The Works of John Knox Volume I Part 53

[597] From the above paragraph in Knox, it appears that the prisoners were liberated at different periods between the Winter of 1548-9, and July 1550.

[598] This statement of Knox, written in 1566, or twenty years after the event, is certainly very much opposed to a.s.sertions which are easier made than proved, that all the persons concerned in Cardinal Beaton's a.s.sa.s.sination came to a violent death. There is no doubt that Bishop Lesley says, "Caedis ujus auctores violenta morte Deo vindice mulctantur;" (De Rebus Gestis, &c., p. 482;) but he pa.s.ses this over in silence, in his English History. Dempster also a.s.serts "Nam nullus nefariorum percussorum non violenta morte extinctus est."--(Hist.

Eccles. p. 89.) "So, 'tis observed by the Protestants, that there was not one of his (Beaton's) murderers but afterwards died a violent, and, for the most part, an ignominious death."--(Preface to Beaugue's History, p. 50.) It is not necessary to quote similar a.s.sertions reiterated by writers of the present day. James Melville died, it is true, during his imprisonment, in 1548 or 1549, but certainly not a violent death. Norman Lesley died of his wounds, but in no inglorious manner, in 1554; and nineteen years later, in August 1573, Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange, after his gallant defence of the Castle of Edinburgh, suffered an ignominious death. Any other instance of a violent death remains to be proven.

[599] James Melvin or Melville. See note 449. Spotiswood says he was "one of the house of Carnbee." In this way, we may conjecture he was brother of John Mailvile of Carnbee, who had charters of the lands of Granton, 21st February 1508-9, and to his wife Margaret Leirmonth, 26th May 1513. Their son, John Mailvile of Carnbee junior, and his wife Janet Inglis, had a charter of half of these lands, 26th June 1509. The person who acted such a prominent part in Cardinal Beaton's murder, was called Senior, probably to distinguish him from James, "naturali et legitimo filio" of John Mailvile of Carnbee, who had a charter of half the lands of Carnbee, 15th November 1528.--Brist in Bartanzea, is the same as Brest, the well known sea-port of France, one of the best harbours in Europe, on the west coast of Britanny.

[600] MS. G, "Gif we, I say, or they."

[601] In Vautr. edit. "yeare of our Lord."

[602] In Vautr. edit. the word _villain_ was mistaken for the name of a person, and thus we have "his other _William_;" and in the marginal note, "The slaughter of that _Williame_ Davie."--The date of this event, so memorable in Scotish history, from its relation to Queen Mary, was the 9th of March 1565-6.

[603] Balfour, as stated at page 202, was Official of Lothian, and he still retained his ecclesiastical denomination, Parson of Flisk, when raised to the bench, 12th November 1561. Immediately after Rizzio's murder, in March 1566, he was knighted, and appointed Lord Clerk-Register, in place of Mr. James Macgill, one of the conspirators.

And on the 6th December 1567, Balfour became Lord President, by the t.i.tle of Pettendreich.

[604] John Sinclair, Bishop of Brechin, died in April 1560: see subsequent note.

[605] The person here referred to, and whose baptismal name is left blank in the MS., and in all the later copies, was John Lesley, Bishop of Ross. This eminent and learned Prelate, whom Knox calls "a priest's gett," or illegitimate child, was the natural son of Gawin Lesley, parson of Kingussie, as Keith, in his Catalogue of Bishops, has shown from original doc.u.ments. Lesley's several preferments will afterwards be noticed. He survived till the year 1596.

[606] In Vautr. edit. "gate;" MS. G, "geitt."

[607] Sir Symon Preston of Craigmillar: see note 322.

[608] In the MS. "keape."

[609] A treaty of peace between England and France, comprising Scotland, was concluded at Boulogne, on the 24th March, and proclaimed at Edinburgh in April 1550.

[610] There was concluded a commercial treaty between France and the Low Countries, 26th April 1550; and a treaty of peace between the Emperor Charles the Fifth and Mary Queen of Scots, 15th December 1550.

[611] From Foxe's account, of Wallace's trial, we learn that he was a native of Fail, in Ayrs.h.i.+re; and there was a family of Wallace of Feale.

Fail, or Failford, in the parish of Torbolton, was the site of a Monastery founded in 1252, which belonged to the Red Friars. (See the notices in New Stat. Account, Ayrs.h.i.+re, p. 748, &c.) The manner in which Knox speaks of Wallace as "a simple man without learning," may mean, without much pretension to learning, or not having enjoyed a learned education. Yet we find two persons of the same name, Adam Wallace, incorporated at Glasgow in 1536 and 1539.--His trial and execution took place in 1550; yet in the Latin verses by John Johnston of St. Andrews, on the Scotish Martyrs, the date given is 17th July 1549.

