Mary Queen of Scots 1542-1587 Part 10

_Melville's Memoirs_, p. 158.

All this while I lay in the castle of Edinburgh, praying night and day for her Majesty's good and happy delivery of a fair son. This prayer being granted, I was the first that was advertised by the Lady Boyne {Mary Beaton, just married to Ogilvie of Boyne}, in her Majesty's name to part with diligence, the 19th day of June in the year 1566, between ten and eleven hours before noon. It struck twelve hours when I took my horse, and was at Berwick that same night. The fourth day after, I was at London, and met first with my brother, who sent and advertised the Secretary Cecil that same night of my coming and of the birth of the Prince, willing him to keep it up, until my being at Court to show it myself unto her Majesty, who was for the time at Greenwich, where her Majesty was in great merriness and dancing after supper; but so soon as the Secretary Cecil rounded the news in her ear of the Prince's birth all merriness was laid aside for that night, every one that were present marvelling what might move so sudden a changement; for the Queen sat down with her hand upon her haffet {cheek}, and bursting out to some of her ladies, how that the Queen of Scotland was lighter of a fair son, and that she was but a barren stock.... The next morning was appointed unto me to get audience ... she ... said, that the joyful news of the Queen her sister's delivery of a fair son, which I had sent unto her by Master Cecil, had recovered her out of a heavy sickness which has held her fifteen days. Therefore she welcomed me with a merry volt {countenance}, and thanked me for the diligence I had used. All this she said before I had delivered unto her my letter of credence. After that she had read it, I declared how that the Queen had hasted me towards her Majesty, whom she knew of all other her friends would be gladdest of the good news of her birth, albeit dear bought with the peril of her life; for I said that she was so sore handled in the meantime that she wished never to have been married. This I said to give her a little scare to marry, by the way; for so my brother had informed me, because she boasted sometimes to marry the Archduke Charles of Austria, when any man pressed her to declare a second person {heir}. Then I requested her Majesty to be a gossip unto the Queen, for our c.u.mmer are called gossips in England; which she granted gladly to be.

_MARY AND DARNLEY_

_Herries's Memoirs_, p. 79. (_Abbotsford Club._)

About two o'clock in the afternoon the King came to visit the Queen, and was desirous to see the child. "My Lord," says the Queen, "G.o.d has given you and me a son, begotten by none but you!" At which words the King blushed, and kissed the child. Then she took the child in her arms, and discovering his face, said, "My Lord, here I protest to G.o.d, and as I shall answer to Him at the great day of judgment, this is your son, and no other man's son! And I am desirous that all here, with ladies and others, bear witness; for he is so much your own son, that I fear it will be the worse for him hereafter!" Then she spoke to Sir William Stanley. "This," says she, "is the son whom (I hope) shall first unite the two kingdoms of Scotland and England!" Sir William answered, "Why, Madam? Shall he succeed before your Majesty and his father?" "Because,"

says she, "his father has broken to me." The King was by and heard all.

Says he, "Sweet Madam, is this your promise that you made to forgive and forget all?" The Queen answered, "I have forgiven all, but will never forget. What if Faudonside's pistol had shot, what would have become of him and me both? or what estate would you have been in? G.o.d only knows; but we may suspect." "Madam," answered the King, "these things are all past." "Then," says the Queen, "let them go."

Rejoicings in Edinburgh.

_Claude Nau's Memorials_, p. 27.

Immediately upon the birth of the Prince, all the artillery of the castle was discharged, and the lords, the n.o.bles, and the people gathered in St. Giles' Church to thank G.o.d for the honour of having an heir to their kingdom. After the birth, certain gentlemen were despatched to the King of France, the Queen of England, and the Duke of Savoy, to ask them to be G.o.dfathers and G.o.dmothers to the Prince, to which they very gladly consented.

_ELIZABETH AGAIN QUESTIONED_

Elizabeth and the Rebels.

_Mary to Elizabeth_, July 1566. _Keith's History_, vol. ii. p. 442.

