, and flattering himself with an easy triumph over enemies
whose estates were wasted, and their forces dispirited, refused for some
tire to come into this measure. It was not safe for him, however, to dispute the will of his protectress. A cessation of hostilities during two
months, to commence on the third of September, was agreed upon; and,
* Spotsw. 240. Cald. ii. 186. See Appendix, No. XXXV.  t Crawf. Mem. 159. Cald, ii. 198.
t See Appendix, No. XXXVI.  ~ Anders. iii. 122. Crawf Mern 153.




OF  SCOTLAND.                             209
being renewed from time to time, it continued till the first of April next
year.$
Soon after, Elizabeth despatched Cecil and sir Walter Mildmay to the
queen of Scots. The dignity of these ambassadors, the former her prime
minister, the latter chancellor of the exchequer and one of her ablest counsellors, convinced all parties that the negotiation was serious, and the hour
of Mary's liberty was now approaching. The propositions which they
made to her were advantageous to Elizabeth, but such as a prince in Mary's
situation had reason to expect. The ratification of the treaty of Edinburgh; the renouncing any pretensions to the English crown, during
Elizabeth's own life, or that of her posterity; the adhering to the alliance
between the two kingdoms; the pardoning her subjects who had taken
arms against her; and her promising to hold no correspondence, and to
countenance no enterprise, that might disturb Elizabeth's government;
were among the chief articles. By way of security for the accomplishment of these, they demanded that some persons of rank should be given as
hostages, that the prince her son should reside in England, and that a few
castles on the border should be put into Elizabeth's hands. To some of
these propositions Mary consented; some she endeavoured to mitigate;
and others she attempted to evade. In the mean time, she transmitted
copies of them to the pope, to the kings of France and Spain, and to the
duke of Alva. She insinuated, that without some timely and vigorous
interposition in her behalf, she would be obliged to accept of these hard
conditions, and to purchase liberty at any price. But the pope was a distant and feeble ally, and by his great efforts at this time against the Turlks,
his treasury was entirely exhausted. Charles had already begun to meditate that conspiracy against the Hugonots, which marks his reign with such
infamy; and it required much leisure and perfect tranquillity to bring that
execrable plan to maturity. Philip was employed in fitting out that fleet
which acquired so much renown to the Christian arms, by the victory over
the infidels at Lepanto; the Moors in Spain threatened an insurrection;
and his subjects in the Netherlands, provoked by much oppression and
many indignities, were breaking out into open rebellion. All of them, for
these different reasons, advised Mary, without depending on their aid, to
conclude the treaty on the best terms she could procure.
Mary accordingly consented to many of Elizabeth's demands, and discovered a facility of disposition which promised still further concessions.
But no concession she could have made would have satisfied Elizabeth,
who, in spite of her repeated professions of sincerity to foreign ambassadors,
and notwithstanding the solemnity with which she carried on the treaty,
-had no other object in it than to amuse Mary's allies, and to gain time.*
After having so long treated a queen, who fled to her for refuge, in so
ungenerous a manner, she could not now dismiss her with safety. Under
all the disadvantages of a rigorous confinement, Mary had found means to;
excite commotions in England which were extremely formidable.  What
desperate effects of herjust resentment might be expected, if she were set
at liberty, and recovered her former power? What engagements could
bind her not to revenge the wrongs which she had suffered, nor to take
advantage of the favourable conjunctures that might present themselves?
Was it possible for her to give such security for her behaviour in times to
come, as might remove all suspicions and fears? And was there not good
cause to conclude, that no future benefits could ever obliterate the memory
of past injuries? It was thus Elizabeth reasoned; though she continued
to act as if her views had been entirely different. She appointed seven of
her privy counsellors to be commissioners for settling the articles of the
treaty; and as Mary had already named the bishops of Ross and Galloway,
* Spotsw. 243.    t Anders. vol. iii. 119, 120.: Digges. Compl. Armb. 78.
VOL. III.-27




210                    THE  HISTORY                    [BooK VI.
and Lord Livingston, for her ambassadors, she required the regent to
empower proper persons to appear in behalf of the king. The earl of
Morton, Pitcairn abbot of Dumfermling, and sir James Macgll, were the per.
sons chosen by the regent. They prepared for their journey as slowly as
El]zaoeth herself could have wished [Feb. 19, 1571]. At length the_
arrived at London, and met the commissioners of the two queens. Marys
ambassadors discovered the strongest inclination to comply with ever
thing that would remove the obstacles which stood in the way of their
mistress's liberty. But when Morton and his associates were called upon
to vindicate their conduct, and to explain the sentiments of their party,
-they began, in justification of their treatment of the queen, to advance
such maxims concerning the limited powers of princes, and the natural right
of subjects to resist and to control them, as were extremely shocking to
Elizabeth, whose notions of regal prerogative, as has been formerly
observed, were very exalted. With regard to the authority which the king
now possessed, they declared they neither had, nor could possibly receive,
instructions to consent to any treaty that tended to subvert or even to impair'it in the least degree.? Nothing could be more trifling and ridiculous than
-such a reply from the commissioners of the king of Scots to the queen of
England. His party depended absolutely on her protection; it was by
persons devoted to her he had been seated on the throne, and to her power
he owed the continuance of his reign. With the utmost ease she could
have brought them  to hold very different language; and whatever conditions she might have thought fit to subscribe, they would have had no other
choice but to submit. This declaration, however, she affected to consider
-as an insuperable difficulty; and finding that there was no reason to dread
any danger from the French king, who had not discovered that eagerness in
support of Mary which was expected, the reply made by Morton [March
24], furnished her with a pretence for putting a stop to the negotiation,
-until the regent should send ambassadors with Inore ample powers. Thus,
after being amused for ten months with the hopes of liberty, the unhappy
Iqueen of Scots remained under stricter custody than ever, and without any
prospect of escaping from it; while those subjects who still adhered to her
were exposed, without ally or protector, to the rage of enemies, whom
their success in this negotiation rendered still more insolent.t
On the day after the expiration of the truce, which had been observed,with little exactness on either side, Captain Crawford of Jordan Hill, a gallant and enterprising officer, performed a service of great importance to the
regent, by surprising the castle of Dumbarton. This was the only fortified
place in the kingdom of which the queen had kept possession ever since
the commencement of the civil wars. Its situation, on the top of a high
and almost inaccessible rock which rises in the middle ot a plain, rendered
it extremely strong, and, in the opinion of that age, impregnable: as it
commanded the river Clyde, it was of great consequence, and was deemed
the most proper place in the kingdom for landing any foreign troops that
might come to Mary's aid. The strength of the place rendered lord Fleming, the governor, more secure than he ought to have been, considering Its
importance. A soldier who had served in the garrison, and had been disguisted by some ill usage, proposed the scheme to the regent, endeavoured
to demonstrate that it was practicable, and offered himself to go the fore-,most man on the enterprise. It was thought prudent to risk any danger
{fir so great a prize. Scaling-ladders, and whatever else might be necessqary, were prepared with the utmost secrecy and despatch. All the avenues:to the -castle were seized, that no intelligence of the design might reach the
governor. Towards evening Crawford marched from Glasgow with a
small but determined band. By midnight they arrived at the bottom of the
* Cald. ii. 234. Digges, 51. Haynes, 523, 524.   t Anders. iii. 91, &c




OF SCOTLAND.                            911
rock. The moon was set, and the sky, which had hitherto been extremely
clear, was covered with a thick fog. It was where the rock was highest
that the assailants made their attempt, because in that place there were
few sentinels, and they hoped to find them least alert. The first ladder
was scarcely fixed, when the weight and eagerness of those who mounted
brought it to the ground. None of the assailants were hurt by the fall, and
none of the garrison alarmed at the noise. Their guide and Crawford
scrambled up the rock, and fastened the ladder to the roots of a tree which
grew in a cleft. This place they all reached with the utmost difficulty,
but were still at a great distance from the foot of the wall. Their ladder
was made fast a second time; but in the middle of the ascent they met
with an unforeseen difficulty. One of their companions was seized with
some sudden fit, and clung, seemingly without life, to the ladder. All
were at a stand. It was impossible to pass him. To tumble him headlong was cruel; and might occasion a discovery. But Crawford's presence
of mind did not forsake him. He ordered the soldier to be bound fast to
the ladder, that he might not fall when the fit was over; and turning the
other side of the ladder, they mounted with ease over his belly. Day now
began to break, and there still remained a high wall to scale; but after
surmounting so many great difficulties, this was soon accomplished. A sentry
observed the first man who appeared on the parapet, and had just time
to give the alarm, before he was knocked on the head. The officers and
soldiers of the garrison ran out naked, unarmed, and more solicitous about
their own safety than capable of making resistance. The assailants rushed
forwards, with repeated shouts and with the utmost fury; took possession
of the magazine; seized the cannon, and turned them against their enemies.
Lord Fleming got into a small boat, and fled all alone into Argyllshire.
Crawford, in reward of his valour and good conduct, remained master ot
the castle; and as he did not lose a single man in the enterprise, he enjoyed
his success with unmixed pleasure. Lady Fleming, Verac, the French
envoy, and Hamilton, archbishop of St. Andrew's, were the prisoners of
greatest distinction.?
Verac's character protected him from the usage which he merited by
his activity in stirring up enemies against the king. The regent treated
the lady with great politeness and humanity. But a very different fate
awaited the archbishop; he was carried under a strong guard to Stirling;
and as he had formerly been attainted by act of parliament, he was, without
any formal trial, condemned to be hanged; and on the fourth day after he
was taken, the sentence was executed. An attempt was made to convict
him of being accessary to the murder both of the king and regent, but these
accusations were supported by no proof. Our historians observe, that he
was the first bishop in Scotland who died by the hands of the executioner.
The high offices he had enjoyed, both in church and state, ought to have
exempted him from a punishment infiicted only on the lowest criminals.
But his zeal for the queen, his abilities, and his profession, rendered him
odious and formidable to the king's adherents. Lennox hated him as the
person by whose counsels the reputation and power of the house of Hamilton were supported. Party rage and personal enmity dictated that indecent sentence, for which some colour was sought by imputing to him such
odious crimes.t
The loss of Dumbarton, and the severe treatment of the archbishop, perplexed no less than they enraged the queen's party: and hostilities were
renewed with all the fierceness which disappointment and indignation can
inspire. Kirkaldy, who, during the truce, had taken care to increase the
number of his garrison, and to provide every thing necessary for his defence,
issued a proclamation declaring Lennox's authority to be unlawful and
* Buchan. 394.   t Spotswood, 252.,




212                    THE HISTORY                     [BooOKVI.
usurped; commanded all who favoured his cause to leave the town within
six hours; seized the arms belonging to the citizens; planted a battery on
the steeple of St. Giles's, repaired the walls, andi fortified the gates of the
city; and, though the affections of the inhabitants leaned a different way,
held out the imetropolis against the regent. The Duke, Huntly, Home,
Herries, and other chiefs of that faction, repaired to Edinburgh with their
followers; and, having received a small sum of money and some amlllnition from France, formed no contemptible army within the walls. On the
other side, Morton seized Leith and fortified it; and the regent joined him
with a considerable body of men.. While the armies lay so near each
other, daily skirmishes happened, and with various success. The queen's
party was not strong enough to take the field against the regent, nor was
is superiority so great as to undertake the siege of the castle or of the
townD.
Some time before Edinburgh fell into the hands of his enemies, the regent
had summoned a parliament to meet in that place. In order to prevent
any objection against the lawfulness of the meeting, the members obeyed
the proclamation as exactly as possible [May 14], and assembled in a
house at the head of the Canongate, which, though without the walls, lies
within the liberties of the city. Kirkaldy exerted himself to the utmost to
interrupt their meeting; but they were so strongly guarded that all efforts
were vain. They passed an act attainting Maaitland and a few others,
and then adjourned to the 28th of August.t
The other party, in order that their proceedings might be countenanced
by the same show of legal authority, held a meeting of parliament soon
after. There was produced in this assembly a declaration by the queen
of the invalidity of that deed whereby she had resigned the crown, and
consented to the coronation of her son. Conformable to this declaration,
an act was passed pronouncing the resignation to have been extorted by
fear; to be null in itself, and in all its consequences: and enjoining all
good subjects to acknowledge the queen alone to be their lawful sovereign
and to support those who acted in her name. The present establishment
of the protestant religion was confirmed by another statute; and, in imitation of the adverse party, a new meeting was appointed on the 26th of
August.T
Meanwhile all the miseries of civil war desolated the kingdom. Fellow
citizens, friends, brothers took different sides, and ranged themselves under
the standards of the contending factions. In every county, and almost in
every town and village, king's men, and queen's men were names of distinction. Political hatred dissolved all natural ties, and extinguished the
reciprocal good will and confidence which holds mankind together in
society. Religious zeal mingled itself with these civil distinctions, and
contributed not a little to heighten and to inflame them.
The factions which divided the kingdom were, in appearance, only two;
but in both these there were persons with views and principles so different
from each other that they ought to be distinguished. With some, considerations of religion were predominant, and they either adhered to the
queen, because they hoped by her means to re-establish popery, or they
defended the king's authority as the best support of the protestant faith.
Among these the opposition was violent and irreconcileable. Others were
influenced by political motives only, or allured by views of interest: the
regevt aimed at uniting these, and did not despair of gaining, by gentle
arts, many cf Mary's adherents to acknowledge the king's authority.
Maitland and Kirkaldy had formed the same design of a coalition, but on
such terms that the queen might be restored to some share in the govern
meent, and the kingdom shake off its dependence upmon England. Morton,
* Cald. ii. 233,. &c.    t Crawf. Mem. 177.   t Id. ibid.




OF  SCOTLAND.                            213
the ablest, the most ambitious, and the most powerful man of the king's
party, held a particular course; and, moving only as he was prompted by
the court of England, thwarted every measure that tended towards a reconcilement of the factions; and as he served Elizabeth with much fidelity, he
derived both power and credit from her avowed protection.
The time appointed by both parties for the meeting of their parliaments
now approached. Only three peers and two bishops appeared in that
which was held in the queen's name at Edinburgh. But, contemptible as
their numbers were, they passed an act for attainting upwards of two hundred of the adverse faction. The meeting at Stirling was numerous and
splendid. The regent had prevailed on the earls of Argyll, Eglington,
Cassils, and lord Boyd, to acknowledge the king's authority. The three
earls were among the most powerful noblemen in the kingdom, and had.
hitherto been zealous in the queen's cause. Lord Boyd had been one of
Mary's commissioners at York and Westminster, and since that time had
been admitted into all her most secret councils. But, during that turbulent
period, the conduct of individuals, as well as the principles of factions,
varied so often, that the sense of honour, a chief preservative of consistence
in character, was entirely lost; and, without any regard to decorum, men
suddenly abandoned one party, and adopted all the violent passions of the
other. The defection, however, of so many persons of distinction, not only
weakened the queen's party, but added reputation to her adversaries.
After the example of the parliament at Edinburgh, that at Stirling
began with framing acts against the opposite faction. But in the midst of
all the security, which confidence in their own numbers or distance from
danger could inspire, they were awakened early in the morning of September the third by the shouts of the enemy in the heart of the town. in
a moment the houses of every person of distinction were surrounded, and
before they knew what to think of so strange an event, the regent, the
earls of Argyll, Morton, Glencairn, Cassils, Eglington, Montrose, Buchan,
the lords Sempil, Cathcart, Ogilvie, were all made prisoners, and mounted
behind troopers, who were ready to carry them to Edinburgh. Kirkaldy
was the author of this daring enterprise; and if he had not been induced
by the ill-timed solicitude ot his friends about his safety, not to hazard his
own person in conducting it, that day might have terminated the contest
between the two factions, and have restored peace to his country.  By his
direction, four hundred men, under the command of Huntly, lord C laud
Hamilton, and Scott of Buccleugh, set out from Edinburgh, and, the better
to conceal their design, marched towards the south. But they soon
wheeled to the right, and, horses having been provided for the infantry,
rode straight to Stirling. By four in the morning they arrived there; not
one sentry was posted on the walls, not a single man was awake about the
place. They met with no resistance from any person whom they attempted
to seize, except Morton. He defending his house with obstinate valour,
they were obliged to set it on fire, and he did not surrender till forced out
of it by the flames. In performing this, some time was consumed; and
the private men unaccustomed to regular discipline, left their colours, and
began to rifle the houses and shops of the citizens. The noise and uproar
in the town reached the castle. The earl of Mar sallied out with thirty
soldiers, fired briskly upon the enemy, of whom almost none but the officers
kept together in a body. The townsmen took arms to asssist their
governor; a sudden panic struck the assailants; some fled, some st2,lendered themselves to their own prisoners; and had not the borderers, who
followed Scott, prevented a pursuit, by carrying off all the horses within
the place, not a man would have escaped. If the regent had not unfortunately been killed, the loss on the king's side would have been as inconsiderable as the alarm was great. Think on the archbishop of St. Andrewz's,
was the word among the queen's soldiers; and Lennox fell a sacrifice to




214                   THE HISTORY                      [Book VY.
his memory. The officer to whom he surrendered, endeavouring to pro.
tect him, lost his own life in his defence. He was slain according to the
general opinion, by command of lord Claud Hamilton. Kirkaldy had the
glory of concerting this plan with great secrecy and prudence; but Morton's
tortunate obstinacy, and the want of discipline among his troops, deprived
himl of success, the only thing wanting to render this equal to the most
applauded military enterprises of the kind.*
As so many of the nobles were assembled, they proceeded without
delay to the election of a regent [Sept. 6]. Argyll, Morton, and Mar were
candidates for the office. Mar was chosen by a majority of voices. Amlidst
all the fierce dissensions which had prevailed so long in Scotland, he had
distinguished himself by his moderation, his humanity, and his disinterest
edness. As his power was far inferior to Argyll, and his abilities not so
great as Morton's, he was, for these reasons, less formidable to the other
nobles. His merit, too, in having so lately rescued the leaders of the party
from imminent destruction, contributed not a little to his preferment.
While these things were carrying on in Scotland, the transactions in
England were no less interesting to Mary, and still more fatal to her cause.
The parliament of that kingdom, which met in April, passed an act, by
which it was declared to be high treason to claim any right to the crown
during the life of the queen; to affirm that the title of any other person
was better than hers, or to maintain that the parliament had not power to
settle and to limit the order of succession. This remarkable statute was
intended not only for the security of their own sovereign, but to curb the
restless and intriguing spirit of the Scottish queen and her adherents.t
At this time a treaty of marriage between Elizabeth and the duke of
Anjou, the French king's brother, was well advanced. Both courts seemed to
desire it with equal ardour, and gave out, with the utmost confidence, that
it could not fail of taking place. Neither of them, however, wished it
success; and they encouraged it fbr no other end, but because it served to
cover or to promote their particular designs. The whole policy of Catherine of Medicis was bent towards the accomplishment of her detestable
project for the destruction of the Hugonot chiefs; and by carrying on a
negotiation for the marriage of her son with a princess who was justly
esteemed the protectress of that party, by yielding some things in point of
religion, and by discovering an indifference with regard to others she hoped
to amuse all the protestants in Europe, and to lull asleep the jealousy even
of the Hugonots themselves. Elizabeth flattered herself with reaping
advantages of another kind. During the dependence of the negotiation,
the French could not with decency give any open assistance to the Scottish queen: if they conceived any hopes of success in the treaty of marriage, they would of course interest themselves but coldly in her concerns;
Mary herself must be dejected at losing an ally, whom she had hitherto
reckoned her most powerful protector; and, by interrupting her correspondence with France, one source, at least, of the cabals and intrigues
which disturbed the kingdom would be stopped. Both queens succeeded
in their schemes.  Catherine's artifices imposed upon Elizabeth, and
blinded the Hugonots. The French discovered the utmost indifference
about the interest of the Scottish queen; and Mary, considering that court
as already united with her rival, turned for protection with more eagerness
than ever towards the king of Spain.4 Philip, whose dark and thoughtful
mind delighted in the mystery of intrigue, had held a secret correspondence
with Mary for some time, by means of the bishop of Ross, and had supplied
both herself and her adherents in Scotland with small sums of money.
Ridolphi, a Florentine gentleman, who resided at London under the character of a banker, and who acted privately as an agent for the pope, was
- MelOvo 226. Crawf. Mene. 20  t (amd. 436.  $ Digges. 144. 148. Camd. 434.




OF SCOTLAND.                            21~
the person whom the bishop intrusted with this negotiation. Mary thought
it necessary likewise to communicate the secret to the duke of' Ncrfolk,
whom Elizabeth had lately restored to liberty, upon his solemn promise
to have no further intercourse with the queen of Scots. This promise,
however, he regarded so little that he continued to keep a constant correspondence with the captive queen; while she laboured to nourish his
ambitious hopes, and to strengthen his amorous attachment by letters
written in the fondest caressing strain. Some of these he must have received at the very time when he made that solemn promise of holding no
further intercourse with her, in consequence of which Elizabeth restored
him to liberty. Mary, still considering him as her future husband, took no
step in any matter of moment without his advice. She early communicated
to him her negotiations with Ridolphi; and in a long letter, which she
wrote to him in ciphers,? after complaining of the baseness with which
the French court had abandoned her interest, she declared her intention of
imploring the assistance of the Spanish monarch, which was now her only
resource; and recommended Ridolphi to his confidence, as a person
capable both of explaining and advancing the scheme. The duke commanded Hickford, his secretary, to decipher, and then to burn this letter;
but, whether he had been already gained by the court, or resolved at that
time to betray his master, he disobeyed the latter part of the order, and
hid the letter, together with other treasonable papers, under the duke's
own bed.
Ridolphi, in a conference with Norfolk, omitted none of those arguments,
and spared none of those promises which are the usual incentives to rebellion. The pope, he told him, had a great sum in readiness to bestow,
in so good a cause. The duke of Alva had undertaken to land ten thousand
men not far from London. The catholics, to a man, would rise in arms.
Many of the nobles were ripe for a revolt, and wanted only a leader.
Half their nation had turned their eyes towards him, and called on him
to revenge the unmerited injuries which he himself had suffered; and
to rescue an unfortunate queen, who offered him her hand and her
crown as the reward of his success. Norfolk approved of the design, and
though he refused to give Ridolphi any letter of credit, allowed him to
use his name in negotiating with the pope and Alva.t The bishop ot
Ross, who, from the violence of his temper, and impatience to procure
relief for his mistress, was apt to run into rash and desperate designs, advised the duke to assemble secretly a few of his followers, and at once to
seize Elizabeth's person. But this the duke rejected as a scheme equally
wild and hazardous. Meanwhile, the English court had received some
imperfect information of the plot, by intercepting one of Ridolphi's agents;
and an accident happened, which brought to light all the circumstances of
it. The duke had employed Hickford to transmit to lord Herries some
money, which was to be distributed among Mary's friends in Scotland. A
person not in the secret was intrusted with conveying it to the borders;
and he, suspecting it from the weight to be gold, whereas he had been
told that it was silver, carried it directly to the privy council. The duke,
his domestics, and all who were privy or could be suspected of being
privy to the design, were taken into custody. Never did the accomplices
in a conspiracy discover less firmness, or servants betray an indulgent
master with greater baseness [Sept. 7]. Every one confessed the whole
of what he knew. Hickford gave directions how to find the papers which
he had hidden. The duke himself, relying at first on the fidelity of his
associates, and believing all dangerous papers to have been destroyed, confidently asserted his own innocence; but when their depositions and the
+ Haynes, 597, 598. Hardw. State Papers, i. 190, &c. Digges's Complete Ainbas. 147.
A snders. iii. 161.




216                    THE HISTORY                       [Boo VI.
papers themselves were produced, astonished at their treachery, he acknowledged his guilt, and implored the queen's mercy. His offence was
too heinous, and too often repeated, to obtain pardon; and Elizabeth
thought it necessary to deter her subjects, by his punishment, from holding
correspondence with the queen of Scots or her emissaries. Being tried by
his peers, he was found guilty of high treason, and, after several delays,
suffered death for the crime.The discovery of this conspiracy produced many effects extremely detrimental to Mary's interest. The bishop of Ross, who appeared, by the
confession of all concerned, to be the prime mover in every cabal against
Elizabeth, was taken into custody, his papers searched, himself committed
to the tower, treated with the utmost rigour, threatened with capital
punishment, and, after a long confinement, set at liberty on condition that
he should leave the kingdom. Mary was not only deprived of a servant
equally eminent for his zeal and his abilities, but was denied from that
time the privilege of having an ambassador at the English court. The
Spanish ambassador, whom the power and dignity of the prince he represented exempted from such insults as Ross had suffered, was commanded
to leave England.4  As there was now the clearest evidence that Mary,
from resentment of the wrongs she had suffered, and impatience of the
captivity in which she was held, would not scruple to engage in the mIost
hostile and desperate enterprises against the established government and
religion, she began to be regarded as a public enemy, and was kept under
a stricter guard than formerly; the number of her domestics was abridged,
and no person permitted to see her but in presence of her keepers.1
At the same time, Elizabeth, foreseeing the storm which was gathering
on the continent against her kingdom, began to wish that tranquillity were
restored in Scotland; and, irritated by Mary's late attempt against her
government, she determined to act without disguise or ambiguity in favour
of the king's party. This resolution she intimated to the leaders of both
factions [Oct. 23]. Mary, she told them, had held such a criminal correspondence with her avowed enemies, and had excited such dangerous
conspiracies both against her crown and her life, that she would henceforth
consider her as unworthy of protection, and would never consent to restore
her to liberty, far less to replace her on her throne. She exhorted them,
therefore, to unite in acknowledging the king's authority. She promised to
procure, by her mediation, equitable terrims for those who had hitherto
opposed it. But if they still continued refractoig, she threatened to employ
her utmost power to compel them to submit.~    though this declaration did
not produce an immediate effect; though hostilities continued in the
neighbourhood of Edinburgh; though Huntly's brother, Sir Adam Gordon,
by his bravery and good conduct, had routed the king's adherents in the
North in many encounters; yet, such an explicit discovery of Elizabeth's
sentiments contributed not a little to animate one party, and to depress the
spirit and hopes of the other.ll
1572.] As Mlorton, who commanded the regent's forces, lay at Leith, and
Kirkaldy still held out the town and castle of Edinburgh, scarce a day
passed without a skirmish; and while both avoided any decisive action,
they harassed each other by attacking small parties, beating up quarters,
and intercepting convoys. These operations, though little memorable in
themselves. kept the passions of both factions in perpetual exercise and
agitation, and wrought them  up, at last, to a degree of fury which rendered them  regardless not only of the laws of war, but of the principles
of humanity.  Nor was it in the field alone, and during the heat of combat
that this implacable rage appeared; both parties hanged the prisoners
* Anders. iii. 149. State Trials, 185.  t Digges, 163.  ~ Strype, Ann. ii. 50
g See Appendix, No. XXXVII.   l Cald. ii. 289. 294. Strype, ii, 76.




OF SCOTLAND.                             217
which they took, of whatever rank or quality, without mercy and without
trial. Great numbers suffered in this shocking manner; the unhappy victims were led by fifties at a time to execution; and it was not till both
sides had smarted severely that they discontinued this barbarous practice,
so reproachful to the character of the nation.* Meanwhile, those in the
town and castle, though they had received a supply of money from the
duke of Alva,t began to suffer for want of provisions. As Morton had
destroyed all the mills in the neighbourhood of the city, and had planted
small garrisons in all the houses of strength around it, scarcity daily
increased. At last all the miseries of famine were felt, and they must
have been soon reduced to such extremities as would have forced them to
capitulate if the English and French ambassadors had not procured a suspension of hostilities between the two parties.J
Though the negotiation for marriage between Elizabeth and the duke
of Anjou had been fruitless, both Charles and she were desirous of concluding a defensive alliance between the two crowns. He considered such
a treaty not only as the best advice for blinding the protestants, against
whom the conspiracy was now almost ripe for execution; but as a good
precaution, likewise, against the dangerous consequences to which that
atrocious measure might expose him. Elizabeth, who had hitherto reigned
without a single ally, now saw her kingdom so threatened with intestine
commotions, or exposed to invasions from abroad, that she was extremely
solicitous to secure the assistance of so powerful a neighbour. The diff;culties arising from the situation of the Scottish queen were the chief occasions of any delay. Charles demanded some terms of advantage for
Mary and her party. Elizabeth refused to listen to any proposition of that
kind. Her obstinacy overcame the faint efforts of the French monarch.
Mary's name was not so much as mentioned in the treaty; and with regard
to Scottish affairs, a short article was inserted, in general and ambiguous
terms [April 11], to this purpose: C" That the parties contracting shall
make no innovations in Scotland; nor suffer any stranger to enter and to
foment the factions there; but it shall be lawful for the queen of England
to chastise, by force of arms, those Scots who shall continue to harbour
the English rebels now in Scotland."~  In consequence of this treaty,
France and England affected to act in concert with regard to Scotland, and
Le Croc and Sir William Drury appeared there in the name of their respective sovereigns. By their mediation, a truce for two months was agreed
upon, and during that time conferences were to be held between the
leaders of the opposite factions, in order to accommodate their differences,
and restore peace to the kingdom.  This truce afforded a seasonable
interval of tranquillity to the queen's adherents in the South; but in the
North it proved fatal to her interest. Sir Adam Gordon had still maintained his reputation and superiority there. Several parties, under different officers, were sent against him. Some of them he attacked in the
field; against others he employed stratagem; and as his courage and
conduct were equal, none of his enterprises failed' of success. He made
war too with the humanity which became so gallant a man, and gained
ground by that, no less than by the terror of his arms. If he had not been
obliged by the truce to suspend his operations, he would in all probability
have brought that part of the kingdom to submit entirely to the queen s
authority. I
Notwithstanding Gordon's bravery and success, Mary's interest was on
the decline, not only in her own kingdom, but among the English. Nothing
could be more offensive to that nation, jealous of foreigners, and terrified at
the prospect of the Spanish yoke, than her negotiations with the duke of
* Crawf. Mem. 218. 220.  t Cald. ii. 345.: Ib. 346.  ~ Digges, 170. 191.
Camden, 444.         I Crawl. Mem.
VOL. III. —-28




218                     THE HISTORY                     [BooK VI.
Alva. The parliament which met in May, proceeded against her as the
most dangerous enemy of the kingdom; and, after a solemn conference
between the lords and commons, both houses agreed in bringing in a bill to
declare' her guilty of high treason, and to deprive her of all right of succession to the crown. This great cause, as it was then calleI, occupied
them during the whole session, and was carried on with much unanimity.
Elizabeth, though she applauded their zeal, and approved greatly of the
course they were taking, was satisfied with showing Mary what she might
expect from the resentment of the nation; but as she did not yet think it
time to proceed to the most violent extremity against her, she prorogued
the parliament.?
These severe proceedings of the English parliament were not more mortifying to Mary than the coldness and neglect of her allies the French.
The duke of Montmorency, indeed, who came over to ratify the league
with Elizabeth, made a show of interesting himself in favour of the Scottish queen: but, instead of soliciting for her liberty, or her restoration to
her throne. all that he demanded was a slight mitigation of the rigour of
her imprisonment. Even this small request he urged with so little warmth
or importunity that no regard was paid to it.?
The alliance with France afforded Elizabeth much satisfaction, and she
expected from it a great increase of security. She now turned her whole
attention towards Scotland, where the animosities of the two factions were
still so high, and so many interfering interests to be adjusted, that a general
pacification seemed to be at a great distance. But while she laboured to
bring them to some agreement, an event happened which filled a great
part of Europe with astonishment and with horror. This was the massacre
of Paris; an attempt, to which there is no parallel in the history of man.
kind, either for the long train of craft and dissimulation with which it Iwas
contrived, or for the cruelty and barbarity with which it was carried into
execution. By the most solemn promises of safety and of favour, the
leaders of the protestants were drawn to court, and though doomed to
destruction, they were received with caresses, loaded with honours, and
treated, for seven months, with every possible mark of familiarity and of
confidence. In the midst of their security [Aug. 24], the warrant for their
destruction was issued by their sovereign, on whose word they had relied,
and, in obedience to it, their countrymen, their fellow-citizens, and companions imbrued their hands in their blood. Ten thousand protestants,
without distinction of age, or sex, or condition, were murdered in Paris
alone. The same barbarous orders were sent to other parts of the kingdom, and a like carnage ensued. This deed, which no popish writer in
the present age mentions without detestation, was at that time applauded
in Spain; and at Rome solemn thanksgivings were offered to God for its
success. But among the protestants it excited incredible horror; a striking
picture of which is drawn by the French ambassador at the court of England, in his account of his first audience after the massacre. " A gloomy
sorrow," says he, " sat on every face: silence, as in the dead of night,
reigned through all the chambers of the royal apartment; the ladies and
courtiers were ranged on each side, all clad in deep mourning, and as I
passed through them, not one bestowed on me a civil look, or made the
least return to miy salutes."t
But horror was not the only passion with which this event inspired the
protestants  it filled them with fear. They considered it as the prelude
to some greater blow, and believed, not without much probability, that all
the popish princes had conspired the destruction of their sect. This opinion
was of no small disservice to Mary's affairs in Scotland. Many of her adhererjts were protestants; and, though they wished her restoration, were
LY Ewes, Journ. 206, &c.  t Jebb ii. 512.:    Carte, iii. 522.




OF SCOTLAND..                              19
niot willing, on that account, to sacrifice the faith which they professed.
They dreaded her attachment to a religion which allowed its votaries to
violate the most solemn engagements, and prompted them to perpetrate the
most barbarous crimes. A general confederacy of the protestants seemed
to them the only thing that could uphold the reformation against the league
which was formed to overturn it. Nor could the present establishment of
religion be long maintained in Britain, but by a strict union with Elizabeth, and by the concurrence of both nations in espousing the defence of it
as a common cause.*
Encouraged by this general disposition to place confidence in her, Eliza
beth resumed a scheme which she had formed during the regency of the
earl of Murray, of sending Mary as a prisoner in'o Scotland. But her sentiments and situation were now very different fiuon what they had been
during her negotiation with Murray. Her animosity against the queen of
Scots was greatly augmented by recent experience, which taught her that
she had inclination as well as power, not only to disturb the tranquillity of
her reign, but to wrest from her the crown; the party in Scotland, favourable to Mary, was almost entirely broken; and there was no reason to
dread any danger from France, which still continued to court her friendship. She aimed, accordingly, at something very different from that which
she had in view three years before. Then she discovered a laudable
solicitude, not only for the safety of Mary's life, but for securing to her
treatment suited to her rank. Now she required, as an express condition,
that immediately after Mary's arrival in Scotland, she should be brought
to public trial; and, having no doubt that sentence would be passed according to her deserts, she insisted that, for the good of both kingdoms, it
should be executed without delay.t No transaction, perhaps, in Elizabeth's reign, merits more severe censure. Eager to cut short the days of
a rival, the object both of her hatred and dread, and no less anxious to
avoid the blame to which such a deed of violence might expose her, she
laboured, with timid and ungenerous artifice, to transfer the odium of it
from herself to Mary's own subjects.  The earl of Mar, happily for the
honour of his country, had more virtue than to listen to such an ignominious
proposal; and Elizabeth did not venture to renew it.
While she was engaged in pursuing this insidious measure, the regent
was more honourably employed in endeavouring to negotiate a general
peace among his countrymen. As he laboured for this purpose with the
utmost zeal, and the adverse faction placed entire confidence in his integrity,
his endeavours could hardly have failed of being successful. Maitland
and Kirkaldy came so near to an agreement with him that scarce any thing
remained, except the formality of signing the treaty. But Morton had not
forgotten the disappointmnent he had met with in his pretensions to the
regency; his abilities, his wealth, and the patronage of the court of
England, gave him greater sway with the party than even the regent
himself; and he took pleasure in thwarting every measure pursued by
him. He was afraid that, if Maitland and his associates recovered any
share in the administration, his own influence would be considerably
diminished; and the regent, by their means, would acquire that ascendant
which belonged to his station. With him concurred all those who were
in possession of the lands which belonged to any of the queen's party.
His ambition, and their avarice, frustrated the regent's pious intentions,
and retarded a blessing so necessary to the kingdom as the establishment
of peace.$
Such a discovery of the selfishness and ambition which reigned among
his party made a deep impression on the regent,' who loved his country,
and wished for peace with much ardour. This inward grief broke his
* Digges, 244. 267    t Murdin, 224.    1 MeIv. 233. Crawf. Mem. 237.




220                   THE  HISTORY                     [BooK VI.
spirit, and by degrees brought on a settled melancholy, that ended in a
distemper, of which he died on the twenty-ninth of October. He was
perhaps, the only person in the kingdom who could have enjoyed the
office of regent without envy, and have left it without loss of reputation
Notwithstanding their mutual animosities, both factions acknowledged his
views to be honourable, and his integrity o.-e uncorupted.*'
No competitor now appeared against Morton. The queen of England
powerfully supported his claim, and, notwithstanding the fears of the
people, and the jealousy of the nobles, he was elected regent [Nov.'
241; the fourth who, in the space of five years, had held that dangerous
offce.
As the truce had been prolonged to the first of January, this gave him
an opportunity of continuing the negotiations with the opposite party,
which had been set on foot by his predecessor. They produced no effects,
however, till the beginning of the next year.
Before we proceed to these, some events, hitherto untouched, deserve
our notice.
The earl of Northumberland, who had been kept prisoner in Lochlevin
ever since his flight into Scotland, in the year one thousand five hundred
and sixty-nine, was given up to lord Hudson, governor of Berwick; and,
being carried to York, suffered there the punishment of his rebellion.
The king's party were so sensible of their dependence on Elizabeth's
protection that it was scarcely possible for them to refuse putting into her
hands a person who had taken up arms against her; but, as a sum of money
was paid on that account, and shared between Morton and Douglas of
Lochlevin, the former of whom, during his exile in England, had been
much indebted to Northumberland's friendship, the abandoning this unhappy
nobleman, in such a manner, to certain destruction, was universally condemned as a most ungrateful and mercenary action.t
This year was remarkable for a considerable innovation in the government of the church. Soon after the reformation, the popish bishops had
been confirmed by law in possession of part of their benefices; but the
spiritual jurisdiction, which belonged to their order, was exercised by
superintendants, though with more moderate authority. On the death of
the archbishop of St. Andrew's Morton obtained from the crown a grant
of the temporalities of that see. But as it was thought indecent for a layman to hold a benefice to which the cure of souls was annexed, he procured Douglas, rector of the university of St. Andrew's, to be chosen
archbishop; and, allotting him a small pension out of the revenues of the
see, retained the remainder in his own hands. The nobles, who saw the
advantages which they might reap from such a practice, supported him in
the execution of his plan. It gave great offence, however, to the clergy,
who, instead of perpetuating an order whose name and power were odious
to them, wished that the revenues which had belonged to it might be employed in supplying such parishes as were still unprovided with settled
pastors. But, on the one hand, it would have been rash in the clergy to
have irritated too much noblemen, on whom the very existence of the
protestant church in Scotland depended; and Morton, on the other, conducted his schemes with such dexterity, and managed them with so much
art, that it was at last agreed, in a convention composed of the leading men
among the clergy, together with a committee of privy council, "That the
name and office of archbishop and bishop should be continued during the
king's mninority, and these dignities be conferred upon the best qualified
among the protestant ministers; but that, with regard to their spiritual
jurisdictions, they should be subject to the general assembly of the church."
The rules to be observed in their election, and the persons who were to
a Crawf. Mem. 241.  t Ibid. 55. 222. Camd. 445




OF SCO rLAND.                                    ts
supply the place and enjoy the privileges which belonged to the dean and
chapter in times of popery, were likewise particularly specified., The
whole being laid before the general assembly, after some exceptions to
the name of archbishop, dean, chapter, &c., and a protestation that it should
be considered only as a temporary constitution, until one more perfect
could be introduced, it obtained the approbation of that court.t Even
Knox, who was prevented frotn attending the/ assembly by the ill state of
his health, though he declaimed loudly against the simoniacal paction to
which Douglas owed his preferment, and blamed the nomination of a
person worn out with age and infirmities, to an office which required unimpaired vigour both of body and mind, seems not to have condemned the
proceedings of the convention; and, in a letter to the assembly, approved
of some of the regulations with respect to'he election of bishops, as worthy
of being carefully observed.4  In consequence of the assembly's consent
to the plan agreed upon in the convention, Douglas was installed in his
office, and at the same time an archbishop of Glasgow and a bishop of
Dunkeld were chosen from  among the protestant clergy.  They were all
admitted to the place in parliament which belonged to the ecclesiastical
order.  But in imitation of the example set by Morton, such bargains were
made with them by different noblemen, as gave them possession only of a
very small part of the revenues which belonged to their sees.~
Soon after the dissolution of this assembly LNov. 27], Knox, the prime
instrument of spreading and establishing the reformed religion in Scotland,
ended his life in the sixty-seventh year of his age.  Zeal, intrepidity,
disinteriestedness, were virtues which he possessed in an eminent degree.
He was acquainted too with the learning cultivated among divines in that
age; and excelled in that species of eloquence which is calculated to
rouse and to inflame.ll His maxims, however, were often too severe, and
the impetuosity of his temper excessive. Rigid and uncomplying himself,
he showed no indulgence to the infirmities of others.  Regardless of the
distinctions of rank and character, he uttered his admonitions with an
acrimony and vehemence more apt to irritate than to reclaim.  This often
betrayed him  into indecent and undutiful expressions with  respect to
the queen's person and conduct. Those very qualities, however, which
now render his character less amiable, fitted him  to be the instrument of
Providence for advancing the reformation among a fierce people, and
enabling him  to face dangers, and to surmount opposition, from which a
person of a more gentle spirit would have been apt to shrink back. By
an unwearied  application  to study and to business, as well as by the
frequency and fervour of his public discourses, he had worn out a constitution naturally robust. During a lingering illness he discovered the utmost
fortitude; and met the approaches of death with a magnanimity inseparable
from  his character.  He was constantly employed in acts of devotion, and
comforted himself with those prospects of immortality which not only
* Cald. ii. 305.  t Id. 354.    $ See Appendix, No. XXXVIII.    ( Spotsw. 261.
II A striking description of that species of eloquence for which Knox was distinguished, is given
by one of his cotemporaries, Mr. James Melville, minister of Anstruther. " But of all the benefits
I had that year [1571], was the coming of that most notable prophet and apostle of our nation, Mr.
John Knox, to St. Andrew's, who by the faction of the queen occupying the. castle and town of
Edinburgh, was compelled to remove therefra with a number of the best, and chused to come to
St. Andrew's. I heard him teach there the prophecies of Daniel that summer and the winter
following. I had my pen and little buike, and took away sic things as I could comprehend. In the
opening of his text, he was moderate the-space of half an hour; but when he entered to alplication, he made me so to grrue [thrill] and tremble that I could not hald the pen to write. —He was
very weak. I saw him every day of his doctrine go /lulie [slowly] and fair, with a furring of marticks about his neck, a staff in the one hand, and good godlie Richart Ballenden holding him up by
the oxter [under the arm] from the abbey to the parish kirk; and he the said Richart and another
servant lifted him up to the pulpit, where he behoved to lean at his first entrie; but ere he was done
with his sermon, he was so active and vigorous, that he was like to ding the palpit in blads [beat
the pulpit to pieces]. and fly out of it."  MS. Life of Mr. James Melville, communicated to me by
Mr. Paton of the Custom-house, Edinburgh, p. 14. 2t.




222                  THE HISTORY    ~                   3IBoo VI.
preserve good men from desponding, but fill them with exultation in their
last moments. The earl of Morton, who was present at his funeral, pronounced his eulogium in a few words, the more honourable for Knox, as
they came from one whom he had often censured with peculiar severity.
" Ihere lies He, who never feared the face of mlan."3
1573.] Though Morton did not desire peace from such generous motives
as the former regent, he laboured, however, in good earnest, to establish it.
The public confusions and calamities, to which he owed his power and
importance when he was only the second person in the nation, were
extremely detrimental to him now that he was raised to be the first. While
so many of the nobles continued in arms against him, his authority as regent
was partial, feeble, and precarious. Elizabeth was no less desirous of
extinguishing the flame which she had kindled and kept so long alive in
Scotland.t She had discovered the alliance with France, from which she
had expected such advantages, to be no foundation of security. Though
appearances of friendship still subsisted between her and that court, and
Charles daily renewed his protestations of inviolable adherence to the
treaty, she was convinced, by a fatal example, how little she ought to rely
on the promises or oaths of that perfidious monarch. Her ambassador
warned her that the French held secret correspondence with Mary's
adherents in Scotland, and encouraged them in their obstinacy.: The duke
of Alva carried on his intrigues in that kingdom with less disguise. She
was persuaded that they would embrace the first serene interval, which
the commotions in France and in the Netherlands would allow them,
and openly attempt to land a body of men in Scotland. She resolved,
therefore, to prevent their getting any footing in the island, and to cut off
all their hopes of finding any assistance there, by uniting the two parties.
The situation of Mary's adherents enabled the regent to carry on his
negotiations with them to great advantage. They were now divided into
two factions. At the head of the one were Chatelherault and Huntly.
Maitland and Kirkaldy were the leaders of the other. Their high rank,
their extensive property, and the numbers of their followers, rendered the
former considerable. The latter were indebted for their importance to
their personal abilities, and to the strength of the castle of Edinburgh,
which was in their possession. The regent had no intention to comprehend both in the samle treaty; but as he dreaded that the queen's party,
if it remained entire, would be able to thwart and embarrass his administration, he resolved to divide and weaken it by a separate negotiation. He
made the first overture to Kirkaldy and his associates, and endeavoured to
renew the negotiation with them, which, during the life of his predecessor,
had been broken off by his own artifices. But Kirkaldy knew Morton's
views, and system of government, to be very different from those of the
former regent. Maitland considered him as a personal and implacable
enemy. They received repeated assurances of protection from France;
and though the siege of Rochelle employed the French arms at that time,
the same hopes, which had so often deceived the party, still amused them,
and they expected that the obstinacy of the Hugonots would soon be subdued, and that Charles would then be at liberty to act with vigour in
Scotland., Meanwhile a supply of money was sent, and if the castle could
be held out till Whitsunday, effectual aid was promised.~  Maitland's
genius delighted in forming schemes that were dangerous; and Kirkaldy
possessed the intrepidity necessary for putting them in execution. The
castle, they knew, was so situated that it might defy all the regent's power.
Elizabeth, they hoped, would not violate the treaty with France, by sending forces to his assistance; and if the French should he able to land any
considerable body of men, it might be possible to deliver the queen from
* Spotsw. 266. C.all ii. 273    t Digges 21O).    t Ib. 296. 312.        Ib.1314.




OF SCOTLAND.                                  223
captivity, or at least to balance the influence of France and England in
such a manner as to rescue Scotland from  the dishonourable dependence
upon the latter, under which it had fallen. This splendid but chimerical
project they preferred to the friendship of Morton.  They encouraged the
negotiation, however, because it served to gain time; they proposed, for
the same purpose, that the whole of the queen's party should be comprehended in it, and that Kirkaldy should retain the command of the castle
six months after the treaty was signed.  His interest prompted the regent
to reject the former; his penetration discovered the danger of complying
with the latter; and all hopes of accommodation vanished.
As soon as the truce expired, Kirkaldy began to fire on the city of
Edinburgh, which, by the return of the inhahitants whom he had expelled,
was devoted as zealously as ever to the king's cause.  But, as the regent
had now set on foot a treaty with Chatelherault and Huntly, the cessation
of arms still continued with them.
They were less scrupulous than the other party, and listened eagerly to
his overtures. The duke was naturally unsteady, and the approach of old
age increased his irresolution, and aversion to action. The miseries of
civil discord had afflicted Scotland almost five years, a length of time far
beyond the duration of any former contest. The war, instead of doing
service, had been detrimental to the queen; and more ruinous than any
foreign invasion to the kingdom. In prosecuting it, neither party had gained
much honour; both had suffered great losses, and had exhausted their own
estates in wasting those of their adversaries.  The commons were in the
utmost misery, and longed ardently for a peace, which might terminate this
fruitless but destructive quarrel.
A great step was taken towards this desirable event, by the treaty concluded at Perth [Feb. 23], between the regent on one hand, and Chatelherault and Huntly on the other, under the mediation of Killegrew, Elizabeth's ambassador.t  The chief articles in it were these: That all the
parties comprehended in the treaty should declare their approbation of the
reformed religion now established in the kingdom; that they should submit to the king's government, and own Morton's authority as regent; that
they should acknowledge every thing done in opposition to the king, since
his coronation, to be illegal; that on both sides the prisoners who had been
taken should be set at liberty, and the estates which had been forfeited
should be restored to their proper owners; that the act of attainder passed
against the queen's adherents should be repealed, and indemnity granted
for all the crimes of which they had been guilty since the fifteenth of June,
one thousand five hundred and sixty-seven; and that the treaty should be
ratified by the common consent of both parties in parliament.+
I(irkaldy, though abandoned by his associates, who neither discovered
solicitude nor made provision for his safety, did not lose courage, nor entertain any thoughts of accommodation.6  Though all Scotland had now submitted to the king, he still resolved to defend the castle in thd queen's
name, and to wait the arrival of the promised succours.  The regent was
in want of every thing necessary for carrying on a siege. But Elizabeth,
who, determined at any rate to bring the dissensions in Scotland to a period
* Melv. 235, &c.   t See Appendix, No. XXXIX.       Crawf. Mem. 251.. Melvil, whose brother, sir Robert, was one of those who joined with Kirkaldy in the defence
of the castle, and who was himself strongly attached to their party, asserts that Kirkaldy offered to
accept of any reasonable terms of composition, but that all his offbrs were rejected by the regent
Melv. 240. But, as Elizabeth was at that time extremely desirous of restoring peace in Scotland,
and her ambassador Killegrew, as well as the earl of Rothes, used their utmost endeavours to persuade Kirkaldy to accede to the treaty of Perth, it seems more credible to impute the continuantce of
hostilities to Kirkaldy's obstinacy, his distrust of Morton, or his hope of foreign aid, than to any
other cause.
That this was really the case is evident from the positive testimony of Spotsw. 269, 270. Camd.
448. Johnst. Hist. 3, 4. Digges, 334. Crawford's account agrees, in the main, with theirs.
Mem. 263.




224                     THE HISTORY                      [BooK VI.
before the French could find leisure to take part in the quarrel, soon
afforded him sufficient supplies. Sir William Drury marched into Scotland with fifteen hundred foot, and a considerable train of artillery. The
regent joined him with all his forces; and trenches were opened and
approaches regularly carried on against the castle [April 251. Kirkaldy,
though discouraged by the loss of a great sum of money remitted to him
from France, and which fell into the regent's hands through the treachery
of sir James Balfour, the most corrupt man of that age, defended himself
with bravery augmented by despair. Three-and-thirty days he resisted
all the efforts ol' the Scotch and English, who pushed on their attacks with
courage and with emulation. Nor did he demand a parley, till the fortifications were battered down, and one of the wells in the castle dried up,
and the other choked with rubbish. Even then, his spirit was unsubdued,
and he determined rather to fall gloriously behind the last entrenchment
than to yield to his inveterate enemies. But his garrison was not animated
with the same heroic or desperate resolution, and, rising in a mutiny,
forced him to capitulate. He surrendered himself to Drury [May 291,
who promised, in the name of his mistress, that he should be favourably
treated.  Together with him, James Kirkaldy his brother, lord Home,
Maitland, sir Robert Melvil, a few citizens of Edinburgh, and about one
hundred and sixty soldiers, were made prisoners.*
Several of the officers, who had been kept in pay during the war, pre
vailed on their men to accompany them into the Low-Countries, and entering into the service of the States, added, by their gallant behaviour, to the
reputation for military virtue which has always been the characteristic of
the Scottish nation.
Thus by the treaty with Chatelherault and Huntly, and the surrender
of the castle, the civil wars in Scotland were brought to a period.  When
we review the state of the nation, and compare the strength of the two
factions, Mary's partisans among the nobles appear, manifestly, to have
been superior both in numbers and in power.  But these advantages were
more than counterbalanced by others, which their antagonists enjoyed.
Political abilities, military skill, and all the talents which times of action
form, or call forth, appeared chiefly on the king's side. Nor could their
enemies boast of any man, who equalled the intrepidity of Murray, tempered with wisdom; the profound sagacity of Morton; the subtle genius,
and insinuating address of Maitland; or the successful valour of Kirkaldy;
all of' which were at first employed in laying the foundation of the king's
authority. On the one side, measures were concerted with prudence, and
executed with vigour; on the other, their resolutions were rash, and their
conduct feeble. The people, animated with zeal for religion, and prompted
by indignation against the queen, warmly supported the king's cause.
The clergy threw the whole weight of their popularity into the same scale.
By means of these, as well as by the powerful interposition of England, the
king's government was finally established. Mary lost even that shadow
of sovereignty which, amidst all her sufferings, she had hitherto retained
among part of her own subjects. As she was no longer permitted to have
an ambassador at the court of England, the only mark of dignity which
she had for some time enjoyed there, she must henceforth be considered
as an exile stripped of all the ensigns of royalty; guarded with anxiety in
the one kingdom, and totally deserted or forgotten in the other.
Kirkaldy and his associates remained in Drury's custody, and were
treated by him with great humanity, until the queen of England, whose
prisoners they were, should determine their fate., Morton insisted that
they should suffer the punishment due to their rebellion and obstinacy; and
declared that, so long as they were allowed to live, he did not reckon his
* Cald. ii. 408. Melv. 240. Crawf. Mem. 265




OF SCOTLAND                                   225
own person or authority secure; and Elizabeth, without regarding Drury's
honour, or his promises in her name, gave them up to the regent's disposal.
He first confined them  to separate prisons [Aug. 3]; and soon after, with
Elizabeth's consent, condemned Kirkaldy and his brother to be hanged at
the cross of Edinburgh.  Maitland, who did not expect to be treated more
favourably, prevented the ignominy of a public execution by a voluntary
death, and " ended his days," says Melvil, " after the old Roman fashion."~'
While the regent was wreaking his vengeance on the remains of her
party in Scotland, Mary, incapable of affording them any relief, bewailed
their misfortunes in the solitude of her prison. At the same time her health
began to be much impaired by confinement and want of exercise. At the
entreaty of the French ambassador, lord Shrewsbury, her keeper, was
permitted to conduct her to Buxton Wells, not far f'om Tuthbury, the
place of her imprisonment. Cecil, who had lately been created baron of
Burleigh, and Lord High Treasurer of England, happened to be there at
the same time. Though no minister ever entered more warmly into the
views of a sovereign, or gave stronger proofs of-his fidelity and attachment
than this great man, yet such was Elizabeth's distrust of every person who
approached the queen of Scots that her suspicions, in consequence of' this
interview, seem  to have extended even to him; and while Mary justly
reckoned him her most dangerous enelny, he found some difficulty in persuading his own mistress that he was not partial to that unhappy queen.4
The duke of Alva was this year recalled from  the government of the
Netherlands, where his haughty and oppressive administration roused a
spirit, in attempting to subdue which Spain exhausted its treasures, ruined
its armies, and lost its glory. Requesens, who succeeded him, was of a
milder temper, and of a less enterprising genius. rhis event delivered
Elizabeth from the perpetual disquietude occasioned by Alva's negotiations
with the Scottis], queen, and his zeal for her interest.
1574.] Though Scotland was now settled in profound peace, many of the
evils which accompany civil war were still felt.  The restraints of law,
which in times of public confusion  are little regarded even by civilized nations, were totally despised by  a fierce people unaccustomed
to a regular administration of justice. The disorders in every corner of
the kingdom were become intolerable; and, under the protection of the
one or the other faction, crimes of every kind were committed with impunity.  The regent set himself to redress these, and by his industry and
vigour, order and security were re-established in the kingdom.  But he
lost the reputation due to this important service, by the avarice which he
discovered in performing it; and his own exactions became more pernicious
to the nation than all the irregularities which he restrained.+  Spies and
informers were every where employed; the remembrance of old offences
was revived; imaginary crimes were invented; petty trespasses were
aggravated; and delinquents were forced to compound for their lives by
the payment of exorbitant fines. At the same time the current coin was
debased;~ licenses were sold for carrying on prohibited branches of commerce; unusual taxes were imposed on commodities; and all the refinements in oppression, from which nations so imperfectly polished as the
Scots are usually exempted, were put in practice. None of these were
complained of more loudly, or with greater reason, than his injustice
towards the church. The thirds of benefices, out of which the clergy
* Melv. 242.    t Strype, ii. 248. 248..   See Appendix, No. XL.
~ The corruption of the coin, during Morton's administration, was very great. Although the
quantity of current mnoney coined out of a pound of bullion was gradually increased by former
princes, the standard or fineness suffered little alteration, and the mixture of alloy was nearly the
same with what is now used. But Morton mixed a fourth part of alloy with every pound of silver,
and sunk, by consequence, the value of coin in proportion. In the year 1581, all the money coined
by him was called in, and appointed to be recoined. The standard was restored to the same purity
as formerly. Ruddim. Praff. to Anders. Diplom. p. 74.
VOL. III. —29




226                    T H E H ISTORY                  [BooK VI.
received their subsistence, had always been slowly and irregularly paid to
collectors appointed by the general assembly; and during the civil wars,
no payment could be obtained in several parts of the kingdom. Under
colour of redressing this grievance, and upon a promise of assigning every
minister a stipend within his own parish, the regent extorted from the
church the thirds to which they had right by law. But the clergy, instead
of reaping any advantage from this alteration, found that payments became
more irregular and dilatory than ever. One minister was commonly burthened with the care of four or five parishes, a pitiful salary was allotted
him, and the regent's insatiable avarice seized on the rest of the fund.*
The death of Charles IX., which happened this year, was a new misfortune to the Scottish queen. Henry III., who succeeded him, had not
the same attachment to her person; and his jealousy of the house of Guise,
and obsequiousness to the queen mother, greatly alienated him from her
interest.
1575.) The death of the duke of Chatelherault [Jan. 22], must likewise
be considered as some loss to Mary. As the parliament had firequently,declared him next heir to the crown, this entitled him to great respect;among his countrymen, and enabled him, more than any other person in.the kingdom, to counterbalance the regent's power.
Soon after, at one of the usual interviews between the wardens of the:Scottish and English marches, a scuffle happened, in which the English
were worsted; a few killed on the spot; and sir James Forrester, the
warden, with several gentlemen who attended him, taken prisoners. But
both Elizabeth and the regent were too sensible of the advantage which
resulted from the good understanding that subsisted between the two
ikingdoms, to allow this slight accident to interrupt it.
The domestic tranquillity of the kingdom was in some danger of being
disturbed by another cause. Though the persons raised to the dignity of
bishops possessed very small revenues and a very moderate degree of
power, the clergy, to whom the regent and all his measures were become
extremely odious, began to be jealous of that order. Knowing that corruptions steal into the church gradually, under honourable names and upon
decent pretences, they were afraid that from such small beginnings, the
hierarchy might grow in tinle to be as powerful and oppressive as ever.
The chief author of these suspicions was Mr. Andrew Melvil, a man distinguished by his uncommon erudition, by the severity of his manners, and
"the intrepidity of his mind. But, bred up in the retirement of a college,
he was unacquainted with the arts of life; and being more attentive to the
ends which he pursued than to the means which he employed for promoting them, he often defeated laudable designs by the impetuosity and
imprudence with which be carried them on. A question was moved by
him in the assembly, "Whether the office of bishop, as now exercised in
the kingdom, were agreeable to the word of God?" In the ecclesiastical
judicatories continual complaints were made of the bishops for neglect of
duty, many of which their known remissness too well justified.  The
bishop of Dunkeld, being accused of dilapidating his benefice, was found
guilty by the assembly. The regent, instead of checking, connived at
these disputes about ecclesiastical government, as they diverted the zeal
of the clergy from attending to his daily encroachments on the patrimony.of the church.t
1576.] The weight of the regent's oppressive administration had hitherto
-fallen chiefly on those in the lower and middle rank; but he began now to
take such steps as convinced the nobles that their dignity would not long
exempt them from feeling the effect of his power. An accident, which
* Crawf. Mem. 272. Spotsw. 273. Cald. ii. 420. 427.  t Cald. Assemblies, 1574, &.
Johnst. Hist. 15.




OF SCOTLAND.                            227
was a frequent cause of dissension among the Scottish nobles, occasioned
a difference between the earls of Argyll and Athol. A vassal of the former
had made some depredations on the lands of the latter. Athol took arms
to punish the offencier-Argyll to protect him; and this ignoble quarrel
they were ready to decide in the field, when the regent by interposing his
authority obliged them to disband their forces. Both of them had been
guilty of irregularities, which, though common, wvere contrary to the letter
of the law. Of these the regent took advantage, and resolved to found on
them a charge of treason. This design was revealed to the two earls by
one of Morton's retainers. The common danger to which they were
exposed compelled them to forget old quarrels, and unite in a close confederacy for their mutual defence. Their junction rendered them formidable; they despised the summons which the regent gave them to appear
before a court of justice; and he was obliged to desist from any further
prosecution.  But the injury he intended made a deep impression on their
minds, and drew upon him severe vengeance."
Nor was he more successful in an attempt which he made to load lord
Claud Hamilton with the guilt of having formed a conspiracy against his
life. Though those who were supposed to be his accomplices were seized
and tortured, no evidence of any thing criminal appeared; but, on the
contrary, many circumstances discovered his innocence, as well as the
regent's secret views in imputing to him such an odious design.+
1577.] The Scottish nobles, who were almost equal to their monarchs in
power, and treated by them with much distinction, observed these arbitrary proceedings of the regent with the utmost indignation. The people
who, under a form of government extremely simple, had been little accustomed to the burden of taxes, complained loudly of the regent's rapacity';
and all began to turn their eyes towards the young king, from whom they
expected the redress of all their grievances, and the return of a more gentle
and more equal administration.
James was now in the twelfth year of his age. The queen soon after
his birth had committed him to the care of the earl of Mar, and during
the civil wars he had resided securely in the castle of Stirling. Alexander
Erskine, that nobleman's brother, had the chief direction of his education.
Under him the famous Buchanan acted as preceptor, together with three
other masters, the most eminent the nation afforded for skill in those
sciences which were deemed necessary for a prince. As the young king
showed an uncommon passion for learning, and made great progress in it,
the Scots fancied that they already discovered in him all those virtues
which the fondness or credulity of subjects usually ascribes to princes
during their minority. But as James was still far from that age at which
the law permitted him to assume the reins of government, the regent did
not sufficiently attend to the sentiments of the people, nor reflect how
naturally these prejudices in his favour might encourage the king to anticipate that period. He not only neglected to secure the friendship of those
who were about the king's person, and who possessed his ear, but had
even exasperated some of them by personal injuries. Their resentment
concurred with the ambition of others, in infusing into the king early suspicions of Morton's power and designs. A king, they told him, had often
reason to fear, seldom to love a regent. Prompted by ambition and by
interest, he would endeavour to keep the prince in perpetual infancy, at a
distance from  his subjects, and unacquainted with business.  A small
degree of vigour, however, was sufficient to break the yoke. Subjects
naturally reverence their sovereign, and become impatient of the temporary and delegated jurisdiction of a regent. Morton had governed with
rigour unknown to the ancient monarchs of Scotland. The nation groaned
* Crawf Mem. 285.             t Ibid. 29870




t2U                    THE HISTORY                     [BoOK VI.
under his oppressions, and would welcome the first prospect of a milder
administration. At present the king's name was hardly mentioned in Scotand, his friends were without influence, and his favourites without honour.
But one effort would discover.Norton's power to be as feeble as it was
arbitrary. The same attempt would put himself in possession of his just
authority, and rescue the nation from intolerable tyranny. If he did not
regard his own rights as a king, let him listen at least to the cries of his
people."
These suggestions made a deep impression on the young king, who was
trained up in an opinion that he was born to command. His approbation
of the design, however, was of small consequence without the concurrence
of the nobles. The earls of Argyll and Athol], two of the most powerful of
that body, were animated with implacable resentment against the regent.
To them the cabal in Stirling Castle communicated the plot which was on
fbot; and they entering warmly into it, Alexander Erskine, who, since the
death of his brother, and during the minority of his nephew, had the command of that fort and the custody of the king's person, admitted them
secretly into the king's presence. They gave him the same account of the
misery of his subjects, under the regent's arbitrary administration; they
complained loudly of the injustice with which themselves had been treated,
and besought the king, as the only means for redressing the grievances of
the nation, to call a council of all the nobles. James consented, and letters
were issued in his name for that purpose; but the two earls took care that
they should be sent only to such as were known to bear no good will to
Morton.t
The number of these was, however, so considerable, that on the day
appointed far the greater part of the nobles assembled at Stirling; and so
highly were they incensed against Morton, that although, on receiving intellig'ence of Argyll and Athol's interview with the king [March 24, 1578],
he had made a feint as if he would resign the regency, they advised the
king, without regarding this offer, to deprive him of his office, and to take
the administration of government into his own hands. Lord Glamis the
chancellor, and Herries, were appointecd to signify this resolution to Morton, who was at that time in Dalkeith, his usual place of residence. Nothing could equal the joy with which this unexpected resolution filled the
nation, but the surprise occasioned by the seeming alacrity with which the
regent descended from so high a station. He neither wanted sagacity to
foresee the danger of resigning, nor inclination to keep possession of an
office, for the expiration of which the law had fixed so distant a term. But all
the sources whence the faction of which he was head derived their strength
had either failed, or now. supplied his adversaries with the means of humbling him. The commons, the city of Edinburgh, the clergy, were all totally
alienated from him by his multiplied oppressions. Elizabeth, having lately
bound herself by treaty to send a considerable body of troops to the assistance of the inhabitants of the Netherlands, who were struggling for liberty,
had little leisure to attend to the affairs of Scotland; and as she had nothing
to dread from France, in whose councils the princes of Lorrain had not at that
time much influence, she was not displeased, perhaps, at the birth of new
factions in the kingdom. Even those nobles who had long been joined withl
Morton in faction, or whom he had attached to his person by benefits,
Glamis, Lindsay, Ruthven, Pitcairn the secretary, Murray of Tullibardin,
comptroller, all deserted his falling fortunes, and appeared in the council
at Stirling. So many concurring circumstances convinced Morton of his
own weakness, and determined him to give way to a torrent which was
too impetuous to be resisted. He attended the chancellor and Herries to
Edinburgh [March 12]; was present when the king's acceptance of the
* Melvil, 249.             t Spotsw. 278.




OF SCOTLAN D                             223
government was proclaimed and, in the presence of the people, surrendered
to the king all the authority to which he had any claim in virtue of his office.
This ceremony was accompanied with such excessive joy and acclamations
of the multitude, as added, no doubt, to the anguish which an ambitious
spirit must feel, when compelled to renounce supreme power; and convinced Morton how entirely he had lost the affections of his countrymen.
He obtained, however, from the king an act containing the approbation of
every thing done by him in the exercise of his office, and a pardon, in the
most ample form that his fear or caution could devise, of all past offences,
crimes, and treasons. The nobles, who adhered to the king, bound themselves under a great penalty, to procure the ratification of this act in the
first parliament.*
A council of twelve peers was appointed to assist the king in the administration of affairs. Morton, deserted by his own party, and unable to
struggle with the faction which governed absolutely at court, retired to one
of his seats, and seemed to enjoy the tranquillity, and to be occupied only
in the amusements of a country life. His mind, however, was deeply disquieted with all the uneasy reflections which accompany disappointed
ambition, and intent on schemes for recovering his former grandeur. Even
in this retreat, which the people called the lion's den, his wealth and abilities rendered him formidable; and the new counsellors were so imprudent
as to rouse him, by the precipitancy with which they hastened to strip him
of all the remains of power. They required him to surrender the castle of
Edinburgh, which was still in his possession. He refused at first to do so,
and began to prepare for its defence; but the citizens of Edinburgh having
taken arms, and repulsed part of the garrison, which was sent out to guard
a convoy of provisions, he was obliged to give up that important fortress
without resistance. This encouraged his adversaries to call a parliament
to meet at Edinburgh, and to multiply their demands upon him in such a
manner as convinced him that nothing less than his utter ruin would satisfy
their inveterate hatred.
Their power and popularity, however, began already to decline. The
chancellor, the ablest and most moderate man in the party, having been
killed at Stirling in an accidental rencounter between his followers and
those of the earl of Crawford; Athol, who was appointed his successor in
that high office, the earls of Eglington, Caithness, and Lord Ogilvie, all the
prime tavourites at court, were either avowed papists, or suspected of leaning to the opinions of that sect. In an age when the return of popery was
so much and so justly dreaded, this gave universal alarm. As Morton had
always treated the papists with rigour, this unseasonable favour to persons
of that religion made all zealous protestants remember that circumstance in
his administration with great praise.'t
Morton, to whom none of these particulars were unknown, thought this
the proper juncture for setting to work the instruments which he had been
preparing. Having gained the confidence of the earl of Mar, and of the
countess his mother, he insinuated to them, that Alexander Erskine had
formed a plot to deprive his nephew of the government of Stirling Castle,
and the custody of the king's person; and easily induced an ambitious
woman, and a youth of twenty, to employ force to prevent this supposed
injury. The earl repairing suddenly to Stirling [April 26], and being
admitted as usual into the castle with his attendants, seized the gates early
in the morning, and turned out his uncle, who dreaded no danger from his
hands. The soldiers of the garrison submitted to him as their governor,
and, with little danger and no effusion of blood, he became master both ot
the king's person and of the fortress.1
An event so unexpected occasioned great consternation. Though Mor
* Spotsw 278. Crawf. Mem. 289. Cald. ii. 522.   t Spotsw. 283.   + Cald. ii. 535.




230                     TH E  HISTORY                  [Book VI.
ton's hand did not appear in the execution, he was universally believed to
be the author of the attempt. The new counsellors saw it to be necessary,
for their own safety, to change their measures, and, instead of pursuing him
with such implacable resentment, to enter into terms cf accommodation
with an adversary still so capable of creating them trouble. Four were
named on each side to adjust the differences. They met not far from Dal
keith; and when they had brought matters near to a conclusion, Morton,
who was too sagacious not to improve the advantage which their security
and their attention to the treaty afforded him, set out in the night-time for
Stirling, and, having gained Murray of Tullibardin, Mar's uncle, was
admitted by him into the castle [May 24]; and, managing matters there
with his usual dexterity, he soon had more entirely the command of the fort
than the earl himself. He was likewise admitted to a seat in the privy
council, and acquired as complete an ascendant in it.*
As the time appointed for the meeting of parliament at Edinburgh now
approached, this gave him some anxiety. He was afraid of conducting the
young king to a city whose inhabitants were so much at the devotion of the
adverse faction. He was no less unwilling to leave James behind at Stir
ling. In orderto avoid this dilemma, he issued a proclamation in the king's
name, changing the place of meeting from Edinburgh to Stirling Castle.
This Athol and his party represented as a step altogether unconstitutional.
The king, said they, is Morton's prisoner; the pretended counsellors are his
slaves; a parliament, to which all the nobles may repair without fear, and
where they may deliberate with freedom, is absolutely necessary for
settling the nation after disorders of such long continuance. But an assembly called contrary to all form, held within the walls of a garrison, and
overawed by armed men, what safety could members expect? what liberty
could prevail in debate? or what benefit result to the public? The parlianment met, however, on the day appointed [July 251, and, notwithstanding the protestation of the earl of Montrose and lord Lindsay, in the name
of their party, proceeded to business. The king's acceptance of the
government was confirmed; the act granted to Morton, for his security,
ratified; some regulations with regard to the numbers and authority of the
privy council were agreed upon; and a pension for life granted to the
countess of Mar, who had been so instrumental in bringing about the late
revolution.j
Meanwhile Argyll, Athol, and their followers took arms, upon the specious pretence of rescuing the king from captivity, and the kingdom from
oppression. James himself, impatient of the servitude in which he was
held by a man whom he had long been taught to hate, secretly encouraged
their enterprise; though at the same time he was obliged not only to disavow them in public, but to levy forces against them, and even to declare,
by proclamation, that he was perfectly free from any constraint, either
upon his person or his will [Aug. 11]. Both sides quickly took the field.
Argyll and Athol were at the head of seven thousand men; the earl of
Angus, Morton's nephew, met them with an army five thousand strong;
neither party, however, was eager to engage. Morrton distrusted the fidelity of his own troops. The two earls were sensible that a single victory,
however complete, would not be decisive; and, as they were in no condition to undertake the siege of Stirling Castle, where the king was kept,
their strength would soon be exhausted, while Morton's own wealth, and
the patronage of the queen of England might furnish him with endless
resources. By the mediation of Bowes, whom Elizabeth had sent into
Scotland to negotiate an accommodation between the two factions, a treaty
was concluded, in consequence of which Argyll and Athol were admitted
into the king's presence; some of their party were added to the privy coun* Cald, ii. 536    t Ibid. ii, 547. Parl. 5. Jac, 6.




OF SCOTLAND.                             23
ell; and a convention of nobles called, in order to bring all remaining differences to an amicable issue.*
As soon as James assumed the government into his own hands, he despatched the abbot of Dunfermling to inform Elizabeth of that event; to
offer to renew the alliance between the two kingdoms; and to demand possession of the estate which had lately fallen to him by the death of his
grandmother the countess of Lennox. That lady's second son had left one
daughter, Arabella Stewart, who was born in England. And as the chief
objection against the pretensions of the Scottish line to the crown of England was that maxim of English law which excludes aliens from any right
of inheritance within the kingdom, Elizabeth, by granting this demand,
would have established a precedent in James's favour, that might have
been deemed decisive with regard to a point which it had been her constant care to keep undecided. Without suffering this delicate question to
be tried, or allowing any new light to be thrown on that which she considered as the great mystery of her reign, she commanded lord Burleigh,
master of the wards, to sequester the rents of the estate; and, by this method
of proceeding, gave the Scottish king early warning how necessary it would
be to court her favour, if ever he hoped for success in claims of greater
importance, but equally liable to be controverted.t
1579.] After many delays, and with much difficulty, the contending
nobles were at last brought to some agreement. But it was followed by a
tragical event. Morton, in token of reconcilement, having invited the
leaders of the opposite party to a great entertainment, Athol the chancellor
was soon after taken ill, and died within a few days [April 24]. The
symptoms and violence of the disease gave rise to strong suspicions of his
being poisoned; and though the physicians who opened his body differed
in opinion as to the cause of the distemper, the chancellor's relations publicly
accused Morton of that odious crime. The advantage which visibly accrued
to him by the removal of a man of great abilities, and averse from all his
measures, was deemed a sufficient proof of his guilt by the people, who
are ever fond of imputing the death of eminent persons to extraordinary
causes.t
The office of chancellor was bestowed upon Argyll, whom this prefer
ment reconciled, in a great measure, to Morton's administration. He had
now recovered all the authority which he possessed during his regency,
and had entirely broken or baffled the power and cabals of his enemies.
None of the great families remained to be the objects of his jealousy or to
obstruct his designs, but that of Hamilton. The earl of Arran, the eldest
brother, had never recovered the shock which he received from the ill success of his passion for the queen, and had now altogether lost his reason.
Lord John, the second brother, was in possession of the family estate; lord
Claud was commendator of Paisley; both of them young men, ambitious and
enterprising. Morton dreaded their influence in the kingdom; the courtiers
hoped to share their sp;oils among them; and as all princes naturally view
their successors with jealousy and hatred, it was easy to infuse these passions into the mind of the young king. A pretence was at hand to justify
the most violent proceedings. The pardon, stipulated in the treaty of
Perth, did not extend to such as were accessary to the murder of the
regents Murray or Lennox. Lord John and his brother were suspected of
being the authors of both these crimes, and had been included in a general
act of attainder on that account. Without summoning them to trial, oI
examining a single witness to prove the charge, this attainder was now
thought sufficient to subject them to all thepenalties which they would have
incurred by being formally convicted. The earls of Morton. Mar, and
Eglington, together with the lords Ruthven, Boyd, and Cathcart, received
* Crawf. Mem. 307.   t Camd. 461.    [ Spotsw. 306




232                    THE HISTORY                     [BOOK VI.
a commission to seize their persons and estates. On a few hours' warning
a considerable body of troops was ready, and marched towards Hamilton
in hostile array. Happily the two brothers made their escape, though
with great difficulty. But their lands were confiscated; the castles of
Hamilton and Draffan besieged; those who defended them punished. The
earl of Arran, though incapable from his situation of committing any crime,
was involved, by a shameful abuse of law, in the common ruin of his
family; and, as if he too could have been guilty of rebellion, he was confined a close prisoner. These proceedings, so contrary to the fundamental
principles of justice, were all ratified in the subsequent parliament.*
About this time Mary sent, by Naue her secretary, a letter to her son,
together with some jewels of value, and a vest embroidered with her own
hands. But, as she gave him only the title of prince of Scotland, the
messenger was dismissed without being admitted into his presence.t
Though Elizabeth had at this time no particular reason to fear any
attempt of the popish princes in Mary's favour, she still continued to guard
her with the same anxious care. The acquisition of Portugal on the one
hand, and the defence of the Netherlands on the other, fully employed the
councils and arms of Spain. France, torn in pieces by intestine commotions, and under a weak and capricious prince, despised and distrusted
by his own subjects, was in no condition to disturb its neighbours. Elizabeth had long amused that court by carrying on a treaty of marriage withthe duke of Alencon, the king's brother. But whether, at the age of fortyfive, she really intended to marry a prince of twenty; whether the pleasure of being flattered and courted made her listen to the addresses of so
young a lover, whom she allowed to visit her at two different times, and
treated with the most distinguishing respect: or whether considerations of
interest predominated in this as well as in every other transaction of her
reign, are problems in history which we are not concerned to resolve.
During the progress of this negotiation, which was drawn out to an extraordinary length, Mary could expect no assistance from the French court,
and seems to have held little correspondence with it; and there was no
period in her reign, wherein Elizabeth enjoyed more perfect security..Morton seems at this time to have been equally secure; but his security
was not so well founded. He had weathered out one storm, had crushed
his adversaries, and was again in possession of the sole direction of affairs.
But as the king was now of an age when the character and dispositions of
the mind begin to unfold themselves, and to become visible, the smallest
attention to these might have convinced him, that there was reason to
expect new and more dangerous attacks on his power. James early discovered that excessive attachment to favourites, which accompanied him
through his whole life. This passion, which naturally arises from inexperience and youthful warmth of heart, was, at his age, far from being
culpable; nor could it be well expected that the choice of the objects on
whom he placed his affections should be made with great skill. The
most considerable of them was Esme Stewart, a native of France, and
son of a second brother of the earl of Lennox. He was distinguished by
the title of lord D'Aubigne, an estate in France, which descended to him
from his ancestors, on whom it had been conferred in reward of their valour
and services to the French crown. He arrived in Scotland about this time
[Sept. 8], on purpose to demand the estate and title of Lennox, to which
he pretended a legal right. He was received at first by the king with the
respect due to so near a relation. The gracefulness of his person, the
elegance of his dress, and his courtly behaviour, made a great impression
on James, who, even in his more mature years, was little able to resist
these frivolous charms; and his affection flowed with its usual rapidity and
* Crawf. Menl. 311. Spotsw. 306    t Crawf. Mem. 314.




OF SCOTLAND.                             233
profusion.  Within a few days after Stewart's appearance at court, he was
created lord Aberbrothock, soon after earl and then duke of Lennox, governor of Dumbarton castle, captain of the guard, first lord of the bedchamber, and lord high chamberlain. At the same time, and without any
of the envy or emulation which is usual among candidates for favour, captain James Stewart, the second son of lord Ochiltree, grew into great confidence. But, notwithstanding this union, Lennox and captain Stewart
were persons of very opposite characters. The former was naturally
gentle, humane, candid; but unacquainted with the state of the country,
and misled or misinformed by those whom he trusted; not unworthy to be
the companion of the young king in his amusements, but utterly disqualified for acting as a minister in directing his affairs. The latter was
remarkable for all the vices which render a man formidable to his country,
and a pernicious counsellor to his prince; nor did he possess any one virtue
to counterbalance these vices, unless dexterity in conducting his own designs. and an enterprising courage, superior to the sense of danger, may
pass by that name. Unrestrained by religion, regardless of decency, and
undismayed by opposition, he aimed at objects seemingly unattainable;
but, under a prince void of experience, and blind, to all the defects of those
who had gained his favour, his audacity was successful; and honours,
wealth, and power, were the reward of his crimes.
Both the favourites concurred in employing their whole address to undermine Morton's credit, which alone obstructed their full possession of
power. As James had been bred up with an aversion for that nobleman,
who endeavoured rather to maintain the authority of a tutor, than to act
with the obsequiousness of a minister, they found it no difficult matter to
accomplish their design. Morton, who could no longer keep the king shut
up within the walls of Stirling Castle, having called a parliament [Oct. 171
to meet at Edinburgh, brought him thither. James made his entry into the
capital with great solemnity; the citizens received him with the loudest
acclamations of joy, and with many expensive pageants, according to the
mode of that age. After a long period of thirty-seven years, during which
Scotland had been subjected to the delegated power of regents, or to the
feeble government of a woman; after having suffered all the miseries of
civil war, and felt the insolence of foreign armies, the nation rejoiced to
see the sceptre once more in the hands of a king. Fond even of that
shadow of authority, which a prince of fifteen could possess, the Scots
flattered themselves, that union, order, and tranquillity, would now be restored to the kingdom. James opened the parliament with extraordinary
pomp, but nothing remarkable passed in it.
1580.] These demonstrations, however, of the people's love and attachment to their sovereign, encouraged the favourites to continue their insinuations against Morton; and as the king now resided in the palace of Holyrood
house, to which all his subjects had access, the cabal against the earl grew
daily stronger, and the intrigue which occasioned his fail ripened gradually.
IMorton began to be sensible of his danger, and endeavoured to put a
stop to the career of Lennox's preferment, by representing him as a
formidable enermy to the reformed religion, a secret agent in favour of
popery, and a known emissary of the house of Guise. The clergy, apt
to believe every rumour of this kind, spread the alarm among the people.
But Lennox, either out of complaisance to his master, or convinced by the
arguments of some learned divines whom the king appointed to instruct
him in the principles of the protestant religion, publicly renounced the
errors of popery, in the church of St. Giles, and declared himself a member
of the church of Scotland, by signing her confession of faith. This, though
it did not remove all suspicions, nor silence some zealous preachers, abated,
in a great degree, the force of the accusation.*
4 Crawf. Mem. 319. Spotsw. 308.
VOL. III.-30




234                   THE HISTORY                      [BOOK VI.
On the other hand, a rumour prevailed that Morton was preparing
to seize the king's person, and to carry him into England. Whether
despair of maintaining his power by any other means, had driven him to
make any overture of that kind to the English court, or whether it was a
calumny invented by his adversaries to render him odious, cannot now be
determined with certainty. As he declared at his death that such a design
had never entered into his thoughts, the latter seems to be most probable.
It afforded a pretence, however, for reviving the office of lord chamberlain,
which had been for some time disused. That honour was conferred on
Lennox. Alexander Erskine, Morton's capital enemy, was his deputy;
they had under them a band of gentlemen, who were appointed constantly
to attend the king, and to guard his person."
Morton was not ignorant of what his enemies intended to insinuate by
such unusual precautions for the king's safety; and, as his last resource,
applied to Elizabeth, whose protection had often stood him in stead in his
greatest difficulties. In consequence of this application, Bowes, her envoy,
accused Lennox of practices against the peace of the two kingdoms, and
insisted, in her name, that he should instantly be removed from the privy
council. Such an unprecedented demand was considered by the counsellors as an affront to the king, and an encroachment on the independence of
the kingdom. They affected to call in question the envoy's powers, and
upon that pretence refused him further audience: and he retiring in disgust,
and without taking leave, Sir Alexander Home was sent to expostulate
with Elizabeth on the subject. After the treatment which her envoy had
received, Elizabeth thought it below her dignity to admit Home into her
presence. Burleigh, to whom he was commanded to impart his commission, reproached him with his master's ingratitude towards a benefactress
who had placed the crown on his head, and required him to advise the
king to beware of sacrificing the friendship of so necessary an ally to the
giddy humours of a young man without experience, and strongly suspected
of principles and attachments incompatible with the happiness of the
Scottish nation.
This accusation of Lennox hastened, in all probability, Morton's fall.
The act of indemnity, which he had obtained when he resigned the regency, was worded with such scrupulous exactness, as almost screened him
from any legal prosecution. The murder of the late king was the only
crime which could not, with decency, be inserted in a pardon granted by
his son. Here Morton still lay open to the penalties of the law, and Capt.
Stewart, who shunned no action, however desperate, if it led to power or
to favour, entered the council-chamber while the king and nobles were
assembled, and [Dec. 30,] falling on his knees, accused Morton of being
accessary, or, according to the language of the Scottish law, art and part,
in the conspiracy against the life of his majesty's father, and offered, under
the usual penalties, to verify this charge by legal evidence. Morton, who
was present, heard this accusation with firmness; and replied with a disdainful smile, proceeding either from contempt of the infamous character
of his accuser, or from consciousness of his own innocence, " that his own
zeal in punishing those who were suspected of that detestable crime, might
well exempt himself from any suspicion of being accessary to it; nevertheless, he would cheerfully submit to a trial, either in that place or in any
other court; and doubted not but his own innocence and the malice of his
enemies would then appear in the clearest light." Stewart, who was still
on his knees, began to inquire how he would reconcile his bestowing so
many honours on Archibald Douglas, whom he certainly knew to be one
of the murderers, with his pretended zeal against that crime. Morton was
readyto answer. But the king commanded both to be removed [1581].
* Crawf. Mem. 320.




OF  SCOTLAND.                            23fi
The earl was confined, first of all to his own house, and then committed
to the castle of Edinburgh, of' which Alexander Erskine was governor;
and, as if it had not been a sufficient indignity to subject him to the power
of one of his enemies, he was soon after carried to Dumbarton, of
which Lennox had the command. A warrant was likewise issued, for
apprehending Archibald Douglas; but he, having received timely intelligence of the approaching danger, fled into England.*
The earl of Angus, who imputed these violent proceedings not to hatred
against Morton alone, but to the ancient enmity between the houses of Stewart and of Douglas, and who believed that a conspiracy was now formed for
the destruction of all who bore that name, was ready to take arms in order
to rescue his kinsman. But Morton absolutely forbade any such attempt, and
declared that he would rather suffer ten thousand deaths than bring an
imputation upon his own character by seeming to decline a trial.t
Elizabeth did not fail to interpose, with warmth, in behalf of a man who
had contributed so much to preserve her influence over Scotland. The
late transactions in that kingdom had given her great uneasiness. The
power which Lennox had acquired independent of her was dangerous;
the treatment her ambassadors had met with differed greatly from the respect with which the Scots were in use to receive her ministers; and the
attack now made on Morton fully convinced her that there was an intention
to sow the seeds of discord between the two nations, and to seduce James
into a new alliance with France, or into a marriage with some popish princess. Full of these apprehensions, she ordered a considerable body of
troops to be assembled on the borders of Scotland, and despatched Randolph as her ambassador into that kingdom. He addressed himself not
only to James, and to his council, but to a convention of estates met at that
time. He began with enumerating the extraordinary benefits which Elizabeth had conferred on the Scottish nation: that without demanding a single
foot of land for herself, without encroaching on the liberties of the kingdom in the smallest article, she had, at the expense of the blood of her
subjects and the treasures of her crown, rescued the Scots from the dominion of France, established among them true religion, and put them in
possession of their ancient rights: that from the,eginning of civil dissensions in the kingdom, she had protected those who espoused the king's
cause, and by her assistance alone, the.rown bhe been preserved on his
head, and all the attempts of the adverse faction baffled: that a union, unknown to their ancestors, but equally beneficial to both kingdoms, had subsisted for a long period of years, and though so many popish princes had
combined to disturb this happy state of things, her care, and their constancy had hitherto defeated all these efforts: that she had observed ot
late an unusual coldness, distrust, and estrangement in the Scottish council,
which she could impute to none but to Lennox, a subject of France, a
retainer to the house of Guise, bred up in the errors of popery, and still
suspected of favouring that superstition. ].ot satisfied with having mounted
so fast to an uncommon height of power, which he exercised with all the
rashness of youth, and all the ignorance of a stranger; nor thinking it
enough to have deprived the earl of Morton of the authority due to his
abilities and experience, he had conspired the ruin of that nobleman, who
had often exposed his life in the king's cause, who had contributed more
than any other subject to place him on the throne, to resist the encroachments of popery, and to preserve the union between the two kingdoms.
If any zeal for religion remained among the nobles in Scotland, if they
wished for the continuance of amity with England, if they valued the privileges of their own order, he called upon them, in the name of his mistress, to remove such a pernicious counsellor as Lennox from the presence ot
* Crawf. Menr, 323     t Johnst. 64. Spotsw. 311




236                    THE  HISTORY'                  [BooK VI.
the young king, to rescue Morton out of the hands of his avowed enemy,
and to secure to him the benefit of a fair and impartial trial: and if force
was necessary towards accomplishing a design so salutary to the king and
kingdom, he promised them the protection of his mistress in the enterprise,
and whatever assistance they should demand, either of men or money."
But these extraordinary remonstrances, accompanied with such an unusual appeal from the king to his subjects, were not the only means employed by Elizabeth in favour of Morton and against Lennox. She persuaded the prince of Orange to send an agent into Scotlana, and, under
colour of complimenting James on account of the valour which many of
his subjects had displayed in the service of the states, to enter into a long
detail of the restless enterprises of the popish princes against the protestant
religion; to beseech him to adhere inviolably to the alliance with England,
the only barrier which secured his kingdomn against their dangerous cabals;
and, above all things, to distrust the insinuations of those who endeavoured
to weaken or to dissolve that union between the British nations, which all
the protestants in Europe beheld with so much pleasure.t
James's counsellors were too intent upon the destruction of their enemy
to listen to these remonstrances. The officious interposition of the prince
of Orange, the haughty tone of Elizabeth's message. and her avowed
attempt to excite subjects to rebel against their sovereign, were considered
as unexampled insults on the majesty and independence of a crowned
head. A general and evasive answer wasgiven to Randolph. James prepared to assert'his own dignity with spirit. All those suspected of favouring Morton were, turned out of office, some of them were required to surrender themselves prisoners; the men capable of bearing arms throughout
the kingdom were commanded to be in readiness to take the field; and
troops were levied andposted on the borders. The English ambassador,
finding that neither the public manifesto which he had delivered to the
convention, nor his private cabals with the nobles, could excite them to
arms, fled in the night time out of Scotland, where libels against him had
been daily published, and even attempts made upon his life. In both
kingdoms every thing wore a hostile aspect. But Elizabeth, though she
wished to have intimidated the Scottish king by her preparations, had no
inclination to enter into a war with him; and the troops on the borders,
which had given such umbrage, were soon dispersed.t
The greater solicitude Elizabeth discovered for Morton's safety, the
more eagerly did his enemies drive on their schemes for his destruction.
Captain Stewart, his accuser, was first appointed tutor to the earl of Arran,
and soon after both the title and estate of' his unhappy ward, to which he
advanced some frivolous claim, were conferred upon him. The new-made
peer was commanded to conduct Morton from Dumbarton to Edinburgh;
and by that choice the earl was not only warned what fate he might expect, but had the cruel mortification of seeing his deadly enemy already
loaded with honours, in reward of the malice with which he had contri
buted to his ruin.
The records of the court of justiciary at this period are lost. The account which our historians give of Morton's trial is inaccurate and unsatisfactory. The proceedings against him seem to have been carried on with
violence. During the trial, great bodies of armed men were drawn up ill
different parts of the city. The jury was composed of the earl's known
enemies; and though he challenged several of them, his obiections were
overruled. After a short consultation, his peers found him guilty of concealing, and of being art and part in the conspiracy against the life of the
late king. The first part of the verdict did not surprise him, bhlt he twice
* Cald. iii. 6. Strype, ii. 621.   t Cald. iii. 9. See Append. No. XLL.     Crawf. Mem. 328.
St ype, ii. App. 138.




OF SCOTLAND.                            237
repeated the words art and part with some vehemence, and added, "God
knows it is not so."  The doom which the law decrees against a traitor
was pronounced. The king, however, remitted the cruel and ignominious
part of the sentence, and appointed that he should suffer death next day,
by being beheaded.*
During that awful interval, Morton possessed the utmost composure of
mind. He supped cheerfully; slept a part of the night in his usual manner,
and employed the rest of his time in religious conferences, and in acts
of devotion with some ministers of the city. The clergymen who attended
him, dealt freely with his conscience, and pressed his crimes home upon
him. What he confessed with regard to the crime for which he suffered
is remarkable, and supplies, in some measure, the imperfection of our
records. He acknowledged, that on his return from England, after the
death of Rizio, Bothwell had informed him of the conspiracy against the
king, which the queen, as he told him, kn w of and approved; that he
solicited him to concur in the execution of it, which at that time he absolutely declined; that soon after Bothwell himself and Archibald Douglas. in
his name, renewing their solicitations to the same purpose, he had required
a warrant under the queen's hand, authorizing the attempt, and as that had
never been produced, he had refused to be any further concerned in the matter.
" But," continued he, " as I neither consented to this treasonable act, nor
assisted in the committing of it, so it was impossible for me to reveal or to
prevent it. To whom could I mnake the discovery? The queen was the
author of the enterprise. Darnly was such a changeling, that no secret could
be safely communicated to him. Huntly and Bothwell, who bore the chief
sway in the kingdom, were themselves the perpetrators of the crime."
These circumstances, it must be confessed, go some length towards extenuating Morton's guilt; and though his apology for the favour he had shown
to Archibald Douglas, whom he knew to be one of the conspirators, be far
less satisfactory, no uneasy reflections seem to have disquieted his own
mind on that account.t'When his keepers told him that the guards were
attehding, and all things in readiness, "I praise my God," said he, " I am
ready likewise."  Arran commanded these guards; and even in those
moments, when the most implacable hatred is apt to relent, the malice of
his enemies could not forbear this insult. On the scaffold, his behaviour
was calm; his countenance and voice unaltered; and, after some time spent
in devotion, he suffered death with the intrepidity which became the name
of Douglas. His head was placed on the public jail of Edinburgh; and
his body, after lying till sunset on the scaffold, covered with a beggarly
cloak, was carried by common porters to the usual burial-place fbr criminals. None of his friends durst accompany it to the grave, or discover their
gratitude and respect by any symptoms of sorrow.+
Arran, no less profligate in private life than audacious in his public conduct, soon after drew the attention of his countrymen by his infamous marriage with the countess of March. Before he grew into favour at court, he
had been often entertained in her husband's house, and without regarding
the laws of hospitality or of gratitude, carried on a criminal intrigue with
the wife of his benefactor, a woman young and beautiful, but, according tc
the description of a cotemporary historian, " intolerable in all the imperfections incident to her sex." Impatient of any restraint upon their mutual
desires, they with equal ardour, wished to avow their union publicly, and
to legitimate, by a marriage, the offspring of their unlawful passion. The
countess petitioned to be divorced from her husband, for a reason which
no modest woman will ever plead. The judges, overawed by Arran,
passed sentence without delay [July 6]. This infamous scene was con* Spotsw. 314. Johnst. 65. Crawf. Mem. 332. Cald. iii. 45. Arnot's Crimin. Trials, 38
wf, Mem. App. iii.:  Ibid. Mem. 334. Spotsw. 314.




238                    THE HISTORY                      [BooK VI.
eluded by a marriage, solemnized with great pomp, and beheld by all
ranks of men with the utmost horror.*
A parliament was held this year [Oct. 24], at the opening of which
some disputes arose between Arran and the new created duke of Lennox.
Arran, haughty by nature, and pushed on by his wife's ambition, began to
affect an equality with the duke, under whose protection he had hitherto
been contented to place himself. After various attempts to form a party
In the council against Lennox, he found him fixed so firmly in the king's
affections, that it was impossible to shake him; and, rather than lose all
interest at court, from which he was banished, he made the most humble
submissions to the favourite, and again recovered his former credit. This
rupture contributed, however, to render the duke still more odious to the
nation. During the continuance of it, Arran affected to court the clergy,
pretended an extraordinary zeal fr the protestant religion, and laboured
to confirm the suspicions which were entertained of his rival, as an emissary of the house of' Guise, and a favourer of popery. As he was supposed
to be acquainted with the duke's most secret designs, his calumnies were
listened to with greater credit than was due to his character. To this rivalship between Lennox and Arran, during the continuance of which each
endeavoured to conciliate the good will of the clergy, we must ascribe
several acts of this parliament uncommonly favourable to the church, particularly one which abolished the practice introduced by Morton, of appoint
ing but one minister to several parishes.
No notice hath been taken for several years of ecclesiastical affairs.
While the civil government underwent so many extraordinary revolutions,
the church was not free from convulsions. Two objects chiefly engrossed
the attention of the clergy. The one was, the forming a system of discipline, or ecclesiastical polity. After long labour, and many difficulties, this
system was at last brought to some degree of perfection. The assembly
solemnly approved of it, and appointed it to be laid before the privy council in order to obtain the ratification of it in parliament. But Morton, during
his administration, and those who, after his fall, governed the king, were
equally unwilling to see it carried into execution; and, by starting difficulties and throwing in objections, prevented it from receiving a legal sanction.
The other point in view was the abolition of the episcopal order. The
bishops were so devoted to the king, to whom they owed their promotion,
that the function itself was by some reckoned dangerous to civil liberty.
Being allowed a seat in parliament, and distinguished by titles of honour,
these not only occasioned many avocations fromr their spiritual functions,
but soon rendered their character and manners extremely different firom
those of the clergy in that age. The nobles viewed their power with
jealousy; the populace considered their lives as profane; and both wished
their downfall with equal ardour. The personal emulation between Melvil and Adamson, a man of learning and eminent for his popular eloquence,
who was promoted, on the death of Douglas, to be archbishop of St.
Andrew's, mingled itself with the passions on each side, and heightened
them. Attacks were made in every assembly on the order of bishops;
their privileges were gradually circumscribed; and at last an act was
passed, declaring the office of bishop, as it was then exercised within the
realm, to have neither foundation nor warrant in the word of God; and
requiring, under pain of excommunication, all who now possessed that office,
instantly to resign it, and to abstain from preaching or administering the
sacraments until they should receive permission from the general assembly.
The court did not acquiesce in this decree. A vacancy happening soon
after in the see of Glasgow, Montgomery minister at Stirling', a man vain,
fickle, presumptuous, and more apt, by the blemishes in his character, to
* Spotsw. 315.




OF SCOTLAND.                             239
flave alienated the people from an order already beloved, than to reconcile
them to one which was the object of their hatred, made an infamous simoniacal bargain with Lennox, and on his recommendation was chosen archbishop. The presbytery of Stirling, of which he was a member, the presbytery of Glasgow, whither he was to be translated, and the general assembly
vied with each other in prosecuting him on that account. In order to
screen Montgomery, James made trial both of gentle and of rigorous mea
sures, and both were equally ineffectual. The general assembly was just
ready to pronounce against him the sentence of excommunication, when a
herald entered, and commanded them in the king's name, and under pain
of rebellion, to stop further proceedings. Even this inj unction they despised;
and though Montgomery, by his tears and seeming penitence, procured a
short respite, the sentence was at last issued by their appointment, and
published in all the churches throughout the kingdom.
The firmness of the clergy in a collective body was not greater than the
boldness of some individuals, particularly of the ministers of Edinburgh.
They inveighed daily against the corruptions in the administration; and,
with the freedom of speech admitted into the pulpit in that age, named
Lennox and Arran as the chief authors of the grievances under which the
church and kingdom groaned. The courtiers, in their turn, complained to
the king of the insolent and seditious spirit of the clergy. In order to
check the boldness of their discourses, James issued a proclamation com~nanding Dury, one of the most popular ministers, not only to leave the.own, but to abstain from preaching in any other place. Dury complained
to the judicatories of this encroachment upon the immunities of his office.
They approved of the doctrine which he had delivered; and he determined
to disregard theroyal proclamation. But the magistrates being determined
to compel him to leave the city, according to the king's orders, he was
obliged to abandon his charge, after protesting publicly at. the cross of
Edinburgh against the violence which was put upon him. The people
accompanied him to the gates with tears and lamentations; and the clergy
denounced the vengeance of heaven against the authors of this outrage.x
In this perilous situation stood the church, the authority of its judicators
called in question, and the liberty of the pulpit restrained, when a sudden
revolution of the civil government procured them unexpected relief.
The two favourites, by their ascendant over the king, possessed uncontrolled power in the kingdom, and exercised it with the utmost wantonness.
James usually resided at Dalkeith or Kinneil, the seats of Lennox and of
Arran, and was attended by such company, and employed in such amusements, as did not suit his dignity. The services of those who had con-'tributed most to place the crown on his head were but little remembered.
Many who had opposed him with the greatest virulence enjoyed the
rewards and honours to which the others were entitled. Exalted notions
of regal prerogative, utterly inconsistent with the constitution of Scotland,
being instilled by his favourites into the mind of the young monarch, unfortunately made at that early age a deep impression there, and became the
source of almost all his subsequent errors in the government of both kingdoms.4 Courts of justice were held in almost every county, the proprietors
of land were called before them, and upon the slightest neglect of any of
the numerous forms which are peculiar to the feudal holdings, they were
fined with unusual and intolerable rigour. The lord chamberlain revived
the obsolete jurisdiction of his office over the boroughs, and they were
subjected to actions no less grievous. A design seemed likewise to
have been formed to exasperate Elizabeth, and to dissolve the alliance
with her, which all good protestants esteemed the chief security of their
religion in Scotland. A close correspondence was carried on between the
* Cald. Assem. 1576-1582. Spotsw. 227, &c.    t Cald. iii.157.




240                     THE HISTO RY                     [Boox VI.
king and his mother, and considerable progress made towards uniting their
titles to the crown by such a treaty of association as Maitland had projected; which could not fail of endangering or diminishing his autho rity
and must have proved fatal to those who had acted against her with the
greatest vigour.*
All these circumstances irritated the impatient spirit of the Scottish
nobles, who resolved to tolerate no longer the insolence of the two minions,
or to stand by while their presumption and inexperience ruined both the
king and the kingdom. Elizabeth, who, during the adminis.tration of the four
regents, had the entire direction of the affairs of Scotland, felt herself
deprived of all influence in that kingdom ever since the death of Morton,
and was ready to countenance any attempt to rescue the king out of the
hands of favourites who were'leading him into measures so repugnant to
all her views. The earls of Mar, and Glencairn, lord Ruthven, lately
created earl of Go-wrie, lord Lindsay, lord Boyd, the tutor of Glamis, the
eldest son of lord Oliphant, with several barons and gentlemen of distinction,
entered into a combination for that purpose; and as changes in administration, which among polished nations are brought about slowly and
silently by artifice and intrigue, were in that rude age effected suddenly
and by violence, the king's situation, and the security of the favourites,
encouraged the conspirators to have immediate recourse to force.
James, after having resided for some time in Athol, where he enjoyed
his favourite amusement of hunting, was now returning towards Edinburgh
with a small train. He was invited to Ruthven castle, which lay in his
way; and as he suspected no danger, he went thither in hopes of further
sport [Aug. 12].  The multitude of strangers whom he found there gave
him some uneasiness; and as those who were in the secret arrived every
moment firom different parts, the appearance of so many new  faces
increased his fears. He concealed his uneasiness, however, with the
utmost care; and next morning prepared for the field, expecting to find
there some opportunity of makling his escape.  But just as he was ready
to depart, the nobles entered his bedchamber in a body, and presented a
memorial against the illegal and oppressive actions of his two favourites,
whom they represented as most dangerous enemies to the religion and
liberties of the nation. James, though he received this remonstrance with
the complaisance which was necessary in his present situation, was
extremely impatient to be gone; but as he approached the door of his
apartment, the tutor of Glamis rudely stopped him. The king complained,
expostulated, threatened, and, finding all these without effect, burst into
tears; "No matter," said Glamnis fiercely, "better children weep than
bearded men."  These words made a deep impression on the king's mind,
and were never forgotten.  The conspirators, without regarding his tears
or indignation, dismissed such of his followers as they suspected; allowed
none but persons of their own party to have access to him; and, though
they treated him with great respect, guarded his person with the utmost
care  This enterprise is usually called, by our historians, The Raid oJ
Ruthven.t
Lennox and Arran were astonished to the last degree at an event so
unexpected, and so fatal to their power.  The former endeavoured, but
without success, to excite the inhabitants of Edinburgh to take arms in
order to rescue their sovereign from captivity.  The latter with his usual
impetuosity mbunted on horseback the moment he heard what had befallen
the king, and with a few followers rode towards Ruthven castle; and as a
considerable body of the conspirators, under the command of the earl of
Mar, lay in his way ready to oppose him, he separated himself from his
comApajnions, and with two attendants arrived at the gate of the castle. At
* Cald. iii. 357     t Ibid. iii. 134. Spotsw. 30O. MeIv 357




OF SCOTLAND.                             241
the sight of a man so odious to his country the indignation of the conl
spirators rose, and instant death must have been the punishment of his
rashness, if the friendship of Gowrie, or some other cause not explained by
our historians, had not saved a life so pernicious to the kingdom. He was
confined, however, to the castle of Stirling, without being admitted into the
king's presence.
The king, though really the prisoner of his own subjects, with whose
conduct he could not help discovering many symptoms of disgust, was
obliged to publish a proclamation, signifying his approbation of their
enterprise, declaring that he was at full liberty, without any restraint or
violence offered to his person; and forbidding any attempt against those
concerned in the Raid of Ruthven, under pretence of rescuing him out of
their hands [Aug. 28]. At the same time he commanded Lennox to leave
Scotland before the 20th of September.2
Soon after, sir George Carey and Robert Bowes arrived as ambassadors
from Elizabeth. The pretext of their embassy was to inquire after the
king's safety; to encourage and countenance the conspirators was the real
motive of it. By their intercession the earl of Angus, who, ever since
he death of his uncle Morton, had lived in exile, obtained leave to return.
And the accession of a nobleman so powerful and so popular strengthened
the faction.t
Lennox, whose amiable and gentle qualities had procured him many
friends, and who received private assurances that the king's favour towards
him was in no degree abated, seemed resolved at first to pay no regard to'
a command extorted by violence, and no less disagreeable to James than
it was rigorous with regard to himself. But the power of his enemies,
who were masters of the king's person, who were secretly supported by
Elizabeth, and openly applauded by the clergy, deterred him from any
enterprise the success of which was dubious, and the danger certain both
to himself and to his sovereign. He put off the time of his departure,
however, by various artifices, in expectation either that James might make
his escape from the conspirators, or that fortune might present some more
favourable opportunity of taking arms for his relief.
On the other hand, the conspirators were extremely solicitous not only
to secure the approbation of their countrymen, but to obtain some legal
sanction of their enterprise. For this purpose they published a long
declaration, containing the motives which had induced them to venture on
such an irregular step, and endeavoured to heighten the public indignation
against the favourites, by representing in the strongest colours their inexperience and insolence, their contempt of the nobles, their violation of the
privileges of the church, and their oppression of the people. They obliged
the king, who could not with safety refuse any of their demands, to grant
them a remission in the most ample form; and, not-satisfied with that, they
applied to the assembly of the church, and easily procured an act [Oct.
3], declaring, " that they had done good and acceptable service to God, to
their sovereign, and to their native country;" and requiring all sincere
protestants to concur with them in carrying forward such a laudable enterprise. In order to add the greater weight to this act, every minister was
enjoined to read it in his own pulpit, and to inflict the censures of the
church on those who set themselves in opposition to so good a cause. A
convention of estates assembled a few days after, passed an act to the same
effect, and granted full indemnity to the conspirators for every thing they
had done.t
James was conducted by them first to Stirling, and afterwards to the
palace of Holyrood house; and though he was received every where with
the external marks of respect due to his dignity, his motions were care* Cald. iii. 135 138.    t Ibid. iii. 152.;  Ibid. 177. 187. 200. Spotsw. 322.
VOL. III.-31




242                    THE HISTORY                     [BooK VI.
fully observed, and he was under a restraint no less strict than at the first
moment when he was seized by the conspirators. Lennox, after eluding
many commands to depart out of the kingdom, was at last obliged to begin
his journey. He lingered, however. for some time in the neighbourhood
of Edinburgh, as if he had still intended to make some effort towards
restoring the king to liberty. But either from the gentleness of his own
disposition, averse to bloodshed and the disorders of civil war, or from
some other cause unknown to us, he abandoned the design and set out for
France by the way of England. The king issued the order for his
departure [Dec. 30], with no less reluctance than the duke obeyed it; and
both mourned a separation which neither of them had power to prevent.
Soon after his arrival in France, the fatigue of the journey, or the anguish
of his mind, threw him into a fever. In his last moments he discovered
such a firm adherence to the protestant faith as fully vindicates his memory
from the imputation of an attachment to popery, with which he had been
uncharitably.loaded in Scotland.* As he was the earliest and best beloved,
he was, perhaps, the most deserving, though not the most able of all James's
favourites. The warmth and tenderness of his master's affection for him
were not abated by death itself. By many acts of kindness and generosity
towards his posterity, the king not only did great honour to the memory of
Lennox, but set his own character in one of its most favourable points of view.
The success of the conspiracy which deprived James of liberty made,great noise over all Europe, and at last reached the ears of Mary in the
-prison to which she was confined. As her own experience had taught her
what injuries a captive prince is exposed to suffer; and as many of those
who were now concerned in the enterprise against her son were the same
persons whom she considered as the chief authors of her own misfortunes,
it was natural for the tenderness of a mother to apprehend that the same,calamities were ready to fall on his head; and such a prospect did not fail
(of adding to the distress and horror of her own situation. In the anguish
of her heart she wrote to Elizabeth, complaining in the bitterest terms of
the unprecedented rigour with which she herself had been treated, and
beseeching her not to abandon her son to the mercy of his rebellious subjects; nor permit him to be involved in the same misfortunes under which
-she had so long groaned. The peculiar vigour and acrimony of style, for
which this letter is remarkable, discovered both the high spirit of the'Scottish queen, unsubdued by her sufferings, and the violence of her indig-'nation at Elizabeth's artifices and severity. But it was ill adapted to gain
the end which she had in view, and accordingly it neither procured any
mitigation of the rigour of her own confinement, nor any interposition in
favour of the kinz.g
1583.] Henry flI., who, though he feared and hated the princes of Guise,
was often obliged to court their favour, interposed with warmth, in order
to extricate James out of the hands of a party so entirely devoted to the
English interest. He commanded M. de.la Motte Fenelon, his ambassador
at the court of England, to repair to Edinburgh, and to contribute his utmost
endeavours towards placing James in a situation more suitable to his dignity.
As Elizabeth could not with decency refuse him liberty to execute his
commission, she appointed Davison to attend him into Scotland as her
envoy, under colour of concurring with him in the negotiation, but in reality'to be a spy upon his motions and to obstruct his success. James, whose'title to the crown had not hitherto been recognised by any of the princes
on the continent, was extremely fond of such an honourable embassy from'the French monarch; and on that account, as well as for the sake of the
errand on which he came, received Fenelon with great respect [Jan. 7 1
The nobles, in whose power the king was, did not relish this interposition
* Spotsw. 324 Cald. iii 172.    t Camd. 489




OF SCOTLAND..43
of the French court, which had long lost its ancient influence over the
affairs of Scotland. The clergy were alarmed at the danger to which
religion would be exposed, if the princes of Guise should recover any
ascendant over the public councils. Though the king tried every method
for restraining them within the bounds of decency, they declaimed against
the court of France, against the princes of- Guise, against the ambassador,
against entering into any alliance with such notorious persecutors of the
church of God, with a vehemence which no regular government would
now tolerate, but which was then extremely common. The ambassador,
watched by Davison, distrusted by the nobles, and exposed to the insults
of the clergy and of the people, returned into England without procuring
any change in the king's situation, or receiving any answer to a proposal
which he made, that the government should be carried on in the joint
names of James and the queen his mother.?
Meanwhile James, though he dissembled with great art, became every
day more uneasy under his confinement; his uneasiness rendered him
continually attentive to find out a proper opportunity for making his
escape; and to this attention he at last owed his liberty, which the king
of France was not able, nor the queen of England willing, to procure for
him. As the conspirators had forced Lennox out of the kingdom, and
kept Arran at a distance from court, they grew secure; and imagining
that time had reconciled the king to them and to his situation, they watched
him with little care. Some occasions of discord had arisen among themselves; and the French ambassador, by fomenting these during the time
of his residence in Scotland, had weakened the union in which alone their
safety consisted.t Colonel William Stewart, the commander of the band
of gentlemen who guarded the king's person, being gained by James, had
the principal merit in the scheme for restoring his master to liberty. Under
pretence of paying a visit to the earl of March, his grand-uncle, James
was permitted to go from Falkland to St. Andrew's [June 27]. That he
might not create any suspicion, he lodged at first in an open defenceless
house in the town; but pretending a curiosity to see the castle, no sooner
was he entered with some of his attendants whom he could trust, than
colonel Stewart commanded the gates to be shut, and excluded all the rest
of his train. Next morning the earls of Argyll, Huntly, Crawford, Montrose, Rothes, with others to whom the secret had been communicated,
entered the town with their followers; and though Mar, with several of
the leaders of the faction, appeared in arms, they found themselves so far
outnumbered that it was in vain to think of recovering possession of the
king's person, which had been in their power somewhat longer than ten
months. James was naturally of so soft and ductile a temper that those
who were near his person commonly made a deep impression on his heart,
which was formed to be under the sway of favourites. As he remained
implacable and unreconciled to the conspirators during so long a time, and
at a period of life when resentments are rather violent than lasting, they
must either have improved the opportunities of insinuating themselves into
favour with little dexterity, or the indignation, with which this first insult
to his person and authority filled him, must have been very great.
His joy at his escape was youthful and excessive. He resolved, however, by the advice of sir James Melvil, and his wisest counsellors, to act
with the utmost moderation. Having called into his presence the leaders
of both factions, the neighbouring gentry, the deputies of the adjacent
boroughs, the ministers and the heads of colleges, he declared, that
although he had been held under restraint for some time by violence, he
would not impute that as a crime to any man, but, without remembering
the irregularities which had been so frequent during his minority, would
Cald. iii. 207, Snotsw. 324. Murdin, 372, &c See Appendix, No. XLII.   t Camd. 482.




244                    THE HISTORY                     [BOOK VI.
pass a general act of oblivion, and govern all his subjects with undistin
guishing and equal affection. As an evidence of his sincerity he visited
the earl of Gowrie at Ruthven castle, and granted him a full pardon of
any guilt he had contracted by the crime committed in that very place.?
But James did not adhere long to this prudent and moderate plan. His
former favourite, the earl of Arran, had been permitted for some time to
reside at Kinneil, one of his country seats. As soon as the king felt himself
at liberty, his love for him began to revive, and he expressed a strong
desire to see him. The courtiers violently opposed the return of a minon,
whose insolent and overbearing temper they dreaded as much as the
nation detested his crimes. James, however, continued his importunity,
and promising that he should continue with him no longer than one day,
they were obliged to yield. This interview rekindled ancient affection;
the king forgot his promise; Arran regained his ascendant over him; and
within a few days resumed the exercise of power, with all the arrogance
of an undeserving favourite, and all the rashness peculiar to himself.}t
The first effect of his influence was a proclamation with regard to those
concerned in the Raid of Ruthven. They were required to acknowledge
their crime in the humblest manner; and the king promised to grant them
a full pardon, provided their future conduct were such as did not oblige
him to remember past miscarriages. The tenor of this proclamation was
extremely different from the act of oblivion which the conspirators had
been encouraged to expect. Nor did any of them reckon it safe to rely
on a promise clogged with such an equivocal condition, and granted by a
young prince under the dominion of a minister devoid of faith, regardless of
decency, and transported by the desire of revenge even beyond the usual
ferocity of his temper. Many of the leaders, who had at first appeared openly
at court, retired to their own houses; and foreseeing the dangerous storm
which was gathering, began to look for a retreat in foreign countries.$
Elizabeth, who had all along protected the conspirators, was extremely
disgusted with measures which tended so visibly to their destruction, and
wrote to the king [Aug. 7], a harsh and haughty letter, reproaching him, in
a style very uncommon among princes, with breach of faith in recalling
Arran to court, and with imprudence in proceeding so rigorously against
his best and most faithful subjects. James, with a becoming dignity,
replied, that promises extorted by violence, and conditions yielded out of
fear, were no longer binding when these were removed; that it belonged to
him alone to choose what ministers he would employ in his service; and
that though he resolved to treat the conspirators at Ruthven with the
utmost clemency, it was necessary, for the support of his authority, that
such an insult on his person should not pass altogether uncensured.~
Elizabeth's letter was quickly followed [Sept. 1], by Walsingham her
secretary, whom  she appointed her ambassador to James, and who
appeared at the Scottish court with a splendour and magnificence well
calculated to please and dazzle a young prince. Walsilgham was admitted to several conferences with James himself, in which he insisted on the
same topics contained in the letter, and the king repeated his former
answers.
After suffering several indignities from the arrogance of Arran and his
creatures, he returned to England without concluding any new treaty with
the king. Walsingham was, next to Burleigh, the minister on whom the
chief weight of the English administration rested; and when a person of
his rank stepped so far out of the ordinary road of business as to undertake
a long journey in his old age, and under a declining state of health, some
affair of consequence was supposed to be the cause, or some important
event was expected to be the effect of this measure. But as nothing con~ Melv. 272.    t Ibid. 274.   + Idid. 278 Spotsw. 326. Cald. iii. 330.   B Melv. 279




OF SCOTLAND.                           245
spscuous either occasioned or followed this embassy, it is probable that
Elizabeth had no other intention in employing this sagacious minister than
to discover with exactness the capacity and disposition of the Scottish
king, who was now arrived at a time of life when, with some degree ox
certainty, conjectures might be formed concerning his character and future
conduct. As James possessed talents of that kind which make a better
figure in conversation than in action, he gained a great deal by this interview with the English secretary, who, notwithstanding the cold reception
which he met with, gave such an advantageous representation of his abilities, as determined Elizabeth to treat him, henceforward, with greater
decency and respect. 
Elizabeth's eagerness to protect the conspirators rendered James more
violent in his proceedings against them. As they had all refused to accept
of pardon upon the terms which he had offered, they were required, by a
new proclamation, to surrender themselves prisoners. The earl of Angus
alone complied; the rest either fled into England, or obtained the king's
license to retire into foreign parts. A convention of estates was held
[Dec. 171, the members of which, deceived by an unworthy artifice of
Arran's, declared those concerned in the Raid of Ruthven to have been
guilty of high treason; appointed the act passed last year approving of
their conduct to be expunged out of the records; and engaged to support
the king in prosecuting the fugitives with the utmost rigour of law.
The conspirators, though far from having done any thing that was
uncommon in that age, among mutinous nobles, and under an unsettled
state of government, must be acknowledged to have been guilty of an act
of treason against their sovereign; and James, who considered their conduct in this light, had good reason to boast of his clemency, when he
offered to pardon them upon their confessing their crime. But, on the
other hand, it must be allowed that, after the king's voluntary promise of
a general oblivion, they had some reason to complain of breach of faith,
and without the most unpardonable imprudence, could not have put their
lives in Arran's power.
1584.] The interest of the church was considerably affected by these
contrary revolutions. While the conspirators kept possession of power,
the clergy not only recovered, but extended their privileges. As they had
formerly declared the hierarchy to be unlawful, they took some bold measures towards exterminating the episcopal order out of the church; and it
was owing more to Adamson's dexterity in perplexing and lengthening out
the process for that purpose, than to their own want of zeal, that they did
not deprive, and perhaps excommunicate, all the bishops in Scotland.
When the king recovered his liberty, things put on a very different aspect.
The favour bestowed upon Arran, the enemy of every thing decent and
sacred, and the rigorous prosecution of those nobles who had been the
most zealous defenders of the protestant cause, were considered as sure
presages of the approaching ruin of the church. The clergy could not
conceal their apprehensions, nor view this impending danger in silence.
Dury, who had been restored to his office as one of the ministers of Edinburgh, openly applauded the Raid of Ruthven in the pulpit; at which the
king was so enraged that, notwithstanding some symptoms of his submission, he commanded him to resign his charge in the city. Mr. Andrew
Melvil, being summoned before the privy council to answer for the doctrine which he had uttered in a sermon at St. Andrew's, and accused ot
comparing the present grievances of the nation with those under James III.,
and of intimating obliquely that they ought to be redressed in the same
manner, thought it incumbent on him to behave with great firmness. He
declined the jurisdiction of a civil court in a cause which he maintained to
* Melv. 293. Cald. iii. 258. Jebb, ii. 536.




246                   THE  HISTORY                     [BooK VI.
be purely ecclesiastical; the presbytery, of which he was a member, had,
as he contended, the sole right to call him to account, for words spoken in
the pulpit; and neither the king nor council could judge, in the first
instance, of the doctrine delivered by preachers, without violating the
immunities of the church. This exemption from civil jurisdiction was a
privilege which the popish ecclesiastics, admirable judges of whatever
contributed to increase the lustre or power of their body, had long struggled
for, and had at last obtained. If the same plea had now been admitted,
the protestant clergy would have become independent on the civil magistrate; and an order of men extremely useful to society, while they inculcate those duties which tend to promote its happiness and tranquillity,
might have become no less pernicious, by teaching without fear or control
the most dangerous principles, or by exciting their hearers to the most desperate and lawless actions. The king, jealous to excess of his prerogative,
was alarmed at this daring encroachment on it; and as Melvil, by his
learning and zeal, had acquired the reputation and authority of head of the
party, he resolved to punish him with the rigour which that pre-eminence
rendered necessary, and to discourage, by a timely severity, the revival of
such a dangerous claim. Melvil, however, avoided his rage by flying into
England; and the pulpits resounded with complaints that the king had
extinguished the light of learning in the kingdom, and deprived the church
of the ablest and most faithful guardian of its liberties and discipline.?
These violent declamations of the clergy against the measures of the
court were extremely acceptable to the people. The conspirators, though
driven out of the kingdom, still possessed great influence there; and as
they had every thing to fear from the resentment of a young prince, irritated by the furious counsels of Arran, they never ceased soliciting their
adherents to take arms in their defence. Gowrie, the only person among
them who had submitted to the king, and accepted of a pardon, soon
repented of a step which lost him the esteem of one party, without gaining
the confidence of the other; and, after suffering many mortifications from
the king's neglect and the haughtiness of Arran, he was at last commanded
to leave Scotland, and to reside in France. While he waited at Dundee
for an opportunity to embark, he was informed that the earls of Angus,
Mar, and the tutor of Glamis, had concerted a scheme for surprising the
castle of Stirling. In his situation, little persuasion was necessary to draw
him to engage in it. Under various pretexts he put off his voyage, and lay
ready to take arms on the day fixed by the conspirators for the execution
of their enterprise. His lingering so long at Dundee, without any apparent
reason, awakened the suspicion of the court, proved fatal to himself, and
disappointed the success of the conspiracy. Colonel William Stewart surrounded the house where he lodged with a body of soldiers, and in spite
of his resistance, took him prisoner. Two days after, Angus, Mar, and
Glamis seized the castle of Stirling, and erecting their standard there, published a manifesto, declaring that they took arms for no other reason but to
remove from the king's presence a minion who had acquired power by
the most unworthy actions, and who exercised it with the most intolerable
insolence. The account of Gowrie's imprisonment struck a damp upon
their spirits. They imputed it to treachery on his part, and suspected,
that as he had formerly deserted, he had now betrayed them. At the
same time Elizabeth having neglected to supply them in good time with a
sum of money, which she had promised to them, and their friends and vassals coming in slowly, they appeared irresolute and disheartened: and as
the king, who acted with great vigour, advanced towards them at the head
of twenty thousand men, they fled precipitately towards England, and with
difficulty made their escape.  This rash and feeble attempt produced
* Spotsw. 330. Cald. iii. 304.   t Home's Hist. of House of Dougl. 376. Spotsw. 330. Calder
iiL 304 &c.




OF*SCOTLAND                              247
such effects as usually follow disappointed conspiracies. It not only hurt
the cause for which it was undertaken, but added strength and reputation
to the king; confirmed Arran's power; and enabled them to pursue their
measures with more boldness and greater success. Gowrie was the first
victim of their resentment. After a very informal trial, a jury of peers
foun1 him guilty of treason, and he was publicly beheaded at Stirling.
Tb humble the church was the king's next step. But as it became necessary, for this purpose, to call in the aid of the legislative authority, a
rarliament was hastily summoned [May 22]: and while so many of the
nobles were banished out of the kingdom, or forbidden to appear in the
king's presence: while Arran's haughtiness kept some at a distance, and
intimidated others; the meeting consisted only of' such as were absolutely
at the devotion of the court. In order to conceal the laws which were
framing from the knowledge of the clergy, the lords of the articles were
sworn to secrecy; and when some of the ministers, who either suspected
or were informed of the danger, deputed one of their number to declare
their apprehensions to the king, he was seized at the palace gate, and
carried to a distant prison. Others, attempting to enter the parliament
house, were refused admittance; and such laws were passed as totally
overturned the constitution and discipline of the church. The refusing
to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the privy council; the pretending an
exemption from the authority of the civil courts; the attempting to diminish
the rights and privileges of any of the three estates in parliament, were
declared to be high treason. The holding assemblies, whether civil or
ecclesiastical, without the king's permission or appointment; the uttering,
either privately or publicly, in sermons or in declamations, any false and
scandalous reports against the king, his ancestors, or ministers, were pronounced capital crimes.t
When these laws were published at the cross of Edinburgh, according
to the ancient custom, Mr. Robert Pont, minister of St. Cuthbert's and one
of the lords of session, solemnly protested against them, in the name of his
brethren, because they had been passed without the knowledge or consent
of the church. Ever since the reformation, the pulpits and ecclesiastical
judicatories had both been esteemed sacred. In the former, the clergy
had been accustomed to censure and admonish with unbounded liberty.
In the latter, they exercised an uncontrolled and independent jurisdiction.
The blow was now aimed at both these privileges. These new statutes
were calculated to render churchmen as inconsiderable as they were indigent; and as the avarice of the nobles had stripped them of the wealth,
the king's ambition was about to deprive them of the power which once
belonged to their order. No wonder the alarm was universal, and the
complaints loud. All the ministers of' Edinburgh forsook their charge, and
fled into England. The most eminent clergymen throughout the kingdom
imitated their example. Desolation and astonishment appeared in every
part of the Scottish church; the people bewailed the loss of pastors whom
they esteemed; and, full of consternation at an event so unexpected, openly
expressed their rage against Arran, and began to suspect the king himself
to be an enemy to the reformed religion.4
"cald. iii 365.    t Parl. 8, Jac. VL.     t Spotsw. 333:




248                  THE  HISTORY                   [fBooK VII.
BOOK VII.
1b84,1  WHILE Scotland was torn by intestine factions, Elizabeth was
alarmed with the rumour of a project in agitation for setting Mary at liberty.
Francis Throkmorton, a Cheshire gentleman, was suspected of being deeply
concerned in the design, and on that suspicion he was taken into custody.
Among his papers were found two lists, one of the principal harbours in
the kingdom, with an account of their situation, and of the depth of water
in each; the other, of all the eminent Roman Catholics in England. This
circumstance confirmed the suspicion against him, and some dark and desperate conspiracy was supposed just ready to break out. At first he boldly
avowed his innocence, and declared that the two papers were forged by
the queen's ministers, in order to intimidate or ensnare him; and he even
endured the rack with the utmost fortitude. But being brought a second
time to the place of torture, his resolution failed him, and he not only acknowledged that he had held a secret correspondence with the queen of
Scots, but discovered a design that was formed to invade England. The
duke of Guise, he said, undertook to furnish troops, and to conduct the enterprise. The pope and king of Spain were to supply the money necessary for carrying it on; all the English exiles were ready to take arms;
many of the catholics at home would be ready to join them at their landing;
Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, who was the life of the conspiracy,
spared no pains in fomenting the spirit of disaffection among the English,
or in hastening the preparations on the continent; and by his command he
made the two lists, the copies whereof had been found in his possession.
This confession he retracted at his trial; returned to it again after sentence
was passed on him; and retracted it once more at the place of execution.?
To us in the present age, who are assisted in forming our opinion of this
matter by the light which time and history have thrown upon the designs
and characters of the princes of Guise, many circumstances of Throkmorton's confession appear to be extremely relnote from truth, or even from
probability. The duke of Guise was, at that juncture, far from being in a
situation to undertake foreign conquests. Without either power or office
at court; hated by the king, and persecuted by the favourites; he had no
leisure for any thoughts of disturbing the quiet of neighbouring states; his
vast and ambitious mind was wholly occupied in laying the foundation of
that famous league which shook the throne of France. But at the time
when Elizabeth detected this conspiracy, the close union between the house
of Guise and Philip was remarkable to all Europe; and as their great enterprise against Henry III. was not yet disclosed, as they endeavoured to
conceal that under their threatenings to invade England, Throkmorton's
discovery appeared to be extremely probable; and Elizabeth, whoknew
how ardently all the parties mentioned by him wished her downfall, thought
that she could not guard her kingdom with too much care. The indiscreet
zeal of the English exiles increased her fears. Not satisfied with incessant
outcries against her severity towards the Scottish queen, and her cruel persecution of her catholic subjects, not thinking it enough that one pope had
threatened her with the sentence of excommunication, and another had actually pronounced it, they now began to disperse books and writings, in
which they endeavoured to persuade their disciples, that it would be a
meritorious action to take away her life; they openly exhorted the maids
of honour to treat her as Judith did Holofernes, and, by such an illustrious
deed, to render their own names honourable and sacred in the church
* Hollingshed, 1370.




OF SCOTLAND.                             249
throughout all fiture ages.*  For all these reasons, Elizabeth not only inflicted the punishment of a traitor on Throkmorton, but commanded the
Spanish ambassador instantly to leave England; and that she might be in
no danger of being attacked within the island, she determined to use her
utmost efforts in order to recover that influence over the Scottish councils,
which she had for some time entirely lost.
There were three different methods by which Elizabeth might hope to
accomplish this; either by furnishing such effectual aid to the banished nobles as would enable them to resume the chief direction of affairs; or by
entering into such a treaty with Mary, as might intimidate her son, who,
being now accustomed to govern, would not be averse from agreeing to any
terms rather than resign the sceptre, or admit an associate in the throne,
or by gaining the earl of Arran, to secure the direction of the king his master. The last was not only the easiest and speediest, but most likely to be
successful. This Elizabeth resolved to pursue; but without laying the
other two altogether aside. With this view she sent Davison, one of her
principal secretaries, a man of abilities and address, into Scotland. A
minister so venal as Arran, hated by his own countrymen, and holding his
power by the most precarious of all tenures, the favour of a young prince,
accepted Elizabeth's offers without hesitation, and deemed the acquisition
of her protection to be the most solid foundation of his own greatness [Aug.
13]. Soon after he consented to an interview with lord Hunsdon, the governor of Berwick, and being honoured with the pompous title of lieutenant
general for the king, he appeared at the place appointed with a splendid
train. In Hunsdon's presence he renewed his promises of an inviolable and
faithful attachment to the English interest, and assured him that James
should enter into no negotiation which might tend to interrupt the peace
between the two kingdoms: and as Elizabeth began to entertain the same
fears and jealousies concerning the king's marriage, which had formerly
disquieted her with regard to his mother's, he undertook to prevent James
from listening to any overture of that kind, until he had previously obtained
the queen of England's consent.d
The banished lords and their adherents soon felt the effects of Arran's
friendship with England. As Elizabeth had permitted them to take refuge
in her dominions, and several of her ministers were of opinion that she
ought to employ her arms in defence of their cause, the fear of this was the
only thing which restrained James and his favourite from proceeding to such
extremities against them as might have excited the pity or indignation of
the English, and have prompted them to exert themselves with vigour in
their behalf. But every apprehension of this kind being now removed
[Aug. 22], they ventured to call a parliament, in which an act was passed,
attainting Angus, Mar, Glamis, and a great number of their followers.
Their estates devolved to the crown; and, according to the practice of the
Scottish monarchs, who were obliged to reward the faction which adhered
to them, by dividing with it the spoils of the vanquished, James dealt out
the greater part of these to Arran and his associates.;
Nor was the treatment of the clergy less rigorous. All ministers, readers,
and professors in colleges were enjoined to subscribe, within forty days, a
paper, testifying their approbation of the laws concerning the church
enacted in the last parliament. Many, overawed or corrupted by the
court, yielded obedience; others stood out. The stipends of the latter
were sequestered, some of the more active committed to prison, and numbers compelled to fly the kingdom. Such as complied fell under the suspicion of acting from mercenary or ambitious motives. Such as adhered
to their principles, and suffered in consequence of it, acquired a high reputation, by giving this convincing evidence of their firmness and sincerity.
* Camd. 497.   t Cald, iii. 491 Melv 315. See Append. No. XLIHI.        Cald. iii. 527
VOL. III.-32                                         +




S0                   THE  HISTORY                   [Booi  VII.
The judicatories of the church were almost entirely suppressed. In some
places scarce as many ministers remained as to perform the duties of religious worship; they soon sunk in reputation among the people; and being
prohibited not only from discoursing of public affairs, but obliged' by the
jealousy of the administration to frame every sentiment and expression in
such a manner as to give the court no offence, their sermons were deemed
languid, insipid, and contemptible; and it became the general opinion, that
together with the most virtuous of the nobles and the most faithful of.he clergy,
the power and vigour of religion were now banished out of the kingdom.*
Meanwhile, Elizabeth was carrying on one of those fruitless negotiations
with the queen of Scots, which it had become almost matter of form to
renew every year. They served not only to amuse that unhappy princess
with some prospect of liberty, but furnished an apology for eluding the
solicitations of foreign powers on her behalf; and were of use to overawe
James, by showing him that she could at any time set free a dangerous
rival to dispute his authority. These treaties she suffered to proceed to
what length she pleased, and never wanted a pretence for breaking them
off when they became no longer necessary. The treaty now on foot was
not, perhaps, more sincere than many which preceded it; the reasons,
however, which rendered it ineffectual were far from being frivolous.
As Crichton, a Jesuit, was sailing from Flanders towards Scotland, the
ship on board of which he was a passenger happened to be chased by
pirates, who, in that age, often infested the narrow seas. Crichton, in great
confusion, tore in pieces some papers in his custody, and threw them away;
but, by a very extraordinary accident, the wind blew them back into the
ship, and they were immediately taken up by some of the passengers,
who carried them to Wade, the clerk of the privy council. He, with great
industry and patience, joined them together, and they were found to contain the account of a plot, said to have been formed by the king of Spain
and the duke of Guise, for invading England.  The people were not yet
recovered from the fear and anxiety occasioned by the conspiracy in which
Throkmorton had been engaged; and as his discoveries appeared now to
be confirmed by additional evidence, not only all their former apprehensions
recurred, but the consternation became general and excessive. As all the
dangers, with which England had been threatened for some years, flowed
either immediately from Mary herself, or from such as made use of her
name to j ustify their insurrections and conspiracies, this gradually diminished
the compassion due to her situation, and the English, instead of pitying,
began to fear and to hate her. Elizabeth, under whose wise and pacific
reign the English enjoyed tranquillity, and had opened sources of wealth
unknown to their ancestors, was extremely beloved by all her people; and
regard to her safety, not less than to their own interest, animated them
against the Scottish queen. In order to discourage her adherents, it was
thought necessary to convince them, by some public deed, of the attachment of the English to their own sovereign, and that any attempt against
her life would prove fatal to her rival. With this view an association was
framed [Oct. 19], the subscribers of which bound themselves by the most
solemn oaths, " to defend the queen against all her enemies, foreign and
domestic; and if violence shauld be offered to her life, in order to favour
the title of any pretender to the crown, they not only engaged never to
allow or acknowledge the person or persons by whom, or for whom, such
a detestable act should be committed, but vowed, in the presence of the
eternal God, to prosecute such person or persons to the death, and to
pursue them, with their utmost vengeance, to their utter overthrow and
extirpation."I  Persons of all ranks subscribed this combination with the
greatest eagerness and unanimity.4'
* Cald. iii. 589.  t State Trials, i. 12M.  t Carnd. 499.




OF SCOTLAND.                            251
Mary considered this association, not only as an avowed design to exclude
her from all right of succession, but as the certain and immediate forerunner
of her destruction. In order to avert this, she made such feeble efforts as
were still in her power, and sent Naue, her secretary, to court, with offers
of more entire resignation to the will of Elizabeth, in every point which
had been the occasion of their long enmity, than all her sufferings hitherto
had been able to extort.% But whether Mary adhered inflexibly to her
privileges as an independent sovereign, or, yielding to the necessity of her
situation, endeavoured by concessions to sooth her rival, she was equally
unsuccessful. Her firmness was imputed to obstinacy, or to the secret
hope of foreign assistance; her concessions were either believed to be
insincere, or to flow from the fear of some imminent danger. Her present
willingness, however, to comply with any terms was so great that Walsingham warmly urged his mistress to come to a final agreement with her.t
But Elizabeth was persuaded, that it was the spirit raised by the association which had rendered her so passive and compliant. She always imagined that there was something mysterious and deceitful in all Mary's
actions, and suspected her of carrying on a dangerous correspondence with
the English Catholics, both within and without the kingdom. Nor were
her suspicions altogether void of foundation. Mary had, about this time,
written a letter to Sir Francis Inglefield, urging him to hasten the execution
of what she calls the Great Plot or Desig'nment, without hesitating on
account of any danger in which it might involve her life, which she would
most willingly part with, if by that sacrifice she could procure relief for
so great a number of the oppressed children of the church.. Instead,
therefore, of hearkening to the overtures which the Scottish queen made,
or granting any mitigation of the hardships of which she complained,
Elizabeth resolved to take her out of the hands of the earl of Shrewsbury,
and to appoint sir Amias Paulet and sir Drue Drury to be her keepers.
Shrewsbury had discharged his trust with great fidelity, during fifteen
years, but at the same time, had treated Mary with gentleness and respect,
and had always sweetened harsh commands by the humanity with which
he put them in execution. The same politeness was not to be expected
from men of an inferior rank, whose severe vigilance perhaps was their
chief recommendation to that employment, and the only merit by which
they could pretend to gain favour or preferment.~
As James was no less eager than ever to deprive the banished nobles of
Elizabeth's protection, he appointed the master of Gray his ambassador to
the court of England, and intrusted him with the conduct of a negotiation
for that purpose. For this honour he was indebted to the envy and jealousy of the earl of Arran. Gray possessed all the talents of a courtier;
a graceful person, an insinuating address, boundless ambition, and a restless
and intriguing spirit. During his residence in France, he had been admitted into the most intimate familiarity with the duke of Guise, and in
order to gain his favour, had renounced the protestant religion, and professed the utmost zeal for the captive queen, who carried on a secret correspondence with him, from which she expected great advantages. On
his return into Scotland, he paid court to James with extraordinary assiduity, and his accomplishments did not fail to make their usual impression
on the king's heart. Arran, who had introduced him, began quickly to
dread his growing favour; and, flattering himself that absence would
efface any sentiments of tenderness which were forming in the mind of a
young prince, pointed him out by his malicious praises as the most proper
person in the kingdom for an embassy of such importance; and contributed
to raise him to that high dignity, in order to hasten his fall. Elizabeth,
who had an admirable dexterity in discovering the proper instruments for
* C amd. 499.  t See App. No. XLIV.  $ Strype, iii.'46.  ~ Carnd. 500.




252                     THE  H1STORY                    [BOOK V11.
carrying on her designs, endeavoured, by caresses and by presents, to
secure Gray to her interest. The former flattered his vanity, which was
great; the latter supplied his profuseness, which was still greater. He
abandoned himself without reserve to Elizabeth's direction, and not only
undertook to retain the king under the influence of England, but acted as
a spy upon the Scottish queen, and betrayed to her rival every secret that
he could draw from her by his high pretensions of zeal in her service.?
Gray's credit with the English court was extremely galling to the banished nobles  Elizabeth no longer thought of employing her power to restore them; she found it easier to govern Scotland by corrupting the king's
favourites; and, in compliance with Gray's solicitations [Dec. 31], she
commanded the exiles to leave the north of England, and to remove into the
heart of the kingdom. This rendered it difficult for them to hold any cor
respondence with their partisans in Scotland, and almost impossible to
return thither without her permission. Gray, by gaining a point which
James had so much at heart, riveted himself more firmly than ever in his
favour; and, by acquiring greater reputation, became capable of serving
Elizabeth with greater success.t
1585.] Arran had now possessed for some time all the power, the riches,
and the honours, that his immoderate ambition could desire, or the fondness of a prince, who set no limits to his liberality towards his favourites,
could bestow. The office of lord chancellor, the highest and most important in the kingdom, was conferred upon him, even during the life of the
earl of Argyll, who succeeded Athol in that dignity;t and the public beheld with astonishment and indignation, a man educated as a soldier of fortune, ignorant of law, and a contemner of justice, appointed to preside in
parliament, in the privy council, in the court of session, and intrusted with
the supreme disposal of the property of his fellow subjects. He was, at
the same time, governor of the castles of Stirling and Edinburgh, the two
principal forts in Scotland; provost of' the city of Edinburgh; and, as if
by all these accumulated dignities, his merits were not sufficiently recompensed, he had been created lieutenant-general over the whole kingdom.
No person was admitted into the king's presence without his permission;
no favour could be obtained but by his mediation. James, occupied with
youthful amusements, devolved upon him the whole regal authority. Such
unmerited elevation increased his natural arrogance, and rendered it intolerable. He was no longer content with the condition of a subject, but pretended to derive his pedigree from Murdo duke of Albany; and boasted
openly, that his title to the crown was preferable to that of the king himself.
But, together with these thoughts of royalty, he retained the meanness suitable to his primitive indigence. His venality as a judge was scandalous, and
was exceeded only by that of his wife, who, in defiance of decency, made
herself a party in almost every suit which came to be decided, employed
her influence to corrupt or overawe the judges, and almost openly dictated
their decisions.~ His rapaciousness as a minister was insatiable. Not
satisfied with the revenues of so many offices; with the estate and honours
which belonged to the family of Hamilton; or with the greater part of
Gowrie's lands, which had fallen to his share; he grasped at the possessions of several of the nobles. He required lord Maxwell to exchange
part of his estate for the forfeited lands of Kinneil; and because he was
unwilling to quit an ancient inheritance for a possession so precarious, he
stirred up against him his hereditary rival, the laird of Johnson, and involved that corner of the kingdom in a civil war. He committed to prison
the earl of Athol, lord Home, and the master of Cassils; the first, because
he would not divorce his wife, the daughter of the earl of Gowrie, and
* Strype, iii. 302. Melv. 316.    t Cald. iii. 643.: Crawf. Offic. of State, App. 447
i Cald. iii 331. Scotstarvet's Staggering States 7.




OF SCOTLAND.                             253
entail his estate on him; the second. because he was unwilling to part
with some lands adjacent to one of Arran's estates; and the third, for refusing to lend him money. His spies and informers filled the whole country,
and intruded themselves into every company. The nearest neighbours
distrusted and feared each other. All familiar society was at an end.
Even the common intercourses of humanity were interrupted, no man
knowing in whom to confide or where to utter his complaints. There is
not perhaps in history an example of a minister so universally detestable
to a nation, or who more justly deserved its detestation.*
Arran, notwithstanding, regardless of the sentiments and despising the
murmurs of the people, gave a loose to his natural temper, and proceeded
to acts still more violent. David Home of Argaty, and Patrick his brother,
having received letters from one of the banished lords about private business, were condemned and put to death, for holding correspondence with
rebels. Cunninghame of Drumwhasel, and Douglas of Mains, two gentlemen of honour and reputation, were accused of having conspired with the
exiled nobles to seize the king's person: a single witness only appeared;
the evidence they produced of their innocence was unanswerable; their
accuser himself not long after acknowledged that he had been suborned
by Arran; and all men believed the charge against them to be groundless:
they were found guilty, notwithstanding, and suffered the death of traitors. t
About the same time that these gentlemen were punished for a pretended
conspiracy, Elizabeth's life was endangered by a real one. Parry, a doctor of laws, and a member of the house of commons, a man vain and fantastic, but of a resolute spirit, had lately been reconciled to the church of
Rome; and fraught with the zeal of a new convert, he offered to demonstrate the sincerity of his attachment to the religion which he had embraced, by killing Elizabeth. Cardinal Allan had published a book, to
prove tbe murder of an excommunicated prince to be not only lawful, but
a meritorious action. The pope's nuncio at Venice, the Jesuits both there
and at Paris, the English exiles, all approved of the design. The pope
himself exhorted him lo persevere; and granted him for his encouragement a plenary indulgence, and remission of his sins. Cardinal di Como
wrote to him a letter to the same purpose; but though he often got access
to the queen, fear, or some remaining sense of duty, restrained him from
perpetrating the crime. Happily his intention was at last discovered by
Nevil, the only person in England to whom he had communicated it; and
having himself voluntarily confessed his guilt, he suffered the punishment
which it deserved.T
These repeated conspiracies against their sovereign awakened the indignation of the English parliament, and produced a very extraordinary statute, which, in the end, proved fatal to the queen of Scots. By this law
the association in defence of Elizabeth's life was ratified; and it was further enacted, " That if any rebellion shall be excited in the kingdom, or
any thing attempted to the hurt of her majesty's person, by orfor any
person pretending a title to the crown, the queen shall empower twentyfour persons, by a commission under the great seal, to examine into, and
pass sentence upon such offences; and after judgment given, a proclamation shall be issued, declaring the persons whom they find guilty excluded
from any right to the crown; and her majesty's subjects may lawfully pursue every one of them to the death, with all their aiders and abettors;
and if any design against the life of the queen take effect, the persons by
orfor whom such a detestable act is executed, that their issues, being in
any wise assenting or privy to the same, shall be disabled for ever from
pretending to the crown, and be pursued to death in the like manner."~
This act was plainly levelled at the queen of Scots; and, whether we con.
S potsw. 337, 338.  t Ibid. 338. Cald iii. 794.  t State Trials, i. 103.  ~ Ibid. 123




$54                   THE  HISTORY                      [Boox VII.
sider it as a voluntary expression of the zeal and concern of the nation for
Elizabeth's safety, or whether we impute it to the influence which that
artful princess preserved over her parliaments, it is no easy matter to
reconcile it with the general principles of justice or humanity. Mary was
thereby rendered accountable not only for her own actions, but for those
of others; in consequence of which she might forfeit her right of succession, and even her life itself.
Mary justly considered this act as a warning to prepare for the worst
extremities. Elizabeth's ministers, it is probable, had resolved by this
time to take away her life; and suffered books to be published, in order
to persuade the nation that this cruel and unprecedented measure was not
only necessary but just.* Even that short period of her days which remained they rendered uncomfortable, by every hardship and indignity
which it was in their power to inflict. Almost all her servants were dismissed, she was treated no longer with the respect due to a queen; and,
though the rigour of seventeen years' imprisonment had broken her constitution, she was confined to two ruinous chambers, scarcely habitable, even
in the middle of summer, by reason of cold. Notwithstanding the scantiness of her revenue, she had been accustomed to distribute regularly some
alms among the poor in the village adjoining to the castle. Paulet now
refused her liberty to perform this pious and humane office, which had
afforded her great consolation amidst her own sufferings. The castle in
which she resided was converted into a common prison; and a young
man, suspected of popery, was confined there, and treated under her eye
with such rigour that he died of the ill usage. She often complained to
Elizabeth of these multiplied injuries, and expostulated as became a woman
and a queen; but as no political reason now obliged that princess to amuse
her any longer with fallacious hopes, far from granting her any redress, she
did not even deign to give her any answer. The king of France, closely
allied to Elizabeth, on whom he depended for assistance against his rebellious subjects, was afraid of espousing Mary's cause with any warmth;
and all his solicitations in her behalf were feeble, formal, and inefficacious.
But Castelnau, the French ambassador, whose compassion and zeal for the
unhappy queen supplied the defects in his instructions, remonstrated with
such vigour against the indignities to which she was exposed, that, by his
importunity, he prevailed at length to have her removed to Tuthbury;
though she was confined the greater part of another winter in her present
wretched habitation.t
Neither the insults of her enemies nor the neglect of her friends made
such an impression on Mary as the ingratitude of her son. James had
hitherto treated his mother with filial respect, and had even entered into
negotiations with her, which gave umbrage to Elizabeth. But as it was
not the interest of the English queen that his good correspondence should
continue, Gray, who, on his return to Scotland, found his favour with the
king greatly increased by the success of his embassy, persuaded him to
write a harsh and undutiful letter to his mother, in which he expressly
refused to acknowledge her to be queen of Scotland, or to consider his
affairs as connected, in any wise, with hers. This cruel requital of her
maternal tenderness overwhelmed Mary with sorrow and despair. " Was
it lor this," said she, in a letter to the French ambassador [March 24],
" that I have endured so much, in order to preserve for him  the inheritance to which I have just right? I am far from envying his authority in
Scotland. I desire no power there; nor wish to set my foot in that kinddom, if it were not for the pleasure of once embracing a son, whom I have
hitherto loved with too tender affection. Whatever he either enjoys or
expects, he derived it from me. From  him I never received assistance,
* Strype, iii. 299.   t Jebb, vol. ii. 576-598.




OF SCOTLAND.                            255
supply, or benefit of any kind. Let not my allies treat him any longer as
a king: he holds that dignity by my consent; and if a speedy repentance
do not appease my just resentment, I will load him with a parent's curse,
and surrender my crown, with all my pretensions, to one who will receive
them with gratitude, and defend them with vigour."'  The love which
James bore to his mother, whom he had never known, and whom he had
been early taught to consider as one of the most abandoned persons of her
sex, cannot be supposed ever to have been ardent; and he did not now take
any pains to regain her favour. But whether her indignation at his undutiful behaviour, added to her bigoted attachment to popery, prompted
Mary at any time to think seriously of disinheriting her son; or whether
these threatenings were uttered in a sudden sally of disappointed affection,
it is now no easy matter to determine. Some papers which are still extant
seem to render the former not improbable.t
Cares of another kind, and no less disquieting, occupied Elizabeth's
thoughts. The calm which she had long enjoyed seemed now to be at an
end; and such storms were gathering in every quarter as filled her with
just alarm.  All the neighbouring nations had undergone revolutions
extremely to her disadvantage. The great qualities which Henry III.
had displayed in his youth, and which raised the expectations of his subjects so high, vanished on his ascending the throne; and his acquiring
supreme power seems not only to have corrupted his heart, but to have
impaired his understanding. He soon lost the esteem and affection of the
nation; and a life divided between the austerities of a superstitious devotion,
and the extravagancies of the most dissolute debauchery, rendered him as
contemptible as he was odious on account of his rapaciousness, his profusion,
and the fondness with which he doted on many unworthy minions. On
the death of his only brother, those sentiments of the people burst out.
with violence. Henry had no children, and though but thirty-two years
of age, the succession of the crown was already considered as open. The
king of Navarre, a distant descendant of the royal family, but the undoubted
heir to the crown, was a zealous protestant. The prospect of an event so
fatal to their religion, as his ascending the throne of France, alarmed all
the catholics in Europe; and induced the duke of Guise, countenanced
by the pope and aided by the king of Spain, to appear as the defender of
the Romish faith, and the asserter of the cardinal of Bourbon's right to
the crown. In order to unite the party, a bond of confederacy was formed,
distinguished by the name of the Holy League. All ranks of men joined
in it with emulation. The spirit spread with the irresistible rapidity
which was natural to religious passions in that age. The destruction of
the reformation, not only in France, but all over Europe, seemed to be the
object and wish of the whole party; and the duke of Guise, the head of
this mighty and zealous body, acquired authority in the kingdom far superior to that which the king himself possessed. Philip II. by the conquest
of Portugal, had greatly increased the naval power of Spain, and had at
last reduced under his dominion all that portion of the continent which
lies beyond the Pyrenean mountains, and which nature seems to have destined to form one great monarchy. William prince of Orange, who first
encouraged the inhabitants of the Netherlands to assert their liberties, and
whose wisdom and valour formed and protected the rising commonwealth,
had fallen by the hands of an assassin. The superior genius of the prince
of Parma had given an entire turn to the fate of war in the Low-Countries;
all his enterprises, concerted with consummate skill, and executed with
equal bravery, had been attended with success; and the Dutch, reduced
to the last extrerriity, were on the point of falling under the dominion of
their ancient master.
* Murdin, 566. Jebb, ii. 571. See Append. No. XLV.    t See Append. No. XLVI.




256                   THE HI ST O R Y                 [BooK VII.
None of those circumstances to which Elizabeth had hitherto owed her
security existed any longer. She could derive no advantage from the
jealousy which had subsisted between France and Spain; Philip, by means
of his confederacy with the duke of Guise, had an equal sway in the councils of both kingdoms. The Hugonots were unable to contend with the
power of the league; and little could be expected from any diversion
which they might create. Nor was it probable that the Netherlands could
long employ the arms or divide the strength of Spain. In this situation of
the affairs of Europe, it became necessary for Elizabeth to form a new plan.f conduct; and her wisdom in forming it was not greater than the vigour
vith which she carried it on. The measures most suitable to her natural
emper, and which she had hitherto pursued, were cautious and safe; those
which she now adopted were enterprising and hazardous. She preferred
peace, but was not afraid of war; and was capable, when compelled by
necessity, not only of defending herself with spirit, but of attacking her
mnemies with a boldness which averted danger from her own dominions.
Jhe immediately furnished the Hugonots with a considerable supply in
money. She carried on a private negotiation with Henry III., who,
though compelled to join the league, hated the leaders of it, and wished
for their destruction. She openly undertook the protection of the Dutch
commonwealth, and sent a powerful army to its assistance. She endeavoured to form a general confederacy of the protestant princes, in opposition to the popish league. She determined to proceed with the utmost
rigour against the queen of Scots, whose sufferings and rights afforded her
enemies a specious pretence for invading her dominions. She resolved to
redouble her endeavours, in order to effect a closer union with Scotland,
and to extend and perpetuate her influence over the councils of that nation.
She found it no difficult matter to induce most of the Scottish courtiers to
promote all her designs. Gray, sir John Maitland, who had been advanced
to the office of secretary, which his brother formerly held, sir Lewis
Bellenden, the justice clerk, who had succeeded Gray as the king's resident
at London, were the persons in whom  she chiefly confided. In order to
direct and quicken their motions, she despatched [May 29] sir Edward
Wotton, along with Bellenden, into Scotland. This man was gay, well
bred, and entertaining; he excelled in all the exercises for which James
had a passion, and amused the young king by relating the adventures which
he had met with, and the observations he had made during a long residence in foreign countries; but, under the veil of these superficial qualities,
he concealed a dangerous ard intriguing spirit. He soon grew into high
favour with James; and while he was seemingly attentive only to pleasure
and diversions, he acquired influence over the public councils to a degree
which was indecent for a stranger to possess.*
Nothing, however, could be more acceptable to the nation, than the
proposal which he made of a strict alliance between the two kingdoms, in
defence of the reformed religion. The rapid and alarming progress of the
popish league seemed to call on all protestant princes to unite for the
preservation of their common faith. James embraced the overture with
warmth [July 29], and a convention of estates empowered him to conclude
such a treaty, and engaged to ratify it in parliament.f. The alacrity with
which James concurred in this measure must not be wholly ascribed either
to his own zeal, or to Wotton's address; it was owing in part to Elizabeth's liberality. As a mark of her motherly affection for the young king,
she settled on him an annual pension of five thousand pounds; the same
sum which her father had allotted her before she ascended the throne.
This circumstance, which she took care to mention, rendered a sum. which
m that age was far from being inconsiderable, a very acceptable present
* Melv. 317.            t Spotsw. 339.




OF SCOTLAND.                             257
to the king, whose revenues, during a long minority, had been almost
totally dissipated.t.
But the chief object of'Wotton's intrigues was to ruin Arran. While a
minion so odious to the nation continued to govern the king, his assistance
could be of little advantage to Elizabeth. And though Arran, ever since
his interview with Hunsdon, had appeared extremely for her interest, she
could place no great confidence in a man whose conduct was so capricious
and irregular, and who, notwithstanding his protestations to the contrary,
still continued a secret correspondence both with Mary and with the duke
of Guise. The banished lords were attached to England from affection as
well as principle, and were the only persons among the Scots, whom, in
any dangerous exigency, she could thoroughly trust. Before Bellenden left
London, they had been summoned thither, under colour of vindicating
themselves from his accusations, but, in reality, to concert with him the
most proper measures for restoring them to their country. Wotton pursued
this plan, and endeavoured to ripen it for execution; and it was greatly
facilitated by an event neither uncommon nor considerable. Sir John
Forster, and Ker of Ferniherst, the English and Scottish wardens of the
middle marches, having met, according to the custom of the borders,
about midsummer, a fray arose, and lord Russel, the earl of Bedford's
eldest son, happened to be killed. This scuffle was purely accidental; but
Elizabeth chose to consider it as a design formed by Ker, at the instigation
of Arran, to involve the two kingdoms in war. She insisted that both
should be delivered up to her; and, though James eluded that demand, he
was obliged to confine Arran in St. Andrew's, and Ker in Aberdeen.
During his absence from court, Wotton and his associates carried on their
intrigues without interruption. By their advice [Oct. 16], the banished
nobles endeavoured to accommodate their differences with lord John and:
lord Claud, the duke of Chatelherault's two sons, whom Morton's violence
had driven out of the kingdom. Their common sufferings and common!
interest induced both parties to bury in oblivion the ancient discord which
had subsisted between the houses of Hamilton and Douglas. By Elizabeth's permission, they returned in a body to the borders of Scotland.
Arran, who had again recovered favour, insisted on putting the kingdom in
a posture of defence; but Gray, Bellenden, and Maitland, secretly thwarted
all his measures. Some necessary orders they prevented from being
issued; others they rendered ineffectual by the manner of execution; and
all of them were obeyed slowly, and with reluctance.?
Wotton's fertile brain was, at the same time, big with another and more
dangerous plot. He had contrived to seize the king, and to carry him by
force into England. But the design was happily discovered; and, in order
to avoid the punishment which his treachery merited, he departed without
taking leave.4
Meanwhile the banished lords hastened the execution of their enterprise;.
and, as their friends and vassals were now ready to join them, they entered
Scotland. Wherever they came, they were welcomed as the deliverers of
their country, and the most fervent prayers were addressed to heaven for
the success of their arms. They advanced, without losing a moment,
towards Stirling, at the head of ten thousand men. The king, though he
had assembled an army superior in number, could not venture to meet them
in the field with troops whose loyalty was extremely dubious, and who at
best were far from being hearty in the cause; nor was either the town or
castle provided for a siege. The gates, however, of both were shut, and
the nobles encamped at St. Ninian's [Nov. 2]. That same night they surprised the town, or, more probably, it was betrayed into their hands; and
Arran, who had undertaken to defend it, was obliged to save himself by a
* Cald. iii. 505.    t Spotsw. 340.        M Melv. 335.
VOL. III.-33




258                    T-HE  HISTORY                  [BooK VII.
precipitate flight. Next morning they invested the castle, in which there
were not provisions for twenty-four hours; and James was necessitated
immediately to hearken to terms of accommodation. They were not so
elated with success as to urge extravagant demands, nor was the king
unwilling to make every reasonable concession. They obtained a pardon,
in the most ample form, of all the offences which they had committed; the
principal forts in the kingdom were, by way of' security, put into their
hands; Crawford, Montrose, and colonel Stewart were remioved from the
king's presence; and a parliament was called in order to establish tranquillity in the nation.*
Dec. 10.1 Though a great majority in this parliament consisted of the
confederate nobles and their adherents, they were far from discovering a
vindictive spirit  Satisfied with procuring an act, restoring them to their
ancient honours and estates, and ratifying the pardon granted by the king,
they seemed willing to forget all past errors in the administration, and.spared James the mortification of seeing his ministers branded with any
public note of infamy. Arran alone, deprived of all his honours, stripped
of his borrowed spoils, and declared an enemy to his country by public pro-.clamation, sunk back into obscurity, and must henceforth be mentioned'by
his primitive title of captain James Stewart. As he had been, during his
unmerited prosperity, the object of the hatred and indignation of his countrymen, they beheld his fall without pity, nor did all his sufferings mitigate
their resentment in the least degree.
The clergy were the only body of men who obtained no redress of their
grievances by this revolution. The confederate nobles had all along.affected to be considered as guardians of the privileges and discipline of
the church. In all their manifestoes they had declared their resolution to
restore these, and by that popular pretence had gained many friends. It
was now natural to expect some fruit of these promises, and some returns of
gratitude towards many of the most eminent preachers who had suffered in
their cause, and who demanded the repeal of the laws passed the preceding year. The king, however, was resolute to maintain these laws in full:authority; and as the nobles were extremely solicitous not to disgust him.by insisting on any disagreeable request, the claims of the church in this as
well as in many other instances, were sacrificed to the interest of the laity.
The ministers gave vent to their indignation in the pulpit, and their impaItience under the disappointment broke out in some expressions extremely
disrespectful even towards the king himself.t
1586.] The archbishop of St. Andrew's, too, felt the effects of their
anger. The provincial synod of Fife summoned him to appear, and to
answer for his contempt of the decrees of former assemblies, in presuming
to exercise the functions of a bishop. Though he refused to acknowledge
the jurisdiction of the court, and appealed from it to the king, a sentence
of excommunication, equally indecent and irregular, was pronounced against
him. Adamson, with no less indecency, thundered his archiepiscopal
excommunication against Melvil, and some other of his opponents,
Soon after [April 13], a general assembly was held, in which the king,
with some difficulty, obtained an act, permitting the name and office of
bishop still to continue in the church. The power of the order, however,
was considerably retrenched. The exercise of discipline, and the inspection of the life and doctrine of the clergy, were committed to presbyteries,
in which bishops should be allowed no other pre-eminence but that of presiding as perpetual moderators. They themselves were declared to be
subject, in the same manner as other pastors, to the jurisdiction of the general assembly. As the discussion of the archbishop's appeal might have
kindled unusual heats in the assembly, that affair was terminated by a
* Cald. iii. 795.      t Spotsw. 343.




OF SCOTLAND.                                  59
compromise. He renounced any claim of supremacy over the church, and
promised to demean himself suitably to the character of a bishop, as
described by St. Paul. The assembly, without examining the foundations
of the sentence of excommunication, declared that it should be held of no
effect, and restored him to all the privileges which he enjoyed before it
was pronounced. Notwithstanding the extraordinary tenderness shown
for the honour of the synod, and the delicacy and respect with which its.
Jurisdiction was treated, several members were so zealous as to protest
against this decision."
The court of Scotland was now filled with persons so warmly attached
to Elizabeth, that the league between the two kingdoms, which had been
proposed last year, met with no interruption, but from D'Esneval, the French
envoy. James himself first offered to: renew the negotiations. Elizabeth
did not suffer such a favourable opportunity to slip, and instantly despatched
Randolph [July 5], to conclude a treaty, which she so much desired. The
danger to which the protestant religion was exposed, by the late combination of the popish powers for its destruction, and the necessity of a strict
confederacy among those who had embraced the reformation, in order to
obstruct their pernicious designs, were mentioned as the foundation of the
league. The chief articles in it were, that both parties should bind themselves to defend the evangelical religion; that the league should be offensive
and defensive against all who shall endeavour to disturb the exercise of
religion in either kingdom; that if one of the two parties be invaded, the
other, notwithstanding any former alliance, should not, directly or indirectly, assist the invader; that if England be invaded in any part remote
from Scotland, James should assist the queen with two thousand horse and
five thousand foot: that if the enemy landed or approached within sixty miles
of Scotland, the king should take the field with his whole forces, in the
same manner as he would do in defence of his own kingdom. Elizabeth,
in return, undertook to act in defence of Scotland, if it should be invaded.
At the same time she assured the king that no step should be taken, which
might derogate in any degree from his pretensions to the English crown.t
Elizabeth expressed great satisfaction with a treaty, which rendered Scotland an useful ally, instead of a dangerous neighbour, and afforded' her a
degree of security on that side, which all her ancestors had aimed at, but
none of them had been able to obtain. Zeal for religion, together with the
blessings of peace which both kingdoms had enjoyed during a considerable
period, had so far abated the violence of national antipathy, that the king's
conduct was universally acceptable to his own people.
The acquittal of Archibald Douglas, at this time, exposed James to much
and deserved censure. This man was deeply engaged in the conspiracy
against the life of the king his father. Both Morton and Blinny, one of his
own servants, who suffered for that crime, had accused him of being present
at the murder.~ He had escaped punishment by flying into England, and
James had often required Elizabeth to deliver up a person so unworthy of
her protection. He now obtained a license, from the king himself, to
return into Scotland; and, after undergoing a mock trial, calculated to con.
ceal rather than to detect his guilt, he was not only taken into favour by
the king, but sent back to the court of England with the honourable character of his ambassador. James was now of such an age that his youth
and inexperience cannot be pleaded in excuse for this indecent transaction.
It must be imputed to the excessive facility of his temper, which often led
him to gratify his courtiers at the expense of his own dignity and reputation.Is
Not long after, the inconsiderate affection of the English catholics towards
Mary, and their implacable resentment against Elizabeth, gave rise to a
* Cald. iii. 894. Spotsw. 346.  t Spotsw. 351.  t Camd. 513.  Q See Append. No. XLVII
Arnot, Crim Trials, 7, &c.   11 Spotsw. 348. Cal. iii. 917.




260                   THE  HISTORY                    [B0ooK VII.
conspiracy which proved fatal to the one queen, left an indelible stain on
the reputation of the other, and presented a spectacle to Europe, of which
there had been hitherto no example in the history of mankind.
Doctor Gifford, Gilbert Gifford, and Hodgson, priests educated in the
seminary at Rheims, had adopted an extravagant and enthusiastic notion,
that the bull of Pius V. against Elizabeth was dictated immediately by the
Holy Ghost. This wild opinion they instilled into Savage, an officer in the
Spanish army, noted for his furious zeal and daring courage; and persuaded him that no service could be so acceptable to heaven, as to take
away the life of an excommunicated heretic. Savage, eager to obtain the
crown of martyrdom, bound himself by a solemn vow to kill Elizabeth.
Ballard, a pragmatical priest of that seminary, had at that time come over
to Paris [April 26], and solicited Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador there,
to procure an invasion of England, while the affairs of the league were so
prosperous, and the kingdom left naked by sending so many of the queen's
best troops into the Netherlands. Paget and the English exiles demonstrated the fruitlessness of such an attempt, unless Elizabeth were first cut
off, or the invaders secured of a powerful concurrence on their landing. If
it could be hoped that either of these events would happen, effectual aid
was promised; and in the mean time Ballard was sent back to renew his
intrigues.
May 15.] He communicated his designs to Anthony Babington, a young
gentleman in Derbyshire, of a large fortune and many amiable qualities,
who having contracted, during his residence in France, a familiarity with
the archbishop of Glasgow, had been recommended by him to the queen of
Scots. He concurred with Paget in considering the death of Elizabeth as
a necessary preliminary to any invasion. Ballard gave him hopes that an
end would soon be put to her days, and imparted to him Savage's vow,
who was now in London waiting for an opportunity to strike the blow.
But Babington thought the attempt of too much importance to rely on a
single hand for the execution of it, and proposed that five resolute gentlemen
should be joined with Savage in an enterprise, the success of which was
the foundation of all their hopes. He offered to find out persons willing to
undertake the service, whose honour, secrecy, and courage, they might
safely. trust. He accordingly opened the matter to Edward Windsor,
Thomas Salisbury, Charles Tinley, Chidioc Tichbourne, Robert Gage,
John Travers, Robert Barnwell, John Charnock, Henry Dun, John Jones,
and Robert Polly; all of them, except Polly, whose bustling forward zeal
introduced him  into their society, gentlemen of good families, united
together in the bonds of private friendship, strengthened by the more
powerful tie of religious zeal. Many consultations were held; their plan
of operations was at last settled; and their different parts assigned [June].
Babington himself was appointed to rescue the queen of Scots; Salisbury,
with some others, undertook to excite several counties to take arms; the
murder of the queen, the most dangerous and important service of all, fell
to Tichbourne and Savage, with four associates. So totally had their
bigotted prejudices extinguished the principles of honour, and the sentiments of humanity suitable to their rank, that, without scruple or compunction, they undertook an action which is viewed with horror, even when
committed by the meanest and most profligate of mankind. This attempt,
on the contrary, appeared to them no less honourable than it was desperate;
and in order to perpetuate the memory of it, they had a picture drawn, containing the portraits of the six assassins, with that of Babington in the middle, and a motto intimating that they were jointly embarked in some hazardous design.
The conspirators, as appears by this wanton and imprudent instance of
vanity, seem to have thought a discovery hardly possible, and neither distrusted the fidelity of their companions nor doubted the success of their




OF SCOTLAND I$!
undertaking. But while they believed that their machinations were carried
on with the most profound and impenetrable secrecy, every step they took
was fully known to Walsingham. Polly was one of his spies, and had
entered into the conspiracy with no other design than to betray his associates.
Gilbert Gifford too, having been sent over to England to quicken the motions
of the conspirators, had been gained by Walsingham, and gave him sure
intelligence of all their projects. That vigilant minister immediately imparted the discoveries which he had made to Elizabeth; and. without
communicating the matter to any other of the counsellors, they agreed, in
order to understand the plot more perfectly, to wait until it was ripened
into some form, and brought near the point of execution.
At last, Elizabeth thought it dangerous and criminal to expose her own
life, and to tempt Providence any further. Ballard, the prime mover in
the whole conspiracy, was arrested [Aug. 4]. His associates, disconcerted
and struck with astonishment, endeavoured to save themselves by flight.
But within a few days, all of them, except Windsor, were seized in different places of the kingdom, and committed to the tower. Though they
had undertaken the part, they wanted the firm and determined spirit of
assassins; and, influenced by fear or by hope, at once confessed all that
they knew. The indignation of the people, and their impatience to revenge
such an execrable combination against the life of their sovereign, hastened
their trial, and all of them suffered the death of traitors.?
Thus far Elizabeth's conduct may be pronounced both prudent and
laudable, nor can she be accused of violating any law of humanity or of
taking any precautions beyond what were necessary for her own safety.
But a tragical scene followed, with regard to which posterity will pass a
very different judgment.
The frantic zeal of a few rash young men accounts sufficiently for all
the wild and wicked designs which they had formed. But this was not
the light in which Elizabeth and her ministers chose to place the conspiracy. They wished to persuade the nation, that Babington and his
associates should be considered merely as instruments employed by the
queen of Scots, the real though secret author of so many attempts against
the life of Elizabeth, and the peace of her kingdoms. They produced
letters, which they ascribed to her, in support of this charge. These, as
they gave out, had come into their hands by the following singular and
mysterious method of conveyance. Gifford, on his return into England,
had been trusted by some of the exiles with letters to Mary; but, in order
to make a trial of his fidelity and address, they were only blank papers
made up in that form. These being safely delivered by him, he was
afterwards employed without further scruple. Walsingham having found
means to gain this man, he, by the permission of that minister, and the
connivance of Paulet, bribed a tradesman in the neighbourhood of Chartley,
Whither Mary had been conveyed, who deposited the letters in a hole in
the wall of the castle, covered with a loose stone. Thence they were
taken by the queen, and in the same manner her answers returned. All
these were carried to Walsingham, opened by him, deciphered, sealed
again so dexterously that the fraud could not be perceived, and then transmitted to the persons to whom they were directed. Two letters to Babington, with several to Mendoza, Paget, Englefield, and the English
fugitives, were procured by this artifice. It was given out, that in thest
letters Mary approved of the conspiracy, and even of the assassination;
that she directed them to proceed with the utmost circumspection, and
not to take arms until foreign auxiliaries were ready to join them; that
she recommended the earl of Arundel, his brothers, and the young earl of
Northumberland, as proper persons to conduct and to add reputation to
* Camd. 515. State Trials, vol. i. 110.




862                    THE  HISTORI                   [BooK VII.
their enterprise; that she advised them, if possible, to excite at the same
time some commotion in Ireland; and, above all, besought them to con
cert with care the means of her own escape, suggesting to them several
expedients for that purpose.
All these circumstances were opened at the trial of the conspirators;
and while the nation was under the influence of those terrors which the
association had raised, and the late danger had augmented, they were
believed without hesitation or inquiry, and spread a general alarm. Mary's
zeal for her religion was well known; and in that age, examples of the
violent and sanguinary spirit which it inspired were numerous. All the
cabals against the peace of the kingdom for many years had been carried
on in her name; and it now appears evidently, said the English, that the
safety of the one queen is incompatible with that of the other. Why then,
added they, should the tranquillity of England be sacrificed for the sake
of a stranger? Why is a life so dear to the nation exposed to the repeated
assaults of an exasperated rival?  The case supposed in the association
has now happened, the sacred person of our sovereign has been threatened,
and why should not an injured people execute that just vengeance which
they had vowed?
No sentiments could be more agreeable than these to Elizabeth and her
ministers. They themselves had at first propagated them among the
people, and they now served both as an apology and a motive for their
proceeding to such extremities against the Scottish queen as they had long
meditated. The more numerous the injuries were which Elizabeth had
heaped on Mary, the more she feared and hated that unhappy queen, and
came at last to be persuaded that there could be no other security for her
own life, but the death of her rival. Burleigh and Walsingham had promoted so zealously all Elizabeth's measures with regard to Scottish affairs,
and had acted with so little reserve in opposition to Mary, that they had
reason to dread the most violent effects of her resentment if ever she should
mount the throne of England. From this additional consideration they
endeavoured, with the utmost earnestness, to hinder an event so fatal to
themselves, by confirming their mistress's fear and hatred of the Scottitan
queen.
Meanwhile, Mary was guarded with unusual vigilance, and great care
was taken to keep her ignorant of the discovery of the conspiracy. Sir
Thomas Gorges was at last sent from court to acquaint her both of it, and
of the imputation with which she was loaded as accessary to that crime,
and he surprised her with the account just as she had got on horseback to
ride out along with her keepers. She was struck with astonishment, and
would have returned to her apartment, but she was not permitted; and, in
her absence, her private closet was broken open, her cabinet and papers
were seized, sealed, and sent up to court. Her principal domestics too
were arrested, and committed to different keepers. Naue and Curie her
two secretaries, the one a native of France, the other of Scotland, were
carried prisoners to London. All the money in her custody, amounting to
little more than two thousand pounds, was secured.* And after leading
her about for some days, from one gentleman's house to another, she was
conveyed to Fotheringay, a strong castle in Northamptonshire.f
No further evidence could now be expected against Mary, and nothing
remained but to decide what should be her fate. With regard to this,
Elizabeth and those ministers in whom she chiefly confided seem to have
taken their resolution; but there was still great variety of sentiments
among her other counsellors. Some thought it sufficient to dismiss all
Mary's attendants, and to keep her under such close restraint, as would
cut off all possibility of corresponding with the enemies of the kingdom
* See Appendix, No. XLVIIL.   t Camd. 517.




