Mary Queen of Scots 1542-1587 Part 11

_John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, to the Archbishop of Glasgow._ October 27, 1566. _Keith's History_, vol. iii. p. 286.

My Lord,--After most hearty commendations, I write upon haste to your Lords.h.i.+p with Saunders Bog, who was sent by M. de Croc this last Wednesday to advertise of the Queen's Majesty's sickness, which at that time was wondrous great; for a.s.suredly her Majesty was so handled with great vehemency, that all that were with her were desperate of her convalescence. Nevertheless, soon after the departing of Saunders Bog, her Majesty got some relief, which lasted till Thursday at ten hours at even, at which time her Majesty swooned again, and failed in her sight; her feet and her hands were cold, which were handled by extreme rubbing, drawing, and other cures, by the s.p.a.ce of four hours, that no creature could endure greater pain; and through the vehemency of this cure her Majesty got some relief, till about six hours in the morning on Friday, that her Majesty became dead, and all her members cold, eyes closed, mouth fast, and feet and arms stiff and cold. Nevertheless, Master Nau, who is a perfect man of his craft, would not give the matter over in that manner, but of new began to draw her knees, legs, arms, feet, and the rest, with such vehement torments, which lasted the s.p.a.ce of three hours, till her Majesty recovered again her sight and speech, and got a great sweating, which was held the relief of the sickness, because it was on the ninth day, which commonly is called the crisis of the sickness, and so here thought the cooling of the fever. And since then continually, thanks to G.o.d, her Majesty convalesces better and better.... Always, I a.s.sure your Lords.h.i.+p, in all this sickness, her Majesty used herself marvellous G.o.dly and Catholic, and continually desired to hear speak of G.o.d and G.o.dly prayers....

_THE QUEEN'S RECOVERY_

[Mr. Small, in his "Queen Mary at Jedburgh" (p. 18), gives the following as the opinion of "a distinguished physician" on the illness:--"An attack of haematemesis, or effusion of blood into the stomach, subsequently discharged by vomiting; presenting also, possibly, hysterical complications, the whole induced by over-exertion and vexation."]

_Marc Antonio Barbaro, Venetian Amba.s.sador in France to the Signory, from Paris_, Nov. 6, 1566. _Venetian Calendar._

The Amba.s.sador from Scotland came to me to-day with the good news that his Queen ... is so much better that it is hoped and almost believed that she is certain to live.

The illness was caused by her dissatisfaction at a decision made by the King, her husband, to go to a place twenty-five or thirty miles distant without a.s.signing any cause for it; which departure so afflicted this unfortunate Princess, not so much for the love she bears him as from the consequences of his absence, which reduced her to the extremity heard of by your Serenity.

_BUCHANAN ON CRAIGMILLAR CONFERENCE_

1566.--The Craigmillar Conference.

_Buchanan's Detection._

About the 5th November she returned from Jedburgh to a village called Kelso, and there she received letters from the King. When she had read these in the presence of the Regent, the Earl of Huntly, and the Secretary, with a sad countenance, she said that unless by some means she were freed from the King her life would not be worth living; and that if it could be done in no other way, rather than live in such misery, she would take her life with her own hand.... When, about the end of November, she came to Craigmillar, a castle about two miles from Edinburgh, she commenced a similar conversation in the presence of the Earl of Moray (afterwards Regent, and now himself dead), the Earl of Argyle, and the Secretary. She mentioned what seemed to her a satisfactory plan. She projected a suit of divorce against the King, and doubted not but that it could easily be done, since they were in that degree of consanguinity which is forbidden by Canon Law for the contraction of matrimony, although they had been by letters easily exempted from that law. At this point some one raised an objection, that, if it were so managed, their son would be illegitimate, being born out of matrimony, and the more so that neither of the parents was ignorant of the causes that rendered the marriage null. She considered that reply for a little, and recognised its truth. Not daring to enter upon a scheme which would thus affect her son, she abandoned her project of a divorce, nor did she ever afterwards let slip any opportunity of getting rid of the King, as may be readily gathered from what remains to tell.