Right excellent, right high and mighty Princess, our dearest sister and cousin, in our most hearty manner we commend us unto you: We have understood by your declaration made ... to our dearest brother the King of France, ... that neither ye had aided nor were minded to aid and support our rebels against us, which we have always taken to be undoubtedly true, ... yet we have certain knowledge that our said rebels were supported with the sum of three thousand crowns, sent to the Lady Murray by Master Randolph about the middle of August by-past, as the man who carried the money has confessed in his own presence; which his proceeding as we have just occasion to think most strange ... we ...

have taken occasion to send him home to you, where his behaviour in this case may be tried, and he ordered accordingly at your discretion.

_QUEEN MARY'S WISE CONDUCT_

Mary's Treatment of Darnley.

_M. le Croc, French Amba.s.sador in Scotland, to the Archbishop of Glasgow, Scottish Amba.s.sador in France, from Jedburgh_, October 15, 1566. _Keith's History_, vol. ii. p. 448.

The Queen is now returned from Stirling to Edinburgh.... The King, however, abode at Stirling, and he told me there that he had a mind to go beyond sea, in a sort of desperation.... Since that time the Earl of Lennox his father came to visit him; and he has written a letter to the Queen signifying that it is not in his power to divert his son from his intended voyage, and prays her Majesty to use her influence therein.

This letter from the Earl of Lennox the Queen received on Michaelmas Day in the morning; and that same evening the King arrived here about ten of the clock.... Early next morning the Queen sent for me, and for all the Lords and other counsellors. As we were all met in their Majesties'

presence, the Bishop of Ross by the Queen's commandment declared to the Council the King's intention to go beyond sea; for which purpose he had a s.h.i.+p lying ready to sail; ... and thereafter the Queen prayed the King to declare in presence of the Lords and before me the reason of his projected departure.... She likewise took him by the hand, and besought him for G.o.d's sake to declare if she had given him any cause for this resolution; and entreated he might deal plainly, and not spare her.

Moreover, all the Lords likewise said to him, that if there was any fault on their part, upon his declaring it they were ready to perform it. And I likewise took the freedom to tell him, that his departure must certainly affect either his own or the Queen's honour--that if the Queen had afforded any ground for it, his declaring the same would affect her Majesty; as, on the other hand, if he should go away without giving any cause for it, this thing could not at all redound to his praise.... The King at last declared that he had no ground at all given him for such a deliberation; and thereupon he went out of the chamber of presence, saying to the Queen, "Adieu, Madam, you shall not see my face for a long s.p.a.ce." ... I never saw her Majesty so much beloved, esteemed, and honoured; nor so great a harmony amongst all her subjects, as at present is by her wise conduct, for I cannot perceive the smallest difference or division.

_SUBSEQUENT ACCUSATIONS_

_Buchanan's Detection._

Not long after her deliverance, on a day very early, accompanied with very few that were privy of her counsel, she went down to the water-side, at the place called the New Haven; and while all marvelled whither she went in such haste, she suddenly entered into a s.h.i.+p there provided for her; which s.h.i.+p was provided by ... Bothwell's servants, and famous robbers and pirates. With this train of thieves, all honest men wondering at it, she betook herself to sea, taking not any other with her, no not of her gentlemen, nor necessary attendants for common honesty. In Alloa castle, where the s.h.i.+p arrived, how she behaved herself, I had rather every man should with himself imagine it, than hear me declare it. This one thing I dare affirm, that in all her words and doings, she never kept any regard, I will not say of Queen-like Majesty, but not of matron-like modesty.... In the meantime, the King being commanded out of sight, and with injuries and miseries banished from her, kept himself close, with a few of his friends, at Stirling....

Yet his heart, obstinately fixed in loving her, could not be restrained, but he must needs come back to Edinburgh, on purpose, with all kind of serviceable humbleness, to get some entry into her former favour, and to recover the kind society of marriage. Who once again being with most dishonourable disdain excluded, returned from whence he came, there to bewail his woeful miseries, as in a solitary desert.