OF SCOTLAND.                             263
and as her constitution, broken by long confinement, and her spirit, dejected
with so many sorrows, could not long support such an additional load, the
queen and nation would soon be delivered from all their fears. But though
it might be easy to secure Mary's own person, it was impossible to diminish
the reverence which the Roman Catholics had for her name, or to extinguish the compassion with which they viewed her sufferings; while such
sentiments continued, insurrections and invasions would never be wanting
for her relief, and the only effect of any new rigour would be to render
these attempts more frequent and more dangerous. For this reason the
expedient was rejected.
A public and legal trial, though the most unexampled, was judged the
most unexceptionable method of proceeding; and it had at the same time
a semblance of justice, accompanied with an air of dignity. It was
in vain to search the ancient records for any statute or precedent to
justify such an uncommon step as the trial of a foreign prince, who had
not entered the kingdom  in arms, but had fled thither for refuge. The
proceedings against her were founded on the act of last parliament, and
by applying it in this manner, the intention of those who had framed that
severe statute became more apparent."
Elizabeth resolved that no circumstance of pomp or solemnity should
be wanting, which could render this transaction such as became the dignity
of the person to be tried. She appointed, by a commission under the
great seal, forty persons, the most illustrious in the kingdom by their birth
or offices, together with five of the judges, to hear and decide this great
cause. Many difficulties were started by the lawyers about the name and
title by which Mary should be arraigned; and while the essentials of
iustice were so grossly violated, the empty forms of it were the objects of
their care. They at length agreed that she should be styled "Mary,
daughter and heir of James V. late king of Scots, commonly called queen
of Scots, and dowager of France."t
After the many indignities which she had lately suffered, Mary could no
longer doubt but that her destruction was determined. She expected
every moment to end her days by poison, or by some of those secret
means usually employed against captive princes. Lest the malice of her
enemies, at the same time that it deprived her of life, should endeavour
likewise to blast her reputation, she wrote to the duke of Guise, and vindicated herself, in the strongest terms, from the imputation of encouraging
or of being accessary to the conspiracy for assassinating Elizabeth.$ In
the solitude of her prison, the strange resolution of bringing her to a public
trial had not reached her ears, nor did the idea of any thing so unprecedented, and so repugnant to regal majesty, once enter into her thoughts.
On the eleventh of October, the commissioners appointed by Elizabeth
arrived at Fotheringay. Next morning they delivered a letter from their
sovereign to Mary, in which, after the bitterest reproaches and accusations,
she informed her, that regard for the happiness of the nation had at last
rendered it necessary to make a public inquiry into her conduct, and therefore required her, as she had lived so long under the protection of the
laws of England, to submit now to the trial which they ordained to be
taken of her crimes. Mary, though surprised at this message, was neither
appalled at the danger, nor unmindful of her own dignity. She protested,
in the most solemn manner, that she was innocent of the crime laid to her
charge, and had never countenanced any attempt against the life of the
queen of England; but, at the same time, refused to acknowledge the
jurisdiction of her commissioners. " I came into the kingdom," said she,
" an independent sovereign, to implore the queen's assistance, not to subject
myself to her authority. Nor is my spirit so broken by its past misfortunes,
4 Camd. 519. Johnst. Hist. 113.  t Strypc, iii 362.  t Jebb, ii. 283.




264                    THE HISTORY                    [BooK VII.
or so intimidated by present dangers, as tc stoop to any thing unbecoming
the majesty of a crowned head, or that will disgrace the ancestors from
whom I am descended, and the son to whom I shall leave my throne. If
I must be tried, princes alone can be my peers. The queen of England's
subjects, hcwever noble their birth may be, are of a rank inferior to mine.
Ever since my arrival in this kingdom I have been confined as a prisoner.
Its laws never afforded me any protection. Let them not now be perverted in order to take away my life."
The commissioners employed arguments and entreaties to overcome
Marys resolution. They even threatened to proceed according to the
forms of law, and to pass sentence against her on account of her contumacy in refusing to plead: she persisted, however, for two days, to
decline their jurisdiction.  An argument, used by Hatton, the vicechamberlain, at last prevailed. He told her that, by avoiding a trial, she
injured her own reputation, and deprived herself of the only opportunity of
setting her innocence in a clear light; and that nothing would be more
agreeable to them, or more acceptable to the queen their mistress, than to
be convinced, by undoubted evidence, that she had been unjustly loaded
with foul aspersions.
No wonder pretexts so plausible should impose on the unwary queen,
or that she, unassisted at that time by any friend or counsellor, should not
be able to detect and elude all the artifices of Elizabeth's ablest ministers.
In a situation equally melancholy, and under circumstances nearly similar,
her grandson Charles I. refused with the utmost firmness to acknowledge
the usurped jurisdiction of the high court of justice; and posterity has
approved his conduct, as suitable to the dignity of a king. If Mary was
less constant in her resolution, it must be imputed solely to her anxious
desire of vindicating her own honour.
At her appearance before the judges [Oct. 14], who were seated in the
great hall of the castle, where they received her with much ceremony, she
took care to protest, that by condescending to hear and to give an answer
to the accusations which should be brought against her, she neither acknowledged the jurisdiction of the court, nor admitted the validity and justice
of those acts by which they pretended to try her.
The chancellor, by a counter protestation, endeavoured to vindicate the
authority of the court.
Then Elizabeth's attorney and solicitor opened the charge against her,
with all the circumstances of the late conspiracy. Copies of Mary's letters
to Mendoza, Babington, Englefield, and Paget, were produced. Babington's confession, those of Ballard, Savage, and the other conspirators, together with the declarations of Naue and Curle, her secretaries, were read,
and the whole ranged in the most specious order which the art of the
lawyers could devise, and heightened by every colour their eloquence
could add.
Mary listened to their harangues attentively, and without emotion. But
at the mention of the earl of Arundel's name, who was then confined in the
Tower, she broke out into this tender and generous exclamation: " Alas,
how much has the noble house of Howard suffered for my sake!"
When the queen's counsel had finished, Mary stood up, and with great
magnanimity, and equal presence of mind, began her defence. She
bewailed the unhappiness of her own situation, that after a captivity of
nineteen years, during which she had suffered treatment no less.cruel than'anmerited, she was at last loaded with an accusation, which tended not
only to rob her of her right of succession, and to deprive her ~of life
itself, but to transmit her name with infamy to future ages: that, without
regarding the sacred rights of sovereignty, she was now subjected to laws
framed against private persons: though an anointed queen, commanded to
appear before the tribunal of subjects; and, like a common criminal, hem




OF SCOTLAND.                             265
nonour exposed to the petulant tongues of lawyers, capable of wresting her
words, and of misrepresenting her actions: that even in this dishonourable
situation, she was denied the privileges usually granted to criminals, and
obliged to undertake her own defence, without the presence of any friend
with whom to advise, without the aid of counsel, and without the use of
her own papers.
She then proceeded to the particular articles in the accusation. She
absolutely denied any correspondence with Babington or Ballard; copies
only of her pretended letters to them were produced; though nothing less
than her handwriting or subscription was sufficient to convict her of such
an odious crime: no proof could be brought that their letters were delivered into her hands, or that any answer was returned by her direction;
the confessions of wretches condemned and executed for such a detestable
action were of little weight; fear or hope might extort from them many
things inconsistent with truth, nor ought the honour of a queen to be
stained by such vile testimony. The declaration of her secretaries was
not more conclusive: promises and threats might easily overcome the
resolution of two strangers; in order to screen themselves, they might
throw the blame on her: but they could discover nothing to her prejudice
without violating, in the first place, the oath of fidelity which they had
sworn to her; and their perjury in one instance rendered them unworthy
of credit in another: the letters to the Spanish ambassador were either
nothing more than copies, or contained only what was perfectly innocent:
" I have often," continued she, " made such efforts for the recovery of my
liberty as are natural to a human creature. Convinced, by the sad experience of so many years, that it was in vain to expect it from the justice or
generosity of the queen of England, I have frequently solicited foreign
princes, and called upon all my friends to employ their whole interest For
my relief. I have likewise endeavoured to procure for the English catholics some mitigation of the rigour with which they are now treated; and
if I could hope, by my death, to deliver them from oppression, am willing
to die for their sake. I wish, however, to imitate the example of Esther,
not of Judith, and would rather make intercession for my people than shed
the blood of the meanest creature in order to save them. I have often
checked the intemperate zeal of my adherents, when either the severity
of their own persecutions, or indignation at the unheard-of injuries which
I have endured, were apt to precipitate them into violent counsels; I have
even warned the queen of dangers to which these harsh proceedings
exposed herself. And worn out, as I now am, with cares and sufferings,
the prospect of a crown is not so inviting that I should ruin my soul in order
to obtain it. I am no stranger to the feelings of humanity, nor unacquainted
with the duties of religion, and abhor the detestable crime of assassination,
as equally repugnant to both. And, if ever I have given consent by my
words, or even by my thoughts, to any attempt against the life of the
queen of England, far from declining the judgment of men, I shall not even
pray for the mercy of God.""
Two different days did Mary appear before the judges, and in every
part of her behaviour maintained the magnanimity of a queen, tempered
with the gentleness and modesty of a woman.
The commissioners, by Elizabeth's express command, adjourned, without pronouncing any sentence, to the Star-chamber in Westminster
[Oct. 25]. When assembled in that place, Naue and Curie were brought
into court, and confirmed their former declaration upon oath; and after
reviewing all their proceedings, the commissioners unanimously declared
Alary "to be accessary to Babington's conspiracy, and to have imagined
divers matters tending to the hurt, death, and destruction of Elizabeth,
* Camd. 520, &c.
VOL. III.-34




266                   TTHE HISTORY                   [BooK VII
contrary to the express words of the statute made for the security of the
queen's life." 
It is no easy matter to determine whether the injustice in appointing this
trial, or the irregularity in conducting it, were greatest and most flagrant.
By what right did Elizabeth claim authority over an independent queen?
Was Mary bound to comply with the laws of a foreign kingdom?  How
could the subjects of another prince become her judges? or, if such an
insult on royalty were allowed, ought not the common forms of justice to
have been observed? If the testimony of Babington and his associates
were so explicit, why did not Elizabeth spare them for a few weeks, and,
by confronting them with Mary, overwhelm her with the full conviction of
her crimes?  Naue and Curie were both alive, wherefore did not they
appear at Fotheringay? and for what reason were they produced in the
Star-chamber, where Mary was not present to hear what they deposed?
Was this suspicious evidence enough to condemn a queen? Ought the
meanest criminal to have been found guilty upon such feeble and inconclusive proofs?
It was not, however, on the evidence produced at her trial, that the
sentence against Mary was founded. That served as a pretence to justify,
but was not the cause of the violent steps taken by Elizabeth and her
ministers towards her destruction; and was employed to give some
appearance of justice to what was the offspring of jealousy and fear. The
nation, blinded with resentment against Mary, and solicitous to secure the
life of its own sovereign from every danger, observed no irregularities in
the proceedings, and attended to no defects in the proof, but grasped at
the suspicions and probabilities, as if they had been irrefragable demonstrations.
The parliament met a few days after sentence was pronounced against
Mary. In that illustrious assembly more temper and discernment than are
to be found among the people might have been expected. Both lords and
commons, however, were equally under the dominion of popular prejudices
and passions, and the same excess of zeal, or of fear, which prevailed in
the nation, is apparent in all their proceedings. They entered with impatience upon an inquiry into the conspiracy, and the danger which threatened the queen's life as well as the peace of the kingdom. All the papers
which had been produced at Fotheringay were laid before them; and,
after many violent invectives against the queen of Scots, both houses unanimously ratified the proceedings of the commissioners by whom she had
been tried, and declared the sentence against her to be just and well founded. Not satisfied with this, they presented a joint address to the queen,
beseeching her, as she regarded her own safety, the preservation of the
protestant religion, the welfare and wishes of her people, to publish the
sentence; and without further delay to inflict on a rival, no less irreclaimable than dangerous, the punishment which she had merited by so many
crimes. This request, dictated by fears unworthy of that great assembly,
was enforced by reasons still more unworthy.  They were drawn not from
justice, but from conveniency. The most rigorous confinement, it was pretended, could not curb Mary's intriguing spirit; her address was found, by
long experience, to be an overmatch for the vigilance and jealousy of all
her keepers; the several penal laws could not restrain her adherents, who,
while they believed her person to be sacred, would despise any danger to
which themselves alone were exposed; several foreign princes were ready
to second their attempts, and waited only a proper opportunity for invading the kingdom, and asserting the Scottish queen's title to the crown. Her
life, they contended, was, for these reasons, incompatible with Elizabeth's
safety; and if she were spared out of a false clemency, the queen's person,
* Camd. 525.




OF SCOTLAND                              267
thile religion and liberties of the kingdom, could not be one moment secure
Necessity required that she should be sacrificed in order to preserve these;
and to prove this sacrifice to be no less just than necessary, several examples in history were produced, and many texts of scripture quoted; but
both the one and the other were misapplied, and distorted from their true
meaning.
Nothing, however, could be more acceptable to Elizabeth than an address in this strain. It extricated her out of a situation extremely embarrassing; and, without depriving her of the power of sparing, it enabled
her to punish her rival with less appearance of blame. If she chose the
former, the whole honour would redound to her own clemency. If she
determined on the latter, whatever was rigorous might now seem to be
extorted by the solicitations of her people rather than to flow from her
own inclination. Her answer, however, was in a style which she often
used, ambiguous and evasive, under the appearance of openness and candour; full of such professions of regard for her people as served to heighten
their loyalty; of such complaints of Mary's ingratitude as were calculated
to excite their indignation; and of such insinuation that her own life was
in danger as could not fail to keep alive their fears. In the end, she
besought them to save her the infamy and the pain of delivering up a
queen, her nearest kinswoman, to punishment; and to consider whether it
might not still be possible to provide for the public security, without
forcing her to imbrue her hands in royal blood.
The true meaning of this reply was easily understood. The lords and
commons renewed their former request with additional importunity, which
was far from being either unexpected or offensive. Elizabeth did not
return any answer more explicit; and having obtained such a public sanction of her proceedings, there was no longer any reason for protracting this
scene of dissimulation; there was even some danger that her feigned difficulties might at last be treated as real ones; she therefore prorogued the
parliament, and reserved in her own hands the sole disposal of her rival's
fate.*
All the princes in Europe observed the proceedings against Mary with
astonishment and horror; and even Henry III., notwithstanding his known
aversion to the house of Guise, was obliged to interpose on her behalf, and
to appear in defence of the common rights of royalty. Aubespine, his
resident ambassador, and Bellievre, who was sent with an extraordinary
commission to the same purpose, interceded for Mary with great appearance of warmth. They employed all the arguments which the cause
naturally suggested; they pleaded from justice, from generosity, and humanity: they intermingled reproaches and threats; but to all these Eilzabeth
continued deaf and inexorable: and having received some intimation of
Henry's real unconcern about the fate of the Scottish queen. and knowing
his antipathy to all the race of Guise, she trusted that these loud remonstrances would be followed by no violent resentment4.
She paid no greater regard to the solicitations of the Scottish king, which,
as they were urged with greater sincerity, merited more attention. Though
her commissioners had been extremely careful to sooth James, by publishing a declaration that their sentence against Mary did, in no degree, derogate from his honour, or invalidate any title which he formerly possessed 
he beheld the indignities to which his mother had been exposed with filial
concern, and with the sentiments which became a king; The pride of the
Scottish nation was roused by the insult offered to the blood of their
monarchs, and called upon him to employ the most vigorous efforts, in
order to prevent or to revenge the queen's death.
At first, he could hardly believe that Elizabeth would venture upon an
* Camd. 526. D'Ewes, 375.           t Camd. 531.




6t3                   T H E  H ISTORY                 [Booic V 11.
action so unprecedented, which tended so visibly to render the persons of
princes less sacred in the eyes of the people, and which degraded the real
dignity, of which, at other times, she was so remarkably jealous. But as
soon as the extraordinary steps which she took discovered her intention, he
despatched sir William Keith to London; who, together with Douglas, his
ambassador in ordinary, remonstrated, in the strongest terms, against the
injury done to an independent queen, in subjecting her to be tried like a
rivate person, and by laws to which she owed no obedience; and besought
Elizabeth not to add to this injury by suffering a sentence unjust in itself,
as well as dishonourable to the king of Scots, to be put into execution.9
Elizabeth returning no answer to these remonstrances of his ambassador,
James wrote to her with his own hand, complaining in the bitterest terms
of her conduct, not without threats that both his duty and his honour would
oblige him to renounce her friendship, and to act as became a son when
called to revenge his mother's wrongs.t At the same time he assembled
the nobles, who promised to stand by him in so good a cause. He appointed ambassadors to France, Spain, and Denmark, in order to implore the
aid of these courts; and took other steps towards executing his threats with
vigour. The high strain of his letter enraged Elizabeth to such a degree,
that she was ready to dismiss his ambassadors without any reply. But
his preparations alarmed and embarrassed her ministers, and at theii
entreaty she returned a soft and evasive answer, promising to listen to any
overture from the king, that tended to his mother's safety; and to suspend
the execution of the sentence until the arrival of new ambassadors from
Scotland.+
Meanwhile, she commanded the sentence against Mary to be published
[Dec. 6], and forgot not to inform the people that this was extorted from
her by the repeated entreaty of both houses of parliament. At the same
time she despatched lords Buckhurst and Beale to acquaint Mary with the
sentence, and how importunately the nation demanded the execution of it;
and though she had not hitherto yielded to these solicitations, she advised
her to prepare for an event which might become necessary for securing the
protestant religion, as well as quieting the minds of the people. Mary
received the- message not only without symptoms of fear, but with expressions of triumph. "No wonder," said she, "the English should now
thirst for the blood of a foreign prince; they have often offered violence
to their own monarchs. But after so many sufferings, death comes to me
as a welcome deliverer. I am proud to think that my life is deemed of
importance to the catholic religion, and as a martyr for it I am now willing to die."~
After the publication of the sentence, Mary was stripped of every remaining mark of royalty. The canopy of state in her apartment was
pulled down; Paulet entered her chamber, and approached her person
without any ceremony; and even appeared covered in her presence [Dec.
19]. Shocked with these indignities, and offended at this gross familiarity,
to which she had never been accustomed, Mary once more complained to
Elizabeth; and at the same time, as her last request, entreated that she
would permit her servants to carry her dead body into France, to be laid
among her ancestors in hallowed ground; that some of her domestics might
be present at her death, to bear witness of her innocence, and firm adherence to the catholic faith; that all her servants might be suffered to leave
the kingdom, and to enjoy those small legacies which she should bestow
on them, as testimonies of her affection; and that, in the meantime, her
almoner, or some other catholic priest, might be allowed to attend her, and
to assist her in preparing for an eternal world. She besought her, in the
* See Append. No. XLIX. Murdin, 573, &c. Birch. Mem. i. 52.  t Birch. Mem. i. 52
t Spotsw. 551. Cald. iv. 5.   Q Camd. 528. Jebb. 291.




OF SCOTLAND.                            269
name of Jesus, by the soul and memory of Henry VII., their commor
progenitor, by their near consanguinity, and the royal dignity with which
they were both invested, to gratify her in these particulars, and to indulge
her so far as to signify her compliance by a letter under her own hand.
Whether Mary's letter was ever delivered to Elizabeth is uncertain. No
answer was returned, and no regard paid to her requests. She was offered
a protestant bishop or dean to attend her. Them she rejected, and, without any clergyman to direct her devotions, she prepared, in great tranquillity, for the approach of death, which she now believed to be at no great
distance.'
1587.] Jarnes, without losing a moment, sent new ambassadors to London [Jan. 1]. These were the Master of Gray, and sir Robert Melvil.
In order to remove Elizabeth's fears, they offered that their master would
become bound that no conspiracy should be undertaken against her person
or the peace of the kingdom, with Mary's consent7 and, for the faithful
performance of this, would deliver some of the most considerable of the
Scottish nobles as hostages. If this were not thought sufficient, they proposed that Mary should resign all her rights and pretensions to her son,
from whom nothing injurious to the protestant religion, or inconsistent with
Elizabeth's safety, could be feared. The former proposal Elizabeth rejected as insecure; the latter, as dangerous. The ambassadors were then
instructed to talk in a higher tone; and Melvil executed the commission
with fidelity, and with zeal. But Gray, with his usual perfidy, deceived
his master, who trusted him with a negotiation of so much importance, and
betrayed the queen whom he was employed to save. He encouraged and
urged Elizabeth to execute the sentence against her rival. He often repeated the old proverbial sentence, " The dead cannot bite." And whatever should happen, he undertook to pacify the king's rage, or at least to
prevent any violent effects of his resentment.s
Elizabeth, meanwhile, discovered all the symptoms of the most violent
agitation and disquietude of mind. She shunned society, she was often
found in a melancholy and musing posture, and repeating with much emphasis these sentences, which she borrowed from some of the devices then
in vogue;./lut fer autferi: ne feriare, feri. Much, no doubt, of this
apparent uneasiness must be imputed to dissimulation; it was impossible,
however, that a princess, naturally so cautious as Elizabeth, should venture on an action, which might expose her memory to infamy, and her life
and kingdom to danger, without reflecting deeply, and hesitating long.
The people waited her determination in suspense and anxiety; and, lest
their fear or their zeal should subside, rumours of danger were artfully
invented and propagated with the utmost industry. Aubespine, the French
ambassador, was accused of having suborned an assassin to murder the
queen. The Spanish fleet -was said by some to be already arrived at Milford-haven. Others affirmed that the duke of Guise had landed with a
strong army in Sussex. Now it was reported that the northern counties
were up in arms; next day, that the Scots had entered England with all
their forces; and a conspiracy, it was whispered, was on foot for seizing
the queen and burning the city. The panic grew every day more violent;
and the people, astonished and enraged, called for the execution of the
sentence against Mary, as the only thing which could restore tranquillity to
the kingdom.1
While these sentiments prevailed among her subjects, Elizabeth thought
she might safely venture to strike the blow which she had so long meditated. She commanded Davison, one of the secretaries of state, to bring
to her the fatal warrant [Feb. 1]; and her behaviour on that occasion
* Camd. 528. Jebb. ii. 295.   t Spotsw. 352. Murdin, 568. See App. No. L.   $ Canld.
533, 534.




270                   THE  H ISTO RY                   BooK VII.
plainly showed, that it is not to humanity that we must ascribe her forbearance hitherto  At the very moment she was signing the writ which gave
up a wvoman, a queen, and her own nearest relation, into the hands of the
executioner, she was capable of jesting. "Go," says she to Davison,
"and tell Walsingham what I have now done, though I am afraid he will
die for grief when he hears it."  Her chief anxiety was how to secure the
advantages which would arise from Mary's death, without appearing to
have given her consent to a deed so odious. She often hinted to Paulet
and Drury, as well as to some other courtiers, that now was the time to
discover the sincerity of their concern for her safety, and that she expected
their zeal would extricate her out of her present perplexity. But they
were wise enough to seem not to understand her meaning. Even after the
warrant was signed, she commanded a letter to be written to Paulet in lessambiguous terms, co-nplaining of his remissness in sparing so long the life
of her capital enemy, and begging him  to remember at last what was
incumbent on him as an affectionate subject, as well as what he was bound
to do by the oath of association, and to deliver his sovereign from continual
fear and danger, by shortening the days of his prisoner. Paulet, though
rigorous and harsh, and often brutal in the discharge of what he thought
his duty, as Mary's keeper, was nevertheless a man of honour and integrity
He rejected the proposal with disdain; and lamenting that he should ever
have been deemed capable of acting the part of an assassin, he declared
that the queen might dispose of his life at her pleasure, but that he would
never stain his own honour, nor leave an everlasting mark of infamy on his
posterity, by lending his hand to perpetrate so foul a crime. On the receipt of this answer, Elizabeth became extremely peevish; and calling
him a dainty and precise fellow, who would promise much but perform
nothing, she proposed to employ one Wingfield, who had both courage and
inclination to strike the blow.*  But Davison remonstrating against this as
i deed dishonourable in itself, and of dangerous example, she again declared her intention that the sentence pronounced by the commissioners
should be executed according to law; and as she had already signed the
warrant, she begged that no further application might be made to her on
that head. By this, the privy counsellors thought themselves sufficiently
authorized to proceed; and prompted, as they pretended, by zeal for the
queen's safety, or instigated, as is more probable, by the apprehension of
the danger to which they would themselves be exposed, if the life of the
queen of Scots were spared, they assembled in the council chamber; and
by a letter under all their hands, empowered the earls of Shrewsbury and
Kent, together with the high sheriff of the county, to see the sentence put
in execution.t
On Tuesday the seventh of February, the two earls arrived at Fotherin
gay, and demanded access to the queen, read in her presence the warrant
for execution, and required her to prepare to die next morning. Mary
heard them to the end without emotion, and crossing herself in the liame of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, "That soul," said she,
is not worthy the joys of Heaven, which repines because the body must
endure the stroke of the executioner; and though I did not expect that the
queen of England would set the first example of violating the sacred person of a sovereign prince, I willingly submit to that which Providence has
decreed to be my lot;" and laying her hand on a bible, which happened
to be near her, she solemnly protested that she was innocent of that conspiracy which Babington had carried on against Elizabeth's life.: She then
mentioned the requests contained in her letter to Elizabeth, but obtained
no satisfactory answer. She entreated with particular earnestness, that
now in her last moments her almoner might be suffered to attend her, and
Biog. Britan. article Davison.  t Camd. 534. Strype, iii. 361. 364.: Jebb, ii. 301.




OF SCOTLAND.                            271
that she might enjoy the consolation of those pious institutions prescribed
by her religion. Even this favour, which is usually granted to the vilest
criminal,.was absolutely denied.
Her attendants, during this conversation, were bathed in tears, and,
though overawed by the presence of the two earls, with difficulty suppressed their anguish; but no sooner did Kent and Shrewsbury withdraw,
than they ran to their mistress, and burst out into the most passionate expressions of tenderness and sorrow. Mary, however, not only retained perfect composure of mind herself, but endeavoured to moderate their excessive grief; and falling on her knees with all her domestics round her, she
thanked heaven that her sufferings were now so near an end, and prayed
that she mlight be enabled to endure what still remained with decency and
with fortitude. The greater part of the evening she employed in settling
her wordly affairs. She wrote her testament with her own hand. Her
money, her jewels, and her clothes, she distributed among her servants,
according to their rank, or merit. She wrote a short letter to the king of
France, and another to the duke of Guise, full of tender but magnanimous
sentiments, and recommended her soul to their prayers, and her afflicted
servants to their protection. At supper she ate temperately, as usual, and
conversed not only with ease, but with cheerfulness; she drank to every
one of her servants, and asked their forgiveness, if ever she had failed in
any part of her duty towards them. At her wonted time she went to bed,
and slept calmly a few hours. Early in the morning she retired into her
closet, and employed a considerable time in devotion. At eight o'clock
the high sheriff and his officers entered her chamber, and found her still
kneeling at the altar. She immediately started up, and with a majestic
mien, and a countenance undismayed and even cheerful, advanced towards
the place of execution, leaning on two of Paulet's attendants. She was
dressed in a mourning habit, but with an elegance and splendour which
she had long laid aside, except on a few festival days. An.fgn.us Dez
hung by a pomander chain at her neck; her beads at her girdle; and in
her hand she carried a crucifix of ivory. At the bottom of the stairs, the
two earls, attended by several gentlemen from the neighbouring counties,
received her; and there Sir Andrew Melvil, the master of her household,
who had been secluded for some weeks from her presence, was permitted
to take his last farewell. At the sight of a mistress whom he tenderly
loved, in such a situation, he melted into tears; and as he was bewailing
her condition, and complaining of his own hard fate, in being appointed to
carry the account of such a mournful event into Scotland, Mary replied,
" Weep not, good Melvil, there is at present great cause for rejoicing.
Thou shalt this day see Mary Stewart delivered from all her cares, and
such an end put to her tedious sufferings as she has long expected. Bear
witness that I die constant in my religion; firm in my fidelity towards
Scotland; and unchanged in my affection to France. Commend me to
my son. Tell him I have done nothing injurious to his kingdom, to his
honour, or to his rights; and God forgive all those who have thirsted,
without cause, for my blood!"
With much difficulty, and after many entreaties, she prevailed on the
two earls to allow Melvil, together with three of her men servants, and
two of her maids, to attend her to the scaffold. It was erected in the
same hall where she had been tried, raised a little above the floor, and
covered, as well as a chair, the cushion, and block, with black cloth.
Mary mounted the steps with alacrity, beheld all this apparatus of death
with an unaltered countenance, and signing herself with the cross, she sat
down in the chair. Beale read the warrant for execution with a loud voice,
to which she listened with a careless air, and like one occupied with other
thoughts. Then the dean of Peterborough began a devout discourse,
suitable to her nresent condition, and offered up prayers to heaven in her




272                     THE  HISTORY                   [BooK VII.
behalf; but she declared that she could not in conscience hearken to the
one, nor join with the other; and kneeling down, repeated a Latin prayer.
When the dean had finished his devotions, she, with an audible voice, and
in the English tongue, recommended unto God the aillicted state cf the
church, and prayed for prosperity to her son, and for a long life and
peaceable reign to Elizabeth. She declared that she hoped for mercy
only through the death of Christ, at the foot of whose image she now willingly shed her blood; and lifting up and kissing the crucifix, she thus
addressed it: "As thy arms, 0 Jesus, were extended on the cross; so
with the outstretched arms of thy mercy receive me, and forgive my sins."
She then prepared for the block, by taking off her veil and upper gar
ments; and one of the executioners rudely endeavouring to assist, she
gently checked him, and said with a smile, that she had not been accus
tomed to undress before so many spectators, nor to be served by such
valets.  With calm  but undaunted fortitude she laid her neck on the
block; and while one executioner held her hands, the other, at the second
stroke cut off her head, which falling out of its attire, discovered her hair
already grown quite gray with cares and sorrows. The executioner held
it up still streaming with blood, and the dean crying out," So perish all
queen Elizabeth's enemies!" the earl of Kent alone answered Amen.
The rest of the spectators continued silent, and drowned in tears; being
incapable, at that moment, of any other sentiments but those of pity or
admiration.*
Such was the tragical death of Mary, queen of Scots, after a life of fortyfour years and two months, almost nineteen years of which she passed in
captivity.  The political parties which were formed in the kingdom during
her reign have subsisted under various denominations ever since that time.
The rancour with which they were at first animated hath descended to
succeeding ages, and their prejudices, as well as their rage, have been
perpetuated, and even augmented. Among historians, who were under
the dominion of all these passions, and who have either ascribed to her
every virtuous and amiable quality, or have imputed to her all the vices
of which the human heart is susceptible, we search in vain for Mary's real
character. She neither merited the exaggerated praises of the one, nor
the undistinguished censure of the other.
o To all the charms of beauty, and the utmost elegance' of external form,
she added those accomplishments which render their impression irresistible. Polite, affable, insinuating, sprightly, and capable of speaking and
of writing with equal ease and dignity. Sudden, however, and violent in
all her attachments; because her heart was warm and unsuspicious. Impatient of contradiction; because she had been accustomed from  her
infancy to be treated as a queen.  No stranger, on some occasions, to
dissimulation; which, in that perfidious court where she received her
education, was reckoned among the necessary arts of government. Not
insensible of flattery, or unconscious of that pleasure with which almost
every woman beholds the influence of her own beauty. Formed with
the qualities which we love, not with the talents that we admire, she
was an agreeable woman rather than an illustrious queen. The vivacity
of her spirit, not sufficiently tempered with sound judgment, and the
warmth of her heart, which was not at all times under the restraint of
discretion, betrayed her both into errors and into crimes. To say that she
was always unfortunate will not account for that long and almost uninterrupted succession of calamities which befell her; we must likewise add,
that she was often imprudent. Her passion for Darnly was rash, youthful,
and excessive; and though the sudden transition to the opposite extreme
was the natural effect of her ill requited love, and of his ingratitude
Camd. 534. Spotsw. 355. Jebb, ii. 300. Strype, iii. 333. See Appendix, No. LI




OF SCOTLAND.                             273
insolence, and brutality; yet neither these, nor Bothwell's artful address
and important services, can justify her attachment to that nobleman. Even
the manners of the age, licentious as they were, are no apology for this
unhappy passion; nor can they. induce us to look on that tragical and
infamous scene which followed upon it, with less abhorrence. Humanity
will draw a veil over this part of her character which it cannot approve,
and may, perhaps, prompt some to impute some of her actions to her
situation, more than to her dispositions; and to lament the unhappiness of
the former, rather than excuse the perverseness of the latter. Mary's sufferings exceed, both in degree and in duration, those tragical distresses
which fancy has feigned to excite sorrow and commiseration; and whbile
we survey them, we are apt altogether to forget her frailties, we think of
her faults with less indignation, and approve of our tears as if they were
shed for a person who had attained much nearer to pure virtue.
With regard to the queen's person, a circumstance not to be omitted in
writing the history of a female reign, all contemporary authors agree in
ascribing to Mary the utmost beauty of countenance, and elegance of shape,
of which the human form is capable. Her hair was black, though, according to the fashion of that age, she frequently wore borrowed locks, and
of different colours. Her eyes were a dark gray; her complexion was
exquisitely fine; and her hands and arms remarkably delicate, both as to
shape and colour. Her stature was of a height that rose to the majestic.
She danced, she walked, and rode with equal grace. Her taste for music
was just, and she both sung and played upon the lute with uncommon skill.
Towards the end of her life, long confinement, and the coldness of the
houses in which she had been imprisoned, brought on a rheumatism, which
often deprived her of the use of her limbs. No man, says Brantome, ever
beheld her person without admiration and love, or will read her history
without sorrow.
None of her women were suffered to come near her dead body, which
was carried into a room adjoining to the place of execution, where it lay
for some days, covered with a coarse cloth torn from a billiard table. The
block, the scaffold, the aprons of the executioners, and every thing stained
with her blood, were reduced to ashes. Not long after, Elizabeth appointed
her body to be buried in the cathedral of Peterborough with royal magnificence. But this vulgar artifice was employed in vain; the pageantry
of a pompous funeral did not efface the memory of those injuries which
laid Mary in her grave. James, soon after his accession to the English
throne, ordered her body to be removed to Westminster Abbey, and to be
deposited among the monarchs of England.            r
Elizabeth affected to receive the accounts of Maly's deatkn with the most
violent emotions of surprise and concern. Sighs, tears, lamentations, and
mourning, were all employed to display the reality and greatness of her
sorrow. Evident marks of dissimulation and artifice may be traced through
every period of Elizabeth's proceedings against the life of the Scottish
queen. The commission for bringing Mary to a public trial was seemingly
extorted from her by the entreaties of her privy counsellors. She delayed
publishing the sentence against her till she was twice solicited by both
houses of parliament. Nor did she sign the warrant for execution without
the utmost apparent reluctance. One scene more of the boldest and most
solemn deceit remained to be exhibited. She undertook to make the
world believe that Mary had been put to death without her knowledge,
and against her will. Davison, who neither suspected her intention nor
his own danger, was her instrument in carrying on this artifice, and fell a
victim to it.
It was his duty, as secretary of state, to lay before her the warrant for
execution, in order to be signed; and by her command he carried it to the
great seal. She pretended, however, that she had charged him not to
VOL. III-35




274                    THE  HISTORY                   [Book V11.
communicate what she had done to any person, nor to suffer the warrant
to go out of his hands without her express permission; that, in contempt
of this order, he had not only revealed the matter to several of her minis
ters, but had, in concert with them, assembled her privy counsellors, by
whom, without her consent or knowledge, the warrant was issued, and
the earls of Shrewsbury and Kent empowered to put it in execution
Though Davison denied all this, and with circumstances which bear the
strongest marks of truth and credibility; though it can scarcely be conceived that her privy council, composed of the persons in whom she most
confided, of her ministers and favourites, would assemble within the walls.of her palace, and venture to transact a matter of so much importance
without her privity, and contrary to her inclination; yet so far did she
carry her dissimulation that, with all the signs of displeasure and of rage,
she banished most of her counsellers out of her presence; and treated
Burleigh, in particular, so harshly, and with such marks of disgust, that he:gave himself up for lost, and in the deepest affliction wrote to the queen,
begging leave to resign all his places, that he might retire to his own
estate. Davison she instantly deprived of his office, and committed him a
)close prisoner to the tower [March]. He was soon after brought to a
~solemn trial in the star chamber, condemned to pay a fine of ten thousand
pounds, and to be imprisoned during the queen's pleasure. He languished:several years in confinement, and never recovered any degree of favour,or of power. As her jealousy and fear had bereaved the queen of Scots,of life, in order to palliate this part of her conduct, Elizabeth made no
scruple of sacrificing the reputation and happiness of one of the most virituous and able men in her kingdom.s
This solemn farce, for it deserves no better name, furnished Elizabeth,,however, with an apology to the king of Scots. As the prospect of his
mQther's danger had excited the king's filial care and concern, the account,of her death filled him with grief and resentment. His subjects felt the.dishonour done to him and to the nation. In order to sooth both, Eliza"beth instantly despatched Robert Cary, one of lord Hunsdon's sons, with a
letter expressing her extreme affliction on account of that miserable accident,
which, as she pretended, had happened far contrary to her appointment or
iintention. James would not permit her messenger to enter Scotland, and
with some difficulty received a memorial which he sent from Berwick. It,contained the tale concerning Davison, dressed up with all the circumstances which tended to exculpate Elizabeth, and to throw the whole
blame on his rashness or treachery. Such a defence gave little satisfaction,
and was considered as mockery added to insult; and many of the nobles,
as well as the king, breathed nothing but revenge. Elizabeth was extremely solicitous to pacify them, and she wanted neither able instruments
nor plausible reasons, in order to accomplish this. Leicester wrote to the
king, and Walsingham to secretary Maitland. They represented the certain destruction to which James would expose himself, if, with the forces
of Scotland alone, he should venture to attack a kingdom so far superior
in power; that the history of past ages, as well as his mother's sad experience, might convince him, that nothing could be more dangerous or deceitful than dependence on foreign aid; that the ]king of France would
never wish to see the British kingdoms united under one monarch, nor
contribute to invest a prince so nearly allied to the house of Guise with
such formidable power; that Philip might be a more active ally, but would,certalnly prove a more dangerous one; and under pretence of assisting
him would assert his own right to the English crown, which he already
began openly to claim; that the same statute, on which the sentence of
death against his mother had been founded, would justify the excludlng
~Camden, 536. Strype, iii. 370. See Appendix, No. LII. Cabala, 229, &c.




OF SCOTLAND.                             275
him from the succession to the crown; that the English, naturally averse
from the dominion of strangers, would not fail, if'exasperated by his hostilities, to apply it in that manner; that Elizabeth was disposed to repair
the wrongs which the mother had suffered, by her tenderness and affection
towards the son; and that by engaging in a fruitless war, he would deprive himself of a noble inheritance, which, by cultivating her friendship,
he must infallibly obtain. These representations, added to the consciousness of his own weakness, to the smallness of his revenues, to the nlutinous spirit of some of the nobles, to the dubious fidelity of others, and to
the influence of that faction which was entirely at Elizabeth's devotion,
convinced James that a war with England, however just, would in the
presentjuncture be altogether impolitical. All these considerations induced
im to stifle his resentment; to appear satisfied with the punishment inflicted on Davison; and to preserve all the semblances of friendship with
the English court." In this manner did the cloud which threatened such
a storm  pass away. Mary's death, like that of a common cririnal, remained unavenged by any prince; and, whatever infamy Elizabeth might
incur, she was exposed to no new danger on that account.
Mary's death, however, proved fatal to the master of Gray, and lost
him the king's favour, which he had for some time possessed. He was
become as odious to the nation as favourites who acquire power without
merit, and exercise it without discretion, usually are. The treacherous
part which he had acted during his late embassy was no secret, and filled
James, who at length canle to the knowledge of it, with astonishment.
The courtiers observed the symptoms of disgust arising in the king's mind,
his enemies seized the opportunity, and sir William Stewart, in revenge of
the perfidy with which Gray had betrayed his brother captain James
[May 10], publicly accused him before a convention of nobles, not only of
having contributed, by his advice and suggestions, to take away the life of
the queen, but of holding correspondence with popish princes, in order
to subvert the religion established in the kingdom. Gray, unsupported by
the king, deserted by all, and conscious of his own guilt, made a feeble
defence. He was condemned to perpetual banishment, a punishment very
unequal to his crimes. But the king was unwilling to abandon one whom
he had once favoured so highly to the rigour of justice; and lord Hamilton, his near relation, and the other nobles who had lately returned from
exile, in gratitude for the zeal with which he had served them, interceded
warmly in his behalf.
Having thus accomplished the destruction of one of his enemies, captain
James Stewart thought the juncture favourable for prosecuting his revenge
on them all. He singled out secretary Maitland, the most eminent both
for abilities and enmity to him; and offered to prove that he was no less
accessary than Gray to the queen's death, and had even formed a design
of delivering up the king himself into the hands of the English. But time
and absence had, in a great measure, extinguished the king's affection for
a minion who so little deserved it. All the courtiers combined against him
as a common enemy; and, instead of gaining his point, he had the mortification to see the office of chancellor conferred upon Maitland, who, together with that dignity, enjoyed all the power and influence of a prime
minister.
In the assembly of the church, which met this year, the same hatred to
the order of bishops, and the same jealousy and fear of their encroachments, appeared. But as the king was now of full age, and a parliament
was summoned on that occasion, the clergy remained satisfied with appointing some of their number to represent their grievances to that court,
from which great things were expected.
* Spotsw. 362. Cald. iv. 13, 14. Strype, 377.




276                    T H E  HISTO R Y               [BooK VII
Previous to this meeting of parliament, James attempted a work worthy
of a king. The deadly feuds which subsisted between many of the great
families, and which were transmitted from one generation to another,
weakened the strength of the kingdom; contributed, more than any other
circumstance, to preserve a fierce and barbarous spirit among the nobles;
and proved the occasion of many disasters to themselves and to their
country. After many preparatory negotiations, he invited the contending
parties to a royal entertainment in the palace of Holyroodhouse; and,
partly by his authority, partly by his entreaties, obtained their promise to
bury their dissensions in perpetual oblivion. From thence he conducted
them, in solemn procession, through the streets of Edinburgh, marching by
pairs, each hand in hand with his enemy. A collation of wine and sweet
meats was prepared at the public cross, and there they drank to each other,
with all the signs of reciprocal forgiveness, and of future friendship. The
people, who were present at a spectacle so unusual, conceived the most
sanguine hopes of seeing concord and tranquillity established in every part
of the kingdom, and testified their satisfaction by repeated acclamations.*
Unhappily, the effects of this reconciliation were not correspondent either
to the pious endeavours of the king, or to the fond wishes ol the people.
The first care of the parliament was the security of the protestant religion. All the laws passed in its favour, since the reformation, were ratified;
and a new and severe one was enacted against seminary priests and jesuits,
whose restless industry in making proselytes, brought many of them into
Scotland about this time. Two acts of this parliament deserve more
particular notice, on account of the consequences with which they were
followed.
The one respected the lands of the church. As the public revenues
were not sufficient for defraying the king's ordinary charges; as the
administration of the government became more complicated and more
expensive; as James was naturally profuse, and a stranger to economy, it
was necessary on all these accounts to provide some fund proportioned to
his exigencies. But no considerable sum could be levied on the commons,
who did not enjoy the benefit of an extensive commerce. The nobles
were unaccustomed to bear the burden of heavy taxes. The revenues of
the church were the only source whence a proper supply could be drawn.
Notwithstanding all the depredations of the laity since the reformation,
and the various devices which they had employed to seize the church
lands, some considerable portion of them remained still unalienated,
and were held either by the bishops who possessed the benefices, or
were granted to laymen during pleasure. All11these lands were in this
parliament annexed, by one generalt law to the crown, and the king was
empowered to apply the rents of them to his own use. The tithes alone
were reserved for the maintenance of the persons who served the cure,
and the principal mansion-house, with a few acres of land by way of glebe,
allotted for their residence. By this great accession of property, it is
natural to conclude that the king must have acquired a vast increase of
power, and the influence of the nobles have suffered a proportional diminution. The very reverse of this seems, however, to have been the case.
Almost all grants of church-lands, prior to this act, were thereby confirmed,
and titles, which were formerly reckoned precarious, derived thence the
sanction of parliamentary authority. James was likewise authorized,
during a limited time, to make new alienations; and such was the facility
of his temper, ever ready to yield to the solicitations of his servants, and
to gratify their most extravagant demands, that not only during the time
limited, but throughout his whole reign, he was continually employed in
bestowing, and his parliament in ratifying, grants of this kind to his nobles:
* Spotsw. 164. Cald. iv. 13.  t Parl. 11. Jac. VI. c. 29




OF SCOTLAND.                            277
hence little advantage accrued to the crown from that which might have
been so valuable an addition to its revenues. The bishops, however, were
great sufferers by the law. But at this juncture neither the king nor his
ministers were solicitous about the interests of an order of men, odious
to the people, and persecuted by the clergy. Their enemies promoted
the law with the utmost zeal. The prospect of' sharing in their spoils
induced all parties to consent to it; and after a step so fatal to the wealth
and power of the dignified clergy, it was no difficult matter to introduce
that change in the government of the church which soon after took place?.
The change which the other statute produced in the civil constitution
was no less remarkable. Under the feudal system, every freeholder, or
immediate vassal of the crown, had a right to be present in parliament.
These freeholders were'originally few in number, but possessed of great and
extensive property. By degrees these vast possessions were divided by
the proprietors themselves, or parcelled out by the prince, or split by other
accidents. The number of freeholders became greater, and their condition
more unequal; besides the ancient barons, who preserved their estates
and their power unimpaired, there arose another order whose rights were
the same, though their wealth and influence were far inferior. But, in
rude ages, when the art of government was extremely imperfect, when
parliaments were seldom assembled, and deliberated on matters little
interesting to a martial people, few of the lesser barons took their seats, and
the whole parliamentary jurisdiction was exercised by the greater barons,
in conjunction with the ecclesiastical order. James I., fond of imitating
the forms of the English constitution, to which he had been long accustomed, and desirous of providing a counterpoise to the power of the great
nobles, procured an act in the year one thousand four hundred and twentyseven, dispensing with the personal attendance of the lesser barons, and empowering those in each county to choose two commissioners to represent them
in parliament. This law, like many other regulations of that wise prince, produced little effect. All the king's vassals continued, as formerly, possessed of
a right to be present in parliament, but, unless in some extraordinary conj unctures, the greater barons alone attended. But by means of the reformation
the constitution had undergone a great change. The aristocratical power
of the nobles had been much increased, and the influence of the ecclesiastical order, which the crown usually employed to check their usurpation
and to balance their authority, had diminished in proportion. Many of
the abbeys and priories had been erected into temporal peerages; and
the protestant bishops, an indigent race of men and odious to the nation,
were far from possessing the weight and credit which their predecessors
derived from their own exorbitant wealth and the superstitious reverence
of the people. In this situation the king had recourse to the expedient
employed by James I., and obtained a law reviving the statute of one
thousand four hundred and twenty-seven; and from that time the commons
of Scotland have sent their representatives to parliament. An act which
tended so visibly to abridge their authority did not pass without opposition
from many of the nobles. But as the.king had a right to summon the
lesser barons to attend in person, others were apprehensive of seeing the
house filled with a multitude of his dependents, and consented the nmore
willingly to a law whiich laid them under the restriction of appearing only
by their representatives.
The year one thousand five hundred and eighty-eight began with a
universal expectation throughout all Europe that it was to be distinguished
by wonderful events and revolutions. Several astrologers, according to
the accounts of contemporary historians, had predicted this; and the
situation'of affairs in the two principal kingdoms of Europe was such that
a sagacious observer, without any supernatural intelligence, might have
Lazarded the prediction and have foreseen the approach of some grand
* Spotsw:365




~271                  THE  H I S T O R               130oo V11
crisis. In France it was evident from the astonishing progress of the
league conducted by a leader whose ambition was restrained by no scruples,
and whose genius had hitherto surmounted all difficulties; as well as from
the timid, variable, and impolitic councils of Henry III., that either that
monarch must submit to abandon the throne of which he was unworthy,
or by some sudden and daring blow cut off his formidable rival, Accorcingly in the beginning of the year, the duke of Guise drove his master
out of his capital city, and forced him to conclude a peace which left him
only the shadow of royalty; and before the year expired he himself fell
a victim to the resentment and fear of Henry and to his own security  In
Spain the operations were such as promised something still more uncommon.
During three years Philip had employed all the power of his European
dominions, and exhausted the treasures of the Indies, in vast preparations
for war. A fleet, the greatest that had ever appeared in the ocean, was
ready to sail from Lisbon, and a numerous land army was assembled to
embark on board of it. Its destination was still unknown, though many
circumstances made it probable that the blow was aimed, in the first place,
against England. Elizabeth had long given secret aid to the revolted provinces in the Low-Countries, and now openly afforded them her protection.
A numerous body of her troops was in their service; the earl of Leicester
commanded their armies; she had great sway in the civil government of
the republic; and some of its most considerable towns were in her possession.  Her fleets had insulted the coasts of Spain, intercepted the
galleons from the West Indies, and threatened the colonies there. Roused
by so many injuries, allured by views of ambition, and animated by a
superstitious zeal for propagating the Romish religion, Philip resolved not
only to invade but to conquer England, to which his descent from the house
of Lancaster and the donation of pope Sixtus V. gave him in his own
opinion a double title.
Elizabeth saw the danger approach, and prepared to encounter it. The
measures for the defence of her kingdom were concerted and carried on
with the wisdom and vigour which distinguished her reign. Her chief
care was to secure the friendship of the king of Scots. She had treated
the queen his mother with a rigour unknown among princes; she had often
used himself harshly, and with contempt; and though he had hitherto
prudently suppressed his resentment of these injuries, she did not believe
it to be altogether extinguished, and was afraid that in her present situation
it might burst out with fatal violence. Philip, sensible how much an
alliance with Scotland would facilitate his enterprise, courted James with
the utmost assiduity. He excited him to revenge his mother's wrong: he
flattered him with the hopes of sharing his conquests; and offered him in
marriage his daughter the infanta Isabella. At the same time, Scotland
swarmed with priests, his emissaries, who seduced some of the nobles to
popery, and corrupted others with bribes and promises. Huntly, Errol,
Crawford, were the heads of a faction which openly espoused the interest
of Spain. Lord Maxwell arriving from that court, began to assemble his
followers, and to take arms that he might be ready to join the Spaniards.
In order to counterbalance all these, Elizabeth made the warmest professions of friendship to the king; and Ashby, her ambassador, entertained
him with magnificent hopes and promises. He assured him that his right
of succession to the crown should be publicly acknowledged in England
that he should be created a duke in that kingdom; and he should be
admitted to some share in the government; and receive a considerable
pension annually. James, it is probable, was too well acquainted with
Elizabeth's arts to rely entirely on these promises. But he understood his
own interest in the present juncture, and pursued it with much steadiness.
He rejected an alliance with Spain as dangerous. He refused to admit;nto his presence an ambassador from the Dope. He seized colonel Semple,




OF SCOTLAND.                            279
an agent of the prince of Parma. He drove many of the seminary priests
out of the kingdom. He marched suddenly to Dumfries, dispersed 3MIaxwell's followers, and took him prisoner. In a convention of the nobles he
declared his resolution to adhere inviolably to the league with England;
and, without listening to the suggestions of revenge, determined to act in
concert with Elizabeth against the common enemy of the protestant faith.
He put the kingdom in a posture of defence, and levied troops to obstruct
the landing of the Spaniards. He offered to send an army to Elizabeth's
assistance, and told her ambassador that he expected no other favour from
the king of Spain but that which Polyphemus had promised to Ulysses,
that when he had devoured all his companions, he would make him his
last morsel.*
The zeal of the people on this occasion was not inferior to that of the
king; and the extraordinary danger with which they were threatened
suggested to them an extraordinary expedient for their security. A bond
was framed for the maintenance of true religion, as well as the defence of
the king's person and government, in opposition to all enemies foreign and
domestic. This contained a confession of the protestant faith, a particular
renunciation of the errors of popery, and the most solemn promises, in the
name and through the strength of God, of adhering to each other in supporting the former and contending against the latter to the utmost of their
power.t The king, the nobles, the clergy, and the people subscribed
with equal alacrity. Strange or uncommon as such a combination may
now appear, many circumstances contributed at that time to recommend
it, and to render the idea familiar to the Scots. When roused by any
extraordinary event, or alarmed by any public danger, the people of Israel
were accustomed to bind themselves by a solemn covenant to adhere to
that religion which the Almighty had established among them; this the
Scots considered as a sacred precedent which it became them to imitate.
In that age no considerable enterprise was undertaken in Scotland without
a bond of mutual defence, which all concerned reckoned necessary for
their security. The form of this religious confederacy is plainly borrowed
from those political ones of which so many instances have occurred; the
articles, stipulations, and peculiar modes of expression are exactly the
same in both. Almost all the considerable popish princes were then
joined in a league for extirpating the reformed religion, and nothing could
be more natural, or seemed more efficacious, than to enter into a counter
association in order to oppose the progress of that formidable conspiracy.
To these causes did the covenant, which is so famous in history, owe its
origin. It was renewed at different times during the reign of James.T4 It
was revived with great solemnity, though with considerable alterations, in
the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-eight. It was adopted by
the English in the year one thousand six hundred and forty-three, and
enforced by the civil and ecclesiastical authority of both kingdoms. The
political purposes to which it was then made subservient, and the violent
and unconstitutional measures which it was then employed to promote, it
is not our province to explain. But at the juncture in which it was first
introduced, we may pronounce it to have been a prudent and laudable
device for the defence of the religion and liberties of the nation; nor were
th!e terms in which it was conceived other than might have been expected
from men alarmed with the impending danger of popery, and threatened
with an invasion by the most bigoted and most powerful prince in Europe.
Philip's eagerness to conquer England did not inspire him either with
the vigour or despatch necessary to insure the success of so mighty an
enterprise. His fleet, which ought to have sailed in April, did not enter
* Camd. 541. Johnst. 139 Spots. 369.  t Dunlop's Collect. of Confess. vol. i. 168.;Cald. iv. 129.




280                    TIHE HISTORY                      [BooK VII.
the English channel till the middle of July.  It hovered many days on the
coast in expectation of being joined by the prince of Parma, who was
blocked up in the ports of Flanders by a Dutch squadron. Continual disasters pursued the Spaniards during that time; successive storms and
battles, which were well known, conspired with their own ill conduct to
disappoint their enterprise. And by the blessing cf Providence, which
watched with remarkable care over the protestant religion and the liberties
of Britain, the English valour scattered and destroyed the Armada on
which Philip had arrogantly bestowed the name of Invincible.  After
being driven out of the English seas, their shattered ships were forced to
steer their course toward Spain round Scotland and Ireland. Many of
them suffered shipwreck on these dangerous and unkno-wn coasts. Though
James kept his subjects under arms to watch the motions of the Spaniards,
and to prevent their landing in an hostile manner, he received with great
humanity seven hundred who were forced ashore by a tempest, and after
supplying them with necessaries, permitted them to return into their own
country.
On the retreat of the Spaniards Elizabeth sent an ambassador -to congratulate with James, and to compliment him on the firmness and generosity
he had discovered during a conjuncture so dangerous. But none of Ashby's
promises were any longer remembered; that minister was even accused
of having exceeded his powers by his too liberal offers; and conscious of
his own falsehood, or ashamed of being disowned by his court, he with
drew secretly out of Scotland.?
1589.] Philip, convinced by fatal experience of his own rashness in
attempting the conquest of England by a naval armament, equipped at so
great a distance, and subjected in all its operations to the delays and
dangers and uncertainties arising from seas and wind, resolved to make
his attack in another form, and to adopt the plan which the princes of
Lorrain had long meditated, of invading Englind through Scotland.  A
body of his troops he imagined might he easily wafted over firom the LowCountries to that kingdom; and i' they could once obtain footing or procure
assistance there, the frontier of Enogland vwas open and defenceless, and the
northern counties full of Roman catholics, who -would receive them with
open arms. Meanwhile a descent might be threatened on the southern
coast, which would divide the English a3'my,  distract their councils, and
throw the whole kin-gdom into terrible convulsions. In order to prepare
the way for the execution of this design, he remnitted a considerable sum
of money to Bruce, a seminary priest in Scotland, and employed him,
together with Hay, Crei'hton, and Tyrie, Scottish jesuits to gain over as
many persons of distinction as possible to his interest.  Zeal for popery,
and the artfcul insinuations of these emissaries, induced several! noblemen to
favour a measure which tended so manifestly to the destruction of their
country. HTu.ltly, though the king had lately given hibln ill marIriage the
daughter of his favourite the duke of Lennox, continued iwarmly attached
to the Romish church.  Crawford and Errol were animated wiith the zeal
of new converts.  They all engaged in a correspondence with the prince
of Parma, and, in their letters to him, offered their services to the king of
Spain, and undertook, with the aid of six thousand men, to render him
master of Scotland, and to bring so many of' their vassals into the field,
that he should be able to enter England with a numerous army.  Francis
Stewart, grandson of James V.,? whom the king had created earl of Bothwell, though influenced by no motive of religion, for he still adhered to the
protestant faith, was prompted merely by caprice, and the restlessness of
his nature, to join in this treasonable correspondence.
* Johnst. 134. Camd. 548. Murdin, 635. 788.
t He wed the son of Jolln Prior of Coldingihanm, one of James's natural children.




OF SCOTLAND.                             ~8I
All these letters were intercepted in England [Feb. 17]. Elizabeth,
alarmed at the danger which threatened her own kingdom, sent them
immediately to the king, and, reproaching him with his former lenity
towards the popish party, called upon him to check this formidable conspiracy by a proper severity. But James, though firmly attached to the
protestant religion; though profoundly versed in the theological controversies between the reformers and the church of Rome, though he had
employed himself, at that early period of life, in writing a commentary on
the Revelations, in which he laboured to prove the pope to be Antichrist,
had nevertheless adopted already those maxims concerning the treatment
of the Roman catholics, to which he adhered through the rest of his life.
The Roman catholics were at that time a powerful and active party in
England; they were far from being an inconsiderable faction in his own
kingdom. The pope and the king of Spain were ready to take part in all
their machinations, and to second every effort of their bigotry.  The
opposition of such a body to his succession to the crown of England,
added to the averseness of the English from the government of strangers,
might create him many difficulties. In order to avoid these, he thought it
necessary to sooth rather than to irritate the Roman catholics, and to
reconcile them to his succession, by the hopes of gentler treatment, and
some mitigation of the rigour of those laws which were now in force
against them. This attempt to gain one party by promises of indulgence
and acts of clemency, while he adhered with all the obstinacy of a disputant to the doctrines and tenets of the other, has given an air of mystery,
and even of contradiction, to this part of the king's character. The papists,
with the credulity of a sect struggling to obtain power, believed his. heart
to be wholly theirs; and the protestants, with the jealousy inseparable from
those who are already in possession of power, viewed every act of lenity
as a mark of indifference, or a symptom of apostacy. In order to please
both, James often aimed at an excessive refinement, mingled with dissimulation, in which he imagined the perfection of government and of kingcraft
to consist.
His behaviour on this occasion was agreeable to these general maxims.
Notwithstanding the solicitations of the queen of England, enforced by the
zealous remonstrances of his own clergy, a short imprisonment was the
only punishment he inflicted upon Huntly and his associates. But he soon
had reason to repent an act of clemency so inconsistent with the dignity ot
government. The first use which the conspirators made of their liberty
was, to assemble their followers: and, under pretence of removing chancelfor Maitland, an able minister, but warmly devoted to the English interest,
from the king's council and presence, they attempted to seize James himself. This attempt being defeated, partly by Maitland's vigilance and
partly by their own ill conduct, they were forced to retire to the North,
where they openly erected the standard of rebellion. But as the king's
government was not generally unpopular, or his ministers odious, their own
vassals joined them slowly, and discovered no zeal in the cause. The
king, in person, advancing against them with such forces as he could suddenly levy, they durst not rely so much on the fidelity of the troops, which,
though superior in number, followed them with reluctance, as to hazard a
battle; but suffering them to disperse, they surrendered to the king, and
threw themselves on his mercy, Huntly, Errol, Crawford, and Bothwell,
were all brought to a public trial. Repeated acts of treason were easily
proved against them. the king, however, did not permit any sentence to
be pronounced; and after keeping them a few months in confinement, he
took occasion, amidst the public festivity and rejoicings at the approach of
his marriage, to set them at liberty.?
* Spotsw. 373. Cald. i. 103 —130.
VOL III.-3G




282                   THE  HISTOR Y                   [Boo  VII.
As James was the only descendant of the ancient monarchs of Scotland
in the direct line; as all hopes of uniting the crowns of the two kingdoms
would have expired with him; as the earl of Arran, the presumptive heir
to the throne, was lunatic; the king's marriage was, on all these accounts,
an event which the nation wished for with the utmost ardour. He himself
was no less desirous of accomplishing it; and had made overtures for that
purpose to the eldest daughter of Frederick II., king of Denmark. But
Elizabeth, jealous of every thing that would render the accession of the
house of Stewart more acceptable to the English, endeavoured to perplex
James in the same manner she had done Mary, and employed as many
artifices to defeat or to retard his marriage. His ministers, gained by bribes
and promises, seconded her intention; and though several different am.bassadors were sent from Scotland to Denmark, they produced powers so
limited, or insisted on conditions so extravagant, that Frederick could not
believe the king to be in earnest; and, suspecting that there was some
design to deceive or amuse him, gave his daughter in marriage to the duke
of Brunswick. Not discouraged by this disappointment, which he imputed
entirely to the conduct of his own ministers, James made addresses to the
princess Anne, Frederick's second daughter. Though Elizabeth endeavoured to divert him from this by recommending Catharine, the king oI
Navarre's sister, as a more advantageous match; though she prevailed on
the privy council of Scotland to declare against the alliance with Denmark,
he persisted in his choice; and despairing of overcoming the obstinacy or
his own ministers in any other manner, he secretly encouraged the citizens
of Edinburgh to take arms. They threatened to tear in pieces the chancellor, whom they accused as the person whose artifices had hitherto disappointed the wishes of the king and the expectations of his people. In
consequence of this, the earl Marischal was sent into Denmark at the head
of a splendid embassy. He. received ample powers and instructions, drawn
with the king's own hand. The marriage articles were quickly agreed
upon, and the young queen set sail towards Scotland. James made great preparations for her reception, and waited her landing with all the impatience
of a lover; when the unwelcome account arrived, that a violent tempest had
arisen, which drove back her fleet to Norway, in a condition so shattered
that there was little hope of its putting again to sea before the spring.
This unexpected disappointment he felt with the utmost sensibility. He
instantly fitted out some ships, and without communicating his intention to
any of his council, sailed in person, attended by the chancellor, several
noblemen, and a train of three hundred persons, in quest of his bride
[Oct. 22]. He arrived safely in a small harbour near Upslo, where tilhe
queen then resided. There the marriage was solemnized [Nov. 24]; and
as it would have been rash to trust those boisterous seas in the winter season, James accepted the invitation of the court of Denmark, and, repairing
to Copenhagen, passed several months there, amidst continual feasting and
amusements, in which both the queen and himself had great delight.*
No event in the king's life appears to be a wider deviation from his
general character than this sudden sally. His son Charles I. was capable
of that excessive admiration of the other sex, which arises from great sensibility of heart, brightened by elegance of taste; and the romantic air of
his journey to Spain suited such a disposition. But James was not susceptible of any refined gallantry, and always expressed that contempt for
the female character which a pedantic erudition, unacquainted with'politeness, is apt to inspire. He was exasperated, however, and rendered impatient by the many obstacles which had been laid in his way. He was
anxious to secure the political advantages which he expected from mar
riage; and fearing that a delay might afford Elizabeth and his own ministers
A* elvil. 352. Spots. 337. Murdin, 637.




OF SCOTLAND.                             283
an opportunity of thwarting him by new intrigues, he suddenly took the
resolution of preventing them, by a voyage from which he expected to
return in a few weeks. The nation seemed to applaud his conduct, and to
be pleased with this appearance of amorous ardour in a young prince.
Notwithstanding his absence so long beyond the time he expected, the
nobles, the clergy, and the people, vied with one another in loyalty and
obedience; and no period of the king's reign was more remarkable for
tranquillity, or more free from any eruption of those factions which so often
disturbed the kingdom.
BOOK Ville
1590.] ON the first of May the king and queen arrived at Leith, and
were received by their subjects with every possible expression of joy.
The solemnity of the queen's coronation was conducted with great magnificence: but so low had the order of bishops fallen in the opinion of the
public, that none of them were present on that occasion; and Mr. Robert
Bruce, a presbyterian minister of great reputation, set the crown on her
head, administered the sacred unction, and performed the other customary
ceremonies.
The zeal and success with which many of the clergy had contributed
towards preserving peace and order in the kingdom, during his absence,
reconciled James, in a great degree, to their persons, and even to the presbyterian form of government. In presence of an assembly which met this
year [Aug. 4], he made high encomiums on the discipline as well as
the doctrine of the church, promised to adhere inviolably to both, and permitted the assembly to frame such acts as gradually abolished all the
remains of episcopal jurisdiction, and paved the way for a full and legal
establishment of the presbyterian model.*
1591.] An event happened soon after, which afforded the clergy no
small triumph. Archbishop Adamson, their ancient opponent, having fallen
under the king's displeasure, having been deprived of the revenues of his
see in consequence of the act of annexation, and being oppressed with age,
with poverty, and diseases, made the meanest submission to the clergy,
and delivered to the assembly a formal recantation of all his opinions concerning church government, which had been matter of offence to the presbyterians. Such a confession, from the most learned person of the episcopal order, was considered as a testimony which the force of truth had
extorted from an adversary.t
Meanwhile, the king's excessive clemency towards offenders multiplied
crimes of all kinds, and encouraged such acts of violence as brought his
government under contempt, and proved fatal to many of his subjects.
The history of several years, about this time, is filled with accounts of the
deadly quarrels between the great families, and of murders and assassinations perpetrated in the most audacious manner, and with circumstances of
the utmost barbarity. All the defects in the feudal aristocracy were now
felt more sensibly, perhaps, than at any other period in the history of Scotland, and universal license and anarchy prevailed to a degree scarce consistent with the preservation of society; while the king, too gentle to punish,
or too feeble to act with vigour, suffered all these enormities to pass with
impunity.
But though James connived at real crimes, witchcraft, which is com* Cald. iv. 204.   t Spotsw. 385. Cald. iv. 214.




284                   T H E  HISTOR Y                [BooK VIIl.
monly an imaginary one, engrossed his attention, and those suspected of it
felt the whole weight of his authority. Many persons, neither extremely
old nor wretchedly poor, which were usually held to be certain indications
of this crime, but masters of families, and matrons of a decent rank, and in
the middle age of life, were seized and tortured. Though their confessions
contained the most absurd and incredible circumstances, the king's prejudices, those of the clergy and of the people, conspired, in believing their
extravagances without hesitation, and in punishing their persons without
mercy. Some of these unhappy sufferers accused Bothwell of having consulted them, in order to know the time of the king's death, and of having
employed their arts to raise the storms which had endangered the queen's
life, and had detained James so long in Denmark. Upon this evidence that
nobleman was committed to prison. His turbulent and haughty spirit
could neither submit to the restraint, nor brook such an indignity. Having
gained his keepers, he made his escape; and imputing the accusation to
the artifices of his enemy the chancellor, he assembled his followers, under
pretence of driving him from the king's councils. Being favoured by some
of the king's attendants, he was admitted by a secret passage, under cloud
of night, into the court of the palace of Holyroodhouse. He advanced
directly towards the royal apartment; but happily, before he entered, the
alarm was taken, and the doors shut. While he attempted to burst open
some of them [Dec. 27], and set fire to others, the citizens of Edinburgh
had time to run to their arms, and he escaped with the utmost difficulty;
owing his safety to the darkness of the night, and the precipitancy with
which he fled."
1592.] He retired towards the north; and the king having unadvisedly
given a commission to the earl of Huntly to pursue him and his followers
with fire and sword, he, under colour of executing that commission, gratified
his private revenge, and surrounded the house of the earl of Murray, burned
it to the ground, and. slew Murray himself [Feb. 8]. The murder of a
young nobleman of such promising virtues, and the heir of the regent
Iurray, the darling of the people, excited universal indignation. The
citizens of Edinburgh rose in a tumultuous manner; and, though they were
restrained, by the care of the magistrates, from any act of violence, they
threw aside all respect for the king and his ministers, and openly insulted
and threatened both. While this mutinous spirit continued, James thought
It prudent to withdraw from the city, and fix his residence for some time
at Glasgow. There Huntly surrendered himself to justice; and, notwithstanding the atrociousness of his crime, and the clamours of the people,
the power of the chancellor, with whom he was now closely confederated,
and the king's regard for the memory of the duke of Lennox, whose
daughter he had married, not only protected him from the sentence wnich
such an odious action merited, but exempted him even from the formality
of a public trial.t
A step of much importance was taken soon after with regard to the
government of the church. The clergy had long complained of the
encroachments made upon their privileges and jurisdiction by the acts of
the parliament one thousand five hundred and eighty-four; and though
these laws had now lost much of their force, they resolved to petition the
parliament, which was approaching, to repeal them in form. This junctur.e for pushing such a measure was well chosen. The king had lost
much of the public favour by his lenity towards the popish faction, and still
more by his remissness in pursuing the murderers of the earl of Murray.
The chancellor had not only a powerful party of the courtiers combined
against him, but was become odious to the people, who imputed to him
every false step in the king's conduct. Bothwell still lurked in the king* Melv. 368. Spots, 386.   t Ibid. 387.




OF SCOTLAND.                             285
dom; and, being secretly supported by all the enemies of Maitland's
administration, was ready every moment to renew his audacious enterprises. James, for all these reasons, was extremely willing to indulge the
clergy in their request, and not only consented to a law, whereby the acts
of one thousand five hundred and eighty-four were rescinded or explained,
but he carried his complaisance still further, and permitted the parliament
to establish the presbyterian government, in its general assemblies, provincial synods, presbyteries, and kirk sessions, with all the different branches
of their discipline and jurisdiction, in the most ample manner. All the zeal
and authority of the clergy, even under the administration of regents, from
whom they might have expected the most partial favour, could not obtain
the sanction of law, in confirmation of their mode of ecclesiastical government. No prince was ever less disposed than James to approve a system,
the republican genius of which inspired a passion for liberty extremely
repugnant to his exalted notions of royal prerogative. Nor could any
aversion be more inveterate than his to the austere and uncomplying character of the presbyterian clergy in that age; who, more eminent for zeal
than for policy, often contradicted his opinions, and censured his conduct,
with a freedom equally offensive to his dogmatism as a theologian, and to
his pride as a king. His situation, however, obliged him frequently to conceal or to dissemble his sentiments; and, as he often disgusted his subjects
by indulging the popish faction more than they approved, he endeavoured
to atone for this by concessions to the presbyterian clergy, more liberal
than he himself would otherwise have chosen to grant.?
In this parliament, Bothwell and all his adherents were attainted. But
he soon made a new attempt to seize the king at Falkland; and James,
betrayed by some of his courtiers, and feebly defended by others, who
wished well to Bothwell as the chancellor's avowed enemy, owed his
safety to the fidelity and vigilance of sir Robert Melvil, and to the irresolution of Bothwell's associates.t
Scarcely was this danger over, when the nation was alarmed with the
discovery of a new and more formidable conspiracy. George Ker, the
lord Newbattle's brother, being seized as he was ready to set sail for
Spain, many suspicious papers were found in his custody, and among these
several blanks signed by the earls of Angus, Huntly, and Errol. By this
extraordinary precaution they hoped to escape any danger of discovery.
But Ker's resolution shrinking when torture was threatened, he confessed
that he was employed by these noblemen to carry on a negotiation with
the king of Spain; that the blanks subscribed with their names were to be
filled up by Crichton and Tyrie; that they were instructed to offer the
faithful service of the three earls to that monarch; and to solicit him to
land a body of his troops, either in Galloway or at the mouth of Clyde,
with which they undertook, in the first place, to establish the Roman
catholic religion in Scotland, and then to invade England with the whole
forces of the kingdom. David Graham of Fintry, and Barclay of Ladyland, whom he accused of being privy to the conspiracy, were taken into.custody, and confirmed all the circumstances of his confessions.4
1593.] The nation having been kept for some time in continual terror
and agitation by so many successive conspiracies, the discovery of this new
danger completed the panic. All ranks of men, as if the enemy had
already been at their gates, thought themselves called upon to stand forth
in defence of their country. The ministers of Edinburgh, without waiting
for any warrant from the king, who happened at that time to be absent
from  the capital, and without having received any legal commissions
assembled a considerable number of peers and barons, in order to provide
an instant security against the impending danger. They seized the earl
* Cald. iv. 248. 252. Spotsw. 388.  t Melv. 402.    i Rymer, xvi. I90




286                     THE  HISTORY                   [BooK VIlI.
of Angus, and committed him to the castle; they examined Ker; and prepared a remonstrance to be laid before the king, concerning the state of the
nation, and the necessity of prosecuting the conspirators with becoming
Vigour. James, though jealous of every encroachment on his prerogative,
and offended with his subjects, who, instead of petitioning, seemed to prescribe to him, found it necessary, during the violence of the ferment, not
only to adopt their plan, but even to declare that no consideration should
ever induce him to pardon such as had been guilty of so odious a treason.
He summoned the earls of Huntly and Errol to surrender themselves to
justice. Graham of Fintry, whom his peers pronounced to be guilty of
treason, he commanded to be publicly beheaded [Jan. 8]; and marching
into the north at the head of an army, the two earls, together with Angus,
who had escaped out of prison, retired to the mountains. He placed garrisons in the castles which belonged to them; compelled their vassals, and
the barons in the adjacent counties, to subscribe a bond containing professions of their loyalty towards him, and of their firm adherence to the protestant faith; and the better to secure the tranquillity of that part of the
kingdom, constituted the earls of Athol and Marischal his lieutenants
there.*Having finished this expedition, James returned to Edinburgh [March 18],
where he found lord Borrough, an extraordinary ambassador from the court
of England. Elizabeth, alarmed at the discovery of a conspiracy which
she considered as no less formidable to her own kingdom than to Scotland,
reproached James with his former remissness, and urged him, as he
regarded the preservation of the protestant religion, or the dignity of his
own crown, to punish this repeated treason with rigour; and if he could
not apprehend the persons, at least to confiscate the estates of such audacious rebels. She weakened, however, the force of these requests, by
interceding at the same time in behalf of Bothwell, whom, according to
her usual policy, in nourishing a factious spirit among the Scottish nobles,
she had taken under her protection. James absolutely refused to listen to
any intercession in favour of one who had so often, and with so much
outrage, insulted both his government and his person. With regard to the
popish conspirators, he declared his resolution to prosecute them with
vigour; but that he might be the better able to do so, he demanded a
small sum of money from Elizabeth, which she, distrustfully perhaps of
the manner in which he might apply it, showed no inclination to grant.
The zeal, however, and importunity of his own subjects obliged him to
call a parliament, in order to pass an act of attainder against the three
earls. But before it met, Ker made his escape out of prison, and, on pretence that legal evidence of their guilt could not be produced, nothing was
concluded against them. The king himself was universally suspected of
having contrived this artifice, on purpose to elude the requests of the
queen of England, and to disappoint the wishes of his own people; and
therefore, in order to sooth the clergy, who exclaimed loudly against his
conduct, he gave way to the passing of an act, which ordained such as
obstinately contemned the censures of the church to be declared outlaws.t
While the terror excited by the popish conspiracy possessed the nation,
the court had been divided by two rival factions, which contended for the
chief direction of affairs. At the head of one was the chancellor, in whom
the king reposed entire confidence. For that very reason, perhaps, he had
fallen early under the queen's displeasure. The duke of Lennox, the earl
of Athol, lord Ochiltree, and all the name of Stewart, espoused her quarrel, and widened the breach. James, fond no less of domestic tranquillity5
than of public peace, advised his favourite to retire, for some time, in
hopes that the queen's resentment would subside. But as he stood in
* Spotaw. 301. Cald. iv. 291.  t Cald. iv. 343. Spotsw. 393. Par]. 13. Jac. VI. c. 164.




OF SCOTLAND.                             287
need, in the present juncture, of the assistance of an able minister, he had
recalled him to court. In order to prevent him from recovering his former
power, the Stewarts had recourse to an expedient no less illegal than des
perate. Having combined with Bothwell, who was of the same name,
they brought him back secretly into Scotland [July 24]; and, seizing the
gates of the palace, introduced him into the royal apartment with a
numerous train of armed followers. James, though deserted by all his
courtiers, and incapable of resistance, discovered more indignation than
fear, and, reproaching them for their treachery, called on the earl to finish
his treasons by piercing his sovereign to the heart. But Bothwell fell on
his knees, and implored pardon. The king was not in a condition to
refuse his demands. A few days after he signed a capitulation with this
successful traitor, to whom he was really a prisoner, whereby he bound
himself to grant him a remission for all past offences, and to procure the
ratification of it in parliament; and in the mean time to dismiss the chancellor, the master of Glamis, lord Home, and sir George Home, from his
councils and presence. Bothwell, on his part, consented to remove from
court, though he left there as many of his associates as he thought sufficient
to prevent the return of the adverse faction.
But it was now no easy matter to keep the king under the same kind
of bondage to which he had been often subject during his minority. He
discovered so much impatience to shake off his fetters that those who had
imposed durst not continue the restraint. They permitted him to call a
convention of the nobles at Stirling, and to repair thither himself [Sept. 71
All Bothwell's enemies, and all who were desirous of gaining the kinges
favour by appearing to be so, obeyed the summons. They pronounced the
insult offered to the king's person and authority to be high treason, and
declared him absolved fromn any obligation to observe conditions extorted
by force, and which violated so essentially his royal prerogative. James,
however, still proffered him a pardon, provided he would sue for it as an
act of mercy, and promise to retire out of the kingdom. These conditions
Bothwell rejected with disdain, and, betaking himself once more to arms,
attempted to surprise the king; but finding him on his guard, fled to the
borders.*
The king's ardour against Bothwell, compared with his slow and evasive
proceedings against the popish lords, occasioned a general disgust among
his subjects: and was imputed either to an excessive attachment to the
persons of those conspirators, or to a secret partiality towards their opinions ~
both which gave rise to no unreasonable fears [Sept. 25]. The clergy, as
the immediate guardians of the protestant religion, thought themselves
bound, in such a juncture, to take extraordinary steps for its preservation.
The provincial synod of Fife happening to meet at that time, a motion was
made to excommunicate all concerned in the late conspiracy, as obstinate
and irreclaimable papists; and though none of the conspirators resided
within the bounds of the synod, or were subject to its jurisdiction, such
was the zeal of the members, that, overlooking this irregularity, they pronounced against them the sentence of excommunication, to which the act
of last parliament added new terrors. Lest this should be imputed to a
few men, and accounted the act of a small part of the church, deputies
were appointed to attend the adjacent synods, and to desire their approbation and concurrence.
An event happened a few weeks after, which increased the people's
suspicions of the king. As he was marching on an expedition against the
borderers [Oct. 17], the three popish earls, coming suddenly into his presence, offered to submit themselves to a legal trial; and James, without
committing them  to custody, appointed a day for that purpose  They
* Cald. iv. 326. Spotsw. 395.




288                    THE HISTOR Y                    [Boos VIII.
prepared to appear with a formidable train of their friends and vassals.
But in the meantime the clergy, together with many peers and barons,
assembled at Edinburgh, remonstrated against the king's extreme indulgence
with great boldness, and demanded of him, according to the regular course
of justice, to commit to sure custody persons charged with the highest
acts of treason, who could not be brought to a legal trial until they were
absolved from the censures of the church; and to call a convention of
estates, to deliberate concerning the method of proceeding against them.
At the same time they offered to accompany him in arms to the place of
trial, lest such audacious and powerful criminals should overawe justice,
and dictate to the judges, to whom  they pretended to submit. James,
though extremely offended, both with the irregularity of their proceedings,
and the presumption of their demands, found it expedient to put off the
day of trial, and to call a convention of estates, in order to quiet the fears
and-jealousies of the people. By being humoured in this point, their suspicions began gradually to abate, and the chancellor managed the convention so artfully that he himself, together with a few other mnembers, were
empowered to pronounce a final sentence upon the conspirators [Nov. 26].
After much deliberation they ordained, that the three earls and their associates should be exempted from all further inquiry or prosecution, on
account of their correspondence with Spain; that, before the first day of
February, they should either submit to the church, and publicly renounce
the errors of popery, or remove out of the kingdom; that, before the first
of January, they should declare which of these alternatives they would
embrace  that they should find surety for their peaceable demeanour for
the future; and that if they failed to signify their choice in due time, they
should lose the benefit of this act of abolition, and remain exposed to all
the pains of law.*
1594.] By this lenity towards the conspirators, James Incurred much
reproach, and gained no advantage. Devoted to the popish superstition,
submissive to all the dictates of their priests, and buoyed up with hopes
and promnises of foreign aid, the three earls refused to accept of the conditions, and continued their treasonable correspondence with the court of
Spain. A convention of estates [Jan. 18] pronounced them to have forfeited the benefit of the articles which were offered; and the king required them, by proclamation, to surrender themselves to justice.  The
presence of the English ambassador contributed, perhaps, to the vigour of
these proceedings.  Elizabeth, ever attentive to James's motions, and imputing his reluctance to punish the popish lords to a secret approbation of
their designs, had sent lord Zouche to represent, once more, the danger to
which he exposed himself by this false moderation; and to require him to
exercise that rigour which their crimes, as well as the posture of affairs,
rendered necessary. Though the steps now taken by the king silenced
all complaints on that head, yet Zouche, forgetful of his character as an
ambassador, entered into private negotiations with such of the Scottish
nobles as disapproved of the king's measures, and held almost an open
correspondence with Bothwell, who, according to the usual artifice of
malecontents, pretended much solicitude for rebforming the disorders of the
commonwealth; and covered his own ambition with the specious veil of
zeal against those counsellors who restrained the king from pursuing the
avowed enemies of the protestant faith. Zouche encouraged him, in the
name of his mistress, to take arms against his sovereign.
Meanwhile, the king and the clergy were filled with mutual distrust of
each otner. They were jealous, perhaps, to excess, that James's affections
leaned too much to-wards the popish faction. He suspected them, without
good reason, of prompting Bothwell to rebellion, and even of supplying
*Cald. iv. 330. Spotsw. 397




OF SCOTLAND.                             28g
him with money for that purpose; Little instigation, indeed, was wanting
to rouse such a turbulent spirit as Bothwell's to any daring enterprise.
He appeared suddenly within a mile of Edinburgh, at the head of four
hundred horse. The pretences by which he endeavoured to justify this
insurrection, were extremely popular; zeal for religion, enmity to popery,
concern for the king's honour, and for the liberties of the nation. James
was totally unprovided for his own defence; he had no infantry, and was
accompanied only with a few horsemen of lord Home's train. In this extremity, he implored the aid of the citizens of Edinburgh; and in order
to encourage them to act with zeal, he promised to proceed against the
popish lords with the utmost rigour and law. Animated by their ministers,
the citizens ran cheerfully to their arms, and advanced, wvith the king at
their head, against Bothwell: but he, notwithstanding his success in putting
to flight lord Home, who had rashly charged him with a far inferior number of cavalry, retired to Dalkeith without daring to attack the king. His
followers abandoned him  soon after, and, discouraged by so many suc
cessive disappointments, could never afterwards be brought to venture
into the field. He betook himself to his usual lurking places in the north
of England; but Elizabeth, in compliance with the king's remonstrances,
obliged him to quit his retreat.*
No sooner was the king delivered from one danger, than he was called
to attend to another. The popish lords, in consequence of their negotiations with Spain [April 3] received, in the spring, a supply of money from
Philip. What bold designs this might inspire it was no easy matter to
conjecture. From  men under the dominion of bigotry, and whom indulgence could not reclaim, the most desperate actions were to be dreaded.
The assembly of the church immediately took the alarm; remonstrated
against them with more bitterness than ever; and unanimously ratified the
sentence of excommunication pronounced by the synod of Fife. James
himself, provoked by their obstinacy and ingratitude, and afraid that his
long forbearance would not only be generally displeasing to his own subjects, but give rise to unfavourable suspicions among the English, exerted
himself with unusual vigour.  He called a parliament [June 8]; laid
before it all the circumstances and aggravations of the conspiracy; and
though there were but few members present, and several of these connected with the conspirators by blood or friendship, he prevailed on them,
by his influence and importunity to pronounce the most rigorous sentence
which the law can inflict. They were declared to be guilty of high
treason, and their estates and honours forfeited. At the same time, statutes
more severe than ever were enacted against the professors of the popish
religion.
How to put this sentence in execution was a matter of great difficulty
Three powerful barons, cantoned in a part of the country of difficult access,
surrounded with numerous vassals, and supported by aid from a foreign
prince, were more than an overmatch for a Scottish monarch. No entreaty
could prevail on Elizabeth to advance the mloney necessary for defraying
the expenses of an expedition against them. To attack them in persons
with his own forces alone, might have exposed James both to disgrace and
to danger. He had recourse to the only expedient which remained in such
a situation, for aiding the impotence of sovereign authority; he delegated
his authority to the earl of Argyll and lord Forbes, the leaders of twe
clans at enmity with the conspirators; and gave them  a commission to
invade their lands, and to seize the castles which belonged to them.
Bothwell, notwithstanding all his high pretensions of zeal for the protestant
religion, having now entered into a close confederacy with them, the danger
became every day more urgent. Argyll, solicited by the king, and roused
* Spotsw. 403. Cald. iv. 359.
VOL. III. 37




29p                     T H E  H ISTORY                [BooK ViII.
by tile clergy, took the field at the head of seven thousand men. Huntly
and Errol met him at Glenlivat, with an army far inferior in number, but
composed chiefly of gentlemen of the low countries, mounted on horseback, and who brought along with them a train of fieldpieces. They encountered each other [Oct. 3] with all the fury which hereditary enmity
and ancient rivalship add to undisciplined courage. [1595.] But the
Highlanders, disconcerted by the first discharge of the cannon, to which
they were little accustomed, and unable to resist the impression of cavalry,
were soon put to flight; and Argyll, a gallant young man of eighteen, was
carried by his friends out of the field, weeping with indignation at their
disgrace, and calling on them to stand, and to vindicate the honour of their
name.
On the first intelligence of this defeat, James, though obliged to pawn
his jewels in order to raise money,t assembled a small body of troops, and
marched towards the north. He was joined by the Irvines, Keiths, Leslys,
Forbeses, and other clans at enmity with Huntly and Errol, who having
lost several of their principal followers at Glenlivat, and others refusing to
bear arms against the king in person, were obliged to retire to the mountains. James wasted their lands; put garrisons in some of their castles;
burned others; and left the duke of Lennox as his lieutenant in that part
4of the kingdom, with a body of men sufficient to restrain them from gatherFing to any head there, or from infesting the low country. Reduced at last
to extreme distress by the rigour of the season, and the desertion of their'followers, they obtained the king's permission to go beyond seas, and gave.-security that they should neither return without his license, nor engage in
-any new intrigues against the protestant religion, or the peace of the
kingdom.1
By their exile, tranquillity was re-established in the north of Scotland;
and the firmness and vigour which James had displayed, in his last pro-,ceedings against them, regained him, in a great degree, the confidence of'his protestant subjects. But he sunk in the same proportion, and for the;same reason, in the esteem of the Roman catholics. They had asserted
this mother's right to the crown of England with so much warmth, that they'could not, with any decency, reject his; and the indulgence with which he
affected to treat the professors of the popish religion, inspired them with
isuch hopes, that they viewed his accession to the throne as no undesirable
event. But the rigour with which the king had lately pursued the conspi-:rators, and the severe statutes against popery to which he had given his
-consent, convinced them now that these hopes were visionary; and they
began to look about in quest of some new successor, whose rights they
might oppose to his. The papists who resided in England turned their
eyes towards the earl of Essex, whose generous mind, though firmly esta
blished in the protestant faith, abhorred the severities inflicted in that age
on account of religious opinions. Those of the same sect who were in
exile, formed a bolder scheme, and one more suitable to their situation.
They advanced the claim of the infanta of Spain; anld Parsons the jesuit
published a book, in which, by false quotations from history, by fabulous
genealogies, and absurd arguments, intermingled with bitter invectives
against the king of Scots, he endeavoured to prove the infanta's title to the
English crown to be preferable to his. Philip, though involved already in
a war both with France and England, and scarce able to defend the'remains of the Burgundian provinces against the Dutch commonwealth,,eagerly grasped at this airy project. The dread of a Spanish pretender:to the crown, and the opposition which the papists began to form against
the king's succession, contributed not a little to remove the prejudices of
the protestants, and to prepare the way for that event.
* Cald. iv. 408.  t Birch. Mem. i. 186.  + Spotsw. 404. Cald. 373, &c.




OF SCOTLAND.                              291
Bothwell, whose name has been so often mentioned as the disturber of
the king's tranquillity, and of the peace of the kingdom, was now in a
wretched condition. Abandoned by the queen of England on account of
his confederacy with the popish lords; excommunicated by the church for
the same reason; and deserted, in his distress, by his own followers; he
was obliged to fly for safety to France, and thence to Spain and italy,
where, after renouncing the protestant faith, he led many years an obscure
and indigent life, remarkable only for a low and infamous debauchery.
The king, though extremely ready to sacrifice the strongest resentment to
the slightest acknowledgments, could never be softened by his submission,
nor be induced to listen to any intercession in his behalf.*
This year the king lost chancellor Maitland, an able minister, on whom
he had long devolved the whole weight of public affairs. As James loved
him while alive, he wrote, in honour of his memory, a copy of verses,
which, when compared with the compositions of that age, are far from
being inelegant.t
Soon after his death a considerable change was made in the administration. At that time, the annual charges of government far exceeded the
king's revenues. The queen was fond of expensive amusements. James
himself was a stranger to economy. It became necessary, for all these
reasons, to levy the public revenues with greater order and rigour, and to
husband them with more care. This important trust was committed to
eight gentlemen of the law,4 who, from their number, were called Octa-'vians. The powers vested in them were ample, and almost unlimited.
The king bound himself neither to add to their number, nor to supply any
vacancy that might happen without their consent: and, knowing the facility
of his own temper, agreed that no alienation of his revenue, no grant of a
pension, or order on the treasury, should be held valid, unless it was ratified
by the subscription of five of the commissioners: all their acts and decisions were declared to be of equal force with the sentence of judges in
civil courts; and in consequence of them, and without any oth'er warrant,
any person might be arrested, or their goods seized. Such extensive jurisdiction, together with the absolute disposal of the public money, drew the
whole executive part of government into their hands. United among themselves, they gradually undermined the rest of the king's ministers, and
seized on every lucrative or honourable office. The ancient servants of
the crown repined at being obliged to quit their stations to new men. [1596.]
The favourites and young courtiers murmured at seeing the king's liberality stinted by their prescriptions. And the clergy exclaimed against
some of them as known apostates to popery, and suspected others of
secretly favouring it.  They retained their power, however, notwithstanding this general combination against them; and they owed it entirely
to the order and economy which they introduced into the administration of
the finances, by which the necessary expenses of government were more
easily defrayed than in any other period of the king's reign.~
The rumour of vast preparations which Philip was said to be carrying on
at this time, filled both England and Scotland with the dread of a new invasion. James took proper measures for the defence of his kingdom. But
these did not satisfy the zeal of the clergy, whose suspicions of the king's
sincerity began to revive; and as he had permitted the wives of the banished peers to levy the rents of their estates, and to live in their houses, they
charged him with rendering the act of forfeiture ineffectual, by supporting
the avowed enemies of the protestant faith. The assembly of the church
[March 24] took under consideration the state of the kingdom, and having
* Winw. Mem. i. Spotsw. 410.  t Spotsw. 411.
$ Alexander Seaton, president of the session, Walter Stewart, commendator of Blantyre,,ra
privy seal, David Carnegy, John Lindsay, James Elphinstone,Thomas Hamilton, John Skene, clerk
register, and Peter Young, eleemosynar.
Spotsw. 413, 435.




9S2                   TTHE  HISTORY                   [BooK VIII.
appointed a day of public fasting, they solemnly renewed the covenant by
wvhich the nation was bound to adhere to the protestant faith, and to defend
it against all aggressors. A committee, consisting of the most eminent clergymen, and of many barons and gentlemen of distinction, waited on the
king, and laid before him a plan for the security of the kingdom, and the
preservation of religion. They urged him to appropriate the estates of the
banished lords as a fund for the maintenance of soldiers; to take the strictest precautions for preventing the return of such turbulent subjects into the
country; and to pursue all who were suspected of being their adherents
with the utmost rigour.
Nothing could be more repugnant to the king's schemes, or more disagreeable to his inclination, than these propositions. Averse, through his
whole life, to any course where he expected opposition or danger; and fond
of attaining his ends with the character of moderation, and by the arts of
policy, he observed with concern the prejudices against hihn which wevre
growing among the Roman Catholics, and resolved to make some atonement
for that part of his conduct which had drawn upon him their indignation.
Elizabeth was now well advanced in years; her life had lately been in
danger; if any popish competitor should arise to dispute his right of succession, a faction so powerful as that of the banished lords might be extremely
formidable; and any division among his own subjects might prove fatal at
a juncture which would require their united and most vigorous efforts.
Instead, therefore, of the additional severities which the assembly proposed,
James had thoughts of mitigating the punishment which they already suffered. And as they were surrounded during their residence in foreign
parts, by Philip's emissaries; as resentment might dispose them to listen
more favourably than ever to their suggestions; as despair might drive them
to still more atrocious actions; he resolved to recall them, under certain
conditions, into their native country. Encouraged by these sentiments of
the king in their favour, of which they did not want intelligence, and wearied
already of the dependent and anxious life of exiles, they ventured to retfirn
secretly into Scotland. Soon after, they presented a petition to the king,
begging his permission to reside at their own houses, and offering to give
security for their peaceable and dutifiul behaviour. James called a convention of estates to deliberate on a matter of such importance, and by their
advice he granted the petition.
The members of a committee appointed by the last general assembly, as
soon as they were informed of this, met at Edinburgh, and with all the
precipitancy of fear and of zeal, took such resolutions as they thought
necessary for the safety of the kingdom. They wrote circular letters to
all the presbyteries in Scotland; they warned them of the approaching
danger; they exhorted them to stir up their people to the defence of their
just rights; they commanded them to publish in all their pulpits the act
excommunicating the popish lords; and enjoined them to lay all those
who were suspected of favouring popery under the same censure by a
summary sentence, and without observing the usual formalities of trial.
As the danger seemed too pressing to wait for the stated meetings of the
judicatories of the church, they made choice of the most eminent clergy.men in different corners of the kingdom, appointed them  to reside constantly at Edinburgh, and to meet every day with the ministers of that city,
under the name of the Standing Council of the Church, and vested in this
body the supreme authority, by enjoining it, in imitation of the ancient
FRoman form, to take care that the church should receive no detriment.
These proceedings, no less unconstitutipnal than unprecedented, were
manifest encroachments on the royal prerogative, and bold steps towards
open rebellion. The king's conduct, however, justified in some degree
such excesses. His lenity towards.the papists, so repugnant to the principles of that age; his pardoning the conspirators, notwithstanding repeatedl




OF SCOTLAN D.-                         29
promises to the contrary; the respect he paid to lady Huntly, who was
attached to the Romish religion no less than her husband; his committing
the care of his daughter, the princess Elizabeth, to lady Livingston, who
was infected with the same superstition; the contempt with which he
talked on all occasions, both of the character of ministers, and of their
function, were circumstances which might have filled minds, not prone by
nature to jealousy, with some suspicions; and might have precipitated
into rash counsels those who were far removed from intemperate zeal.
But, however powerful the motives might be which influenced the clergy,
or however laudable the end they had in view, they conducted their measures with no address, and even with little prudence. James discovered
a strong inclination to avoid a rupture with the church, and, jealous as he
was of his prerogative, would willingly have made many concessions for
the sake of peace. By his command, some of the privy counsellors had
an interview with the more moderate among the clergy, and inquired whether Huntly and his associates might not, upon making proper acknowledgments, be again received into the bosom of the church, and be exempted
from any further punishments on account of their past apostacy and treasons. They replied, that though the gate of mercy stood always open for
those who repented and returned, yet as these noblemen had been guilty of
idolatry, a crime deserving death both by the law of God and of man, the
civil magistrate could not legally grant them a pardon; and even though
the church should absolve them, it was his duty to inflict punishment upon
them. This inflexibility in those who were reckoned the most compliant
of the order filled the king with indignation, which the imprudence and
obstinacy of a private clergyman heightened into rage,.
Mr. David. Black, minister of St. Andrew's, discoursing in one of his
sermons, according to custom, concerning the state of the nation, affirmed
that the king had permitted the popish lords to return into Scotland, and
by that action had discovered the treachery of his own heart; that all
Rings were the devil's children; that Satan had now the guidance of the
court; that the queen of England was an atheist; that the judges were
miscreants and bribers; the nobility godless and degenerate; the privy
counsellors cormorants and men of no religion; and in his prayer for the
queen he used these words, We must pray for her for fashion sake, but we
have no cause, she will never do us good. James commanded him to be
summoned befobre the privy council [Nov. 10], to answer for such seditious
expressions; and the clergy, instead of abandoning him to the punishment
which such a petulant and criminal attack upon his superiors deserved,
were so imprudent as to espouse his cause, as if it had been the common
one of the whole order. The controversy concerning the immunities of
the pulpit, and the rights of the clergy to testify against vices of every
kind, which had been agitated in one thousand five hundred and eightyfour, was now revived. It was pretended that, with regard to their sacred
function, ministers were subject to the church alone; that it belonged only
to their ecclesiastical superiors to judge of the truth or falsehood of doctrines delivered in the pulpit; that ift, upon any pretence whatever, the
king usurped this jurisdiction, the church would, from that moment, sink
under servitude to the civil magistrate; that, instead of reproving vice
with that honest boldness which had often been of advantage to individuals,
and salutary to the kingdom, the clergy would learn to flatter the passions
of the prince, and to connive at the vices of others; that the king's eagerness to punish the indiscretion of a protestant minister, while he was so
ready to pardon the crimes of popish conspirators, called on them to stand
upoi their guard, and that now was the time to contend for their privileges,
and to prevent any encroachment on those rights, of which the church had
been in possession ever since the reformation. Influenced by these considerations, the council of the church enjoined Black to decline the jurisdic



t94                    T H E  HISTO R Y                  [BooK VIII.
tion of the privy council. Proud of such an opportunity to display his
zeal, he presented a paper to that purpose, and with the utmost firmness
refused to plead, or to answer the questions which were put to him. In
order to add greater weight to these proceedings, the council of the church
transmitted the declinature to all the presbyteries throughout the kingdom,
and enjoined every minister to subscribe it in testimony of his approbation.
James defended his rights with no less vigour than they were attacked.
Sensible of the contempt under which his authority must fall, if the clergy
should be permitted publicly, and with impunity, to calumniate his ministers, and even to censure himself; and knowing, by former examples, what
unequal reparation for such offences, he might expect from the judicatories
of the church, he urged on the inquiry into Black's conduct, and issued a
proclamation, commanding the members of the council of the church to
leave Edinburgh, and to return to their own parishes. Black, instead of
submitting, renewed his declinature; and the members of the council, in
defiance of the proclamation, declared that as they met by the authority
of the church, obedience to it was a duty still more sacred than that which
they owed to the king himself. The privy council, notwithstanding Black's
refusing to plead, proceeded in the trial; and, after a solemn inquiry, pronounced him guilty of the crimes of which he had been accused; but
referred it to the king to appoint what punishment he should suffer.
Meanwhile, many endeavours were used to bring matters to accommodation. Almost every day produced some new scheme of reconcilement;
but, through the king's fickleness, the obstinacy of the clergy, or the intrigues
of the courtiers, they all proved ineffectual. Both parties appealed to the
people, and by reciprocal and exaggerated accusations endeavoured to
render each other odious. Insolence, sedition, treason, were the crimes
with which James charged the clergy; while the'y made the pulpits
resound with complaints of his excessive lenity towards papists, and of the
no less excessive rigour with which he oppressed the established church.
Exasperated by their bold invectives, he, at last, sentenced Black to retire
beyond the river Spey, and to reside there during his pleasure; and once
more commanding the members of the standing council to depart from
Edinburgh, he required all the ministers in the kingdom to subscribe a
bond, obliging themselves to submit, in the same manner as other subjects,
to the jurisdiction of the civil courts in matters of a civil nature.
This decisive measure excited all the violent passions which possess
disappointed factions; and deeds no less violent immediately followed.
These must be imputed in part to the artifices of some courtiers who
expected to reap advantage from the calamities of their country, or who
hoped to lessen the authority of the Octavians, by engaging them in hostilities with the church. On one hand, they informed the king that the
citizens of Edinburgh were under arms every night, and had planted a
strong guard round the houses of their ministers. James, in order to put
a stop to this imaginary insult on his government, issued a proclamation,
commanding twenty-four of the principal citizens to leave the town within
six hours. On the other hand, they wrote to the ministers, advising them
to look to their own safety, as Huntly had been secretly admitted to an
interview with the king, and had been the author of the severe proclamation against the citizens of Edinburgh.*  They doubted no more of the
truth of this intelligence, than the king had done of that which he received,
and fell as blindly into the snare. The letter came to their hands just as
one of their number was going to mount the pulpit.  They resolved that
* Though matters were industriously aggravated by persons who wished both parties to pursue
violent measures, neither of these reports was altogether destitute of foundation. As their mninisters were supposed to be in danger, some of the more zealous citizens had determined to defend
them by force of arms. Birch. Mem. ii. 250. Huntly had been privately in Edinburgh, where lie
bad al interview if not with the king, at least with some of his ministers. Birch. Ibid. 230.




OF? SCOTLAND.                            295
he should acquaint the people of their danger [Dec. 17]; and he painted
it with all the strong colours which men naturally employ in describing
any dreadful and instant calamity. When the sermon was over, he desired
the nobles and gentlemen to assemble in the Little Church. The whole
multitude, terrified at what they had heard, crowded thither; they promised
and vowed to stand by the clergy; they drew up a petition to the king,
craving the redress of those grievances of which the church complained,
and beseeching him to deliver them from all future apprehensions of danger, by removing such of his counsellors as were known to be enemies of
the protestant religion. Two peers, two gentlemen, two burgesses, and
two ministers, were appointed to present it. The king happened to be
in the great hall of the Tolbooth, where the court of session was sitting.
The manner in which the petition was delivered, as well as its contents,
offended him. He gave a haughty reply; the petitioners insisted with
warmth; and a promiscuous multitude pressing into the room, James
retired abruptly into another apartment, and commanded the gates to be
shut behind him. The deputies returned to the multitude, who were still
assembled, and to whom a minister had been reading, in their absence, the
story of Haman. When they reported that the king had refused to listen
to their petitions, the church was filled in a moment with noise, threatenings, execrations, and all the outrage and confusion of a popular tumult.
Some called for their arms, some to bring out the wicked Haman; others
cried the' The sword of the Lord and of Gideon;' and rushing out with
the most furious impetuosity, surrounded the Tolbooth, threatening the king
himself, and demanding some of his counsellors whom they named, that
they might tear them in pieces. The magistrates of the city, partly by
authority, partly by force, endeavoured to quell the tumult; the king
attempted to sooth the malecontents, by promising to receive their petitions, when presented in a regular manner; the ministers, sensible of their
own rashness in kindling such a flame, seconded both; and the rage of the
populace subsiding as suddenly as it had arisen, they all dispersed, and
the king returned to the palace; happy in having escaped from an insurrection, which, through the instantaneous and unconcerted effect of popular fury
had exposed his life to imminent danger, and was considered by him as an
unpardonable affront to his authority.
As soon as he retired, the leaders of the malecontents assembled, in order
to prepare their petition.  The punishment of the popish lords; the
removal of those counsellors who were suspected of favouring their persons
or opinions; the repeal of all the late acts of council, subversive of the
authority of the church; together with an act approving the proceedings
of the standing council, were the chief of their demands. But the king's
indignation was still so high, that the deputies, chosen for this purpose,
durst not venture that night to present requests which could not fail of
kindling his rage anew. Before next morning, James, with all his attendants, withdrew to Linlithgow: the session, and other courts of justice, were
required to leave a city where it was no longer consistent either with their
safety or their dignity to remain; and the noblemen and barons were
commanded to return to their own houses, and not to reassemble without
the king's permission. The vigour with which the king acted struck a
damp upon the spirits of his adversaries. The citizens, sensible how much
they would suffer by his absence, and the removal of the courts of justice,
repented already of their conduct. The ministers alone resolved to main.
tain the contest. They endeavoured to prevent the nobles from dispersing;
they inflamed the people by violent invectives against the king; they
laboured to procure subscriptions to an association for their mutual defence,
and, conscious what lustre and power the junction of some of the greater
* SpyoIw. 417, &a Cabl v. 54, &c. 3irb, Memn. ii. 235




296                    THE HISTORY                     [BooK V III
nobles would add to their cause, the ministers of Edinburgh wrote to lord
Hamilton, that the people, moved by the word of God, and provoked by
the injuries offered to the church, had taken arms; that many of the nobles
had determined to protect the protestant religion, which owed its establishment to the piety and valour of their ancestors; that they wanted only a
leader to unite them, and to inspire them with vigour; that his zeal for the
good cause, no less than his noble birth, entitled him to that honour: they
conjured him, therefore, not to disappoint their hopes and wishes, nor to
refuse the suffering church that aid which she so much needed. Lord
Hamilton, instead of complying with their desire, carried the letter directly
to the king, whom this new insult irritated to such a degree, that he commanded the magistrates of Edinburgh instantly to seize their ministers, as
manifest incendiaries and encouragers of rebellion. The magistrates, in
order to regain the king's favour, were preparing to obey; and the ministers, who saw no other hope of safety, fled towards England.~
This unsuccessful insurrection, instead of overturning, established the
king's authority. Those concerned in it were confounded and dispersed
[Jan. 33. The rest of James's subjects, in order to avoid suspicion, or to
gain his favour, contended who should be most forward to execute his
vengeance. A convention of estates being called, pronounced the late
insurrection to be high treason; ordained every minister to subscribe a
declaration of his submission to the king'sjurisdiction, in all matters civil and
criminal; impowered magistrates to commit instantly to prison any
minister, who in his sermons should utter any indecent reflections on the
king's conduct; prohibited any ecclesiastical judicatory to meet without
the kino's license; commanded that no person should be elected a magis
trate o? Edinburgh, for the future, without the king's approbation; and
that, in the mean time, the present magistrates should either discover and
inflict condign punishment on the authors of the late tumult, or the city
itself should be subjected to all the penalties of that treasonable action.t
Armed with the authority of these decrees, James resolved to crush
entirely the mutinous spirit of his subjects.  As the clergy had hitheito
derived their chief credit and strength from the favour and zeal of the
citizens of Edinburgh, his first care was to humble them. Though the
magistrates submitted to him in the most abject terms; though they vindicated themselves and their fellow citizens from the most distant intention
of violating his royal person or authority; though, after the strictest scrutiny, no circumstances that could fix on them the suspicion of premeditated
rebellion had been discovered; though many of the nobles, and such of
the clergy as still retained any degree of favour, interceded in their behalf;
neither acknowledgments nor intercessions were of the least avail.t The
king continued inexorable [Feb. 28]; the city was declared to have forfeited its privileges as a corporation, and to be liable to all the penalties of
treason.  The capital of the kingdorn, deprived of magistrates, deserted by
its ministers, abandoned by the courts of justice, and proscribed by the
king, remained in desolation and despair. The courtiers even threatened
to rase the city to the foundation, and to erect a pillar where it stood, as an
everlasting monument of the king's vengeance, and of the guilt of its inhabitants. At last, in compliance with Elizabeth, who interposed in their
favour, and moved by the continual solicitations of the nobles, James
absolved the citizens from the penalties of law, butat the same time he
stripped them of their most important privileges [March 21]; they were
neither allowed to elect their own magistrates nor their own ministers;
many new burdens were imposed on them; and a considerable sum of
money was exacted by way of peace-offering.~
James was, meanwhile, equally assiduous, and no less successful in cir* Spotsw. 451. Cald. v. 126.  t Cald. v. 147.  1 Ibid. v. 149.  O Spotsw. 434. 444.




1OF SCOTLAND.                          297
cumscribing the jurisdiction of the church. Experience had discovered,
that to attempt this by acts of parliament, and sentences of privy council,
was both ineffectual and odious. He had recourse now to an expedient
more artful, and better calculated for obtaining his end. The ecclesiastical judicatories were composed of many members; the majority of the
clergy were extremely indigent, and unprovided of legal stipends; the
ministers in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, notwithstanding the parity
established by the presbyterian government, had assumed a leading in the
church which filled their brethren with envy; every numerous body of
men is susceptible of sudden and strong impressions, and liable to be influenced, corrupted, or overawed. Induced by these considerations, James
thought it possible to gain the clergy, whom he had in vain attempted to
subdue. Proper agents were set to work all over the kingdom; promises,
flattery, and threats were employed: the usurpations of the brethren near
the capital were aggravated; the jealousy of their power, which was
growing in the distant provinces, was augmented: and two different general
assemblies were held, in both which, notwithstanding the zeal and boldness
wherewith a few leading clergymen defended the privileges of the church,
a majority declared in favour of those measures which were agreeable to
the king. Many practices, which had continued since the reformations
were condemned; many points of discipline, which had hitherto been
reckoned sacred and uncontroverted, were given up; the license with
which ministers discoursed of political matters was restrained; the freedom with which they inveighed against particular persons was censured;
sentences of summary excommunication were declared unlawful; the convoking a general assembly, without the king's permission, was prohibited;
and the right of nominating ministers to the principal towns was vested in
the crown. Thus, the clergy themselves surrendered privileges which it
would have been dangerous to invade, and voluntarily submitted to a yoke
more intolerable than any James would have ventured to impose by force;
while such as continued to oppose his measures, instead of their former
popular topic of the king's violent encroachments on a jurisdiction which
did not belong to him, were obliged to turn their outcries against the corruptions of their own order."
By the authority of these general assemblies, the popish earls were
allowed to make a public recantation of their errors; were absolved from
the sentence of excommunication; and received into the bosom of the
church. But, not many years after, they relapsed into their former errors,
were again reconciled to the church of Rome, and by their apostacyjustifled, in some degree, the fears and scruples of the clergy with regard to
their absolution.
The ministers of Edinburgh owed to the intercession of these assemblies
the liberty of returning to their charges in the city. But this liberty was
clogged in such a manner as greatly abridged their power. The city was
divided into distinct parishes; the number of ministers doubled; persons
on whose fidelity the king could rely were fixed in the new parishes; and
these circumstances, added to the authority of the late decrees of the church,
contributed to confirm that absolute dominion in ecclesiastical affairs, which
James possessed during the remainder of his reign.
The king was so intent on new modelling the church, that the other transactions of this period scarce deserve to be remembered. The Octavians,
envied by the other courtiers, and; splitting into factions among themselves,
resigned their commission; and the administration of the revenue returning into its former channel, both the king and the nation were deprived of
the benefit of their regular and frugal economy.
Dec. 19.] Towards the end of the year a parliament was held in order
* Spotsw. 433. Cald. v. 189. 233,
VOL. III.-38




f%298                 THE  HISTORY                   [Boox VIII.
to restore Huntly and his associates to their estates and hollours, by repeal.
ing the act of forfeiture passed against them. The authority of this supreme
court was likewise employed to introduce a further innovation into the
church; but, conformable to the system which the king had now adopted,
the motion for this purpose took its rise fromh the clergy themselves. As
the act of general annexation, and that establishing the presbyterian government, had reduced the few bishops, who still survived, to poverty and
contempt; as those who possessed the abbeys and priories were mere
laymen, and many of them temporal peers, few or none of the ecclesiastical order remained to vote in parliament; and by means of that, the influence of the crown was considerably diminished there, and a proper balance
to the power and number of the nobles was wanting. But the prejudices
which the nation had conceived against the name and character of bishops
were so violent, that James was obliged, with the utmost care, to avoid
the appearance of a design to revive that order. [1598.] He prevailed,
therefore, on the commission appointed by the last general assembly to
complain to the parliament, that the church was the only body in the kingdom destitute of its representatives in that supreme court, where it so
nearly concerned every order to have some, who were bound to defend its
rights; and to crave that a competent number of the clergy should be
admitted, according to ancient custom, to a seat there. In compliance
with this request an act was passed, by which those ministers, on whom the
king should confer the vacant bishoprics and abbeys, were entitled to a
vote in parliament; and, that the clergy might conceive no jealousy of any
encroachment upon their privileges, it was remitted to the general assembly, to determine what spiritual jurisdiction or authority in the government
of the church these persons should possess."
The king, however, found it no easy matter to obtain the concurrence
of the ecclesiastical judicatories, in which the act of parliament met with
a fierce opposition. Though the clergy perceived how much lustre this
new privilege would reflect upon their order; though they were not insensible of the great accession of personal power and dignity, which many
of them would acquire, by being admitted into the supreme council of the
nation, their abhorrence of episcopacy was extreme; and to that they
sacrificed every consideration of interest or ambition. All the king's professions of regard for the present constitution of the church did not convince
them of his sincerity: all the devices that could be invented for restraining
and circumscribing the jurisdiction of such as were to be raised to this new
honour, did not diminish their jealousy and fear. Their own experience
had taught them with what insinuating progress the hierarchy advances,
and though admitted at first with moderate authority, and under specious
pretences, how rapidly it extends its dominion. "Varnish over this scheme,"
said one of the leading clergymen, "' with what colours you please; deck
the intruder with the utmost art; under all this disguise I see the horns of
his mitre." The same sentiments prevailed among many of his brethren,
and induced them to reject power and honours, with as much zeal as ever
those of their order courted them. Many, however, were allured by the
hopes of preferment; the king himself and his ministers employed the
same arts which they had tried so successfully last year; and after long
debates, and much opposition, the general assembly declared that it was
lawful for ministers to accept of a seat in parliament [March 7]; that it
would be highly beneficial to the church to have its representatives in that
supreme court; and that fifty-one persons, a number nearly equal to that
of the ecclesiastics who were anciently called to parliament, should be
chosen from among the clergy for that purpose. The manner of their
* Spotsw. 450. Parl. 15th Jo c. VI c. X,.




OF SCOTLAND                              299
election, together with the powers to be vested in them, were left unde.
cided for the present, and furnished matter of future deliberation.*
1599.] As the prospect of succeeding to the crown of England drew
nearer, James multiplied precautions in order to render it certain. As he
was allied to many of the princes of Germany by his marriage, he sent
ambassadors extraordinary to their several courts, in order to explain the
justness of his title to the English throne, and to desire their assistance, if
any competitor should arise to dispute his undoubted rights. These princes
readily acknowledged the equity of his claim; but the aid which they
could afford him was distant and feeble.  At the same time, Edward
Bruce, abbot of Kinloss, his ambassador at the English court, solicited
Elizabeth, with the utmost warmth, to recognise his title by some public
deed, and to deliver her own subjects from  the calamities which are
occasioned by an uncertain or disputed succession. But age had strengthened all the passions which had hitherto induced Elizabeth to keep this
great question obscure and undecided; and a general and evasive answer
was all that James could obtain. As no impression could be made on the
queen, the ambassador was commanded to sound the disposition of her
subjects; and to try what progress he could make in gaining them.
Bruce possessed all the talents of secrecy, judgment, and address, requisite
for conducting a negotiation no less delicate than important. A minister
of this character was entitled to the confidence of the English. Many
of the highest rank unbosomed themselves to him without reserve, and
gave him repeated assurances of their resolution to assert his master's right
in opposition to every pretender.t As several pamphlets were dispersed
at this time in England, containing objections to his title,James employed
some learned men in his kingdom to answer these cavillers, and to explain
the advantages which would result to both kingdoms by the union of the
crowns. These books were eagerly read, and contributed not a little to
reconcile the English to that event. A book published this year by the
king himself produced an effect still more favourable. It was entitled
Bcasilicon Doron, and contained precepts concerning the art of government,
addressed to prince Henry his son. Notwithstanding the great alterations
and refinements in national taste since that time, we must allow this to be
no contemptible performance, and not to be inferior to the works of most
contemporary writers, either in purity of style or justness of composition.
Even the vain parade of erudition with which it abounds, and which now
disgusts us, raised the admiration of that age; and as it was filled with
those general rules which speculative authors deliver for rendering a nation
happy, and of which James could discourse with great plausibility, though
often incapable of putting them in practice, the English conceived a high
opinion of his abilities, and expected an increase of national honour and
prosperity under a prince so profoundly skilled in politics, and who gave
such a specimen both of his wisdom and of his love to his people.T
The queen of England's sentiments concerning James were very different fiom those of her subjects. His excessive indulgence towards the
popish lords; the facility with which he pardoned their repeated treasons;
his restoring Beatoun, the popish archbishop of Glasgow, who had fled
out of Scotland at the time of the reformation, to the possession of the temporalities of that benefice; the appointing him his ambassador at the court
of France; the applause he bestowed, in the Basilicon Doron, on those who
adhered to the queen his mother; Elizabeth considered as so many indications of a mind alienated from the protestant religion; and suspected that he
would soon revolt from the profession of it. These suspicions seemed to
be fully confirmed by a discovery which came from the master of Gray,
who resided at that time in Italy, and who, rather than suffer his intriguing
* Spots. 450 Cald. v. 278.  t Johnst. 242.  f Camdo Spotsw. 457




300                    THE  HISTORY                   [BooK VIII.
spirit to be idle, demeaned himself so far as to act as a spy for the
English court. He conveyed to Elizabeth the copy of a letter, written by
James to pope Clement VIII., in which the king, after many expressions
of regard for that pontiff, and of gratitude for his favours, declared his
firm resolution to treat the Roman catholics with indulgence: and, in order
to render the intercourse between the court of Rome and Scotland more
frequent and familiar, he solicited the pope to promote Drummond, bishop
of Vaison, a Scotsman, to the dignity of a cardinal." Elizabeth, who had
received by another channelt some imperfect intelligence of this correspondence, was filled with just surprise, and immediately despatched Bowes
into Scotland, to inquire more fully into the truth of the matter, and to
reproach James for an action so unbecoming a protestant prince. He was
astonished at the accusation, and with a confidence which nothing but the
consciousness of innocence could inspire, affirmed the whole to be a mere
calumny, and the letter itself' to be forged by his enemies, on purpose to
bring his sincerity in religion to be suspected. Elphingston, the secretary
of state, denied the matter- with equal solemnity. It came, however, to
be known by a very singular accident, which happened some years after,
that the information which Elizabeth had received was well founded,
though at the same time the king's declarations of his own innocence were
perfectly consistent with truth.  Cardinal Bellarmine, in a reply which he
published to a controversial treatise, of which the king was the author,
accused him of having abandoned the favourable sentiments which he had
once entertained of the Roman catholic religion, and as a proof of this, quoted
his letter to Clement VIII. It was impossible any longer to believe this
to be a fiction; and it was a matter too delicate to be passed over without
strict inquiry. James immediately examined Elphingston, and his confession unravelled the whole mystery. He acknowledged that he had
shuffled in this letter among other papers, which he laid before the king
to be signed, who, suspecting no such deceit, subscribed it together with
the rest, and without knowing what it contained; that he had no other
motive, however, to this action, but zeal for his majesty's service; and
by flattering the Roman catholics with hopes of indulgence under the
king's government, he imagined that he was paving the way for his more
easy accession to the English throne. The privy council of England
entertained very different sentiments of the secretary's conduct. In their
opinion not only the king's reputation had been exposed to reproach, but
his life to danger, by this rash imposture; they even imputed the gunpowder treason to the rage and disappointment of the papists, upon finding
that the hopes which this letter inspired were frustrated. The secretary
was sent a prisoner into Scotland to be tried for high treason. His peers
found him guilty, but by the queen's intercession, he obtained a pardon *
According to the account of other historians, James himself was no
stranger to this correspondence -with the pope; and, if we believe them,
Elphingston being intimidated by the threats of the English council, and
deceived by the artifices of the earl of Dunbar, concealed some circumstances in his narrative of this transaction, and falsified others; and, at the
expense of his own fame, and with the danger of his life, endeavoured to
draw a veil over this part of his master's conduct.~
But whether we impute the writing of this letter to the secretary's
officious zeal, or to the king's command, it is certain that about this time
James was at the utmost pains to gain the friendship of the Roman catholic
princes, as a necessary precaution towards facilitating his accession to the
English throne. Lord Home, who was himself a papist, was intrusted
with a secret commission to the pope;11 the archbishop of Glasgow was an
~ Cald. 333.    f Winw. Mem. vol. i. 37. 52.    + State Trials, vol. i. 429. Spotsw. 456.
507 Johnst. 448.    g Cald. vol. v. 322. vi. 147.!I Winw. Mem. vol. ii. 57.




OF SCOTLAND.                             301
active instrument with those of his own religion."  The pope expressed
such favourable sentiments both of the king and of his rights to the crown
of England, that James thought himself bound, some years after, to
acknowledge the obligation in a public manner.t Sir James Lindsay made
great progress in gaining the English papists to acknowledge His Majesty's
title. Of all these intrigues Elizabeth received obscure hints from different
quarters. The more imperfectly she knew, the more violently she suspected the king's designs; and the natural jealousy of her temper
increasing with age, she observed his conduct with greater solicitude
than ever.
1600.] The questions with regard to the election and power of the
representatives of the church, were finally decided this year by the General
Assembly, which met at Montrose [March 28]. That place was chosen
as most convenient for the ministers of the north, among whom the king's
influence chiefly lay. Although great numbers resorted from the northern
provinces, and the king employed his whole interest, and the authority of
his own presence, to gain a majority, the following regulations were with
difficulty agreed on. That the general assembly shall recommend six
persons to every vacant benefice which gave a title to a seat in parliament,
out of whom the king shall nominate one; that the person so elected, after
obtaining his seat in parliament, shall neither propose nor consent to any
thing there that may affect the interest of the church, without special
instructions to that purpose; that he shall be answerable for his conduct
to every general assembly; and submit to its censure, without appeal,
upon pain of infamy and excommunication; that he shall discharge the
duties of a pastor in a particular congregation; that lie shall not usurp any
ecclesiastical jurisdiction superior to that of his other brethren; that if the
church inflict on him the censure of deprivation, he shall thereby forfeit
his seat in parliament: that he shall annually resign his commission to the
General Assembly, which may be restored to him, or not, as the assembly,
with the king's approbation, shall judge most expedient for the good of
the church.: Nothing could be more repugnant to the idea of episcopal
government, than these regulations. It was not in consequence of rights
derived from their office, but of powers conferred by a commission, that
the ecclesiastical persons were to be admitted to a seat in parliament; they
were the representatives, not the superiors of the clergy. Destitute of
all spiritual authority, even their civil jurisdiction was temporary. James,
however, flattered himself that they would soon be able to shake off these
fetters, and gradually acquire all the privileges which belongced to the
episcopal order.'The clergy dreaded the same thing; and oF course he
contended for the nomination of these commissioners, and they opposed
it, not so much on account of the powers then vested in them, as of those
to which it was believed they would soon attain.~
During this summer the kingdom enjoyed an unusual tranquillity. The
clergy after many struggles were brought under great subjection; the
popish earls were restored to their estates and honours by the authority of
parliament, and with the consent of the church; the rest of the nobles
were at peace among themselves, and obedient to the royal authority;
when, in the midst of this security, the king's life was exposed to the
utmost danger by a conspiracy altogether unexpected and alnost inexplicable. The authors of it were John Ruthven, earl of Gowrie, and his
brother Alexander, the sons of that earl who was beheaded in the year
one thousand five hundred and eighty-four. Nature had adorned both
these young men, especially the elder brother, with many accomplishments, to which education had added its most elegant improvements.
* Cald. vol. vi. 147.  t Ibid. vol. v. 604.:   Spotsw. 453 457. Cald. vol. v. 358
Snots. 454.




302                   T H E  HISTOR Y                [BOO1300K VIII.
More learned than is usual among persons of their rank; more religious
than is common at their age of life; generous, brave, popular; their coun
trymen, far from thinking them capable of any atrocious crime, conceived
the most sanguine hopes of their early virtues. Notwithstanding all these
noble qualities, some unknown motive engaged them in a conspiracy,
which, if we adhere to the account commonly received, must be transmitted
to posterity as one of the most wicked, as wvell as one of the worst concerted of which history makes any mention.
On the fifth of August, as the king, who resided during the hunting
season in his palace of Falkland, was going out to his sport early in the
morning, he was accosted by Mr. Alexander Ruthven, who, with an air of
great importance, told the king that the evening before he had met an
unknown man of a suspicious aspect walking alone in a by-path near his
brother's house at Perth; and, on searching him, had found under his cloak
a pot filled with a great quantity of foreign gold; that he had immediately
seized both him and his treasure, and, without communicating the fiatter
to any person, had kept him confined and bound in a solitary house; and
that he thought it his duty to impart such a singular event first of all to
his Majesty. James immediately suspected this unknown person to be a
seminary priest supplied with foreign coin in order to excite new commotions in the kingdom; and resolved to empower the magistrates of Perth
to call the person before them, and inquire into all the circumstances of
the story. Ruthven violently opposed this resolution, and with many
arguments urged the king to ride directly to Perth and examine the matter
in person. Meanwhile the chase began; and James, notwithstanding his
passion for that amusement, could not help ruminating upon the strangeness
of the tale, and on Ruthven's importunity. At last he called him, and
promised when the sport was over to set out for Perth. The chase,
however, continued long; and Ruthven, who all the while kept close by
the king, was still urging him to make haste. At the death of the buck
he would not allow James to stay till a fresh horse was brought him; and
observing the duke of Lennox and the earl of Mar preparing to accompany
the king, he entreated him to countermand them. This James refused;
and though Ruthven's impatience and anxiety, as well as the apparent
perturbation in his whole behaviour, raised some suspicions in his mind;
yet his own curiosity and Ruthven's solicitations prevailed on him to set
out for Perth. When within a mile of the town, Ruthven rode forward to
inform his brother of the king's arrival, though he had already despatched
two messengers for that purpose. At a little distance from the town, the
earl, attended by several of the citizens, met the king, who had only
twenty persons in his train. No preparations were made for the king s
entertainment: the earl appeared pensive and embarrassed, and was at no
pains to atone, by his courtesy or hospitality, for the bad fare with which
he treated his guests. When the king's repast was over, his attendants
were led to dine in another room, and he being left almost alone, Ruthven
whispered him that now was the time to go to the chamber where the
unknown person was kept. James commanded him to bring sir Thomas
Erskine along with them; but, instead of that, Ruthven ordered him not to
follow: and conducting the king up a staircase, and then through several
apartments, the doors of which he locked behind him, led him at last into
a small study in which there stood a man clad in armour, with a sword
and dagger by his side. The king, who expected to have found one disarmed and bound, started at the sight, and inquired if this was the person;
but Ruthven, snatching the dagger from the girdle of the man in armour,
and holding it to the king's breast, "Remember," said he, "how unjustly
my father suffered by your command; you are now my prisoner; submit
to my disposal without resistance or outcry; or this dagger shall instantly
avenge his blood"  James expostulated with Ruthyen, entreated. and




OF  SCOTLAND.                           3()3
flattered him. The man whom he found in the study stood all the while
trembling and dismayed, without courage either to aid the king or to
second his aggressor. Ruthven protested that if the king raised no outcry
his life should be safe; and moved by some unknown reason, retired in
order to call his brother, leaving to the man in armour the care of the king,
whom he bound by oath not to make any noise during his absence.
While the king was in this dangerous situation, his attendants growing
Impatient to know whither he had retired, one of Gowrie's domestics entered the room hastily and told them that the king had just rode away
towards Falkland. All of them rushed out into the street; and the earl,
in the utmost hurry, called for their horses. But by this time his brother
had returned to the king, and swearing that now there was no remedy, he
must die, offered to bind his hands. Unarmed as James was, he scorned
to submit to that indignity; and closing with the assassin, a fierce struggle
ensued. The man in armour stood, as formerly, amazed and motionless;
and the king, dragging Ruthven towards a window which during his absence, he had persuaded the person with whom he was left to open, cried
with a wild and aftrighted voice, "Treason! Treason! Help! 1 am
murdered!"  His attendants heard and knew the voice, and saw at the
window a hand which grasped the king's neck with violence. They flew
with precipitation to his assistance. Lennox and Mar, with the greater
number, ran up the principal staircase, where they found all the doors
shut, which they battered with the utmost fury, endeavouring to burst
them open. But sir John Ramsey, entering by a back-stair which led
to the apartment where the king was, fobund the door open, and rushing
upon Ruthven, who was still struggling with the king, struck him twice
with his dagger, and thrust him towards the staircase, where sir Thomas
Erskine and sir Hugh Herries met and killed him; he crying with his last
breath, " Alas! I am not to blame for this action."  During this scuffle the
man who had been concealed in the study escaped unobserved. Together
with Ramsey, Erskine, and Herries, one Wilson, a footman, entered the
room where the king was, and before they had time to shut the door,
Gowrie rushed in with a drawn sword in each hand, followed by seven
of his attendants well-armed, and with a loud voice threatened them all
with instant death. They immediately thrust the king into the little study,
and, shutting the door upon him, encountered the earl. Notwithstanding
the inequality of numbers, Sir John Ramsey pierced Gowrie through the
heart, and he fell down dead without uttering a word; his followers,
having received several wounds, immediately fled. Three of the king's
defenders were, likewise hurt in the conflict. A dreadful noise continued
still at the opposite door, where many persons laboured in vain to force a
passage; and the king being assured that they were Lennox, Mar, and his
other friends, it was opened on the inside. They ran to the king, whom
they unexpectedly found safe, with transports of congratulation; and he,
falling on his knees, with all his attendants around him, offered solemn
thanks to God for such a wonderful deliverance. The danger however
was not yet over. The inhabitants of the town, whose provost Gowrie
was, and by whom he was extremely beloved, hearing the fate of the two
brothers, ran to their arms, and surrounded the house, threatening revenge,
with many insolent and opprobrious speeches against the king. James
endeavoured to pacify the enraged multitude by speaking to them from the
window; he admitted their magistrates into the house; related to them
all the circumstances of the fact; and their fury subsiding, by degrees
they dispersed. On searching the earl's pockets for papers that might
discover his designs and accomplices, nothing was found but a small parchment bag, full of magical characters and words of enchantment; and if
we may believe the account of the conspiracy published by the king,' while these were about hi:n the wound of which he died bled not; but




304                       T HE HISTORY                       [BooK VII1.
as soon as they were taken away the blood gushed out-in great abundance,"
After all the dangerous adventures of this busy day the king returned in
the evening to F alkland, having committed the dead bodies of the two
brothers to the custody of the magistrates of Perth.
Notwithstanding the minute detail which the king gave of all the cir
cumstances of this conspiracy against his life, the motives which induced
the two brothers to attempt an action so detestable, the end they had in
view, and the accomplices on whose aid they depended, were altogether
unknown.  The words of Ruthven to the king gave somne ground.s to think
that the desire of revenging their father's death had instigated them to this
attempt.  But whatever injuries their father had suffered, it is scarcely probable that they could impute them to the king, whose youth, as well as his
subjection at that time to the violence of a faction, exempted him  from
being the object of resentment, on account of actions which were not done
by his command. James had even endeavoured to repair the wrongs
which the father had suffered by benefits to his children; and Gowrie
himself, sensible of his favour, had acknowledged it with the warmest expressions of gratitude.  Three of the earl's attendants, being convicted of
assisting him in this assault on the king's servants, were executed al. Perth;
but they could give no light into the motives which had prompted their
master to an action so repugnant to these acknowledgments.  Diligent
search was made for the person concealed in the study, and from  him
great discoveries were expected.  But Andrew  Henderson, the earl's
steward, who upon a promise of pardon confessed himself to be the man,
was as much a stranger to his master's design as the rest; and though
placed'in the study by Gowrie's command, he did not even know for
what end that station had been assigned him. The whole transaction
remained as impenetrably dark as ever; and the two brothers, it was concluded, had concerted their scheme without either confidant or accomplice,
with unexampled secrecy as well as wickedness.
An accident no less strange than the other circumstances of the story,
and which happened nine years after, discovered that this opinion, however plausible, was ill-founded; and that the two brothers had not carried
on their machinations all alone.  One Sprot, a notary, having whispered
amono several persons that he knew  some secrets relating to Gowrie's
conspiracy, the privy council thought the matter worthy of their attention,
and ordered him to be seized. His confession was partly voluntary and
partly forced from  him  by torture.  According to his account, Logan of
Restalrig, a gentleman of an opulent fortune, but of dissolute morals, was
privy to all Gowrie's intentions; and an accomplice in his crimes.  Mr.
Ruthven, he said, had frequent interviews with Logan in order to concert
the plan of their operations; the earl had correspondled with him to the
same purpose; and one Bour, Logan's confidant, was trusted with the
secret, and carried the letters between them. Both Logan and Bour were
now dead. But Sprot affirmed that he had read letters written both by
Gowrie and Logan on that occasion; and in confirmation of his testimony
several of Logan's letters, which a curiosity fatal to himself had prompted
Sprot to steal from among Bour's papers, were produced.? These were
compared by the privy council with -papers of Logan's handwriting, and
* Logan's letters were five in number: one to Bour, another to Gowrie, and three of them without
any direction; nor could Sprot discover the name of the person- to whom they were written. Logan
gives him the appellation of Rig-ist Honourable. It appears from this, however, and from other 
words in the letter, Crom. 95, that there were several persons privy to the conspiracy. The date of
the first letter is July 18th. Mr. Ruthven had communicated the matter to Logan only five days
before. Ibid. It appears from the original summons offoj'aultznre against Logan's heirs, that
Bour, though he had letters addressed to him with regard to a conspiracy equally dangerous and
important, was so illiterate that he could not read. " Jacobus Bour, literarum prorsus ignarus.
dicti Georgii opera, in legendisomnibus scriptis ad eum missis, vel pertinentibus utehatur." This is
altogether strange; and nothing but the capricious character of Logan can account for his choosing
such a confidant.




OF SCOTLAND.                                          305
the resemblance was manifest. Persons of undoubted credit, and well
qualified to judge of the matter, examined them, and swore to their authenticity.  Death  itself did not exempt Logan from  prosecution; his bones
were dug up and tried for high treason, and by a sentence equally odious
and illegal, his lands were forfeited, and his posterity declared infamous
Sprot was condemned to be hanged for misprision of treason. He adhered
to his confession to the last, and having promised on the scaffold to give
the spectator's a sign in confirmation of the truth of what he had deposed,
he thrice clapped his hands after he was thrown off the ladder by the exe
cutioner.1
But though it be thus unexpectedly discovered that Gowrie didl not act
without associates, little additional light is thrown by this discovery on the
motives and intention of his conduct. It appears almost incredible that two
young men of such distinguished virtue should revolt all at once from their
duty, and attempt a crime so atrocious as the murder of their sovereignw
It appears still more improbable that they should have concerted their
undertaking with so little foresight and prudence. If they intended that
the deed should have remained concealed, they could not have chosen a
more improper scene for executing it than their own house. If they
intended that Henderson should have struck the blow, they could not have
pitched on a man more destitute of the courage that must diiect the hand
of an assassin; nor could they expect that he, unsolicited and unacquainted
with their purpose, would venture on such a desperate action    If Ruthven
meant to stab the king with his own hand, why did he withdraw the
dagger after it was pointed at his breast?  How  could he leave the king
By the Roman law, persons guilty of the crime of high treason might be tried even after death.
This practice was adopted by the Scots without any limitation, Parl. 1540, c. 69. But the unlimited
exercise of this power was soon conceived to be dangerous; and the crown was laid under proper
restrictions by an act A. D. 1542, which has never been printed. The words of it are, "And because
the said lords (i. e. the lords of articles) think the said act (viz. in 1540) too general, and prejudicial
to the barons ill the realm, therefore statutes and ordains, that the said act shall have no place sla
time coming, but against the heirs of them that notoriously commit or shall commit lese majesty
against the king's person, against the realm for averting the same, and against them that shall happen
to betray the king's army allenarly, and being notoriously known in their time: and the heirs of
these persons to be called and judged within five years after the decease of the said persons committers of the said crimes: and the said time being by-past, the said heirs never to be pursued for
the same." The sentence against Logan violated this statute in two particulars. He was not
notoriously known during his life to be an accomplice in the crime for which he was tried; and his
heir was called in question more than five years after his death. It is remarkable that this statute,
seems not to have been attended to in the parliament which forfeited Logan. Another singular
circumstance deserves notice. As it is a maxim of justice that no person can be tried in absence;
and as lawyers are always tenacious of their forms, and often absurd in their devices for preserving
them, they contrived that, in any process against a dead person, his corpse or bones shall be presented at the bar. Examples of this occur frequently in the Scottish history. After the battle of
Corrichie, the dead body of the earl of Huntly was presented in parliament, before sentence offorfaulture was pronounced against him. For the same reason the bodies of Gowrie and his brother
were preserved, in order that they might be produced in parliament. Logan's bones, in compliance
with the same rule, were dug up. Mackenz. Crim. Law, Book i. Tit. 6. ( 22.
t It appears that archbishop Spotswood was present at the execution of Sprot, Crom. 115, and
yet he seems to have given no credit to his discoveries. The manner in which he speaks of him is
remarkable: " Whether or not I should mention the arraignment and execution of George Sprot,
who suffered at Edinburgh, I am doubtful. His confession, though volltntary and constant, carrying
small probability. The man deposed, &c. It seemed to be a very fiction, and a mere invention of
the man's own brain, for neither did he show the letter, nor could any wise man think that Gowrie,
who went about the treason so secretly, would have communicated the matter to such a man as
Logan was known to be," p. 208. Spotswood could not be ignorant of the solemnity with which
Logan had been tried, and of the proof brought of the authenticity of Iis letters. He himself was
probably present in parliament at the trial. The earl of Dunbar, of whonm he always speaks with
the highest respect, was the person who directed the process against Logan. Such a peremptory de
claration against the truth of Sprot's evidence, notwithstanding all these circumstances, is surprising. Sir Thomas Hamilton, the king's advocate at that time, and afterwards earl of Haddington,
represents the proof produced at Logan's trial as extremely convincing; and in an original letter of
his to the king, the 21st of June 1609, (in Bibl. Facult. Jurid.) after mentioning the manner in which
the trial had been conducted, he thus goes on:
" When the probation of the summons was referred to the lords of articles' votes, they found uniformly, all in one voice, the said summons to be so clearly proved, that they seemed to contend who
should be able most zealously to express the satisfaction of his heart, not only by the most pithy
words, hut by tears of joy; diverse of the best rank confessing, that, whereof they doubted at their
entry into the housewas now so manifest that they behooved to esteem them traitors who should any
longer refuse to declare their assured resolution of the truth of that treason.
V   Ii -39




306                          THE HISTORY                            [BooK VIII.
after such a plain declaration of his intention? Was it not preposterous to
commit him to the keeping of such a timid associate as Henderson? For
what purpose did he waste time in binding the arms of an unarmed man,
whom he might easily have despatched with his sword? Had Providence
permitted them to imbrue their hands in the blood of their sovereign, what
advantage could have accrued to them by his death?  And what claims or
pretensions could they have opposed to the rights offhis children?* Inevitable and instant vengeance, together with perpetual infamy, were the only
consequences they could expect to follow such a crime.
On the other hand, it is impossible to believe that the king had formed
any design against the life of the two brothers.  They had not incurred
his indignation by any crime; and were in no degree the objects of his
jealousy or hatred;t nor was he of a spirit so sanguinary, or so noted for
rash and desperate valour, as to have attempted to murder them in their
own house, where they were surrounded with many domestics, he only
with a slender and unarmed train; where they could call to their assistance
the inhabitants of a city at the devotion of their family, while he was at a
distance from  all aid: and least of all would he have chosen for his associates in such an enterprise the earl of Mar and the duke of Lennox, the
former connected in close friendship with  the house of Gowrie, and the
Jlatter married to one of the earl's sisters.
Whichsoever of these opposite systems we embrace, whether we impute
the intention of murder to Gowrie or to the king, insuperable difficulties:arise, and we are involved in darkness, mystery, and contradictions.
Perhaps the source of the whole conspiracy ought to be searched for deeper,:and by deriving it from a more remote cause we may discover it to be less,criminal.
To keep the king of Scots in continual dependence was one great object
of Elizabeth's policy. In order to this she sometimes soothed him, and,sometimes bribed his ministers and favourites; and when she failed of.attaining her end by these means, she encouraged the clergy to render:any administration which she distrusted unpopular, by decrying it, or stirred up some faction of the nobles to oppose and to overturn it.  In that,fierce age, men little acquainted with the arts of undermining a ministry by
intrigue, had recourse to the ruder practice of rendering themselves mas-:ters of the king's person, that they might thereby obtain the direction of his,councils. Those nobles who seized the king at the Raid of Ruthven were
instigated and supported by Elizabeth.  Bothwell, in all his wild attempts,
* It has been asserted that, in consequence of the king's death, the earl of Gowrie might have
pretended to the crown of England, as the son of Dorothea Stewart, daughter of lord Methven by
Margaret of England, who, after her divorce from the earl of Angus, took that nobleman for her
third husband. Burnet, Hist. of his own Times. But this assertion is ill founded. It appears from
-undoubted evidence, that lord Methven had only one child by queen Margaret, which died in its
infancy, and Dorothea lady Ruthven was not the daughter of queen Margaret, but of Janet Stewart,
lord Methven's second wife, a daughter of John earl of Athol. Crawf. Peer. 329. And though
Gowrie had really been descended from the blood royal of England, the king at that time had a son
and daughter; and, besides them, lady Arabella Stewart, daughter of Charles earl of Lennox, had
a preferable title to the crown of England.
t Sir Henry Neville, in a letter to sir Ralph Winwood, imputes the death of the two brothers to
a cause not mentioned by any of our historians. " Out of Scotland we hear that there is no good
agreement, but rather an open difference, between the king and his wife, and many are of opinion
that the discovery of some affection between her and the earl of Gowrie's brother (who was killed
with him) was the truest cause and motive of that tragedy." Winw. Mem. vol. i. 274. Whether
the following passages in Nicholson's letter be any confirmation of that suspicion, is submitted to
the reader. In his letter, Sept. 22,1602, he mentions the return of Gowrie's two younger brothers
-into Scotland, and adds, " The coming in of these two, and the queen of Scots dealing with them,.and sending away and furnishing Mrs. Beatrix [their sister] with such information as sir Thomas
Erskine has given, hath bred great suspicion in the king of Scots that they come not in but in some
dangerous plot." In another letter, January 1, 1603, "' The day of writing my last, Mrs. Beatrix
Ruthven was brought by the lady Paisley and Mrs of Angus, as one of their gentlewomen, into the
court in the evening, and stowed in a chamber prepared for her by the quleen's direction, where the
queen had much time and conference with her. Of this the king got notice, and showed his dislike
thereof to the queen, gently reproving her for it, and examining quietly of the queen's servants of
the same, and of other matters thereunto belonging, with such discretion and secrecy as requires
such a matter."




OF SCOTLAND.                           a07
enjoyed her protection, and when they miscarried, he was secure of a
retreat in her dominions. The connexions which James had been forming
of late with the Roman catholic princes, his secret negotiations in England
with her subjects, and the maxims by which he governed his own kingdom,
all contributed to excite her jealousy. She dreaded some great revolution
in Scotland to be approaching, and it was her interest to prevent it. The
earl of Gowrie was one of the most powerful of the Scottish nobles, and
descended from ancestors warmly attached to the English interest. He
had adopted the same system, and believed the welfare of his country to
be inseparably connected with the subsistence of the alliance between the
two kingdoms. During his residence at Paris he had contracted an inti
mate friendship with sir Henry Neville, the queen's ambassador there, and
was recommended by him to his court as a person of whom great use
might be made.* Elizabeth received him as he passed through England
with distinguished marks of respect and favour. From all these circumstances a suspicion may arise that the plan of the conspiracy against the
king was formed at that time in concert with her. Such a suspicion pre
vailed in that age, and from the letters of Nicholson, Elizabeth's agent in
Scotland, it appears not to be destitute of foundation. An English ship was
observed hovering for some time in the mouth of the Frith of Forth. The
earl's two younger brothers fled into England after the ill success of the conspiracy, and were protected by Elizabeth. James himself, though he
prudentl concealed it, took great umbrage at her behaviour. None, how
ever, of Elizabeth's intrigues in Scotland tended to hurt the king's person,
but only to circumscribe his authority and to thwart his schemes. His life
was the surest safeguard of her own, and restrained the popish pretenders
to her crown, and their abettors, from desperate attempts, to which' their
impatience and bigotry might otherwise have urged them on. To have
encouraged Gowrie to murder his sovereign would, on her part, have been
an act of the utmost imprudence. Nor does this seem to have been the
intention of the two brothers. Mr. Ruthven, first of all, endeavoured to
decoy the king to Perth without any attendants. When these proved
more numerous than was expected, the earl employed a stratagem in order
to separate them from the king, by pretending that he had rode away
towards Falkland, and by calling hastily for their horses that they might
follow him. By their shutting James up meanwhile in a distant corner of
the house, and by attempting to bind his hands, their design seems to have
been rather to seize than to assassinate him. Though Gowrie had not
collected his followers in such numbers as to have been able to detain him
long a prisoner in that part of the kingdom by open force, he might soon
have been conveyed aboard the English ship, which waited perhaps to
receive him; and he might have been landed at Fastcastle, a house of
Logan's, in which, according to many obscure hints in his letters, some
rendezvous of the conspirators was to be held. Amidst the surprise and
terror into which the king must have been thrown by the violence offered to
him, it was extremely natural for him to conclude that his life was sought.
It was the interest of all his followers to confirm him in this belief, and to
magnify his danger, in order to add to the importance and merit of their
own services. Thus his fear and their vanity, aided by the credulity and
wonder which the contemplation of any great and tragical event, when not
fully understood, is apt to inspire, augmented the whole transaction. On
the other hand, the extravagance and improbability of the circumstances
which were added, detracted from the credit of those which really happened; and even furnished pretences for calling in question the truth of the
whole conspiracy.
The account of what had happened at Perth reached Edinburgh
* Winw. i. 156.




308                        T H E H I S T O RY                  [Boo VIII.
next morning. The privy council commanded the ministers of that city
instantly to assemble their people; and after relating to them the circumstances of the conspiracy formed against the king's life, to return public
thanks to God for the protection which he had so visibly afforded him.
But as the first accounts transmitted to Edinburgh, written in a hurry, and
while the circumstances of the conspiracy were but imperfectly known,
and the passions which it excited strongly felt, were indistinct, exaggerated, and contradictory, the ministers laid hold of this; and though
they offered to give public thanks to God for the king's safety, they
refused to enter into any detail of particulars, or to utter from the chair of
truth what appeared to be still dubious and uncertain.
A few days after the king returned to Edinburgh; and though Galloway,
the minister of his own chapel, made an harangue to the people at the public cross, in which he recited all the circumstances of the conspiracy;
though James himself, in their hearing, confirmed his account; though he
commanded a narrative of the whole transaction to be published; the
ministers of that city, as well as many of their brethren, still continued incredulous and unconvinced. Their high esteem of Gowrie, their jealousy
of every part of the king's conduct, added to some false and many improbable circumstances in the narrative, not only led them to suspect the
whole, but gave their suspicions an air of credibility. But at length the
king, partly by arguments, partly by threats, prevailed on all of them, except Mr. Robert Bruce, to own that they were convinced of the truth of
the conspiracy. He could be brought no farther than to declare that he
reverenced the king's account of the transaction, but could not say that he
himself was persuaded of the truth of it. The scruples or obstinacy of a
single man would  have been little regarded; but as the same spirit of
incredulity began to spread among the people, the example of one in so
high reputation for integrity and abilities was extremely darngerous.  The
king was at the utmost pains to convince and to gain Bruce; but finding it
impossible to remove his doubts, he deprived him of' his benefice, and after
repeated delays, and many attempts -towards a reconcilement, banished
him  the kingdom.*.The proceedings of parliament were not retarded by any scruples of
this sort.  The dead bodies of the two brothers were produced there according to law; an indictment forhigh treason was preferred against them;
witnesses were examined; and by a unanimnous sentence, their estates and
honours were forfeited; the punishment due to traitors was inflicted on
their dead bodies; and, as if the punishment hitherto in use did not express
sufficient detestation of their crimes, the parliament enacted that the surname of Ruthven  should be abolished; and in order to preserve the
memory of the king's miraculous escape, and to declare the sense which
the nation had of the divine goodness, to all future ages, appointed the fifth
of August to be observed annually as a day of public thanksgiving.t
* Spotsw. 461, &c. Cald. v. 389, &c.
t A few weeks after the death of the two brothers, the king published a Discourse of their vile
and unnatural conspiracy against his life. In the year 1713, George -earl of Cromartie published
an" Historical account of the conspiracy by the earl of Gowrie and Robert Logan of Restalrig,
against king James VI." He seems not to have seen tht account which the king himself had given
of that matter, and borrows the whole historical part from Spotswood and other authors; but he
has extracted from the public records the depositions of the witnesses produced by the king's council,
in order to make good the charge against the two brothers, and Logan their associate. From these
two treatises our knowledge of all the material circumstances of the conspiracy is derived. The
evidence which they contain one would expect to be authentic and decisive. An account of a fact
still recent, published by royal authority, and the original depositions of persons examined in presence
of the highest court in the nation, ought to convey a degree of evidence seldom attained in historical
relations, and to exclude all remaining doubt and uncertainty. But as every thing with regard to
this transaction is dark and problematical, the king's account and the depositions of the witnesses
not only vary, but contradict each other in so many circumstances that much room is still left for
hesitation and historical skepticism. The testimony of Henderson is the fullest and most important,
but in several particulars the king's account and his are contradictory. I. According to the king's
account, while Mr. Ruthven was holding the dagger at his breast, " the fellow in the study stood




OF SCOTLAND.                                          309
1601.] Though Gowrie's conspiracy occasioned a sudden and a great
alarm, it was followed by no consequence of importance; and having been
concerted by the two brothers either without any associates or with such
as were unknown, the danger was over as soon as discovered. But not
long  after a conspiracy broke  out in England against Elizabeth, which,
though the first danger was instantly dispelled, produced tragical effects,
that rendered the close of that queen's reign dismal and unhappy. As
James was deeply interested in that event, it merits our particular notice.
The court of~ England was at this time divided between two powerful
factions, which contended for the supreme direction of affairs. The leader
of the one was Robert D'Evreux, earl of Essex; sir Robert Cecil, the
son of lord treasurer Burleigh, was at the head of the other.  The former
was the most accomplished and the most popular of all the English nobles;
brave, gierous, affable; though impetuous, yet willing to listen to the
counsels of those whom he loved; an avowed but not an implacable enemy;
a friend no less constant than warm; incapable of disguising his own sentiments, or of misrepresenting those of others;  better fitted  for a camp
than for a court; of a genius that qualified him  for the first place in the
administration, with a spirit that scorned the second as below his merit.
He was soon distinguished by the queen, who, with a profusion uncommon
to her, conferred on him, even  in his earliest youth, the highest honours.
Nor did this diminish the esteem  and affection of his countrymen; but by
a rare felicity he was at once the favourite of his sovereign and the darling
quaking and trembling." Disc. 17. But Henderson says that he himselfwrested the dagger out of
Mr. Ruthven's hands. Disc. 53, Crom. 50. Henderson likewise boasted to his wife, that he had
that day, twice saved the king from being stabbed. Disc. 54. Crom. 53. II. The king asserts that
Henderson opened the window during Mr. Ruthven's absence. Disc.23. Henderson deposes that
he was only attempting to open itwhen Mr. Ruthven returned, and that during the struggle between
the king and him, he opened it. Disc. 53, 54. Crom. 51, 52. III. If we may believe the king, the
fellow in the study stood, during the struggle, behind the king's back, inactive and trembling all the
time. Disc. 27. But Henderson affirms, that he snatched away the garter with which Mr. Ruthven
attempted to bind the king; that he pulled back Mr. Ruthven's hand, while he was endeavouring
to stop the king's mouth, and that he opened the window. Disc. 54. Cronl. 52. IV. By the king's
account, Mr. Ruthven left him in the study, and went away in order to meet with his brother, and,
the earl came up the stairs for the same purpose. Disc. 23. Henderson deposes, that when Mr.
Ruthven leftthe king, " he believes that he did not pass from the door." Crom. 51. It is apparent,
both from the situation of the house, and from other circumstances, that there could not possibly
have been any interview between the brothers at this time. Disc. 23.
Henderson was twice examined, first at Falkland before the privy council in August, and next at
Edinburgh before the parliament in November. Not to mention some lesser variations between
these depositions, we shall point out two which are remarkable. In his first deposition, Mr. Hen
derson relates the most material circumstances of the whole in these words: " Mr. Ruthven pulled
out the deponent's dagger, and held the same to his Majesty's breast, saying, Remember you of my
father's murder; you shall now die for it: and pointing to his Highness's heart with the dagger, the
deponent threw the same out of Mr. Ruthven's hands, and swore that as God should judge his soul,
that if Mr. Ruthven had retained the dagger in his hand the space a man maygo six steps, he would
have stricken the king to the hilts with it." Disc. 52. But at his second examination he varied
from this in two material circumstances. First, the words he at that time put in Mr. Ruthven's
mouth while he held the dagger at the king's breast are, "Sir, you must be any prisoner; remember ong
my father's death."  Secondly, when he threatened him with death, it was only to deter him from
making any noise, " i[old your tongue, or by Christ yosu shall die."  2. In his first deposition, the
words of Mr. Ruthven, when he returned to the chamber where he had left the king, are, " There
is no remedy, by God you  utsst die."  But in his second deposition, " By God there is no remedy,
and offered to bind his Majesty's hands." Crom. 51. Thematerialwords you nmust die are omitted.
The first deposition seems plainly to intimate that it was Ruthven's intention to murder the king:
The second would lead us to conclude that he had no other design than to detain him as a prisoner.
There are likewise some remarkable contradictions in the testimonies of the other witnesses. 1,
In the discourse published by authority, it is insinuated that the tumult of the inhabitants was
raised against the king, and that it required some art to pacify them. Disc. 32. The duke of Lelnox confirms this in his deposition. Crom. 44. An act of privy council summoning the magistrates
of Perth to answer for that riot is still extant. And yet Andrew Roy, one of the bailies of the town,
deposes, that he himself raised the people, and that they took arms in order to assist the king.
Crom. 66. 2. Henderson deposes, that he gave an evasive answer to Mr. John Moncrief, who iiiquired where he had been that morning, because the earl had commanded him not to let any man
know that he had been at Falkland. Disc. 54. Moncrief deposes to the same purpose. Crom. 64
And yet George Hay, afterwards lord Kinnoul, and the chancellor of Scotland, and Peter Hay, de
pose, that the earl, in their presence, asked Henderson,'" Whom he found with the king at Falk
landi." Crom. 70, 71. Which question seems to prove that he did not aim at keeping that journey
a secret. In the collection of Criminal Trials, published by Mr. Arnot in 1785, the evidence against:
the two brothers has been considered with great attention. P. 20, &;c.




s3i0o                   H E   HI ST 0 RY             [Boox V1II.
of the people. Cecil, on the other hand, educated in a court, and trained
under a father deeply skilled in all its arts, was crafty, insinuating, industrious; and though possessed of talents which fitted him for the highest
offices, he did not rely upon his merit alone for attaining them, but availed
himself of every advantage which his own address or the mistakes of
others afforded him. Two such men were formed to be rivals and enemies. Essex despised the arts of Cecil as low and base. To Cecil, the
earl's magnanimity appeared to be presumption and folly. All the military
men except Raleigh favoured Essex. Most of the courtiers adhered to
Cecil, whose manners more nearly resembled their own.
As Elizabeth advanced in years, the struggle between these factions
became more violent. Essex, in order to strengthen himself, had early
courted the friendship of the king of Scots, for whose right of sucessioLn
he was a zealous advocate, and held a close correspondence both with him
and with his principal ministers. Cecil, devoted to the queen alone, rose
daily to new honours by the assiduity of his services and the patience
with which he expected the reward of them; while the earl's high spirit
and impetuosity sometimes exposed him to checks from a mistress, who,
though partial in her affection towards him, could not easily bear contradiction, and who conferred favours often unwillingly, and always slowly.
His own solicitations, however, seconded maliciously by his enemies, who
wished to remove him at a distance from court, advanced him to the command of the army employed in Ireland against Tyrone, and to the office
of lord lieutenant of that kingdom, with a commission almost unlimited.
His success in that expedition did not equal either his own promises or the
expectations of Elizabeth. The queen, peevish from her disappointment,
and exasperated against Essex by the artifices of his enemies, wrote him a
harsh letter, full of accusations and reproaches. These his impatient spirit
could not bear, and in the first transports of his resentment he proposed to
carry over a part of his army into England, and by driving his enemies
from the queen's presence, to reinstate himself in favour and in power.
But upon more mature thoughts he abandoned this rash design, and setting
sail with a few officers devoted to his person, landed in England and posted
directly to court. Elizabeth received him without any symptom either of
affection or of displeasure. By proper compliances and acknowledgments
he might have regained his former ascendancy over the queen. But he
thought himself too deeply injured to submit to these. Elizabeth, on the
other hand, determined to subdue his haughty temper; and though her
severity drew from him the most humble letters, she confined him to the
lord keeper's house, and appointed commissioners to try him, both for his
conduct during his government of Ireland, and for leaving that kingdom
without her permission. By their sentence he was suspended from all his
offices except that of master of the horse, and continued a prisoner during
the queen's pleasure. Satisfied with having mortified his pride thus far,
Elizabeth did not suffer the sentence to be recorded, and soon after allowed
him to retire to his own house. During these transactions, which occupied
several months, Essex fluctuated between the allegiance he owed to his
sovereign and the desire of revenge; and sometimes leaned to the one and
sometimes to the other. In one of the intervals when the latter prevailed,
he sent a messenger into Scotland to encourage the king to assert his own
right to the succession by force of arms, and to promise that, besides the
assistance of the earl and all his friends in England, lord Mountjoy, now
lord lieutenant of Ireland, would join him with five thousand men from that
kingdom. But James did not choose to hazard the losing of a kingdom,
of which he was just about to obtain possession, by a premature attempt
to seize it. Mountjoy, too, declined the enterprise, and Essex adopted
more dutiful schemes; all thoughts of ambition appearing to be totally
effaced out of his mind.




OF SCOTLAND.                             311
This moderation, which was merely the effect of disgust and disappointment, was not of long continuance; and the queen, having not only refused
to renew a lucrative grant which she had formerly bestowed, but even to
admit him  into her presence, that new injury drove a temper naturally
impatient, and now much fretted, to absolute despair. His friends, instead
of soothing his rage or restraining his impetuosity, added to both by their
imprudent and interested zeal. After many anxious consultations he determined to attempt to redress his wrongs by violence. But being conscious how unpopular such an enterprise would be if it appeared to proceed from motives of private revenge alone, he endeavoured to five it the
semblance of public utility by mingling the king of Scotlandis interest
with his own. He wrote to James, that the faction which now predominated in the English court had resolved to support the pretensions of the
Infanta of Spain to the crown; that the places of the greatest importance
in the kingdom were put into the hands of his avowed enemies; and that
unless he sent ambassadors without delay to insist on the immediate declaration of his right of succession, their measures were so well concerted that
all his hopes would be desperate. James, who knew how disagreeable
such a proposal would be to the queen'of England, was not willing rashly
to expose himself to her displeasure. Essex, nevertheless, blinded by
resentment and impatient for revenge, abandoned himself to these passions,
and acted like a man guided by frenzy or despair. With two or three
hundred followers incompletely armed, he attempted to assault a throne
the best established in Europe. Sallying at their head out of his own
house, he called on the citizens of London, if they either valued his life or
wished to preserve the kingdom from the dominion of the Spaniards, to
take arms and to follow his standard. He advanced towards the palace
with an intention to drive Cecil and his faction out of the queen's presence,
and to obtain a declaration of the Scottish king's right of succession.* But
though almost adored by the citizens, not a man would join him in this wild
enterprise. Dispirited by their indifference, deserted by some of his own
attendants, and almost surrounded by the troops which marched against
him under different leaders into the city, he retreated to his own house;
and without any bold effort suitable to his present condition, or worthy of
his former reputation for courage, he surrendered to his enemies.
As soon as James heard of Essex's ill success, he appointed the earl of
Mar, and Bruce, abbot of Kinloss, to repair as his ambassadors to the court
of England. The former of these was the person by whose means Essex
had carried on his correspondence with the king. He was a passionate
admirer of the earl's character, and disposed to attempt every thing that
could contribute to his safety. Bruce, united in a close friendship with
Mar, was ready to second him with equal zeal. Nor was the purpose of
the embassy less friendly to Essex than the choice of his ambassadors:
they were commanded to solicit in the warmest manner for the earl's life;
and if they found that the king, by avowing his friends, could either promote their designs or contribute to their safety, they were empowered to
lay aside all disguise, and to promise that he would put himself at their
head, and claim what was due to him by force of arms.f But before the
ambassadors could reach London, Essex had suffered the punishment which
he merited by his treason. Perhaps the fear of their interposing in order
to obtain his pardon hastened his death. Elizabeth continued for some
time irresolute concerning his fate, and could not bring herself to consign
into the hands of the executioner, a man who had once possessed her favour
so entirely, without a painful struggle between her resentment against his
late misconduct and her ancient affection towards him. The distress to
which she was now reduced tended naturally to soften the former, while it
* Birch. Mem. H. 477.    t Jhnst. 289. Birch. Mem. ii. 510.




312                    THE HISTORY                       [BOOK VIII.
revived the latter with new tenderness; and the intercession of one faithful
friend who had interest with the queen might perhaps have saved his life,
and have procured him a remission which, of herself, she was ashamed to
grant.  But this generous nobleman had at that time no such friend. Elizabeth, solicited incessantly by her ministers, and offended with the haugh
tiness of Essex, who, as she imagined, scorned to sue for pardon, at last
commanded the sentence to be put in execution. No sooner was the blow
struck than she repented of her own rashness, and bewailed his death with
the deepest sorrow. James always considered him as one who had fallen
a martyr to his service, and after his accession to the English throne,
restored his son to his honours, as well as all his associates in the conspiracy, and distinguished them with his favour.?
The Scottish ambassadors, finding that they had arrived too late to execute the chief business committed to their charge, not only concealed that
part of their instructions with the utmost care, but congratulated the queen, in
their master's name, on her happy escape from such an audacious conspiracy.
Elizabeth, though no stranger to the king's correspondence with Essex, or
to that n bleman's intentions of asserting Janmes's right to the crown, was
not willing that these should be known to the people, and for that reason
received the congratulations of the Scottish ambassadors with all possible
marks of credit and good will; and in order to sooth James, and to preserve
the appearances of union between the two courts, increased the subsidy
which she paid him annually. lThe ambassadors resided for some timre In
England, and were employed with great success in renewing and extending the intrigues which Bruce had formerly entered into with the English
nobles. As Elizabeth advanced in years the English turned their eyes
more and more towards Scotland, and were eager to prevent each other in
courting the favour of their future monarch. Assurances of attachment,
professions of regard, and promises of support were offered to James from
every corner of the kingdom.  Cecil himself, perceiving what hopes Essex
had founded on the friendship of the Scottish king, and what advantages he
might have derived from it, thought it prudent to stand no longer at a distance from a prince who might so soon become his master. But being
sensible at the same time how dangerous such an intercourse might prove
under a mistress naturally jealous. and whose jealousy grew stronger with
old age; though he entered into a correspondence with him, he carried it
on with all the secrecy and caution necessary in his situation, and peculiar
to his character.t James, having gained the man whose opposition and
influence he had hitherto chiefly dreaded, waited, in perfect security, till
that event should happen which would open his way to the throne of
England.$  It was with some difficulty that he restrained within proper
bounds his adherents in that kingdom, who, labouring to distinguish themselves by that officious zeal with which a prince who has a near prospect
of mounting the throne is always served, urged him  to allow a motion to
be made in parliament for declaring his right of succession to the crown.
James prudently discouraged that design; but it was with no small satisfaction that he observed the ascendant he was acquiring in a court, the dictates of which he had been so long obliged to obey; and which had either
prescribed or thwarted every step he had taken during the whole course
of his reign.~
* Camd. Spotbw. 464.    t See Append. No. LII.
J Dr. Birch, in his Life of Prince Henry, p. 232, has given some account of the mysterious mode
in which this corrc.ipondence was carried on, and how the letters were conveyed from London to
Dublin, and fronm thence to Scotland. Notwithstanding the solicitude which Cecil repeatedly discovers that his letters should be destroyed as soon as the king hlad read them, a considerable number
of them has been preserved, and published by sir David Daltymple in the year 1766. They were
written by lord Henry Howard, under the inspection of Cecil, in a style affectedly obsce u   The
whole correspondence is more curious than instructive.
Q Spotsw. 467. 471. Birch. Mern. ii. 514.




OF SCOTLAND.                              313
1602.] Notwithstanding the violent struggles of the political factions
which divided the court, and the frequent revolutions which had happened
there, since the king first took the reigns of government into his own hands,
Scotland had enjoyed unusual tranquillity, being undisturbed by any foreign
enemy, and free from any intestine commotion of long continuance. During
this period James endeavoured to civilize the Highlands and the Isles, a
part of his dominions too much neglected by former monarchs, though the
reformation of it was an object highly worthy of their care. The long
peace with England had afforded an opportunity of subduing the licentious
spirit of the borderers, and of restraining their depredations, often no less
ruinous to their countrymen than to their enemies. The inhabitants of the
low country began, gradually, to forget the use of arms, and to become
attentive to the arts of peace. But the Highlanders, retaining their natural
fierceness, averse from labour, and inured to rapine, infested their more
industrious neighbours by their continual incursions. James, being solicitous not only to repress their inroads, but to render them useful subjects,*
had at different times enacted many wise laws extremely conducive to
these ends. All landlords, or chiefs of clans, were enjoined to permit no
persons to reside in their estates who could not find sufficient surety for
their good behaviour; they were required to make a list of all suspicious
persons under their jurisdiction, to bind themselves to deliver them to justice, and to indemnify those who should suffer by their robberies; and, in
order to ascertain the faithful performance of these articles, the chiefs themselves were obliged to give hostages to the king, or to put pledges in his
hands. Three towns, which might serve as a retreat for the industrious,
and a nursery for arts and commerce, were appointed to be built in different parts of the Highlands; one in Cantire, another in Lochaber, and a third
in the Isle of Lewis; and, in order to draw inhabitants thither, all the privileges of royal boroughs were to be conferred upon them. Finding it,
however, to be no easy matter to inspire the natives of those countries
with the love of industry, a resolution was taken to plant among them colonies of people from the more industrious counties. The first experiment
was made on the Isle of Lewis; and as it was advantageously situated for
the fishing trade, a source from which Scotland ought naturally to derive
great wealth, the colony transported thither was drawn out of Fife, the
inhabitants of which were well skilled in that' branch of commerce. But,
before they had remained there long enough to manifest the good effects
of this institution, the islanders, enraged at seeing their country occupied
by those intruders, took arms, and surprising them in the night-time, murdered some of them, and compelled the rest to abandon the settlement.
The king's attention being soon after turned to other subjects, we hear no
more of this salutary project.  Though James did not pursue the design
with that steady application and perseverance, without which it is impossible to change the manners of a whole people, he had the glory, however,
not only of having first conceived the thought, but of having first pointed out
the proper method of introducing the civil arts of life into that part of the island.t
1603.] After having long enjoyed a good state of health, the effect of a
sound constitution, and the reward of uncommon regularity and temperance,
Elizabeth began this winter to feel her vigour decrease, and to be sensible
of the infirmities of old age. Having removed on a very stormy day from
Westminster to Richmond [Jan. 31], whither she was impatient to retire,
her complaints increased. She had no formed fever: her pulse was good;
but she ate little, and could not sleep. Her distemper seemed to proceed
from a deep melancholy, which appeared both in her countenance and
behaviour. She delighted in solitude; she sat constantly in the dark; and
was often drowned in tears.
* Basil. Der. 139.  t Parl. 1587. 1594. 1597. Spots, 468
VOL. III.-40




14                          T H E  H I S T O        R           [ L300x VIII.
No sooner was the queen's indisposition known, than persons of all
ranks, and of all different sects and parties, redoubled their applications to
the king of Scots, and vied with each other in professions of attachment to his
person, and in promises of submission to his government. Even some o.
Elizabeth's own servants, weary of the length of her reign, fond of novelty,
impatient to get rid of the burden of gratitude for past benefits, and expecting
to share in the liberality of a new prince, began to desert her: and crowds
of people hurried towards Scotland, eager to preoccupy the favour of the
successor, or afraid of being too late in paying homage to him.
Meanwhile, the queen's disease increased, and her melancholy appeared
to be settled and incurable. Various conjectures were formed concerning
the causes of a disorder from which she seemed to be exempted by the
natural cheerfulness of her temper. Some imputed it to her being forced,
contrary to her inclination, to pardon the earl of Tyrone, whose rebellion
had for many years created her much trouble. Others imagined that it
arose from observing the ingratitude of her courtiers, and the levity of her
people, who beheld her health declining with most indecent indifference,
and looked forward to the accession of the Scottish king with an impatience
which they could not conceal. The most common opinion at that time,
and perhaps the most probable was, that it flowed from grief for the earl
of Essex. She retained an extraordinary regard for the memory of that
unfortunate nobleman; and though she often complained of his obstinacy,
seldom mentioned his name without tears.$ An accident happened soon
after her retiring to Richmond, which revived her affections with new tenderness, and embittered her sorrows.  The countess of Nottingham, being
on her deathbed, desired to see the queen in order to reveal something to
her, without discovering which she could not die in peace. When the
queen came into her chamber, she told her, that while Essex lay under
sentence of death, he was desirous of imploring pardon in the manner which
the queen nerself had prescribed, by returning a ring which during the
height of his favour she had given him, with a promise that if, in any future
distress, he sent that back to her as a token, it, should entitle him to her
protection; that lady Scrope was the person he intended to employ in order
to present it; that, by a mistake, it was put into her hands instead of lady
Scrope's; and that she, having communicated the matter to her husband,
one of Essex's most implacable enemies, he had forbid her either to carry
the ring to the queen, or to return it to the earl.  The countess, having thus
disclosed her secret, begged the queen's forgiveness; but Elizabeth, who
now saw both the malice of the earl's enemies, and how unjustly she had
suspected him of inflexible obstinacy, replied, " God may forgive you, but
I never can;" and left the room  in great emotion.t  From  that moment
her spirit sunk entirely; she could scarce taste food; she refused all the
medicines prescribed by her physicians; declaring that she wished to die,
and would live no longer. No entreaty could prevail on her to go to bed;
she sat on cushions during ten days and nights, pensive and silent, holding
* Birch. Mem. ii. 505.
t This anecdote concerning Elizabeth was first published by Osborne, Mem. of Eliz. p. 23; is
confirmed by the testimony of De Maurier, Mem. 260, and by the traditional evidence of lady
Elizabeth Spelman, published by Dr. Birch, Negoc. 106. Camden mentions the queen's grief for
Essex's death as one of the causes of her melancholy. Some original papers remain, which prove
that this was commonly believed at the time. Birch. Menm. ii. 506. Essex, however, had been beheaded two years before her death, and there seems to have been no other reason, but that which
we have assigned, why her sorrows should revive with so much violence at so great a distance of
time. As the death of the countess of Nottingham happened about a fortnight before the queen's
death, the coincidence of these events, together with the other evidence mentioned, adds so much
probability to the story related by Osborne, as will entitle it to a place in history. The only objection
to the account we have given of Elizabeth's attachment to Essex, arises from her great age. At
the age of 68, the amorous passions are commonly abundantly cool, and the violence of all the pas-,ions, except one, is much abated. But the force of this objection is entirely removed by an author
who has illustrated many passages in the English history, and adorned more  Catalogue of Royal
and Noble Authors, Article Essex.