_The Protestation of the Earls of Huntly and Argyll, 1568, Goodall's Examination_, vol. ii. pp. 316-321, from Cott. Lib. Calig., vol. i. p. 282.

[The following "Protestation" was drawn up by Queen Mary's advisers during the Westminster Conference (_infra_, pp. 143 _et seq._), and was despatched to Huntly for his own and Argyll's signature. It was, however, seized and sent to Cecil, without its having reached its destination. It is placed here for the sake of comparison with Buchanan's account of the Conference. It may be noted here that in another doc.u.ment (Instructions and Articles to be advised on and agreed, so far as the Queen's Majesty, our Sovereign, shall think expedient, at the meeting of the Lords in England, committed in credit by ... her Grace's true faithful subjects--_Goodall_, vol.

ii. p. 354), signed by Lords Huntly, Argyll, Crawford, Eglinton, Ca.s.silis, Errol, Ogilvie, Fleming, and many others of Mary's supporters, the following sentence refers to this Conference:--"They caused make offers to our said Sovereign Lady, if her Grace would give remission to them that were banished at that time, to find causes of divorce, either for consanguinity, in respect they alleged the dispensation was not published, or else for adultery; or then {else} to get him convict of treason, because he consented to her Grace's retention in ward; or what other ways to despatch him; which altogether her Grace refused, as is manifestly known." The "Dispensation" is the Papal Dispensation for the Darnley marriage, Mary and Darnley being within the forbidden degrees.]

_A CONFERENCE OF THE EARLS_

In the year of G.o.d 1566 years, in the month of December, or thereby, after her Highness's great and extreme sickness, and return from Jedburgh, her Grace being in the castle of Craigmillar, accompanied by us above written {_i.e._ Huntly and Argyll}, and by the Earls of Bothwell, Murray, and Secretary Lethington; the said Earl of Murray and Lethington came into the chamber of us the Earl of Argyll in the morning, we being in our bed; who, lamenting the banishment of the Earl of Morton, Lords Lindsay and Ruthven, with the rest of their faction, said, that the occasion of the murder of David, slain by them in presence of the Queen's Majesty, was to trouble and impesche {prevent} the parliament; wherein the Earl of Murray and others were to have been forfeited and declared rebels. And seeing that the same was chiefly for the welfare of the Earl of Murray, it should be esteemed ingrat.i.tude if he and his friends in reciprocal manner, did not strive all that in them lay for relief of the said banished ones; wherefor they thought that we, of our part, should have been as desirous thereto as they were.

And we agreeing to the same, to do all that was in us for their relief, providing that the Queen's Majesty should not be offended thereat; on this Lethington proposed and said, "That the nearest and best way to obtain the said Earl of Morton's pardon, was, to promise to the Queen's Majesty to find a means to make divorcement between her Grace and the King her husband, who had offended her Highness so highly in many ways."

And then they send to my Lord of Huntly, praying him to come to our chamber.... And thereon we four, viz., Earls of Huntly, Argyll, Murray, and Secretary Lethington, pa.s.sed all to the Earl of Bothwell's chamber, to understand his advice on the proposals; wherein he gainsaid no more than we.

_THEIR PROPOSITION MADE TO THE QUEEN_

So thereafter we pa.s.sed altogether to the Queen's Grace; where Lethington, after he had remembered her Majesty of a great number of grievous and intolerable offences, that the King, as he said, ungrateful for the honour he had received from her Highness, had done to her Grace, and continued every day from bad to worse; proposed, "That if it pleased her Majesty to pardon the Earl of Morton, Lords Ruthven and Lindsay, with their company, they should find the means with the rest of the n.o.bility, to make divorcement between her Highness and the King her husband, which should not need her Grace to meddle therewith. To the which, it was necessary that her Majesty take heed to come to a decision therein, as well for her own relief as for the good of the realm; for he troubled her Grace and us all; and remaining with her Majesty, would not cease till he did her some other evil turn."