_Nau's Memorials_, p. 29.

About the beginning of August the Queen crossed the sea and went to Alloa, a house belonging to the Earl of Mar, where she remained for some days in the company of the ladies of her court and the said earl.

_THE QUEEN AND A POOR WOMAN_

Mary and the Poor.

_The Lennox_, vol. ii. p. 429.

Trusty Friend,--Forasmuch as it is heavily bemoaned and piteously complained to us by this poor woman, that ye have violently ejected her with a company of poor bairns forth of her kindly room, after {although} willing to pay your duty thankfully: therefore (in respect that if ye be so extreme as to depauperate the poor woman and her bairns) we will desire you to show some favour and accept them in their steading {habitation} as ye have done in times bygone; the which we doubt not but ye will do for this our request, and as ye shall report our thanks and pleasure for the same. At Alloa, the penult of July 1566.

MARIE R.

To our trusty friend, Robert Murray of Abercairney, this be delivered.

The Ride to Hermitage.

_Diurnal of Occurrents._

Upon the 7th day of October 1566 years, our sovereign lady, accompanied with the n.o.bility of this realm, departed of Edinburgh towards Jedburgh, to hold a justice eyre there, which was proclaimed to be held upon the eighth day of the same month.

Upon the same day, James, Earl Bothwell ... being sent by our sovereigns to bring in certain thieves and malefactors of Liddesdale to the justice eyre ... chanced upon a thief called John Elliot of the Park.... The said earl shot him with a dagg {pistol} in the body.... The said John perceiving himself shot and the Earl fallen, he went to him where he lay, and gave him three wounds, one in the body, one in the head, and one in the hand; and my lord gave him two strokes with a hanger, ... and the said thief departed, and my lord lay in swoon, while his servants came and carried him to the Hermitage....

_FROM JEDBURGH TO HERMITAGE_

Upon the fifteenth day of the said month of October, our sovereign lady rode from Jedburgh to the Hermitage {about 30 miles}, wherein my Lord Bothwell was lying in mending of his wound, and spake with the same earl, and returned again the same night to Jedburgh.

_Nau's Memorials_, p. 30.

The Earl of Bothwell was so dangerously wounded in the hand that every one thought he would die. He thought so himself. Such being the case, her Majesty was both solicited and advised to pay him a visit at his house, called the Hermitage, in order that she might learn from him the state of affairs in these districts, of which the said lord was hereditary governor. With this object in view, she went very speedily, in the company of the Earl of Moray and some other lords, in whose presence she conversed with Bothwell for some hours, and on the same day returned to Jedburgh.

_BUCHANAN'S VERSION_

Buchanan on the Ride to Hermitage.

_Detection._

When the Queen had resolved to set out for Jedburgh to hold the a.s.sizes, about the beginning of October, Bothwell made an expedition into Liddesdale. While he was conducting himself there in a manner worthy neither of the place to which he had been raised nor of his family and of what might have been expected of him, he was wounded by a dying robber. He was carried to the castle of Hermitage in a condition such as to make his recovery uncertain. When this news is carried to the Queen at Borthwick, although it was a severe winter, she flies off like a mad woman, with enormous journeys first to Melrose and then to Jedburgh.

Although reliable reports about his life had reached that place, her eager mind was unable to retain self-control and to prevent her from displaying her shameless l.u.s.t. At an unfavourable season, in spite of the danger of the roads and of robbers, she threw herself into the expedition with such an escort as no one slightly more honourable would have dared to entrust with life and fortune. Furthermore, when she returned to Jedburgh she arranged, with extraordinary zeal and care, for Bothwell's being carried thither. After he was brought there, their life and conversation was little in accordance with the dignity of either of them.

[The distance from Borthwick Castle to Jedburgh is about sixty miles.]

_A SIXTEENTH-CENTURY PHYSICIAN_

The Queen's Illness at Jedburgh.