OF SCOTLAND.                           S3I5
her finger almost continually in her mouth, with her eyes open, and fixed
on the ground. The only thing to which she seemed to give any attention,
was the acts of devotion performed in her apartment by the arch bishop oi
Canterbury; and in these she joined with great appearance of fervour.
Wasted, at last, as well by anguish of mind as by long abstinence, she
expired without a struggle, on Thursday, the twenty-fourth day of March,
in the seventieth year of her age, and in the forty-fifth of her reign.*
Foreigners often accuse the English of indifference and disrespect towards
their princes; but without reason. No people are more grateful than they
to those monarchs who merit their griatitude. The names of Edward III
and Henry V. are mentioned by the English of this age with the same
warmth as they were by those who shared in the blessings and splendour
of their reigns. The memory of Elizabeth is still adored in England
The historians of that kingdom, after celebrating her love of her people,
her sagacity in discerning their true interest; her steadiness in pursuing it;
her wisdom in the choice of her ministers; the glory she acquired by
arms; the tranquillity she secured to her subjects; and the increase of fame,
of riches, and of commerce, which were the fruits of all these; justly rank
her among the most illustrious princes. Even the defects in her character,
they observe, were not of a kind pernicious to her people. Her excessive
frugality was not accompanied with the love of hoarding; and though it
prevented some great undertakings, and rendered the success of others
incomplete, it introduced economy into her administration, and exempted
the nation from many burdens, which a monarch more profuse or more
enterprising must have imposed. Her slowness in rewarding her servants
sometimes discouraged useful merit; but it prevented the undeserving from
acquiring power and wealth to which they had no title. Her extreme
jealousy of those princes who pretended to dispute her right to the crown
led her to take such precautions as tended no less to the public safety than
to her own; and to court the affections of her people as the firmest support
of her throne. Such is the picture which the English draw of this great
queen.
Whoever undertakes to write the history of Scotland, finds himself
obliged, frequently, to view her in a very different and in a less amiable
light. Her authority in that kingdom, during the greater part of her reign,
was little inferior to that which she possessed in her own. But this authority, acquired at first by a service of great importance to the nation, she
exercised in a manner extremely pernicious to its happiness. By her industry in fornmentinc the rage of the two contending factions; by supplying the
one with partial aid; by feeding the other with false hopes; by balancing
their power so artfully that each of them was able to distress, and neither
of them to subdue the other'; she rendered Scotland long the seat of discord, confusion, and bloodshed; and her craft and intrigues, effecting what
the valour of her ancestors could not accomplish, reduced that kingdom to
a state of dependence on England. The maxims of policy, often little consonant to those of morality, may, perhaps, justify this conduct. But no
apology can be offered for her behaviour to queen Mary; a scene of dissimulation without necessity, and of severity beyond example. In almost all
her other actions Elizabeth is the object of our highest admiration; in this
we must allow that she not only laid aside the magnanimity which became
a queen, but the feelings natural to a woman.
Though Elizabeth would never permit the question concerning the right
of succession to the crown to be determined in parliament; nor declare her
own sentiments concerning a point which she wished to remain an impenetrable mystery; she had, however, formed no design of excluding the Scottish king from an inheritance to which his title was undoubted. A short
* Caned. Birch. Mem. ii. 506 Birch. Negoc. 266. Strype, iv. 373,




316                    THE  HISTORY                  [BooK V11I.
time before her death she broke the silence which she had so long preserved on that subject, and told Cecil and the lord admiral, "' That her
throne was the throne of kings; that she would have no mean person to
ascend it, and that her cousin the king of Scots should be her successor."
This she confirmed on her deathbed. As soon as she breathed her last,
the lords of the privy council proclaimed James king of England. All the
intrigues carried on by foreigners in favour of the infanta, all the cabals
formed within the kingdom to support the titles of lady Arabella and the
earl of Hartford, disappeared in a moment; the nobles and people, forget
ting their ancient hostilities with Scotland and their aversion for the
dominion of strangers, testified their satisfaction with louder acclamations
than were usual at the accession of their native princes. Amidst this
tumult of joy, a motion made by a few patriots, who proposed to prescribe
some conditions to the successor, and to exact from him the redress of some
grievances, before they called him to the throne, was scarcely heard; and
Cecil, by stifling it, added to his stock of merit with his new master. Sir
Charles Percy, brother of the earl of Northumberland, and Thomas Somerset, the earl of Worcester's son, were despatched to Scotland with a letter
to the king, signed by all the peers and privy counsellors then in London;
informing him of the queen's death, of his accession to the throne, of their
care to recognise his title, and of the universal applause with which the
public proclamation of it had been attended. They made the utmost haste
to deliver this welcome message; but were prevented by the zeal of sir
Robert Carey, lord Hunsdon's youngest son, who, setting out a few hours
after Elizabeth's death, arrived at Edinburgh on Saturday night, just as
the king had gone to bed. He was immediately admitted into the royal
apartment, and kneeling by the king's bed, acquainted him with the
death of Elizabeth, saluted him king of England, Scotland, France, and
Ireland; and as a token of the truth of the intelligence which he brought,
presented him a ring, which his sister lady Scrope had taken from the
queen's finger after her death. James heard him with a decent composure.
But as Carey was only a private messenger, the information which he
brought was not made public, and the king kept his apartment till the
arrival of Percy and Somerset. Then his titles were solemnly proclaimed;
and his own subjects expressed no less joy than the English, at this increase
of his dignity. As his presence was absolutely necessary in England,
where the people were extremely impatient to see their new sovereign, he
prepared to set out for that kingdom without delay. He appointed his
queen to follow him within a few weeks. He committed the government
of Scotland to his privy council. He intrusted the care of his children to
different noblemen. On the Sunday before his departure he repaired to
the church of St. Giles, and after hearing a sermon, in which the preacher
displayed the greatness of the divine goodness in raising him to the throne
of such a powerful kingdom without opposition or bloodshed, and exhorted
him to express his gratitude, by promoting to the utmost the happiness and
prosperity of his subjects; the king rose up, and addressing himself to the
people, made many professions of unalterable affection towards them;
promised to visit Scotland frequently; assured them that his Scottish subjects, notwithstanding his absence, should feel that he was their native
prince, no less than when he resided among them; and might still trust that
his ears should be always open to their petitions, which he would answer
with the alacrity and love of a parent. His words were often interrupted
Dy the tears of the whole audience; who, though they exulted at the king's
prosperity, were melted into sorrow by these tender declarations.?
On the fifth of April he began his journey, with a splendid but not a
numerous train; and next day he entered Berwick. Wherever he came
* Spotsw. 476,




OF SCOTLAND.                             317
immense multitudes were assembled to welcome him; and the principal
persons in the different counties through which he passed displayed all
their wealth and magnificence in entertainments prepared for him at their
houses. Elizabeth had reigned so long in England that most of her subjects remembered no other court but hers, and their notions of the manners
and decorums suitable to a prince were formed upon what they had
observed there. It was natural to apply this standard to the behaviour
and actions of their new monarch, and to compare him, at first sight, with
the queen on whose throne he was to be placed. James, whose manners
were extremely different from hers, suffered by the comparison. He had
not that flowing affability by which Elizabeth captivated the hearts of her
people; and though easy among a few whom he loved, his indolence could
not bear the fatigue of rendering himself agreeable to a mixed multitude
He was no less a stranger to that dignity with which Elizabeth tempered
Ler familiarity. And, instead of that well judged frugality with which she
colferred titles of honour, he bestowed them with an undistinguishing profusion, that rendered them no longer marks of distinction or rewards or
merit. But these were the reflections of the few alone; the multitude continued their acclamations; and amidst these James entered London on the
seventh of May, and took peaceable possession of the throne of England.
Thus were united two kingdoms, divided from the earliest accounts of
time, but destined by their situation to form one great monarchy. By this
junction of its whole native force, Great Britain hath risen to an eminence
and authority in Europe which England and Scotland, while separate,
could never have attained.
The Scots had so long considered their monarchs as next heirs to the
English throne, that they had fill leisure to reflect on all the consequences
of their being advanced to that dignity. But dazzled with the glory of
giving a sovereign to their powerful enemy, relying on the partiality of
their native prince, and in full expectation of sharing liberally in the wealth
and honours which he would now be able to bestow, they attended little
to the most obvious consequences of that great event, and rejoiced at his
accession to the throne of England, as if it had been no less beneficial to
the kingdom  than honourable to the king. They soon had reason, however, to adopt very different sentiments; and from that period we may date
a total alteration in the political constitution of Scotland.
The feudal aristocracy, which had been subverted in most nations of
Europe by the policy of their princes, or had been undermined by the
progress of commerce, still subsisted with full force in Scotland. Many
causes had contributed gradually to augment the power of the Scottish
nobles; and even the reformation which, in every other country where it
prevailed, added to the authority of the monarch, had increased their
wealth and influence. A king possessed of a small revenue, with a prerogative extremely limited, and unsupported by a standing army, could
not exercise much authority over such potent subjects. He was obliged
to govern by expedients; and the laws derived their force not from his
power to execute them, but from the voluntary submission of the nobles.
But though this produced a species of government extremely feeble and
irregular; though Scotland, under the name, and with all the outward
ensigns of a monarchy, was really subject to an aristocracy, the people
were not altogether unhappy; and even in this wild form of a constitution,
there were principles which tended to their security and advantage. The
king, checked and overawed by the nobles, durst venture upon no act of
arbitrary power. The nobles, jealous of the king, whose claims and pretensions were many, though his power was small, were afraid of irritating
their dependants by unreasonable exactions, and tempered the rigour of
aristocratical tyranny with a mildness and equality to which it is naturally
a stranger. As long as the military genius of the feudal government




318                   T H E  H ISTO R Y              [BooI VIII.
remained in vigour, the vassals both of the crown and of the barons were
generally not only free from oppression, but were courted by their superiors, whose power and importance were founded on their attachment
and love.
But by his accession to the throne of England, James acquired such an
immense accession of wealth, of power, and of splendour, that the nobles,
astonished and intimidated, thought it vain to struggle for privileges which
they were now unable to defend. Nor was it from fear alone that they
submitted to the yoke: James, partial to his countrymen, and willing that
they should partake in his good fortune, loaded them with riches and
honours; and the hope of his favour concurred with the dread of his power,
in taming their fierce and independent spirits. The will of the prince
became the supreme law in Scotland; and the nobles strove, with emulation, who should most implicitly obey commands which they had formerly
been accustomed to contemn. Satisfied with having subjected the nobles
to the crown, the king left them in fiill possession of their ancientjurisdic
tion over their own vassals. The extensive rights vested in a feudal chief
became in their hands dreadful instruments of oppression; and the military
ideas, on which these rights were founded, being gradually lost or disregarded, nothing remained to correct or to mitigate the rigour with which
they were exercised. The nobles, exhausting their fortunes by the expense
of frequent attendance upon the English court, and by attempts to imitate
the manners and luxury of their more wealthy neighbours, multiplied
exactions upon the'people, who durst hardly utter complaints which they
knew would never reach the ear of the sovereign, nor move him to grant
them any redress. From the union of the crowns to the revolution in 1688,
Scotland was placed in a political situation of all others the most singular
and the most unhappy; subjected at once to the absolute will of a monarch,
and to the oppressive jurisdiction of an aristocracy, it suffered all the
miseries peculiar to both these forms of government. Its kings were despotic; its nobles were slaves and tyrants; and the people groaned under
the rigorous domination of both.
During this period, the nobles, it is true, made one effort to shake off the
yoke, and to regain their ancient independency. After the death of James
the Scottish nation was no longer viewed by our monarchs with any partial
affection. Charles I., educated among the English, discovered no peculiar
attachment to the kingdom of which he was a native. The nobles, perceiving the sceptre. to be now in hands less friendly, and swayed by a
prince with whom they had little connexion, and over whose councils they
had little influence, no longer submitted with the same implicit obedience.
Provoked by some encroachments of the king on their order, and apprehensive of others, the remains of their ancient spirit began to appear. They
complained and remonstrated. The people, being, at the same time,
violently disgusted at the innovations in religion, the nobles secretly
heightened this disgust; and their artifices, together with the ill conduct of
the court, raised such a spirit, that the whole nation took arms against their
sovereign with a union and animosity of which there had formerly been no
example. Charles brought against them the forces of England, and notwithstanding their own union, and the zeal of the people, the nobles must
have sunk in the struggle. But the disaffection which was growing anong
his English subjects prevented the king from acting with vigour. A civil
war broke out in both kingdoms; and after many battles and revolutions,
which are well known, the Scottish nobles, who first began the war, were
involved in the same ruin with the throne. At the restoration, Charles II.
regained full possession of the royal prerogative in Scotland; and the
nobles, whose estates were wasted, or their spirit broken by the calamities
to which they had been exposed, were less able and less willing than ever
to resist the power of the crown. During his reign, and that of James




OF  SCOTLAND.                           319
VII., the dictates of the monarch were received in Scotland with most
abject submission. The poverty to which many of the nobles were
reduced rendered them meaner slaves and more intolerable tyrants than
ever. The people, always neglected, were now odious, and loaded with
every injury on account of their attachment to religious and political principles extremely repugnant to those adopted by their princes.
The revolution introduced other maxims into the government of Scotland. To increase the authority of the prince, or to secure the privileges
of the nobles, had hitherto been almost the sole object of our laws. The
rights of the people were hardly ever mentioned, were disregarded, or
unknown. Attention began, henceforward, to be paid to the welfare of
the people. By the claimn of right, their liberties were secured; and the
number of their representatives being increased, they gradually acquired
new weight and consideration in parliament. As they came to enjoy
more security and greater power, their minds began to open, and to form
more extensive plans of commerce, of industry, and of police. But the
aristocratical spirit, which still predominated, together with many other
accidents, retarded the improvement and happiness of the nation.
Another great event completed what the revolution had begun. The
political power of the nobles, already broken by the union of the two
crowns, was almost annihilated by the union of the two kingdoms. Instead
*of making a part, as formerly, of the supreme assembly of the nation;
instead of bearing the most considerable sway there, the peers of Scotland are admitted into the British parliament by their representatives only,
and form but an inconsiderable part of one of those bodies in which the
legislative authority is vested. They themselves are excluded absolutely
from the House of Commons, and even their eldest sons are not permitted
to represent their countrymen in that august assembly. Nor have their
feudal privileges remained to compensate for this extinction of their political authority. As commerce advanced in its progress, and government
attained nearer to perfection, these were insensibly circumscribed, and at
last, by laws no less salutary to the public than fatal to the nobles, they
have been almost totally abolished. As the nobles were deprived of power,
the people acquired liberty. Exempted from burdens to which they were
formerly subject, screened from oppression to which they had been long
exposed, and adopted into a constitution whose genius and laws were more
liberal than their own, they have extended their commerce, refined their
manners, made improvements in the elegancies of life, and cultivated the
arts and sciences.
This survey of the political state of Scotland, in which events and their
causes have been mentioned rather than developed, enables us to poiqt out
three eras, from each of which we may date some great alteration in one
or other of the three different members of which the supreme legislative
assembly in our constitution is composed. At their accession to the throne
of England, the kings of Scotland, once the most limited, became in an
instant the most absolute princes in Europe, and exercised a despotic
authority, which their parliaments were unable to control, or their nobles
to resist. At the union of the two kingdoms, the feudal aristocracy, which
had subsisted so many ages, and with power so exorbitant, was overturned,
and the Scottish nobles, having surrendered rights and pre-eminences peculiar to their order, reduced themselves to a condition which is no longer
the terror and envy of other subjects. Since the union, the commons,
anciently neglected by their kings, and seldom courted by the nobles,
have emerged into dignity; and, being admitted to a participation of all
the privileges which the English had purchased at the expense of so much
blood, must now be deemed a body not less considerable in the one kingdom than they have long been in the other.
The church felt the effects of the absolute power which the king




320                   THE  HISTORY                   [BooK VIII.
acquired by his accession; and its revolutions, too, are worthy of notice.
James, during the latter years of his administration in Scotland, had revived
the name and office of bishops. But they possessed no ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or pre-eminence; their revenues were inconsiderable, and they
were scarcely distinguished by any thing but by their seat in parliament,
and by being the object of the clergy's jealousy and the people's hatred.
The king, delighted with the splendour and authority which the English
bishops enjoyed, and eager to effect a union in the ecclesiastical policy,
which he had in vain attempted in the civil government of the two kingdoms, resolved to bring both churches to an exact conformity with each
other. Three Scotsmen were consecrated bishops at London. From them
their brethren were commanded to receive orders. Ceremonies unknown
in Scotland were imposed; and though the clergy, less obsequious than the
nobles, boldly opposed these innovations, James, long practised and well
skilled in the arts of managing thetn, obtained at length their compliance.
But Charles I., a superstitious prince, unacquainted with the genius of the
Scots, imprudent and precipitant in all the measures he pursued in that
kingdom, pressing too eagerly the reception of the English liturgy, aind
indiscreetly attempting a resumption of church lands, kindled the flames
of civil war; and the people being left at liberty to indulge their own
wishes, the episcopal church was overturned, and the presbyterian government and discipline were re-established with new vicour. Together with
monarchy, episcopacy was restored in Scotland. A?form of government so
odious to the people required force to uphold it; and though not only the
whole rigour of authority, but all the barbarity of persecution, were employed in its support, the aversion of the nation was insurmountable, and
it subsisted with difficulty. At the revolution, the inclinations of the people
were thought worthy the attention of the legislature, the presbyterian
government was again established, and being ratified by the union, is still
maintained in the kingdom.
Nor did the influence of the accession extend to the civil and ecclesiastical constitutions alone; the genius of the nation, its taste and spirit, things
of a nature still more delicate, were sensibly affected by that event. When
learning revived in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, all the modern
languages were in a state extremely barbarous, devoid of elegance, of
vigour, and even of perspicuity. No author thought of writing in language
so ill adapted to express and embellish his sentiments, or of erecting a
work for immortality with such rude and perishable materials. As the
spirit which prevailed at that time did not owe its rise to any original
effort of the human mind, but was excited chiefly by admiration of the
ancients, which began then to be studied with attention in every part of
Europe, their compositions were deemed not only the standards of taste
and of sentiment, but of style; and even the languages in which they
wrote were thought to be peculiar, and almost consecrated to learning and
the muses. Not only the manner of the ancients was imitated, but their
language was adopted: and extravagant as the attempt may appear to
write in a dead tongue, in which men were not accustomed to think, and
which they could not speak or even pronounce, the success of it was
astonishing. As they formed their style upon the purest models; as they
ere uninfected with those barbarisms which the inaccuracy of familiar
conversation, the affectation of courts, intercourse with strangers, and a
thousand other causes, introduce into living languages; many moderns
have attained to a degree of elegance in their Latin compositions which
the Rorans themselves scarce possessed beyond the limits of the Augustan
age. While this was almost the only species of composition, and all
authors, by using one common language, could be brought to a nearer
comparison; the Scottish writers were not inferior to those of any other
nation. The happy genius of Buchanan, equaiy formed to excel in prose




OF SCOTLAND.                                  321
and in verse, more various, more original, and more elegant than that of
almost any other modern who writes in Latin, reflects, with regard to this
particular, the greatest lustre on his country.
But the labour attending the study of a dead tongue was irksome; the
unequal return for their industry which authors met with, who could be
read and admired only within the narrow circle of the learned, was mortifying; and men, instead of wasting half their lives in learning the language of the Romans, began to refine and to polish their own.  The
modern tongues were found to be susceptible of beauties and graces,
which, if not equal to those of the ancient ones, were at least more attainable. The Italians having first set the example, Latin was no longer used
in works of taste; it was confined to books of science; and the politer
nations have banished it even from these. The Scots, we may presume,
would have had no cause to regret this change in the public taste, and
would still have been able to maintain some equality with other nations, in
their pursuit of literary honour. The English and Scottish languages,
derived from the same sources, were at the end of the sixteenth century in
a state nearly similar, differing from one another somewhat in orthography,,
though not only the words but the idioms were much the same. The
letters of several Scottish statesmen of that age are not inferior in elegance
or in purity to those -of the English ministers with whom they corresponded.
James himself was master of a style far from  contemptible; and by his
example and encouragement the Scottish language might have kept pace
with the English in refinement.  Scotland mtight have had a series of
authors in its own, as well as in the Latin language to boast of; and the
improvements in taste, in the arts, and in the sciences, which spread over
the other polished nations of Europe, would not have been unknown there;
But, at the very time when other nations were beginning to drop the use
of Latin in works of taste, and to make trial of the strength and compass
of their own languages, Scotland ceased to be a kingdom.  The transports
of joy, which the accession at first occasioned, were soon over: and the
Scots, being at once deprived of all the objects that refine or animate a
people; of the presence of their prince, of the concourse of nobles, of the
splendour and elegance of a court, a universal dejection of spirit seems to
have seized the nation. The court being withdrawn, no domestic standard
of propriety and correctness of speech remained; the few compositions
that Scotland produced were tried by the English standard, and every word
or phrase that varied in the least from that was condemned as barbarous;
whereas, if the two nations had continued distinct, each might have retain.
ed idioms and forms of speech peculiar to itself; and these rendered
fashionable by the example of a court, and supported by the authority of
writers of reputation, might have been viewed in the same light with the
varieties occasioned by the different dialects in the Greek tongue; they
even might have been considered as beauties; and in many cases might
have been used promiscuously by the authors of both nations. But, by the
accession, the English naturally became the sole judges and lawgivers in
language, and rejected as solecisms every form of speech to which their
ear was not accustomed. Nor did the Scots, while the intercourse between
the two nations was inconsiderable," and ancient prejudices were still so
violeDt as to prevpnt imitation, possess the means of refining their own
* A remarkable proof of the little intercourse between the English and Scots before the union of
the crowns, is to be found in two curious papers, one published by Haynes, the other by Strype. In
the year 1567, Elizabeth commanded the bishop of Lond9n to take a survey of all the strangers
witnin the cities of London and Westminster. By this report, which is very minute, it appears that
the whole number of Scots at that time was 58. Haynes, 455. A survey of the same kind was
made by sir Thomas Row, lord Mayor, A. D. 1568. The number of Scots had then increased to 88.
Strype, iv. Supplement. No. 1. On the accession of James, a considerable number of Scots, especially of the higher rank, resorted to England; but it was not till the union that the intercourse
between the two kingdoms became great.
VOL. III.-41




322    -               TTHE  HISTORY                  [Boox VIII
tongue according to the purity of the English standard. On the contrary,
new corruptions flowed into it from every different source. The clergy of
Scotland, in that age, were more eminent for piety than for learning; and
though there did not arise many authors among them, yet being in possession of the privilege of discoursing publicly to the people, and their sermons
being too long, and perhaps too frequent, such hasty productions could not
be elegant, and many slovenly and incorrect modes of expression may be
traced back to the original. The pleadings of lawyers were equally loose
and inaccurate; and that profession having furnished more authors, and
the matters of which they treat mingling daily in common discourse and
business, many of those vicious forms of speech, which they denominated
Scotticism7s, have been introduced by them into the language. Nor did
either the language or public taste receive any improvement in parliament,
where a more liberal and more correct eloquence might have been expected. All business was transacted there by the lords of articles; and they
were so servilely devoted to the court, that few debates arose, and, prior
to the revolution, none were conducted with the spirit and vigour natural to
a popular assembly.
Thus, during the whole seventeenth century, the English were gradually
refining their language and their taste; in Scotland the former was much'debased, and the latter almost entirely lost. In the beginning of that peri-,od, both nations were emerging out of barbarity; but the distance between
cthem, which was then inconsiderable, became before the end of it immense.
Even after science had once dawned upon them, the Scots seemed to be,sinking back into ignorance and obscurity; and active and intelligent as,they naturally are, they continued, while other nations were eager in the
pursuit of fame and knowledge, in a state of languor.  This, however,
mnust be imputed to the unhappiness of their political situation, not to any
defect of' genius; for no sooner was the one removed in any degree than
the other began to display itself. The act abolishing the power of the
lords of articles,/and other salutary laws passed at the revolution, having
introduced freedom of debate into the Scottish parliament, eloquence, with
all the arts that accompany or perfect it, became immediate objects of
attention; and the example of Fletcher of Salton alone is sufficient to
show that the Scots were still capable of generous sentiments, and, notwithstanding some peculiar idioms, were able to express themselves with energy
and with elegance.
At length the union having incorporated the two nations, and rendered
them one people, the distinctions which had subsisted for many ages gradually wear away; peculiarities disappear; the same manners prevail in
both parts of the island; the same authors are read and admired; the
same entertainments are frequented by the elegant and polite; and the
same standard of taste and of purity in language is established. The
Scots, after being placed, during a whole century, in a situation no less fatal
to the liberty than to the taste and genius of the nation, were at once put in
possession of privileges more valuable than those which their ancestors had
tormerly enjoyed; and every obstruction that had retarded their pursuit,or prevented their acquisition of literary fame, was totally removed




CRITICAL DISSERTATION
CONCERNING
THE MURDER OF KING HENRY, AND THE GENUINENESS OF
THE QUEEN'S LETTERS TO-BOTHWELL.
IT 18 not my intention to engage in all the controversies to which the
murder of king Henry, or the letters from queen Mary to Bothwell, have
given rise; far less to appear as an adversary to any particular author who
hath treated of them. To repeat and to expose all the ill founded assertions, with regard to these points, which have flowed from inattention, from
prejudice, from partiality, from malevolence, and from dishonesty, would
be no less irksome to myself than unacceptable to most of my readers. All
I propose is, to assist others in forming some judgment concerning the facts
in dispute, by stating the proofs produced on each side, with as much
brevity as the case will admit, and with the same attention and impartiality
which I have endeavoured to exercise in examining other controverted
points in the Scottish history.
In order to account for the king's murder, two different systems have
been formed. The one supposes Bothwell to have contrived and executed
this crime; the other imputes it to the earls of Murray, Morton, and their
party.
The decision of many controverted facts in history is a matter rather of
curiosity than of use. They stand detached; and whatever we determine
with regard to them, the fabric of the story remains untouched. But the
fact under dispute in this place is a fundamental and essential one, and
according to the opinion which an historian adopts with regard to it, he
must vary and dispose the whole of his subsequent narration. An historical system may be tried in two different ways; whether it be consistent
with probability, and whether it be supported by evidence.
Those who charge the king's murder upon Bothwell argue in the following manner; and though their reasonings have been mentioned already in
different parts of the narrative, it is necessary to repeat them here. Mary's
love for Darnly, say they, was a sudden and youthful passion. The beauty
of his person, set off by some external frivolous accomplishments, was his
chief merit, and gained her affections. His capricious temper soon raised
in the queen a disgust, which broke out on different occasions. His engaging
in the conspiracy against Rizio converted this disgust into an antipathy,
which she was at no pains to conceal. This breach was, perhaps, in its
own nature irreparable; the king certainly wanted that art and condescension which alone could have repaired it. It widened every day, and a
deep and settled hatred effaced all remains of affection. Bothwell observed
this, and was prompted by ambition, and perhaps by love, to found upon
it a scheme which proved fatal both to the queen and to himself. He had
served Mary at different times with fidelity and success. He insinuated
himself into her favour, by address and by flattery. By degrees he gained
her heart. In order to gratify his love, or at least his ambition, it was
necessary to get rid of the king. Mary had rejected the proposal whicn,
it is said, had been made to her for obtaining a divorce. The king was
equally hated by the partisans of the house of Hamilton, a considerable
party in the kingdom; by Murray, one of the most powerful and popular




s324               DISSERTATION ON
persons in his country; by Morton and his associates, whom he had deceived,
and whom Bothwell had bound to his interest by a recent favour. Among
the people Darnly was fallen under extreme contempt. Bothwell might
expect, for all these reasons, that the murder of the king would pass without any inquiry, and might trust to Mary's love, and to his own address
and good fortune, for the accomplishment of the rest of his wishes. What
Bothwell expected really came to pass. Mary, if not privy herself to the
design, connived at an action which rid her of a man whom she had such
good reason to detest. A few months after the murder of her husband,
she married the person who was both suspected and accused of having
perpetrated that odious crime.
Those who charge the guilt upon Murray and his party reason in this
manner: Murray, they say, was a man of boundless ambition. Notwithstanding the illegitimacy of his birth, he had early formed a design of
usurping the crown.  On the queen's return into Scotland, he insinuated
himself into her favour, and engrossed the whole power into his own hands.
He set himself against every proposal of marriage which was made to her,
lest his own chance of succeeding to the crown should be destroyed. He
hated Darnly, and was no less hated by him. In order to be revenged on
him, he entered into a sudden friendship with Bothwell, his ancient and
mortal enemy. He encouraged him to assassinate Henry, by giving him
hopes of marrying the queen. All this was done with a design to throw
upon the queen herself the imputation of being accessary to the murder,
and, under that pretext, to destroy Bothwell, to depose and imprison her,
and to seize the sceptre which he had wrested out of her hands.
The former of these systems has an air of probability, is consistent
with itself, and solves appearances. In the latter, some assertions are false,
some links are wanting in the chain, and effects appear of which no sufficient cause is produced. Murray, on the queen's return -into Scotland,
served her with great fidelity, and by his prudent administration rendered
her so popular, and so powerful, as enabled her with ease to quash a formidable insurrection raised by the party of which he was the leader in the
year 1565. What motive could induce Murray to murder a prince without capacity, without followers, without influence over the nobles, whom
the queen, by her neglect, had reduced to the lowest state of contempt,
and who, after a long disgrace, had regained (according to the most favourable supposition) the precarious possession of her favour only a few days
nefore his death? It is difficult to conceive what Murray had to fear from
the king's life. It is still a more difficult matter to guess what he could
gain by his death. If we suppose that the queen had no previous attachment to Bothwell, nothing can appear more chimerical than a scheme to
persuade her to marry a man whose wife was still alive, and who was not
only suspected, but accused of murdering her former husband. But that
such a scheme should really succeed is still more extraordinary. If Murray had instigated Bothwell to commit the crime, or had himself been accessary to the commission of it, what hopes were there that Bothwell
would silently bear from a fellow-criminal all the prosecutions which he
suffered, without ever retorting upon him the accusation, or revealing the
whole scene of iniquity? An ancient and deadly feud had subsisted between
Murray and Bothwell; the queen with difficulty had brought them  to
some terms of agreement. But is it probable that Murray would choose
an enemy, to whom he had been so lately reconciled, for his confidant in
the commission of such an atrocious crime? Or, on the other hand, would
it ever enter into the imagination of a wise man, first to raise his rival to
supreme power, in hopes that afterwards he might render him odious, by
accusing him of crimes which he had not committed, and, in consequence
of this unjust charge, should be enabled -to deprive him of that power?
The most adventurous politician never hazarded such a dangerous exce



K. HENRY'S MURDER.                           32
fIment: —the most credulous folly never trusted such  an uncertain
chance.
How strong soever these general reasonings may appear to be, it is not
upon them alone that we must decide, but according to the particular evidence that is produced. This we now proceed to examline.
That Bothwell was guilty of the king's murder, appears, 1. From the
concurring testimony of all the contemporary historians. 2. From the confession of those persons who suffered for assisting at the commission of
th'e crime, and who entered into a minute detail of all its circumstances.
Anders. ii. 165. 3. From the acknowledgment of Mary's own commissioners, who allow Bothwell to have been one of those who were guilty of
this crime. Good. ii. 213. 4. From the express testimony of Lesly, bishop
of Ross, to the same effect with the former. Def. of Q. Mary's Hon. And.
i. 76. Id. iii. p. 31. 5. Morton, at his death, declared that Bothwell had
solicited him at-different times, to concur in the conspiracy formed against
the life of the king; and that he was informed by Archibald Douglas, one
of the conspirators, that Bothwell was present at the murder. Crawf.
Mem. App. 4. The letter from Douglas to the queen, which I have published in the Appendix, No. XLVII., confirms Morton's testimony. 6.
Lord Herries promises, in his own name, and in the name of the nobles
who adhered to the queen, that they would concur in punishing Bothwell
as the murderer of the king Append. No. XXIV.
The most direct charge ever brought against Murray is in these words
of bishop Lesly: " Is it unknown," addressing himself to the earl of Murray, "what the lord Herries said to your. face openly, even at your own
table, a few days after the murder was committed? )id he not charge you'vith the foreknowledge of the same murder? Did he not, nulla circuitione
usus, flatly and plainly burden you, that riding in Fife, and coming with
one of your most assured and trusty servants the same day whereon you
departed from Edinburgh, you said to him, among other talk, "This night,
ere morning, Lord Darnly shall lose his life?" Defence of Q. Mary, Anders. ii. 75. But the assertion of a man so heated with faction as Lesly,
unless it were supported by proper evidence, is of little weight. The servant, to whom Murray is said to have spoken these words, is not named;
nor the manner in which this secret conversation was brought to light mentioned. Lord Herries was one of the most zealous advocates for Mary,
and it is remarkable that, in all his negotiation at the court of England, he
never once repeated this accusation of Murray. In answering the challenge
given him by lord Lindsay, Herries had a fair opportunity of mentioning
Murray's knowledge of the murder; but, though he openly accuses of that
crime some of those who adhered to Murray, he industriously avoids any
insinuation against Murray himself. Keith, Pref. ii. Mary herself, in conversation with sir Francis Knolles, accused Morton and Maitland of being
privy to the murder, but does not mention Murray. And. iv. 55. When
the bishop of Ross and lord Herries appeared before the English council,
January 11, 1569, they declared themselves ready, in obedience to the
queen's command, to accuse Murray and his associates of being accessary
to the murder; but " they being also required, whether they, or any of
them, as of themselves, would accuse the said earl in special, or any of his
adherents, or thought them guilty thereof," they answered, " that they took
God to witness that none of them did ever know any thing of the conspi..
racy of that murder, or were in council and foreknowledge thereof; neither who were devisors, inventors, and executors, of the same, till it was
publicly discovered long thereafter, by some of the assassins, who suffered
death on that account." Good. ii. 308. These words are taken out of a
register kept by Ross and Herries themselves, and seem to be a direct confutation of the bishop's assertion.
The earls of Huntly and Argyll, in their Protestation touching the mu-r




326                3)DISSERTATION ON
der of the king of Scots, after mentioning the conference at Craigmillar
concerning a divorce, add, "So after these premises, the murder of the
king following, we Judge in our consciences, and hold for certain and truth,
that the earl of Murray and secretary Lethington were authors, inventors,
counsellors, and causers of the same murder, in what manner, or by whatsoever persons the same was executed." And. iv. 188. But, 1. This is
nothing more than the private opinion or personal affirmation of these two
noblemen. 2. The conclusion which they make has no connexion with the
premises on which they found it. Because Murray proposed to obtain for
the queen a divorce from her husband with her own consent, it does not
follow that therefore he committed the murder without her knowledge.
3. Huntly and Argyll were at that time the leaders of that party opposite
to Murray, and animated with all the rage of faction. 4. Both of them
were Murray's personal enemies. Huntly, on account of the treatment
which his family and clan had received from that nobleman. Argyll was
desirous of being divorced from his wife, with whom he lived on no good
terms, Knox, 328, and by whom he had no children. Crawf. Peer. 19.
She was Murray's sister, and by his interest Argyll's design was obstructed.
Keith, 551. These circumstances would go far towards invalidating a
positive testimony; they more than counterbalance an indeterminate sus
picion. 5. It is altogether uncertain whether Huntly and Argyll ever subscribed this protestation. A copy of such a protestation as the queen
thought would be of advantage to her cause was transmitted to them by
her. Anders. iv. b. ii. 186. The protestation itself, published by Anderson, is taken from an unsubscribed copy with blanks for the date and place
of subscribing. On the back of this copy, there is pasted, indeed, a paper,
which Cecil has marked, " Answer of the earl of Murray to a writing of
the earls of Huntly and Argyll." Anders. 194, 195. But it can hardly be
deemed a reply to the abovementioned protestation. Murray's answer
bears date at London, Jan. 19, 1568. The queen's letter, in which she
enclosed the copy of th6 protestation, bears date at Bowton, Jan. 5, 1568.
Now it is scarce to be supposed that the copy could be sent into Scotland,
be subscribed by the two earls, and be seen and answered by Murray
within so short a time. Murray's reply seems intended only to prevent the
impression which the vague and uncertain accusations of his enemies might
make in his absence. Cecil had got the original of the quben's letter into
his custody. Anders. iv. 185. This naturally leads us to conjecture that
the letter itself, together with the enclosed protestation, were intercepted
before they came to the hands of Huntly and Argyll. Nor is this mere
conjecture alone. The letter to Huntly, in which the protestation was
enclosed, is to be found, Cott. Lib. Cal. C. 1. fol. 280, and is an original
subscribed by Mary, though not written by her own hand, because she
seldom chose to write in the English language. The protestation is in the
same volume, fol. 282, and is manifestly written by the same person who
wrote the queen's letter. This seems to render it highly probable that
both were intercepted. So that much has been founded on a paper not
subscribed by the two earls, and probably never seen by them. Besides,
this method which the queen took of sending a copy to the two earls, of
what was proper for them to. declare with regard to a conference held in
their own presence, appears somewhat suspicious. It would have been
more natural, and not so liable to any misinterpretation, to have desired
them to write the most exact account, which they could recollect, of wbha:
had passed at the conversation at Craigmillar. 6. But even if all this reasoning should be set aside, and the authenticity of the protestation should
be admitted in its fullest extent, it may still be a question, what degree of
credit should be given to the assertion of the two earls, who were not only
present at the first parliament held by Murray as regent, in December,
1567, in which the one carried the sceptre, and the other the sword of state




K. HENRY'S MURDER.                           327
Spotsw. 241, but were both members of the committee of lords of articles, and in that capacity assisted in framing all the acts by which the
queen was deprived of the crown, and her son seated on the throne; and
in particular concurred in the act by which it was declared, that whatever
had befallen the queen "was in her awin default, in sa far as, be divers
hir privie letters written halelie with hir awin hand, and send by hir to
James sometyme earle of Bothwell, cheif executour of the said horribill
murthour, as weill befoir the committing thairof as thairaftir: And be hir
ungodlie ard' dishonourabill proceeding to ane pretendit marriage with him,
suddainlie and unprovifitlie thaireftir, it is maist certane that sche was previe, airt and pairt, of the actual devise and deid of the foirnamit murthour
of the king her lauchful husband, and thairfoir justlie desirvis quhatsum
ever hes bene done to hir in ony tyme bygaine, or that sal be usit towards
hir, for the said cause." Anders. ii. 221.
The queen's commissioners at the conferences in England accused Murray and his associates of having murdered the king. Good. ii. 281. But
this charge is to be considered as a recrimination extorted by the accusation
preferred against the queen, and contains nothing more than loose and
general affirmations, without descending to such particular circumstances as
either ascertain their truth, or discover their falsehood. The same accusation is repeated by the nobles assembled at Dumbarton, Sept. 1568.
Good. ii. 359. And the same observation may be made concerning it.
All the queen's advocates have endeavoured to account for Murray's
murdering of the king, by supposing that it was done on purpose that he
might have the pretence of disturbing the queen's administration, and
thereby rendering ineffectual her general revocation of crown lands, which
would have deprived him and his associates of the best ~part of their
estates. Lesly, Def. of Mary's Hon. p. 73. Anders. iv. part ii. 130.
But whoever considers the limited powers of a Scottish monarch, will
see that such a revocation could not be very formidable to the nobles.
Every king of Scotland began his reign with such a revocation; and as
often as it was renewed, the power of the nobles rendered it ineffectual.
The best vindication of Murray and his party from this accusation is that
which they presented to the queen of England, and which hath never
hitherto been published.
An.zoers to the objections and alledgance of the queen, alledging the earl of
JMurray, lord regent, the earl of JMlorton, Jl/larr, Glencairn, Huzrne, Ruthven, &(c. to have been moved to armour,for that they abhorred and might
not abide her revocation of the alienation made of her property.
It is answered, that is, alledged but [i. e. without] all appearance, that
it appears God has bereft the alledgance of all wit and good remembrance,
for thir reasons following:
Imprimis, as to my lord regent, he never had occasion to grudge thereat,
in respect the queen made him privy to the same, and took resolution
with him for the execution thereof; letting his lordship know she would
assuredly in the samine except all things she had given to him, and ratefy
them in the next parliament as she did indeed; and for that cause wished
my lord to leave behind him master John Wood, to attend upon the same,
to whom she declared, that als well in that as in all other her grants it
should be provided, yea of free will did promise and offer before ever he
demanded, as it came to pass without any let or impediment; for all was
ratified by her command, and hand write, at the parliament, but [i. e.
without] any difficulty.
Item as to my lord of Morton, he could not grudge thereat, quha never
had of her property worth twenty dollars, that ever I knew of.
Item the same, may I say of my lord Glencairn.




328                 DISSERTATION ON
Item the same, I may say of my lord Hume
Item the same, I may say of my lord Ruthven.
Item the same, I may say of my lord Lindsay.
Only my lord of Marr, had ane little thing of the property quilk alsua
was gladly and liberally confirmed to him, in the said parliament preceding
a yea; was never ane had any cause of miscontent of that revocation, far
ess to have put their lives and heritage to so open and manifest ane danger
as they did for sic ane frivole cause.
Gyf ever any did make evill countenance, and show any miscontentment
of the said revocation, it was my lord of Argyll in special, quha spak
largely in the time of parliament thairanents to the queen herself, and did
complain of the manifest corruption of ane act of parliament past upon
her majesty's return, and sa did lett any revocation at that time; but the
armour for revenge of the king's deid was not till twa months after, at
quhat time there was no occasion given thereof, nor ever a man had mind
thereof.
Having thus examined the evidence which has been produced against
the; earls of Muitay and Bothwell; we shall next proceed to inquire
whether the queen herself was accessary to the murder of her husband.
No sooner was the violent death of Darnly known, than strong suspicion
arose, among some of her subjects, that Mary had given her consent to
the commission of that crime. Anders. ii. 156. We are informed by
her own ambassador in France, the archbishop of Glasgow, that the sentiments of foreigners, on this head, were no less unfavourable to her.
Keith, Pref. ix. Many of her nobles loudly accused her of that crime,
and a great part of the nation, by supporting them, seem to have allowed
the accusation to be well founded.
Some crimes, however, are of such a nature that they hardly admit of
a positive or direct proof. Deeds of darkness can seldom be brought perfectly to light. Where persons are accused not of being principals, but
only of being accessaries in the commission of a crime; not of having
perpetrated it themselves, but only of giving consent to the commission of it
by others; the proof becomes still more difficult: and unless when some
accomplice betrays the secret, a proof by circumstances, or presumptive
evidence is all that can be attained. Even in judicial trials, such evidence
is sometimes held to be sufficient for condemning criminals. The degree
of conviction which such evidence carries along with it is often not inferior
to that which arises from positive testimony; and a concurring series of
circumstances satisfies the understanding no less than the express declaration of witnesses.
Evidence of both these kinds has been produced against Mary. We
shall first consider that which is founded upon circumstances alone.
Some of these suspicious circumstances preceded the king's death;
others were subsequent to it. With regard to the former we may observe
that the queen's violent love of Darnly was soon converted into an aversion
to him no less violent; and that his own ill conduct and excesses of ev ery
kind were such that, if they did not justify, at least they account for this
sudden change of her disposition towards him. The rise and progress of
this domestic rupture I have traced with great care in the History, and to
the proofs of it which may be found in papers published by other authors,
I have added those contained in App. No. XVI. and XVII. Le Croc, the
French ambassador, who was an eyewitness of what he describes, not only
represents her aversion to Darnly to be extreme, but declares that there
could be no hopes of a reconcilement between them [Dec. 12, 1566]. " The
queen is in the hands of physicians, and I do assure you is not at all well:
and do believe the principal part of her disease to consist in deep grief and
sorrow; nor does it seem possible to make her forget the same. Still she




K. I-ENII R Y'S MU RDER.'329
repeats these words, I could wish to be dead. You know very well that
the injury she has received is exceeding great, and her majesty will never
forget it. To speak my mind freely to you, I do not expect, upon several
accounts, any good understanding between them [i.,e. the king and queen],
unless God effectually put to his hand. [Dec. 23.] His bad deportment
is incurable; nor can there ever be any good expected from him, for
several reasons, which I might tell you was  present with you. I cannot
pretend to foretell how all may turn; but I will say, that matters cannot
subsist long as they are, without being accompanied with sundry bad
consequences."  Keith. Pref. vii. Had Henry died a natural death at this
juncture, it must have been considered as a very fortunate event to the
queen, and as a seasonable deliverance from a husband who had become
altogether odious to her. Now as Henry was murdered a few weeks
afterwards, and as nothing had happened to render the queen's aversion
to him less violent, the opinion of those who consider Mary as the author'of an event which was manifestly so agreeable to her, will appear perhaps
to some of our readers to be neither unnatural nor over refined. If we add
to this, what has been observed in the History, that in proportion to the
increase of Mary's hatred of her husband, Bothwell seems to have made
progress in her favour, and that he became the object not only of her confidence but her attachment, that opinion acquires new strength. It is easy
to observe many advantages which might redound to Mary as well as to
Bothwell from the king's death; but excepting them, no person, and no
party in the kingdom, could derive the least benefit from that event.
Bothwell, accordingly, murdered the king, and it was in that age thought
no unwarranted imputation on Mary's character, to suppose that she had
consented to the deed.
The steps which the queen took after her husband's death add strength
to that supposition. 1. 1Melvil, who was in Edinburgh at the time of the
king's death, asserts that " every body suspected the earl of Bothwell; and
those who durst speak freely to others., said plainly that it was he." p. 155.'
2. Mary having issued a proclamation, on the 12th of February, offering a
reward to any person who should discover those who had murdered her
husband; And. i. 36; a paper in consequence of this was affixed to the
gates of the tolbooth, February 16, in which Bothwell was named as the
chief person guilty of that crime, and the queen herself was accused of
having given her consent to it. And. ii. 156. 3. Soon after, February 20,
the earl of Lennox, the king's father, wrote to Mary, conjuring her, by
every motive, to prosecute the murderers with the utmost rigour. He
plainly declared his own suspicions of Bothwell,.and pointed out a method
of proceeding against him, and for discovering the authors of that crime,
no less obvious than equitable. He advised her to seize, and to commit
to sure custody, Bothwell himself, and such as were already named as
his accomplices; to call an assembly of the nobles; to issue a proclamation, inviting Bothwell's accusers to appear; and if, on that encouragement, no person appeared to accuse them, to hold them as innocent, and
to dismiss them without further trial. And. i. 40. 4. Archbishop Beatoun,
her ambassador in France, in a letter to Mary, March 9th, employs arguments of the utmost weight to persuade her to prosecute the murderers
with the greatest severity. " I can conclude nathing (says he) by quhat zour
majesty writes to me zourself, that sen it has plesit God to conserve zow
to make a rigorous vengeance thereof, that rather than it be not acti;ally
taine, it appears to me better in this warld that ze had lost life and all.
I ask your majestie pardon, that I writ sa far, for I can heir nathing to
zour prejudise, but I man [must] constraindly writ the samin, that all may
come to zour knawlege: for the better remede may be put therto. Heir
it is needfull that ze forth shaw now rather than ever of before, the greite
vertue, magnanimitie, and constance that God has grantit zow, be quhais
VOL. III.-42




330                      ]DISSERTATION ON
grace, I hope ze sail overcome this most heavy envie an, displesir of the
committing therof, and conserve that reputation in all godliness, ze have
conquist of lang, quhich can appear na wayis mair clearie, than that zou
do sick [such] justice that the haill [whole] world may declare zour innocence, and give testimony for ever of thair treason that has committed
(but [without] fear of God or man) so cruel and ungodlie a murther,
quhairof there is sa meikle [much] ill spoken, that I am constrainit to ask
zow  mercy, that neither can I or will I make the rehearsal thereof, which
is ow-r [too] odious.  But alas! madame, all over Europe this day, there
is na purpose in head sa frequent as of zour majestie, and of the present
state of zour realm, quhilk is in the most part interpretit sinisterly."
Keith. Pref. ix. 5. Elizabeth, as appears from Appendix, No. XIX. urged
the same thing in strong terms. 6. The circumstances of the case itself,
no less than these solicitations and remonstrances, called for the utmost
vigour ill her proceedings. Her husband had been murdered in a cruel
manner, almost in her own presence.  Her subjects were filled with the
utmost horror at the crime. Bothwell, one of her principal favourites,'
had  been publicly accused as the author of it.  Reflections, extremely
dishonourable  to herself, had  been thrown out.  If indignation, and  the
love of justice, did not prompt her to pursue the murderers with ardour;
decency, at least, and concern for vindicating her own character, should
have induced her to avoid any appearance of remissness or want of zeal.
But instead of this, Mary continued to discover in all her actions the
utmost partiality towards Bothwell.  On the 15th of February, five days
after the murder, she bestowed on him  the reversion of the superiority of
the town of Leith, which in the year 1565 she had mortgaged to the citizens
of Edinburgh.  This grant was of much  importance, as it gave him  not
only the command of the principal port in the kingdom, but a great ascendant over the citizens of Edinburgh, who wished much to keep possession
of it.H 2. Bothwell being extremely desirous to obtain the command of
the castle of Edinburgh, the queen, in order to prevail on the earl of Mar
to surrender the government of it, offered to commit the young prince to
his custody. Mar consented; and she instantly appointed Bothwell governor
of the castle. And. i. Pref. 64. Keith, 379. note (d). 3. The inquiry
into the murder, previous to Bothwell's trial, seems to have been conducted
with the utmost remissness. Buchanan exclaims loudly against this, And.
* Copy from the original in the Charter-house of the City of Edinburgh of an Assignation to
the Reversion of the Superiority of Leith by Queen.7Mary, to the Earl of Bothwell.
Maria Dei gratia Regina Scotorum, omnibus probis hominibus suis ad quos proesentes literie pervenerint salutem. Sciatis, quod nos ad memoriam reducentes multiplex bonum verum et fidele
servitium, non tantum quondam nostrie charissimae matri Marina Reginae regni nostri pro tempore
in nostra minoritate factum et impensum, verum etiam nobismet ipsis, tam intra partes Galliea quam
intra hoc nostrum regnum, ad extentionem nostri honoris et auctoritatis in punitione furum, malefactorum, et transgressorum infra idem, per rostrum confisum consanguineum et consiliarium
Jacobum comitem Bothuile, dominum Halis, Creighton, et Liddisdale, magnum admirallum regni
nostri, commissionem et onerationem ad htnc effectum habentem, per quas ipse suum corpus et
vitam in magno periculo posuit; ac etiam, in performatione et extentione nostri dicti servitii, suam
hereditatem, supra summam viginti millium mercarum hujus nostri regni, alienavit ac l]esit. Et
nos cogitantes quod, ex nostra principali honore et devoria dictum nostrum confisum consanguineum
et consiliariurn cum quodam accidente et gratitudine recompensare et gratificare incumbit quae nos
commodd sibi concedere poterimus, unde ipse magis habilis omnibus affuturis temporibus esse poterit,
et ad hujusmodi performandum in omnibus causis seu eventibus: In recompensationem quorum
pramissorum, ac pro diversis aliis nostris rationabilibus causis et considerationibus nos moventibus,
Fecimus, &c. dictum Jacobum comnitem Bothuile, &c. ac suos haeredes masculos quoscumque nos
tros legitimos, &c. assignatos in et ad literas reversionis factas, &c. per Symonem Preston de eodem
militem, prwapositum, balivos, consules, et communitatem hujus nostri burgi de Edinburgh, pro
seipsis ac suis successoribus, &c. nobis, nostrisque heredibus, successoribus, et assignatis pro redemptione, &c. superioritatis totius villa de Leith, &c. impignorata per nos dictis praposito, &c. sub
reversione alienate continentis summam decem millium mercarum moneta prascripta nunlerandum et calculandum in parochiali ecclesia de Edinburgh, super premonitione quadraginta dierum,
tit moris est, veluti in dictis reversionis literis, &c. de data 8vo Octob. 1565, &c, (The rest is form,
and contains a clause of absolute warrandice.)  In cujus rei Testimonium presentibus magnum
sigillum nostrum apponi fecimus. Apud Edinburgh, decimo quinto die mensis Februarii, anno
Domini millesimo quingentesimo sexagesimo sexto, et regni nostri vicesimo quinto.
The great seal entire.




K. HENRY'S MURDER.                            331
ii. 24. Nor was it without reason that he did so, as it is evident from a
circumstance in the affidavit of Thomas Nelson, one of the king's servants,
who was in the house when his master was murdered, and was dug up
alive out of the rubbish. Being examined on the Monday after the king's
death, " This deponar schew that Bonkle had the key of the sellare, and
the queenis servandis the keyis of her shalmir. Quhilk the laird of Tillibardin hearing, said Hald thair, here is ane ground. Efter quhilk words
spokin, thai left of, and procedit na farther in the inquisition." And. iv.
part ii. 167. Had there been any intention to search into the bottom of
the matter, a circumstance of so much in portance merited the most careful
inquiry. 4. Notwithstanding Lennox's repeated solicitations, notwithstanding the reasonableness of his demands, and the necessity of complying
with them, in order to encourage any accuser to appear against Bothwell,
she not only refused to commit him to custody, or even to remove him from
her presence and councils: And. i. 42. 48; but by the grants which we
have mentioned, and by other circumstances, discovered an increase of
attachment to him. 5. She could not avoid bringing Bothwell to a public
trial; but she permitted him to sit as a member in that meeting of the privyv
council which directed his own trial; and the trial itself was carried on
with such unnecessary precipitancy, and with so many other suspicious circumstances, as to render his acquittal rather an argument of his guilt than
a proof of his innocence. These circumstances have all been mentioned
at length in Book IV., and therefore are not repeated in this place.
6. Two days after the trial, Mary gave a public proof of her regard for
Bothwell, by appointing him to carry the sceptre before her at the meeting
of parliament. Keith, 378. 7. In that parliament, she granted him a ratification of all the great possessions and honours which she had conferred
upon him, in which was contained an ample enumeration of all the services
he had performed, And. i. 117. 8. Though Melvil, who foresaw that her
attachment to Bothwell would at length induce her to marry him, warned
her of the infamy and danger which would attend that action, she not only
disregarded this salutary admonition, but discovered what had passed
between them  to Bothwell, which exposed Melvil to his resentment.
Melv. 156. 9. Bothwell seized Mary as she returned from Stirling,
April 24. If he had done this without her knowledge and consent, such
an insult could not have failed to have filled her with the most violent
indignation. But, according to the account of an old MS. " The friendly
love was so highly contracted between this great princess and her enormous subject that there was no end thereof (for it was constantly
esteemed by all men, that either of them loved other carnally), so that she
suffered patiently to be led where the lover list, and all the way neither
made obstacle, impediment, clamour, or resistance, as in such accidents
used to be, or that she might have done by her princely authority, being
accompanied with the noble earl of Huntly and secretary Maitland of
Lethington." Keith, 383. Melvil, who was present, confirms this account,
and tells us that the officer by whom he was seized informed him that nothing
was done without the queen's consent, Melv. 158. 10. On the 12th of
May, a few days before her marriage, Mary declared that she was then at
full liberty, and that though "Bothwell had offended her by seizing her person, she was so much satisfied with his dutiful behaviour since that time,
(and so indebted to him for past services, that she not only forgave that
offence, but resolved to promote him to higher honours. And. i. 87.
11. Even after the confederate nobles had driven Bothwell from the queen's
presence, and though she saw that he was considered as the murderer of
her former husband by so great a part of her subjects, her affection did not
in the least abate, and she continued to express the most unalterable
attachment to him. "I can perceive (says sir N. Throkmorton) that the
rigour with which the queen is kent Proceedeth by order from these men,




332:DISSERTATION ON
because that the queen will not by any means be induced to lend her
authority to prosecute the murderer; nor will not consent by any persuasion to abandon the lord Bothwell for her husband, but avoweth constantly
that she will live and die with him; and saith, that if it were put to her
choice to relinquish her crown and kingdom, or the lord Bothwell, she
would leave her kingdom and dignity to go a simple damsel with him, and
she will never consent that he shall fare worse, or have more harm than
herself." Appendix, No. XXII. In all their negotiation with Throkmorton, the confederates mention this unalterable attachment of the
queen to Bothwell as a sufficient reason for rejecting his proposals of an
accommodation with their sovereign. Keith, 419. 449. This assertion
they renewed in the conferences at York. Anders. iv. part ii. p. 66.
Murray, in his interview with Mary in Lochlevin, charged her with persisting in her inordinate affection to Bothwell. Keith, 446. All these,
however, may be considered merely as accusations brought by the confederates, in order to vindicate their rigour towards the queen. But
Throkmorton, who, by his residence in Edinburgh, and by his intercourse
with the queen's partisans, as well as with her enemies, had many opportunities of discovering whether or not Mary had expressed herself in such
terms, and who was disposed to view her actions in the most favourable
light, appears, by the passage which I have quoted from his letter of the
14th of July, to be persuaded that the confederates had not misrepresented
her sentiments. He had soon an opportunity of being confirmed with
greater certainty in this opinion. Although the confederates had refused
him access to the captive queen, he found means of holding a secret correspondence with her, and endeavoured to persuade her to give her consent
to have her marriage with Bothwell dissolved by a sentence of divorce, as
the most probable means of regaining her liberty. "She hath sent me
word that she will in no wise consent unto that, but rather die." Appendix, No. XXII. There is evidence of the continuance of Mary's attachment still more explicit. Lord Herries, in the parliament held the
15th of December, 1567, acknowledged the queen's inordinate affection to
that wicked man, and that she could not be induced by persuasion to leave
him; and that in sequestering her within Lochlevin, the confederates had
done the duty of noblemen. Appendix, No. XXIV. In the year 1571,
a conference was held by some deputies from a convention of clergy,
with the duke of Chatelherault, secretary Maitland, sir James Balfour, and
Kirkaldy; and an account of it written by Mr. Craig, one of the ministers
of Edinburgh, is extant in Calderwood MSS. Hist. ii. 244. In presence
of all these persons, most of whom were in Edinburgh when the queen was
taken at Carberry, Maitland, who was now an avowed partisan of Mary,
declares, that on the same night she was brought to Edinburgh, he himself
had offered, that if she would abandon Bothwell, she should have as thankful obedience as ever she had since she came to Scotland. But in no
wise would she consent to leave Bothwell. According to sir James Melvil,
the queen found means of writing a letter to Bothwell, on tne evening of
that day, when she was conducted as a prisoner to Edinburgh, in which
she declared her affection to him in the most tender expressions, and her
resolution never to abandon him. This letter, he says, was intercepted by
the confederates, and determined them to confine Mary in the castle of
Lochlevin. But as neither Buchanan nor Knox, both abundantly disposed
to avail themselves of every fact and report that could be employed in
order to represent Mary's conduct as improper and criminal, mentions this
letter; and as the confederates themselves in their negotiation with Throkmorton, as well as in their accusations of the queen, before the English comlmissioners at York and Westminster, maintain the same silence with regard
to it, I am satisfied that Melvil, who wrote his memoirs for the information
of his son in his old age, and  long after the events which he records hap



K. HENRY'S MURDER.                           333
penled, has been mistaken with regard to this particular. From this long
enumeration of circumstances, we may, without violence, draw the following conclusion: had Mary really been accessary to the murder of her husband; had Bothwell perpetrated the crime with her consent, or at her
command; and had she intended to stifle the evidence against him, and to
prevent the discovery of his guilt, she could scarcely have taken any other
steps than those which she took, nor could her conduct have been more
repugnant to all the maxims of prudence and of decency.
The positive evidence produced against Mary may be classed under
two heads.
1. The depositions of some persons who were employed in committing
the murder, particularly of Nicholas Hubert, who in the writings of that
age is called French Paris. This person, who was Bothwell's servant,
and much trusted by him, was twice examined, and the original of one of
his depositions, and a copy of the other, are still extant. It is pretended
that both these are notorious forgeries. But they are remarkable for a
simplicity and naivete which it is almost impossible to imitate; they abound
with a number of minute facts and particularities, which the most dexterous
forger could not have easily assembled and connected together with any
appearance of probability; and they are filled with circumstances which
can scarcely be supposed to have entered the imagination of any man but
one of Paris's rank and character. But, at the same time, it must, be
acknowledged that his depositions contain some improbable circumstances.
He seems to have been a foolish talkative fellow; the fear of death, the
violence of torture, and the desire of pleasing those in whose power he
was, tempted him, perhaps, to feign some circumstances and to exaggerate
others. To say that some circumstances in an affidavit are improbable or
false, is very different from saying that the whole is forged. I suspect the
former to be the case here; but I see no appearance of the latter. Be that
as it will, some of the most material facts in Paris's affidavits rest upon his
single testimony; and for that reason I have not in the history, nor shall I
in this place, lay any stress upon them.
2. The letters said to be written by Mary to Bothwell.  These
have been frequently published. -The accident by which the queen's
enemies got them into their possession is related in Book V. When the
authenticity of any ancient paper is dubious or contested, it may Fte ascertained either by external or internal evidence. Both these have been produced in the present case.
I. External proofs of the genuineness of Marv's letters. 1. Murray and
the nobles who adhered to him affirm, upon their word and honour, that the
letters were written with the queen's own hand, with which they were
well acquainted. Good. ii. 64. 92. 2. The letters were publicly produced in the parliament of Scotlaid, December 1567; and were so far considered as genuine that they are mentioned in the act against Mary, as one
chief argument of her guilt. Good. ii. 66, 67. 3. They were shown privately to the duke of Norfolk, the earl of Sussex, and sir Ralph Sadler,
Elizabeth's commissioners at York. In the account which they gave of
this matter to their mistress, they seem to consider the letters as genuine,
and express no suspicion of any forgery; they particularly observe, " that
the matter contained in them  is such, that it could hardly be invented
and devised by any other than herself; for that they discourse of some
things which were unknown to any other than to herself and Bothwell;
and as it is hard to counterfeit so many, so the matter of them. and the
manner how these men came by them, is such, as it seemeth that God,
in whose sight murder and bloodshed of the innocent is aborniriable,
would not permit the same to be hid or concealed." Good. ii. 142.
They seem to have made such an impression on the duke of Norfolk that,
in a subsequent letter to Pembroke, Leicester, and Cecil, he has these




334                 DISSERTATION ON
words: " If the matter shall be thought as detestable and manifest to you
as, for aught we can perceive, it seemeth here to us." Good. ii. 154. Nor
did Norfolk declare these to be his sentiments only in public official letters;
he expressed himself in the same manner to his most confidential friends.
In a secret conference with the bishop of' Ross at York, the Duke infbrm
ed him that he had seen the letters, &c. which the regent had to produce
against the queen, whereby there would be such matter proved against
her as would dishonour her for ever. State Trials, edition of Hargrave, i.
91. Murdin, 52. The bishop of Ross, if he had known the letters to be a
notorious forgery, must have been naturally led, in consequence of this
declaration, to undeceive the duke, and to expose the imposture. But
instead of this, the duke, and he, and Lethington, after consulting together,
agreed, that the bishop should write to Mary, then at Bolton, and instruct
her to make such a proposal to Elizabeth as might prevent the public production of the letters and other evidence. State Trials, i. 94. Murdin, 45.
Indeed, the whole of this secret conference seems to imply that Lethington, Ross, and Norfolk, were conscious of some defect in Mary's cause, and
therefore exerted all their ingenuity in order to avoid a public accusation.
Murdin, 52, 53. To Banister, whom the duke seems to have trusted more
entirely than any other of his servants, he expressed himself in similar
terms with respect to the queen of Scots. State Trials, i. 98. The words
of Banister's evidence are remarkable: "I confess that I, waiting of my
lord and master, when the earl of Sussex, and Mr. Chancellor of the duchy
that now is, were in commission at York, did hear his grace say, that upon
examination of the matter of the murder, it did appear that the queen of
Scots was guilty and privy to the murder of lord Darnly, whereby I verily
thought that his grace would never join in marriage with her." Murdin,
134. Elizabeth, in her instructions to the earl of Shrewsbury and Beale,
in 1583, asserts, that both the duke and earl of Arundel did declare to
herself, that the proof; by the view of her letters, did fall out sufficient
against the queen of Scots; however they were after drawn to cover her
faults and pronounce her innocency. MS. Advoc. Library. A. iii. 28. p
314. from  Cot. Lib. Calig. 9. 4. A similar impression was made upon
other contemporaries of Mary by the production of the letters, which
implies a full belief of their being genuine. Cecil, in his correspondbence
with Sir Henry Norris, the English ambassador in France, relates this transaction in terms which leave no room to doubt with respect to his own
private opinion. In his letter, December 14th, 1568, the very day on
which the letters, &c. were laid before the meeting of privy counsellors
and peers, he informs him, " That the regent was driven, from his defence,
to disclose a full fardel of the naughty matter, tending to convince the
queen as adviser of the murther, and the earl of Bothwell as her executour; and now the queen's party, so greet, refuse to make any answer, and
press that their mistress may come in person to answer the matter herself
before the queen's majesty; which is thought not fit to be granted until
the great blot of the marriage with her husband's murtherer, and the
evident charges, by letters of her own, to be deviser of the murther, be
somewhat razed out or recovered; for that, as the matters are exhibited
against her, it is far unseemly for any prince, or for chaste ears, to be
annoyed with the filthy noise thereof; and yet, as being a commissioner.
I must and will forbear to pronounce any thing herein certainly, though as
a private person I cannot but with horrour and trembling think thereof."
Cabala, 156. 5. From the correspondence of Bowes, the English resident
in Scotland, with Walsingham, in the year 1582, published towards the
close of this dissertation, it is manifest that both in England and Scotland,
both by Elizabeth and James, both by the duke of Lennox and earl of
Gowrie, the letters were deemed to be genuine. The eagerness on one
side to obtain, and on the other to keep possession of the casket and letters




K. HENRY'S MURDER.                                       33b
implies that this was the belief of both. These sentiments of contemporaries, who were in a situation to be thoroughly informed, and who had
abilities to judge with discernment, will, in the opinion of many of my
readers, far outweigh theories, suppositions, and conjectures, formed at the
distance of two centuries. 6. The letters were subjected to a solemn and
judicial examination with respect to their authenticity, as far as that could
be ascertained by resemblance of character and fashion of writing; for,
after the conferences at York and Westminster were finished, Elizabeth,
as I have related, assembled her privy counsellors, and joining to them
several of the most eminent noblemen in her kingdom, laid before them all
the proceedings against the Scottish queen, and particularly ordered, that
c" the letters and writing exhibited by the regent, as the queen of Scots'
letters and writings, should also be shewed, and conference [i. e. comparison] thereof made in their sight, with the letters of the said queen's, being
extant, and heretofore written with her own hand, and sent to the queen's
majesty; whereby  may be searched  and examined what difference is
bstwixt them." Good. ii. 252. They assembled, accordingly, at Hampton
Court, December 14 and 15, 1568; and, "The originals of the letters
supposed to be written with the queen of Scots' own hand were then also
presently produced and perused; and, being read, were duly conferred
and compared, for the manner of writing, and fashion of orthography, with
sundry other letters long since heretofore written, and sent by the said
queen of Scots to the queen's majesty. In collation whereof no difference
was found." Good. ii. 256. 7. Mary having written an apologetical letter
for her conduct to the countess of Lennox, July 10, 1570,* she transmitted
it to her husband then in Scotland; and he returned to the countess the
following answer: "Seeing you have remittit to me, to answer the queen
the king s mother's letters sent to you, what can I say but that I do not
marvell to see hir writ the best can for hirself, to seame to purge her of
that, quhairof many besyde me are certainly persuadit of the contrary, and
I not only assurit by my awin knawledge, but by her handwrit, the confessionis of men gone to the death, and uther infallibil experience.  It wull
be lang tyme that is hable to put a mattir so notorious in oblivioun, to mak
black quhyte, or innocency to appear quhair the contrary is sa weill
knawin.  The maist indifferent, I trust, doubtis not of the equitie of zoure
and my cause, and of the just occasioun of our mislyking. Hir richt dewtie
to zow and me, being the parteis interest, were hir trew confessioun and
unfeyned repentance of that lamentable fact, odious for hir to be reportit,
and sorrowfull for us to think of. God is just, and will not in the end be
abused; but as he has manifested the trewth, so will he puneise the iniquity." Lennox's Orig. Regist. of Letters. In their public papers, the queen's
* Mary's letter has never been published, and ought to have a place here, where evidence on all
sides is fairly produced. " Madam, if the wrang and false reportis of rebellis, enemeis weill knawin
for traitouris to zow, and alace to muche trusted of me by zoure advice, had not so far sturred you
aganis my innocency (and I must say aganis all kyndness, that zow have not onelie as it were condempnit me wrangfullie, bot so hated me, as some wordis and open deideis hes testifeit to all the
warlde, a manyfest mislyking in zow aganis zowr awn blude), I wold not have omittit thus lang my
dewtie in wryting to zow excusing mle of those untrew reporties made of me. But hoping with
Godis grace and tyme to have my innocency knawin to zow, as I trust it is already to the maist pairt
of all indifferent personis, t thocht it best not to trouble zow for a tyme till that such a matter is
moved that tuichis us hayth, quhilk is the transporting zoure littil son, and my onelie child in this
contrey. To the quhilk albeit I be never sa willing, I wald be glaid to have zoure advyse therein,
as in all uther thingis tuiching him. I have born him, and God knawis with quhat daunger to him
and me boith; and of zow he is descendit. So I meane not to forzet my dewtie to zow, in schewin
herein any unkyndness to zow, how unkyndlie that ever ze have delt with me, bot will love zow as
my awnt, and respect zow as my moder in law. And gif ye pies to knaw farther of my mynde in
that and all uther thingis betwixt us, my ambassador the bishop of Ross salt be ready to confer with
zow. And so after my hairtlie commendationis, remitting me to my saide ambassador, and zour
better consideratioun, I conummit zow to the protectioun of Almyghty God, quhom I pray to preserve
zow and my brother Charles, and caus zow to knaw my pairt better nor ze do. From Chatisworth
this x of July 1570.
To my Iadie Lennox                       Your natural gude nice
my moder in law.                         and lovynge dochter."




S3                    D)I 5 DISS E R TATION ON
enemies may be suspected of advancing what would be most subservient
to their cause, not what was agreeable to truth, or what flowed from their
own inward conviction. But in a private letter to his own wife, Lennox
had no occasion to dissemble; and it is plain, that he not only thought the
queen guilty, but believed the authenticity of her letters to lBothwell. 8.
In opposition to all these reasons for believing the letters, &c. to be authentic, the conduct of the nobles confederated against Mary, in not producing
them directly as evidence against her, has been represented as an irrefragable proof of their being forged.  According to the account of the
confederates themselves, the casket containing the letters was seized by
them on the twentieth of June, one thousand five hundred and sixty-seven;
but the first time that they were judicially stated as evidence against tne
queen was in a, meeting of the regent's privy council, December fourth,
and they afterwards served as the foundation of the acts made against her
in the parliament held on the fifteenth of the same month. If the letters
had been genuine, it is contended, that the obtaining possession of them
must have afforded such matter of triumph to the confederates that they
would instantly have proclaimed it to the whole world; and in their negotiations with the English and French ministers, or with such of their fellow
subjects as condemned their proceedings, they would have silencedat once
every advocate for the queen, by exhibiting this convincing proof of her
guilt.  But in this reasoning sufficient attention is not paid to the delicate
and perilous situation of the confederates at that juncture. They had taken
arms against their sovereign, had seized her person at Carberry Hill, and
had confined her a prisoner at Lochlevin. A considerable number, however, of their fellow subjects, headed by some of the most polwerful noblemen in the kingdom, was combined against them. This combination, they
soon perceived, they could not hope to break or to vanquish without aid
either from France or England.  In the former kingdom, Mary's uncles,
the duke of Guise and cardinal of Lorrain, were at that period all powerful,
and the king himself was devotedly attached to her. If the confederates
confined their views to the dissolution of the marriage of the queen with
Bothwell, and to the exclusion of him for ever from  her presence, they
might hope, perhaps, to be countenanced by Charles IX. and his ministers,
who had sent an envoy into Scotland of' purpose to dissuade Mary from
that ill-fated match; Append. No. XXII; whereas the loading her publicly with the imputation of being accessary to the murder of her husband
would be deemed such an inexpiable crime by the court of France, as
must cut off every hope of countenance or aid from that quarter. From
England, with which the principal confederates had been long and intimately connected, they had many reasons to expect more effectual support;
but, to their astonishment, Elizabeth condemned their proceedings with
asperity, warmly espoused the cause of the captive queen, and was extremely solicitous to obtain her release and restoration. Nor was this merely
the only one of the artifices which Elizabeth often employed in her transactions with Scotland. Though her most sagacious ministers considered,
it as the wisest policy to support the confederate lords rather than the
queen of Scots, Elizabeth disregarded their counsel.A   Her high notions
of royal authority, and of the submission due by subjects, induced her, on
this occasion, to exert herself in behalf of Mary, not only with sincerity
* This was the opinion of Throkmorton, as appears from an extract of his letter of July 11th,
published in the Append. No. XXTI. The same were the sentiments of Cecil, in his letter of Aug.
19th, 1565, to sir Henry Norris, Elizabeth's ambassador to France: "You shall perceive," says he
"by the queen's letter to you, at this present, how earnestly she is bent in favour of the queen of
Scots, and truly since the beginning she hath been greatly offended with the lords; and, howsoever
her Majesty might make her profit by bearing with the lords in this action, yet no counsel can stay
her Majesty from manifesting her misliking of them." Cabala, 140. And in his letter of Sept. 3d,'" The queen's Majesty, our sovereign, remaineth still offended with the lords for the queen; the
example mloveth her." Ib. 141. Digges Comp. Amnb. 14.




k. HENRY'S MURDER.                           337
but with zeal; she negotiated, she solicited, she threatened. Finding the
confederates inflexible, she endeavoured to procure Mary's release by means
of that party in Scotland which continued faithful to her, and instructed
Throkmorton to correspond with the leaders of it, and to make overtures
to that effect. Keith, 451. App. No. XXIII. She even went so far as to
direct her ambassador at Paris to concert measures with the French king
how they, by their joint efforts, might persuade or compel the Scots to
aacknowledge the queen her good sister to be their sovereign lady and
queen, and renounce their obedience to her son." Keith, 462, 3, 4. From
all these circumstances, the confederates had every reason to apprehend
that Mary would soon obtain liberty, and by some accommodation be
restored to the whole, or at least to a considerable portion of her authority
as sovereign. In that event they foresaw, that if they should venture to
accuse her publicly of a crime so atrocious as the murder of her husband,
they must not only be excluded for ever from power and favour, but from
any hope of personal safety. On this account they long confined themselves
to that which was originally declared to be the reason of their taking arms;
the avenging the king's death, the dissolving the marriage with Bothwell,
the inflicting on him condign punishment, or banishing him for ever from
the queen's presence. It appears from the letters of Throkmorton, pub
lished by bishop Keith, and in my Appendix, that his sagacity early
discovered that this would be the tenor of their conduct. In his letter
from Edinburgh, dated July 14th, he observes, that "They do not forget
their own peril conjoined with the danger of the prince, but, as far as I
perceive, they intend not to touch the queen, either in surety or in honour;
for they speak of her with respect and reverence, and do affirm, as I do
learn, that, the condition aforesaid accomplished [i. e. the separation from
Bothwell], they will both put her to liberty, and restore her to her estate."
Append. No. XXII. His letter of August 22d contains a declaration made
to him by Lethington, in name and in presence of his associates, " That
they never meant harm neither to the queen's person nor to her honourthat they have been contented hitherto to be condemned, as it were, of all
princes, strangers, and, namely, of the queen of England, being charged of
grievous and infamous titles, as to be noted rebels, traitors, seditious, ingrate,
and cruel, all which they suffer and bear upon their backs, because they
will not justify themselves, nor proceed in any thing that may touch their
sovereign's honour. But in case they be with these defamations continually
oppressed, or with the force, aid, and practices of other princes, and namely
of the queen of England, put in danger, or to an extremity, they shall be
compelled to deal otherwise with the queen than they intend, or than they
desire; for, added he, you may be sure we will not lose our lives, have our
lands forfeited, and be reputed rebels through the world, seeing we have
the means to justify ourselves." Keith, 448. From this view of' the slippery ground on which they stood at that time, their conduct, in not producing the letters for several months, appears not only to have been prudent,
but essential to their own safety.
But, at a subsequent period, when the confederates found it necessary
to have the form of government which they had established confirmed by
authority of parliament, a different mode of proceeding became requisite.
All that had hitherto been done with respect to the queen's dismnission, the
seating the young king upon the throne, and the appointment of a regent,
was in reality nothing more than the deed of private men. It required
ihe exhibition of some legal evidence to procure a constitutional act giving
he sanctionr of its approbation to such violent measures, and to obtain "a
peu-i3ect law and security for all them that either by deed; counsel, or subse i htion, had entered into that cause since the beginning." Haynes, 453.
This prevailed with the regent and his secret council, after long deliberation, to agree to produce all the evidence of which they were possessed;
\OL. III.-43




DISSERTATION ON
and upon that production parliament passed the acts-which were required
Such a change had happened in the state of the kingdom as induced the'
confederates to venture upon this change in their conduct. In June, apowerful combination was forming against them, under the leading of the
Hamiltons. In December that combination was broken; most of the;
members of it had acknowledged the king as their lawful sovereign, and
aad submitted to the regent's government. Huntly, Argyll, Herries, the
most powerful noblemen of that party, were present in the parliament, and
concurred in all its acts. Edinburgh, Dunbar, Dunbarton, and all the chief
strong holds in the kingdom were now in the hands of the regent; the
arms of France had full occupation in its civil war with the Hugonots.
The ardour of Elizabeth's zeal in behalf of the captive queen seems to
have abated. A step that would have been followed with ruin to the confederates in June was attended with little danger in December. From
this long deduction it appears, that no proof of the letters being forged can
be drawn from the circumstance of their not having been produced immediately after the twentieth of June; but though no public accusation was:
brought instantly against the queen, in consequence of seizing the casket,
hints were given by the confederates, that they possessed evidence sufficient to convict her. This is plainly implied in a letter of Throkmorton,
July 21st, Keith, Pref. p. xii. and more clearly in the: passage which I,have quoted from his letter of August 22. In his letter of July 25 the
papers contained in the casket are still more plainly pointed out  " They
[i. e. the confederates], say, that they have as apparent proof against her
as may be, as well by the testimony of her own handwriting, which they'have recovered, as also by sufficient witnesses." Keith, 426.
II. With regard to the internal proofs of the genuineness of the queen's
letters to Bothwell, we may observe, 1. That whenever a paper is forged
with a particular intention, the eagerness of the former to establish the
point in view, his solicitude to cut off all doubts and cavils, and to avoid
any appearance of uncertainty, seldom fail of prompting him to use expres-;sions the most explicit and full to-his purpose. The passages foisted into
ancient authors by heretics in different ages; the legendary miracles of the
Romish saints; the supposititious deeds in their own favour produced by
monasteries; the false charters of homage mentioned p. 210, are so
many proofs of this assertion. No maxim seems to be more certain than
this, That a forger is often apt to prove too much, but seldom falls into the
error of proving too little. The point which the queen's enemies had to
establish was, "that as the earl of Bothwell was chief executor of the
norrible and unworthy murder perpetrated, &c. so was she of the foreKnowledge, counsel, devise, persuader, and commander of the said murder
lo be done." Good. ii. 207. But of this there are only imperfect hints,
obscure intimations, and dark expressions in the letters, which, however
convincing evidence they might furnish if found in real letters, bear no
resemblance to that glare and superfluity of evidence which forgeries cominonly contain. All the advocates for Mary's innocence in her own age,
contend that there is nothing in the letters which can serve as a proofof
ner guilt. Lesly, Blackwood, Turner, &c. abound with passages to this
purpose; nor are the sentiments of those in the present age different.
"Yet still it might have been expected (says one of her ablest defenders)
that some one or other of the points or articles of the accusation should be
made out clearly by the proof. But nothing of that is to be seen in the
present case. There is nothing in the letters that could plainly show the
writer to have beqen in the foreknowledge, counsel, or device of any murder,
far less to have persuaded or commanded it; and as little is there about
maintaining or justifying any murders." Good. l. 76. How ill advised
were Mary's adversaries, to contract so much guilt, and to practise so many
artifices, in order to forge letters, which are so ill-contrived for establishing




K. HENRY'S  MURDER.                          S39
the conclusion they had in view! Had they been so base as to have recourse
to forgery, is it not natural to think that they would have produced something more explicit and decisive?.. It is almost impossible to invent a
long narration of fictitious events,- consisting of various minute particulars
and to connect these in such a manner with real facts that no mark of fraud
shall appear. For this reason, skilful forgers avoid any long detail of cir.
cumnstances, especially of foreign and superfluous ones, well knowing that
the more these are multiplied, the more are the chances of detection
increased. Now Mary's letters, especially the first, are filled with a mul
tiplicity of circumstances, extremely natural in a real correspondence, but
altogether foreign to the purpose of the queen's enemies, and which it'
would have been extreme folly to have inserted, if they had been altogether imaginary, and without foundation. 3. The truth and reality ot
several circumstances in the letters, and these too of no very public nature,
are confirmed by undoubted collateral evidence. Lett. i. Good. ii. p. 1.
The queen is said to have met one of Lennox's gentlemen, and to have had
some conversation with him. Thomas Crawford, who was the person,
appeared before Elizabeth's commissioners, and confirmed upon oath, the
truth of this circumstance. He likewise declared, that during the queen's
stay at Glasgow, the king repeated to him, every night, whatever had
passed through the day between her Majesty and him; and that the account
given of these conversations in the first letter, is nearly the same with what
the king communicated to him. Good. ii. 245. According to the same
letter there was much discourse between the king and queen concerning
MIynto, Hiegait, and Walcar. Good. ii. 8. 10, 11. What this might be,
was altogether unknown, until a letter of Mary's preserved in the Scottish
college at Paris, and published, Keith, Pref. vii. discovered it to be an
affair of so much importance as merited all the attention she paid to it at
that time. It appears by a letter from the French ambassador, that Mary
was subject to a violent pain in her side. Keith, Ibid. This circumstance
is mentioned, Lett. i. p. 30. in a manner so natural as can scarcely belong
to any but a genuine production. 4. If we shall still think it probable to
suppose that so many real circumstances were artfully introduced into the
letters by the forgers, in order to give an air of authenticity to their production; it will hardly be possible to hold the same opinion concerning the
following particular. Before the queen began her first letter to Bothwell,
she, as usual among those who write long letters containing a variety of
subjects, made notes or memorandums of the particulars which she wished
to remember; but as she sat up writing during a great part of the night,
and after her attendants fell asleep, her paper failed her, and she continued her letter upon the same sheet on which she had formerly made
her memorandums. This she herself takes notice of, and makes an apology
for it: " It is late; I desire never to cease from writing unto you, yet
now, after the kissing of your hands, I will end my letter. Excuse my
evil writing, and read it twice over. Excuse that thing that is scriblit, for
I had na paper zesterday, quhen I wraite that of the memorial." Good. ii.
28. These memorandums still appear in the middle of the letter; and
what we have said seems naturally to account for the manner how they
might find their way into a real letter. It is scarce to be supposed, how
ever, that any forger would think of placing memorandums in the middle
of a letter, where, at first sight, they make so absurd and so unnatural an
appearance. But if any shall still carry their refinement to such a length,
as to suppose that the forgers were so artful as to throw in this circumstance, in order to preserve the appearance of genuineness, they must a
least allow that the queen's enemies, who employed these forgers, could
not be ignorant of the design and meaning of these short notes and memorandums; but we find them mistaking them so far as to imagine that they
were the credit of the bearer, i. e. points concerning which the queen had




840                 DISSERTATION ON
given him verbal instructions. Good. ii. 152. This they cannot possibly
be; for the queen herself writes with so much exactness concerning the
different points in the memorandums that there was no need of giving any
credit or instructions to the bearer concerning them. The memorandums
are indeed the contents of the letter. 5. Mary mentioning her conversation
with the king, about the affair of Mynto, Hiegait, &c. says, "The morne,
[i. e. to-morrow,] I will speik to him upon that point;" and then adds,
"As to the rest of Willie Hiegait's, he confessit it; but it was the morne
[i. e. the morning] after my coming or he did it."; Good. ii. 9. This
addition, which could not haie been Inade till after the conversation happened, seems either to have been inserted by the queen into the body ot
the letter, or, perhaps, she having written it on the margin, it was taken
thence into the text. If we suppose the letter to be a real one, and written
at different times, as it plainly bears, this circumstance appears to be very
natural: but no reason could have induced a forger to have ventured upon
such an anachronism, for which there was no necessity. An addition
perfectly similar to this, made to a genuine paper, may be found, Good.
ii. 282.
But, on the other hand, Mary herself and the advocates of her innocence
have contended, that these letters were forged by her enemies, on purpose
to blast her reputation, and to justify their own rebellion. It is not necessary to take notice of the arguments which were produced, in her own
age, in support of this opinion; the observations which we have already
made, contain a full reply to them. An author, who has inquired into the
affairs of that period with great industry, and who has acquired much
knowledge of them, has published (as he affirms) a demonstration of the
forgery of Mary's letters. This demonstration he founds upon evidence
both internal and external. With regard to the former, he observes that
the French copy of the queen's letters is plainly a translation of Buchanan's
Latin copy; which Latin copy is only a translation of the Scottish copy;
and, by consequence, the assertion of the queen's enemies, that she wrote
them originally in French, is altogether groundless, and the whole letters
are gross forgeries. He accounts for this strange succession of translations, by supposing that when the forgery was projected, no person could
be found capable of writing originally in the French language letters
which would pass for the queen's; for that reason they were first composed in Scottish; but unluckily the French interpreter, as he conjectures,
did not understand that language: and therefore Buchanan translated them
into Latin, and from his Latin they were rendered into French. Good. i.
79, 80
It is hardly necessary to observe, that no proof whatever is produced ot
any of these suppositions. The manner of the Scots in that age, when
almost every man of rank spent a part of his youth in France, and the
intercourse between the two nations was great, renders it altogether improbable that so many complicated operations should be necessary in order
to procure a few letters to be written in the French language.
But without insisting further on this, we may observe, that all this
author's premises may be granted, and yet his conclusion will not follow,
unless he likewise prove that the French letters, as we now have them, are
a true copy of those which were produced by Murray and his party in the
Scottish Parliament, and at York and Westminster. But this he has not
attempted; and if we attend to the history of the letters, such an attempt,
it is obvious, must have been unsuccessful. The letters were first published at the end of Buchanan's Detection. The first edition of this treatise was in Latin, in which language three of the queen's letters were
subj )ined to it; this Latin edition was printed A. D. 1571. Soon after, a
Scottish translation of it was published, and at the end of it were printed,
likewvise in Scottish, the three letters which had formerly appeared in




K. HENRY'S  MURDER.                           {l1
Latin, and five other letters in Scottish, which were not in the Latin edition. Next appeared a French translation of the Detection, and of seven
of the letters; this bears to have been printed at Edinburgh by Thomas
Waltem, 1572. The name of the place, as well as the printer, is allowed
by all parties to be a manifest imposture. Our author, from observing
the day of the month from which the printing is said to have been finished,
has asserted that this edition was printed at London; but no stress can be
laid upon a date found in a book, where every other circumstance with
regard to the printing is allowed to be false. Blackwood, who (next to
Lesly) was the best informed of all Mary's advocates in that age, affirms,
that the French edition of the' Detection was published in France; "II
[Buchanan] a depuis adjouste a ceste declamation un petit libelle du pretendu mariage du Duc de Norfolk, et de la fagon de son proces, et la tout
envoye aux freres a la Rochelle, lesquels voyants qu'il pouvoit servir a la
cause, l'on traduit en Frangois, et iceluy fut imprimee a Edinbourg, c'est a
dire a la Rochelle, par Thomas Waltem, nom aposte et fait a plaisir."'
Martyre de Marie. Jebb, ii. 256. The author of the Innocence de.Marie
goes further, and names the French translator of the Detection. " Et icelui
premierement compos6 (comme il semble) par George Buchanan Escossoys, et depuis traduit en langue Frangoise par un Hugonot, Poitevin (advocat de vocation) Camuz, soy disant gentilhomme, et un de plus remarquez
sediteuz de France."  Jebb, i. 425.443.  The concurring testimony of
two contemporary authors, whose residence in France afforded them sufficient means of information, must outweigh a slight conjecture. The
French translator does not pretend to publish the original French letters as
written by the queen herself; he expressly declares that he translated
them from the Latin. Good. i. 103. Had our author attended to all these
circumstances, he might have saved himself the labour of so many criticisms to prove that the present French copy of the letters is a translation
from the Latin. The French editor himself acknowledges it, and, so far
as I know, no person ever denied it.
We may observe that the French translator was so ignorant as to affirm
that Mary had written these letters, partly in French, partly in Scottish.
Good. i. 103. Had this translation been published at London by Cecil, or
had it been made by his direction, so gross an error would not have been
admitted into it. This error, however, was owing to an odd circumstance.
In the Scottish translation of the Detection, two or three sentences of the
original French were prefixed to each letter, which breaking off with an
&c. the Scottish translation of the whole letter followed. This method of
printing translations was not uncommon in that age. The French editor,
observing this, foolishly concluded that the letters had been written partly
in French, partly in Scottish.
If we carefully consider those few French sentences of each letter. which
still remain, and apply to them that species of criticism by which our
author has examined the whole, a clear proof will arise, that there was a
French copy not translated front the Latin, but which was itself the original from which both the Latin and Scottish have been translated. This
minute criticism must necessarily be disagreeable to many readers; but
luckily a few sentences only are to be examined, which will render it
extremely short.
In the first letter, the French sentence prefixed to it ends with these
words, yfaisoit bon. It is plain this expression, veu ce que peut un corps
sans cceur, is by no means a translation of cum plane perinde essem atque
corpus sine corde. The whole sentence has a spirit and elegance in the
French, which neither the Latin nor Scottish has retained. Jusques a
la dinde is not a translation of toto prandii tempore; the Scottish translation, quhile denner time, expresses the sense of the French more properly;
f-r anciently quhile signified until as well as during. Je n'ay pas tenut




3,42                 DISSERTATION ON
grand propos is not justly rendered neque contulerim sermonem cum quoquam; the phrase used in the French copy is one peculiar to that language,
and gives a more probable account of her behaviour than the other.
Jugeant bien qu'il n'yfaisoit bon is not a translation of ut quijudicarent id
ron esse ex usu. The French sentence prefixed to lett. 2. ends with
apprendre.  It is evident that both the Latin and Scottish translations
have omitted altogether these words, et toutefois je ne putis apprendre.
The French sentence prefixed to lett. 3. ends with presenter. J'ay veilld
plus tard la haut is plainly no translation of diutius illic morata sum; the
sense of the French is better expressed by the Scottish, I have zwalkit later
there up. Again, Pour excuser vostre,aire is very different from ad excusandum nostra negotia. The five remaining letters never appeared in Latin;
nor is there any proof of their being ever translated into that language.
Four of them, however, are published in French. This entirely overturns
our author's hypothesis concerning the necessity of a translation into Latin.
In the Scottish edition of the Detection, the whole sonnet is printed in
French as well as in Scottish. It is not possible tobelieve that this Scottish copy could be the original from which the French was translated.
The French consists of verses which have both measure and rhyme, and
which, in many places, are far from being inelegant. The Scottish consists of an equal number of lines, but without measure or rhyme. Now no
man could ever think of a thing so absurd and impracticable as to require
one to translate a certain given number of lines in prose, into an equal
number of verses where both measure and rhyme were to be observed
The Scottish, on the contrary, appears manifestly to be a translation of the
French; the phrases, the idioms, and many of the words are French, and
not Scottish. Besides, the Scottish translator has, in several instances,.
mistaken the sense of the French, and in many more expresses the sense
imperfectly. Had the sonnet been forged, this could not have happened.
The directors of the fraud would have understood their own work. I
shall satisfy myself with one example, in which there is a proof of both
my assertions. Stanza viii. ver. 9.
Pour luy j'attendz toute bonne fortune,
Pour luy je veux garder sante et vie,
Pour luy tout vertu de suivre j'ay envie.
For him I attend all good fortune,
For him I will conserve helthe and lyfe,
For him I desire to ensue courage.
Attend in the first line is not a Scottish, but a French phrase; the two
6ther lines do not express the sense of the French, and the last is absolute
nonsense.
The eighth letter was never translated into French. It contains much
refined mysticism  about devices, a folly of that age, of which Mary was
very fond, as appears from several other circumstances, particularly from
a letter concerning impresas, by Drummond of Hawthornden. If Mary's
adversaries forged her letters, they were certainly employed very idly
when they produced this.
From these observations it seems to be evident that there was a French
copy of Mary's letters, of which the Latin and Scottish were only translations. Nothing now remains of this copy but those few sentences, which
are prefixed to the Scottish translation. The French editor laid hold of
these sentences, and tacked his own translation to them, which so far as it
is his work, is a servile and a very wretched translation of Buchanan's
Latin; whereas, in those introductory sentences, we have discovered
strong marks of their being originals, and certain proofs tiat they are not
translated from the Latin.




K. HENRY'S MURDER.                            343
It Is apparent, too, from comparing the Latin and Scottish translations
with these sentences, that the Scottish translator has more perfectly attained
the sense and spirit of the French than the Latin. And as it appears that
the letters were very early translated into Scottish, Good. ii. 76, it is probable that Buchanan made his translation, not from the French but from
the Scottish copy. Were it necessary, several critical proofs of this might
be produced. One that has been already mentioned seems decisive.
Diutius illic morata sum bears not the least resemblance toj'ay veilldeplus
tard la haut; but if, instead of I walkit [i. e. watched] laiter there up, we
suppose that Buchanan read I wzaitit, &c. this mistake, into which he might
so easily have fallen, accounts for the error in his translation.
These criticisms, however minute, appear to be well founded. But
whatever opinion may be formed concerning them, the other arguments,
with regard to the internal evidence, remain in full force.
The external proofs of the forgery of the queen's letters, which our
author has produced, appear at first sight to be specious, but are not more
solid than that which we have already examined. These proofs may be
classed under two heads. 1. The erroneous and contradictory accounts
which are said to be given of the letters, upon the first judicial production
of them. In the secret council held Decemn. 4, 1567, they are described as
" her privie letters written and subscrivit with her awin hand."  Haynes,
454. Good. ii. 64. In the act of parliament, passed on the 15th of the
same month, they are described as " her privie letters written halelie with
her awin hand." Good. ib. 67. This diversity of description has been
considered as a strong presumption of forgery. The manner in which Mr
Hume accounts for this is natural and plausible, vol. v. p. 498. And seve
ral ingenious remarks, tending to confirm his observations, are made in a
pamphlet lately published, entitled, Mliscellaneous Remarks on the Inquiry
into the Evidence against JMary queen of Scots. To what they have observed it may be added, that the original act of secret council does not
now exist; we have only a copy of it found among Cecil's papers, and the
transcriber has been manifestly so ignorant, or so careless, that an argument
founded entirely upon the supposition of his accuracy is of little force.
Several errors into which he has fallen, we are enabled to point out, by
comparing his copy of the act of secret council with the act of parliament
passed in consequence of it. The former contains a petition to parliament; in the latter the real petition is resumed verbatim, and converted
into a law. In the copy, the queen's marriage with Bothwell is called " a
priveit marriage," which it certainly was not; for it was celebrated, after
proclamation of banns, in St. Giles's church, three several days, and with
public solemnity; but in the act it is denominated "'ane pretendit marriage," which is the proper description of it, according to the ideas of the
party. In the copy, the queen is said to be " so thrall and bludy affectionat to the privat appetite of that tyran," which is nonsense, but in the
act it is " blindly affectionat."  In the copy it is said, " all nobill and virtuous men abhorring their traine and company."  In the act, "their tyrannie and company," which is evidently the true reading, as the other has
either no meaning, or is a mere tautology. 2. The other proof of the
forgery of the letters is founded upon the impossibility of reconciling the
account, given of the time when, and the places from which, the letteis
are supposed to have been written, with what is certainly known concerning the queen's motions. According to the paper published, Anders. i.
269, which has been called Murray's Diary, and which is formed upon the
authority of the letters, Mary set out from Edinburgh to Glasgow, January
21, 1567; she arrived there on the 23d; left that place on the 27th; she,
together with the king, reached Linlithgow on the 28th, staid in that town
only one night, and returned to Edinburgh before the end of the month,
But, according to Mr. Goodall, the queen did not leave Edinburgh until




344                 DISSERTATION ON
Friday, Jan. 24th, as she staid a night at Callendar, she could not reach
Glasgow sooner than the evening of Saturday the 25th; and she returned
to Linlithgow on Tuesday the 28th. By consequence, the first letter.
which supposes the queen to have been at least four days in Glasgow, as
well as the second letter, which bears date at Glasgow, Satuzrday morning,
whereas she did not arrive there until the evening, must be forgeries.
That the queen did not set out from Edinburgh sooner than the 24th of
January, is evident (as he contends) from the public records, which contain
a Precept of a corrmation of a life-rent by James Boyd to Margaret
Chalmers, granted by the queen, on the 24th of January, at Edinburgh;
and likewise a letter of the queen's dated at Edinburgh on the same day,
appointing James Inglis tailor to the prince her son. That the king and
queen had returned to Linlithgow on the 28th appears from a deed, in which
they appoint Andrew Ferrier keeper of their palace there, dated at Lin
litihgow, January 28. Good. i. 118.
This has been represented to be not only a convincing, but a legal proof
of the forgery of the letters said to be written by lMary; but how far it
falls short of this will appear from the following considerations.
1. It is evident, from a declaration or confession made by the bishop of
Ross, that before the conferences at York, which were opened in the beginning of October, 1568, Mary had, by an artifice of Maitland's, got into her
hands a copy of those letters which her subjects accused her of having
written to Bothwell. Brown's Trial of the duke of Norfolk, 31. 36. It is
highly probable that the bishop of Ross had seen the letters before he
wrote the defence of queen Mary's honour in the year 1570. They were
published to all the world, together with Buchanan's Detection, A. D. 1571.
Now, if they had contained an error so gross, and at that time so obvious
to discovery, as the supposing the queen to have passed several days at
Glasgow, while she was really at Edinburgh; had they contained a letter
dated at Glasgow, Saturday morning, though she did not arrive there till
the evening; is it possible that she herself, who ]knew her own motions, or
the able and zealous advocates who appeared for her in that age, should
not have published and exposed this contradiction, and, by so doing, have
blasted at once the credit of such an imposture? In disquisitions which are
naturally abstruse and intricate, the ingenuity of the latest author may discover many things which have escaped the attention, or baffled the sagacity, of those who have formerly considered the same subject. But when
a matter of fact lay so obvious to view, this circumstance of its being unobserved by the queen herself, or by any of her adherents, is almost a
demonstration that there is some mistake or fallacy in our author's arguments. So far are any, either of our historians, or of Mary's defenders, from
calling in question the common account concerning the time of the queen's
setting out.to Glasgow, and her returning from it, that there is not the least
appearance of any difference among them with regard to this point. But
farther,
2. Those papers in the public records, on which our author rests the
proof of his assertion concerning the queen's motions, are not the originals
subscribed by the queen, but copies only, or translaticns of copies of those
originals. It is not necessary, nor would it be very easy, to render this
intelligible to persons unacquainted with the forms of law in Scotland; but
every Scotsman conversant in business will understand me when I say that
the precept of confirmation of the life-rent to Boyd is only a Latin copy
or note of a precept, which was sealed with the privy seal, on a warrant
from the signet office, proceeding on a signature which bore date at Edinburgh the 24th of January; and that the deed in favour of James Inglis is
the copy of a letter, sealed with the privy seal, proceeding on a signature
which bore date at Edinburgh January 24. From all this we may argue
with some degree of reason, that a proof founded on papers which are se




K. HENRY'S MURDER.                               345
many removes distant from the originals, cannot but be very lame and
uncertain.
3. At that time all public papers were issued in the name both of the
king and queen; by law, the king's subscription was nlo less requisite to
any paper than the queen's; and therefore, unless the original signatures
be produced, in order to ascertain the particular day when each of them
signed, or to prove that it was signed only by one of them, the legal proof
arising from these papers would be, that both the king and queen signed
them at Edinburgh on the 24th of January.
4. The dates of the warrants or precepts issued by the sovereign in that
age seem to have been in a great measure arbitrary, and fixed at the pleasure of the writer; and of consequence, these dates were seldom accurate, are often false, and can never be relied upon. This abuse became so
frequent, and was found to be so pernicious, that an act of parliament, A.
D. 1592, declared the fixing a false date to a signature to be high treason.
5. There still remain, in the public records, a great number of papers,
which prove the necessity of this law, as well as the fallacy of our author's
arguments. And though it be no easy matter, at the distance of two centuries, to prove any particular date to be false, yet surprising instances of
this kind shall be produced.  Nothing is more certain from history, than
that the king was at Glasgow 24th January, 1567; and yet the record oI
signatures from 1565 to 1582, fol. 16th, contains the copy of a signature to
Archibald Edmonston, said to have been subscribed by our sovereigns, i.
e. the king and queen, at Edinburgh, Jan. 24, 1567; so that if we were
to rely implicitly upon the dates in the records of that age, or to hold our
author's argument to be good, it would prove that not only the queen, but
the king too was at Edinburgh on the 24th of January.
It appears, from an original letter of the bishop of Ross, that on the 25th
of October, 1566, Mary lay at the point of death; Keith, App. 134; and
yet a deed is to be found in the public records, which bears that it was
signed by the queen that day. Privy seal, lib. 35. fol. 89.  Ouchterlony.~
Bothwell seized the queen as she returned from Stirling, April 24, 15679
and (according to her own account) conducted her to Dunbar with all diligence. And. i. 95. But our author, relying on the dates of' some papers
which he found in the records, supposes that Bothwell allowed her to stop
at Edinburgh, and to transact business there. Nothing can be more improbable than this supposition. We may therefore rank the date of the
deed to WfTright, Privy seal, lib. 36. fol. 43, and which is mentioned by our
author, vol. i. 124, among the instances of the false dates of papers which
were issued in the ordinary course of business in that age. Our author has
mistaken the date of the other paper to Forbes, ibid.; it is signed April 14th,
not April 24th.
If there be any point agreed upon in Mary's history, it is, that she remained at Dunbar from the time that Bothwell carried her thither, till she
returned to Edinburgh along with him  in the beginning of May.  Our
author himself allows that she resided twelve days there, vol. i. 367. Now
though there are deeds in the records which bear that they were signed by
the queen at Dunbar during that time, yet there are others which bear that
they were signed at Edinburgh; e. g. there is one at Edinburgh, April 27th,
Privy seal, lib. 36. fol. 97.  There are others said to be signed at Dunbar
on that day.  Lib. 31.  Chart. No. 524. 526. Ib. lib. 32. No. 154. 157.
There are some signed at Dunbar, April 28th.  Others at Edinburgh, April
30th, lib. 32. Chart. No. 492.  Others at Dunbar, May 1st. Id. ibid.
* N. B. In some of the early editions of this Dissertation, another instance of the same nature
with those which go before and follow was mentioned; but that, as has since been discovered, was
founded on a rnisiake of the person employed to search the records, and is therefore omitted in this
edition. Tihe reasoning however, in the dissertation, stands still in force, notwithstanding this
omission.
VOL. III.-44




3-46                  DDIS SERTATION -ON
No. 158. Thnese different charters suppose the queen to have made so
many unknown, improbable, and inconsistent journeys, that they afford the
clearest demonstration that the dates in these records ought not to be
depended on.
This becomes more evident from the date of the charter said to: be signed
April 27th, which happened that year-to be a Sunday, which was not, at
that time, a day of business in Scotland, an appears from  the books of
sederunt, then kept by the lords of session.
From this short review of our author's proof of the forgery of the letters
-to Bothwell, it is evident, that his arguments are far from  amounting to
demonstration.?
Another argument against the genuineness of these letters is founded on
the style and composition, which are said to be altgether unworthy of the
queen, and unlike her real productions.  It is plain, both from  the great
accuracy of composition in most of Mary's letters, and even from  her
solicitude to write them in a fair hand, that she valued herself on those
accomplishments, and was desirous of being esteemed an elegant writer.
But when she wrote at any time in a hurry, then many marks of inaccuracy
appear. A remarkable instance of this may be found in a paper published,
Good. ii. 301. Mary's letters to Bothwell were written in the utmost hurry;
and yet under all the disadvantages of a translation, they are not destitute
either of spirit or of energy.  The manner in which she expresses her
love to Bothwell has been pronounced indecent and even shocking. But
Mary's temper led her to warm  expressions of her regard; those refinements of delicacy, which now appear in all the commerce between the
sexes, were in that age but little known, even among persons of the highest
rank. Among the earl of Hardwicke's papers, there is a series of letters,
from  Mary to the duke of Norfolk, copied from  the Harleian library, p.
37. b. 9. lol. 88, in which Mary declares her love to that nobleman in a
language which would now be reckoned extremely indelicate; Hard. State
Papers, i. 189, &c.
Some of Mary's letters to Bothwell were written before the murder of
her husItpd; some of them  after that event, and before her marriage to
Bothweg., Those which are prior to the death of her husband abound
with thVi4lodest expressions of her love to Bothwell, and excite something
more tIaqp jsuspicion that their familiarity had been extremely criminal.
We fin4,~ them, too, some dark expressions, which her enemies employed
to praqvpst1tb    she was no stranger to the schemes which were formed
againlt t-ijlusband's life.  01 this kind are the following passages:
"Al:a'k  J. pver dissavit ony body; but I remit me altogidder to zour
will.. li.!/kl, me advertisement quhat I sail do, and quhatsaever thing come
thereof, i sall obey zow. Advise to with zourself, gif ze can find out
ony.tair-secret inventioun by medicine, for he suld tak medicine, and the
bathlqi  Craigmillar."  Good. ii. 22.  "See not hir quhais fenzeit teiris
sul] not be sa meikle praisit and estemit, as the trew and faithfull travellis
* The uncertainty of any conclusion formed merely on the date of public papers in that age,
especially with respect to the king, is confirmed and illustrated by a discovery which was made
lately. Mr. Davidson (to whom I was indebted for much information when I composed this dissertation thirty-three years ago) has, in the course of his intelligent researches into the antiquities
of his country, found an original paper which must appear curious to Scottish antiquaries. B uchanan asserts, that on account of the king's frequent absence, occasioned by his dissipation and love
of field sports, a cachette, or stamp cut in metal, was made, with which his name was affixed to
public deeds, as if he had been present. Hist. lib. xvii. p. 343. Edit. Ruddim. Knox relates the
same thing, Hist. p. 393. How much this may have divested the king of the consequence whichhe
derived from having his name conjoined with that of the queen in all public deeds, as the affixing
of his name was thereby put entirely in the power of the person who had the custody of the
cachette, is manifest. The keeping of it, as both Buchanan and Knox affirm, was committed to
Rizio. A late defender of queen Mary calls in question what they relate, and seems to consider it
as one of the aspersions. Goodall, vol. i. p. 238. The truth of their assertion, however, is now
fully established by the original deed which I have mentioned. This I have seen and examined
with attention. It is now lodged by Mr. Davidson in the signet office. In it, the subscription.of,he king s name has evidently been made by a cachette with printers' ink




K. HENRY'S MURDER.                                       347
quhilk  I sustene for to merit hir place.  For obtaining of the quhilk,
againis my natural, I betrayis thame that may impesche mne.  God forgive
me," &c.  Ibid. 27.  "I have walkit laiter thairup, than I wald have done,
gif it had not been to draw something out of him, quhilk this bearer will
shaw zow, quhilk is the fairest commodity that can be offerit to excuse
zour affairs."  Ibid. 32.  From  the letters posterior to the death of her
husband, it is evident that the scheme of Bothwell's seizing Mary by
force, and carrying her along with him, was contrived in concert with
herself, and with her approbation.A
* That letters of so much importance as those of Mary to Bothwell should have been entirely
lost, appearsto many altogether unaccountable. After being produced in England before Elizabeth's
commissioners, they were delivered back by them to the earl of hi urray. Good. ii. 235. He seems
to have kept them in his possession during life. After his death they iell into the handsof Lennox
his successor, who restored them to the earl of Morton. Good. ii. 91. Though it be not necessarily
connected with any of the questions which gave occasion to this dissertation, it may perhaps satisfy
the curiosity of some of my readers to inform them, that, after a very diligent search, which has
lately been made, no copy of Mary's letters to Bothwell can be found in any of the public libraries
in Great Britain. The only certain intelligence concerning them, since the time of their being de
livered to Morton, was communicated by the accurate Dr. Birch.
Extract of the letters of Robert Bowes, Esq. ambassador from queen Elizabeth to the king of
Scotland, written to sir Francis Walsingham, secretary of state, from the original register book of
Mr. Bowes's letters, from 15th of August, 1582, to 28th September, 1583, in: the possession of Christopher Hunter, M. D. of Durham.
1582, 8th November, from Edinburgh
Albeit I have been borne in hand, That the coffer wherein were the originals of letters between
the Scottish queen and the earl of.Bothwell, had been delivered to sundry hands, and thereby was
at present wanting, and unknown where it rested. yet I have learned certainly by the prior of Pluscardyne's means, that both the coffer and also the writings are come, and now remain with the earl
of Gowrie, who, I perceive, will be hardly intreated to make delivery to her Majesty, according to
her Majesty's desire.
This time past I have expended in searching where the coffer and writing were, wherein, without
the help of the prior, I should have found great difficulty; now I will essay Gowrie. and of my
success you shall be shortly advertised.
12th of November, 1582, from Edinburgh.
Because I had both learned, that the casket and letters mentioned in my last, before these were
come to the possession of the earl of Gowrie, and also found that no mean might prevail to win the
same out of -his hands without his own consent and privity; in which behalf I hademployed fit instruments,'that nevertheless profiting nothing; therefore I attempted to essay himself, letting him
know that the said casket and letters should have been brought  ) her Majesty by the offer and
good means of good friends, promising to have delivered them to her Majesty before they came into
his hands and custody, and knowing that he did bear the like affection, and was ready to pleasure
her Majesty in all things, and chiefly in this that had been thus far tendered to her Majesty, and
which thereby should be well accepted and with princely thanks and gratuity be requited to his.omfort and contentment; I moved him that they might be a present to be sent to her Majesty from
him, and that I might cause the same to be conveyed to her Majesty, adding hereunto such words
and arguments as might both stir up a hope of liberality, and also best effect the purpose. At the
first he was loth to agree that they were in his possession; but I let him plainly know that I was
certainly informed that they were delivered to him by Sanders Jardin; whereupon he pressed to
know who did so inform me, inquiring whether the sons of the earl of Morton had done it, or no.
I did not otherwise in plain terms deny or answer thereunto, but that he might think that he had
told me as the prior is ready to avouch, and well pleased that I shall give him to be the author
thereof; which he had said [though] all these letters were in his keeping (which he would neither
grant nor deny), yet he might not deliver them to any person without the consents and privities, as
well of the king, that had interest therein, as also of the rest of the noblemen enterprisers of the
action, against the king's mother, and that would have them kept as an evidence to warrant and
make good that action. And albeit I replied, that their action in that part touching the assignation
of the crown to the king by his mother had received such establishment, confirmation and strength,
by acts of parliaments and other public authority and instruments, as neither should that case be
suffered to come in debate or question, nor such scrolls and papers ought to be showed for the
strengthening thereof, so as these might well be left and be rendered to the hands of her Majesty, to
whom they were destined before they fell into his keeping; yet he would not be removed or satisfied;
concluding, after much reasonings, that the earl of Morton, nor any other that had the charge and
keeping thereof, durst at any time make delivery: and because it was the first time that I had moved
him therein, and that he would gladly both answer her Majesty's good expectation in him, and also
perform his duty dule to his sovereign, and associates in the action aforesaid; therefore he would
seek out the said casket and letters, at his return to hlis house, which he thought should be within a
short time; and upon finding of the same, and better advice and consideration had of the cause, he
would give farther answer. This resolution I have received as to the thing; and for the present I
could not better, leaving him to give her Majesty such testimony of his good will towards her, by his
frank dealing herein, as she may have cause to confirm her Highness's good opinion conceived
already of him, and be thereby drawn to greater goodness towards him. I shall still labour him
both by myself and also by all other means; but I greatlg distrust the desired success heretU




348                       DISSERTATION ON
With respect to the sonnets, sir David Dalrymple has proved clearly,
that they must have been written after the murder of the king, and prior
to Mary's marriage with Bothwell. But as hardly any part of my narrative is founded upon what is contained in the sonnets, and as in this Dissertation I have been constrained to dwell longer upon minute and verbal
criticisms than may be interesting and agreeable to many of my readers,
I shall rest satisfied with referring, for information concerning every particular relative  to  the  sonnets, to  Remarks on  the History  of Scotland,
Chap. Xl.
Having thus stated the proof on both sides; having examined at so great
a length the different systems with regard to the facts in controversy; it
may be expected that I should now pronounce sentence. In my opinion,
there are only two conclusions, which can be drawn from the facts which
have been enumerated.
One, that Bothwell, prompted by his ambition or love, encouraged by
the queen's known aversion to her husband, and presuming on her attachment to himself, struck the blow without having concerted with her the
manner or circumstances of perpetrating that crime.  That Mary, instead
of testifying much indignation at the deed, or discovering any resentment
against Bothwell, who was accused of having committed it, continued to
load him  with marks of her regard, conducted his trial in such a manner
24th of November, 1582, from Edinburgh.
For the recovery of the letters in the coffer, come to the hands of the earl of Gowrie, I have lately
moved him earnestly therein, letting him know the purpose of the Scottish queen, both giving out
that the letters are counterfeited by her rebels, and also seeking thereon to have them delivered to
her or defaced, and that the means which she will make in this behalf shall be so great and effectual,
as these writings cannot be safely kept in that realm without dangerous offence of him that hath
the custody thereof, neither shall he that is once known to have them be suffered to hold them in
his hands. Herewith I have at large opened the perils likely to fall to that action, and the parties
therein, and particular to himself that isnow openly known to have the possession of these writings
and I have lettin him see what surety it shall bring to the said cause and all the parties therein, and
to himself, that these writings may be with secrecy and good order committed to the keeping of h-c~
Majesty, that will have them ready whensoever any use shall be for them, and by her Highness's
countenance defend them and the parties from such wrongful objections as shall be laid agains
them, offering at length to him, that if he be not fully satisfied herein, or doubt that the rest of tht
associates shall not like of the delivery of them to her Majesty in this good manner, and for the interest rehearsed, that I shall readily, upon meeting and conference with them, procure their assent in
this part (a matter more easy to offer than to perform); and lastly, moving him that (for the secrecy
and benefit of the cause, and that her Majesty's good opinion towards himself may be firmly settled
and confirmed by his acceptable forwardness herein) he would, without needless scruple, frankly
commit these writings to her Majesty's good custody for the good uses received. After long debate
he resolved, and said, that he would unfeignedly shew and do to her Majesty all the pleasure that
he might without offence to the king his sovereign, and prejudice to the associates in the action
and therefore he would first make search and view the said letters, and herein take advice what he
might do, and how far he might satisfy and content her Majesty; promising thereon to give more
resolute answer; and he concluded flatly that after he had found and seen the writings, that he
might not make delivery of them without the privity of the king. Albeit I stood along with him
against his resolution in this point, to acquaint the king with this matter before the letters were in
the hands of her Majesty, letting him see that his doings there should admit great danger to the
cause; yet t could not remove him from it. It may be that he meaneth to putover the matter from
himself to the king, upon sight whereof I shall travel effectually to obtain the kinlg's consent, that
the letters may be comnlitted to her Majesty's keeping, thinking it more easy to prevail herein with
the king, in the present love and affection that he beareth to her Highness, than to win any thing at
the hands of the associates in the action, whereof some principal of them now come and remain
at the devotion of the king's mother; in this I shall still call on Gowrie, to search out the coffer, according to his promise; and as I shall find him minded to do therein, so shall I do my best anld whole
endeavour to effect the success to her Majesty's best contentment.
2d December, 1582, from Edinburgh.
Because I saw good opportunity offered to renew the matter to the earl of Gowrie for recovery of
the letters in the coffer in his hands, therefore I put him in mind thereof: whereupon he told me
that the dukle of Lennox had sought earnestly to have had those letters, and that the king did know
where they were, so as they could not be delivered to her Majesty without the king's privity and
consent, and he pretended to be still willing to pleasure her Majesty in the same, so far as he may
with his duty to the king and to the rest of the associates in that action: but I greatly distrust to
effect this to her Majesty's pleasure, wherein, nevertheless, I shall do my utmost endeavours.
Whether James VI., who put the earl of Gowrie to death, A. D. 1584, and seized all his effects,
took care to destroy his mother's letters, for whose honour he was at:.hat time extremely zealous;
whether they have perished by some unknown accident, or whether they may not still remain un
-bserved among the archives of some of our great families, it is impossible to determine.




K. HENRY'S MURDER.                          349
as rendered it impossible to discover his guilt, and soon after. in opposition
to all the maxims of decency or of prudence, voluntarily agreed to a marriage with him, which every consideration should have induced her to
detest. By this verdict, Mary is not pronounced guilty of having contrived
the murder of her husband, or even of having previously given her consent to his death; but she is not acquitted of having discovered her
approbation of the deed, by her behaviour towards him who was the
author of it.
The other conclusion is that which Murray and his adherents laboured
to establish: " That James, sometymme earl of Bothwile, was the chiefe
executor of the horribill and unworthy murder, perpetrat in the person ot
umquhile king Henry of gude memory, fader to our soveraine lord, and
the queenis lauchfull husband; sa was she of the foreknovwledge, counsall,
devise, perswadar, and command of the said murder to be done." Good.
ii. 207.
Which of these conclusions is most agreeable to the evidence that has
been produced, I leave my readers to determine




APPENDIX.
No. I. (p. 88.). A.Tfenrorial of certain Points meet fo~l the restoring the Realm of SCOTLAND
to the antient VWeale.
[5th August, 1559. Cotton, Lib. Cal. B. x. fol. 17. From a copy in Secretary Cecil's hand.]
IPRIMIS,, it is to be noted that the best worldly felicity that Scotland can
save is either to continue in a perpetual peace with the kingdom of England, or
to be made one monarchy with England, as they both make but one island,
divided from the rest of the world.
If the first is sought, that is, to be in perpetual peace with England, then
must it necessarily be provided that Scotland be not so subject to the appointments of France as is presently, which, being an ancient enemy to England,
seeketh always to make Scotland an instrument to exercise thereby their malice
upon England, and to make a footstool thereof to look over England as
they may.
Therefore, when Scotland shall have come into the hands of a mere Scottishl
man in blood, then may there be hope of such accord; but as long as it is at the
commandment of the French, there is no hope to have accord long betwixt these
two realms.
Therefore, seeing it is at the French king's commandment, by reason of his
wife, it is to be considered for the weale of Scotland, that until she have children, and during her absence out of the realm, the next heirs to the crown,
being the house of the Hamiltons, should have regard hereto, and to see that
neither the crown be imposed nor wasted; and, on the other side, the nobility
and commonalty ought to force that the laws and the old customs of the realm
be not altered, neither that the country be not impoverished by taxes, imprest,
or new imposts, after the manner of France; for provision wherein, both by the
law of God and man, the French king and his wife may be moved to reform
their misgovernance of the land.
And for this purpose, it were good that the nobility and commons joined with
the next heir of the crown, do seek due reformation of such great abuses as tend
to the ruin of their country, which must be done before the French grow too
strong and insolent.
First, That it may be provided by the consent of the three estates of the land,
that the land may be free from all idolatry like as England is; for justification
whereof, if any free general council may be had, where the Pope of Rome have
not the seat of judgment, they may offer to show their cause to be most agreeable to Christ's religion.
Next, To provide that Scotland might be governed, in all rules and offices, by
the antient blood of the realm, without either captains, lieutenants, and soldiers,
as all other princes govern their countries, and especially that the forts might
be in the hands of mere Scottish men.
Thirdly, That they might never be occasioned to enter into wars against
England, except England should give the first cause to Scotland.
Fourthly,oThat no nobleman of Scotland should receive pension of France,
except it were whilst he did serve in France, for otherwise thereby the French
would shortly corrupt many to betray their own country.
Fifthly, That no office, abbey, living, or commodity, be given to any but mere
Scottish men, by the assent of the three estates of the realm.'
Sixthly, That there be a council in Scotland, appointed in the queen's absence,
to govern the whole realm, and in those cases not to be directed by the French,




APPENDIX, No. It.                            351
3Seventhly, That it be by the said three estates appointed how the queen's
revenue of the realm shall be expended, how much the queen shall have for her
portion and estate during her absence, how much shall be limited to the governance and defence of the realm, how much yearly appointed to be kept in
treasure.
In these and such like points, if the French king and the queen e found
unwilling, and will withstand these provisions for the weale of the land, then
hath the three estates of the realm authority, forthwith, to intimate to the said
king and queen their humble requests; and if the same be not effectually
granted, then humbly they may commit the governance thereof to the next heir
of the crown, binding the same also to observe the laws and ancient rights of
the realm.
Finally, if the queen shall be unwilling to this, as it is likely she will, in respect
of the greedy and tyrannous affection of France, then it is apparent that
Almighty God is pleased to transfer from her the rule of the kingdom for the
weal of it, and this time must be used with great circumspection to avoid the
decepts and tromperies of the French.
And then may the realm of Scotland consider, being once made free, what
means may be devised by God's goodness to accord the two realms to endure,
for time to come, at the pleasure of Almighty God, in whose hands the hearts of
all princes be.
No. II. (p. 92.)
A Letter of aclitland of Lethington's, thus directed:
To my loving friend James. Be this delivered at London.
[20th January, 1559-60. Cott. Lib. Cal. B. ix. From the original in his own hand.]
I UND)ERSTAND by the last letter I received from yow, that discoursing with
zour countrymen upon the matter of Scotland, and comoditeys may ensew to
that realm hereafter,'giff ze presently assist ws with zour forces, ze find a nombre of the contrary advise, douting that we sall not at length be found trusty
frends, nor mean to contynew in constant ametye, albeit we promise, but only
for avoyding the present danger make zow to serve our turne, and after being
delivered, becum enemies as of before. For profe quhareof, they alledge things
that have past betwixt ws heretofore, and a few presumptiones tending to the
sam end, all grounded upon mistrust; quhilks, at the first sicht, have some
shewe of apparence, gif men wey not the circumstances of the matter; but gif
they will confer the tyme past with the present, consider the nature of this caus,
and estate of our contrey, I doubt not but jugement sal be able to banish mistrust. And first, I wad wish ze should examyne the causes off the old inmitye
betwixt the realms of England and Scotland, and quhat moved our ancestours
to enter into ligue with the Frenche; quhilks by our storeys and registres of
antiquiteys appear to be these. The princes of England, some tyme, alledging
a certain kynde of soveraintye over this realm; some tyme upon hye courage,
or incited by incursions off our bordourares, and semblable occasions, mony
tymes enterprised the conquest of ws, and sa far furth preist it by force off
arms, that we wer dryven to great extramiteys, by loss of our princes, our
noblemen, and a good part of our cuntrey, sa that experience taught ws that our
owne strength was scarse sufficient to withstand the force of England. The
Frenche zour auncient enemyes, considering well how natdre had sa placed ws
in a iland with zow, that na nation was able sa to annoye England as we being
enemyes, soucht to joine ws to theym in ligue, tending by that meane to
detourne zour armyes from the invasion of France, and occupy zow in the
defence off zour country at hame, offering for that effect to bestowe some
charges upon ws, and for compassing off theyr purpos, choysed a tyme to propone the matter, quhen the fresche memory off injuris lately receaved at zour
hands, was sa depely prented on our hartes, that all our myndes were occupied
how to be revenged, and arme ourselfes with the powar off a forayne prince
against zour enterprises thereafter




852             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
This wes the beginning of our confederacy with France. At quhilk time,
our cronicles make mention, that some off the wysest foresaw the perril, and
small frute- should redound to ws thereof at lenthi: zit had affection sa blinded
iugement, that the advise of the maist part overcame the best. The maist part
of all quarells betwixt ws since that tyme, at least quhen the provocation came
on our syde, hes ever fallen out by theyrproclrement, rather than anyone caus off
our selfes: and quhensaever we brack the peace, it come partly by theyr intysements, partly to eschew the conquest intended by that realm. But now hes
God's providence sa altered the case, zea changed it to the plat contrary, that
now hes the Fr3nche taken zour place, and we, off very jugement, becum
desyrous to have zow in theyr rowme. Our eyes are opened, we espy how
uncareful they have been of our weile at all tymes, how they made ws ever to
serve theyr turne, drew us in maist dangerous weys for theyr commodite, and
nevertheless wad not styck, oft tymes, against the natour of the ligue, to contrak peace, leaving ws in weyr. We see that their support, off late zeres, was
not grantit for any affection they bare to ws, for pytie they had off our estate,
for recompense off the lyke friendship schawin to them in tyme off theyr afflictiones, but for ambition, and insaciable cupidite to reygne, and to mak Scotland
ane accessory to the crown of France. This was na friendly office, but mercenary, craving hyre farre exceeding the proportion of theyr deserving; a hale
realm for the defence of a part. We see theym manifestly attempt the thing
we suspected off zow; we feared ze ment the conquest off Scotland, and they
are planely fallen to that work; we hated zow for doubt we had ze ment evill
towards ws, and sall we love theym, quhilks bearing the name off frends, go
about to bring ws in maist vile servitude? Gif by zour frendly support at this
tyme, ze sail declare that not only seek ze not the ruyne off our country, but
will preserve the libertie thereof from conquest by strangeares, sall not the
occasion off all inimitie with zow, and ligue with theym, be taken away? The
causes being removed, how sall the effectes remane? The fear of conquest
made ws to hate zow and love theym, the cais changed, quhen we see theym
planely attempt conquest, and zow schaw ws frendship, sail we not hate them,
and favour zow? Gif we have schawne sa great constance, continuing sa
mony zeares in amity with theym, off quhome we had sa small commodite,
quhat sall move us to breake with zow, that off all nationes may do ws greatest
plesour?
But ze will say, this mater may be reconcyled, and then frends as off before.
I think weill peace is the end of all weyr, but off this ze may be assured, we
will never sa far trust that reconciliation, that we wil be content to forgo the
ametye of England, nor do any thing may bring ws in suspicion with zow. Giff
we wold at any tyme to please theyrn, break with zow, should we not, besydes
the losse off estimation and discrediting of ourselfes, perpetually expone our
common weill to a maist manifest danger, and becum a pray to theyr tyranny?
Quhais aid could we implore, being destitute of zour friendship, giff they off
new wald attempt theyr formnar enterprise? Quhat nation myght help ws giff
they wald, or wald giff they might? and it is lyke eneuch, they will not stick
hereafter to tak theyr time off ws, quhen displesour and grudge hes taken depe
rute on baith sydes, seeing ambition has sa impyrit ower theyr reason, that
before we had ever done any thing myght offend theym, but by the contrary
pleased theym by right and wrang, they did not stick to attempte the subversion of our hale state. I wald ze should not esteenie ws sa barayne of jugement, that we cannot foresee our awne perril; or sa foolische, that we will not
study by all gode means to entertayne that thing may be our safetye; quhilk
consistes all in the relaying of zour friendships. I pray zow consider in lyke
case, when, in the days of zour princes off maist noble memory king Henry the
VIII. and king Edward the VI., meanes wer opened off amytye betwixt baith
realms; was not at all tymes the difference of religion the onley stay they wer
not embraced? Did not the craft of our clergy and power of theyr adherents
subvert the devises of the better sort? But now has God off his mercy removed
that block furth of the way; now is not theyr practise lyke to tak place any
mare, when we ar comme to a conformity off doctrine, and profes the same
religion with zow, quhilk I take to be the straytest knot off anmitye can be
devised. G iff it may be alledged that some off our countrymen, at ony tyme




APPENDIX, No. 11                                353
violated theyr promis? giff ze liff to way the circumstances, ze sail fynd the
oromis is rather brought on by necessite, after a great owerthraw off our men,'hen comme off fre will, and tending ever to our great incommodite and decay
iff our haill state, at leist sa taken. But in this case, sail the preservation off
our libertie be inseperably joined with the keping off promesse, and the viola
tion off our fayth cast ws in maist miserable servitude. Sa that giff neyther
the feare off God, reverence of man, religion, othe, promise, nor warldlyhonestye
wes sufficient to bynd ws, yet sall the zeale off our native countrey, the maintenance of our owne state, the safety of our wyffes and childrene from slavery,
compell ws to kepe promisse. I am assured, it is trewly and sincerely ment on
our part to continew in perpetual ametye with zow, it sail be uttered by our
proceedings. Giff ze be as desirous of it as we ar, assurances may be devysed,
quharby all partyes will be out of doubte. There be gode meanes to do it, fit
instruments for the purpos, tyme serves weill, the inhabitants of baith realms
wish it, God hes wrought in the people's hartes on bayth parties a certaine still
agreement upon it, never did, at any tyme, so mony things concurre at ones to
lknyt it up, the disposition off a few, quhais harts are in Godis hands, may mak
up the hale. I hope he quha hes begun this work, and mainteyned it quhile
now, by the expectation of man, sale perfyte it.
I pray zow, let not zour men dryve time in consultation, quhether ze sail
support ws or no. Seying the mater speaketh for itself, that ze mon take upon
zow the defence off our caus, giff ze have anry respect for zour awne weill.
Their preparatives in France, and levying of men in Germany, (quheyroff I am
lately advertised,) ar not altogyder ordeyned for us, ze ar the mark they shote:
at; they seke our realme, but for ane entrey to zours. Giff they should
directly schaw hostilite to zow, they knaw zo wald mak redy for theyme, therefor they do, by indirect meanes, to blind zow, the thing they dare not as zit
planely attempte. They seme to invade us to th' end, that having assembled
theyr hale forces sa nere zour bordours, they may unlok it to attack zow; It is
ane of their aid fetches, making a schew to one place, to lyght on ane other.
Remember how covertly zour places about Boulougne were assaizeit, and carryed away, ze being in peace as now. How the enterprise of Calais was fynely
dissembled, I think ze have not sa sone forgotten. Beware of the third, prevent
theyr policy by prudence. Giff ze se not the lyke disposition presently in
theym, ze se nathing. It is a grosse ignorance to misknaw, what all nations
planely speks off. Tak heed ze say not hereafter, "' Had I wist;" ane uncomely
sentence to procede off a wyse man's mouth. That is onwares chanced on to
zow, quhilk zow commonly wissed, that this countrey might be divorsed from
the Frensche, and is sa comme to pass as was maist expedient for zow. For giff
by your intysement we had taken the mater in hand, ze myght have suspected
we would have been ontrusty frends, had na langer continued steadfaste, then
perril had appeared. But now, qulhen off our self, we have conceyved the hatred,
provoked by private injuries, and that theyr evil dealing with ws hes deserved
our inimitye, let no man doubte but they sall fynd ws ennemyes in ernest, that
sa ungently hes demeyned our countrey, and at quhais hands we look for
nathing but all extremitye, giff ever they may get the upper hand. Let not
this occasion, so happely offered, escape zow; giff ze do, neglecting the present
opportunite, and hoping to have ever gode luk, comme sleeping upon zow, it is
to be feared zour enemye waxe so great, and sa strang, that afterwards quhen
ze wald, ze sall not be able to put him down; and then, to zour smart, after
the tyme ze will acknowledge zour error. Ze have felt, by experience, quhat
harme cometh off oversight, and trusting to zour enemyes promesse. We offer
zow the occasion, quheyrby zour former losses may be repayred.  Quhilk gif
ze let over slyde, suffering ws to be owerrun, quha then, I pray zow, sall stay
the Frensche, that they sail not invade zow in zour own boundes, sic is their
lust to reygne, that they can neyther be content with theyr fortune present, nor
rest and be satisfied when they have gode luck, but wvill still follow on having
in theyr awne brayne conceaved the image of sa grea t a conquest, quhat think
ye sal be the end?  Is ther any of sa small jugement, that be doth not foresee
already, that theyr hail force sail then be bent against zow?
It sal not be amis, to consider in quhat case the Frensche be presently. Theyr
estate is not always sa calme at hame as every man thinketh.  And trewly
VOL. III.-45




35q4   ~ 4HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
it wes not theyr great redines for weyr made theym to tak this mater on hana,
at this tyme, but rather a vayne trust in their awne policy, thinking to have
found na resistance, theyr opinion hes deceaved theym, and that makes them
now amased. The estates off the empire (as I heare) has suted restitution off
th' imperial towns Metz, Toull, and Verdun, quhilk may grow to some besynes;
and all thing is not a calme within theyr awne countrey, the les fit they be presently for weyr, the mare oportune esteme ye the tyrne for zow. Giff the lyke
occasion wer offered to the Frensche against zow, wey, how gladly would they
embrace it. Are ze not eschamed of zour sleuth, to spare theym that hes
already compassed zour destruction, giff they wer able? Consider with zour
self quhilk is to be choysed? To weyr against them out with zour realme or
within? Giff quhill ze sleape, we sal be overthrowne, then sail they not fayle
to fute zow in zour owne countrey, and use ws as a fete stole to overloke zow.
But some will say, perhaps, they meane it not. It is foly to think they wald
not giff they wer able, quhen before hand they stick not to giff zour armes, and
usurpe the style of zour crown. Then quhat difference there is to camp within
zowr awne bounds or without, it is manifest. Giff twa armyes should camp in
your countrey, but a moneth; albeit ye receaved na other harme, zit should
zowr losse be greatar, nor all the charge ze will nede to bestow on our support
will draw to, besydes the dishonour.
Let not men, that eyther lack gode advise, or ar not for perticular respects
weill affected to the caus, move zow to subtract zour helping hand, by alleging;things not apparent, for that they be possible. It is not, I grant, unpossible
that we may receave conditiones of peace; but I see little likelyhode that our
iennemyes will offer ws sik as will remove all mistrust, and giff we wald have
*accepted others, the mater had bene lang or now compounded. Let zow not
be moved for that they terme ws rebelles, and diffames our just querell with:the name of conspiracy against our soverayne. It is Hir HIyenes ryght we;manetayne. It is the liberty off hir realme we study to preserve with the
ihazard of our lyves. We are not (God knaweth) come to this poynte for
wantones, as men impacient of rewll, or willing to schake off the zoke of
government, but ar drawne to it by necessite, to avoyde the tyranny of strangeares, seaking to defraude ws off lawful government. Giff we should suffer
strangeares to plant themselffes peaceably in all the strenthes of our realme,
fortify the sey-portes, and maist important places, as ane entre to a plain con-,quest, now in the minorite of our soverane, beyng furth of the realme, should
we not be thought oncareful off the common weill, betrayares of our native
countrey, and evill subjects to Her Majeste? Quhat other opinion could sche
have off ws? Might she not justly hereafter call ws to accompt, as negligent
ministeres? Giff strangeares should be thus suffered to broke the chefe offices
beare the hail rewll, alter and pervert our lawes and liberty at theyr pleasour;
myght not the people esteem our noblemen unworthy the place of counsalours?
We mean na wyse to sultrak our obedience from  our soverane, to defraud
ilir Hyenes off her dew reverence, rents ana revenues off hir crown. We seke
lathing but that Scotland may remane, as of before, a fre realme, rewlit by
Hir Hyenes and hir ministeres, borne men of the sam; and that the succession
of the crown may remane with the lawful blode.
I wald not ze sould not sa lyttill esteme the friendship of Scotland, that ze
juged it not worthy to be embraced. It sall be na small commodite for zow to
be delivered off the annoyance of so neir a nyghtbour, quhais inimitye may
more trouble zow, then off any other nation albeit twyss as puissant, not lyeng
dry marche with zow. Besydes that ze sall not nede to feare the invasion of
any prince lackyng the commodite to invade zow by land, on our hand. Consider quhat superfluous charges ze bestowe on the fortification and keping of
Barwick: quhilk ze may reduce to a mean sowme, having ws to frendes. The
tealme of Ireland being of natour a gode and fertill countrey, by reason of the
sontinewalld unquietnes m:d lak of policy, ze knaw to be rather a burthen unto
ow than great advantage; and giff it were peaceable may be very commodious.
For pacification quhayrofY, it is not onknowne to zow quhat service we ar abill
to do. Refuse not theyr commoditeys, besides mony ma quhen they are offred.
Quhllis albeit I study not to amplify and dilate, yet is na other countrey able
o after zow the lyke, and are the rather to be embraced, for that zour aunces.




APPENDIX, No. II1, IV.                          355
tors, by all meanes, maist earnestly suted our amity, and yet it was not theyr
hap to come by it. The matter hes almaist carryed me beyond the boundes
off a lettre, quharfor I will leave to trouble zow after I have geven you this
note. I wald wiss that ze, and they that ar learned, sould rede the twa former
orations of Demosthepes, called Olynthiace, and considere quhat counsall that
wyse oratour gave to the Athenians, his countrymen, in a lyke case; quhilk
hes so great aflinite with this cause of ours, that every word thereoff myght be
applyed to our purpos. There may ze learne of him quhat advise is to be followed, when your nyghbours hous is on fyre. Thus I bid zow hartely fareweill.
From Sant Andrews, the 20th of January, 1559.
No. III. (p. 95.)
Part of a Letterfrom Tho. Randolph to Sir William Cecil, from the Camp before
Leith, 29th of April, 1560.
LAn original in the Paper Office.]
I WILL only for this time, discharge myself of my promise to the Earl of
Huntly, who so desyreth to be recommended to you, as one who, with all
his heart, favoureth this cause, to the uttermost of his power. Half the words
that come out of his mouth were able to persuade an unexperienced man to
speak farther in his behalf, than I dare be bold to write. I leave it to Your
Honour to judge of him, as of a man not unknown to you, and will myself
always measure my thoughts as he shall deserve to be spoken of. With much
difficulty, and great persuasion, he hath subscribed with the rest of the lords to
join with them in this action; whatsomever he can invent to the furtherance
of this cause, he hath promised to do with solemn pxotestation and many
words; he trusteth to adjoin many to this cause; and saith, surely that no man
shall lie where he taketh part. He hath this day subscribed a bond between
England and this nation; he saith, that there was never thing that liked hint
better.
No. IV. (p. 100.)
Randolph to Cecil, 10th August, 1560. From Edinburgh.
[An original in the Paper Office.]:rINCE the 29th of July, at what time I wrote last to Your Honour, I have
heard of nothing worth the reporting. At this present it may please you to
know, that the most part of the nobles are here arrived, as Your Honour shall
receive their names in writing. The Earl of Huntly excuseth himself by an
infirnnmity in his leg. His lieutenant for this time is the Lord of Lidington,
chosen speaker of the parliament, or harangue-maker as these men term it.
The first day of their sitting in parliament will be cn Thursday next. Hitherto
as many as have been present of the lords have communed and devised of certain heads then to be propounded, as, who shall be sent into France, who into
England. It is much easier to find them than the other. It seemeth almost
to be resolved upon that for England the Master of Maxwell and Laird ox
Lidington. For France, Pittarow and the justice clerk. Also they have con
sulted whom thev think meetest to name for the XXIV.; of the which the XII.
counsellors must'be chosen. They intend very shortly to send away Dingwall
the herald into France, with the names of those they shall chuse; and also to
require the King and Queen's consent unto this parliament. They have devised how to have the contract with England confirmed by authority of parliament; how also to have the articles of the agreement between them and their
King and Queen ratified. These things yet have only been had in communication. For the confirmation of the contract with England I have no doubt;
for that I hear many men very well like the same, as the Earl of Athol, the
Earl of Sutherland, the L. Glamis, who dined yesterday with the L. James.
The Lord Jawnes requested me this present day to bring the contract unto him.




SS6            HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
I intend, also, this day, to speak unto the L. Gray, in our L. Gray's name, for
that he promised in my hearing to subscribe, and then presently would have
done it, if the contract could have been had. For the more assurance against
all inconvenients, I would, besides that, that I trust it shall be ratified in parliament, that every nobleman in Scotland had put his hand and set his seal,
which may always remain as a notable monument, tho' the act of parliament
be hereafter disannulled. If it might, therefore, stand with your advice, that
the Lords might be written unto, now that they are here present, to that effect,
or that I might receive from Your Honr. some earnest charge to travel herein, I
doubt not:.but it would serve to good purpose. If it might be also known with
what substantial and effectious words or charge you desire to have it confirmed,
I think no great difficulty would be made. The Earl Marshal has often been
moved to subscribe, he useth mo delays than men judged he would. His son
told me yesterday, that he would speak with me at leisure, so did also Drumlanrick; I know not to what purpose: I have caused L. James to be the ear,
nester with the L. Marshal, for his authority's sake, when of late it was in
consultation by what means it might be wrought, that the amity between these
two realms might be perpetual; and among diverse men's opinion, one said
that he knew of no other, but by making them both one, and that in hope of
that mo things were done than would otherwise have ever been granted: the
Earl of Argyll advised him earnestly to stick unto that, that he had promised
that it should pass his power and all the crafty knaves of his counsel (I am
bold to use unto Your H. his own words) to break so godly a purpose. This
talk liked well the assisters, howsomever it pleased him to whom it was spoken
unto. The barons, who in time past have been of the parliament, had yesterday a convention among themselves in the church, in very honest and quiet
sort; they thought it good to require to be restored unto their ancient liberty,
to have voice in parliament. They presented that day a bill unto the lords to
that effect, a copy whereof shall be sent as soon as it can be had. It was
answered unto gently, and taken in good part. It was referred unto the Lords
of the Articles, when they are chosen, to resolve thereupon..-Herefollows a
long paragraph concerning the fortifications of Dunbar, &c. —This present
morning, viz. the 9th, I understood that the lords intended to be at the Parliament, which caused me somewhat to stay my letter, to see what I could hear
or learn worth the reporting unto Your Honr. The lords, at ten of the clock,
assembled themselves at the palace, where the Duke lieth; from whence they
departed towards the Tolbooth, as they were in dignity. Each one being set
in his seat, in such order as Your H. shall receive them in this scroll. The
crown, the mace, the sword, were laid in the queen's seat. Silence being commanded, the L. of Lidington began his oration. He excused his insufficiency
to occupy that place. He made a brief discourse of things past, and of what
necessity men were forced. unto for the defence of their country, what remedy
and support it pleased God to send them in the time of their necessity, how
much they were bound heartily to acknowledge it, and to require it. He took
away the persuasion that was in many men's minds that lay back, that misdeemed other things to be meant than was attempted. He advised all estates
to lay all particulars apart, and to bend themselves wholly to the true service
of God and of their country. He willed them to remember in what state it
had been of long time for lack of government and exercise of justice. In the
end, he exhorted them to mutual amity and hearty friendship, and to live with
one another as members all of one body.- He prayed God long to maintain
this peace and amity with all princes, especially betwixt the realms of England
and Scotland, in the fear of God, and so ended. The clerk of register immediately stood up, and asked them to what matter they would proceed; it
was thought necessary that the articles of the peace should be confirmed with
the common consent, for that it was thought necessary to send them away
with speed into France, and to receive the ratification of them as soon as
might be. The articles being read, were immediately agreed unto: a day was
appointed to have certain of the nobles subscribe unto them, and to but to
their seals, to be sent away by a herald, who shall also bring the ratification
again with him. The barons, of whom I have above written, required ai
answer to their request; somewhat *wcs said unto the contrary. The bar',n




APPENDIX, No. IV.                            3657
alleged for them custom and authority. It was in the end resolved, that there
should be chosen six to join with the Lords of the Articles, and that if they,
after good advisement, should find it right and necessary for the commonwealth,
it should be ratified at this parliament for a perpetual law. The lords proceeded immediately hereupon to the chusing of the Lords of the Articles.
The order is, that the lords spiritual chuse the temporal, and the temporal the
spiritual, and the burgesses their own. There were chosen as in this other
paper I have written. This being done, the lords departed and accompanied
the Duke, all as far as the Bow (which is the gate going out of the high street),
and many down into the palace where he lieth. The town all in armour, the
trumpets sounding, and other music such as they have. Thus much I report
unto Your Honour of that I did both hear and see. Other solemnities have not
been used, saving in times long past the lords have had parliament robes, which
are now with them wholly out of use.
Thenames of as many Earls and Lords spiritual and temporal as are assembled
at this parliament:
The Duke of Chatelherault.
Earls              Lords.                     Lords Sptrztual.
Arran.              Erskine.             St. Andrews.
Argyll.             Ruthven.             Dunkell,
Athole.             Lindsey.             Athens.
Crawford.           Somerville.          The Bishop of the Isles.
Cassils.            Cathcart.            Abbots and Priors, I know not
Marshall,           Hume.                  how many.
Morton.             Livingston.
Glencairn.          Innermeth.
Sutherland.         Boyd.
Caithness.          Ogilvy.
Rothes.             Fleming.
Monteitho            Glamis.
Gray.
Ochiltree.
Gordon.
The Lords of the Articles.
Spiitual.           Temporal.          Barons elected to be of the Articles.
Athens.             The Duke.            Maxwell.
Isles.              Argyll.              Tillibardine.
Lord James.         Marshall.            Cunninghamhead.
Arbroath.           Athole.              Lochenvar.
Newbottle.           Morton.             Pittarow.
Lindoris.            Glencairn.          Lundy.
Cowpar.             Ruthven.             Ten Provosts of the chief towns,
Kinross.            Erskine.               which also are of the Articles.
Lilwinning.         Boyd.
Lindsay.
So that, with the Subprior of St. Arndrew's, the whole is 36.
It were too long for me to rehearse particularly the disposition, and chiefly
the affections of these men, that are at this time chosen Lords of the Articles.
May it satisfy Your Honr. for this time to know that, by the common opinion of
men, there was not a substant.ialler or more sufficient number of all sorts of
men chosen in Scotland these many years, nor of whom men had greater hope
of good to ensue. This present morning, viz. the 10th, the L. of Lidington
made me privy unto your letter; he intendeth, as much as may be, to follow
your advice. Some hard points there are. He himself is determined not to go
into France. He allegeth many reasons, but speaketh least of that that moveth
him most, which is the example of the last, that went on a more grateful mes



HIsTORY OP StCOOTLAND.
sage than he shall carry, and stood on other terms with their Prince than he
doth, and-yet Your Honour knoweth what the whole world judgeth.
Petition of the Lesser Barons to the Parliament held.August, 1560.
[Inclosed inilRandopli's letter to Cecil, 15th Augiust, 1560.]
Mr Lords, unto Your Lordships, humbly means and shows, we the Barons and
Freeholders of this realm, your brethren in Christ, That whereas the causes of
true religion and common well of this realm, are, in this present parliament to
be treated, ordered, and established to the glory of God, and maintenance of
the commonwealth; and we being the greatest number in proportion where
the said causes concern, and has been, and yet are ready to bear the greatest
part of the charge thereuntil, as well in peace as in war, both with our bodies
and with our goods: and seeing there is no place where we may do better
service now than in general councils and parliaments, in giving our best advice
and reason, vote and councell for the furtherance thereof, for the maintenance
of virtue and punishment of vice, as use and custom had been of old by ancient
acts of parliament observed in this realm; and whereby we understand that
we ought to be heard to reason and vote in all causes concerning the commonwealth, as well in councils as in parliament; otherwise we think that whatsomever ordinances and statutes be made concerning us and our estate, we not
being required and suffered to reason and vote at the making thereof, that the
same should not. oblige us to stand thereto. Therefore it will please Your
Lordships to take consideration thereof, and of the charge born and to be born
by us, since we are willing to serve truly to the common well of this realm,
after our estate, that ye will, in this present parliament, and all counsells where
the common well of the realm is to be treated, take our advice, counsell and
vote, so that, without the same, Your Lordships would suffer nothing to be
passed and concluded in parliament or councils aforesaid; and that all acts of
parliament, made in times past, concerning us, for our place and estate, and in
our favour, be at this present parliament confirmed, approved, and ratified, and
act of parliament made thereupon. And Your Lordships' answer humbly
beseeches.
Of the success of this petition, the following account is given by Randolph;
Lett. to Cecil, 19 Aug. 1560. The matters concluded and past by common consent on Saturday last, in such solemn sort as the first day that they assembled,
are these: First, that the barons, according to an old a;t of parliament, made
in the time of James I., in the year of God, 1427, shall have free voice in parliament; this act passed without any contradiction.
No. V. (p. 104.)
A Letter of Thomas Randolph, the English Resident, to the Right Wtorshipful SSr
William Cecil, gnt., Principal Secretary to the Queen's Tliajesty.
[9 Aug. 1561. Cott. Lib. B. 10. fo. 32.]
I HAVE received Your Honour's letters of the first of this month, writtei at
Osyes in Essex: and also a letter unto the Lord James, from his kinsman St.
Come out of France: in this they agree both that the Queen of Scotland is
nothing changed of her purpose in home coming. I assure Your Honour that
will be a stout adventure for a sick erased woman, that may be doubted as well
what may happen unto her upon the seas, as also how heartily she may be
received when she cometh to land of a great number, who are utterly persuaded
that she intendeth their utter ruin, come when she will; the preparance is very
small whensoever that she arrive, scarcely any man can be persuaded that she hath
any such thought in her head. I have shown Your Honour's letter unto the Lord
James, Lord Morton, Lord Lidington; they wish as Your Honour doth, that she
might be stayed yet for a space, and if it were not for their obedience sake, some
of them care not tho' they never saw her face. They travel what they can to
prevent the wicked divices of these mischievous purposes of her ministrs, but




APPENDIX, No. V.                             35
fear that that will always be found thatfilij hujus seeuli, they do what they can
to stand with the religion, and to maintain amity with their neighbours; they
have also need to,look unto themselves, for their hazard is great, and that they
see there is no remedy nor safety for themselves, but to repose themselves upon
the Queen's Majesty our sovereign's favour and support. Friends abroad they
have none, nor many in whom they may trust at home. There are in mind
shortly to try what they may be assured at of the Queen's Majesty, and what
they may assuredly perform of that they intend to offer for their parties. This
the Queen of Scotland above all other things doubteth; this she seeketh by all
means to prevent; and hath caused St. Come, in her name, earnestly to write to
charge him that no such things be attempted before her coming home; for that
it is said that they too already arrived here out of England for the purpose, what
semblance somever the noblemen do make that they are grieved with their
Queen's refilsal, that cometh far from their hearts. They intend to expostulate
with me hereupon. I have my answer ready enough for them. If she thrust
Englishmen all out of this country, I doubt not but there will be some of her
own that will bear us some kindness. Of me she shall be quit, so soon as it
pleaseth the Queen's Majesty, my mistress, no longer to use my service in this
place. By such talk as I have of late had with the Lord James and Lord of
Lidington, I perceive that they are of mind that immediately of the next convention, I shall repair towards you with their determinations and resolutions, in
all purposes, wherein Your Honour's advise is earnestly required, and shortly
looked for. Whatsomever I desire myself, I know my will ought to be subject
unto the Queen my sovereign's pleasure, but to content myself, would God I
were so happy as to serve Her Majesty in as mean a state as ever poor gentleman did to be quit of this place; not that I do in my heart wax weary of Her
Majesty's service, but because my time and years require some place of more
repose and quietness than I find in this country. I doubt also my insufficience
when other troubles in this country arise, or ought shall be required of me to
the advancement of Her Majesty's service, that either my will is not able to
compass, or my credit sufficient to work to that effect, as perchance shall be looked
for at my hands. As Your Honour hath been a means of my continuance in
this room, so I trust that I shall find that continual favour at your hands, that
so soon as it shall stand with the Queen's Majesty's pleasure, I may give this
place unto some far worthier than I am myself, and in the mean season have
my course directed by your good advice how I may by my contrivance do some
such service as may be agreeable to Her Majesty's will and pleasure.
These few words I am bold to write unto Your Honour of myself. For the
rest, where that is wished that the lords will stoutly continue yet for one month,
I assure Your Honour that there is yet nothing omitted of their old and accustomed manner of doing, and seeing that they have brought that unto this point,
and should now prevail, they were unworthy of their lives.
I find not that they are purposed so to leave the matter. I doubt more her
money than I do her fair words; and yet can I not conceive what great things
can be wrought with forty thousand crowns, and treasure of her own here I know
there is no sure or ready means to get it. The Lord of Lidington leaveth
nothing at this time unwritten, that he thinketh may be able to satisfye your
desire, in knowledge of the present state of things here. Whatsomever cometh
of that, he findeth it ever best that she come not; but if she do come to let her
know, at the first, what she shall find, which is due obedience and willing ser
vice, if she embrace Christ, and desire to live in peace with her neighbours. By
such letters as you have last received, Your Honour somewhat understandeth
of Mr. Knox himself, and also of others, what is determined, he himself to abide
the uttermost, and other never to leave him until God have taken his life, and
thus together with what comfort somever it will please you to give him by your
letters, that the Queen's Majesty doth not utterly condemn him, or at the least
in that point, that he is so sore charged with by his own Queen, that Her
Majesty will not allow her doing. I doubt not but it will be a great comfort
anto him, and will content many others; his daily prayer is for the maintenance
of unity with England, and that God will never suffer men to be so ungrate, as
by any persuasion to run headlong unto the destruction of them that have saved
their lives and restored their country to liberty. I leave farther, at this time,




360             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
to trouble Your Honour, desiring God to send such an amity between these two
realms, that God may be glorified to them of this world.-At Edenbourgh, the
9th of August, 1561.
No. VI. (p. 108.)
vA Letter of Queen Elizabeth to Queen Xfadry.*
[16th of Aug. 1561. Paper Office, from a copy.)
To the right excellent, right high, and mighty Princesse, our right dear
and well-beloved sister and cousin the Queen of Scotland.
RIGHT excellent, right high, and mighty Pr;ncesse, our right dear and right
well-beloved sister and cousin, we greet you well. The Lord of St. Cosme
brought to us your letters, dated the 8th of this present at Abbeville, whereby ye
signify that although by the answer brought to you by Monsieur Doyzell, ye
might have had occasion to have entered into some doubt of our amity, yet
after certain purposes, passed betwixt you and our ambassador, you would
assure us of your good meaning to live with us in amity, and for your purpose
therein ye require us to give credit to the said St. Cosme. We have thereunto
thought good to answer as followeth: The same St. Cosme hath made like
declaration unto us on your part, for your excuse in not ratifying the treaty, as
yourself made to our ambassador, and we have briefly answered to every the
same points, as he can show you: and if he shall not so do, yet least in the
mean season you might be induced to think that your reasons had satisfied us,
somerally we assure you, that to our requests your answer cannot be reputed for
a satisfaction. For we require no benefit of you, but that you will perform your
promise, whereunto you are bound by your seal and your hand, for the refusal
whereof we see no reason alledged can serve. Neither covet we any thing, but
that which is in your own power as Queen of Scotland, that which yourself in
~words and speech doth confess, that which your late husband's our good
brother's ambassadors and you concluded, that which your own nobility and
people were made privy unto, that which indeed made peace and quietness
betwixt us, yea, that without which no perfect amity can continue betwixt us,
as, if it be indifferently weighed, we doubt not but ye will perceive, allow, and
accomplish. Nevertheless, perceiving, by the report of the bringer, that you
mean furthwith upon your coming home, to follow herein the advice of your
council in Scotland, we are content to suspend our conceipt of all unkindness,
and do assure you that we be filly resolved, upon this being performed, to unite
a sure band of amity, and to live in neighbourhood with you as quietly, friendly,
yea as assuredly in the knot of friendship, as we be in the knot of nature and
blood. And herein we be so earnestly determined, that the world should see
if the contrary should follow (which God forbid) the very occasion to be in
you and not in us; as the story witnesseth the like of the King your father,
our uncle, with whom our father sought to have knitt a perpetual bond by
inviting to come in this realm to York, of which matter we know there remain
with us, and we think with you, sundry witnesses of our father's earnest good
meaning, and of the error whereunto divers evil councillors induced your father;
or, finally, where it seemeth that report hath been made unto you, that we had
sent our admiral to the seas with our navy to empeache your passage, both
your servants do well understand how false that is, knowing for a truth that
we have not any more than two or three small barks upon the seas, to apprehend certain pirates, being thereto entreated, and almost compelled by the
earnest complaint of the ambassador of our good brother the King of Spain,
made of certaine Scottishmen haunting our seas as pirates, under pretence of
letters of marque, of which matter also we earnestly require you, at your coming to your realme, to have some good consideration, and the rather for respect
that ought to be betwixt your realme and the countries of us, of France, of
* This is the complete paper of which that industrious and impartial collector, Bishop Keith, has
published a fragment, from what he calls his shattered MS. 154, note (a) 181.




APPENDIX, No. VII.                            351
Spain, and of the house of Burgundy. And so, right excellent, right high, and
mighty Princess, we recommend us to you with most earnest request, not to
neglect these our friendly and sisterly offers of friendship, which, before God,
we mean and intend to accomplish. Given under our signet at Henyngham,
the 16th of August, in the third year of our reign.
No. VII. (p. 121.)
A Letter of Randolph to the Right Honourable Sir William Cecil, Knight,
Principal Secretary to the Queen's llajesty.
[15th of May, 1563. Paper Office, from the original.]
OF late, until the arrival of Monsieur Le Croch, I had nothing worth the
writing unto Your Honour. Before his coming we had so little to hint upon
that we did nothing but pass our time in feasts, banquetting, masking, and running at the ring, and such like. He brought with him such a number of letters,
and such abundance of news, that, for the space of three days, we gave ourselves to nothing else but to reading of writings and hearings of tales, many so
truly reported, that they might be compared to any that ever Luciane did write
de veris narrationibus. Among all his tidings, for the most assured, I send this
unto Your Honour as an undoubted truth, which is, that the Cardinal of Lorraine, at his being with the Emperor, moved a marriage between his youngest
son, the Duke of Astruche, and this Queen; wherein he hath so far travailed
that it hath already come unto this point, that if she find it good, the said Duke
will out of hand send hither his ambassador, and farther proceed to the consummation hereof, with as convenient speed as may be; and to the intent her
mind may be the better known, Le Croch is sent unto her with this message
from the Cardinal, who hath promised unto the Emperor to have word again
before the end of May; and for this cause Le Croch is ready for his departure,
and his letters writing both day and night. This Queen being before advertised of his towardness, by means hath sought far off to know My Lord of
Murray's mind herein, but would never so plainly deal with him that he could
learn what her meaning is or how she is bent. She useth no man's council but
only this man's that last arrived, and assuredly until the L. of Lidington's
return, she will do what she can to keep that secret; and because resolution in
his absence cannot be taken, she will, for this time, return Le Croch with request
to have longer time to devise; and after, with the most speed she can, she fully
purposeth to advertise him, I mean her uncle the Cardinal, of her mind. Of
this matter the L. of Lidington is made privy. I know not whether by some
intelligence that he had before his departure, or since his arrival in France,
divers letters have passed between Her Grace and him, whereof as much as it
imported not greatly the knowledge of was communicated to some, as much as
was written in cypher is kept unto themselves. Whether also the L. of Lidington hath had conference with the Spanish ambassador in England of this
matter or any like, I leave it unto Your Honour's good means to get true knowledge thereof. Guesses or surmises in so grave matters I would be loth to
write for verities. This also Your Honour may take for truth, that the Emperor
hath offered with his son, for this Queen's dower, the county of Tyroll, which
is said to be worth 30,000 franks by year. Of this matter also the rhingrave
wrote a letter unto this Queen, out of France not long since. This is all that
presently I can write unto Your Honour hereof; as I can come by farther
knowledge Your Honour shall be informed.
I have received Your Honour's writings by the Scottish man that last came
into these parts; he brought also letters unto this Queen from the L. of Lidington; their date was old, and contained only the news of France. I perceive
divers ways, that Newhaven is sorre closed, but I am not so ignorant of their
nature but that I know they will say as much as they dare do, I will not say as
the proverb doth,' canis tintidusfortius latrat.' From hence I dare assure them,
what means somever they make, or how pitiful somever their mone be. they are
like to receive but small comfort for all their long allie,  We stand daily in
VoL. II.-46




362             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
doubt what friendship we shall need ourself, except we put better order into
our misruled Papists than yet we do, or know how to bring to pass that we
may be void of their comber.
To-morrow, the 15th of this instant, the Queen departeth of this town
towards Edenborough. If my hap be good, you shall thoroughly hear some
merry tidings of the Bp. of St. Andrews; upon Wednesday next he shall be
arreigned, and five other priests, for their massing at Easter last. Thus mos+
humbly I take my leave; at St. Andrews, the 15th of May, 1563.
No. VIII. (p. 125.)
Letter of Randolph to the Right Honourable Sir William Cecil, Knight, Princzpa.
Secretary to the Queen's N.Tajesty.
[10th of April, 1563. Paper Office, from the original in his own hand.]
MAY it please Your Honour, the 7th of this instant, Rowlet, this Queen's
secretary, arrived here; he reported very honestly of his good usage, he brought
with him many letters unto the Queen that came out of France, full of lamentation and sorrow. She received from the Queen-mother two letters; the one
contained only the rehearsal of her griefs, the other signify the state of France
as then it was, as in what sort things were accorded, and what farther was Intended for the appeasing of the discords there, not mistrusting but that if
reason could not be had at the Queen of England's hands, but that the realm
of France should find her ready and willing to support and defend the right
thereof, as by friendship and old alliance between the two realms she is bound.
How well these words do agree with her doings Your Honour can well consider, and by her writings in this sort unto this Queen (which I assure Your
Honour is true), you may assuredly know that nothing shall be left undone of
her part, that may move debate or controversy between this Queen and our
sovereign.
It was much mused by the Queen herself, how this new kindness came about,
but at this time she received two long letters written all with her own hand,
saying, all the time since her return she never received half so many lines as
were in one of the letters, which I can myself testify by the Queen's own
saying, and other good assurance, where hitherto I have not been deceived. I
can also farther assure Your Honour that this Queen hath sayed that she
knoweth now, that the friendship of the Queen's Majesty my sovereign may
stand her more in stead than that of her good mother in France, and as she is
desirous of them both, so will she not lose the one for the other. I may also
farther assure Your Honour that whatsomever the occasion is, this Queen hath
somewhat in her heart that will burst out in time, which will manifest that
some unkindness hath passed between them that will not be easy forgotten.
In talk sometimes with myself, she saith that the Queen-mother might have
used the matter otherwise than she hath done, and doth much doubt what shall
be the success of her great desire to govern alone, in all things to have her
will. Seeing then that presently they stand in such terms one with the other,
I tho't it better to confirm her in that mind (this Queen I mean), than to speak
any word that might cause her to conceive better of the other. And yet I am
assured she shall receive as friendly letters, and as many good words from this
Queen as the other did write unto her. Whether the Queen-mother will speak
any thing unto the L. of Lidington of that purpose she did write unto this
Queen of, I know not; but if she do, I think it hard if Your Honour can get
no favour thereof, at his return, or I perchance by some means here. It may
perchance be written only by that Queen, to try what answer this Queen will
give, or understand what mind she beareth unto the Queen's Majesty our sovereign. The Queen knoweth now that the Earl Bothwell is sent for to London.
Sne caused a gentleman of hers to inquire the cause; I answered that I knew
none other, but that his takers were in controversy who took him, and that it
should be judged there. I know that she thinketh much that he is not soent
into Scotland. It is yet greatly doubted that if he were here, he would be




APPENDIX, No. IX.                            362
reserved for an evil instrument. If. the Lord of Lidington have not been plain
with Your Honour herein, he is in the wrong to those who are his friends here,
but most of all to himself. There comes a vulture in this realm, if ever that
man come again into credit.
No. IX. (p. 128.)
The Oration made by William MJaitland of Lethington, younger Secretary for the
Time, in the Parliament holden by our Sovereign the King's,Mother, Queen yJ
this Realm for the Time, the Time of the Restitution of Umquile JMatthew Earl
of Lenox.
MY Lords and others here convened. Albeit, be that it has pleased Her Ma
jesty most graciously to utter unto you, by her own mouth, ye may have suffi
ciently conceived the cause of this your present assembly; yet having Her
Majesty's commandment to supply My Lord Chancellor's place, being presently
as ye see deceased, I am willed to express the same somewhat more at large.
Notour it is, how, in Her Highness's minority, a process of forfaltour was
decreed against My Lord of Lennox, for certain offences alledged committed by
him; specified in the dome and censement of parliament given thereupon; by
reason whereof he has this long time been exiled, and absent forth of his native
country; how grievous the same has been unto him, it has well appeared by
divers his suites, sundry ways brought unto Her Majesty's knowledge, not only
containing most humble and due submission, but always bearing witness of his
good devotion to Her Majesty, his natural Princess, and earnest affection he
had to Her Highness most humble service, if it should please Her Majesty of
her clemency to make him able to enjoy the benefit of a subject; many respects
might have moved Her Highness favourably to incline to his request,- as the
anciency of his house and the sirname he bears, the honour he has to appertain
to Her Majesty by affinity, by reason of My Lady Margaret Her Highness's
aunt, and divers other his good considerations, as also the affectuous request
of her good sister the Queen's Majesty of England, whose earnest commendation was not of least moment, besides that of her own natural, Her Majesty
has a certain inclination to pity the decay of noble houses, and as we heard,
by her own report, has a great deal more pleasure to be the instrument of the
uphold, maintenance, and advancement of the ancient blood than to have matter
ministered of the decay or overthrow of any good race. Upon this occasion
Her Majesty the more tenderly looked upon his request, and her good sister the
Queen of England's favourable letter, written for recommendation of his cause,
in consideration whereof not only has she granted unto him her letter of restitution, by way of grace, but also licensed him to pursue, by way of reduction,
the remedies provided by the law for such as think themselves grieved by any
judgment unorderly led, and to have the process reversed; for examination
whereof, it has pleased Her Majesty presently to assemble you the three estates
of this her realme, by whose advice, deliberation, and decision at Her Majesty's
mind, to proceed forward upon his complaints, as the merits of the cause, laws
of the realm, and practice observed in such cases will bear out. The sum of
all your proceedings at this time, being by that we have heard, thus as it were
pointed out, I might here end, if the matter we have in hand gave me not
occasion to say a few more words, not far different from the same subject,
wherein I would extend the circumstances more largely, if I feared not to offend
Her Highness, whose presence and modest nature abhors long speaking and
adulation, and so will compel me to speak such things as may seem to tend to
any good and perfect point; and lest it should be compted to me, as that I were
oblivious, if I should omit to put you in remembrance, in what part we may
accept this, and the like demonstrations of her gentill nature; whose gracious
behaviour towards all her subjects in general may serve for a good proof of
that felicity we may look for under her happy government so long as it shall
please God to grant her unto us; for a good harmony to be had in the common
weill, the offices between the Prince and the subjects must be reciproque, as by
Her Majesty's prudence we enjoy this present peace with all foreign nations,
and quietness among yourselves, in such sort that I think justly it maybe affirmed




364             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Scotland, in no man's age, that presently lives, was in greater tranquillity; so
is it the duty of all us her loving subjects to acknowledge the same as a most
high benefit, proceeding from the good government of Her Majesty, declaring
ourselves thankful for the same, and rendering to Her Majesty such due obedience, as a just Prince may look for at the hands of faithful and obedient subjects. I mean no forced nor unwilling obedience, which I know her nature does
detest, but such as proceeds from the contemplation of her modest kind of
regiment, will for love and duty sake produce the fruits thereof. A good proof
have we all in general had of Her Majesty's benignity these three years, that
she has lived in the government over you, and many of you have largely tasted
of her large liberality and frank dealing: on the other part Her Highness has
had large appearance of your dutiful obedience, so it becomes you to continue,
as we have begun, in consideration of the many notable examples of her
clemency above others her good qualities, and to abhor and detest all false
bruites and rumours, which are the most pestilent evils that can be, in any
common weirl and the sowers and inventors thereof. Then may we be well
assured to have of her a most gracious Princesse, and she most faithful and
loving subjects; and so both the head and the members, being encouraged to
maintain the harmony and accord of the politic bodies, whereof I made mention
before, as the glory thereof shall partly appertain to Her Majesty, so shall no
small praise and unspeakable commodity redound therethrough to you all universally her subjects.
No. X. (p. 132.)
The Perils and Troubles that may presently ensue, and in Time to come follow, to
the Queen's JMajesty of England and State of this Realm, upon the JMarriage of
the Queen of Scots to the Lord Darley.
FIRST, the minds of such as be affected to the Queen of Scots, either for herself, or for the opinion of her pretence to this crown, or for the desire to have
change of the forme of religion in this realm, or for the discontentation they
have of the Queen's-Majesty, or her succession, or of the succession of any other
beside the Queen of Scotts, shall be, by this marriage erected, comforted, and
induced to devise and labour how to bring their desires to pass: and to make
some estimate what persons those are, to the intent the quantity of the danger
may be weighed; the same may be compassed in those sorts either within the
realm or without.
The first are such as are specially devoted to the Queen of Scotts, or to the
Lord Darley, by bond of blood and alliance: as first, all the house of Lorrain
and Guise for her part, and the Earl of Lennox and his wife, all such in Scotland as be of their blood, and have received displeasures by the Duke of Chatelherault and the Hamiltons. The second are all manner of persons, both in
this realm and other countries, that are devoted to the authority of Rome, and
mislike of the religion now received; and in these two sorts are the substance
of them comprehended, that shall take comfort in this marriage.
Next therefore to be considered, what perils and troubles these kind of men
shall intend to this realm.
First, the general scope and mark of all their desires is, and always shall be,
to bring the Queen of Scotts to have the royal crown of this realm; and therefore, though the devisees may vary among themselves for the compassing
hereof, according to the accidents of the times, and according to the impediments which they shall find by means of the Queen's Majesty's actions and
governments, yet all their purposes, drifts, devises, and practices, shall wholly
and ori.y tend to make the Queen of Scotts Queen of this realm, and to
deprive our sovereign lady thereof; and in their proceedings, there are two
manners to be considered, whereof the one is far worse than the other; the one
is intended by them, that either from malicious blindness in religion, or for
natural affection to the Queen of Scotts, or the Lord Darley, to persuade themstlves that the said Queen of Scotts hath presently more right to the crown
than our sovereign lady the Queen, of which sort be all their kindred on both
sides, and all such as are devoted to Popery, either in England, Scotland, Ireland.




APPENDIX, No. X                              365
or elsewhere; the other s meant by them, which, with less malice, are persuaded that the Queen of Scotts hath only right to be the next heir to succeed
the Queen's Majesty and her issue, of which sort few are without the realm,
but here within, and yet of them, not so many as are of the contrary, and from
these two sorts shall the peril, devises, and practices proceed. From the first,
whicn imagine the Queen of Scotts to have perpetually right, are to be looked
for these perils. First, it is to be doubted the devil will infect some of them to
imagine the hurt of the life of our dear sovereign lady, by such means as the
devil shall suggest to them, although it is to be assuredly hoped, that Almighty
God will, as he has hitherto, graciously protect and preserve her from such
dangers? Secondly, there will be attempted, by persuasions, by bruites, by
rumours, and such like, to alienate the nminds of good subjects from the Queen's
Majesty, and to conciliate them to the Queen of Scotts, and on this behalf the
frontiers and the North will be much solicited and laboured. Thirdly, there
will be attempted causes of some tumults and rebellions, especially in the North
toward Scotland, so as thereupon may follow some open enterprise set by violence. Fourthly, there will be, by the said Queen's council and friends, a new
league made with France or Spain, that shall be offensive to this realm, and a
furtherance to their title. And as it is also very likely, that they will set afoot
as many practices as they can, both upon the frontiers and in Ireland, to occa
sion the Queen's Majesty to increase and continue her charge thereby, to retain
her from being mighty or potent, and for the attempting of all these things,
many devises will be imagined from time to time, and no negligence will
therein appear.
From the second sort, which mean no other favour to the Queen of Scotts,
but that she should succeed in title to the Queen's Majesty, is not much to be
feared, but that they will content themselves to see not only the Queen's
Majesty, not to marry, and so to impeach it, but to hope, that the Queen of
Scotts shall have issue, which they will think to be more peaceable to all men,
because thereby the crowns of England and Scotland shall be united in one, and
thereby the occasion of war shall cease; with which persuasion many people
may be seduced, and abused to incline themselves to the part of the Queen of
Scotts.
The remedies against these perils.
A DUPLICAT.
[4th of June, 1565. Cott. Lib. Cal. B 10. fol. 290 
A Summary of the Consultation and Advice given by the Lords and others of the
Privy Council. Collected out of the sundry and several Speeches of the saia
Counsellors.
Lord Keeper,                   Mr. Comptroller,
Lord Treasurer,                Mr. Vice Chamberlain,
( Derby,              Mr. Secretary,
Earls of <Bedford,                 Cave,
(Leicester,               Peter,
Lord Admiral,                      Mason.
Lord Chamberlain,
Questions propounded were these two.
1. FIRST, what perils might ensue to the Queen's Majesty, or this realm, f
the marriage betwixt the Queen of Scotts and the Lord Darnley
2. What were meet to be done, to avoid or remedy the same.
To the First.
The perils being sundry, and very many, were reduced by some counsellors
into only one.
1. First, That by this marriage, the Queen of Scotts, (being not married,) a




366            HISTORY OF SCOTLAN D1.
great number in this realm not of the worst subjects might be alienated in their
minds from their natural duties to Her Majesty, to depend upon the success of
this marriage of Scotland, as a mean to establish the succession of both the
crowns in the issue of the same marriage, and so favour all devises and practices, that should tend to the advancement of the Queen of Scotts.
2. Secondly, That considering the chief foundation of them, which furthered
the marriage of Lord Darnley, was laid upon the trust of such as were Papists,
as the only means left to restore the religion of Rome, it was plainly to be seen,
that both in this realm and Scotland, the Papists would most favour, maintain,
and fortify this marriage of the Lord Darnley, and would, for furtherance of
faction in religion, devise all means and practices that could be within this
realm, to disturb the estate of the Queen's Majesty, and the peace of the realm,
and consequently to achieve their purposes by force rather than fail.'By some
other, these perils, having indeed many branches, were reduced, though somewhat otherwise, into two sorts, and these were in nature such as they could not
be easily severed the one from the other, but were knit and linked together,
r.aturally for maintaining the one with the other. The first of these sort of
perils was, that, by this marriage with the Lord Darnley, there was a plain
intention to further the pretended title of the Queen of Scotts not only to succeed the Queen's Majesty, as in her best amity she had professed, but that to
occupy the Queen's estate, as when she was in power, she did manifestly declare.
The second was, that hereby the Romish religion should be erected, and
increased daily in this realm, and these two were thus knit together, that the
furtherance and maintenance of the title staid, in furthering of the religion of
Rome within this realm; and in like manner the furtherance of the same religion stood by the title, for otherwise the title had no foundation.
Proves of the first.) And to prove that the intention to advance the title to
disturb the Queen's Majesty, must needs ensue, was considered that always the
intention and will of any person is most manifest, when their power is greatest,
and contrary when power is small, then the intention and will of every person is
covered and less seen. So as when the Queen of Scotts power was greatest, by
her marriage with the Dauphin of France, being afterwards French King, it
manifestly appeared of what mind she and all her friends were, using then
manifestly all the means that could be devised to impeach and dispossess the
Queen's Majesty, first by writing and publishing herself in all countries Queen
of England; by granting charters, patents, and commissions, with that style,
and with the arms of England, both the French and Scotts, which charters
remain still undefaced; and to prosecute it with effect, it is known what pre
parations of war were made, and sent into Scotland; and what other forces
were assembled in foreign countries; yea, in what manner a shameful peace
was made by the French with King Philip to employ all the forces of France to
pursue all the matters by force, which by God's providence and the Queen's
Majesty contrary power, were repelled; and afterwards, by her husband's
death, her fortune and power being changed, the intention began to hide itself;
and although by the Scottish Queen's commissaries an accord was made at
Edinburgh, to reform all those titles, and claims, and pretences, yet to this day,
by delays and cavillations, the ratification of that treaty has been deferred.
And so now, as soon as she shall feel her power, she will set the same again
abroad, and by considering of such errors as were committed in the first, her
friends and allies will amend the same, and proceed substantially to her purpose. By some it was thought plainly, that the peril was greater of this marriage with the Lord Darnley, being a subject of this realm, than with the
mightiest Prince abroad, for by this, he being of this realm, and having for the
cause of religion, and other respects, made a party here, should increase by
force with diminution of the power of the realm; in that whatsoever power he
could make by the faction of the Papist, and other discontented persons here,
should be es it were deducted out of the power of this realm; and by the marriage of a stranger, she could not be assured of any part here; so as by this
marriage she should have a portion of her own power to serve her turn, and a
small portion of adversaries at home in our own bowels, always seem more dangerous than treble the like abroad, whereof the examples are in our own stories
many, that foreign powers never prevailed in this realm, bLt with the help of




APPENDIX, No. X.                           367
some at home. It was also remembered, that. seeing how before this attempt of
marriage, it is found, and manifestly seen, that in every corner of the realm,
the faction that most favoureth the Scottish title, is grown stout and bold, yea
seen manifestly in this court, both in hall and chamber, it could not be but
(except good heed were speedily given to it) by this marriage, and by the practice of the fautors thereof, the same faction would shortly increase, and grow so
great and dangerous, as the redress thereof would be almost desperate. And
to this purpose it was remembered, how of late in perusing of the substance of
the justices of the peace, in all the countries of the realm, scantly a third was
found fully assured to be trusted in the matter of religion, upon which only
string the Queen of Scotts' title doth hang, and some doubt might be, that the
friends of the Earl of Lennox, and his, had more -knowledge hereof than was
thought, and thereby made avant now in Scotland, and their party was so great
in England as the Queen's Majesty durst not attempt to contrary his marriage.
And in this sort, was the sum of the perils declared, being notwithstanding
more largely and plainly set out, and made so apparent by many sure arguments, as no one of the council could deny them to be but many and very
dangerous.
SecQnd Question.
The question of this consultation was what were meet to be done to avoid
these perils, or else to divert the force thereof from hurting the realm; wherein
there were a great number of particular devises propounded, and yet the more
part of them was reduced by some into three heads.
1. The first thought necessary by all persons, as the only thing of the most
moment and efficacy, to remedy all these perils, and many others, and such as
without it no other remedy could be found sufficient, and that was to obtain
that the Queen's Majesty would marry, and make therein no long delay.
2. The second was, to advance, establish, and fortify indeed the profession ot
religion, both in Scotland and in England, and to diminish, weaken, and feeble
the contrary.
3. The third was, to proceed in sundry things, either to disapppoint and
break this intended marriage, or, at the least, thereby to procure the same not
to be so hurtful to this realm as otherwise it will be.
The first of these three hath no particular rights in it, but an earnest and
unfeigned desire and suite, with all humbleness, by prayer to Almighty God,
and advice and council to the Queen's Majesty, that she would defer no more
time from marriage, whereby the good subjects of the realm might stay their
hearts, to depend upon Her Majesty, and the issue of her body, without which
no surety can be devised to ascertain any person of continuance of their families or posterities, to enjoy that which otherwise should come to them.
Second, concerning the matters of religion, wherein both truth and policy
were joined together, had these particulars.
First, whereas of late the adversaries of religion, in the realm, have taken
occasion to comfort and increase their faction, both in England, Scotland, and
abroad, with a rumour and expectation that the religion shall be shortly changed
in this realm, by means that the'bishops, by the Queen's Majesty's command
ment, have of late dealt streightly with some persons of good religion, because
they had forborn to wear certain apparel, and such like things; being more of
form and accidents, than of any substance, for that it is well known that Her
lMajesty had no meaning to comfort the adversaries, but only to maintain an
uniformity as well in things external as in the substance, nor yet bath any
intention to make any change of the religion, as it is established by laws. It
was thought by all men very necessary for the suppressing of the pride an i
arrogancy of the adversaries, indirectly hereby to notify, by her special letters to
the two archbishops, that her former commandment was only to retain an uniformity, and not to give any occasion to any person to misjudge of Her Majesty,
in the change of any part of religion, but that she did determine firmly to maintain the form of her religion, as it was established, and to punish such as did
therein violate her laws. And in these points, some also wished that it might
please her archbishops, that if they should see that the adversaries continued isi




368             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
taking occasion to fortify their faction, that in that case they should use a
moderation therein, until the next parliament, at which time, some good, uniform, and decent order might be devised, and established, for such ceremonies,
so as both uniformity and gravity might be retained amongst the clergy.
The second means was, that the quondam bishops, and others, which had
refused to acknowledge the Queen's Majesty's power over them, according to
the law, and were of late dispersed in the plague time to sundry places abroad,
where it is known they cease not to advance their faction, might be returned to
the Tower, or some other prison, where they might not have such liberty to
seduce and inveigle the Queen's Majesty's subjects, as they daily do.
The third means was, that where the bishops do complain that they dare not
execute the ecclesiastical laws, to the furtherance of religion, for fear of the premunire wherewith the judges and lawyers of the realm, being not best affected
in religion, do threaten them, and in many cases lett not to pinch and deface
them, that upon such cases opened, some convenient authority might be given
them, from the Queen's Majesty, to continue during her pleasure.
The fourth was, that there were daily lewd, injudicious, and unlawful books
in English brought from beyond seas, and are boldly received, read, and kept,
and especially in the North, seducing of great numbers of good subjects, the
like boldness whereof was never suffered in any other Princess's time, that some
streight order might be given to avoid the same, and that it might be considered
by the judges what manner of crime the same is, to maintain such books, made
directly against Her Majesty's authority, and maintaining a foreign power, contrary to the laws of the realm.
The fifth was, that where a great number of monks, fryars, and such lewd
persons, are fled out of Scotland, and do serve in England, especially in the
North, as curates of churches, and all such of them as are not found honest and
conformable, may be banished out of the realm, for that it appeareth they do
sow sedition in the realm, in many places, and now will increase their doings.
The sixth, where sundry having ecclesiastical livings, are on the other side
the sea, and from thence maintain sedition in the realm; that livings may be
better bestowed to the commodity of the realm, upon good subjects.
The seventh is, that the judges of the realm, having no small authority in
this realm, in governance of all property of the realm, might be sworn to the
Queen's Majesty, according to the laws of the realm, and so thereby they should
for conscience' sake maintain the Queen's Majesty's authority.
The particulars of the third intention to break and avoid this marriage, or
divert the perils.
First, to break this marriage, considering nothing can likely do it but force, or
fear of force, it is thought by some that these means following might occasion
the breach of the marriage.
1. That the Earl of Bedford repair to his charge.
2. That the works of Berwick be more advanced.
3. That the garrison be there increased.
4. That all the wardens put their frontiers in order with speed, to be ready
at an hour's warning.
5. That some noble person, as the Duke of Norfolk, or the Earl of Salop, or
such other, be sent into Yorkshire, to be Lieutenant-general in the North.
6. That preparations be made of a power to be in readiness to serve, either
at Berwick, or to invade Scotland.
7. That presently Lady Lennox be committed to some place where she may
be kept from giving or receiving of intelligence.
8. That the Earl of Lennox and his son may be sent for, and required to be
sent home by the Queen of Scotts, according to the treaty; and if they shall
not Come, then to denounce to the Queen of Scotts the breach of the treaty,
and thereupon to enter with hostility; by which proceeding, hope is conceived
(so the same be done in deeds and not in shews) that the marriage will be avoided
or at the least that it may be qualified from many perils; and whatsoever is to
be done herein is to be executed with speed, whilst she has a party in Scotland
that favoureth not the marriage, and before any league made by the Queen oi
Scotts with France or Spain.