("Constantissime demum pro testimonio Christi mortuus, Edinburgi xvii Julij 1549.")

[612] The wife of John c.o.c.kburn of Ormiston, called in those days Lady Ormiston, was Alison Sandilands, daughter of Sir James Sandilands of Calder. Her son Alexander, was Knox's pupil: see note 472. She was still alive in 1584, when Vautrollier dedicated "To the Honourable and vertuous Ladie Alison Sandilands, Lady of Hormiston," the treatise called "The Confession of Faith," by Henry Balnaves, (see note 575,) the MS. of which had been fortunately discovered at Ormiston, by Richard Bannatyne, Knox's Secretary.

[613] Winton Castle, in the parish of Pencaitland, East Lothian, about five miles west from Haddington, appears to have been a place of great splendour, according to the glowing description of it by Sir Richard Maitland, in his "Historie and Cronicle of the House of Seyton," p. 35.

Winton House or Castle, "biggit, with the yard and garding thereof," by George second Lord Seaton, we are informed, was burned, and the policy destroyed, "by the English of old;" but the house was re-edified by George tenth Lord Seaton, and third Earl of Winton, in 1620.

[614] The monastery of the Dominican or Black Friars was one of the largest establishments in Edinburgh, with extensive gardens, occupying the site of the building which formerly was the High School, on the rising ground to the south of the Cowgate. The close, or "le Venelle,"

still known as the Blackfriars Wynd, formed a connexion between the Monastery and the High Street, and had been granted to the Friars by Alexander the Second. The Convent was burned to the ground by a sudden fire, on the 25th April 1528, and had only been partially rebuilt at the time of the Reformation.

[615] To the notices at page 152, respecting John Lauder, it may be added, that being one of the Auditors of the Chamberlain's Accounts for the Archbishop.r.i.c.k of St. Andrews, from 1540 to 1549, he is styled Archdeacon of Teviotdale.--(MS. Rental Book, Advocates Library.) In Foxe's account of the trial of Adam Wallace, 1550, Lauder is called Parson of Morebattle. In February 1551, he is styled Archidene of Teviotdale, and Notary Public of St. Andrews.--(Acta Parl. Scot., vol.

ii. p. 489.) In the same year, Lauder signs a deed as "_Secretarius_" of Archbishop Hamilton, (MS. Rental Book, at St. Andrews;) as the deed referred to was cancelled, and reconfirmed in 1556, without any notice of Lauder's name, it may be conjectured that he had died during that interval.

[616] In MS. G, "bindeth."

[617] George Gordon, fourth Earl of Huntley, succeeded his grandfather in the year 1524. In 1546, after Cardinal Beaton's death, he became Lord High Chancellor. His subsequent history is well known; and he was killed fighting against the Earl of Murray, at Corrichie, about twelve miles from Aberdeen, 28th October 1562.--(Douglas and Wood's Peerage, vol. i.

p. 648; Senators of the College of Justice, p. 83-87.)

[618] See note 173.

[619] Robert Reid: see subsequent note.

[620] In Vautr. edit. "Take yon all, my Lordis, of the clergie."

[621] Foxe, in his Book of Martyrs, as already noticed in note 457, has given a minute account of the trial and execution of Adam Wallace. It will be inserted as No. XII. in the Appendix to this volume, every contemporary narrative of such proceedings, at this early period, being possessed of more than ordinary interest.

[622] The Queen Dowager of Scotland embarked at Leith on the 7th, reached Dieppe on the 19th, and Rouen on the 25th September 1550. In this visit to her daughter in France, she was absent for upwards of twelve months. On her return, she landed at Portsmouth, about the middle of October 1551, and proceeded to London, where she was welcomed by Edward the Sixth and the English Court. See note 627.

[623] In December 1553, Henry the Second, King of France, wrote to the Duke of Chatelherault, to induce him to resign the Regency of Scotland in favour of the Queen Dowager; and on the 22d March 1553-4, the young Queen addressed an order to the Duke to that effect. This led to his resignation, and on the 12th April 1554, Mary of Guise, Queen Dowager, was proclaimed Regent of Scotland, with great solemnity and public rejoicings.

[624] In MS. G, and Vautr. edit., "all understanding or expectatioun of men."

[625] According to the Journal by the English Monarch, which contains a description of the Queen Dowager's sumptuous entertainment during the period she remained at the Court of Edward, from the 22d of October to the 6th of November 1551.--(Tytler's Edward VI., &c., vol. ii. pp. 5, 6.) Bishop Lesley also takes notice of the "gret banqueting and honorabill pastyme maid for intertenement of the Quene Douarier;" and "of the honorabill convoye" she had in returning through England, until she reached Berwick, (Hist. p. 239;) when some of the Scotish n.o.bility escorted her to Holyrood, where she arrived at the end of November that year.