After these persuasions and divers others, which the said Lethington used, besides those which every one of us showed particularly to her Majesty to bring her to the said purpose, her Grace answered: That under two conditions she might agree to the same; the one, that the divorcement were made lawfully; the other, that it were not prejudicial to her son; otherwise her Highness would rather endure all torments, and abide the perils that might befall her in her Grace's lifetime. The Earl of Bothwell answered, "That he doubted not but the divorcement might be made without prejudice of my Lord Prince in any way," alleging the example of himself, that he failed not to succeed to his father's heritage without any difficulty, albeit there was a divorce between him and his mother.

_THE QUEEN'S ANSWER_

It was also proposed that, after their divorcement, the King should be alone in one part of the country, and the Queen's Majesty in another, or else that he should retire to another realm; and herein her Majesty said, "That peradventure he would change his course, and that it were better that she herself pa.s.sed into France for a time, waiting till he acknowledged his fault." Then Lethington, taking the speech, said, "Madam, think you not we are here, of the princ.i.p.al members of your Grace's n.o.bility and council, and that we shall find the means that your Majesty shall be quit of him without prejudice of your son. And albeit that my Lord of Murray here present be little less scrupulous for a Protestant, than your Grace is for a Papist, I am a.s.sured he will look through his fingers thereto, and will behold our doings, saying nothing to the same." The Queen's Majesty answered, "I will that ye do nothing through which any spot may be laid upon my honour or conscience, and therefore I pray you, rather let the matter be in the condition that it is, abiding till G.o.d of His goodness put remedy thereto; lest you believing that you are doing me a service, may possibly turn to my hurt and displeasure." "Madam," said Lethington, "let us guide the matter among us, and your Grace shall see nothing but good, and approved by Parliament."

So since the murder of the said Henry Stewart followed this, we judge in our consciences, and hold for certain and truth, that the said Earl of Murray and Secretary Lethington were authors, inventors, devisers, counsellors, and sources of the said murder, in whatever manner, or by whatsoever persons, the same was executed.

_THE QUEEN AND DARNLEY_

Events immediately before the Murder of Darnley.

_M. le Croc to the Archbishop of Glasgow, from Edinburgh._ December 2, 1566. _Keith's History_, vol. i. p. 96.

The Queen is for the present at Craigmillar, about a league distant from this city. She is in the hands of the physicians, and I do a.s.sure you is not at all well; and do believe the princ.i.p.al part of her disease to consist in a deep grief and sorrow. Nor does it seem possible to make her forget the same. Still she repeats these words: _I could wish to be dead_. You know very well that the injury she has received is exceedingly great, and her Majesty will never forget it. The King, her husband, came to visit her at Jedburgh the very day after Captain Hay went away. He remained there but one single night; and yet in that short time I had a great deal of conversation with him.... I think he intends to go away tomorrow; but in any event I'm much a.s.sured, as I always have been, that he won't be present at the baptism. To speak my mind freely to you ... I do not expect, upon several accounts, any good understanding between them, unless G.o.d effectually put to His hand. The first is, the King will never humble himself as he ought; the other is, the Queen can't perceive any one n.o.bleman speaking with the King, but presently she suspects some contrivance among them.

_DARNLEY AND THE BAPTISM_

_M. le Croc to the Archbishop of Glasgow, from Glasgow._ December 26, 1566. _Keith's History_, vol. i. p. 97.