APPENDIX, No. XI.                             s69
9. Some other allows well of all these proceedings, saving of pr)ceeding to
hostility, but all do agree in the rest, and also to these particularities following.
10. That the Earl's lands upon his refusal, or his son's refusing, should be
seized, and bestowed in gift or custody, as shall please Her Majesty, upon good
subjects.
11. That all manifest favourers of the Earl, in the North, or elsewhere, be
inquired for, and that they be, by sundry means, well looked to.
12. That inquiry be made in the North, who have the stewardship of the
Queen'sMajesty's lands there, and that no person, deserving mistrust,be suffered
to have governance or rule of any of her subjects or lands in the North, but
only to retain their fees, and more trusty persons have rule of the same pe~,ple's
lands.
13. That all frequent passages into this realm, to and from Scotland, be
restrained to all Scottish men, saving such as have safe conduct, or be especially
recommended from Mr. Randolph, as favourers of the realm.
~ 14. That some intelligence be used with such in Scotland as favour not the
marriage, and they comforted from time to time.
15. That the Queen's Majesty's household, chamber, and pensioners, be
better seen unto, to avoid broad and uncomely speech used by sundry against
the state of the realm.
16. That the younger son of the Earl of Lennox, Mr. Charles, be removed
to some place where he may be forthcoming.
17. That considering the faction and title of the Queen of Scotts hath now of
long time received great favour, and continued, by the Queen's Majesty's favour
herein to the Queen of Scotts and her ministers, and the Lady Catharine, whom
the said Queen of Scotts accompted as a competitor unto her in pretence of
title, it nlay please the Queen's Majesty, by some exterior act, to show some
remission of her. displeasure to the Lady, and to the Earl of Hartford, that
the Queen of Scotts thereby may find some change, and her friends put in
doubt of further proceeding therein.
18. That whosoever shall be Lieutenant in the North, Sir Ralph Sadler may
accompany him.
19. That with speed the realm of Ireland may be committed to a new
governor.
20. Finally, that these advices being considered by Her Majesty, it may
please her to choose which of them she liketh, and to put them in execution in
deeds, and not to pass them over in consultations and speeches.
For it is to be assured that her adversaries will use all means to put their
intention in execution. Some by practice, some by force, when time shall serve,
and no time can serve so well the Queen's majesty to interrupt the perils as
now at the first, before the Queen of Scotts purposes be fully settled.
No. XI. (p. 136.)
Randolph to the Earl of Leicester,from Edinburgh, the 31st of July, 1565.
[Cott. Lib. Cal. B. ix. fol. 216. An original.]
MAY it please your Lordship, I have received Your Lordship's letter by my
servant, sufficient testimony of your Lordship's favour towards me, whereof I
think myself always so assured, that, what other mishap soever befall me, 1
have enough to comfort myself with; though I have not at this time received
neither according to the need I stand, nor the necessity of the service that I
am employed in, I will rather pass it, as I may with patience, than troutle Your
Lordship to be further suiter for me, when there is so little hope that any good
will be done for me. I doubt not but Your Lordship hath heard by such information as I have given from hence, what the present state of this country is,
how this Queen is now become a married wife, and her husband, the self-same
day of his marriage, made a King. In their desires, hitherto, they have found
so much to their contentment that if the rest succeed and prosper accordingly
they may think themselves much happier than there is appearance that they
shall be, so many discontented minds, so much misliking of the subjects to
VOL. 11I.-47




370           iHISTOI(Y OF SCOTLAND.
have these matters thus ordered, and in this sort to be brought to pass, 1 never
heard of any marriage; so little hope, so little comfort as men do talk was
never seen, at any time, when men should most have showed themselves to
rejoice, if that consideration of her own honour and well of her country had
been had as appertained in so weighty a case. This is now their fear, the overthrow of religion, the breach of amitie with the Queen's Majesty, and the destruction of as many of the nobility as she hath misliking of, or that he liketh
to pitch a quarrel unto. To see all these inconveniencys approaching, there
are a good number that may sooner lament with themselves and complain to
their neighbours than be able to find remedie to help them; some attempt with
-all the force they have, but are too weak to do any good; what is required
0otherways, or what means there is made, Your Lordship knoweth; what will be
answered, or what will be done therein, we are in great doubt; and though your
intent be never so good unto us, yet do we so much fear your delay that our
ruin shall prevent your support. When council is once taken, nothing so needful,as speedy execution. Upon the Queen's Majesty we wholly depend; in Her
Majesty's hands it standeth to save our lives, or to suffer us to perish; greater
honour Her Majesty cannot have, than in that which lieth in Her Majesty's
power to do for us, the sums are not great, the numbers of men are not many
that we desire; many will dayly be found, tho' this will be some charge; men
Igrow dayly, though at this time, I think Her Majesty shall lose but few; her
friends here being once taken away, where will Her Majesty find the like? I.speak least of that which I think is most earnestly intended by this Queen and.her husband, when by him it was lately said that he cared more for the Papists'in England than he did for the Protestants in Scotland: if therefore his hopes
be so great in the Papists of England, what may Your Lorships believe that he:thinketh of the Protestants there? for his birth, for his nurritour, for the honour
he hath to be of kine to the Queen my mistress, if in preferring those that are
lthe Queen's Majesty's worst subjects to those that are herbest,he declareth what;mind he beareth to the Queen's Majesty's self; any man may say it is slenderly
rewarded, and his duty evil forgotten; he would now seem to be indifferent to
both the religions, she to use her mass, and he to come sometimes'co the preach
ing: they were married with all the solemnities of the Popish time, saving that he
heard not the mass: his speech and talk argueth his mind, and yet would he
fain seem to the world that he were of some religion: his words to all men,'against whom he conceived any displeasure how unjust soever it be, so proud;and spiteful that rather he seemeth a monarch of the world than he that, not
long since, we have seen and known the Lord Darnley: he looketh now for:reverence of many that have little will to give it him; and some there are that
-do give it that think him little worth of it. All honour that may be attributed
-unto any man by a wife, he hath it wholly and fully; all praises that may be:spoken of him he lacketh not from herself: all dignities that she can endue
him with, which are already given and granted: no man pleaseth her that
contenteth not him: and what may I say more, she biath given over to him her
whole will, to be ruled and guided as himself best liketh; she can as much prevail with him in any thing that is against his will as Your Lordship may with
me to persuade that I should hang myself; this last dignity out of hand to have
been proclaimed King, she would have it deferred untill it were agreed by parlia
ment, or he had been himself 21 years of age, that things done in his name
might have the better authority. He would, in no case, have it deferred one
day, and either then or never; whereupon this doubt has arisen amongst our
men of law, whether she being clad with a husband, and her husband not
~wenty-one years, any thing without parliament can be of strength that is done
~between them; upon Saturday at afternoon these matters were long debating.
And before they were well resolved upon, at nine hours at night, by three heralds,:at sound of the trumpet he was proclaimed King. This was the night before the
marriage; this day, Monday at twelve of the clock, the lords, all that were in
the toun, were present at the proclaiming of him again, where no man said so
much as Amen, saving his father, that cried out aloud God save his Queen!
The manner of the marriage was in this sort: upon Sunday in the morning
between five and six, she was conveyed by divers of her nobles to the chapell;
she had upon her back the great mourning gown of black, with the great wilde




APPENDIXS   No. XIf,,'71
imournlnghood, not unlike unto that which she wore the doulfullday of the burial
of her husband; she was led into the chapell by the Earl of Lennox and Atholi,
and there was she left untill her husband came, who also was conveyed by the
same lords; the minister priests, two, do there receive them, the bands are
asked the third time, and an instrument taken by a notour that no man said
against them, or alledged any cause why the marriage might not proceed. The
words were spoken, the rings which were three, the middle a rich diamond,
were put upon her finger; they kneel together, and many prayers said over
them, she tarrieth out the mass, and he taketh a kiss, and leaveth her there,
and went to her chamber, whither within a space she followeth; and being
required, according to the solemnity, to cast off her cares and leave aside those
sorrowful garments, and give herself to a more pleasant life, after some pretty
refusall, more I believe from manner sake than grief of heart, she suffered them
that stood by, every man that could approach, to take out a pin, and so being
committed to her ladies, changed her garments but went not to bed, to signify to
the world that it was not lust that moved them to marry, but only the necessity
of her country, not, if God will, long to leave it destitute of an heir. Suspicious
men, of such as are given of all things to make the worst, would that it should
be believed that they knew each other before that they came there; I would
not Your Lordship should so believe it, the likelihoods are so great to the contrary that if it were possible to see such an act done I would not believe it.
After the marriage followeth commonly great cheer and dancing: to their
dinner they were conveyed by the whole nobility; the trumpets sound; a largess
cried; money thrown about the house in great abundance, to such as were
happy to get any part; they dine both at one table, she upon the upper hand;
there serve her these Earls, Athole sewer, Morton carver, Craufoord cup-bearer;
these serve him in like offices, Earls Eglington, Cassels, and Glencairn; after
dinner they danced awhile, and then retired themselves till the hour of supper;
and as they dined so do they sup, some dancing there was, and so they go to
bed; of all this I have written to Your Lordship I am not oculatus testis to this,
but of the verity Your Lordship shall not need to doubt, howsoever I came by
it; I was sent for to have been at the supper, but like a currish or uncourtly carle
I refused to be there; and yet that which Your Lordship may think might
move me much, to have had the sight of my mistress, of whom these eighteen
days by just account I got not a sight. I am, my Lord, taken by all that sort
as a very evil person, which in my heart I do well allow, and like of myself the
better, for yet can I not find either honest or good that liketh their doings. I
leave at this time further to trouble Your Lordship, craving pardon for my
long silence. I have more ado than I am able to discharge, I walk now more
abroad by night than by day, and the day too little to discharge myself of that
which I conceive or receive in the night. As Your Lordship, I am sure, is partaker of such letters as I write to Mr. Secretary, so that I trust that he shall
ae to this, to save me of a little labour to write the same again, most humbly I
ake my leave at Edinburgh, the last day of July, 1565.
No. XII. (p. 138.)
Letter of the Earl of Bedford to the HIonourable Sir William Cecil,' Knt., Her
NMajesty's Principal Secretary, and one of Her Highness's Privy Council.
[2d of Sept. 1565. Paper Office, from the original.]
AFTER my hearty commendations, this day at noon Captain Brickwell came
hither, who brought with him the Queen's Majesty's letters, containing her full
resolution and pleasure for all things he had in charge to give information of,
saving that for the aid of the Lords of the Congregation there is nothing determined, or at the least expressed in the same letters, and for that purpose
received I this morning a letter, subscribed by the Duke, the Earl of Murray,
Glencarne, and others, craving to be holpen with 300 harquebusyers out of this
garrison for their better defence. And albeit, I know right well the goodness
of their cause, and the Queen's Majesty our sovereign's good will, and care
towards them; and do also understand that it were very requisite to have them




372             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
holpen, for that now their cause is to be in this manner decided, and that it
now standeth upon their utter overthrow and undoing, since the Queen's party
is at the least 5000, and they not much above 1000; besides that the Queen hath
harquebusyers, and they have none, and do yet want the power that the Earl
of Arguyle should bring to them, who is not yet joined with theirs; I have
thereupon thought good to pray you to be a means to learn Her Majesty's
pleasure in this behalf, what and how I shall answer them, or otherwise deal in
this matter, now at this their extreme necessity. For, on the one side, lyeth
thereupon their utter ruin and overthrow, and the miserable subversion of religion there; and, on the other side, to adventure so great and weighty a matter
as this is (albeit it be but of a few soldiers for a small time), without good
warraunte, and thereby to bring, peradventure, upon our heads some wilful
warrs, and in the mean time to leave the place unfurnished (having in the whole
but 800), without any grant of new supply for the same; and, by that means
also, to leave the marches here the more subject to invasion, while in the mean
season new helps are preparing; to this know not I what to say or how to do.
And so much more I marvel thereof, as that having so many times written
touching this matter, no resolute determination cometh. And so between the
writing and looking for answer, the occasion cannot pass but must needs proceed and have success. God turn it to his glory; but surely all men's reason
hath great cause to fear it. Such a push it is now come unto, as this little supply
would do much good to advance God's honour, to continue Her Majesty's great
and careful memory of them, and to preserve a great many noblemen and gen
tlemen. If it be not now helpen it is gone for ever. Your good will and affection that way I do nothing mistrust, and herein shall take such good advice as
by any means I can. I received from these lords two papers enclosed, the effect
whereof shall appear unto you. For those matters that Captain Brickwell
brought, I shall answer you by my next, and herewith send you two letters
from Mr. Randolph, both received this day. By him you shall hear that the
Protestants are retired from Edenborough, further off. So I hope your resolu.
tion for their aid shall come in time, if it come with speed, for that they will
not now so presently need them; and so with my hearty thanks commit you to
God. From Berwick, this 2d of Sept. 1565.
No. XIII. (p. 138.)
The Queen to the Earl of Bedford.
[12th Sept. 1566. Paper Office.]
UPON the advertizements lately received from you, with such other things as
came also from the Lord Scrope and Thomas Randolph, and upon the whole
matter well considered, we have thus determined. We will, with all the speed
that we can, send to you 30001. to be thus used. If you shall certainly understand that the Earl of Murray hath such want of money, as the impresting to
him of 10001. might stand him in stead-for the help to defend himself, you shall
presently let him secretly to understand that you will, as of yourself, let him
have so much, and so we will that you let him have, in the most secret sort that
you can, when the said sum shall come to you, or if you can, by any good
means, advanceshim some part thereof beforehand.
The other 20001. you shall cause to be kept whole, unspent, if it be not that
you shall see necessary cause to imprest some part thereof to the now numbers
of the 600 footmen and 100 horsemen; or to the casting out of wages of such
workmen as by sickness or otherwise ought to be discharged. And where we
perceive, by your sundry letters, the earnest request of the said Earl of Mulray
and his associates, that they might have, at the least, 300 of our soldiers to aid
them. And that you also write, that though we would not command you to
give them aid, yet if we would but wink at your doing herein, and seem to
blame you for attempting such things, as you with the help of others should
bring about, you doubt not but things would do well; you shall understand for
a truth that we have no intention, for many respects, to maintain any other
Prince's subjects to take arms against their sovereign; neither would we will



APPENDIX, No. XIV.                          373
mngly do any thing to give occasion to make wars betwixt us and that Prince,
which has caused us to forbear hitherto to give you any power to let them be
aided with any men. But now, considering we take it, that they are pursued,
notwithstanding their humble submission and offer to be ordered and tried by
law and justice, which being refused to them, they are retired to Dumfrese, a
place near our west marches, as it seerneth there to defend themselves, and
adding thereunto the good intention, that presently the French King pretendeth, by sending one of his to join with some one of ours, and jointly to
treat with that Queen, and to induce her to forbear this manner of violent and
rigorous proceeding against her subjects, for which purpose the French ambassador here with us has lately witten to that Queen, whereof answer is daily
looked for; to the intent, in the mean time, the said lords should not be
oppressed and ruined for lack of some help to defend them, we are content and
do authorize, if you shall see it necessary for their defence, to let them (as of
your own adventure, and without notifying that you have any direction therein
from us) to have the number of 300 soldiers, to be taken, either in whole bands
or to be drawn out of all your bands, as you shall see cause; and to cover the
matter the better, you shall send these numbers to Carlisle, as to be laid there
in garrison, to defend that march, now in this time that such powers are on the
other part drawing to those frontiers, and so from thence as you shall see cause
to direct of; the same numbers, or any of them, may most covertly repair to the
said lords, when you shall expressly advertize, that you send them that aid only
for their defence, and not therewith to make war against the Queen, or to do
any thing that may offend her person; wherein you shall so precisely deal with
them, that they may perceive your care to be such, as if it should otherwise
appear, your danger should be so great as all the friends you have could not be
able to save you, towards us. And so we assure you our conscience moveth us
to charge you so to proceed with them; for otherwise than to preserve them
from ruin, we do not yield to give them aid of money or men: and yet we
would not that either of these were known to be our act, but rather to be
kovered with your own desire and attempt.
No. XIV. (p. 141.)
Randolph to Cecil, from Edinburgh, 7th Feb. 1565-6.
[An original.]
MY humble duty considered; what to write of the present state of the country I am so uncertain, by reason of the daily alterations of men's minds, that it
maketh me much slower than otherwise I would. Within these few days there
was some good hope that this Queen would have shewed some favour towards
the lords, and that Robert Melvin should have returned unto them with comfort upon some conditions. Since that time there are come out of France,
Clernau by land, and Thorneton by sea; the one from the Cardinal, the other
from the Bishop of Glasgow. Since whose arrival, neither can there be good
word gotten, nor appearance of any good intended them, except that they be
able to perswade the Queen's Majesty, our sovereign, to make her heir apparent
to the croun of England. I write of this nothing less than I know that she
hath spoken. And by all means that she thinketh the best doth travaile to bring
it to pass. There is a band lately devised, in which the late Pope, the Emperor,
the King of Spain, the Duke of Savoy, with divers Princes of Italy, and the
Queen-mother, suspected to be of the same confederacy, to maintain Papistry
throughout Christiandom; this band was sent out of France by Thorneton, and
is subscribed by this Queen, the copy thereof remaining with her, and the prin
cipal to be returned very shortlie, as I hear, by Mr. Stephen Willson, a fit minister
for such a devilish devise; if the coppie hereof may be gotten, that shall be
sent as I conveniently may. Monsieur Rambollet came to this toun uponl Monday, he spoke that night to the Queen and her husband, but not long; the next
day he held long conferences with them both, but nothing came to the knowledge of any whereof they intreated. I cannot speak with any that hath any
hope that there will be any good done for the lords by him, though it is said that




374             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
he hath very good will to do so to the uttermost of his power. He is lodged
near to the court, and liveth upon the Queen's charges. Upon Sunday the
order is given, whereat means made to many to be present that day at the mass.
Upon Candlemas-day there carried their candles, with the Queen, her husband,
the Earle of Lennox, and Earle Athol; divers other lords have been called
together and required to be at the mass that day, some have promised, as Cassels, Montgomerie, Seton, Cathness. Others have refused, as Fleming, Levingston, Lindsay, Huntly, and Bothel; and of them all Bothel is the stoutest, but
worst thought of; it was moved in council that mass should have been in Saint
Giles' church, which I believe was rather to tempt men's minds than intended
indeed: She was of late minded again to send Robert Melvin to negociate with
such as she trusteth in amongst the Queen's Majesty's subjects, of whose good
willis this way I trust that the bruit is greater than the truth, but in these matters Her Majesty is too wise not in time to be ware, and provide for the worst;
some in that country are thought to be privie unto the bands and confederacie of
which I have written, whereof I am sure there is some things, tho' perchance of
all I have not heard the truth; in this court divers quarles, contentions, and
debates, nothing so much sought as to maintain mischief and disorder. David
yet retaineth still his place, not without heart-grief to many that see their
sovereign guided chiefly by such a fellow: the Queen hath utterly refused to do
any good to My Lord of Argyll, and it is said that shall be the first voyage that
she will make after she is delivered of being with child; the bruit is common
that she is, but hardly believed of many, and of this I can assure you, that there
have of late appeared some tokens to the contrary.
No. XV. (p. 145.)
Part of a Letter from the Earl of Bedford and JMr. Thomas Randolph to the Lords
of the Council of England from Berwick, 27th of JMarch, 1566. An Original in
the Cotton Library, Caligula, b. 10.fol. 372.
MAIY IT PLEASE YOUR HONOURS,
HERING Of SO maynie matters as we do, and fyndinge such varietie in the
reports, we have myche ado to decerne the veritie; which maketh us the slower
and loother to put any thing in wrytinge to the entente we wold not that Your
Honours, and by you the Queen's Majestie, our sovereigne, should not be
advertised but of the verie trothe as we can possible. To this end we thought
good to send up Captain Carewe, who was in Edinbourge at the tyme of the
last attemptate, who spoke there with diverse, and after that with the Queen's
self and her husband, conforme to that which we have learned by others and
know by this reporte, we send the same, confirmed by the parties self, that were
there present and assysters unto these that were executors of the acte.
This we fynde for certain, that the Queen's husband being entered into a
vehement suspicion of David, that by hym some thynge was committed, which
was most agaynste the Queen's honour, and not to be borne of his perte, fyrste
communicated his mynde to George Duglas, who, fynding his sorrowes so great,
sought all the means he coulde to put some remedie to his grieff; and communicating the same unto My Lord Ruthen by the King's commandment, no other
waye coulde be found then that David should be taken out of the waye.
Wherein he was so earnest and daylye pressed the same, that no reste could be
had untyll it was put in execution. To this that was found good, that the
Lord Morton and Lord Lindsaye should be made privie to th' intente that theie
might have their friends at hande, yf neade required; which caused them to
assemble so mayny, as theie thought sufficient against the tyme, that this determination of theirs should be put in executione; which was determined the ixth
of this instante, 3 daies afore the parliament should begyne, at which time the
sayde lordes were assured that the Erles Argyle, Morraye, Rothes and their
complyces sholde have been forfeited, yf the King could not be persuaded
through this means to be their friends; who for the desyre he had6 that this
intent should take effect, th' one waye was contente to yielde, without all difficultie, to t'other, with this condition, that theie should give their consents, that
he might have the crowne matrimonial. He was so impatient to see these




APPENDIX, No. XV.                           375
things he saw, and were daylye brought to his eares, that he dayly pressed the
said Lord Ruthen, that there might be no longer delaye; and to the intent that
myght be manifeste unto the world that he approved the acte, was content to be
at the doing of that himself.
Upon Saturdaye at night neire unto viII of the clock the King conveyeth himself, the Lord Ruthen, GeorgeDuglass, and two others, throwe his 0wne chamber
by the privy stayers up to the Queen's chamber, going to which there is a cabinet about XII foot square; in the same a little low reposing bed and a table, at
the which theyr were sitting at the supper, the Queene, the Lady Argile, and
David with his capp upon his head. Into the cabinet there cometh in the King
and Lord Ruthen, who willed David to come forth, saying, that was no place
for him. The Queen said, that it was her will. Her howsband answerede,
that yt was against her honour. The Lord Ruthen saoid, that he should lerne
better his dutie, and offering to have taken him by the arm, David took the
Queen by the blychtes of her gown and put himself behind the Queen who
wolde gladlee have saved him: But the King having loosed his hand, and
holding her in his arms, David was thrust out of the cabinet throw the bed
chamber into the chamber of presens, whar were the Lord Morton, Lord Lindsey, who intending that night to have reserved him, and the next day to hang
him, so many being about him that bore him evil will; one thrust him into the
boddie with a dagger, and after him a great many others, so that he had in his
bodie above   wonds. It is told for certayne, that the Kinges own dagger was
left sticking in him. Wheather he stuck him or not we cannot here for certayn. He was not slayne in the Queen's presens, as was said, but going down
the stayres out of the chamber of presens.
There remained a long tyme with the Queen her howsband and the Lord
Ruthen. She made, as we here, great intercession that he shold have no harm.
She blamed greatlee her howsband that was the actor of so foul a deed. It is
said that he did answer, that David had more companie of her boddie than he
for the space of two months; and, therefore, for her honour and his own con
tentment he gave his consent that he should be taken away. " It is not" (saythe
she) " the woman's part to seek the husband, and therefore in that the fault
was his own." He said that when he came, she either wold not, or made herself
sick. "Well," saythe she, " you have taken your last of me and your fare
well." Then were pity, sayth the Lord Ruthen, he is Your Majesty's husband,
and must yield dutie to each other. " Why may I not," saythe she,'" leave
him as well as your wife did her husband?" Other have done the like. The
Lord Ruthen said, that she was lawfully divorced from her husband, and for no
such cause as the King found himself greve. Besydes, this man was mean,
basse, enemie to the nobility, shame to her, and destruction to herself and country. " Well," saith she, " that shall be dear blude to some of you, yf his be
spylt." God forbid, sayth the Lord Ruthen; for the more Your Grace showe
yourself offended, the world will judge the worse.
Her husband this tyme speaketh litle, herself continually weepeth. The Lord
Ruthen being ill at ease and weak, calleth for a drink, and saythe, " This I
must do with Your Majesties pardon," and persuadeth her in the best sort
he could, that she would pacify herself. Nothing that could be said could
please her.
In this mean time there rose a nombre in the court; to pacify which there
went down the Lord Ruthen, who went strayt to the Erles Huntly, Bothwell,
and Atholl, to quiet them, and to assure them for the King that nothing was
intend against them. These notwithstanding taking fear when theie heard that
My Lord of Murray would be there the next day, and Argile meet them, Huntly
and Bothwell both get out of a window and so depart. Atholl had leave of the
King, with Flysh and Glandores (who was lately called Deysley the person of
Owne) to go where they wold, and bring concorde out of the court by the Lord
of Lidington. Theie went that night to such places where they thought themselves in most sauftie.
Before the King leaft talk with the Queen, in the hering of the Lord Ruthen,
she was contents that he shold lie with her that night. We know not how he
* * himself, but came not at her, and excused hymself to his friends, that he
was so sleepie that he could not wake in due season.




376             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
There were in this companie two that came in with the King; the one
Andrewe Car of Fawdenside, whom the Queen sayth would have stroken her
with a daggel, and one Patrick Balentine, brother to the justice clerk, who also,
Her Grace sayth, offered a dag against her belly with the cock down. We
have been earnestly in hand with the Lord Ruthen to know the varitie; but he
assoureth us of the contrarie. There were in the Queen's chamber the Lord
Robert, Arthur Arskin, one or two others. They at the first offering to make a
defence, the Lord Ruthen drawd his dagger, and 4 mo weapons then, that were
not drawn nor seen in her presens, as we are by this Lord assured.
[The letter afterwards gives an account of the flight to Dunbar Castle,
whither resorted unto the Lords Huntly and Bothwell. That the Earl of Morton and Lord Ruthen find themselves left by the King for all his fair promises,
bonds, and subscriptions. That he had protested before the council that he
was never consenting to the death of David, and that it is sore against his will:'" That of the great substance David had there is much spoken, some say in
gold to the value of 11l1o. His apparel was very good, as it is said, 28 pair of
velvet hose. His chamber well furnished, armour, dagger, pystoletts, harquebuses, 22 swords. Of all this nothing spoyld or lacked saving 2 or 3 dagger.
He had the custody of all the Queen's letters, which all were delivered unlooked
upon. We hear of a juill that he had hanging about his neck of some price
that cannot be heard of. He had upon his back when he was slayn, a night
gown of damask furred, with a satten dublet, a hose of russet velvet."]
No. XVI. (p. 148:)
Part of a Letterfrom Randolph to Cecil, Jan. 16, 1565-6.
--- I CANNOT tell what misliking of late there hath been between Her
Grace and her husband, he presseth earnestly for the matrimonial crown,
which she is loth hastily to grant, but willing to keep somewhat in store, until
she know how well he is worth to enjoy such a sovereignty; and therefore it is
thought that the Parliament for a time shall be deferred, but hereof I can write
no certainty.
From MJr. Randolph's Letter to Secretary Cecil.
[4 April, 1566. Paper Office, front the original.]
THE justice-clerk in hard terms, more for his brother's cause than any desert,
and as far as I can hear the King of all other in worst, for neither hath the
Queen good opinion of him for attempting of any thing that was against her
will, nor the people that he hath denied so manifest a matter, being proved to
be done by his commandment, and now himself to be the accuser and pursuer of
them that did as he willed them. This Scott, that was executed, and Murray
that was yesterday arreigned, were both accused by him. It is written to me,
for certain, by one that upon Monday last spok with the Queen, that she is
determined that the house of' Lennox shall be as poor in Scotland as ever it
was. The Earl continueth sick, sore troubled in mind: he staith in the abby,
his son has been once with him, and he once with the Queen, since she came
to the castle. The Queen hath now seen all the covenants and bands that
passed between the King and the lords, and now findeth that his declaration,
before her and council, of his innocency of the death of David, was false; and
grievously offended that, by their means, he should seek to come to the crown
matrimonial.
Part of a Letterfrom Randolph to Cecil,from Berwick, 25th April, 1566.
---— TERE is continually very much speech of the discord between the
Queen and her husband, so far that, that is commonly said and believed of him.
self, that Mr. James Thornton is gone to Rome to sue for a divorce between
them. It is very certain that Malevasier had not spoken with him within these
three days. He is neither accompany'd nor looked upon of any nobleman:




APPENDIX, No. XViI.                             377
attended upon by certain of his own servants, and six or seven of the guard;
at liberty to do, and go where and what he will, they have no hope yet among
themselves of quietness.
---- David's brother, named Joseph, who came this way with Malevasier,
unknown to any man here, is become secretary in his brother's place.
No. XVII. (p. 150.)
The Earl of Bedford to Cecil, 3d.August, 1566.
THE Queen and her husband agree after the old manner, or rather worse.
She eateth but very seldom with him, lieth not nor keepeth company with him,
nor loveth any such as love him. He is so far out of her books, as at her going
out of the castle of Edinburgh, to remove abroad, he knew nothing thereof.
It cannot for modesty, nor with the honour of a Queen,- be reported what she
said of him. One Hickman, an English merchant there, having a water spaniel,
which was very good, gave him to Mr. James Melvil, who afterwards, for the
pleasure which he saw the King have in such kind of dogs, gave him to the
King. The Queen thereupon fell marvellously out with Melvil, and called him
dissembler and flatterer, and said she could not trust one, who would give any
thing to such a one as she loved not.
The Earl of Bedford to Cecil,.ugust 8.
THE disagreement between the Queen and her husband continueth, or rather
increaseth. Robert Melvill drawing homewards, within twelve miles of Edinburgh, could not tell where to find the Queen; sith which time she is come to
Edinburgh, and had not twelve horses attending on her. There was not then,
nor that I can hear of since, any lord, baron, or other nobleman in her company.
The King her husband is gone to Dumfermling, and passeth his time as well
as he may; having at his farewell such countenance as would make a husband
heavy at the heart.
Sir John Forster to Cecil, 8 Sept. from Berwick.
THE Queen hath her husband in small estimation, and the Earl of Lennox
came not in the Queen's sight since the death of Davy.
Sir John Forster to Cecil, 11th December.
THE Earl of Bothwell is appointed to receive the ambassadors, and all things
for the christening are at His Lordship's appointment, and the same is scarcely
well liked of the nobility, as is said. The King and Queen is presently at
Craigmillar, but in little greater familiarity than he was all the while past.
Advertisements out of Scotland from the Earl of Bedford.
[August 1566. Paper Office. From the original.]
THAT the King and Queen agreed well together two days after her coming
from —, and after My Lord of Murray's coming to Edinburgh, some new
discord has happened. The Queen hath declared to My Lord of Murray that
the King bears him evil will, and has said to her that he is determined to kill
him, finding fault that she doth bear him so much company; and in like manner
hath willed My Lord of Murray to spiere it at the King, which he did a few
nights since in the Queen's presence, and in the hearing of divers. The King
confessed, that reports were made to him, that My Lord of Murray was not
his friend, which made him speak that thing he repented; and the Queen
affirmed, that the King had spoken such words unto her, and confessed before
the whole house, that she could not be content that either he or any other
should be unfriend to My Lord of Murray. My Lord of Murray enquired the
same stoutly, and used his speech very modestly, in the mean time the King
VOL. III.-48




'378           ElOHISTORX OF SCOTLAND
departed very grieved; he cannot bear that the Queen should use familiarity
either with man or woman, and especially the ladies of Arguile, Murray, and
Marre, who keep most company with her. My Lord of Murray and Bothwell
have been at evil words for the L. of Ledington, before the Queen, for he and
Sir James Balfour had new come from Ledington, with his answer upon such
heads or articles as Bothwell and he should agree upon, which being reported
to the said Earl in the Queen's presence, made answer, that ere he parted with
such lands as was desired, he should part with his life. My Lord of Murray
said stoutly to him, that twenty as honest men as he should lose their lives ere
he reafte Ledington. The Queen spake nothing, but heard both; in these
terms they parted, and since, that 1 hear of, have not met. The Queen after
her hunting came to Edinburgh, and carrieth the Prince thence to Stirling with
her. This last Saturday was executed a servant of the Lord Ruthven's, who
confessed that he was in the cabinet, but not of council of the fact. The Queen
hath also opened to My Lord of Murray, that money was sent from the Pope,
how much it was, and by whom, and for what purpose it was brought.
No. XVIII. (p. 156.)
Part of a Letter from Elizabeth to Mary, Feb. 20, 1569..d copy interlined by
Cecil. It contains an answer to a complaining letter of.Miary's upon the imprisoning of the Bishop of Ross.
-~    AFTER this [i. e. Mary's landing in Scotland] how patiently did I bear
with many vain delays in not ratifying the treaty accorded by your own commissioners, whereby I received no small unkindness, besides the manifold causes
of suspicion that I might not hereafter trust to any writings. Then followed
a hard manner of dealing with me, to intice my subject and near kinsman, the
Lord Darnly, under colour of private suits for land, to come into the realm, to
proceed in treaty of marriage with him without my knowledge, yea to conclude
the same without my assent or liking. And how many unkind parts accompany'd that fact, by receiving of my subjects that were base runnagates and
offenders at home, and enhansing them to places of credit against my will, with
many such like, I will leave, for that the remembrance of the same cannot but
be noysome to you. And yet all these did I as it were suppress and overcome
with my natural inclination of love towards you: and did afterwards gladly, as
you know, christen your son, the child of my said kinsman, that had before so
unloyally offended me, both in marriage of you, and in other undutiful usages
towards me his sovereign. How friendly also dealt I by messages to reconcile
him, being your husband, to you, when others nourished discord betwixt you,
who as it seemed had more power to work their purposes, being evil to you both,
than I had to do you good, in respect of the evil I had received. Well I will
overpass your hard accidents that followed for lack of following my council.
And then in your most extremity, when you was a prisoner indeed, and in
danger of your life from your notorious evil willers, how far from my mind
was the remembrance of any former unkindness you had shewed me. Nay,
how void was I of respect to the designs which the world had seen attempted
by you to my crown, and the security that might have ensued to my state by
your death, when I finding your calamity to be great, that you were at the
pit's brink to have miserably lost your life, did not only intreat for your life,
but so threatened some as were irritated against you, that I only may say it,
even I was the principal cause to save your life.
No. XIX. (p. 163.)
L'etter of Q. Elizabeth to Q. of Scots. Thus Marked on the back wuith Cecil's
hand.-Copia Literarum Regia Majestatis ad Reginam  Scotorum VIII~.
Aprilis.
[Paper Office.]
MADAME, VOUS ayant trop moleste par M. de Crocq, je n'eusse eu si peu de
considdration de vous fascher de cette lettre, si les liens de charite vers les ruinez,




APPENDIX, No. XX.                             379
et les prieres des misdrables ne m'y contraignassent. Je entens que un 6dit a
dtd divulgue de par vous, madame, que ung chascun, que veult justifier que ons
este les meurtriers de votre feu mari, et mon feu cousin, viennent a le faire le
xnme de ce mois. La quelle chose, comme c'est plus honorable et necessaire,
qui en tel cas se pourra faire, ne y estant cach6 quelque mistere ou finesse, ainsi
le pere et amis du mort gentelhomme m'ont humblement requis, que je vous
priasse de prolongue le jour, pource qu'ilz cognoissent que les iniques se sont
combings par force de faire ce que par droict ils ne pourront pas faire; partant,
je ne puis mais sinon pour l'amour de vous meme, a qui il touche le plus, et
pour la consolation des innocens, de vous exhorter le leur conceder cette requeste, laquelle, si el]e les seroit nid, vous tourneroit grandement en soupqon,
de plus que j'espere ne pensez, et que ne voudriez volontiers ouyr. Pour
l'amour de Dieu, madame, usez de telle sincerite et prudence en ce cas qui vous
touche de si pres, que tout le monde aye raison, de vous livrer comme innocente
d'ung crime si enorme, chose que si ne fistes, seriez dignement esboly6 hors de
rancz de Princesses, et non sans cause faite opprobre de vulgaire, et plutot que
cela vous avienne, je vous souhaiterois une sdpulture honorable, qu'une vie
maculde; vous voiez, madame, que je vous traite comme ma fille, et vous
promets, que si j'en eusse, ne luy souhaiterois mieulx, que je vous ddsire1 comme
le Seigneur Dieu me porte tesmoignage, a que je prie de bon coeur de vous
inspirer a faire ce qui vous sera plus a honneur, et a vos amis plus de consolation, avec mes tres cordialles recommendations comrme a icelle a qui se souhaite
le plus de bien, qui vous pourra en ce monde avenir. Do West. ce 8 jour de
Janvier* en haste.
No. XX. (p. 168.)
Account of the Sentence of Divorce between the Earl of Bothwell and Lad3y Jean
Gordon, his Wife. From  a Jlanuscript belonging to JMr. David Falconer,
AQdvocate. Fol. 455.
UPOUN the 29 of Apryle, 1567, before the Richt Hon. Mr. Robert Maitland,
Dean of Aberdene, Mr. Edward Henryson, doctor in the laws, two of the senators of the college of justice, Mr. Clement Little, and Mr. Alexander Syme,
advocatiis, commissers of Edinr.; compeered Mr. Henry Kinrosse, procurator
for Jean Gourdoune, Countess of Bothwell, constitute be her for pursewing of
ane proces of divorcement intendit by her contra James Erle Bothwel, her husband, for adultry committed be him with Bessie Crawfurde, the pursuer's servant for the time; and sicklyke, for the said Erle, compeared Mr. Edmond Hay,
who, efter he had pursued and craved the pursuer's procurator's oath de calumnia, if he had just caus to pursew the said action, and obtained it, denyed the
libell, and the said Mr. Harrie took the morne, the last day of Apryle, to prove
the same pro prima. The quhilk day, having produced some witnesses, he took
the next day, being the 1 of May, to do farther diligence, upon the quhilk 1 of
May, he produced some moe witnesses, and renounced farther probatioune.
After quhilk, he desired a term to be assigned to pronounce sentence. To whom
the said commissars assigned Satterday next, the 3 of May, to pronounce sentence therein, secundum alegata et probata, quhilk accordingly was given that
day in favour of the pursewar.
At the same time there was another proces intendit be the Erl of Bothwell'contr his lady, for to have their marriage declared nul, as being contracted
against the canons, without a dispensation, and he and his lady being within
degrees defendand, viz. ferdis a kin, and that wyse for expeding of this proces,
there was a commissioune grantit to the Archbishop of St. Androis to cognosce
and determine it, and Rot. Bishop of Dunkeld, William, Bishop of Dunblane,
Mr. Andro Craufurd, chanon in Glasgow and parson of Egelshame, Mr. Alexander Criechtoun, and Mr. George Cooke, Chancellor of Dunkeld, and to Mr.
Johne Manderstoune, chanon in Dunbar and prebendar of Beltoune, or any ane
of them. This commissione is datit 27th Aprile, 1567, was presented to two of
the saids commissioners, viz. Mr. Andr. Crawfurd and Mr. John Manderstoune
* A mistake in the date corrected with Cecil's hand VIIIo Aprilis,




380             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
on Satterday, 3 May, by Mr. Thomas Hepburne, parson of Auldhamstocks, pro
curator for the Erle of Bothwell, who accepted the delegatioune, and gave out
their citation by precept, directed Decano Christianitatis de Hadingtoune, nec
non vicario seu curato eccle. parochiae de Creichtoune, seu cuicunq; alteri
capellano debiti requisitis, fer summoning, at the said Erle's instance, both of
the lady personally if she could be had, or otherways at the parosche kerk of
Creichtoune the time of service, or at her dwelling place before witnesses,
primo, secundo, tertio et peremptorie, unico tamen contextu protuplice edicto.
And likeways to be witnesses in the said matter, Alex. Bishop of Galloway,
who did marry the said Erle and his lady in Halerud-hous kirk, in Feb. 1565,
Sir John Bannatyne of Auchnole, justice clerk, Mr. Robert Creichtoun of Elliok,
the Queen's advocate, Mr. David Chalmers, provost of Creichtoun and chancellor of Ross, Michael-Abbot of Melross, and to compear before the said
judges or any one of them in St. Geil's kirk in Edr. on Monday, the 5 of May,
be thamselves, or their procurators. Upon the said 5 day, Mr. John Manderstoun, one of the judge's delegat only being present, compeared the same procurators for both the parties that were in the former proces, Mr. Edmund Hay
(       articulatlie     *) and some of the witnesses summoned produced,
and received for proving the same. The said procurator renounced farder probatioune, and the judge assigned the morne, the 6th of May, ad publicandum
producta, nempe depositiones ipsorum testium. The quhilk day, post publicatas, depositiones prmedictas, Mr. Hen. Kinrosse, procurator for the lady,
instanter objecit objectiones juris generaliter, contra producta, insuper renunciavit ulteriori defensioni; proinde conclusa de consensu procuratorum hinc
inde causa judex prredictus statuit crastinum diem pro termina, ad pronunciano
dum suam sententiam definitivam, ex deductis coram eo, in prresenti causa et
processu. Conform hereunto, on Wednesday, the 7th of May, the said judge
gave out his sentence in favour of the Erle, declaring the marriage to be, and
to have been null from the beginning, in respect of their contingence in blood,
which hindered their lawful marriage without a dispensation obtained of befoir.
No. XXI. (p. 170.)
J Letterfrom England concerning the J.Murder of King Henry Darnley.
[E. of Morton's Archieves. Bundle B. No. 25.]
HAVING the commodity of this bearer Mr. Clark, I tho't good to write a few
words unto you. I have recd some writs from you, and some I have seen lately
sent to others from you, as namely to the Earl of Bedford of the 16th of May.
1 have participat the contents thereof to such as I thought meet, this mekle I
can assure you; the intelligence given hithere by the French was untrue, for
there was not one Papist nor Protestant which did not consent that justice
should be done, be the Queen my sovns aid and support, against such as had
committed that abominable ill murder in your country; but to say truth, the
lack and coldness did not rise from such as were called to council, but from such
as should give life and execution thereunto. And further, I assure you, I never
knew no matter of estate proponed which had so many favourers of all sorts of
nations as this had: yea, I can say unto you, no man promoted the matter with
greater affection, than the Spanish ambassador. And sure I am that no man
dare openly be of any other mind, but to affirm that whosoever is guilty of this
murder, hand fasted with advoutre, is unworthy to live. I shall not need to tell
you, which be our letts, and stayes from all good things here. You are
acquainted with them as well as I. Neds I must confess, that howsoever we
omit occasions of benefit, honour, and surety; it behoveth your whole nobility,
and namely such as before and after the murder were deemed to allow of Bodwell, to prosecute with sword and justice the punishment of those abominable
acts, though we lend you but a cold aid, and albeit you, and divers others, both
honourable and honest, be well known to me, and sundry others here, to be jus.
tifiable in all their actions and doings; yet think not the contrary but your
* Two words in the parenthesis illegible.




APPENDIX, No. XXII.                             381
whole nation is blemished and infamit by these doings which lately passed
among you. What we shall do I know not, neither do I write unto you
assuredly, for we be subject unto many mutations, and yet I think we shall
either aid you, or continue in the defence and safeguard of your Prince, so as it
appear to us that you mean his safeguard indeed, and not to run the fortune of
France, which will be your own destruction if you be unadvised. I know not
one, no not one of any quality or estate in this country, which does allow of the
Queen your sovereign, but would gladly the world were rid of her, so as the
same were done without farther slander, that is to say by ordinary justice.
This I send the 23d of May.
No. XXII. (p. 173.)
Part of a Letterfrom Sir NVicolas Throkmorton to Cecil, 11th of July, 1567,
from Berwick.
[An Original. Paper Office.]
-  SIR, your letter of the 6th of July, I received the 10th at Berwick. 1
am sorry to see that the Queen's Majesty's disposition altereth not towards the
lords, for when all is done, it is they which must stand her more in stead, than
the Queen her cousin, and will be better instruments to work some benefite and
quietness to Her Majesty and her realm, than the Queen of Scotland which is
void of good fame.
A. Letterfrom Sir NJicolas Throkmorton to Cecil, from Fastcastle,
12th of July, 1567.
[Paper Office.]
SIR, as yow might perceive by my letter of the 11th July, I lodged at Fastcastle that night accompanyed with the Lord Hume, the Lord of Ledington,
and James Melvin, where I was entreated very well according to the state of
the place, which is fitter to lodge prisoners than folks at liberty, as it is very
little, so it is very strong. By the conference I have had with the Lord of
Ledington I find the lords his associates and he hath left nothing unthought of,
which may be either to thir danger or work them suerty, wherein they do not
forget what good and harme France may do them, and likewise they consider
the same of England; but as farr as I can perceive, to be plain with yow, they
find more perril to grow unto them through the Queen's Majestys dealing than
either they do by the French, or by any contrary faction amongest themselves,
for they assure themselves the Queen will leave them in the bryers if they run
her fortoun, and though they do acknowledge great benefit as well to them, as to
the realm of England by her Majestys doings at Leith, whereof they say mutually Her Majesty and both the realms have received great fruit: yet upon other
accidents which have chanced since, they have observed such things in Her
Majestys doings, as have ended to the danger of such as she hath dealt withal,
to the overthrow of your own designments, and little to the suerty of any party:
and upon these considerations and discourses at length, methinketh I find a
disposition in them, that either they mind to make their bargain with France,
or else to deal neither with France nor yoew, but to do what they shall think
meet for their state and suerty, and to use there remedys as occation shall move
them; meaning neither to irritate France nor England, untill such time as they
have made their bargain assuredly with one of yow; for they think it conve.
nient to proceed with yow both for a while pari passu, for that was My Lord of
Ledington's terms. I do perceave they take the matter very unkindly, that no
better answer is made to the letter, which the lords did send to Her Majesty,
and likewise that they hear nothing from yoew to their satisfaction. I have
answered as well as I can, and have alleged their own proceedings so obscurly
with the Queen and their uncertainty hath occationed this that is yet happened,
and therefore Her Majesty hath sent me to the end I may inform her throughly
of the state of the matters, and upon the declaration of their minds and intents




3892            HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
to such purposes as shall be by me proposed on Her Majestys behalf unto them,
they shall be reasonably and resolutely answered.-At these things the Lord of
Ledington smiled and shook his head, and said it were better for us yow would
let us alone than neither to do us nor yourselves good, as I fear me in the end
that will prove: Sr if their be any truth in Ledington, Le Crocq is gone to procure Ramboilet his coming hither or a man of like quality, and to deliver them
of their Queen for ever, who shall lead her life in France in an abbay reclused,
the Prince at the French devotion, the realm governed by a council of their
election of the Scottish nation, the forts committed to the custody of such as
shall be chosen amongst themselves, as yet I find no great likelihood that I
shall have access to the Queen, it is objected they may not so displease the
French King, unless they were sure to find the Queen of England a good
friend; and when they once by my access to the Queen have offended the
French, then they say yow will make your profit thereof to their undoing; and
as tc the Queen's liberty, which was the first head that I proposed, they said
that thereby they did perceive that the Queen wants their undoing, for as for
the rest of the matters it was but folly to talk of them, the liberty going before:
but said they, if you will do us no good, do us no harm, and we will provide for
ourselves. In the end they said, we should refuse our own commodity before
they concluded with any other, which I should hear of at my coming to Edinr
by my next I hope to send yow the band concluded by Hamiltons, Argyll,
Huntly, and that faction, not so much to the prejudice of the Lords of Edinr, as
that which was sent into France; thus having no more leisure, but compell'd to
leap on horseback with the lords to go to Edinr, I humbly take my leave of
from Fastcastle, the 12th of July, 1567.
To Sir 3N/icolas Throkmorton being in Scotland. By the Queen, the
14th of July, 1567.
[Paper Office.]
TausTY and well beloved, we greet you well, though we think that the causes
will often change upon variety of accidents, yet we think for sundry respects,
not amiss, that as yow shall deal with the Lords having charge of the young
Prince for the committing of him into our realm, so shall yow also do well, in
treaty with the Queen, to offer her that where her realm appeareth to be subject to sundry troubles from time to time, and thereby (as it is manifest) her
son cannot be free, if she shall be contented that her son may enjoy surety and
quietness within this our realm, being so near as she knows it is; we shall not
faill to yield her as good suerty therein for her child, as can be devised for any
that might be our child born of our own body, and shall be glad to show to her
therein the trew effect of nature; and herein she may be by yow remembred
how much good may ensue-to her son to be nourished and acquainted with our
country: and therefore, all things considered, this occation for her child, were
rather to be sought by her and the friends of him than offered by us; and to
this end we mean that yow shall so deal with her, both to stay her indeed from
inclining to the French practice, which is to us notorious, to convey her and the
Prince into France, and also to avoid any just offence, that she might hereafter
conceive, if she should hear that we should deal with the Lords for the Prince.
Sir JVicolas Throkmorton to Queen Elizabeth, 14th July, 1567. From Edinburgh.
[AnI Original. Paper Office.]
IT may please Your Majesty to be advertised, I did signifie unto Mr. Secre
tary by my letters of the 11th and 12th of July, the day of mine entry into Scotland, the causes of my stay, my lodging at Fastcastle, a place of the Lord
Hume's, where I was met by the said Lord and by the Lord Lidington, and
what had passed in conference betwixt us, whilest I was at the said Fastcastle.
Since which time, accompanyed with the lords aforesaid, and with 400 horses
by their appointment for my better conduct, I came to Edinr the 12th of this
present. The 13th being Sunday, appointed for a solemne communion in this




APPEN DJ1X, No. XX1I.                          383
town, and also a solemne fast being published, I could not have conference with
the Lords which be assembled within this town, as I desired, that is to say,
the Earls of Athole and Morton, the Lord Hume, the Lord of Lidington, Sir
James Balfour, captain of the castle, Mr. James McGill, and the president of
the session.
Nevertheless I made means by the Lord of Lidington that they would use
no protracte of time in mine audience, so did I likewise to the Earle of Morton,
whom I met by chance; I was answered by them both, that albeit the day were
destined to sacred exercises, such as were there of the council would consult
upon any moyen touching my access unto them and my conference with them,
and said also, that in the afternoon either they would come to me, or I should
hear from them. About 4 of the clock in the afternoon, the said 13th davy, the
Lord of Lidington came to my lodgings, and declared unto me on the behalf of
the Lords and others, that they required me to have patience, though they had
defferred my conference with them, which was grounded principally upon the
absence of the Earles of Mar and Glencairn, the Lords Semple, Crighton,
and others of the council, saying also that they did consider the matters which
I was on your     behalf to treate with them of, were of great importance, as
they could not satisfy nor conveniently treate with me, nor give me answer
without the advice of the lords, and others their associates; the Lord of
Lidington also said unto me, that where he perceived, by his private conference
with me in my journey hitherwards, that I pressed' greatly to have speedy
access to the Queen their sovereign, he perceived by the lords and others which
were here, that in that matter there was great difficulty for many respects, but
specially because they had refused to the French ambassador the like access,
which being granted unto me might greatly offend the French, a matter which
they desired and intended to eschew; for they did not find by Your Majesty's
dealings with them hitherto, that it behoved them to irritate the French King,
and to lose his favour and good intelligence with them: I answered, that as to
their refusal made unto the French ambassador, Monsieur de Ville Roye was
dispatched forth of France before these accidents here happened, and his special
errand was to impeach the Queen's marriage with the Earle of Bothel (for so
indeed since my coming hither I learned his commission tended to that end, and
to make offer to the Queen of another marriage), and as to Monsieur de Crocq,
he could have no order forth of France concerning these matters since they
happened; and therefore they might very well hold them suspected to have
conference with the Queen, least they might treate of matters in this time
without instructions, and so rather do harm than good; but Your Majesty being.
advertized of all things which had chanced, had sent me hither to treat with
them, for the well of the realm, for the conservation of their honours and
credit, and for their surety; and I might boldly say unto him, that Your Majesty
had better deserved than the French had. He said for his own part, he was
much bound unto Your Majesty, and had always found great favour and
courtesy in England; but to be plain with you, Sir, sayed he, there is not many
of this assembly that have found so great obligation at the Queen your sovereign's hands, as at the French King's, for the Earles of Morton and Glencairn
be the only persons which took benefit by the Queen's Majesty's aid at Leith,
the rest of the noblemen were not in the action; and we think, said he, the
Queen's Majesty your sovereign, by the opinion of her own council and all the
world, took as great benefit by that charge as the realm of Scotland, or any
particular person; and not to talk with yow as an ambassador, but with Sir
Nicholas Throkmorton, My Lord Morton, and such as were in pain for the
death of Davie, found but cold favour at the Queen's Majesty's hands, when
they were banish'd forth of their own country; but I would all our whole
company were as well willing to accomplish' the Queen your sovereign intents
and desires as I am; for mine own part I am but one, and that of the meanest
sort, and they be many noblemen and such as have great interest in the matter,
mary yow shall be assured I will imploy myself to imploy my credit, and all
that I may do, to satisfie the Queen your mistress, as much as lyeth in me,
and for your own part you have a great many friends in this assembly, with
many other good words. But for conclusion I must take this for an answer to
stay untill the other lords were come, and thereupon I thought meet to advertize




384             Ht IS 1ORY 01? SCOTLAND
Your Majesty what hath passed, and how far forth I have proceeded; your ex.
pectation being great to hear from hence.
And now to advertize Your Majesty of the state of all things, as I have
learned since my coming hither, it may please Your Majesty to understand as
followeth:
The Queen of Scotland remaineth in good health in the castle of Lochlevin,
guarded by the Lord Linsay and Lochleven the owner of the house; for the
Lord Ruthven is imployed in another commission, because he began to show
great favour to the Queen, and to give her intelligence. She is waited on with
5 or 6 ladys, 4 or 5 gentlewomen, and 2 charnberers, whereof one is a French
woman. The Earle of Buchan, the Earle of Murray's brother, hath also liberty
to come to her at his pleasure; the lords aforesaid, which have her in guard,
doe keep her verystraitly, and as far as I can perceive, their rigour proceedeth
by their order from these men, because that the Queen will not by any means
be induced to lend her authority to prosecute the murder, nor will not consent
by any perswasion to abandon the Lord Bothell for her husband, but avoweth
constantly that she will live and die with him; and saith that if it were put to
her choice to relinquish her crown and kingdom, or the Lord Bothell, she would
leave her kingdom and dignity, to go as a simple damsell with him, and that
she will never consent that he shall fare worse or have more harm than herself.
And as far as I can perceive, the principal cause of her detention is, for that
these lords do see the Queen being of so fervent affection towards the Earle
Bothell as she is, and being put at, as they should be compelled to be in continuall
arms, and to have occasion of many battles, he being with manifest evidence
notoriously detected to be the principall murderer, and the lords meaning
prosecution of justice against him according to his merits.
The lords mean also a divorce betwixt the Queene and him, as a marriage not
to be suffered for many respects, which separation cannot take place if the
Queen be at liberty, and have power in her hands.
They do not also forget their own peril, conjoin'd with the danger of the Prince,
but as far as I can perceave, they intend not either to touch the Queen in
suerty or in honor, for they do speak of her with respect and reverence, and do
affirm, as I do learn, that the conditions aforesaid accomplished, they will both
put her to liberty, and restore her to her estate.
These lords have for the guard of their town 450 harqubushers which oe in
very good order, for the entertainment of which companys, untill all matters
be compounded, they did sue unto Your Majesty to aid them with such sum ot
mony as hath been mentioned to Mr. Secretary by the Lord of Lidington's
writting, amounting as I perceive to ten or twelve thousand crouns of the
They were latly advertized that the French King doth mind to send hither
Monsieur de la Chapell dez Ursine, a knight of the French order, and always
well affectionate to the house of Guyse, and howsoever La Forest, Villaroy,
and Du Crocq have used language in the Queen's favour -and to these lords
disadvantage there, to Your Majesty; La Crocq doth carry with him such
matter as shall be little to the Queen's advantage; so as it is thought the French
King, upon his coming to his presence, will rather satisfie the lords than pleasure
the Queen; for they have their party so well made, as the French will rather
make their profit by them than any other way.
Herewith I send Your Majesty the last bond agreed on, and signed by the
Hamiltons, the Earl of Argyll, Huntly, and sundry others at Dumbarton.
Nevertheless, since my coming to this town the Hamiltons have sent unto me
a gentleman of their surname, named Robert Hamilton, with a letter from the
Bishop of St. Andrew's and the Abbot of Arbroth, the copy whereof I send
Your Majesty and mine answer unto them, referring to the bearer the declaration
of some things as these did by him unto me.
The Earle of Argyll hath, in like manner, sent another unto me with a letter
and credit, I have used him as I did the others, the coppy of both which letters I
send Your Majesty also. The Lord Harrys hath also sent unto me but not
written, and I have returned unto him in like sort.
Against the 20th day of this month there is a generall assembly of all the
churches, shires, and boroughs towns of this realm, namely, of such as be contented to repair to these lords to this town, where it is thought the whole state




APPENDIX, No. X XII.                           385
of this matter will be handeled, and I fear me much to the Queen's disadvantage and danger; unless the Lord of Lidington and some others which be best
affected unto her do provide some remedy; for I perceave the great number,
and in manner all, but chiefly the common people, which have assisted in these
doings, do greatly dishonour the Queen, and mind seriously either her deprivation or her destruction; I used the best means I can (considering the furie of
the world here), to prorogue this assembly, for that appeareth to me to be the
best remedy: I may not speak of dissolution of it, for that may not be abiden,
and I should thereby bring my self into great hatred and peril. The chiefest
of the lords which be here present at this time dare not show so much lenity to
the Queen as I think they could be contented, for fear of the rage of the people.
The women be most furious and impudent against the Queen, and yet the men
be mad enough; so as a stranger over busie may soon be made a sacrifice
amongest them.
There was a great bruit that the Hamiltons with their adherents would put
their force into the fields against the 24th of this month, but I do not find that
intent so true as the common bruit goeth.
The Earle of Argyll is in the Highlands, where there is trouble among his
own countrymen.
The Earle of Lennox is by these lords much desired here, and I do believe
Your Majesty may so use him, and direct him, as he shall be able to promote
your purpose with these men.
The Earle of Argyll, the Hamiltons and he be incompatible. -I do find
amongst the Hamiltons, Argyll, and the company two strange and sundry
humours.
Hamiltons do make shew of the liberty of the Queen, and prosecute that with'
great earnestness, because they would have these lords destroy her, rather than
she should be recovered from them by violence; another time they seem to
desire her liberty and Bothwell's destruction, because they would compass a
marriage betwixt the Queen and the Lord of Arbroth.
The Earle of Argyll doth affect her liberty and Bothwell's destruction,
because he would marry the Queen to his brother.
And yet neither of them, notwithstanding their open concurance (as appeareth
by their bond), doth discover their minds to each other, nor mind one end;
Knox is not here, but in the west parts, he and the rest of the ministers will be
here at the great assembly, whos austerity against the Queen I fear as much as
any man's.
By some conference which I had with some of this councill, me thinketh that
they have intelligence that there is a disposition in the Queen of Scotland to
leave this realm and to retire herself either into England or into France, but
most willingly into England, for such  and mislikings as she knoweth hath
been, and is meant unto her in France, leaving the regiment either to a number
of persons deleagued and authorized by her, or to some one or more.
And it may please Your Majesty, I think it not amiss to put yow in remembrance, that in case the said Queen come into England by your allowance,
without the French King's consent, she shall loose her dowery in France, and
have little or nothing from hence to entertain her; and in case she do go into
France with the King's contentment, she may be an instrument (if she can
recover favour, as time will help to cancell her disgrace) either by matching
with some husband of good quality, or by some other devise, to work new
unquietness to her own country, and so consequently to Your Majesty's.
Therefore it may please Your Majesty to consider of this matter, and to let
me know your pleasure with convenient speed, how I shall answer the same, if
it be propounded unto me, either by the Queen or by the councill, as a piece of
the end and composition. For I am sure, of late, she hath seemed very desirous
to have the matter brought to pass that she might go into England, retaining
her estate and jurisdiction in herself, though she do not exercise it; and likewise
I understand that some of this council which be least affected to her safety da
think there is no other way to save her. Thus Almighty God preserve Your
Majesty in health, honour, and all felicity; at Edinr, the 14th July, 1567.
VOL III.-49




HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Sir.Nicrholas Throkmorton to Queen Elizabeth, the 18th of July, 1567, from
Edinburgh.
tAn Original. Paper Office.]
iT may please Your Majesty, yow might perceave by my letters of the 16th,
how far I had proceded with these lords, and what was their answer; since
which time I have spoken particularly with the Earle Morton, the Lord of
Lidington, and Sir James Balfour, captain of this castle; at whose hands I cannot perceave that as yet access to the Queen to Lochleven will. be granted me,
staying themselves still by the absence of the lords and others their associates,
which (they say) they look for within two days; and for that I find, by likelihood and apparent presumptions, that mine access to the Queen will hardly be
granted, I have thought good not to defer this dispatch untill I have a resolute
answer in that matter.
May it therefore please Your Majesty, to understand Robert Melvin returned'from the Queen in Lochleven to this town, the 6th of July, and brought a letter
from her written of her own hand to these lords, which doth contain, as I under-,stand, matter as followeth-A request unto them to have consideration of her
health, and if they will not put her to liberty, to change the. place of restraint to:the castle of Stirling, to the end she might have the conjfirt and company of
/her son, and if they will not change her from Lochleven, sheirequired to have
some other gentle-women about her, naming none.        r.
To have her apothecary, to have some modest minister. —To have an
imbroiderer to draw forth such work as she would be occupiedabWlit, and to'have a varlet of the chamber.-Touching the government of tl3 hlreamhe
maketh two offers, which are but generally touched in her letter, thke palticularitys be not specified, but referred to Robert Melvin's credit, the one is to commit it only and wholly to the Earle of Murray, the other is to the lordgwhose
names ensue, assisted with such others as they shall call unto them, that is to
say, the Duke of Chattelrault, the Earls of Morton, Murray,, Marr, and
Glencairn.                                                       Al
She hath written unto them  that I might have access unto her. —— She:requireth further, that if they will not treat her and regard her as their Queen,
yet to use her as the King their sovereign's daughter (whom many of theni
knew), and as their Prince's mother. She will by no means yield to abandon
Bothell for her husband, nor relinquish him; which matter will do her most
harm of all, and hardeneth these lords to great severity against her.
She yieldeth in words to the prosecution of the murder.
I have the means to let her know that Your Majesty hath sent me hither for
her relief.
I have also persuaded her to conform herself to renounce Bothell for her
husband, and to be contented to suffer a divorce to pass betwixt them; she
hath sent me word that she will in no ways consent unto that, but rather die;
grounding herself upon this reason, taking herself to be seven weeks gone with
child, by renouncing Bothell, she should acknowledge herself to be with child
of a bastard, and to have forfeited her honour, which she will not do to die for
it; I have perswaded her to save her own life and her child, to choose the least
hard condition.
Mr. Knox arrived here in this town the 6th of this month, with whom I have
had some conference, and with Mr. Craig also, the other minister of this town.
I have perswaded with them to preach and perswad lenity. I find them both
very austere in this conference, what they shall do hereafter I know not, they;are furnished with many arguments, some forth of the Scripture, some forth of
histories, some grounded (as they say) upon the laws of this realm, some upon
practices used in this realm, and some upon the conditions and oth made by
their Prince at her coronation.
The Bishop of Galloway, uncle to the Earle of Huntley, hath sent hither to
these lords, that his nephew the Earle and some others of that side may, at
Linlithgow or at Stirling, have some communication with some appointed onl
this side, assuring them that there is a good disposition in the lords of the other




APPENDIX, No. XXIt,                              S7
party to concurre with these, assuring further that they will not dissent for
triffles or unnecessary things, and (as I am given to understand) they can be
pleased the Queen's restraint be continu'd untill the murder be pursued in all
persons, whereby the separation of the Queen and Bothell is implyed, the preservation of the Prince, the security for all men, and a good order taken for the
goveranance of the realm in tranquillity.
Captain Clerk, which hath so long served in Denmark and served at New.
haven, did, the 16th of this month (accompanyed with one of his soldiers, or
rather the soldier as the greater fame goeth) kill one Wilson a seaman, and
such a one as had great estimation with these lords, both for his skill, his hardyness, honesty, and willingness in this action; whereupon Clerk hath retired himself; their quarrel was about the ship which took Blacketer, which ship was
appointed by these lords to go to the north of Scotland to'mpeach the passage
of the Earle Bothell, in case he went either to the isles, or to any other place'
by the death of this man this enterprise was dashed.
The Bishop of Galloway is come to Linlithgow, and doth desire to speak with
the Lord of Lidington.
The Abbot of Killwinning hath sent for Sir James Balfour, captain of the
castle, to have conference with him.
As I wrote unto Your Majesty in my last, the Hamiltons now find no matter
to disever these lords and them asunder, but would concurr in all things (yea, in
any extremity against the Queen) so as that they might be assured the Prince
of Scotland were crouned King, and should die without issue, that the Earle of
Lenox's son living should not inherit the croun of this realm, as next heir to
his nephew.
And although the lords and councelors speak reverently, mildly, and charitably of their Queen, so as I cannot gather by their speech any intention to
cruelty or violence, yet I do find by intelligence, that the Queen is in very
great peril of her life, by reason that the people assembled at this convention do
mind vehemently the destruction of her.
It is a public speech among all the people, and amongst all estates (saving
of the counselors) that their Queen hath no more liberty nor privilege to commit murder nor adultery than any other private person, neither by God's laws,
nor by the laws of the realm.
The Earl of Bothell, and all his adherents and associates, be put to the horn
by the ordinary justice of this town, named the lords of the session; and conmmandment given to all shirriffs, and all other officers, to apprehend him, and all.
other his followers and receiptors. The Earl of Bothell's porter, and one of
his other servitors of his Chamber being apprehended, have confessed such
sundry circumstances, as it appeareth evidently that he the said Earl was one
of the principal executors of the murder, in his one person accompanyed with
sundry others, of which number I cannot yet certainly learn the names but of
three of them, that is to say, two of the Ormistons of Tivatdall, and one Hay.
born of Bolton; the lords would be glad that none of the murderers should have
any favour or receipt in England, and hereof their desire is, that the officers
upon the border may be warned; Bothell doth still remain in the north parts;
but the Lord Seaton and Fleming, which have been there, have utterly abandoned him, and do repair hitherwards.-The intelligence doth grow daily betwixt these lords, and those which held of; and notwithstanding these lords
have sent an hundred and fifty harqubushers to Stirling, to keep the town and
passage from surprise; and so have they done in like manner to St. Johnston,
which be the two passages from the north and west to this town, I do understand
the captain of Dunbar is much busied in fortifying that place, I do mervile the
carriages be not impeached otherwise than they be.
Of late this Queen hath written a letter to the captain of the said castle,
which hath been surprized; and thereby matter is discovered which maketh
little to the Queen's advantage.
Thus, having none other matter worthy Your Majesty's knowledge, I beseech
God to prosper Your Majesty with long life, perfect health, and prosperous
felicity. At Edinburgh, the 18th of July, 1567.




HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Letter of Sir Vicholas Throkmorton to the Right Honourable the Earl of Leicester,
Knight of the Order, and one of the Lords of Her JMajesty's.Most Honourable
Privy Council.
r24th of July, 1567. Paper Office. From the origmlal.]
BY my former dispatches sent to Her Majesty and Mr. Secretary, since the
12th of July, Your Lordships, might have perceived the state of this countiy,
and to what end these matters be like to come: so as not to trouble Your
Lordship with many words; this Queen is like very shortly to be deprived of
her royal estate, her son to be crowned King, and she detained in prison within
this realm, and the same to be governed in the young King's name by a councel,
consisting of certain of the nobility, and other wise men of this realm; so as
it is easy to be seen that the power and ability to do any thing to the commodity
of the Queen's Majesty, and the realm of England, will chiefly, and in manner
wholly, rest in the hands of these lords and others their associates assembled at
Edinburgh. Now if the Queen's Majesty will still persist in her former opinion
towards the Queen of Scotland (unto whom she shall be able to do no good),
then I do plainly see that these lords and all their accomplices will become as
good French as the French King can wish to all intents and purposes. And
as for the Hamiltons, the Earls of Arguile, Huntlye, and that faction, they be
already so far inchanted that way, as there needeth little devise to draw them
to the French devotion. Then this is the state of' things so come to pass of
this country, that France has Scotland now as much conjoined unto them, to
all purposes, as ever it was; and what an instrument the young Prince wvill
prove to unquiet England, I report me to Your Lordship's wisdoms; and therefore, considering the weight of the matter and all the circumstances, I trust
your Lordships will well bethink you in time (for'tis high time) how to advise
Her Majesty to leave nothing undone that may bring the Prince of Scotland
to be in her possession, or, at the least, to be at her devotion. And, amongst
other things that I can imagine for the first degree, nothing is more meet to
bring this to effect than to allure this company here assembled to bear Her
Majesty their favour.  Some talk hath passed between the Lord of Liddington
and me in certain conferences about this matter. By him I find that, when Her
Majesty shall have won these men to her devotion, the principal point that will
make them conformable to deliver their Prince into England will rest upon the
Queen, and the realms enabling him to the succession of the crown of England
for fault of issue of the Queen's Majesty's body; some other things will also
be required, as the charge of the said Prince and his train to be at the charge
of England. I do well perceive that these men will never be brought to deliver
their Prince into England without the former condition, for the succession of
England; for (saith Liddington) that taking place, the Prince shall be as dear
to the people of England as to the people of Scotland; and the one will be as
careful of his preservation as the other. Otherwise, he saith, all things considered, it will be reported that the Scottishmen have put their Prince to be
kept in safety, as those which commit the sheep to be kept by the wolves. So
as for conclusion, Your Lordships may perceive here will be the scope of this
matter. As unto the delivering of him upon hostages, he sayeth, let no man
think that the condition of the succession not being accomplished, the nobility
and the gentry will never consent to leave themselves destitute of their sovereign upon any hostages, neither upon any promises, nor likelihood of good to
issue in time to come. It were not good for yourselves (saith he) that the
matter were so handled; for then you should adventure all your goods in one
ship, which might have a dangerous effect, considering the unwillingness of
the Queen your sovereign to consent to establishing any successor to the crown.
And then how unmete were it that Her Majesty have in her possession already
all such persons as do pretend to it, or be inheritable to the crown, to have our
Prince also in her custody. For so there might follow, without good capitulations, a strange and dangerous issue, tho' the Queen your mistress do think that
such imaginations could not proceed but from busy heads, as you have uttered
unto us on her behalf. What is come to pass since my last dispatch, and how




APPENDIX, No. XXII.                           ss9
far forth things are proceeded, I refer Your Lordship to be informed by my
letters sent unto Her Majesty at this time. And so I pray Almighty God preserve Your Lordship in much honour and felicity. At Edinburgh, this 24th of
July, 1567.
It may please Your good Lordship to make My Lord Stuard partner of this
letter.
The Queen to Sir JVicholas Throkmorton. By the Queen.
[6th Aug. 1567.1
TRUSTY and right well-beloved, we greet you well, for as much as we do
consider that you have now a long time remained in those parts without expedition in the charge committed unto you, we think it not meet, seeing there
hath not followed the good acceptation and fruit of our well meaning towards
that state, which good reason would have required, that you should continue
there any longer; our pleasure therefore is, that you shall, immediately upon
the receipt hereof, send your servant Middlemore unto the lords and estates of
that realm that are assembled together, willing him to declare unto them, that
it cannot but seem very strange unto us, that you having been sent from us, of
such good intent, to deal with them in matters tending so much to their own
quiet and to the benefit of the whole estate of their country, they have so far
forgotten themselves, and so slightly regarded us and our good meaning, not
only in delaying to hear you and deferring your access to the Queen their
sovereign, but also, which is strangest of all, in not vouchsafing to make any
answer unto us. And altho' these dealings be such, indeed, as were not to be
looked for at their hands, yet do we find their usage and proceeding towards
their Sovereign and Queen to overpass all the rest in so strange a degree, as we
for ilr part, and we suppose the whole world besides, cannot but think theni to
have therein gone so far beyond the duty of subjects as must needs remain to
their perpetual tauche for ever. And therefore ye shall say, that we have tho't
good without consuming any longer time in vain, to revoke you to our presence, requiring them to grant you liscence and pasport so to do, which when
you shall have obtained, we will that you make your repair hither unto us
with as convenient speed as you may. Given, &c.
Indorsed, 6th August, 1567.
Throkmorton to the Right Honourable Sir William Cecil, Knight, one of her.Majesty's Privy Council and Principal Secretary, give these.
[12thAug. 1567. Paper Office. Fromthe original.]
SIR,
WHAT I have learned, since the arrival of My Lord of Murray and Mons. de
Linnerol, you shall understand by my letter to Her Majesty at this time. The
French do, in their negotiations, as they do in their drink, put water to their
wine. As I am able to see into their doings, they take it not greatly to the
heart how the Queen sleep, whether she live or die, whether she be at liberty or
in prizon. The mark they shoot at is, to renew their old league; and can be as
well contented to take it of this little King (howsoever his title be), and the
same by the order of these lords, as otherwise. Lyneroll came but yesterday,
and me thinketh he will not tarry long; you may guess how the French will
seek to displease these lords, when they changed the coming of la Chapelle des
Oursins for this man, because they doubted that de la Chapelle should not be
grateful to them, being a Papist. Sir, to speak more plainly to you than I will
do otherwise, me thinketh the Earl of Murray will run the course that those
men do, and be partaker of their fortune. I hear no man speak more bitterly
against the tragedy, and the players therein, than lie, so little like he hath to
horrible sins. 1 hear an inkling that Ledington is to go into France, which I do
as much mislike as any thing for our purpose. I can assure you the whole
Protestants of France will live and die in these men's quarrels; and, where
there is bruit amongst you, that aid should be sent to the adverse party, and
that Martigues should come hither with some force; Mons. Baudelot hath




390             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
assured me of his honour that, instead of Martigues coming against them, he
will come with as good a force to succour them: and if that be sent under.meaner conduct, Robert Stuart shall come with as many to fortify them. But
the constable hath assured these lords, that the King meaneth no way to offend
them. Sir, I pray you find my revocation convenient, and speed you to further
it, for I am here now to no purpose, unless it be to kindle these lords more
against us. Thus I do humbly take my leave of you, from Edinburgh, the
12th of August, 1567.
Yours to use and command.
The Queen to Vicholas Throkmorton.
rausTY and well-beloved, we greet you well. We have, within these two
days, received three sundry letters of yours, of the 20th, 22d, and 23d of this
month, having not before those received any seven days before; and do find, by
these your letters, that you have very diligently and largely advertised us of all
the hasty and peremptory proceedings there; which as we nothing like, so we
trust in time to see them wax colder, and to receive some reformation. For we
cannot perceive that they with whom you have dealt can answer the doubts
moved by the Hamiltons, who howsoever they may be carried for their private
respects, yet those things which they move will be allowed by all reasonable
persons. For if they may not, being noblemen of the realm, be suffered to hear
the Queen their sovereign declare her mind concerning the reports which are?made of her, by such as keep her in captivity, how should they'believe the
reports, or obey them, which do report it? and therefore our meaning is, you,hall let the Hamiltons plainly understand that we do well allow of their proceedings (as far forth as the same doth concern the Queen their sovereign for
her relief), and in such things as shall appear reasonable for us therein to do for
the Queen our sister, we will be ready to perform the same. And where it is,so required, that upon your coming thence, the Lord Scroope should deal with
the Lord Herris to impart their meanings to us, and ours to them; we are
well pleased therewith, and we require you to advertize the Lord Scroope
hereof by your letters, and to will him to show himself favourable to them in
their actions, that may appear plainly to tend to the relief of the Queen, and
maintenance of her authority. And as we willed our secretary to write unto
you, that upon your message done to the Earl of Murray, you might return, so
our meaning is you shall. And if these our letters shall meet you on the way,
yet we will have you advertise both the Lord Scroope and the Hamiltons of
our meaning.
Indorsed. 29 Aug. 1567.
No. XXIII. (p. 175.)
-Sir YNicholas Throkmorton to the Archbishop of St. Andrewvs and the Abbot
of.Arbrothe.
L13th Aug. 1567. Paper Office. From a copy which Sir Nicholas sent to the Queen.]
AFTER my good commendations to Your good Lordships, this shall be to
advertize you that the Queen's Majesty my sovereign having sent me.hither her
ambassador to the Queen her sister your sovereign, to communicate unto her
such matter as she thought meet, considering the good amity and intelligence
betwixt them, who being detained in captivity (as your Lordships know) contrary to the duty of all good subjects, for the enlargement of whose person, and
the restitution of her to her dignity, Her Majesty gave me in charge to treat
with these lords, assembled at Edenburgh, offering them all reasonable conditions and means as might be, for the safeguardt,f the young Prince, the punishment of the late horrible murder, the dissolution of the marriage betwixt the
Queen and the Earl of Bodwell, and lastly for their own sureties. In the nego.
tiation of which matters I have (as Your Lordships well know) spent a long
time to no purpose, not being able to prevail in any thing with those lords to
the Queen my sovereign's satisfaction. Of which strange proceedings towards




APPENDIX, No. XXIV. -                           391
Ier Majesty, and undutiful behaviour towards their sovereign, I have advertised the Queen's Majesty, she not being minded to bear this indignity) hath
given me in charge to declare her further pleasure unto them, in such sort as
they may well perceive Her Majesty doth disallow of their proceedings, ana
thereupon hath revoked me. And further hath given me in charge to communicate the same unto Your Lordships, requiring you to let me know, before my
departure hence (which shall be, God willing, as soon as I have received
answer from you) what you and your confederates will assuredly do, to set the
Queen your sovereign at liberty, and to restore her to her former dignity by
force or otherwise; seeing these lords have refused all other mediation, to the
end the Queen's Majesty my sovereign may concur with your Lordships in
this honourable enterprize.
And in case, through the dispersion of your associates, Your Lordships can
neither communicate this matter amongst you, nor receive resolution of them all
by that time, it may please you to send me the opinion of so many of you as
may confer together within two or three days, so as I may have your answer here
in this town by Monday or Tuesday next at the farthest, being the 19th of this
August; for I intend (God willing) to depart towards England upon Wednesday
following. Thus I most humbly take my leave of Your Lordships at Eden
burgh, the 13th of Aug. 1567.
Indorsed the 13th of Aug. 1567.
Sir JVicholas Throkmorton to the Lord Herrys.
t24th Aug. 1567. Paper Office. From a copywhicb Sir Nicholas sent to Secretary Cecil.]
YouR good Lordship's letter of the 13th of August I have received the 19th of
the same. For answer whereunto it may like Your Lordship to understand, that
I will signify unto you plainly, how far forth I am already thoroughly instructed
of the Queen's Majesty my sovereign's pleasure concerning the detention of the
Queen your sovereign, and concerning her relief.
To the first Her Majesty hath given in charge, to use all kinds of persuasion
in her name, tomiove these lords assembled at Edenburgh to desist from this
violent and undutiful behaviour, which they use towards their sovereign. And
in this part, besides the shew of many reasonsand sundry persuasions of amicable treaty with them, Her Majesty hath willed me to use some plain and
severe speech unto them, tending so far forth as if they would not be better
advised, and reform these their outrageous proceedings exercised against their
sovereign, that then they might be assured Her Majesty neither would nor
could endure such an indignity to be done to the Queen, her good cousin and
neighbour.
And notwithstanding these my proceedings with them, they have made proof,
to be little moved thereby; for as yet neither will they consent to the enlargement, neither suffer me to speak with her. So as it seemeth to me, it is superfluous to treat any more with them after this manner. Whereupon I have
advertised the Queen's Majesty my sovereign, expecting daily her Majesty's
further order; and as I shall be advertised thereof, so will not fail to signify the
same to Your good Lordship; and in the mean time will advertise Her Majesty
also what Your Lordship hath written unto me. Thus with my due commendations to Your good Lordship, I commit the same to Almighty God, resting
always to do you the pleasure and service that I can lawfully. At Edenburgh.
Indorsed 24th of August, 1567.
No. XXIV. (p. 180.)
Account of Lord tIerreis's Behaviour in the Parliament held December 15, 1567.
[Paper Office.]
THE Lord Herrys made a notable harangue in the name of the Duke and
himself, their friends and adherents, (the Duke himself, the Earl of Cassilles, and
the Abbot of Kilwinning being also present) to persuade the union of the whole




392             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
realm in one mind. Wherein he did not spare to set forth solemnly the great
praise that part of this nobility did deserve, which in the beginning took meanes
for punishment of the Earl Bothwell, as also seeing the Queen's inordinat
affection to that wicked man, and that she could not be induced by their persuasion to leave him, that in sequestring her person within Lochleven, they
did the duty of noblemen. That their honourable doings, which had not
spared to hazard their lives and lands, to avenge their native country from the
slanderous reports that were spoken of it among other nations,had well deserved
that all their brethren should join with them in so good a cause. That he and
they, in whose names he did speak, would willingly, and without any compulsion, enter themselves in the same yoke, and put their lives and lands in the
like hazard for maintenance of our cause. And if the Queen herself were in
Scotland, accompanied with 20,000 men, they will be of the same mind, and
fight in our quarrel. He hoped the remainder noblemen of their party, Huntly,
Arguile, and others, which had not as yet acknowledged the King, would come
to the same conformity, whereunto he would also earnestly move them. And
if they will remain obstinate, and refuse to qualify themselves, then will the
Duke, he and their friends, join with us to correct them that otherwise will not
reform themselves. So plausible an oration, and more advantageous for our
party, none of ourselves could have made. He did not forget to term My Lord
Regent by the name of Regent (there was no mention at all of the Earl of
Murray), and to call him Grace at every word, when his speeches were directeu
to him, accompanying all his words with low courtesies after hiz manner.
No. XXV. (p. 188.)
Queen.Mary to Queen Elizabeth.
LCott. Lib. Cal. i. A copy, and probably a translation.]
MADAM,
ALTHOUGH the necessity of my cause (which maketh me to be importune to
you) do make you to judge that I am out of the way; yet such as have not
my passion, nor the respects whereof you are persuaded, will think that I do
as my cause doth require. Madam, I have not accused you, neither in words
nor in thought, to have used yourself evil towards me. And I believe that you
have no want of good understanding to keep you from perswasion against your
natural good inclination. But in the mean time I can't chuse (having my
senses) but perceive very evil furtherance in my matters since my coming
hither. I thought that I had sufficiently discoursed unto you the discommodities which this delay bringeth unto me. And especially that they think in this
next month of August to hold a parliament against me and all my servants.
And in the mean time, I am stayed here, and yet will you, that I should put
myself forther into your country (without seeing you), and remove me further
from mine; and there do me this dishonour at the request of my rebels, as to
send commissioners to hear them against me, as you wold do to a mere subject,
and not hear me by mouth. Now, madam, I have promised you to come to
you, and having there made my moan and complaint of these rebels, and they
corning thither, not as possessors, but as subjects to answer. I would have
besought you to hear my justification of that which they have falsely set forth
against me, and if I could not purge myself thereof, you might then discharge
ycur hands of my causes, and let me go for such as I am. But to do as you
say, if I were culpable I would be better advised; but being not so, I can't accept this dishonour at their hands, that being in possession they will come and
accuse me before your commissioners, whereof I can't like: and seeing you
think it to be against your honour and consignage to do otherwise, I beseech
you that you will not be mine enemy until you may see how I can discharge
myself every way, and to suffer me to go into France, where I have a dowry to
maintain me; or at least to go into Scotland, with assurance that if there come
any strangers thither, I will bind myself for their return without any prejudice
to you, or if it pleis you not to do thus, I protest that I will not impute it to
falsehood if I receive strangers in my country without making you any other.




APPENDIX, No. XXVI.                             393
discharge for it. Do with my body as you will, the honour or blame shall be
yours. For I had rather die here, and that my faithful servants may be sue
coured (tho' you would not so) by strangers, than to suffer them to be utterly
undone, upon hope to receive in time to come, particular commodity. There
be many things to move me to fear that I shall have to do in this country with
others than with you. But forasmuch as nothing hath followed up my last
moan, I hold my peace, happen what may hap. I have as leef to  edure my
fortune as to seek it, and not find it. Further, it pleased you to give license to
my subjects to go and come. This has been refused by My Lord Scroop and
Mr. Knolls (as they say) by your commandment, because I would not depart
hence to your charge, untill I had answer of this letter, tho' I shewed them, that
you required my answer upon the two points contained in your letter.
The one is to let you briefly understand I am come to you to make my moan
to you, the which being heard, I would declare unto you mine innocency, and
then require your aid, and for lack thereof, I can't but make my moan and complaint to God that I am not heard in my just quarrel, and to appeal to other
Princes to have respect thereunto as my case requireth; and to you, madam,
first of all when you shall have examined your conscience before him, and have
him for witness.-And the other, which is to come further into your country,
and not to come to your presence, I will esteem that as no favour, but will take
it for the contrary, obeying it as a thing forced. In mean time, I beseech you
to return to me my Lord Herries, for I can't be without him, having none of
my counsal here, and also to suffer me, if it please you, without further delay,
to depart hence whithersoever it be out of this country. I am sure you will not
deny me this simple request for your honour's sake, seeing it doth not please
you to use your natural goodness towards me otherwise, and seeing that of
mine own accord I am come hither, let me depart again with yours. And if
God permit my causes to succeed well, I shall be bound to you for it; and happening otherwise, yet I can't blame you. As for My Lord Fleeming, seeing
that upon my credit you have suffered him to go home to his house, I warrant
you he shall pass no further, but shall return when it shall please you. In that
you trust me I will not (to die for it) deceive you. But from [perhapsfor]
Dumbarton I answer not, when my L. Fleeming shall be in the Tower. For
they which are within it will not forbear to receive succour if I don't assure
them of yours; no, tho' you would charge me withal, for I have left them in
charge; to have more respect to my servants and to my estate than to my life.
Good sister, be of another mind, win the heart, and all shall be yours, and at
your commandment., 1 thought to satisfy you wholly, if I might have seen
you. Alas! do not as the serpent, that stoppeth his hearing, for I am no
enchanter, but your sister, and natural cousin. If Caesar had not disdained
to hear or read the complaint of an advertiser, he had not so died; why should
Princes' ears be stopped, seeing that they are painted so long? meaning that
they should hear all and be well advised before they answer. I am not of the
nature of the basilisk, and less of the chamelion, to turn you to my likeness,
and theo' I should be so dangerous and curs'd as men say, you are sufficiently
armed with constancy and with justice, which I require of God, who give
you grace to use it well with long and happy life. From Carlislo, the 6ith of
July, 1568.
No. XXVI. (p. 189.)
Part of a Letter from Sir Francis Knollys to Cecil, 8th Aug. 1568, from Bolton.
[An Original. Paper Office.]
-BUT surely this Queen doth seem, outwardly, not only to favour the form,
but also the chief article of the religion of the gospel, namely, justification by
faith only: and she heareth the faults of papestry revealed by preaching or
otherwise with contented ears, and with gentle and weak replys, and she doth
not seem to like the worse of religion throw me.
VOL. III.-50




394            HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Part of a Letter from Sir Francis Knollys to Cecil, 21 Sep. 1568,from Bolton
-IT came to this Queen's ears of late that she was bruited to be lately turned
to the religion of the gospell, to the great disliking of the Papists hereabouts,
which thing she herself confessed unto me, and yesterday, openly in the great
chamber, when the assembly was full, and some Papists present, she took occa
sion to speak of religion, and then openly she professed herself to be of the
Papist religion, and took upon her to patronize the same more earnestly than
she had done a great while afore, altho' her defences and arguments were so
weak that the effect of her speech was only to show her zeal; and afterwards
to me alone, when I misliked to see her become so confidently backward in
religion, Why, said she, would you have me to lose France and Spain, and all
my friends in other places, by seeming to change my religion, and yet I am not
assured the Queen my good sister will be my assured friend, to the satisfaction
of my honour and expectation-?
No. XXVII. (p. 189.)
d9 Letterfrom My Lord Herries to MJy Lord Scroojp and Sir F. Knollys,
Sept. 3d, 1568.
[Cott. Lib. Cal. C. An original in his own hand.]
MY Lords, pleasit Your Honourable Lordships, I am informed by James
Borthwick, lately come from the Queen's Majesty your soverane, that his
schawin to Her Highness I shuld have ridden in Crafurdinure, sen my last
cuming into this realm, upon the Earl of Murray's dependants. And that I
suld have causit, or been of counsall to Scottismen to have ridden in Ingland, to
slay or spulzie Her Majesty's subjects.
My Lords, I thought it right needful because Your Lordships is, by your soverane, commanded to attend upon the Queen's Majesty my mistress, so having daily
access in thir matters, to declare upon the truth; humbly desiring that Your
Lordships will, for God's cause, certificate the Queen your soverane the same.
As God lives, I have neither consented, nor anywise had knowledge of any
Scottisman's riding in England, to do the subjects thereof hurt in bodies or
goods, sene the siege of Leith; and as I understand it shall be fund true, that
gif ony sic open hurt be done, it is by the Queen my sovereign's disobedients,
and that I have not ridden nor hurt no Scottishman, nor commanded no hurt
to be done to them, sen my coming from the Queen's Majesty of England, it is
well kend, for that never ane will complain of me.
I have done more good to Crawfurdmure nor ever the Earl of Murray has
done, and will be loather to do them any harm than he will. Except the Queen's
Majesty your sovereign, command sic false reports to be tryit, quhereof this is
altogidder an inventit leasing, Her Grace sail be trublit, and tyne the hearts of
true men here, quhom of sic report sall be made, that baieth would serve hir,
and may, better than they unworthy liars.
My Lords, I understand the Queen's Majesty your sovereign is not contented
of this bruite, that there should ony Frenchman come in this realm, with the
Duke of Chettelherault. Truth it is, I am no manner of way the counsall of
their cuming, nor has no sic certainty thereof, as I hear by Borthwick's report,
from the Queen's Majesty your sovereign. And gif I might as well say it, as it
is true indeed, Her Grace's self is all the wyitt, and the counsall that will never
let her take order with my maistress' cause. For that our Sovereign havand
Her Majesty's promise, be writing, of luff, friendship, and assistance gif need
had so requirit, enterit that realmn, upon the 16 day of May, sen that time the
Queen's Majesty has commanded me diverse times to declare she would accept
her cause, and do for her, and to put her in peaceable possession of this realme,
and when I required of Her Majesty, in my maistress' name, that Her Highness
would either do for her, (as her special trust was she wold,) according to her
former promises, or otherwise give her counsal, wold not consent (as I show
Her Grace I fand diverse repugnant, then that she would permit her to pass




APPENDIX, No. XXVII.                              39s
in France, or to some other Prince to seek support, or failing hereof, (quhilk
was agains all reason,) that she would permit her to return in her awin countrie,
in sic sempil manner as she came out of it, and said to Her Majesty ane of thir,
for her honour would not be refusit, seeand that she was conned in her realm
upon her writings and promises of friendship. And siclike, I said to Her Highness, gif my maistress had the like promise of her nobility and estates, as she
had of herself, I should have reprovit them highly, gif they had not condescendit
to one of thir three, and so I say, and so I write, that in the warld it shall be
maist reprehendable, gif this promise taketh not other good effect, nor yet it
does. Notwithstanding, I get gud answer of thir promises of friendship made
to my sovereign, and to put her Grace in this her awin countrie peaceably, we
have fund the contrary working by Mr. Middlemore directit from Her Highness
to stay the army that cuist down our houses. And aisua, in the proceeding of
this late pretendit Parliament, promised twenty days before the time to myself
to have caused it been dischargit. And yet contrary to this promise, have they
made their pretendit manner of forfaulture of 31 men of guid reputation,
bishops, abbottis, and baronis, obedient subjects to our sovereign, only for
her cause.
They have also disponit, sen our sovereign's cause was taken upon hand be
the Queen's majesty of that realm, an hundred thousand pound Scots worth of
her awin true subjects geir, under the color of the law, groundit upon their false,
treasonable, stowin, authority.
The murders, the oppressions, the burnings, the ravishing of women, the
destruction of policy, both ecclesiastical and temporal, in this mean time, as in
my former writings I said it was lamentable to ony Christian man to hear of,
except God gif grace, the profession of the evangile of Jesus Christ professit
be your Prince, counsall and realme, be mair myndit, nor the auld inamity that
has stand betwixt the realms, many of my countrymen will doubt in this article,
and their proceedings puttis myself in Sanct Thomas belief.
Now, My Lords, gif the Queen's Majesty of that realm, upon quhais promis
and honour my maistress came there, as I have said, will leave all the French
writings, and French phrases of writings, quhilks amongis them is over meikle
on baith the sides unfit, and plainly, according to the auld true custom of Ingland and Scotland, quherein be a word promist truth was observ'd, promise, in
the name of the eternal God, and upon the high honour of that nobill and
princely blude of the Kings of Ingland, quhereof she is descendit, and presently
wears the diadem, that she will put my maistress in her awin country, and
cause her as Queen thereof in her authority and strength to be obeyit, and to
do the same will appoint an certain day within two months at the farthest, as
we understand this to be our weil, sua will we, or the maist part of us all, follow
upon it, leaving the Frenchmen, and their evil French phrases togidder. And
therefore, and for the true perpetual friendship of that realm, will condition,
and for our part, with the grace of Almighty God, keep sic heads and conditions
of agreement, as noble and wise men can condescend upon, for the weill of this
hail island. As I have been partlings declaring to the Queen your sovereign,
quhilk I show to Your Lordships selfis both in religion, in the punishment of
the Earl Bothwile, for the Queen's last husband's slaughter, and for a mutual
band of amity perpetually to remain amangis us.
Doubtless, My Lords, without that, we may find sic time and friendly working,
as may give us occasion baith to forgette Middlemore and his late pretendit
Parliament, we will turn the leaf, leaving our sovereign agains our will to rest
where she is, under the promise of friendship, as I have baith said, and will ever
affirm, made by your sovereign, quhilk was only cause of Her Grace's coming
in that realme, and seek the help and moyen of French, or Spanish, till expulse
this treasonable and false pretendit authority, quhilk means to reign above us.
My Lords, I desire Your Lordships consider, that it is he, that maist desires
the amity betwixt Ingland and Scotland to continue, and of a poor man best
cause has, that writ this.
My brother, the Laird of Skirling, schaws me, that in Your Lordships communing with him, it appearit to him, your mind was we shold suffer the Earl
af Murray to work, altho' it were agains reason to us, and complain thereof
to the Queen's Majesty, and Her Highness wald see it reformit. My Lords,




396              HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Her Majesty will be over meikle troublit to reform the wranges we have sulstainit already. For I am sure, gif reason and justice may have place, our
maistress, and we her subjects, have received express wrang, far above two
hundred thousand pounds sterling, in the time of this unhappy government,
seeing the reformation of sa great causes, comes, now a days, so slowlie, and
the ungodly law of oblivion in sic matters so meikle practis'd, I think, nowther
for the Queen's honour, nor our weil, Your Lordships would sua mean, nor
that it is good to us to follow it. And that ye will give your Sovereign sic
advertisement thereof, as your good wisdoms shall find in this cause meet. It
will be true and frindful working for us, indeed, and nowther French phrases
nor boasting, and finding little other effect, that will cause us to hold away the
Frenchmen. This is plainly written, and I desire Your Lordships plain answer,
for in truth and plainness langest continues gud friendship, q1uhilk in this matter
I pray God may lang continue, and have Your Lordships in his keeping. Off
Dumfreis, the 3d day of September, 1568.
Your Lordships at my power to command leifully,
HERRIS.
Queen JlMary to Queen Elizabeth.
[1568.. Cott. Lib. Cal. 1. An original.]
MADAME ma bonne soeur. J'ay resceu de vos lettres, d'une mesme dete;
l'une, ou vous faites mention de l'excuse de Monsr. de Murra pour tenir son
pretendu parlement, qui me semble bien froid, pour obtenir plus de tollerance
que je m'estois persuadee n'avoir par vostre promesse, quant a n'osser donner
commission de venir sans un parlement pour leur peu de nombre de noblesse
alors, je vous respons, qu'ils n'ont que trois ou quatre d'avantage, qui eussent
aussi bien dit leur opinion hors de parlement, qui n'a estd tenu tant pour cette
effect, mais pour faire ce qu'expressement nous avions requis estre empesches,
qui est la forfalture de mes subjects pour m'avoir estes fidelles, ce que je m'assurois, jusques a heir, avoir eu en promesse de vous, par la lettre ecrite a Mi
Lord Scrup e Maistre Knoleis vous induire a ire contre eulx, voire, a les ensayre
resentir; toutefois je vois que je l'ay mal pris, j'en suis plus marrie, pour ce
que sur votre lettre qu'il me montrerent, et leur parole, je l'ay si divulguement
assuray que pour vengeance que j'en desirasse, si non mettre diffErence entre
leur faux d6portemens, et les miens sinceres. Dans vostre lettre aussi datde
du 10me d'Aoust, vous mettles ces mots: "I think your adverse party, upon
my sundry former advices, will hold no Parliament at all; and if they do, it
shall be only in form of an assembly to accord whom to send into this realm,
and in what sort; for otherwise, if they shall proceed in manner of a Parliament, with any act of judgment against any person, I shall not, in any wise,
allow thereof; and if they shall be so overseen, then you may think the same
to be of no other moment, than the former procedures; and by such their rash
manner of proceeding, they shall most prejudice themselves; and be assured
to find me ready to condemn them, in their doings.'" Sur quoy, j'ay contremande mes serviteurs, les faissant retirer, souffrant selon vostre commandement
d'etre faussement nommes traitres, par ceulx qui le sont de vray: et encore
d'6tre provoques par escarmons dies, et par prinses de mes gens et lettres, et au
contraire vous etes informee que mes subjects ont evahis les vostres, Madame,
qui a fait ce rapport n'est pas homme de bien, car Laird de Sesford et son fils
sont et ont estes mes rebelles depuis le commencement; enquirds vous, s'ils
n'estoient a Donfris aveques eulx, j'avois offri respondre de la frontiere, ce qui
me fut refuse, ce qui m'en devroit asses descharger, neanmoins, pour vous faire
preuve de ma fid6lite, et de leur falsite, s'il vous fayte donner ma le nom des
coulpables, et me fortifier, je commanderay mos subjects les pour suivre, ou si
vous voules que se soit les vostres, les miens leur ayderont; je vous prie mnen
mander vostre volont6, au reste mes subjects fidelles seront responsables d tout
ce que leur sera mis su les contre vous, ni les vostres, ni les rebelles, despuis que
nme conseillates les faire retirer. Quant aux Franqois, j'escrivis que l'on m'en
fit nulle poursuite, car j'espdrois tant en vous, que je n'en aurois besoign,-je ne
sqeu si le diet aura en mes lettres, mais je vous jure devant Dieu cue je ne scay




APPENDIX, No. XXIX.                              397
caJose du monde de leur venue, que ce que m'en aves manday, ni n'en ai oui
de France mot du monde, et ne le puis croire pour cest occasion, et si ils si
sont, c'est sans mon sceu ni consentement. Pourquoy je vous supplie ne me
condamner sans m'ouire, car je suis prest de tenir tout cc que j'ay offert a:Mester Knoleis, et vous assure que vostre amite, qu'il vous plest m'offrir, sera
rescue avant toutes les choses du monde, quant France servit la pour presser
leur retour a ceste condition, que prenies mes affaires en mein, en soeur, et
bonne ami, comme ma Francd est en vous; mais une chose seule me rende
confuse, j'ay tant d'enemis qu'ont votre oreille, la quelle ne pouvant avoir par
parolle, toutes mes actions vous sont desguisdes, et falsement raportdes, par
quoi il m'est impossible de m'assurer de vous, pour les manteries qu'on vous a
fait, pour destruire vostre bonne volonte de moy; par quoy je desirerois bien
avoir ce bien vous faire entendre ma sincere et bonne affection, laquelle je ne
puis si bien descrire, que mes enemis a tort ne la decolore. Ma bonne soeur,
gagnes moy; envoyes moy querir, n'entr6s en jalousie pour faulx reports de
celle que ne ddsire que votre bonne grace; je me remettray sur Mester Knoleis
a qui je me suis librement descouverte, et apris vous avoir baisde les mains, je
prierai Dieu vous donner en santd, longue et heureuse vie. De Boton, ou je
vous promets, je ne n'espere pertir, qu'aveques vostre bonne grace, quoyque les
menteurs mentent. Ce 26 d'Aoust.
No. XXVIII. (p. 189.)
Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of JIurray.
[Paper Office. From a copy corrected by Secretary Cecil.]
RIGHT trusty and right well beloved cousin, we greet you well. Where we
hear say, that certain reports are made in sundry parts of Scotland, that whatsover should fall out now upon the hearing of the Queen of Scotts cause, in any
proof to convince or to acquit the said Queen concerning the horrible murder of
her late husband our cousin, we have determined to restore her to her kingdom
and government, we do so much mislike hereof, as we cannot endure the same
to receive any credit: and therefore we have thought good to assure you, that
the same is untruly devised by the authors to our dishonour. For as we have
been always certified from our said sister, both by her letters and messages.
that she is by no means guilty or participant of that murder, which we wish ts
be true, so surely if she should,be found justly to be guilty thereof as hath been
reported of her, whereof we would be very sorry, then, indeed, it should behoove
us to consider otherwise of her cause than to satisfy her desire in restitution oi
her to the government of that kingdom. And so we would have you and
all others think, that should be disposed to conceive honourably of us and
our actions.
Indorsed, 20 Sept. 1568.
No. XXIX. (p. 192.)
Sir Francis Knollys to Cecil, the 9th of October, 1568,from York.
[An Original. Paper Office.]
MY Lord's Grace of Norfolk sending for me to Bolton, to attend upon. hli
here Thursday last, I made my repair hither accordingly, meaning to stay he-J
until Munday next; as touching the matters of the commission, that His Gracto
and the rest have from Her Highness, His Grace hath imparted unto me of all
things thereunto appertaining, and what hath hitherto passed, and altho' the
matters be too weighty for my weak capacity, to presume to utter any opinion
of mine own thereof, yet I see that My Lord Herris for his parte laboureth a
reconciliation, to be had without the extremity of odious accusations; My Lord
of Ledington also saith to me, that he could wish these matters to be ended in
dulce maner, so that it might be done with safety; of the rest you can conceive,
by the advertisements and writings sent by our commirss{ireis.




398              HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
A Letter from the Bishoy of Ross to the Queen of Scots, from York, October, 1568.
[Cott. Lib Calig. C. i. A copy.]
PLEIS Your Majesty I conferred at length with A. ane great part of a night,
who assurit me that he had reasoned with B. this Saturday C. on the field, who
determinate to him that it was the D. determinate purpose not to end your
cause at this time, but to hold the same in suspence, and did that was in her
power, to make the E. pursue extremity, to the effect F. and his adherents
might utter all they could to your dishonour, to the effect to cause you come in
disdain with the hail subjects of this realm, that ye may be the mair unable to
attempt any thing to her disadvantage. And to this effect is all her intention,
and when they have produced all they can against you, D. will not appoint the
matter instantly, but transport you up in the country, and retciin you there
till she think time to show you favour, which is not likely to be hastily, because
of your uncles in France, and the fear she has of yourself to be her unfriend.
And therefore their counsel is, that ye write an writing to the D. meaning that
ye are informit that your subjects which has otfindit you.-This in effect that
Your Majesty hearing the estate of your affairs as they proceed in York, was
informed that Her Majesty was informed of you, that you could not gudely
remit your subjects in such sort as they might credit you hereafter, which was a
great cause of the stay of this controversy to be ended. And therefore persuading her D. effectually not to trust any who had made such narration. But like
as ye had rendered you in her hands, as most tender to you of any living, so
prayit her to take na opinion of you, but that ye wald use her counsell in all
your affairs, and wald prefer her friendship to all others, as well uncles as others,
and assure her to keep that thing ye wald promise to your subjects by her
advice. And if D. discredit you, ye wald be glad to satisfy her in that point be
removing within her realm in secret and quiet manner, where her G. pleased,
until the time her G. were fully satisfied, and all occasion of discredit removed
from her. So that in the mean time your realm were holden in quietness, and
your true subjects restored and maintained in their own estate, and sic other
things tending to this effect. And affirms that they believe that this may be
occasion to cause her credit you that ye offer so far; and it may come that
within two or three months she may become better-minded to Your Grace, for
now she is not well-minded, and will not show you any pleasure for the causes
aforesaid.
M'. B. The title of this paper is in Cecil's hand; the following key is added
in another hand.
A. The Laird of Lethington.
B. The Duke of Norfolk.
C. Was the day he rode to Cawood.
D. The Queen of England.
E. The Queen of Scots' commissioners.
F. The Earl of Murray.
No. XXX. (p. 196.)
Deliberation of Secretary Cecil's concerning Scotland, Dec. 21, 1568
[Paper Office.]
THE best way for England, but not the easiest; that the Queen of Scots
might remain deprived of her crown, and the state continue as it is.
The second way for England profitable, and not so hard.-That the Queen
of Scots might be induced, by some perswasions, to agree that her son might
continue King, because he is crowned, and herself to remain also Queen; and
that the government of the realm might be committed to such persons as the
Queen of England should name, so as for the nomination of them it might be
ordered, that a convenient number of persons of Scotland should be first named




APPENDIX, No. XXXI.                            399
to the Queen of England, indifferently for the Queen of Scots, and for her son,
that is to say, the one half by the Queen of Scots, and the other by the Earle
of Lennox, and Lady Lennox, parents to the child; and out of those, the
Queen's Majesty of England to make choice'for all the officers of the realm,
that are, by the laws of Scotland, disposable by the King or Queen of the land.
That untill this may be done by the Queen's Majesty, the government remain
in the hands of the Earle of Murray as it is, providing he shall not dispose of
any offices or perpetuals to continue any longer but to these offered of the
premises.
That a Parliament be summoned in Scotland by several commandments, both
of the Queen of Scots and of the young King.
--- That hostages be delivered unto England on the young King's behalf, to
the number of twelve persons of the Earle ot Murray's part, as the Queen of
Scots shall name; and likewise on the Queen's behalf, to the like number as the
Earle of Murray shall name; the same not to be any that have by inheritance
or office cause to be in this Parliament, to remain from the beginning of the
summons of that Parliament, untill three months after that Parliament; which
hostages shall be pledges, that the friends of either part shall keep the peace in
all cases, till by this Parliament it be concluded, that the ordinance which the
Queen of England shall devise for the government of the realm (being not tc
the hurt of the crown of Scotland, nor contrary to the laws of Scotland for any
man's inheritance, as the same was before the Parliament at Edinr. the
Decemr. 1567) shall be established to be kept and obeyed, under pain of high
treason for the breakers thereof.
- That by the same Parliament also be established all executions and judgments given against any person for the death of the late King.
-- That by the same Parliament, a remission be made universally from the
Queen of Scots to any her contrarys, and also from everyone subject to another,
saving that restitution be made of lands and houses, and all other things heritable, that have been by either side taken from them which were the owners
thereof at the committing of the Queen of Scots to Lochlevin.
That by the same Parliament it be declared who shall be successors to the
crown next after the Q. of Scots and her issue; or else, that such right as the
D. of Chatelherault had, at the marriage of the Queen of Scots with the Lord
Darnley, may be conserved and not prejudized.
That the Q. of Scots may have leave of the Queen's Majesty of England,
twelve months after the said Parliament, and that she shall not depart out of
England without special licence of the Queen's Majesty.
That the young King shall be nourished and brought up in England, till ho
be    years of age.
It is to be considered, that in this cause the composition between the Queen
and her subjects may be made with certain articles, outwardly to be seen to the
world for her honour, as though all the parts should come of her, and yet for
the surety of contrarys, that certain betwixt her and the Queen's Majesty ale
to be concluded.
No. XXXI. (p. 197.)
The Queen to Sir Francis Knolleys, 22 January, 1568-9.
[Paper Office.]
WE greet you well, we mean not, at this point, by any writing, to renew that
which it hath pleased God to make grievous to us and sorryful to yow; but forbearing the same as unmeet at this point, having occasion to command yow in
our service, and yow also whilest you are to serve us. We require yow to consider of this that followeth with like consideration and diligence, as hitherto
yow have accustumate in our service; at the time of our last letters written to
yow the fourteenth of this month for removing of the Queen of Scots, we had
understanding out of Scotland of certain writtings sent by her from thence into
Scotland, amongst the which one is found to contain great and manifest untruths
touching us and others also, as shall and may plainly appear unto yow by the




4^00            HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
copy of the same, which likewise we send you, and because at the same tamn
we were advertized, that it should be shortly proclaimed in Scotland, thoughi
then it was not, we thought good first to remove the Queen, before we woull
disclose the same, and then expect the issue thereof; and now, this day, by let
ters from our cousin of Hunsdon we are ascertained, that since that time the
same matters contained in the writing, are published in diverse parts of Scotland, whereupon we have thought it very meet, for the discharge of our honor,
and to confound the falsehood contained in that writting, not only to have the
same reproved by open proclamation upon our frontiers, the coppy whereof we
do herewith send yow, but also in convenient sort to charge that Queen therewith, so as she may be moved to declare the authors thereof, and persuaders of
her to write in such slanderous sort such untruths of us; and in the mean season, we have here stayed our commissioners, knowing no other whom we may
more probably presume to be parties hereunto, than they, untill the Queen shall
name some other, and acquit them; who being generally charged, without
expressing to them any particularity, do use all manner of speeches to discharge
themselves; wherefore our pleasure is, that ye shall, after ye have well perused
the coppy of this writting sent to yow, speedily declare unto her, that we have
good understanding given us of diverse letters and writtings, sent by her into
Scotland, signed by her own hand, amongst which one such writting is sent
with her commandment, expressly as now it is already published, as we are
much troubled in mind that a Princess as she is having a cause in our hands so
implicated with difficultys and calamitys, should either conceave in her own
mind, or allow of them  that should devise such false, untrue, and improbable
matters against us, and our honor, and specially to have the aventure to have
the same being known so untrue to be published; and you shall also say, because
we will not think so ill of her, as that it should proceed of her self, but rather
she hath been counselled thereunto, or by abuse made to think some part thereof
to be true, we require her, even as she may look for any favour at our hands,
that she will disburden herself as much as truly she may herein, and name them
which have been the authors and perswaders thereof, and so she shall make as
great amends to us as the case may require; after you have thus far proceeded,
and had some answer of her, whether she shall deny the writing absolutely, or
name anythat have been the advisers thereof, you shall sayuntoher thatwe have
stayed her commissioners here, untill we may have sonme answer hereof, because
we cannot but impute to them some part of this evil dealing, untill by her
answer the authors may be known; and as soon as you can have direct answers
from her, we pray you to return us the same; for as the case standeth, we cannot but be much disquieted with it, having our hlonour so deeply touched contrary to any intention in us, and for any thing we know in our judgment the
Earl of Murray and others named in the same writting, void of thought for the
matters, to them therein imputed; you may impart to the Queen of Scots
either the contents of the slanderous letter, or show her the copy to read it, and
you may also impart this matter to the lord Scroop, to join with you there as
you shall think meet.
Sir Francis Knolleys to Queen Eliabeth,from Wetherby, the 28th of January, 1568
[An original. Paper Office.]
- I WILL supress my own grieffs, and pass them over with silence, for the
present learning of Your Majesty-and for this Queen's answer to the coppie
of her supposed letter sent unto Scotland, I must add this unto my brother's
letter, sent unto Mr. Secretary yesternight late; in process of time she did not
deny but that the first lines contained in the same copie, was agreeable to a letter
that she had sent unto Scotland, which touched My Lord of Murray's promise
to deliver her son into Your Majesty's hands, and to avoid that the same should
not be done without her consent, made her, she saith, to write in that behalf;
she saith also that she wrote that they should cause a proclamation to be made
to stir her people to defend My Lord of Murray's intent and purpose, for
delivering of her said son, and impunge his rebellious government, as she termed
it, but she utterly denyeth to have written any of the other slanderous parts of




APPENDIX, No. XXXII.                              401
the said letter touching Your Majesty; she said also, that she suspected that a
Frenchman, now in Scotland, might be the author of some Scotch letters
devised in her name, but she would not allow me to write this for any part of
her answer.
No. XXXII. (p. 201.)
Sir.Nicholas Throkmorton to the Right UHonourable the Lord of Liddington.
[20th of July, 1569. From the original.]
Youc letterof the 3d of July, I have received the 15th of the same. For answer
whereunto you shall understand that friends here to my Lord Regent and you
do wish such a concurrence in all doings, as in matter and circumstances there
arise no dissension, or at the least, no more nor other than the difference of
countries doth necessarily require. We here do think convenient that as few
delays be used as may be, for the consummation of the matter in hand, which
principally to advance your allowance, prosecution and speedy promotion in
Scotland, is most requisite, for you are so wise, and well acquainted with the
state of the world, and with all our humours, as you know that some do allow
and disallow for reason, some for respect of multitude, some for respect of persons, and so the cause is to go forward as men do like to set it forward. You
are not to seek that some will use cautions, some neutrality, some delays, and
some will plainly impunge it. And yet all and every of these sorts will alter
their doings, when they shall see the Regent and his favourers accord with the
best and greatest part there, and agree with the wisest and strongest party here.
Tho' the matter has taken its beginning here, upon deep and weighty considerations, for the weil of both the Princes and their realms, as well presently as in
time to come, yet it is thought most expedient that the Regent, and realm of
Scotland, by you, should propose the matter to the Queen our sovereign, if you
like to use convenience, good order, or be disposed to leave but a scar, and no
wound of the hurts past. I would be glad that this my letter should come to
your hands before the convention, whereat it seems your Queen's restoration
and marriage to the Duke of Norfolk shall be propounded, either to wynne in
them both allowance or rejection. To which proceedings, because you pray me
to write frankly, I say and reason thus, me thinketh you use a preposterous
order to demand the consent of such persons, in such matters, as their minds
to a good end hath rather been felt or prepared, and therefore there must needs
follow either a universal refusal, or factious division nmongst you, whereby a
bloustering intelligence must needs come to Queen Erlizabeth of the intended
marriage from thence, which ought to have been secretely and advisedly propounded unto Her Highness; hereby'you see then the meaning is, by this dealing, Her Majesty shall be made inexorable, and so bring the matter to such
passe, as this which should have wrought surety, quietness, and a stay to both
Queens and their realms, shall augment your calamity, and throw us your best
friends into divorse with you, and into unhappy division'amongst ourselves; for
you may not conjecture that the matter is now in deliberation, but expecteth
good occasion for executing; sure I am you do not judge so slenderly of the
managing of this matter, as to think we have not cast the worst, or to enter
therein so far without the assistance of the nobility, the ablest, the wisest, and
the mightiest of this realm, except Queen Elizabeth: from whom it hath been
concealed until you, as the fittest minister, might propound it to her, on the
behalf of the Regent and the nobility of Scotland. How far Master Woddes
defamations do carry them of Queen Elizabeth's affections, and Master Secretary's to assist the Regent and to suppress the Queen of Scots, I know not, nor
it is not material; but I do assuredly think that Her Majesty will prefer her
surety, the tranquillity of her reign and the conservation of her people, before
any device, which may proceed from vain discourse, or imperfections of passions and inconsiderate affections. And as for Mr. Secretary, you are not to
learn that as he liketh not to go too fast afore, so he coveteth not to tarry too
far behind, and specially when the reliques be of no great value or power. It
I could as well assure you of his magnanimity, and constancy, as of his present
VOL. III.-SI




102             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
conformity, I would say confidently, you may repose as well of him in this
matter, as of the Duke of Norfolk, the Earls of Arundel, Pembroke, Leicester,
Bedford, Shrewsbury, and the rest of the nobility; all which do embrace and
proteste the accomplishment of this case. I have, according to your advice,
written presently'to My Lord Regent, with the same zeal and care of his well
doing that I owe to him, whom I love and honour. Mr. Secretary hath assured
unto him the Queen of Scotland's favour and good opinion, wherewith he
seemeth to be well satisfy'd. If your credit be as I trust, hasten your coming
hither, for it is very necessary that you were here presently. Q. Elizabeth both
doth write to My Lord Regent in such sort, as he may perceive Mr. Wood's
discourses of Her Majesty's affection to be vain, and Mr. Secretary otherwise
bent than he conjectureth of him, the effect of which Her Majesty's letter you
shall understand, by My Lord Leicester's letter unto you at this dispatch. At
the Court, 20th July, 1569.
No. XXXIII. (p. 201.)
Part of a Letter from the Earl of MJfurray to L. B. probably Lord Burleigh.
[1569. Harl. Lib. 37. B. 9. fo. 43.1
BECAUSE I see that great advantage is taken on small occasions, and
that the mention of the marriage betwixt the Queen my sovereign's mother,:and the D. of Norfolk hath this while past been very frequent in both the
realms, and then I myself to be spoken of as a motioner, which I perceive is
at the last come to Her Majesty's ears; 1 will, for satisfaction of Her Highness,
-and the discharge of my duty towards Her Majesty, manifest unto you my
interest, and medling in that matter, from the very beginning, knowing what-,soever is prejudicial to Her Highness, cannot but be hurtful to the King my
sovereign, this his realm, and me. What conferrences was betwixt the Duke
of Norfolk, and any of them that were with me within the realm of England,
I am not able to declare; but I am no wise forgetful of any thing that passed
betwixt him and me, either at that time, or since. And to the end Her Majesty
may understand how I have been dealt with in this matter, I am compelled to
touch some circumstances, before there was any mention of her marriage. In
York, at the meeting of all the commissioners, I found very - and neutral
dealing with the Duke, and others Her Highness's commissioners, in the beginning of the cause, as in the making of the others to proceed sincerely, and,so furth. During which time, I entered into general speech, sticking at our
just defence in the matters that were objected against us, by the said Queen's
commissioners, looking certainly for no other thing, but summary cognition in
the cause of controversy, with a final declaration to have followed. Upon a
certain day the Lord Lithington secretary rode with the Duke to Howard, what
purpose they had I cannoit say, but that night Lithington returning, and entring
into conferrence with me upon the state of our action, I was advised by him to
pass to the Duke, and require familiar conferrence, by the which I might have
some feeling to what issue our matters would tend. According to which advice,
having gotten time and place convenient in the gallery of the house where the
Duke was lodged, after renewing of our first acquaintance made at Berwick,
the time before the assize of Leith, and some speeches passed betwixt us; he
began to say to me, how he in England had favour and credit, and I in Scotland
had will and friendship of many, it was to be tho't there could be none more
fit instruments, to travel for the continuance of the amity betwixt the realms,
-than we two. And so that discourse upon the present state of both, and how
I was entered in that action tending so far to the Queen's dishonour, I was
willed by him to consider how matters stood in this, what honour I had received
of the Queen, and what inconveniences her defamation in the matters laid to
her charge might breed to her posterity. Her respect was not little to the
crown of England, there was but one heir. The Hamiltons my unfriends, had
the next respect, and that I should esteem the issue of her body would be the
more affectionate to nme and mine, than any other that could attain to that
crown. And so it should be meetest, that she affirmed her dismission made in




APPENDIX, No. XXXIlI.                           403
Lochlevin, and we to abstract the letters of her hand write, that she should not
be defamed in England. My reply to that was, how the matter had passed in
Parliament, and the letters seen of many, so that the abstracting of the same
could not then secure her to any purpose, and yet should we, in that doing,
bring the ignominy upon us. Affirming it would not be fair for us that way to
proceed, seeing the Queen's Majesty of England was not made privy to the
matter as she ought to be, in respect we were purposely come in England for
that end, and for the - of the grants of our cause. The Duke's answer was,
he would take in hand to handle matters well enough at tile court. After this,
on the occasion of certain articles, that were required to be resolved on before
we entered on the declaration of the very ground of our action, we came up
to the court; where some new commissioners were adjoined to the former, and
the hearing of the matter ordained to be in the Parliament-house at Westminster, in presence of which commissioners of the said Queen, and  --— through
the -- rebuking of the Queen of England's own commissioners, we uttered
the whole of the action, and produced such evidences, letters, and probations,
as we had, which might move the Queen's Majesty to think well of our cause.
Whereupon expecting her Highness' declaration, and seeing no great likelihood
of the same to be suddenly given, but daily motions then made to come to an
accord with the said Queen,our matters in hand in Scotland,in the mean season,
standing in hazard and danger, we were put to the uttermost point off our wit,
to imagine whereunto the matters would tend, tho' albeit we had left nothing
undone for justification of our causes, yet appeared no end, but continual motions made to come to some accord with the Queen, and restore her to whole or
half reign. I had no other answer to give them, but that I should neither do
against conscience or honour in that matter. Notwithstanding seeing this my
plain answer wrought no end, nor dispatch to us, and that I was informed that
the Duke began to mislike of me, and to speak of me, as that I had reported
of the said Queen irreverently, calling her -     [probably adulterer] and murderer, I was advised to pass to him, and give him good words, and to purge
myself of the things objected to me, that I should not open the sudden entry
of his evil grace, nor have him to our enemy -  considering his greatness.
It being therewithal whispered and showed to me, that if I departed, he standing
discontented and not satisfied, I might peradventure find such trouble in my
way, as my throat might be cut before I came to Berrick. And therefore, since
it might well enough appear to her marriage, I should not put him in utter despair, that my good will could not be had therein. So few days before my departing I came to the park in Hampton Court, where the Duke and I met
together, and there I declared unto him that it was come to my ears, how some
misreport should be made of me to him, as that I should speak irreverently and
rashly of the said Queen my sovereign's mother, such words as before expressed,
that he might     [probably suspect] thereby my affection to be so alienate
from her, as that I could not love her, nor be content of her preferment, howbeit
he might perswade himself of the contrary, for as she once was the person in
the world that I loved best, having that honour to be so near unto her, and
having received such advancement and honour by her, I was not so ungrate or
so unnatural ever to wish her body harm, or to speak of her as was untruly
reported of me (howsoever the truth was in the self), and as to the preservation
of her son, now my sovereign, had moved me to enter into this cause, and that
her own pressing was the occasion of that was uttered to her -   [probably
dishonour] whensoever God should move her heart to repent of her by past
behaviour and life, and after her known repentance, that she should be separate
from that ungodly and unlawful marriage that she was entred in, and then
after were joined with such a godly and honourable a personage, as were affectioned to the true religion, and whom we might trust, I could find in my heart
to love her, and to shew her as great pleasure, favour, and good will, as ever I
did in my life; and in case he should be that personage, there was none whom
I could better like of, the Queen -   in --    of England being made privy to
the matter, and she allowing thereof, which being done, I should labour in all
things that I could, to her honour and pleasure, that were not prejudicial to the
King my sovereign's estate, and prayed him not to think otherwise oI me, for
my affection was rather buried and hidden within me, awaiting until God should




404             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
direct her to know herself, than utterly alienated and abstracted froml hes
which he seemed to accept in very good part, saying, Earl of Murray, thou
thinks of me that thing, whereunto I will make none in England or Scotland
privy, and thou hast Norfolk's life in thy hands. So departing, I came to my
lodging, and by the way and all night, I was in continual thought and agita
tion of mind, how to behave myself in that weighty matter, first imagining
whereunto this should tend, if it were attempted without the Queen's Majesty
of England's knowledge and good will, this realm and I myself in particular
having received such favour and comfort at Her Highness's hands, and this
whole isle such peace and quietness, since God possessed Her Majesty with her
crown. And on the other part, seeing the Duke had disclosed him to me, protesting none other were or should be privy to our speech, I tho't I could not
find in my heart to utter any thing that might endanger him; moved to the
uttermost with these cogitations, and all desire of sleep then removed, I prayed
God to send me some good relief and outgate, to my discharge and satisfaction
of my troubled mind, which I found indeed; for upon the morn, or within a
day or two thereafter, I entered in conversation with my Lord of Leicester, in
his chamber at the court, where he began to find strange with me, that in the
matter I made so difficult to him, standing so precisely on conference, and how
when I had in my communication with the Duke, come so far -- and there
he made some discourse with me, about that which was talke betwixt us, I
perceiving that the Duke had -     [probably disclosed] the matter to my Lord
of Leicester, and thinking me thereby discharged at the Duke's hands, therefore I repeated the same communication in every point to my Lord of Leicester,
who desired me to show the same to the Queen's Majesty, which I refused to
do, willing him if he tho't it might import Her Highness any thing, that he as
one      by Her Majesty, and for many benefits received at Her Highness's
hands is obliged to wish her well, should make declaration of the same to Her
Majesty, as I understand by some speech of Her Highness to me, he did. This
my declaration to the Duke was the only cause that staid the violence and
trouble prepared for me unexecuted, as I have divers ways understood. The
same declaration I was obliged to renew since in writings of -- sent to my
servant John Wood. The sum whereof, I trust, he showed the Duke, and
something also I wrote to himself for it was tho't this should redeem some time,
that the Duke should not suddenly declare him our enemy, for his greatness
was oft laid before me, and what friendship he had of the chief of the nobility
in England, so that it might appear to the Queen's Majesty of England-so
cold towards us, and doing nothing publickly that might seem favourable for us,
we had some cause to suspect that Her Highness should not be contrarious to
the marriage when it should be proposed to her. The sharp message sent by
Her Majesty with the Lord Boyd, who had the like commission from the Duke
tending so far to the said Queen's preferment, as it were proposing one manner
of conditions from both, gave us to think that Her Highness had been foreseen
in the Duke's design, and that she might be induced to allow thereof. But howbeit it was devised in England, that the Lord of Lethington should come as
from me, and break the matter to Her Highness, as Her Majesty in a letter
declared that she looked for his coming, yet that devise proceeded never of me,
nor the noblemen at the convention could no wise accord to his sending, nor
allow of the matter motioned, but altogether misliked it, as bringing with the
same great inconveniences to the surety and quietness of this whole isle: for
our proceedings have declared our misliking and disallowance of the purpose
from the beginning, and if we had pleased he was ready for the journey. And
in likewise it was devised to give consent that the   [probably divorce]
between the said Queen and Bothwell should be suffered to proceed in this
realm, as it was desired by the said Lord Boyd, by reason we could not understand what was the Queen's Majesty's pleasure, and allowance in that behalf.-...- And whereas ye mean, that Her Highness was not made privy of any
such intention, the fault was not in me. The first motion being declared, as I
have written, to my Lord of Leicester, and by him imparted to Her Majesty,
so far as I could perceive by some speech of Her Highness's to me, before my
departing. Thus I have plainly declared how I have been dealt withal for
this marriage, and how just necessity moved me not to require directly, that




APPENDIX, No. XXXTV.                            405
which the Duke appeared so   ~  unto. And for my threatenings, to aalsent
to the same, I have expressed the manner; the persons that laid the matter
before me were of my own company. But the Duke since hath spoken, that it
was his writing which saved my life at that time. In conclusion I pray you
persuade Her Majesty, that she let no speeches nor any other thing passed and
objected to my prejudice, move Her Majesty to alter her favour-towards me,
or any ways to doubt of my assured constancy towards Her Highness; for in
any thing which may tend to her honour and surety, I will, while I live, bestow
myself, and all that will do for me, notwithstanding my hazard or danger, as
proof shall declare, when Her Majesty finds time to employ me.
No. XXXIV. (p. 205.)
William.Maitland of Ledington, to any Lord of Leicester, Mttarch 20th, 1750,
from Ledinglon.
[An original.'
TnE great desolation threatened to this whole realm, be the divisions thereof
in dangerous factions, doth press me to frame my letters to Your Lordship, in
other sort, than were behovefull for me, if I had no other respect, but only to
maintain my private credit; therefore I am driven to furnish them with matter,
which I know not to be plausible, whereupon by misconstruing my meaning,
some there may take occasion of offence, thinking that I rather utter my own
passions, than go about to inform Your Lordship truly of the state; but I trust
my plain dealing ~hall bear record to the sincerity of my meaning; to make
the same sensible, I will lay before your Lordship's eyes the plat of this country; which first is divided into two factions, the one pretending the maintenance
of the King's reign, the other alledging the Queen to have been cruelly dealt
withall, and unjustly deprived of her state; the former is composed of a good
number of nobility, gentlemen, and principal burroughs of the realme, who
shall have, as Mr. Randolph beareth us in hand, the Queen's Majesty your
sovereign's allowance and protection; the other hath in it some most principall
of the nobility, and therewithall, good numbers of the inferior sort, throughout
the whole realm, which also look assuredly that all kings do allow their quarrel
and will aid them accordingly. What consequence this division will draw after
it, I leave it to Your Lordship's consideration; there is fallen out another division, accedentally, by my Lord Regent's death, which is like to change the state
of the other two factions, to increase the one, and diminish the other, which is
grounded upon the regiment of the realm. Some number of noblemen aspire
to the government, pretending right thereto by reason of the Queen's demission
of the croun, and her commission granted at that time for the regiment during
the King's minority; another faction doth altogether repine against that division, thinking it neither fit nor tolerable, that three or four of the meanest sort
amongst the Earls shall presume to challenge to themselves a rule over the
whole realme, the next of the blood, the first of rank, the greatest alway both
for the antientry of their houses, degree, and forces, being negleckted; this
order they think preposterous, that the meaner sort shall be placed in public
function to command, and the greater shall continue as private men to obey i
besides that, they think if the commission had in the beginning been valewable
(which the most part will not grant), yet can it not be extended to the presert
for that the conditions thereunto annexed are ceased, and so the effect of sie
whole void; the latter part of this division hath many pretences, for besides ihe
Queen's faction, which is wholly on that side, a great number of these that i ave
heretofore professed the King's obedience, do favour the same, and will not yield
to the government of the other, whose preferment for respects they mislike,
when the Queen's faction shall be increased, with a part of the King's, and
these not of least substance, and yow may judge what is like to ensue; another
incident is like to move men to enter in further discourses, it is given out here
in Scotland that the Queen's Majesty is setting forth some forces towards the
border, which shall enter this realm, to countenance these that aspire to the
regiment, and suppress the contrary faction, and bruits are spread, that the




406             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
same shall be here out of hand; these that think themselves of equal force with
their contrary faction at home, or rather an overmatch to them, yet not able to
encounter with the forces of another Prince rather than yield to their inferiors,
will, I fear, take advice of necessity, and evill councillors, and seek also the
maintenance of some foreign Prince, whereby Her Majesty (altho' no further
inconvenient were to be feared) must be driven to excessive charges, and it
would- appear there were a conspiracy of all the elements at one time to set us
together by the ears, for now, when the rumour of your forces coming towards
the border is spread abroad, even at the same time is arrived at Dumbarton, a
galzeon with a messenger sent expressly from the King of France, to that part
of the nobility that favours the Queen, to learn the state of the country, and
what support they lack or desire, either for furtherance of her affairs, or for
their own safety; assuredly this message will be well received, and suffered
accordingly, this is the present state of Scotland. Now, if Your Lordship
would also know my opinion, how to choice the best, as the case standeth; I
will in that also satisfie Your Lordship I am required from them to deal plainly,
and Your Lordship shall judge wither I do so or not; for I think it plain dealing, when I simply utter my judgment, and go not about to disguise my intents.
I trust the Queen's Majesty hath a desire to retain at her devotion the realme
of Scotland, which she hath gone about to purchase, with bestowing great
charges, and the loss of some of her people; this desire is honourable for Her
Highness, profitable for both the countreys, and of none to be disallowed;
especially if it be (as I take it) to have the amity of the whole realm, for it is
not a portion of Scotland can serve her turn, nor will it prove commodious for
her to suit the friendship of a faction of Scotland, for in so doing, in gaining the
best, she may lose the more, and the same would bring all her actions with us in
suspicion, if she should go about to nourish factions amongst us, which meaning
I am sure never entered into Her Majesty's heart; then if it be the friendship
of the whole she doth demand, let her not, for pleasure of one part, go about to
overthrow the remnant, which will not be so faisable, as some may give her to
understand; but rather by way of treaty, let her go about to pacify the whole
state, bring the parties to an accord, reduce us all by good means to an uniformity, so shall she give us all occasion to think well of her doings, that she tendeth
our wealth, and provoks us universally to wish unto Her Majesty, a most prosperous continuance; by the contrary, if, for the pleasure of a few, she will send
forces to suppress these whom they mislike, and so consequently offend many;
men be not so faint hearted, but they have courage to provide for their own
safty, and not only will embrace the means partly offered, but will also procure
further at the hand of other Princes. This for mine own part, I do abhorr, and
protest I desire never to see forces of strangers to set foot within this land, yet I
know not what point necessity may drive men into, as if men in the middle of
the sea were in a ship, which suddenly should be set on fire, the fear of burning
would make them leap into the sea, and soon after the fear of the watter would
drive them to cleive again to the fired ship, so for avoiding present evil, men
will many times be inforced to have recourse to another no less dangerous.
Trust me, forces will not bring forth any good fruit to Her Majesty's behove,
it must be some way of treaty shall serve the turn, wherein by my former letters Your Lordship doth know already what is my judgement; you see how
plainly I do write, without consideration in what part my letters may be taken,
yet my hope is that such as will favourably interpret them, shall think that I
mean as well to Her Majesty and that realme, as these that will utter other
language. 1 wish the continuance of the amity betwixt the two contrys, without
other respect, and will not conceal from Her Majesty any thing, to my knowledge, tending to the prejudice thereof; if I shall perceave Her Majesty taking
frank dealings in evil part, I shall from thenceforth forbear; in the mean season,
I will not cease to trowble Your Lordship, as I shall have occasion to write, and
so I take my leave of Your Lordship.




APPENDIX, No. XXXV.                              407
No. XXXV. (p. 208.)
Letter of Queen Elisabeth to the Earle of Susseks, July 2d, 1570.
[Calderw. MS. History, vol. 2. p. 189.]
RIGHT trusty and well beloved cousin, we greet you well; this day we have
received your letters of 28 the last month, with all other letters, sent from
Scotland, and mentioned in your letters, whereunto answer is desired to be
given before the tenth of this month; which is a very short time, the weightiness of the matters, and the distance of the places considered; nevertheless we
have, as the shortness could suffer it, resolved to give this answer following,
which we will that yow, by warrand hereof, shall cause to be given in our name
to the Earl of Lennox and the rest of the noblemen conveend with him.
Where it is by them, in their letters, and writings alleg'd, that for lack of our
resolute answer, concerning the establishing of the regiment of the realm, under
their young King, great inconveniences have happened, and therefore they have
deferred now at their last convention to determine of the samine, who shall
have the place of governour, until the 21st this month, before which time they
require to have our advise, in what person or persons the government of that
realm shall be established, we accept very thankfull the goodwill and reputation
they have of us, in yielding so frankly to require and follow our advise in a
matter that toucheth the state of their King, theirselves, and realm so near,
wherein as we perceive that by our former forbearing to intermeddle therein,
they have taken some discomfort, as though that we would not have regard to
their state and suerty, so on the other part, they of their wisdoms ought to
think that it might be by the whole world evil interpreted in us to appoint them
a form of government, or a governour by name, for that howsoever we should
mean well if we should do so, yet it could not be without some jealousy in the
heads of the estate, nobility, and community of that realm, that the government thereof should be by me specially named, and ordain'd; so as finding difficulty on both parts, and yet misliking most that they should take any discomfort by our forbearing to show our mind therein, we have thought in this sort
for to proceed, considering with ourselves how now that realm had been a good
space of time ruled in the name of their King, and by reason of this base age,
governed heretofore by a very careful and honourable person, the Earle
of Murray, untill that by a mischievous person (an evil example) he was
murdered, whereby great disorder and confusion of necessity had, and will
more follow, if determination be not made of some other speciall person, or
persons, to take the charge of governour, or superior ruler speciall for administration of law and justice, we cannot but very well allow the desire of these
Lords to have some speciall governour to be chosen; and therefore being well
assured that their own understanding of all others is best to consider the
state of that realm, and to discern the abilities and qualities of every person
meet and capable for such a charge, we shall better satisfie ourselves, whom
they by their common consent shall first choose, and appoint to that purpose,
than of any to be by us aforehand uncertainly named, and that because they
shall perceave that we have care of the person of their King, who by nearness
of blood, and in respect to his so young years, ought to be very tender and dear
to us, we shall not hide our opinion from them, but if they shall all accord to
name his grandfather, our cousin, the Earl of Lennox, to be governor alone, or
jointly with others, (whom we hear to be in the mean time by their common
consent appointed Lieuten nt-general) reason moveth us to think that none can
be chosen in that whole realm that shall more desire the preservation of the
King, and be more meet to have the government for his safety, being next to
him in blood of any nobleman of that realm, or elsewhere; and yet hereby we
do not mean to prescribe to them this choice, except they shall of themselves
fully and freely allow thereof; furthermore we would have them well assured
that whatsoever reports of devises are, or shall be spread or invented, that we
have already yielded our mind to alter the state of the King or government of
that realm, the same are without just cause or ground by us given, for as we




408             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
have already advertized them, that although we have yielded to hear, which is
honour we could not refuse, what the Queen of Scots on her part shall say and
offer, not only for her own assurance, but for the wealth of that realm, yet not
knowing what the same will be that shall be offered, we mean not to break the
order of law and justice by advancing her cause, or prejudging her contrary,
before we shall deliberately and assuredly see, upon the hearing of the whole,
some place necessary, and just cause to do; and therefore finding that realm
ruled by a King, and the same affirmed by laws of that realm, and thereof
invested by coronation and other solemnities used and requisite, and generally
so received by the whole estates, we mean not by yielding to hear the complaints, or informations of the Queen against her son, to do any act whereby to
make conclusion of governments, but as we have found it, so to suffer the same
to continue, yea not to suffer it to be altered by any means that we may impeshe,
as to our honour it doth belong, as by your late actions hath manifestly appeared,
untill by some justice and clear cause, we shall be directly induced otherwise to
declare our opinion; and this we would have them to know to be our determination and course that we mean to hold, whereon -we trust they for their King may
see how plainly and honourably we mean to proceed, and how little cause they
have to doubt of us, whatsoever to the contrary they have or shall hear; and
on the other part, we pray them of their wisdoms to think how unhonourable and
contrary to all human order it were for us, when the Queen of Scotland doth so
many ways require to hear her cause, and doth offer to be ordered be us in the
same as well for matters betwixt ourselves and her, as betwixt herself and her
son and his party and that realm, against which offers no reason could move us
to refuse to give ear, that we should aforehand openly and directly, before the
causes be heard and considered, as it were, give a judgment or sentence either
for ourselves or for them whom she maketh to be her contraries. Finally ye
shall admonish them, that they do not, by misconceiving our good meaning
toward them, or by indirect assertions of their adversary, grounded on untruths,
hinder or weaken their own cause, in such sort, that our good meaning towards
them shall not take such effect towards them as they shall desire, or themselves
have need of. All this our answer ye shall cause be given them, and let them
know that for the shortness of time, this being the end of the second of this
month, we neither could make any longer declaration of our mind, nor vet write
any several letters, as if time might have served we would have done. 2d July,
1570.
No. XXXVI. (p. 208.)
The Bishop of Ross to Secretary Lidington from Chatttsworth.
[15th June, 1570.]
I HAVE received your letters dated the 26th of May, here at Chattisworth, the
10th of January, but on the receipt thereof I had written to you at length, like
as the Queen did with my Lord Livingston, hy which you will be resolved of
many points contained in your said letter. I writ to you that I received
vour letter and credit from Thos Cowy at London, and sent to Leicester to
know the Queen of England's mind, whether if you should come here or not
He sent me word that she will no ways have you come as one of the commis
sioners, because she is yet offended with you; and therefore it appears good that
ye come not hither, but remain where you are, to use your wisdom and diligences
as may best advance the Queen's affairs, for I perceive your weill and safety
depends thereon, in respect to the great feid and ennimity born against you by.
your Scots people and the great 4eirship taken of your father's landis; both
were sure demonstrations of their malice. Yet I am encouraged by your stout
and deliberate mind. Assure yourself no diligence shall be omitted to procure
supports forth off all parts where it may be had. We will not refuse the aid
neither of Papist, Jew, nor Gentil, after my advice; and to this end, during this
treaty, let all things be well prepared. And seeing my Lord Seaton is desirous
to go into Flanders, the Queen thinks it very necessary that he so do, for the
Duke D'Alva has gotten express command of the King of Spain to give support, ard I am sure that there he shall have aid both of Flanders and the Pope,




APPENDIX,  No. XXXVIII.                          409
for it abides only on the coming of some men of countenance, to procure and
receive the same. He must needs tarry there, on the preparations thereof,
during the treaty, which will be a great furtherance to the same here. The
Queen has already written to the Duke D'Alva for this effect, advertizing of
his coming; there is certain sums of money coming for support of the Engl4ihmen, as I wrote to you before, from the Pope. Whereupon I would he had a
general commission to deal for them, and receive such sums as shall be given.
The means shall be found to cause you be ansuerit of the sums you writ for, to
be dispoisit upon the furnishing of the castle of Edinburgh, so being some
honest and true man were sent to Flanders to receive it, as said is, which I
would you prepared and sent. Orders shall be taken for the metals as you
writ of. We have proponit your avyce in entring to treat with the Queen of
England, for retiring of her forces puntyally for lack of aid. Your answers to
the Englishmen are tho't very good, but above all keep you weill out of their
hands, in that case, estote prudentes sicut serpentes. You may take experience
with the hard dealing with me, how ye would be used if ye were here, and yet
I am not forth of danger, being in medio nationis pravda; alway no fear, with
God's grace, shall make me shrink from Her Majesty's service. Since the
Queen of England has refused that you come here, it appears to me quod nondum est sedata malitia amorreorum, &c. and therefore if Athol or Cathenes
might by any means be procured to come, they were the most fit for the purpose.
Rothes were also meet, if he and I were not both of one sirname: so the treaty
would get the less credit either in Scotland or here. Therefore avys, and send
the best may serve the turn, and fail not Robert Melvil come with them, whoever comes, for so is the Queen's pleasure; in my last packet, with James Fogo,
to you, in the beginning of May, I sent a letter of the Queen's own handwriting
to him, which I trust ye received. I am sorry ye come not, for the great relief
I hoped to have had by your presence, for you could well have handled the
Queen of England, after her humour, as you were wont to do. The rest I refer
to your good wisdom, praying God to send you health. From Chattisworth,
the 15th of January.
No. XXXVII. (p. 216.)
The Declaration of John Cais to the Lords of Grange and Lethington zoungare
upon the 8th day of Oct. 1571.
WHEREAS your desire to know the Queen's Majesty's pleasure, what she
will do for appeasing of these controversies, and therewith has offered yourselves
to be at her commandment, touching the common tranquility of the whole isle
and the amity of both realms; her pleasure in this behalf, that ye should leave
off the maintenance of this civil discord, and give your obedience to the King,
whom she will maintain to the uttermost of her power.
And in this doing, she will deal with the Regent and the King's party to receive you into favour, upon reasonable conditions for security of life and livings.
Also, she says that the Queen of Scotts, for that she has practised with the
Pope and other Princes, and also with her own subjects in England, great and
dangerous treasons against the state of her own country, and also to the destruction of her own person, that she shall never bear authority, nor have liberty
while she lives.
If ye refuse these gentle offers, now offered unto you, she will presently aid
the King's party, with men, ammunition, and all necessary things to be had,
against you.
Whereupon Her Majesty requires your answer with speed, without any delay.
No. XXXVIII. (p. 221.)
Articles sent by Knox to the General Assembly, August 5th, 1572.
[Calderw. MS. History, 2. 356.]
FIRsT, desiring a new act to be made ratifying all things concerning the King
and his obedience that were enacted of before -without any change, and that
the ministers who have contraveend the former acts be corrected as accordeth.
VOL. III.-52




410            HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
That sute be made to the Regent's grace and nobility maintaining the King's
cause, that whatsoever proceedeth in this treaty of peace they be mindful the
kirk be not prejug'd thereby, in any sort, and they especially of the ministers
that have been robbed of their possessions within the kirk during the time of
the troubles, or otherwise dung and injured, may be restored.
To sute at the Regent, that no gift of any bishoprick or other benefice be
given to any person, contrary to the tenor of the acts made in the time of the
first Regent of good memory, and they that are given contrar the said acts, or
to any unqualified person, may be revoked and made null be an act of secret
council, and that all bishopricks so vacand may be presented, and qualified persons
nominat thereunto, within a year after the vaking thereof, according to the order
taken in Leith be the commissioners of the nobility and of the kirk in the month
of January last, and in special to complain upon the giving of bishoprick of
Ross to the Lord Methven.
That no pentions or benefices, great or small, be given be simple donation of
any Lord Regent without consent of the possessor of the saids benefices having
tittle thereto, and the admission of the superintendent or commissioners of the
province where this benefice lyeth, or of the bishops lawfully elected according
to the said order taken at Leith; and desire an act of council to be made thereupon until the next Parliament, wherein the samine may be specially inacted,
with inhibition to the lords of session to give any letters or decreets, upon such
simple gifts of benefices or pentions not being given in manner above rehearsed,
and that the kirk presently assembled declare all such gifts null so far as lyeth
in their power.
That the first form of presentation to benefices, which were in the first and
second Regents' time, be not chang'd as now it is commonly; but that this
clause be contained in the presentation, that if the persons presented make not
residence, or be slandrous, or found unworthy either in life or doctrine be the
judgment of the kirk (to which alwise he shall be subject) or meet to be transported to another room at the sight of the kirk, the said presentation and all
that shall fall thereupon shall be null and of no force nor effect; and this to
have place also in the nomination of the bishops.
That an act be made in this assembly that all things done in prejudice of the
kirk's assumption of the third, either by Papists or others, by giving of fews,
liferents, or taks, or any otherwise disponing the said assumed thirds, be declared null with a solemn protestation the whole kirk disasenteth thereto.
That an act be made decerning and ordaining all bishops, admitted to the
order of the kirk now received, to give account of their whole rents, and intromissions therewith once in the year, as the kirk shall appoint, for such causes
as the kirk may easily consider the same to be most expedient and necessar.
Anent the jurisdiction of the kirk, that the same be determined in this assembly, because this article hath long been postpond to make sute to the Regent
and council for remedy against messengers and excommunicate persons.
Last, That orders be taken anent the procurers of the kirk, who procure
against ministers and ministry, and for sutting of justice of the kirk's actions
in the session.
No. XXXIX. (p. 223.)
Declaration of Henry Killigrewe, Esq. upon the Peace concluded the 23d.
February, 1572.
BE it known to all men, by these presents, that I, Henry Killigrewe, Esq.
ambassador for the Queen's Majesty of England, Forasmuch as, at the earnest
motion and solicitation being made to me, on her Highness's behalf, there is
accord and pacification of the public troubles and civil war within this realm
of Scotland agreed and concluded, and the same favourably extended towards
the Right Honourable George Earl of Huntly, Lord Gordon and Baidzenoch,
and the Lord John Hamilton, son to the Duke's Grace of Chastellarault, and
commendatour of the abby of AbirbIothock, for the surety of the lives, livings,
honours, and goods of them, their kinfollks, friends, servants, and partakers,
now properly depending on them; in treating of the which said pacification,




APPENDIX, No. XXXIX.                              411
the murders of the late Earl of Murray, uncle, and the Earl of Levenax,
grandfather, late Regent to the King's Majesty of Scotland, his realm and
lieges, as also an article touching the discharge for the fructis or moveable goods,
which the said persons have taken fra personis professing the King's obedience,
before the damages done or committed by them, since the 15th day of Junij,
1567, and before the penult day of July last by passed, by reason of the common
cause or any thing depending thereupon, being thought by the King's commisaries matteris of such wecht and importance, as the King's present Regent could
not conveniently, of himself, remit or discharge the same. Yet in respect of
the necessity of the present pacification, and for the weil of the King, and
common quietness of this realm and lieges, it is accorded, that the matters of
remission of the said murderers, and of the discharge of the said fructis, moveable goods, and other damages, be moved by the persons desiring the said remissions and discharge to the Queen's Majesty my Sovereign, as to the Princess
nearest both in blood and habitation to the King of Scots. And whatsoever
Her Majesty shall advise and councel touching the said remission and discharge,
the said Lord Regent, for the weil of the King and universal quietness of the
realm of Scotland, shall perform, observe, and fullfil the same. And in likewise,
the said Earl Huntly, and commendatour of Abirbrothock, being urged to have
delivered pledges and hostages for observation of the conditions of the said
accord and pacification, hath required me in place thereof, in Her Majesty's
name, by virtue of my commission, to promise for them, that they shall truly
and faithfully observe and keep the said pacification, and all articles and conditions thereof, for their parts, and that it would please Her Majesty to interpose herself, as surety and cautioner for them to that effect, to the King's
Majesty of Scotland their sovereign and his said Regent, which I have done
and promise to do, by virtue of Her Majesty's commission, as by the honourable and plain dealing of the said Earl and Lord, their intention to peace well
appears, the same being most agreeable to the mind of the Queen's Majesty
my sovereign, which so long by her ministers hath travelled for the said pacification, and in the end, at her motion and solicitation the same is accorded, knowing her Majesty's godly desire that the same may continue unviolate; and
that the noblemen and others now returning the King's obedience shall have
sufficient surety for their lives, livings, honours, and goods. Therefore, in Her
Majesty's name and by virtue of my coinmission, I promise to the aforesaid
Earl Huntley and commendatour of Abirbrothock, that by Her Majesty's good
means, the said remission and discharge shall be purchased and obtained to
them, their kinfolks, friends, servants, and partakers, now properly depending upon them (the persons specified in the first abstinance always excepted),
as also that the said pacification shall be truly observed to them, and that Her
Majesty shall interpose herself as conservatrix thereof, and endeavour herself to
cause the same to be truly and sincerely kept in all points and articles thereof
accordingly. In witness whereof I have to this present subscribed with my
hand, and sealed the same with mine own seal, the 13th day of Feb. Anno
Domini 1572. And this to be performed by me, betwixt the date hereof and
the Parliament which will be appointed for their restitution, or at the furthest
before the end of the said Parliament. Sic subscribitur.
The Bishop of Glasgow's Njote concerning the Queen of Scotland's Dowry.
[1576. Cott. lib. Calig. B. 4.]
THE Queen of Scotland, Dowager of France, had for her dowry, besides
other possessions, the Dukedom of Turene, which was solemnly contracted and
given to her by the King and Estates of Parliament; which dukedom she
possessed peacefully till 1576, and then, upon the pacification betwixt the Killg
and Mons. his brother, to augment whose appenage this dutchy was given, to
which the Queen of Scotland yielded upon account of Princes who were her
near relations, provided the equivalent which was promised her should be faithfully performed. So that year, after a great many solicitations in lieu of that
dutchy, she had granted her the county of Vermandaise, with the lands and
bailiwicks of Seuley and Vetrv: tho' tis known that county and the other




412              HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
lands were not of equal value with Turene, but was promised to have an ad
dition of lands in the neighbourhood to an equal value. Upon this letters patent
were granted, which were confirmed in the courts of Parliament, chamber of
accompts, court of aids, chamber of the treasury, and others necessary: upon
which she entered into possession of that county, &c. Afterwards, by a valuation of the commissioners of the chamber of accompts, it was found that the
revenue of that country, &c. did not amount to those of Turene, by 3000 livres.
But instead of making up this deficiency according to justice, some of the privy
council, viz. M. de Cheverny, the presidents of Bellievre, Nicocholay, and St.
Bonet, in the name of the King, notwithstanding of her aforesaid losses, did
sell and alienate the lands of Senlis and the dutchy of Estaimpes, to Madam
de Montpensier, from whom the King received money; of which sale the counsellors aforesaid obliged themselves to be guarantees, which hath hindered the
aforesaid Queen to have justice done her. So that Madam de Montpensier
hath been put in possession of these lands of Senlis, contrary to all the declaration, protestation, and assurances of the King of France to Queen Mary's
ambassadors. So that the Queen of Scotland is dispossessed of her dowry,
contrary to all equity, without any regard to her quality.
No. XL. (p. 225.)
A Letterfrom the Lord of Lochlevin to the Regent iMortoun.
~3d March, 1577. E. of Mortoun's Archives. Bund. B. No. 19.3
IT will please Your Grace, I received Your Grace's letter, and has considered
the same. The parson of Camsey was here at me before the receit thereof,
directed fra my Lord of Mar, and the master anent my last written, which was
the answer of the writing that the master sent to me, which I sent to Your
Grace, desiring me to come to Stirling to confer with them. I had given my
answer before the receit of Your Grace's letter, that I behuiffit to be besyd Sanct
Angdrois, at ane friend's tryst, which I might not omit; I understand by my said
cousin, that the King's Majesty is to write to divers of the nobility to come
there, anent Your Lordship's trial, and that he had written before his departing
to my Lord Monthrois, I understand likewise, he will write to Your Grace
to come there for the same effect, which I tho't good to make Your Grace
foreseen of the same, praying Your Grace, for the love of God Almighty, to
look upon the best, and not to sleep in security, but to turn you with unfeigned
heart to God, and to consider with yourself, that when the King's Majesty was
very young, God made him the instrument to divest his mother from her
authority, who was natural Princess, for offending of his Divine Majesty, and
that there ran no vice in her, but that the same is as largely in you, except that
Your Grace condescended not to the destruction of your wife. For as to harlotry and ambition, I think Your Grace has as far offended God, and far more
in avaritiousness, which vycis God never left unplagued, except speedy repentance, which I pray God grant to Your Grace, for otherwise Your Grace can
never have the love of God nor man. I pray Your Grace flatter not yourself;
for if Your Grace believes that ye have the good-will of them that are the
King's good-willers, ye deceive yourself: for surely I see perfectly that your
own particulars are not contented, lat be the rest and that most principally for
your hard dealing. I pray Your Grace, beir with me that I am thus hamlie, for
certainly it proceeds from no grudge, but from the very affection of my heart
towards Your Grace, which nas continued since we were acquainted. And
now I see, because the matter stands in Your Grace's handling with the King's
Majesty, for certainly if Your Grace fall forth with him now, I see not how ye
shall meet hereafter; pray I Your Grace to call to God, and look on the best, and
cast from Your Grace both your vices, to wit, ambition and avaritiousness. I
am riding this day- to Sanct Androis, and trust to return on Wednesday at the
farthest, If Your Grace will command me in any offices that are honest, that I
may do Your Grace pleasure in at Sterling, advertise of Your Grace's mind,
and shall do to my power and knowledge, and this with my heartlie, &c. &c.




APPENDIX, No. XLI                              413
To our trusty Cousin the Lord Lochleven.
[From the original. E. of Morton's Archives. Bund. B. No. 31.3
TRUSTY Cousin, after our most hearty commendations, we received your letter
of the 3d of March, and as we take your plainness therein in good part, as proceeding from a friend and kinsman, in whose good affection towards us we
never doubted, so ye may not think it strange that we purge ourselves so far of
your accusation, as in conscience we find ourselves to have offended in. As
touching our offence to God, we intend not to excuse it, but to submit us to his
mercy; for ambition surely we think none can justly accuse us; for in our private estate we could, and can live as well contented, as any of our degree in
Scotland, without further aspiring. The bearing too the charge of the government of the realm, indeed, mon lead us, or any other that shall occupy that
place, not simply to respect ourself, but His Majesty's rowme, which we supply,
and therein not transcending the bounds of measure, as we trust, it shall not be
found we have done, it ought not to be attributed to any ambition in us. For
as soon as ever His Majesty shall think himself ready and able for his own
government, none shall more willingly gree and advance the same nor I, since
I think never to set my face against him, whose honour, safety, and preservation
has been so dear unto me, nor I will never believe to find otherwise at his hand
than favour, although all the unfriends I have in the earth were about him,
to persuade him to the contrary. As we write unto you, our friendly dealing
and confidence in the house of Mar is not thankfully acquit; as we trust yourself considers; but because the ambassadors of England, my Lord of Angus,
the chancellor, treasurer, and some noblemen rides west this day to see the
King, we pray you heartily address yourself to be there as soon as ye can, and
as ye shall find the likelihood of all things, let us be advertised thereof with
your own advice, by Alexr. Hay, whom we have thought good to send west,
seeing my Lord of Angus from Sterling rides to Douglas. And so we commit you in the protection of God. At Holyrood house, the 4th of March, 1577.
For the avaritiousness laid to our charge, indeed it lies not in us so liberally
to deal the King's geare, as to satisfy all cravers, nor never shall any sovereign
and native born Prince, let be any officer, eschew the disdains of such, as thinks
them judges to their own reward; in many causes I doubt not to find the assistance of my friends, but where my actions shall appear unhonest, I will not crave
their assistance, but let me bear my own burthen.
No. XLI. (p. 236.)
Letter of Walsingham to Randolph, February 3, 1580-1.
[Cott. Lib. Calig. C. 6.]
SIR,
I HAVE received from my Lord Lieutenant the copy of your letter of the 25th
of the last directed unto His Lordship, containing a report of your negotiation
with the King and his council, in your second audience, wherewith having made
Her Majesty acquainted, she seemed somewhat to mislike that you should so
long defer to deal for the enlargement of Empedocles. But 1 made answer in your
behalf, that I thought you were directed by the advice of the said Empedocles'
friends, in the soliciting of that cause, who knew what time was fittest for you
to take to deal therein, with most effect, and best success, with which answer
Her Majesty did in the end rest very well satisfied, touching that point.
Your putting of us in hope that D'Aubigny might easily be won at Her
Majesty's devotion, was at first interpreted to have been ironie spoke by you.
But since it seemeth you insist upon it, I could wish you were otherwise persuaded of the man, or at least kept that opinion to yourself, for considering the
end and purpose of his coming into Scotland, as may be many ways sufficiently
proved, was only to advance the Queen's liberty, and reception into that government, to overthrow religion, and to procure a foreign match with Villenarius,




414             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
wherein the inclosed copy, which you may use to good purpose there, shall
partly give you some light; there is no man here can be persuaded that he
will change his purpose for so small advantage as he is likely to find by it, and
therefore you shall do well to forbear to harp any more upon that string, as I
have already written to you. The Prince of Orange sending, I fear, will not
be in time that it may do any good; for besides that these people are in themselves slow in their resolutions, their own affairs are, at present, so great, their
state so confused, and the Prince's authority so small, that he cannot so soon
take order in it; and yet for mine own part, I have not been negligent or careless in the matter, having more than three weeks past sent one about it, from
whom nevertheless I do yet hear nothing. The letters you desire should be
written thither by the French ministers, I have given order to Mr. Killingrew to
procure, who, I doubt not, will carefully perform it, so that, I hope, I shall have
them to send you by the next. And so I commit you to God. At Whitehall,
the 3d of February, 1580.
Your very loving cousin and servant,
FRA. WALSINGHAM.
This letter is an original, and in some parts of it wrote in ciphers and explained by
another hand. By Empedocles is understood.Jorton. By Villenarius, the King
of Scots. D'.ubigny is marked thus       0.
3. Feb. 1580.
Sundry N'otes gathered upon good Diligence given, and in Time to be better manifested, being now thought meet to be in convenient sort used and laid against
D'Aubigny, to prove him abusing the King, the JVobility, and that State.
[Cott. Lib. Calig. C. 6. An original.]
FIRST, it hath been informed by credible means, that D'Aubigny was privy
and acquainted with La Nave the King's mother's secretary, coming into Scotland, and of his errand there, tending chiefly to persuade the King, to think and
esteem it an evil president for Princes that subjects might have power to deprive
their lawful sovereigns, as they did his mother, who was not minded by any
mean, to defeat him, either of the present government of that realm, or yet of
the possession of the crown and inheritance thereof, but rather to assure the
same to him: and that for the accomplishment of that assurance, the King
should have been advised and drawn to have governed, for some short time, as
Prince, calling D'Aubigny to rule as governor of the Prince, by commission from
the Queen his mother, until the King's enemies were suppressed; after which
time D'Aubigny should have power given to establish and resign that kingdom
to the King, by his mother's voluntary consent, whereby all such, as had before
been in action against the Queen or her authority, might be brought to stand in
the King's mercy. And for that the King might live in more surety, D'Aubigny should be declared both second person in succession of that crown, and
also Lieutenant General of Scotland, and that D'Aubigny before his departure
out of France received commission from the King's mother to the effects remembered, or near the same. That in this behalf he had conference with the Bishops
of Glasgow, and Ross, and with Sir James Baford, with which persons, and with
the Duke of Guise, he had and hath frequent intelligence, and by Sir James
Baford he was advised to confer with the Lord John Hamilton before his repair
ato Scotland, whereunto he agreed, and yet afterwards he sent one John
Hamilton to the said Lord John to excuse him in this part, alledging, that he
did forbear to come to him, lest thereby he should marr or hinder greater effects
to be executed by him in Scotland.
That before his coming into that realm, the nobility and country were well
quieted and united in good concord, with great love betwixt the King and nobility, and amongst the noblesse, but he hath both drawn the King against sundry
of the chiefest of his nobility, that have been most ready, and have expended
their blood and possessions to preserve religion, and defend the King's person,
his government and estate, and also hath given occasions of great suspicions




APPENDIX,    No. XL1I.                         415
and offence to be engendered betwixt the King and his nobility, and especially with
such as have been in action against the King's mother, and her authority, who
by force and means of the said commission and practice should have been
brought into most dangerous condition; and who also may find themselves in
no small perill while he possesses the King's ear, abuseth his presence, and
holdeth such of the principal keys and ports of his realm, as he presently
enjoyeth.
That he hath drawn the King not only to forget the great benefits done to him
and his realme, by the Queen's Majesty of England, but also to requite the
same with sundry signs of great unthankfulness and wounding therewith the
honour of Her Majesty, and thereby hath adventured to shake the happy amity
long time continued betwixt those Princes.
And whereas these griefs were to be repaired by gentle letters and good
offers, to have passed and been done betwixt them; in which respect the King
and council having resolved to write to Her Majesty, for Her Highness better
satisfaction in the late negotiation of Mr. Alexander Hume of Northberwick,
had given order to the King's secretary to frame that letter: He minding to
break the bond of amity in sunder, willed the secretary to be sure that nothing
should be inserted in that letter whereby the King should crave any thing at
her hands, seeking thereby to cut off all loving courtesies betwixt them, as by
the declaration of the said secretary may be better learned, and thereupon further approved.
That under the hope and encouragement of D'Aubigny's protection, Alexander King presumed with that boldness to make his lewd harangue, and by his
means hath hitherto escaped chastisement and correction, due for his offence.
That Sir James Baford, condemned of the slaughter of the King's father,
hath been called into the realm by Lennox, without the privity of the King.
And whereas the said Sir James found in a green velvet desk, late the Earl of
Bothwell's, and saw and had in his hands the principal band of the conspirators
in that murder, and can best declare and witness who were authors and executors of the same; he is drawn by Lennox to suppress the truth, and to accuse
such as he himself knoweth to be innocent; and as by order of law will be so
found, if they may have due trial, which, contrary to all justice, is by Lennox
means denied.
This is the charge against D'Aubigny, mentioned in the foregoing letter by
Walsingham: but by Baford they mean Sir James Balfour.
No. XLII. (p. 243.)
Thze Copy of the King of France, his Directions sent to Scotland with Seineur de la.Motte Fenelon. Translated out of the French.
[Calderw. MS. History, vol. iii. p. 208.1
FIRST, on Their Majestys most Christian part, he shall make the most honourable salutation and visiting to the Most Serene King of Scotland, their good
brother and little son, that in him is possible.
To give him their letters that are closed, such and such like as they have
written to him with their hands, and to show expressly the perfect friendship
and singular affection, that Their Majestys bear to him, and to bring back the
answer.
To take heed to the things which touch near the most Serene-King, to the
effect that his person may be in no danger, but that it may be most surely preserved.
And that he be not hindred in the honest liberty that he ought to have, and
that no greater or straiter guards be about him than he had before.
And such like, that he be not impeached in the authority, that God hath given
to him of King and Prince sovereign above his subjects, to the effect he may as
freely ordain and command in his affairs, and in the affairs of his country, with
his ordinary council, as he was used to do of before.
That his nobility, barons, and commonalty of his country may have their free




415             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
liberty io resort to His Serene Majesty without suspicion of greater guards or
more armed men about his person than the use was, that they be not affraid and
hindered to resort; and further that the Segnieur de la Motte Fenelon sail
liberally and freely speak to the said Serene King and council, requiring the
reestablishing of that that may or hath been changed or altered.
And that he may know if the principalls of the nobility and other men of
good behaviour of the towns and commonality of the contry conveens, and are
content with the form of government presently with the said Serene King, to
the end that if their be any miscontent he may travaile to agree them together,
and that he return not without the certainty of the samine.
And if he may understand that there be any who have not used them so
reverently towards the said Serene King their sovereign Lord, as the duty of
their obedience required, that he may pray on this behalf of His Majesty Most
Christian the said Serene King his good brother, giving him councill wholly to
forget the same, and exhorting them to do their duty towards his Majesty, in
time coming, in all respects with the obedience and true subjection they
ought him.
And if the said Segnieur de la Motte perceves the said Serene King to be in
any manner constrained of his person, authority, liberty, and disposition of his
affairs, than he used to be, and not convenient for his royal dignity, or as the
sovereignty of a Prince doth require, that he use all moyen lawful and honest to
place hinm in the samine, and that he employ as much as the credit of His Most
Christian Majesty may do toward the nobility and subjects of that contry,
and as much as may his name, with the name of his crown towards the Scottish
nation, the which he loves and confides in as much as they were proper
Frenchmen.
And that he wittness to the said Serene King, and his estates, of his consent,
and to all the nobility and principall personages of the contry, that His Most
Christian Majestie will continue on his part in the most ancient alliance and
confederacy, which he hath had with the said Serene King his good brother,
praying his nobility and contry, with his principall subjects, to persevere in
the samine, in all good understanding and friendship with him; the which, on
his part, he shall do, observing the samine most inviolable.
Further His Most Christian Majesty understanding that the Serene King his
good brother was contented with the Duke of Lenox, and his servise, the said
Signieur de La Motte had charge to pray His Serene Majesty that he might
remaine beside him to his contentment, believing that he should more willing
intertain the points of love and confederace, betwixt Their Majestys and their
contrys, because he was a good subject to them both; and if he might not
remain, without some alteration of the tranquility of his estate, that he might
retire him to his own house in the said contry, in surenes, or if he pleased to
return to France that he might surely -- and if it pleases His Serene Majesty,
to cause cease and stay the impeachments, that are made of new upon the
frontiers, to the effect that the natural Frenchmen may enter as freely into the
contry, as they were wont to do of before.
And that there may be no purpose of diffamation, nor no speech but honourable of the Most Christian King, in that contry, but such like as is spoken most
honourably of the Serene King of Scotland in France.
He had another head to propone, which he concealed till a little before his
departure, to wit, that the Queen, the King's mother, was content to receive
her son in association of the kingdom.
No. XLIII. (p. 249.)
Lord Hunsdane to Sir Francis Walsingham, the 14th of August, 1584 fromn
Berwick.
[Calderw. MS. History, vol. iii. po 374.]
ACCORDING to my former letters, touching my meeting with the Earl of Arran
upon Wednesday last, there came hither to me from the Earle, the justice clerk,
and Sir William Stuart, Captain of Dumbarton, both of the King's privie




APPENDIX, No XLIII.                             417
council, to treat with me about the order of )ur meeting, referring.wholly to
me to appoint the hour, and the number we should meet withal; so as we concluded the place to be Foulden, the hour to be ten o'clock, and the number with
ourselves to be 13 of a side; and the rest of our troops to stand each of them
a mile from the town; the one on the one side, the other on the other side, so
as our troops were two miles asunder; I was not many horsemen, but I supplied
it with footmen, where 1 had 100 shot on horse, but they were very near 500
horse well appointed: According to which appointment, we met yesterday, and
after some congratulations, the Earle fell in the like protestations of his gooe
will and readiness to serve the Queen's Majesty, before any prince in the world,
next his sovereign, as he had done heretofore by his letters, and rather more;
with such earnest vows, as unless he be worse than a devil, Her Majesty may
dispose of him at her pleasure; this being ended, I entered with him touching
the cause I had to deal with him, and so near as I could,left nothing unrehearsed
that I had to charge the King or him with any unkind dealing towards Her
Majesty, according to my instructions, which without any delay he answered
presently, as ye shall perceive by the said answer sent herewith; but I replying
unto him, he amplified them with many moe circumstances, but to this effect:
Then I dealt with him touching the point of Her Majesty's satisfaction, for the
uttering such practices as has been lately set on foot for the disquieting of
Her Majesty and her estate, who thereof made sundry discourses, what marriages have been offered to His Majestie by sundrie Princes, and by what means
the Earle has sought to divert them, and for what causes: the one, for that be,
marriage with Spain or France, he must also alter his religion, which as he is.
sure the King will never doe, so will he never suffer him to hearken unto it,
so long as he hath any credit with him; he denys not but the King has been
dealt withal be practices to deal against Her Majesty, which he has so far
denied and refused to enter into, as they have left dealing therein, but whatsoever the king or he knoweth therein, there shall be nothing hidden from Her
Majesty, as Her Majesty shall know very shortly; surely it seems by his
speeches, that if the King would have yielded thereunto, there had been no.
small company of French in Scotland ere now to disquiet Her Majesty.This being ended, I dealt with him earnestly for the stay of this Parliament,
which now approacheth; or at the least that there may be nothing done therein,
to the prejudice of these noblemen and others now in England, for the forfaulting
of their livings and goods: hereupon he made a long discourse to me, first of
the Earl of Angus dealing about the Earl of Morton, then of his going out,
notwithstanding of sundrie gracious offers the King had made him, then of the
road of Ruthven, how that presently after they had the King's Majesty in their
hands, they imprisoned himself, dealt with the King for putting of the Duke
out of the realmhne, the King refused so to do, they told him plainly that if he
would not he should have the Earl of Arran's head in' a dish; the King asked
what offence the Earle had made? and they answered it must be so, and should
be so; hereupon for the safeguard of Arran's life, the King was content to send
away the Duke, and yet Arran afterwards sundrie times in danger of his life;
I alledged unto him the king's letter to the Queen's Majesty, and his acts in
council, that they had done nothing but for his servise, and with his good
liking and contentment, who answered me, he durst do no otherwise, nor could
not do any thing but that which pleased them, with such a number of other
their dealings with the King whilest he was in their hands as are too long to be
written, and too bad if they were true; I said the King might have let the
Queen's Majesty's ambassador have known his mind secretly, and Her Majesty
would have relieved him; he answered, that the King was not ignorant that
the apprehensions in that manner proceeded from Mr. Bow's practice, and
thereby durst not impart so much to him, and yet the King was content, and
did give remission to as many as would acknowledge their faults, and ask remission, and such as would not, he thought fit to banish, to try their further
loyalty, in which time they conspired the King's second apprehension, and the
killing of the Earle, and others, and seduced the ministers to their faction, and
yet not satisfied with the conspiracies and treasonable dealings (as he terms
them), are entered into a third, being in England under Her Majesty's protection to dishonour Her Majesty as far as in them lieth, or at least to cause the
VOL III.-53




418             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
King conceive some unkindness in Her Majesty, for harbouring of them; a.
wrote to yow what the conspiracy was, the taking of the King, the killing of
the Earle of Arran, and some others, the taking of the castle of Edinr, and
bringing home the Earles to take the charge of the King; all which (says he)
is by Drummond confessed, and by the provost of Glencudden not greatly
denied, and the Constable of the Castle thereupon fled; the Earl brought
Drummond with him as far as Langton, where he lay, to have confessed the
conspiracy before me, but having at his lighting received a blow on his leg with
a horse, so as he could bring him no further, I replied that I thought verily
they would not work any such practices in respect of the Queen's Majesty,
abiding within her realme, and if there be any such practices they have proceeded from others, and they not privie unto them; and that if it be not apparently proved against them, that it will be thought to be some practice to
aggravate the fault, and to make them  the more odious to the King. He
answered me, that it should be proved so sufficiently, that they should not
be able with truth to deny it, for their own hands is to be showed to part of
it, and therefore concluded, that if Her Majesty should so press the King for
them at this time that would rather hinder this matter of the amnity, nor further it, and that since they seek chiefly his life, he could not, in any reason,
seek to do them any good; and besides he assured me, that if he would, he
dared not, this last matter being fallen out, as it is; and surely if this matter
had not fallen out, I would not have doubted the restoring of the Earl of'Mar very shortly, if Her Majesty would have employed me therein, but for the
Earl of Angus, I perceive the King is persuaded that both he, and the rest of
the Douglasses, have conceived so mortall an hatred against him and the Earl
of Arran, about the death of the Earl of Morton, as if they were at home, toanorrow next, they would not leave to practise and conspire the death of them
both, and therefore a hard matter to do any thing for him: finally, he concluded.and required me to assure Her Majesty from the King, that there shall nothing
be hid from her, nor any thing left undone that may satisfie Her Majesty with
reason, and that the King shall never do any thing, nor consent to have any
thing done in her prejudice, so long as he had any credit with him, or authority
under him. Having this far proceeded, he desired to show me his commission,
which is under the great seal, to himself only, which is as large as may be, and
yTet sundrie of the privie councel there with him, but not one in commission,
nor present, nor near us all this time, having spent almost five hours in these
matters; he presented to me the Master of Gray, nwho delivered to me a letter
from the King in his commendation, whom I perceive the King means to send
to Her Majesty, and therefore requires a safe-conduct for his passage, which I
pray yow procure, and to send it so soon asyou may. I let him understand of the
Lord Seaton's negociation with the French King. He swore to me, that Seaton
was but a knave, and that it was partly against his will, that he should be sent
thither. But his commission and instruction being of' no great importance, he
yielded the sooner; and if Seaton was gone beyond his instructions, which
Arran drew himself, he will make Seaton smart for it. Touching William Newgate and Mark Golgan, he protested he never heard of any such; he says there
was a little poor soul, with a black beard, come thither a-begging, who said he
was an enemy to Desmond, to whom he gave a croun, but never heard of him
since, and for any Scots man going into Ireland, he says there is no such matter;
if there be, there may be some few raskals that he knows not of; and touching
the conling of any Jesuits into Scotland, he says it is but the slanderous devise
of the King's enemys, and such as would have the world believe the King were
ready to revolt in religion, who the world shall well see will continue as constant therein, as what Prince soever professed it most: and the Earle himself
dos protest to me, that to his knowledge, he never saw a Jesuit in his life, and
did assure me if there was any in Scotland, they should not do so much harm
in Scotland, as their ministers would do, if they preach such doctrine as they
did in Scotland; and touching one Ballanden, of whem I wrote to yow, 1 heard
from Mr. Colvil, the Earle avows constantly that he knows not, nor hath not
heard of any such man, but he would inquire at the Justice clerk, and would
inform me what he could learn of that: thus I have made yow as short a discourse as I can of so many matters, so long discoursed upon, but these are tht




APPENDIX, No. XLIV.                            419
principal points of all our talk, so near as I can remember it, and for this time I
commit yow to the Almighty. At Berwick the 14th of August, 1584.
The King is very desirous to have
my son Robert CQarrie to come to him.
I prayyow know tier Majesty's pleasure.
Arran's Answers to the Grieffs or Articles proponed to the Lord.Hunsdane, set
down in another Form.
As to the strait and severe persecution of all such, as have been noted to have
been well affected to the Queen's Majesty, it cannot appear they were either for
that cause punished, or hardly dealt with, since His Majesty of late has been so
careful and diligent to choice out good instruments to deal betwixt Her Majesty
and him, as His Majesty has done in electing of Your Lordship and me: besides
that in all their accusations, their good will and affection born to Her Majesty
was, at no time, laid to their charge, but capital actions of treason many way
tried now be the whole three estates, and more than manifest to the world.
As for His Majesty inhibiting, by public proclamation, such as were banished,
not to repair in England; the bruits and whisperings that came to His Majesty's
ears of their conspiracies and treasons, which since syn they accomplished, so
far as in them lay, moved His Majesty to inhibit them to repair to any place, so
near His Majesty's realm, lest they should have attempted these things, which
shortly they did attempt, being farther off, and more distant both by sea and
land.
As for reception of Jesuits, and others, Her Majesty's fugitives, and not
delivering them  according to his promise, as Your Lordship propones, His
Majesty would be most glad, that so it might fall out by Your Lordship's traviles, that no fugitive of either realme should be received of either, and when
so shall be, it shall not fail on His Majesty's part, albeit in very deed this time
bygone His Majesty has been constrained to receipt Her Majesty's mean rebells
and fugitives, contrar his good naturall, since Her Majesty hath receipt, in
effect, the whole and greatest rebells and traitors His Majesty in his own blood
ever had; as for the agreement with His Majesty's mother anent their association, His Majesty has commanded me, in presence of your Lordship's servant,
to assure Her Majesty and Your Lordship, in His Majesty's name, that it is
altogether false, and an untruth, nor any such like matter done yet.
His Majesty has also commanded me to assure Your Lordship, that it is also
false and untrue, that His Majesty has, by any means direct or indirect, sent any
message to the Pope, or received any from him; or that His Majesty has dealt
with Spain or any foreigners, to harm Her Majesty or her realm, which His
Majesty could have no honour to do, this good intelligence taking place, as I
hope in God it shall.
As concerning the contemptuous usage of Her Majesty's ministers sent unto
His Majesty, His Majesty used none of them so, and if.His Majesty had, sufficient cause was given by them, as some of their own writs do yet testify; as I
more particularly showed Your Lordship at Foulden at our late meeting.
No. XLIV. (p. 251.)
The Scottish Queen's Offers upon the Effect of Her Liberty propounded by hes
Secretary JNiaw, JN'ovember, 1584.
[Cott. Lib. Calig. c. viii. A Copy.]
THir Queen my mistress being once well assured of Your Majesty's amity,
1. Will declare openly that she will (as it is sincerely her meaning) straitly to
join unto Your Majesty, and to the same to yield and bear the chief honour and
respect, before all other Kings and Princes in Christendom.
2. She will swear, and protest solemnly, a sincere forgetfullness of all wrongs
which she may pretend to have been done unto her in this realm, and will never
in any sort or manner whatsoever, show offence for the same.
3. She will avow and acknowledge, as well in her own particular name, as




420              HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
also for her heirs and others descending of her for ever, Your Majesty, for just,
true, and lawful Queen of England.
4. And consequently, will renounce, as well for herself as for her said heirs,
all rights and pretences which she may claim to the crown of England, during
Your Majesty's life, and other prejudice.
5. She will revoke all acts and shews, by her heretofore made, of pretence to
this said crown to the prejudice of Your Majesty, as may be the taking of the
arms and stile of Queen of England, by the commandment of King Francis her
late lord and husband.
6. She will renounce the Pope's bull for so much as may be expounded to
turn in her favour, or for her behoof, touching the deprivation of Your Majesty,
and will declare that she will never help and serwe herself with it.
7. She will not prosecute, during Your Majesty's life, by open force or otherways, any public declaration of her right in the succession of this realm, so as
secret assurance be given unto her, or at the least public promise, that no
deciding thereof shall be made in the prejudice of her, or of the King her son,
during Your Majesty's life, nor after your decease, untill such time as they have
been heard thereupon, in publick, free, and general assembly of the Parliament
of the said realm.
8. She will not practise, directly or indirectly, with any of Your Majesty's subjects, neither within nor out of your realm, any thing tending to war, civil or
foreign, against Your Majesty and your estate, be it under pretext of religion,
or for civil and politick government.
9. She will not maintain or support any of your subjects declared rebels, and
convicted of treason against you.
10. She will enter into the association, which was showed her at Wingfield
for the surety of Your Maj6sty's life, so as there be mended or right explicated
some clauses which I will show to Your Majesty, when I shall have the copy
thereof, as I have before time required.
11 She will not treat with foreign Kings and Princes, for any war or trouble
against this state, and will renounce from this time, all enterprises made or to be
made in her favour for that respect.
12. Furthermore, this realm being assailed by any civil or foreign war, she
will take part with Your Majesty, and will assist you in your defence with all
her forces and means, depending of herself with all her friends of Christendom.
13. And to that effect, for the mutual defence and maintenance of Your
Majesty, and the two realms of this isle, she will enter with Your Majesty in a
league defensive as shall be more particularly advised, and will perswade as
much as in her, the King her son to do the like. The leagues with all parts
abroad remaining firm, and especially the antient league between France and
Scotland, in that which shall not be against this present.
14. She will enter into a league offensive, having good assurance or secret
declaration and acknowledgment of her right in the succession of this crown, and
promise that happening any breach betwixt France and this realm, (which she
prayeth God never to happen,) the just value of her dowry shall be placed for
her in lands of the revenue of the crown.
15. For assurances of her promises and covenants, she doth offer to abide
herself in this realm for a certain time, (better hostage can she not give than
her own person,) which, so as she be kept in the liberty here before propounded,
is not in case to escape secretly out of this country, in the sickly state she is in,
and with the good order which Your Majesty can take therein.
16. And in case Your Majesty do agree to her full and whole deliverance, tc
retire herself at her will out of this realm, the said Queen of Scots she will give
sufficient hostage for such time as will be advised.
17. If she abide in this realm, she will promise not to depart out of it without
your licence, so as it be promised unto her that her state, in such liberty as shall
be accorded unto her shall not be in any sort altered, untill after tryall to have
attempted against your life, or other trouble of your estate.
18. If she go into Scotland, she will promise to alter nothing there in the
religion which is now used there, she being suffered to have the exercise of
hers, for her and her household, as it was at her return out of France; and
further, to pull out every root of new division between the subjects, that none




APPENDIX, No. XLIV.                              421
of the subjects of Scotland shall be sifted for his conscience, nor constrained to
go to the service of the contrary religion.
19. She will grant a general abolition of all offences, done against her in
Scotland, and things shall remain there as they are at this present, for that
respect, saving that which hath been done against her honour, which she
meaneth to have revoked and annulled.
20. She will travel to settle a sure and general reconciliation between the
nobility of the country, and to cause to be appointed about the King her son,
and in his council, such as shall be fit for the entertainment of the peace and
quiet of the country, and the amity of the realm.
21. She will do her best to content Your Majesty, in favour of the Scots lords
banished and refuged hither, upon their due submission to their Princes, and
Your Majesty's promise to assist the said Queen and King of Scotland against
them, if they happen to fall into their former faults.
22. She will proceed to the marriage of the King her son, with the advice
and good council of Your Majesty.
23. As she will pass nothing without the King her son, so doth she desire
that he intervene conjointly with her in this treaty, for the greater and perfecter
assurance thereof; for otherwise any thing can hardly be established to be sound
and continue.
24. The said Scotch Queen trusteth, that the French King, her good brother,
according to the good affection which he hath always showed her, and hath
been afresh testified unto me by Monsr. de Mannissiere for this said treaty, will
very willingly intervene, and will assist her for the surety of her promises.
25. And so will the Princes of the House of Lorrain, following the will of
the said King, will bind themselves thereunto.
26. For other Kings and Princes of Christendom, she will essay to obtain the
like of them, if for greater solemnity and approbation of the treaty it be found
to be necessary.
27. She doth desire a speedy answer, and final conclusion of the premisses,
to the end to meet in time with all inconveniences.
28. And in the mean time, the more to strengthen the said treaty, as made
by her of a pure and frank will, she desireth that demonstration be made of
some releasement of her captivity.
Objections against the Scottish Queen, under Secretary Walsinghame's Hand,
Y'November, 1584.
THE Queen of Scots is ambitious, and standeth ill affected to Her Majesty,
and therefore it cannot be but that her liberty should bring peril unto Her
Majesty.
That her enlargement will give comfort to Papists, and other ill affected subjects, and greatly advance the opinion had of her title as successor.
That as long as she shall be continued in Her Majesty's possession, she may
serve as it were a gage of Her Majesty's surety, for that her friends, for fear of
the danger she may be thrown into, in case any thing should be done in her
favour, dare not attempt any thing in the offence of Her Majesty.
November, 1584. i What Course were fit to be taken with the Queen of Scots, either
to be enlarged or not.
[Cott. Lib. Cal. 8.]
THE course to be taken with the said Queen maybe considered of in three
degrees; either,
1. To continue her under custody in that state she now is.
2. To restrain her of the present liberty she now hath.
3. Or to set her at liberty upon caution.
1. Touching the first, to continue her under custody in that state she now is;
it is to be considered, that the Princes that favour that Queen, upon the complaint she maketh of hard usage, are greatly moved with commiseration towards
her, and promise to do their endeavour for her liberty, for which purpose her
Ministers solicit them daily.