[626] In MS. G, "Martin Luther."

[627] In the MS. a blank s.p.a.ce is left, as if for the purpose of filling in some other names; such as Paulus f.a.gius, Francis Dryander, and Justus Jonas, who, like the three above mentioned, were eminent Foreign divines, and came to England during the reign of Edward the Sixth.

[628] In adding the name _Emanuel Gualterus_, Knox has evidently confounded two persons: _Emanuel_ Tremelius, a learned Italian, who succeeded f.a.gius as King's Reader of Hebrew, (Strype's Eccl. Memorials, vol. ii. p. 206,) and Rudolphus _Gualterus_ of Zurich, who had visited England in 1537.--(Strype's Life of Cranmer, p. 449.)--Martin Bucer died in 1551; Peter Martyr, in 1562; and John a Lasco, in 1560.

[629] It is scarcely necessary to add that Queen Mary of England was the daughter of Henry the Eighth, by Catharine of Arragon. Her accession to the throne is reckoned from the death of Edward the Sixth, 6th July 1553. She married Philip, King of Spain, 25th July 1554; and died 17th November 1558.

[630] During the short reign of Queen Mary, it has been reckoned that not less than upwards of 300 persons were committed to the flames, on account of their religious sentiments.

[631] See page 242.

[632] William Harlaw was born soon after the year 1500; and, as we are informed by Calderwood, "first was a taylour in Edinburgh; thereafter went to England, and preached some times as a Deacoun, according to the corrupt custome of that Kirk, under the reigne of King Edward. Howbeit he was not verie learned, yet his doctrine was plaine and sound, and worthie of commendatioun."--(History, vol. i. p. 303.) On the death of Edward, he returned to Scotland in 1551, and in 1556, began "publicly to exhort in Edinburgh," and also in other parts of the country. He was one of the preachers, at Perth, who were denounced as rebels for usurping the authority of the Church, 10th May 1559.--(See page 257.) Harlaw, in 1560, became minister of the parish of St. Cuthberts, in the vicinity of Edinburgh, and he continued there till his death. Robert Pont, who had for four years been his colleague, was presented to "the vicaraige of St. Cuthbert's Kirk, vaicand be the deceise of William Harlaw," in December 1578.

[633] John Willock was a native of Ayrs.h.i.+re. Spotiswood says, he became a Franciscan, and Lesley, a Dominican Friar. Having at an early period relinquished his monastic habit, he went to England, and was employed as a preacher in St. Catherine's, London, and also as chaplain to the Duke of Suffolk. On the accession of Queen Mary to the throne of England, he escaped to the Continent, and practised as a physician at Embden, in Friesland. In 1555, and in 1556, he twice visited Scotland, on a mission to the Queen Regent, respecting trade; and having returned in October 1558, he undertook the public office of the ministry. See the notices in the Wodrow Miscellany, vol. i. pp. 261-264, and the authorities there quoted.

[634] Knox's arrival in Scotland may be placed about the end of September 1555. He set out from Geneva in the previous month, and came to Dieppe, from whence he sailed, and landed on the east coast of Scotland, not far from Berwick.

[635] See subsequent note, page 268.

[636] This was apparently a metrical version of Psalm 103, but the line does not correspond with any of the known versions of the Psalms in metre. The Wedderburns, however, may have versified a greater number of Psalms than those contained in the volume best known as "The Gude and G.o.dly Ballates:" see note 370.

[637] In MS. A, "then if all."

[638] In MS. G, "servantis."

[639] In Vautr. edit. "that might serve for the purpose."

[640] John Erskine of Dun.--The house of Dun is in the parish of that name, in Forfars.h.i.+re, about half-way between Montrose and Brechin.

[641] Calder house, near Mid-Calder, in West-Lothian, was the seat of Sir James Sandilands.--His second son James, in 1543, succeeded "Schir Walter Lyndesay, Knycht of the Roddis, and Lord of Sanct Johns," (he is so styled in Sir David Lyndesay's Register of Armes, 1542, fol. 57,) as Preceptor of Torphichen, and thus became head of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem in Scotland. In 1563, Lord St.

John having resigned the possessions of the Order to the Crown, he obtained a new charter of the lands belonging to the Knights Templars and Hospitallers in Scotland, erected into a barony, with the t.i.tle of Lord Torphichen.--(Spottiswoode Miscellany, vol. ii. pp. 6, 17-32.)