The baptism of the Prince was performed Tuesday last, when he got the name of Charles James. It was the Queen's pleasure that he should bear the name James, together with that of Charles (the King of France's name). Everything at this solemnity was done according to the form of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. The King (Lord Darnley) had still given out that he would depart two days before the baptism, but when the time came on he made no sign of removing at all, only he still kept close within his own apartment. The very day of the baptism he sent three several times desiring me either to come and see him, or to appoint him an hour that he might come to me in my lodgings, so that I found myself obliged at last to signify to him that seeing he was in no good correspondence with the Queen, I had it in charge from the most Christian King to have no conference with him.... His bad deportment is incurable, nor can there ever be any good expected from him.... I can't pretend to foretell how all may turn; but I will say that matters can't subsist long as they are without being accompanied with sundry bad consequences.... The Queen behaved herself admirably well all the time of the baptism, and showed so much earnestness to entertain all the goodly company in the best manner, that this made her forget in a good measure her former ailments. But I am of the mind, however, that she will give us some trouble as yet; nor can I be brought to think otherwise so long as she continues to be so pensive and melancholy.

_AN INSULT TO THE ENGLISH_

An Incident of the Baptism.

_Melville's Memoirs_, p. 171.

At the princ.i.p.al banquet there fell out a great flaw and grudge among the Englishmen, for a Frenchman called Bastien devised a number of men formed like satyrs, with long tails and whips in their hands, running before the meat, which was brought through the great hall upon a trim engine, marching, as it appeared, alone, with musicians clothed like maidens, playing upon all sorts of instruments and singing of music. But the satyrs were not content only to clear round, but put their hands behind them to their tails, which they wagged with their hands, in such sort as the Englishmen supposed it had been devised and done in derision of them, daftly {foolishly} apprehending that which they should not seem to have understood.... So soon as they saw the satyrs wagging their tails[17] ... they all sat down upon the bare floor behind the back of the board, that they should not see themselves scorned, as they thought.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [17] It was a mediaeval superst.i.tion, especially in France, that the English possessed tails, which had been affixed to their persons as a punishment for their ill-treatment of a saint; the names of St.

Augustine and St. Thomas of Canterbury were used indifferently in this connection. _Cf._ Mr. George Neilson's "Caudatus Anglicus: A Mediaeval Slander."

1566.--December 23. Restoration of the Consistorial Jurisdiction of the Archbishop of St. Andrews.

_Laing_, II., 77. _from Privy Seal Record_, bk. 35, fol. 99.

A letter made restoring and reproving our sovereign's well beloved and trusty councillor, John, Archbishop of St. Andrews, primate and legate of Scotland, to all and sundry his jurisdictions as well upon the south as north sides of the Forth within the diocese of St. Andrews, which pertained to the Archbishopric of the same, to be used by him and his commissaries in all time coming in the same manner and form of justice as it is now used.... At Stirling, this xxiii day of December, the year of G.o.d, 1566 years.

[The jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts had been abolished in 1560. It was the Archbishop who p.r.o.nounced the sentence of divorce between Bothwell and his wife, either in virtue of this general warrant, or by means of a special commission to try the case. On the one side, this restoration of the Consistorial Court is regarded as pointing to Mary's collusion with Bothwell, while controversialists, on the other side, would connect it with the proposal, made at Craigmillar, of a divorce between Mary and Darnley.]

_DARNLEY FALLS ILL_

Darnley's Illness.

_Buchanan's Detection._

Before he had pa.s.sed a mile from Stirling all the parts of his body were taken with such a sore ache, as it might easily appear that the same proceeded not of the force of any sickness, but by plain treachery. The token of which treachery, certain black pimples, so soon as he was come to Glasgow broke out over all his whole body, with so great ache and such pain throughout all his limbs, that he lingered out his life with very small hope of escape: and yet all this while, the Queen would not suffer so much as a physician once to come at him.

_BUCHANAN v. BEDFORD_

_The Earl of Bedford to Cecil, from Berwick_, January 9, 1566. _Foreign Calendar._

The King is now at Glasgow with his father, and there lies full of the small-pox, to whom the Queen has sent her physician.