4211 2          EHISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
And to move them the more to pity her case, she acquainteth them with her
offers made to Her Majesty, which appeared to be no less profitable than reasonable for Her Majesty, so as the refusal and rejecting giveth her friends and
favourers cause to think her hardly dealt withal, and therefore may, with the
better ground and reason, attempt somewhat for the setting of her at liberty.
It is also likely that the said Queen, upon this refusal, finding her case desperate, will continue her practice under hand, both at home and abroad, not
only for her delivery, but to obtain to the present possession of this crown upon
her pretended title, as she hath hitherto done, as appeareth, and is most manifest by letters and plots intercepted, and chiefly by that late alteration of Scotland, which hath proceeded altogether by her direction, whereby a gap is laid
open for the malice of all Her Majesty's enemies, so as it appeareth that this
manner of keeping her, with such number of persons as she now hath, and with
liberty to write and receive letters (being duly considered), is offensive to the
Princes, the said Queen's friends; rather chargeable than profitable to Her
Majesty: and subject to all such practices as may peril Her Majesty's person or
estate, without any provision for Her Majesty's safbty, and therefore no way to
be liked of.
2. Touching the second, to restrain her in a more straighter degree of the
liberty she hath hitherto enjoyed.
It may at first sight be thought a remedy very apt to stop the course of the
dangerous practices fostered heretofore by her: for, true it is, that this remedy
might prove very profitable, if the realm of Scotland stood in that sort devoted
to Her Majesty, as few years past it did; and if the King of that realm were
not likely, as well for the release of his mother, as for the advancement of both
their pretended titles, to attempt somewhat against this realm and Her Majesty,
wherein he should neither lack foreign assistance, nor a party here within this
realm: But the King and that realm standing affected as they do, this restraint,
instead of remedying, is likely to breed these inconveniences following:
First, It will increase the offence both in him, and in the rest of the Princes
her friends, that misliked of her restraint.
Secondly, it will give them just cause to take some way of redress.
Lastly, It is to be doubted, that it may provoke some desperate ill-disposed
person, all hope of her liberty removed, to attempt somewhat against Her
Majesty's own person (a matter above all others to be weighed), which inconveniency being duly considered, it will appear manifestly that the restraint, in
a straighter degree, is likely to prove a remedy subject to very hard events.
The latter degree, whether it were fit to set the said Queen at liberty, ministreth some cause of doubt, touching the manner of the liberty, in what sort the
same is to be performed, whether to be continued here within the realm, or to
be restored into her own country.
But first, this proposition, before the particularities be weighed, is to be considered in generality.
For it is very hard for a well-affected subject, that tendreth Her Majesty's
surety, and weigheth either the nature of the Scottish Queen, being inclined to
ambition and revenge, or her former actions, what practices she hath set on foot
most dangerous for Her Majesty and this realm, to allow of her liberty, being
not made acquainted with such causes, as time hath wrought, to make it less
perilous than it hath been, nor with such cautions as may, in some sort, be
devised to prevent both her ambition and malice; and therefore, to make this
apparent,
It is to be considered, that the danger that was in the mother, is now grown
to be in the son. He pretendeth the same title she doth: Such as do affect her.
both at home and abroad, do affect him (and he is the more dangerous for that
he is unmarried, which may greatly advance his fortune; and that he is a man,
whereby he may enter into action in his own person); where she is restrained,
he is at liberty; his own realm is now altogether at his devotion, and the party
affected to this crown abased; so as the matter duly considered, neither liberty
nor restraint doth greatly alter the case for perils towards Her Majesty, unless
by such promises as may be made by way of treaty with her, the danger likely
to grow from the King her son be provided for.
But in this behalf it may be objected, that so long as the mother remains in




APPENDIX, No. XLIV.                             423
Her Majesty's hands, the King will attempt nothing for fear of his mother's
peril
To this objection it may be answered, first, That they hope that Her Majesty,
Deing a prince of justice, and inclined to mercy, will not punish the mother for
the son's offence, unless she shall be found by good proof, culpable. Seconda.
rily, That men will not be over hasty, considering in what predicament the King
standeth touching his expectation of this crown, to advise any thing that in
time future may be dangerous to the giver of such counsel as may reach to his
nlather's peril.
And lastly, The taking away of his rnother,he being strong in the field through
both foreign assistance, and a party here within the realm, will appear so weak
a remedy (which may rather exasperate both him and her party, to proceed
with more courage and heat to revenge, if any such hard measure should be
offered unto her), as they will suppose, for the reason above specified, that no
such extremity will be used.
It may also be objected, that the setting of her at liberty will greatly encourage
the Papists both at home and abroad; but herein, if the provision be duly considered, that may be made by Parliament both here and there, they shall rather
find cause of discomfort than otherwise.
These two doubts being resolved, and the perils that was in the mother
appearing most manifestly to be seen in the son accompanied with more danger,
with due consideration had also of such remedies as may be provided for the
preventing of the dangers, that her liberty may minister just cause to doubt of;
there will be good cause of hope found, that the same will rather breed benefit
than perils.
Now it resteth, in what sort the said liberty shall be performed; if it shall be
thought meet she shall be continued within the realm with some limitation,
especially in that place where she now resideth, the country round about being
so infected in religion as it is, it is greatly to be doubted that will very much
increase the corruption, and falling away in that behalf. Besides, she should
have commodity, with much more ease and speed, to entertain practices within
this realm, than by being in her own country.
If abroad freely without limitation either in Scotland or France, then shall
Her Majesty lose the gages of her safety, then shall she be at hand to give
advice in furtherance of such practices, as have been laid for to stir trouble in
this realm, wherein she hath been a principal party.
For the first, it is answered before, that the respect of any perils that may
befal unto her, will in no sort restrain her son. For the other, if it be considered what harm her advice will work unto herself in respect of the violation
of the treaty, and the provision that may be made in Parliament here, it is to
be thought, that she will then be well advised, before she attempt any such matter, which now she may do without perill. Besides such Princes, as have interposed their faith and promise for her, cannot with honour assist her, wherein
the French King will not be found very forward, who, in most friendly sort,
hath lately rejected all such requests, propounded either by her, or her son's
ministers, that might any way offend Her Majesty. And so to conclude, seeing
the cause of her grief shall be taken away; the French King gratified, who is. mediator for her, and will mislike, that, by any Spanish practice, she should
be drawn to violate her faith, that the rest of the Princes shall have no just cause
of offence, but rather to think honourably of Her Majesty considering the Scottish Queen's carriage towards her, which hath deserved no way any such favour;
the noblemen of Scotland shall be restored, who will be a good stay of such
counsells as may tend to the troubling of this realm, especially having so good
a ground of warrant as the-Parliament to stand unto; the charges and perills
which her practices might have bred to this realm shall be avoided; and lastly,
the hope of the Papists shall be taken away, by such good provisions, as in both
the realms may be made, whereby the perills that might fall into Her Majesty's
own person (a matter of all others to be weighed) shall be avoided, when by the
change that may grow by any such wicked and ungodly practice, they shall see
their case no way relieved in point of religion.




424              HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Reasons to induce Her 3Majesty to proceed in the Treaty under Secretary
Walsingham's Hand.
[Cott. Lib. Cal. c. 8.]
THAT such plots as have of late years been devised (tending to the raising of
trouble within this realm) have grown from the Scots Queen's ministers and
favourers, not without her allowance and seeking: Or,
That the means used by the said ministers, to induce Princes to give ear to
the said plots, is principally grounded upon some commiseration had of her
restraint.
That the stay, why the said plots have not been put in execution, hath proceeded, for that the said Princes have. for the most part, been entertained with
home and domestic troubles.
That it is greatly to be doubted, that now their realms begin to be quiet, that
somewhat will be attempted in her favours by the said Princes.
That it is also to be doubted, that somewhat may be attempted by some of her
fautors in an extraordinary sort, to the perill of Her Majesty.
That for the preservation thereof, it shall be convenient for Her Majesty to
proceed to the finishing of the treaty, not long sithence begun between her and
the said Queen.
No. XLV. (p. 255.)
Letter of Q. JMary to Q. Elizabeth.
tCott, Lib. Coll. B. VIII. fol. 147. An original.]
MIADAME IA BONrNE SEUR,
WMASSUERANT que vous avez eu communication d'une lettre de Gray que
vostre homme Semer me livra hier soubz le nom de mon filz y recognoissant
quasi de mot a la mot mesmes raisons que le dit Gray m'escrivit en chifre estant
dernierement pres de vous desmontrant la suffisance & bonne intention- du personage je vous prieray seulement suivant ce que si devant je vous ay tant instantement importun6 que vous me permettiez desclaircir librement et ouvertement
ce point de l'association d'entre moy et mon filz et me dessier les mains pour
proceder avec lui comme je jugeray estre requis pour son bien & le mien. Et
j'entreprendz quoy que l'on vous die & puisse en rapporter de faire mentir ce
petit brouillon qui persuade par aucuns de vos ministres a entrepris cette separa.
tion entre moy & mon enfant, & pour y commencer je vous supplie m'octroyer
qui je puisse parler a ce justice clerk qui vous a este nouvellement envoyd pour
mander par luy a mon filz mon intention sur cela, ce qui je me promis que ne
me refuserez, quant ce ne seroit que pour demontrer en effect la bonne intention
que vous m'avez asseurde avoir a l'accord & entretien de naturel devoir entre la
mere & l'enfant qui dit en bonnes termes estre empesche pour vous me tenant
captive en un desert ce que vous ne pourrez mieux desmentir & faire paroitre
vostre bon desir a notre union que me donnant les moyens d'y proceder, & non
m'en retenir et empescher comme aucune des vos ministres pretendent a fin de
laisser touiours lieu a leur mauvais & sinistres practiques entre nous. La lettre
porte que l'association n'est pas passde, aussi ne luy ai je jamais dit, bienque
mon filz avoit accepte; & que nous en avions convenu ensemble, comme l'acte
signe de sa main, & ces lettres tant a moy, que en France en font foy, ayant
donne ce meme temoinage de sa bouche propre a plusieurs ambassadeurs et personnes de credit, s'excusant de ne l'oser faire publier par craint de vous soulement, demandant forces pour vous resister d'avant de ce declarer si ouvert -ment
estant journellement persuade au contraire par vos ministers qui luy prometoyent avecque une entreire a Yorck le faire declairer votre heretier. Au surplus Madame quand mon enfant seroit si malheureux que de s'opinlastrer en
cette extreme impiete & ingratitude vers moy, je ne puis penser que vous non
plus qu'aucun aultre Prince de la Chretient6, le voulissiez eu cela applaudir ou
moneintenir pour luy fayre acquerir ma malediction ains que plutos introviendres




APPENDIX, No. XLVI.                                 425
pour luy faire recognoitre la raison trop justa  & evidant devant Dieu & les
hommes. Helas & encores ne luy vouloier j'en ofter, mays donner avec droit
ce qu'il tient par usurpation. Je me suis du tout commise a vous, & fidelement
faites si il vous plest que je ne en soye pis qu'aupravant, & que le faulsete des
uns ne prevale desvant la verite vers vous, pour bien recevant mal, & la plus
grande affliction que me scaurroit arriver a scavoir la perte de mon fils. Je
vous supplie de me mander en cas qu'il persiste en cette m'esconnoissance de
son devoir, que de luy ou de moy il vous plaist advouer pour legittime Roy ou
Royne d'Ecosse, & si vous aves agreable de poursuivre avec moy a part la traite
cornmence entre nous de quoy je vous requiers sans plus attendre de response
de ce mal gouverne enfant vous en requerrant avec autant d'affection que je
sens mon cceur oppresse d'ennuy. Pour Dieu souvenez vous de la promesse que
m'avez faites de me prendre en votre protection me reportant de tout a vous &;
sur ce priant Dieu qu'il vous viueille preserver de touts vos ennemys & dissimulez amys, comme je le desire de me consoler & de me venger de ceulz qui
pourchassent un tel malheur entre la mere &; l'enfant.  Je cesseray de vous
troubler, mais non a m'ennuier que je ne recoive quelque consolation de vous
& de Dieu encore un coup je le supplie de vous garder de tout peril. Futhbery XII Mars.
Votre fidelement vouee sceur
et obeissant cousine,
A la Reyne d'Angleterre Madame ma bonne                  MARIE Q.
sceur & cousine.
No. XLVI. (p. 255.).A Testament by Q. MJary.
N. B. The following paper was transcribed by the Revd. Mr. Crawford, late
Regius Professor of Church History in the University of Edinburgh. Part
of this paper, according to him, is written by Naue, Mary's Secretary, the
rest with the Queen's own hand. What is marked (") is in the Queen's hand.
[Cott. Lib. Vespas. L. 16. p. 415.]
CONSIDERANT par ma condition presente l'estat de vie humaine, si incertain,
que personne ne s'en peust, ou doibt asseurer, sinnon soubs la grande et infinie
misericorde de Dieu. Et me voulant prevaloir d'icelle contre tous les dangers
et accidens, qui me pourroient inopinement survenir en cette captivite, mesmes
a cause des grandes et longues maladies, ou j'ay et6 detenue jusques a present;
j'ay advis6 tandis que j'ay la commodit6, ou raison en jugement, de pourvoir
apres ma mort la salut de mon ame, enterrement de mon corps, et disposition de
mon bien, estat, & affaires, par ce present mon testament et ordonnance de mon
dernier volonte, qui s'ensuyt.
Au nom du Pere, du Filz, et du benoiteiSt. Esprit. Premierement, me recongnoissant indigne pecheresse avec plus d'offences envers mon Dieu, que de satisfaction par toutes les adversites que j'ay souffert; dont je la loue sa bont6. Et
m'appuyant sur la croix de mon Sauveur et Redempteur Jesus Christ, Je recommende mon ame a la benoiste et individue Trinit6, et aux prieres de la glorieuse
Vierge Marie, et de tous les anges saincts & sainctes de paradis, esperant par
leur merites & intercession, estre aydee a obtenir de estre faicte participante
avec eulx de felicite eternelle. Et pour m'y acheminer de cueur plus net et entier
despouillant des a present tout resentiment des injures, calonmnies, rebellions, et
aultres offenses, qui me pourroient avoir est6 factes durant ma vie, par mes subjets rebelles et aultres ennemis; J'en retriet la vengeance a Dieu, & le supplie
leur pardonner, de mesme affection, que je luy requiers pardons a mes faultes, et
a tous ceuls et celles que je puis avoir offense de faicts ou de parolles.
Je veulx et ordonne, &c. [The twofollowing paragraphs contain directions concerning the place and circumstance of her burial.]
Pour ne contrevenir a la gloire, honneur, et conservation do l'Eglise catholique, apostolique et Romaine, en la quelle je veulx vivre et mourir, si le Prince
d'Escosse mon filz y puest etre reduiet contre la mauvaise niourriture, qu'il a
VOL. III.-54




426              HISTORY- QF SCOTLAND.
prise a mon tres grand regret en l'heresie de Calvin entre mes rebelles, je le laisse
seul et unique heretier de mon royaume d'Escosse, de droict que je pretende
justement en la couronne d'Angleterre et pays qui en dependent, et generallement de tous et chacun mes meubles et immeubles qui resteront apres ma mort,
et execution de ce present testament.
Si non, et que mon dit filz continue a vivre en la dite heresie, Je cede, transporte, et falcte don 1" de touts et chacuns mes droicts, que je pretende & puis
"' pretendre ala couronon d'Angleterre,et aultres droicts, seigneuries, ou royaulmes
" en dependantz, au roy catholique, ou aultre de siens qu'il luy plaira, avesques
"advis, consentement de sa saintete; tant pour le voyr aujourdhuy le seul' seurs appui de la religion catholique, que pour reconnoissance de gratuites
" faveurs que moy, et les miens recommandez par moy, ont avons regeu de luy
"en ma plus grand necessite; et resguard aussi au droict que luy mesme peut
"pretendre a ces ditz royaulmes et pays, je le supplie qu'un recompence il preign
" alliance, de la maison de Lorraine, et si il ce pleut de celle de Guise, pour
" memoire de la race de laquelle je suis sortie au coste de Mere, n'a ayant de
" celuy de mon pere, que mon seul enfant, lequel estant Catholique j'ay tous"jours voue pour one de ses filles, si il ly plaisoit de l'accepter, ou faillant une
" de ses niepces mariee comme sa fille.
" Je laysse mon filz a la protection du Roy, de Prince, et Dues de Lorrayne et' de Guise, et du Mayne, aux quelz je recommende et son estat en Escosse, et
" mon droict'en Angleterre, si il est catholique, et quelle le parlie de ceste royne."
Je faitz don au " Compte de Lenox" de Compte de Lenox tenu par feu son
pere, et commande mon filtz, comme mon heretier et successeur, d'obdyr en cest
en droit a mon volontd.
Je veulx et ordonne toutes les sommes et deniers, qui so troveront par moys
deues, tien mis cause de droict estre faits " a Lohliven" etre promptement payde
et acquittes, et tout tort et griefs repares par les dits executeurs desquelz J'en
charge la conscience. Oultre, &c. [Follow two or three paragraphs concerning
particuZar legacies, and then is added] Faict au manior de Sheffeld en Angleterre
le jour de -     Mil cincq cens soixant & dix sept.
AJfter a large blank page follows in the Queen's hand:
" Si mon filz meurt, au Comte de Lennox, au Claude Hamilton lequel se
"montrera le plus fidelle vers moy, et plus constant en religion, au jugement
de  - Ducs de Lorraine et de Guyse, ou je le rapport sur ce de ceulx a que
"j'auray donnay la charge de trayter avesque eux de par moy et ceulx, a con" dition de ce marrier ou allier en la dite mayson ou par leur advis."
Follow near two pages of particular legacies.
" Et le remits ma tante de Lenox au droict quelle peut pretendre a la Cont6'" d'Angous avant l'acort fait par mon commandement entre ma dite tante de
"Lenox et le Comte de Morton, veu quil a este fait & par le feu Roy mon
"mary et moy, sur la promesse de sa fidelle assistance, si luy et moy encourions
" dangier et besoing d'ayde, ce qu'il rompit, s'entendant secreternent au les nos
"ennemis rebelles, qu'attemtprient contre sa vie et pour cest effect pris les
" armes, et ont portd les banieres desploieis, contre nous, je revoque aussi toute
" autre don que je luy ay fait de Contd de Morton sur promesses de ses bons
" services a advenir, et entends que la dite Conte soit reunie a la couronne, si
" ell se trouve ypartenir, comme ses trahisons tant en la nmort de mon feu mary,
que en mon banissement, et poursuit de la mien ne l'ont merite. Et defends' a mon filz de ce jamays servire de luy pour de luy pour la hayne qu'il aye a
" ses parents, la quelle je crains ne s'estende jusques a luy, le connoisant du
"tout affectionne aux ennemis de mon droite en ce royaume, du quel il est
" penconnaire.
*' Je recommende mon nepveu Francois Stuart a mon filz, et luy commando
"de tenir pres de luy et s'enservit, et je luy laisse le bien du Conte de Boduel
" son oncle, en respect qu'il est de mon sang, mon filleul, et ma este laiss6 en
"lutelle par son pere.
" Je declare que mon frere bastard Robert Abbh  de St. Croix n'a en que par
" circonvention Orkenay, et que le ne fut jamays mon intention, comme il apret
" par la revocation que j'ay fayte depuys, et ete aussi faite d'avant la asge de
4" xxV ans, ce que j'aimois deliberer si il ne m'eussent prenner par prison de se
" do defayre aulx estats je veulx done que Orkenay soit reune a la couronne




APPENDIX, No. XLVII.                             427
* comme une de plus necessaires pour mon filz, & sans mayson ne pourra etre
"bien tenue.
"Les filles de Morra ne parvient accessi heriter, ains revient la Cont6 a la
" Couronne, si il luy plest luy donner sa ou fille en marriasge, et il nome l'en
"sienne ligne." 
No. XLVII. (p. 259.)
A Letterfrom JMr. Archibald Douglas to the Queen of Scotts.
[April -. Harl. Lib. 37. B. 9. fo. 126.]
PLEASE Your Majesty, I received your letter of the date of the 12th of Novr,
and in like manner has seen some part of the contents of one other of the same
date, directed to Monsr. de Movisir, ambassador for his Majesty the most
Christian King, both which are agreeable to your princely dignity, as by the
one Your Highness desires to know the true cause of my banishment, and offers
unto me all favour if I shall be innocent of the heinous facts- committed in the
person of your husband of good memory, so by the other the said ambassador
is willet to declare unto me, if your husband's murder could be laid justly
against me, that you could not sollicit in my cause, neither yet for any person
that was participant of that execrable fact, but would seek the revenge thereof
when you should have any means to do it; Your Majesty's offer, if I be innocent
of that crime, is most favourable, and your desire to know the truth of the
same is most equitable; and therefore that I should, with all my simplicity, sincerity, and truth, answer thereunto is most reasonable, to the end that your
princely dignity may be my help if my innocence shall sufficiently appear; and
procure my condemnation if I be culpable in any matter, except in the knowledge of the evil disposed minds of the most part of your nobility against your said
husband, and not revealing of it; which I am assured was sufficiently known to
himself, and to all that had judgment never so little in that realm; which also
I was constrained to understand, as he that was specially employed betwixt the
Earl Morton and a good number of your nobility, that they might with all humility intercede at Your Majesty's hand for his relief in such matters as are more
specially contained in the declaration following, which I am constrained for my
own justification by this letter to call to Your Majesty's remembrance. Notwith.
standing that I am assured, to my grief, the reading thereof will not smally offend
your princelymind. It mayplease YourMajesty to remember that,in the yearof
God, 1566, the said Earl of Morton, with divers other nobility and gent. were
declared rebels to Your Majesty, and banished your realm for insolent murder
committed in Your Majesty's own chamber, which they alleged was don by
command of your husband, who, notwithstanding, affirmed that he was compelled by them to subscribe the warrant given for,that effect; howsoever the
truth of that matter remains amongst them, it appertains not to me at this
time to be curious: true it is that I was one of that number that heavily
offended against Your Majesty, and passed in France the time of our banishment; at the desire of the rest, to humbly pray your brother the most Christian
King to intercede that our offences might be pardoned, and Your Majesty's
clemency extended towards us; albeit divers of no small reputation, in that
realm, was of the opinion that the said fact merited neither to be requisite for
nor yet pardoned. Always such was the careful mind of his Majesty towards
the quietness of that realm, that the dealing in that cause was committed to
Monsr. de Movisir, who was directed at that time to go into Scotland to congratulate the happy birth of your son, whom Almighty God of his goodness
may long preserve in happy estate, and perpetual felicity; the careful travail
of the said de Movisir was so effectual, and Your Majesty's mind so inclined
to mercy, that within short space thereafter I was permitted to repair into Scotland, to deal with Earls Murray, Athol, Bodwel, Arguile, and Secretary Ledington, in the name and behalf of the said Earl Morton, Lords Reven, Lindsay,
and remanent complesis, that they might make offer in the names of the said
Earl of any matter that might satisfy Your Majesty's wrath, and procure your
clemency to be extended in their favours; at my coming to them, after I had




428            HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
opened the effect of my message, they declared that the marriage betwixt you
and your husband had been the occasion already of great evil in that realm;
and if your husband should be suffered to follow the appetite and mind of such
as was about him, that kind of dealing might produce with time worse effects;
for helping of such inconvenience that might fall out by that kind of dealing,
they had thought it convenient to join themselves in league and band with some
other noblemen, resolved to obey Your Majesty as their natural sovereign, and
have nothing to do with your husband's command whatsoever, if the said Earl
would for himself enter into that band and confederacy with them, they could
be content to humbly request and travel by all means with Your Majesty for
his pardon, but, before they could any farther proceed, they desired to know the
said Earl's mind herein; when I had answered, that he nor his friends at my
departure could not know that any such like matter would be proponit, and
therefore was not instructed what to answer therein, they desired that I should
return sufficiently instructed in this matter to Stirling before the baptism of
your son, whom God might preserve; this message was faithfully delivered to
me at Newcastle in England, where the said Earl then remained, in presence of
his friends and company, where they all condescended to have no farther dealing with your husband, and to enter into the said band. With this deliberation
I returned to Sterling, where, at the request of the most Christian King and the
Queen's Majesty of England, by their ambassadors present, Your Majesty's gracious pardon was granted unto them all, under condition always that they should
remain banished forth of the realm the space of two years, and farther during
Your Majesty's pleasure, which limitation was after mitigated at the humble
request of your own nobility, so that immediately after the said Earl of Morton
repaired into Scotland to Quhittingaime, where the Earl of Bodvell and Secretary Ledington come to him; what speech passed there amongst them, as God
shall be my judge, I knew nothing at that time, but at their departure I was requested by the said Earl Morton to accompany the Earl Bodvell and Secretary
to Edinburgh, and to return with such answer as they should obtain of Your
Majesty, which being given to me by the said persons, as God shall be my judge,
was no other than these words, "Schaw to the Earl Morton that the Queen
will hear no speech of that matter appointed unto him:" when I crafit that
the answer might be made more sensible, Secretary Ledington said, that the
Earl would sufficiently understand it, albeit few or none at that time understand
what passed amongst them. It is known to all men, als veill be railling letters
passed betwixt the said Earl and Ledington when they become in divers factions,
as also ane buck sett furth by the ministers, wherein they affirm that the Earl
of Morton has confessed to them, before his death, that the Earl Bodvell came
to Quhittingaime to prepon the calling away off the King your husband, to
the which proposition the said Earl of Morton affirms that he could give no
answer unto such time he might know Your Majesty's mind therein, which he
never received. As to the abominable murder, it is known too by the depositions of many persons that were executed to the death for the committing
thereof, that the same was executed by them, and at the command of such of
the nobility as had subscrivit band for that effect; by this unpleasant declaration, the most part thereof known to yourself, and the remainder may be understood by the aforesaid witnesses that was examined in torture, and that are
extant in the custody of the ordinary judges in Scotland, my innocency, so far
as may concern any fact, does appear sufficiently to Your Majesty. And as
for my dealing aforesaid, I can be no otherwise charged therein, but as what
would accuse the vessel that preserves the wine from harm for the intemperancy
of such as immoderately use the same. As for the special cause of my banishnent, I think the same has proceeded upon ane opinion conceived, that I was
able to accuse the Earl of Morton of so much matter as they alledged himself
to have confessed before he died, and would not be induced, for loss of reputation, to perform any part thereof. If this be the occasion of my trouble, as I
suppose it is, what punishment I should deserve I remit me to Your Majesty's
better judgment, who well knows how careful ever ilk gentleman should be of
his fame, reputation and honour, and how far ever ilk man should abhor the
name of a pultroun, and how indecent it would have been to me to accuse the
Earl of Morton, being so near of his kin, notwithstanding all the injuries 1 was




APPENDIX, No. XLVIHl                            429
constrained to receive at. his hand all the time of his government, and for no
other cause but for shewing of particular friendship to particular friends in the
time of the last cruel troubles in Scotland. Sorry I be now to accuse him in
any matter being dead, and more sorry that being on lyff, be such kind of dealing
obtained that name of ingrate. Always for my own part I have been banished
my native country those three years and four months, living in anxiety of mind,
my holl guds in Scotland, which were not small, intermittit and disponit upon,
and has continually since the time I was relieved out of my last troubles at the
desire of Monsr. de Movisir, attended to know Your Majesty's pleasure, and to
wait upon what service it should please your Majesty for to command. Upon
the Sth of April inst. your good friend Secretary Walsinghame has declared
unto me, that Her Highness tho't it expedient that I should retire myself where
I pleased, I declared unto him I had no means whereby I might perform that
desire until such time as I should receive it from Your Majesty. Neither knew
I where it would please Your Highness to direct me until such tilhe as I should
have received further information from you. Upon this occasion, and partly by
permission, I have taken the hardress to write this present letter, whereby Your
Majesty may understand any part of my troubles past, and straight present.
As to my intention future, I will never deny that I am fully resolved to spend
the rest of my days in Your Majesty's service, and the King your son's, wheresoever I shall be directed by Your Majesty, and for the better performing thereof,
if so shall be Her Majesty's pleasure, to recommend the trial of my innocency,
and examination of the verity of the preceding narration, to the King your son,
with request that I may be pardoned for such offences as concerned Your
Majesty's service, and var common to all men the time of his les aige and perdonit to all, except to me, I should be the bearer thereof myself, and be directed
in whatsoever service it should please Your Majesty for to command. Most
humble I beseech Your Majesty to consider hereof, and to be so gracious as to
give order that I may have means to serve Your Majesty according to the sincerity of my meaning, and so expecting Your Majesty's answer, after the kissing
vour hand with all humility, I take leave from London.
No. XLVIII. (p. 262.)
A Letter from Sir.Amias Pawlett.
[Original. Cal. C. 9.)
SIRS
1 DID forbear, according to your direction signified in your letters of the fourth
of this present, to proceed to the execution of the contents of Mr. Waade's letters unto vou for the dispersing of this lady's unnecessary servants, and for the
ceasing of her money, wherein I was bold to write unto you my simple opinion
(although in vain as it now falleth out), by my letters of the 7th of this instant,
which, I doubt not, are with you before this time; but upon the receipt of your
letters of the 5th, which came not unto my hands until the 8th in the evening,
by reason, as did appear by indorsement, that they had been mistaken, and were
sent back to Windsor, after they were entered into the way towards me, I considered, that being accompanied only with my own servants, it might be thought
that they would be intreated to say as I would command them; and therefore I
thought good, for my better discharge in these money matters, to crave the
assistance of Mr. Richard Bagott, who repairing unto me the next morning, we
had access to this Queen, whom we found in her bed, troubled after the old manner with a defluxion, which was fallen down into the side of her neck, and had
bereft her of the use of one of her hands, unto whom I declared, that upon
occasion of her former practices, doubting lest she would persist therein by corrupting underhand some bad members of this state, I was expressly commanded
to take her money into my hands, and to rest answerable for it when it shall be
required; advising her to deliver the said money unto me with quietness. After
many denials, many exclamations, and many bitter words against you (I say
nothing of her railing against myself), with flat affirmation that Her Majesty
might have her body, but her heart she should never have, refusing to deliver
the key of the cabinet, I called my servants, and sent for barrs to break oper




430              HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
the door, whereupon she yielded, and causing the door to be opened, I found
there in the coffers, mentioned in Mr. Waade's remembrance, five rolls of &anvass, containing five thousand French crowns, and two leather bags, whereof the
one had in gold one hundred and four pounds two shillings, and the other haa
three pounds in silver, which bag of silver was left with her, affirming that she
had no more money in this house, and that she was indebted to her servants for
Curle, can tell you the their wages. Mr. Waade's note maketh mention of 3
truth of this matle can ter.l you the rolls left in Curle's chamber, wherein, no doubt, he was
truth of this matter.    misreckoned, which is evident as well by the testimonies
and oaths of diverse persons, as also by probable conjectures: so as in truth we
found only two rolls, every of which containeth one thousand crowns, which
was this Queen's guifte to Curle's wife at her marriage. There is found in
Naw's chamber in a cabinet, a chain worth by estimation one hundred pounds,
and in money, in one baog, nine hundred pounds, in a second bag two hundred
fourscore and six pounds eighteen shillings. All the aforesaid parcels of money
are bestowed in bags, and sealed by Mr. Richard Bagot, saving five hundred
pounds of Naw's money, which I reserve in my hands for the use of this household, and may be repayed at London, where Her Majesty shall appoint, out of
the money received lately by one of my servants out of the exchequer. I feared
lest the people might have dispersed this money in all this time, or have hidden
the same in some secret corners; for doubt whereof I had caused all this
Queen's family, from the highest to the lowest, to be guarded in the several
places where I found them, so as yff I had not found the money with quietness
I had been forced to have searched first all their lodgings, and then their own
persons. I thank God with all my heart, as for a singular blessing, that that
falleth out so well, fearing lest a contrary success might have moved some hard
conceits in her Majesty.
Touching the dispersing of this Queen's servants, I trust I have done so
much as may suffice to satisfy Her Majesty for the time, wherein I could not
take any absolute course until I heard again from you, partly because Her
Majesty, by Mr. Waade's letter doth refer to your consideration to return such
as shall be discharged to their several dwellings and countries, wherein, as it
seemeth, you have forgotten to deliver your opinion; partly, for that as yet I
have received no answer from you of your resolution upon the view of the
Scottish family sent unto you, what persons you will appoint to be dismnist;
only this I have done, I have bestowed all such as are mentioned in this bill,
inclosed in three or four several rooms, as the same may suffice to contain them,
and that their meat and drink shall be brought unto them by my servants. It
may please you to advertise me, by your next letters, in what sort and for what
course I shall make their passports; as also, if they shall say that they are
unpaid of their wages, what I shall do therein. Yt is
storeof money at present said that they have been accustomed to be paid of their
in the French amassa- wages at Christmas, for the whole year. Her Majesty's
dor's hands.         charge will be somewhat diminished by the departure of
this people, and my charge by this occasion will be the
more easy. But the persons, all save Bastian, are such silly and simple souls,
as there was no great cause to fear their practices, and upon this ground I was
of opinion, in my former letters, that all this dismissed train should have followed their mistress until the next remove, and there to have been discharged
upon the sudden, for doubt that the said remove might be delayed, yf she did
fear or expect any hard measure.
Others shall excuse their foolish pity as they may; but, for my part, I renunce
my part of the joys of heaven, if in any thing that I have said, written, or done,
I have had any other respect than the furtherance of Her Majesty's service;
and so I shall most earnestly pray you to affirm for me, as likewise for the not
seasing of the money by Mr. Manners, the other commissioners, and myself. I
trust Mr. Waade hath answered, in all humble duties, for the whole company,
that no one of us did so much as think that, our commission reaching only to
the papers, we might be bold to touch the money, so as there was no speech of
that all to mry knowledge, and as you know I was no commissioner in this search,
but had my hands full at Tyxall, discreet servants are not hastily to deal in great
matters without warrant, and especially where the cause is such as the d( lay of
it carrieth no danger.




APPENDIX, No. XLIX.                              431
Your advertisement of that happy remove hath been greatly comfortable unto
me. I will not say, in respect of myself, because my private interest hath ne
measure of comparison with Her Majesty's safety, and with the quiet of this
realm.  God grant a happy and speedy yssue to these good and godly counq
sels; and so I commit you to his merciful protection. From Chartley, the 10th
of September, 1586.
No. XLIX. (p. 268.)
Letter from the King of Scots to Jlr. Archibald Douglas, his Ambassador in
England, October, 1586.
LCott. Lib. Calig. C. 9. An original in the king's hand.]
RESERVE up yourself na langer in the earnest dealing for my mother, for ye
have done it too long; and think not that any your travellis can do goode if
hir lyfe be takin, for then adeu with my dealing with thaime that are the special
instrumentis thairof; and theirfore, gif ye looke for the contineuance of my
favour towartis you, spair na pains nor plainnes in this cace, but reade my letter
wrettin to Williame Keith, and conform yourself quhollie to the contentis
thairof, and in this requeist let me reap the fruictis of your great credit there,
ather now or never. Fairwell. October, 1586.
Letter to Sir William Keith, Ambassador in England, probably from SecretarJy
JYzaitland, Nov. 27, 1586.
[A copy in the Collect. of Sir A. Dick. Vol. A. fol. 219.}
BY your letters sent by this bearer (albeit concerning no pleasant subject),
His Majesty conceives well of your earnestness and fidelity in your negotiations, as also of Mr. Archibald's activity and diligence, whom you so greatly
praise and recommend, I wish the issue correspond to His Majesty's opinion,
your care and travell, and his great diligence as you write. His Majesty takes
this rigorous proceeding against his mother deeply in heart, as a matter greatly
concerning him both in honour and otherwise. His Highnesses actions and
behaviour utter plainly not only how far nature prevails, but also how he apprehends of the sequel of that process, and of what moment he esteems it. There
is an ambassade shortly to be directed, wherein will be employed an Earl and
two counsellors, on whose answer will depend the continuance or dissolution of
the amity and good intelligence between the Princes of this isle. In the mean
season, if farther extremity be used, and His Majesty's suit and request disdained, His Highness will think himself dishonoured and contemned far besides
his expectation and deserts. Ye may perceive His Majesty's disposition by his
letter to you, which you shall impart to Mr. Archibald, and both deal according
thereto. I need not to recommend to you care, concerning your master's service both in weill and in honour. As you and your colleague shall behave yourself in this behalf, so for my own part will I interpret your affection to your
master. I am glad of that I hear of yourseif, and I do fully credit that you
write of Mr. Archibald, whose friends here make great account of his professed
devotion to the Queen, besides the duty he owes to the King's Majesty her son.
Farther I am constrained to remit to next occasion, having scarce time to scribble these few lines (which of themselves may bear witness of my haste).
Wishing you a prosperous issue of your negociation, I commit you, &c. Halyrudhouse, Novr. 27th, 1586.
The people, and all estates here are so far moved by the rigorous proceedings
against the Queen, that His Majesty, and all that have credit are importuned,
and.may not go abroad for exclamations against them, and imprecations against
the Queen of England.




HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
No. L. (p..269.)
To the King's Jlajesty,from.M7r. Archibald Douglas.
[16 Oct. 1586. Fromthe original in the Collect. of Sir A. Dick. Vol. B. fol. 324.]
PLEASE Your Majesty, I received your letter of the date the 28th of September, the 5th of October, which was the same day that I directed Wm. Murray
towards Your Highness; by such letters as he carried, and others of several
dates, Your Majesty may perceive that I had omitted nothing so far as my
travel might reach unto, anent the performing of the two chief points contained
in the said letter befor the receipt thereof, which by these presents I must repeat
for answering of the saidis. As to the first, so far as may concern the interceding
for the Queen Your Majesty's mother her life, I have divers times, and in every
audience, travelled with this Queen in that matter, specially to know what her
full determination must\ be in that point, and could never bring her to any further answer, but that this proceeding against her by order of justice was no less
against her mind, than against their will that loved her best: as towards her
life she could give no answer thereunto, untill such time as the law hath declared
whether she was innocent or guilty. Herewithal it was her pleasure thus far
to inform me, that it was a number of the associants that earnestly pressed her
that the law might proceed against her, giving reasons that so long as she was
suffered to deal in matters, so long would never this realm be in quiet, neither
her life, neither this state in assurance, and in the end they used this protestation, that if she would not in this matter follow their advice, that they should
remain without all blame whatsoever should fall out; whereupon she had
granted them liberty to proceed, lest such as had made the request might hereafter have charged herself with inconvenience if any should happen.
And by myself I know this her speech to be true, because both Papist and
Protestant has behaved them, as it hath been her pleasure to declare, but upon
divers respects, the one to avoid suspicion that otherwise was conceived against
them, the other upon zeal, and care that they will be known to have for preser
vation of their sovereign's life and state in this perilous time, upon consideration
whereof, I have been constrained to enter into some dealing with both, wherewith I made Her Majesty acquainted; the Protestants, and such as in other
matters will be known to bear no small favour unto Your Majesty's service, hath
prayed that they may be excused from any dealing in the contrary of that,
which by their oath they have avowed, and by their speech to their sovereign
requested for, and that before my coming in this country; if they should now
otherwise do, it would produce no better effect but to make them subject to the
accusation of their sovereign, when it should please her to do it, of their inconstancy, in giving councell whereby they might incur the danger of ill councellors, and be consequent worthy of punishment. Such of the Papists as I did
deal with, went immediately, and told Her Majesty what I had spoken to them,
who albeit she understood the matter of before, sent for me, and declared to
me my own speech that I had uttered to them, willing me for the weil of my
maister's service to abstain from dealing with such, as were not yet sufficiently
moved to think of my master as she did. 1 craved leave of Her Majesty, that 1
might inform them of Your Majesty's late behaviour towards her, and the state
of this realm, whereunto with some difficulty she gave her consent. At my late
departure from court, which was upon the 5th of this instant, and the day after
that the lords of this grand jury had taken their leaves of Her Majesty to go
northward to Fothringharn, it was her pleasure to promise to have further
speech in this matter at the returning of the said lords, and to give full answer
according to Your Majesty's contentment to the remainder matters, that I had
proponit in name of Your Majesty. As to the 2d part concerning the association, and desire that the promise made to the Master of Gray concerning Your
Majesty's title may be fulfilled; it appears by the said letter, that the very point
whereupon the question that may bring Your Majesty's title in doubt, hath not
been rightly at the writing of the said letter considered, which I take to have
oroceeded for lack of reading of the' act of parliament, wherein is fulfilled all the




APPENDIX, No. L.                              433
promise made by the Queen to the said Master, and nothing may now cause
any doubt to arise againt your said title, except that an opinion should be conceived by these lords of this Parliament that are so vehement at this time against
the Queen Your Majesty's mother, that Your Majesty is, or may be proved
hereafter assenting to her proceedings, and some that love Your Majesty's service were of that opinion that too earnest request might move a ground whereupon suspicions might grow in men so ill affected in that matter, which I tho't
might be helped by obtaining of a declaration in parliament of Your Majesty's
innocence at this time, and by reason that good nature and public honesty would
constrain you to intercede for the Queen your mother, which would carry with
itself, without any further, some suspicion that might move ill affected men to
doubt. In my former letters I humblycraved of Your Majesty that some learned
men in the laws might be moved to advise with the words of the association,
and the mitigation contained in the act of parliament, and withall to advise
what suspicious effects Your Majesty's request might work in these choleric
men at this time, and how their minds might be best moved to receive reason;
and upon all these considerations they might have formed the words of a declarator of Your Majesty's innocence to be obtained in this parliament, and failing
thereof, the very words of a protestation for the sarne effect that might best
serve for Your Majesty's service, and for my better information. Albeit this was
my simple opinion, I shall be contented to follow any direction it shall please
Your Majesty to give; I have already opened the substance hereof to the Queen
of this realm, who seems not to be offended herewith, and hath granted liberty
to deal therein with such of the parliament as may remain in any doubt of
mind. This being the sum of my proceedings in this matter, besides the
remainder, contained in other letters of several dates, I am constrained to lay the
whole open before Your Majesty, and to humbly pray that full information may
be sent unto me what further to do herein; in this middle time, while I shall
receive more ample direction I shall proceed and be doing according to such
direction as I have already received. And so most gracious sovereign, wishing
unto Your Majesty all happy success in your affairs, I humbly take my leave
from London, this 16th of October, 1586. Your Majesty's most humble subject
and obedt servant.
A Memorial for His 2/Majesty by the Master of Gray.
[I2th Jan. 1586. - An original in his own hand in the Collect. of Sir A. Dick. Vol. A. fol. 222.]
IT will please Your Majesty I have tho't meeter to set down all things as they
occur, and all advertisements as they came to my ears, then jointly in a lettre.
I came to Vare the 24th of Decr. and sent to Winm. Keith and Mr. Archibald
Douglas to advertise the Queen of it, like as they did at their audience. She
promised the Queen Your Majesty's mother's life should be spared till we were
heard. The 27th they came to Vare to me, the which day Sir Robt. came to
Vare, where they showed us how far they had already gone in their negociation,
but for that the discourse of it is set down in our general letter, I remit me to it,
only this far I will testify unto Your Majesty that Wm. Keith hath used himselt
right honestly and wisely till our coming, respecting all circumstances, and
chiefly hi3 colleague his dealing, which indeed is not better than Your Majesty
knows already.
The 29th day of Deer. we came to London, where we were n6 ways friendly
received, nor after the honest sort it had pleased Your Majesty use her ambassadors; never man sent to welcome or convey us. The same day we understood
of Mr. de Bellievre his leave taking, and for that the custom permitted not we
sent our excuses by Mr. George Young.
The 1st day of Janry. Win. Keith and his colleague according to the custom
sent to crave our audience. We received the answer contained in the general
letter, and could not have answer till the 6th day, what was done that day Your
Majesty has it in the general, yet we was not out of esperance at that time,
albeit we received hard answers.
The 8th day we speak with the Earl of Leicester, where our conferrence was,
%s is set down in the general. I remarked this, that he that day said plainly
VOL. III.-55




434             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
the detaining of the Queen of Scotland prisoner was for that. she pretended a
succession to this crown. Judge then by this what is tho't of Your Majesty, as
ye shall hear a little after.
The 9th day we speak with the French ambassador, whomwe find very plain
in making to us a wise discourse of all his proceedings, anrd Mr. de Bellievre we
thanked him in Your Majesty's name, and opened such things as we had to treat
with this Queen, save the last point, as more largely set down by our general.
It is tho't here, and some friends of Your Majesty's advised me, that Bellievre
his negociation was not effectual, and that the resident was not privy to it, as
indeed I think is true, for since Bellievre his perting, there is a talk of this Chasteauneuf his servants taken with his whole papers and pacquets, which he was
sending in France, for that they charge him with a conspiracy of late against
the Queen here her life. It is alledged his servant has confessed the matter,,but whom I shall trust I know not, but till I see proof I shall account him an.honest man, for indeed so he appears, and one (without doubt) who hath been
very instant in this matter. I show him that the Queen and Earl of Leicester,had desired to speak with me in private, and craved his opinion; he gave it freely
that he tho't it meetest, I shew him the reason why I communicate that to him,
for that I had been suspected by some of Her Majesty's friends in France to have
Acne evil offices in her service, that he should be my witness that my earnest
dealing in this should be a sufficient testimony that all was lies, and that this,knave Naud who now had betrayed her, had in that done evil offices: ye desired
ime, seeing she saw only with other folks eyes, that I should no ways impute it
to her, for the like she had done to himself by Naue his persuasion. I answered,he should be my witness in that.
The 9th day we sent to court to crave audience, which we got the 10th day;:at the first, she said a thing long looked for should be welcome when it comes, I
would now see your master's offers. I answered, no man makes offers but for:some cause; we would, and like Your Majesty, first know the cause to be extant for which we offer, and likewise that it be extant till Your Majesty has:heard us. I think it be extant yet, but I will not promise for an hour, but you
think to shift in that sort. I answered, we mind not to shift, but to offer from.our sovereign all tioings that with reason may be; and in special, we offered as;is set down in our general, all was refused and tho't nothing. She called on the
three that were in the house, the Earl of Leicester, my Lord Admiral, and Cham
berlain, and very despitefully repeated all our offers in presence of them all. I
opened the last part, and said, Madam, for what respect is it that men deal
against your person or estate for her cause? She answered, because they
think she shall succeed to me, and for that she is a Papist; appearingly said I:both the causes may be removed, she said she would be glad to understand it.
If, Madam, said I, all that she has of right of succession were in the King our
-sovereign's person, were not all hope of Papists removed? She answered, 1
hope so. Then, Madam, I think the Queen his mother shall willingly demit all
her rights in his person. She answered, she hath no right, for she is declared
unhabil. Then I said, if she have no right, appearingly the hope ceases already,
so that it is not to be feared that any man attempt for her. The Queen answered,
but the Papists allow not our declaration; then let it fall, says I, in the King's
person by her assignation. The Earl of Leicester answered, she is a prisoner,
how can she demit? I answered, the demission is to her son, by the advice of
all the friends she has in Europe, and in case, as God forbid, that any attempt
euttis the Queen here away, who shall party with her to prove the demission or
assignation to be ineffectual, her son being opposite party, and having all the'rinces her friends for him, having bonded for the efficacy of it with His Majesty
of before? The Queen made as she could not comprehend my meaning, and
~Sir Robt. opened the matter again, she yet made as tho' she understood not.
So the Earl of Leicester answered that our meaning was, that the King should
be put in his mother's place. Is it so, the Queen answered, then I put myself in
a worse case than of before: by God's passion, that were to cut my own throat,
and for a dutchy or an earldom to yourself you or such as you would cause some
of your desperate knaves kill me. No, by God, he shall never be in that place.
I answered, he craves nothing of Your Majesty but only of his mother. Tho
Earl of Leicester answered, that were to make him party to the Queen my mis



APPENDIX, No. L.                             435
tress. I said, he will be far more party, if he be in her place through her death.
She would stay no longer, but said she would not have a worse in his mother's
place. And said, tell your King what good I have done for him in holding the
crown on his head since he was born, and that I mind to keep the league that
now stands between us, and if he break it shall be a double fault, and with this
minded to have bidden us a farewell; but we achevit [i. e. finished arguing
upon this point]. And I spake craving of her that her life may be spared for 15
days; she refused. Sir Robt. craved for only eight days; she said, not for an
hour; and so geid her away. Your Majesty sees we have delivered all we had
for offers, but all is for nothing, for she and her councel has laid a determination
that they mind to follow forth, and I see it comes rather of her council than herself, which I like the worse; for without doubt, Sir, it shall cut off all friendship
ye had here. Altho' it were that once they had meaned well to Your Majesty,
yet remembring themselves, that they have medled with your mother's blood,
good faith they cannot hope great good of yourself, a thing in truth I am sorry
for; further Your Majesty may perceive by this last discourse of that I proponit, if they had meaned well to Your Majesty they had used it otherwise than
they have done, for reason has bound them. But I dare not write all. I mind
something to speak in this matter, because we look shurly our letters shall be
trussit by the way.
For that I see private credit nor no means can alter their determination, altho'
the Queen again and the Earl of Leicester has desired to speak with me in
particular; I mind not to speak, nor shall not; but assuredly shall let all men
see that I in particular was no ways tyed to England, but for the respect of Your
Majesty's service. So albeit, at this time I could not effectuate that I desired,
yet my upright dealing in it shall be manifested to the world. We are, God
willing, then to crave audience, where we mind to use sharply our instructions,
which hitherto we have used very calmly; for we can, for your. honour's cause,
say no less for Your Majesty, than the French ambassador has said for his master.
So I pray Your Majesty consider my upright dealing in your service, and not
the effect; for had it been doable [i. e. possible to be done] by any I might have
here had credit; but being I came only for that cause, I will not my credit shall
serve here to any further purpose. I pray God preserve Your Majesty, and send
you a true and sincere friendship. From London this 12th of Jan. 1586
I understand the Queen is to send one of her own to Your Majesty.
To the Right Hon. my Lord Vice-Chancellor and Secretary to His Jtlajcsty, from
the MJaster of Gray.
[12th Jan. 1586. An original in the Collect. of Sir A. Dick. Vol. A. fol. 179.1
MY Lord, I send you these lines with this inclosed to His Majesty, whereby
Your Lordship shall understand how matters goes here. And before all things I
pray Your Lordship move His Majesty to respect my diligence, and not the
effect in this negotiation, for I swear if it had been for the crown of England to
myself I could do no more, and let not unfriends have advantage of me, for the
world shall see that I loved England for His Majesty's service only. I look
shortly to find Your Lordship friend as ye made promise, and by God I shall be
to you if I can. Wmin. Keith and I devyset, if matters had gone well, to have
run a course that Your Lordship might have here been in credit and others disappointed, but now I will do for you as for myself; which is to care for no credit
here, for in conscience they mean not honestly to the King our sovereign, and if
they may, he will go the get his mother is gone, or shortly to go, therefore My
Lord, without all kind of scruple I pray you to advise him the best is not this
way. They say here, that it has been said by one who heard it from you, that ye
desired not the King and England to agree, because it would rack the noblemen,
and gave an example of it by King James the Fourt. I answered in your
namne that I was assured you never had spoken it. Mr. Archibald is the speaker
of it, who I assure Your Lordship has been a poison in this matter, for they lean
very mickle to his opinion. He cares not, he says, for at length the King will
be fain to deal this way, either by fair means or necessity, so that when he deals
ihis course he is assured to be welcome; to set down all that is past of the like




4HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
purposes, it would consume more paper than I have here,so I defer it to meeting.
There is a new conspiracy alledged against the Queen to have been intended,
for the French ambassador resident three of his men taken, but I think in the
end it shall prove nothing. Mr. Stafford, who is ambassador for this Queen in
France, is touched with it, his brother is taken here, always it has done this harm
in our negotiation, that all this council would not move this queen to medle
with the Queen of Scotland's blood, till this invention was found forth. I
remit all other things to the inclosed. We minded to have sent to His Majesty
a discourse, which we have set down of all our proceedings since our hither
coming, but we are surely advertized that the bearer is to be trussed by the way
for our pacquets, so that we defer it till our own coming; this I have put in a
privy part beside the pacquet. We shall, I think, take leave on Fryday the
13th day, where we mind exactly to follow the rigour of our instructions, for it
cannot stand with the King's honour that we say less than the French ambassador, which was, Le roy mon maistre ne peult moins faire que se resentir. So
that about the 24th I think we shall, God willing, be at home, except that some
stay come which we look not for. The Queen and the Earl of Leicester has
desired to speak with me. I refused save in presence of my colleagues, by
reason I see a determination which particular credit cannot help, and I crave no
credit but for that cause. It will please Your Lordship retire the inclosed from
His Majesty and keep it. So after my service commended to yourself and
bedfellow, I commit you to God. From London the 12th of Jan. 1586.
To the King's Meajesty,from Sir Robert Tlelvil.
[20th Jan. 1586. An original in his own hand, in the collect. of Sir A. Dick. Vol. A. fol. 181.j
IT may please Your Majesty, since the direction of our former letters, we
had audience, and her Majesty appeared to take our overtures in good part in
presence of her council; albeit no offers could take place with them, having
taken resolution to proceed with extremity, not the less it pleased Her Majesty
to desire us to stay for two days on taking our leave, until she had advised
upon our propositions; since which time, Her Majesty is become more hard by
some letters (as we are informed) has come from Scotland, making some hope
to believe that Your Majesty takes not this matter to heart, as we know the con.
trary in effect, and had of before removed the like opinion out of Her Majesty's
mind, which by sinister information was credited, their reports has hindered our
commission, and abused this Queen, fearing in like manner we shall be stayed
until answer come from Scotland by such persons as they have intelligence of.
And albeit that it will be well enough known to all men how heavily Your
Majesty takes this proceeding to heart, the truth is, that they have by this occasion so persuaded the Queen, that it is like to hinder our negotiation. As
also Alchinder (i. e. Alexander) Steward is to be directed in their party, by our
knowledge, who has awantyt more of his credit, than I believe he may perform,
and we willed him to desist from this dealing, saying it does harm, and he is
not meet for that purpose, remitting to Your Majesty's good discretion to take
order herein as we shall be answerable to Your Majesty not to omit any
point we have in charge, as the truth is, the Master of Grhaye has behaved
himself very uprightly and discreetly in this charge, and evil tayne with be
divers in these parts who were of before his friends. We have been behalding
to the menstrals who has born us best company, but has not been troubled with
others.  WVylzeme Kethe hath left nothing undone that he had in charge. As
for master Archibald he has promised at all times to do his dewoyr, wherein he
shall find true report made to Your Majesty, craving pardon of Your Majesty
that I have been so tedious, after I have kissed Your Majesty's hand I hulnblN
take my leave. Praying God to grant Your Majesty many good days and
happy, in whose protection I commit Your Majesty at London, the 20th or
Jan. 1586.
SIR,
ALBEIT Master George has not been in commission, he is not inferior in his
service to any of us, as well by his good advice and diligent care he takes fol
the advancement of your service, wherein we have not been a little furthered.




APPENDIX, No. LI. 4b3
To the King's JTiajesty,frorn the MJ.aster of Gray and Sir Robert Jelvil.
[21st Jan. 1586. An original in the collect. of Sir A. Dick Vol A. fol. 180.]
PLEASE it Your Majesty in the last audience we had, since our last advertlse.
ment by Winm. Murray, we find Her Majesty at the resuming our offers something mitigated, and inclined to consider more deeply of them, before we got
our leave, at our reasoning, certain of the council, namely, my Lord of Leicester,
Sir Christopher Haton, my Lord Hunsdon, and my Lord Hawart being present
in the chamber, gave little show of any great contentment to have her from her
former resolution, now cassln in perplexitie what she should do always we left
her in that state, and since have daily pressed conference with the whole couIr
cil, which to this hour we have not yet obtained. This day we have sent down
to crave our leave. The greatest hinder which our negotiation has found
hitherto is a persuasion they have here that either Your Majesty deals superficially in this matter, or that with time ye may be moved to digest it, which
when with great difficulty we had expugnit, we find anew that certain letters
written to them of late from Scotland has found some place of credit with
them in our contrare. So that resolving now to clear them cf that doubt by a
special message, they have made choice of Sir Alexander Stewart to try Your
Highness's meaning in it, and to persuade Your Majesty to like of their proceedings, wherefrom no terror we can say out unto him is able to divert him, he
has given out that he has credit with Your Majesty, and that he doubts not to
help this matter at Your Highness's hand. If he come there that errand, we
think Your Majesty will not oversee the great disgrace this his attempts shall
give us here, if he be not tane order with before that he be further heard, and if
so be that any other be directed (as our intelligence gives us there shall) our
humble suit is to Your Majesty, that it may please Your Highness to hear of us
what we find here, and at what point we leave this matter with Her Majesty,
before that they find accidence, the causes whereof remitting to our private letters. We commit Your Majesty for the present to God's eternal protection
From London, this 21st of Jan. 1586.
No. LI. (p. 272.),opy of a Letter from the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, &c. touching their Pro
ceedings with regard to the Death of the Scottish Queen, to Her JMajesty's
Council
IT may please Your HIonble good Lordships to be advertised, that, on Saturday, the 4th of this present, Ii Robert Beale, came to the house of me the Earl
of Kent, in the county of -, to whom Your Lordship's letter and message
was delivered, and Her Majesty's commission shown; whereupon I the Earl
forthwith sent precepts for the staying of such hues and cries as had troubled
the country, requiring the officers to make stay of all such persons, as should
bring any such warrants without names, as before had been done, and to bring
them to the next justice of peace. to the intent that upon their examination, the
occasion and causes of such seditious bruites might be bolted out and known.
It was also resolved that I the said Earl of Kent should, on the Monday following, come to Lylford to Mr. Elmes, to be the nearer and readier to confer with
my Lord of Shrewsbury. Sonday at night, I Robert Beale came to Fotheringay, where after the communicating the commission, &c. unto us Sir Amice
Pawlet and Sir Drue Drury, by reason that Sir A. Pawlet was but late recovered, and not able to repair to the Earl of Shrewsbury, being then at Orton, six
miles off; it was thought good that we Sir Drue Drury and Robert Beale should
go unto him, which we did on.- morning; and together with the delivery
of Her Majesty's commission, and Your Lordship's letter imparted unto him
what both the Earl of Kent and we thought meet to be done in the cause, praying His Lordship hither the day following, to confer with me the said Earl,
concerning the same; which His Lordship promised. And for the better colour
ing of the matter, I the said Earl of Shrewsbury sent to Mr. Beale, a justice of




438             HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
peace of the county of Huntingdon next adjoining, to whom I communicated
that warrant, which Robert Beale had under Your Lordship's hands, for the
staying of the hues and cries, requiring him to give notice thereof to the town
of Peterborough, and especially unto the justices of peace of Huntingdonshire,
and to cause the pursuers and bringers of such warrants to be stayed, and
brought to the next justice of peace; and to bring us word to Fotheringay Castle on Wednesday morning what he had done, and what he should in the mean
time understand of the authors of such bruites. Which like order, I also Sii
Amias Pawlet had taken on Monday morning in this town, and other places
adjoining. The same night the sheriff of the county of Northampton, upon the
receipt of Your Lordship's letter came to Arundel, and letters were sent to me
the Earl of Kent of the Earl of Shrewsbury's intention and meeting here on
Tuesday by noon; and other letters were also sent with Their Lordships assent
to Sir Edward Montagu, Sir Richard Knightly, Mr. Tho. Brudenell, &c. to be
here on Wednesday by eight of the clock in the morning, at which time it was
thought meet that the execution should be. So upon Tuesday, we the Earls
came hither, where the sheriff met us; and upon conference between us it was
resolved, that the care for the sending for the surgeons, and other necessary provision should be committed unto him against the time. And we forthwith
repaired unto her, and first in the presence of herself and her folks, to the intent
that they might see and report hereafter that she was not otherwise proceeded
with than according to law, and the form of the statute made in the 27th year
of Her Majesty's reign, it was thought convenient that Her Majesty's commission should be read unto her, and afterwards she was by sundry speeches willed
to prepare herself against the next morning. She was also put in remembrance
of her fault, the honourable manner of proceeding with her, and the necessity
that was imposed upon Her Majesty to proceed to execution, for that otherwise
it was found that they could not both stand together; and however, sithence
the Lord Buckhurst's his being here new conspiracies were attempted, and so
would be still; wherefore since she had now a good while since warning, by the
said Lord and Robert Beale, to think upon and prepare herself to die, we doubted
not but that she was, before this, settled, and therefore would accept this mes
sage in good part. And to the effect that no Christian duty might be said to be
omitted, that might be for her comfort, and tend to the salvation both of her
body and soul in the world to come, we offered unto her that if it would please
her to confer with the Bishop and Dean of Peterborough, she might; which
Dean, we had, for that purpose, appointed to be lodged within one mile of that
place. Hereto she replied, crossing herself in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost, saying that she was ready to die in the Catholic Roman
faith, which her ancestors had professed, from which she would not be removed.
And albeit we used many persuasions to the contrary, yet we prevailed nothing;
and therefore, when she demanded the admittance of her priest, we utterly
denied that unto her. Hereupon,she demanded to understand what answer
we had touching her former petition to Her Majesty, concerning her papers of
accounts, and the bestowing of her body. To the first we had none other
answer to make, but that we thought if they were not sent before, the same
might be in Mr. Waade's custody, who was now in France, and seeing her papers
could not aliy wise pleasure Her Majesty, we doubted not but that the same
would be delivered unto such as she should appoint. For, for our own parts, we
undoubtedly thought that Her Majesty would not make any profit of her things,
and therefore (in our opinions) she might set downwhat she would have done, and
the same should be imparted unto Her Majesty, of whom both she and others
might expect all courtesy. Touching her body, we knew not her Majesty's
pleasure, and therefore could neither say that her petition should be denied, or
granted. For the practice of Babington, she utterly denied it, and would have
inferred it that her death was for her religion: whereunto it was eftsoons by us
replied, that for many years she was not touched for religion, nor should have
Deen now, but that this proceeding against her was for treason, in that she was
culpable of that horrible conspiracy for destroying Her Majesty's person; which
she again denied, adding further that albeit she for herself forgave them that
were the procurers of her death, yet she doubted not but that God would take
vengeance thereof, And being charged with the depositions of Naue and Curls




APPENDIX, No. LI.                            439
to prove it against her, she replied, that she accused none, but that hereafter
when she shall be dead, and they remain alive, it shall be seen how indifferently
she had been dealt with, and what measure had been used unto her; and asked
whether it had been heard before this, that servants had been practised to accuse
their mistress, and hereupon also required what was become of them, and where
they remained.
Upon our departure from her, for that it seemed by the commission, that the
charge of her was in the disposition of us the Earls, we required S. Arnias Pawlet and S. Drue Drurie to receive for that night the charge which they had
before, and to cause the whole number of soldiers to watch that night, and that
her folks should be put up, and take order that only four of them should be at
the execution, remaining aloof of and guarded with certain persons so as they
should not come near unto her, which were Melvil her steward, the physician,
surgeon, and apothecary.
Wednesday morning, after that we the Earls were repaired unto the castle,
and the Sheriff had prepared all things in the hall for the execution, he was
commanded to go into her chamber, and to bring her down to the place where
were present we which have signed this letter, Mr. Henry Talbot, Esq., Sir
Edward Montague, Knt., his son and heir apparent, and William Montague,
his brother, Sir Richard Knichtly, Knt., Mr. Thomas Brudenell, Mr. Beuill, Mr.
Robert and John Wingefield, Mr. Forrest, and Rayner, Benjamin Piggot, Mr.
Dean of Peterborough, and others.
At the stairfold, she paused to speak to Melvil in our hearing, which was to
this effect: "Melvil, as thou hast been an honest servant to me, so I pray thee
continue to my son, and commend me unto him. I have not impugn'd his
religion, nor the religion of others, but wish him well. And as I forgive all
that have offended me in Scotland, so I would that he should also; and beseech
God, that he would send him his Holy Spirit, and illuminate him." Melvil's
answer was, that he would so do, and at that instant he would beseech God to
assist him with his Spirit. Then she demanded to speak with her priest, which
was denied unto her, the rather for that she came with a superstitious pair of
beads and a crucifix. She then desired to have her women to help her, and
upon her earnest request, and saying that when other gentlewomen were executed, she had read in chronicles that they had women allowed unto them, it
was permitted that she should have two named by herself, which were Mrs. Curie
and Kennedy. After she came to the scaffold, first in presence of them all, Her
Majesty's commission was openly read; and afterwards Mr. Dean of Peterborough, according to a direction which he had received, the night before, from
us the Earls, wou'd have made a godly admonition to her, to repent and die
well in the fear of God and charity to the world. But at the first entry, she
utterly refused it, saying that she was a Catholique, and that it were a folly to
move her being so resolutely minded, and that our prayers would little avail
her. Whereupon, to the intent it might appear that we, and the whole assembly, had a Christian desire to have her die well, a godly prayer, conceived by
Mr. Dean, was read and pronounced by us all. " That it would please Almighty
God to send her His Spirit and grace, and also, if it were his will, to pardon all
her offences, and of his mercy to receive her into his heavenly and everlasting
kingdom, and finally to bless Her Majesty, and confound all her enemies;"
whereof Mr. Dean, minding to repair up shortly, can show your Lordships a
copy.
This done, she pronounced a prayver upon her knees to this effect, " to beseech
God to send her his Holy Spirit, and that she trusted to receive her salvation
in his blood, and of his grace to be received into his kingdom, besought God to
forgive her enemies, as she forgave them; and to turn his wrath from this
land, to bless the Queen's Majestie, that she might serve him. Likewise to be
merciful to her son, to have compassion of his church, and altho' she was not
worthy to be heard, yet she had a confidence in his mercy, and prayed all the
saints to pray unto her Saviour to receive her." After this (turning towards
her servants) she desired them to pray for her, that her Saviour would receive
her. Then, upon petition made by the executioners, she pardoned them; and
said, that she was glad that the end of all her sorrows was so near. Then she
disliked the whinning and weeping of her women, saying that they rather ought




440            HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
to thank God for her resolution, and kissing them, willed them to depart from
the scaffold, and farewell. And so resolutely kneeled down, and having a kerchief banded about her eyes,laid down her neck, whereupon the executioner pro.
teeded. Her servants were incontinently removed, and order taken that none
should approach unto her corpse, but that it should be embalmed by the surgeon
appointed. And further her crosse, apparel, and other things are retained here,
and not yielded unto the executioner for inconveniences that might follow, but
he is remitted to be rewarded by such as sent him hither.
This hath been the manner of our dealings in this service, whereof we have
thought good to advertise Your Lordships, as particularly as we could, for the
time, and further have thought good to signify unto Your Lordships besides,
that for the avoiding of all sinister and slanderous reports that may be raised
to the contrary, we have caused a note thereof to be conceived to the same effect
in writing, which we the said Lords have subscribed, with the hands of such
other there the knights and gentlemen above named that were present at the
action. And so beseeching Almighty God long to bless Her Majesty with a
most prosperous reign, and to confound all his and her enemies, we take our
leaves. From Fotheringay Castle, the 8th of February, 1586, in hast.
Your Lordships at commandment.
N. B. This, as well as several other papers in this Appendix, is taken from a col
lection, made by Mr. Crawfurd of Drumsoy, historiographer to Queen Anne.
now in the library of the Faculty of Advocates. Mr. Crawfurd's transcriber
has omitted to mention the book in the Cott. Lib. where it is to be found.'
No. LII. (p. 274.)
The Objections against.Jlr. Davison, in the Cause of the late Scottish Queen, must
concern Things done either, 1. Before her Trial at Fotheringay. 2, During
that Session. 3. After the same.
[Cott. Lib. Cal. C. 1.]
1. BEFORE her trial, he neither is, nor can be charged to have had any hand
at all in the cause of the said Queen, or done any thing whatsoever concerning
the same directly or indirectly.
2. During that session, he remained at court, where the only interest he had
therein, was as Her Majesty's secretary, to receive the letters from the commissioners, impart them to Her Highness, and return them her answers.
3. After the return thence, of the said commissioners, it is well known to all
her council,
1. That he never was at any deliberation or meeting whatsoever, in parliament, or council, concerning the cause of the said Queen, till the sending down
of Her Majesty's warrant unto the commissioners, by the Lords and others of
her council.
2. That he was no party in signing the sentence passed against her.
3. That he never penned either the proclamation publishing the same, the
warrant after her death, nor any other letter, or thing whatsoever concerning
the same. And,
That the only thing which can be specially and truly imputed to him, is the
carrying up the said warrant unto Her Majesty to be signed. She sending a
great counsellor unto him, with her pleasure to that end, and carrying it to the
great seal of England, by her own special direction and commandment.
For the better clearing of which truth, it is evident,
1. That the letter, being penned by the Lord Treasurer, was delivered by
him unto Mr. Davison, with Her Majesty's own privity, to be ready for to sign,
when she should be pleased to call for it.
2. That being in his hands, he retained it at the least five or six weeks unpresented, nor once offering to carry it up, till she sent a great counsellor unto
him for the same, and was sharply reproved therefor by a great peer, in Her
Majesty's own presence.
a That having signed it, she gave him an express commandment to carry it




APPENDIX, No. LII,                            -441
to the seal, and being sealed to send it immediately away unto the commission.
ers, according to the direction. Herself appointing the hall of Fotheringay
for the place of execution, misliking the court-yard, in divers respects, and in
conclusion absolutely forbad him to trouble her any further, or let her hear
any more hereof, till it was done. She, for her part, having (as she said) performed all that, in law or reason, could be required of her,
4. Which directions notwithstanding, he kept the warrant sealed all that
night, and the greatest part of the next day in his hands, brought it back with
him to the court, acquainted Her Majesty withal, and finding Her Majesty
resolved to proceed therein, according to her former directions, and yet desirous to carry the matter so, as she might throw the burthen from herself, he
absolutely resolved to quit his hands thereof.
5. And hereupon went over unto the Lord Treasurer's chamber, together with
Mr. Vice-chamberlain Hatton, and in his presence restored the same into the
hands of the said Lord Treasurer, of whom he had before received it, who
from thenceforth kept it, till himself and the rest of the council sent it away.
Which, in substance and truth, is all the part and interest the said Davison
had in this cause, whatsoever is, or may be pretended to the contrary.
Touching the sending down thereof unto the commissioners, that it was the
general act of Her Majesty's council (as is before mentioned) and not any private act of his, may appear by,
1. Their own confession. 2. Their own letters sent down therewith to the
commissioners. 3. The testimonies of the Lords and others to whom they were
directed. As also, 4, of Mr. Beale, by whom they were sent. 5. The tenor of
Her Majesty's first commission for their calling to the star-chamber for the same,
and private appearance and submission afterwards instead thereof before the
Lord Chancellor Bromley. 6. The confession of Mr. Attorney-General in open
court confirmed. 7. By the sentence itself upon Record. 8. Besides a common
act of council, containing an answer to be verbally delivered to the Scottish
ambassador then remaining here, avowing and justifying the same.
Now where some suppose him to have given some extraordinary furtherance
thereunto, the contrary may evidently appear by,
1. His former absolute refusal to sign the band of association, being earnestly
pressed thereunto by Her Majesty's self.
2. His excusing of himself from being used as a commissioner, in the examination of Babington and his accomplices, and avoiding the same by a journey
to the Bath.
3. His being a mean to stay the commissioners from pronouncing of the sen.
tence at Fotheringay, and deferring it till they should return to Her Majesty's
presence.
4. His keeping the warrant in his hands six weeks unpresented, without once
offering to carry it up, till Her Majesty sent expressly for the same to sign.
5. His deferring to send it away after it was sealed unto the commissioners,
as he was specially commanded, staying it all that night, and the greatest part
of the next day, in his hands.
6. And, finally, his restoring thereof into the hands of the Lord Treasurer,
of whom he had before received the same.
Which are clear and evident proofs, that the said Davison did nothing in this
cause whatsoever, contrary to the duty of the place he then held in Her Ma
iesty's service.
This seems to be an original. On the back is this title:
The innocency of Mr. Davison in the cause of the late Scottish Queen
VoL. III.-56




442            XHISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
No. LIIL (p. 312.)
Letter from G to His JlMajesty King James,*
[Fromthe original. Bibl. Fac. Jur. Edinb A. 1. 34. No. 4.]
MOST worthy Prince, the depending dangers upon your affectionates, have
been such, as hath enforced silence in him, who is faithfully devoted to your
person, and in due time of trial, will undergo all hazards of fortune for the
maintenance of the just regal rights, that, by the laws divine, of nature and
of nations, is invested in your royal person. Fall not then, most noble and
renowned Prince, from him whose providence hath in many dangers preserved
you, no doubt to be an instrument of his glory, and the good of his people.
Some secrets, I find, have been revealed to your prejudice, which must proceed
from some ambitious violent spirited person near Your Majesty in council and
favour; no man in particular will I accuse, but I am sure it hath no foundation
from any, with whom, for your service, 1 have held correspondence, otherwise,
I had, long since, been disabled from performance of those duties, that the
thoughts of my heart endeavoureth; being only known to this worthy nobleman bearer hereof, one noted in all parts of Christendom for his fidelity to
your person and state, and to Mr. David Fowlis your most loyal servant, my
first and faithful correspondent; and unto James Hudsone, whom I have found
in all things that concern you most secret and assured. It may, therefore,
please Your Majesty, at the the humble motion of e, which jargon I desire to
be the indorsement of your commands unto me, that, by some token of your
favour, he may understand in what terms you regard his fidelity, secrecy, and
service. My passionate affection to your person (not as you are a King, but
as you are a good King, and have just title, after my sovereign, to be a great
King) doth transport me to presumption. Condemn not, most noble Prince,
the motives of care and love, altho' mixed with defects in judgment.
1. I, therefore, first beseech Your Majesty, that for the good of those whom
God, by Divine Providence, hath destined to your charge, that you will be
pleased to have an extraordinary care of all practicers, or practices, against
your person; for it is not to be doubted, but that in both kingdoms, either out
of ambition, faction, or fear, there are many that desire to have their sovereign
in minority, whereby the sovereignty and state might be swayed by partiality
of subalternate persons, rather than by true rule of power and justice. Preserve your person, and fear not the practices of man upon the point of your
right, which will be preserved and maintained against all assaults of competition
whatever. Thus I leave the protection of your person and royal posterity to
the Almighty God of Heaven, who bless and preserve you and all yours, in all
regal happiness, to his glory.
2. Next to the preservation of your person, is the conservation and secret
keeping of your councells, which, as I have said, are often betrayed and discovered, either out of pretended zeal in religion, turbulent faction, or base conception, the which Your Majesty is to regard with all circumspection, as a
matter most dangerous to your person and state, and the only means to ruin
and destroy all those that stand faithfully devoted to Your Majesty's service.
Some particulars, and persons of this nature, I make no doubt have been discovered by the endeavours of this nobleman, the bearer hereof, of whom Your
Majesty may be further informed.
3. The third point considerable is that Your Majesty by all means possible,
secure yourself of the good affection of the French King and states, by the
negotiation of some faithful secret confident; the French naturally distasting
the union of the British Islands under one monarch. In Germany, I doubt not,
but you have many allies and frisnds, but by reason of their remote state they
* Inthe former editions I printed this as a letter from Sir Robert Cecil, but am l.Dw satisfied that
I was mistaken in forming this opinion. See Sir D. Dalrymple's Rem. on the Hist. of Scot. p. 233.
As the letter is curious I republish it, though I cannot pretend to say to which of the King's numo
rous correspondents in England it should be ascribed




APPENDIX, No. LIII                            443
do not so much importe this affair, which must be guided by a quick and
sudden motion.
4. When God, by whose providence the period of all persons and times is
determined, shall call to his kingdom of glory Her Majesty (although I do
assuredly hope that there will not be any question in competition, yet for that I
hold it not fitting to give any minute entrance into a cause of so high a nature),
I do humbly beseech Your Majesty to design a secret, faithful and experienced
confidant servant of yours, being of an approved fidelity and judgment, continually to be here resident, whose negotiation, it were convenient Your Majesty
should fortifie, with such secret trust and powers, as there may not need 14 days
respite to post for authority, in a cause that cannot endure ten hours respite,
without varieties of danger. In the which it is to be considered, that all such
as pretend least good to your establishment, will not in public oppugn your title,
but out of their cunning ambition will seek to gain time by alledging their pretence of common good to the state, in propounding of good conditions for disburthening the common weale, of divers hard laws, heavy impositions, corruptions, oppressions, &c. which is a main point to lead the popular, who are much
disgusted with many particulars of this nature. It were therefore convenient.
that these motives, out of Your Majesty's providence should be prevented, by
your free offer in these points following, viz.
1. That Your Majesty would be pleased to abolish purveyors and purveyance,
being a matter infinitely offensive to the common people, and the whole kingdom, and not profitable to the Prince.
2. That Your Majesty would be pleased to dissolve the court of wards, being
the ruin of all the noble and ancient families of this realm, by base matches,
and evil education of their children, by which no revenue of the crown will be
defrayed.
3. The abrogating the multiplicity of penal laws, generally repined against
by the subject, in regard of their uncertainty, by being many times altered
from their true meaning, by variety of interpretation.
4. That Your Majesty will be pleased to admit free outport of the native
commodities of this kingdom, now often restrained by. subalternate persons for
private profit, being most prejudicial to the commerce of all merchants, and a
plain destruction to the true industry and manufacture of all kingdoms, and
against the profit of the crown.
These, being by Your Majesty's confidents in the point of time propounded,
will assuredly confirm unto Your Majestie the hearts and affections of the whole
kingdom, and absolutely prevent all insinuations and devices of designing
patriots, that out of pretext of common good would seek to patronize themselves in popular opinion and power, and thereby to derogate from Your Majesty's bounty and free favour by princely merit of your moderation, judgment,
and justice.
Your Majesty's favour, thus granted to the sabject, will no way impeach the
profits of the crown, but advance them. The disproportionable gain of some
chequer officers, with the base and mercenary profits of the idle unnecessary
clerks and attendants, will only suffer some detriment; but infinite will be the
good unto the kingdom, which will confirm unto Your Majesty the universal
love and affection of the people, and establish your renown in the highest
esteem to all posterity.
The Lord preserve Your Majestie, and make you triumphant over all your
enemies.
My care over his person, whose letters pass in this pacquet, and will die before
he leave to be yours, shall be no less than of mine own life, and in like esteem
will I hold all your faithful confidents, notwithstanding I will hold myself reserved from being known unto any of them, in my particular devoted affections
unto your Majesty, only this extraordinary worthy man, whose associate I am
in his misfortune, doth know my heart, and we both will pray for you, and if
we live you shall find us together.
I beseech Your Majesty burn this letter, and the others; for altho' it be in
an unusual hand, yet it may be discovered.
Your Majesty's most devoted, and humble servant,




I N D E X
TO THE
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Adamson, Archbishop of St. Andrews, is excoin-   during the minority of K. James V., 21. 31. al
municated by the synod of Fife, 258. He ex-   unable to gain his affections, 31. Is attainted,
communicated his opponents, ib. Is restored   and flies into England, ib. Obtains leave to
by the general assembly upon conditions, 258,   return into Scotland, 241. Surrenders himself
259. His mean submission to the general as-   to K. James VI., 245. He with several others
semrbly, 283.                                 seizes the castle of Stirling to oppose Arran,
Adlbainy, Alexander, duke of, cabals with his no-   246. They are forced to fly into England at
bles against his brother, K. James III., 28. Is   the approach of the King with an army, ib.
made prisoner, but escapes to France, ib. Con-   He is attainted, and his estate forfeited, 249.
eludes a treaty with Edward IV. of England,   Is concerned in a plot in favour of Spain, 285.
ib. Procures assistance to invade Scotland on   Is seized, and committed prisoner to the castle
mean conditions, 28, 29. Returns to Scotland,   of Edinburgh, 285, 286. Escapes and flies to
and is restored to favour, 29. Cabals again,   the mountains,286. Offers to submit to a trial,
but is forced to fly to France, ib. Made Regent   287. Sentence is pronounced against him, 288
during the minority of K. James V., 20. 30.   IIe refuses to submit, ib.
After several unsuccessful struggles with the Anjou, Duke of, a marriage proposed between
nobility, he is forced to retire to France, 31.  him and UQ. Elizabeth, 214.
Alencon, Dukle of, Q. Elizabeth long amuses the Adnne, a Princess of Dennmark, married to K.
court of France by carrying on a treaty of   JamnesVI., 282. Her arrival in Scotland and
marriage with him, 232.                       coronation, 283. Heads a party that opposes
lllen, Cardinal, published a book, proving the   the Chancellor, 286.
lawfillness of killing excommunicated Prin- Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, and Chapters, re
ces, 253.                                     vived in Scotland during the KIing's minority,.Alua, Duke of, his intrigues in favour of Q.   220, 221. This gives great offence to many of
Mary, 215. 217. 2'22.  Is recalled from  his   the clergy, 221. An act of assembly against
government of the Netherlands, 225.           these offices, 238. Bishops made subject to
Ambassadors, their office, 40.                  presbyteries and assemblies, 258.  A  great
JAndrewse, St., the Archbishop of, remarkably   stroke given to their authority, 276,277. None
cured of a dangerous distemper, 59, 60. The   of themn present at the Queen' s coronation, 283.
motives of his opposition to the Q. Regent, 70. Argyll, Earl of, is appointed to carry the crown
His great influence on the bench of Bishops,   matrimonial to the Dauphin of France, 71.
and weight in Parliament, ib. Governed the   Uses his interest with the Reformers to mlake a
church with great moderation, 71. Persecutes   treaty witll' the 0Q. Regent, 76. Leaves her
the Reformers, ib. Is imprisoned for celebrat-   court in resentment of her treachery, 77. Reing mass, 123. Ruins Q. Mary's affairs by his   fuses to accede to a treaty with Murray the
imprudent conduct, 182. Is. taken prisoner in    Regent, 198. Is soon after forced to subimit, ib.
Dumbarton castle, and hanged, 211.            Acts as Lieutenant to the Queen after the Re-, St. the castle of, demolished by the   gent's murder, 207. Is prevailed on to join the
French, 52.                                   King's party, 213. Quarrels with Athol, 227
-, St., the prior of, promotes a treaty be-   Confederates with him  against Morton, the
tween the Q. Regent and the Reformers, 76.   Regent for their multual defence, ib. They reIs provoked to leave the court, 77. Is one of   monstrate against him to the King, 230. They
the chief promoters of the Reformation, 83.   raise forces against him, ib. Negotiate a treaty
Some account and character of him, ib. Art-   with him by the mediation of Q. Elizabeth, ib.
ful endeavours used to undermine him, ib.   Is promoted to the office of Chancellor, 231.
Presumption of his innocence of the designs   The king's authority delegated to him  and
charged on him, 84. Is sent by the Convention    Lord Forbes against the popish Lords, 289.
to invite the 2lueen to Scotland, 104. Is re-   His forces are defeated in an engagement with
ceived by her with confidence and affection,   them, 290.
105. Restrains the turbulent spirit of the peo-.ristocracy, predominant in Scotland, 109.
ple against Popery, 110. Is sent to restrain the I Armada, Spanish, preparations for it, 278. It
licentious practices of the borderers, 113. Ex-i  is defeated, 280.
eCutes his commission with vigour and pru- I rran, Eall, is appointed Regent during the fnidence, ib. A conspiracy against him discover-   nority of Q.. Mary, 43.  His character, 44
ed, 116, 117. Is created Earl of Mar, 117. Be-   Consents to the schemes of England, which dis
comes obnoxious to the Earl of Huntly, 117,   gusts the public, 45. Becomes suspicious of
118. See JlMar and MJturray.                  the Earl of Lennox, 46. Is forced to renounce
4dngus, Gilbert de UJmfreville, Earl of, was the   the friendship with England, and declare for
only man who asserted the independence of his   France, ib. and to persecute the Reformers, 47.
country, 11                                   Publicly abjures the doctrines of the Reformers.
-, Douglas Earl of, assumes the Regency   ib. Is contesmned by one half, and little tusted




INDEX.                                             4~5
by the other part of the nation, ib. Heads the  d.3ubirgnd, Lord de, second son of the Lord Len
partisans of France and defenders of popery,   nox, alrives in  Scotland from  France, c32.,
48. Attempts in vain to seize the murderers of   Becomeles soon a great lavouriseof King JaInes,
Cardinal Beatoun, 51. Is forced to make a    ib. High tit.les and posts bestowed oI hirm,233.
truce with tlle conspirators, ib. His eldest son    Notes against him, Appendix, iii. 414. Sec
is condllitionlally excluded all right of succession,    Lennox.
52.  Ilis imean concession to the court of.dustrian family, their origin andpower, 40, 41
France, 55. Gets the title of Chatelherault, ib.
Is undermined by the Q. Dowager, 59. Propo-  Babingtons, Anthony, some account of him, 26th
sals and arguments for his resignatiun, ib. He    The rise of his conspiracy against Q. Eliza
consents to it, ib. Retracts bythe influence of   beth, ib. The names and scheme of operations
the Archbishop of St. Andrews, 60. Is at last   of his associates, ib. They are betrayed. seized,
prevailed on, and gets advantageous terms, ib.   anld executed, 261.
See ChLatclhemrault.                           Bacon. Sir Nicholas, appointed one of the com.lrran, eldest son of the Duke of Chatelherault,    missioners to the confederates at Westinin
joins in an association with the Reformers, 82.   ster, 194.
Narrowly escapes intended ruin at the court of Baliol, John, his claim to the crown of Scotland,
France, 83. Is full of resentment against the    10. Is preferred by Edward I.,ih  Soon forced
French on that account, ib. The congregation    by him to resign, 11.
solicit Q. Elizabeth to marry him, 101. His  Ballard, a trafficking priest, solicits an invasion
great imlprudenlce with regard to Q. Mary, 113.   of England fiom Spain, 260. Joins in a conDiscovers a conspiracy against the Qlueen's   spiracy to murder Q. Elizabeth, ib. Is disfavourite, 116, 117. Loses his reason, 231. Is   covered, and taken into custody, 261, and exeimprisoned by Morton, 232.                       cuted, ib.
late Capt. Stewart, gets that title and  Barons, their jurisdiction very extensive, 15.
estate, ii. 236. Is appointed to conduct Morton    The difference between the areater and lesser;
from  Dumbarton to Edinburgh, ib. His in-    whence, 37. Three hundred of thenl remonfamnous marriage with the Countess of March,    strate against the conduct of the Ct. Dowager,
237. His variance with Lennox, 238. Is frus-    66. The lesser admitted by their represenltatrated in an attempt to rescue the King at Ruth-    tives in Parliament, 277. Petition of the lesser
ven, 240. Is confined prisoner to the castle of   Barons to Parliament, Appendix, 358. See
Stirling, 241.  Regains his liberty and the   VNobles.
King's regard, 244. Resumes his power and  Basilicon Doron, a book published by K. James
arrogance, lb. Gets the Ruthven conspirators    VI., strengthens his interest in Engltand, 299.
declared guilty of high treas6n, 245. Is detest-  Beatouln, Carlinal, made use of by K. James V.
ed as autllorof a persecution against the clerry,   to nmortify the nobles, 33. His pretensions to
247. Is gained over to Q. Elizabeth's interest,   the regetncy oln the death of that Prince, 43.
249. Gets several forfeited estates, ib.  His    Forges a testament of the late King, lb.  His
corruption and insolence. 252. Is made chan-    views how disappointed, lib. His character, ib.
cellor, and has unlimited power, lb. His ve-    Opposes the Earl of Arran, Regent,45. Excites
nality is exceeded by that of his wife, lb.  His    most of tile nation against the English, 46.
monstrous tyranny and oppression, 252, 2.53.   Seizes the young Queen and her mIrothe, ib.
His power undermined b)y Wotton, the English    Cajoles tile Earl of Lennox, ib. Obliges the
envoy, 257. Is confined in the castle of St.    R.egent to renounce England and declare for
Andrews, but soon recovers favour, ib.  His    France, ihb., and to persecute the Reformers, 47.
interest sinks muach, 257. Is stripped of Iis    Englrosses the chief direction of affairs, lb.
honours and spoils, and reduced to his original    His doutble dealiga with the Earl of Lemuox restation, 258.                                     sented, 48.  Is murdered, 50.   His death fatal.lrticles, I,ords of, their origin and business, 38.   to the Catholics,ilb. A vain attempt to revenge
By wllhmnr chosen, ib. The subsequent varia-    it, 51. Scandalous reports concerning him, 64.
tions anld political use mnade of this institu-  Bedlford, Earl of, cones s   am;bassador fiomll Q.
tion, 39.                                        Elizabeth to witness the baptism of James VI.,.drund-el, Earl of, is appointed a commissioner to    155.  llis instluct lions, 156. Ilis letters to Sir
the conference at Wesailninster, 194.'IV. Cecil, Aplpeldix, 371. 374. 377.
Ashtby, anmbassadoi fimom  Q. Elizabeth to Scot- Bellcudesn, Sir Lewis, jllstice clerk, KI  James's
land, 278. His great promises to King James,   resident at London, 256. Joins in promoting
it). His promises are soon forgot, 280. He is    Q. Elizabeth's inteuest in Scotlaid, ib. Is sent
ashamed anld withdraws privately from Scot-    with her envoy into that country, ih.
lanid, ib.                                     Black, Mr. Davidl, minister of St. Andrews, his.ssasasinsation, tihe frequency of it in Scotland,    ridiculous and seditious expressions in the pul
how accounted for, 147. Several instances of   pit,'293. Being suipported by the clergy, hlie deit inl France, ib. A stop put to it there and in    clinles the civil jurlisdiction, 293, 29i. Is conScotland, 148. Several great men approve of   alemnied by tlhe pivy council. 294. Is sentenced
it, lb. Prevailed greatly afterwards, 283.       by the King to reside beyond Spey, ib.
4qssembly, of thle church of Scotland, the first but Blackadder, Caplain, and three others, executed
feeble and irregular, 104. Another assenmbly,   for the nullder of Darnly, 174.
their demands fromn the Conrvention, 113, 114. Boethints, Hector, his Ilistory of Scotland, somne
Two other assemblies in vain solicit an aug-    accoumnt o;, 8.
mnentation of their revenues, 121. They ad- Bolton Castle, Queen Mary confined a prisonem
dress Q. Marv in high strains of complaint, 139.   there. 188.
An assembly proceeds at Glasgow, notwith-  Bonot, a foreigner, made governor of Orkney, 65
standing the KinS's inteldiction, 239. Tso as-  Bosrdlerers, an attempt to restrain their licentious
sernblies yield many of the privileges of the    practices, 113. Q. Mary visits them, 152. A
cltulch to the Iving, 297. Declare it lawful for    semffle there, in which the English wardlen, &c
ministers to sit irn Parliament, 298. See Clery.   were irade poismoners, 226.
Aqssociation, foimmed in defence of Q. Elizabeth   Boewtlhweick, Lord, assists the Q. Regent in dea,.ainst 0Q. Mary, ~250.                         feimdinm Leithl, 89.
A'thol, Earl of, the occasion of his qualrel with  Bothwezll, Jamles Hepbhurn, Earl of, intercepts a
the -Earl of Argyll, 227. Joins with hiln in op-   suttn of 0r1o!ey friom England to the CongregaposingMorton,the Regent,ib.  Dies soon after   tion, 89. Favlours the Oteen Regent, blt reat an entertainment at Morton's, 231. Siuspi-   sides at his own tiouse, ib. Is by the Farl of
cions of his being poisoned, ib.                 Murray sutimmioned to a public trial, 133. Pre




446                                   INDEX.
vents it by leaving the kingdom, ib. A sentence Boyd, Lord, his ambitious views in the time of
of outlawry against him  prevented by the   K. James IIt. frustrated, 20.
Queen, ib. Is permitted to return, 137. Es- -, is prevailed on to joist the King's party
capes with her after the murder of Rizio, 145.   against Q. Mary, 213. Joins the Ruthven conSome account of his former behaviour, 149.   spirators, 240.
Commences a favourite with the Queen, ib. Brienne, Count de, comes an ambassador to
She reconciles him to several Lords, with whom    France to witness the baptism of K. James
he was at variance, 150. He increases in fa-   VI., 155.
vour with her, ib. Circumstances concurring  Bruce, Robert, his claim to the crown of Scotin this, 151. He is wounded in attempting to   land, 10. His grandson asserts his right, and
seize one of the borderers, 152. The Queen's   vindicates the honour of his country, 11. He
extraordinary regard for him on this occasion,   attempts to reduce the power of the nobles, 24
ib. To secure adherents, he obtains a pardon  —, a priest employed by the King of Spain to
for Morton and his associates, 157. Proposes   seduce the Scotch nobles, 280.
the restoration of the Popish ecclesiastical juris- -, Mr. Robert, a presbyterian minister, per
diction, ib. His views in this, 158. Is sus-   forms the ceremony of the coronation of K
pected the author of Darnly's murder, 160. Is   James's Queen, 283.
charged with it by Lennox, 161. But still fa- -, Edward, Abbot of Kinloss, acquits himself
voured by the Queen, 161, 162. Appointed    with address and reputation as ambassador at
governor of Edinburgh Castle, 162. His trial   the court of England, 299.
is hurried on, ib. Remarkable partiality in his -, Mr. Robert, a minister, his resolution in refavour, ib. Lennox accuses hiim openly, 163.   fusing to publish the King's account of Gow
Comes to his trial with a great retinue, ib. Is   rie's conspiracy, 308. Is deprived and banishea
acquitted by a jury, ib. The trial universally   on that account, ib.
censured, ib. Challenges any that would ac-, Buchanan, George, his history of Scotland, some
cuse him, 164. Several acts of parliament   account of, 8. Remarks on his dialogue De
passed in his favour, ib. He procures an act in   Jure Regis, 178.  Note. Aloule accuses Q
favour of the Reformation, 165. Prevails on    Mary of a criminal correspondence with Rizio,
several of the nobles to recommend him as a    144.  Note. Approved of assassination, 148
husband to the QuceTn, 166. Seizes the Queen    Attends the Regent into England when called
on a journey from Stirling, and carries her to   on to accuse Q. Mary, 190. Was one of the
Dunbar, 167. His view in this, 168. Obtains   preceptors of K. James VI., 227. Commended
a pardon under the great seal, ib. Procures a   for his great genius, 320, 321.
divorce from his wife, lb. Carries the Queen  Burleigh. See Cecil.
to the CastleofEdinburgh, ib. Is created Duke Boroughs, when first represented in Parlia
of Orkney, 169, and Inarried to the Queen, lb.   ment, 277.
Is not allowed the titleof King, ib. He watches
the Queen very closely, ib. Endeavours to  Cais, John, a declaration of his in name of Q
get the Prince into his custody, ib. Is alarmed    Elizabeth to the Lords of Grange, at Lethingwith an association of the nobles against the   ton, Appendix, 409.
Queen and him, 170. Carries the Queen to  Caitiness, Earl of, his protest at the trial of Both
the castle of Borthwick, 171. Raises forces   well for the murder of Darnly, 164.
against the confederate lords, lb. He marches  Calvin, the patron and restorer of presbyterian
against them, ib. Proposes a single combat,   church government, 103.
172. This how prevented, ib. Takes his last Camden, some mistakes of his, 156..Vote.
farewell of the Queen, and is forced to fly, lb.   167..Note.
Sends for a casket of letters from Q. Mary to  Canongate, near Edinburgh, a Parliament held
him, 174. They are intercepted by the Earl of   there, 212.
Morton, ib. His miserable fate, 179. Reflec- Cardan, some account of him, 60. His remarkations on his conduct, lb. Copy of his divorce   ble cure of the Bishop of St. Andrew's, ib.
from Lady Jane Gordon, Appendix, 379.       Carey, Sir George, sent ambassador from  Q
Bothwell, Francis Stewart, created Earl of Both-   Elizabeth to encourage the conspirators at
vell, 280. Is imprisonedfor consulting witches,   Ruthven, 241.
284. Escapes and attempts to break into the    ~, Robert, sent by Q. Elizabeth to soothe K.
King's presence, ib. Retires to the northl, lb.   James after the death of his mother, 274. Is
He and his adherents are attainted,285. Fails   not permitted to enter Scotland, lb. Was the
in an attempt to seize the King, lb. Is taken   first that brought K. James intelligence of tF.
under protection of Q. Elizabeth, who solicits   death of Q. Elizabeth, 316.
for him, 286. Seizes the King's person, 287. Casket of letters from  Q. Mary to Bothwell,
Forces him to dismiss the chancellor, and his   seized by the Earl of Morton, 174. Her eneother favourites, lb., and to grant him a remis-   mies avail themselves much of them, ib.
dion, ib. His bold and insolent behaviour after- Cassils, Earl of, joins the King's party, 213.
ward,ib. Is encouraged bythe English ambas- Castelnau, the French ambassador, is employed
sador, 288. Makes another attempt to come at   to procure the consent of his court to Queen
the King, 289. Is repulsed, and obliged to fly   Mary's marriage with Darnly, 130. He ento the north of England, ib. Is abandoned by   deavours to malke up the differences between
Q. Elizabeth, and forced to fly into Spain and   the Queen and hins, 150. His intercession on
Italy, 291. Remains in indigent obscurity, and   behalf of Q. Mary, 254.
is never after reconciled to the King, ib.  Catherine of Medicis, assumes the government
--, Adam, Bishop of Orkney, performs the   after the death of Francis II. her son, 102.
ceremony of marriage of Q. Mary to the Earl   Her harsh treatment of Q. Mary, ib. Her views
of Bothwell, 169.                             in behaving more friendly to her. 125. Bends
Bot.zwecllhaugh. See Hamilton.                  her whole endeavours to destroy the ProBots.ogne, wrested bythe French outof the hands   testants, 214. Her artful conduct mvith tha
of the English, 55. They consent to restore it   view, ib.
and its dependencies to the French, 56.     Cecil, his great capacity as a minister, 96. 106
Bswces, Envoy firom Q. Elizabeth, accuses Len-   Is employed to negotiate a peace with France
nox of disturbing the peace,234. Is refused an   106. Overreaches the French ambassador in
audience, lb. Is sent to encourage the con-   the treaty of Edinburgh, lb. A letter of his
spirators at Ruthven, 241, to inquire about   cited to show that Q. Elizabeth had no inten
KIing  James's  correspondence  with  the   tion to intercept Q. Mary in her return to Scot
Pope, 300                                    land, 109. Note. Is appointed a commissiones




INDEX.                                           447
to thlt conference at Westminster, 194. Is sent   245. By favouring them  they provoke the
by Q. Elizabeth with proposals to Q. Mary, 209.   King, 246. Severe laws made against them,
Has an interview with her, which excites Q.   247. They of Edinburgh fly into England, ib.
Elizabeth's jealousy, 225. Is treated harshly    As do several others that were most eminent,
by Q. Elizabeth for consenting to Q. Mary's   ib. Morevigorous measures against them, 249
death, 274.                                     250. They obtain no redress on the restoration
Cecil, Sir Robert, son to the former, heads the    of the exiled lords,'258. Represent their grievparty against Essex, 309. His character, 310.   ances to Parliament, 275.  A maintenance
His great assiduity, ib. Enters into a private   provided for them by Parliament, 276. They
correspondence with K. James, 312.              prevail to get presbyterian government estabPlibacy of the popish clergy, a chief engine of   lished by law, 285. Their zeal against the
their policy, 63.                               popish lords,288. 292; Their rash proceedings,
Charles V. Emperor, his great power, 40., and    292. They erect a standing council of the
unlimited ambition, 41. Is checked by Fran-   church, ib. Vindicate one of their nunmber who
cis I., ib.                                     declined the civil jurisdiction, 293, 294. Their
K. of France, makes a league with Q.   standing council ordered to leave Edinburgh,
Elizabeth, 217.                                 294. Thisoccasions aviolent tumult there, 295.
Ch7atellherault, Duke of, that title conferred on    They use their utmost efforts to spirit the peothe Earl of Arran, Regent of Scotland, 55. His   ple, 295, 296. Are, deserted, and fly to England,
right of succession to the crown of Scotland   2906. Their power greatly reduced, ib. Are
maintained, 68. Enters a protestation to save    prevailed on to give up many of their privihis right, 70. Joins the Reformers in endea-   leges, 297. Are restored to a seat in Parliavoiring to expel the French army, 81. Joins in    ment, 298. This violently opposed by many of
association with them, 82. Is looked on as the   them, ib. But carried in their general assermhead of the Congregation, 83. Hiis pusillanim-    bly, ib. Those entitled to this privilege are laid
ity, 88. Becomes obnoxious to Q. Mary, 113.   under many regulations and restrictions, 301.
Deprivedofhis Frenich pension, 125. Is alarnmed    They are brought, under great subjection, ib.
at the Earl of Lennox's return to Scotland, 128.   The revolutions among them since the union
An accommodation  brought about by the    of the crowns, 320.
Queen's influence, ib. Adheres to Murray in  Clinton, Lord, appointed a commissioner at the
opposing the Queen's marriage, 135. Is par-   conference at Westminster, 194.
doned on his humble application, but forced to  Cockburn, of Oriniston, receives a supply of
reside in France, 138. His partisans grumble    money from the English to the congregation,
at Murray's bei ng advanced to the Regency, 180.   89. Is intercepted, and robbed of it, ib.
Returns fronl France, and heads the Queen's  Coin in Scotland, sonie account of, 87. 225.
adherents, 197. Is made her Lieutenant-genl-  Commissaries appointed to try causes in place of
eral, 198. His resolution wavering, the Regent   the spiritual court, 100. They are deprived of
commits him  prisoner to the castle of Edini-   all authority, 157.
ourgh, 198. Is set at liberty by Kirkaldy, anti  Confession of'faith by the Reformers consented to
joins the Queen's party, 206. Is proclaimed    by Parliament, 99.
traitor by Lennox, the new Regent, 208. ~ Is re-  Conrgregation, the Protestants distinguished by
conciled to Morton the Regent, 223. Articles of   that name, 74. Their leaders enter into an asa treaty between them, ib. His death, 226.      sociation, ib. Are involved in difficulties, 88..Jhurrch of Scotland, revolutions in it after the    Apply to Q. Elizabeth for assistance, ib. Money
union of tLhe.crowns, 319, 320. See.asseembly,   sent them by her intercepted, 89. Make a rash
Clergy.                                         and desperate attempt on Leith, and are re
Chrurcrh Lands annexed to the crown by Parlia-   pulsed, ib. Are no less unfortunate in a second
irent,276.                                      skirmish, ib. Are quite dispirited and retreat
Clants, the institution and nature of, 17.        to Stirling, ib. Are joined by the body of the
Clerrgy, Popish, their great riches and power, 32.   nobles, ib. Their army dwindles away, 90.
62. Were made use of by K. James V. to sup-   Are animated by Knox, ib. They apply again
press the nobles, 32. Made a considerable body   to Q. Elizabeth, ib. Their parties harass the
sn Parliament, 62. Their great influence over   French, 92. Assisted by a fleet from England,
the laity, ib. Theyengrossed learning, 63, and    93. Conclude a treaty at Berwick wiih the D.
held many of the chief employments, ib. Their   of Norfolk, ib. The design and substance of
power increased by celibacy, ib. They seized   this treaty,ib. Negotiate a peace with France,
the estates of the intestate, ib., and tried all   97. Articles of the treaty, ib.  They reap admatrimonial and testamentary causes, ib. Be-   vantages from it, 98. See Refornation.
come obnoxious to the laity. 64. Their great Covenarrt, national, framed in defence of the King
corrrptions, whence, ib. Those of Scotland    and government,279. The nature and reasonparticularly dissolute, ib. Their weak deftence    ableness of it, ib. The pro-rress of it since, ib.
of their tenets, ib.  iry in vain to impose false  Covrtesy of Scotland, whllat, 69.
miracles, 65. Their impolitic conduct to the  Craig, a minister, boldly testifies against Queen
Reformers, 72.                                  Mary's marriage with Bothwell, 169.,  Reformed, try in vain to recover the re-  Crawford, Capt. of Jordan Hill, surprises Dumvenues of the church, 104, 105. Procure a de    barton Castle, 210,211. The difficulties of that
molition of all relics of popery, 105. A new    enterprise, 211.
recgulation concerning their revenues, 114, 115., Earl of, one of the heads of the Spanish
They are no gainers by it, ib. Their stipends,   factionr,278. 280. Offers his service to the King
what in those days, ib. Are offended at the    of Spain, 280. Joins in rebellion against the
moderation of their leaders, 124. Occasion a    King, 281. Is forced to submit to him, ib., and
tulurnlt among the people, ib. More complaints   imprisoned a short time, ib.
of their poverty, 157.  Are jealous of Queen  Crichton?, Regent during the minority of K.JJnames
Mtry, ib. The small allowances appointed to   II., his barbarous policy, 26, 27.
supptrort thein all, ihb. Their application for --, a Jesuit, a plot against Q- E izabirll
payment of their stipends, of little effect, 180.   discovered by his means, 250.
Fresh complaints of the deficiency of the funds  Crim7inals, a remarkable instanceof the difficulty
for their rmaintenance, 203. Are pult off with    of bringing them to justice, 14.
fairwordsand promises,ib.  Arclbishops,&c. Croc, Din, the French ambassador, refused to
intrlloducedl alnong them by.Morton, 220, 221.   countceance  a. Mary's marriage with BothTheir grievanrces tinder his adminislration',226  rell, 169. Attempts in vain a reconciliation
They approve of the Ruthven conspirators, 243.   between the Queen and the confederate lords




48                                       IN DEX
171, 172. Mediates a truce between the King    ventiosn of the states, ib. Another attempt iu
and Queen's party in Scotland, 217.             favour of cbsrch discipline frustrated, 99.
roswn jFlatrimonial of Scotland, rights conveyed  Douglas, tho power and property of that famnlby the grant of, 69. Is granted by Parliament   ly, 20. They aspire to independency, lb. Wilto the Dauphin of France, 70. Deputies ap-   liam, Earl of1 murdered by K. James II., 26,
pointed to carry it, but are prevented, 71. Is   27. His son endeavours to resent it, 27. Is
demanded by Darnly, 142.                        forced to fly into England, ib.
Cunniagtarum, Robert, appears at the trial of - -, William, Q. Mary committed a priBothwell in name of the Earl of Lennox, 163.   soner to his castle at Lochleven, 173.
I)emands a delay, which is refused, ib.       -    -, George, brother to the above, assists the
G;urle, one of Q. AMary's secretaries, is seized,   Queen in making her escape, 181.
and carried prisoner to London, 262. Is pro-   a -, Archibald, one of Darnly's murderers,
duced a.n evidence against her, 265.            259. Undergoes a mock trial for that crime,
and is acquitted, ib. Is sent ambassador to')arenly, HenryLord, thought of as a husband to    England, lb. Letter fromn him  to the Q. of
Q. Mary, 126. His right of succession consi-   Scots, Appendix, 427. To the King, 432.
dered, ib.  Is permitted to visit the court of Drury, Sir William, enters Scotland with an
Scotland, 129.  Arrives there, and quickly   army to support the King's party, 207. They
gains the Queen's heart, 129, 130. His cha-   join hin, and drive off the Queen's, ib. He
racter, ib. Disgusts several of the nobles, par-   procures a truce between the King and Queen's
ticularlyMurray, 131. Cultivates a familiarity    parties, 217. Comes with forces to assist Morwith David Rizio, ib. Is despised on that ac-   ton in besieging the castle of Edinburgh, 224.
count, ib.  Grows intolerably insolent and    Which is forced to surrender, ib.
haughty, 134. Schemes to assassinate Murray, --—, Sir Drue, is appointed one of Q. Mary's
135. A plot to seize and send hin to England    keepers, 251.
prevented by the Queen, ib. Evidences of this, Dudley, Lord Robert, recommended by Q. Eliza135. His marriage with the Queen celebrated,   beth as a husband to Q. Mary, 125. Why a
136. - Is honoured with  the titile of K. of   favourite of Q. Elizabeth's, ib. Is highly proScotland, ib. Is implacable with respect to    moted by her, ib. His situation extremely delithe exiled nobles, 140. Loses the Queen's af-   cate, 126. Becomes suspicious of Cecil, ib.
fection by his untoward behaviour, 142. De- Dumbarton Castle surprised and taken in the
mands the crown matrimonial, ib. Becomes   Ki(ng's name, by the Regent, 210, 211.
suspicious of Rizio's ill offices with the Queen, Dut-y, a minister of Edinburgh, banished from
143. His resolution to be avenged of him el-   his charge by K. James for his free invectives
couraged by the nobles, ib. Articles agreed on    against the courtiers, 239. After being restored,
between them for that purpose, 144. Heads   he is driven from it a second time, for approv
the conspirators who perpetrate the murder,   ing the Raid of Ruthven, 245.
145. Confines the Queen after it is committed,
ib. Prohibits the meeting ot the Parliament,  Edilnburgh, is taken and burnt by the English,
ib.  Makes his escape with the Queen, ib.   48. A great fray there between the Frenchi
Her hatred to him increases, 148, 149. Is neg-   and Scots, 57. Is seized by the Reformers, 79
lected by her, and treated with little respect by    Its inhabitants are terribly alarmed by the
the nobles, 150. Resolves to leave Sco;land,   French, 89. A treaty there with the French
151. His wayward and capricious behaviour,   and English, 97. A loan demanded of it by Q.
ib. He writes the reasons of his conduct to the    Mary, 139. Which is granted for the supeQueen, ib. His strange behaviour at the bap-   riority of Leith, ib. The treaty of, insisted on
tismn of the Prince, 155. A false reason alleged    by Queen Elizabeth, 156. Is possessed by the
for this confuted, 156. Retires to his father at   Queen's party, 206, and fortified by them, 212.
Glasgow, 157. Falls sick thlere, 158. Conjec-   The city and castle hold out against the Kingi's
tures concerning his distemper, lb. Isneglected    forces,216.  Are reduced to great straits by
bythe Queen,ib. She afterwards visits and    famine, 217. Arerelievedby atruce, lb. The
expresses affection for him, 159. He is pre-   citizens take up arms to promote the King's
vailed onl by her to come to Edinburgh, 160.   marriage,282. Tley rise again, and insult the
Is lodged in a separate house, ib. He is mlur-    Kilng and his ministers on the murder of the
dered there, ilb. His character, ib. A  pro-   Earl of Murray, 284. Assist the King against
clarnation issued for discovering the murderers,    Huntly, 289. A violent tumult there oti ac160, 161. A remiss inquiry made into it, 161.   count of the clergy, 295. They are severely
Capt. Blackadder and three others executed on    punished for it by the King, 296. Their ministhat account, 174. The confession of Morton,   ters return to their charges, 297. Divided into
the Regent, at his death, concerning the mur-   parishes, and number of ministers increased,
der, 237. A dissertation concerning his mar-   ib. They decline publishing the account of
der, 323. Paper of objections of the court of   Gowrie's conspiracy, 308. All except one, who
England against his ilarriage with Q. Mary,   is banished, are persuaded by the King to do
Appendix, 364.                                  it, ib.
David I. King of Scotland, his profusion to the  Edward 1. of England, destroyed the public
chsurch. 62.                                    archives of Scotland, 8.  Is made umpire be-- -, It. troubles durisng his mlinority, 19.    tween Bruce and Baliol, 10. Has art to acD)avison, sent into Scotland by Q. Elizabeth, as   qutire the superiority of Scotland, 11.  His
a spy on the French ambassador, 242. Is sent   wars with the Scots under Robert Bruce, 11. i,4.
to gain Arran s interest to Q. Elizabeth, 249. Eglinton, Earl of, is prevailed on to join the
This he soon accomplishes, ib. Brings the   KI(ig's party, 213.
warrant for Q. Mary's death at Q. Elizabeth's Elizabeth, her peaceable accession to the crown
desire, 269. Is charged by her with disobeying    of England, 71. Supports the Congregation in
her orders, 273, 274. Is imprisoned, tried, and    Scotland, 88. Is sparing in her supplies, 88,
fined, and loses all favour, 274.  Objections    89. Resolves tosupport them on asecond apagainst him  in the cause of the late Scottish    plication, 90, 91. Her good conduct ill matters
Queen, App. 440.                                of importance, 91. Motives that determined
Desse, Mons. is sent with a supply of forces to    her to assist them, 91, 92. Her deliberate and
assist the French against the English in Scot-   resolute conduct, 93. Sends a strong fleet to
land, 55. His success there, ib.                their assistance, lb. Concludes a treaty with
Discipline in the church, the first book of, com-   them, ib. Her right to the.crown of Englr:,d
posed, 104. WMhy objected against in a con-   asserted by Francis and Mary in France 97




1) >DEX                                         449
Obtains advantageous terms for the Scots, 97.   treaty with France, 217. Her motivtes for neIs solicited by the Parliament of Scotland to   gotiating a peace between the two parties ir
marry the Earl of Arran, 101, this she declines,   Scotland, 222. Is jealous of Cecil's interview
ib. The seeds of her discontent with Q. Mary,   with Q. Mary, 225. Negotiates a treaty be105, 106. Her jealousy of the succession, 106.   tween Morton and his adversaries, 230. Her
Her excessive vanity, and jealousy of Mary's   answer to K. James's demand of a possession
beauty, 108.  Her dissimulation to her, ib.   of an estate in England, 231. A marriage beRofuses her a safe-conduct, lb. Evidences that   tween her and the D of Alengon proposed, 232
she had no intention to molest Mary in her   Interposes in behalf of Morton, 235. Her mea
passage to Scotland, 109. Sends to congratu-   sures in order to save him, 235, 236. Countelate her arrival in Scotland, 111. Refuses a   nances the conspirators at Rutliven, 241. Is
ooncession made by Q. Mary, 112. Her jea-   alarmed at a conspiracy against her, 248. The
lousy of her right betrayed her into mean ac-   designs of Q. Mary's adherents against her, ib.
tiQns, ib. Her resemblance to Henry VII., ib.   Endeavours to recover her interest in Scotland,
A personal interview with Q. Marv proposed,   and gains Arran to her interest, 249  Amuses
12). She artfully declines it, lb. Her views   Q. Mary with a fruitless negotiation, 250. A
in regard to Q. Mary's marriage, 1'22  Assumes   new conspiracy against her, lb. An associaa disagreeable authority, lb. Names one for a   tion formed for her defence, ib. Her suspicions
husband to Q.. Mary, 125. The different quali-   of Q.. Mary, 251. Her life endangered by a
fications for her ministers and favourites, 125.   conspiracy, 253.  This how  discovered and
Dissembles with Q. Mary about her marriage,   prevented, lb.  Occasions an extraordinary
12., and likewise with regard to L. Darnly,   statute for her preservation, ib. Is in a dan
127. Affronts 1.. Mary by her insinuation con-   gerous situation from the progress of the Holy
cerning Lennox, ib. Is perplexed about the    League,256. Endeavours to form aconfederamarriage of the Scottish Queen, 129. Permits   cy of the Protestant Princes, lb., and to proDarnly to visit the Court of Scotland, lb. AfS   ceed with rigour against Q. Mary, ib.  A Ifects to declare against Q. Mary's marriage to   vances her interest in Scotland, and proposes a
him, 132. Her reasons for this conduct, lb.   league with it, lb. Settles a pension upon K.
Her great dissimulation in that affair, 134.   James, ib.  Concludes a treaty with Scot
Her harsh and deceitful behaviour to Murray   land, 259. Account of Babington's conspiracy
and his associates, who had fled to her, 138.   against her, 260, 261. Her dissimulation after
Is struck at hearing of the birth of James VI.,   Q. Mary's conviction, 267. Her answer to K.
150. Consents to stand godmother to him, ib.   James's intercession for her, 269. Her further
The Parliament address her to settle the suc-   dissimulation and anxiety, lb. Signs the warcession, 153. This greatly embarrasses her,   rant for her execution, 270. Her speech to
ib. She sooths and gains her Parliament, 154.   Davison on that occasion, ib  Affects to laEndeavours to accommodate her differences   ment Q. Mary's death, 273. Several marks ot
with Mary, 156. Writes to her to delay the    her artifice in that affair, 273, 274. She entrial ofDarnly's murderers, 163. Interposes in    deavours to sooth K. James, 274. Provocaher behalf when a prisoner, 174, 175. Her am-   tions given by her to Spain, 278. Prepares to
bassador is refused access to Q. Mary, 175.   meet its resentment, ib. Endeavours to secure
She offers assistance to the other nobles, ib.   Scotland, lb.  Tries to prevent K.James's
Her deliberations concerning the disposal of   marriage, 282. Solicits him to treat conspiraQ. Mary on her arrival in England, 184, 185.   tors against him with rigour, 286. Evades the
Resolves to detain her there,185. Her motives    decision of K. James's right of succession to
for this conduct, ib. Sends her letters of con-   the crown of England, 299. Is disgusted at
dolence, and gives orders to watch her con-   several of his proceedings, lb. Discovers his
duct, lb. She gladly accepts the office of um-   correspondence with the Pope, 300.  Fresh
pire between her and her subjects, 186. Re-   grounds of her suspicion, 307. Her conduct
ceives a very pressing letter fromn Q. Mary, 187.   with regard to the Earl of Essex, 310. Her
Her precautions against her, 188. Appoints   irresolution concerning his death, 311, arid
commissioners to hear Q. Mary and her ac-   great concern after it, 312. Receives ambascusers, 190. Her important situation on that   sadors from  K. James with regard, and inoccasion, ib. Her views in this affair, lb. Re-   creases his subsidy, ib. Her last illness, 313.
ceives the Regent's demands, 192. Removes   Conjectures concerning the causes of her methe conference to Westminster, 193. Her mean   lancholy, 314  Her death, 315, and character,
artifices to get the evidence of Q. Mary's guilt  ib. Declared the Kinog of Scots her successor.
from the Regent, 196. T'reats her with great j316. Some of her letters, Appendix, 360. 372.
rigour, ib. Writes a harsh letter to Q. Mary,   378. 382. 389, 390. 397. 399. 407.
lb. She dismisses the Regent without approv- Elphinston, secretary to K. James VI., deceives
ing orcondemnning him, 197. But secretly-sup-.  him into a correspondence from the Pope, 300.
ports his party, lb. Makes proposals to the Re-  Is tried, and found guilty of high treason, lb.,
gent in Mary's favour, 198. Norfolk's project   and pardoned on the Queen's intercession, lb.
concealed from  her, 200. Discovers and de- i Egland, the English seize and detain K. James
feats a rebellion in Q. Mary's favour, 202, 203.   I. of Scotland long a prisoner, 20. The nobles
Resolves to deliver her up to. the Regent, 203.   there humbled, 21. Had early two houses of
Her great concern at his death, 205. Continues   Parliament, 37.  They invade Scotland, 48
to encourage factions in Scotland, 205, 206.   Their depredations there, lib. A peace between
Her political conduct with regard to Lennox,   England, France, and Scotland, 50. Invade
207, 208. Is excommunicated and deprived of   Scotland again, 53  Gain a great victory, ib.
her kingdom, &c. by the Pope, 208. Supports   It proves of little advantage to them, 54. They
the King's party in Scotland, and names Len-   force the Scots into a closer union with France,
nox to be Regent, 208. Proposes a treaty of   lb. Conclude a peace, 56. An English fleet
accommodation between Q. Mary ant her sub-   arrives in Scotland to assist the Congregation,
jects, 208, 209. Procures a cessation of hostili-   93.  A  peace concluded between them, ib.
ties, 208. Sends proposals to Q. Mary, 209.   They enter Scotland and besiege the French in
tier artifices in the conduct of this affair, ib.   Leith, 94.  Are several times repulsed, lb.
Appoints commissioners to frame a treaty, lb.   Causes of their bad success, 95. Articles of a
Finds a pretence to render their meeting fruit-   treaty of peace, 96,97. They quit Scotland, 98.
less, 210. A marriage proposed between her   Reflections on the right of succession to their
and the Duke of Anjou, 214. Declares openly   crown, 106,107. The Parliament favours Q,
against the Queen's party, 216. Concludes a    Mary's right of succession, 153. A league be
VOL. II.-57




450                                   INDEX.
tween England and France, 217.  Between  Fotherzngay Castle, Q. Mary's, imprisonmenlr
England and Scotland, 259. The national   trial, and death there, 262. 272.
covenant adopted in England, 279.           France, the consequences of the subversion of the
Entails, with what view introduced, 15.         feudal government there, 39, 40. A body of
Episcopal government in the church, some ac-   French arrive in Scotland to support the Cathocount of it, 10S, 103. An attempt to revive   lies, 52. They reduce the castle of St. An
it.R0.  It is abolished by the assembly, 238.   drew's, ib. Another party of them arrive there,
Jurisdiction abolished, 585. See drc/hbishops.   55. Their transactions there, ib. Conclude
Errol, Earl of, one of the heads of the Spanish    a peace with England, 56. Their polite con
faction, 278. His offers of service to the K. of   duct, ib. They leave Scotland, ib. Their arti
Spain, 280. Appears in rebellion, 281. Is forced   fices in a treaty of marriage between the Dau
to submit to the King, ib. Imprisoned for a   phin and the Queen of Scots, 68. The Proshort time, ib. Joins in another conspiracy,   testants endeavour to expel the French army
285. Is summoned by the King to surrender,   out of Scotland, 81. Another party of them
286. Offers to submit to a trial, 287. Sentence i  arrive there, and fortify Leith, 84. They ex
pro,.alnced against him, 288.                 asperate the: people by their insolence, ib
F.rskine of Dun, is employed by the Queen Re-   They are sent against the Congregation, 92
gent to deceive the Protestants, 75. His resent-   They destroy and plunder Fife, and are much
ment of this usage, ib.                       harassed by parties of the Congregation, ib.
----—, Lord, govelnor of Edinburgh Castle,   Are greatly alarmed by the arrival of the Engacts a neutral part between the Queen Regent   lish fleet, 93. They return to Leith greatly
and the Congregation, 90. Receives the Queen   harassed and exhausted, ib. Are besieged there
Regent into the castle, 94. Is created Earl of   by the English and the Congregation, 94  They
Mar, 119. See Jlfar.                          gain several advantages, ib. Their motives
Alexander, has the chief direction of the   for concluding a peace, 96. Negotiations for
education of K. James VI., 227. Admits some   that purpose, ib. Articles of the treaty, 97.
of the nobles to make complaints to him against   They leave Scotland, 98. The French advise
Morton the Regent, 228. k   Is turned out of   Q. Mary to moderate measures, 105. Their
Stirling Castle by his nephew the Earl of   proposalsby an ambassador rejected, ib. They
Mar, 229.                                     agree to Q. Mary's marriage with Lord Darnly,
Esneval, the French envoy, endeavours to ob-   130. The licentiousness of their morals, 159.
struct a treaty between England and Scot-   -, King of, a copy of his directions sent to
and, 259                                      Scotland, Appendix, 415.
Essex, Earl of, set up by the Esiglish Papists as Francis I. gives a check to the ambitious projects
a candidateefor the crown, 290. Heads a party   of Charles V., 41. His fidelity to the Scots, 50
in England, 309. His character, ib. Is greatly    His death, 52.,distinguished by the Queen, ib. Favours the --        II. comes to the crown of France, 82. His
King.of Scots,310. Obtains the offices of Lord   character, ib. He treats the Protestants with
Lieutenant and Commander in Chief in Ire-   great rigour, 96. Is guided by the Duke of.land,.ib. Is unsuccessful in that expedition, lib.   Guise and Cardinal of Lorrain, 82.  Hia
Receives,a harsh letter from the Queen, ib.   death, 101.
Returns to England, and is confined, ib. Is
tried and censured, lb. Endeavours to spirit Gifford, Doctor, and Gilbert, their notion con
up K. James, ib. His rash and frantic conduct,   cerning the lawfulness of killing heretical ex311. Is again taken into custody, ib. His   communicated princes, 260. They join in a
death, lb. His son and associates are restored    conspiracy to kill Q. Elizabeth, ib. Gilbert
to their honours after the accession of King   being gained by Walsingham,betrays his assoJames, 312.                                   ciates, 261. Is employed to carry on a foreign,Europe, the state of, at the beginning of the six-   correspondence with Q. Mary, 261.
teenth century, 39.                         Glamis, Lady, is condemned to be burnt for
Ezconmmunication, a terrible engine of the Popish   witchcraft, 33.
clergy, 63.                                    -, Lord Chancellor, intimates the King's
order to Morton.to surrender the regency, 228.
Felton, an Englishman, fixes the Pope's excom-   Is killed in a rencounter at Stirling, 229.
munication of Q. Elizabeth on the gates of the -, the tutor of, joins the conspirators of
Bishop of London's palace, 208.               Ruthven, 240. His bold speech to K. James,
Fenelon, M. de la Motte, sent by the French king   lb. He with the other conspirators seize the
to interpose for K. James, when confined by   castle of Stirling, and erect their standard, 246.
the Ruthven conspirators, 242. Is forced to   He is attainted, and his estate forfeited, 249.
return without success, 243.                Glasgow, Bishop of, a note of his concerning the
Feudal government, its origin and aristocratical   Queen of Scotland's dowry, Appendix, 411.
genius, 12, 13. Causes which limited the power Glencairn, Earl of, joins the Ruthven conspiraof feudal monarchs, 13. Feudal vassals liable   tors, 240.
to few taxes, ib. A remarkable instance of the  Glenlivat, the battle of, 290.
feebleness of feudal government, 14.  The  Gordon, Sir John, a scuffle in the streets of Edin
most perfect idea of the feudal system, how at-   burgh between him and Lord Ogilvy, 118.
taine4, 23. ~ State of it in England, 42., and in    Being confined for it, he makes his escape, ib.
Scotlahd, 36. 41.                             When ordered by the Queen to surrender himFife, a populous and powerful county, much de-   self, he takes up arms against her, ib. Is devoted to the Congregation, 92. Is destroyed   feated, and, together with his brother, made
and plundered by the French, ib. The synod   prisoner, 120. He is beheaded, and his brother
of, excommunicates the Archbishop of St.   pardoned, ib.
Andrew's for contumacy, 258. They excom-, Lord, set at liberty, 137.
municate the Popish lords, 287.             --, Sir Adam, exerts himself for the Queen a
Flowzden, the battle of, 30.                    interest in the North, 216. His character and
~Forbes, Lord, with the Earl of Argyll, is sent   good conduct as a soldier, 217.
against the Popish lords, 289. Are de&eated by  Gowrie, Earl of, joins in a conspiracy to seize
them, 290.                                    the King at Ruthven, 240. Is visited and parFordzun, John de, his history of Scotland, when   doned by the King after his escape, 244. Bewrote, 8.                                     comes suspected, and is ordered for France,
1'1orrester, Sir John, warden of the English   246. Delays his voyage, and is taken into cus
border, a scuffle between him and the Scots, 226.  tody, lb. He is tried and executed, 247.




INDEX,                                         451
(otorze, John and Alexander, sons of the above,   consistent conduct, 73. Excluded the Scotch
their character and conspiracy, 301. The sur-   line by his testament, ib.
prising circumstances of that remarkable trans- Herries, Lord, joins Chatelherault in opposing
action, 302, 303. Several different conjectures   the Regent, 198. Comes to a treaty with him,
concerning it, 304-307. Their dead bodies   ib, lie and the Duke are committed prisoners
brought into Parliament, and condemned, 308.   to the castle of Edinburgh, ib. Intimates the
Their estates and honours forfeited, and name   King's order to Morton to resign the Regency,
abolished for ever, ib. Different accounts of   228. Account of his behaviour in Parliament,
this affair published, but not satisfactory, 308,   Appendix, 391. A letter from him to Lord(
309. See Ruthlen.                             Scroop and Sir F. Knollys, 394.
Graham, Sir David, or Fintray, accused of a con- Hertford, Earl of, invades Scotland with an Engspiracy with the Popish lords in favour of   lish army, 48. Instructions of the privy ccrinSpain, 285. Is convicted and beheaded, 286.    cil to, 49. Burns Edinburgh and Leith, 48. Is
Gray, Master of, some account of him, 251. He   made Duke of Somerset, and Protector of Engbeconles a favourite of K.Jamnes VI., ib. Is   land, 53. See Somerset.
gained to Q. Elizabeth's interest, 252. Betrays Hickford, secretary to the Duke of Norfolk, beQ. Mary, ib. Persuades K. James, to write a   trays him by discovering his intrigues with Q.
harsh and undutiful letter to her, 254. Joins   Mary, 215.
with others in promoting Q. E!'.zabeth's inter- Highlands and Isles, an attempt to civilize them
est in Scotland, 256. His treachery when sent   by K. James VI., 313. Regulations for that
to intercede for Q. Mary, 269. His baseness   purpose, ib. Three towns endued with the pridiscovered, he is disgraced, 275  His vain at-   vileges of royal boroughs ordered to be built
tempt against Secretary Maitland, ib. Acts in   there, ib.
Italy as a spy from the court of England, 299, Hodgson, a priest of Rheims, maintained the
300. A  memorial of his for His Majesty,   lawfulness of killing heretical excomlnrnliAppendix, 433-435.  To the Secretary of   cated Princes, 260.
State, 435.                                 Home, Alexander, Lord, thwarts the measures o.
Guise, Duke of, his violent counsels with regard   the Duke of Albany, Regent, 20.
to the Scots, 81. Is murdered at the siege of -, Lord, sent by K. James VI. with a secret
Orleans, 122.                                 embassy to the Pope, 300., his intrigues against Q. Elizabeth, 248. Is Howard. See.N'orfolk.
principal promoter of the Holy League, 255  Hunssdon, Lord, governor of Berwick, his inter278. Drives the French King out of his capi-   view with Arran, 249.
tal, 273.                                   Huntly, Earl, though a Catholic, joins the Reformers in opposing the French army, 81. AsHd-Zi gtoun, seized and fortified by the English,   sists them only with fair promises, 89. His
ax. Is rezovered by the French, 55.           further concurrence with them, 95. Some aclJasmditon, the rise of that family, 20. Arbitrary   count of that family, 117. His enmity against
proceedings of Morton the Regent against it,  the young Queen's ministers, ib. His resent231. See Chlatelherault.                      ment inflamed by an accident, 118. His plot
-----—, of Bothwelhaugh, taken prisoner   against her ministers disappointed, ib. Breaks
at the battle of Langside, 188. Is tried and con-   out into open rebellion, lb. Is trodden to death
demned for rebellion, lb. Obtains a pardon   in a battle, 120. His family prosecuted with
from Murray, the Regent, by the intercession   the utmost rigour, lb. Several anecdotes and
of Knox, lb. An account of his murdering    conjectures concerning his plot, ib. Is atiMurray, 204. Makes his escape, ib. Is re-   tainted by Parliament, 123. The attainder
ceived in triumph at Hamilton, 205.           repealed, and the family restored to estate and
- -, Mr. Patrick, the first who suffered   honours, 164.
in Scotland for the Protestant religion, 71., his attachment to Bothwell, 162. 166.
Iratton, vice chamberlain of England, the argu-   Refuses to submit to the Regent, 198. Is forced
ment by which he prevailed on Q. Mary to   to do it, lb. Acts as lieutenant to the Queen
plead at her trial, 264.                      after the Regent's murder, 207. Is proclaimed
Henry II. of France, sends forces to assist the   a traitor by Lennox, the new Regent, 208. ReScots, 52. A marriage proposed between his   celves some money and promises of assistance
son the Dauphin and the young Q. of Scots, 55.   from Spain, ib. Agrees to a treaty with MorExcites the Scots to invade England, 66. His  ton the Regent, 223. Is one of the heads of the
infamous imposition on Q. Mary in the treaty   Spanish faction, 278. Engages to the Prince
of marriage, 68. Persuades his son and Queen   of Parma to serve the King of Spain, 280. Is
Mary to assume the titles of K. and Q. of Eng-   imprisoned for a short time, 281. Erects a
land, 73. His death, 81.                      standard of rebellion, ib. But forced to sub-   III. degenerates greatly on his accession to   mit to the King, lb. Is again imprisoned, ib
the crown of France, 255. Enters into a pri-  Is soon set at liberty, lb. Receives a commisvate negotiation with Q. Elizabeth, 256. In-   sion from the King, 284. His barbarous murterposes feebly in behalf of Q. Mary. 267.    der of the Earl of Murray, ib. Is summoned
V'III. of England, by his system ofreforma-   to surrender to justice, 286. Flies to the moulntion becomes formidable both to Papists and   tains, lib. Offers to submit to trial, 287. SenProtestants, 33. Proposes an interview with   tence pronounced against him, 288. Refuses tc
K. James V., lb. Is disappointed by him, and   submit, lb. Makes another desperate attempt,
declares war against Scotland, 34. Invades it,   but is forced to fly, 289, 290.
but is forced to retreat, lb. His importance as
to the balance of power in Europe, 41. His in- Inverness Castle refuses to surrender to Q. Mary,
fluence in Scotland how obtained, 42. His   119. Itis forced, and the governor punished, lib.
schemes with regard to iton the death of James Italy, the liberty of, how preserved, 40.
V., 44. Were ill conducted by himself, and
odious to the Scots, lb. His treacherous seizure James I. was detained long a prisoner in Engof Scots' ships that took shelter in his ports, 45.  land, 20. Troubles in Scotland during that
Attempts to gain the Regency by great pro-   time, ib. Was much improved by an English
mises, 46. Invades Scotland, 48. This being   education, 25. His policy; on his return to
ill coniucted, turns to no account,ib. Receives   Scotland, lb. His character, 26. Suppresses
and rewards the Earl of Lennox, 49. En-   the power of the nobles, 25. They, being excourages the murderers of Cardinal Beatopun,   asperated, conspire against and murder hiln, 26.
51. His death and character, 52.  His in-    ~  II. troubles in Scotland during his minori




452                                     I I NDE X.
ty, 20. His attempts against the nobles, 26, 27.   months in Denmark. ib. Reflections on his
Murders the Earl of Douglas, 27. Procures   conduct there, lib. Itis arrival in Scotland with
several good laws to be passed, lb. Reduces   his Queen, 253. Indulges the Presbyterians,
the power of the nobles, lb. His death, 28.     ib. The ill consequences of his lenity, ib. His.ames III. the state of Scotland during his mi-   zeal against witchcraft, 283, 284. Is solicited
nority, 20. His impolitic conduct, 28. Kills   by Q. Elizabeth totreatthe conspirators against
one of his brothers, and is invaded by another,   him with rigour, 286. Is suspected of conliv28, 29. Is greatly insulted by his nobles, 29.   ing with them, lb. Is surprised and seized by
His despicable minions,ib. Was the first that   Bothwell, 287, and forced to comply with his
appointed a standing guard to his person, ib.   terms, lb. His lenity to Bothwell abused, 288.
The nobles are provoked to take arms against   Is suspected of favouring the Popish lords, 287
him, 30. Is killed in a battle against them, ib.   288. Is in new danger from them, 289. Dele.
His character, lb.                              gates his authority to Argyll and Forbes against
-    IV. his character, 30. Is killed in a battle   them, ib. Goes in person against them, 2901.
against the English at Flowden, ib.             Wastes their lands, and garrisons their castles,
-     V. his minority long and turbulent, 20.   ib. His right of the succession of the crown of
Transactions during that time, 30, 31. As-   England opposed by the Papists, ib. His lenisulnes the government while very young, 31.   ty to them incenses the clergy and people, 292,
His character, ib. His scheme for humibling    293. Is much provoked bythe obstinacy of
the nobles, 32, 33. Is diverted from it by the   the clergy, 294. Gives orders against them, lb.
clergy, 34. Takes arms for the defence of his   Is much insulted, and in great danger at Edinkingdon, ib. His noblesrefusing to follow hin,   burgh, 294, 295. Leaves Edinburgh, and pro
throws him into a deep melancholy, 34, 35.   ceeds with severity against the citizens, 295,
Which is increased by a surprising defeat of   296. Acquires absolute dominion in ecclesiashis forces, 35. His death,:ib. Reflections on   tical affairs, 297. Strengthens his interest ihl
his conduct, 35, 36. He refused an alliance    Parliament by restoring the seats of the ecclewith Charles V., Emperor, 42.                   siastics, 298. Endeavours with success to gain
-       VI. his birth, 150t. His baptism, 156. The    a party in England, 299. Increases his reputa
care of him committed to the Earl of Mar, 162.   tion by publishing his Basilicon I)oron, ib. Is
227. Is by himt preserved from falling into the    accused by Q. Elizabeth of corresponding with
hands of Bothwell, 170. Is crowned, 77. The    the Pope, 300. This he denies, and how acnobles, oppressed by Morton, the Regent, turn    counted for, ib. Other reports concerning this,
their eyes to him for redress, 227. His educa-   lb. Is at great pains to gain the Roman Cathotionand disposition,ib. He becomessuspicious   lies, ib. His regulations with regard to the
of the Regent's power, 227, 228. Discovers   church, 301. The mysterious affair of Gow
early a great attachment to favourites, 232.   rie's conspiracy, 301-309. His cautious be
Adopts two of different dispositions, 232, 233.   haviour in regard to the Earl of Essex, 310.
Enters E'dinburgh with great solemnity, 233.   Sends ambassadors to save him, 311. They
Is by his favourites engaged in unpopular mea-   arrive too late, lb. IIe restores his son and assures, 239. Is seized by a partv of nobles at   sociates to their honours after his accession,
Ruthven, 240, and forced to receive complaints   312. Continues his intrigues in England, ib.
against his favourites, ib. Dissembles with    His interest greatly strengthened there, ib. E:ntlhem and banishes Lennox, 241. Is brought to   deavours to civilize the Highlands and Isles,
Stirling and Holyrood-house, lb. His concern    313. Is proclaimed King in England after the
for Lennox's death, and regard for his memory,   death of Q. Elizabeth, 316.  Is proclaimed
242. Receives the French ambassador with   likewise in Scotland, ib.  Prepares for his
great respect, lb. Makes his escape from the   journey to England, ib. Enters London and
conspirators, 243.  Resolves to treat them    takes possession of the throne, 317. His chawith moderation, lb.  Visits Gowrie, and    racter how different from that of Q. Elizabeth,
grants hiim a pardon, 244. Renews his fond-   lb. A letter from him to Mr. Archibald Dougness for Arran, lb. Is by him  persuaded to   las, Appendix, 431. Curious letterto him'1from
violent measures against the conspirators, lb.   an unknown English correspondent, 442.
His answer to a haughty letter froml Q. Elizabeth on their behalf, ib. Is by her interposition  Keith, Sir William, sent to intercede for Q. Mary
rendered more violent against them, 245. Is   when under sentence, 268. Letter from hirn  to
provoked by the clergy, *245, 2946. His steps to    Secretary Maitland, Appendix, 431.
humblethem,247. Hisprofusion toArran,249. Kent, Earl of, appointed to see the sentence
Sends a new favourite to England against the    against Q. Mary executed, 270.
banished lords, 251. Devolves the whole regal Ier, of Ferniherst, ravages England, on the murauthority on Arran, 252. Writes an undutiful   der of Murray the Regent, 205. His design,
letter to his mother, 254. Is threatened to be    206. Has a scuffle with the English, 257.
disinherited by her, 255. Receives a pension  -, George, brother to L. Newbattle, is disfrom Q. Elizabeth, 256. Is reconciled to -the   covered when ready to sail to promote a ploexiled lords, 258. Becomes popular by con-   in Spain, 285. His scheme opened, bit.  Es
eluding a treaty with England,259. His scan-   capes out of prison, 286.
dalouls behaviour with regard to Archibald  Killigrew, Henry, his declaration on the peace,
Douglas, ib.  His endeavours to save his    Appendix, 410.
mother's life after long condemnation,267,268. Kings, feudal, the most limited of all Princes, 12.
Is greatly incensed at her death, 274. Argu-   General causes of this, 13. Their revenues
ments used by the English minister to pacify    were but small, lb. Had no standing armies,
him, lb. Is forced to stifle his resentment, 275.   ib., and jurisdiction limited, 14. Means used
Attempts to unite the nobles, 276. Is courted    to extend the royal authority, 21, 22. Their
both by Spain. and England, 278. Resolves   jurisdiction enlarged, 22. The extraordinary
vigorously to adhere to the latter, 279. Takes   influence of the Scottish Kings in Parliament
several steps with that view, lb. His skill in   36. The reason of this, ib.
the Popish controversy, 281. Wrrote a comm- Kikaldy of Grange, one of tile murderers of
mentary on the Revelations, lb. His maxims   Beatoun, is recalled by the Q. Dowager, 67.
with regard to popery, lb. His excessive lenity    lIis attainder reversed in Parliamenlt, 123.
to conspirators against him, ib. Resolves to    Offers to fight Bothwell in single combat, 172.
marry the Princess of Dennmark, 282. Arts   His interview with Q. Mary, in the name of
used to prevent it, lb. The rnarriage is con-   the confederate l-)rds,lb. Rescues Maitland
summated in Norway, 283.  Passes several   fromn confinement 202. Labolrs to support the




INDEX.                                         453
King's authority, and restore harmony after   126. 1'27. Is imprisoned for a scecrect corres
the murder of the Regent, 206. Accedes to the   pondence with Q. Mary, 127. Is invited seQueen's party, ib. Provides for a siege by in-   cretly by her to return to Scotland, ib. Arrives
creasinghis garrison and fortifying Edinburgh,   in. Scotland, and is received with great fa211. Proclaims Lennox's authority unlawful   miliarity byher, 128. His forfeiture is repealed,
and usurped, ib. Attempts in vain to prevent   and he is restored to his estate and honours by
a meeting of the parliament, 2.12. Forms a   the Parliament, ib. His lady sent prisoner to
scheme for surprising the King's party, 213. Is   the. Tower of London, 132, and treated with
at first successful, but afterwards defeated, lb.   rigour, 134. He insists on the prosecution of
Comes near to an agreement with Mar the Re-   his son Darnly's murderers, 161.  Charges
gent, 219. A treaty with Morton breaks it off,   Bothwell with it, lb. The prosecution is hur-23. Fires upon Edinburghfrol the castle, lib.   ried, 162. He craves a delay, which is refused,
Is besieged by the Regent, assisted by the Eng-   lb. lie is left alone in it, lb. Solicits Q. Elilishforces,224. Is forced bymutinyofthegar-   zabeth's interest to obtain a delay, 163. Insists
rison to capitulate, lb. Surrenders to Drury   on it by a proxy at the trial, but is overruled,
the Erbglish general, lb. Is, by order of Q.   lb. Being apprehensive of danger, he flies toElizabeth, delivered tip to the Regent,225. He   wards England, 164. His Countess accuses Q.
and his brother are executed, ib.              Mary of the murder to Q. Elizabeth, 186. He
K-nollys, Sir Francis, sent by Q. Elizabetlh with   appears at the conference at Westiminster, and
letters of condolence to Q. Mary on her arrival   accuses Q. Mary of the murder upon oath, 195.
in England, 185. Some of his letters, Appen-   Returns to Scotland protected by anl English
dix, 393, 394. 397. 400.                      army, 207. Is elected Regent, 208. His proKnoz, John, a famous Reformer, his character,   gress against the Queen's party, lb. Appoints
57. After being some time abroad, he is recall-   commissioners to frame a treaty with those of
ed by the persecuted Protestants,75. Inflames   the Queen, 210. Surprises Dumbarton castle,
the multitude at Perth with rage against the   210, 211. Joins the Earl of Morton at Leith,
Papists, 75, 76.  His notion concerning the   2f12. Holds a parliament in the Cannongate,
government ot women, whence, 78. His resi-  lb. Another at Stirling, 213. He is surprised
dence fixed in Edinburgh, 80. Complains of   and killed there, lb.
the lukewarmness of the Reformers, 85.  Ilis Lennoz, Lord Aubiany, his character, 232, 233.
opinion to the convention of Reformers, that it   Joins with the King's other new favourites to
is lawful to resist and deprive tyrannical prin-   undermine:Morton, 233. Renounces Popery,
ces, 86. Anilnates and revives the desponding   ib. Q. Elizabeth. demands him to be removed
Congregation, 90. Complains of the neglectof   from the privy council, 234. Is accused byher
the Reformers in providing maintenance for   ambassador, 235. Arran tries in vain to sup
their preachers, 100. Recommends the Geneva   plant him, 2:38. Is commanded by K. Jaines,
model of church government, 103. Proposes   at the request of the nobles, to leave the king
superintendents in the church, 104. Comlposes   dom, 241. Puts off his departure on various
the first book of discipline, lb.  Renounces   pretences, lb. Returns unwillingly to France,
friendship with the Earl of Murray for his mo-   where he soon dies, 242. His memory vindideration, 124. Is tried for encouraging a mu-   cated, and much regarded by the King, ib
tiny ampng thepeople, and acquitted, lb. Po-   Died a Protestant, lb.
pish judges concur in this decision, lb. Is pub- -, Earl of, left as the King's lieutenant in
licly accused by Maitland of preaching seditious   the north, after dispersing the Popish lords, 290
doctrine concerning resistance, 129. Character Lesly, Normlan, murders Cardinal Beatoun, 50.
of the two disputants, ib. Approved of several   He and his associates keep possession of the
instancesof assassination, 148. Agrees to some   castle of St. Andrews, 51. Makes a truce with
regulations concerning the election of Bishops,   the Regent, ib.  Are encouraged by Henry
221. His death and chatacter, lb. His eulo-   VIII., lb.
gium  by Morton the Regent, 222. Articles, Bishop of Ross, is sent by the Catholics
sent by him to the General Assembly, Appen-   in Scotland to engage Q. Mary in their interest,
dix, 409.                                      104. His proposals to her rejected, 105. His
negotiations in England in favour of Q. Mary,
Langrside, the battle of, 1.82, 183.            216. Is confined long in the Tower, and afterLaumeea, Cardinal, is sent as a. nuncio from the   wards is banished from England, lb.
Pope with a present to Q. Mary of Scotland,  Lindsay, Lord, carries:the proposal from the con
154. Is-stopped at Paris, 155.                 federates to Q. Mary, that she should resign
Leag-ue, holy, a confederacy of Roman Catholics   the government, 176. Joins the Ruthven conso called, 255. Was universally agreed to by   spirators, 240.
them all over Europe, ib.                    Locklevin Castle, Q.3Mary committed a prisoner
Learning, the revival of, promotes the Reforma-   there, 173. Her escape from thence, 181.
tion, 61.                                       —, Lord, letters to and from him, AppenLeicester, Earl of, appointed a commissioner to   dix, 412, 413.
the conference at Westminster, 194.         Logan, of Restalrig, an alleged accomplice in
Leitlh burnt by the English, 48. Fortified by the   Gowrie's conspiracy, 304. Is tried, 305, and
French, 84. Besieged by the English, 94. Q.   his estate forfeited long after his death, lb.
Mary lands there from France, 109. The su- Lords, confederates, associates against Bothwell
periority of it granted by her to Edinburgh,   and Q. Mary, 170. Raise forces against them,
139. Is seized and fortified by Morton the Re-   171. Publish the motives of their conduct, ib.
gent, 212.                                    Prevailon the Queen to surrender to them, 172.
Lennoz, Earl of, arrives in Scotland from France,   Assume the title of Lords of the secret council,
46. Is much courted by Cardinal Beatoun, lb.   and the royal authority, 173.
His pretensions to the succession, how founded, -,  Popish, conspire against K. James, 280.
47. Resents Beatoun's dedeitfulness to him,   Are treated by him with great lenity, 281
48. Heads the Reformers and the advocates   Form a new conspiracy, 285. The King priofor the English alliance, lb. Surprises the Re-   reeds against them, 286. More of his lenity to
gent and Cardinal, ib. Is outwitted by the   them, ib. Fresh dangers from them,.289. They
Cardinal, lb. Continues alone in the interest   receive money from  Spain, lb. Zeal of the
of England, 49. Is forced to fly to that court,   clergy against them, lb. Are declared guilty of
where he is rewarded, ib. Is married to a niece   treason, and their estates forfeited, lb. Defeat
of KI. Henry's, by which he became father to a   of the King's army, 290. Are dispersed on the
race of Kinas, ib  His claim to the succession,   King's approach, ib.  Go abroad, and give




b4                                     IN DEX.
secutity to keep the peace, ib. Return to Scot- i  hands, 162. Ilis resolution in preserving him
land, and petition for leave to reside in their   from Bothwell, 169, 170. Is chosen Regent;
own houses, 292. This granted by a conven-   214. Labours to bring about a general peace,
tion of estates, ib. Recant their errors, and    219. Is thwarted by Morton and his associates,
are absolved frolm excommunication, 297. Re-   ib.  Dies of melancholy, 219, 220. His cha
lapse, and are again reconciled to the church of   racter, 220. His merit and integrity were ac
Rome, ib. Are restored to their estates and    knowledged by both parties, ib.
honours, 298.                               MJ.ar, the young Earl, being imposed on by MorLorrain, Cardinal, gets some of the best bene-   ton, turns out his uncle fromt the castle of Stirfices in Scotland, 70.                         ling, 229. Joins the Ruthven conspirators, 240.
-, Princes of, their ambitious views, 72, 73.   He with the others seizes Stirling Castle, and
Instigate the Dauphin and Q. Mary to take the   erects their standard, 246. Is attainted, and
titles of King and Queen of England, 73. Re-   his estate forfeited, 249. Is pardoned, and resolve to invade England, ib., and to check the   stored to estate and honours, 258.
Reformation in Scotland, ib. The Cardinal's  lIarchl, Countess of, her infamous marriage with
great influence over the young King, 82. Drives   the Earl of Arran, 237.
the Queen Regent of Scotland to violent mea- JIary of Guise, Q. Dowager of Scotland, takes a
sures, 84. Their violences occasion a conspi-   considerable share in the government, 54. Is
racy against them, 96. Are forced to withdraw    much addicted to the French interest, ib. Pro
their troops from Scotland, ib. They insult the   jects a marriage of her daughter to the Dau
Scottish ambassador, 101. Have great power   phin of France, 55. Becomes instrumental in
over the young King and Queen, 102. Are   promoting the Reformation, 58. Aspires to the
fobrced to contract their views on the death of   office of Regent, 59. Promotes disaffection to
the King, ib.                                 the present one, and favours the Reformers, ib.
Luther, a bold and principal promoter of the Re-   Visits the court of France, ib. Returns to
formation, 61. The rapid progress of his doc-   Scotland to take possession of the Regency, ib.
trine, ib.                                     After some opposition she obtains it, 60. Confers several offices of trust upon strangers, 65.
AIajor, John, his History of Scotland, some ac-   Proposes to lay a tax upon land, 66. Is forced
count of, 8.                                  to drop it, ib. Tries in vain to excite a war
Jlaitland of Lethington, secretary to Mary, Q.   with England, 66, 67. The nobles vigorously
Regent, leaves her service, and joins the Con-   oppose her measures, 67. Treats the Reformers
gregation, 90. His character, ib. Is sent by    with great respect, lb. Obtains a concession
them ambassador to Q. Elizabeth, ib. Sends   from the Parliament in favour of the Dauphin,
the Scotch assurances of her protection, 92. Is   70. Her artfuil management of the Reformers,
sent by Q. Mary to the court of England, 111.   ib. Bestows the vacant benefices on foreigners,
Makes a concession to Q. Elizabeth, 112. Ac-   ib. She alters her conduct to the Reformers,
companies Q. Mary in a progress to the North,   72. Remonstrances against the violent mea118. He is employed by Q. Mary to desire a    sures of the Princes of Lorrain, 74. Is per
personal interview with Q. Elizabeth, 120.   suaded by them to persecute the Reformers, ib.
Publicly accuses Knox of preaching seditious   Her rash answer to their remonstrance, 74.
doctrine concerning resistance, 129. Intimates    Summons their preachers to appear before her,
to Q. Elizabeth the intentions of Q. Mary to   75. Breaks a promise she had made them, ib.
marry Darnly, 131. Prudently conceals her   Marches with an army against them,76. Con
resentment from Q. Elizabeth, 133. Proposes   eludes a treaty with them, ib  This she again
moderate measures with regard to Q. Mary,   breaks, ib. Her severity at Perth, 76,77. Her
when imprisoned, 176. Attends the Regent   scheme discovered, 77.  She goes to attack
Then called on to accuse her in England, 190.   them, ib. Has again recourse to negotiation,
He disapproves of this measure, ib. His in-   lb. She is startled at their demands, and gets
trigue with the Dulke of Norfolk, 191. 199. Is   time to answer them, 78. Violates another
imprisoned by the Regent, 202. Is relieved by   treaty, lb. Loses Perth, and forced to abandon
Kirkaldy, and secured in the castle, ib. Pro-   Stirling and Edinburgh, she retires with preposes a coalition of the two parties after the   cipitation to Dunbar, 79. Marches to attack
murder of the Regent, 206. Accedes to the   the Reformers at Edinburgh, 80. Gains time
Queen's party, ib. Is deprived of his office of   by her artifice, ib. Malkes another treaty with
secretary, and proclaimed traitor, 208. Is at- * them, ib. Her artifices to undermine the Prior
tainted in a Parliament of the King's party,   of St. Andrews, 83.  The absurdity of the
212. Agrees with Mar, 219. His views in re-   scheme, 84. Gets a reinforcement of French
fusing a reconciliation with Morton the Re-   troops, who fortify Leith, ib. She disregards
genst, 222. Rejects overtures of a treaty with    a remonstrance of the Reformers, 84. Is inhim, 222, 223. Is besieged by him in the castle   fluenced by French counsellors, and persuaded
of Edinburgh, 224. Is forced to capitulate and   to violent measures, 84, 85. Retires to Leith
surrender to the English general, ib. To avoid   on the approach of the Reformers' army, 85.
the Regent's resentment, he despatches him-   Her prudent and artful conduct there, ib. Hem
self5 225. Several of his letters, Appendix,   hlaughty answer to a fresh remonstrance from
405. 431.                                      them, 86. Is by a convention of them, deprived
7 —-—, Sir John, is made secretary for Scot-   of her office of Regent, 87. The foundation of
land, 256. Concurs with others in promoting   this sentence, ib. Foments differences among
Q. Elizabeth's interest there, ib.  Attempts   them, 88. Is deserted by her principal secretaagainst him by Captain James Stewart, late   ry, Maitland of Lethington, 90. Sends French
Arran, 275. They prove abortive, and he is   troops against the Reformers, 92. Retires into
advanced to be chancellor, ib. An attempt to   the castle of Edinburgh onil the approach of the
remove him from  that office frustrated, 281.   English,94. Her death and character,-95. ReHis death, 291. A copy of verses in honour   pented of her violent measures, 96. Listened
of him wrote by the King, ib.                 to the instructions of a reformed preacher, ib.
AMar, Earl of, that title conferred on the Prior of -, Queen of England, her persecuting reign,
St. Andrews, 117. Accompanies the Queen in   60, 61. Her death, 71.
a progress to the North, 118. He and his asso- -, Queen of Scots, born, 43. A proposal to
elates narrowly escape assassination, 118, 119.   marry her to Edward VI., 44. SIte is demanded
Is created Earl of Murray, 119. See JMurray.   by.Henry VIII., ib. Her marriage to the Dau—, the title is conferred on Lord Erskine, 119.   phin of France proposed, 55. A treaty for that
The person of the young Prince put into his   purpose concluded, ib. She is sent to be edl




iNDEX.                                           455
cated in France, 56. The fatal consequence of   Her resentment against the malecontents, 136,
this, ib. Is imposed on by the artifices of the    137. She mare es against them, 137. Rejects
French in the treaty of marriage, 68. Her mar-   the intercession of Q. Elizabeth in their behalf,
riage celebrated with great pomp, ib. They   ib. Continues her march against the rebels, ib.
take the title of King and Queen of England,   Her conduct and courage on that occasion, 137,
73. She makes concessions to the Congrega-   138. Drives them out of Scotland, 138. Her
tion, 96, 97. Declares Q. Elizabeth's right to   further resentment against them, 138,139. Has
the crown of England, 97. She acquires an    recourse to several devices to raise money, 139.
entire ascendant over her husband. 102. She    Her prosperity promotes her religion, ib. Her
is overwhelmed with great affliction on his   deliberations concerning the exiled lords, 140.
death. and retires to Rheims, ib. She is in-   Determines to treat them with lenity, ib. Is
vited by the convention to return to Scotland,    diverted from this by her religion and French
104. An emissary from the Catholics in Scot-   influence, 14l. This the source of her after
land proposed violent measures to her, 104,   misfortunes, 141, 142. Her intention to restore
105. She is determined to moderation by the    Popery, 142. Is disgusted with Darnly's insoFrench and the Prior of St. Andrews, 105. Is   lent behaviour, ib. Her familiarity with Rizio
prevailed on to prepare for her return to Scot-   offends the King, 143. Vindicated from any
land, ib. The origin of the discord between    criminal correspondence with Rizio, 144. Uses
her and Q. Elizabeth, 10F. Her pretensions to   her utmost endeavours to prevent his murder,
the crown of England, ib. Is envied on ac-   145. She is confined by the conspirators, lb.
count of her beauty, 108. Demands safe-con-   She gains the King, and escapes from them, ib.
duct from Q.Elizabeth, which is refused, ib.   Is. reconciled to the exiled nobles, 146. Her
Leaves France with great reluctance, 109.   hatred to Darnly increases, 148, 149, and favour
Lands at Leith, ib. Is much affected by the    for Bothwell commences, 149. Extinguishes
change of her situation, ib. Several disadvan-   some domestic feuds among the nobles, 150. Is
tages attending her accession, 109, 110. Some    delivered of her son James VI., in the castle of
circumstances to her advantage, 110. Her ac-   Edinburgh, lb. Invites several foreign Princes
complishments of body and mind, ib. The ser-   to his baptism, ib. Continues to treat Darnly
vants of her chapel insulted, ib. Procures the    with neglect, ib. Her attachment to Bothwell
free exercise of her religion, 111. Issues a    increases, lb. Prevents Darnly's intendedflight,
proclamation in favour of the Protestants, lib.   151, 152. Visits the borders, 152. An instance
Employs them solely in the administration, ib.   of her regard for Bothwell on that occasion, ib.
Attempts to gain Q. Elizabeth's favour, ib.   How she rivalled Q. Elizabeth, ib. Her right
Makes a concession to her, 112. Which is re-   of succession favoured by the English Parlia
jected, ib. She makes her public entry into    ment, 153. She endeavours to avail herself
Edinburgh, ib. An insult otfered to her religion    of that opportunity, 153,154. She takes an ex
on that occasion, ib. Discourages the attempts   traordinary step in favour of Popery, 154. Re
of the Papists to gain her favour, 113. Her   ceives a present from the Pope, but stops his
aversion to the fam:ly of Hamilton, ib. Makes   nuncio at Paris, 154,155. Endeavours to pro
a progress into the North, 118. Her ministers   cure a better subsistence for the reforlmed
narrowly escape assassination, 118, 119. Is re-   clergy, 155. Her aversion to the KIing exces
fused access to the castle of Inverness, when    sive, becomes melancholy, ib. Goes to Stirling
relieved by the Munroes and other clans, 119.   to celebrate her son's baptism, lib. Is greatly
Her forces defeat Huntley's rebellion, 119, 120.   offended at the King's behaviour on that occaShe desires an interview with Q. Elizabeth,   sion, 155, 156. Restores the Popish ecclesias120. Negotiations concerning her marriage,   tical jurisdiction, 157. Her neglect of the King
121. Is solicited by different Princes, ib. Her   during his sickness, 158. The breach between
deliberations concerning it, 122. Is forced to   them  becomes irreparable, ib. She visits him
bear the authoritative behaviour of Q. Eliza-    at Glasgow, 159. The motives of her dissimebeth, 122, 123. To please her subjects deter-'  lation on that occasion, ib. Prevails on him
mines against a foreign alliance, 1]23. Deter-   to come to Edinburgh, 160. Her suspicious bemines not to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh, ib.   haviour to him there, ib. Issues a proclamaFurther negotiations for her marriage, 125.   tion for discovering his murderers, 160,161. Is
Discovers the views of Catherine of Medicis, ib.   supposed to have been accessary to it, 161. Is
Lord Robert Dudley recommended to her as a    charged with it abroad as-well as at home, ib
a husband by Q. Elizabeth, ib. She is highly    Goes to visit her son at Stirling, 167. Is met
offended at this, lb. Dissembles with Q. Eliza-   on her return by Bothwell, who seizes and carbeth, 125, 126. Entertains thoughts of marry-   ries her to Dunbar, ib. This supposed with
ing Lord Darnly, 126. She recalls Lennox, 127.   her consent, 168. Is conducted to Edinburgh,
Is affronted at a letter of Q. Elizabeth's, ib.   ib., and married to Bothwell, 169. Sends an
Her prejudice against the Reformed, and zeal   apology to the courts of France and Engladl,
for the Catholic religion, 128. Is taken with   ib. Her conduct causes a general indignation
Darnly at first sight, 129. Is greatly moved at   against her abroad, 170. Is alarmed at a cormQ. Elizabeth's insulting craftiness, 130. Nego-   bination of the nobles against her, ib. She
tiates with the court of Rome for a dispensation    publishes a manifesto to vindicate her conduct,
to marry Darnly, ib., and the consent of the    171. Is conducted to the castle of Borthwick,
court of France, ib. Imposes on Randolph,   ib. Marches with Bothwell's forces against
but applies to Q. Elizabeth for consent to her   the confederate lords, ib. An attempt at an
marriage, 131. Which she affects to refuse,   accommodation proves vain, 171,172. Isforced
132. In resentment she proposes to send an   to surrender to the confederates, 172. Is inangry message to Elizabeth, which Maitland    sulted by the soldiers and mob, ib. Is carried
prevents, 132, 133. Justifies her conduct to the   to Edinburgh, where many abuses are offered
English ambassador, 133. Endeavours to get   her, 172, 173. Is sent a prisoner to Lochlevin
Murray's consent, ib. Courts the Pope's pro-   castle, 173. Q. Elizabeth interposes on her betection, and receives a subsidy from him, 133,   half, 174. The English ambassador is refused
134. Her great address in gaining the consent   access to her, 175. Various proposals anmong
of her subjects, 134. Prevents a plot against   the confederates concerning her, 175, 176.
Darnly, 135. Summons her vassals to take    They obliae her to resign the government, 176,
arims against Murray, 136, and him to appear   177. Different reasonings on this hmeasure, 177.
before her, lb. Her marriage with Darnly cele-   Is much moved with the freedom of the Earl
brated, ib. She confers the title of King of   of Murray, 178. Her party among the nobles
Scots upon lmiini, ib. This step censured, ib.   becomes dispirited, 179  Her resigr ition of the




466                                    INDEX.
crown accepted by the Parliament, and her   Complains to Q. Elizabeth of her hard usages
imprisonment declared lawful, 180. Her let-  ib., and begs her intercession for the King her
ters to Bothwell read, and she declared acces-   son, ib. Throgmorton's conspiracy in her fasary to the King's murder, ib. Escapes from    vour, 248. A fru4less negotiation with Q. ElizaLochlevin, 181. Arrives at Hamilton, ib. Is   beth, 250. Is alarmed- at an association in de
attended by many nobles and a numerous   fence of Q. Elizabeth, 251. Is committed to
army, ib. An association signed in her de-   more severe keepers, ib. Betrayed by Lord
fence, ib. Her imprudence in hazarding a   Gray, the Scotch ambassador, 252. A statute
battle, 182. Her army defeated by the con-   for the preservation of Q. Elizabeth, proves
federates, 183. Her precipitate flight into Gal-  fatal to her, 253. Is more rigorously treated,
loway, ib  Rashly determines to retire to Eng-   254. Her complaints to Q. Elizabeth disre
and, 184. Goes thither against the advice of   garded, ib. Is by the French ambassador's in
her attendants, ib. Arrives at*Carlisle, ib.   terest removed to Tuthbury, ib. Is undutifully
Writes to Q. Elizabeth, imploring her good   treated bythe King her son, ib. Her passionate
offices, ib. Receives letters of condolence from    complaint to the French ambassador on that
her, and demands admittance into her pre-   occasion, ib. Threatens to disinherit him, 255.
sence, 185. This refused, and why, 185, 186.   Several discoveries alleged against her, 261.
Offers to submit her cause to Q. Elizabeth, 186.   She is guarded with unusual vigilance, 262.
Is much deceived in her expectation from this,   Her domestic papers, &c. are seized, ib. She
187, and offenlded on discovering the artifices of   is conveyed to Fotheringay Castle, ib. DeliQ. Elizabeth, ib. Earnestly solicits to be ad-   beration concerning the method of proceeding
mitted into her presence, ib. She is carried to   against her, 262, 28i3. Is suspicious of poison
Bolton Castle, 188. Chagrined at finding her-   or private murder, 263. Vindicates herself to
self a prisoner, ib. Agrees to an inquiry into   the D. of Guise, ib. The commissioners for
her conduct, ib. Her dissimulation with re-   trying her arrive at Fotheringay Castle, ib.
gard to religion, 189. Commissioners appointed   Her spirited speech when refusing to plead,
to appear in her name, 190. Her chief view in   263, 264. Is at length prevailed on, 264. She
this affair, ib. Consents to moving the confer-   protests against the authority of the court, ib.
ence to Westminster, 193. She is carried to   The accusation against her, ib. Her defence,
Tuthbury in Staffordshire, ib. Is much offended   264, 265. Her sentence, 265. Irregularities in
at the regard shown the Regent, and recalls   her trial, 266. Her sentence is confirmed by
her consent to the conference, 194. The ac-   Parliament, ib., who demand the execution of
cusations against her produced by the Regent,  it, ib. France interposes feebly in her behalf,
ib. Is accused likewise by the Earl of Lennox,   267. The sentence against her published, 268.
195. Her commissioners refuse to answer,   She is treated with the utmost rigour, ib. Her
and denland a personal interview, ib. They   last request to Q. Elizabeth, ib. Refuses the
protest against future proceedings, ib. A sus-   assistance of a Protestant bishop or dean, 269.
picious circumstance against her, ib. Hercom-   Artifices used to inflame the people against her,
missioners withdraw from  the meeting, 196.   ib.  Her behaviour at her death, 270. 272
Her resolute answer to a harsh proposal of 0Q.   Sentiments of historians concerning her, ib.
Elizabeth, ib. Avoids any further progress in    Her character, ib. Her person described, 273.
the inquiry, 197. Is enraged at the proceed-   Is buried first at Peterborough: and afterwards
ings, and proposes desperate measures, ib.   in Westminster Abbey, 273. A dissertation on
Spreads chimerical conjectures with that view,   the genuineness of her letters to Bothwell, 323.
ib. Proposes a divorce from Bothwell, 199.   Lettersfirom her, App.392.396.424. Objections
Is influenced by the D. of Norfolk's schemes,   against her by Walsingham, 421. Whatcourse
ib. Exchanges many letters and love tokens   to be taken with her, ib, Her will, 425.
with him, ib. Consents to proposals from the  JMaxzwell, Lord, arrives fromn Spain, and prepares
English nobles,200. Their views in this trans-   forces to join the Spaniards, 278. His foiowers
action, ib. A rebellion by her adherents against   dispersed, he is taken prisoner, 279.
Q. Elizabeth, 202, 203. Is removed to Coven- JMelvil is sent by the French King to observe the
try, 203. Q. Elizabeth thinks of delivering her   motiorns of the Queen Regent and her adversaup to the Regent, ib. This project how disap-   ries, 82. Sent to make up a difference between
pointed, 204. Accession of several to her party    Elizabeth and Mary, 128. Brings about an
after the murder of the Regent, 206. They en-   appearance of friendship between them, ib. Is
deavour to foment a war with England, ib.   sent to inform Q. Elizabeth of the birth of K.
Her authority proclaimed at Linlithgow, 207.   James VI., 150. Puts a letter into the Queen's
Her parties defeated by the new Regent, 208.   hand against her marriage with Bothwell, 167.
She answers proposals by Q. Elizabeth, 209.   Is forced to fly from court, ib. Advises King
Attempts in vain to get foreign assistance, ib.   James to moderate measures upon his escape
Appoints commissioners to frame a treaty for   from the Ruthven conspirators, 243.
her liberation, 209, 210. This proving fruitless,, Mr. Andrew, a clergyman, his character,
she is more strictly confined, 210. The inva-   226. Zetalously opposes episcopacy, ib. Delidity of her resignation declared in a Pallia-    lines the civil jurisdiction in ecclesiastical
ment held by her adherents, 212. Act of Par-   matters, 245  Is forced to fly into England to
liament in England to curb her and her party,   avoid persecution, 246.
214. She looks for protection from the King of,Melville, Mr. James, minister of Anstruther, this
Spain, ib. Is denied the privilege of an am-   encomium on the eloquence of Knox, the Rebassador at the court of England, 216. Is more   former, 221.
closely confined and watched, ib. Proceedings -, Sir Robert, sent by K. James to intercede
against her in England, 218.   Her interest ne-   with Q. Elizabeth for Q. Mary, while under
glected by the French, ib. Is hurt by the mas-   sentence, 269. Executes his comrimission with
sacre atParis, ib. Her adherents divided into   fidelity and zeal, ib. A letter of his to the
two factions, 222. One of them joins with   King, Appendix, 436.
Morton the Regent, 223. Review of the cha- --, Master of the household to Q. Mary, takes
racters of her adherents and opponents, 224;   his last farewell of her, 271.  Her parting
225. Her forlorn situation, 224. Is carried to   speech to him, ib.
Buxton Wells, 225. Loses severalof her friends Mildmay, Sir Walter. sent by Q. Elizabeth with
by death, 226.  Sends a letter and presents   proposals to Q..Mary, 209.
to her son, 232. Her messenger, why dismissed.isonlstc, Bishop of Valence, employed by the
without seeing him, ib. Her uneasiness at his   French to conclude a peace with England and
confinement by the Ruthven conspirators, 242.   Scotland, 96. Terms agreed to by him, 97




INDEX.                                         457
ovlontgomery, appointed Archbishop of Glasgow   133, 134. He and his associates are made the
238, 239. Is refused, and excommunicated by   dupes of Q. Elizabeth's policy, 134. Concerts
the General Assembly for his immoral life, 239.   to seize Darnly, and carry him to England, 135.
JMfontmorency, Constable of France, endeavours   This prevented by the Queen, ib. Avoids asto prevent the Dauphin's imarriage with Queen   sassination intended him by Darnly, ib. EviMary, 67. His prudent advice to Henry II.,   dences of these plots, ib. The Queen's vassals
68. Makes a slender appearance in favour of'  are called to arms against him, 136. He is
Q. Mary, 218.                                 summoned to appear before her, ib. Is again.MoWton, Earl of, his irresolute conduct as to the   summoned, and outlawed on his nonappearReformation, 89, 90. Accompanies (A. Mary    ance, 137. Is forced to fly with his associates
in a progress to the North, 118. Instigates   into Argyleshire, ib. They are interceded for
I)arnly to be avenged of Rizio, 143. Takes the   by Q. Elizabeth, ib.  Are pursued by the
direction of that enterprise, 143, 144. Is ad-   Queen, and obliged to fly into England, 138.
mitted into the Queen's presence, who pro-   They meet with unexpected ill treatment froml
mises him a pardon, 145. Is forced to fly into    Q. Elizabeth, ib. Courts Rizio to intercede
England, 146. Obtains his pardon on Both-   with the Queen for him, 140. Many of his old
well's intercession, 157. Seizes a casket with   friends solicit for him, ib. The Queen's favour
letters from Q. Mary to Bothwell, 174. He is,   how intercepted, 141. A Parliament is called
by Q. Elizabeth's interposition, in favour with   to attaint them, 142. This how prevented, lb.
the King's party after the murder of the Re-   He and his associates arrive at Edinburgh, 145.
gent, 206. Appointed one of the commissioners   Are graciously received by the King and
to treat with the Queen's party, 210.' His de-   Queenl, ib. Are alarmed at the Queen's es
mands frustrate the meeting, 210. Is entirely   cape, but soon reconciled to her, 146. He is
influenced by the court of England, 212, 213.   appointed Regent during the minority ol K.
Commands the King's forces at Leith,`216. Has   James Vt., 178. His harsh behaviour in a
several skirmishes with the Queen's forces, ib.   visit to the Queen, ib. The success of his wise
Closely besieges Edinburgh, and commits great   administration, 179. Procures many of the
cruelties, 217. A suspension procured by the    Queen's party to join him, ib. Gets the places
Enlglish and French ambassadors, ib. A coa-   of strength into his hands, 180. His office ot
lition of parties prevented by him, 219. He is   Regent confirmed by Parliament, it). His sechosen Regent, 220. His mercenary ingrati-   vere and haughty behaviour disgusts several.
tude to the Earl of Northumberland, ib. Ob-   181, His adherents in great consternation at
tains the temporalities of the archbishopric of   the Queen's escape from Lochlevin, ib. His
St. Andrews, ib. Labours to procure a peace    prudent conduct on that occasion, 182. De-'between the two parties, 222. Attempts in vain   feats the Queen's arny at Langside, 182, 183.
to gain Maitland and Kirkaldy, ib. Makes a    He improves this victory, 188. His lenity to
treaty with Chatelherault and Huntly, 223.   the prisoners, ib. Is called upon by Q. ElizaGets possession of the castle of Ediuburgh,224.   beth, to vindicate his conduct, lb. lie calls a
His severity to Kirkaldy and his brother, 224,   Parliament, 189. He arrives at York, lib. His
225. His administration becomes odious, 225.   views in this affair, ib. Complaints of the
His various methods of' gratifying his avarice,   Queen's commissioners against him, 191. He
225, 226. Connives at the dispute of the clergy,   behaves with great reserve on this occasion,
226. He irritates the nobles, 226, 227. Argyle   ib. This part of his conduct accounted for, ib.
and Athol refuse to answer his summons,'227.   Intrigues with the Duke of Norfolk, ib. His
Makes a vain attempt against Lord Claude   demands froin the English commissioners, 192
Hamilton, ib. Discovers the designts of the    Answers to the complaints of the Queen's coin
nobles against him, and proposes to resign his   missioners, without toucthing on the murder,
office,'228. His resignation accepted by the    193. Agrees to have the conference mioved to
King, gives universal joy, 228, 229. Obtains   Westminster, ib. Is affectionately received by
an approbation of his conduct, and a pardon    Q. Elizabeth, which offends Q. Mary, 194. Is
in ample form, 229. Continues to watch the i  prevailed on by Q. Elizabeth to accuse Maryot
motions of his adversaries, lb. Is folrced to   the murder, ib. Produces his evidences, 196.
surrender the castle of Edinburgh, lb. Re-   Is dismissed by Q. Elizabeth without approvsumes his authority, 230. Gains the castle of   ing or condemning his conduct, 197. HIis party
Stirling, and a seat in the Privy Council, lb.   is secretly supported by her, ib. Returns to
Procures a meeting of the Parliament at Stir-   Scotland, and by his vigorous conduct breaks
linag, ib. His security ratified in it, lib. Forces   the Queen's party, 197,198. IIe receives proare raised for and against him, ib. He is recon-   posals both from Q. Elizabeth and Q. Mary,
ciled to his adversaries by the intercession of   198.  He disappoints Norfollk, 201. An acQ. Elizabeth, ib. Is suspected of foul play at   count of his murder, 204. His character, ib
an entertaimnent at his own house, 231. 1-is   His death much lamented by Q. Elizabeth anti:llogal proceedings against the family of Hamnil-  the King's party, 205. Much anarchy the con
ton, 231, 232. The King's new favourites un-   sequence of it, ib. Part of a letter of his, App
dermine him, 233. He endeavours to prevent   402. His heir murdered by the Earl of Huntthem, ib. Q. Elizabeth interposes,in his fa-   ly, 284.
vour, 234. Is charged with being accessory to I
the late King's death, ib. Ie is confined in ia J\et, secretary to Q. Marv, is sent by her with
different prisons, 235. Discourages an attempt   a letter and presents to her son, 232. Why disto rescue him, ib. All his friends are turned   missed without seeing him, ib. Is sent with
out of office, 236. He is tried and condemned,   offers of humble resignation to Q. Elizabeth,
236, 237. His resolute calm behaviour and con-   251. Is seized and sent prisoner to London,
fession before and at his death, 237. His body    262. Is produced an evidence against her, 265
is treated with ignominy, ib..N'evil discovers and prevents Parry's design to
Murray, Earl of, late Prior of St. Anrdrews, goes   murder Q. Elizabeth, 253.
with a handful of men against Huntly, 119. NJobles, their extensive power, 15. Become turBy his great skill and courage he gains a coi  bulent aild formidable, ib. Their power greater
plete victory, 119, 120. His grant is confirmed   in Scotland thi ain any otherl ingdom, 16. T'ho
by Parliament, 123. Cabals against him by    causes of this, ib. Their power of long dura
Lennox and Darnly, 131.  His aversion to   tion, 21. It becomes intolerable to the Princes
Darnly and other court favourites, 133. Calls   lb. They are hurlmbled in France and England
Bothwell to stand a trial, ib. His reasons for   ib.  But continue vigorous in Scotlanld, ib
opposing Darnly's marriage with the Queen,   Discords among them encouraged, 22. Theib
VoL. II. —58




48f INDEX
jurirsiction circumscribed, ib.  Are greatly   tion, 36. 39. Particularly that of Scotiand, 31
mortified by K. James V., 32, 33. Are disap-   -39. A Parliament held on an extraordinary
poined in a scheme to show their resentment,   occasion, 98. A difficulty started and answered,
34. Refuse to attend the King into England,   99. Their proceedings with regard to religion,
34, 35. They seize the revenues of the church, j  99-101. Condemn the popish and approve
100.  Refuse to part with them  to the re-   the reformed doctrines, 99, 100. Several other
formed clergy, ib. Dissensions among them,   regulations of the same tendency, 100. Their
116, 117. A convention of them approve the    validity called in question, ib. Exceed their
Queen's marriage to Darnly, 134. Several of   powers, 101. Their proceedings laid before
them recomusend Bothwell as a husband to   the King and Queen, ib. A Parliament in faher, 166. A strange combination of them ol   vour of Bothwell, 164. Pass an act in favoum
this occasion, ib. A body of them associate   of the Reformation, 165. Confirm the proceedagainst her and Bothwell, 170. Their different   ings of the confederates, 180.  ParliamentPf
views in this, ib. A party of them favours the    held both by the King's and Queenl's parties
Queen, 174. They are much dispirited by the    212. Another of the Queen's adherents, itl
good conduct of Murray, 179. They are much    Attaint upwards of 200 of their opponents, 213
provoked by Morton  the Regent, 226, 227.   A Parliament at Stirling by the King's party
Think of redress from the King, 227. Infuse   lb. Surprised by the Queen's adherents, ib.
suspicion of the Regent's power into hin, 227,   Another at Stirling,230.  One at Edinburgh,
228. A meeting of them by him, 228. A party of   233, and on the King's being of age, 275.
them conspire against the King's favourites, 240.   Several new laws made there, 276. The lesser
They seize his person and drive them off, ib.   Barons admitted into Parliament, 277.
Their neglect of and ingratitude to the clergy, Parry, Doctor, undertakes to murder Q. Eliza
258.  The King attempts to reconcile their   beth, 253. Is encouraged byand gets absolufeuds and unite them, 276. See Lords.           tion from the Pope, ib. His design how pre-?osrfolk, Duke of, appointed a commissioner to    vented, ib. Is executed, ib.
hear the cause between Q. Mary and her ac- Parsons, a Jesuit, publishes a book in favour of
cusers, 190. Forms a scheme of mounting the   the Infanta of Spain's right of succession to the
throne of Scotland, 191. Intrigues with the    crown of England, 290.
Regent and Maitland with,that view, 191, 192. Pasquinades and Pictures, accusing Bothwell of
He represents the demands of the Scots to Q.   Darnly's murder, 163. A law made against
Elizabeth, 192. His further negotiations with   them, 164.
respect to Q. Mary, 199. Endeavours to con- Patten, William, his account of the Scottish anceal his design from  Q. Elizabeth, ib. Is im-    ient military discipline, 54. note.
posed on by the artifice of the Regent, ib. Gets Paulet, Sir Amlias, is appointed one of Q. Mary's
the consent of many of the Englishl nobles, 200    keepers, 251. His rigid severity to her, 254.
His project approved at foreign courts, ib. Is   Discovers her foreign correspondence, 261. His
discovered and defeated by Q. Elizabeth, 201.   rude treatment of her, 268. Refuses to be conFlies to Norfolk, ib. He surrenders on a second    cerned in privately assassinating her, 270. A
summnons, and is sent prisoner to the Tower,   letter from him, Appendix, 429.
ib. Is set at liberty, and continues his intrigues Pellevr, Bishop of Amiens, is appointed to supwith Q. Mary, 215. Is betrayed by his secre-   portthe Popish interest in Scotland, 85. Drives
tary, ib. Is seized with his dependants, and    the Queen Regent to violent measures against
accused by them, ib. Is executed, ib.           the Protestants, ib..Northumberland, Earl of, attempts a rebellion in  Perth, an insurrection of the Reformers tihere
favour of Q. Mary, 202. His scheme defeated,   against the Papists, 75, 76. Its inhabitants are
202, 203. He is seized by the Regent, 203. Is   severely treated by the Queen Regent, 76, 77.
delivered up to the governor of Berwick, and    A French garrison placed there, 77. Is beput to death at York, 220.                      sieged and taken by the protestants, 79. A
J"ottingham, Countess of, some account of the    great tumult there on account of Gowrie's contransactions concerning the Earl of Essex's   spiracy, 303.
ring, 314.                                    Philip It. of Spain, married to Mary, Queen of
England, 60. Reinforces his army with her
Octavians, theirinstitution and extensive powers,   troops, 66. His great power, 255. Joins in
291. They undermine the IKing's ministers, ib.   the holy league, ib. Resolves to invade and
Become odious, and a combination is formed    conquer England, 278. His preparations for it
against them, ib. Being split into factions, and    dilatory, 279, 280. His design frustrated, 280.
envied by the courtiers, they resign their com-   Meditates an invasion of England through
mnission, 297.                                  Scotland, ib. Intrigues with some Scottish
Ogilvie, Lord, has a scuffle with Sir John Gordon   lords with that view, ib. Remits money to
in the streets of Edinburgh, 118.               them, ib.
Oliphlant, Master of, joins the Ruthven conspira- Pinkey, the battle of, 53, 54.
tors, 210.                                    Pies V. Pope, excommunicates Q. Elizabeth, de
Orange, Prince of, sends an agent into Scotland,   prives her of her kingdom, and absolves her
236. Hlis instructions, lb. Is assassinated, 255.   subjects, 208.
D' Oysel, commander of the French troops in  Polly, one of Babington's conspirators against Q.
Scotland, endeavours to promote a war with    Elizabeth, 260. Discovers the plot, 261.
England, 67. I-His design frustrated, ib. The  Poltrot, a frantic zealot, assassinates the Duke
number of troops under his comnmand, 77. In-   of Guise at tlie siege of Orleans, 122.
stigates the Queenr Regent to violent measures Pont, Mr. Robert, a minister, andoneof the Lords
against the Reformers, ib. Is sent by Q. Mary    of Session, protests against laws oppressive to
to demand a safe-conduct from Q. Elizabeth,   the church, 247.
during her voyage to Scotland, 108.           Popery, where most flourishing, 61. What kind
prevailed in Scotland, 62. Was partly grafted
Paisley Abbot of, arrives in Scotland, 46. Crc    on heathenism, 79. Is much hurt by the Conates a suspicion of the Earl of Lennox in the   gregation, 99. Their doctrines condemned by
Earl of Arran, Regent, ilb. Is made arcl-lbishorp    Parliament, ib. The jurisdiction of their courts
of St. Andrews, 52.                             abolished, 100. Their worship prohibited, ib.
Paris, the massacre of, 218. Rejoicings of tile   Attempts in vain to gain Q. Mary's favour, 113
Popish party on account of it, ib. The con-   The great influence of popery, 141.
sternation and horror of the Protestants, ib.    Power, the balance of, the great consequence\of
Parlianment, the nature of their original constitu-   preserving it, 40.




INDEX                                        459
Vresbyterian church government established in Ridolphi, an agent for the pope of London, neScotland, 102. Is confirmed by King James   gotiates for Q. Mary, 214, 215. His arguments
VI., 285.                                   with the D. of Norfolk, 215.
Protestants, in France, violently persecuted, 82, Rizio, David, some account of him and his rise,
83. Are moderate on Q. Mary's arrival from    131. Darnly's connexion with him, ib. His
France, 111. Are employed by her in the ad-   good offices courted by Murray, 140. His great
ministration, ib. A scheme for suppressing   interest and familiarity with the Queen, 143.
them all over Europe, 141. A league formed   Incurs the hatred of Darnly, lb., and of the
for that purpose, 255. See Reformation.     friends of the exiled Lords, ib. Several concurring causes of this, ib. A combination
Ramsey, a favourite of K. James III., narrowly   formed to murder him, ib. He is murdered ir
escapes being hanged with his associates, 29.  the Queen's palace, 144, 145.
Is appointed Captain of the King's guard, and Romnans invade Britain, 7. Give the earliest ac
created Earl of Bothwell, ib. See Bothwell.    counts of the Scots, lb.
Randan, Sieur de, employed by the French to Ross, Bishop of, zealously promotes Queen
negotiate a peace with England and Scotland,   Mary's interest at London, 214. 216. Is con96. Terms agreed on by him, 97.             filled to the Tower, and threatened with capiRandolph, sent to encourage the Congregation,   tal punishment, 216. Is set at liberty, and
88. Congratulates Q. Mary's arrival in Scot-   banished from the kingdom, ib. Some letters
land, 111. Urges the ratification of the treaty   of his, App. 398. 408.
uf Edinburgh, ib. Is imposed on by Q. Mary in Rubay, a foreigner, made keeper of the great seal
the affair of her marriage with Darnly, 134.   of Scotland, 65.
Sent into Scotland on the murder of Murray, Ruthven, Lord, the murder of Rizio proposed to
206. Interposes for Morton, 235. Flies from    him by Darnly, 143. Heads the conspirators
Scotland in the night, 236. Is sent again there,   against him, 144. His part in that transaction,
and concludes a treaty with England, 259.  ib. Is admitted into the Queen's presence,
Several of his letters, App. 355. 358. 361, 362.   who promises him a pardon, 145. Did not re369. 373, 374. 376.                         pent of it at his death, 148.
Ratcliffe. See Sussex.                       -    -, created Earl of Gowrie, he and his asso
Reformation, its progress in Scotland, 57. Ac-   ciates seize the King, and remonstrate against
count of its first preachers, ib. Is much influ-   his favourites, 240. Drive them from him,240,
enced by England, 58. Tworemarkable instru-   241. Their conduct approved in an assembly
mentsofpromoting it, ib. Makes great progress,   of the states, 241. The King escapes from
61. Causes contributing to promote it, ib. Its  them, 243. By Arran's influence, violent meaadvantages over popery, ib. Is favoured by   sures are determined against them, 244. Qa
the Q. Regent, 67. An instance of regard for it   Elizabeth intercedes in their behalf, ib. Are
in Scotland, 68. The whole party not charge-   declared guilty of high treason, 245. Take reable with Cardinal Beatoun'smurder, 71. note.  fuge in foreign countries, ib. Are harshly
A priest burned for embracing it, ib. The Re-   treated by Q. Elizabeth, 252. A reconciliation
formers violently persecuted by the Archbishop   with her brought about, 257. Return to Scot
of St. Andrews, ib., are protected by the Q.   land, and are reconciled to the King, 257, 258
Regent, ib., apply in vain to the Popish clergy,   Their moderation on being restored to their
72. A persecution against them pushed on by   estates and honours, 258. Their neglect oi
the French interest, 73. The preachers sum-   their friends the clergy, lb.
moned before the Regent, 75. They are de-       -, that name abolished by Parliament, 308
ceived, and declared outlaws by her, ib. A    See Gowrie.
riotous insurrection of them at Perth against the Ruthven raid, what, 240.
Papists, 75. Prepare to defend themselves
against the Queen, 76. Conclude a treaty with  Sadler, Sir Ralph, his representations of the reher, which she presently breaks, ib. Theytake   sentment of the Scots for the seizure of their
arms against the Queen, 77. Insist on redress-   ships by Henry VIII., 45. Appointed a coming civil as well as religious grievances, 77, 78.   missioner to hear the cause between Q. Mary
The influenceof the Reformation on liberty, 78.   and her accusers, 190.
They besiege and take Perth, 79. They seize Sandilands, of Calder, Lord St. John, sent to lay
Stirling and Edinburgh,ib. Commit greatvio-   the proceedings of the Congregation Parlialences on churches and monasteries, ib. Their   ment before the King and Queen of France.
conduct how accounted for, ib. An instance   101. Is coldlyreceived, and dismissed without
of their moderation, ib. Fix their residence at   a ratification by them, ib.
Edinburgh, 80. The Queen prepares to attack  Savage, a Spanish officer, his desperate resoluthem, ib. Make another treaty with her, ib.  tion to kill Q. Elizabeth, 260.
Are forced to abandon Edinburgh, &c. but al- Scotland, its ancient history fabulous, 7. The
lowed the exercise of their religion, 80, 81. De-   origin of the Scots, 8. Their history, why remand the expulsion of the French army, 81.   markably obscure, ib. Some account of the
Are aware of their danger from France, 82.   writers of it, ib. Is divided into four periods,
Their party strengthened, ib.  Remonstrate   lb. A review of the third era, 9. Some acagainst the French fortifying Leith, 84. Take   count of the controversy concerning its inde
arms in their own defence, 85. Remonstrate   pendency, 9-11. This the cause of great aniagain to the Regent, 86. Are highly incensed   mosities and much bloodshed, 12. The state
at her imperious answer, ib  By advice of a   of Scotland when Bruce began his reign, ib.
Convention deprive the Queen Dowager of the   It begins to have an influence on the fate of
office of Regent, 86, 87. The foundations of   distant nations, 41. Influence as to the bathis conduct, 87. Examination of the different   lance of power, 42. State of Scotland at the
principles on which it was conducted in differ-   birth of Q. Mary, 43. Is invaded by the Erigent countries, 102, 103. The growth of it en-   lish, and several places burnt and plundere:d,
couraged by Parliament, 180. See Congre-   48. Much alienated from the English, 48, 49.
gation.                                     A peace concluded between England, France,
Regalities, the ample jurisdiction of, 15.    and Scotland, 50. Computation of damages
Repledging, the privilege of, to whom belong-   done by the English in Scotland, 49, 50. A new
ing, 15.                                    breach with England, 52. Is invaded by a
Revenge, encouraged both by custom and law, 22.   great English army, 53. The Scots are deRevrenucs of the church, proceedings of Parlia-   feated with great slaughter, 53, 54.  Theio
ment concerning them, 100.                  manner of fighting at that time. 54  A ma.



460                                    INDEX.
riage agreed of their young Queen and the    venconsplrators,243. Seizesthe Earlof Gow
Dauphin of France, 55. They soon repent this   rie, 246.
step, 56. A fray at Edinburgh occasions their Stewart, Francis, created Earl of Bothwell, 280
utteraversion to the French, 57. This inflamed    Joins in a treasonable correspondence with the
by another incident, 66. They decline a war   popish Lords, ib. See Bot/hwell.
with England, ib. Send representatives to wit-   -, all of that name combine in opposing the
ness Q. Mary's marriage, 68. Their care as to    Chancellor, 286.
the marriage articles, ib. They refuse consent Stirling, seized by the Reformers, 79. A parliat: the demands of the French, 69. Folr of   ment there by the King's party, 213. Is surtheir deputies suspected to be poisoned,.ib.   prised by the Queen's adherents, and a great
Which mitch increases the aversion, ib. Grant   fray ensues, ib.
the crown matrimonial to the Dauphin, 70. Strozzi, Leon, commands a body of French sent
Theyapply to the English for assistance against   into.Scotland, 52. Reduces and demolishes the
the French, 88. 90. An English fleet arrives   Castle of St. Andrews, ib. See Irance.
for that purpose, 93. Conclude a peace with  Succession, a remarkable statute concerningit, 52.
England, and receive an English army, 93, 94. Superi7ttendents proposed in the church of ScotAll parties agree in detesting the French, 95.   land, 104. Their business, ib.
A treaty between England, France, and Scot- Sussex, Earl of, one of the commissioners to hear
land, 96, 97. Both English and French armies   the cause between Q. Mary and her accusers,
leave Scotland, 98. They rejoice much at the    190. Assembles a powerful arimsy on the
death of the young King of France, 102. Send   borders, 206. He and Scrope enter and ravage
to invite the Queen to Scotland, 104. Reject   Scotland, 207.
proposals of an ambassador from France, 105. Tax upon land first proposed in Scotland, 66.
State of Scotland on Queen Mary's return from   Throkmorton, Sir Nicholas, sent ambassador exFrance, 109, 110. Great zeal of the natiori   traordinary from  Q. Elizabeth to oppose Q.
against popery, 110. The Scots brought into    Mary's marriage with Darnly, 132. His incontempt by Queen Mary's conduct, 170. In   tercession for the exiled Lords is much rea miserable condition after the murder of Mur-   garded, 140. His enmity to Cecil, ib. Is sent
ray the Regent, 212. State of factions at that   to negotiate Q. Mary's liberation, 174. Is retime in it, ib. A league concluded between   fused access to her by the confederates, 175.
Scotlandand England, 259. A view of the re-   Some letters of his, Appendix, 381, 382. 386.
volutions of Scotland since the accession of   388. 390, 391.
James VI., 317-322.  Of the policy of the  --       -, Francis, is charged with a conspistate, 317-319, and of the church, 319. 320. Of   racy against Q. Elizabeth, 248. At first denies,
the genius and taste as to learning, 320-322.  but afterwards confesses it, ib. Reflections on
Scott of Buccleugh, enters and ravages England    his confession, ib. Is executed, 249.
after the murder of Murray the Regent, 205. Titchbourne, designs to assassinate Q. ElizaThe design of this, 206.                      beth, 260.
Scrope, Lord, sent to condole with and watch Q. Treason, persons guilty of it, tried after their
Mary on her arrival in England, 185. She is   death by the law of Scotland, 305.
committed to his custody at Bolton Castle, 188. Vilmort, a foreigner, made comptroller of Scot
Why his fidelity is distrusted, and the Queen   land, 65.
removed, 193.                                Union of Scotland and England, the advantages
Session, Lords and court of, by whom first ap-   of, 319.
pointed, 23. The president and one half of W[allace, Sir William, bravely assertedtheliberty
their number of the clergy, 62.               of his country, 11.
Seton, Lord, assists the Queen Regent in defend-  Walsingham, secretary to  Q. Elizabeth, sent
ing Leith, 89.                                ambassador to King James VI., 244. Returns
Shlrezosbury, Earl of, the charge of Q. Mary's per-   without success, ib. Makes a favourable re
son conmmnitted to him, 193. Why removed    port to her concerning James, 245. Interposes
from that office, 251. Is appointed to see the   in favour of Q. Mary, 251. Discovers Babingsentence against her executed, 270.  Letter   ton's conspiracy,.261. Why a determined and
from him and the Earl of Kent concerning her   inveterate enemy to Q. Mary, 262. A letter
death, Appendix, 437.                         from him, Appendix, 414.
Sinclair, Bishop of Ross, a zealous papist, con-  WIarwi:ck, Earl of, succeeds Somerset in the
curs, as President of the Session, in acquitting    government of England, 56.
Knox of a charge of treason, 124.            Westminster, the conferences concerning Queen
Somerset, Duke of, enters Scotland with a power-   Mary there, 193.
ful army, 53. Is reduced to avery critical situa-  Westmoreland, Earl of, attempts a rebellion in fation, ib. Defeats the Scots with great slaughter,   vour of Q. Mary, 202. His schemes discovered
53, 54. This victory why of little advantage,   and defeated, 202, 203.  He. escapes to the
54. Cabals against him at the court of Eng-   Netherlands, 203.       (
land force him to return, ib. Is ruined by his  Willox, a minister,, declares for resistance and
enemies, 56.                                  deprivation of tyrannical rllers, 86. ~ Is called
Spain, great warlike preparations there, 278. See   to attend the Q. Dowager on her deathbed, 96
fArmada. The infanta of, set up as candidate  TWfishart, Geo. his illegal execution revenged, 50.
for the crown of England, 290.              Witchcraft, vigorously prosecuted by K. Jamles
Spanish ambassadors ordered to leave England    VI. in Scotland, 283, 284.
for intriguing in favour of Q. Mary, 216. 249.  fWithorn, the Prior of, imprisoned for celebrating
Sprot, his discoveries concerning Gowrie's con-  mnass, 123.
spiracy, 304, 305. Is executed, 305.         Weotton, Dean of Canterbury, employed to negoStewart, James, Prior of St. Andrews, is ap-   tiate a peace with France, 96.
pointed to carry the crown matrimonial to the, Sir Edward, sent by Q. Elizabeth into
Dauphin of France, 71. See St:Andrews.        Scotland, 256. His character, ib. Gets in K.
--, Esme, Lord Aubigne, his arrival in Scot-   James's favour, ib. Procures a league between
land,232. See J.lubigzte.                     the two kingdoms, ib. Undermines Arran's
Capt. James, his character, 233. Becomes   power, 257. Forms a plot on K. James, and
a favolnrite of King James, ib. Accuses Mor-   forced to withdraw without taking leave, ib.
ton of the murder of the late I(ing, 234. Is York, conferences at, concerning Q. Mary, 189.
created Earl of Arran. See lrran.          Zouche, Lord, sent ambassmador by Q. Elizabeth
-, Col. William, commander of the Kine's  to remnonstrate against K. James's lenity to the
guard contributes to his escape from the Ruth-   popish Lords, 288; his treachery, lb.




AN
HISTORICAL DISQUISITION
CONCERNING THE
KNOWLEDGE WHICH THE ANCIENTS
HAD OF
INDIA;
AND THE
PROGRESS OF TRADE WITH THAT COUNTRY,
PRIOR TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE PASSAGE TO IT BY THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPEr
WITH
AN APPENDIX:
CONTAINING
OBSERVATIONS ON THE CIVIL POLICY-THE LAWS AND JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS —TH
ARTS —THE SCIENCES-AND REIUGIOUS INSTITUTIONS OF THE INDIANS.
BY WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D.D.
PRINCIPAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, ETC. ETCO
NEW YORK:
DERBY & JACKSON, 119 NASSAU STREET.
CINCINNATI: H. HW. DERBY.
1 8 5 6.




PlRTNT.D BY
E. N. GRlOSSMAN,
82 & 84 Beeklman St.




PREFA CE.
THE perusal of Major Rennell's Memoir for illustrating his map of In
lostan, one of the most valuable geographical treatises that has appeared
in any age or country, gave rise to the following work. It suggested to
me the idea of examining more fully than I had done in the Introductory
Book to my History of America, into the knowledge which the ancients
had of India, and of considering what is certain, what is obscure, and what
is fabulous, in the accounts of that country which they have handed down
to us. In undertaking this inquiry, I had originally no other object than
my own amusement and instruction: but in carrying it on, and consulting
with diligence the authors of antiquity, some facts, hitherto unobserved,
and many which had not been examined with proper attention, occurred;
new views opened; my ideas gradually extended and became more interesting; until at length, I imagined that the result of my researches might
prove amusing and instructive to others, by exhibiting such a view of the
various modes in which intercourse with India had been carried on from
the earliest times, as might show how much that great branch of commerce
has contributed, in every age, to increase the wealth and power of the
nations which possessed it.
Thus the Historical Disquisition which I now lay before the reader was
begun and completed. What degree of merit it possesses, the public must
determine. My grateful recollection of the favourable manner in which my
other works have been received, naturally increases the solicitude with
which I wait for Its decision concerning this which I now publish.
When I first turned my thoughts to this subject, I was so fully aware of
the disadvantage under which I laboured in undertaking to describe countries of which I had not any local knowledge, that I have been at the utmost pains to guard against any errors which this might occasion. I have
consulted, with persevering industry, the works of all the authors I could
procure, who have given any account of India; I have never formed any
decided opinion, which was not supported by respectable authority; and
as I have the good fortune to reckon among the number of my friends some
gentlemen who have filled important stations, civil and military, in India,
and who have visited many different parts of it, I had recourse frequently
to them. and from their conversation learned things which I could not have
found in books. Were it proper to mention their names, the public would
allow that by their discernment and abilities they are fully entitled to the
confidence which I have placed in them.
In the progress of the work, I became sensible of my own deficiency
with respect to another point. In order to give an accurate idea of the
imperfection both of the theory and practice of navigation among the
ancients, and to explain, with scientific precision, the manner in which
they ascertained the position of places, and calculated their longitude and
latitude, a greater portion of mathematical knowledge was requisite, than:my attention to other studies had permitted me to acquire. What I wanted,
the friendship of my ingenious and respectable colleague, Mr. Playfair,
professor of mathematics, has supplied; and I have been enabled by him
to elucidate all the points I have mentioned, in a manner which I am confident will afford my readers complete satisfaction. To him, likewise, I




iv                        PREFACE.
am indebted for the construction of two maps necessary for illustrating this
Disquisition, which without his assistance I could not have undertaken. I
have adhered, in this work, to an arrangement.1 followed in my former
compositions, and to which the public has been long accustomed. I have
kept historical narrative as much separate as possible from scientific and
critical discussions, by reserving the latter for Notes and Illustrations. I
flatter myself that I may claim without presumption, the merit of having
examined with diligence what I submit to public inspection, and of having
referred, with scrupulous accuracy, to the authors from whom I have derived information.
COLLEGE OF EDINBURGH,
May 10, 1791.




AN
HISTORICAL DISQUISITION
CONCERNING
ANCIENT INDIA.
SECTION I.
INTERCOURSE WITH INDIA FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES UNTIL THE CONqUEST OF EGYPT BY THE ROMANS.
WHOEVER attempts to trace the operations of men in remote times, and
to mark the various steps of their progress in any line of exertion, will
soon have the mortification to find that the period of authentic history is
extremely limited. It is little more than three thousand years since the
books of Moses, the most ancient and only genuine record of what passed
in the early ages of the world, were composed. Herodotus, the most ancient heathen historian whose works have reached us, flourished a thousand
years later. If we push our inquiries concerning any point beyond the era
where written history commences, we enter upon the region of conjecture,
of fable, and of uncertainty. Upon that ground I will neither venture myself, nor endeavour to conduct my readers. In my researches concerning
the intercourse between the eastern and western regions of the earth, and
concerning the progress of that great branch of trade, which, inevery age,
has contributed so conspicuously towards raising the people who carried
it on to wealth and power, I shall confine myself within the precincts I
have marked out. Wherever the inspired writers, intent upon higher obiects, mention occasionally any circumstance that tends to illustrate the
subject of my inquiries, I shall attend to it with reverence. Whatever
other writers relate, I shall examine with freedom, and endeavour to ascertain the degree of credit to which they are entitled.
The original station allotted to man by his Creator, was in the mild and
fertile regions of the east. There the human race began its career of improvement; and from the remains of sciences which were anciently cultivated, as well as ot arts which were anciently exercised in India, we may
conclude it to be one of the first countries in which men made any considerable progress in that career. The wisdom of the east was early celebrated,* and its productions were early in request among distant nations.t
The intercourse, however, between different countries was carried on first
entirely by land. As the people of the east appear soon to have acquired
complete dominion over the useful animals,J they could early undertake
the long and toilsome journeys which it was necessary to make, in order
to maintain this intercourse; and by the provident bounty of Heaven, they
were furnished with a beast of burden, without whose aid it would have
been impossible to accomplish them. The camel, by its persevering
strength, by its moderation in the use of food, and the singularity of its
* 1 Kings, iv. 30.   t Gen. xxxvii. 25.    M Ibid. xii. 16. xxiv. 10, 11.




6                   DISQUISITION ON
Internal structure, which enables it to lay in a stock of water sufficient for
several days, put it in their power to convey bulky commodities through
those deserts, which must be traversed by all who travel from any of the
countries west of the Euphrates towards India. Trade was carried on in
this manner, particularly by the nations near to the Arabian gulf, from the
earliest period to which historical information reaches. Distant journeys,
however, would be undertaken at first only occasionally, and by a few adventurers. But by degrees, from attention to their mutual safety and comfort, numerous bodies of merchants assembled at stated times, and, forming
a temporary association (known afterwards by the name of a caravan),
governed by officers of their own choice, and subject to regulations of
which experience had taught them the utility, they performed journeys of
such extent and duration, as appear astonishing to nations not accustomed
to this mode of carrying on commerce.
But, notwithstanding every improvement that could be made in the
manner of conveying the productions of one country to another by land,
the inconveniences which attended it were obvious and unavoidable. It
was often dangerous; always expensive, and tedious, and fatiguing. A
method of communication more easy and expeditious was sought, and the
ingenuity of man gradually discovered, that the rivers, the arms of the sea,
and even the ocean itself, were destined to open and facilitate intercourse
with the various regions of the earth, between which they appear, at first
view, to be placed as insuperable barriers. Navigation, however, and ship
building (as I have observed in another work*), are arts so nice and com
plicated, that they require the talents as well as experience of many successive ages, to bring them to any degree of perfection. From the raft or
canoe, which first served to carry a savage over the river that obstructed
him in the chase, to the construction of a vessel capable of conveying a
numerous crew or a considerable cargo of goods to a distant coast, the progress of improvement is immense. Many efforts would be made, many
experiments would be tried, and much labour as well as ingenuity would
be employed, before this arduous and important undertaking could be
accomplished.
Even after some improvement was made in ship building, the intercourse
of nations with each other by sea was far from being extensive. From
the accounts of the earliest historians, we learn, that navigation made its
first efforts in the Mediterranean and the Arabian gulf, and in them the first
active operations of commerce were carried on. From an attentive inspection of the position and form of these two great inland seas, these accounts
appear to be highly probable. These seas lay open the continents of
Europe, Asia, and Africa, and spreading to a great extent along the coasts
of the most fertile and most early civilized countries in each, seem to have
been destined by nature to facilitate their communication with one another. We find, accordingly, that the first voyages of the Egyptians and
Phcenicians, the most ancient navigators mentioned in history, were made
in the Mediterranean. Their trade, however, was not long confined to the
countries bordering upon it. By acquiring early possession of ports on the
Arabian gulf, they extended the sphere of their commerce, and are represented as the first people of the west who opened a communication by sea
with India.
In that account of the progress of navigation and discovery which I prefixed to the History of America, I considered with attention the maritime
operations of the Egyptians and Phoenicians; a brief review of them here,
as far as they relate to their connexion with India, is all that is requisite
for illustrating the subject of my present inquiries. With respect to the
former of these people, the information which history affords is slender, and
* Hist. of America, p. 17.




ANCIE;NT INDIA. 
of doubtful authority. The fertile soil and mild climate of Egypt produced the necessaries and comforts of life in such profusion as to render its
inhabitants so independent of other countries, that it became early an established maxim in their policy to renounce all intercourse with foreigners.
In consequence of this, they held all seafaring persons in 1detestation, as
impious and profane; and fortifying their harbours, they denied strangers
admission into them.
The enterprising ambition of Sesostris, disdaining the restraints imposed
upon it by these contracted ideas of his subjects, prompted him to render
the Egyptians a commercial people; and in the course of his reign he so
completely accomplished this, that, if we may give credit to some historians, he. was able to fit out a fleet of four hundred ships in the Arabian
gulf, which conquered all the countries stretching along the Erythrean sea
to India. At the same time, his'army, led by himself, marched through
Asia, and subjected to his dominion every part of it as fai as to the banks
of the Ganges; and crossing that river, advanced to the Eastern Ocean.j
But these efforts produced no permanent effect, and appear to have been so
contrary to the genius and habits of the Egyptians, that on the death of
Sesostris, they resumed their ancient maxims, and many ages elapsed before the commercial connexion of Egypt with India came to be of such
importance as to merit any notice in this disquisition [1].
The history of the early maritime operations of Phcenicia is not involved
in the same obscurity with those of Egypt. Every circumstance in the
character and situation of the Phoenicians was favourable to the commer
cial spirit. The territory which they possessed was neither large nor-fertile.  It was from commerce only that they could derive either opulence
or power. Accordingly, the trade carried on by the Phoenicians of Sidon
and Tyre was extensive and adventurous; and both in their manners and
policy, they resemble the great commercial states of modern times, more
than any people in the ancient world. Among the various branches of
their commerce, that with India may be regarded as one of the most considerable and most lucrative. As by their situation on the Mediterranean,
and the imperfect state of navigation, they could not attempt to open a
direct communication with India by sea; the enterprising spirit of commerce prompted them to wrest from the Idumaeans some commodious harbours towards the bottom of the Arabian gulf. From these they held a
regular intercourse with India on the one hand, and with the eastern and
southern coasts of Africa on the other. The distance, however, from the
Arabian gulf to Tyre was considerable, and rendered the conveyance of
goods to it by land carriage so tedious and expensive, that it became necessary for them to take possession of Rhinocolura, the nearest port in the
Mediterranean to the Arabian gulf. Thither all the commodities brought
from India were conveyed over land by a route much shorter, and more
practicable, than that by which the productions of the east were carried
at a subsequent period from the opposite shore of the Arabian gulf to the
Nile.1 At Rhinocolura they were reshipped, and transported by an easy
navigation to Tyre, and distributed through the world. This, as it is the
earliest route of communication with India, of which we have any authentic description, had so many advantages over any ever known before the
modern discovery of a new course of navigation to the east, that the Phce
nicians could supply other nations with the productions of India in greater
abundance, and at a cheaper rate, than any people of antiquity. ro this
circumstance, which for a considerable time secured to them a monopoly
of that trade, was owing, not only the extraordinary wealth of individuals,
which rendered the " merchants of Tyre princes, and her traffickers the
* Diodor. Sicul. lib. i. p. 78. edit. Vesselingi. Amst. 1746. Strab. Geog. lib. xvii. p. 1142. A
edit. Casaub. Amst. 1707   k Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 64.: Ibid. p. 70. Strab. lib. xvi. p. 1128. A




8                   DISQUISITION ON
honourable of the earth;"  but the extensive power of the state itself,
which first taught mankind to conceive what vast resources a commercial
people possess, and what great exertions they are capable of making [2].
The Jews, by their vicinity to Tyre, had such an opportunity of observing the wealth which flowed into that city from the lucrative commerce
carried on by the Phoenicians from their settlements on the Arabian gulf, as
incited them to aim at obtaining some share of it. This they effected under
the prosperous reigns of David and Solomon, partly by the conquests which
they made of a small district in the land of Edom, that gave them possession of the harbours of Elath and Eziongeber on the Red Sea, and partly
by the friendship of Hiram, king of Tyre; who enabled Solomon to fit out
fleets which, under the direction of Phoenician pilots, sailed to Tarshish
and Ophir.f In what region of the earth we should search for these famous
ports which furnished the navy of Solomon with the various commodities
enumerated by the sacred historians, is an inquiry that has long exercised
the industry of learned men. They were early supposed to be situated in
some part of India, and the Jews were held to be one of the nations which
traded with that country. But the opinion more generally adopted is, that
Solomon's fleets, after passing the straits of Babelmandeb, held their course
along the south-east coast of Africa, as far as the kingdom of Sofala, a
country celebrated for its rich mines of gold and silver, from which it has
been denominated the golden Sofala, by oriental writers,. and abounding
in aill the other articles which composed the cargoes of the Jewish ships.
This opinion, which the accurate researches of M. D'Anville rendered
highly probable,~ seems now to be established with the utmost certainty
by a late learned traveller; who, by his knowledge of the monsoons in the
Arabian gulf, and his attention to the ancient mode of navigation, both in
that sea and along the African coast, has not only accounted for the extraordinary length of time which the fleets of Solomon took in going and
returning, but has shown, from circumstances mentioned concerning the
voyage, that it was not made to any place in India.11 The Jews then, we
may conclude, have no title to be reckoned among the nations which carried on intercourse with India by sea; and if, from deference to the sentiments of some respectable authors, their claim were to be admitted, we
know with certainty, that the commercial effort which they made in the
reign of Solomon was merely a transient one, and that they quickly returned
to their former state of unsocial seclusion from the rest of mankind.
From collecting the scanty information which history affords concerning
the most early attempts to open a commercial intercourse with India, I now
proceed with more certainty and greater confidence, to trace the progress
of communication with that country, under the guidance of authors who
recorded events nearer to their own times, and with respect to which they
had received more full and accurate intelligence.
The first establishment of any foreign power in India, which can be
ascertained by evidence meriting any degree of credit, is that of the Persians; and even of this we have only a very general and doubtful account.
Darius, the son of Hystaspis, though raised to the throne of Persia by
chance or by artifice, possessed such active and enterprising talents as
rendered him worthy of that high station. He examined the different
provinces of his kingdom more diligently than any of his predecessors, and
explored regions of Asia formerly little known.~ Having subjected to his
dominion many of the countries which stretched south-east from the Cas.,
plan sea towards the river Oxus, his curiosity was excited to acquire a
more extensive and accurate knowledge of India, on which they bordered.
With this view he appointed Scylax of Caryandra to take the command
* Isaiah, xxiii. 8.    t 1 Kings, ix. 26. x. 22.    + Notices des MSS. du Roi, tom. ii. p. 40.
Dissert. sur le Pays d' Ophir, M6m. de Littirat. tom. xxx. p. 83, &c.  If Bruce's Travels, book
i chap. 4.  fT Herodot. lib. iv. c. 44.




ANCIENT INDIA.                                9
of a squadron fitted out at Caspatyrus, in the country of Pactya, the modern
Pehkely, towards the upper part of the navigable course of the river Indus,
and to fall down its stream until it should reach the ocean. This Scylax
performed, though it should seem with much difficulty, and notwithstanding many obstacles; for he spent no less than two years and six months in
conducting his squadron from the place where he embarked to the Arabian
gulf.* The account which he gave of the populousness, fertility, and high
cultivation of that region of India through which his course lay, rendered
Darius impatient to become master of a country so valuable. This he
soon accomplished; and though his conquests in India seem not to have
extended beyond the district watered by the Indus, we are led to form a
high idea of its opulence, as well as of the number of its inhabitants, in ancient
times, when we learn that the tribute which he levied from it was near a
third part of the whole revenue of the Persian monarchyt [3]. But neither
this voyage of Scylax, nor the conquests of Darius, to which it gave rise,
diffused any general knowledge of India.  The Greeks, who were the
only enlightened race of men at that time in Europe, paid but little attention to the transactions of the people whom they considered as barbarians,
especially in countries far remote from their own; and Scylax had embellished the narrative of his voyage with so many circumstances manifestly
fabulous,4 that he seems to have met with the just punishment to which
persons who have a notorious propensity to what is marvellous are often
subjected, of being listened to with distrust, even when they relate what is
exactly true.
About a hundred and sixty years after the reign of Darius Hystaspis,
Alexander the Great undertook his expedition into India. The wild sallies
of passion, the indecent excesses of intemperance, and the ostentatious
displays of vanity, too frequent in the conduct of this extraordinary man,
have so degraded his character, that the pre-eminence of his merit, either
as a conqueror, a politician, or a legislator, has seldom been justly estimated.  The subject of my present inquiry leads me to consider his
operations only in one light, but it will enable me to exhibit a striking
view of the grandeur and extent of his plans. He seems, soon after his
first successes in Asia, to have formed the idea of establishing a universal
monarchy, and aspired to the dominion of the sea as well as of the land.
From the wonderful efforts of the Tyrians in their own defence, when left
without any ally or protector, he conceived a high opinion of the resources
of maritime power, and of the wealth to be derived from commerce,
especially that with India, which he found engrossed by the citizens of
Tyre. With a view to secure this commerce, and to establish a station
for it preferable in many respects to that of Tyre, as soon as he completed the conquest of Egypt, he founded a city near one of the mouths of
the Nile, which he honoured with his own name;, and with such admirable discernment was the situation of it chosen, that Alexandria soon
became the greatest trading city in the ancient world; and, notwithstanding many successive revolutions in empire, continued during eighteen centuries to be the chief seat of commerce with India.~ Amidst the military
operations to which Alexander was soon obliged to turn his attention, the
desire of acquiring the lucrative commerce which the Tyrians had carried
on with India, was not relinquished.  Events soon occurred, that not only
confirmed and added strength to this desire, but opened to him a prospect
of obtaining the sovereignty of those regions which supplied the rest of mankind with so many precious commodities.
After his final victory over the Persians, he was led, in pursuit of the last
Darius, and of Bessus, the murderer of that unfortunate monarch, to
* Herodot lib. iv. c. 42. 44.    t ibid. lib. iii c. 90-96.    + Philostr. Vita Apoll. lib. iii..
47, and Note 3d of Olcarius Tzetzet. Chiliad. vii. vers 630.    Q Hist. of America, p. 23 




10                   DISQUISITION ON
traverse that part of Asia which stretches from the Caspian sea beyond tlee
river Oxus. He advanced towards the east as far as Mlaracanda,? then a
city of some note, and destined in a future period, under the modern name
of Samarcand, to be the capital of an empire not inferior to his own, either
in extent or in power. In a progress of several months through provinces
hitherto unknown to the Greeks, in a line of march often approaching near
to India, and among people accustomed to much intercourse with it, he
learned many things concerning the state of a countryt that had been long
the object of his thoughts and wishes., which increased his desire ot
invading it. Decisive and prompt in all his resolutions, he set out from
Bactria, and crossed that ridge of mrountains which, under various denomi
nations, forms the Stony Girdle, (if I may use an expression of the oriental
geographers) which encircles Asia, and constitutes the northern barrier of
India.
The most practicable avenue to every country, it is obvious, must be
formed by circumstances in its natural situation, such as the defiles which
lead through mountains, the course of rivers, and the places where they
may be passed with the greatest ease and safety. In no place of the earth
is this line of approach marked and defined more conspicuously than on
the northern frontier of India; insomuch that the three great invaders of
this country, Alexander, Tamerlane, and Nadir Shah, in three distant:ages, and with views and talents extremely different, advanced by the,same route, with very little deviation. Alexander had the merit of having
first discovered the way.  After passing the mountains, he encamped
-at Alexandria Paropomisana, not far from the mountains denominated the
Indian Caucasus by his historians, now known by the name of Hindoo Kho;~:and having subdued or conciliated the nations seated on the north-west
bank of the Indus, he crossed the river at Taxila, now Attock, where its
stream is so tranquil that a bridge can be thrown over it with greater ease
than at any other placell [4].
After passing the Indus, Alexander marched forward in the road which
leads directly to the Ganges, and the opulent provinces to the south-east,:now comprehended under the general name of Indo.stan. But, on the
banks of the Hydaspes, known in modern times by the name of the Betah.or Chelum, he was opposed by Porus, a powerful monarch of the country,,at the head of a numerous army. The warwith Porus, and the hostilities
in which he was successively engaged with other Indian princes, led him
to deviate from his original route, and to turn more towards the southwest. In carrying on these operations, Alexander marched through one
of the richest and best peopled countries of India, now called the Panjab,
from the five gread. rivers by which it is watered; and as we know that
this march was performed in the rainy season, when even Indian armies
cannot keep the field, it gives a high idea both of Alexander's persevering
spirit, and of the extraordinary vigour and hardiness of constitution which
soldiers, in ancient timnes, derived from the united effects of gymnastic
exercise and military discipline. In every step of his progress, objects no
less striking than new presented themselves to Alexander. The magnitude of the Indus, even after he had seen the Nile, the Euphrates, and the
Tigris, must have filled him with surprise.~  No country he had hitherto
visited was so populous and well cultivated, or abounded in so many
valuable productions of nature and of art, as that part of India through
whllich he had led his army. But when he was informed in every place,
-and probably with exaggerated description, how much the Indus was
inferior to the Ganges, and how far all that he had hitherto teheld was
* Arrian, iii. c. 30.    t Strabo, xv. p. 1021. A.    T Arrian, iv. c. 15
d In the second edition of his Memoir, Major Rennell gives the modern names of the Hydaspes,
with some variation in their orthography, Behut and Ihylatm.
11 Rennell. Menm. p. 9(2.' Strabo, lib. xv p. 1027. C. & note 5. Casaub.




ANCIENT INDIA.                             11
surpassed in the happy regions through which that great river flows, it is
not wonderful that his eagerness to view and to take possession of them
should have prompted him to assemble his soldiers, and to propose that
they should resume their march towards that quarter, where wealth,
dominion, and fame awaited them. But they had already done so much,
and had suffered so greatly, especially from incessant rains and extensive
inundations, that their patience as well as strength was exhausted [5], and
with one voice they refused to advance further. In this resolution they
persisted with such sullen obstinacy, that Alexander, though possessed in
the highest degree of every quality that gains an ascendant over the minds
of military men, was obliged to yield, and to issue orders for marching
back to Persia.?
The scene of this memorable transaction was on the banks of the
Hyphasis, the modern Beyah, which was the utmost limit of Alexander's
progress in India. From this it is manifest that he did not traverse the
whole extent of the Panjab. Its south-west boundary is formed by a river
anciently known by the name of Hysudrus, and now by that of the Setlege,
to which Alexander never approached nearer than the southern bank of
the Hyphasis, where he erected twelve stupendous altars, which he intended as a monument of his exploits, and which (if we may believe the
biographer of Apollonius Tyanaeus) were still remaining, with legible
inscriptions, when that fantastic sophist visited India, three hundred and
seventy-three years after Alexander's expedition.t The breadth of the
Panjab, from Ludhana on the Setlege to Attock on the Indus, is computed
to be two hundred and fifty-nine geographical miles, in a straight line;
and Alexander's march, computed in the same manner, did not extend
above two hundred Iniles. But, both as he advanced and returned, his
troops were so spread over the country, and often acted in so many separate divisions, and all his movements were so exactly measured and delineated by men of science, whom he kept in pay for the purpose, that he
acquired a very extensive and accurate knowledge of that part of India.
When, upon his return, he reached the banks of the Hydaspes, he founA
that the officers to whom he had given it in charge to build and collect as
many vessels as possible, had executed his orders with such activity and
success, that they had assembled a numerous fleet. As amidst the hurry of
war. and the rage of conquest, he never lost sight of his pacific and comr
mercial schemes, the destination of his fleet was to sail down the Indus to
the ocean, and from its mouth to proceed to the Persian Gulf, that a com
munication by sea might be opened with India, and the centre of his
dominions.
The conduct of this expedition was committed to Nearchus, an officei
equal to that important trust. But as Alexander was ambitious to acquire
fame of every kind, and fond of engaging in new and splendid undertakings,
he himself accompanied Nearchus in his navigation down the river. The
armament was indeed so great and magnificent, as deserved to be commanded by the conqueror of Asia. It was composed of an army of a
hundred and twenty thousand men, and two hundred elephants, and of a
fleet of near two thousand vessels, various in burden and torm [6]; on
board of which one third of the troops embarked, while the remainder,
marching in two divisions, one on the right and the other on the left of the
river, accompanied them in their progress. As they advanced, the nations
on each side were either compelled or persuaded to submit. Retarded by
the various operations in which this engaged him, as well as by the slow
navigation of such a fleet as he conducted Alexander was above nine
months before he reached the ocean.~
* Arrian, v. c. 24, 25.  t Philostr. Vita Apollon. lib. ii. c. 43. edit. Olear, Lips. 1709.
t Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 17.  ~ Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1014.




12                   D-ISQUISITION ON
Alexander's progress in India, in this line of direction, was far more con
siderable than that which he made by the route we formerly traced; and
when we attend to the various movements of his troops, the number of
cities which they took, and the different states which they subdued, he
may be said not only to have viewed, but to have explored, the countries
through which he passed. This part of India has been so little frequented
by Europeans in later times, that neither the position of places, nor their
distances, can be ascertained with the same accuracy as in the interior
provinces, or even in the Panjab. But from the researches of major Rennell, earned on with no less discernment than industry, the distance of that
place on the Hydaspes, where Alexander fitted out his fleet, from the ocean,
cannot be less than a thousand British miles. Of this extensive region, a
considerable portion, particularly the Upper Delta, stretching from the
capital of the ancient Malli, now Moulton, to Patala, the modern Tatta, is
distinguished for its fertility and population *
Soon after he reached the ocean, Alexander, satisfied with having accom
)lished this arduous undertaking, led his army by land back to Persia.
the command of the fleet, with a considerable body of troops on board of
it, he left to Nearchus, who, after a coasting voyage of seven months, con
ducted it safely up the Persian Gulf into the Euphrates.t[7].
In this manner did Alexander first open the knowledge of India to the
people of Europe, and an extensive district of it was surveyed with greater
accuracy than could have been expected from the short time he remained
in that country. Fortunately an exact account, not only of his military
operations, but of every thing worthy of notice in the countries where they
were carried on, was recorded in the memoirs or journals of three of his
principal officers, Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, Aristobulus, and Nearchus.
The two former have not, indeed, reached our times; but it is probable
that the most important facts which they contained are preserved, as Arrian
professes to have followed them as his guides, in his history of the expedition of Alexander;t a work which, though composed long after Greece
had lost its liberty, and in an age when genius and taste were on the
decline, is not unworthy the purest times of Attic literature.
With respect to the general state of India, we learn from these writers,
that, in the age of Alexander, though there was not established in it any
powerful empire, resembling that which in modern times stretched its
dominion from the Indus almost to Cape Comorin, it was even then formed
into monarchies of considerable extent.  The king of the Prasij was prepared, on the banks of the Ganges, to oppose the Macedonians, with an
army of twenty thousand cavalry, two hundred thousand infantry, two thousand armed chariots, and a great number of elephants.~  The territory of
which Alexander constituted Porus the sovereign, is said to have contained
seven distinct nations, and no fewer than two thousand towns.ll Even in
the most restricted sense that can be given to the vague indefinite appellations of nations and towns, an idea is conveyed of a very great degree of
population. As the fleet sailed down the river, the country on each side
was found to be in no respect inferior to that of which the government was
committed to Porus.
It was likewise from the memoirs of the same officers, that Europe
derived its first authentic information concerning the climate, the soil, the
productions, and the inhabitants of India; and in a country where the
manners, the customs, and even the dress of the people, are almost as permanent and invariable as the face of nature itself, it is wonderful how
exactly the descriptions given by Alexander's officers delineate what we
now behold in India, at the distance of two thousand years. The stated
* Rennell, Mem. 68, &c.  f Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 23.   t Arrian, lib. i. in profmio.
g Diod. Sicul. lib. xvii. p. 232.  ti Arrian, lib. vi. c. 2.




ANCIENT INDIA.                            13
change of seasons, now known by the name of monsoons; the periodical
rains; the swelling of the rivers; the inundations which these occasion, the
appearance of the country during their continuance, are particularly mentioned and described. No less accurate are the accounts which they have
given of-the inhabitants, their delicate and slender form, their dark complexion, their black uncurled hair, their garments of cotton, their living
entirely upon vegetable food, their division into separate tribes or casts, the
members of which never intermarry, the custom of wives burning them
selves with their deceased husbands, and many other particulars in all
which they perfectly resemble the modern Hindoos. To enter into any
detail with respect to these in this place, would be premature; but as the
subject, though curious and interesting, will lead unavoidably into discussions, not well suited to the nature of an historical work, I shall reserve my
ideas concerning it for an appendix, to be annexed to this disquisition; and
hope they may contribute to throw some additional light upon the origin
and nature of the commerce with India.
Much as the western world was indebted for its knowledge of India to
the expedition of Alexander, it was only a small portion of that vast continent which he explored. His operations did not extend beyond the modern
province of Lahore, and the countries on the banks of the Indus, from
Moultan to the sea. These, however, were surveyed with that degree of
accuracy which I have already described; and it is a circumstance not
unworthy of notice, that this district of India, which Europeans first entered,
and with which they were best acquainted in ancient times, is now less
known than almost any part of that continent;* neither commerce nor war,
to which, in every age, geography is chiefly indebted for its improvement,
having led any nation of Europe to frequent or explore it.
If an untimely death had not put a period to the reign of the Macedonian
hero, India, we have reason to think, would have been more fully explored
by the ancients, and the European dominion would have been established
there two thousand years sooner. When Alexander invaded India, he had
something more in view than a transient incursion. It was his object to
annex that extensive and opulent country to his empire; and though the
refractory spirit of his army obliged him, at that time, to suspend the prosecution, of his plan, he was far from relinquishing it. To exhibit a
general'view of the measures which he adopted for this purpose, and to
point out their propriety and probable success, is not foreign from the subject of this disquisition, and will convey a more just idea than is usually
entertained, of the original genius and extent of political wisdom, which
distinguished this illustrious man.
When Alexander became master of the Persian empire, he early per
ceived, that with all the power of his hereditary dominions, reinforced by
the troops which the ascendant he had acquired over the various states of
Greece might enable him to raise there, he could not hope to retain in
subjection territories so extensive and populous; that to render his authority secure and permanent, it must be established in the affection of the
nations which he had subdued, and maintained by their arms; and that, in
order to acquire this advantage, all distinctions between the victors and
vanquished must be abolished, and his European and Asiatic subjects must
be incorporated and become one people, by obeying the same laws, and
by adopting the same manners, institutions, and discipline.
Liberal as this plan of policy was, and well adapted to accomplish what
he had in view, nothing could be more repugnant to the ideas and prejudices of his countrymen. The Greeks had such a high opinion of the preeminence to which they were raised by civilization and science, that they
seem hardly to have acknowledged the rest of mankind to be of the same
* Rennell, Mem. 114.




14                 DISQUI SITI-ON ON
species with themselves. To every other people they gave the degrading
appellation of Barbarians; and, in consequence of their own boasteda superiority, they asserted a right of dominion over them, in the same manner
( (to use their own expression) as- the soul has over the body, and men have
over irrational animals. Extravagant as this pretension may now appear,
it found admission, to the disgrace of ancient philosophy, into all the
schools. Aristotle, full of this opinion, in support of which he employs
arguments more subtle than solid,? advised Alexander to govern the Greeks
like subjects, and the Barbarians as slaves; to consider the former as companions, the latter as creatures of an inferior nature.t But the sentiments
of the pupil were more enlarged than, those of his master, and his. experience in governing men taught the monarch what the speculative science of
the philosopher did not discover. Soon after the victory at Arbela, Alexander himself, and, by his persuasion, many of his officers, assumed the
Persian dress, and conformed to several of their customs. At the same
time he encouraged the Persian nobles to imitate the manners of the Macedonians, to learn the Greek language, and to acquire a relish for the beauties of the elegant writers in that tongue, which were then universally
studied and admired. In order to render the union more complete, he
resolved to marry one of the daughters of Darius, and chose wives for a
hundred of his principal officers, in the most illustrious Persian families.
Their nuptials were celebrated with great pomp and festivity, and with
high exultation of the conquered people. In imitation of them, above
ten thousand Macedonians, of inferior rank, married Persian women, to
each of whom Alexander gave nuptial presents, as a testimony of his
approbation of their conduct: [8]
But assiduously- as Alexander laboured to unite his European and Asiatic
subjects by the most indissoluble ties, he did not trust entirely to the success
of that measure for the security of his new conquests. In every province
which he subdued, he made choice of proper stations, where he built and
fortified cities, in which he placed garrisons, composed partly of such of the
natives as conformed to the Grecian manners and discipline, and partly of
such of his European subjects as were worn out with the fatigues of service,
and wished for repose and a permanent establishment. These cities were
numerous, and served not only as a chain of posts to keep open the communication between the different, provinces of his dominions, but as places
of strength, to overawe and curb the conquered people. Thirty thousand
of his new subjects, who had been disciplined in these cities, and armed
after the European fashion, appeared before Alexander in Susa, and were
formed by him into that compact and solid body of infantry, known by the
name of the Phalanx, which constituted the strength of a Macedonian army.
But in order to secure entire authority over this new corps, as well as to
render it more effective, he appointed that every officer in it intrusted with
command, either superior or subaltern, should be European. As the inge
nuity of mankind naturally has recourse in similar situations to the same
expedients, the European powers, who now in their Indian territories
employ numerous bodies of the natives in their service, have, in forming
the establishment of these troops, adopted the same maxims; and probably
without knowing it, have modelled their battalions of Seapoys upon the
same principles as Alexander did: his phalanx of Persians.
The further Alexander pushed his conquests from the banks of the
Euphrates, which may be considered as the centre of his dominions, he
found it necessary to build and to fortify a greater number of cities. Several:
of these to the east and south of the Caspian sea are mentioned by ancient.
authors; and in India itself he founded two cities. on the banks of the
* Aristot. Polit. i. c. 3-7.    t Plut de Fortuna Alex. Orat. i. p. 302. vol. vii. edit. Reiske
Strabo, lib. i. p 116. A.  $ Arrian lib, vii. c. 4. Plut. de Fort. Alex. p. 304.




ANCIENT  INDIA.                             15
Hydaspes, and a third on the Acesmes, both navigable rivers, which, after
uniting their streams, fall into the Indus [9]. From  the choice of such
situations, it is obvious that he intended, by means of these cities, to keep
open a communication with India not. only by land but by sea. It was
chiefly with a view to the latter of these objects (as I have already observed)
that he examined the navigation. of the Indus with so much attention.
With the same view, on his return to Susa, he in person surveyed the
course of the Euphrates and Tigris, and gave directions to remove the
cataracts, or dams, with which the ancient monarchs of Persia, induced by
a peculiar' precept of their religion, which enjoined themn to guard with the
utmost care against defiling any of the elements, had constructed near the
mouths of these rivers, in order to shut out their subjects from access to
the ocean* [10]. By opening the navigation in this manner, he proposed
that the valuable commodities of India should. be conveyed from the Persian gulf into the interior parts of his Asiatic dominions, while by the Arabian
gulf they should be carried to Alexandria, and distributed to the rest of the
world.
Grand and extensive as these schemes were, the precautions employed,
and the arrangements made: for carrying them into execution, were so
various and so proper, that Alexander had good reason to entertain sanguine
hopes of their proving successful. At the time when, the mutinous spirit
of his soldiers obliged him to relinquish his operations in India, he was not
thirty years of age complete. At this enterprising period of life, a prince
of a spirit so active, persevering, and indefatigable, must have soon found
means to resume a favourite measure on which he had been long intent.
If he had invaded India a second time, he would not, as formerly, have
been obliged to force his way through hostile and unexplored' regions,
opposed at every step by nations and tribes of barbarians whose names
had never reached Greece. All Asia, from the shores of the Ionian sea to
the banks of the: Hyphasis, would then have been subject to his dominion;
and through that immense stretch of country he had established such a
chain of cities, or fortified stations [11], that his armies might have continued their march with safety, and have found a regular succession of
magazines provided for their subsistence. Nor would it have been difficult
for him to bring into the field forces sufficient to have achieved the conquest
of a country so populous and extensive as India. Having armed and disciplined his subj.ects in the East like. Europeans, they would have been
ambitious to imitate and to equal their instructers; and Alexander might
have drawn recruits, not from his scanty domains in Macedonia and Greece
but'from the vast regions of Asia, which in every age has covered the
earth, and astonished mankind with its numerous armies. When at the
head of such a formidable power he had reached the confines of India, he
might have entered it under circumstances very different from those in his
first expedition. He had secured a firm footing there, partly by means of
the garrisons that he left in. the three cities which he had built and fortified,
and partly by'his alliance with Taxiles and Porus. These two Indian
princes, won by Alexander's humanity and beneficence, which, as they
were virtues seldom' displayed in the ancient mode of carrying on war,
excited of course a higher degree of admiration and gratitude, had continued
steady in their attachment to the Macedonians. Reinforced by their troops,
and guided by their information as well as by the experience which he had
acquired in. his former campaigns, Alexander must have made rapid progress in a country where every invader, from his time to the present age,
has proved successful.
But this and all his other splendid schemes were terminated at once by
his untimely death. In consequence of that, however, events took place
Arrian iib. vi. c. 7. Strabos lib. xvp. 1074, &c.




16                  DISQUISITION ON
which illustrate and confirm the justness of the preceding speculations and
conjectures by evidence the most striking and satisfactory. When that
great empire, which the superior genius of Alexander had kept united and
in subjection, no longer felt his superintending control, it broke into pieces,
and its various provinces were seized by his principal officers, and parcelled
out among them. From ambition, emulation, and personal animosity, they
soon turned their arms against one another; and as several of the leaders
were equally eminent for political abilities and for military skill, the contest
was maintained long, and carried on with frequent vicissitudes of fortune.
Amidst the various convulsions and revolutions which these occasioned, it
was found that the measures of Alexander for the preservation of his conquests had been concerted with such sagacity, that, upon the final restoration
of tranquillity, the Macedonian dominion continued to be established in
every part of Asia, and not one province had shaken off the yoke. Even
India, the most remote of Alexander's conquests, quietly submitted to Pytho,
the son of Agenor, and afterwards to Seleucus, who successively obtained
dominion over that part of Asia. Porus and Taxiles, notwithstanding the
death of their benefactor, neither declined submision to the authority of the
Macedonians, nor made any attempt to recover independence.
During the contests for power and superiority among the successors of
Alexander, Seleucus, who in every effort of enterprising ambition was inferior to none of them, having rendered himself master of all the provinces
of the Persian empire comprehended under the name of Upper Asia,
considered those countries of India which had been subdued by Alexander
as belonging to that portion of the Macedonian empire of which he was
now the sovereign. Seleucus, like all the officers formed under Alexander,
entertained such high ideas of the advantages which might be derived from
a commercial intercourse with India, as induced him to march into that
country, partly with a view of establishing his own authority there, and
partly in order to curb Sandracottus, who having lately acquired the sovereignty of the Prasij, a powerful nation on the banks of the Ganges, threatened to attack the Macedonians, whose Indian territories bordered on his
dominions. Unfortunately, no account of this expedition, which seems to
have been splendid and successful, has reached our times. All we know
of it is, that he advanced considerably beyond the utmost boundary of
Alexander's progress in India [12], and would probably have proceeded
much further, if he had not been constrained to stop short in his career, in
order to oppose Antigonus, who was preparing to invade his dominions, at
the head of a formidable army. Before he began his march towards the
Euphrates, he concluded a treaty with Sandracottus; in consequence of
which, that monarch quietly retained the kingdom he had acquired. But
the powers and possessions of the Macedonians seem to have remained
unimpaired during the reign of Seleucus, which terminated forty-two years
after the death of Alexander.
With a view of cultivating a friendly intercourse with Sandracottus,
Seleucus made choice of Megasthenes, an officer, who, from his having
accompanied Alexander in his expedition into India, had some knowledge of the state of the country, and the manners of its inhabitants,
and sent him as his ambassador to Palibothra.* In this famous capital
of the Prasij, situated on the banks of the Ganges, Megasthenes resided
several years, and was probably the first European who ever beheld
that mighty river, far superior to any of the ancient continent in magnitude [131, and no less distinguished by the fertility of the countries
through which it flows. This journey of Megasthenes to Palibothra made
Europeans acquainted with a large extent of country of which they had
not hitherto any knowledge; for Alexander did not advance further towards
Strabo, lib. ii. p. 121, &c. Arrian. Hist. Ind. passim.




ANCIENT INDIA.                               17
the southeast than that part of the river Hydraotes or Rauvee, where the
modern city of Lahore is situated: and Palibothra, the site of which, as it
is a capital position in the geography of ancient India, I have investigated
with the utmost attention, appears to me the same with that of the modern
city of Allahabad, at the confluence of the two great rivers, Jumna and
Ganges [14]. As the road from Lahore to Allahabad runs through some
of the most cultivated and opulent provinces of India, the more the country
was explored, the idea of its value rose higher. Accordingly, what Megasthenes observed during his progress to Palibothra, and his residence
there, made such an impression upon his own mind, as induced him to
publish an ample account of India, in order to make his countrymen more
thoroughly acquainted with its importance. From his writings the ancients
seem to have derived almost all their knowledge of the interier state of
India; and from comparing the three most ample accounts of it, by Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Arrian. they appear manifestly, from their near
resemblance, to be a transcript of his words.  But, unfortunately, Megasthenes was so fond of the marvellous, that he mingled with the truths which
he related many extravagant fictions; and to him may be traced up tne
fabulous tales of men with ears so large that they could wrap themselves
up in them, of others with a single eye, without mouths, without noses,.
with long feet, and toes turned backwards; of people only three spans inr
height, of wvild men with heads in the shape of a wedge, of ants as large
as foxes that dug up gold, and many other things no less wonderful." The,
extracts from his narrative which have been transmitted to us by Strabo,
Arrian, and other writers, seem not to be entitled to credit, unless when,
they are supported by internal evidence, and confirmed by the testimony
of other ancient authors, or when they coincide with the experience oi
modern times. His account, however, of the dimensions and geography
of India is curious and accurate.  His description of the power and opu —
lence of the Prasij perfectly resembles that which might have been given
of some of the greater states in the modern Indostan, before the establishment of the Mahomedan or European power in India, and is consonant to.
the accounts which Alexander had received concerning that people. He
was informed, as has been already mentioned, that they were prepared t(o,
oppose him on the banks of the Ganges, with an army consisting of twenty
thousand cavalry, two hundred thousand infantry, and two thousand armed:
chariots;t and Megasthenes relates, that he had an audience of Sandracottus in a place where he was encamped with an army of four hundred
thousand men.t The enormous dimensions which he assigns to Palibothra,of no less than ten miles in length, and two in breadth, and surrounded by
walls in which there were five hundred and seventy towers, and sixty-four
gates, would probably have been ranked by Europeans among the wonders
which he delighted to relate, if they were not now well acquainted with
the rambling manner in which the cities of India were built, and did not
know with certainty that, both in former and in the present times, it might
boast of cities still more extensive.~
This embassy of Megasthenes to Sandracottus, and another of Daimachus to his son and successor Allitrochidas, are the last transactions of the
Syrian monarchs with India, of which we have any account [15]. Nor
can we either fix with accuracy the time, or describe the manner in which
their possessions in India were wrested from them. It is probable that
they were obliged to abandon that country soon after the death of
Seleucus.ll
But though the great monarchs of Syria lost, about this period, those
provinces in India which had been subject to their dominions, the Greeks in
* Strabo. iib. xx. 1032. A 1037. C.  t Diod. Sicul. lib. xvii. p. 232. Q. Cart. lib. ix. c. 2.
t Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1035. C.    ~ Rennell Men. 49, 50.   II Justin. lib. xv. c. 4.
VOL. III.-C




19                   DISQUISITION ON
a smaller kingdom, composed of some fragments of Alexander's empire,
still maintained an intercourse with India,, and even made some considerable acquisition of territory there. This was the kingdom of Bactria,
originally subject to Seleucus, but wrested from his son or grandson, and
rendered an independent state, about sixty-nine years after the death of
Alexander. Concerning the transactions of this kingdom, we must rest
satisfied with gleaning a few imperfect hints in ancient authors. From
them we learn that its commerce with India was great; that the conquests
of the Bactrian kings in that country were more extensive than those of
Alexander himself; and particularly that they recovered possession of the
district near the mouth of the Indus, which he had subdued.* Each of
the six princes who reigned in Bactria, carried on military operations in
India with such success, that they penetrated far into the interior part of
the country; and proud of the conquests which they had made, as well
as of the extensive dominions over which they reigned, some of them
assumed the lofty title of Great King, which distinguished the Persian
monarchs in the days of their highest splendour. But we should not have
known how long this kingdom of Bactria subsisted, or in what manner it
terminated, if M. de Guignes had not called in the historians of China to
supply the defects of the Greek and Roman writers. By them we are
informed, that about one hundred and twenty-six years before the Christian,era, a powerful horde of Tartars, pushed from their native seats on the
confines of China, and obliged to move towards the west by the pressure,of a more numerous body that rolled on behind them, passed the Jaxartes,:and, pouring in upon Bactria like an irresistible torrent, overwhelmed that,kingdom, and put an end to the dominion of the Greekst there, after it had,been established near one hundred and thirty years [16].
From this time until the close of the fifteenth century, when the Portu-,guese, by doubling the Cape of Good Hope, opened a new communication'with the East, and carried their victorious arms into every part of India, no
European power acquired territory or established its dominion there.
During this long period, of more than sixteen hundred years, all schemes
of conquest in India seem to have been totally relinquished, and nothing
more was aimed at by any nation, than to secure an intercourse of trade
with that opulent country.
It was in Egypt that the seat of this intercourse was established; and it
is not without surprise that we observe how soon and how regularly the
commerce with the East came to be carried on by that channel, in which
the sagacity of Alexander destined it to flow. Ptolemy, the son of Lagus,
as soon as he took possession of Egypt, established the seat of government
in Alexandria. By some exertions of authority, and many acts of liberality,
but chiefly by the fame of his mild and equal administration, he drew such
a number of inhabitants to this favourite residence, that it soon became a
populous and wealthy city. As Ptolemy deserved and had possessed the
confidence of Alexander more perfectly than any of his officers, he knew
vell that his chief object in founding Alexandria was to secure the advantages arising from the trade with India. A long and prosperous reign was
favourable to the prosecution of that object; and though ancient authors
have not enabled us to trace the steps which the first Ptolemy took for
this purpose, we have a striking evidence of his extraordinary attention
to naval affairs, in his erecting a lighthouse on the island of Pharos, at
the mouth of the harbour of Alexandria,j a work of such magnificence as
to be reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world.  With respect to
the commercial arrangements of his son Ptolemy Philadelphus, we have
more perfect information. In order to bring the trade with India (which
* Strabo, lib. xi. 785. D. lib. xv. 1006. B. Justin, lib. xli. c. 4. Bayer, Hist. Regni Grecor
Bactriani, passim.   t MWm. de Littmi at. tom. xxv. p. 17, &c.   4Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 1140 C




ANCIENT INDIA.                              19
began to revive at Tyre, its ancient station),: to centre in Alexandria, he
set about forming a canal, a hundred cubits in breadth, and thirty cubits
in depth, between Arsinoe on the Red Sea, not far from the situation of
the modern Suez, and the Peleusica or eastern branch of the Nile, by
means of which the productions of India might have been conveyed to that
capital wholly by water. But either on account of some danger apprehended from  completing it, that work was never finished; or frorr the
slow and dangerous navigation towards the northern extremity of the Red
Sea, this canal was found to be of so little use, that in order to facilitate
the communication with India, he built a city on the west coast of that sea,
almost under the tropic, to which he gave the name of Berenice.4  This
new city soon became the staple of the trade with India [17]. From
Berenice the goods were transported by land to Coptos, a city three miles
distant from the Nile, but which had a communication with that river by a
navigable canal, of which there are still some remains,4 and thence carried
down the stream to Alexandria. The distance between Berenice and
Coptos was, according to Pliny, two hundred and fifty-eight Roman miles,
and the road lay through the desert of Thebais, almost entirely destitute
of water. But the attention of a powerful monarch made provision for
supplying this want, by searching for springs; and wherever these were
found he built inns, or more probably, in the eastern style, caravanseras,
for the accommodation of merchants.~  In this channel the intercourse
between the East and West continued to be carried on during two hundred and fifty years. as long as Egypt remained an independent kingdom.
The ships destined for India took their departure from Berenice, and
sailing, according to the ancient mode of navigation, along the Arabian
shore, to the promontory Syagrus (now Cape Rasalgate), held their course
along the coast of Persia, either directly to Pattala (now Tatta) at the head
of the lower Delta of the Indus, or to some other emporium  on the west
coast of India. To this part of India, which Alexander had visited and
subdued, the commerce under the protection of the Egyptian monarchs
seems to have been confined for a considerable time. Afterwards a mnore
convenient course was followed. and from Cape Rasalgate vessels sailed in
a direct course to Zizerus. This, according to M. de Montesquieu,1! was
the kingdom of Sigertis, on the sea-coast adiacent to the mouth of the
Indus, conquered by the Greek monarchs of Bactria: according to Major
Rennell,~ it was a port on the northern part of the Malabar coast. Ancient
authors have not conveyed such information as will enable us to pronounce
with certainty which of these two opposite opinions is best founded. Nor
can we point out with accuracy what were the other ports in India which
the merchants from Berenice frequented, when that trade was first opened.
As they sailed in vessels of small burden, which crept timidly along the
coast, it is probable that their voyages were circumscribed within very narrow limits, and that under the Ptolemies no considerable progress was
made in the discovery of India [18].
From this monopoly of the commerce by sea between the East and West,
which Egypt long enjoyed, it derived that extraordinary degree of opulence and power for which it was conspicuous. In modern times,
acquainted with the vigilant and enterprising activity of commercial rivalship, there is hardly any circumstance in ancient story which appears
more surprising, than that the sovereigns of Egypt should have been permitted to engross this lucrative trade without competition, or any attempt
to wrest it out of their hands; especially as the powerful monarchs of
Syria might, from the Persian gulf, have carried on an intercourse with
the same parts of India by a shorter and safer course of navigation.  Dif* Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 1089. A.  t Ibid. lib. xvii. p. 1156. D. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 29
$ D'Anville MWm. de I'Egypte, p. 21.    g Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 1157. D. 1163.    11 L'Esprit
des Loix, lib. xxi. c. 7.  Ir Introduct. p. xxxvii.




20                   DISQUISITION ON
ferent considerations seem to have induced them so tamely to relinquish
all the obvious advantages of this commerce. The kings of Egypt, by
their attention to maritime affairs, had formed a powerful fleet, which gave
them such decided command of the sea, that they could have crushed with
ease any rival in trade. No commercial intercourse seems ever to have
been carried on by sea between Persia and India. The Persians had
such an insuperable aversion to that element, or were so much afraid of
foreign invasion, that their monarchs (as I have already observed) obstructed the navigation of the great rivers, which gave access to the interior parts of the country, by artificial worlks. As their subjects, however,
were no less desirous than the people around them to possess the valuable
productions and elegant manufactures of India, these were conveyed to
all the parts of their extensive dominions by land carriage. The commodities destined for the supply of the northern provinces, were transported
on camels from the banks of the Indus to those of the Oxus, down the
stream of which they were carried to the Caspian Sea, and distributed,
partly by land carriage, and partly by navigable rivers, through the different countries, bounded on one hand by the (aspian, and on the other by
the Euxine Sea.- The commodities of India intended for the southern
and interior provinces, proceeded by land from the Caspian gates to some
of the great rivers, by which they were circulated through every part of
the country. This was the ancient mode of intercourse with India, while
the Persian empire was governed by its native princes; and it has been
observed in every age, that when any branch of commerce has got into a
certain channel, although it may be neither the most proper nor the most
commodious one, it requires long time, and considerable efforts, to give it a
different direction [19].
To all these reasons for suffering the monarchs of Egypt to continue in
the undisturbed possession of the trade with India by sea, another may be
added. Many of the ancients, by an error in geography extremely unac
countable, and in which they persisted notwithstanding repeated opportunities of obtaining more accurate information, believed the Caspian sea
to be a branch of the great northern ocean, and the kings of Syria might
hope by that means to open a communication with Europe, and to circulate
through it the valuable productions of the East, without intruding into
those seas, the navigation of which the Egyptian monarchs seemed to
consider as their exclusive right. This idea had been early formed by
the Greeks, when they became masters of Asia.  Seleus Nicator, the
first and most sagacious of the Syrian kings, at the time when he was
assassinated, entertained thoughts of fbrming a junction between the Caspian and Euxine seas by a canal; and if this could have been effected,
his subjects, besides the extension of their trade in Europe, might: have
supplied all the countries iin the north of Asia, on the coast of the'Euxine
sea, as well as many of those which stretch eastward from the Caspian,
with the productions of India. As those countries, though now thinly
inhabited by a miserable race of men, destitute of industry and of wealth,
were in ancient times extremely populous, and filled with great and opulent
cities, this must have been considered as a branch of commerce of such
magnitude and value as to render the securing of it an object worthy the
attention of the most powerfuil monarch.
But while the monarchs of Egypt and Syria laboured with emulation
and ardour to secure to their subjects all the advantages of the Indian
trade, a power arose in the West which proved fatal to both. The Romans,
by the vigour of their military institutions, and the wisdom of their political conduct, having rendered themselves masters of all Italy and Sicily, soon
overturned the rival republic of Carthage [A. C. 55], subjected Macedonia
* Strabo, lib. xii. 77i. D.  Plin. Nat. list. lib. vi. c. 17.  t Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 1i.




ANCIENT INDIA.                            21
and Greece, extended their dominion over Syria, and at last turned their
victorious arms against Egypt, the only kingdom remaining of those established by the successors of Alexander the Great. After a series of events
which belong not to the subject of this Disquisition, Egypt was annexed
to the Roman empire, and reduced into the form of a Roman province by
Augustus [A. C. 301. Aware of its great importance, he, with that provident sagacity which distinguishes his character, not only reserved it as
one of the provinces subject immediately to imperial authority, but by
various precautions, well known to every scholar, provided for its security.
This extraordinary solicitude seems to have proceeded not only from con
sidering Egypt as one of the chief granaries on which the capital depended
for subsistence, but as the seat of that lucrative commerce which had
enabled its ancient monarchs to amass such enormous wealth, as excited
the admiration and envy of other princes, and produced, when brought
into the treasury of the empire, a considerable alteration both in the value
of property and the state of manners in Rome itself.
SECTION II.
intercourse with India,from  the establishment of the Roman dominion an
Egypt, to the conquest of that kingdom by the fMahomedans.
UPON the conquest of Egypt by the Romans, and the reduction of that
kingdom to a province of their empire, the trade with India continued
to be carried on in the same mode under their powerful protection: Rome,
enriched with the spoils and the tribute of almost all the known world,
had acquired a taste for luxuries of every kind. Among people of this
description, the productions of India have always been held in the highest
estimation. The capital of the greatest empire ever establishedin Europe,
filled with citizens, who had now no occupation but to enjoy and dissipate
the wealth accumulated by their ancestors, demanded every thing elegant,
rare, or costly, which that remote region could furnish, in order to support
its pomp, or heighten its pleasures. To supply this demand, new and
extraordinary efforts became requisite, and the commerce with India
increased to a degree, which (as I have observed in another place)" will
appear astonishing even to the present age, in which that branch of trade
has been extended far beyond the practice or conception of any former
period.
Besides the Indian commodities imported into the capital of the empire
fiom Egypt, the Romans received an additional supply of them by another
mode of conveyance. From the earliest times there seems to have been some
communication between Mesopotamia, and other provinces on the banks
of the Euphrates, and those parts of Syria and Palestine which lay near
the Mediterranean. The migration of Abram from Ur of the Chaldees to
Sichem in the land of Canaan, is an instance of this.t The journey through
the desert, which separated these countries, was much facilitated by its
affording one station abounding with water, and capable of cultivation.
As the intercourse increased, the possession of this station became an
object of so much importance, that Solomon, when he turned his attention
towards the extension of commerce among his subjects, built a fenced city
there.t Its Syrian name of Tadmor in the wilderness, and its Greek one
* Hist. of America, p. 25.  t Genesis, xi. 32.  + 1 Kings, ix. 18. 2 Chron. viii




22                   EDISQUISITION   O'(N
of Palmyra, are both descriptive of its situation in a spot adorned with
palmtrees. This is not only plentifully supplied with water, but surrounded
by a portion of fertile land, which (though of no great extent) renders it
a delightful habitation in the midst of barren sands, and an inhospitable
desert. Its happy position, at the distance of eighty-five miles from the
river Euphrates, and about one hundred and seventeen miles from the
nearest coast of the Mediterranean,? induced its inhabitants to enter with
ardour into the trade of conveying commodities from one of these to the
other. As the most valuable productions of India, brought up the Euphrates
from the Persian gulf, are of such small bulk as to bear the expense of a
long land carriage, this trade soon became so considerable, that the opulence and power of Palmyra increased rapidly.  Its government was of
the form which is best suited to the genius of a commercial city, republican; and from the peculiar advantages of its situation, as well as the spirit
of its inhabitants, it long maintained its independence, though surrounded by
powerful and ambitious neighbhours. Under the Syrian monarchs descended
from Seleucus, it attained to its highest degree of splendour and wealth,
one great source of which seems to have been the supplying their
subjects with Indian commodities.  When Syria submitted to the irresistible arms of Rome, Palmyra continued upwards of two centuries
a free state, and its friendship was courted with emulation and solicitude by the Romans, and their rivals for empire, the Parthians. That
it traded with both, and particularly that from it Rome as well as other
parts of the empire received the productions of India, we learn from
Appian, an author of good credit.t But in tracing the progress of the
commerce of the ancients with th'e East, I should not have ventured, upon
his single testimony, to mention this among the channels of note in which
it was carried on, if a singular discovery, for which we are indebted to
the liberal curiosity and enterprising spirit of our own countrymen, did not
confirm and illustrate what he relates. Towards the close of the last
century, some gentlemen of the English factory at Aleppo, incited by what
they heard in the East concerning the wonderful ruins of Palmyra, ventured, notwithstanding the fatigue and danger of a journey through the
desert, to visit them. To their astonishment they beheld a fertile spot
of same miles in extent arising like an island out of a vast plain of sand,
covered with the remains of temples, porticoes, aqueducts, and other
public works, which, in magnificence and splendour, and some of them in
elegance, were not unworthy of Athens or of Rome in their most prosperous state. Allured by their description of them, about sixty years thereafter, a party of more enlightened travellers, having reviewed the ruins of
Palmyra with greater attention and more scientific skill, declared that what
they beheld there exceeded the most exalted ideas which they had formed
concerning it.!
From both these accounts, as well as from recollecting the extraordinary
degree of power to which Palmyra had attained, when Egypt, Syria,
Mesopotamia, and a considerable part of Asia Minor were conquered by
its arms; when Odenatus, its chief magistrate, was decorated with the
Imperial purple, and Zenobia contended for the dominion of the East with
Rome under one of its most warlike emperors: it is evident that a state
which could derive little importance from its original territory, must have
owed its aggrandizement to the opulence acquired by extensive commerce.
Of this the Indian trade was undoubtedly the most considerable and most
* In a former edition, I stated the distance of Palmyra from the Euphrates at sixty miles, and
xom the Mediterranean at two hundred and three miles. Into these errors I was led by M. d'Anville,
who, in his Mdmoire sur l'Euphrate et le Tigris, a work published in old-age, did not retain his
wonted accuracy. From information communicated by Major Rennell, 1 have substituted the true
tiatances.
t Appian. de Bello Civil. lib. v. p. 1076, edit. Tollii.    t Wood's Ruins of Palmyra, p. 37




ANCIENT  INDI)A.                           23
lucrative branch. But it is a cruel mortification, in searching fbr what is
instructive in the history of past times, to find that the exploits of con
querors who have desolated the earth, and the freaks of tyrants who have
rendered nations unhappy, are recorded with minute and often disgusting
accuracy, while the discovery of useful arts, and the progress ot the most
beneficial branches of commerce, are passed over in silence, and suffered
to sink into oblivion.
After the conquest of Palmyra by Aurelian, trade never revived there.
At present, a few miserable huts of beggarly Arabs are scattered in the
courts of its stately temples, or deform its elegant porticoes; and exhibit a
humiliating contrast to its ancient magnificence.
But while the merchants of Egypt and Syria exerted their activity in
order to supply the increasing demands of Rome for Indian commodities,
and vied with each other in their efforts, the eagerness of gain (as Pliny
observes) brought India itself nearer to the rest of the world. In the
course of their voyages to that country, the Greek and Egyptian pilots
could not fail to observe the regular shifting of the periodical winds or
monsoons, and how steadily they continued to blow during one part of
the year from the east, and during the other from the west. Encouraged
by attending to this circumstance, Hippalus, the commander of a ship
engaged i'n the Indian trade, ventured, about fourscore years after Egypt
was annexed to the Roman empire, to relinquish the slow and circuitous
course which I have described, and, stretching boldly from the mouth of
the Arabian gulf across the ocean, was carried by the western monsoon to
Musiris, a harbour in that part of India now known by the name of the
Malabar coast.
This route to India was held to be a discovery of such importance, that
in order to perpetuate the memory of the inventor, the name of Hippalus was
given to the wind which enabled him to perform the voyage.*  As this
was one of the greatest efforts of navigation in the ancient world, and
opened the best communication by sea between the East and West that
was known for fourteen hundred years, it merits a particular description.
Fortunately, Pliny has enabled us to give it with a degree of accuracy
which can seldom be obtained in tracing the naval or commercial operations of the ancients. From Alexandria (he observes) to Juliopolis is two
miles; there the cargo destined for India is embarked on the Nile, and is
carried to Coptos, which is distant three hundred and three miles, and the
voyage is usually accomplished in twelve days. From Coptos, goods are
conveyed by land carriage to Berenice on the Arabian gulf, halting at
different stations regulated according to the conveniency of watering. The
distance between these cities is two hundred and fifty-eight miles. On
account of the heat, the caravan travels only during the night, and the
journey is finished on the twelfth day. From Berenice, ships take their
departure about midsummer, and in thirty days reach Ocelis, (Gella) at the
mouth of the Arabian gulf, or Cane (Cape Fartaque) on the coast of
Arabia Felix. TheDce they sail, in forty days, to Musiris, the first emporium in India. They begin their voyage homewards early in the Egyptian
month Thibi, which answers to our December; they sail with a northeast
wind, and, when they enter the Arabian gulf, meet with a south or southwest wind, and thus complete the voyage in less than a yeart [20].
The account which Pliny gives of Musiris, and of Barace, another
harbour not far distant, which was likewise frequented by the ships from
Berenice, as being both so incommodious for trade on account of the shallowness of the ports, that it became necessary to discharge and take in the
cargoes in small boats, does not enable us to fix their position with perfect
accuracy   This description applies to many ports on the Malabar coast;
Perip. Mar. Erythr. p. 32     t Plin. Nat.  ist lib. vi, c. i,.




24                  DISQUISITION ON
but, from two circumstances mentioned by him; one, that they are nid
far distant from Cottonara, the country which produces pepper in great
abundance; and the other, that, in sailing towards them, the course lay
near Nitrias, the station of the pirates; 1 adopt the opinion of Major
Rennell, that they were situated somewhere between Goa and Telliche'ry,
and that probably the modern Meerzaw or Meijee is the Musiris of the
ancients, and Barcelore their Barace.?
As in these two ports was the principal staple of the trade between
Egypt and India, when in its most flourishing state, this seems to be the
proper place for inquiring into the nature of the commerce which the
ancients, particularly the Romans, carried on with that country, and for
enumerating the commodities most in request, which they imported fromn
it. But as the operations of commerce, and the mode of regulating it, were
little attended to in those states of antiquity of whose transactions we have
any accurate knowledge, their historians hardly enter into any detail concerning a subject of such subordinate importance in their political system;
and it is mostly from brief hints, detached facts, and incidental observations
that we can gather information concerning it [21].
In every age it has been a commerce of luxury rather than of necessity
which has been carried on between Europe and India. Its elegant manufactures, spices, and precious stones are neither objects of desire to nations
of simple manners, nor are such nations possessed of wealth sufficient to
purchase them. But at the time that the Romans became masters of the
Indian trade, they were not only (as has already been observed) in that
stage of society when men are eager to obtain every thing that can render
the enjoyment of life more exquisite, or add to its splendour, but they had
acquired all the fantastic tastes formed by the caprice and extravagance of
wealth. They were, of consequence, highly delighted with those new
objects of gratification with which India supplied them in such abundance.
The productions of that country, natural as well as artificial, seem to have
been much the same in that age as in the present. But the taste of the
Romans in luxury differed, in many respects, from that of modern times;
and, of course, their demands upon India differed considerably from ours.
In order to convey an idea of their demands as complete as possible, 1
shall in the first place make some observations on the three great articles
of general importation from India. 1. Spices and aromatics. 2. Precious
stones and pearls. 3. Silk. And then I shall give some account (as far
as I can venture to do it from authentic information) of the assortment of
cargoes, both outward and homeward bound, for the vessels fitted out at
Berenice to different ports of India.
I. Spices and aromatics. From  the mode of religious worship in the
heathen world, from the incredible number of their deities, and of the
temples consecrated to them, the consumption of frankincense and other
aromatics, which were used in every sacred function, must have been very
great. But the vanity of men occasioned a greater consumption of these
fragrant substances, than their piety. It was the custom of the Romans
to burn the bodies of their dead; and they deemed it a display of magnificence, to cover not only the body, but the funeral pile on which it was
laid, with the most costly spices. At the funeral of Sylla, two hundred
and ten burdens of spices were strewed upon the pile. Nero is reported
to have burnt a quantity of cinnamon and cassia at the funeral of Poppcea,
greater than the countries from which it was imported produced in one
year. We consume in heaps these precious substances with the carcasses
of the dead (says Pliny): we offer them to the gods only in grains.t It
was not from India, I am aware, but from Arabia, that aromatics were first
nimported into Europe; and some of them, particularly frankincense, wvere
* Introd. p. xxxvii.      t Nat. Hist. lib. xii. c. 18.




ANCIENT INDIA.                              *5
productions of that country. But the Arabians were accustomed, together
with spices of native growth, to furnish foreign merchants with others of
higher value, which they brought from India, and the regions beyond it.
The commercial intercourse of the Arabians with the eastern parts of Asia
was not only early but considerable. By means of their trading caravans,
they conveyed into their own country all the valuable productions of the
East, among which spices held a chief place. In every ancient account
of Indian commodities, spices and aromatics of various kinds form a principal article.*  Some authors assert that the greater part of those purchased
in Arabia were not the growth of that country, but brought from India.t
That this assertion was well founded appears from what has been observed
in modern times. The frankincense oi Arabia, though reckoned the peculiar and most precious production of the country, is much inferior in quality
to that imported into it from the East; and it is chiefly with the latter that
the Arabians at present supply the extensive demands of various provinces
of Asia for this commodity.+ It is upon good authority, then, that I have
mentioned the importation of spices as one of the most considerable
branches of ancient commerce with India. In the Augustan age, an entire
street in Rome seems to have been occupied by those who sold frankincense, pepper, and other aromatics.~
II. Precious stones, together with which pearls may be classed, seemn to
be the article next in value imported by the Romans froln the East. As
these have no pretension to be of any real use, their value arises entirely
from their beauty and their rarity, and even when estimated most moderately is always high. But among nations far advanced in luxury, when
they are deemed not only ornaments but marks of distinction, the vain and
the opulent vie so eagerly with one another for the possession of them,
that they rise in price to an exorbitant and almost incredible height.
Diamonds, though the art of cutting them was imperfectly known to the
ancients, held a high place in estimation among them, as well as among us.
The comparative value of other precious stones varied according to the
diversity of tastes and the caprice of fashion. The immense number of
them mentioned by Pliny, and the laborious care with which he describes
and arranges them,II will astonish, I should suppose, the most skilful lapidary or jeweller of modern times, and shows the high request in which
they were held by the Romans.
But among all the articles of luxury, the Romans seem to have given the
preference to pearls [22]. Persons of every rank purchased them with
eagerness; they were worn on every part of dress; and there is such a
difference, both in size and value, among pearls, that while such as were
large and of superior lustre adorned the wealthy and the great, smaller
ones of inferior quality gratified the vanity of persons in more humble stations of life. Julius Cesar presented Servilia, the mother of Brutus, with
a pearl for which he paid forty-eight thousand four hundred and fifty-seven
pounds. The famous pearl ear-rings of Cleopatra were in value one hundred and sixty-one thousand four hundred and fifty-eight pounds~ll [23].
Precious stones, it is true, as well as pearls, were found not only in India,
but in many different countries, and all were ransacked in order to gratify
the pride of Rome. India, however, furnished the chief part, and its productions were allowed to be most abundant, diversified, and valuable.
III. Another production of India, in great demand at Rome, was silk;
and when we recollect the variety of elegant fabrics into which it may be
formed, and how much these have added to the splendour of dress and furiture, we cannot wonder at its being held in such estimation by luxurious
* Peript Mar. Eryth. p. 2-2. 28. Strabo, lib. ii. p. 156. A. lib. xv. p. 1018. A.    t Strabo, lib.
xvii. p. 1129. C.   + Neibiuhr Descript. de l'Arabie, tom. i. p. 126.  g Hor.lib ii. epist. 1
q Nat. Hist. lib.  xxxvii.  I  Plin. Nat Hist. lib. ix. c. 35.
VOL. lII. —D




26                  DISQUISITION ON
people. The price it bore was exorbitant; but it was deemed a dress too
expensive and too delicate for men,? and was appropriated wholly to
women of eminent rank and opulence. This, however, did not render the
demand for it less eager, especially after the example of the dissolute
Elagabalus introduced the use of it among the other sex, and accustomed
men to the disgrace (as the severity of ancient ideas accounted it) of wearing this effeminate garb. Two circumstances concerning the traffic of silk
among the Romans merit observation. Contrary to what usually takes
place in the operations of trade, the more general use of that commodity
seems not to have increased the quantity imported, in such proportion as
to answer the growing demand for it, and the price of silk was not reduced
during the course of two hundred and fifty years from the time of its being
first known in Rome. In the reign of Aurelian, it still continued to be valued
at its weight in gold. This, it is probable, was owing to the mode in
which that commodity was procured by the merchants of Alexandria.
They had no direct intercourse with China, the only country in which the
silk~worm was then reared, and its labour rendered an article of commerce.
All the silk which they purchased in the different ports of India that they
frequented, was brought thither in ships of the country; and either from
some defect of skill in managing the silkworm, the produce of its ingenious
industry among the Chinese was scanty, or the intermediate dealers found
greater advantage in furnishing the market of Alexandria with a small
quantity at a high price, than to lower its value by increasing the quantity.
The other circumstance which I had in view is more extraordinary, and
affords a striking proof of the imperfect conrmunication of the ancients with
remote nations, and of the slender knowledge which they had of their natural productions or arts. Much as the manufactures of silk were admired,
and often as silk is mentioned by the Greek and Roman authors, they had
not, for several centuries after the use of it became common, any certain
knowledge either of the countries to which they were indebted for this
favourite article of elegance, or of the manner in which it was produced.
By some, silk was supposed to be a fine down adhering to the leaves of
certain trees or flowers; others imagined it to be a delicate species of wool
or cotton; and even those who had learned that it was the work of an
insect, show, by their descriptions, that they had no distinct idea of the
manner in which it was formed [24]. It was in consequence of an event
that happened in the sixth century of the Christian era, of which I shall
hereafter take notice, that the real nature of silk became known in Europe.
The other commodities usually imported from India will be mentioned
in the account, which I now proceed to give, of the cargoes sent out and
brought home in the ships employed in the trade with that country. For
this we are indebted to the Circumnavigation of the Erythraean Sea,
ascribed to Arrian, a curious though short treatise, less known than it
deserves to be, and which enters into some details concerning commerce,
to which there is nothing similar in any ancient writer. The first place in
India, in which the ships from Egypt, while they followed the ancient
couise of navigation, were accustomed to trade, was Patala in the river
Indus. They imported into it woollen cloth of a slight fabric, linen in
chequer work, some precious stones, and some aromatics unknown in India,
coral, storax, glass vessels of different kinds, some wrought silver, money,
and wine. In return for these, they received spices of various kinds, sapphires, and other gems, silkl stuffs, silk thread, cotton cloths [25], and black
pepper. But a far more considerable emporium on the same coast was
Barygaza; and on that account, the author, whom I follow here, describes
its situation, and the mode of approaching it, with great minuteness anlr
accuracy. Its situation corresponds entirely with that of Barnoch, on the
e Tacit. Annal. lib. ii, c. 33.




ANCIENT INDIA.                               27
peat river Nerbuddah; down the stream of which, or by land carriage,
m the great city of Tagara, across high mountains [26], all the productions of the interior country were con.veyed to it. The articles of importation and exportation in this great mart were extensive and various.
Besides these already mentioned, our author enumerates among the
former, Italian, Greek, and Arabian wines, brass, tin, lead, girdles or
sashes of curious texture, melilot, white glass, red arsenic, black lead,
gold and silver coin. Among the exports he mentions the onyx, and
other gems, ivory, myrrh, various fabrics of cotton, both plain and ornamented with flowers, and long pepper.? At Musiris, the next emporium
of note on that coast, the articles imported were much the same as at
Barygaza; but as it lay nearer to the eastern parts of India, and seems to
have had much communication with them, the commodities exported from
it were more numerous and more valuable. He specifies particularly
pearls, in great abundance and of extraordinary beauty, a variety of silk
stuffs, rich perfumes, tortoiseshell, different kinds of transparent gems,
especially diamonds, and pepper in large quantities, and of the best quality.t
The justness of the account given by this author of the articles imported
from India, is confirmed by a Roman law, in which the Indian commodities
subject to the payment of duties are enumerated.1  By comparing these
two accounts, we may form an idea tolerably exact of the nature and
extent of the trade with India in ancient times. 
As the state of' society and manners among the natives of India, in the
earliest period in which they are known, nearly resembled what we observe
among their descendants in the present age, their wants and demands were,
of course, much the same. The ingenuity of their own artists was so
able to supply these, that they stood little in need of foreign manufactures
or productions, except some of the useful metals which their own country
did not furnish in sufficient quantity; and then, as now, it was mostly with
gold and silver that the luxuries of the East were purchased. In two particulars, however, our importations from India differ greatly from those of
the ancients. The dress, both of the Greeks and Romans, was almost
entirely woollen, which, by their frequent use of the warm bath, was rendered abundantly comfortable. Their consumption of linen and cotton
cloths was much inferior to that of modern times, when these are worn
by persons in every rank of life. Accordingly, a great branch of modern
importation from that part of India with which the ancients were acquainted,
is in piece goods; comprehending, under that mercantile term, the immense
variety of fabrics which Indian ingenuity has formed of cotton. But as far
as 1 have observed, we have no authority that will justify us in stating the
ancient importation of these to be in any degree considerable.
In modern times, though it continues still to be chiefly a commerce of
luxury that is carried on with India, yet, together with the articles that
minister to it, we import, to a considerable extent, various commodities
which are to be considered merely as the materials of our domestic manufactures. Such are the cotton-wool of Indostan, the silk of China, and the
saltpetre of Bengal. But in the accounts of ancient importations from India,
raw silk and silk thread excepted, I find nothing mentioned that could
serve as the materials of any home manufacture. The navigation of the
ancients never having extended to China, the quantity of unwrought silk
with which they were supplied, by means of the Indian traders, appears
to have been so scanty, that the manufacture of it could not make an addition of any moment to their domestic industry.
After this succinct account of the commerce carried on by the ancients
in India, I proceed to inquire what knowledge they had of the countries
* Peripl. Mar. Erythr. p. 28.    t Ibid. 31, 32.    + Digest. lib. xxxix. tit. iv. ~ 16. De pub.
licanis et vectigalibus.




23                  D.ISQUISITION   ON
beyond the ports of Musiris and Barace, the utmost boundary towards the
east to which I have hitherto traced their progress. The author of the
Circumnavigation of the Erythraean Sea, whose accuracy of description
justifies the confidence with which I have followed him for some time,
seems to have been little acquainted with that part of the coast which
stretches from Barace towards the south. He mentions, indeed, cursorily,
two or three different ports, but gives no intimation that any of them were
staples of the commerce with Egypt. He [hastens to Comar, or Cape
Comorin, the southernmost point of the Indian peninsula; and his descrlption of it is so accurate, and so conformable to its real state, as shows his
information concerning it to have been perfectly authentic.? Near to this
he places the pearl fishery of Colchos, the modern Kilkare, undoubtedly
the same with that now carried on by the Dutch in the strait which separates the island of Ceylon from the continent; as adjacent to this he mentions three different ports, which appear to have been situated on the east
side of the peninsula, now known by the name of the Coromandel coast.
He describes these as emporia, or stations of trade;t but from an attentive
consideration of some circumstances in his account of them, I think it probable that the, ships from Berenice did not sail to any of these ports, though
they were supplied, as he informs us, with the commodities brought from
Egypt, as well as with the productions of the opposite coast of the peninsula; but these seem to have been imported in country ships.1  It was
likewise in vessels of their own, varying in form and burden, and distinguished by different names, some of which he mentions, that they traded
with the Golden Chersonesus, or kingdom of Malacca, and the countries
near the Ganges. Not far from the mouth of that river he places an island,
which he describes as situated under the rising sun, and as the last region
in the East that was inhabited.~ Of all these parts of India the author of
the Circumnavigation appears to have had very slender knowledge, as is
manifest, not only from what he mentions concerning this imaginary island,
and from his not attempting to describe them, but from his relating, with
the credulity and love of the marvellous which always accompany and
characterize ignorance, that these remote regions were peopled with cannibals, and men of uncouth and monstrous forms.11
I have been induced to bestow this attention in tracing the course delineated in the Circumnavigation of the Erythraean Sea, because the author of
it is the first ancient writer to whom we are indebted for any knowledge
of the eastern coast of the great peninsula of India, or of the countries
which lie beyond it. To Strabo, who composed his great work on Geography in the reign of Augustus, India, particularly the most eastern
parts of it, was little known. He begins his description of it with requesting the indulgence of his readers, on account of the scanty information he
could obtain with respect to a country so remote, which Europeans had
seldom visited, and many of them transiently only, in the functions of military service. He observes that, even commerce had contributed little
towards an accurate investigation of the country, as few of the merchants
from Egypt, and the Arabian gulf, had ever sailed as far as the Ganges;
and from men so illiterate, intelligence that merited a full degree of confidence could scarcely be expected. His descriptions of India, particularly
its interior provinces, are borrowed almost entirely from the memoirs of
Alexander's officers, with some slender additions from more recent accounts;
and these so few in number, and sometimes so inaccurate, as to furnish
a striking proof of the small progress which the ancients had made, from
the time of Alexander, in exploring that country. When an author possessed of such discernment and industry as Strabo, who visited in person
* Peripl. p. 33. D'Anv.ille Ant. de l'Inde, 118, &c.    t Perilpl.'p. 34.. Trotxa orz.oac
Peript. p. 36.  11 Ibid. p. 35.




ANCIENT INDIA.                              29
several distant regions, that he might be able to describe them with greater
accuracy, relates, that the Ganges enters the ocean by one mouth,? we are
warranted in concluding that in his time there was either no direct navi
gation carried on to that great river, by the traders from the Arabian gulf,
or that this voyage was undertaken so seldom that science had not then
derived much information from it.
The next author, in order of time, from whom we receive any account
of India, is the elder Pliny, who flourished about fifty years later than
Strabo. As in the short description of India, given in his Natural History,
he follows the same guides with Strabo, and seems to have had no knowledge of the interior country but what he derived from the memoirs of
the officers who served under Alexander and his immediate successors,
it is unnecessary to examine his description minutely. He has added,
however, two valuable articles, for which he was indebted to more recent
discoveries.  The one is the account of the new course of navigation from
the Arabian gulf to the coast of Malabar, the nature and importance of
which I have already explained; the other is a description of the island
of Taprobana, which I shall consider particularly, after inquiring into what
Ptolemy has contributed towards our knowledge of the ancient state of
the Indian continent.
Though Ptolemy, who published his works about fourscore years after
Pliny, seems to have been distinguished for his persevering industry, and
talent for arrangements rather than for an inventive genius; geography has
been more indebted to him for its improvement, than to any other philosopher. Fortunately for that science, in forming his general system of
geography, he adopted the ideas and imitated the practice of Hipparchus,
who lived near four hundred years before his time. That great philosopher was the first who atteirpted to make a catalogue of the stars. In
order to ascertain their position in the heavens with accuracy, he measured
their distance from certain circles of the sphere, computing it by degrees,
either from east to west, or from north to south. The former was denominated the longitude of the star, the latter its latitude. This mdde he
found to be of such utility in his astronomical researches, that he applied
it with no less happy effect to geography; and it is a circumstance worthy
of notice, that it was by observing and describing the heavens, men were
first taught to measure and delineate the earth with exactness. This
method of fixing the' position of places, invented by Hipparchus, though
known to the geographers between his time and that of Ptolemy, and
mentioned both by Strabot and by Pliny,+ was not employed by any o
them. Of this neglect the most probable account seems to be, that as
none of them  were astronomers, they did not fully comprehend all the
advantages geography might derive from  this invention [27]. These
Ptolemy, who had devoted a long life to the improvement of astronomy,
theoretical as well as practical, perfectly discerned; and, as in both Hipparchus was his guide, he, in his famous treatise on geography, described
the different parts of the earth according to their longitude and latitude.
Geography was thus established upon its proper principles, and intimately
connected with astronomical observations and mathematical science. This
work of Ptolemy soon rose high in estimation among the ancients [28].
During the middle ages, both in Arabia and in Europe, the decisions of
Ptolemy, in every thing relating to geography, were submitted to with an
assent as implicit as was yielded to those of Aristotle in all other departments of science. On the revival of a more liberal spirit of inquiry in the
sixteenth century, the merit of Ptolemy's improvements in geography was
examined and recognised; that scientific language which he first rendered
general, continues to be used, and the position of places is still ascertained
* Strabo, lib. xv. 1011. C.  t Ibid. lib. ii.  I Nat. Hist. lib. ii c. 12.'26. 76.




30                 DISQUJISITION  ON
in the same distinct and compendious manner, by specifying their longi
rtude and latitude.
Not satisfied with adopting the general principles of Hipparchus, Ptolemy
emulated him  in the application of them: and, as that philosopher had
arranged all the constellations, he ventured upon what was no less arduous,
to survey all the regions of the earth which were then known, and with
minute and bold decision he fixed the longitude and latitude of the Inost
remarkable places in each of them. All his determinations, however, are
not to be considered as the result of actual observation, nor did Ptolemy
publish them as such. Astronomical science was confined at that time to
a few countries. A considerable part of the'lobe was little visited, and
imperfectly described. The position of a small number of places only had
been fixed with any degree of accuracy.  Ptolemy was therefore obliged
to consult the itineraries and surveys of the Roman empire, which the
political wisdom of that great state had completed with immense labour
and expense [29]. Beyond the precincts of the empire he had nothing on
which he could rely, but thejournals and reports of travellers. Upon these
all his conclusions were founded; and as he resided in Alexandria at a time
when the trade from that city to India was carried on to its utmost extent,
this situation might have been expected to afford him the means of procuring ample information concerning it. But! either from the imperfect
manner in which that country was explored in his time, or from his placing
too much confidence in the reports of persons who had visited it with little
attention or discernment,? his general delineation of the form of the Indian
continent is the most erroneous that has been transmitted to us from antiquity. By an astonishing mistake, he has made the peninsula of India
stretch from the Sinus Barygazenus, or gulf of Cambay, from west to east,
instead of extending, according to its real direction, from north to south [30].
This error will appear the more unaccountable, when we recollect that
Megasthenes had published a measurem  nt of the Indian peninsula, which
approaches near to its true dimensions; and that this had been adopted,
with some variations, by Eratosthenes, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and
Pliny, who wrote prior to the age of Ptolemyt [31].
Although Ptolemy was led to form such an erroneous opinion concerning
the general dimensions of the Indian continent, his information with respect
to the country in detail, and the situation of particular places, was more
accurate; and he is the first author possessed of such knowledge as enabled him to trace the seacoast, to mention the most noted places situated
upon it, and to specify the longitude an~d latitude of each, from cape Comnorin eastward, to the utmost boundary of ancient navigation. With
regard to some districts, particularly along the east side of the peninsula as
far as the mouth of the Ganges, the accounts which he had received seeni
to have been so far exact, as to correspond more nearly perhaps with the
actual state of the country, than the descriptions which he gives of any
other part of India. M. d'Anville, with his usual industry and discernment, has considered the principal stations as they are fixed by him, and
finds that they correspond to Kilkare, Negapatam, the mouth of the river
Cauveri, Masulipatam, Point Gordeware, &c. It is foreign to the object of
this disquisition to enter into such a minute detail; but in several instances
we may observe, that not only the conformity of position, but the similarity
of ancient and modern names, is very striking. The great river Cauveri
is by Ptolemy named Chaberis; Arcot, in the interior country, is Arcati
Regla; and probably the whole coast has received its present name of
Coromandel from Sor Matndulam, or the kingdom of Sorae, which is situated
upon it.$
* Geogr. Iib i. c. 17.   t Strabo, Nib. xv. 1010. B. Arr. Hist. Indite, c. 3, 4. Diod. Sic. lib. iL
148. Plin. Nat. Hit. lib. vi.. 21.      Ptolem. Geogr. lib. vii. c. 1. D'Anville, Antiq. de
l'Inde, 127, &c.,




ANCIENT INDIA.                              31
In the course of one hundred and thirty-six years, which elapsed from
the death of Strabo to that of Ptolemy, the commercial intercourse with
India was greatly extended; the latter geographer had acquired such an
accession of new information concerning the Ganges, that he mentions the
names of six different mouths of that river, and describes their positions.
His delineation, however, of that part of India which lies beyond the
Ganges, is not less erroneous in its general form, than that which he gave
of the peninsula, and bears as little resemblance to the actual position of
those countries. He ventures, nevertheless, upon a survey of them, similar
to that which he had made of the other great division of India, which 1
have already examined. He mentions the places of note along the coast,
some of which he distinguishes as emporia; but whether that name was
given to them on account of their being staples of trade to the natives, in
their traffic carried on from one district of India to another; or whether
they were ports, to which vessels from the Arabian gulf resorted directly, is
not specified. The latter I should think to be the idea which Ptolemy means
to convey; but those regions of India were so remote, and from the timid
and slow course of ancient navigation were probably so little frequented,
that his information concerning them is extremely defective, and his descriptions more obscure, more inaccurate, and less conformable to the real
state of the country, than in any part of his geography. That peninsula
to which he gives the name of the Golden Chersonesus, he delineates as if
It stretched directly from north to south, and fixes the latitude of Sabana
Emporium, its southern extremity, three degrees beyond the line. To the
east of this peninsula he places what he calls the Great Bay, and in the
most remote part of it the station of Catigara, the utmost boundary of
navigation in ancient times, to which he assigns no less than eight degrees
and a half of southern latitude. Beyond this he declares the earth to be
altogether unknown, and asserts that the land turns thence to the westward, and stretches in that direction until it joins the promontory of Prassum in Ethiopia, which, according to his idea, terminated the continent of
Africa to the south.A In consequence of this error, no less unaccountable
than enormous, he must have believed the Erythrzaan sea, in its whole
extent from the coast of Africa to that of Cambodia, to be a vast basin,
without any communication with the ocean [32].
Out of the confusion of those wild ideas, in which the accounts of ignorant or fabulous travellers have involved the geography of Ptolemy, M.
d'Anville has attempted to bring order; and with much ingenuity he has
formed opinions with respect to some capital positions, which have the
appearance of being well founded. rhe peninsula of Malacca is, according
to him, the Golden Chersonesus of Ptolemy; but, instead of the direction
which he has given it, we know that it bends some degrees towards the
east, and that Cape de Romania, its southern extremity, is more than a
degree to the north of the line. The gulf of Siam he considers as the Great
Bay of Ptolemy; but the position on the east side of that bay, corresponding to Catigara, is actually as many degrees to the north of the equator as
he supposed it to be south of it. Beyond this he mentions an inland city,
to which he gives the name of Thinam or SinDe Metropolis. The longitude
which he assigns to it is one hundred and eighty degrees from his first
meridian to the Fortunate Island, and is the utmost point towards the east
to which the ancients had advanced by sea. Its latitude he calculates to
be three degrees south of the line. If, with M. d'Anville, we conclude the
situation of Sin-hoa, in the western part of the kingdom of Cochin China,
to be the same with Sine Metropolis, Ptolemy has erred in fixing its position
no less than fifty degrees of longitude and twenty degrees of latitudet [33].
* Ptolem. Geogr. lib. vii. c. 3. 5. D'Anville, Ant. de l'Inde, 187.    t Ptolem. Geogr. lib. vi!
c. 3. D'Anvllle, Limites du'Monde'onnu des Anciens au-delA du Gange. Mm. de Litt~rat
xxxii. 604, &c. Ant. de l'Inde, Supplem i. 161, &c




DISQUISITION ON
These errors of Ptolemy concerning the remote parts of Asia have been
rendered more conspicuous by a mistaken opinion of modern times
engrafted upon them. Sinre, the most distant station mentioned in his
geography, has such a near resemblance in sound to China, the name by
which the greatest and most civilized empire in the East is known to Europeans, that, upon their first acquaintance with it, they hastily concluded
them to be the same; and of consequence it was supposed that China'was
known to the ancients, though no point seems to be more ascertained, than
that they never advanced by sea beyond that boundary which I have allotted to their navigation
Having thus traced the discoveries of India which the ancients made by
sea, I shall next examine what additional knowledge of that country they
acquired from their progress by land. It appears (as I have formerly
related) that there was a trade carried on early with India, through the
provinces that stretch along its northern frontier. Its various productions
and manufactures were transported by land-carriage into the interior parts
of the Persian dominions, or were conveyed, by means of the navigable
rivers which flow through the Upper Asia, to the Caspian Sea, and from
that to the Euxine. While the successors of Seleucus retained the dominion of the East, this continued to be the mode of supplying their subjects
with the commodities of India. W~hen the Romans had extended their
conquests so far that the Euphrates was the eastern limit of their empire,
they found this trade still established; and as it opened to them a new
communication with the East, by means of which they received an additional supply of luxuries for which they had acquired the highest relish, it
became an object of their policy to protect and encourage it. As the progress of the caravans or companies of merchants, which travelled towards
the countries whence they received the most valuable manufactures, particularly those of silk, was often interrupted, and rendered dangerous by
the Parthians, who had acquired possession of all the provinces which
extended from the Caspian Sea to that part of Scythia or Tartary which
borders on China, the Romans endeavoured to render this intercourse
more secure by a negotiation with one of the monarchs of that great empire. Of this singular transaction there is, indeed, no vestige in the Greek
or Roman writers; our knowledge of it is derived entirely from the Chinese historians, by whom we are informed that Antoun (the emperor Marcus Antoninus) the king of the people of the Western Ocean, sent an embassy with this view to Oun-ti, who reigned over China in the hundred
and sixty-sixth year of the Christian era.?  What was the success of this
attempt is not known, nor can we say whether it facilitated such an intercourse between these two remote nations as contributed towards the supply
of their mutual wants. The design certainly was not unworthy of the
enlightened emperor of Rome to whom it is ascribed.
It is evident, however, that-in prosecuting this trade with China, a considerable part of the extensive countries to the east of the Caspian Sea
must have been traversed; and though the chief inducement to undertake
those distant journeys was gain; yet in the course of ages, there must have
mingled among the adventurers persons of curiosity and abilities, who could
turn their attention from commercial objects to those of more general concern. From them such information was procured, and subjected to scientific discussion, as enabled Ptolemy to give a description of those inland
and remote regions of Asia,t fully as accurate as that of several countries,
of which, from their vicinity, he may have been supposed to have received
more distinct accounts. The furthest point towards the east, to which his
knowledge of this part of Asia extended, is Sera Metropolis, which from
* Mmoire sur les Liaisons et le Commerce des Romains avec les Tartares et les Chinois, pat
M. de Guignes. M6m. de Littkrat. xxxii. 355 &c.  t Lib. vi. c. 11-18.




ANCIENT INDI.A                               SS
various circumstances appears to have been in the same situation with
Kant-cheou, a city of some note in Chen-si, the most westerly provilce of
the Chinese empire. This he places in the longitude of one hundred and
seventy-seven degrees fifteen minutes, near three degrees to the west of
Sinae Metropolis, which he had described as the utmost limit of Asia discovered by sea. Nor was Ptolemy's knowledge of this district of Asia.confined only  to that part of it through which the caravans may be Supposed to have proceeded directly in their route eastward;  lhe had
received likewise some general information concerning variois nations
towards the north, which, according to the position that be goives them,
occupied parts of the great plain of Tartary, extending considieab y beyond
Lassa, the capital of Thibet, and the residence of the Dalai Eam
The latitudes of several places in this part of Asia are fixed by Ptolemy
with such uncommon precision, that we can hardly doubt of their having
been ascertained by actual observation. Out of imany instances of this, I
shall select three, of places situated in very different parts of the country
under review. T'he latitude of Nagara, on the river Cophenes (the modern,
Attock), is, according to Ptolemy, thirty-two degrees and thirty minutes;
which coincides precisely with the observation of an eastern geographer'
quoted by M. d'Anville.*  The latitude of Maracanda, or Samarcand, as:
fixed by him, is thirty-nine degrees fifteen minutes.  According to the.
astronomical tables of Uleg Bleg, the grandson of Timnur, whose royal:
residence was in that city, it is thirty-nine degrees thirty-seven minutes.t
The latitude of Sera iMetropolis, in Ptolemy, is thirty-eight degrees fifteen,
minutes; that of K(ant-cheou, as determined by the Jesuit missionaries, is
thirty-nine degrees.  I have enumerated these striking examples of the
coincidence of his calculations with those established by modern observations, for two reasons: one, because they clearly prove that these
remote parts of Asia had been examined with some considerable degree of
attention; the other, because I feel great satisfaction, after having beent
obliged to mention several errors and defects in Ptolemy's geography, in.
rendering. justice to a philosopher who has contributed so much towards.
the improvement of that science.  Tile facts which I have produced afford
the strongest evidence of the extent of his information, as well as the justness of his conclusions concerning countries with which, fiomn their remote
situation, we might have supposed him to be least acquainted.
Hitherto I have confined my researches concerning the knowledge which
the ancients had of India, to the continent; I return now to consider the
discoveries which they had made of the islands situated in various parts of
the ocean with which it is surrounded, and. begin, as I proposed, with
Taprobane, the greatest and most valuable of them.  This island lay so
directly in the course of navigators who ventured beyond cape Colnorin,
especially when, according to the ancient mode of sailing, they seldomn
ventured far from the coast, that its position, one should have thought,
must have been determined with the utmost precision. rhere is, however,
hardly any point in the geography of the ancients more undecided and
uncertain.  Prior to the age of Alexander the Great the name of Taprobane was unknown in Europe.  In consequence of the active curiosity
with which he explored every country that he subdued or visited, some
information concerning it seeins to have been obtained.  From his time
almost every writer on geography has mentioned it; but their accounts of'
it are so various, and often so contradictory, that we can scarcely believe
tlem to be describing the same island. Strabo, the earliest writer now
extant from whom we have any particular account of it, affirns that it was
as large as Britain, and situated at the distance of seven days according to
some reports, and according to others of twenty days, sailing from  the
* I':caicissernrelts, &c. Entlish transl. p. 10.  t Tab. Geoar. an. Itudsonl, Geogr. Minores,iit 145
Vo. II — E




$4                   3, II)ISQUISITION  ON
southern extremity of the Indian peninsula; from which, contrary to what
is known to be its real position, he describes it as stretching towards the
west above five hundred stadia."  Pomponius Mela, the author next in
order of time, is uncertain whether he should consider Taprobane as an
island, or as the beginning of another world; but as no person, he says, had
ever sailed round it, he seems to incline towards the latter opinion.t  Pliny
gives a more ample description of Taprobane, which, instead of bringing
any accession of light, involves every thing relating to it in additional
obscurity. After enumerating the various and discordant opinions of the
Greek writers, he informs us, that ambassadors were sent by a king of that
island to the emperor Claudius, from whom  the Romans learned several
things concerning it which were formerly unknown, particularly that there
were five hundred towns in the island, and that in the centre of it there
was a lake three hundred and seventy-five miles in circumference. These
ambassadors were astonished at the sight of the Great Bear and the
Pleiades, being constellations which did not appear in their sky; and were
still more amazed when they beheld their shadows point towards the
north, and the sun rise on their left hand, and set on their right. They
affirmed, too, that in their country the moon was never seen until the eighth
day after the change, and continued to be visible only to the sixteenth.4
It is surprising to find an author so intelligent as Pliny relating all these
circumstances without animadversion, and particularly that he does not'take notice, that what the ambassadors reported concerning the appearance of the moon could not take place in any region of the earth.
Ptolemy, though so near to the age of Pliny, seems to have been altogether unacquainted with his description of Taprobane, or with the em
bassy to the emperor Claudius. He places that island opposite to cape
Comorin, at no great distance from the continent, and delineates it as:stretching from north to south no less than fifteen degrees, two of which he.supposes to be south of the equator; and, if his representation of its dimen-.sions had been just, it was well entitled, from its magnitude, to be cornpared with Britain.~  Agathemerus, who wrote after Ptolemy, and was
well acquainted with his geography, considers Taprobane as the largest,of all islands, and assigns to Britain only the second place.[l
From this diversity of the descriptions given by ancient writers, it is not
surprising that the moderns should have entertained very different sentiments with respect to the island in the Indian ocean, which was to be
considered as the same with the Taprobane of the Greeks and Romans.
As both Pliny and Ptolemy describe it as lying in part to the south of the
equator, some learned men maintain Sumatra to be the island which corresponds to this description.  But the great distance of Sumatra from the
peninsula of India does not accord with any account which the Greek
or Roman writers have given of the situation of Taprobane, and we have
no evidence that the navigation of the ancients ever extended so far as
Sumatra. The opinion more generally received is, that the Taprobane of
the ancients is the island of Ceylon; and not only its vicinity to the continent of India, but the general form of the island, as delineated by Ptolemy,
as well as the position of several places in it, mentioned by him, establish
this opinion (notwithstanding some extraordinary mistakes, of which I shall
afterwards take notice) with a great degree of certainty.
The other islands, to the east of Taprobane, mentioned by Ptolemy,
might be shown (if such a detail were necessary) to be the Andaman and
Nicobar islands in the gulf of Bengal.
After this long, and I am afraid tedious, investigation of the progress
* Strabo, lib ii. 124. B. 180. B. 192. A. lib. xv. 1012. B.  I De Situ Orbis, lib. ii. c 7.  t Nat,
Hist. lib,. vi. c.'22 5   Ptol. lib. vii. c. 4. D'Anvile, Ant. de 1'Inde. p. 142.   1 Lib. ii c.g.
apud Hudson, Geor. Minor. vol. ii.




ANCIENT INDIA.                             35
made by the ancients in exploring the different parts of India, and after
tracing them as far as they advanced towards the east either by sea or
land,  shall offer some general remarks concerning the mode in which
their discoveries were conducted, and the degree of confidence with which
we may rely on the accounts of them, which could not have been offered
with the same advantage until this investigation was finished.
The art of delineating maps, exhibiting either the figure of the whole
earth, as far as it had been explored, or that of particular countries, was
known to the ancients; and without the use of them to assist the imagination, it was impossible to have formed a distinct idea either of the one om
of the other. Some of these maps are mentioned by Herodotus and other
early Greek writers. But no maps prior to those which were formed in
order to illustrate the geography of Ptolemy, have reached our times, in
consequence of which it is very difficult to conceive what was the relative
situation of the different places mentioned by the ancient geographers,
unless when it is precisely ascertained by measurement [34J. As soon,
however, as the mode of marking the situation of each place, by specifying its longitude and latitude was introduced, and came to be generally
adopted, every position could be described in compendious and scientific
terms. But still the accuracy of this new method, and the improvement
which geography derived from it, depend upon the mode in which the
ancients estimated the latitude and longitude of places.
Though the ancients proceeded in determining the latitude and longitude
of places upon the same principles with the moderns, yet it was by means
of instruments very inferior in their construction to those now used, and
without the same minute attention to every circumstance that may affect
the accuracy of an observation, an attention of which long experience only
can demonstrate the necessity. In order to ascertain the latitude of any
place, the ancients observed the meridian altitude of the sun, either by
means of the shadow of a perpendicular gnomon, or by means of an
astrolabe, from which it was easy to compute how many degrees and
minutes the place of observation was distant from the equator. When
neither of these methods could be employed, they inferred the latitude of
any place from the best accounts which they could procure of the length
of its longest day.
With respect to determining the longitude of any place, they were much
more at a loss, as there was only one set of celestial phenomena to which
they could have recourse. These were the eclipses of the moon (for those
of the sun were not then so well understood as to be subservient to the
purposes of geography): the difference between the time at which an
eclipse was observed to begin or to end at two different places, gave
immediately the difference between the meridians of those places. But
the difficulty of making those observations with accuracy, and the impossibility of repeating them often, rendered them of so little use in geography,
that the ancients in determining longitudes were obliged, for the most part,
to have recourse to actual surveys, or to the vague information which was
to be obtained from the reckoning of sailors, or the itineraries of travellers.
But though the ancients, by means of the operations which I have mentioned, could determine the position of places with a considerable degree
of accuracy at land, it is very uncertain whether or not they had any proper
mode of determining this at sea. The navigators of antiquity seem rarely
to have had recourse to astronomical observation. They had no instruments
suited to a moveable and unsteady observatory; and though, by their
practice of landing frequently, they might in some measure have supplied
that defect, yet no ancient author, as far as I know, has given an account
of any astronomical observations made by them during the course of their
voyages. It seems to be evident from Ptolemy, who employs some
chapters in showing how geography may be improved, and its errors may




36                  DISQUISUISI1 ION ON
be rectified, from the reports of navigators,* that all their calculations were
founded solely upon reckoning, and were not the result of observation.
Even after all the improvements which the moderns have made in the
science of navigation, this mode of computing by reckoning is known to be
so loose and uncertain, that from it alone no conclusion can be deduced with
any great degree of precision. Among the ancients, this inaccuracy must
have been greatly augmented, as they were accustomed in their voyages,
instead of steering a direct course, which might have been more easily
measured, to a circuitous navigation along the coast; and were unacquainted with the compass or any other instrument by which its bearings
might have been ascertained. We find, accordingly, the position of many
places which we may suppose to have been determined at sea, fixed with
little exactness. When, in consequence of an active trade, the ports of
any country were much frequented, the reckonings of different navigators
may have served, in some measure, to correct each other, and may have
enabled geographers to form their conclusions with a nearer approximation
to truth. But in remote countries, which have neither been the seat of
military operations, nor explored by caravans travelling frequently through
them, every thing is more vague and undefined, and the resemblance
between the ancient descriptions of them, and their actual figure, is often
so faint that it can hardly be traced. The latitude of places, too, as might
be expected, was in general much more accurately known by the ancients
than their longitude. The observations by which the former was determined are simple, made with ease, and are not liable to much error. The
other cannot be ascertained precisely, without more complex operations,
and the use of instruments much more perfect than any that the ancients
seem to have possessed [35]. Among the vast number of' places, the
position of which is fixed by Ptlolemy, I know not if he approaches as near
to truth in the longitude of any one, as he has done in fixing the latitude
of the three cities which I formerly mentioned as a striking, though not
singular instance of his exactness.
These observations induce me to adhere to an opinion which I proposed
in another place, that the Greeks and Romans, in their commercial intercourse with India, were seldom led, either by curiosity or the love of gain,
to visit the more eastern parts of it. A variety of particulars occur to
confirm this opinion. Though Ptolemy bestows the appellation of Emporia
on several places situated on the coast which stretches frorl the eastern
mouth of the Ganges to the extremity of the Golden Chersonesus, it is
uncertain whether, from his having given them this name, we are to consider them as harbours frequented by ships from Egypt, or merely by
vessels of the country. Beyond the Golden Chersonesus, it is remarkable
that he mentions one Emporiumn only,: which plainly indicates the intercourse with this region of India to have been very inconsiderable. Had
voyages from the Arabian gulf to those countries of India been as frequent
as to have entitled Ptolemy to specify so minutely the longitude and latitude of the great number of places which he mentions, he must, in consequence of this, have acquired such information as would have prevented
several great errors into which he has fallen.  Had it been usual to
double cape Comorin, and to sail up the bay of Bengal to the mouth of
the Ganges, some of the ancient geographers would not have been so
uncertain, and others so widely mistaken, with respect to the situation and
magnitude of the island of Ceylon. If the merchants of Alexandria had
often visited the ports of the Golden Chersonesus, and of the Great Bay,
Ptolemy's descriptions of them must have been rendered more correspondent to their real form, nor could he have believed several places to lie
beyond the line, which are in truth some degrees on this side of it.
* Lib. i. c. 7-14.    t Hist. of America.: Lib. vii. c. 2.




ANCIENT INDIA.                            37
But though the navigation of the ancients may not have extended to the
Further India, we are certain that various commodities of that country
were imported into Egypt, and thence were conveyed to Rome, and to
other parts of the empire  From  circumstances which I have already
enumerated, we are warranted in concluding, that these were brought in
vessels of the country to Musiris, and to the other parts on the Malabar
coast, which were at that period the staples of trade with Egypt. In a
country of such extent as India, where the natural productions are various,
and greatly diversified by art and industry, an active domestic commerce,
both by sea and by land, must have early taken place among its different
provinces. Of this we have some hints in ancient authors; and where the
sources of information are so few and so scanty, we must rest satisfied
with hints. Among the different classes or casts, into which the people
of India were divided, merchants are mentioned as one,? from which we
may conclude trade to have been one of the established occupations of
men in that country. From  the author of the Circumnavigation of the
Erythrean Sea, we learn that the inhabitants of the Corornandel coast
traded in vessels of their own with those of Malabar; that the interior
trade of Barygaza was considerable; and that there was at all seasons a
number of country ships to be found in the harbour of Musiris.t By
Strabo we are informed, that the most valuable productions of Taprobane were carried to different Emporia of India.t In this way, the
traders from Egypt might be supplied with them, and thus could finish
their voyages within the year, which must have been protracted much
longer if they had extended as far towards the east as is generally
supposed.
From all this it appears to be probable, that Ptolemy derived the informa".-ij concerning the eastern parts of India, upon which he founds his
calculations, not so much from any direct and regular intercourse between
Egypt and these countries, as from the reports of a few adventurers, whom
an enterprising spirit, or the love of gain, prompted to proceed beyond the
usual litnits of navigation.
Though, from the age of Ptolemy,:he trade with India continued to be
carried on in its former channel, and both Rome, the ancient capital of the
empire, and Constantinople, the new seat of government, were supplied
with the precious commodities of tiat countrv by' the merchants of Alexandria; yet, until the reign of the emperor, ustinian, we have no new information concerning the intercourse with the East by sea, or the progress
which was made in the atscovery of its remote regions. Under Justinian,
Cosmas, an Egyptian ineichant, in the course of Lis traffic, made some
voyages to India, whence he acquired the surname of Indicopleustes; but
afterwards, by a transition not uncommon in that superstitious age, he
renounced all the concerns of this life, and assumed the monastic character. In the solitude and leisure of a cell, he composed several works, one
of which, dignified by him with the name of Christian Topography, has
reached us. The main design of it is to combat the opinion of those philosophers, who assert the earth to be of a spherical figure, and to prove that
it is an oblong plane, of twelve thousand miles in length from east to west,
and of six thousand miles in breadth from north to south, surrounded by
high walls, covered by the firmament as with a canopy or vault; that the
vicissitude of day and night was occasioned by a mountain of prodigious
height, situated in the extremities of the north, round which the sun
mo ed; that when it appeared on one side of this mountain, the earth was
illuminated, when concealed on the other side, the earth was left involved
in darkness.~ But amidst those wild reveries, more suited to the credulity
* Plih. Nat. fHist. lib. vi. c.229.  t Perip Mar. Erythr. 34. 30.  t Lib. ii. 124. B.
GCosnmas ap. l1io,1'atLlColu Collect. Patrum, ii 113, &c. 138.




38                   DISQUISITION ON
of his new profession, than to the sound sense characteristic of that in
which he was formerly engaged, Cosmas seems to relate what he himself
had observed in his travels, or what he had learned from others, with great
simplicity and regard for truth.
IHe appears to have been well acquainted with the west coast of the
Indian peninsula, and names several places situated upon it; he describes
it as the chief seat of the pepper trade, and mentions Male in particular,
as one of the most frequented ports on that account.* From Male, it is
probable that this side of the continent has derived its modern name of
Malabar; and the cluster of islands contiguous to it that of the Maldives.
From him too we learn, that the island of Taprobane, which he supposes
to lie at an equal distance from the Persian gulf on the west. and the country of the Sinae on the east, had become, in consequence of this commodious situation, a great staple of trade; that into it were imported the silk
of the Sinae, and the precious spices of the eastern countries, which were
conveyed thence to all parts of India, to Persia, and to the Arabian gulf.
To this island he gives the name of Sielediba,t nearly the same with that
of Selendib, or Serendib, by which it is still known all over the East.
To Cosmas we are also indebted for the first information of a new rival
to the Rormans in trade having appeared in the Indian seas. The Persians,
after having overturned the empire of the Parthians and re-established the
line of their ancient monarchs, seem to have surmounted entirely the aversion of their ancestors to maritime exertion, and made early and vigorous
efforts in order to acquire a share in the lucrative commerce with India.
All its considerable ports were frequented by traders from Persia, who, in
return for some productions of their own country in request among the Indians, received the precious commodities, which they conveyed up the
Persian gulf, and, by means of the great rivers Euphrates and Tigris, distributed them through every province of their empire. As the voyage from
Persia to India was much shorter than that from Egypt, and attended with
less expense and danger, the intercourse between the two countries increased rapidly.  A circumstance is mentioned by Cosmas which is a striking proof of this. In most of the cities of any note in India he found
Christian churches established, in which the functions of religion were performed by priests ordained by the archbishop of Seleucia, the capital of
the Persian empire, and -who continued subject to his jurisdiction.+  India
appears to have been more thoroughly explored at this period than it was
in the age of Ptolemy, and a greater number of strangers seem to have
been settled there. It is remarkable, however, that, according to the account of Cosmas, none of these strangers were accustomed to visit the
eastern regions of Asia, but rested satisfied with receiving their silk, their
spices, and other valuable productions, as they were imported into Ceylon,
and conveyed thence to the various marts of India.~
The frequency of open hostilities between the emperors of Constantinople and the monarchs of Persia, together with the increasing rivalship of
their subjects in the trade with India, gave rise to an event which produced
a considerable change in the nature of that commerce. As the use of silk,
both in dress and furniture, became gradually more general in the court of
the Greek emperors, who imitated and surpassed the sovereigns of Asia in
splendour and magnificence; and as China, in which, according to the
concurring testimony of oriental writers, the culture of silk was originally
known,ll still continued to be the only country which produced that valuable commodity; the Persians, improving the advantages which their situation gave them over the merchants from the Arabian gulf, supplanted them
in all the marts of India to which silk was brought by sea from the East
* Cosm. Ulb. ii. p. 138. lib. xi. 337.    t Lib. xi, 336.     Lib iii. 178,      Lib. xi. 337
g Herbelot, Biblioth, Orient art. Hasir




ANCIENT  I.N  )IA.                           39
Having it likewise in their power to molest or to cut off the caravans,
which, in order to procure a supply for the Greek empire, travelled by
land to China, through the northern provinces of their kingdom, they entirely engrossed that branch of commerce. Constantinople was obliged
to depend on the rival power for an article which luxury viewed and desired as essential to elegance. The Persians, with the usual rapacity of
monopolists, raised the price of silk to such an exorbitant height," that Justinian, eager not only to obtain a full and certain supply of a commodity
which was become of indispensable use, but solicitous to deliver the commerce of his subjects from the exactions of his enemies, endeavoured, by
means of his ally, the Christian monarch of Abyssinia, to wrest some portion of the silk trade from the Persians. In this attempt he failed; but
when he least expected it, he, by an unforeseen event, attained, in some
measure [A. D. 55], the object which he had in view. Two Persian
monks having been employed as missionaries in some of the Christian
churches, which were established (as we are informed by Cosmas) in different parts of India, had penetrated into the country of the Seres or China.
There they observed the labours of the silkworm, and became acquainted
with all the arts of man in working up its productions into such a variety
of elegant fabrics. The prospect of gain, or perhaps an indignant zea,
excited by seeing this lucrative branch of commerce engrossed by unbelieving nations, prompted them to repair to Constantinople. There they
explained to the emperor the origin of silk, as well as the various modes of
preparing and manufacturing it, mysteries hitherto unknown, or very imperfectly understood, in Europe; and encouraged by his liberal promises,
they undertook to bring to the capital a sufficient number of those wonderful insects, to whose labours man is so much indebted. This they accomplished by conveying the eggs of the silkworm in a hollow cane. They
were hatched by the heat of a dunghill, fed with the leaves of a wild
mulberry tree, and they multiplied and worked in the same manner as in
those climates where they first became objects of human attention and
care.l Vast numbers of these insects were soon reared in different parts
of Greece, particularly in the Peloponnesus. Sicily afterwards undertook
to breed silkworms with equal success, and was imitated from time to
time in several towns of Italy. In all these places extensive manufactures
were established and carried on with silk of domestic production. The
demand for silk from the East diminished of course, the subjects of the
Greek emperors were no longer obliged to have recourse to the Persians
for a supply of it, and a considerable change took place in the nature of
the commercial intercourse between Europe and India [36].
SECTION III.
Intercourse with India from the Conquest of Egypt by the MJahomedans to
the Discovery of the Passage by the Cape of Good Hope, and the Establishment of the Portuguese Dominion in the East.
ABOUT fourscore years after the death of Justinian, an event happened
which occasioned a revolution still more considerable in the intercourse ot
Europe with the East. Mahornet, by publishing a new religion, seems to
have animated his countrymen with a new spirit, and to have called forth
latent passions and talents into exertion. The greatest part of the Ara~ Procop. lIist. Arcan. c. 25.  t Lr   d BQlloQ Gothic,. lib. iv. o. 17.




40                   DISQUISITION ON
bians, satisfied from the earliest times with national independence and personal liberty, tended their camels, or reared their palm trees, within the
precincts of their own peninsula, and had little intercourse with the rest
of mankind, unless when they sallied out to plunder a caravan, or to rob a
traveller. In some districts, however, they had begun to add the labours
of' agriculture, and the business of commerce, to the occupations of pas-:oral life." These different orders of men, when prompted by the enthu
siastic ardour with which the exhortations and example of Mahomet
inspired them, displayed at once all the zeal of missionaries and the ambition of conquerors. They spread the doctrine of their prophet, and extended the dominion of his successors, from the shores of the Atlantic to
the frontier of China, with a rapidity of success to which there is nothing
similar in the history of mankind [A. C. 1640]. Egypt was one of their
earliest conquests; and as they settled in that inviting country, and kept
possession of it, the Greeks were excluded from all intercourse with Alexandria, to which they had long resorted as the chief mart of Indian goods.
Nor was this the only effect which the progress of the Mahomedan arms
had upon the commerce of Europe with India. Prior to their invasion of
Egypt, the Arabians had subdued the great kingdom of Persia, and added
it to the empire of their caliphs. They found their new subjects engaged
in prosecuting that extensive trade with India, and the country to the east
of it, the commencement and progress of which in Persia I have already
mentioned; and they were so sensible of the great advantages derived
from  it, that they became desirous to partake of them. As the active
powers of the human mind, when roused to vigorous exertions in one line,
are most capable of operating with force in other directions; the Arabians,
from impetuous warriors, soon became enterprising merchants. They continued to carry on the trade with India in its former channel from the Persian gulf, but it was with that ardour which characterizes all the early
efforts of Mahomet's followers. In a short time they advanced far beyond
the boundaries of ancient navigation, and brought many of the most precious commodities of the East directly from the countries which produced
them. In order to engross all the profit arising from the sale of them, the
caliph Omar,t a few years after the conquest of Persia, founded the city
of Bassora, on the western banks of the great stream formed by the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris, with a view of securing the command of
these two rivers, by which goods imported from India were conveyed into
all parts of Asia. With such discernment was the situation chosen, that
Bassora soon became a place of trade hardly inferior to Alexandria.
This general information with respect to the trade of the Arabians with
India, which is all that can be derived from the historians of that period, is
confirmed and illustrated by the Relation of a Voyage irom the Persian
gulf towards the east, written by an Arabian merchant in the year of the
Christian era eight hundred and fifty-one, about two centuries after Persia
was subjected to the caliphs, and explained by the- Commentary of anothei
Arabian, who had likewise visited the eastern parts of Asia [37]. This
curious relation, which enables us to fill up a chasm in the history of mercantile communication with India, furnishes materials for describing more
in detail the extent of the Arabian discoveries in the East, and the manner
in which they made them.
Though some have imagined that the wonderful property of the magnet,
by which it communicates such virtue to a needle or slender rod of iron,
as to make it point towards the poles of the earth, was Known in the East
long before it was observed in Europe, it is manifest both from the relation of the Mahomedan merchant, and. from much concurring evidence,
* Sale's Koran, Prelim. Dis. p. 32, 33.  t Herbel. Biblioth. Orient. article Basrah Abul
Pharas Hist. Dynast. p. 113.




ANCIENT INDIA.                              41
that not only the Arabians, but the Chinese, were destitute of this faithful
guide, and that their mode of navigation was not more adventurous than
that of the Greeks and Romans.  T'hey steered servilely along the coast,
seldom stretching out to sea so far as to lose sight of' land; and as they
shaped their course in this timid manner, their mode of reckoning was
defective, and liable to the same errors which I observed in that of the
Greeks and Romans.t
Notwithstanding these disadvantages, the progress of the Arabians towards the east extended far beyond the gulf of Siam, the boundary of
European navigation.  They became acquainted with Sumatra, and the
other islands of the great Indian Archipelago, and advanced as far as the
city of Canton in China. Nor are these discoveries to be considered as
the effect of the enterprising curiosity of individuals; they were owing to
a regular commerce carried on from the Persian gulf with China, and all
the intermediate countries. Many Mahomedans, imitating the example ot
the Persians described by Cosmas Indicopleustes, settled in India and the
countries beyond it. They were so numerous in the city of Canton, that
the emperor (as the Arabian authors relate) permitted them to have a cadi
or judge of their own sect, who decided controversies among his countrymen by their own laws, and presided in all the functions of religion.j  In
other places proselytes were gained to the Mahotmedan faith, and the Arabian language was understood and spoken in almost every seaport of any
note. Ships from China and different places of India traded in the Persian gulf [38], and by the frequency of mutual intercourse, all the nations
of the east became better acquainted with each other.~
A striking proof of this is the new information concerning China and
India we receive from the two authors I have mentioned. They point out
the situation of Canton, now so well known to Europeans, with a considerable degree of exactness. They take notice of the general use of silk
among the Chinese. They are the first who mention their celebrated
manufacture of porcelain, which, on account of its delicacy and transparency, they compare to glass [39]. They describe the tea-tree, and the
mode of using its leaves; and from the great revenue which was levied (as
they inform us) from the consumption of it, tea seems to have been as
universally the favourite beverage of the Chinese, in the ninth century, as
it is at present.sI
Even with respect to those parts of India, which the Greeks and Romans
were accustomed to visit, the Arabians had acquired more perfect information. They mention a great empire established on the Malabar coast,
governed by monarchs whose authority was paramount to that of every
power in India. These monarchs were distinguished by the appellation
of Balehara, a name yet known in India,lI and it is probable that the
Samorin, or emperor of Calicut, so frequently mentioned in the accounts ot
the first voyages of the Portuguese to India, possessed some portions ot
their dominions. They celebrate the extraordinary progress which the
Indians had made in astronomical knowledge, a circumstance which seems
to have been little known to the Greeks and Romans, and assert that in
this branch of science they were far superior to the most enlightened
nations of the east, on which account their sovereign was denominated the
king of wisdom."  Other peculiarities in the political institutions, the mode
of judicial proceedings, the pastimes and the superstitions of the Indians,
particularly the excruciating mortifications and penances of the faquirs,
might be produced as proofs of the superior knowledge which the Arabians
had acquired of the manners of that people.
* Relation, p. 2. 8, &c.   t Renaudot, Inquiry into the time when the Mahomedans first entered
China, p. 143.    Relation, 7. Remarks, p. 19. Inquiry, p. 171, &c.  g Relation, p. 8.
II Ibid. p. 21. 25.  IIr Herbelot, artic. Hend and Belhar.  ** Relation, p. 37. 58'
VOL. III. —F




4 2                 DISQUISITION ON
The saime commercial spirit, or religious zeal, which prompted the
Mahomedans of' Persia to visit the remotest regions of the East, animated
the Christians of that kingdom. The Nestorian churches planted in Persia
under the protection first of its native sovereigns, and afterwards of its con.
querors the caliphs, were numerous, and governed by respectable ecclesiastics. They had early sent missionaries into India, and established
churches in different parts of it, particularly, as I have formerly related,
in the island of Ceylon. WVhen the Arabians extended their navigation as
far as China, a more ample field, both for their commerce and their zeal,
opened to their view. If we may rely on the concurring evidence of
Christian authors, in the East as well as in the West, confirmed by the testimony of the two Mahomedan travellers, their pious labours were attended
with such success, that in the ninth and tenth centuries, the number of
Christians in India and China was very considerable [40]. As the churches
in both these countries received all their ecclesiastics from Persia, where
they were ordained by the Catholicos, or Nestorian primate, whose supremacy they acknowledged, this became a regular channel of intercourse and
intelligence; and to the combined effect of all these circumstances, we are
indebted for the information we receive from the two Arabian writers,?
concerning those regions; of Asia, which the Greeks and Romans never
visited.
But while both the Mahomedan and Christian subjects of the Caliphs
continued to extend their knowledge of the East, the people of Europe
found themselves excluded almost entirely from any intercourse with it.
To them the great port of Alexandria was now shut, and the new lords of
the Persian gulf, satisfied with supplying the demand for Indian commodities in their own extensive dominions, neglected to convey them, by any
of the usual channels, to the trading towns on the Mediterranean. The
opulent inhabitants of' Constantinople, and other great cities of Europe, bore
this deprivation of luxuries, to which they had been long accustomed, with
such impatience, that all the activity of commerce was exerted, in order
to find a remedy for an evil which they deemed intolerable. The difficulties which were to be surmounted, in order to accomplish this, afford the
most striking proof of the high estimation in which the commodities of the
East were held at that time. The silk of China was purchased in Chensi,
the westernmost province of that empire, and conveyed thence by a caravan, in a march of eighty or a hundred days, to the banks of the Oxus,
where it was embarked, and carried down the stream of that river to the
Caspian. After a dangerous voyage across that sea, and ascending the
river Cyrus as far as it is navigable, it was conducted by a short land carriage of five days to the river Phasisj, which falls into the Euxine or Black
Sea. Thence, by an easy and well known course, it was transported to
Constantinople. The conveyance of commodities from that region of the
East, now known by the name of Indostan, was somewhat less tedious and
operose. They were carried from the banks of the Indus, by a route
early frequented, and which I have already described, either to the river
Oxus, or directly to the Caspian, from which they held the same course to
Constantinople.
It is obvious, that only commodities of small bulk, and of considerable
value, could bear the expense of such a mode of conveyance; and in regulating the price of those commodities, not only the expense, but the risk
and danger of conveying them were to be taken into account. In their
journey across the vast plain, extending from Samarcande to the frontier of
China, caravans were exposed to the assaults and depredations of the Tartars, the Huns, the Turks, and other roving tribes which infest the north,.
east of Asia, and which have always considered the merchant and traveller
*  telation, p. 39.  t Plin, Nat Hist. lib. vi. c, 17,




ANCIENT INDIA.                               43
as tnexr lawful prey; nor were they exempt from insult and pillage in their
journey from the Cyrus to the Phasis, through the kingdom of Colchis, a
country noted, both in ancient and in modern times, for the thievish disposition of its inhabitants. Even under all these disadvantages, the trade with
the East was carried on with ardour. Constantinople became a considerable mart of Indian and Chinese commodities, and the wealth which flowed
into it in consequence of this, not only added to the splendour of that great
city, but seems to have retarded for some time the decline of the empire,
of which it was the capital.
As far as we may venture to conjecture, from the imperfect information
of contemporary historians, it was chiefly by the mode of conveyance which.1I have described, perilous and operose as it was, that Europe was supplied
with the commodities of the East during more than two centuries.
Throughout that period the Christians and Mahomedans were engaged in
almost uninterrupted hostilities; prosecuted with all the animosity which
rivalship for power, heightened by religious zeal, naturally excites. Under
circumstances which occasioned such alienation, commercial intercourse
could hardly subsist, and the merchants of Christendom, either did not
resort at all to Alexandria and the ports of Syria, the ancient staples for the
commodities of the East, after they were in possession of the Mahomedans;
or, if the love of gain, surmounting their abhorrence of the Infidels, prompted
them to visit the marts which they had long frequented, it was with much
caution and distrust.
While the difficulties of procuring the productions of the East were thus
augmented, the people of Europe became more desirous of obtaining them.
About this time some cities of Italy, particularly Amalphi and Venice,
having acquired a greater degree of security or independence than they
formerly possessed, began to cultivate the arts of domestic industry, with
an ardour and ingenuity uncommon in the middle ages. The effect of these
exertions was such an increase of wealth, as created new wants and desires,
and formed a taste for elegance and luxury, which induced them to visit
foreign countries in order to gratify it. Among men in this stage of their
advancement, the productions of India have always been held in high estimation, and from this period they were imported into Italy in larger quantities, and came into more general use. Several circumstances which indicate this revival of a commercial spirit, are collected by the industrious
Muratori; and from the close of the seventh century, an attentive observer
may discern faint traces of its progress.?
Even in enlightened ages, when the transactions of nations are observed
and recorded with the greatest care, and the store of historical materials
seems to be abundantly ample, so little attention has been paid to the operations of commerce, that every attempt towards a regular deduction of them
has been found an undertaking of the utmost difficulty. The era, however,
to which I have conducted this disquisition, is one of the periods in the
annals of mankind, concerning which, history furnishes most scanty information. As it was chiefly in the Greek empire, and in some cities of Italy,
that any efforts were made to procure the commodities of India, and the
other regions of the east, it is only from the historians of those countries we
can expect to find any account of that trade. But from the age of
Mahomet, until the time when the Comneni ascended the throne of Constantinople, a period of more than four centuries and a half, the Byzantine
history is contained in meagre chronicles, the compilers of which seldom
extended their views beyond the intrigues in the palace, the factions in the
theatre, or the disputes of theologians. To them the monkish annalists ot
the different states and cities of Italy, during the same period, are (if pos* Antiquit. Ital. medii Agvi, ii. 400. 400 410. 883. 885. 895. Rer Ital, Script. ii. 487. Itistoire du
Commerce, de la Russie, par M. Scherer, tom. i, p, 11, &c,




44                  DISQUISITION ON
sible) far inferior in merit; and in the early accounts of those cifies which
have been most celebrated for their commercial spirit, we search with little
success for the origin or nature of that trade by which they first rose to
eminence [41]. It is manifest, however, from the slightest atte ution to the
events which happened in the seventh and eighth centuries, tha, the Italian
states, while their coasts were continually infested by the Mahomedans,
who had made some settlements there, and had subjected Sicily almost
entirely to their dominion, could not trade with much confidence and security in Egypt and Syria. With what implacable hatred Christians viewed
Mahomedans, as the disciples of an impostor, is well known; and as all the
nations which professed the Christian faith, both in the east and west, had
mingled the worship of angels and saints with that of the Supreme Being,
and had adorned their churches with pictures and statues; the true Moslems considered themselves as the only assertors of the unity of God, and
beheld Christians of every denomination with abhorrence, as idolators.
Much time was requisite to soften this mutual animosity, so far as to render
intercourse in any degree cordial.
Meanwhile a taste for the luxuries of the East continued not only to
spread in Italy, but, from imitation of the Italians, or from some improvement in their own situation, the people of Marseilles and other towns of
France on the Mediterranean became equally fond of them. But the profits
exacted by the merchants of Amalphi or Venice, from whom they re.
ceived those precious commodities, were so exorbitant as prompted them
to make some effort to supply their own demands. With this view they
not only opened a trade with Constantinople, but ventured at times to visit
the ports of Egypt and Syria.* This eagerness of the Europeans, on the
one hand, to obtain the productions of India, and, on the other hand, considerable advantages which both the caliphs and their subjects derived
from the sale of them, induced both so far to conceal their reciprocal antipathy as to carry on a traffic manifestly for their common benefit. How
far this traffic extended, and in what mode it was conducted by these new
adventurers, the scanty information which can be gathered from contemporary writers does not enable me to trace with accuracy. It is probable,
however, that this communication would have produced insensibly its
usual effect, of familiarizing and reconciling men of hostile principles and
discordant manners to one another, and a regular commerce might have
been established gradually between Christians and Mahomedans, upon
such equal terms, that the nations of Europe might have received all the
luxuries of the East by the same channels in which they were formerly
conveyed to them, first by the Tyrians, then by the Greeks of Alexandria,
next by the Romans, and at last by the subjects of the Constantinopolitan
empire.
But whatever might have been the influence of this growing correspondence, it was prevented from operating with full effect by the crusades,
or expeditions for the recovery of the Holy Land, which during two centuries occupied the professors of the two rival religions, and contributed to
alienate them more than ever from each other. I have, in another work,t
contemplated mankind while under the dominion of this frenzy, the most
singular perhaps, and the longest continued, of any that occurs in the history of our species; and I pointed out such effects of it upon government,
upon property, upon manners and taste, as were suited to what were then
the objects otf my inquiry. At present my attention is confined to observe
the commercial consequences of the crusades, and how far they contributed
to retard or to promote the conveyance of Indian commodities into Europe.
To fix an idea of peculiar sanctity to that country, which the author of
our religion selected as the place of his residence while on earth, and in
* Mom. de. Littorat ton. xxxvii. p. 467, &c. 483.  t Hist. of Chaxles V p Id~




ANCIENT INDIA.                             45
which he accomplished the redemption of mankind, is a sentiment so
natural to the human mind, that, from the first establishment of Christianity,
the visiting of the holy places in Judea was considered as an exercise ot
piety, tending powerfully to awaken and to cherish a spirit of devotion.
Through succeeding ages the practice continued and increased in every part
of Christendom. When Jerusalem was subjected to the Mahomedan empire, and danger was added to the fatigue and expense of a distant pilgrimage, the undertaking was viewed as still more meritorious. It was
sometimes enjoined as a penance to be performed by heinous transgressors
It was more frequently a duty undertaken with voluntary zeal, and in both
cases it was deemed an expiation for all past offences. From various
causes, which I have elsewhere enumerated,? these pious visits to the Holy
Land multiplied amazingly during the tenth and eleventh centuries. Not
only individuals in the lower and middle ranks of life, but persons of superior condition, attended by large retinues, and numerous caravans of
opulent pilgrims, resorted to Jerusalem.
In all their operations, however, men have a wonderful dexterity in mingling some attention to interest with those functions which seem to be most
purely spiritual. The Mahomedan caravans, which, in obedience to the
injunctions of their religion, visit the holy temple of Mecca, are not composed, as I shall hereafter explain more fully, of devout pilgrims only, but
of merchants, who, both in going and returning, are provided with such an
assortment of goods that they carry on a considerable traffic.t Even the
faquirs of India, whose wild enthusiasm seems to elevate them above all
solicitude about the concerns of this world, have rendered their frequent
pilgrimages subservient to their interest, by trading in every country
through which they travel [42]. In like manner, it was not by devotion
alone that such numerous bands of Christian pilgrims were induced to visit
Jerusalem. To many of them commerce was the chief motive of undertaking that distant voyage; and, by exchanging the productions of Europe
for the more valuable commodities of Asia, particularly those of India,
which at that time were diffused through every part of the caliph's dominions, they enriched themselves, and furnished their countrymen with
such an additional supply of eastern luxuries as augmented their relish for
them.:
But how faint soever the lines may be, which, prior to the crusades,
mark the influence of the frequent pilgrimages to the East upon commerce,
they became so conspicuous, after the commencement of these expeditions,
as to meet the eye of every observer. Various circumstances concurred
towards this, from an enumeration of which it will appear, that, by attending
to the progress and effects of' the crusades, considerable light is thrown
upon the subject of my inquiries. Great armies, conducted by the most
illustrious princes and nobles of Europe, and composed of men of the most
enterprising spirit in all the kingdoms of it, marched towards Palestine,
through countries far advanced beyond those which they left, in every
species of improvement. They beheld the dawn of prosperity in the
republics of Italy, which had begun to vie with each other in the arts of
industry, and in their efforts to engross the lucrative commerce with the
East. They next admired the more advanced state of opulence and splendour in Constantinople, raised to a pre-eminence above all the cities then
known, by its extensive trade, particularly that which it carried on with
India and the countries beyond it. They afterwards served in those provinces of Asia through which the commodities of the east were usually
conveyed, and became masters of several cities which had been staples ot
that trade. They established' the kingdom of Jerusalem, which subsisted
* History of Charles V.  t Viagi di Ramusio, vol. i. p. 151, 152.; Gul Tyr. lib
xvii. c. 4. p. 933. ap. Gesta Dei per Francos.




46                  DISQUISITION ON
near two hundred years. They took possession of the throne of the Greek
empire, and governed it above half a century. Amidst such a variety of
events and operations, the ideas of the fierce warriors of Europe gradually
opened and improved; they became acquainted with the policy and arts
of the people whom they subdued; they observed the sources of their
wealth, and availed themselves of all this knowledge. Antioch and Tyre,
when conquered by the crusaders, were flourishing cities inhabited by
opulent merchants, who supplied all the nations trading in the Mediterranean with the productions of the East;* and, as far as can be gathered from
incidental occurrences mentioned by the historians of the holy war (who,
being mostly priests and monks, had their attention directed to objects very
different from those relating to commerce), there is reason to believe that,
both in Constantinople while subject to the Franks, and in the ports of
Syria acquired by the Christians, the long established trade with the East
continued to be protected and encouraged.
But though commerce may have been only a secondary object with the
martial leaders of the crusades, engaged in perpetual hostilities with the
Turks on one hand, and with the Soldans of Egypt on the other, it was
the primary object with the associates, in conjunction with whom they
carried on their operations. Numerous as the armies were which assumed
the cross, and enterprising as the fanatical zeal was with which they were
animated, they could not have accomplished their purpose, or even have
reached the seat of their warfare, without securing the assistance of the
Italian states. None of the ether European powers could either furnish a
sufficient number of transports to convey the armies of the crusaders to the
coast of Dalmatia, whence they marched to Constantinople, the place of
general rendezvous; or were able to supply them with military stores and
provisions in such abundance as to enable them to invade a distant country.
In all the successive expeditions the fleets of the Genoese, of the Pisans,
or of the Venetians, kept on the coast as the armies advanced by land, and,
supplying them from time to time with whatever was wanting, engrossed
all the profits of a branch of commerce which in every age has been extremely lucrative. It was with all the interested attention of merchants
that the Italians afforded their aid. On the reduction of any place in
which they found it for their interest to settle, they obtained from the crusaders valuable immunities of different kinds; freedom of trade; an abatement of the usual duties paid for what was imported and exported, or a
total exemption from them; the property of entire suburbs in some cities,
and of extensive streets in others; and a privilege granted to every person
who resided within their precincts, or who traded under their protection,
of being tried by their own laws, and by judges of their own appointment.t In consequence of so many advantages, we can trace, during the
progress of the crusades, a rapid increase of wealth and of power in all
the commercial states of Italy. Every port open to trade was frequented
by their merchants, who, having new engrossed entirely the commerce of
the East, strove with such active emulation to find new markets for the
commodities which it furnished, that they extended a taste for them to
many parts of Europe in which they had hitherto been little known.
Two events happened, prior to the termination of the Holy War, which
by acquiring to the Venetians and Genoese the possession of several provinces in the Greek empire, enabled them to supply Europe more abundantly with all the productions of the East. The first was the conquest
of Constantinople in the year one thousand two hundred and four, by the
Venetians and the leaders of the fourth crusade. An account of the political
interests and intrigues which formed this alliance, and turned the hallowed
* GuI. Tyr. lib. xiii. c. 5. Alb. Aquens. Hist. Hieros. ap. Gesta Dei, vol. i. p. 247.  t Hist.
of Charles V.




ANCIENT INDIA.                             47
arms, destined to deliver the holy city from the dominion of infidels, against
a Christian monarch, is foreign from the design of this Disquisition. Constantinople was taken by storm, and plundered by the confederates. An
earl of Flanders was placed on the imperial throne. The dominions which
still remained subject to the successors of Constantine were divided into
four parts, one of which being allotted to the new emperor, for supporting
the dignity and expense of government, an equal partition of the other
three was made between the Venetians and the chiefs of the crusade.
The former, who, both in concerting and conducting this enterprise, kept
their eyes steadily fixed on what might be most for the emolument of their
commerce, secured the territories of greatest value to a trading people.
They obtained some part of the Peloponnesus, at that time the seat of
flourishing manufactures, particularly of silk. They became masters of
several of the largest and best cultivated islands in the Archipelago, and
established a chain of settlements, partly military and partly commercial,
extending from the Adriatic to the Bosphorus.*  Many Venetians settled in
Constantinople; and without obstruction from their warlike associates,
little attentive to the arts of industry, they engrossed the various branches
of trade which had so long enriched that capital. Two of these particularly attracted their attention; the silk trade, and that with India. From
the reign of Justinian, it was mostly in Greece, and some of the adjacent
islands, that silkworms, which he first introduced into Europe, were reared.
The product of their labours was manufactured into stuffs of various kinds,
in many cities of the empire. But it was in Constantinople, the seat of
opulence and luxury, that the demand for a commodity of such high price
was greatest, and there, of consequence, the commerce of silk naturally
centred. In assorting cargoes for the several ports in which they traded,
the Venetians had for some time found silk to be an essential article, as it
continued to grow more and more into request in every part of Europe.
By the residence of so many of their citizens in Constantinople, and by the
immunities granted to them, they not only procured silk in such abundance,
and on such terms as enabled them to carry on trade more extensively,
and with greater profit than formerly, but they became so thoroughly
acquainted with every branch of the silk manufacture, as induced them to
attempt the establishment of it iin their own dominions. The measures
taken for this purpose by individuals, as well as the regulations framed
by the state, were concerted with so much prudence, and executed with
such success, that in a short time the silk fabrics of Venice vied with those
of Greece and Sicily, and contributed both to enrich the republic, and
to enlarge the sphere of its commerce. At the same time the Venetians
availed themselves of the influence which they had acquired in Constantinople, in order to improve their Indian trade. The capital of the Greek
empire, besides the means of being supplied with the productions of the
East, which it enjoyed in common with the other commercial cities of
Europe, received a considerable portion of them by a channel peculiar to
itself. Some of the most valuable commodities of India and China were
conveyed over land, by routes which I have described, to the Black sea,
and thence by a short navigation to Constantinople. To this market, the
best stored of any except Alexandria, the Venetians had now easy access,
and the goods which they purchased there made an addition of great consequence to what they were accustomed to acquire in the ports of Egypt
and Syria. Thus, while the Latin empire in Constantinople subsisted, the
Venetians possessed, such advantages over all their rivals, that their commerce extended greatly, and it was chiefly from them every part of Europe
received the commodities of the East.
* Danduli Chronic. ap. Murat. Script. Rer. Ital. vol. xii. p. 328. Mar. Sanuto Vite de Duchi di
Venez. Murat. vol. xxii. p. 532.




48              - 1)DISQUISITION  ON
The other event which I had in view, was the subversion of the domi
nion of the Latins in Constantinople, and the re-establishment of the imperia.
family on the throne. This was effected after a period of fifty-seven years,
partly by a transient effort of vigour, with which indignation at a foreign
yoke animated the Greeks, and parly by the powerful assistance which
they received from the republic of Genoa. The Genoese were so sensible
of the advantages which the Venetians, their rivals in trade, derived from
their union with the Latin emperors of Constantinople, that, in order to
deprive them of these, they surmounted the most deep-rooted prejudices
of their age, and combined with the schismatic Greeks to dethrone a
monarch protected by the papal power, setting at defiance the thunders of
the Vatican, which at that time made the greatest princes tremble. This
undertaking, bold and impious as it was then deemed, proved successful.
In recompense for their signal services, the gratitude or weakness of the
Greek emperor, among other donations, bestowed upon the Genoese Pera,
the chief suburb of Constantinople, to be held as a fief of the empire,
together with such exemption from the accustomed duties on goods imported and exported, as gave them a decided superiority over every competitor in trade. With the vigilant attention of merchants, the Genoese
availed themselves of this favourable situation. They surrounded their
new settlement in Pera with fortifications. They rendered their factories
on the adjacent coast places of strength." They were masters of the
harbour of Constantinople more than the Greeks themselves. The whole
trade of the Black sea came into their hands; and not satisfied with this,
they took possession of part of the Chersonesus Taurica, the modern
Crimea, and rendered Caffa, its principal town, the chief seat of their
trade with the East, and the port in which all its productions, conveyed
to the Black sea by the different routes I have formerly described, were
landedt [43].
In consequence of this revolution, Genoa became the greatest commercial
power in Europe; and if tile enterprising industry and intrepid courage of
its citizens had been under the direction of wise domestic policy, it might
have long held that rank. But never was there a contrast more striking,
than between the internal administration of the two rival republics of
Venice and Genoa. In the former, government was conducted with steady
systematic prudence; in the latter, it was consistent with nothing but a
fondness for novelty, and a propensity to change. The one enjoyed a
perpetual calm, the other was agitated with all the storms and vicissitudes of
faction. The increase of wealth, which flowed into Genoa from the exertions of its merchants, did not counterbalance the defects in its political
constitution; and even in its most prosperous state we may discern the
appearance of symptoms which foreboded a diminution of its opulence
and power.
As long, however, as the Genoese retained the ascendant which they
had acquired in the Greek empire, the Venetians felt their commercial
transactions with it to be carried on upon such unequal terms, that their
merchants visited Constantinople seldom, and with reluctance; and in
order to procure the commodities of the East in such quantities as were
demanded in the various parts of Europe which they were accustomed
to supply, they were obliged to resort to the ancient staples of that trade.
Of these Alexandria was the chief, and the most abundantly supplied, as
the conveyance of Indian goods by land through Asia, to any of the ports
of the Mediterranean, was often rendered impracticable by the incursions
of Turks, Tartars, and other hordes, which successively desolated that
fertile country, or contended for the dominion of it. But under the military
* Niceph. Gregor. lib. xi. c. 1. 1 6. lib. xvii. c. 1. ~ 2.  t Folieta Hist. Genuens. ap. Grev.
Thes. Ant>4. Ital. i. 387. De Marinia de Genuens. Dignit. lb. 1486. Niceph. Greg. lib. xiii. c. 12.
Murat. Annal. d'Ital. lib. vii. c. 351,




A-NCIENT INDIA.                              49
and vigorous government of the soldans of the Mamelukes, security and
order were steadily maintained in Egypt, and trade, though loaded with
heavy duties, was open to all.  In proportion to the progress of the
Genoese in engrossing the commerce of Constantinople and the Black
sea [44], the Venetians found it more and more necessary to enlarge their
transactions with Alexandria.
But such an avowed intercourse with infidels being considered, in that
age, as unbecoming the character of Christians, the senate of Venice, in
order to silence its own scruples, or those of its subjects, had recourse to
the infallible authority of the pope, who was supposed to be possessed.of
power to dispense with the rigorous observation of the most sacred laws,.
and obtained permission from him to fit out annually a specified number of
ships from the ports of Egypt and of Syria [45]. Under this sanction the
republic concluded a treaty of commerce with the soldans of Egypt, on
equitable terms; in consequence of which the senate appointed one consul
to reside in Alexandria, and another in Damascus, in a public character,
and to exercise a mercantile jurisdiction, authorized by the soldans. Under
their protection, Venetian merchants and artisans settled in each of these
cities. Ancient prejudices and antipathies were forgotten, and their mutual
interests established, for the first time, a fair and open trade between:
Christians and Mahomedans.*
While the Venetians and Genoese were alternately making those extra
ordinary efforts, in order to engross all the advantages of supplying Europe
with the productions of the East, the republic of Florence, originally a
commercial democracy, applied with such persevering vigour to trade,
and the genius of the people, as well as the nature of their institutions,
were so favourable to its progress, that the state advanced rapidly in.
power and the people in opulence. But as the Florentines did not possess
any commodious seaport, their active exertions were directed chiefly towards
the improvement of their manufactures, and domestic industry. About
the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Florentine manufactures of
various kinds, particularly those of silk and woollen cloth, appear, from
the enumeration of a well-informed historian, to have been very considerable.t The connexion which they formed in different parts of Europe, by
furnishing them with the productions of their own industry, led them  to
engage in another branch of trade, that of banking.  Iti this they soon
became so eminent, that the money transactions of almost every kingdom
in Europe passed through their hands, and in many of them they were
intrusted with the collection and administration of the public revenues.
In consequence of the activity and success with which they conducted
their manufactures and money transactions, the former always attended
with certain though moderate profit, the latter lucrative in a high degree,.
at a period when neither the interest of money, nor the premium on bills of
exchange, was settled with accuracy, Florence became one of the first
cities in Christendom, and many of its citizens extremely opulent. Cosmo'
di Medici, the head of a family which rose from obscurity by its success in
trade, was reckoned the most wealthy merchant ever known in Europe;:
and in acts of public munificence, as well as of private generosity, in the
patronage of learning, and in the encouragement of usetul and elegant arts,.
no monarch of the age could vie with him. Whether the Medici, in their
first mercantile transactions, carried on any commerce with the East, I
have not been able to discover [46]. It is more probable, I should think.,
that their trade was confined to the same articles with that of their countrymen. But as soon as the commonwealth, by, the conquest of Pisa
* Sandi Storia Civile Veneziana, lib. v. c. 15. p. 248, &c.    t Giov. Villani Hist. Fiorent. ap..
Murat. Script. Rer. Ital. vol. xiii. p. 823. Dell' Istorie Fiorentine, di Scip. Ammirato, lib. iv. p. 151,
lib. viii. p. 299.: Fr. Mich. Brutus Hist. Flor. p. 37. 62. Chron. Eugubinum ap. Murat. Scrip,
Rer. Ital. vol. *rv. p. 1007. Denina Revol. d'Italie, torn vi.p. 263, &c.
VOL. III.-G




o0                   DISQUISITION ON
l.A. C. 1405], had acquired a communication with the ocean, Cosmo di
edici, who had the chief direction of its affairs, endeavoured to procure
for his country a share in that lucrative commerce which had raised Venice
and Genoa so far above all the other Italian states. With this view am
bassadors were sent to Alexandria [A. C. 1425], in order to prevail with
the soldan to open that and the other ports of his dominions to the subjects
of the republic, and to admit them to a participation in all the commercial
privileges which were enjoyed by the Venetians. The negotiation terminated with such success, that the Florentines seem to have obtained some
share in the Indian trade [47]; and soon after this period, we find spices
enumerated among the commodities imported by the Florentines into
England.*
In some parts of this Disquisition, concerning the nature and course of
trade with the East, I have been obliged to grope my way, and often
under the guidance of very feeble lights. But as we are now approaching to the period when the modern ideas, with respect to the importance
of commerce, began to unfold, and attention to its progress and effects became a more considerable object of policy, we may hope to carry on what
researches yet remain to be made, with greater certainty and precision.
To this growing attention we are indebted for the account which Marino
Sanudo, a Venetian nobleman, gives of the Indian trade, as carried on by
hbis countrymen about the beginning of the fourteenth century. They
were supplied, as he informs us, with the productions of the East in two
different ways. Those of small bulk and high value, such as cloves, nut-:megs, mace, gems, pearls, &c. were conveyed from the Persian gulf, up the
Tigris to Bassora, and thence to Bagdat, from which they were carried to
some port on the Mediterranean. All more bulky goods, such as pepper,
ginger, cinnamon, &c. together with some portion of the more valuable
articles, were conveyed by the ancient route to the Red sea, and thence
across the Desert, and down the Nile to Alexandria. The goods received
by the former route Were, as Sanudo observes, of superior quality; but,
from the tediousness and expense of a distant land carriage, the supply was,often scanty, nor can he conceal (though contrary to a favourite project
which he had in view when he wrote the treatise to which I refer) that,
"'fromn the state of the countries through which the caravans passed, this
zmode of conveyance was frequently precarious and attended with danger.t
It was in Alexandria only that the Venetians found always a certain and
full supply of Indian goods; and as these were conveyed thither chiefly
by water carriage, they might have purchased them at a moderate price,
if the soldans had not- imposed upon them  duties which amounted to a
third part of their full value. Under this and every other disadvantage,
however, it was necessary to procure them, as from Iany concurring circumstances, particularly a more extensive intercourse established among
the different nations of Europe, the demnand for them continued to increase
greatly during the fourteenth century. By the irruptions of the various
hostile tribes of barbarians, who took possession of the greater part of
Europe, that powerful bond by which the Romans had united together all
the people of their vast empire was entirely dissolved, and such discouragement was given to the communication of one nation with another, as
would appear altogether incredible, if the evidence of it rested wholly'upon the testimony of historians, and were not confirmed by what is still
more authentic, the express enactment of laws. Several statutes of this:kind, which disgrace the jurisprudence of almost every European nation, 1
have enumnerated and explained in another work.$ But when the wants
and desires of men multiplied, and they found that other countries coulk
* Hakluyt, vol i. p. 193.  t Mar. Sanuti Secreta Fidelium Crucis, p, 22, &c. ap. Bongarsium; Hist, of Charles V.




ANCIENT INDIA.                              t1
furnish the means of supplying and gratifying them, the hostile sentiments
which kept nations at a distance from each other abated, and mutZual correspondence gradually took place. From the time of the crusades, which
first brought people hardly known to one another to associate, and to act in
concert during two centuries in pursuit of one common end, several circumstances had co-operated towards accelerating this general intercourse.
The people around the Baltic, hitherto dreaded and abhorred by the rest
of Europe as pirates and invaders, assumed more pacific manners, and
began now to visit their neighbours as merchants. Occurrences foreign
firom the subject of the present inquiry united them together in the powerful commercial confederacy so famous in the middle ages, under the name
of the Hanseatic league, and led them to establish the staple of their trade
with the southern parts of Europe in Bruges.  Thither the merchants of
Italy, particularly those of Venice, resorted: and in return for the productions of the East, and the manufactures of their own country, they received
not only the naval stores and other commodities of the North, but a consi
derable supply of gold and silver from the mines in various provinces of
Germany, the most valuable and productive-of any known at that time in
Europe.?  Bruges continued to be the great mart or storehouse of European trade during the period to which my inquiries extend. A regular
communication, formerly unknown, was kept up there among all the kingdoms into which our continent is divided, and we are enabled to account tor
the rapid progress of the Italian states in wealth and power, by observing
how much their trade, the source from which both were derived, must have
augmented upon the vast increase in the consumption of Asiatic goods,
when all the extensive countries towards the north-east of Europe were
opened for their reception.
During this prosperous and improving state of Indian commerce, Venice
received from one of its citizens such new information concerning the
countries which produced the precious commodities that formed the most
valuable article of its trade, as gave an idea of their opulence, their population, and their extent, which rose far above all the former conceptions of
Europeans.  From the time that the Mahomedans became masters of
Egypt, as no Christian was permitted to pass through their dominions to
the East,t the direct intercourse of Europeans with India ceased entirely.
The account of India by Cosmas Indicopleustes in the sixth century, is,
as far as I know, the last which the nations of the West received from any
person who had visited that country. But about the middle of the thirteenth century, the spirit of commerce, now become more enterprising, and
more eager to discover new routes which led to wealth, induced Marco
Polo, a Venetian of a noble family, after trading for some time in many of
the opulent cities of the Lesser Asia, to penetrate into the more eastern
parts of that continent, as far as to the court of the Great Khan on the frontier of China. During the course of twenty-six years, partly employed
in mercantile transactions, and partly in conducting negotiations with which
the Great Khan intrusted him, he explored many regions of the east which
no European had ever visited.
He describes the great kingdom of Cathay, the name by which China
is still known 1i many parts of the East,J and travelled through it from
Chambalu, or Peking, on its northern frontiers, to some of its most southern pr-> nces. He visited different parts of Indostan, and is the first who
mentions Bengal and Guzzerat, by their present names, as great and opulent kingdoms. Besides what he discovered on his journeys by land, he
made more than one voyage in the Indian ocean, and acquired some information concerning an island which he calls Zipangri or Cipango, probably
* Zimmerman's Polit. Survey of Europe, p. 102.  t Sanuto, p. 23.  $ lHerbelot, Bib. Orient.
article Khathai. Stewart, Account of Thibet, Phil. Trans. Ixvii. 474. Voyage of A. Jinkinson,
Ilaklnyt, i. 333.




St           D      > I S:UDISQUIS ITION ON
Japal. He visited in person Java, Sumatra, and'several islands contlgLtous
to them, the island of Ceylon, and the coast of Malabar, asfar as the gulf
-of Cambay, to all which he gives, the names that they now bear. This
was the most extensive survey hitherto made of the East, and the most
complete description of it ever given by any European; and, in an age
which had hardly any knowledge of those regions but what was derived
from the geography of Ptolemy, not only the Venetians, but all the people
of Europe, were astonished at the discovery of immense countries open to
their view beyond what had hitherto been reputed the utmost boundary
of the earth in that quarter [481.
But while men of leisure and speculation occupied themselves with examining the discoveries of Marco Polo, which gave rise to conjectures and
theories productive of most important consequences:; an event happened
that drew the attention of all Europe, and had a most conspicuous effect
upon the course of that trade, the progress of which I am endeavouring to
trace.
The event to which I allude, is the final conquest of the Greek empire
by Mahomet II. [A. D. 14531, and the establishing the seat of the Turkish
government in Constantinople. The immediate effect of this great revolution was, that the Genoese residing in Pera, involved in the general calamity, were obliged not only to abandon that settlement, but all those which
they had made on the adjacent sea coast, after they had been in their possession near two centuries. Not long after [A. D. 14741, the victorious
arms of the sultan expelled them from Caffa, and every other. place which
they held in the Crimea.* Constantinople was no longer a mart open to
the nations of the West for Indian commodities, and no supply of them
could now be obtained but in Egypt and the ports of Syria, subject to the
soldans of the Mamelukes. The Venetians, in consequence of the protection and privileges which they had secured by their commercial treaty
with those powerful princes, carried on trade in every part of their
dominions with such advantage, as gave them a superiority over every
competitor. Genoa, which had long been their most formidable rival,
humbled by the loss of its possessions in the East, and weakened by dornestic dissensions, declined so fast that it was obliged to court foreign protection, and submitted alternately to the dominion of the dukes of Milan and
the kings of France. In consequence of this diminution of their political
power, the commercial exertions of the Genoese became less vigorous. A
feeble attempt which they made to recover that share of the Indian trade
which they had formerly enjoyed, by offering to enter into treaty with the
soldans of Egypt upon terms similar to those which had been granted t(c
the Venetians, proved unsuccessful; and during the remainder of the fif
teenth century, Venice supplied the greater part of Europe with the productions of the East, and carried on trade to an extent far beyond what had
been known in those times..
The state of the other European nations was extremely favourable to the
commercial progress of the Venetians. England, desolated by the civil
wars which the unhappy contest between the houses of York and Lancaster excited, had hardly begun to turn its attention towards those objects
and pursuits to which it is indebted for its present opulence and power.
In France, the fatal effects of the English arms and conquests were still
felt, and the king had neither acquired power, nor the people inclination,
to direct the national genius and activity to the arts of peace. The union
of the different kingdoms of Spain was not yet completed; some of its
most fertile provinces were still under the dominion of the Moors, with.
whom the Spanish monarchs waged perpetual war; and, except by the
(,atalans, little attention was paid to foreign trade. Portugal, though it
* Folieta Hist. Genu. 602. 626. Murat. Annali d'Ital. ix. 451.




ANCIENT INDIA. 
had already entered upon that career of discovery which terminated with
most splendid success, had not yet made such progress in it as to be
entitled to any high rank among the commercial states of Europe. Thus'the Venetians, almost without rival or competitor, except from some of
the inferior Italian states, were left at liberty to concert and to execute
their mercantile plans; and their trade with the cities of the Hanseatic
league, which united the north and south of Europe, and which hitherto
had been common to all the Italians, was now engrossed, in a great measure, by them alone.
While the increasing demand for the productions of Asia induced all the
people of Europe to court intercourse with the Venetians so eagerly, as to
allure them, by various immunities, to frequent their sea ports, we may
observe a peculiarity in their mode of carrying on trade with the East,
which distinguishes it from what has taken place in other countries in any
period of history. In the ancient world, the Tyrians, the Greeks, who
wvere masters of Egypt, and the Romnans, sailed to India in quest of those
commodities with which they supplied the people of the West. In
modern times, the same has been the practice of the Portuguese, the
Dutch, the English, and, after their example, of other European nations.
In both periods loud complaints have been made, that in carrying on this
trade every state must be drained of the precious metals, which in the
course of it flow incessantly from the West'to the East. never to return.
From  whatever loss might have been occasioned by this gradual but
unavoidable diminution of their gold and silver (whether a real or only
imaginary loss, it is not incumbent upon me in this place to inquire or to
determine), the Venetians were, in a great measure, exempted.  They had
no direct intercourse with India. They found in Egypt, or in Syria,
warehouses filled with all the commodities of the East, imported by the
Mahomedans; and from the best accounts we have, with respect to the
nature of their trade, they purchased them more frequently by barter, than
with ready money. Egypt, the chief mart for Indian goods, though a most
fertile country, is destitute of many things requisite in an improved state
of society, either for accommodation or for ornament. Too limited in
extent, and too highly cultivated to afford space for forests; too level to
have mines of the useful metals; it must be supplied with timber for
building, with iron, lead, tin, and brass, by importation from other countries.  The Egyptians, while under the dominion of the Mamelukes, seem
not themselves to have traded in the ports of any Christian state, and it
was principally from the Venetians that they received all the articles
which I have enumerated. Besides these, the ingenuity of the Venetian
artists furnished a variety of manufactures of woollen cloths, silk stuffs of
various fabric, camblets, mirrors, arms, ornaments of gold and silver, glass,
and many other articles, for all which they found a ready market in Egypt
and Syria. In return, they received from the merchants of Alexandria
spices of every kind, drugs, gems. pearls, ivory, cotton and silk, unwrought,
as well as manufactured in many different forms, and other productions of
the'East, together with several valuable articles of Egyptian growth or
fabric. In Aleppo, Baruth, and other cities, besides the proper commodities of India brought thither by land, they added to their cargoes the carpets of Persia, the rich wrought silks of Damascus, still known by the name
taken from that city, and various productions of art and nature peculiar to
Syria, Palestine, and Arabia. If, at any time, their demand for the productions of the East went beyond what they could procure in exchange
for their own manufactures, that trade with the cities of the Hanseatic
league, which I have mentioned, furnished them, from the mines of Ger
many, with a regular supply of gold and silver, which they could carry
with advantage to the markets of Egypt and Syria.
From a propensity, remarkable in all commercial states, to'subject the




54                  DISQUISITION ON
operations of trade to political regulation and restraint, the authority of the
Venetian government seems to have been interposed, both in directing the
importation of Asiatic goods, and in the mode of circulating them among
the different nations of Europe. To every considerable staple in the
Mediterranean a certain number of large vessels, known by the name of
Galleons, or Caracks, was fitted out on the public account, and returned
loaded with the richest merchandise?, the profit arising from the sale of
which must have been no slender addition to the revenue of the republic.
Citizens, however, of every class, particularly persons of noble families,
were encouraged to engage in foreign trade, and whoever employed a
vessel of a certain burden for this purpose received a considerable bounty
from the state.t It was in the same manner, partly in ships belonging to
the public, and partly in those of private traders, that the Venetians circulated through Europe the goods imported from the East, as well as the
produce of their own dominions and manufactures.
There are two different ways by which we may come at some know
ledge of the magnitude of those branches of commerce carried on by the
Venetians. The one, by attending to the great variety and high value of
the commodities which they imported into Bruges, the storehouse from
which the more northern nations of Europe were supplied. A full enumeration of these is given by a well informed author, in which is contained
almost every article deemed in that age essential to accommodation or to
elegance.T The other, by considering the effects of the Venetian trade
upon the cities admitted to a participation of its advantages. Never did
wealth appear more conspicuously in the train of commerce. The citizens of Brutes, enriched by it, displayed in their dress, their build;gs,
and mode of living, such magnificence as even to mortify the pride and
excite the envy of royalty [49]. Antwerp, when the staple was removed
thither, soon rivalled Bruges in opulence and splendour. In some cities of
Germany, particularly in Augsburg, the great mart for Indian commodities
in the interior parts of that extensive country, we meet with early examples
of such large fortunes accumulated by mercantile industry, as raised the
proprietors of them to high rank and consideration in the empire.
From observing this remarkable increase of opulence in all the places
where the Venetians had an established trade, we are led to conclude that
the profit accruing to themselves from the different branches of it, especially that with the East, must have been still more considerable. It is
impossible, however, without information much more minute than that to
which we have access, to form an estimate of this with accuracy; but
various circumstances may be produced to establish, in general, the justness of this conclusion. From the first revival of a commercial spirit in
Europe, the Venetians possessed a large share of the trade with the East.
It continued gradually to increase, and during a great part of the fifteenth
century, they had nearly a monopoly of it. This was productive of consequences attending all monopolies. Wherever there is no competition,
and the merchant has it in his power to regulate the market, and to fix the
price of the commodities which he vends, his gains will be exorbitant.
Some idea of their magnitude, during several centuries, may be formed by
attending to the rate of the premium or interest then paid for the use of
money. This is undoubtedly the most exact standard by which to measure the profit arising from the capital stock employed in commerce; for,
according as the interest of money is high or low, the gain acquired by the
use of it must vary, and become excessive or moderate. From the close
of the eleventh century to the commencement of the sixteenth, the period
during which the Italians made their chief commercial exertions, the rate
* Sabellicus, Hist. Rer. Venet. Dec. iv. lib. iii. p. 868. Denina Revol. d'Italie, tom. vi 340.
t Sandi Stor. Civ. Venez. Mib. viii, 89].: Lud. Guicciardini Descript, de Paesi Basi, p. 1IN3.




ANCIENT INDIA                              55
of interest was extremely high. It was usually twenty per cent.; sometimes above that; and so late as the year one thousand five hundred, it had
not sunk below ten or twelve per cent. in any part of Europe.* If the
profits of a trade so extensive as that of the Venetians corresponded to this
high value of money, it could not fail of proving a source of great wealth
bothpublic and private [50]. The condition of Venice, accordingly, during
the period under review, is described by writers of that age in terms
which are not applicable to that of any other country in Europe. The
revenues of the republic, as well as the wealth amassed by individuals,
exceeded whatever was elsewhere known. In the magnificence of their
houses, in richness of furniture, in profusion of plate, and in every thing
which contributed either towards elegance or parade in their mode ot
living, the nobles of Venice surpassed the state of the greatest monarchs
beyond the Alps. Nor was all this display the effect of an ostentatious
and inconsiderate dissipation, it was the natural consequence of successful
industry, which, having accumulated wealth with ease, is entitled to enjoy
it in splendour [51].
Never did the Venetians believe the power of their country to be more
firmly established, or rely with greater confidence on the continuance and
increase of its opulence, than towards the close of the fifteenth century,
when two events (which they could neither foresee nor prevent) happened,
that proved fatal to both. The one was the discovery of America. The
other was the opening a direct course of navigation to the East Indies by
the Cape of Good Hope. Of all occurrences in the history of the human
race, these are undoubtedly among the most interesting; and as they occasioned a remarkable change of intercourse among the different quarters of
the globe, and finally established those commercial ideas and arrangements
which constitute the chief distinction between the manners and policy of
ancient and of modern times, an account of them is intimately connected
with the subjects of this Disquisition, and will bring it to that period which
I have fixed upon for its boundary. But as I have related the rise and
progress of these discoveries at great length in another work,t a rapid view
of them is all that is requisite in this place.
The admiration or envy with which the other nations of Europe beheld
the power and wealth of Venice, led them naturally to inquire into the
causes of this pre-eminence; and among these, its lucrative commerce with
the East appeared to be by far the most considerable. Mortified with being
excluded from a source of opulence, which to the Venetians had proved so
abundant, different countries had attempted to acquire a share of the Indian
trade. Some of the Italian states endeavoured to obtain admission into
the ports of Egypt and'Syria upon the same terms with the Venetians;
but either by the superior interest of the Venetians in the court of the soldans, their negotiations for that purpose were rendered unsuccessful, or
from the manifold advantages which merchants, long in possession of any
branch of trade, have in a competition with new adventurers, all their exertions did not produce effects of any consequence [52]. In other countries,
various schemes were formed with the same view. As early as the year
one thousand fbur hundred and eighty, the inventive and enterprising genius
of Columbus conceived the idea of opening a shorter and more certain
communication with India, by holding a direct westerly course towards
those regions which, according to Marco Polo and other travellers, extended
eastward far beyond the utmost limits of Asia known to the Greeks or
Romans. This scheme, supported by arguments deduced from a scientific
acquaintance with cosmography, from his own practical knowledge of
navigation, from the reports of skilful pilots, and from the theories and
conjectures of the ancients, he proposed first to the Genoese, his country* Bist. of Charles V.    t Hist. of America, Books 1. and II.




56                 DISQUI SIT ION  ON
men, and next to the king of Portugal, into whose service'he had entered.
It was rejected by the former from ignorance, and by the latter with circumstances most humiliating to-a generous mind. By perseverance, however, and address, he at length induced the most wary and least adventurous
court in Europe to undertake the execution of his plan; and Spain, as the
reward of this deviation from its usual cautious maxims, had the gloi"y of
discovering a new world, hardly inferior in magnitude to a third part of the
habitable globe. Astonishing as the success of Columbus was, it did -not fully
accomplish his own wishes, or conduct him to those regions of the East, the
expectation of reaching which was the original object of his voyage. The
effects, however, of his discoveries were great and extensive. By giving
Spain the possession of immense territories, abounding in rich mines and
many valuable productions of nature, several of which had hitherto been
deemed peculiar to India, wealth began to flow so copiously into that
kingdom, and thence was so diffused over Europe, as gradually awakened
a general spirit of industry, and called forth exertions which alone must
have soon turned the course of commerce into new channels.
But this was accomplished more speedily, as well as more completely,
by the other great event which I mentioned, the discovery of a new route
of navigation to the east by the Cape of Good Hope. When the Portu
guese, to whom mankind are indebted for opening this communication
between the most remote parts of the habitable globe, undertook their
first voyage of discovery, it is probable that they had nothing further in
view than to explore those;parts of the coast of Africa which lay nearest
to their own country. But a spirit of enterprise, when -roused and put in
motion, is always progressive; and that of the Portuguese, though slow
and timid in its first operations, gradually acquired vigour, and prompted
them to advance along the western shore of the African continent, far
beyond the utmost boundary of ancient navigation in that direction. Encouraged by success, this spirit became more adventurous, despised dangers
which formerly appalled it, and surmounted difficulties which it once
deemed insuperable.  When the Portuguese found in the torrid zone,
which the ancients had pronounced to be uninhabitable, fertile countries
occupied by numerous nations, and perceived that the continent of Africa,
instead of extending in breadth towards the west, according to the opinion
of Ptolemy, appeared to contract itself, and to bend eastward, more extensive
prospects opened to their view, and inspired them with hopes of reaching
India, by continuing to hold the same course which they had so long pursued.
After several unsuccessful attempts to accomplish what they had in view,
a small squadron sailed from the Tagus, under the command of Vasco de
Gama, an officer of rank, whose abilities and courage fitted him to conduct
the most difficult and arduous enterprises. From unacquaintance,-however,
with the proper season and route of navigation in that vast ocean through
which he had to steer his course, his voyage was long and dangerous. At
length he doubled that promontory, which for several years had been the
object of terror and of hope to his countrymen. From that, after a prosperous navigation along the southeast of Africa, he arrived at the city of
Melinda, and had the satisfaction of discovering there, as well as at other
places where he touched, people of a race very different from the rude
inhabitants of the western shore of that continent, which alone the Portuguese had hitherto visited. These he found to be so far advanced in civilization, and acquaintance with the various arts of life, that they carried on
an active commerce, not only with -the nations on their own coast, but with
remote countries of Asia. Conducted by their pilots (who held a course
with which experience had rendered them well acquainted) he sailed across
the Indian ocean, and landed at Calecut, on the coast of Malabar, on the
twenty-second of May, one thousand four hundred and ninety-eight, ten
months and two days after his departure from the port of Lisbon




ANCIENT INDIA.                               57
The Samouln, or monarch of the country, astonished at this unexpected
visit of an unknown people, whose aspect and arms and manners bore no
resemblance to any of the nations accustomed to frequent his harbours, and
who arrived in his dominions by a route hitherto deemed impracticable,
received them at first with that fond admiration which is often excited by
novelty. But in a short time, as if he had been inspired with foresight of
all the calamities now approaching India by this fatal communication opened
with the inhabitants of Europe, he formed various schemes to cut off Gama
and his followers. But from every danger to which he was exposed, either
by the open attacks or secret machinations of the Indians, the Portuguese
admiral extricated himself with singular prudence and intrepidity, and at
last sailed from Calecut with his ships loaded not only with the commodities peculiar to that coast, but with many of the rich productions of the
eastern parts of India.
On his return to Lisbon he was received with the admiration and gratitude due to a man who, by his superior abilities and resolution, had conducted
to such a happy issue an undertaking of the greatest importance, which
had long occupied the thoughts of his sovereign, and excited the hopes of
his fellow subjects.*  Nor did this event interest the Portuguese alone.
No nation in Europe beheld it with unconcern. For although the discovery
of a new world, whether we view it as a display of genius in the person
who first conceived an idea of that undertaking which led mankind to the
knowledge of it, whether we contemplate its influence upon science by
giving a more complete knowledge of the globe which we inhabit, or
whether we consider its effects upon the commercial intercourse of mankind, be an event far more splendid than the voyage of Gama, yet the
latter seems originally to have excited more general attention. The former,
indeed, filled the minds of men with astonishment; it was some time,
however, before they attained such a sufficient knowledge of that portion
of the earth now laid open to their view, as to form any just idea, or even
probable conjecture, with respect to what might be the consequences of
communication with it. But the immense value of the Indian trade, which
both in ancient and in modern times had-enriched every nation by which
it was carried on, was a subject familiar to the thoughts of all intelligent
men, and they at once perceived that the discovery of this new route of
navigation to the East, must occasion great revolutions, not only in the
course of commerce, but in the political state of Europe..
What these revolutions were most likely to be, and how they would
operate, were points examined with particular attention in the cities of
Lisbon and of Venice, but with feelings very different. The Portuguese,
founding upon the rights which, in that agoe, priority of discovery, confirmed
by a papal grant, was supposed to confer, deemed themselves entitled to
an exclusive commerce with the countries which they had first visited,
began to enjoy, by anticipation, all the benefits of it, and to fancy that their
capital would soon be what Venice then was, the great storehouse of eastern
commodities to all Europe, and the seat of opulence and power. On the
first intelligence of Gama's successful voyage, the Venetians, with the quick
sighted discernment of merchants, foresaw the immediate consequences of
it to be the ruin of that lucrative branch of commerce which had contributed so greatly to enrich and aggrandize their country; and they observed
this with more poignant concern, as they were apprehensive that they
did not possess any effectual means of preventing, or even retarding its
operation.
The hopes and fears of both were well founded. The Portuguese
entered upon the new career opened to them with activity and ardour, and
* Asia de JoaO de Barros, dec. i. lib. iv. c. 11. Castagneda, Hist. de l'Inde trad. en Frangois
liv. i. c. 2-28.
VOL 111.-H




58                   1)ISQUISIT ION  ON
made exertions, both commercial and military, far beyond what could have
been expected from a kingdom of such inconsiderable extent. All these
were directed by an intelligent monarch, capable of forming plans of the
greatest magnitude with calm systematic wisdom, and of prosecuting them
with unremitting perseverance. The prudence and vigour of his measures,
however, would have availed little without proper instruments to carry
them into execution. Happily for Portugal, the discerning eye of Emanuel
selected a succession of officers to take the supreme command in India,
who, by their enterprising valour, military skill, and political sagacity,
accompanied with disinterested integrity, public spirit, and love of their
country, have a title to be ranked with the persons most eminent for virtue
and abilities in any age or nation. Greater things perhaps were achieved by
them than were ever accomplished in so short a time. Before the close of
Emanuel's reign, twenty-four years only after the voyage of Gama, the
Portuguese had rendered themselves masters of the city of Malacca, in
which the great staple of trade carried on among the inhabitants of all those
regions in Asia, which Europeans have distinguished by the general name
of the East Indies, was then established. To this port, situated nearly at
an equal distance from the eastern and western extremities of these countries, and possessing the command of that strait by which they keep comIunication with each other, the merchants of China, of Japan, of every
kingdom on the continent, of the Moluccas, and all the islands in the
Archipelago, resorted from the East; and those of Malabar, of Ceylon, of
Coromandel, and of' Bengal, from the West.6 This conquest secured to
the Portuguese great influence over the interior commerce of India, while
at the same time, by their settlements at Goa and Diu, they were enabled
to engross the trade of the Malabar coast, and to obstruct greatly the long
established intercourse of Egypt with India by the Red sea. Their ships
frequented every port in the East where valuable commodities were to be
found, from the Cape of Good Hope to the river of Canton; and along this
immense stretch of coast, extending upwards of four thousand leagues,4
they had established, for the conveniency or protection of trade, a chain ot
forts or factories. They had likewise taken possession of stations most
favourable to commerce along the southern coast of Africa, and in many of
the islands which lie between Madagascar and the Moluccas. In every
part of the East they were received with respect, in many they had
acquired the absolute command. They carried on trade there without
rival or control; they prescribed to the natives the terms of their mutual
intercourse; they often set what price they pleased on goods which they
purchased; and were thus enabled to import from Indostan and the regions
beyond it, whatever is useful, rare, or agreeable, in greater abundance,
and of more various kinds, than had been known formerly in Europe.
Not satisfied with this ascendant which they had acquired in India, the
Portuguese early formed a scheme, no less bold than interested, of excluding all other nations from participating of the advantages of commerce with
the East. In order to effect this, it was necessary to obtain possession of
such stations in the Arabian and Persian gulfs as might render them mas
ters of the navigation of these two inland seas, and enable them both to
obstruct the ancient commercial intercourse between Egypt and India. and
to command the entrance of the great rivers, which'facilitated the conveyance of Indian goods, not only through the interior provinces of Asia, but
as far as Constantinople. The conduct of the measures foi: this purpose
was committed to Alphonso Albuquerque, the most eminent of all the Portuguese generals who distinguished themselves in India. After the utmost
efforts of genius and valour, he was able to accomplish one half only of
* Decad. de Caros, dec. i. liv. viii. c. 1. Osor, de Reb. Eman. lib. vii. 213, &c.  t HiRM
G6nkr. des Voyages, tom. i. p. 1-40.




ANCIENT  INDIA.                              59
what the ambition of his countrymen had planned. By wresting the island
of Ormuz, which commanded the mouth of the Persian gulf, from the
petty princes who, as tributaries to the monarchs of Persia, had established
their dominion there, he secured to Portugal that extensive trade with the
East which the Persians had carried on for several centuries. In the hands
of the Portuguese, Ormuz soon- became the great mart from which the Persian empire and all the provinces of Asia to the west of it were supplied
with the productions of India; and a city which they built on that barren
island, destitute of water, was rendered one of the chief seats of opulence,
splendour, and luxury in the eastern world.s
The operations of Albuquerque in the Red sea were far from being
attended with equal success. Partly by the vigorous resistance of the
Arabian princes, whose ports he attacked, and partly by the damage his
fleet sustained in a sea of which the navigation is remarkably difficult and
dangerous, he was constrained to retire, without effecting any settlement of
importance.t  The ancient channel of intercourse with India by the Red
sea still continued open to the Egyptians; but their comml-ercial transactions in that country were greatly circumscribed and obstructed by the
influence which the Portuguese had acquired in every port to which they
were accustomed to resort.
In consequence of this, the Venetians soon began to feel that decrease of
their own Indian trade which they had foreseen and dreaded. In order to
prevent the further progress of this evil, they persuaded the soldan of the
Mamelukes, equally alarmed with themselves at the rapid success of the
Portuguese in the East, and no less interested to hinder them from engrossing that commerce which had so long been the chief source of opulence
both to the monarchs and to the people of Egypt, to enter into a negotiation with the pope and the king of Portugal.  The tone which the soldan
assumed in this negotiation was such as became the fierce chief of a military government. After stating his exclusive right to the trade with India,
he forewarned Julius II. and Emanuel, that if the Portuguese did not relinquish that new course of navigation, by which they had penetrated into the
Indian ocean, and cease from encroaching on that commerce, which froln
time immemorial had been'carried on between the east of Asia and his
dominions, he would put to death all the Christians in Egypt, Syria, and
Palestine, burn their churches, and demolish the holy sepulchre itself.t
This formidable threat, which during several centuries would have made
all Christendom tremble, seems to have made so little impression, that the
Venetians, as the last expedient, had recourse to a measure, which in that
age was deemed not only reprehensible but impious. They incited the
soldan to fit out a fleet in the Red sea, and to attack those unexpected
invaders of a gainful monopoly, of which he and his predecessors had long
enjoyed undisturbed possession. As Egypt did not produce timber proper
for building ships of fobrce, the Venetians permitted the soldan to cut it in
their forests of Dalmatia, whence it was conveyed to Alexandria, and then
carried partly by water and partly by land to Suez. There twelve ships
of war were built, on board of which a body of Mamelukes was ordered to
serve, under the command of an officer of merit. These new enemies, far
more Formidable than the natives of India, with whom the Portuguese had
hitherto contended, they encountered with undaunted courage, and after
some conflicts they entirely ruined the squadron, and remained masters of
the Indian ocean.~
Soon after this disaster, the dominion of the MIamelukes was overturned,
and Egypt, Syria, and Palestine were subjected to the Turkish empire 1,y
* Osorius de Reb. gestis Eman. lib. x. p. 274, &c. Tavernier's Travels, book v. c. co. Kfernper
Ammcnit. Exot. p. 756, &c.    t Osorius, lib. ix. p. 248, &c.    + Osorius de Rebus Eman. lib.
iv. p. 110, edit. 1580. Asia de Barros, decad. i. lib. viii. c. 2. -   Asia de Barros, dec. ii. lib. ito
c. 6. Lafitau. Hist. de Dkcouvertes des Portugpis, i. 29. &e c  sor. lib. i.v p. 12'0




V0                  b)- DISQUIS'ITION  ON
the victorious arms of Selim I. Their mutual interest quickly induced the
Turks and Venetians to forget ancient animosities, and to co-operate
towards the ruin of the Portuguese trade in India. With this view, Selim
confirmed to the Venetians the extensive commercial privileges which they
had enjoyed under the government of the Mamelukes, and published an
edict, permitting the free entry of all the productions of the East, imported
directly from Alexandria, into every part of his dominions, and imposing
heavy duties upon such as were brought from Lisbon."
But all these were unavailing efforts against the superior advantages
which the Portuguese possessed in supplying Europe with the commodities
of the East, in consequence of having opened a new mode of communication with it. At the same time, the Venetians, brought to the brink of
ruin, by the fatal league of Cambray, which broke the power and humbled
the pride of the republic, were incapable of such efforts for the preservation of their commerce, as they might have made in the more vigorous age
of their government, and were reduced to the feeble expedients of a declining state. Of this there is a remarkable instance in an offer made by them
to the king of Portugal, in the year one thousand five hundred and twenty
one, to purchase at a stipulated price all the spices imported into Lisbon,
over and above what might be requisite for the consumption of his own
subjects. If Emanuel had been so inconsiderate as to close with this proposal, Venice would have recovered all the benefit of the gainful monopoly
which she had lost. But the offer met with the reception that it merited,
and was rejected without hesitationst
The Portuguese, almost without obstruction, continued their progress in
the East, until they established there a commercial empire; to which,
whether we consider its extent, its opulence, the slender power by which
it was formed, or the splendour with which the government of it was conducted, there had hitherto been nothing comparable in the history of
nations. Emanuel, who laid the foundation of this stupendous fabric, had
the satisfaction to see it almost completed. Every part of Europe was
supplied by the Portuguese with the productions of the East; and if we
except some inconsiderable quantity of them, which the Venetians still
continued to receive by the ancient channels of conveyance, our quarter of
the globe had no longer any commercial intercourse with India, and the
regions of Asia beyond it, but by the Cape of Good Hope.
Though from this period the people of Europe have continued to carry
on their trade with India by sea, yet a considerable portion of the valuable
productions of the East is still conveyed to other regions of the earth by
land carriage. In tracing the progress of trade with India, this branch of
it is an object of considerable magnitude, which has not been examined
with sufficient attention. That the ancients should have had recourse frequently to the tedious and expensive mode of transporting goods by land,
will not appear surprising, when we recollect the imperfect state of navigation among them. The reason of this mode of conveyance being not
only continued, but increased, in modern times, demands some explanation.
If we inspect a map of Asia, we cannot fail to observe, that the communication throughout all the countries of that great continent to the west of
Indostan and China, though opened in some degree towards the south by
the navigable rivers Euphrates and Tigris, and towards the north by two
inland seas, the Euxine and Caspian, must be carried on in many extensive
provinces wholly by land. This, as I have observed, was the fitst mode
of intercourse between different countries, and during the infancy of navigation it was the only one. Even after that art had attained some degree
of improvement, the conveyance of goods by the two rivers formerly
mentioned, extended so little way into the interior country, and the trade
* Sandi Stor. Civ. Venez. part ii. 901, part iii. 432.    t Osor. de Reb. Eman. lib. xii.'C5.




ANCIENT INDIA.                               61
of the Euxine and Caspian seas, were so often obstructed by the barbarous
nations scattered along their shores, that partly on that account, and partly
from the adherence of mankind to ancient habits, the commerce of the
various provinces of Asia, particularly that with India and the regions
beyond it, continued to be conducted by land.
The same circumstances which induced the inhabitants of Asia to carry:
on such a considerable part of their commerce with each other in, this
manner, operated with still more powerful effect in Africa. That vast continent, which little resembles the other divisions of the earth, is not penetrated with inland seas, like Europe and Asia, or by a chain of lakes like
North America, or opened by rivers (the Nile alone excepted) of extended
navigation. It forms one uniform, continuous surface, between the various
parts of which there could be no intercourse from the earliest times, but
by land. Rude as all the people of Africa are, and slender as the progress,
is which they have made in the arts of life, such a communication appears
to have been early opened and always kept up. How far it extended in
the more early periods, to which my researches have been directed, and
by what different routes it was carried on, I have not sufficient information
to determine with accuracy. It is highly probable that, from time immemorial, the gold, the ivory, the perfumes, both of the southern parts of
Africa, and of its more northern districts, were conveyed either to the Arabian gulf or to Egypt, and exchanged for the spices and other productions
of the East.
The 3Mahomedan religion, which spread with amazing rapidity over all
Asia, and a considerable part of Africa, contributed greatly towards the
increase of commercial intercourse by land in both these quarters of the
globe, and has given it additional vigour, by mingling with it a new principle of activity, and by directing it to a common centre. Mahomet
enjoined all his followers to visit once in their lifetime the Caaba, or square
building in the temple of Mecca, the immemorial object of veneration
among his countrymen, not only on account-of its having been chosen
(according to their tradition) to be the residence of man at his creation,*
but because itwas the first spot on this earth which was consecrated to the.
worship of God:t in order to preserve continually upon their minds a sense
of obligation to perform this duty, he directed that in all the multiplied.
acts of devotion, which his religion prescribes, true believers should always
turn their faces towards that holy place..4  In obedience to a precept
solemnly enjoined and sedulously inculcated, large caravans of pilgrims
assemble annually in every country where the Mahomedan faith is established. From the shores of the Atlantic on one hand, and from the most
remote regions of the East on the other, the votaries of the prophet advance
to Mecca. Commercial ideas and objects mingle with those of devotion; -
the numerous camels [53] of each caravan are loaded with those commodities of every country which are of the easiest carriage, and most reads
sale. The holy city is crowded, not only with zealous devotees, but with
opulent merchants. During the fbw days- they remain there, the fair of
Mecca is the greatest, perhaps, on the face of the earth. Mercantile transactions are carried on in it to an immense value, of which the despatch, the
silence, the mutual confidence and good faith in conducting them, are the
most unequivocal proof. The productions and manufactures of India forma capital article in this great traffic, and the caravans on their return disseminate them through every part of Asia and Africa. Some of these are
deemed necessary, not only to the comfort but to the preservation of life,
and others contribute to its elegance and pleasure. They are so various
as to suit the taste of mankind in every climate, and in different stages of
* Abul-Ghazi Bayadur Khan, Hist. Gn&ral. des Tartars, p. 15.    t Ohsson Tableau GWn&ral
de 1' Empire Othoman, tom. iii. p. 150, &c. 289. edit. 8vo.   Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. artle.
Caaba & Keblah.




62                 DISQUISITION ON
improvement; and are in high request among the rude natives of Africa, as
well as the more luxurious inhabitants of Asia. In order to supply their
several demands, the caravans return loaded with the muslins and chintzes
of Bengal and the Deccan, the shawls of Cachemire, the pepper of Malabar, the diamonds of Golconda, the pearls of Kilkare, the cinnamon ot
Ceylon, the nutmeg, cloves, and mace of the Moluccas, and an immense
number of other Indian commodities.
Besides these great caravans, formed partly by respect for a religious
precept, and partly with a view to extend a lucrative branch of commerce,
there are othei caravans, and these not inconsiderable, composed entirely
of merchants, who have no object but trade. These, at stated seasons, set
out from different parts of the Turkish and Persian dominions, and proceeding to Indostan, and even to China, by routes which were anciently known,
they convey by land carriage the most valuable commodities of these countries to the remote provinces of both empires. It is only by considering
the distance to which large quantities of these commodities are carried, and
frequently across extensive deserts, which, without the aid of camels, would
have been impassable, that we can form any idea of the magnitude of the
trade with India by land, and are led to perceive that, in a disquisition
concerning the various modes of conducting this commerce, it is well
entitled to the attention which I have bestowed in endeavouring to trace
it [54].
SECTION IV.
General Observations.
THUS 1 have endeavoured to describe the progress of trade with India,
both by sea and by land, from the earliest times in which history affords
any authentic information concerning it, until an entire revolution was made
in its nature, and the mode of carrying it on, by that great discovery which
I originally fixed as the utmost boundary of my inquiries. Here, then
this disquisition might have been terminated. But as I have conducted
my readers to that period when a new order of ideas and new arrange
ments of policy began to be introduced into Europe, in consequence of the
value and importance of commerce being so thoroughly understood, that
in almost every country, the encouragement of it became a chief object of
public attention; as we have now reached that point, whence a line may
be drawn which marks the chief distinction between the manners and political institutions of ancient and modern times, it will render the work more
instructive and useful, to conclude it with some general observations, which
naturally arise from a survey of both, and a comparison of the one with the
other. TAhese observations, I trust, will be found not only to have an intimate connexion with the subject of my researches, and to throw additional
light upon it; but will serve to illustrate many particulars in the general
history of commerce, and to point out effects or consequences of various
events, which have not been generally observed, or considered with that
attention which they merited.
I. After viewing the great and extensive effects of finding a new course
of navigation to India by the Cape of Good Hope, it may appear surprising
to a modern observer, that a discovery of such importance was not made,
or even attempted. by any of the commercial states of the ancient world.
But in judging with respect to the conduct of nations in remote times, we
never err more widely than when we decide with regard to ita not accord



ANCIENT INDIA.                            62
mrg to the ideas and views of their age. but of our own. This is not, perhaps, more conspicuous in any instance, than in that under consideration. It
was by the Tyrians, and by the Greeks, who were masters of Egypt, that
the different people of Europe were first supplied with the productions of
the East. From the account that has been given of the manner in which
they procured these, it is manifest that they had neither the same inducements with modern nations to wish for any new communication with India,
nor the same means of accomplishing it. All the commercial transactions
of the ancients with the East, were confined to the ports on the Malabar
coast, or extended, at furthest, to the island of Ceylon. To these staples
the natives of all the different regions in the eastern parts of Asia brought
the commodities which were the growth of their several countries, or the
product of their ingenuity, in their own vessels, and with them the ships from
Tyre and from Egypt, completed their investments. While the operations
of their Indian trade were carried on within a sphere so circumscribed, the
conveyance of a cargo by the Arabian gulf, notwithstanding the expense of
land carriage, either from Elath to Rhinocolura, or across the desert to the
Nile, was so safe and commodious, that the merchants of Tyre and Alexandria had little reason to be solicitous for the discovery of any other. The
situation of both these cities, as well as that of the other considerable commercial states of antiquity, was very different from that of the countries to
which, in later times, mankind have been indebted for keeping up intercourse with the remote parts of the globe. Portugal, Spain, England, Holland, which have been most active and successful in this line of enterprise,
all lie on the Atlantic ocean (in which every European voyage of discovery
must commence), or have immediate access to it. But Tyre was situated
at the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean, Alexandria not far from it;
Rhodes, Athens, Corinth, which came afterwards to be ranked among the
most active trading cities of antiquity, lay considerably advanced towards
tbhesame quarter in that sea. The commerce of all these states was long
confined within the precincts of the Mediterranean, and in some of them
never, extended beyond it. The pillars of Hercules, or the straits of
Gibraltar, were long considered as the utmost boundary of navigation. To
reach this was deemed a signal proof of naval skill; and before any of
these states could give a beginning to an attempt towards exploring the vast
unknown ocean which lay beyond it, they had to accomplish a voyage
(according to their ideas) of great extent and much danger. This was
sufficient to deter them from engaging in an arduous undertaking, from
which, even if attended with success, their situation prevented their entertaining hopes of deriving great advantage [55].
But could we suppose the discovery of a new passage to India-to have
become an object of desire or pursuit to any of these states, their science
as well as practice of navigation was so defective, that it would have been
hardly possible for them to attain it. The vessels which the ancients employed in trade were so small as not to afford stowage for provisions sufficient to subsist a crew during a long voyage. Their construction was such
that they could seldom venture to depart far from land, and their mode of
steering along the coast (which I have been obliged to mention often) so
circuitous and slow, that from these, as well as from other circumstances
which I might have specified,? we may pronounce a voyage from the Mediterranean to India, by the Cape of Good Hope, to have been an undertaking beyond their power to accomplish, in such a manner as to render it
in any degree subservient to commerce. To this decision, the account
preserved by Herodotus, of a voyage performed by some Phoenician ships,
employed by a king of Egypt, which, taking their departure from the
Arabian guli; doubled the southern promontory of Africa, and arrived at
* Goguet Orig. des Loix, des Arts &c. ii. 303. 329.




DIS QU:I S1T ITON  OeN
the end of three years, by the straits of Gades, or Gibraltar, at the mouth
of the Nile, \can hardly be considered as repugnant; for several writers
of the greatest eminence among the ancients, and most distinguished fbr
their proficiency in the knowledge of geography, regarded this account
rather as an amusing tale, than the history of a real transaction; and either
entertained doubts concerning the possibility of sailing round Africa, or
absolutely denied itt r56]. But if what Herodotus relates concerning the
course held by these Phoenician ships had ever been received by the anclents with general assent, we can hardly suppose that any states could
have been so wildly adventurous as- to imagine that: a voyage, which it
required three years to complete, could be undertaken with a prospect of
commercial benefit.
II. The rapid progress of the moderns in exploring India, as-well as the
extensive power and valuable settlements which they early acquired there,
mark such a distinction between their mode of conducting naval operations, and that of the ancients, as merits to be considered and explained
with attention. From  the reign of the first Ptolemy to the conquest of
Egypt by the Mahomedans, Europe had been supplied with the productions of the East by the Greeks of Alexandria, by the Romans while they
were masters of Egypt, and by the subjects of the emperors of Constantinople when that kingdom became a province of their dominions. During
this long period, extending almost to a thousand years, none of those people, the most enlightened undoubtedly in the ancient world, ever advanced
by sea further towards the east than the gulf of Siam, and had no regular
established trade but with the ports on the coast of Malabar, or those in the
island of Ceylon. They attempted no conquests in any part of India, they
made no settlements, they erected no forts. Satisfied with an intercourse
merely commercial, they did not aim at acquiring any degree of power or
dominion in the countries where they: traded, though it seems to be probable that they might have established it without mnuch opposition from the
natives, a gentle, effeminate people, with whom, at that time, no foreign
and more warlike race was mingled. But the enterprising activity of the
Portuguese was not long confined within the same limits; a few years
after their arrival at Calecut, they advanced towards the East, into regions
unknown to the ancients. The kingdoms of Cambodia, Cochin China,
Tonquin, the vast empire of China, and.all the fertile islands in the great
Indian Archipelago, from Sumatra to the Philippines, were discovered;
and the Portuguese, though opposed in every quarter by the Mahomedans
of Tartar or Arabian origin settled in many parts of India, enemies much
more formidable than the natives, established there that extensive influence
and dominion which I have formerly described.
Of this remarkable difference between the progress and operations of
the ancients and moderns in India, the imperfect knowledge of the former,
with respect both to the theory and practice of navigation, seems to have
been the principal cause. From the coast of Malabar to the Philippines,
was a voyage of an extent far beyond any that the ancients were accustomed to undertake, and, according to their manner of sailing, must have
required a great length of time to perform it. The nature of their trade
with India was such that they had not (as has been formerly observed) the
same inducements with the moderns, to prosecute discovery with. ardour;
and, according to the description given of the vessels in which the merchants of Alexandria carried on their trade from the Arabian gulf, they appear to have been very unfit for that purpose. On all these accounts, the
ancients remained satisfied with a slender knowledge of India; and influenced by reasons proceeding from the same cause, they attempted neither
* Lib. iv. c. 42.  t Polyb. lib. iii. p. 193, edit. Casaub.  Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. ii. c. 6.  Ptoi
Geogr. lib. iv. c. 9.




ANCIENT INDIA.                             65
conquest noi settlement there. In order to accomplish either of these.
they must have transported a considerable number of men into India.
But from -the defective structure of their ships, as well as frotn the imperfection of their art in navigating them, the ancients seldom ventured to
convey a body of troops to any distance by sea. From Berenice to Musiris was to them, even after Hippalus had discovered the method of steering a direct course, and when their naval skill had attained to its highest
state of improvement, a voyage of no less than seventy days. By the ancient route along the coast of Persia, a voyage from  the Arabian gulf to
any part of India must have been of greater length, and accomplished more
slowly. As no hostile attack was ever made upon India by sea, either by
the Greek monarchs of Egypt, though the two first of them were able and
ambitious princes, or by the most enterprising of the Roman emperors, it
is evident that they must have deemed it an attempt beyond their power
to execute. Alexander the Great, and, in imitation of him, his successors
the monarchs of Syria, were the only persons in the ancient world who
formed an idea of establishing their dominion in any part of India; but It
was with armies led thither by land that they hoped to achieve this.
III. The sudden effect of opening a direct communication with the
East, in lowering the price of Indian commodities, is a circumstance that
merits observation. How compendious soever the ancient intercourse with
India may appear to have been, it was attended with considerable expense.
The productions of the remote parts of Asia, brought to Ceylon, or to the,
ports on the Malabar coast, by the natives, were put on board the ships
which arrived from the Arabian gulf. At Berenice they were landed, and
carried by camels two hundred and fifty-eight miles to the banks of the
Nile. There they were again embarked, and conveyed down the river
to Alexandria, whence they were despatched to different markets. The
addition to the price of goods by such a multiplicity of operations must
have been considerable, especially when the rate chargeable on each operation was fixed by monopolists, subject to no control. But after the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope was discovered, its various corn
modities were purchased at first hand in the countries of which they were
the growth or manufacture. In all these, particularly in Indostan and
in China, the subsistence of' man is more abundant than in any other part
of the earth. The people live chiefly upon rice, the most prolific of all
grains; population, of consequence, is so great, and labour so extremely
cheap, that every production of nature or of art is sold at a very low price.
When these were shipped in different parts of India, they were conveyed
directly to Lisbon, by a navigation, long indeed, but uninterrupted and
safe, and thence circulated through Europe. The carriage of mercantile
goods by water is so much less expensive than by any other mode of conveyance, that as soon as the Portuguese could import the productions of
India in sufficient quantities to supply the demands of Europe, they were
able to afford them at such a reduced price, that the competition of the.
Venetians ceased almost entirely, and the full stream of commerce flowed.
in its natural direction towards the cheapest market. In what proportion,
the Portuguese lowered the price of Indian commodities, I cannot ascertain with precision, as I have not found in contemporary writers sufficient
information with respect to that point. Some idea, however, of this, approaching perhaps near to accuracy, may be formed from the computations
of Mr. Munn, an intelligent English merchant. He has published a table
of the prices paid for various articles of goods in India, compared with
the prices for which they were sold in Aleppo, from which the difference
appears to be nearly as three to one; and he calculates that,, after a reasonable allowance for the expense of the voyage from India, the same goods
may be sold in England at half the price which they bear in Aleppo.
The expense of conveying the productions of India up the Persian gulf
VOL. III. —-I




66                   DISQUISITION ON
to BassoIa, and thence either through the Great or Little Desert to Aleppo,
could not, I should imagine, differ considerably from that by the Red sea
to Alexandria. We may therefore suppose, that the Venetians might purchase them from the merchants of that city, at nearly the same rate for
which they were sold in Aleppo; and when we add to this what they
must have charged as their own profit in all the markets which they frequented, it is evident that the Portuguese might afford to reduce the commodities of the East at a price below that which has been mentioned, and
might supply every part of Europe with them more than one half cheaper
than formerly. The enterprising schemes of the Portuguese monarchs
were accomplished sooner, as well as more completely, than in the hour
of most sanguine hope they could have presumed to expect; arid early in
the sixteenth century their subjects became possessed of a monopoly of
the trade with India, founded upon the only equitable title, that of furnishing its productions in greater abundance, and at a more moderate price.
IV. We may observe, that in consequence of a more ple-ixlful supply of
Indian goods, and at a cheaper rate, the demand for them increased rapidly
in every part of Europe. To trace the progress of this in detail would
lead me far beyond the period which I have fixed as the limit of this Dis-,quisition; but some general remarks concerning it will be found intimately
connected with the subject of my inquiries. The chief articles of importation from India, while the Romans had the direction of the trade with
-that country, have been formerly specified. But upon the subversion of
Their empire, and the settlement of the fierce warriors of Scythia and'Germany in the various countries of Europe, the state of society, as well:as the condition of individuals, became so extremely different, that the
wvants and desires of men were no longer the same. Barbarians, many of
ithem not far advanced in their progress beyond the rudest state of social
life, had little relish for those accommodations and that elegance, which
are so alluring to polished nations. The curious manufactures of silk, the
precious stones and pearls of the East, which had been the ornament and
pride of the wealthy and luxurious citizens of Rome, were not objects of,desire to men who, for a considerable time after they took possession of
their new conquests, retained the original simplicity of' their pastoral man-.ners. They advanced, however, from rudeness to refinement, in the usual
course of progression which nations are destined to hold; and an increase
of wants and desires requiring new objects to gratify them, they began to
acquire a relish for some of the luxuries of India. Among these, they had
a singular predilection for the spiceries and aromatics which that country
yields in such variety and abundance. Whence their peculiar fondness f'or
these arose, it is not of importance to inquire. Whoever consults the writers
of the middle ages, will find many particulars which confirm this observa
tion. In every enumeration of Indian commodities which they give, spices
are always mentioned as the most considerable and precious article.?  In
their cookery all dishes were highly seasoned with them. In every entertainment of parade, a profusion of them was deemed essential to magnificence. In every medical prescription they were principal ingredients.t
But considerable as the demand for spices had become, the mode in which
the nations of Europe had hitherto been supplied with them was extremely
disadvantageous. The ships employed by the merchants of Alexandria.never ventured to visit those remote regions which produce the most valuable spices, and before they could be circulated through Europe, they were
loaded with the accumulated profits received by four or five different hands
through which they had passed. But the Portuguese, with a bolder spirit
of navigation, having penetrated into every part of Asia, took in their cargo
* Jac. de Vitriac. Hist. Hieros. ap. Bongars. i. p. 1099. Wilh. Tyr. lib. xii. c. 23.
t Du Cange Glossar. verb..8romnata, Species. Henry's Hist. of G. Brit, vol iv. p. 597 5b98.




ANCIENT INDIA.                              67
of spices in the places where they grew, and could afford to dispose of
them at such a price that, from being an expensive luxury, they became
an article of such general use as greatly augmented the demand for them.
An effect similar to this may be observed with respect to the demand for
other commodities imported from India, upon the reduction of their price
by the Portuguese. From that period a growing taste for Asiatic luxuries
may be traced in every country of Europe, and the number of ships fitted
out for that trade at Lisbon continued to increase every year [57].
IV. Lucrative as the trade with India was, and had long been deemed,
it is remarkable that the Portuguese were suffered to remain in the undisturbed and exclusive possession of it during the course of almost a century.
In tone ancient world, though Alexandria, from the peculiar felicity of its
situation, could carry on an intercourse with the East by sea, and circulate
its productions through Europe with such advantage as gave it a decided
superiority over every rival; yet various attempts (which have been
described in their proper places) were made from time to time to obtain
some share in a commerce so apparently beneficial. From the growing
activity of the commercial spirit in the sixteenth century, as well as from
the example of the eager solicitude with which the Venetians and Genoese
exerted themselves alternately to shut out each other from any share in the
Indian trade, it might have been expected that some competitor would have
arisen to call in question the claim of the Portuguese to an exclusive right
of traffic with the East, and to wrest from thern some portion of it. There
were, however, at that time, some peculiar circumstances in the political
state of all those nations in Europe, whose intrusion as rivals the Portuguese
had any reason to dread, which secured to them the quiet enjoyment of
their monopoly of Indian commerce during such a long period. From
the accession of Charles V. to the throne, Spain was either so much occupied in a multiplicity of operations in which it was engaged by the ambition
of that monarch, and of his son Philip II., or so intent on prosecuting its
own discoveries and conquests in the New World [A. D. 1521], that
although, by the successful enterprise of Magellan, its fleets were unexpectedly conducted by a new course to that remote region of Asia which
was the seat of the most gainful and alluring branch of trade carried on by
the Portuguese, it could make no considerable effort to avail itself of the
commercial advantages which it might have derived from that event. By
the acquisition of the crown of Portugal, in the year one thousand five
hundred and eighty, the kings of Spain, instead of the rivals, became the
protectors of the Portuguese trade, and the guardians of all its exclusive
rights. Throughout the sixteenth century, the strength and resources of
France were so much wasted by the fruitless expeditions of their monarchs
into Italy, by their unequal contest with the powver and policy of Charles
V., and by the calamities of the civil wars which desolated the kingdom
upwards of forty years, that it could neither bestow much attention upon
ohjects of commerce, nor engage in any scheme of distant enterprise. The
Venetians, how sensibly soever they might feel the mortifying reverse of
being excluded almost entirely from the Indian trade, of which their capital
had been formerly the chief seat, were so debilitated and humbled by the
league of Cambray, that they were no longer capable of engaging in any
undertaking of magnitude. England, weakened (as was formerly observed)
by the long contest between the houses of York and Lancaster, and just
beginning to recover its proper vigour, was restrained from active exertion,
during one part of the sixteenth century, by the cautious maxims of Henry
VII., and wasted its strength, during another part of it, by engaging inconsiderately in the wars between the princes on the continent. The nation,
though destined to acquire territories in India more extensive and valuable
than were ever possessed by any European power, had no such presenfiment of its future eminence there, as to take an early part in the commerce




s68                ]DISQUISITION  ON
or transactions of that country, and a great part of the century elapsed
before it began to turn its attention towards the East.
While the most considerable nations in Europe found it necessary, from
the circumstances which I have mentioned, to remain inactive spectators
of what passed in the East, the seven united plovinces of the Low-Countries, recently formed into a small state, still struggling for political exist
ence, and yet in the infancy of its power, ventured to appear in the Indian
ocean as the rivals of the Portuguese; and, despising their pretensions to
an exclusive right of commerce with the extensive countries to the eastward
of the Cape of Good Hope, invaded that monopoly which they had hitherto
guarded with such jealous attention. The English soon followed the example of the Dutch, and both nations, at first by the enterprising industry of
private adventurers, and afterwards by the more powerful efforts of trading
companies, under the protection of public authority, advanced with astonlshing ardour and success in this new career opened to them. The vast
fabric of power which the Portuguese had erected in the East (a superstructure much too large for the basis on which it had to rest) was almost
entirely overturned, in as short time, and with as much facility, as it had
been raised. England and Holland, by driving them from their most valu
able settlements, and seizing the most lucrative branches of their trade,
have attained to that pre-eminence in naval power and commercial opulence
by which they are distinguished among the nations of Europe.
VI. The coincidence, in point of time, of the discoveries made by
Columbus in the West, and those of Gama in the East, is a singular circumstance, which merits observation, on account of the remarkable influence
of those events in forming or strengthening the commercial connexion of
the different quarters of the globe with each other. In all ages, gold and
silver, particularly the latter, have been the commodities exported with the
greatest profit to India. In no part of the earth do the natives depend so
little upon foreign countries, either for the necessaries or luxuries of life.
The blessings of a favourable climate and fertile soil, augmented by their
own ingenuity, afford them whatever they desire. In consequence of this,
trade with them has always been carried on in one uniform manner, and
the precious metals have been given in exchange for their peculiar productions, whether of nature or art. But when the communication with India
was rendered so much more easy, that the demand for its commodities'began to increase far beyond what had been formerly known; if Europe
had not been supplied with the gold and silver which it was necessary to
carry to the markets of the East from sources richer and more abundant
than her own barren and impoverished mines, she must either have abandoned the trade with India altogether, or have continued it with manifest
disadvantage. By such a continual drain of gold and silver, as well as by
the unavoidable waste of both in circulation aItd in manufactures, the quantity of those metals must have gone on diminishing, and their value would
have been so much enhanced, that they could not have continued long to
be of the same utility in the commercial transactions between the two
countries. But before the effects of this dinlinultion could be very sensibly
felt, America opened her mines, and poured in treasures upon Europe in
the most copious stream to which mankind ever had access. This treasure,
in spite of innumerable anxious precautions to prevent it, flowed to the
markets where the commodities necessary for supplying the wants, or gratlfying the luxury of the Spaniards were to l e found; and from that time
o the present the English and Dutch have v urchased the productions of
China and Indostan with silver brought from tne mines of Mexico and Peru.
The immense exportation of silver to the East, during the course of two
centuries, has not only been replaced by the continual influx from America,
hut the quantity of it has been considerably augmented, and at the same
time the proportional rate of its value in Europe and in India has varied




ANCIENT INDIA.                             69
so little, that it is chiefly with silver that many of the capital articles imported from the East are still purchased.
While America contributed in this manner to facilitate and extend the
intercourse of Europe with Asia, it gave rise to a traffic with Africa, which,
from slender beginnings, has become so considerable as to form the chief
bond of commercial connexion with that continent. Soon after the Portuguese had extended their discoveries on the coast of Africa beyond the
river Senegal, they endeavoured to derive some benefit from their new
settlements there, by the sale of slaves. Various circumstances combined
in favouring the revival of this odious traffic. In every part of America of
which the Spaniards took possession, they found that the natives, from the
feebleness of their frame, from their indolence, or from the injudicious
manner of treating them, were incapable of the exertions requisite either
for working mines or for cultivating the earth. Eager to find hands more
industrious and efficient, the Spaniards had recourse to their neighbours the
Portuguese, and purchased from them Negro slaves. Experience soon
discovered that they were men of a more hardy race, and so much better
fitted for enduring fatigue, that the labour of one negro was computed
to be equal to that of four Americans;* and from that time the number
employed in the New World has gone on increasing with rapid progress.
In this practice, no less repugnant to the feelings of humanity than to the
principles of religion, the Spaniards have unhappily been imitated by all
the nations of Europe, who have acquired territories in the warmer climates of the New World. At present the number of negro slaves in the
settlements of Great Britain and France in the West Indies, exceeds a
million; and as the establishment of servitude has been found, both in
ancient and in modern times, extremely unfavourable to population, it
requires an annual importation from Africa of at least fifty-eight thousand
to keep up the stock.t If it were possible to ascertain, with equal exactness, the number of slaves in the Spanish dominions, and in North America, the total number of negro slaves might be well reckoned at as many
more.
Thus the commercial genius of Europe, which has given it a visible
ascendant over the three other divisions of the earth, by discerning their
respective wants and resources, and by rendering them reciprocally subservient to one another, has established a union among them, from which
it has derived an immense increase of opulence, of power, and of
enjoyments.
VI1. Though the discovery of a New World in the West, and the opening of a more easy and direct communication with the remote regions of
the East, co-operated towards extending the commerce, and adding to the
enjoyments of Europe, a remarkable difference may be observed with
respect both to the time and the manner in which they produced these
effects. When the Portuguese first visited the different countries of Asia,
stretching from the coast of Malabar to China, they found them possessed
by nations highly civilized, which had made considerable progress in elegant as well as useful arts, which Awere accustomed to intercourse with
strangers, and well acquainted with all the advantages of commerce. But
when the Spaniards began to explore the New World which they discovered, the aspect which it presented to them was very different. The
islands were inhabited by naked savages, so unacquainted with the simplest and most necessary arts of life, that they subsisted chiefly on the
spontaneous productions of a fertile soil and genial climate. The continent appeared to be a forest of immense extent, along the coast of which
were scattered some feeble tribes, not greatly superior to the islanders in
industry or improvement. Even its two large monarchies, which have
* History of America.    t Report of Lords of the Privy Council, A. D. 1788.




TO                  DISQUISITION ON
been dignified with the appellation of civilized states, had not advanced so
far beyond their countrymen as to be entitled to that name. The inhabitants, both of Mexico and Peru, unacquainted with the useful metals, and
destitute of the address requisite for acquiring such command of the inferior animals as to derive any considerable aid from their labour, had made
so little progress in agriculture, the first of all arts, that one of the greatest
difficulties with which the small number of Spaniards, who overturned
those highly extolled empires, had to struggle, was how to procure in them
what was sufficient for their subsistence.
It was, of consequence, with a very different spirit that the intercourse
with two countries resembling each other so little in their degree of
improvement was begun and carried on. The Portuguese, certain of finding in the East not only the productions with which the bountiful hand of
Nature has enriched that part of the globe, but various manufactures which
had long been known and admired in Europe, engaged in this alluring
trade with the greatest eagerness.  The encouragement of it their
monarchs considered as a chief object of government, towards which they
directed all the power of the kingdom, and roused their subjects to such
vigorous exertions in the prosecution of it, as occasioned that astonishing
rapidity of progress which I have described. The sanguine hopes with
which the Spaniards entered upon their career of discovery, met not with
the same speedy gratification. From the industry of the rude inhabitants
of the New World, they did not receive a single article of commerce.
Even the natural productions of the soil and climate, when not cherished
and multiplied by the fostering and active hand of man, were of little
account. Hope rather than success incited them to persist in extending
their researches and conquests; and as government derived little immediate benefit from these, it left the prosecution of them chiefly to private
adventurers, by whose enterprising activity, more than by any effort of the
state, the most valuable possessions of Spain in America were acquired.
Instead of the instantaneous and great advantages which the Portuguese
derived from their discoveries, above half a century elapsed before the
Spaniards reaped any benefit of consequence from their conquests, except
the small quantities of gold which the islanders were compelled to collect,
and the plunder of' the gold and silver employed by the Mexicans and
Peruvians as ornaments of their persons and temples, or as utensils of
sacred or domestic use. It was not until the discovery of the mines of
Potosi in Peru, in the year one thousand five hundred and forty-five, and
of those of Sacotecas in Mexico soon after, that the Spanish territories in
the New World brought a permanent and valuable addition of wealth and
revenue to the mother country.
Nor did the trade with India differ more firom that with America, in
respect of the particular circumstances which I have explained, than in
respect to the manner of carrying it on after it grew to be a considerable
object of political attention. Trade with the East was a simple mercantile transaction, confined to the purchase either of the natural productions
of the country, such as spices, precious stones, pearls, &c. or of the manufactures which abounded among an industrious race of men, such as silk
and cotton stuffs, porcelain, &c. Nothing more was requisite, in conducting this trade, than to settle a few skilful agents in proper places, to prepare a proper assortment of goods for completing the cargoes of ships as
soon as they arrived from Europe, or at the utmost to acquire the cornmand of a few fortified stations, which might secure them admission into
ports where they might careen in safety, and find protection from the
insults of any hostile power. There was no necessity of making any
attempt to establish colonies, either for the cultivation of the soil, or the
conduct of manufactures. Both these remained, as formerly, in the hands
of the natives.




ANCIENT INDIA.                             71
But as soon as' that wild spirit of enterprise which animated the
Spaniards who first explored and subdued the New World, began to subside, and when, instead of roving as adventurers from province to province
in quest of gold and silver, they seriously turned their thoughts towards
rendering their conquests beneficial by cultivation and industry, they
found it necessary to establish colonies in every country which they
wished to improve. Other nations imitated their example in the settlements which they afterwards made in some of the islands, and on the
continent of North America. Europe, after having desolated the New
World, began to repeople it, and under a system of colonization (the spirit and regulations of which it is not the object of this Disquisition to
explain) the European race has multiplied there amazingly. Every article of commerce imported from the New World, if we except the furs
and skins purchased from the independent tribes of hunters in North America, and from a few tribes in a similar state on the southern continent, is the
produce of the industry of Europeans settled there. To their exertions,
or to those of hands which they have taught or compelled to labour, we
are indebted for sugar, rum, cotton, tobacco, indigo, rice, and even the
gold and silver extracted from the bowels of the earth. Intent on those
lucrative branches of industry, the inhabitants of the New World pay little
attention to those kinds of labour which occupy a considerable part of the
members of other societies, and depend in some measure for their subsistence, and entirely for every article of elegance and luxury, upon the
ancient continent. Thus the Europeans have become manufacturers for
America, and their industry has been greatly augmented by the vast
demands for supplying the wants of extensive countries, the population of
which is continually increasing. Nor is the influence of this demand confined solely to the nations which have a more immediate connexion with
the American colonies; it is felt in every part of Europe that furnishes any
article exported to them, and gives activity and vigour to the hand of the
artisan in the inland provinces of Germany, as well as to those in Great
Britain and other countries which carry on a direct trade with the New
World.
But while the discovery and conquest of America is allowed to be one
principal cause of that rapid increase of industry and wealth, which is
conspicuous in Europe during the two last centuries, some timid theorists
have maintained, that throughout the same period Europe has been
gradually impoverished, by being drained of its treasure in order to carry
on its trade with India. But this apprehension has arisen from inattention
to the nature and use of the precious metals. They are to be considered
in two different lights; either as the signs which all civilized nations have
agreed to employ, in order to estimate or represent the value both of labour
and of all commodities, and thus to facilitate the purchase of the former
and the conveyance of the latter from one proprietor to another; or gold
and silver may be viewed as being themselves commodities, or articles of
commerce, for which some equivalent must be given by such as wish to
acquire them. In this light the exportation of the precious metals to the
East should be regarded; for, as the nation by which they are exported
must purchase them with the produce of its own labour and ingenuity,
this trade must contribute, though not in the same obvious and direct
manner as that with America, towards augmenting the general industry
and opulence of Europe. If England, as the price of Mexican and Peru
ilan dollars, which are necessary for carrying on its trade with India, must
give a certain quantily of its woollen or cotton cloth or hardware, then
the hands of an additional number of manufacturers are rendered active,
and work to a certain amount must be executed, for which, without this
trade, there could not have been any demand. The nation reaps all the
benefit arising from a new creation of industry. With the gold and silver




72                   DISQ UISITION ON
which her manufactures have purchased in the West, she is enabled to
trade in the markets of the East, and the exportation of treasure to India,
which has been so much dreaded, instead of impoverishing, enriches the
kingdom.
VIII. It is to the discovery of the passage to India by the Cape of Good
Hope, and to the vigour and success with which the Portuguese prosecuted
their conquests, and established their dominion there, that Europe has been
indebted for its preservation from the most illiberal and humiliating servitude that ever oppressed polished nations. For this observation I am
indebted to an author, whose ingenuity has illustrated, and whose eloquence
has adorned the History of the Settlements and Commerce of Modern
Nations in the East and West Indies;~ and it appears to me so well
founded as to merit more ample investigation. A few years after the first
appearance of the Portuguese in India, the dominion of the Mamelukes
was overturned by the irresistible power of the Turkish arms, and
Egypt and Syria were annexed as provinces to the Ottoman empire. If
after this event the commercial intercourse with India had continued to be
carried on in its ancient channels, the Turkish sultans, by being masters of
Egypt and Syria, must have possessed the absolute command of it, whether
the productions of the East were conveyed by the Red sea to Alexandria,
or were transported by land carriage from the Persian gulf to Constantinople, and the ports of the Mediterranean. The monarchs who were then
at the head of this great empire were neither destitute of abilities to perceive the pre-eminence to which this would have elevated them, nor of
ambition to aspire to it. Selim, the conqueror of the Mamelukes, by confirming the ancient privileges of the Venetians in Egypt and Syria, and
by his regulations concerning the duties on Indian goods, which I have
already mentioned, early discovered his solicitude to secure all the advantages of commerce with the East to his own dominions. The attention
of Solyman the Magnificent, his successor, seems to have been equally
directed towards the same object. More enlightened than any monarch
of the Ottoman race, he attended to all the transactions of the European
states, and had observed the power as well as opulence to which the
republic of Venice had attained by engrossing the commerce with the
East. He now beheld Portugal rising towards the same elevation by the
same means. Eager to imitate and to supplant them, he formed a scheme
suitable to his character for political wisdom and the appellation of Institutor of Rules, by which the Turkish historians have distinguished him,
and established, early in his reign, a system of commercial laws in his
dominions, by which he hoped to render Constantinople the great staple
of Indian trade, as it had been in the prosperous ages of the Greek empire.:]
For accomplishing this scheme, however, he did not rely on the operations
of laws alone; he fitted out about the same time a formidable fleet in the
Red sea [A. D. 1538], tinder the conduct of a confidential officer, with such
a body ot Janizaries on board of it, as he deemed sufficient not only to
drive the Portuzuese out of all their new settlements in India, but to take
possession of some commodious station in that country, and to erect his
standard there. The Portuguese, by efforts of valour and constancy, entitled
to the splendid success with which they were crowned, repulsed this
powerful armament in every enterprise it undertook, and compelled the
shattered remains of the Turkish fleet and army to return with ignominy
to the harbours from which they had taken their departure with the most
sanguine hopes of terminating the expedition in a very different manner.
Solymlan, though he never relinquished the design of expelling the Portuguese from India, and of acquiring some establishment there,'was so occu* M.!'Ahbb Raynal.   t Paruta list. Venet. lib. vii. p. 589. Sandi Stor. Civil. Venez
part ii. p. 901.:    Asia de Barros dec. iv. lib. x. c. 1, &c.




ANCIENT INDIA.                               73
pled, during the remainder of his reign, by the multiplicity of arduous
operations in which an insatiable ambition involved him, that he never had
leisure to resume the prosecution of it with vigour.
If either the measures of Selim had produced the effect which he
expected, or if the more adventurous and extensive plan of Solyman had
been carried into execution, the command of the wealth of India, together
with such a marine as the monopoly of trade with that country has, in
every age, enabled the power which possessed'it to create and maintain,
must have brought an accession of force to an empire already formidable
to mankind, that would have rendered it altogether irresistible.  Europe
at that period was not in a condition to have defended itself against the
combined exertions of such naval and military power, supported by coI1mercial wealth, and under the direction of a monarch whose comprehensive genius was able to derive from each its peculiar advantages, and to
employ all with the greatest effect. Happily for the human race, the
despotic system of Turkish government, founded on such illiberal fanaticism
as has extinguished science in Egypt, in Assyria, and in Greece, its three
favourite mansions in ancient times, was prevented from extending its
dominion over Europe, and from suppressing liberty, learning, and taste
when beginning to make such successful efforts to revive there, and agai ~:
to bless, to enlighten, and to polish mankind.
VOL. II1.-K




APPENDIX.
I SHALL now-endeavour to fulfil an engagement which I came underg, to
make some observations upon the genius, the manners, and institutions of the
people of India, as far as they can be traced from the earliest ages to which our
knowledge of them extends. Were I to enter upon this wide field with an intention of surveying its whole extent; were I to view each object which it presents
to a philosophical inquirer, under all its different aspects, it would lead me into
researches and speculations not only of immense length, but altogether foreign
from the subject of this Disquisition. My inquiries and reflections shall therefore be confined to what is intimately connected with the design of this work.
I shall collect the facts which the ancients have transmitted to us concerning
the institutions peculiar to the natives of India, and, by comparing them with
what we now know of that country, endeavour to deduce such conclusions as
tend to point out the circumstances which have induced the rest of mankind in
every age, to carry on commercial intercourse to so great an extent with that
country.
Of this intercourse there are conspicuous proofs in the earliest periods con
cerning which history affords information. Not only the people contiguous to
India, but remote nations, seem to have been acquainted, from time immemorial,
with its commodities, and to have valued them so highly, that in order to procure them they undertook fatiguing, expensive, and dangerous journeys. Whenever men give a decided preference to the commodities of any particular country, this must be owing either to its possessing some valuable natural productions peculiar to its soil and climate, or to some superior progress which its
inhabitants have made in industry, art, and elegance. It is not to any peculiar
excellence in the natural productions of India that we must ascribe entirely the
predilection of ancient nations for its commodities; for, pepper excepted, an article, it must be allowed, of great importance, they are little different from those
of other tropical countries; and Ethiopia or Arabia might have fully supplied
the Phcenicians, and other trading people of antiquity with the spices, the perfumes, the precious stones, the gold and silver, which formed the principal articles of their commerce.
Whoever then wishes to trace the commerce with India to its source, must
search for it, not so much in any peculiarity of the natural productions of that
country, as in the superior improvement of its inhabitants. Many facts have
been transmitted to us, which, if they are examined with proper attention, clearly
demonstrate, that the natives of India were not only more early civilized, but
had made greater progress in civilization than any other people. These I shall
endeavour to enumerate, and to place them in such a point of view as may serve
both to throw light upon the institutions, manners, and arts of the Indians, and
to account for the eagerness of all nations to obtain the productions of their
ingenious industry.
By the ancient Heathen writers, the Indians were reckoned among those races
of men which they denominated Autochthones or Atborigines, whom they considered as natives of the soil, whose origin could not be traced.t By the inspired
writers, the wisdom of the East (an expression which is to be understood as a
description of their extraordinary progress in science and arts) was early celebrated.4 In order to illustrate and confirm these explicit testimonies concerning
the ancient and high civilization of the inhabitants of India, I shall take a view
of their rank and condition as individuals; of their civil policy; of their laws and
* See page 13.    t Diod. Sic. lib. if. p. 151.: 1 Kings iv. 31.




A PPEN DIX.                                75
judicial proceedings; of their useful and elegant arts; of mteir sciences; and of
their religious institutions; as far as information can be gathered from the
accounts of the Greek and Roman writers, compared with what still remains of
their ancient acquirements and institutions.
1. From the most ancient accounts of India we learn, that the distinction of
ranks and separation of professions were completely established there. This is
one of the most undoubted proofs of a society considerably advanced in its progress. Arts in the early stages of social life are so few, and so simple, that each
man is sufficiently master of them all, to gratify every demand of his own
limited desires. A savage can form his bow, point his arrows, rear his hut, and
hollow his canoe, without calling in the aid of any hand more skilful than his
own.*  But when time has augmented the wants of men, the productions of art
become so complicated in their structure, or so curious in their fabric, that a particular course of education is requisite towards fbrming the artist to ingenuity
in contrivance and expertness in execution. In proportion as refinement spreads,
the distinction of professions increases, and they branch out into more numerous
and minute subdivisions. Prior to the records of authentic history, and even
before the most remote era to which their own traditions pretend to reach, this
separation of professions had not only taken place among the natives of India,
but the perpetuity of it was secured by an institution which must be considered
as the fundamental article in the system of their policy. The whole body of
the people was divided into four orders or casts. The members of, the first,
deemed the most sacred, had it for their province to study the principles of religion; to perform its functions; and to cultivate the sciences.  They were the
priests, the instructers, and philosophers of the nation. The members of the
second order were intrusted with the government and defence of the state. In
peace they were its rulers and magistrates; in war they were the generals who
commanded its armies and the soldiers who fought its battles. The third wa's
composed of husbandmen and merchants; and the fourth of artisans, labourers,
and servants. None of these can ever quit his own cast, or be admitted into
another.t The station of every individual is unalterably fixed; his destiny is
irrevocable; and the walk. of life is marked out, from which he must never
deviate. This line of separation is not only established by civil authority, but
confirmed and sanctioned by religion, and each order or cast is said to have proceeded from the Divinity in such a different manner, that to mingle and confound
them would be deemed an act of most daring impiety [58]. Nor is it between
the four different tribes alone that such insuperable barriers are fixed; the
members of each cast adhere invariably to the professions of their forefathers.
From generation to generation, the same families have followed, and will always
continue to follow, one uniform line of life.
Such arbitrary arrangements of the various members which compose a community, seem, at first view, to be adverse to improvement either in science
or in arts; and by forming around the different orders of men artificial barriers,
which it would be impious to pass, tend to circumscribe the operations of the
human mind within a narrower sphere than nature has allotted to them. When
every man is at full liberty to direct his efforts towards those objects and that
end which the impulse of his own mind prompts him to prefer, he may be
expected to attain that high degree of eminence to which the uncontrolled exertions of genius and industry naturally conduct. The regulations of Indian
policy, with respect to the different orders of men, must necessarily, at some
times, check genius in its career, and confine to the functions of an inferior cast
talents fitted to shine in a higher sphere. But the arrangements of civil government are made, not for what is extraordinary, but for what is common; not for
the few, but for the many. The object of the first Indian legislators was to
employ the most effectual means of providing for the subsistence, the security,
and happiness of all the members of the community over which they presided.
With this view they set apart certain races of men for each of the various pro
fessions and arts necessary in a well ordered society, and appointed the exercise
of them to be transmitted from father to son in succession. This system, though
extremely repugnant to the ideas which we, by being placed in a very different
* History of America.    t Ayeen Akbery, iii. 81, &c. Sketches relating to the History, &e.
of the Hindoos, p. 107, &o.




"E6                       %APPENDIX.
state of society, have formed, will be found, upoD attentive inspection, better
adapted to attain the end in view, than a careless observer at first sight is apt to
imagine. The human mind bends to the law of necessity, and is accustomed
not only to accommodate itself to the restraints which the condition of its nature
~r the institutions of its country impose, but to acquiesce in them. From his
entrance into life an Indian knows the station allotted to him, and the functions
to which he is destined by his birth. The objects which relate to these are the
first that present themselves to his view. They occupy his thoughts, or employ
his hands; and from his earliest years, he is trained to the habit of doing with
ease and pleasure that which he must continue through life to do. To this may
be ascribed that high degree of perfection conspicuous in many of the Indian
manufactures; and though veneration for the practices of their ancestors may
check the spirit of invention, yet, by adhering to these, they acquire such an
expertness and delicacy of hand, that Europeans, with all the advantages of
superior science, and the aid of more complete instruments, have never been able
to equal the equisite execution of their workmanship. While this high improvement of their more curious manufactures excited the admiration and attracted
the commerce of other nations, the separation of professions in India, and the
early distribution of the people into classes, attached to particular kinds of
labour, secured such abundance of the more common and useful commodities,
as not only supplied their own wants, but ministered to those of the countries
around them.
To this early division of the people into casts we must likewise ascribe a striking peculiarity in the state of India; the permanence of its institutions, and the
immutability in the manners of its inhabitants. What now is in India always
was there, and is likely still to continue: neither the ferocious violence and illioeral fanaticism of its Mahomedan conquerors, nor the power of its European
masters, have effected any considerable alteration [59]. The same distinctions
of condition take place, the same arrangements in civil and domestic society
remain, the same maxims of religion are held in veneration, and the same
sicences and arts are cultivated. Hence in all ages the trade with India has been
the same; gold and silver have uniformly been carried thither in order to purchase the same commodities with which it now supplies all nations; and from!he age of Pliny to the present times it has been always considered and execrated
as a gulf which swallows up the wealth of every other country that flows incessantly towards it, and from which it never returns [60]. According to the
accounts which I have given of the cargoes anciently imported from India,
they appear to have consisted of nearly the same articles with those of the
investments in our own times; and whatever difference we may observe in them
seems to have arisen, not so much from any diversity in the nature of the commodities which the Indians prepared for sale, as from a variety in the tastes or
in the wants of the nations which demanded them.
II. Another proof of the early and high civilization of the people of India
may be deduced from considering their political constitution and form of government. The Indians trace back the history of their own country through an
immense succession of ages, and assert that all Asia, from the mouth of the
[ndus on the west to the confines of China on the east, and from the mountains
of Thibet on the north to Cape Comorin on the south, formed a vast empire
subject to one mighty sovereign, under whom ruled several hereditary princes
and rajahs. But their chronology, which measures the life of man in ancient
times by thousands of years, and computes the length of the several periods,
during which it supposes the world to have existed, by millions, is so wildly
extravagant as not to merit any serious discussion. We must rest satisfied,
then, until some more certain information is obtained with respect to the ancient
history of India, with taking the first accounts of that country, which can be
deemed authentic, from the Greeks who served under Alexander the Great.
They found kingdoms of considerable magnitude established in that country.
The territories of Porus and of Taxiles comprehended a great part of the Panjab,
one of the most fertile and best cultivated countries in India. The kingdom of
the Prasij, or Gandarida, stretched to a great extent on both sides of the Ganges.
All the three, as appears from the ancient Greek writers, were powerful and
populous.




APPENDIX.                                   77
This description of the partition of India into states of such magnitude, is
alone a convincing proof of its having advanced far in civilization. In whatever region of the earth there has been an opportunity of observing the progress
of men in social life, they appear at first in small independent tribes or communities. Their common wants prompt them to unite; and their mutual
jealousies, as well as the necessity of securing subsistence, compel them to drive
to a distance every rival who might encroach on those domains which they consider as their own. Many ages elapse before they coalesce, or acquire sufficient
foresight to provide for the wants, or sufficient wisdom to conduct the affairs, of
a numerous society. Even under the genial climate and in the rich soil of India,
more favourable perhaps to the union and increase of the human species than
any other part of the globe; the formation of such extensive states as were
established in that country when first visited by Europeans, must have been a
work of long time; and the members of them must have been long accustomed
to exertions of useful industry.
Though monarchical government was established in all the countries of India
to which the knowledge of the ancients extended, the sovereigns were far from
possessing uncontrolled or despotic power. No trace, indeed, is discovered there
of any assembly or public body, the members of which, either in their own right
or as the representatives of their fellow citizens, could interpose in enacting laws,
or in superintending the execution of them. Institutions destined to assert and
guard the rights belonging to men in social state, how familiar soever the idea
may be to the people of Europe, never formed a part of the political constitution
in any great Asiatic kingdom. It was to different principles that the natives of
India were indebted for restrictions which limited the exercise of regal power.
The rank of individuals was unalterably fixed, and the privileges of the different casts were deemed inviolable. The monarchs of India, who were all taken
from the second of the four classes formerly described, which is intrusted with
the functions of government and exercise of war, behold among their subjects an
order of men far superior to themselves in dignity, and so conscious of their own
preeminence, both in rank and in sanctity, that they would deem it degradation
and pollution if they were to eat of the same food with their sovereign.*  Their
persons are sacred, and even for the most heinous crimes they cannot be capitally punished; their blood must never be shed.t To men in this exalted station monarchs must look up with respect, and reverence them as the ministers
of religion and the teachers of wisdom. On important occasions it is the duty
of sovereigns to consult them, and to be directed by their advice. Their admonitions, and even their censures must be received with submissive respec'.
This right of the Brahmins to offer their opinion with respect to the administration of public affairs was not unknown to the ancients;4 and in some accounts
preserved in India of'the events which happened in their own country, princes
are mentioned, who, having violated the privileges of the casts, and disregarded
the remonstrances of the Brahmins, were deposed by their authority, and put
to death.)
While the sacred rights of the Brahmins opposed a barrier against the encroachments of regal power on the one hand, it was circumscribed on the other
by the ideas which those who occupied the highest stations in society entertained of their own dignity and privileges. As none but the members of the
cast next in rank to that which religion has rendered sacred, could be employed
in any function of the state, the sovereigns of the extensive kingdoms anciently
established in India found it necessary to intrust them with the superintendence
of the cities and provinces too remote to be under their own immediate inspection. In these stations they often acquired such wealth and influence, that
offices conferred during pleasure continued hereditarily in their families, and
they came gradually to form an intermediate order between the sovereign anN
his subjects; and, by the vigilant jealousy with which they maintained their
own dignity and privileges, they constrained their rulers to respect them, and
to govern with modlration and equity
Nor were the benefits of these restraints upon the power of the sovereign
* Orme's Dissert, vol I. po.,. Sketches, &c. p. 113.    t Code of Gentoo Laws, ch. xxi.. 10.
p. 275. 283, &c.    I Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1029. C.    ~ Account of the qualities requisite in a
magistrate, prefixed by the Pundits to the Code of Gentoo Laws, p. cii. and cxvi




"78                          APPENDIX
confined wholly to the two superior orders in the state; they extended in some
degree to the third class employed in agriculture. The labours of that numerous and useful body of men are so essential to the preservation and happiness
of society, that the greatest attention was paid to render their condition secure
and comfortable.  According to the ideas which prevailed among the natives
of India (as we are informed by the first Europeans who visited their country),
the sovereign is considered as the sole universal proprietor of all the land in his
dominions, and from him is derived every species of tenure by which his subjects
can hold it. These lands were let out to the farmers who cultivated them, at a
stipulated rent, amounting usually to a fourth part of their annual produce paid
in kind.* In a country where the price of work is extremely low, and, where
the labour of cultivation is very inconsiderable, the earth yielding its productions almost spontaneously, where subsistence is amazingly cheap, where few
clothes are needed, and houses are built and furnished at little expense, this rate
cannot be deemed exorbitant or oppressive. As long as the husbandman continued to pay the established rent, he retained possession of the farm, which
descended, like property, from father to son.
These accounts given by ancient authors of the condition and tenure of the
renters of land in India, agree so perfectly with what now takes place, that it
may be considered almost as a description of the present state of its cultivation.
In every part of India where the native Hindoo Princes retain dominion, the
Ryots, the modern name by which the renters of land are distinguished, hold
their possessions by a lease, which may be considered as perpetual, and at a rate
fixed by ancient surveys and valuations. This arrangement has been so long
established, and accords so well with the ideas of the natives, concerning the
distinctions of casts, and the functions allotted to each, that it has been inviolably maintained in all the provinces subject either to Mahomedans or Euro
peans; and to both it serves as the basis on which their whole system of finance
is founded [61]. In a more remote period, before the original institutions of
India were subverted by foreign invaders, the industry of the husbandman,
on which every member of the community depended for subsistence, was as
secure as the tenure bf which he held his lands was equitable. Even war did
not interrupt his labours or endanger his property. It was not uncommon, we
are informed, that while two hostile armies were fighting a battle in one field,
the peasants were ploughing or reaping in the next field in perfect tranquillity.t
These maxims and regulations of the ancient legislators of India have a near
resemblance to the system of those ingenious speculators on political economy
in modern times, who represent the produce of land as the sole source of wealth
in every country; and who consider the discovery of this principle, according
to which they contend that the government of nations should be conducted, as
one of the greatest efforts of human wisdom. Under a form of government
which paid such attention to all the different orders of which the society is composed, particularly the cultivators of the earth, it is not wonderful that the
ancients should describe the Indians as a most happy race of men; and that
the most intelligent modern observers should celebrate the equity, the humanity,
and mildness of Indian policy. A Hindoo Rajah, as I have been informed by
persons well acquainted with the state of India, resembles more a father presiding in a numerous family of his own children, than a sovereign ruling over
inferiors subject to his dominion. He endeavours to secure their happiness with
vigilant solicitude; they are attached to him with the most tender affection and
inviolable fidelity. We can hardly conceive men to be placed in any state more
favourable to their acquiring all the advantages derived from social union. It
is only when the mind is perfectly at ease, and neither feels nor dreads oppression, that it employs its active powers in forming numerous arrangements of
police, for securing its enjoyments and increasing them. Many arrangements
of this nature the Greeks, though accustomed to their own institutions, the
most perfect at that time in Europe, observed, and admired among the Indians,
and mention them as instances of high civilization and improvement. There
were established among the Indians three distinct classes of officers, one of
which had it in charge to inspect agriculture, and every kind of country work.
*Strabo. lib. xv nr. 1030. A. Diod. Sic. lib. ii. p. 53.  t Strabo, lib. xv. p 1030. A.




APPENDIX.                                 79
They measured the portions of land allotted to each renter. They had the
custody of the Tanks, or public reservoirs of water, without a regular distribution of which, the fields in a torrid climate cannot be rendered fertile. They
marked out the course of the highways, along which, at certain distances, they
erected stones to measure the road and direct travellers [62]. To officers of a
second class was committed the inspection of the police in cities; their functions,
of course, were many and various; some of which only I shall specify. They
appropriated houses for the reception of strangers; they protected them from
injury, provided for their subsistence, and, when seized with any disease, they
appointed physicians to attend them; and, on the event of their death, they not
only buried them with decency, but took charge of their effects, and restored them
to their relations. They kept exact registers of births and of deaths. They
visited the public markets, and examined weights and measures. The third
class of officers superintended the military department; but, as the objects to
which their attention was directed are foreign from the subject of my inquiries,
it is unnecessary to enter into any detail with respect to them.*
As manners and customs in India descend almost without variation from age
to age, many of the peculiar institutions which I have enumerated still subsist
there. There is still the same attention to the construction and preservation of
tanks, and the distribution of their waters. The direction of roads, and placing
stones along them, is still an object of police. Choul/ries, or houses built for
the accommodation of travellers, are frequent in every part of the country, and
are useful as well as noble monuments of Indian munificence and humanity.
It is only among men in the most improved state of society, and under the best
forms of government, that we discover institutions similar to those which I have
described; and many nations have advanced far in their progress, without
establishing arrangements of police equally perfect.
III. In estimating the progress which any nation has made in civilization, the
object that merits the greatest degree of attention, next to its political constitution, is the spirit of the laws and nature of the forms by which its judicial proceedings are regulated. In the early and rude ages of society, the few disputes
with respect to property which arise are terminated by the interposition of the
old men, or by the authority of the chiefs in every small tribe or community;
their decisions are dictated by their own discretion, or founded on plain and
obvious maxims of equity. But as the controversies multiply, cases similar to
such as have been formerly determined must recur, and the awards upon these
grow gradually into precedents, which serve to regulate future judgments.
Thus, long before the nature of property is defined by positive statutes or any
rules prescribed concerning the mode of acquiring or conveying it, there is
gradually formed, in every state, a body of customary or common law, by which
judicial proceedings are directed, and every decision conformable to it is submitted to with reverence, as the result of the accumulated wisdom and ex
perience of ages.
In this state the administration of justice seems to have been in India when
first visited by Europeans. Though the Indians, according to their account, had
no written laws, but determined every controverted point by recollecting what
had been formerly decided;t they assert that justice was dispensed among
them with great accuracy, and that crimes were most severely punished.4  But
in this general observation is contained all the intelligence which the ancients
furnish concerning the nature and forms of judicial proceedings in India. From
the time of Megasthenes, no Greek or Roman of any note appears to have
resided long enough in the country, or to have been so much acquainted with
the customs of the natives, as to be capable of entering into any detail with
respect to a point of so great importance in their policy. Fortunately, the
defects of their information have been amply supplied by the more accurate and
extensive researches of the moderns. During the course of almost three centuries, the number of persons who have resorted from Europe to India has been
great. Many of them who have remained long in the country, and were persons of liberal education and enlarged minds, have lived in such familiar inter.
* Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1034. A, &c. Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. p. 154.  Strabo, Jib. xv. 1035. D.
$ Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. p 154.




80                         APPENDIX.
course with the natives, and acquired so competent a knowledge of their
languages, as enabled them to observe their institutions with attention, and to
describe them with fidelity. Respectable as their authority may be, I shall not,
in what I offer for illustrating the judicial proceedings of the Hindoos, rest upon
it alone, but shall derive my information from sources higher and more pure.
Towards the middle of the sixteenth century, Akber, the sixth in descent from
Tamerlane, mounted the throne of Indostan. He is one of the few sovereigns
entitled to the appellation both of Great and Good, and the only one of Mahomedan race, whose mind appears to have arisen so far above all the illiberal prejudices of that fanatical religion in which he was educated, as to be capable of
forming a plan worthy of a monarch who loved his people, and was solicitous to
render them happy. As, in every province of his extensive dominions, the Hindoos formed the great body of his subjects, he laboured to acquire a perfect
knowledge of their religion, their sciences, their laws, and institutions; in order
that he might conduct every part of his government, particularly the administration of justice, in a manner as much accommodated as possible to their own
ideas [63]. In this generous undertaking he was seconded with zeal by his vizier
Abul Fazel, a minister whose understanding was not less enlightened than that
of his master. By their assiduous researches, and consultation of learned men,*
such information was obtained as enabled Abul Fazel to publish a brief compendium of Hindoo jurisprudence in the Ayeen Aberky,1 which may be considered as the first genuine communication of its principles to persons of a different religion. About two centuries afterwards [A. D. 1773], the illustrious
exainple of Akber was imitated and surpassed by Mr. Hastings, the Governor
General of the British settlements in India. By his authority, and under his
inspection, the most eminent Pundits, or Brahmins learned in the laws of the
provinces over which he presided, were assembled at Calcutta; and in the course
of two years, compiled, from their most ancient and improved authors, sentence
by sentence, without addition or diminution, a full code of Hindoo laws;t which
is undoubtedly the most valuable and authentic elucidation of Indian policy
and manners that has been hitherto communicated to Europe.
According to the Pundits, some of the writers, upon whose authority they
found the decrees which they have inserted in the Code, lived several millions
of years before their time;l and they boast of having a succession of expounders
of their laws from that period to the present. Without entering into any examination of what is so extravagant, we may conclude, that the Hindoos have in
their possession treatises concerning the laws and jurisprudence of their country, of more remote antiquity than are to be found in any other nation. The
truth of this depends not upon their own testimony alone, but it is put beyond
doubt by one circumstance, that all these treatises are written in the Sanskreet
language, which has not been spoken for many ages in any part of Indostan,
and is now understood by none but the most learned Brahmins. That the Hindoos were a people highly civilized at the time when their laws were composed,
is most clearly established by internal evidence contained in the Code itself.
Among nations beginning to emerge from barbarism, the regulations of law are
extremely simple, and applicable only to a few obvious cases of daily occurrence. Men must have been long united in a social state, their transactions
must have been numerous and complex, and judges must have, determined an
immense variety of controversies to which these give rise, before the system of
law becomes so voluminous and comprehensive as to direct the judicial proceedings of a nation far advanced in improvement. In that early age of the Roman
republic, when the laws of the Twelve Tables were promulgated, nothing more
was required than the laconic injunctions which they contain for regulating the
decisions of courts of justice; but in a later period the body of civil law, ample
as its contents are, was found hardly sufficient for that purpose. To the jejune
brevity of the Twelve Tables, the Hindoo Code has no resemblance; but with
respect to the number and variety of points it considers, it will bear a comparison with the celebrated Digest of Justinian, or with the systems of jurisprudence
m nations most highly civilized. Tha articles of which the Ilindoo Code is com* Ayeen Akbery, A. vol. iii. p. 95.   t Ibid. p. 197, &c.   ~ Preface to the Code.   t Ibid.
p xxxviii.




APPENDIX                                  81
posed are arranged in natural and luminous order. They are numerous and
comprehensive, and investigated with that minute attention and discernment
which are natural to a people distinguished for acuteness and subtilty of under.
standing, who have been long accustomed to the accuracy of judicial proceed
ilgs, and acquainted with all the refinements of legal practice.  The decisions
concerning every point (with a few exceptions occasioned by local prejudices
and peculiar customs) are founded upon the great and immutable principles of
justice which the human mind acknowledges and respects, in every age, and in
all parts of the earth. Whoever examines the whole work cannot entertain a
doubt of its containing the jurisprudence of an enlightened and commercial peo..
ple. Whoever looks into any particular title will be surprised with a minuteness of detail and nicety of distinction, which, in many instances, seem to go
beyond the attention of European legislation; and it is remarkable that some
of the regulations which indicate the greatest degree of refinement were established in periods of the most remote antiquity. "' In the first of the sacred law
tracts (as is observed by a person to whom Oriental literature, in all its branches,
has been greatly indebted), which the Hindoos suppose to have been revealed
by Menu, some millions of years ago, there is a curious passage on the legal
interest of money, and the limited rate of it in different cases, with an exception
in regard to adventures at sea; an exception which the sense of mankind
approves, and which commerce absolutely requires, though it was not before
the reign of Charles I. that our English jurisprudence fully admitted it in
respect of maritime contracts."* It is likewise worthy of notice, that th-oughk
the natives of India have been distinguished in every age for the humanity andi
mildness of their disposition, yet such is the solicitude of their lawgivers to preserve the order and tranquillity of society, that the punishments which they
inflict on criminals are (agreeably to an observation of the ancients already
mentioned) extremely rigorous. "; Punishment (according to a striking personification in the Hindoo Code) is the magistrate; punishment is the inspirer of
terror; punishment is the nourisher of the subjects; punishment is the defender
from calamity; punishment is the guardian of those that sleep; punishment,,
with a black aspect and a red eye, terrifies the guilty."+
IV. As the condition of the ancient inhabitants of India, whether we consider
them as individuals or as members of society, appears from the preceding investigation to have been extremely ftavourable to the cultivation of useful and ele-.
gant arts; we are naturally led to inquire whether the progress which they
actually made in them was such as might have been expected from a people in
that situation. In attempting to trace this progress, we have not the benefit of'
guidance equal to that which conducted our researches concerning the former
articles of inquiry. The ancients, from their slender acquaintance with the
interior state of India, have been able to communicate little information with
respect to the arts cultivated there; and though the moderns, during their.ontinued intercourse with India for three centuries, have had access to observe'
them with great attention, it is of late only, that by studying the languages now
and formerly spoken in India, and by consulting and translating their most
eminent authors, they have begun to enter into that path of inquiry which leads:
with certainty to a thorough knowledge of the state of arts cultivated in that
country.
One of the first arts which human ingenuity aimed at improving, beyond what
mere necessity requires, was that of building. In the brief remarks which the
subject of my inquiries leads me to make on the progress of this art in India, f
shall confine my attention wholly to those of highest antiquity. The most
durable monuments of human industry are public buildings. The productions
of art, formed for the common purposes of life, waste and perish in using them,;
but works destined for the benefit of posterity subsist through ages, and it is
according to the manner in which these are executed, that we form a judgment
with respect to the degree of power, skill, and improvement to which the people
by whom they were erected had attained. In every part of India monuments of
high antiquity are found. These are of two kinds: such as were consecrated to
the offices of religion, or fortresses built for the security of the country. In the
* Sir Wm. Jones's Third Discourse, Asiat. Research, p. 428.    t Code, ch. xxi. ~ 8
VOL. III.-L




82                          APPENDIX.
former of these, to which Europeans, whatever their structure may be, give the
general name of Pagodas, we may observe a diversity of style, which both marks
the gradual progress of architecture, and throws light on the general state of
arts and manners in different periods. The most early Pagodas appear to have
been nothing more than excavations in mountainous parts of the country, formed
probably in imitation of the natural caverns to which the first inhabitants of the
earth retired for safety during the night, and where they found shelter from the
inclemency of the seasons. The most celebrated, and, as there is reason to
believe, the most ancient of all these, is the Pagoda in the island Elephanta,
at no great distance from Bombay. tt has been hewn by the hands of man out
of a solid rock, about half way up a high mountain, and formed into a spacious
area nearly one hundred and twenty feet square. In order to support the roof
and the weight of the mountain that lies above it, a number of massy pillars, and
of a form not inelegant, have been cut out of the same rock, at such regular
distances, as on the first entrance presents to the eye of the spectator an appearance both of beauty and of strength. Great part of the inside is covered with
human figures in high relief, of gigantic size as well as singular forms, and distinguished by a variety of symbols representing, it is probable, the attributes of
the deities whom they worshipped, or the actions of the heroes whom they admired.
in the isle of Salsette, still nearer to Bombay, are excavations in a similar style,
hardly inferior in magnificence, and destined for the same religious purposes.
These stupendous works are of such high antiquity, that as the natives cannot,
either from history or tradition, give any information concerning the time in
which they were executed, they universally ascribe the formation of them to
the power of superior beings. From the extent and grandeur of these subterraneous mansions, which intelligent travellers compare to the most celebrated
monuments of human power and art in any part of the earth, it is manifest that:they could not have been formed in that stage of social life where men continue.divided into small tribes, unaccustomed to the efforts of persevering industry.
It is only in states of considerable extent, and among people long habituated to
subordination, and to act with concert, that the idea of such magnificent works
is conceived, or the power of accomplishing them can be found.
That some such powerful state was established in India at the time when the
excavations in the islands of Elephanta and Salsette were formed, is not the
only conclusion to be drawn from a survey of them; and the style in which the
sculptures with which they are adorned is executed, indicates a considerable
improvement in art at that early period. Sculpture is the imitative art in
which man seems to have made the first trial of his own talents. But even in
those countries where it has attained to the highest degree of perfection, its
progress has been extremely slow. Whoever has attended to the history of this
art in Greece, knows how far removed the first rude essay to represent the
human form was from any complete delineation of it.* But the different groups
of figures which still remain entire in the Pagoda of Elephanta, however low
they must rank, if they be compared with the more elegant works of Grecian
or even Etruscan artists, are finished in a style considerably superior to the
hard inexpressive manner of the Egyptians, or to the figure in the celebrated
palace of Persepolis. In this light they have appeared to persons abundantly
qualified to appreciate their merit; and from different drawings, particularly
those of Niebuhr, a traveller equally accurate in observing and faithful in
describing, we must form a favourable opinion of the state of arts in India at
that period.
It is worthy of notice, that although several of the figures in the caverns at
Elephanta be so different from those now exhibited in the Pagodas as objects of
veneration, that some learned Europeans have imagined they represent the rites
of a religion more ancient than that now established in Indostan, yet by the
Hindoos themselves, the caverns are considered as hallowed places of their own
worship, and they still resort thither to perform their devotions, and honour the
figures there in the same manner with those in their own Pagodas. In confirmation of this, I have been informed by an intelligent observer, who visited this
subterraneous sanctuary in the year 1782, that he was accompanied by a saga.
* Winkelman's Hist. de 1'Art chez lee Anciens, tom. i. p. 32, &c.




APPENDIX  83
clous Brahmin, a native of Benares, who, though he had never been in it before
that time, recognised at once all the figures; was well acquainted with the
parentage, education, and life of every deity or human personage there repre
sented, and explained with fluency the meaning of the various symbols by which
the images were distinguished. This may be considered as a clear proof that
the system of mythology now prevalent in Benares, is not different from tha*
delineated in the caverns of Elephanta. Mr. Hunter, who visited Elephanta iiP
the year 1784, seems to consider the figures there as representing deities, who
are still objects of worship among the Hindoos.*  One circumstance serves to
confirm the justness of this opinion. Several of the most conspicuous personages in the groups at Elephanta are decorated with the Zennar, the sacred string
or cord peculiar to the order of Brahmins, an authentic evidence of the distinction of casts having been established in India at the time when these works
were finished.
2. Instead of caverns, the original places of worship, which could be formed
only in particular situations, the devotion of the people soon began to raise
temples in honour of their deities in other parts of India. The structure of these
was at first extremely simple. They were pyramids of large dimension, and
htad no light within but what came from a small door. After having been long
accustomed to perform all the rites of religion in the gloom of caverns, the
Indians were naturally led to consider the solemn darkness of such a mansion
as sacred. Some Pagodas in this first style of building still remain in Indostan.
Drawings of two of these at Deogur, and of a third near Tanjore in the Carnatic, all fabrics of great antiquity, have been published by Mr. Hodges;t and
though they are rude structures, they are of such magnitude as must have
required the power of some considerable state to rear them.
3. In proportion to the progress of the different countries of India in opulence
and refinement, the structure of their temples gradually improved. From plain
buildings they became highly ornamented fabrics, and, both by their extent and
magnificence, are monuments of the power and taste of the people by whom
they were erected. In this highly finished style there are Pagodas of great
antiquity in different parts of Indostan, particularly in the southern provinces,
which were not exposed to the destructive violence of Mahomedan zeal [64].
In order to assist my readers in forming such an idea of these buildings as may
enable them to judge with respect to the early state of arts in India, I shall
briefly describe two, of which we have the most accurate accounts. The entry
to the Pagoda of Chillambrum, near Porto Novo, on the Coromandel coast, held
in high veneration on account of its antiquity, is by a stately gate under a pyramid a hundred and twenty-two feet in height, built with large stones above
forty feet long and more, than five feet square, and all covered with plates of
copper, adorned with an immense variety of figures neatly executed. The
whole structure extends one thousand three hundred and thirty-two feet in one
direction, and nine hundred and thirty-six in another. Some of the ornamental
parts are finished with an elegance entitled to the admiration of the most ingenious artists.4 The Pagoda of Seringham, superior in sanctity to that of Chil,
lambrum. surpasses it as much in grandeur; and fortunately I can convey a
more perfect idea of it by adopting the words of an elegant and accurate historian. This Pagoda is situated about a mile from the western extremity of the
island of Seringham, formed by the division of the great river Caveri into two
channels. " It is composed of seven square enclosures, one within the other, the
walls of which are twenty-five feet high, and four thick. These enclosures are
three hundred and fifty feet distant from one another, and each has four large
gates, with a high tower; which are placed one in the middle of each side of the
enclosure, and opposite to the four cardinal points. The outward wall is near
four miles in circumference, and its gateway to the south is ornamented with
pillars, several of which are single stones thirty-three feet long, and'nearly five in
diameter; and those which form the roof are still larger; in the inmost enclosures are the chapels. About half a mile to the east of Seringham, and nearer
to the Caveri than the Coleroon, is another large Pagoda called Jembikisma;
* Archeologia, vol. vii. p. 286, &c.    t No. VI.'    X MWm. de Littdrat. tom. xxxii. p. 44,
&c. Voy. de M. Sonnerat, tom. i p. 217.




134                         APPAPEND IX.
but this has only one enclosure. The extreme veneration in which Seringhamn
is held, arises from a belief that it contains that identical image of the god Wistchnu, which is used to be worshipped by the god Brahma.  Pilgrims from all
parts of the peninsula come here to obtain absolution, and none come without
an offering of money; and a large part of the revenue of the island is allotted for
the maintenance of the Brahmins who inhabit the Pagoda; and these with their
families formerly composed a multitude of not less than forty thousand souls,
maintained without labour, by the liberality of superstition. Here, as in all the
other great Pagodas of India, the Brahmins live in a subordination which knows
no resistance, and slumber in a voluptuousness which knows no wants.*
The other species of public buildings which I mentioned, were those erected
for the defence of the country. From the immense plains of Indostan, there
arise, in different parts, eminences and rocks formed by nature to be places of
strength. Of these the natives early took possession, and, fortifying them with
works of various kinds, rendered them almost impregnable stations. There
seems to have been, in some distant age, a period of general turbulence and
danger in India, when such retreats were deemed essentially necessary to public
safety; for among the duties of magistrates prescribed by the Pundits, one is,
"that he shall erect a strong fort in the place where he chooses to reside; and
shall build a wall on all the four sides of it, with towers and battlements, and
shall make a full ditch around it."t Of these fortresses several remain, which,
both from the appearance of the buildings, and from the tradition of the natives,
must have been constructed in very remote times. Mr. Hodges has published
views of three of these, one of Chunar Gur, situated upon the river Ganges,
about sixteen miles above the city of Benares;: the second, of Gwallior, about
eighty miles to the south of Agra;l the third of Bidjegur, in the territory of
Benares.ll They are all, particularly Gwallior, works of considerable magnitude and strength. The fortresses in Bengal, however, are not to be compared
with several in the Deccan. Asseergur, Burhampour, and Dowlatabad, are
deemed by the natives to be impregnable;I and I am assured by a good judge,
that Asseergur is indeed a most stupendous work, and so advantageously situated, that it would be extremely difficult to reduce it by force. Adoni, of which
Tippo Sultaun lately rendered himself master, is not inferior to any of them,
either in strength or importance.**
Nor is it only from surveying their public works that we are justified in assert
ing the early proficiency of the Indians in elegant and useful arts; we are led to
form the same conclusion by a view of those productions of their ingenuity
which were the chief articles of their trade with foreign nations. Of these the
labours of the Indian loom and needle have, in every age, been the most celebrated; and fine linen is conjectured, with some probability, to have been called
by the ancients Sindon, from the name of the river Indus or Sindus, near which
it was wrought in the highest perfection.tt The cotton manufactures of India
seem anciently to have been as much admired as they are at present, not only
for their delicate texture, but for the elegance with which some of them are
embroidered, and the beautiful colour of the flowers with which others are
adorned. From the earliest period of European intercourse with India, that
country has been distinguished for the number and excellence of the. substances
for dyeing various colours, with which it abounded.::  The dye of the deer
bluo colour in highest estimation among the Romans, bore the name of Indicum..l  From India, too, the substance used in dyeing a bright red colour seems
to have been imported;jl II [65] and it is well known that both in the cotton and
silk stuffs which we now receive from India, the blue and red are the colours of
most conspicuous lustre and beauty. But however much the ancients may have
admired these productions of Indian art, some circumstances, which I have
already mentioned, rendered their demand for the cotton manufactures of India
far'nferior to that of modern times; and this has occasioned the information
con:erning them which we receive from the Greek and Roman writers to be
* Onme's Hist. of Milit. Transact. of Indostan, p. 178.  t Introd. to Code ofGentoo Laws,
t!ntrod. to Cod e of Gentoo Laws,
pxi.       No. 1. I.  No. oI. II  No. III.  IT Rennell, Mem. p. 133. 139.  ** Histoncal and Political View of the Deccan, p. 13.  tt Sir William Jones's Third Discourse, p 428.
$te Strat. lib. xv. p. 1018. A. 10124. B.    ~ Plin. Nat. Hist. lih. xxxv. c. 6. d 27.    1111 Salma
Mius Exercit. Pliniane in Solin. 18, &c. 810.' Salnasius de Hlomionyimis Hyles Jatrica, c. 1i7




APPEN DIX.
very imperfect. We may conclude, however, from the wonderful resemblance
of the ancient state of India to the modern, that in every period the productions
of their looms were as various as beautiful. The ingenuity of the Indians in
other kinds of workmanship, particularly in metals and in ivory, is mentioned
with praise by ancient authors, but without any particular description of their
nature.* Of these early productions of Indian artists there are now some specimens in Europe,from which it appears that they were acquainted with the method
of et graving upon the hardest stones and gems; and, both in the elegance of
their designs and in neatness of execution, had arrived at a considerable degree
of excellence. An ingenious writer maintains that the art of engraving on gems
w t probably an Indian invention, and certainly was early improved there, and
he supports this opinion by several plausible arguments.t The Indian engraved
gems, of which he has published descriptions, appear to be the workmanship of a
veryremote period, as the legends on them are in the Sanskreet language.:
But it is not alone from the improved state of mechanic arts in India, that we
conclude its inhabitants to have been highly civilized; a proof of this, still more
convincing, may be deduced from the early and extraordinary productions of
their genius in the fine arts. This evidence is rendered more interesting, by
being derived from a source of knowledge, which the laudable curiosity of our
countrymen has opened to the people of Europe within these few years. That
all the science and literature possessed by the Brahmins, were contained in books
written in a language understood by a few only of the most learned among
them, is a fact which has long been known; and all the Europeans settled in
India during three centuries have complained that the Brahmins obstinately
refused to instruct any person in this language. But at length, by address, mild
treatment, and a persuasion that the earnestness with which instruction was
solicited, proceeded not from any intention of turning their religion into derision, but from a desire of acquiring a perfect knowledge of their sciences and
literature, the scruples of the Brahmins have been overcome. Several British
gentlemen are now completely masters of the Sanskreet language. The mysterious veil, formerly deemed impenetrable, is removed; and in the course of
five years the curiosity of the public has been gratified by two publications as
singular as they were unexpected. The one is a translation by Mr. Wilkins, of
an Episode from the JMahabarat, an epic poem in high estimation among the
Ilindoos, composed according to their account by Kreeshna Dwypayen Veias,
the most eminent of all their Brahmins, above three thousand years before the
Christian era. The other is Sacontala, a dramatic poem, written about a century before the birth of Christ, translated by Sir W. Jones. I shall endeavour
to give my readers such a view of the subject and composition of each of these,
as may enable them to estimate, in some measure, the degree of merit which
they possess.
The Mahabarat is a voluminous poem, consisting of upwards of four hunired thousand lines. Mr. Wilkins has translated more than a third of it; but
only a short episode, entitled Baghvat-Geeta, is hitherto published, and from
this specimen we must form an opinion with respect to the whole. The subject of the poem is a famous civil war between two branches of the royal house
of Bhaurat. When the forces on each side were formed in the field, and ready
to decide the contest by the sword, Arjoon, the favourite and pupil of the god
Kreeshna, who accompanied him in this hour of danger, requested of him to
cause his chariot to advance between the two hostile armies. He looked at
both armies, and beheld on either side none but grandsires, uncles, cousins,
tutors, sons, and brothers, near relations or bosom friends; and when he had
gazed for a while, and saw these prepared for the fight, he was seized with extreme
pity and compunction, and uttered his sorrow in the following words:-" Having
beheld, O Kreeshna! my kindred thus waiting anxious for the fight, my members
fail lime, my countenance withereth, the hair standeth an end upon my body,
and all my frame trembleth with horror; even Gandeer, my bow, escapeth from
my hand, and my skin is parched and dried up.-When I have destroyed
my kindred, shall I longer look for happiness?  I wish not for victory,
* Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1044. B. Dionys. Perieges. vers. 1016.  t Raspe's Introd. to Tassie'a
Descript. Catal. of Engraved Gems, &c. p. xii. &c: Ibid. vol. i. p. 74. vol. ii. plate xiii.




86                           APPEN DIX.
Kreeshna; I want not dominion; I want not pleasure; for what is domin.
ion, and the enjoyments of life, or even life itself, when those for whom
dominion, pleasure, and enjoyment were to be coveted, have abandoned life
and fortune, and stand here in the field ready for the battle? Tutors, sons, and
fathers, grandsires, and grandsons, uncles, nephews, cousins, kindred, and
friends! Although they would kill me, I wish not to fight them; no, not even
for the dominion of the three regions of the universe, much less for this little
earth."*  In order to remove his scruples, Kreeshna informs him what was the
duty of a prince of the Chehteree or military cast, when called to act in such
a situation, and incites him to perform it by a variety of moral and philosophical
arguments, the nature of which I shall have occasion to consider particularly
in another part of this dissertation. In this dialogue between Kreeshna and
his pupil, there are several passages which give a high idea of the genius of
the poet. The speech of Arjoon I have quoted, in which he expresses the
anguish of his soul, must have struck every reader as beautiful and pathetic;
and I shall afterwards produce a description of the Supreme Being, and of the
reverence wherewith he should be worshipped, which is sublime. But while
these excite our admiration, and confirm us in the belief of a high degree of
civilization in that country where such a work was produced, we are surprised
at the defect of taste and of art in the manner of introducing this Episode.
Two powerful armies are drawn up in battle-array, eager for the fight; a young
hero and his instructor are described as standing in a chariot of war between
them; that surely was not the moment for teaching him the principles of philosophy, and delivering eighteen lectures of metaphysics and theology.
With regard, however, both to the dramatic and epic poetry of the Hindoos,
we labour under the disadvantage of being obliged to form an opinion from a
single specimen of each, and that of the latter too (as it is only a part of a large
work), an imperfect one. But if, from such scanty materials, we may venture
upon any decision, it must be, that of the two, the drama seems to have been
conducted with the most correct taste. This will appear from the observations
which I now proceed to make upon Sacontala.
It is only to nations considerably advanced in refinement, that the drama is
a favourite entertainment. The Greeks had been for a good time a poli.s ed
people: Alceus and Sappho had composed their odes, and Thales and Anatimander had opened their schools, before tragedy made its first rude essay in
the cart of Thespis; and a good time elapsed before it attained to any considerable degree of excellence. From the drama of Sacontala, then, we must
form an advantageous idea of the state of improvement in that society to whose
taste it was suited. In estimating its merit, however, we must not apply to it
rules of criticism drawn from the literature and taste of nations with which its
author was altogether unacquainted; we must not expect the unities of the
Greek theatre; we must not measure it by our own standard of propriety.
Allowance must be made for local customs and singular manners, arising from
a state of domestic society, an order of civil policy, and a system of religious
opinions, very different from those established in Europe. Sacontala is not a
regular drama, but like some of the plays early exhibited on the Spanish and
English theatres, is a history and dialogue, unfolding events which happened
in different places, and during a series of years.  When viewed in this light,
the fable is in general well arranged, many of the incidents are happily chosen,
and the vicissitudes in the situation of the principal personages are sudden and
unexpected. The unravelling of the piece, however, though some of the circumstances preparatory to it be introduced with skill, is at last brought about
by the intervention of superior beings, which has always a bad effect, and dis.
covers some want of art. But as Sacontala was descended of a celestial nymph,
and under the protection of a holy hermit, this heavenly interposition may
appear less marvellous, and is extremely agreeable to the Oriental taste. In
many places of this drama it is simple and tender, in some pathetic; in others
there is a mixture of comic with what is more- serious. Of each examples
might be given. I shall select a few of the first, both because simplicity and
tenderness are the characteristic beauties of the piece, and because they so
* BaghVat-Geeta, p, 30 31




APPENDIX.                                87
httle resemble the extravagant imagery, and turgid style, conspicuous in almost
all the specimens of Oriental poetry which have hitherto been published.
Sacontala, the heroine of the drama, a princess of high birth, had been educated by a holy hermit in a hallowed grove, and had passed the early part of her
life in rural occupations and pastoral innocence. When she was about to quit
this beloved retreat, and repair to the court of a great monarch, to whom she
had been married, Cana, her foster-father, and her youthful companions, thus
bewailed their own loss, and expressed their wishes for her happiness, in a strain
of sentiment and language perfectly suited to their pastoral character.
"Hear, 0 ye trees of this hallowed forest, hear and proclaim that Sacontala
is going to the palace of her wedded Lord; she who drank not, though thirsty,
before you were watered; she who cropped not, through affection for you, one
of your fresh leaves, though she would have been pleased with such an ornament for her locks; she whose chief delight was in the season when your
branches are spangled with flowers'!"
Chorus of Wood JVymphs. —" May her way be attended with prosperity!
May propitious breezes sprinkle, for her delight, the odoriferous dust of rich
blossoms! May pools of clear water, green with the leaves of the lotos, refresh
her as she walks; and may shady branches be her defence from the scorching
sunbeams!"
Sacontala, just as she was departing from the grove, turns to Cana, 1" Suffer
me, venerable father, to address this Madhavi-creeper, whose red blossoms
inflame the grove."-Cana.  " My child, I know thy affection for it."Sacont. "' O most radiant of shining plants, receive my embraces, and return
them with thy flexible arms! From this day,though removed at a fatal distance,
1 shall for ever be thine.-O beloved father, consider this creeper as myself!'
As she advances, she again addresses Cana: " Father! when yon female antelope, who now moves slowly from the weight of the young ones with which
she is pregnant, shall be delivered of them, send me, I beg, a kind message with
tidings of her safety.-Do not forget." - Cana. " My beloved! I will not
forget it.":-Sacontala [stopping]. " Ah! what is it that clings to the skirts
of my robe and detains me!"    Cana. "It is thy adopted child, the little
fawn, whose mouth, when the sharp points of Cusa grass had wounded it, has
been so often smeared by thee with the healing oil of Ingudi; who has been
so often fed by thee with a handful of Synmaka grains, and now will not leave
the footsteps of his protectress."   Sacont. " Why dost thou weep, tender
fawn, for me who must leave our common dwelling-place?-As thou wast
reared by me when thou hadst lost thy mother, who died soon after thy birth,
so will my foster-father attend thee, when we are separated, with anxious care.
-Return, poor thing, return-we must part."  [She burst into tears].Cana. "Thy tears, my child, ill suit the occasion; we shall all meet again;
be firm; see the direct road before thee, and follow it. When the big tear lurks
beneath thy beautiful eyelashes, let thy resolution check its first efforts to dis
engage itself. In thy passage over this earth, where the paths are now high,
now low, and the true path seldom distinguished, the traces of thy feet must
needs be unequal; but virtue will press thee right onward."*
From this specimen of the Indian drama, every reader of good taste, I should
imagine, will be satisfied, that it is only among a people of polished manners
and delicate sentiments that a composition so simple and correct could be produced or relished. I observe one instance in this drama of that wild extravagance so frequent in Oriental poetry. The monarch, in replacing a bracelet
which had dropped from the arm of Sacontala, thus addresses her " Look,
my darling, this is the new moon which left the firmament in honour of superior
beauty, and having descended on your enchanting wrist, hath joined both its
horns round in the shape of a bracelot."t But this is the speech of an enraptured young man to his mistress, and in every age and nation exaggerated praise
is expected from the mouth of lovers. Dramatic exhibitions seem to have
been a favourite amusement of the Hindoos as well as of other civilized nations
"6 The tragedies, comedies, farces, and musical pieces of the Indian theatre,
woula fill as many volumes as that of any nation in ancient or modern Europe.
* Act iv. p. 47, &c.        * Act iii. p. 36.




88                          APPENDIX,
They are all in verse where the dialogue is elevated, and in prose where it is
familiar: the men of rank and learning are represented speaking pure Sanskreet, and the women Pracrit, which is little more than the language of the
Brahmins, melted down by a delicate articulation to the softness of' Italian;
while the low persons of the drama speak the vulgar dialects of the several
provinces which they are supposed to inhabit."*[661
V. The attainments of the Indians in science furnish an additional proof of
their early civilization. By every person who has visited India in ancient or
modern times, its inhabitants, either in transactions of private business or in
the conduct of political affairs, have been deemed not inferior to the people of
ally nation in sagacity or in acuteness of understanding. From the application
of such talents to the cultivation of science, an extraordinary degree of profiliency might have been expected. The Indians were, accordingly, early
celebrated on that account, and some of the most eminent of the Greek philosophers travelled into India, that, by conversing with the sages of that country,
they might acquire some portion of the knowledge for which they were distinguishpd.t  The accounts, however, which we receive from the Greeks and
1Itomans, of the sciences which attracted the attention of the Indian philosopl.ers, or of the discoveries which they had made in them, are very imperfect.
l'o the researches of a few intelligent persons, who have visited India during the
course of the three last centuries, we are indebted for more aniple and authentic
information.  But from the reluctance with which the Brahmins communicate
their sciences to strangers, and the inability'of Europeans to acquire much
knowledge of' them, while, like the mysteries of their religion, they were conceoled from vulgar eyes in an unknown tongue, this information was acquired
slowly, and with great difficulty.  The same observation, however, which I
made concerning our knowledge of the state of the fine arts among the people
of India, is applicable to that of their progress in science, and the present age
is the first furnished with sufficient evidence upon whicis to found a decisive
judgmnetnt with respect to either.
Ecience, when viewed as disjoined from religion, the consideration of which
I reserve for another head, is employed in contemplating either the operations
of the understanding, the exercise of our moral powers, or the nature and qualities of external objects.  The first is denominated logic; the second ethics;
the third physics, or the knowledge of nature. With respect to the early progress in cultivating each of these sciences in India, we are in possession of
facts which merit attention.
But, prior to the consideration of them, it is proper to examine the ideas of
the Brahmins with respect to mind itself; for, if these were not just, all their
theories concerning its operations must have been erroneous and fanciful. The
distinction between matter and spirit appears to have been early known by the
philosophers of India, and to the latter they ascribed many powers of which they
deemed the former to be incapable; and when we recollect how inadequate our
conceptions are of every object that does not fall under the cognizance of the
senses, we may affirm (if allowance be made for a peculiar notion of the Hindcos, which shall be afterwards explained) that no description of the human
soul is more suited to the dignity of its nature than that given by the author of
thie Mahabarat. " Some," says he, " regard the soul as a wonder, others hear of
It with astonishment, but no one knoweth it. The weapon divideth it not; the
fire burneth it not; the water corrupteth it not; the wind drieth it not away;
for it is indivisible, inconsurnable, incorruptible; it is eternal, universal, permanent, immoveable, it is invisible, inconceivable, and unalterable."T After this
view of the sentiments of the Brahmins, concerning mind itself, we may proceed
to consider their ideas with respect to each of the sciences, in that tripartite
arrangement which I mentioned.
1st, Logic and Metaphysics.  On no subject has the human understanding
been more exercised than in analyzing its own operations. The various powers
of the mind have been examined and defined.' The origin and progress of our
ideas have been traced; and proper rules have been prescribed, of Droceeding
* Pretace to Sacont. by Sir William Jones, p. ix.    t Brukeri Hist. Philosoph. vol. i. p. 19.I; Eaghvat-Geeta, p. 37.




AP PEN D I X.                              -89
from the observation of facts to the establishment of principles, or from the
knowledge of principles to form arrangements of science. The philosophers of
ancient Greece were highly celebrated for their proficiency in these abstruse
speculations;' and, in their discussions and arrangements, discovered such depth
of thought and acuteness of discernment, that their systems of logic, particularly
that of the Peripatetic School, have been deemed most distinguished efforts of
human reason.
But since we became acquainted, in some degree, with the literature and
science of the Hindoos, we find that as soon as men arrive at that stage in social
life, when they can turn their attention to speculative inquiries, the human mind
will, in every region of the earth, display nearly the same powers, and proceed
in its investigations and discoveries by nearly similar steps. From Abul Fazel's
compendium of the philosophy* of the Hindoos, the knowledge of which he
acquired, as he informs us, by associating intimately with the most learned men
of the nation; from the specimen of their logical discussions contained in that
portion of-the Shastra, published by Colonel Dow,t and from many passages in
the Baghvat-Geeta, it appears that the same speculations which occupied the
philosophers of Greece had engaged the attention of the Indian Brahmins; and
the theories of the former, either concerning the qualities of external objects, or
the nature of our own ideas, were not more ingenious than those of the latter.
To define with accuracy, to distinguish with acuteness, and to reason with subtlety, are characteristics of both; and in both the same excess of refinement, in
attempting to analyze those operations of mind which the faculties of man were
not formed to comprehend, led sometimes to the most false and dangerous conclusions.  That sceptical philosophy, which denies the existence of the material
world, and asserts nothing to be real but our own ideas, seems to have been
known in India as well as in Europe;$ and the sages of the East, as they were
indebted to philosophy for the knowledge of many important truths, were not
more exempt than those of the West from its delusions and errors.
2d. Ethics. This science, which has for its object to ascertain what distinguishes virtue from vice, to investigate what motives should prompt men to act
and to prescribe rules for the conduct of life, as it is of all others the most interesting, seems to have deeply engaged the attention of the Brahmins. Their
sentiments with respect to these points were various, and, like the philosophers
of Greece, the Brahmins were divided into sects, distinguished by maxims and
tenets often diametrically opposite. That sect with whose opinions we are, fortunately, best acquainted, had established a system ofmorals, founded on principles the most generous and dignified, which unassisted reason is capable of discovering. Man, they taught, was formed not for speculation or indolence, but
for action. He is born, not for himself alone, but for his fellow men. The happiness of the society of which he is a member, the good of mankind, are his
ultimate and highest objects. In choosing what to prefer or to reject, the justness and propriety of his own choice are the only considerations to which he
should attend. The events which may follow his actions are not in his own
power; and whether they be prosperous or adverse, as long as he is satisfied
with the purity of the motives which induced him to act, he can enjoy that
approbation of his own mind, which constitutes genuine happiness, independent
of the power of fortune or the opinions of other men. " Man (says the author
of the Mahabarat) enjoyeth not freedom from action. Every man is involuntarily urged to act by those principles which are inherent in his nature. He
who restraineth his active faculties, and sitteth down with his mind attentive to
the objects of his senses, may be called one of an astrayed soul. The man is
praised, who, having subdued all his passions, performeth with his active facul
ties all the functions of life, unconcerned about the event.~. Let the motive be
in the deed, and not in the event. Be not one whose motive for action is the
hope of reward. Let not thy life be spent in inaction. Depend upon application, perform thy duty, abandon all thought of the consequence, and make the
event equal, whether it terminate in good or in evil; for such an equality is
called Yog [i. e. attention to what is spiritual]. Seek an asylum then in wis..
* Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p. 95, &c.  t Dissertation, p. xxxix. &c.:  Dow's Disserta
tion, p. Ivii. Ayeen Akbely, vol. iii. p. 128,, Baghvat-Geeta, p. 44
VOL. III.-M




90                         A  P P  END I X.
dom alone; for the miserable and unhappy are so on account of the eivnt of
things. Men who are endued with true wisdom are unmindful of good or evil
in this world. Study then to obtain this application of thy understanding, for
such application in business is a precious art. Wise men who have abandoned
all thought of the fruit which is produced from their actions, are freed from the
chains of birth, and go to the regions of eternal happiness.""
From these and other passages which I might have quoted, we learn that the
distinguishing doctrines of'the Stoical school were taught in India many ages
before the birth of Zeno, and inculcated with a persuasive earnestness nearly
resembling that of Epictetus; and it is not without astonishment that we find
the tenets of this manly active philosophy, which seem to be formed only for
men of the most vigorous spirit, prescribed as the rule of conduct to a race of
people more eminent (as is generally supposed) for the gentleness of their disposition than for the elevation of their minds.
3d. Physics. In all the sciences which contribute towards extending our
knowledge of nature in mathematics, mechanics, and astronomy, Arithmetic is
of elementary use. In whatever country then we find that such attention has
been paid to the improvement of arithmetic, as to render its operations most
easy and correct, we may presume that the sciences depending upon it have
attained a superior degree of perfection. Such improvement of this science w3
find in India. While, among the Greeks and Romans, the only method used fo
the notation of numbers was by the letters of the alphabet, which necessarily
rendered arithmetical calculation extremely tedious and operose, the Indians
had, from time immemorial, employed for the same purpose the ten ciphers or
figures, now universally known, and by means of them' performed every operation in arithmetic with the greatest facility and expedition. By the happy
invention of giving a different value to each figure according to its change of
place, no more than ten figures are needed in calculations the most complex,
and of any given extent; and arithmetic is the most perfect of all the sciences.
The Arabians, not long after their settlement in Spain, introduced this mode of
notation into Europe, and were candid enough to acknowledge that they had
derived the knowledge of it from the Indians. Though the advantages of this
mode of notation are obvious and great, yet so slowly do mankind adopt new
inventions, that the use of it was for some time confined to science; by degrees,
however, men of business relinquished the former cumbersome method of computation by letters, and the Indian arithmetic came into general use throughout
Europe.t It is now so familiar and simple, that the ingenuity of the people to
whom we are indebted for the invention is less observed and less celebrated
than it merits.
The astronomy of the Indians is a proof still more conspicuous of their extraordinary progress in science. The attention and success with which they studied the motions of the heavenly bodies were so little known to the Greeks and
Romans, that it is hardly mentioned by them but in the most cursory manner.4
But as soon as the Mahomedans established an intercourse with the natives of
India, they observed and celebrated the superiority of their astronomical knowledge. Of the Europeans who visited India after the communication with it by
the Cape of Good Hope was discovered, M. Bernier, an inquisitive and philosophical traveller, was one of the first who learned that the Indians had long
applied to the study of astronomy, and had made considerable progress in that
science.~ His information, however, seems to have been very general and
imperfect. We are indebted for the first scientific proof of the great proficiency
of the Indians in astronomical knowledge, to M. de la Loubere, who, on his
return from his embassy to Siam [A. D. 1687], brought with him an extract
from a Siamese manuscript, which contained tables and rules for calculating
the places of the sun and moon. The manner in which these tables were constructed rendered the principles on which they were founded extremely obscure,
and it required a commentator as conversant in astronomical calculation as the
celebrated Cassini, to explain the meaning of this curious fragment. The epoch
of the Siamese tables corresponds to the 21st of March, A. D. 638. Another
* Baghvat-Geeta, p. 40.    t Mlontucla Hist. des Mathemat. tom. i. p. 360, &c.    $ Strabo
lib. xv. p. 1047. A. Dion. Perieg. v. 1173  Q Voyages tom ii. p. 145, &e.




APPENDIX.                                91
set of tables was transmitted from Chrisnabouram, in the Carnatic, the epoch of
which answers to the 10th of March, A. D. 1491. A third set of tables came
from Narsapour, and the epoch of them goes no further back than A. D. 1569,
The fourth and most curious set of tables was published by M. le Gentil, to
whom they were communicated by a learned Brahmin of Tirvalore, a small
town on the Coromandel coast, about twelve miles west of Negapatam. The
epoch of these tables is of high antiquity, and coincides with the beginning of
the celebrated era of the Calyougham or Collee Jogue, which commenced,
according to the Indian account, three thousand one hundred and two years
before the birth of Christ [67].
These four sets of tables have been examined and compared by M. Bailly,
who with singular felicity of genius has conjoined an uncommon degree of eloquence with the patient researches of an astronomer, and the profound investigations of a geometrician. His calculations have been verified, and his reasonings have been illustrated and extended by Mr. Playfair, in a very masterly Dissertation published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.*
Instead of attempting to follow them in reasonings and calculations, which
from their nature are often abstruse and intricate, I shall satisfy myself with
giving such a general view of them as is suited to a popular work. This, I
hope, may convey a proper idea of what has been published concerning the
astronomy of India, a subject too curious and important to be omitted in any
account of the state of science in that country; and, without interposing any
judgment of my own, I shall leave each of my readers to form his own opinion.
It may be considered as the general result of all the inquiries, reasonings, and
calculations, with respect to Indian astronomy, which have hitherto been made
public, i" That the motion of the heavenly bodies, and more particularly their
situation at the commencement of the different epochs to which the four sets of
tables refer, are ascertained with great accuracy; and that many of the elements
of their calculations, especially for very remote ages, are verified by an astonishing coincidence with the tables of the modern astronomy of Europe, when
improved by the latest and most nice deductions from the theory of gravitation."
These conclusions are rendered peculiarly interesting, by the evidence which
they afford of an advancement in science, unexampled in the history of rude
nations. The Indian Brahmins, who annually circulate a kind of almanac, containing astronomical predictions of some of the more remarkable phenomena in
the heavens, such as the new and full moons, the eclipses of the sun and moon,
are in possession of certain methods of calculation, which, upon examination,
are found to involve in them a very extensive system of astronomical knowledge. M. le Gentil, a French astronomer, had an opportunity while in India
of observing two eclipses of the moon which had been calculated by a Brahmin,
and he found the error in either to be very inconsiderable.
The accuracy of these results is less surprising than the justness and scientific
nature of the principles on which the tables by which they calculate are constructed. For the method of predicting eclipses, which is followed by the
Brahmins, is of a kind altogether different from any that has been found in the
possession of rude nations in the infancy of astronomy. In Chaldua, and even
in Greece, in the early ages, the method of calculating eclipses was founded on
the observation of a certain period or cycle, after which the eclipses of the sun
and moon return nearly in the same order; but there was no attempt to analyze
the different circumstances on which the eclipse depends, or to deduce its phen~)mena from a precise knowledge of the motions of the sun and moon. This
last was reserved for a more advanced period, when geometry as well as arithmetic were called in to the assistance of astronomy, and, if it was attempted at
all, seems not to have been attempted with success before the age of Hipparchus. It is a method of this superior kind, founded on principles and on an
analysis of the motions of the sun and moon, which guides the calculations of
the Brahmins, and they never employ any of the grosser estimations, which
were the pride of the first astronomers in Egypt and Chaldea.
The Brahmins of the present times are guided in their calculations by these
principles, though they do not now understand them; they know only the use
* Vol. ii. p. 135.




92                        iAPPENDIX.
of the tables which are in their possession, but are unacquainted with the
method of their construction. The Brahmin who visited M. le Gentil at Pondicherry, and instructed him in the use of the Indian tables, had no knowledge
of the principles of his art, and discovered no curiosity concerning the nature
of M. le Gentil's observations, or about the instruments which he employed.
He was equally ignorant with respect to the authors of these tables; and whatever is to be learned concerning the time or place of their construction, must
be deduced from the tables themselves. One set of those tables (as was formerly observed) profess to be as old as the beginning of the Calyougham, or
to go back to the year 3102 before the Christian era; but as nothing (it may
be supposed) is easier than for an astronomer to give to his tables what date he
pleases, and by calculating backwards, to establish an epoch of any assigned
antiquity, the pretensions of the Indian astronomy to so remote an origin are
not to be admitted without examination.
That examination has accordingly been instituted by M. Bailly, and the result
of his inquiries is asserted to be, that the astronomy of India is founded on
observations which cannot be of a much later date than the period above men
tioned. For the Indian tables represent the state of the heavens at that period
with astonishing exactness; and there is between them and the calculations of
our modern astronomy such a conformity with respect to those ages, as could
result from nothing but from the authors of the former having accurately copied
from nature, and having delineated truly the face of the heavens in the age
wherein they lived. In order to give some idea of the high degree of accuracy
in the Indian tables, I shall select a few instances of it, out of many that might
be produced. The place of the sun for the astronomical epoch at the beginning
of the Calyougham, as stated in the tables of Tirvalore, is only forty-seven
minutes greater than by the tables of M. de la Caille, when corrected by the
calculations of M. de la Grange. The place of the moon, in the same tables,
for the same epoch, is only thirty-seven minutes different from the tables of
Mayer. The tables of Ptolemy, for that epoch, are erroneous no less than ten
degrees with respect to the place of the sun, and eleven degrees with respect to
that of the moon. The acceleration of the moon's motion. reckoning from the
beginning of the Calyougham to the present time, agrees, in the Indian tables,
with those of Mayer to a single minute. The inequality of the sun's motion,
and the obliquity of the ecliptic, which were both greater in former ages
than they are now, as represented in the tables of Tirvalore, are almost of the
precise quantity that the theory of gravitation assigns to them three thousand
years before the Christian era. It is accordingly for those very remote ages
(about five thousand years distant from the present) that their astronomy is most
accurate, and the nearer we come down to our own times, the conformity of its
results with ours diminishes. It seems reasonable to suppose that the time
when its rules are most accurate is the time when the observations were made
on which these rules are founded.
In support of this conclusion, M. Bailly maintains that none of all the astronomical systems of Greece or Persia, or of Tartary, from some of which it
might be suspected that the Indian tables were copied, can be made to agree
with thenl, especially when we calculate for very remote ages. The superior
perfection of the Indian tables becomes always more conspicuous as we go farther
back into antiquity. This shows, likewise, how difficult it is to construct any
astronomical table which will agree with the state of the heavens for a period
so remote from the time when the tables were constructed, as four or five thousand years. It is only from astronomy in its most advanced state, such as it
has attained in modern Europe, that such accuracy is to be expected.
When an estimate is endeavoured to be made of the geometrical skill necessary for the construction of the Indian tables and rules, it is found to be very
considerable; and, beside the knowledge of elementary geography, it must have
required plain and spherical trigonometry, or something equivalent to them,
together with certain methods of approximating to the values of geometrical
magnitudes, which seem to rise very far above the elements of any of those
sciences. Some of these last mark also very clearly (although this has not been
observed by M. Bailly) that the places to which these tables are adapted, must




APP)ENDIX.                                93
be situated between the tropics, because they are altogether inapplicable at at
greater distance from the equator.
From this long induction, the conclusion which seems obviously to result is,
that the Indian astronomy is founded upon observations which were made at a
very early period; and when we consider the exact agreement of the places
which they assign to the sun and moon, and other heavenly bodies, at that epoch,
with those deduced from the tables of De la Caille and Mayer, it strongly confirms the truth of the position which I have been endeavouring to establish concerning the early and high state of civilization in India.
Before I quit this subject, there is one circumstance which merits particular
attention. All the knowledge which we have hitherto acquired of the principles and conclusions of Indian astronomy is derived from the southern part of
the Carnatic, and the tables are adapted to places situated between the meridian
of Cape Comorin and that which passes through the eastern part of Ceylon.*
The Brahmins in the Carnatic acknowledge that their science of astronomy
was derived from the north, and that their method of calculation is denominated
Fakiam, or New, to distinguish it from the Siddantam, or ancient method established at Benares, which they allow to be much more perfect; and we learn
from Abul Fazel, that all the astronomers of Indostan rely entirely upon the
precepts contained in a book called Soorej Sudhant, composed in a very remote
period.t It is manifestly from this book that the method to which the Brahmins of the south gave the name of Siddantam is taken. Benares has been
from time immemorial the Athens of India, the residence of the most learned
Brahmins, and the seat both of science and literature. There, it is highly
probable, whatever remains of the ancient astronomical knowledge and discoveries of the Brahnlins is still preserved.4  In an enlightened age and nation,
and during a reign distinguished by a succession of the most splendid and successful undertakings to extend the knowledge of nature, it is an object worthy of
public attention, to take measures for obtaining possession of all that time has
spared of the philosophy and inventions of the most early and most highly
civilized people of the East. It is with peculiar advantages Great Britain may
engage in this laudable undertaking.  Benares is subject to its dominion; the
confidence of the Brahmins has been so far gained as to render them communicative; some of our countrymen are acquainted with that sacred language in
which the mysteries both of religion and of science are recorded; movement
and activity have been given to a spirit of inquiry throughout all the British
establishments in India; persons who visited that country with other views,
though engaged in occupations of a very different kind, are now carrying on
scientific and literary researches with ardour and success. Nothing seems now
to be wanting, but that those intrusted with the administration of the British
Empire in India should enable some persons capable, by his talents and liberality
of sentiment, of investigating and explaining the more abstruse parts of Indian
philosophy, to devote his whole time to that important object. Thus Great
Britain may have the glory of exploring fully that extensive field of unknown
science, which the academicians of France had the merit of first opening to the
people of Europe.[68]
VI. The last evidence which I shall mention of the early and high civilization
of the ancient Indians, is deduced from the consideration of their religious tenets
and practices. The institutions of religion, publicly established in all the extensive countries stretching from the banks of the Indus to Cape.Comorin, present
to view an aspect nearly similar. They form a regular and complete system of
superstition, strengthened and upheld by every thing which can excite the reverence and secure the attachment of the people. The temples consecrated to their
deities are magnificent, and adorned not only with rich offerings, but with the
most exquisite works in painting and sculpture, which the artists highest in esti.
mation among them were capable of executing. The rites and ceremonies of
their worship are pompous and splendid, and the performance of them not only
mingles in all the more momentous transactions of common life, but constitutes
an essential part of them. The Brahmins, who as ministers of religion, preside
* Bailly, Dis. Prelim. p. xvii.  f Ayeen Akbery, iii. p. 8.  J M. Bernier, in the
year 1668, sa w a large hall in Benares filled with the works of the Indian philosophers, physicians.
and poets. Voy. ii. p. 148.




9B4                       AAPPENDIX.
in all its functions, are elevated above every other order of men, by an origin
deemed not only more noble, but acknowledged to be sacred. They have
established among themselves a regular hierarchy and gradation of ranks,
which, by securing subordination in their own order, adds weight to their authority, and gives them a more absolute dominion over the minds of the people.
This dominion they support by the command of the immense revenues with
which the liberality of princes, and the zeal of pilgrims and devotees, have
enriched their Pagodas.*
It is far from my intention to enter into any minute detail with respect to this
vast and complicated system of superstition. An attempt to enumerate the multitude of deities which are the objects of adoration in India; to describe the
splendour of worship in their Pagodas, and the immense variety of their rites
and ceremonies; to recount the various attributes and functions which the
craft of priests, or the credulity of the people, have ascribed to their divinities;
especially if I were to accompany all this with the review of the numerous and
often fanciful speculations and theories of learned men on this subject, would
require a work of great magnitude. I shall therefore, on this, as on some of
the former heads, confine myself to the precise point which I have kept uniformly in view; and by considering the state of religion in India, I shall endeavour not only to throw additional light on the state of civilization in that country, but I flatter myself that, at the same time, I shall be able to give what may
be considered as a sketch and outline of the history and progress of superstition
and false religion in every region of the earth.
I. We may observe, that, in every country, the received mythology, or system
of superstitious belief, with all the rites and ceremonies which it prescribes, is
formed in the infancy of society, in rude and barbarous times. True religion
is as different from superstition in its origin as in its nature. The former is the
offspring of reason cherished by science, and attains to its highest perfection in
ages of light and improvement. Ignorance and fear give birth to the latter, and
it is always in the darkest periods that it acquires the greatest vigour. That
numerous part of the human species, whose lot is labour, whose principal and
almost sole occupation is to secure subsistence, has neither leisure nor capacity
for entering into that path of intricate and refined speculation, which conducts
to the knowledge of the principles of rational religion. When the intellectual
powers are just beginning to unfold, and their first feeble exertions are directed
towards a few objects of primary necessity and use; when the faculties of the
mind are so limited as not to have formed general and abstract ideas; when
language is so barren as to be destitute of names to distinguish any thing not
perceivable by some of the senses; it is preposterous to expect that men should
be capable of tracing the relation between effects and their causes; or to suppose that they should rise from the contemplation of the former to the discovery
of the latter, and form just conceptions of one Supreme Being, as the Creator
and Governor of the universe. The idea of creation is so familiar, wherever the
mind is enlarged by science, and illuminated by revelation, that we seldom
reflect how profound and abstruse the idea is, or consider what progress man
must have made in observation and research, before he could arrive at any distinct knowledge of this elementary principle in religion. But even in its rude
state, the human mind, formed for religion, opens to the reception of ideas,
which are destined, when corrected and refined, to be the great source of consolation amidst the calamities of life. These apprehensions, however, are originally indistinct and perplexed, and seem to be suggested rather by the dread of
impending evils, than to flow from gratitude for blessings received. While
nature holds on her course with uniform and undisturbed regularity, men enjoy
the benefits resulting from it, without much inquiry concerning its cause. But
every deviation from this regular course rouses and astonishes them. When
they behold events to which they are not accustomed, they search for the causes
of them with eager curiosity. Their understanding is often unable to discover
these; but imagination, a more forward and ardent faculty of the mind, decides
without hesitation. It ascribes the extraordinary occurrences in nature to the
influence of invisible beings, and supposes the thunder, the hurricane, and the
* Roger Porte Ouverte, p. 39. 209, &c.




APPENDIX.                                 95
earthquake, to be the immediate effect of their agency. Alarmed by these
natural evils,, and exposed, at the same time, to many dangers and disasters,
which are unavoidable in the early and uncivilized state of society, men have
recourse for protection to power superior to what is human; and the first rites
or practices, which bear any resemblance to acts of religion, have it for their
object to avert evils which they suffer or dread.*
IJ. As superstition and false religion take their rise in every country from
nearly the same sentiments and apprehensions, the invisible beings, who are the
first objects of veneration, have every where a near resemblance. To conceive
an idea of one superintending mind, capable of arranging and directing all the
various operations of nature, seems to be an attainment far beyond the powers
of man in the more early stages of his progress. His theories, more suited to
the limited sphere of his own observation, are not so refined. He supposes
that there is a distinct cause of every remarkable effect, and ascribes to a separate power every event which attracts his attention, or excites his terror. He
fancies that it is the province of one deity to point the lightning, and, with an
awful sound, to hurl the irresistible thunderbolt at the head of the guilty; that
another rides in the whirlwind, and, at his pleasure, arises or stills the tempest;
that a third rules over the ocean; that a fourth is the god of battles; that
while malevolent powers scatter the seeds of animosity and discord, and kindle
in the breast those angry passions which give rise to war, and terminate in
destruction, others of a nature more benign, by inspiring the hearts of men
with kindness and love, strengthen the bond of social union, augment the happiness and increase the number of the human race.
Without descending further into detail, or attempting to enumerate that infi
nite multitude of deities to which the fancy or the fears of men have allotted
the direction of the several departments in nature, we may recognise a striking
uniformity of features in the systems of superstition established throughout
every part of the earth. The less men have advanced beyond the state of
savage life, and the more slender their acquaintance with the operations of
nature, the fewer were their deities in number, and the more compendious was
their theological creed; but as their mind gradually opened, and their knowledge
continued to extend, the objects of their veneration multiplied, and the articles
of their faith became more numerous. This took place remarkably among the
Greeks in Europe, and the Indians in Asia, the two people in those great divisions of the earth who were most early civilized, and to whom, for that reason,
I shall confine all my observations. They believed, that over every movement
in the natural world, and over every function in civil or domestic life, even the
most common and trivial, a particular deity presided. The manner in which
they arranged the stations of these superintending powers, and the offices which
they allotted to each, were in many respects the same. What is supposed to
be performed by the power of Jupiter, of Neptune, of Eeolus, of Mars, of Venus,
according to the mythology of the West, is ascribed in the East to the agency
of Agnee, the god of fire; Varoon, the god of oceans; Vayoo, the god of
wind;t Cama, the god of love; and a variety of other divinities.
Theignorance and credulity of men having thus peopled the heavens with
imaginary beings, they ascribed to them such qualities and actions as they
deemed suitable to their character and functions. It is one of the benefits derived from true religion, that by setting before men a standard of perfect excellence, which they should have always in their eye, and endeivour to resemble,
it may be said to bring down virtue from heaven to earth, and to form the human
mind after a divine model. In fabricating systems of false religion, the procedure is directly the reverse. Men ascribe to the beings whom they have
deified, such actions as they themselves admire and celebrate. The qualities
of the gods who are the objects of adoration, are copied from those of the
worshippers who bow down before them; and thus many of the imperfections
peculiar to men have found admittance into heaven. By knowing the adventures and attributes of any false deity, we can pronounce, with some degree of
In the History of America, p. 179, I gave nearly a similar account of the origin of false religion.
instead of labouring to convey the same ideas in different language, I have inserted here some paragraphs in the same words I then used.
t Baghvat-Gceta, p. 94.




. 96                       APPEND IX.
certainty, what must have been the state of society and manners when he was
elevated to that dignity. The mythology of Greece plainly indicates the character of the age in which it was formed. It must have been in times of the
greatest licentiousness, anarchy, and violence, that divinities of the highest rank
could be supposed capable of perpetrating actions, or of being influenced by
passions, which in more enlightened periods would be deemed a disgrace to
human nature; it must have been when the earth was still infested with destructive monsters, and mankind, under forms of government too feeble to afford
them protection, were exposed to the depredations of lawless robbers, or the
cruelty of savage oppressors, that the well-known labours of Hercules, by which
he was raised from earth to heaven, could have been necessary, or would have
been deemed so highly meritorious. The same observation is applicable to the
ancient mythology of India. Many of the adventures and exploits of the Indian
deities are suited to the rudest ages of turbulence and rapine. It was to check
disorder, to redress wrongs, and to clear the earth of powerful oppressors, that
Vishnou, a divinity of the highest order, is said to have become successively
incarnate, and to have appeared on earth in various forms."
III. The character and functions of those deities which superstition created to
itself as objects of its veneration, having every where a near resemblance,, the
rites of their worship were every where extremely similar. Accordingly as
deities were distinguished either by ferocity of character or licentiousness of
conduct, it is obviour what services must have been deemed most acceptable to
them. In order to conciliate the favour, or to appease the wrath, of the former,
fasts, mortifications, and penances, all rigid, and many of them excruciating to
an extreme degree, were the means employed. Their altars were always bathed
in blood; the most costly victims were offered; whole hecatombs were slaughtered; even human sacrifices were not unknown, and were held to be the most
powerful expiations. In order to gain the good will of the deities of the latter
description, recourse was had to institutions of a very different kind, to splendid
ceremonies, gay festivals, heightened by all the pleasures of poetry, music, and
dancing, but often terminating in scenes of indulgence too indecent to be described. Of both these, instances occur in the rites of Greek and Roman
worship, which I need not mention to my learned readers.t  In the East the
ceremonial of superstition is nearly the same. The manners of the Indians,
though distinguished from the time when they became known to the people
of the West, for mildness, seem, in a more remote period, to have been in a
greater degree similar to those of other nations. Several of their deities were
fierce and awful in their nature, and were represented in their temples under
the most terrific forms. If we did not know the dominion of superstition over
the human mind, we should hardly believe that a ritual of worship suited to
the character of such deities could have been established among a gentle people.
Every act of religion, performed in honour of some of their gods, seems to have
been prescribed by fear. Mortifications and penances so rigorous, so painful,
and so long continued, that we read the accounts of them with astonishment
and horror, were multiplied. Repugnant as it is to the feelings of an Hindoo
to shed the blood of any creature that has life, many different animals, even
the most useful, the horse and the cow, were offered up as victims upon the
altars of some of their gods; and, what is still more strange, the Pagodas of
the East were polluted with human sacrifices as well as the temples of the
West.l But religious institutions and ceremonies of a less severe kind were
more adapted to the genius of a people formed, by the extreme sensibility both
of their mental and corporeal frame, to an immoderate love of pleasure. In
no part of the earth was a connection between the gratification of sensual desire
and the rites of public religion, displayed with more avowed indecency than in
India. In every Pagoda there was a band of women set apart for the service
of the idol honoured there, and devoted from their early years to a life of
pleasure; for which the Brahmins prepared them by an education which added
so many elegant accomplishments to their natural charms, that what they
gained by their profligacy often brought no inconsiderable accession to the reve* Voyage de Sonnerat, tom. i. p. 158, &c.    t Strabo, lib. viii. p. 581. A. Lib. xii. p. 837. C,
t Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p. 241. Roger Porte Ouverte, p. 51.    IlHeeto-pades, p. 185B22. Asiat. Researches, vol. i. p. 265. Voyage de Sonnerat, vol. i. p. 207. Roger, p. 251,




APPENDIX.                                   9;
nue of the temple. In every function performed in the Pagodas as well as ip
every public procession, it is the office of these women to dance before the idot,
and to sing hymns in his praise; and it is difficult to say, whether they trespass
most against decency by the gestures they exhibit, or by the verses which they
recite. The walls of the Pagoda are covered with paintings in a style no less
indelicate;* and in the innermost recess of the temple, for it would be profane
to call it the sanctuary, is placed the Lingam, an emblem of productive power
too gross to be explained.t
IV. How absurd soever the articles of faith may be which superstition has
adopted, or how unhallowed the rites which it prescribes, the former are received
in every age and country with unhesitating assent by the great body of the
people, and the latter observed with scrupulous exactness. In our reasonings
concerning religious opinions and practices, which differ widely from our own,
we are extremely apt to err. Having been instructed ourselves in the principles of a religion worthy in every respect of that divine wisdom by which they
were dictated, we frequently express wonder at the credulity ofnations in embracing systems of belief which appear to us so directly repugnant to right reason,
and sometimes suspect that tenets so wild and extravagant do not really gain
credit with them. But experience may satisfy us, that neither our wonder nor
suspicions are well founded. No article of the public religion was called in
question by those people of ancient Europe with whose history we are best
acquainted, and no practice which it enjoined appeared improper to them. On
the other hand, every opinion that tended to diminish the reverence of men.
for the gods of their country, or to alienate them from their worship, excited
among the Grm-eks and Romans that indignant zeal which is natural to every
people attached to their religion by a firm persuasion of its truth. The attachment of the Indians, both in ancient and modern times, to the tenets and rites.
of their ancestors, has been, if possible, still greater. In no country, of which
we have any account, were precautions taken with so much solicitude to place
the great body of the people beyond the reach of any temptation to doubt or disbelief. They not only were prevented (as I have already observed the great
bulk of mankind must always be in every country) from entering upon any spe-.
culative inquiry, by the various occupations of active and laborious life, but any
attempt to extend the sphere of their knowledge was expressly prohibited. I.
one of the Sooder cast, by far the most numerous of the four into which the
whole nation was divided, presumed to read any portion of the sacred books, in
which all the science known in India is contained, he was severely punished;
if he ventured to get it by heart, he was put to death.: To aspire after any
higher degree of knowledge than the Brahmins have been pleased to teach,
would be deemed not only presumption but impiety. Even the higher casts
depended entirely for instruction on the Brahmins, and could acquire no portion
of science but what they deigned to communicate. By means of this, a devout
reverence was universally maintained for those institutions which were considered as sacred; and though the faith of the Hindoos has been often tried by
severe persecutions, excited by the bigotry of their Mahomedan conquerors,
no people ever adhered with greater fidelity to the tenets and rites of their
ancestors.)
V. We may observe, that when science and philosophy are diffused through
any country, the system of superstition is subjected to a scrutiny from which it
was formerly exempt, and opinions spread which imperceptibly diminish its
influence over the minds of men. A free and full examination is always favourable to truth, but fatal to error. What is received with implicit faith in ages of:
darkness will excite contempt or indignation in an enlightened period. The
history of religion in Greece and Italy, the only countries of Europe which in
ancient times were distinguished for their attainments in science, confirms the:
truth of this observation. As soon as science made such progress in Greece as
rendered men capable of discerning the wisdom, the foresight, and the goodness
displayed in creating, preserving, and governing the world, they must have per
* Voyage de Gentil, vol. i. p. 244. 2260. Preface to Code of Gentoo Laws, p. lvii.
t Roger Porte Oulverte, p. 157. Voyage de Sonnerat, vol. i. p.41. 175. Sketches, vol. i p. 203.
Hamilton's Trav. vol. i. p. 379.  t Code of Gentoo Laws, ch xxi. Q 7.   0  Ormf s Fragment, p. 102. Sennerat, vol. i. p. 194.
VrOL. III -N




6d                         APPENDIX.
ceived that the characters of the divinities which were proposed as the objects
of adoration in their temples, could not entitle them to be considered as the presiding powers in nature. A poet might address Jupiter as the father of gods
and men, who governed both by eternal laws; but to a philosopher, the son of
Saturn, the story of whose life is a series of violent and licentious deeds, which
would render any man odious or despicable, must have appeared altogether
unworthy of that station. The nature of the religious service celebrated in theil
temples rrmust have been no less offensive to an enlightened mind, than the
character of the deities in honour of whom it was performed. Instead of institutions tending to reclaim men from vice, to form or to strengthen habits of virtue, or to elevate the mind to a sense of its proper dignity, superstition either
occupied its votaries in frivolous unmeaning ceremonies, or prescribed rites,
which operated, with fatal influence, in inflaming the passions and corrupting
the heart.
It is with timidity, however, and caution, that men venture to attack the
established religion of their country, or to impugn opinions which have been
long held sacred. At first, some philosophers endeavoured, by allegorical interpretations and refined comments, to explain the popular mythology, as if it had
been a description of the powers of nature, and of the various events and revolutions which take place in the system of the material world, and endeavoured
by this expedient to palliate many of its absurdities. By degrees, bolder theories
concerning religion were admitted into the schools of science. Philosophers of
enlarged views, sensible of the impiety of the popular superstition, formed ideas,concerning the perfections of one Supreme Being, the Creator and Ruler of the
universe, as just and rational as have ever been attained by the unassisted,powers of the human mind.
If from Europe we now turn to Asia, we shall find, that the observation which
i have made upon the history of false religion, holds equally true there. In
India as well as in Greece, it was by cultivating science that men were first led
to examine and to entertain doubts with respect to the established systems of
superstition; and when we consider the great difference between the ecclesiastical constitution (if I may use that expression) of the two countries, we are
apt to imagine that the established system lay more open to examination in the
latter than in the former. In Greece there was not any distinct race or order
of men set apart for performing the functions of religion, or to serve as here-ditary and interested guardians of its tenets and institutions. But in India the
Brahmins were born the ministers of religion, and they had an exclusive right
of presiding in all the numerous rights of worship, which superstition prescribed
as necessary to avert the wrath of Heaven, or to render it propitious. These
distinctions and privileges secured to them a wonderful ascendant over their
countrymen; and every consideration that can influence the human mind, the
honour, the interest, the power of their order, called upon them to support the
tenets, and to maintain the institutions and rites, with which the preservation of
this ascendant was so intimately connected.
But as the most eminent persons of the Cast devoted their lives to the cultivation of science, the progress which they made in all the branches of it (of
which I have given some account) was great, and enabled themn to form such a
just idea of the system of nature, and of the power, wisdom, and goodness displayed in the formation and government of it, as elevated their minds above
the popular superstition, and led them to acknowledge and reverence one
Supreme Being, " the Creator of all things (to use their own expressions), and
fromrwhom all things proceed."*
This is the idea which Abul Fazel, who examined the opinions of the Brahrains with the greatest attention and candour, gives of their theology. " They,ll," says he, " believe in the unity of the Godhead; and although they hold
images in high veneration, it is only because they represent celestial beings, and
prevent the thoughts of those who worship them from wandering."t The sentiments of the most intelligent Europeans who have visited India coincide perfectly with his in respect to this point. The accounts which Mr. Bernier received
from the Pundits of Benares, both of their external worship, and of one Sovereigl
* Baghvat-Geeta, p. 84.  t Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p. 3.




APPENDIX.                                 99
iLord being the sole object of their devotion, is precisely the same with that
given by Abul Fazel.* Mr. Wilkins, better qualified perhaps than any European ever was to judge with respect to this subject, represents the learned
Brahmins of the present times as Theists, believers in the unity of God.t Of the
same opinion is M. Sonnerat, who resided in India seven years in order to
inquire into the manners, sciences, and religion of the Hindoos.4  The Pundits,
who translated the Code of Gentoo Laws, declare, -"that it was the Supreme
Being, who, by his power, formed all creatures of the animal, vegetable, and
material world, from the four elements of fire, water, air, and earth, to be an
ornament to the magazine of creation; and whose comprehensive benevolence
selected man, the centre of knowledge, to have dominion and authority over the
rest; and, having bestowed upon this favourite object, judgment and under
standing, gave him supremacy over the corners of the world.l
Nor are these to be regarded as refined sentiments of later times. The Brah
mins being considered by the Mahomedan conquerors of India as the guardians
of the national religion, have been so studiously depressed by their fanatical
zeal, that the modern members of that order are as far inferior to their ancestors
in science as in power. It is from the writings of their ancient Pundits that
they derive the most liberal sentiments which they entertain at present, and the
wisdom for which they are now celebrated has been transmitted to them from
ages very remote.
That this assertion is well founded we are enabled to pronounce with cer
tainty, as the most profound mysteries of Hindoo theology, concealed with the
greatest care from the body of the people, have been unveiled by the translations
from the Sanskreet language lately published. The principal design of the
Baghvat-Geeta, an episode in the Mahabarat, a poem of the highest antiquity,
and of the greatest authority in India, seems to have been to establish the doctrine of the unity of the Godhead, and from a just view of the divine nature to
deduce an idea of what worship will be most acceptable to a perfect Being. In
it, amidst much obscure metaphysical discussitn, some ornaments of fancy
unsuited to our taste, and some thoughts elevated to a tract of sublimity into
which, from our habits of reasoning and judging, we shall find it difficult to fol
low them,11 we find descriptions of the Supreme Being entitled to equal praise
with those of the Greek philosophers which I have celebrated. Of these I shall
now produce one to which I formerly alluded, and refer my readers for others
to the work itself: " 0 mighty Being," says Arjoon,' "who art the prime Creator,
eternal God of Gods, the World's Mansion! Thou art the incorruptible Being,
distinct from all things transient. Thou art before all Gods, the ancient
Pooroosh [i. e. vital soul], and the Supreme Supporter of the universe. Thou
knowest all things, and art worthy to be known; thou art the Supreme Mansion, and by thee, 0 infinite Form, the universe was spread abroad! reverence
be unto thee before and behind: reverence be unto thee on all sides; 0 thou
who art all in all! Infinite is thy power and thy glory.-Thou art the Father of
all things animate and inanimate. Thou art the wise instructor of the whole,
worthy to be adored. There is none like unto thee; where, then, in the three
worlds, is there one above thee? Wherefore I bow down; and, with my body
prostrate upon the ground, crave thy mercy, Lord! worthy to be adored; for
thou shouldest bear with me, even as a father with his son, a friend with hie
friend, a lover with his beloved."1V A description of the Supreme Being is given
in one of the sacred books of the Hindoos, from which it is evident what were
the general sentiments of the learned Brahmins concerning the divine nature
and perfections:'" As God is immaterial, he is above all conception; as he is
invisible, he can have no form; but from what we behold of his works, we may
conclude that he is eternal, omnipotent, knowing all things, and present every
where."**
To men capable of forming such ideas of the Deity, the public service in the
Pagodas must have appeared to be an idolatrous worship of images, by a superstitious multiplication of frivolous or immoral rites; and they must have seen
that it was only by sanctity of heart, and purity of manners, men could hope
* Voyage, tom. il. p. 159.   t Preface to Baghvat-Geeta, p. 24.    $ Voyage, tom. i. p. 19.
t Prelim. Discourse, p. lxxiii.  II Mr. Hastings's Letter, prefixed to the Baghvat-Geeta, p 7
1 Baghvat-Geeta, p. 94, 95.  ** Dow's Dissert. p. xl.




100                         AP P END I X.
to gain the approbation of a Being perfect in goodness. This truth Veias
labours to inculcate in the Mahabarat, but with the prudent reserve and artful
precautions natural to a Brahmin studious neither to offend his countrymen,
nor to diminish the influence of his own order. His ideas concerning the mode
of worshipping the Deity, are explained in many striking passages of the poem;
but, unwilling to multiply quotations, I satisfy myself with referring to them.*
When we recollect how slowly the mind of man opens to abstract ideas, and
how difficult (according to an observation in the Mahabarat) an invisible path
is to corporeal beings, it is evident that the Hindoos must have attained a high
degree of improvement before their sentiments rose so far superior to the popular superstition of their country. The different states of Greece had subsisted
long, and had made considerable progress in refinement, before the errors of
false religion began to be detected. It was not until the age of Socrates, and
in the schools of philosophy established by his disciples, that principles adverse
to the tenets of the popular superstition were much propagated.
A longer period of time elapsed before the Romans, a nation of warriors and
statesmen, were enlightened by science, or ventured upon any free disquisition
concerning the objects or the rites of worship, authorized by their ancestors.
But in India the happy effects of progress in science were much more early conspicuous. Without adopting the wild computations of Indian chronology, according to which the Mahabarat was composed above four thousand years ago,
we must allow that it is a work of very great antiquity, and the author of it
discovers an acquaintance with the principles of theology, of morals, and of
metaphysics, more just and rational than seems to have been attained, at that
period, by any nation whose history is known.
But so unable are the limited powers of the human mind to form an adequate
idea of the perfections and operations of the Supreme Being, that in all the
theories concerning them, of the most eminent philosophers in the most enlightened nations, we find a lamentable mixture of ignorance and error. From
these the Brahmins were not more exempt than the sages of other countries.
As they held that the system of nature was not only originally arranged by
the power and wisdom of God, but that every event which happened was
brought about by his immediate interposition; and as they could not comprehend how a being could act in any place unless where it was present; they supposed the Deity to be a vivifying principle diffused through the whole creation.
a universal soul that animated each part of it.t Every intelligent nature, particularly the souls of men, they conceived to be portions separated from this
great spirit,: to which, after fulfilling their destiny on earth, and attaining a
proper degree of purity, they would be again reunited. In order to efface the
stains with which a soul, during its residence on earth, has been defiled, by the
indulgence of sensual and corrupt appetites, they taught that it must pass, in
a long succession of transmigrations, through the bodies of different animals,
until, by what it suffers and what it learns in the various forms of its existence,
it shall be so thoroughly refined from all pollution as to be rendered meet for
being absorbed into the divine essence, and returns like a drop into that unbounded ocean fitom which it originally issued.l These doctrines of the Brahmins, concerning the Deity, as the soul which pervades all nature, giving activity
and vigour to every part of it, as well as the final reunion of all intelligent
creatures to their primeval source, coincide perfectly with the tenets of the
Stoical school. It is remarkable, that after having observed a near resemblance
in the most sublime sentiments of their moral doctrine, we should likewise
discover such a similarity in the errors of their theological speculations.ll
The human mind, however, when destitute of superior guidance, is apt to
fall into a practical error with respect to religion, of a tendency still more dangerous. When philosophers, by their attainments in science, began to acquire
such just ideas of the nature and perfections of the Supreme Being, as convinced them that the popular system of superstition was not-only absurd but
impious, they were fully aware of all the danger which might arise from com* Baghvat-Geeta, p. 55. 67. 75. 97. 119.  t Baghvat-Geeta, p. 65. 78. 85. Bernier, tom ii.
p. 163.    D+ ow's Dissert. p. xliii.  6 Voy. de Sonnerat, vol. i. p. 192. 200. BaghvatGeeta, p. 39.115. Dow's Dissert. p. xliii    [I Lipfij Physiol. Stoicor. lib. i. dissert. viii. xxi
Seneca, Antoninus, Epictetus, passim.




APPENDIX.                             101
municating what they had discovered to the people, incapable of comprehend*
ing the force of those reasons which had swayed with them, and so zealously
attached to established opinions, as to revolt against any attempt to detect their
falsehood. Insteas, therefore, of allowing any ray of that knowledge which
illuminated their own minds to reach them, they formed a theory to justifl'
their own conduct, and to prevent the darkness of that cloud which hung over
the minds of their fellow-men from being ever dispelled. The vulgar and unlearned, they contend, had no right to truth. Doomed by their condition to
remain in ignorance, they were to be kept in order by delusion, and allured to
do what is ight, or deterred from venturing upon what is wrong, by the hope
of those ILnaginary rewards which superstition promises, and the dread of those
punishments which it threatens. In confirmation of this, I might quote the
doctrine of most of the philosophic sects, and produce the words of almost
every eminent Greek and Roman writer. It will be sufficient, however, to lay
before my readers a remarkable passage in Strabo, to whom I have been so often
indebted in the course of my researches, and who was no less qualified to judge
with respect to the political opinions of his contemporaries, than to describe
the countries which theyinhabited. "What is marvellous in fable is employed,"
says he, "sometimes to please, and sometimes to inspire terror, and both these
are of use, not only with children, but with persons of mature age. To children we propose delightful fictions, in order to encourage them to act well, and
such as are terrible, in order to restrain them from evil. Thus when men are
united in society, they are incited to what is laudable by hearing the poets celebrate the splendid actions of fabulous story, such as the labours of Hercules
and Theseus, in reward for which they are now honoured as divinities, or by
beholding their illustrious deeds exhibited to public view in painting and sculpture. On the other hand, they are deterred from vice, when the punishments
inflicted by the gods upon evil doers are related, and threats are denounced
against them in awful words, or represented by frightful figures, and when men
believe that these threats have been really executed upon the guilty. For it is
impossible to conduct women and the gross multitude, and to render thein
holy, pious, and upright,' by the precepts of reason and philosophy; superstition, or the fear of the gods, must be called in aid, the influence of which is
founded on fictions and prodigies. For the thunder of Jupiter, the angis of Minerva, the trident of Neptune, the torches and snakes of the furies, the spears
of the gods, adorned with ivy, and the whole ancient theology, are all fables,
which the legislators who formed the political constitution of states employ as
bugbears to overawe the credulous and simple."*
These ideas of the philosophers of Europe were precisely the same which the
Brahmins had adopted in India, and according to which they regulated their
conduct with respect to the great body of the people. As their order had an
exclusive right to read the sacred books, to cultivate and to teach science, they
could more effectually prevent all who were not members of it from acquiring
any portion of information beyond what they were pleased to impart. When
the free circulation of knowledge is not circumscribed by such restrictions, the
whole community derives benefit from every new acquisition in science, the
influence of which, both upon sentiment and conduct, extends insensibly from
the few to the many, from the learned to the ignorant. But wherever the
dominion of false religion is completely established, the body of the people gain
nothing by the greatest improvements in knowledge. Their philosophers conceal from them, with the utmost solicitude, the truths which they have discovered, and labour to support that fabric of superstition which it was their
duty to have overturned. They not only enjoin others to respect the religious.rites prescribed by the laws of their country, but conform to them in their own
practice, and with every external appearance of reverence and devotion, bow
down before the altars of deities, who must inwardly be the objects of their con
tempt. Instead of resembling the teachers of true religion in the benevolent
ardour with which they have always communicated to their fellow men the
knowledge of those important truths with which their own minds were enlightened and rendered happy, the sages of Greece, and the Brahmins of India, car
* Strabo% lib. i. p. 36. B.




102                         APPEND IX.
tied on, with studied artifice, a scheme of deceit, and, according to an emphatic
expression of an inspired writer, they detained the truth in unrighteousness.*
They knew and approved what was true, but among the rest of mankind they
laboured to support and to perpetuate what is false.
Thus I have gone through all the particulars which I originally proposed to
examine, and have endeavoured to discover the state of the inhabitants of India
with respect to each of them. If 1 had aimed at nothing else than to describe
the civil policy, the arts, the sciences, the religious institutions of one of the
most ancient and most numerous race of men, that alone would have led me
into inquiries and discussions both curious and instructive. I own, however,
that I have all along kept in view an object more interesting, as well as of greater
importance, and entertain hopes, that if the account which I have given of the
early and high civilization of India, and of the wonderful progress of its inhabitants in elegant arts and useful science, shall be received as just and well established, it may have some influence upon the behaviour of Europeans towards
that people. Unfortunately for the human species, in whatever quarter of the
globe the people of Europe have acquired dominion, they have found the inhabitants not only in a state of society and improvement far inferior to, their own,
but different in their comnplexion, and in all their habits of life. Men in every
state of their career are so satisfied with the progress made by the community
of which they are members, that it becomes to them a standard of perfection,
and they are apt to regard people whose condition is not similar, with contempt and even aversion. In Africa and America, the dissimilitude is so conspicuous that, in the pride of their superiority, Europeans thought themselves
entitled to reduce the natives of the former to slavery, and to exterminate those
of the latter. Even in India, though far advanced beyond the two other quarters of the globe in improvement, the colour of the inhabitants, their effeminate
appearance, their unwarlike spirit, the wild extravagance of their religious tenets
and ceremonies, and many other circumstances, confirmed Europeans in such
an opinion of their own pre-eminence, that they have always viewed and treated
them as an inferior race of men. Happy would it be if any of the four European nations, who have successively acquired extensive territories and power in
India, could altogether vindicate itself from having acted in this manner.
Nothing, however, can have a more direct and powerful tendency to inspire
Europeans, proud of their own superior attainments in policy, science, and arts,
with proper sentiments concerning the people of India, and to teach them a due
regard for their natural rights as men, than their being accustomed, not only to
consider the Hindoos of the present times as an ingenious race of men, but to
view them as descended from ancestors who had attained to a very high degree
of improvement, many ages before the least step towards civilization had been
taken in any part of Europe. It was by an impartial and candid inquiry into
their manners, that the Emperor Akber was led to consider the Hindoos as no
less entitled to protection and favour than his other subjects, and to govern them
with such equity and mildness, as to merit from a grateful people the honourable
appellation of " The Guardian of Mankind."  It was from a thorough knowledge of their character and acquirements, that his Vizier Abul Fazer, with a
liberality of mind unexampled among Mahomedans, pronounces a high enco"mium on the virtues of the Hindoos, both as individuals and as members of
society, and celebrates their attainments in arts and sciences of every kind.t  If
I might presume to hope that the description which I have given of the manners
and institutions of the people of India could contribute in the smallest degree,
and with the remotest influence, to render their character more respectable, and
Sheir condition more happy, I shall close my literary labours with the satisfacion of thinking that I have not lived or written in vain.
* Rom. i. 18.       t Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p 2 81 9S




NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
NOTE [I1. SECT. I. p. 7.
CREDULITY and scepticism are two opposite extremes into which men are apt
to run, in examining the events which are said to have happened in the early
ages of antiquity. Without incurring any suspicion of a propensity to the
latter of these, I may be allowed to entertain doubts concerning the expedition
of Sesostris into India, and his conquest of that country. —1. Few facts in
ancient history seem to be better established than that of the early aversion of
the Egyptians to a seafaring life. Even the power of despotism cannot at once
change the ideas and manners of a nation, especially when they have been confirmed by long habit, and rendered sacred by the sanction of religion. That
Sesostris, in the course of a few years, should have so entirely overcome the
prejudices of a superstitious people, as to be able to fit out four hundred ships
of force, in the Arabian gulf, besides another fleet which he had in the Mediterranean, appears to be extremely improbable. Armaments of such magnitude
would require the utmost efforts of a great and long established maritime power.
-2. It is remarkable that Herodotus, who inquired with the most persevering
diligence into the ancient history of Egypt, and who received all the information concerning it which the priests of Memphis, Heliopolis, and Thebes could
communicate, Herodot. edit. Wesselingii, lib. ii. c. 3, although he relates the
history of Sesostris at some length, does not mention his conquest of India,
lib. ii. c. 102, &c. That tale. it is probable, was invented in the period between
the age of Herodotus and that of Diodorus Siculus, from whom we receive a
particular detail of the Indian expedition of Sesostris. His account rests entirely
upon the authority of the Egyptian priests; and Diodorus himself not only
gives it as his general opinion, " that many things which they related, flowed
rather from a desire to promote the honour of their country, than from attention to truth," lib. i. p. 34. edit. Wesselingii. Amst. 1746: but takes particular
notice that the Egyptian priests, as well as the Greek writers, differ widely
from one another in the accounts which they give of the actions of Sesostris,
lib. i. p. 62. -3. Though Diodorus asserts that in relating the history of Se
sostris he had studied to select what appeared to him most probable, and most
agreeable to the monuments of that monarch still remaining in Egypt, he has
admitted into his narrative many marvellous circumstances, which render the
whole extremely suspicious. The father of Sesostris, as he relates, collected all
the male children who were born in Egypt on the same day with his son, in
order that they might be educated together with him conformable to a mode
which he prescribed with a view of preparing them as proper instruments to
carry into execution the great undertakings for which he destined Sesostris.
Accordingly, when Sesostris set out upon his Indian expedition, which from
circumstances mentioned by Diodorus, must have been about the fortieth year
of his age, one thousand seven hundred of his youthful associates are said to
have been still alive, and were intrusted with high command in his army. But
if we apply to the examination of this story the certain principles of political
arithmetic, it is evident, that if one thousand seven hundred of the male children
born on the same day with Sesostris were alive when his great expedition commenced, the number of children born in Egypt on each day of the same year
must have been at least ten thousand, and the population of the kingdom must
have exceeded sixty millions: Goguet l'Origine des Loix, des Arts, &c. tom. ii.
p. 12, &c. a number far beyond the bounds of credibility, in a kingdom which,
from the accurate calculations of M. D'Anville, Mdmoire sur l'Egypt, Anc. et
Moderne, p, 23, &c., does not contain more than two thousand one hundred




104    NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
square leagues of habitable country. Decline and Fall of the Rom. Emnp. vol
v. p. 348. Another marvellous particular is the description of a ship of cedar,
four hundred and ninety feet in length, covered on the outside with gold, and
on the inside with silver, which Sesostris consecrated to the Deity who was the
chief object of worship at Thebes. Lib. i. p. 67. Such too is the account he
gives of the Egyptian army, in which, beside six hundred thousand infantry and
twenty-four thousand cavalry, there were twenty-seven thousand armed chariots. Ibid. p. 64.-4. These and other particulars appeared so far to exceed
the bounds of probability,that the sound understanding of Strabo the geographer
rejected, without hesitation, the accounts of the Indian expedition of Sesostris;
and he not only asserts in the most explicit terms, that this monarch never
entered India, lib. xv. p. 1007. C. edit. Casaub. Amst. 1707; but he ranks what
has been related concerning his operations in that country with the fabulous
exploits of Bacchus and Hercules, p. 1007. D. 1009. B. The philosophical historian of Alexander the Great seems to have entertained the same sentiments
with respect to the exploits of Sesostris in India. Hist. Ind. c. 5. Arrian
Exped. Alex. edit. Gronov. L. Bat. 1704.-What slender information concerning India or its inhabitants, Herodotus had received, seems to have been derived,
not from the Egyptians, but from the Persians, lib. iii. c. 105; which renders
it probable, that in his time there was little intercourse between Egypt and India.
If Reland be well founded in his opinion, that many of the words mentioned by
ancient authors as Indian are really Persian, we may conclude that there was an
early intercourse between Persia and India, of which hardly any trace remains
in history. Reland. Dissert. de Veteri Lingua Indic. ap. Dessert. Miscel. vol. i.
p. 209.
NOTE [2]. SECT. I. P. 8.
WHEN we consider the extents and effect of the Phoenician commerce, the
scanty information concerning it which we receive from ancient writers must
on a first view appear surprising. But when we recollect that all the Greek
historians (Herodotus excepted), who give any account of the Phoenicians,
published their works long after the destruction of Tyre by Alexander the
Great, we will cease to wonder at their not having entered into minute details
with respect to a trade which was then removed to new seats, and carried on
in other channels. But the power and opulence of Tyre, in the prosperous
age of its commerce, must have attracted general attention. In the prophecies
of Ezekiel, who flourished two hundred and sixty years before the fall of Tyre,
there is the most particular account of the nature and variety of its commercial
transactions that is to be found in any ancient writer, and which conveys at
the same time a magnificent idea of the extensive power of that state. Ch.
xxvi. xxvii. xxvull.
NOTE [3]. SECT. I. P. 9.
THE account given of the revenue of the Persian monarchy by Herodotus is
curious, and seems to have been copied from some public record, which had
been communicated to him. According to it the Persian empire was divided
into twenty satrapys, or governments. The tribute levied from each is specified, amounting in all to 14,560 Eubcean talents, which Dr. Arbuthnot reckons
to be equal to 2,807,4371. sterling money; a sum extremely small for the revenue
of the Great King, and which ill accords with many facts, concerning the riches,
magnificence, and luxurv of the East, that occur in ancient authors.
NOTE [4]. SECT. I. P. 10.
MAJOR Rennell, in the second edition of his Memoir, has tracea, from very
imperfect materials, the routes by which Alexander, Tamerlane, and Nadir
Shah penetrated into India, with a degree of accuracy which does honour to
his discernment, and displays the superiority of his knowledge, in the ancient
and modern geography of that country. His researches he has illustrated by
an additional map. To these I must refer my readers. Nor are they to consider his laborious investigation merely as an object of curiosity; the geography
of that fertile and extensive region of India, distinguished by the name ot
Panjab, with which we are at present little acquainted, may soon become very




NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.    105
interesting. If, on the one hand, that firm foundation on which the British
empire in India seems to be established, by the successful termination of the
late war, remains unshaken;-if, on the other hand, the Seiks, a confederacy of
several independent states, shall continue to extend their dominions with the
same rapidity that they have advanced since the beginning of the current century; it is highly probable that the enterprising commercial spirit of the one
people, and the martial ardour of the other, who still retain the activity and
ardour natural to men in the earliest ages of social union, may give rise to events
of the greatest moment. The frontiers of the two states are approaching
gradually nearer and nearer to each other, the territories of the Seiks having
reached to the western bank of the river Jumnah, while those of the Nabob of
Oude stretch along its eastern bank. This Nabob, the ally or tributary of the
East India Company, is supported by a brigade of the Bengal army, constantly
stationed on his western frontier. Ren. Mem. Introd. p. cxvi. In a position so
contiguous, rivalry for power, interference of interest, and innumerable other
causes of jealousy and discord, can hardly fail of terminating, sooner or later,
in open hostility. The Seiks possess the whole Soubah of Lahore, the principal
part of Moultan, and the western part of Delhi. The dimensions of this tract
are about 400 British miles from N. W. to S. E., varying in breadth from 320 to
150 miles. Their capital city is Lahore. Little is known concerning their
government and political maxims; but they are represented as mild. In their
mode of making war, they are unquestionably savage and cruel. Their army
consists almost entirely of horse; of which they can bring at least 100,000 into
the field. Maj. Ren. Mem. 2d edit. Introd. p. cxxi. cxxii. and p. 365. See also
Mr. Craufurd's Sketches, 2d edit. vol. ii. p. 263, &c.
NOTE [5]. SECT. I. P. 11.
iT is surprising that Alexander did not receive, in the provinces contiguous
to India, such an account of the periodical rains in that country, as to show him
the impropriety of carrying on military operations there while these continued.
His expedition into India commenced towards the end of Spring, Arrian, lib. iv.
c. 22, when the rains were already begun in the mountains, from which all the
rivers in the Panjab flow, and of course they must have been considerably
swelled before he arrived on their banks, Rennel, p. 268.-He passed the Hydaspes at Midsummer, about the height of the rainy season. In a country through
which so mnany large rivers run, an army on service at this time of the year
must have suffered greatly. An accurate description of the nature of the rains
and inundations in this part of India, is given by Arrian, lib. v. c. 9; and one
still fuller may be found in Strabo, lib. xv. 1013.-It was of what they suffered
by these that Alexander's soldiers complained, Strabo, lib. xv. 1021, D.; and not
without reason, as it had rained incessantly during seventy days, Diod. Sicul.
xvii. c. 94.-A circumstance which marks the accuracy with which Alexander's
officers had attended to every thing in that part of India, deserves notice. Aristobulus, in his journal, which I have mentioned, observes that, though heavy
rains fell in the mountains, and in the country near to them, in the plains below
not so much as a shower fell. Strabo, lib. xv. 1013. B. 1015. B. Major Rennell
was informed by a person of character, who had resided in this district of India,
which is now seldom visited by Europeans, that during great part of the S. W.
monsoon, or at least in the months of July, August, and part of September,
which is the rainy season in most other parts of India, the atmosphere in the
Delta of the Indus, is generally clouded, but no rain falls except very near the
sea. Indeed, very few showers fall during the whole season. Captain Hamilton relates that, when he visited Tatta, no rain had fallen for three years before.
Memoirs, p. 288.-Tamerlane, who, by the vicinity of the seat of his government to India, had the means of being well informed concerning the nature of
the country, avoided the error of Alexander, and made his Indian campaign
during the dry season. As Nadir Shah, both when he invaded India, A. D.
1738, and in his return next year, marched through the same countries with
Alexander, and nearly in the same line of direction, nothing can give a more
striking idea of the persevering ardour of the Macedonian conqueror, than the
description of the difficulties which Nadir Shah had to surmount, and the hardships which his army endured. Though possessed of absolute power and
VOL. III.-O




106          -NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
immense w ealth, and distinguished no less by great talents than long experience
in the conduct of war, he had the mortification to lose a great part of his troops
in crossing the rivers of the Panjab, in penetrating through the mountains to
the north of India, and in conflicts with the fierce natives inhabiting the countries which stretch from the banks of the Oxus to the frontiers of Persia. An
interesting account of his retreat and sufferings is given in the Memoirs of
Khojeh Abdulkurren, a Cashmerian of distinction, who served in his army.
NOTE [6]. SECT. I. P. 11.
THAT a fleet so numerous should have been collected in such a short time is
apt to appear, at first sight, incredible. Arrian, however, assures us, that in
specifying this number, he followed Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, whose authority
he considered to be of the greatest weight, lib. vi. c. 3. But as the Panjab coun
try is full of navigable rivers, on which all the intercourse among the natives
was carried on, it abounded with vessels ready constructed to the conqueror's
hands, so that he might easily collect that number. If we could give credit to
the account of the invasion of India by Semiramis, no fewer than four thousand
vessels were assembled in the Indus to oppose her fleet. Diod. Sicul. lib. ii.
c. 74.-It is remarkable that when Mahmoud of Gazna invaded India, a fleet
was collected on the Indus to oppose him, consisting of the same number of
vessels. We learn from the Ayeen Akbery, that the inhabitants of this part of
India still continue to carry on all their communication with each other by
water; the inhabitants of the Circar of Tatta alone, have not less than forty
thousand vessels of various constructions. Vol. ii. p. 143.
NOTE [7]. SECT. I. p. 12.
ALLT these particulars are taken from the Indian History of Arrian, a work
different from that already mentioned, and one of the most curious treatises
transmitted to us from antiquity. The first part of it consists of extracts from
the account given by Nearchus of the climate and soil of India, and the manners
of the natives. The second contains that officer's journal of his voyage from
the mouth of the Indus to the bottom of the Persian Gulf. The perusal of it
gives rise to several observations.-l. It is remarkable that neither Nearchus,
nor Ptolemy, nor Aristobulus, nor even Arrian, once mentions the voyage of
Scylax. This could not proceed from their being unacquainted with it, for
Herodotus was a favourite author in the hands of every Greek who had any pretensions to literature. It was probably occasioned by the reasons which they had
to distrust the veracity of Scylax, of which I have already taken notice. Accordingly, in a speech which Arrian puts into the mouth of Alexander, he asserts
that except Bacchus, he was the first who had passed the Indus; which implies
that he disbelieved what is related concerning Scylax, and was not acquainted
with what Darius Hystaspes is said to have done, in order to subject that part
of India to the Persian crown. Arrian, vii. c. 10. This opinion is confirmed by
Megasthenes, who resided a considerable time in India. He asserts that, except
Bacchus and Hercules (to whose fabulous expeditions Strabo is astonished that
he should have given any credit, lib. xv. p. 1007. D.) Alexander was the first
who had invaded India; Arrian, [list. Indic. c. 5. We are informed by Arrian,
that the Assacani, and other people who possessed that country, which is now
called the kingdom of Candahar, paid tribute, first to the Assyrians, and afterwards to the Medes and Persians. Hist. Indic. c. 1. As all the fertile provinces
on the north-west of the Indus were anciently reckoned to be part of India, it is
probable that what was levied from them is the sum mentioned in the tribute roll,
from which Herodotus drew his account of the annual revenue of the Persian
empire, and that none of the provinces to the south of the Indus were ever subject to the Kings of Persia.- 2. This voyage of Nearchus affords some striking instances of the imperfect knowledge which the ancients had of any navigation different from that to which they were accustomed in the Mediterranean.
Though the enterprising genius and enlarged views of Alexander, prompted him
to attempt opening an intercourse by sea, between India and his Persian
dominions, yet both he and Nearchus knew so little of the ocean which they
wished to explore, as to be apprehensive that it might be found impossible to
navigate it, on account of impervious straits, or other obstacles. Hist. Indie,




NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.                              107
c. 20. Q. Curt. lib. ix. c. 9. When the fleet arrived near the mouth of the Indus,
the astonishment excited by the extraordinary flow and ebb of tide in the Indian
Ocean, a phenomenon (according to Arrian) with which Alexander and his
soldiers were unacquainted, lib. vi. c. 19, is another proof of their ignorance in
nmaritime science. Nor is there any reason to be surprised at their astonishment, as the tides are hardly perceptible in the Mediterranean, beyond which
the knowledge of the Greeks and Macedonians did not extend. For the same
reason, when the Romans carried their victorious arms into the countries situated on the Atlantic Ocean, or on the seas that communicate with it, this new
phenomenon of the tides was an object of wonder and terror to them. Cnsar
describes the amazement of his soldiers at a spring tide, which greatly damaged
the fleet with which he invaded Britain, and acknowledges that it was an
appearance with which they were unacquainted. Bell. Gallic. lib. iv. c. 29.
The tides on the coast near the mouth of the Indus are remarkably high, and
the effects of them very great, especially that sudden and abrupt influx of the
tide into the mouths of rivers or narrow straits, which is known in India by the
name of The Bore, and is accurately described by Major Rennell, Introd. xxiv.
Mem. 278. In the Periplus Maris Erythrei, p. 26, these high tides the mentioned, and the description of them nearly resembles that of the Bore. A very
exaggerated account of the tides in the Indian Ocean is given by Pliny, Nat.
Hist. lib. xiii. c. 25. Major Rennell seems to think that Alexander and his followers could not be so entirely unacquainted with the phenomenon of the tides,
as Herodotus had informed the Greeks, " that in the Red Sea there was a regular
ebb and flow of the tide every day." Lib. ii. c. 11. This is all the explanation of
that phenomenon given by Herodotus. But among ths ancients there occur instances of inattention to facts related by respectable authors, which appear surprising in modern times. Though Herodotus, as I have just now observed, gave
an account of the voyage performed by Scylax at considerable length, neither
Alexander nor his historians take any notice of that event. I shall afterwards
have occasion to mention a more remarkable instance of the inattention of later
writers to an accurate description which Herodotus had given of the Caspian Sea.
From these, and other similar instances which might have been produced, we
may conclude, that the slight mention of the regular flow and ebb of tide in the
Red Sea is not a sufficient reason for rejecting, as incredible, Arrian's account
of the surprise of Alexander's soldiers when they first beheld the extraordinary
effects of the tide at the mouth. of the Indus. -3. The course of Nearchus's
voyage, the promontories, the creeks, the rivers, the cities, the mountains, which
came successively in his view, are so clearly described, and the distances of such
as were most worthy of notice are so distinctly marked, that M. D'Anville, by
comparing these with the actual position of the country, according to the best
accounts of it, ancient as well as modern, has been able to point out most of the
places which Nearchus mentions, with a degree of certainty which does as
much honour to the veracity of the Grecian navigator, as to the industry, learning, and penetration of the French geographer. Mdm. de Littdrat. tom. xxx.
p. 132, &c.
In modern times, the Red Sea is a name appropriated to the Arabian Gulf;
but the ancients denominated the ocean which stretches from the Gulf to India,
the Erythraean Sea, from King Erythras, of whom nothing more is known than
the name, which in the Greek language signifies red. From this casual meaning of the word, it came to be believed that it was of a different colour from
other seas, and consequently of more dangerous navigation.
NOTE [8]. SECT. I. p. 14.
ALEXANDER was so intent on rendering this union of his subjects complete,
that after his death there was found in his tablets or commentaries (among
other magnificent schemes which he meditated), a resolution to build several
new cities, some in Asia anu some in Europe, and to people those in Asia with
Europeans, and those in Europe with Asiatics, "1 that (says the historian) by
intermarriages, and exchange of good offices, the inhabitants of these two great
continents might be gradually moulded into a similarity of sentiments, and
become attached to each other with mutual affection."  Diod. Sicul. lib. xviii
a 4.




108           NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS,
The Oriental historians have mingled the little that they know concerning
the transactions of European nations, particularly concerning the reign of Alexander the Great, and his conquest of Persia, with so many fabulous and incredible circumstances, that hardly any attention is due to them. Though they misrepresented every event in his life, they entertained a high idea of his great
power, distinguishing him by the appellation of Escander DhUlcarnein, i. e. the
Two-horned, in allusion to the extent of his dominions, which, according to them,
reached from the western to the eastern extremity of the earth. Herbelot, Bib.
Orient. article Escander. Anc. Univ. Hist. vol. v. 8vo. edit. p. 433. Richard.
son's Dissert. prefixed to his Dictionary of the Persian and Arabic, p. xii.
Whether the historians of Indostan have given an account of Alexander's invasion of India with greater accuracy, cannot be known, until some of their works,
written in the Sanskreet, are translated. That some traditional knowledge of
Alexander's invasion of India is still preserved in the northern provinces of the
Peninsula, is manifest from several circumstances. The Rajahs of Chitore,
who are esteemed the most ancient establishment of Hindoo Princes, and the
noblest of the Rajahpout tribes, boast of their descent from Porus, famous as
well in the East as in the West for his gallant opposition to the Macedonian
conqueror. Orme's Fragm. p. 5. Major Rennell has informed me, by accounts
lately received from India, and confirmed by a variety of testimonies, that in
the country of Kuttore, the eastern extreme of the ancient Bactria, a people
who claimed to be the descendants of Alexander's followers were existing when
Tamerlane invaded that province. In Bijore, a country more to the west in the
same district, the Bazira of Alexander, there is a tribe at this day which traces
its origin to certain persons left there by the conqueror when he passed through
that province. Both Abul Fazel, and Soojah Rae, an eastern historian of good
reputation, report this tradition without any material variation. The latter,
indeed, adds, that these Europeans, if we may call them so, continued to preserve that ascendancy over their neighbours, which their ancestors may be supposed to have possessed when they first settled here. Although we should
reject this pedigree as false, yet the bare claim argues the belief of the natives,
for which there must have been some foundation, that Alexander not only conquered Bijore, but also transferred that conquest to some of his own countrymen. Rennell Mem. 2d edit. p. 162. The people of Bijore had likewise a high
idea of Alexander's extensive authority; and they, too, denominated him the
Two-horned, agreeably to the striking emblem of power in all the eastern languages. Ayeen Akbery, xi. 194. Many instances of this emblem being used
will occur to every person accustomed to read the sacred Scriptures.
NOTE [9]. SECT. I. p. 15.
IT seems to be an opinion generally received, that Alexander built only two
cities in India, Nicma, and Bucephalia, situated on the Hydaspes, the modern
Chelum, and that Craterus superintended the building of both. But it is evident, from Arrian, lib. v. c. ult., that he built a third city on the Acesines, now
the Jenaub, under the direction of Hephmstion: and if it was his object to retain
the command of the country, a place of strength on some of the rivers to the
south of the Hydaspes, seems to have been necessary for that purpose. This
part of India has been so little visited in modern times, that it is impossible to
point out with precision the situation of these cities. If P. Tiessenthaler were
well founded in his conjecture, that the river now called Rauvee is the Acesines
of Arrian (Bernouilli, vol. i. p. 39), it is probable that this city was built somewhere near Lehore, one of the most important stations in that part of India,
and reckoned in the Ayeen Akbery to be a city of very high antiquity. But
Major Rennell, in my opinion, gives good reasons for supposing the Jenaub to
be the Acesines of the ancients.
NOTE [10]. SECT. I. P. 15.
THE religious scruples which prevented the Persians from making any voyage
by sea, were known to the ancients. Pliny relates of one of the Magi, who was
sent on an embassy from Tiridates to the emperor Nero, " Navigare noluerat,
quoniam exspuere in maria aliisque mortalium necessitatibus violare naturam
eam, fas non putant."  Nat. Hist. lib. xxx. c. 2. This aversion to the sea they




NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.                                109
carried so far that, according to the observation of a well informed historian,
there was not a city of any note in their empire built upon the seacoast. Ammian. Marcel. lib. xxiii. c. 6. We learn from Dr. Hyde, how intimately these
ideas were connected with the doctrines of Zoroaster. Rel. Vet. Pers. cap. vi.
In all the wars of the Persians with Greece, the fleets of the Great King consisted entirely of ships furnished by the Phoenicians, Syrians, the conquered
provinces of the Lesser Asia, and the islands adjacent. Herodotus and Diodorus
Siculus mention the quota furnished by each country in order to compose the
-fleet of twelve hundred ships with which Xerxes invaded Greece, and among
these there is not one belonging to Persia. At the same time it is proper to observe, that according to Herodotus, whose authority is unexceptionable with
regard to this point, Ariabigines, a son of Darius, acted as admiral of the Persian
fleet, and had several satraps of high rank under his command, and both Persians
and Medes served as soldiers on board it. Herod. lib. vii. c. 96, 97. By what
motives, or what authority, they were induced to act m this manner, I cannot
explain. From some religious scruples, similar to those of the Persians, many
of the natives of Indostan, in our own time, refuse to embark on board a ship,
and to serve at sea; and yet, on some occasions, the sepoys in the service of the
European powers have got the better of these scruples.
NOTE [11]. SECT. I. P. 15.
M. LE Baron de Sainte-Croix, in his ingenious and learned Critique des Historiens d'Alexandre le Grand, p. 96, seems to entertain some doubt with respect
to the number of the cities which Alexander is said to have built. Plutarch de
Fort. Alex. affirms that he founded no fewer than seventy. It appears from
many passages in ancient authors, that the building of cities, or what may be
considered as the same, the establishment of fortified stations, was the mode of
maintaining their authority in the conquered nations, adopted not only by Alexander, but by his successors. Seleucus and Antiochus, to whom the greater
part of the Persian empire became subject, were no less remarkable for founding
new cities than Alexander, and these cities seemed fully to have answered the
purposes of the founders, as they effectually prevented (as I shall afterwards
have occasion to observe) the revolt of the conquered provinces. Though the
Greeks, animated with the love of liberty and of their native country, refused
to settle in the Persian empire while under the dominion of its native monarchs
even when allured by the prospect of great advantage, as M. de Saint-Croil
remarks, the case became perfectly different when that empire was subjected tE.
their own dominion, and they settled there not as subjects but as masters. Both
Alexander and his successors discovered much discernment in choosing the
situation of the cities which they built. Seleucia, which Seleucus founded, is
a striking instance of this, and became hardly inferior to Alexandria in number
of inhabitants, in wealth, and in importance. Mr. Gibbon, vol. i. p. 250. M.
D'Anville, Mom. de Litterat. xxx.
NOTE [12]. SECT. I. p. 16
IT is from Justin we receive the slender knowledge we have of the progress
which Seleucus made in India, lib. xv. c. 4. But we cannot rely on his evidence,
unless when it is confirmed by the testimony of other authors. Plutarch seems
to assert that Seleucus had penetrated far into India; but that respectable
writer is more eminent for his discernment of characters, pnd his happy selection of those circumstances which mark and discriminate them, than for the
accuracy of his historical researches. Pliny, whose authority is of greater
weight, seems to consider it as certain, that Seleucus oad carried his arms into
districts of India which Alexander never visited. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 1"
The passage in which this is mentioned is somewhat obscure; but it seems to
imply that Seleucus had marched from  the Hyphasis to the Hysudrus, from
thence to Palibothra, and from that to the mouth of the Ganges. The distances
of the principal stations in this march are marked, the whole amounting to
2244 Roman miles. In this sense M. Bayer understands the words of Pliny.
Ilistor. Regni Grwecorum Bactriani, p. 37. But to me it appears highly improbable that the Indian expedition of Seleucus could have continued so long as to
allow time for operations of such extent. If Seleucus had advanced as far into




110    NOTES AND ILLUJSTRATIONS
India as the mouth of the Ganges, the ancients must have had a more accurate
knowledge of that part of the country than they seem ever to have possessed.
NOTE [13]. SECT. I. p. 16.
MAJOR Rennell gives a magnificent idea of this, by informing us, that " the
Ganges, after it has escaped from the mountainous tract in which it had wandered above eight hundred miles," Mem. p. 233,'" receives inits course through
the plains eleven rivers, some of them as large as the Rhine, and none smaller
than the Thames, besides as many more of lesser note."  P. 257.
NOTE [14]. SECT. I. p. 17.
IN fixing the position of Palibothra, I have ventured to differ from Majot
Rennell, and I ventured to do so with diffidence. According to Strabo, Palibothra was situated at the junction of the Ganges and another river. Lib. xv.
p. 1028. A. Arrian is still more explicit. He places Palibothra at the confluence
of the Ganges and Erranaboas, the last of which he describes as less than the
Ganges or Indus, but greater than any other known river. Hist. Ind. c. 10.
This description of its situation corresponds exactly with that of Allahabad.
P. Boudier, to whose observations the geography of India is much indebted, says
that the Jumna, at its junction with the Ganges, appeared to him not inferior
in magnitude to that river. D'Anville, Antiq. de l'lnde, p. 53. Allahabad is the
name which was given to that city by the Emperor Akbar, who erected a strong'ortress there; an elegant delineation of which is published by Mr. Hodges, No.
V. of his select Views in India. Its ancient name, by which it is still known
among the Hindoos, is Praeg, or Piyag, and the people of the district are called
Praeg,, which bears a near resemblance to Prasij, the ancient appellation of the
kingdom of which Palibothra was the capital. P. Tiessenthaler, Bernouilli,
tom. i. 223. D'Anville, p. 56. Allahabad is such a noted seat of Hindoo devotion, that it is denominated The King of Worshipped Places. Ayeen Akbery,
vol ii. p. 35. " The territory around it, to the extent of forty miles, is deemed
holy ground. The Hindoos believe, that when a man dies in this place, whatever he wishes for he will obtain in his next regeneration. Although they teach
that suicide in general will be punished with torments hereafter, yet they consider it as meritorious for a man to kill himself at Allahabad." Ayeen Akbery,
iii. 256. P. Tiessenthaler describes the various objects of veneration at Allahabad, which are still visited with great devotion by an immense number of pilgrims. Bernouilli, tom. i. p. 224. From all these circumstances we may conclude it to be a place of great antiquity, and in the same situation with the
Palibothra of antiquity.
Major Rennell has been induced to place Palibothra on the same site with
Patna, chiefly by two considerations. —. From having learned that on or
near the site of Patna stood anciently a very large city named Patelpoother, or
Patalipputra, which nearly resembles the ancient name of Palibothra. Although
there is not now a confluence of two rivers at Patna, he was informed that
the junction of the Soane with the Ganges, now twenty-two miles above
Patna, was formerly under the walls of that city. The rivers of India sometimes change their course in a singular manner, and he produces some remarkable instances of it. But even should it be allowed that the accounts which the
natives give of this variation in the course of the Soane were perfectly accurate,
I question whether Arrian's description of the magnitude of Erranaboas be
applicable to that river, certainly not so justly as to the Jumna.-2. He seems
to have been influenced, in some degree, by Pliny's Itinerary, or Table of Dis-,ances from Taxila (the modern Attock) to the mouth of the Ganges. Nat.
Hist. lib. vi. c. 17. But the distances in that Itinerary are marked so inaccurately, and in some instances are so palpably erroneous, that one cannot found
upon them with much security. According to it, Palibothra is situated four
hundred and twenty-five miles below the confluence of the Jumna and Ganges.
The actual distance, however, between Allahabad and Patna is not more than
two hundred British miles. A disagreement so considerable cannot be accounted
for, without supposing some extraordinary error in the Itinerary, or that the
point of conflux of the Jumna with the Ganges has'undergone a change. For
the former of these suppositions there is no authority (as far as I know) from




NOT ES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.                               lIr
any manuscript, or for the latter from any tradition. Major Rennell has produced the reasons which led him to suppose the site of Palibothra to be the
same with that of Patna. Memoires, p. 49-54. Some of the objections which
might be made to this supposition he has foreseen, and endeavoured to obviate;
and after all that I have added to them, I shall not be surprised, if, in a geographical discussion, my readers are disposed to prefer his decision to mine.
NOTE [15]. SECT. I. P. 17.
I DO not mention a short inroad into India by Antiochus the Great, about one
hundred and ninety-seven years posterior to the invasion of his ancestor Seleucus. We know nothing more of this transaction than that the Syrian monarch,
after finishing the war he carried on against the two revolted provinces of Parthia and Bactria, entered India, and concluding a peace with Sophagasenus, a
king of the country, received from  him a number of elephants, and a sum of
money. Polyb. lib. x. p. 597, &c. lib. xi. p. 651, edit. Casaub. Justin. lib. xv.
A 4. Bayer's Hist. Regn. Grwecor. Pactr. p. 69, &c.
NOTE [16]. SECT. I. p. 18:.
A FACT cursorily related by Strabo, and which has escaped the inquisitive
industry of M. de Guignes, coincides remarkably with the narrative of the Chinese writers, and confirms it. The Greeks, he says~ were deprived of Bactria
by tribes or hordes of Scythian Nomades, who came from the country beyond
the Jaxartes, and are known by the names of Asij, Parsiani, Tachari, and Sacarauli. Strab. lib. xi. p. 779. A. The Nomades of the ancients were nations
who, like the Tartars, subsisted entirely, or almost entirely, as shepherds, without
agriculture
NOTE [17]. SECT. I. p. 19.
As the distance of Arsinoe, the modern Suez, from the Nile, is considerably
less than that between Berenice and Coptos, it was by this route that all the commodities imported into the Arabian Gulf might have been conveyed with most
expedition and least expense into Egypt. But the navigation of the Arabian
Gulf, which even in the present improved state of nautical science is slow and
difficult, was in ancient times considered by the nations around itto be so extremely
perilous, that it led them to give such names to several of its promontories, bays,
and harbours, as convey a striking idea of the impression which the dread of
this danger had made upon their imagination. The entry into the Gulf they
called Babelmandel, the Gate or Port of Affliction. To a harbour not far distant, they gave the name of JXIete, i. e. Death. A headland adjacent they called
Gardefan, the Cape of Burial. Other denominations of similar import are mentioned by the author to whom I am indebted for this information. Bruce's
Travels, vol. i. p. 442, &c. It is not surprising, then, that the staple of Indian
trade should have been transferred from the northern extremity of the Arabian
Gulf to Berenice, as by this change a dangerous navigation was greatly shortened. This seems to have been the chief reason that induced Ptolemy, to establish the port of communication with India at Berenice, as there were other harbours on the Arabian Gulf which were considerably nearer than it to the Nile.
At a later period, after the ruin of Coptos by the Emperor Dioclesian, we are
informed by Abulfeda, Descript. Egypt, edit. Michaelis, p. 77, that Indian commodities were conveyed from the Red Sea to the Nile, by the shortest route,
viz. from Cosseir, probably the Philoteras Portus of Ptolemy, to Cous, the Vicus
Apollinis, a journey of four days. The same account of the distance was given
by the natives to Dr. Pococke, Travels, vol. i. p. 87. In consequence of this,
Cous, from a small village, became the city in Upper Egypt next in magnitude
to Fostat, or Old Cairo. In process of time, from causes which I cannot explain
the trade from the Red Sea by Cosseir removed to Kene, further down the
river than Cous. 4.bulf. p. 13.77. D'Anville, Egypte, p. 196-200. In modern
times, all the commodities of India, imported into Egypt, are either brought by
sea from Gidda to Suez, and thence carried on camels to Cairo, or are conveyed
by land carriage by the caravan returning from the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Niebuhr Voyage, tom. i. p. 224. Volney, i. 188, &c. This, as far as I have
been able to trace it, is x complete account of all the different routes by which




~112        NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
the productions of the East have been conveyed to the Nile, from the first open.
ing of that communication. It is singular that P. Sicard, M6m. des M.ssions
dans le Levant, tom. ii. p. 157, and some other respectable writers, shou.ld suppose Cosseir to be the Berenice founded by Ptolemy, although Ptolemy has laid
down its latitude at 23~ 50', and Strabo has described it as nearly under the
same parallel with that of Syene, lib. ii. p. 195. D. In consequence of this mistake, Pliny's computation of the distance between Berenice and Coptos, at two
hundred and fifty-eight miles, has been deemed erroneous. Pococke, p. 87.
But as Pliny not only mentions the total distance, but names the different stations in the journey, and specifies the number of miles between each; and as
the Itinerary of Antoninus coincides exactly with his account, D'Anville, Egypte,
p. 21, there is no reason to call in question the accuracy of it.
NOTE [18]. SECT. I. P. 19.
MAAJOR Rennell is of opinion, "that under the Ptolemies, the Egyptians
extended their navigation to the extreme point of the Indian continent, and even
sailed up the Ganges to Palibothra," on the same site (according to him) with
the modern Patna. Introd. p. xxxvi. But had it been usual to sail up the
Ganges as high as Patna, the interior parts of India must have been better
known to the ancients than they ever were, and they would not have continued
to derive their information concerning them from Megasthenes alone. Strabo
begins his description of India in a very remarkable manner. He requests his
readers to peruse with indulgence the account which he gives of it, as it was a
country very remote, and few persons had visited it; and of these, many having
seen only a small part of the country, related things either fiom hearsay, or, at
the best, what they had hastily remarked while they passed through it in the
course of military service, or on a journey. Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1005. B. He
takes notice that few of the traders from the Arabian Gulf ever reached the
Ganges. Ibid. 1006. C. He asserts, that the Ganges enters the sea by one
mouth, ibid. 1011. C; an error into which he could not have fallen, if the navigation of that river had been common in his time. He mentions indeed the
sailing up the Ganges, ibid. 1010, but it is cursorily in a single sentence;
whereas, if such a considerable inland voyage of above four hundred miles,
through a populous and rich country, had been customary, or even if it had
ever been performed by the Roman, or Greek, or Egyptian traders, it must have
merited a particular description, and must have been mentioned by Pliny and
other writers, as there was nothing similar to it in the practice of navigation
among the ancients. It is observed by Arrian (or whoever is the author of
the Periplus Maris Erythrmi), that previous to the discovery of a new route to
India,which shall be mentioned afterwards, the commerce with that country was
carried on in small vessels which sailed round every bay. p. 32. Ap. Huds.
Geogr. Min. Vessels of such light construction, and which followed this mode
of sailing, were ill fitted for a voyage so distant as that round Cape Comorin,
and up the bay of Bengal, to Patna. It is not improbable that the merchants,
whom Strabo mentions as having reached the Ganges, may have travelled
thither by land, either from the countries towards the mouth of the Indus, or
from some part of the Malabar coast, and that the navigation up the Ganges,
of which he casually takes notice, was performed by the natives in vessels of
the country. This opinion derives some confirmation from his remarks upon
the bad structure of the vessels which frequented that part of the Indian Ocean.
From his description of them, p. 1012. C. it is evident that they were vessels of
the country.
NOTE [19]. SECT. I. p. 20.
THE erroneous ideas of many intelligent writers of antiquity with respect
to the Caspian Sea, though well known to every man of letters, are so remarkable, and afford such a striking example of the imperfection of their geographical
knowledge, that a more full account of them may not only be acceptable to
some of my readers, but, in endeavouring to trace the various routes by which
the commodities of the East were conveyed to the nations of Europe, it becomes
necessary to enter into some detail concerning their various sentiments with
respect to this matter. 1. According to Strabo, the Caspian is a bay, that com



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.                                11l
municates with the great Northern ocean, from which it issues at first by a
narrow strait, and then expands into a sea extending in breadth five hundred
stadia. Lib. xi. p. 773. A. With him Pomponius Mela agrees, and describes
the strait by which the Caspian is connected with the Ocean, as of considerable
length, and so narrow that it had the appearance of a river. Lib. iii. c. 5.
Pliny likewise gives a similar description of it. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 13. In
the age of Justinian, this opinion, concerning the communication of the Caspian Sea with the Ocean, was still prevalent. Cosm. Indicopl. Topog. Christ.
lib. ii. p. 138. C. 2. Some early writers, by a mistake still more singular, have
supposed the Caspian Sea to be connected with the Euxine. Quintus Curtius,
whose ignorance of geography is notorious, has adopted this error. Lib. vii.
c. 7. 3. Arrian, though a much more judicious writer, and who, by residing
for some time in the Roman province of Cappadocia, of which he was governor,
might have obtained more accurate information, declares in one place the origin
of the Caspian Sea to be still unknown; and it is doubtful whether it was connected with the Euxine, or with the great Eastern Ocean which surrounds
India. Lib. vii. c. 16. In another place he asserts that there was a communication
between the Caspian and the Eastern Ocean. Lib. v. c. 26. These errors
appear more extraordinary, as a just description had been given of the Caspian
by Herodotus, near five hundred years before the age of Strabo. "' The Caspian (says he) is a sea by itself unconnected with any other. Its length is as
much as a vessel with oars can sail in fifteen days, its greatest breadth is as
much as it can sail in eight days." Lib. 1. c. 203. Aristotle describes it in the
same manner, and with his usual precision contends that it ought to be called a
great lake, not a sea. Meteorolog. lib. ii. Diodorus Siculus concurs with them
in opinion. Vol. ii. lib. xviii. p. 261. None of those authors determine whether
the greatest length of the Caspian was from North to South, or from East to
West. In the ancient maps which illustrate the geography of Ptolemy, it is
delineated as if its greatest length extended from East to West. In modern
times, the first information concerning the true form of the Caspian, which the
people of Europe received, was given by Anthony Jenkinson, an English merchant, who with a caravan from Russia, travelled along a considerable part of
its coast in the year 1558. Hakluyt Collect. vol. i. p. 334. The accuracy of
Jenkinson's description was confirmed by an actual survey of that sea made by
order of Peter the Great, A. D. 1718; and it is now ascertained not only that
the Caspian is unconnected with any other sea, but that its length from North
to South is considerably more than its greatest breadth from East to West.
The length of the Caspian from North to South is about six hundred and eighty
miles, and in no part more than two hundred and sixty miles in breadth from
East to West. Coxe's Travels, vol. ii. p. 257. The proportional difference of
its length and breadth accords nearly with that mentioned by Herodotus. From
this detail, however, we learn how the ill founded ideas concerning it, which
were generally adopted, gave rise to various wild schemes of conveying Indian
commodities to Europe by means of its supposed communication with the
Euxine Sea, or with the Northern Ocean. It is an additional proof of the attention of Alexander the Great to every thing conducive to the improvement of
commerce, that a short time before his death he gave directions to fit out a
squadron in the Caspian, in order to survey that sea, and to discover whether
it was connected either with the Euxine or Indian Ocean. Arrian, lib, vii. c. 16.
NOTE [20]. SECT. II. P. 23.
FROM this curious detail, we learn how imperfect ancient navigation was, even
in its most improved state. The voyage from Berenice to Ocelis could not have
taken thirty days, if any other course had been held than that of servilely following the windings of the coast. The voyage from Ocelis to Musiris would be
(according to Major Rennell) fifteen days' run for an European ship in the
modern style of navigation, being about seventeen hundred and fifty marine
miles, on a straight course. Introd. p. xxxvii. It is remarkable, that though
the Periplus Maris Erythrmei was written after the voyage of Hippalus, the chief
object of the author of it is to describe the ancient course along the coast of
Arabia and Persia, to the mouth of the Indus, and from thence down the western
shore of the continent to Musiris. I can account for this only b'y supposing that
VOL. III.-P




114    NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
from the unwillingness of mankind to abandon old habits, the greater part of
the traders from Berenice still continued to follow that route to which they
were accustomed. To go from Alexandria to Musiris, required (according to
Pliny) ninety-four days. In the year 1788, the Boddam, a ship belonging to
the English East India Company, of a thousand tons burden, took only fourteen
days more to complete her voyage from Portsmouth to Madras. Such are the
improvements which have be'en made in navigation.
NOTE [211. SECT. II. p. 24.
IT was the opinion of Plato, that in a well regulated commonwealth, the citizens should not engage in commerce, nor the state aim at obtaining maritime
power. Commerce, he contends, would corrupt the purity of their morals, and
by entering into the sea service they would be accustomed to find pretexts for
justifying conduct so inconsistent with what was manly and becoming, as would
gradually relax the strictness of military discipline. It had been better for the
Athenians, he asserts, to have continued to send annually the sons of seven of
th ir principal citizens to be devoured by the Minotaur, than to have changed
their ancient manners, and to have become a maritime power. In that perfect
republic, of which he delineates the form, he ordains that the capital should be
situated at least ten miles from the sea. De Legibus, lib. iv. ab. initio. These
ideas of Plato were adopted by other philosophers. Aristotle enters into a formal,discussion of the question, Whether a state rightly constituted should be com~mercial or not? and though abundantly disposed to espouse sentiments opposite,to those of Plato, he does not venture to decide explicitly with respect to it.
De Repub. lib. vii. c. 6. In ages when such opinions prevail, little information
concerning commerce can be expected.
NOTE [22]. SECT. II. P. 25.
PLINY, lib. ix. c. 35. Principium ergo culmenque omnium rerum prietij Margaritte tenent. In lib. xxxvii. c. 4, he affirms, Maximum in rebus humanis preetium,
non solum inter gammas,habetAdamas. These two passagesstand in such direct
contradiction to one another, that it is impossible to reconcile them, or to determine which is the most conformable to truth. I have adhered to the former,
because we have many instances of the exorbitant price of pearls, but none, as
-far as I know, of diamonds having been purchased at a rate so high. In this
opinion I am confirmed by a passage in Pliny, lib. xix. c. 1; having mentioned
the exorbitant price of A.Jsbestos, he says, "iequat prietia excellentium Margari.
tarum;" which implies that he considered pearls to be of a higher price than
any other commodity.
NOTE [23]. SECT. II. p. 25.
PLINY has devoted two entire books of his Natural History, lib. xii. and xiii.
to the enumeration and description of the spices, aromatics, ointments, and perfumes, the use of which luxury had introduced among his countrymen. As
many of these were the productions of India, or of the countries beyond it,
and as the trade with the East was carried on to a great extent in the age
of Pliny, we may form some idea of the immense demand for them, from the
high price at whichthey continue to be sold in Rome. To compare the prices of
the same commodities in ancient Rome, with those now paid in our own country,
is not a gratification of curiosity merely, but affords a standard by which we
may estimate the different degree of success with which the Indian trade has
been conducted in ancient and modern times. Many remarkable passages in
ancient authors concerning the extravagant price of precious stones and pearls
among the Romans, as well as the general use of them by persons of all ranks,
are collected by Meursius de Lux. Romanorum, cap. 5; and by Starnislaus
Robierzyckius,in his treatise on the same subject, lib.ii. c. 1. The English reader
will receive sufficient information from Dr. Arbuthnot, in his valuable Tablem
of ancient coins, weights, and measures, p. 172, &c.
NOTE [24]. SECT. IT. p. 26.
M. MAHUDEL, ill a memoir read in the Academy of inscriptions and belleslettres in the year 1719, has collected the various opinions of the ancients con



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.                                 115
cerning the nature and origin of silk, which tend all to prove their ignorance
with regard to it. Since the publication of M. Mahudel's Memoir, P. du Halde
has described a species of silk, of which I believe he communicated the first
notice to the moderns. "' This is produced by small insects nearly resembling
snails. They do not form cocoons either round or oval like the silkworm, but
spin very long threads, which fasten themselves to trees and bushes as they are
driven by the wind. These are gathered and wrought into silk stuffs, coarser
than those produced by domestic silkworms. The insects which produce this
coarse silk are wild." Description de l'Empire de la Chine, tom. ii. folio, p.
207. This nearly resembles Virgil's description:
Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres.-Georg. ii. 121.
An attentive reader of Virgil will find, that, besides all the other qualities of a
great descriptive poet, he possessed an extensive knowledge of natural history.
The nature and productions of the wild silkworms are illustrated at greater
length in the large collection of Mdmoires concernant l'Histoire, les Sciences,
les Arts, &c. des Chinois, tom. ii. p. 575, &c.; and by Pere de Mailla, in his
voluminous History of China, tom. xiii. p. 434. It is a singular circumstance in
the history of silk, that on account of its being an excretion of a worm, the Mahomedans consider it as an unclean dress; and it has been decided, with the
unanimous assent of all the doctors, that a person wearing a garment made
entirely of silk cannot lawfully offer up the daily prayers enjoined by the Koran.
Herbal. Bibl. Orient. artic. Harir.
NOTE [25]. SECT. II. p. 26.
IF the use of the cotton manufactures of India had been common among
the Romans, the various kinds of them would have been enumerated in the
Law de Publicanis et Vectigalibus, in the same manner as the different kinds of
spices and precious stones. Such a specification would have been equally necessary for the direction both of the merchant and of the taxgatherer
NOTE [26]. SECT. II. p. 27.
THIS part of Arrian's Periplus has been examined with great accuracy and
learning by Lieutenant Wilford; and from his investigation it is evident that
the Plithana of Arrian is the modern Pultanah, on the southern banks of the
river Godavery, two hundred and seventeen British miles south from Baroach;
that the position of Tagara is the same with that of the modern Dowlatabad,
and the high grounds across which the goods were conveyed to Baroach, are
the Ballagaut mountains. The bearings and distances of these different places,
as specified by Arrian, afford an additional proof (were that necessary) of the
exact information which he had received concerning this district of India.
Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 369, S&c.
NOTE [27]. SECT. II. p. 29.
STRABO acknowledges his neglect of the improvements in geography which
Hipparchus had deduced from astronomical observations, and justifies it by one
of those logical subtleties which the ancients were apt to introduce into all their
writings. A geographer," says he (i. e. a describer of the earth), " is to pay no
attention to what is out of the earth; nor will men, engaged in conducting the
affairs of that part of the earth which is inhabited, deem the distinction and
divisions of Hipparchus worthy of notice." Lib. ii. 194. C.
NOTE [28]. SECT. II. P. 29.
WHAT a high opinion the ancients had of Ptolemy we learn from Agathemerus, who flourished not long after him. " Ptolemy," says he, "who reduced
Geography into a regular system, treats of every thing relating to it not carelessly, or merely according to ideas of his own, but attending to what had been
delivered by more ancient authors, he adopted from them whatever he found
consonant to truth." Epitome Geogr. lib. i. c. 6. edit. Hudson. From the
same admiration of his work, Agathodaemon, an artist of Alexandria, prepared
a series of maps for the illustration of it, in which the position of all the places




116         NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
mentioned by Ptolemy, with their longitude and latitude, is laid down precisely
according to his ideas. Fabric. Biblioth. Graec. iii. 412.
NOTE [29]. SECT. II. P. 30.
As these public Surveys and Itineraries furnished the ancient geographers
with the best information concerning the position and distances of many places,
it may be proper to point out the manner in which they were completed by the
Romans. The idea of a general survey of the whole empire was first formed
by Julius Cesar, and having been begun by him under authority of a decree of
the senate, was finished by Augustus. As Rome was still far inferior to Greece
in science, the execution of this great undertaking was committed to three
Greeks, men of great abilities, and skilled in every part of philosophy. The
survey of the eastern division of the Empire was finished by Zenodoxus in
fourteen years five months and nine days. That of the northern division was
finished by Theodorus in twenty years eight months and ten days. The soutihern division was finished in twenty-five years one month and ten days. ZEthici
Cosmographia apud Geographos, editos a Hen. Stephano, 1577. p. 107. This
undertaking was worthy of those illustrious persons who planned it, and suited
to the magnificence of a great people. Besides this general survey, every new
war produced a new delineation and measurement of the countries which were
the seat of it. We may conclude from Vegetius, Instit. Rei Militaris, lib. iii. c.
6, that every governor of a Roman province was furnished with a description
of it; in which were specified the distance of places in miles, the nature of the
roads, the by-roads, the short cuts, the mountains, the rivers, &c.; all these, says
he, were not only described in words, but were delineated in a map, that, in
deliberating concerning his military movements, the eyes of a general might
aid the decisions of his mind.
NOTE [30]. SECT. II. P. 30.
THE consequence of this mistake is remarkable. Ptolemy, lib. vii. c. i. computes the latitude of Barrygaza, or Baroach, to be 170 20'; and that of Cory,
or Cape Comorin, to be 130 20',%vhich is the difference of four degrees precisely;
whereas the real difference between these two places is nearly fourteen degrees.
NOTE [31]. SECT. II. P. 30.
RAMUsIo, the publisher of the most ancient and perhaps the most valuable
Collection of Voyages, is the first person, as far as I know, who takes notice of
this strange error of Ptolemy. Viaggi, vol. i. p. 181. He justly observes, that
the author of the Circumnavigation of the Erythruean Sea had been more accurate, and had described the peninsula of India as extending from north to south.
Peripl. p. 24. 29.
NOTE [32]. SECT. II. p. 31.
THIS error of Ptolemy justly merits the name of enormous, which I have given
to it; and it will appear more surprising when we recollect that he must have
been acquainted, not only with what Herodotus relates concerning the circumnavigation of Africa, by order of one of the Egyptian Kings, lib. iv. c. 4, but
with the opinion of Eratosthenes, who held that the great extent of the Atlantic
Ocean was the only thing which prevented a communication between Europe
and India by sea. Strab. Geogr. lib. i. p. 113. A. This error, however, must
not be imputed wholly to Ptolemy. Hipparchus, whom we may consider as his
guide, had taught that the earth is not surrounded by one continuous ocean, but
that it is separated by different isthmuses, which divide it into several large
basins. Strab. lib. i. p. 11. B. Ptolemy, having adopted this opinion, was
induced to maintain that an unknown country extended from Cattigara to Prassum, on the south-east coast of Africa, Geogr. lib. vii. c. 3. and 5. As Ptolemy's
system of geography was universally received, this error spread along with it.
In conformity to it the Arabian geographer Edrissi, who wrote in the twelfth
century, taught that a continued tract of la ld stretched eastward from Sofala,
on the African coast, until it united with some part of the Indian continent
D'Anville, Antiq. p. 187. Annexed to the first volume of Gesta Dei per Fran.cos, there is an ancient and very rude map of the habitable globe, delineated




NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.    117
according to this idea of Ptolemy. M. Gosselin, in his map entitled Ptolemnei
Systema Geographicum, has exhibited this imaginary tract of land wjhich
Ptolemy supposes to have connected Africa with Asia. Gdographie des Grecs
analysde.
NOTE [33]. SECT. II. P.31.
IN this part of the Disquisition, as well as in the map prepared for illustrating
it, the geographical ideas of M. D'Anville, to which Major Rennell has given
the sanctiln of his approbation, Introd. p. xxxix. have been generally adopted.
But M. Gosselin has lately published " The Geography of the Greeks analyzed;
or, the Systems of Eratosthenes, Strabo, and Ptolemy compared with each other,
and with the knowledge which the moderns have acquired;" a learned and
ingenious work, in which he differs from his countrymen with respect to many
of his determinations. According to M. Gosselin, the Magnum Promontorium,
which M. D'Anville concludes to be Cape Romania, at the southern extremity
of the peninsula of Malacca, is the point of Bragu, at the mouth of the great
river Ava; near to which he places Zaba, supposed by M. D'Anville, and by
Barros, Decad. ii. lib. vi. c. 1, to be situated on the strait of Sincapura or
Malacca. The Magnus Sinus of Ptolemy, he holds to be the same with the
Gulf of Martaban, not the Gulf of Siam, according to M. D'Anville's decision.
The position of Cattigara, as he endeavours to prove, corresponds to that of
Mergui, a considerable port on the west coast of the kingdom of Siam, and that
Thinm, or Sinme Metropolis, which M. D'Anville removes, as far as Sin-hoa ir
the kingdom of Cochin China, is situated on the same river with Mergui, and
now bears the name of Tana-serim. The Ibadij Insula of Ptolemy, which M.
D'Anville determines to be Sumatra, he contends is one of that cluster of small
isles which lie off this part of the coast of Siam; p. 137-148. According to
M. Gosselin's system, the ancients never sailed through the Straits of Malacca,
had no knowledge of the island of Sumatra, and were altogether unacquainted
with the Eastern ocean. If to any of my readers these opinions appear to be
well founded, the navigation and commerce of the ancients in India must be
circumscribed within limits still more confined than those which I have allotted
to them. From the Ayeen Akbery, vol. ii. p. 7, we learn that Cheen was an
ancient name of the kingdom of Pegu. As that country borders upon Ava,
where M. Gosselin places the great Promontory, this near resemblance of names
may appear, perhaps, to confirm his opinion that Sinae Metropolis was situated
on this coast, and not so far east as M. D'Anville has placed it.
As Ptolemy's geography of this eastern division of Asia is more erroneous,
obscure, and contradictory than any other part of his work, and as all the manuscripts of it, both Greek and Latin, are remarkably incorrect in the two chapters
which contain the description of the countries beyond the Ganges, M. D'Anville, in his Memoir concerning the limits of the world, known to the ancients
beyond the Ganges, has admitted into it a larger portion of conjecture than we
find in the other researches of that cautious geographer. He likewise builds
more than usual upon the resemblances between the ancient and modern names
of places, though at all times he discovers a propensity, perhaps too great, to
trace these, and to rest upon them. These resemblances are often, indeed, very
striking, and have led him to many happy discoveries. But in perusing his
works, it is impossible, I should think, not to perceive that some which he mentions are far fetched and fanciful. Whenever I follow him, I have adopted only
such conclusions as seem to be established with his accustomed accuracy.
NOTE [34]. SECT. II. P. 35.
THE author of the Circumnavigation of the Erythrman Sea has marked the
distances of many of the places which he mentions, with such accuracy as
renders it a nearer approach, than what is to be found in any writer of antiquity,
to a complete survey of the coast from Myos-hormus, on the west side of the
Arabian Gulf, along the shores of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and Caramania, to
the mouth of the Indus, and thence down the west coast of the Indian Peninsula to Musiris and Barace. This adds to the value of this short treatise,
which, in every other respect, possesses great merit. It may be considered as
a remarkable proof of the extent and accuracy of this author's intelligence con




118        NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
cerning India, that he is the only ancient writer who appears in any degree to
have been acquainted with the great division of the country, which still subsists, viz. Indostan Proper, comprehending the northern provinces of the Peninsula, and the Deccan, comprehending the southern provinces. " From Barygaza (says he) the continent stretches to the south; hence that district is called
Dachinabades, for, in the language of the country, the south is called Dachanos."
Peripl. p. 29. As the Greeks and Romans, when they adopt any foreign name,
always give it a termination peculiar to their own language, which the grammatical structure of both tongues rendered in some degree necessary, it is evident that the Dachanos is the same with Deccan, which word has still the same
signification, and is still the name of that division of the Peninsula. The
northern limit of the Deccan at present is the river Narbudda, where our author
likewise fixes it. Peripl. ibid.
NOTE [35]. SECT. II. P. 16.
THOUGH in deducing the latitudes of places from observations of the sun ox
stars, the ancient astronomers neglected several corrections which ought to have
been applied, their results were sometimes exact to a few minutes; but at other
times they appear to have been erroneous to the extent of two or even three
degrees, and may perhaps be reckoned,- one with another, to have come within
half a degree of the truth. This part of the ancient geography would therefore
have been tolerably accurate, if there had been a sufficient number of such determinations. These, however, were far from being numerous, and appear to have
been confined to some of the more remarkable places in the countries which surround the Mediterranean Sea.
When, from want of more accurate observations, the latitude was inferred
from the length of the longest or shortest day, no great degree of precision was,
in any case, to be expected, and least of all in the vicin'ity of the Equator. An
error of a quarter of an hour, which, without some mode of measuring time
more accurate than ancient observers could employ, was not easily avoided, might
produce, in such situations, an error of four degrees in the determination of the
latitude.
With respect to places in the torrid zone, there was another resource for de.
termining the latitude. This was by observing the time of year when the sun
was vertical to any place, or when bodies that stood perpendicular to the horizon had no shadow at noonday; the sun's distance from the Equator at that
time, which was known from the principles of astronomy, was equal to the
latitude of the place. We have instances of the application of this method
in the determination of the parallels of Sy-ene and Meroe. The accuracy which
this method would admit of seems to be limited to about half a degree, and
this only on the supposition that the observer was stationary; for if he was
travelling from one place to another, and had not an opportunity of correcting
the observation of one day by that of the day following, he was likely to deviate
much more considerably from the truth.
With respect to the longitude of places, as eclipses of the moon are not frequent, and could seldom be of use for determining it, and only when there were
astronomers to observe them with accuracy, they may be left out of the account
altogether, when we are examining the geography of remote countries. The
differences of the meridians of places were therefore anciently ascertained
entirely by the bearings and distances of one place from another, and of consequence all the errors of reckonings, surveys, and itineraries, fell chiefly upon the
longitude, in the same manner as happens at present in a ship which has no
method of determining its longitude, but by comparing the dead reckoning with
the observations of the latitude; though with this difference, that the errors to
which the most skilful of the ancient navigators was liable, were far greater than
what the most ignorant ship-lnaster of modern times, provided with a compass,
can well commit. The length of the Mediterranean measured, in degrees of
longitude, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Bay of Issus, is less than forty
degrees; but in Ptolemy's maps it is more than sixty; and in general, its longitudes, counting from the meridian of Alexandria, especially towards the East,
are erroneous nearly in the same proportion. It appears, indeed, that in remote
seas, the coasts were often delineated from an imperfect account of the distances




NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.    119
salled, without the least knowledge of the bearings or direction of the ship's
course.  Ptolemy, it is true, used to nmake an allowance of about one
third for the winding of a ship's course. Geogr. lib. i. c. 12; but it is plain
that the application of this general rule could seldom lead to an accurate
conclusion. Of this there is a striking instance in the form which that
geographer has given to the Peninsula of India. From  the Barygazenum
Promontorium  to the place marked Locus unde solvunt in Chrysen navigantes, that is, from Surat on the Malabar coast to about Narsapour on
the Coromandel coast, the distance measured along the sea shore is nearly
the same with what it is in reality; that is, about five hundred and twenty
leagues. But the mistake in the direction is astonishing; for the Malabar and
Coromandel coast, instead of stretching to the south, and intersecting one
another at Cape Comorin, in a very acute angle, are extended by Ptolemy
almost in the same straight line from west to east, declining a little to the south.
Thit coast is, at the same time, marked with several bays and promontories,,,early resembling, in their position, those which actually exist on it. All these
circumstances compared together, point out very clearly what were the materials
from which the ancient map of India was composed. The ships which had
visited the coast of that country, had kept an account of the time which they
took to sail from one place to another, and had marked, as they stood along
shore, on what hand the land lay, when they shaped their course across a bay
or doubled a promontory. This imperfect journal, with an inaccurate account,
perhaps of the latitude of one or two places, was probably all the information
concerning the coast of India which Ptolemy was able to procure. That he
should have been able to procure no better information from merchants who
sailed with no particular view of exploring the coast, will not appear wonderful,
if we consider that even the celebrated Periplus of Hanno would not enable a
geographer to lay down the coast of Africa with more precision than Ptolemy
has delineated that of India.
NOTE [36]. SECT. II. p. 39.
THE introduction of the silkworm into Europe, and the effects which this produced, came under the view of Mr. Gibbon, in writing the History of the
Emperor Justinian; and though it was an incident of subordinate importance
only, amidst the multiplicity of great transactions, which must have occupied
his attention, he has examined this event with an accuracy, and related it with
a precision, which would have done honour to an author who had no higher
object of research. Vol. iv. p. 71, &c. Nor is it here only that I am called
upon to ascribe to him this merit. The subject of my inquiries has led me
several times upon ground which he had gone over, and I have uniformly
received information from the industry and discernment with which he has surveyed it.
NOTE [37]. SECT. III. p. 40.
THIS voyage, together with the observations of Abu Zeid al HIasan of Siraf,
was published by M. Renaudot, A. D. 1718, under the title of " Anciennes Relations des Indes, et de la Chine, de deux Voyageurs Mahomdtans, qui y allerent
cans le Neuvieme Siecle, traduites de I'Arabe, avec des Remarques sur les principaux Endroits de ces Relations." As M. Renaudot, in his remarks, represents
the literature and police of the Chinese in colour very different from those of
the splendid descriptions which a blind admiration had prompted the Jesuits to
publish, two zealous missionaries have called in question the authenticity of
these relations, and have asserted that the authors of them had never been in
China; P. Premare Lettr. edifiantes et curieuses, tom. xix. p. 420, &c. P.
Parennin, ibid. tom. xxi. p. 158, &c. Some doubts concerning their authenticity were entertained likewise by several learned men in England, on account
of M. Renaudot's having given no notice of the manuscript which he translated,
but that he found it in the library of M. le Comte de Seignelay. As no person
had seen the manuscript since that time, the doubts increased, and M. Renaudot
was charged with the crime of imposing upon the public. But the Colbert
Manuscripts having been deposited in the King's library, as (fortunately for
literature) most private collections are in France, M. de Guignes, after a long




12G, _ NOTES AND ILLUSTR'ATIONS.
search, discovered the identical manuscript to which M. Renaudot refers. It
appears to have been written in the 12th century; Journal des Savans, Dec.
764, p. 315, &c. As I had not the French edition of M. Renaudot's book, my
references are made to the English translation. The relation of the two Arabian
travellers is confirmed in many points by their countryman Massoudi, who published his treatise on universal history, to which he gives the fantastical title of
" Meadows of Gold, and Mines of Jewels," a hundred and sixty years after their
time. From hinm, likewise, we receive such an account of India in the tenth
century, as renders it evident that the Arabians had then acquired an extensive
knowledge of that country. According to his description, the Peninsula of India
was divided into four kingdoms. The first was composed of the provinces situated on the Indus, and the rivers which fall into it; the capital of which was
Moultan. The capital of the second kingdom was Canoge, which, from the
ruins of it still remaining, appears to have been a very large city; Rennell's
Memoirs, p. 54. In order to give an idea of its populousness, the Indian historians assert, that it contained thirty thousand shops, in which betelnut was sold,
and sixty thousand sets of musicians and singers, who paid a tax to government;
Ferishta, translated by Dow, vol. i. p. 32. The third kingdom was Cachemire.
Massoudi, as far as I know, is the first author who mentions this paradise of
India, of which he gives a short but just description. The fourth is the kingdom
of Guzerate, which he represents as the greatest and most powerful; and he
concurs with the two Arabian travellers in giving the sovereigns of it the appellation of Belhara. What Massoudi relates concerning India is more worthy of
notice, as he himself had visited that country; Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothdque du Roi, tom. i. p. 9, 10. Massoudi confirms what the
two Arabian travellers relate, concerning the extraordinary progress of the
Indians in astronomical science. According to his account, a temple was built
during the reign of Brahmin, the first monarch of India, with twelve towers,
representing the twelve signs of the zodiac; and in which was delineated a view
of all the stars as they appear in the Heavens. In the same reign was composed
the famous Sind-Hind, which seems to be the standard treatise of Indian astronomy; Notices, &c. tom. i. p. 7. Another Arabian author, who wrote about the
middle of the fourteenth century, divides India into three parts. The northern,
comprehending all the provinces on the Indus.  The middle, extending from
Guzerate to the Ganges. The southern, which he denominates Comar, from
Cape Comorin; Notices, &c. tom. ii. p. 46.
NOTE [381. SECT. III. p. 41.
THE naval skill of the Chinese seems not to have been superior to that of the
Greeks, the Romans, or Arabians. The course which they held from Canton to
Siraf, near the mouth of the Persian Gulf, is described by their own authors.
They kept as near as possible to the shore, until they reached the island of Ceylon, and then doubling Cape Comorin, they sailed along the west side of the
Peninsula, as far as the mouth of the Indus, and thence steered along the coast
to the place of their destination; Menm. de Littdrat. tom. xxxii. p. 367. Some
authors have contended, that both the Arabians and Chinese were well acquainted with the mariner's compass, and the use of it in navigation: but it is
remarkable that in the Arabic, Turkish, and Persian languages, there is no original
name for the compass. They commonly call it Bosola, the Italian name, which
shows that the knowledge of this useful instrument was corrmmunicated to them
by the Europeans. There is not one single observation, of ancient date, made
by the Arabians on the variation of the needle, or any instruction deduced from
it, for the assistance of navigators. Sir John Chardin, one of the most learned
and best informed travellers who has visited the East, having been consulted
upon this point, returns for answer, " I boldly assert, that the Asiatics are
beholden to us for this wonderful instrument, which they had from Europe a
long time before the Portuguese conquests. For, first, their compasses are
exactly like ours, and they buy them of Europeans as much as they can, scarce
daring to meddle with their needles themselves. Secondly, it is certain that
the old navigators only coasted it along, which 1 impute to their want of this
instrument to guide and instruct them in the middle of the ocean. We cannot
pretend to say that they were afraid of venturing far from home; for the Ara



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.                                12i
bians, the first navigators in the world, in my opinion, at least for the eastern
seas, have, time out of mind, sailed from the bottom of the Red Sea, all along
the coast of Africa: and the Chinese have always traded with Java and Sumatra, which is a very considerable voyage. So many islands uninhabited and
yet productive, so many lands unknown to the people I speak of, are a proof
that the old navigators had not the art of sailing on the main sea. I have
nothing but argument to offer, touching this matter, having never met with any
person in Persia or the Indies to inform me when the compass was first known
among them, though I made inquiry of the most learned men in both countries.
I have sailed from the Indies to Persia in Indian ships, when no European has
been on board but myself. The pilots were all Indians, and they used the forestaff and quadrant for their observations. These instruments they have from
us, and made by our artists, and they do not in the least vary from ours, except
that the characters are Arabic. The Arabians are the most skilful navigators
of all the Asiatics or Africans; but neither they nor the Indians make use of
charts; and they do not much want them: some they have, but they are copied
from ours, for they are altogether ignorant of perspective." Inquiry when the
Mahomedans first entered China, p. 141, &c. When M. Niebuhr was at Cairo,
he found a magnetic needle in the possession of a Mahomedan, which served to
point out the Kaaba, and he gave it the name of El JlTagnatis, a clear proof of
its European origin. Voyage en Arabie, tom. ii. p. 169.
NOTE [39]. SECT. III. p. 41.
SOME learned men, Cardan, Scaliger, &c. have imagined that the Vasa Mur
rhina, particularly described by Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. xxxvii. and occasionally
mentioned by several ancient authors, both Greek and Roman, were the true
porcelain of China. M. l'Abbe Le Bland and M. Larcher have examined this
opinion, with full as much industry and erudition as the subject merited, in two
Dissertations, published in Mdm. de Littdrat. tom. xliii. From them it is evident that the Vasa Murrhina were formed of a transparent stone, dug out of
the earth in some of the eastern provinces of Asia. These were imitated in
vessels of coloured glass. As both were beautiful and rare, they were sold at a
very high price to the luxurious citizens of Rome.
NOTE [40]. SECT. III. p. 42.
THE progress of Christianity, and of Mahomedanism, both in Chitna ar  incara,
is attested by such evidence as leaves no doubt with respect to it.'I lis evidence is collected by Assemanus, Biblioth. Orient. vol. iv. p. 437, &c 5'l, &c.;
and by M. Renaudot, in two Dissertations annexed to Anciennes Relatiions; and
by M. de la Croze, Histoire de Christianisme des Indes. In our own age, however, we know that the number of proselytes to either of these religions, is
extremely small, especially in India. A Gentoo considers all the distinctions
and privileges of his cast as belonging to him by an exclusive and incommunicable right. To convert, or to be converted, are ideas equally repugnant to the
principles most deeply rooted in his mind; nor can either the Catholic or Protestant missionaries in India boast of having overcome these prejudices, except
among a few in the lowest camts. or of such as have lost their cast altogether.
This last circumstance is a great obstacle to the progress of Christianity in
India. As Europeans eat the flesh of that animal which the Hindoos deem
sacred, and drink intoxicating liquors, in which practices ihey are imitated by
the converts to Christianity, this sinks them to a level with the Pariars, the
most contemptible and odious race of men. Some Catholic missionaries were
so sensible of this, that they affected to imitate the dress and manner of living
of Brahmins, and refused to associate with the Pariars, or to admit them to the
participation of the sacraments. But this was condemned by the apostolic
legate Tournon, as inconsistent with the spirit and precepts of the Christian
religion; Voyage aux Indes Orientales, par M. Sonnerat, tom. i. p. 58, note.
Notwithstanding the labours of missionaries for upwards of two hundred years
(says a late ingenious writer), and the establishments of different Christian
nations, who support and protect them, out of perhaps, one hundred millions ot
Hindoos, there are not twelve thousand Christians, and those almost entirely
Chancalans, or outcasts. Sketches relating to the history, religion, learning, and
VOL. III.-Q




I1Z2        NVOtES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
manners of the Hindoos, p. 48. The number of Mahomedans, or Moors, now
in Indostan, is supposed to be near ten millions; but they are not the original
inhabitants of the country, but the descendants of adventurers who have been
pouring in from Tartary, Persia, and Arabia, ever since the invasion of Mahmoud of Gazna, A. D. 1002, the first Mahomedan conqueror of India. Orme
Hist. of Military Transact. in Indostan, vol. i. p. 24. Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient.
artic. Gasnaviah. As the manners of the Indians in ancient times seem to have
been in every respect the same with those of the present age, it is probable that
the Christians and Mahomedans, said to be so numerous in India and China,
were chiefly foreigners allured thither by a lucrative commerce, or their descendants. The number of Mahomedans in China, has been considerably
increased by a practice, common among them, of buying children in years of
famine, whom they educate in the Mahomedan religion. Hist. Gdn&r. des Voyages, tom. vi. p. 357.
NOTE [41]. SECT. III. p. 44.
FROM the Chronicle of Andrew Dandulo, Doge of Venice, who was elevated
to that high station, at a time when his countrymen had established a regular
trade with Alexandria, and imported from it all the productions of the East, it
was natural to expect some information concerning their early trade with that
country; but, except an idle tale concerning some Venetian ships, which had
sailed to Alexandria about the year 828, contrary to a decree of the state, and
which stole thence the body of St. Mark; Murat. Script. Rer. Ital. vol. xii. lib.
8. c. 2. p. 170; I find no other hint concerning the communication between the
two countries. On the contrary, circumstances occur which show that the
resort of Europeans to Egypt had ceased almost entirely for some time. Prior
to the seventh and eight centuries, the greater part of the public deeds in Italy
and in other countries of Europe, were written upon paper fabricated of the
Egyptian Papyrus; but after that period, as Europeans seldom ventured to
trade in Alexandria, almost all charters and other deeds are written upon parchment. Murat. Antiq. Ital. Medii Evi, vol. iii. p. 832. I have been induced,
both in the text and in this note, to state these particulars concerning the inter-uption of trade between the Christians and Mahomedans so fully, in order to.orrect an error into which several modern authors have fallen, by supposing,
hat soon after the first conquest of the Caliphs, the trade with India returned
nto its ancient channels, and the merchants of Europe resorted with the same
~reedom as formerly to the ports of Egypt and Syria.
NOTE [42]. SECT. III. p. 45.
IT.s proper to remark (says Mr. Stewart) that the Indians have an admirable
nvthod of rendering their religion lucrative, it being usual for the Faquirs to
a ry with them, in their pilgrimages from the sea coasts to the interior parts,
labtls, corals, spices, and other precious articles, of small bulk, which they ext haages, on their return, for gold dust, musk, and other things of a similar nature,
eoncaaialg them easily in their hair, and in the clothes round their middle, carrying &,i in proportion to their numbers, no inconsiderable traffic by these
means.  Account of the kingdom of Thibet, Philos. Transact. vol. lxvii. part ii.
p. 483.
NOTE [43]. SECT. III. p. 48.
CAFFA AM the most commodious situation for trade in the Black Sea. While
in the hands of the Genoese, who kept possession of it above two centuries, they
rendered it the seat of an extensive and flourishing commerce. Even under all
the disadvantages of its subjection, at present, to the Turkish government, it
continues to be a place of considerable trade. Sir John Chardin, who visited it
A. D.. 1672, relates that during his residence of forty days there, above four
hundred ships arrived at Caffa, or sailed from it. Voyages, i. 48. He observed
there several remains of Genoese magnificence. The number of its inhabitants,
according to M. Peysonel, amounts still to eighty thousand. Commerce de a
Mer Noire, tom. i. p. 15. He describes its trade as very great.




NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.                                123
NOTE [44]. SECT. III. p. 49.
THE rapacity and insolence of the Genoese, settled in Constantinople, are
painted by Nicephorus Gregoras, an eye-witness of their conduct, in very striking colours. " They," says he, " now, i. e. about the year 1340, dreamed that
they had acquired the dominion of the sea, and claimed an exclusive right to
the trade of the Euxine, prohibiting the Greeks to sail to the Mmotis, the Chersonesus, or any part of the coast beyond the mouth of the Danube, without a
license from them. This exclusion they extended likewise to the Venetians,
and their arrogance proceeded so far as to form a scheme of imposing a toll
upon every vessel passing through the Bosphorus."  Lib. xviii. c. 2. ~ 1.
NOTE [45]. SECT. III. p. 49.
A PERMIssION from the Pope was deemed so necessary to authorize a commercial intercourse with infidels, that long after this period, in the year 1454,
Nicholas V. in his famous bull in favour of Prince Henry of Portugal, among
other privileges, grants him a license to trade with Mahomedans, and refers to
similar concessions from Pope Martin V. and Eugenius to Kings of Portugal.
Leibnitz Codex Jur. Gent. Diplomat. Pars. I. p. 489.
NOTE [46]. SECT. III. p. 49.
NEITHER Jovius, the professed panegyrist of the Medici, nor Jo. M. Brutus,
their detractor, though both mention the exorbitant wealth of the family, explain
the nature of the trade, by which it was acquired.. Even Machiavel, whose
genius delighted in the investigation of every circumstance which contributed
to aggrandize or depress nations, seems not to have viewed the commerce of
his country as a subject that merited any elucidation. Denina, who has entitled
the first chapter of his eighteenth book, "The Origin of the Medici and the
Commencement of their Power and Grandeur," furnishes little information
with regard to the trade carried on by them. This silence of so many authors
is a proof that historians had not yet begun to view commerce as an object of
such importance in the political state of nations, as to enter into any detail concerning its nature and effects. From the references of different writers to Scipio
Ammirato, Istorie Fiorentine; to Pagnini, Della Decimated altri gravezze della
Mercatura di Fiorentini; and to Balducci, Practica della Mercatura, I should
imagine that something more satisfactory might be learned concerning the trade
both of the republic and the family of Medici; but I could not find any of these
books either in Edinburgh or in London.
NOTE [47]. SECT. III. p. 50.
LEIBNITZ has preserved a curious paper, containing the instructions of the
republic of Florence to the two ambassadors sent to the Soldan of Egypt, in
order to negotiate this treaty with him, together with the report of these ambassadors on their return. The great object of the republic was to obtain liberty
of trading in all parts of the Soldan's dominions, upon the same terms with the
Venetians. The chief privileges which they solicited, were; 1. A perfect freedom of admission into every port belonging to the Soldan, protection while they
continued in it, and liberty of departure at what time they chose. 2. Permission to have a consul, with the same rights and jurisdiction as those of the
Venetians; and liberty to build a church, a warehouse, and a bath in every place
where they settled. 3. That they should not pay for goods imported or exported,
higher duties than were paid by the Venetians. 4. That the effects of any
Florentine who died in the dominions of the Soldan, should be consigned to the
consul. 5. That the gold and silver coin of Florence should be received in
payments. All these privileges (which show on what equal and liberal terms
Christians and Mahomedans now carried on trade) the Florentines obtained;
but from the causes mentioned in the text they seem never to have acquired
any considerable share in the commerce with India. Leibnitz, Mantissa Cod.
Jur. Gent. Diplom. Pars alters, p. 163.
NOTE [48]. SECT. III. p. 52.
THE Eastern parts of Asia are now so completely explored, that the first




124           NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
imperfect accounts of them, by Marco Polo, attract little of that attention wlich
was originally excited by the publication of his travels; and some circumstances
in his narrative have induced different authors to justify this neglect, by calling
in question the truth of what he relates, and even to assert that he had never
visited those countries which he pretends to describe. He does not, say they,
ascertain the position of any one place, by specifying its longitude or latitude.
He gives names to provinces and cities, particularly in his description of Cathay,
which have no resemblance to those which they now bear. We may observe,
however, that as Marco Polo seems to have been in no degree a man of science,
it was not to be expected that he should fix the position of places with geographical accuracy. As he travelled through China, either in the suite of' the
great Khan, or in execution of his orders, it is probable that the names which
he gives to different provinces and cities, are those by which they were known to
the Tartars, in whose service he was, not their original Chinese names. Some
inaccuracies which have been observed in the relation of his travels, may be
accounted for, by attending to one circumstance, that it was not published from
a regular journal, which, perhaps, the vicissitudes in his situation, during such
a long series of adventures, did not permit him to keep or to preserve. It was
composed after his return to his native country, and chiefly from recollection.
But notwithstanding this disadvantage, his account of those regions of the East,
towards which my inquiries have been directed, contains information with
respect to several particulars altogether unknown in Europe at that time, the
accuracy of which is now fully confirmed. Mr. Marsden, whose accuracy and
discernment are well known, traces his description of the island which he calls
Java Minor, evidently Sumatra: from which it is apparent that, as Marco Polo
had resided a considerable time in that island, he had examined some parts with
care, and had inquired with diligence concerning others. Hist. of Sumat.
p. 281. I shall mention some other particulars with respect to India, which,
though they relate to matters of no great consequence, afford the best proof of
his having visited these countries, and of his having observed the manners and
customs of the people with attention. He gives a distinct account of the nature
and preparation of Sago, the principal article of subsistence among all the
nations of Malayan race, and he brought the first specimen of this singular production to Venice. Ramus. lib. iii. c. 16. He takes notice, likewise, of the
general custom of chewing Betel, and his description of the mode of preparing
it is the same with that still in use. Rarrmus. Viaggi. i. p. 55. D. 56. B. He
even descends into such detail as to mention the peculiar manner of feeding
horses in India, which still continues. Ramus. p. 53. F. What is of greater
importance, we learn from him that the trade with Alexandria continued, when
he travelled through India, to be carried on in the same manner as I conjectured
it to have been in ancient times. The commodities of the East were still
brought to the Malabar coast by vessels of the country, and conveyed thence,
together with pepper and other productions, peculiar to that part of India, by
ships which arrived from the Red Sea. Lib. iii. c. 27. This, perhaps, may
account for the superior quality which Sanudo ascribes to the goods brought to
the coast of Syria from the Persian Gulf, above those imported into Egypt by
the Red Sea. The former were chosen and purchased in the places where
they grew, or where they were manufactured, by the merchants of Persia, who
still continued their voyages to every part of the East; while the Egyptian
merchants, in making up their cargoes, depended upon the assortment of goods
brought to the Malabar coast by the natives. To some persons in his own age,
what Marco Polo related concerning the numerous armies and immense revenues of the Eastern Princes, appeared so extravagant (though perfectly consonant to what we now know concerning the population of China, and the
wealth of Indostan), that they gave him the name of.Messer MIarco JMelionz.
Prefat. de Ramus. p. 4. But among persons better informed, the reception he
mnet with was very different. Columbus, as well as the men of science with
whom he corresponded, placed such confidence in the veracity of his relations,
that upon them the speculations and theories, which led to the discovery of the
New World, were in a great measure founded. Life. of Columbus, by his son,
e. 7. and 8.




NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.    125
NOTE [49]. SECT. III. P. 54.
IN the year 1301, Joanna of Navarre, the wife of Philip le Bel, King of France,
having been some days in Bruges, was so much struck with the grandeur and
wealth of that city, and particularly with the splendid appearance of the citizens' wives, that she was moved (says Guicciardini) by female envy to exclaim
with indignation, " I thought that I had been the only Queen here, but I find
there are many hundreds more."  Descrit. de Paesi Bassi, p. 408.
NOTE [50]. SECT. III. p. 55.
IN the history of the reign of Charles V. p. 64, I observe that, during
the war excited by the famous League of Cambray, while Charles VIII. of
France could not procure money at a less premium than forty-two per cent.,
the Venetians raised what sums they pleased at five per cent. But this, I imagine, is not to be considered as the usual commercial rate of interest at that
period, but as a voluntary and public spirited effort of the citizens, in order to
support their country at a dangerous crisis. Of such laudable exertions there
are several striking instances in the history of the republic. In the year 1379,
when the Genoese, after obtaining a great naval victory over the Venetians,
were ready to attack their capital, the citizens, by a voluntary contribution,
enabled the Senate to fit out such a powerful armament as saved their country.
Sabellicus, Hist. Rer. Venet. dec. ii. lib. vi. p. 3835 390. In the war with Ferrara, which began in the year 1472, the senate. felying upon the attachment of
he citizens to their country, required them to bring all their gold and silver
plate, and jewels, into the public treasury, upon promise of paying the value of
them  at the conclusion of the war, with five per cent. of interest; and this
requisition was complied with cheerfully. Petr. tyrnieus de Bello Ferrar. ap.
Murat. Script. Rer. Ital. vol. xxi. p. 1016.
NOTE [51]. SECT. III. p. 55.
Two facts may be mentioned as proofs of an extraordinary extension of the
Venetian trade at this period. —— l. There is, in Rymer's Great Collection, a
series of grants from the Kings of England, of various privileges and immunities to Venetian merchants trading in England, as well as several commercial
treaties with the republic, which plainly indicate a considerable increase of their
transactions in that country. These are mentioned in their order by Mr. Anderson, to whose patient industry and sound understanding, every person engaged
in any commercial research, must have felt himself greatly indebted on many
occasions. —— 2. The establishment of a Bank, by public authority, the credit
of which was founded on that of the state. In an age and nation so well acquainted with the advantages which commerce derives from the institution of
banks, it is unnecessary to enumerate them. Mercantile transactions must
have been numerous and extensive before the utility of such an institution could
be fully perceived, or the principles of trade could be so fully understood as to
form the regulations proper for conducting it with success. Venice may boast
of having given the first example to Europe, of an establishment altogether
unknown to the ancients, and which is the pride of the modern commercial system. The constitution of the Bank of Venice was originally founded on such
just principles, that it has served as a model in the establishment of banks in
other countries, and the administration of its affairs has been conducted with so
much integrity, that its credit has never been shaken. I cannot specify the
precise year in which the Bank of Venice was established by a law of the State.
Anderson supposes it to have been A. D. 1157. Chron. Deduct. vol. i. p. 84.
Sandi Stor. Civil Venes. part II. vol. ii. p. 768. part III. vol. ii. p. 892.
NOTE [52]. SECT. III. p. 55.
AN Italian author of good credit, and a diligent inquirer into the ancient history of its different governments, affirms that if the several states which traded
in the Mediterranean had united together, Venice alone would have been superior to them all in naval power and in extent of commerce. Denina Reevolutions d'Italie, traduites par l'AbbW Jardin, lib. xviii. c. 6, tom. vi. p. 339. About
the year 1420, the Doge Mocenigo gives a view of the naval force of the repub



126    NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
lie, which confirms this decision of Denina. At that time it consisted of three
thousand trading vessels, of various dimensions, on board which were employed
seventeen thousand sailors; of three hundred ships of greater force, manned by
eight thousand sailors; and of forty-five large galeasses, or carracks, navigated
by eleven thousand sailors. In public and private arsenals sixteen thousand
carpenters were employed. Mar. Senuto Vite de Duchi di Venezia, ap. Mur.
Script. Rer. Cal. vol. xxii. p. 959.
NOTE [53]. SECT. III. p. 61.
WHEN we take a view of the form and position of the habitable parts of Asia
and Africa, we shall see good reasons for considering the camel as the most
useful of all the animals over which the inhabitants of these great continents
have acquired dominion. In both, some of the most fertile districts are separated from each other by such extensive tracts of barren sands, the seats of
desolation and drought, as seem to exclude the possibility of communication
between them. But as the ocean, which appears at first view to be placed as
an insuperable barrier between different regions of the earth, has been rendered,
by navigation, subservient to their mutual intercourse; so, by means of the
camel, which th3 Arabians emphatically call The Ship of the Desert, the most
dreary wastes are traversed, and the nations which they disjoin are enabled tc
trade with one another. Those painful journeys, impracticable by any other
animal, the'camel performs with astonishing despatch. Under heavy burdens
of six, seven, and eight hundred weight, they can continue their march during a
long period of time, with little food or rest, and sometimes without tasting water
for eight or nine days. By the wise economy of Providence, the camel seems
formed of purpose to be the beast of burden in those regions where he is placed,
and where his service is most wanted. In all the districts of Asia and Africa,
where deserts are most frequent and extensive, the camel abounds. This is his
proper station, and beyond this the sphere of his activity does not extend far.
He dreads alike the excesses of heat and of cold, and does not agree even with
the mild climate of our temperate zone. As the first trade in Indian commodities, of which we have any authentic account, was carried on by means of
camels, Genesis, xxxvii. 25, and as it is by employing them that the conveyance of these commodities has been so widely extended over Asia and Africa,
the particulars which I have mentioned concerning this singular animal, appeared to be necessary towards illustrating this part of my subject. If any of
my readers desire more full information, and wish to know how the ingenuity
and art of man have seconded the intentions of Nature, in training the camel
from his birth for that life of exertion and hardship to which he is destined, he
may consult Histoire Naturelle, by M. le Comte de Buffon, artic. Chameau et
Dromadaire, one of the most eloquent, and, as far as I can judge, from examining the authorities which he has quoted, one of the most accurate descriptions
given by that celebrated writer. M. Volney, whose accuracy is well known,
gives a description of the manner in which the camel performs its journey,
which may be agreeable to some of my readers. " In travelling through the
Desert, camels are chiefly employed because they consume little, and carry a
great load. His ordinary burden is about seven hundred and fifty pounds; his
food, whatever is given him, straw, thistles, the stones of dates, beans, barley,
&c. With a pound of food a day, and as much water, he will travel for weeks.
In the journey from Cairo to Suez, which is forty or forty-six hours, they neither
eat nor drink; but these long fasts, if often repeated, wear them out. Their
usual rate of travelling is very slow, hardly above two miles an hour; it is vain
to push them, they will not quicken their pace, but, if allowed some short rest,
they will travel fifteen or eighteen hours a day." Voyage, tom. ii. p. 383.
NOTE [54]. SECT. III. p. 62.
IN order to give an adequate idea of the extensive circulation of Ind:an ccm.
modities by land carriage, it would be necessary to trace the route, and to estimate the number of the various caravans by which they are conveyed. Could
this be executed with accuracy, it would be a curious subject of geographical
research, as well as a valuable addition to commercial history. Though it is
inconsistent with the brevity which I have uniformly studied in conducting this




NOTES AND ILLUST1RATIONS.                             127
Disquisition, to enter into a detail of so great length, it may be proper here,
for illustrating this part of my subject, to take such a view of two caravans
which visit Mecca, as may enable my readers to estimate more justly the magnitude of their commercial transactions. The first is the caravan which takes its
departure from Cairo in Egypt, and the other from Damascus in Syria; and I
select these, both because they are the most considerable, and because they are
described by authors of undoubted credit, who had the best opportunities of
receiving full information concerning them. The former is composed not only
of pilgrims from every part of Egypt, but of those which arrive from all the
small Mahomedan states on the African coast of the Mediterranean, from the
Empire of Morocco, and even from the Negro kingdoms on the Atlantic. When
assembled, the caravan consists at least of fifty thousand persons, and the number of camels employed in carrying water, provisions, and merchandise, is still
greater. The journey, which, in going from Cairo and returning thither, is not
completed in less than a hundred days, is performed wholly by land; and as
the route lies mostly through sandy deserts, or barren uninhabited wilds, which
seldom afford any subsistence, and where often no sources of water can be
found, the pilgrims always undergo much fatigue, and sometimes must endure
incredible hardships. An early and good description of this caravan is published
by Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 202, &c. Maillet has entered into a minute and curious
detail with regard to it. Descript. de l'Egypte, part ii. p. 212, &c. Pococke
has given a route, together with the length of each day's march, which he
received from a person who had been fourteen times at Mecca. Vol. i. p. 188.
261, &c.-The caravan from  Damascus, composed of pilgrims from  almost
every province of the Turkish Empire, is a little inferior to the former in number, and the commerce which it carries on is hardly less valuable. Voyage de
Volney, tom. ii. p. 251, &c. Ohsson, Tabl. Gener. de l'Empire Othom. III.
p. 275, &c. This pilgrimage was performed in the year 1741, by Khojeh
Abdulkurreem, whom I formerly mentioned, Note [5], p. 106. He gives the
usual route from Damascus to Mecca, computed by hours, the common mode
of reckoning a journey in the East, through countries little frequented. According to the most moderate estimate, the distance between the two cities, by his
account, must be above a thousand miles; a great part of the journey is through
a desert, and the pilgrims not only endure much fatigue, but are often exposed
to great danger from the wild Arabs. Memoirs, p. 114, &c. It is a singular proof
of the predatory spirit of the Arabs, that although all their independent tribes
are zealous Mahomedans, yet they make no scruple of plundering the caravans
of pilgrims, while engaged in performing one of the most indispensable duties
of their religion. A remarkable instance of this occurred in the year 1757.
Travels through Cyprus, Syria, &c. by Abbe Mariti, vol. ii. p. 117, &c. Eng.
Translation. Great as these caravans are, we must not suppose that all the
pilgrims who visit Mecca belong to them; such considerable additions are
received from the extensive dominions of Persia, from every province of Indostan, and the countries to the East of it, from Abyssinia, from various states on
the Southern coast of Africa, and from all parts of Arabia, that when the whole
are assembled, they have been computed to amount to two hundred thousand.
In some years the number is further increased by small bands of pilgrims from
several interior provinces of Africa, the names and situations of which are just
beginning to be known in Europe. For this last fact we are indebted to the
Association for promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, formed
by some British gentlemen, upon principles so liberal, and with views so public
spirited, as do honour to themselves and to their country. Proceedings, &c.
p. 174.
In the Report of the Committee of the Privy Council on the Slave Trade,
other particulars are contained; and it appears that the commerce carried on
by caravans in the interior parts of Africa, is not only widely extended, but of
considerable value. Besides the great caravan which proceeds to Cairo, and is
joined by Mahomedan pilgrims from every part of Africa, there are caravans
which have no object but commerce, which set out from Fez, Algiers, Tunis,
Tripoli, and other states on the sea coast, and penetrate far into the interior
country. Some of them take no less than fifty days to reach the place of their
destination; and, as the medium of their rate of travelling may be estimated at




128         NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
about eighteen miles a day, the extent of their journey may be easily computed.
As both the time of their outset, and their route, are known, they are met by
the people of all the countries through which they travel, who trade with them.
Indian goods of every kind form a considerable article in this traffic, in
exchange for which the chief commodity they can give is slaves. Part vi.
As the journeys of the caravans, which are purely commercial, do not com
mence at stated seasons, and their routes vary according to the convenience or
fancy of the merchants of whom they are composed, a description cannot be
given of them with the same degree of accuracy as of the great caravans which
visit Mecca. But by attending to the accounts of some authors, and the occasional hints of others, sufficient information may be gathered to satisfy us that
the circulation of Eastern goods by these caravans is very extensive. The same
intercourse which was anciently kept up by the provinces in the North-east ol
Asia with Indostan and China, and which I formerly described, still subsists.
Among all the numerous tribes of Tartars, even of those which retain their
pastoral manners in greatest purity, the demand for the productions of these
two countries is very considerable. Voyages de Pallas, tom. i. p. 357, &c. tom.
ii. p. 422. In order to supply them with these, caravans set out annually from
Boghar, (Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 332). Samarcand, Thibet, and several other places,
and return with large cargoes of Indian and Chinese goods. But the trade carried on between Russia and China in this part of Asia, is by far the most extensive and best known. Some connexion of this kind, it is probable, was kept up
between them from the earliest period, but it increased greatly after the interior
parts of Russia were rendered more accessible by the conquests of Zingis Khan
and Tamerlane. The commercial nations of Europe were so well acquainted
with the mode of carrying on this trade, that soon after the Portuguese had
opened the communication with the East by the Cape of Good Hope, an attempt was made in order to diminish the advantages which they derived from
this discovery, to prevail on the Russians to convey Indian and Chinese commodities through the whole extent of their empire, partly by land carriage and
partly by means of navigable rivers, to some port on the Baltic, from which they
-might be distributed through every part of Europe. Ramusio Raccolto da
Viaggi, vol. i. p. 374. B. Hist. du Commerce de la Russie, par M. Screder,
tom. i. p. 13, 14. This scheme, too great for the monarch then on the throne
of Russia to carry into execution, was rendered practicable by the conquests of
Ivan Basilowitz, and the genius of Peter the Great. Though the capitals of
the two empires were situated at the immense distance of six thousand three
hundred and seventy-eight miles from each other, and the route lay for above
four hundred miles through an uninhabited desert (Bell's Travels, vol. ii. p.
167), caravans travelled from the one to the other. But though it had been
stipulated, when this intercourse was established, that the number of persons in
each caravan should not exceed two hundred, and though they were shut up
within the walls )f a Caravanserai, during the short time they were suffered to
remain in Pekin, and were allowed to deal only with a few merchants, to whom
a monopoly of the trade with them had been granted; yet, notwithstanding all
these restraints and precautions, the jealous vigilance with which the Chinese
government excludes foreigners from a free intercourse with its subjects, was
alarmed, and the admission of the Russian caravans- into the empire was soon
prohibited. After various negotiations, an expedient was at length devised, by
which the advantages of mutual commerce were secured, without infringing
the cautious arrangements of Chinese policy. On the boundary of the two
empires, two small towns were built almost contiguous, Kiachta, inhabited by
Russians, and Maimatschin, by Chinese. To these all the marketable productions of their respective countries are brought by the subjects of each empire;
and the furs, the linen and woollen cloth, the leather, the glass, &c. of Russia,
are exchanged for the silk, the cotton, the tea, the rice, the toys, &c. of China.
By some well judged concessions of the sovereign now seated on the throne of
Russia, whose enlarged mind is superior to the illiberal maxims of many of her
predecessors, this trade is rendered so flourishing, that its amount annually is
not less than eight hundred thousand pounds sterling, and it is the only trade
whizh China carries on almost entirely by barter. Mr. Coxe, in his account of
the Russian discoveries, has collected, with his usual attention and discern




NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.    129
rment, every thing relative to this branch of trade, the nature and extent of
which were little known to Europe. Part ii. chap. ii. iii. iv. Nor is Kiacht.a
the only place where Russia receives Chinese and Indian commodities. A considerable supply of both is brought by caravans of independent Tartars to Orenburg, on the river Jaik; Voyage de Pallas, tom. i. p. 355, &c.; to Troitzkaia,
on the river Oui, and to other places which I might mention. I have entered
into this long detail cencerning the mode in which the productions in India and
China are circulated through Russia, as it affords the most striking instance, I
know, of the great extent to which valuable commodities may be conveyed by
land carriage.
NOTE [55]. SECT. IV. p. 63.
THE only voyage of discovery in the Atlantic Ocean towards the South, by
any of the ancient commercial states in the Mediterranean, is that of Hanne
undertaken by order of the republic of Carthage. As the situation of that city,
so much nearer the Straits than Tyre, Alexandria, and the other seats of ancient
trade which have been mentioned, gave it more immediate access to the ocean;
that circumstance, together with the various settlements which the Carthaginians had made in different provinces of Spain, naturally suggested to them
this enterprise, and afforded them the prospect of considerable advantages from
its success. The voyage of Hanno, instead of invalidating, seems to confirm
the justness of the reasons which have been given why no similar attempt was
made by the other commercial states in the Mediterranean.
NOTE [56]. SECT. IV. p. 64.
THoaGH the intelligent authors whom I have quoted, considered this voyage
oaf the Phcenicians as fabulous, Herodotus mentions a circumstance concerning
it, which seems to prove that it had really been performed.'" The Phcenicians,"
says he, i" affirmed that, in sailing round Africa, they had the sun on their right.
hand, which to me appears not to be credible, though it may be deemed so by
others." Lib. iv. c. 42. This, it is certain, must have happened, if they really
accomplished such a voyage. The science of astronomy, however, was in that
early period so imperfect, that it was by experience only that the Phemnicians
could come at the knowledge of this fact; they durst not, without this, have
ventured to assert what would have appeared to be an improbable fiction.
Even after what they related, Herodotus disbelieved it.
NOTE [57]. SECT. IV. p. 67.
NOTWvITIISTANDING this increasing demand for the productions of India, it is
remarkable that during the sixteenth century, some commodities, which are now
the chief articles of importation from the East, were either altogether unknown,
or of little account. Tea, the importation of which at present far exceeds that
of any other production of the East, has not been in general use in any country of Europe a full century; and yet, during that short period, from some
singular caprice of taste, or power of fashion, the infusion of a leaf brought
from the furthest extremity of the earth, of which it is, perhaps the highest
praise to say, that it is innoxious, has become almost a necessary of life, in
several parts of Europe, and the passion for it descends from the most elevated
to the lowest orders in society. In 1785, it was computed that the whole quantity of tea imported into Europe from China was about nineteen millions of
pounds, of which it is conjectured, that twelve millions were consumed in Great
Britain and the dominions depending upon it. Dodsley's Annual Register for
1784 and 1785, p. 156. In 1789, twenty-one millions of pounds were imported.
The -porcelain of China, now as common in many parts of Europe as if it were
of domestic manufacture, was not known to the ancients. Marco Polo is the
first among the moderns who mentions it. The Portuguese began to import it
not long after their first voyage to China, A. D. 1517; but it was a considerable
time before the use of it became extensive.
NOTE [58]. p. 75.
ACCORDING to all the writers of antiquity, the Indians are said to be divided
into seven tribes or casts. Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1029. C. &c. Diod. Sicul. li. I
VOL. III.-R




130    NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
p. 153, &c. Arrian. Indic. c. 10. They were led into this error, it is probable,
by considering some of the subdivisions of the casts, as if they had been a dis.
tinct independent order. But that there were no more than four original casts
we learn from the concurring testimony of the best informed modern travellers.
A most distinct account of these we have in " La Porte Ouverte, ou La vraye
Representation de la Vie, des Mceurs, die la Religion, et du Service des Brahb
mines qui demeurent sur les Costes de Choromandel," &c. This was compiled
before the middle of last century, by Abraham Roger, chaplain of the Dutch
factory at Pullicate. By gaining the confidence of an intelligent Brahmin, he
acquired information concerning the manners and religion of the Indians, more
authentic and extensive than was known to Europeans prior to the late translations from the Sanskreet language. I mention this book because it seems to be
less known than it deserves to be. There remains now no doubt with respect
either to the number or the functions of the casts, as both are ascertained from
the most ancient and sacred books of the Hindoos, and confirmed by the
accounts of their own institutions, given by Brahmins eminent for their learning.
According to them, the different casts proceeded from Brahma, the immediate
agent of the creation under the Supreme Power, in the following manner, which
establishes both the rank which they were to hold, and the office which they
were required to perform.
The Brahmin, from the mouth (wisdom): To pray, to read, to instruct.
The Chehetree, from the arms (strength): To draw the bow, to fight, to
govern.
The Bice, from the belly or thighs (nourishment): To provide the necessaries of life by agriculture and traffic.
The Sooder, from the feet (subjection): To labour, to serve.
The prescribed occupations of all these classes are essential in a well regulated state. Subordinate to them is a fifth, or adventitious class, denominated
Burrun Sunkur, supposed to be the offspring of an unlawful union between per-.sons of different casts. These are mostly dealers in petty articles of retail trade.
Preface to the Code of Gentoo laws, p. xlvi. and xcix. This adventitious class
is not mentioned, as far as I know, by any European author. The distinction
was too nice to be observed by them, and they seem to consider the members
of this cast as belonging to the Sooder. Besides these acknowledged casts,
there is a race of unhappy men, denominated, on the Coromandel coast, Pariars,
and in other parts of India, Chandalas. These are outcasts from their original
order, who by their misconduct have forfeited all the privileges of it. Their'condition is, undoubtedly, the lowest degradation of human nature. No person
of any cast will have the least communication with them. Sonnerat, tom. i.
p. 55, 56. If a Pariar approach a JV'ayr, i. e. a warrior of high cast, on the
Malabar coast, he may put him to death with impunity. Water or- niilk are
considered as defiled even by their shadow passing over them, and cannot be
used until they are purified. Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p. 243. It is almost impossible for words to express the sensation of vileness that the name of Pariar or
Chandala, conveys to the mind of a Hindoo. Every Hindoo who violates the
rules or institutions of his cast, sinks into this degraded situation. This it is
which renders Hindoos so resolute in adhering to the institutions of their tribe,
because the loss of cast is to them the loss of all human comfort and respectability; and is a punishment beyond comparison more severe than excommunication in the most triumphal period of papal power.
The four original casts are named, and their functions described, in the Maha.
barat, the most ancient book of the Hindoos, and of higher authority than any
with which Europeans are hitherto acquainted.  Baghvat-Geeta, p. 130. The
same distinction of casts was known to the author of Heeto-pades, another
work of considerable antiquity, translated from the Sanskreet, p. 251.
The mention of one circumstance respecting the distinction of casts has been
omitted in the text. Though the line of separation be so drawn as to render
the ascent from an inferior to a higher cast absolutely impossible, and it would
be regarded as a most enormous impiety, if one in a lower order should presume
to perform any function belonging to those of a superior cast; yet in certain
cases the Pundits declare it to be lawful for persons of a high class to exercise
some of the occupations allotted to a class below their own, without losing their




NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.                                 131
eawt by doing so. Pref. of Pundits to the Code of Gentoo Laws, p. 100.
Accordingly we find Brahmins employed in the service of their Princes, not
only as ministers of state, Orme's Fragments, p. 207, but in subordinate stations.
Most of the officers of high rank in the army of Seveagi, the founder of the
Mahratta state, were Brahmins, and some of them Pundits or learned Brahmins. Ibid. p 97. Hurry Punt and Purseram Bhow, who commanded the
Mahratta forces, which acted in conjunction with the army of Lord Cornwallis,
against Tippoo Saib, were Brahmins. Many Seapoys in the service of the
East India Company, particularly in the Bengal presidency, are of the Brahmin cast.
Another fact concerning the cast deserves notice. An immense number of
pilgrims, amounting in some years to more than 150,000, visit the Pagoda of
Jaggernaut in Orissa (one of the most ancient and most revered places of Hindoo worship), at the time of the annual festival in honour of the deity to whom
the temple is consecrated. The members of all the four casts are allowed promiscuously to approach the altar of the idol, and seating themselves without
distinction, eat indiscriminately of the same food. This seems to indicate some
remembrance of a state prior to the institutions of casts, when all men were
considered as equal. I have not such information as enables me to account for
a practice so repugnant to the first ideas and principles of the Hindoos, either
sacred or civil. Bernier, torn. ii. p. 102. Tavernier, book ii. c. 9. Anquetil.
Disc. Prelim. p. 81. Sketches, p. 96.
Some of my readers must have observed that I have not mentioned the
numerous orders of Indian devotees, to all of whom European writers gave the
appellation of Faquirs; a name by which the Mahomedans distinguish fanatical
monks of their own religion.  The light in which I have viewed the religious
institutions of the Hindoos, did not render it necessary that I should consider
the Indian Faquirs particularly.  Their number, the rigour of their mortifications, the excruciating penances.which they voluntarily undergo, and the high
opinion which the people entertain of their sanctity, have struck all travellers
who had visited India, and their descriptions of them are well known. The
powerful influence of enthusiasm, the love of distinction, and the desire of
obtaining some portion of that reverence and those honours which the Brahmins are born to enjoy, may account for all the extraordinary things which they
do and suffer. One particular concerning them merits notice. This order of
devotees appears to have been very ancient in India. The description of the
Germani, which Strabo takes from Megasthenes, applies, almost in every circumstance, to the modern Faquirs. Lib. xv. 1040. B
NOTE4[59]. p. 76.
WHAT I have asserted in the text is in general well founded. It is the opinion, however, of gentlemen who have seen much of India, and who observed
all they saw with a discerning eye, that the conquests both of the Mahomedans
and of the Europeans have had some effect upon the manners and customs of
the natives. They imagine that the dress which the Hindoos now wear, the
turban, the jummah, and long drawers is an imitation of that worn by their
Mahomedan conquerors. The ancient dress of the Indians, as described by
Arrian, Hist. Indic. c. 16. was a muslin cloth thrown loosely about their
shoulders, a muslin shirt reaching to the middle of the leg, and their beards
were dyed various colours; which is not the same with that used at present.
The custom of secluding women, and the strictness with which they are confined, is likewise supposed to have been introduced by the Mahomedans. This
supposition is in some measure confirmed by the drama of Sacontala, translated
from the Sanskreet. In that play several female characters are introduced, who
mingle in society, and converse as freely with men as women are accustomed
to do in Europe. The author, we may presume, describes the manners, and
adheres to the customs of his own age. But while I mention this remark, itis
proper likewise to observe, that, from a passage in Strabo, there is reason to
think, that in the age of Alexander the Great, women in India were guarded
with the same jealous attention as at present. " When their Princes (says he,
copying Megasthenes), set out upon a public hunt, they are accompanied by a
number of their women, but along the road in which they travel, ropes are




132  3NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
stretched on each side, and if any man approach near to them, he is instantly
put to death." Lib. xv. p. 1037. A. In some parts of India, where the original
manners of the people may be supposed to subsist in greatest purity, particularly in the high country towards the sources of the Indus, women of rank
reside in private apartments, secluded from society. Forster's Travels, vol. i.
p. 228. Women even of the Brahmin cast appear in the streets without a veil;
and it is only, as I am informed, in the houses of persons of high rank or great
opulence, that a distinct quarter or haram is allotted to the women. The influence ofEuropean manners begins to be apparent among the Hindoos who reside
in the town of Calcutta. Some of them drive about in English chariots, sit
upon chairs, and furnish their houses with mirrors. Many circumstances might
be mentioned, were this the proper place, which, it is probable, will contribute
to the progress of this spirit of imitation.
NOTE [60]. P. 76.
IT is amusing to observe how exactly the ideas of an intelligent Asiatic coincide with those of the Europeans on this subject., "' In reflecting," says he,
i' upon the poverty of Turan [the countries beyond the Oxus] and Arabia, I
was at first at a loss to assign a reason why these countries have never been
able to retain wealth, whilst, on the contrary, it is daily increasing in Indostan.
Timour carried into Turan the riches of Turkey, Persia, and Indostan, but they
are all dissipated; and during the reigns of the first four Caliphs, Turkey,
Persia, part of Arabia, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Spain, were their tributaries; but
still they were not rich. It is evident, then, that this dissipation of the riches
of a state must have happened, either froin extraordinary drains, or from some
defect in the government. Indostan has been frequently plundered by foreign
invaders, and not one of its Kings ever gained for it any acquisition of wealth;
neither has the country many mines of gold and silver, and yet Indostan abounds
in money and every other kind of wealth. The abundance of specie is
undoubtedly owing to the large importation of gold and silver, in the ships of
Europe, and other nations, many of whom bring ready money in exchange for
the manufactures and natural productions of the country. If this is not the
cause of the prosperous state of Indostan, it must be owing to the peculiar
blessing of God."  Memoirs of Kojeh Abdulkureem, a Cashmeerian of distinc:
tion, p. 42.
NOTE [61]. P. 78.
THIAT the monarchs of India were the sole proprietors of land, is asserted i!
most explicit terms by the ancients. The people (say they) pay a land tax to
their kings, because the whole kingdom is regal property. Strabo, lib. xv. p.
1030. A. Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. p. 153. This was not peculiar to India. In all
the great monarchies of the East, the sole property of land seems to be vested
in the sovereign as lord paramount. According to Chardin, this is the state of
property in Persia, and lands were let by the monarch to the farmers who cultivated them, on conditions nearly resembling those granted to the Indian
Ryots. Voyages, tom. iii. p. 339, &c. 4to. M. Volney gives a similar account
of the tenure by which lands are held in one of the great provinces of the
Turkish Empire. Voy. en Syrie, &c. tom. ii. p. 369, &c. The precise mode,
however, in which the Ryots of Indostan held their possessions, is a circumstance in its ancient and political constitution, with respect to which, gentlemen of superior discernment, who have resided long in the country, and filled
some of the highest stations in government, have formed very different opinions.
Some have imagined that grants of land were made by the sovereign to villages
or small communities, the inhabitants of which, under the direction of theirt
own chiefs or headsmen, laboured it in common, and divided the produce of it
among them in certain proportions. Descript. de l'lnd. par M. Bernouilli, tom.
ii. p. 223, &c. Others maintain that the property of land has been transferred
from the crown to hereditary officers of great eminence and power, denominated
Zemindars, who collect the rents from the Ryots, and parcel out the lands
among them. Others contend that theoffice of the Zemindars, is temporary
and ministerial, that they are merely collectors of revenue, removeable at plea,
sure, and the tenure by which the Ryots hold their possessions is derived imme




NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.    133
dlately from the sovereign. This last opinion is supported with great ability
by Mr. Grant, in an Inquiry into the Nature of Zemindary Tenures, in the
landed Property of Bengal, &c. This question still continues to be agitated in
Bengal; and such plausible arguments have been produced in support of the
different opinions, that although it be a point extremely interesting, as the
future system of British finance in India appears likely to hinge, in an essential
degree, upon it, persons well acquainted with the state of India, have not been
able to form a final and satisfactory opinion on this subject. Captain Kirkpatrick's Introd. to the Institutes of Ghazan Khan, New Asiatic Miscel. No. II.
p. 130. Though the sentiments of the Committee of-Revenue, composed of
persons eminent for their abilities, lean to a conclusion against the hereditary
right of the Zemindars in the soil, yet the Supreme Council, in the year 1786,
declined, for good reasons, to give any decisive judgment on a subject of such
magnitude.-This note was sent to the press before I had it in my power to
peruse Mr. Rouse's ingenious and instructive Dissertation concerning the
landed Property of Bengal. In it he adopts an opinion contrary to that of
Mr. Grant, and maintains, with that candour and liberality of sentiment, which
are always conspicuous where there is no other object in view but the discovery
of truth, that the Zemindars of Bengal possess their landed property by here
ditary right. Were I possessed of such knowledge, either of the state of India,
or of the system of administration established there, as would be requisite for
comparing these different theories, and determining which of them merits the
preference, the subject of my researches does not render it necessary to enter
into such a disquisition. I imagine, however, that the state of landed property
in India, might be greatly illustrated by an accurate comparison of it with the
nature of feudal tenures; and I apprehend that there might be traced there a
succession of changes taking place in much the same order as has been observed
in Europe, from which it might appear, that the possession of land was granted
at first during pleasure, afterwards for life, and at length became perpetual and
hereditary property. But even under this last form, when land is acquired
either by purchase or inheritance, the manner in which the right of property is
confirmed and rendered complete, in Europe, by a Charter in India, by a Sunnud from the sovereign, seems to point out what was its original state. According to each of the theories which I have mentioned, the tenure and condition of
the Ryots nearly resembled the description which I have given of them. Their
state, we learn from the accounts of intelligent observers, is as happy and independent as falls to the lot of any race of men employed in the cultivation of the
earth. The ancient Greek and Roman writers, whose acquaintance with the
interior parts of India was very imperfect, represent the fourth part of the
annual produce of land as the general average of rent paid to the sovereign.
Upon the authority of a popular author, who flourished in India prior to the
Christian era, we may conclude that the sixth part of the people's income was
in his time the usual portion of the sovereign. Sacontala, Act V. p. 53. It is
now known that what the sovereign receives from land varies greatly in different parts of the country, and is regulated by the fertility or barrenness of the
soil, the nature of the climate, the abundance or scarcity of water, and many
other obvious circumstances. By the account given of it, I should imagine
that, in some districts, it has been raised beyond its due proportion. One circumstance with respect to the administration of revenue in Bengal merits notice,
as it redounds to the honour of the Emperor Akber, the wisdom of whose
government I have often had occasion to celebrate. A general and regular
assessment of revenue in Bengal was formed in his reign. All the lands were
then valued, and the rent of each inhabitant and of each village ascertained.
A regular gradation of accounts was established. The rents of the different
inhabitants who lived in one neighbourhood being collected together, formed
the account of a village; the rents of several villages being next collected into
one view, formed the accounts of a larger portion of land. The aggregate of
these accounts exhibited the rent of a district, and the sum total of the rents of
all the districts in Bengal, formed the account of the revenue of the whole province. From the reign of Akber to the government of Jaffeer Ali Cawn, A.D.
1757, the annual amount of revenue, and the modes of levying it, continued
with little variation. But in order to raise the sum which he had stipulated to




1a34    NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
pay the English on his elevation, he departed from the wise arrangements of
Akber; many new modes of assessment were introduced, and exactions multiplied.
NOTE [62]. p. 79.
I SHALL mention only one instance of their attention to this useful regulation
of police. Lahore, in the Panjab, is distant from Agra, the ancient capital of
Indostan, five hundred miles. Along each side of the road, between these two
great cities, there is planted a continued row of shady trees, forming an avenue
to which (whether we consider its extent, its beauty, or utility in a hot climate)
there is nothing similar in any country. Rennell's Memoir, p. 69.
NOTE [63]. P. 80.
WE cannot place the equitable and mild government of Akber in a point of
view more advantageous than by contrasting it with the conduct of other
Mahomedan princes. In no country did this contrast ever appear more striking
than in India. In the thousandth year of the Christian era, Mahmud of Ghazna,
to whose dominion were subjected the same countries which formed the ancient
kingdom of Bactria, invaded Indostan. Every step of his progress in it was
marked with blood and desolation. The most celebrated Pagodas, the ancient
monuments of Hindoo devotion and magnificence, were destroyed, the ministers
of religion were massacred, and with undistinguishing ferocity the country was
laid waste, and the cities were plundered and burnt. About four hundred years
after Mahmud, Timur or Tamerlane, a conqueror of.high fame, turned his irresistible arms againt Indostan; and though born in an age more improved, he
not only equalled, but often so far surpassed the cruel deeds of Mahmud, as to
be justly branded with the odious name of the " Destroying Prince," which
was given to him by the Hindoos, the undeserving victims of his rage. A rapid
but striking description of their devastations may be found in Mr. Orme's Dissertation on the Establishments made by the Mahomedan conquerors in Indostan. A more full account of them is given by Mr. Gibbon, vol. v. p. 646;
vol. vi. p. 339, &c. The arrogant contempt with which bigoted Mahomedans
view all the nations who have not embraced the religion of the Prophet, will
account for the unrelenting rigour of Mahmud and Timur towards the Hindoos,
and greatly enhances the merit of the tolerant spirit and moderation with which
Akber governed his subjects. What impression the mild administration of
Akber made upon the Hindoos, we learn from a beautiful letter of Jesswant
Sing, Rajah of Joudpore, to Aurengzebe, his fanatical and persecuting successor. " Your royal ancestor, Akber, whose throne is now in heaven, conducted the affairs of this empire in equity and firm security for the space of
fifty-two years, preserving every tribe of men in ease and happiness; whether
they were followers of Jesus or of Moses, of David or of Mahomed; were they
Brahmins, were they of the sect of Dharins, which denies the eternity of matter,
or of that which ascribes the existence of the world to chance, they all equally
enjoyed his countenance and favour; insomuch that his people, in gratitude for
the indiscriminate protection which he afforded them, distinguished him by the
appellation of Juggot Grow, Guardian of Mankind. —If your majesty places
any faith in those books, by distinction called divine, you will there be instructed
that God is the God of all mankind, not the God of Mahomedans alone. The
Pagan and the Mussulman are equally in his presence. Distinctions of colours
are of his ordination. It is he who gives existence. In your temples, to his
Name, the voice is raised in prayer; in a house of images, where the bell is
shaken, still He is the object of adoration. To vilify the religion and customs
of other men, is to set at nought the pleasure of the Almighty. When we deface
a picture, we naturally incur the resentment of the painter; and justly has the
poet said,' Presume not to arraign or to scrutinize the various works of Power
Divine."'" For this valuable communication we are indebted to Mr. Orme.
Fragments, notes, p. xcvii. I have been assured by a gentleman, who has read
this letter in the original, that the translation is not only faithful but elegant.
NOTE [64]. p. 83.
I HAVE not attempted a description of any subterraneous excavations but




NOTES AND ILLUSTRATION-S.    13b
those of Elephanta, because none of them have been so often visited, or so carefully inspected. In several parts of India, there are, however, stupendous
works of a similar nature. The extent and magnificence of the excavations in
the island of Salsetta are such, that the artists employed by Governor Boon to
make drawings of them, asserted that it would require the labour of forty thousand men for forty years to finish them. Archaologia, vol. vii. p. 336. Loose
as this mode of estimation may be, it conveys an idea of the impression which
the view of them made upon has mind. The Pagodas of Ellore, eighteen miles
from Aurungabad, are likewise hewn out of the solid rock; and if they do not
equal those of Elephanta and Salsetta in magnitude, they surpass them far in
their extent and number. M. Thevenot, who first gave any description of these
singular mansions, asserts, that for above two leagues all round the mountain,
nothing is to be seen but Pagodas. Voy. part iii. chap. 44. They were
examined at a greater leisure and with more attention by M. Anquetil du
Perron; but as his long description of them is not accompanied with any plan
or drawing, I cannot convey a distinct idea of the whole. It is evident, however, that they are the works of a powerful people, and among the innumerable
figures in'l sculpture, with which the walls are covered, all the present objects of
Hindoo worship, may be distinguished. Zend-avesta, Disc. Prelim. p. 233.
There are remarkable excavations in a mountain at Mavalipuram, near Madras.
This mountain is well known on the Coromandel coast by the name of the
Seven Pagodas. A good description of the works there, which are magnificent
and of high antiquity, is given in Asiat. Researches, vol. i. p. 145, &c. Many
other instances of similar works might be produced, if it were necessary. What
I have asserted, p. 207, concerning the elegance of some of the ornaments in
Indian buildings, is confirmed by Colonel Call, chief engineer at Madras, who
urges this as a proof of the early and high civilization of the Indians. It may
safely be pronounced, says he, that no part of the world has more marks of antiquity for arts, sciences, and civilization, than the peninsula of India, from the
Ganges to Cape Comorin. I think the carvings on some of the Pagodas and
Choultries, as well as the grandeur of the work, exceed any thing executed
nowadays, not only for the delicacy of the chisel, but the expense or construction, considering, in many instances, to what distances the component parts
were carried, and to what heights raised. Philosophical Transactions, vol. lxii.
p. 354. I am happy to find my idea, that the first temples erected by the Hindoos, were formed upon the model of those caverns in which the rights of religion were originally celebrated, confirmed and more fully unfolded by Mr.
Hodges. In a short dissertation on the primitive standard or prototype of the
different styles of architecture, viz. the Egyptian, Hindoo, Moorish, Gothic,
and Chinese, he has examined and illustrated that curious subject with great
ingenuity. Travels in India, p. 63-77.
NOTE [65]. p. 84.
INDIA, says Strabo, produces a variety of substances, which aye the most
admirable colours. That the Indicum, which produced the beautiful blue colour,
is the same with the Indigo of the moderns, we may conclude not only from the
resemblance of the name, and the similarity of the effects, but from the description given by Pliny, in the passage which I have quoted in the text. He knew
that it was a preparation of a vegetable substance, though he was ill informed
both concerning the plant itself, and the process by which it was fitted for use;
which will not appear surprising, when we recollect the account formerly given
of the strange ignorance of the ancients with respect to the origin and preparation of silk. From the colour of Indigo, in the form in which it was imported,
it is denominated by some authors, Atramsentum Indicum, and Indicum 2Jigrum,
Salinas. Exercit. p. 180, and is mentioned under the last of these names, among
the articles of importation from India. Peripl. Mar. Erythr. p. 22. The colour
of the modern Indigo, when undiluted, resembles that of the ancient Indicum,
being so intensely coloured as to appear black. Delaval's Experim. Inquiry
into the Cause of the Changes of Colours, Pref. p. xxiii. Indigo is the principal dye-stuff used by the natives of Sumatra, and is much cultivated in that
island; but the mode of preparing it differs from that which is common among
the people of Indostan. Marsden, Hist of Sumatra, p. 77. There has been




136          NNOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
lately found in the Circar of Rajamundry, a new species of Indigo, denominated
the Tree Indigo, which, as it grows wild and in great abundance, promises to be
a discovery of considerable use. Oriental Repertory, No. 1. p. 39, &c, The
Gum Lacca, used in dyeing a red colour, was likewise known to the ancients,
and by the same name which it now bears. Salmas. Exercit. p. 810. This
valuable substance, of such extensive utility in painting, dyeing, japanning,
varnishing, and in the manufacture of sealing wax, is the production of a very
minute insect. These insects fix themselves upon the succulent extremities of
the branches of certain trees, and are soon glued to the place on which they
settle, by a thick pellucid liquid which exudes from their bodies, the gradual
accumulation of which forms a complete cell for each insect, which is the tomb
of the parent, and the birthplace of its offspring. This glutinous substance,
with which the branches of trees are entirely covered, is the Gum-Lacca. An
account of its formation, nature, and use, is given inthe Philos. Trans. vol. ]xxi.
part ii. p. 374, in a concise, accurate, and satisfactory manner. Some curious
observations upon this insect are published by Mr. Roxburgh, who cultivates the
study of Natural History in India, with great assiduity and success. Asiatic
Researches, vol. iii. p. 361. It is remarkable that Ctesias seems to have
received an account tolerably distinct of the insect by which the Gum Lacca is
produced, and celebrates the beauty of the colour which it dies. Excerpta ex
Indic. ad. calc. Herodot. edit. Wesseling, p. 830. Indian Dyers was the
ancient name of those who dyed either the fine blue or the fine red, which points
out the country whence the materials they used were brought. Salmas. ib. p.
810. From their dyeing cotton stuffs with different colours, it is evident that
the ancient Indians must have made some considerable proficiency in chemical
knowledge. Pliny, lib. xxxv. c. ii. I 42, gives an account of this art as far as it
was known anciently. It is precisely the same with that now practised in calico
printing.
NOTE [66]. p. 88.
As Sanskreet literature is altogether a new acquisition to Europe, Baghvat
Geeta, the first translation from that language, having been published so late
as A. D. 1785, it is intimately connected with the subject of my inquiries, and
may afford entertainment to some of my readers, after having reviewed in the
text, with a greater degree of critical attention, the two Sanskreet works most
worthy of notice, to give here a succinct account of other compositions in
that tongue, with which we have been made acquainted. The extensive use of
the Sanskreet language, is a circumstance which merits particular attention.
"' The grand source of Indian literature" (says Mr. Halhed, the first Englishman
who acquired the knowledge of Sanskreet), " the parent of almost every dialect from the Persian Gulf to the China seas, is the Sanskreet, a language of
the most venerable and unfathomable antiquity; which, although at present shut
up in the libraries of Brahmins, and appropriated solely to the records of their
religion, appears to have been current over most of the Oriental world; and
traces of its original extent may still be discovered in almost every district of
Asia. I have been often astonished to find the similitude of Sanskreet words
with those of Persian and Arabic, and even of Latin and Greek; and those not
in technical and metaphorical terms, which the mutuation of refined arts and
improved manners might have occasionally introduced, but in the groundwork
of language, in monosyllables, in the names of numbers, and the appellations
of such things as would be first discriminated on the immediate dawn of civilization. The resemblance which may be observed in the characters on the
medals and signets of various districts of Asia, the light which they reciprocally
reflect upon each other, and the general analogy which they all bear to the
same grand prototype, afford another ample field for curiosity. The coins of
Assum, Napaul, Cashmeere, and many other kingdoms, are all stamped with
Sanskreet characters, and mostly contain allusions to the old Sanskreet
mythology. The same conformity I have observed on the impressions of seals
from Bootan and Thibet. A collateral inference may likewise be deduced from
the peculiar arrangement of the Sanskreet alphabet, so very different from that
of any other quarter of the world. This extraordinary mode of combination
still exists in the greatest part of the East, from the Indus to Pegu, in dialects




NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.    137
now apparently unconnected, and in characters completely dissimilar; and it is
a forcible argument that they are all derived from the same source.  Another
channel of speculation presents itself in the names of persons and places, of
titles and dignities, which are open to general notice, and in which, to the
furthest limits of Asia, may be found manifest traces of the Sanskreet." Preface to the Grammar of the Bengal Language, p. 3. After this curious account
of the Sanskreet tongue, I proceed to enumerate the works which have been
translated from it, besides the two mentioned in the text-I. To Mr. Wilkins
we are indebted for Heetoo-pades or Amicable Instruction, in a series of connected fables, interspersed with moral, prudential, and political maxims. This
work is in such high esteem throughout the East, that it has been translated into
every language spoken there. It did not escape the notice of the Emperor
Akber, attentive to every thing that could contribute to promote useful knowledge. He directed his Vizier, Abul Fazel, to' put it into a style suited to all
capacities, and to illustrate the obscure passages in it; which he accordingly
did, and gave it the title of The Criterion of Wisdom. At length, these fables
made their way into Europe, and have been circulated there with additions and
alterations, under the names of Pilpay and Esop. Many of the Sanskreet apologues are ingenious and beautiful, and have been copied or imitated by the
fabulists of other nations. But in some of them the characters of the animals
introduced are very ill sustained; to describe a tiger as extremely devout, and
practising charity and other religious duties, p. 16, or an old mouse well read
in the NJeetee Sastras, i. e. Systems of Morality and Policy, p. 24; a cat reading
religious books, p. 35, &c. discovers a want of taste, and inattention to propriety. Many of the moral sayings, if considered as detached maxims, are
founded upon a thorough knowledge of life and manners, and convey instruction with elegant simplicity. But the attempt of the author to form his work
into a connected series of fables, and his mode of interweaving with them such
a number of moral reflections in prose and in verse, renders the structure of the
whole so artificial, that the perusal of it becomes often unpleasant. Akber was
so sensible of this, that, among other instructions, he advises his Vizier to abridge
the long digressions in that work. By these strictures it is far from my intention to detract in the smallest degree from the merit of Mr. Wilkins. His
country is much indebted to him for having opened a new source of science
and taste. The celebrity of the Heetoo-pades, as well as its intrinsic merit,
notwithstanding the defects which I have mentioned, justify his choice of it, as
a work worthy of being made known to Europe in its original form. From
reading this and his other translations, no man will refuse him the praise, to
which he modestly confines his pretensions, "of having drawn a picture; which
we suppose to be a true likeness, although we are unacquainted with the
original."  Pref. p. xiv.-2. In the first number of the New Asiatic Miscellany,
we have a translation of a celebrated composition in the East, known by the
title of the Five Gems. It consists of stanzas by five poets, who attended the
court of Abissura, King of Bengal. Some of these stanzas are simple and elegant.-3. An ode translated from Wulli; in which that extravagance of fancy,
and those far fetched and unnatural conceits, which so often disgust Europeans
with the poetical compositions of the East, abound too much. The editor has
not informed us to whose knowledge of the Sanskreet we are indebted for these
two translations.-4. Some original grants of land, of very ancient dates, translated by Mr. Wilkins. It may seem odd, that a charter or legal conveyance of
property should be ranked among the literary compositions of any people.
But so widely do the manners of the Hindoos differ from those of Europe, that
as our lawyers multiply words and clauses, in order to render a grant complete,
and to guard against every thing that may invalidate it, the Pundits seem to
despatch the legal part of the deed with brevity, but in a long preamble and
conclusion, make an extraordinary display of their own learning, eloquence, and
powers of composition, both in prose and verse. The preamble to one of these
deeds is an encomium of the monarch who grants the land, in a bold strain of
Eastern exaggeration: "When his innumerable army marched, the heavens
were so filled with the dust of their feet, that the birds of the air could rest
upon it."-" His elephants moved like walking mountains, and the earth
oppressed by their weight mouldered into dust."  It concludes with denouncing
VOL. III.-S




138         NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
vengeance against those who should venture to infring6 this grant: "Riches
and the life of man are as transient as drops of water upon the leaf of the lotus.
Learning this truth, O man! do not attempt to deprive another of his property." Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 123, &c. The other grant, which appears
to be still more ancient, is not less remarkable. Both were found engraved on
plates of copper. Ib. p. 357, &c.-5. The translation of part of the Shaster,
published by Colonel Dow, in the year 1768, ought perhaps to have been first
mentioned. But as this translation was not made by him from the Sanskreet,
but taken from the mouth of a Brahmin, who explained the Shaster in Persian,
or in the vulgar language of Bengal, it will fall more properly under notice
when we come to inquire into the state of science among the Hindoos, than in
this place, where we are endeavouring to give some idea of their taste and composition.
NOTE [67.] p. 91.
As many of my readers may be unacquainted with the extravagant length of
the four eras or periods of Indian chronology, it may be proper to give an
account of them from Mr. Halhed's Preface to the Code of Gentoo Laws,
p. xxxvi.
1. The Suttee Jogue (or age of purity) is said to have lasted three million
two hundred thousand years; and they hold that the life of man was extended
in that age to one hundred thousand years; and that his stature was twenty
one cubits.
2. The Tirtah Jogue (in which one third of mankind was corrupted) they
suppose to have consisted of two million four hundred thousand years, and that
men lived to the age of ten thousand years.
3. The Dwapaar Jogue (in which half of the human race became depraved)
endured one million six hundred thousand years; and the life of man was then
reduced to a thousand vears.
4. The Collee Jogue (in which all mankind are corrupted, or rather lessened,
for that is the true meaning of Collee) is the present era, which they suppose
ordained to subsist four hundred thousand years, of which near five thousand
are already past; and the life of man in that period, is limited to one hundred
years.
If we suppose the computation of time in the Indian chronology to be made
by solar or even bylunar years, nothing can be more extravagant in itself, or more
repugnant to our mode of calculating the duration of the world, founded on
sacred and infallible authority. Some attempts have been made by learned
men, particularly by M. Bailly, in a very ingenious dissertation on that subject,
to bring the chronology of the Hindoos to accord somewhat better with that
of the Old Testament; but as I could not explain the principles upon which
he founds his conclusions, without entering into long and intricate discussions,
foreign from the subject of this Dissertation, and as I cannot assent to some of
his (opinions, I shall rest satisfied with referring to his Astron. indienne, Disc.
Prelim. p. lxxvii. and leave my readers to judge for themselves. I am happy to
observe that a memoir on the Chronology of the Hindoos will be published in
the Second Volume of the Transactions of the Society of Bengal, and I hope
that some learned member of that body will be able, from his acquaintance with
the languages and history of the country, to throw light upon a subject, which
its connexion with religion and science renders extremely interesting. From
one circumstance, however, which merits attention, we may conclude, that the
information which we have hitherto received, concerning the chronology of the
Hindoos, is very incorrect. We have, as far as I know, only five original
accounts of the different Jogues or eras of the Hindoos. The first is given by
M. Roger, who received it from the Brahmins on the Coromandel coast. According to it, the Suttee Jogue is a period of one million seven hundred and twentyeight thousand years; the Tirtah Jogue is one million two hundred and ninetysix thousand years; the Dwapaar Jogue is eight hundred and sixty-four thousand years. The duration of the Collee Jogue, he does not specify. Ports
Ouverte, p. 179  The next is that of M. Bernier, who received it from the
Brahmins of Benares. According to him, the duration of the Suttee Jogue
was two million five hundred thousand vears; that of Tirta Jogue one mil



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.                                139
lion two hundred thousand years; that of the Dwapaar Jogue is eight hundred
and sixty-four thousand years. Concerning the period of the Collee Jogue, he
likewise is silent. Voyages, torn. ii. p. 160. The third is that of Colonel Dow,
according to which, the Suttee Jogue is a period of fourteen million of years;
the Tirtah Jogue one million eighty thousand; the Dwapaar Jogue seventy-two
thousand; and the Collee Jogue thirty-six thousand years. Hist. of lHindost.
vol. i. p. 2. The fourth account is that of M. le Gentil, who received it from
the Brahmins of the Coromandel coast; and as his information was acquired
in the same part of India, and derived from the same source with that of M.
Roger, it agrees with his in every particular. Mdm. de l'Acaddm. des Sciences
pour 1772, tom. ii. part i. p. 176. The fifth is the account of Mr. Halhed, which
I have already given. From this discrepancy, not only of the total numbers,
but of many of the articles in the different accou-nts, it is manifest that our
information concerning Indian Chronology is hitherto as uncertain as the
whole system of it is wild and fabulous. To me it appears highly probable,
That when we understand more thoroughly the principles upon which the factitious eras or Jogues of the Hindoos have been formed, we may be more able
to reconcile their chronology to the true mode of computing time, founded on
the authority of the Old Testament; and may likewise find reason to conclude,
that the account given by their astronomers of the situation of the heavenly
bodies at the beginning of the Collee Jogue, is not established by actual observation, but the result of a retrospective calculation. Whoever undertakes to
investigate further the chronology of the Hindoos, will derive great assistance
from a memoir of Mr. Marsden on that subject, in which he has explained the
nature of their year and the several eras in use among them, with much ingenuity and precision. Philos. Transact. vol. lxxx. part ii. p. 560.
NOTE [68]. p. 93.
IN the public buildings of India, we find proofs and monuments of the proficiency of the Brahmins in science, particularly of their attention to astronomical
observation. Their religion enjoins, that the four sides of a Pagoda should face
the four Cardinal points. In order to execute this with accuracy, they take a
method described by M. le Gentil, which discovers a considerable degree of
science. He carefully examined the position of one of their Pagodas, and found
it to be perfectly exact. Voy. tom. i. p. 133. As some of their Pagodas are
very ancient, they must have early attained such a portion of knowledge as
was requisite for placing them properly. On the ceilings of Choultries, and
other ancient edifices, the twelve signs of the zodiac are often delineated; and
from their resemblance to those which are now universally used, it is highly
probable that the knowledge of these arbitrary symbols was derived from thle
East. Colonel Call has published a drawing of the signs of the zodiac, which
he found on the ceiling of a Choultry at Vcrdapettah, in the Madura country.
Phil. Transact. vol. lxii. p. 353. I have a drawing of them in my possession,
differing from his in some of the figures, but I cannot say in what particular
place it was found. Sir Robert Barker describes an observatory at Benares,
which he visited A. D. 1772. In it he found instruments for astronomical
observation, of very large dimensions, and constructed with great skill and
ingenuity. Of all these he has published drawings. Phil. Transact. vol. lxvii.
p. 598. According to traditionary account, this observatory was built by the
emperor Akber. The view which Sir Robert took of it was a hasty one. It
merits a more attentive inspection, in order to determine whether it was constructed by Akber, or erected in some more early period. Sir Robert intimates
that none but Brahmins who understood the Sanskreet, and could consult the
astronomical tables written in that language, were capable of calculating
eclipses. P. Tissenthaler describes, in a very cursory manner, two observatories,
furnished with instruments of extraordinary magnitude, at Jepour and Ougein,
in the country of Malwa. Bernouilli, tom. i. p. 316. 347. But these are modern
structures.




140    NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
SINCE the first edition of the Historical Disquisition was published, the Souriak Seddentam, or, according to a more correct orthography, the SiUrya Siddhanta, on the principles of which I have observed that all the Indian astronomy
is founded, has been discovered at Benares, by Sir Robert Chambers. He
Immediately communicated this valuable work to Samuel Davis, Esq., who has
favoured the world with a translation of several considerable extracts from it.
The Suirya Siddhanta is composed in the Sanskreet language, and professes
to be a divine revelation (as Abul Fazel had related, Ayeen Akbery, III. p. 8),
communicated to mankind more than two millions of years ago, towards the
close of the Sutty or Satya Jogue, the first of the four fabulous ages into which
the Hindoo Mythologists divide the period during which they suppose the world
to have existed. But when this accompaniment of fiction and extravagance is
removed, there is left behind a very rational and elaborate system of astronomical calculation. From this Mr. Davis has selected what relates to the calculation of Eclipses, and has illustrated it with great ingenuity. The manner in
which that subject is treated, has so close an affinity to the methods formerly
brought from India, and of which I have given some account, as to confirm
strongly the opinion that the SiUrya Siddhanta is the source from which all the
others are derived. How far the real date of this work may be ascertained from
the rules and tables which it contains, will be more clearly established when a
translation of the whole is published. In the mean time it is evident, that what
is already known with respect to these rules and tables, is extremely favourable
to the hypothesis which ascribes a very high antiquity to the Astronomy of the
Brahmins.
The circumstance, perhaps, most worthy of attention, in the Extracts now
referred to, is the system of Trigonometry, included in the Astronomical rules
of the Sfurya Siddhanta. Asiat. Research. ii. p. 245. 249. It may be shown
that this system is founded on certain Geometrical Theorems, which, though
modern Mathematicians be well acquainted with, were certainly unknown to
Ptolemy and the Greek Geometricians.
It is with pleasure, too, we observe, that Mr. Davis has in his possession
several other ancient books of Hindoo astronomy, and that there is reason to
expect from him a translation of the whole Suirya Siddhanta.
It must be added, thaEt we also learn from the second volume of the Asiatic
Researches, that some vestiges of Algebraical calculation have been discovered
among the Brahmins; particularly Rules for the solution of certain Arithmetical questions, with which it would seem that nothing but Algebra could have
furnished them. Asiat. Research. ii. p. 468, note, 487. 495.
My friend, Mr. Professor Playfair, has examined that Extract from the Suirya
Siddhanta, which gives an account of the ancient Hindoo System of Trigonometry, and has discovered the principles on which it is founded. It is with
pleasure I announce, that the result of this examination will be communicated
soon to the Public, and will afford an additional proof of the extraordinary
progress which the natives of India had early made in the most abstruse
sciences.




INDEX TO ANCIENT INDIA.
AJbul Fazel, minister to Akber, sovereign of In-.Jristotle, his political advice to Alexander, 14
dostan, publishes the Ayeen Akbery, 80; and   His just description of the Caspian See, 113
Heeto-Pades, 137.                             Doubted the expediency of encouraging com-.cesinles, a city built on that river by Alexan-   merce in a well regulated state, 114.
der, 108.                                   Jdromatics, why much used by the ancients, 24..Eras of Indian chronology, explained, 138. Re- dlrrian, character of his History of' the Indianl
marks on, ib.                                 expedition of Alexander the Great, 12. His ac
Africa, general idea of the continent of, and of   count of the commerce of the ancients, 26. Inits trade, 61. Origin of the slave trade, 69.  quiry into his geographical knowledge of India,
irgathemerus, his account of the island of Tapro-   28. Is the first ancient writer who had any
bane, 34. His character of Ptolemy, the geog-   krowledge of the eastern coast of the great
rapher, 115.                                  peninsula of India, ib. His account of Alexan-.dgathsodsmon illustrates the geography of Ptole-   der's Indian fleet corroborated, 106. Character
my by maps, 115.                              of his Indian History, ib. His account of the.9kber, sovereign of Indostan, his character,   Caspian sea, 113. The places mentioned in
80. 134.                                      his Periplus compared with modern situations.dlbuquerque, Alphonso, the Portuguese admiral,   and names, 115. 117.
seizes thlse island of Ormus, 58, 59. His opera-.arts and Sciences where first cultivated, 5.
tions on the Red Sea, 59.                   Asbestos, its extravagant price among the Ruo
Alexander the Great, his extensive views respect-   mans, 114.
ing India, 10. His expedition to India, ib. His Istronomy, great proficiency of the Indostans
war with Porus, ib. How obliged to relinquish   in, 90.
his enterprise, 11. His measures for opening.Iugsburg, greatly enriched by Indian goods, 54.
a maritime communication with India, ib. Augustus, Emperor, reduces Egypt to a Roman
His account of India confirmed by modern oh-   province, 21.
servations, 12. His political views in exploring.8yeen./kbery, account of the mutual intercourse
that country, 13. His measures to unite his   of the East Indians by water, from, 106. Seet
European and Asiatic subjects, 14. Conse-   Sanskseet literature.
quences of his death, 15, 16. The sufferings of
his army from the periodical rains, 105. His Babelmandel, derivation of the name, 111.
surprise at the tides of the Indian Ocean, 107. Bactria, rise of the kingdom of, and its acquisiCities built by hinm in India, 108, 109. Intended   tions in India, 18.  Is overwhelmed by the
a survey of the Caspian Sea, 113.             Tartars, ib. 111.
Alexandria, long the chief seat of commerce Baghvat Geta, the pure theology taught in that
with India, 9. The lighthouse on the Pharos   poem, 99.
erected by Ptolemy Lagus, 18. Mode of con- Bailly, M., on the antiquity of astronomy in Inducting the silk trade at that port, 26. The   dia, 92.
Venetians trade there for silk, 48; and the Bank of Venice, the first formed in Europe, 125.
Florentines, 50. Is subjected to the Turks, Barygaza, a considerable emporium  on the
59, 60.                                       coast of ancient India, its situation ascertainAlgebra, a mode of calculation known to the   ed, 26, 27.
Brahmins, 140.                              Bassora, the city of, founded by the Caliph
Riltahabad, the modern name of the ancient city    Omar, 40.
of Palibothra, 17. Account of this city by Me- Benares, the peculiar seat of Indostan science
gasthenes, lb. Remarks of Major Rennell on    and literature, 93. Account of the observatory
this subject, 110.                            there, 139.
A.merica, discovered by Christopher Columbus, Berecnic, the city of, 19.
56  The East India trade a continual drain  Bernier, M., his account of the Indian chronolofrom its silver mnines, 68. Origin of the slave   gy, 138.
trade, 69. Contrast between the natives of Bijore, inhabited by a tribe descended fromn a
America and of India, ib. The trade of Eu-   colony sent there by Alexander the Great, 108.
rope with each conpared, 70. Supplies Europe Boddam, East India ship, remarkable speedy vov
with its products, in return for manufac-   age of, from Portsmouth to Madras, 114.
tures, 71.                                  Brahmins, in India, their sacred rites and high
AJlntiochus the Great, his inroad into India, 111.    privileges, 77. Inquiry into the state of scien-.ntonineus, Marcus, Enlperor, notices of an em-   tific knowledge among them, 88. Their reli
bassy sent by him to the Emperor of China, 32.   gious hierarchy and worship, 93. Their theo./ntwerp, enriched by the Hanseatic league, 54.    logy superior to the popular superstition, 93
Arabians, anciently great dealers in spices from    Their doctrines coincide with the tenets of tles
the East, 24, 25. Great alterations effected in   Stoical school, 100. Concealed religious truths
their manners by the religion of Mahomet, 39,   from the people, 101.
40. They conquer Egypt and Persia, 40. A  Bruce, the information his travels afford con
view of their commercial navigation, 40, 41.   cerning the maritime expeditions of King Solo
Are the first who mention porcelain and tea,   mon, 8.
41. Derived the knowledge of the mariner's Bruges, made the staple of the trade of the Han
compass from Europe, 120. Make no scruple   seatic league, 51. Is greatly enriched, 54.
to plunder the caravans travelling to Mec- Burrunt Sunker, a class among the Hindoos. dc
ca, 127.                                      scribzd, 130.




142                                   INDEX.
Byzantine historians, a eharacter of, 43.     Conveyancing, specimen of the ancient Indian
style of, 137.
Caffa, the great trade carried on there, 122.  Coromandel coast, the inhabitants of, always
Cairo, the caravan that travels fromn thence to   great traders, 37.
Mecca, 127.                                 Cosmus Indicopleustes, some account of, and of
Calicut, reception of Vasco de Gama in' that   his Christian topography,37. His account of
country, 56.                                  Taprobana, 38.
Call, Colonlel, his general opinion of the antiquity  Cotton manlufactures, evidence of their not being
of arts and sciences in India, 135.           common among the Romans, 115.
Camel, the valuable properties of that animal, Crusades to the Holy Land, the origin of, traced,
5, 6. Is peculiarly forned for traversing sandy   and their commercial effects, 44. The crusadeserts, 126.                                 ders acquired the policy and arts of the people
Cantosn, in China, a factory settled there by the   whom  they subdued, 45. Brought different
Arabs, 41.                                    nations acquainted with each other, 51.
Cape of Good Hope, what led to the discovery of
a passage to India by, 56. Is said by Herodo- Damascus, caravan that travels from thence to
tus -to have been passed by sonme Phoenician  Mecca, 127.
ships, 63. Importance of the discovery of this Damaskl, the name of that species of silk manupassage by the Portuguese, 72.                facture, 53.
Caravans, the origin of, 6  Protected and en- Dandulo, Andrew, character of his Venetian
couraged by the Romans, 32. Great commer-   Chronicle, 122.
cial use of, in the East, 61, 62. Caravans which  D'Lenville, MI., his opinion as to the course pur
visit Mecca, 127. A considerable slave trade   sued in the trading voyages of King Solomon's
carried on by the African caravans, lb.       ships, 8. His corrections of Ptolemy's   Geogra.Caspian Sea, erroneous opinion of the ancient   phy of'India, 30. Corroborates Nearchus's acgeographers concerning, 20.112. By whom first   count of India, 107. His geography of India
described in modern times, 113. Its dimen-   controverted by M. Gosselin, 117.
sions, ib                                   Darius, the son of Hystaspes, King of Persia, his
Castes, or orders of Society among the native   researches into and conquests in India, 9.
Gentoos, described, 75. Policy and tendency  Deccan, the ancient Dachanos of Arrian, 118.
of this arrangenlset, ib. Their peculiar names, Delta of the Indus, general state of the weather
ranks, and offices, 130.                      there, 105.
Cathay, the ancient name of China, 51.        Diamonds, less esteemed by the Romans than
Ceyion, supposed to be the island described by   pearls, 114.
ancient geographers under the name of Tabro- Diodorus Siculus, his history of the Indian expebana, 34. Christian churches planted there by    dition of Sesostris examined, 103.
Persian missionaries, 42. Is visited by Marco  Dow, Colonel, account of his translation of the
Polo, the Venetian, 52.                       Shaster, 89.138. His account of the Indian
Chlardin, Sir John, his testimony that the Orien-   chronology, 139.
tals derived the use of the mariner's compass Dowlatabad, the same with the ancient Tagafromn the Europeans, 120. His account of the   ra, 115.
trade of Caffa, 122.                        Du Halde, his description of a peculiar species of
CGiillambrum, description of the Pagoda there, 83.   silk, 115.
Cltina, the only country whence the Romans ob- Dutch States, became the first rivals of the Portained silk, 26. Through what medium they   tuguese in the trade to India, 68.
received it, 27. How the silkworm was con- Dyes, Indial, the excellence of, 135.
veyed from thence to Europe, 39. Is traded to
by the Arabians, 41. First mention of porce- East, the regions of, where arts and sciences
lain and tea, ib. The Christian religion pro-   were first cultivated, 5. The intercourse bepagated  there by Persian missionaries, 42.   tween different countries how first carried on,
How the silk of, was conveyed to Constantinlo-   ib. The first maritime communication with,
pie, after the Greeks were excluded from the   from the west, 6. See Inzdia.
port of Alexandria, ib. Estimate of the Chi- Eclipses, how calculated by the Brahmins of Innese practice of navigation, 120.  How  the   dia, 91.
number of Mahometans increase in China, 122. Egypt, ancient prejudice of the inhabitants
A commercial intercourse by land, opened be-   against any intercourse with foreigners, 7.
tween that country and Russia, 128. Amaz-   How the Egyptians became a commercial peoing exportation of tea from, to Europe, 129.  ple, ib. The city of Alexandria built, 9. The
Chsitore, the high descent claimed by the Rajahs   seat of government fixed there by Ptolemy Laof, 108.                                      gus, 18. Intercourse between the city of BereChronology, Indian, the four eras of, 138. Re-   nice and India, 19. Its opulence derived from
marks on, ib.                                 its commerce with the East, ib. Is reduced to
Cleopatra, value of her famous pearl earrings,25.   a Roman province, 21. Manner of conducting
Colchos, ancient pearl fishery of, carried on by   the silk trade at the port of Alexandria, 26.
the Dutch, 28.                                Conquest of, by the Arabs, 40. The Venetians
Colours, Indian, for dyeing, account of, 135.   resort to Alexandria for silk, 48; and the FioCollumbus, his views in that voyage by which he   rentines, 50. Commercial view of the coundiscovered America, 55, 56. His reliance on   tries, 53. Is subdued by the Turks, 64. How
the authority of Marco Polo, the Venetian tra-   the Indian trade has been conducted through
veller, 124. See Gama.                        that country at different times, 111.
Commerce, the extension of, abated hostile senti- Elagabulsus, the first Roman emperor who wore
ments, 50,51. Unfavourable opinion of Plato   silk, 26.
concerning, 114.                            Eiephaneta, island, account of the ancientpagoda
Common law, the origin of, traced, 79.         there, 82.
Coenorin, Cape, is accurately described by Ar- Ellore, general account of the pagodas there, 135.
rian, 28.                                   Esop's Fables, the origin of, traced, 137.
Compnass, mariner's, was unknown by-the ancient Ethics, state of India, 89.
Chinese and Arabs, 120.                     Europe, review of the state of, at the time of the
Constantinople, taken and plundered by the Cru-   subversion of the Greek empire, 52. Extensive
saders, 46. Subversion of the Latin empire   operation of the commercial genius of, 69. The
there, 49. Is conquered by the Turks and    Europeans receive the products of America,
made the seat of their governlment, 52.       and supply it with manufactures, 71  The ex



INDEX.                                         143
portati n of silver to India, how beneficial to   ipparchus, the first who attempted to make a
Europe, 71. Importance of the discovery of   catalogue of the stars, 29.
the passage to India round the Cape of Good  History, authentic, the period of, extremely liHope, 72.                                     mited, 5. Is minute in records of blood, silent
as to useful arts, 23.
Faquirs, of India, unite trade with devotion in  Hydaspes, river, a numerous fleet assembled
their pilgrimages, 45. 122. Brief accountof, 131.   there by Alexander the Great, 11.
Figures, arithmetical, originally derived from In- Hyphasis, river, limit of Alexander's progress in
dia, 90.                                      India, 11.
Five Gems, an ancient Sanskreet poem, account
of, 137.                                    India, the first naval communication with, fiom
Florence, rise of the state of, by manufactures   the West, 7. The trade of the Phoenicians
and the banking business, 49. A commercial   with, how conducted, ib. Naval expedition of
treatyconcluded with Egypt, 50. Summary of   the Persians to, 8,9. Conquests of Darius Hys
the instructions to their ambassadors to the   taspes in, 9. Alexandria for many centuries
Soldan, 123.                                  the chief seat of trade with, ib. Expedition of
Alexander the Great to, 10. Flourishing state
Gama, Vasco de, his voyage from Lisbon to In-   of the country at that time, ib. Alexander's
dia, 56.                                      voyage down the Indus, 11. Political state of
Ganges, account of that river by Major Ren-   thecountry atthat time,l2. Alexander'sviews
nell, 110.                                    in this expedition, 13. Expedition of Seleucus,
Genoa, motives that stimulated the Genoese to   one of the successors of Alexander, 16. Eraassist in subverting the Latin Empire at Con-   bassy of Megasthenes to, ib. Conquests of the
stantinople, 48. The great advantages they de-   Bactrian Princes in, 18. Remains afterward
rived from this measure, ib. Character of the   undisturbed by Europeans, until the Cape of
Genoese government, ib. The Genoese ex-   Good Hope was doubled by the Portuguese, ib.
pelled from all their Grecian settlements by the   A  commercial intercourse established with
Turks, 52. Character of, by Nicephorus Gre-    Egypt, ib.  How Rome was supplied with
goras, 123.                                   eastern commodities, 21. Advantage taken
Gentil, M. le, his account of the Indian chro-   of the monsoons, in sailing from the Gulf of
nology, 139.                                  Arabia to the Malabar coast, 23. Its commoGentoos, see Brahmins and Hindoos.              dities, articles of luxury, 24. Spices and aroGibbon, Mr., the Roman historian, Ilis accura-   matics, ib.  Precious stones, 25.  Silk, ib
cy, 119.                                      General view of its exports and imports, 26.
Gosselin, M., character of his geography of the    Comparison between the ancient and modern
Greeks, 117.                                  trade with India, 27. D'Anville's corrections
Greeks, their national pride at the time of Alex-   of Ptolemy's geography of, 30. The trade by
ander the Great, 13, 14. How they attained    caravans protected and encouraged by the Rothe breeding of silkworms under the Emperor   mans, 32. The inhabitants of the Coromandel
Justinian, 39. Are shut out from the port of   coast always great traders, 37. The account
Alexandria, 40. The Greek Empire conquered    given of India by Cosmas Indicopleustes, 38.
by Mahomet II., 52. How they were deprived    The Romans rivalled in the Indian trade by
of Bactria, 111. Origin of the ancient mytho-   the Persians ib. The Italian states engaged
logy of, 96.                                  in the Indian trade, 43. Account of the Indian
Gum Lacca, natural history of, and uses in manu-   trade by Marina Sanudo, 50.  Comparative
facture, 136.                                 view of the Indian trade, as carried on by different nations at different times, 52, 53. A diHalked, Mr., his account of the Sanskreet litera-   rect voyage to India effected by the Portuguese,
ture, 136.                                    56. The staple of the Portuguese trade estab
_iHanno, commanded the only voyage for disco-   lished at the city of Malacca, 58. A comnmer
very undertaken by any of the ancient states in   cial empire established in the East by the Por
the- Mediterranean, 129.                      tuguese, 60. Direct navigation to India reserv
Hanseatic league formed, the staple fixed at Bru-   ed for modern times, 62. The conduct of an
ges, 51.                                      cient and modern navigators to the East, com-.Hastings, Mr., Governor General of Bengal, his   pared, 64. The prices of Indian commodities
attention to forming a code of Hindoo laws, 80.   greatly reduced by the opening a direct comHeeto-pades, or amicable instruction, an ancient   munication with India, 65. The Indian trade
Sanskreet composition, account and character   a continual drain of American silver from Euof, 137.                                      rope, 68. Contrast between the state of the
Herodotus affirms the Cape of Good Hope to   natives of India and America, when first dishave been passed by some Phoenician vessels,   covered, 69. Tile trade of Europe with each
63. His history of Sesostris examined, 103.   compared, 70. The silver exported to India
His unsatisfactory account of the tides in the   contributes to enrich instead of impoverishing
Red Sea, 107. His description of the Caspian   Europe, 71. Importance of the discovery of
Sea, 113.                                     the passage to India round the Cape of Good
Hindoos, that people exactly described in the ac-   Hope to Europe, 72. Expedition of Sesostris to
countof the Indian expedition of Alexander the   India, 103. Remarks on the weather there.
Great, 12, 13. Their four orders or castes de-   105.  Remarks of the naval expedition of
scribed, 75. Remarks on the policy and ten-   Nearchus, 106.  Peculiarities in the Indian
dency of this popular arrangement, ib. Their  tides, 107. Aversion of the natives of the
high antiquity, and nature of their institutions,   East to the sea, 108, 109. Major Rennell's ac
80. Character of their judicial code, ib. State   count of the river Ganges, 110. Endeavours to
of sciences among them, 88. Their religious   ascertain the situation of the ancient city of
tenets and practices, 93. Their inflexible ad-   Palibothra, ib. How the Indian trade has been
herence to their religion and castes, 121. The   carried on through Egypt at different times, 111.
names, ranks, and offices of their several castes   Erroneous descriptions of the Caspian Sea by
described, 130. Their temples, 135.           ancient writers, 112, 113. Deccan, the ancient
Hiram, King of Tyre, assists King Solomon in   Dachainos of Arrian, 118. The use of the-ma
his naval undertakings, 8.                    riner's compass learned by the Easterns from
Hippalus, captain of an Egyptian vessel, avails   the Europeans, 120. The Gentoos inflexible in
himself of the monsoons, in sailing from the   their religion, 121. Computed number of MaArabian Gulf tothe Malabar coast, 23.         homedans in India, 122. Extensive circulation




144                                   INDEX.
of eastern goods by the caravans, 127. The   greatly to extend the commerce of Asia and
natives of India the earliest known people who    Africa, 61.
were civilized, 74. Their division into castes, JMahomet 11. subdues the Grecian Empire, 52.
75. The perfection of Indian manufactures Jllahudel, M., his proofs of the ignorance of the'ccounted for, 76. The general tenure of land    ancients as to the nature of silk, 114, 115.
there, 78. Character of the Hindoo code of MJIalabar coast, probable derivation of its name,
laws, 80, 81. General account of the Pagodas,   38. How mentioned by the Arabian writers, 41.
82. Fortresses, 84. Mechanic arts, ib. Litera- Malacca, the city of, rendered the staple of the
ture, 85. Their sciences, 88. Their religious   trade carried on in the East by the Portutenets, 93. Origin of superstition, 95. The   guese, 58.
pure theology of the Brahmins, 98. General.Maldive islands, probable derivation of their
reflections formed on the preceding review of   name, 38.
the eastern nations, 102. The manners and  Mian, a review of his progress in social life, 77
customs of the natives influenced by the Ma  jManufactures, Indian, the perfection of, ac
homedan and European intruders, 131. Ac-   counted for, 76.
count of the Sanskreet literature, 136. The  JMaps, none prior to those of Ptolemy's geogra
Heeto-Pades, 137. The Five Gems, ib. Ode   phy, 35.
from Wulli, ib. Specimen of Indian convey- Mlarco Polo, the Venetian, account of his travels,
ancing, ib. The four eras of Indian chronology    51. Objections to his relations, and vindicaexplained, 138.                               tion of them, 124.
Indicum, of the ancients, the same with modern  Jlarseilles opens a trade with Constantinople for
Indigo, 135.                                  Indian commodities, 44.
Indigo, the several kinds of, and its uses, 135, 136. Massoudi, the Arabian, his account of India, 12~.
Indus, river, passed by Alexander the Great, 10. JMecca, the temple there visited as well by comrn
His voyage down that river, 11.               mercial as by devout pilgrims, 45. The pilt
Institutions of India, the permanency of, ac-   grimages to, contributed greatly to facilitate
counted for, 76.                              trade, 61. Account of the caravans which
interest of money, 54. Chronological view of,   visit the temple there, 126, 127.
54, 55.                                     JMedici, Cosmo di, a Florentine merchant, negoItaly, rise of the commercial states of, 43. They   tiates a commercialtreaty with Egypt infavour
import the productions of India, ib. The pro-   of his countrymen, 50.
fits they reaped from the Crusades, 46. See dMeditersanean Sea, the chief seat of ancient
Venice, Genoa, &c.                            commerce, 63.
Itineraries of the Roman Empire, how form-  Megasthenes, his embassy from Seleucus, King
ed, 116.                                      of Syria, to India, 16. His account of India, 17.
JMocenigo, Doge of Venice in the fifteenth cenJava`Minor, of Marco Polo, ascertained, 124.   tury, his account of the naval strength of that
Jenaub, a city built on, by Alexander the Great,  republic, 125.
108.  J- Ionkish ainialists, a character of, 43, 44.
Jenkinson, Anthony, his description of the Cas- fMoslsoons, their first application in voyages to
pian Sea, 113.                                India, 23.
lessewant Sing, his letter to Aurengzebe, con- JMoses, the books of, the most ancient and genutainina a character of Sultan Akber, 134.     ine record of the early ages of the world, 5.
fewels, their use and estimation among the an- JMusiris, frequented by ancient navigators, 23.
cients, 25.                                JMythology of the Greeks, the natural origin of; 96.
Jews, when they effected a commercial intercourse with India, 8. Maritime commerce of N.adir Shah, general review of his Indian expedi
King Solomon, ib. Their commercial effort   tion, 105.
terminated in his reign, ib..Jagara of Ptolemy, its latitude according to
Joanna of Navarre, her exclamation atthe wealth    D'Anville, 33.
of the city of Bruges, 125..Navigation, origin of, traced, 6. Where first
Julius Cesasr, his magnificent present to Servilia,   cultivated, ib.  How introduced among the
the mother of Brutus,25. His ignorance of the   Egyptians, ib.
British tides, 107. Surveys the whole Roman  JVNearchus commands the naval expedition of
Empire, 116.                                  Alexander the Great down the Indus, 11. ReJustins, observations on his account of the pro-   marks on, 106.
gress made by Seleucus in India, 109..Vicephosrus, character of the Genoese at Constan
Justin-an, Emperor, introduced the silkworm    tinople, 123.
into Greece, 39..Niehbuhr, his evidence in favour of the European
origin of the mariner's compass, 121.
Land, the general tenures of, in India, 78. 132.
Specimen from an ancient grant of, 137, 138.   Omar, Caliph, founds the city of Bassora, 40.
Latitudes, how ascertained by the ancient geo- Ormus seized by the Portuguese, 59. Description
graphers, 35. More readily determined by them    of, ib.
than longitudes, 36.118.                    Oude, Nabob of; 105.
Lawyers, the style of, compared with that of the
Pundits, 137.                               Pagodas of India, general account of, 82.135
Leibnitz, his account of the instructions given to   Are placed with astronomical precision, 139.
the Florentine ambassadors to the Soldan of Palibothra, the endeavours to ascertain its situa
Egypt, 123.                                   tion, 110.
Logic and metaphysics, state of, in India, 88.    Palmyra, by whom, and on what occasion, built,
Longitudesof places, how determined by ancient   21, 22. Its stupendous ruins, 22. Its present
geographers, 35. 118.                         state, 23.
Panjab, progress ofAlexander the Great through,
Magellan effects a passage for the East Indies,   10.
westward, 67.                               Papyrus, occasion of its being disused for writing
Mahabarat, an Indian epic poem, 85. Extracts   on, 122.
from, 88, 89. 99.                           Parchment, when first used for charters and
ofahmoud of G aznah, the vast fleet that opposed    deeds, ib.
his invasion of India, 106.                 Pariars, the most contemptible race in India,
Ufahomet, rapid spread of his religion, and the    121. 130.
great effects produced by it, 40. Contributed  Patna, not the ancient city of Palibothra, 110,




IN 1) F X,                                   145
Pearls, their high estimation among the Romans,   applications of it by the anc ents and the
25. Were dearer than diamonds, 114.         moderns, 107.
Pera, the chief suburb of Constantinople, granted Religion and superstition discriminated, 94.
to the Genoese, 48. The Genoese expelled by Renaudot, M., his translation of the eastern voythe Turks, 52.                              age of two Mahomedans, from the Arabic,vin.
Persia, how the commerce between that country   dicated, 119.
and India was conducted, 20. Vigorous culti- Retnelt, Major, his illustrations of the Indian exvation of the India trade, 38. The silk trade   pedition of Alexander the Great, 12. 104. 108.
engrossed by thePersians, 38, 39. Their extolt   His account of the river Ganges, 110. Retions introduce the silkworm to Europe, 39.   marks on his account of the situation of the
Is conquered by the Arabs, 40. Nestorian   city of Palibothra, lb.  His opinion of the
churches planted there, 42. Amount of the   Egyptian navigation examined, 112.
revenue of the Persian monarchs from Hero- Rlhinocolura, the ancient port of communication
dotus, 104. Instances of their ancient aversion   between Phcenicia and India, 7.
to the sea, 108, 109.                     Roger, M., his account of the Indian chronoloPhalanx, Macedonian, how formed by Alexan-   gy,.138.
der, 14.                                  Rome, rise of the power of, 20, 21. How supplied
Pkilosophly, the cure for superstition, 97.   with Indian commodities, 21. Its imports fi'om
Plrzanicians, opened a commercial intercourse   thence, articles of luxury, 24. Ignorant of the
with India, 7. Are said to have passed the   nature of silk, 26. How the breeding of silkCape of Good Hope, 63.                      worms was introduced into the eastern empire,
Pilgrimages to the Holy Land, undertaken from    39. Consequences of the Roman empire being
commercial and pious motives, 45. Pilgrimages   dissolved by the Barbarians, 50. Itineraries of
to Mecca, 127.                              the empire formed, 116.
Pilpay's fables, the origin of, traced, 137.  Russia, a commercial intercourse between, and
Plato, his objections to commerce in a common-   China, 128.
wealth, 114.                              Ryots of indostan, tenure by which they hold
Pliny the elder, his slender knowledge of India,   their possessions, 132.
29. His account of the island of Taprobane,
34. Observations on his account of ihe pro- Sacontala, an ancient Indian dramatic poem, ac
gress of Seleucus in India, 109.            count of, 86.
Pomponizs.Iela, his account of the island of Sacotecas, the mines of, importance of, to
Taprobale, 34, and of the Caspian Sea, 113.  Spain, 70.
Porcelain, the first mention of, byArabian travel- Saint Croix, Baron de, observations on his Crllers, 41.                                   tique des Historians d'Alexandre le Grand, 109.
Portugal, circumstances that led the Portuguese Samarcand, by what name known to Alexander
to the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, 56.  the Great, 10. Its latitude as ascertained by
Vigorous exertions of the Portuguese to culti-   D'Anville, 33.
vate the eastern trade, 57, 58. They aim at a Sandracottus, an Indian prince, his revolt against
monopoly of the trade to the East, 58. Estab-   and treaty with Seleucus, King of Syria, 16.
lish a commercial empire in the East, 60. Sanskreet literature, 136.  Mr. Haihed's  acTheir activityin exploring the eastern coun-   count of, ib.
tries, 64. They drive theVenetians out of the Sanudo, Marino, his account of the Venetian
European markets, by reducing the prices of   trade with India, in the fourteenth centu y,50.
India goods, 65. How they remained so long Sciences, where first cultivated, 5. State of, in
in the exclusive possession of the Indian trade,   India, 88.
67. Are rivalled at length in the Indian Ocean Scylax, of Caryandra, his naval expedition.o Inby the Dutch, 68, and by the English, ib. Re-   dia, 8, 9. Why his voyage is not ment ined
pulse the efforts of Solyman the Magnificent to   by Arrian, 106.
drive them from India, 72. Their intercourse Seapoys, modern, established on the same princiwith Infidels licensed by a Papal bull, 123.  ple with the phalanx of Persians formed by
Porus, opposes the progress of Alexander the   Alexander the Great, 14.
Great in India, 10. Remains steady to the Seiks of India, probability of disputes between
Macedonian interest, 16.                    them and the British, 105. Their situation and
Potosi, the discovery of the silver mines of, the   character, 105.
first permanent source of wealth derived by Seleucues, the successor of Alexander, ifis expediSpain from America, 70.                     tion to India, 16. Observations on, 109.
Ptolemy, the geographer, estimate of his scientific Selim, Sultan, the conqueror of the Mamelukes,
knowledge, 29. Established geography upon   his attention to the advantages of the Indian
its proper principles, lb. His accounts of the   commerce, 72.
continent of India examined, 30. His geogra- Semiramis, the vast fleet that opposed her invaphy of India adjusted by that of modern times   sion of India, 106.
by M. D'Anville, ib. His exactness in some Sera.JMetropolis, of Ptolemy, its latitude accordpositions, 33. Account of Taprobane, 34. HIis  ing to D'Anville, 33.
character, by Agathemerus, 115. His geogra- Se-ingham, description of the pagoda there, 83.
phical errors, 116. From what materials he Sesostris, King of Egypt, the first who rendered
composed his geography of India, 11.       the Egyptians a commercial people, 7. ImproPtolemy Lagus establishes the seat of Egyptian   babilities attending his supposed expedition to
government at Alexandria, erects the light-   and conquest of India, 103.
house on the Pharos, 18.                  Shastsr, some account of, 89. 138.
Ptolemy Philadelphus projects acanal to facilitate Sielediba, Cosmas Indicopleustes's account of, 38
the intercourse between Egypt and India, 18, Silk, its high estimation among the Romans, 25
19. Founds Berenice, 19.                    The trade for, engrossed by the Persians, 38,
39. Silkworms obtained and cultivated bythe
Pultanah, the ancient Plithanig of Arrian, 115.    Greeks, 39. Venetian and Florentine trade for
silk, 49. Ignorance of the ancients, as to its
IRamusio detects the geographical errors of   productions, 114, 115. Why disliked by the
Ptolemy, 116.                               Turks, 115.
Raynal, Abbd, his History of the East and West Silver, drained from Europe to carryon the East
Indies, 72.                                 India Trade, 68. Europe enriched by its ex
Red Sea, derivation of the name, ane the different   portation, 71.
VOL. III.-T




146                                  IN DEX.
Sine.tMetropolis, of Ptolemy, endeavours of M. Trade, how at first conducted between differenii
D'Anville to ascertain its situation, 3]..    countries, 6. Between Egypt and India, 18.
Slave trade, modern, the origin of, 69. Is largely   Exports and imports of India, 24.
carried on by the African caravans, 127, 128.  Transamsrration of souls, the Eastern doctrine
Solomon, King of Judea, inquiry into his mari-   of, explained, 100.
time commerce, 8. Builds Tadmor, in the  Turks, their scruples concerning the wearing of
Desert, 21.                                   silk, 115.
Sciyman the Magnificent, his efforts to drive the  Tyre, account of the commerce of in Ezekiel, b04.
Portuguese from India, 72.
Soul, description of, from the Mahabarat, 88.    Ulug, Beg, his astronomical tables, 33.
Spain has the honour of discovering America, 56.
Gold and silver the only profitable articles they  Vasa.Jurrhina, of Pliny, the nature and compo
found in America, 70. They colonize it, 71.   sition of, 121.
Spices and aromatics, why much used by the an- Venice, first rise of, as a commercial state, 43.
cients, 24.  Vast modern consumption of   Constantinople taken, in conjunction with the
them, ib.                                     crusaders, 46. The Venetians engage largely
Strabo, his obscure knowledge of India, 28. Iis   in the trade and manufacture of silk, 47. The
account of the island of Taprobane, 33. His   Latin efmpire in the East subverted, 48. The
free exposition of ancient theology, 101. De-   Venetians supplanted in the trade with Connies that Sesostris ever entered India, 104. His   stantinople by the Genoese, ib. They -settle a
slender knowledge of India, 112. His account   trade with Alexandria, 49. Account of the
of the Caspian Sea. 112, 113. He justifies his   Venetian trade with India in the fourteenth
neglect of Hipparchus, 115. His account how    century, 50. Travels of Marco Polo, 51. Their
the Indian won-en were guarded, 131. His ac-   trade extended by the Turks subduing the
count of the ancient dyes, 135.               Greek empire, 52. Remarks on their trade for
Sumatra, the island of, visited by the early Ara-   Indian goods, 53. Evidences of the great
bians, 41. Was the Java Minor of Marco   wealth they acquire by this trade, 54. Alarm
Polo, 124.                                   taken at the direct voyage to East India by
Superstition and religion discriminated, 94. Ori-   Vasco de Gama, 57. MeIasures prosecuted by
gin of superstition, 95. Progress of, 95, 96.   the Venetians to check the progress of the PorPicture of oriental superstition, 96. Philoso-   tuguese in the East, 59. The Portuguese supphy fatal to, 97.                             plant them in the European markets, by reducSsirya Siddlitlnta, thescientifical merit of that an-   ing the prices of Indian goods, 65. The great
cient Oriental composition, 140.              extent of their trade, 125. The bank of Venice
Sylla, spices consumed in his funeral pile, 24.  the first formed of any in Europe, ib. Amount
of the Venetian naval strength in the fifteenth
Tadmor in the Desert, by whom built, and for   century, 125, 126.
what purpose, 21. Its stupendous ruins, 22. Virgil, a good natural historian, and descriptive
Its present state, 23.                        poet, 115.
Tamerlane, his judicious choice of the season for Volncy, M., his account of the camel, 126, and of
his Indian campaign, 105.                     the caravan from Damascus to Mecca, 127.
Taprobane, Strabo's account of, 33. Pliny's account of it, 34. Ptolemy's account of it, ib. Wilford, Lieutenant, his examination of Arrian'.
Appears to be the island of Ceylon, ib. Ac-   Periplus by modern names and situations, 115.
count by Cosmas Indicopleustes, 38.         Vlkins, Mr., his translation of the Heeto-pades,
Tatta, great drought there, 105. Vast numbers   137.
of vessels for water carriage there, 106.   Women, the jealous seclusion of, in Indiawhent
Tea, a necessary of life in many parts of Europe,   derived, 131.
129. Annual importation of, ib.             Wulli, character of an ode translated from, 137.
Tea Tree, first mention of, by Arabian travellers, 41.                                   Zemindars, their office in the government of asn
imtdes of the Indian ocean, peculiarities in, 107.    dostan, 132.