Mary Queen of Scots 1542-1587 Part 4

_MURRAY, LETHINGTON, AND KNOX_

The Conduct of Affairs in the Early Years of the Reign--Randolph on Mary's Ministers.

_Randolph to Cecil_, October 24, 1561. _Keith's History_, vol. i.

pp. 98-99.

I receive of her Grace at all times very good words. I am borne in hand {a.s.sured} by such as are nearest about her, as the Lord James and the Laird of Lethington, that they are meant as they are spoken; I see them above all others in credit, and find in them no alteration, though there be that complain that they yield too much unto her appet.i.te; which yet I see not. The Lord James dealeth according to his nature, rudely, homely, and bluntly; the Laird of Lethington more delicately and finely, yet nothing swerveth from the other in mind and effect. She is patient to hear, and beareth much. The Earl Marischal is wary, but speaketh sometimes to good purpose.... Mr. Knox cannot be otherwise persuaded, but many men are deceived in this woman; he feareth yet that _posteriora sunt pejora primis_; his severity keepeth us in marvellous order. I commend better the success of his doings and preachings than the manner thereof, tho' I acknowledged his doctrine to be sound: His prayer is daily for her--"That G.o.d will turn her obstinate heart against G.o.d and His truth; or, if the Holy Will be otherwise, to strengthen the hearts and hands of His chosen and elect, stoutly to withstand the rage of all tyrants," &c., in words terrible enough.

_PROTESTANT RULE_

_Cecil to Challoner (English Amba.s.sador in Spain). Foreign Calendar_, 1562, June 8, 1562.

In Scotland ... the Earl of Huntly is in no credit with the Queen. The whole governance rests in Lord James, being Earl of Mar, and the Laird of Lethington. The others that have credit are the Earls Marshal, Argyll, Morton, and Glencairn, all Protestants. The Queen quietly tolerates the reformed religion throughout the realm, who is thought to be no more devout towards Rome than for the contentation of her uncles.

[Cecil's suspicion was quite unfounded. Throughout her reign Mary was always in correspondence with the Pope, to whom she appealed for money to help her in her efforts for the restoration of Catholicism in Scotland.]

Mary on the Treaty of Edinburgh.

_Queen Mary to Queen Elizabeth_, January 5, 1562. _Keith's History_, vol. ii. p. 134.

How prejudicial that Treaty is to such t.i.tle and interest as by birth and natural descent of your own lineage may fall to us, by very inspection of the Treaty itself ye may easily perceive, and how slenderly a matter of so great consequence is wrapped up in obscure terms. We know how near we are descended of the blood of England, and what devices have been attempted to make us, as it were, a stranger from it. We trust, being so near your cousin, ye would be loth we should receive so manifest an injury as all utterly to be debarred from that t.i.tle which in possibility may fall unto us.

_THE WAY TO INVERNESS_

1562.--Randolph's Account of the Huntly Rebellion.

_Randolph to Cecil from Old Aberdeen_, August 31, 1562. _Foreign Calendar_, 1562.

The Queen in her progress is come to Old Aberdeen, where the university is.... Her journey is c.u.mbersome, painful, and marvellous long; the weather extreme foul and cold, all victuals marvellous dear; and the corn that is, never like to come to ripeness.

_Randolph to Cecil from Spynie, Morays.h.i.+re_, September 18.

Within these eight or ten days the Queen arrived at Inverness, the furthest part of her determined journey. She has had just cause for misliking the Earl of Huntly of long time, whose extortions have been so great, and other manifest tokens of disobedience such that it was no longer to be borne. Intending to reform these, she has found in him and his two eldest sons (the Lairds of Gordon and Findlater) open disobedience so far that they have taken arms and kept houses against her.

The first occasion hereof was this. The Laird of Findlater, being commanded to ward in Edinburgh, broke prison; and being afterwards summoned to the a.s.size at Aberdeen, disobeyed also a new command from the Queen to enter himself prisoner in Stirling Castle. The Queen thinking this to be done by the advice of his father, refused to come to his house, she being looked and provided for. He, unadvisedly conceiving the worst, took the worst way, and supported his sons to manifest rebellion. At her arrival at Inverness on the 9th, she proposed to lodge in the castle, which belongs to her, and the keeping only to the Earl of Huntly, being Sheriff by inheritance of the whole s.h.i.+re, but was refused entrance, and forced to lodge in the town. That night, the castle being summoned, answer was given that without the Lord Gordon's command it should not be delivered.

Next day the country a.s.sembled to the a.s.sistance of the Queen. The Gordons, finding themselves not so well served by their friends as they looked for (who had above 500 men), rendered the castle, not being twelve or fourteen able persons. The captain was hanged, and his head set up on the castle, others condemned to perpetual prison, and the rest received mercy.

The Queen remained there five days, and now journeys homewards as far as Spynie, a house of the Bishop of Moray.... The Earl of Huntly keeps his house, and would have it thought that his disobedience came through the evil behaviour of his sons. The Queen is highly offended....

_THE QUEEN'S COURAGE_

In all these broils I a.s.sure you I never saw her merrier, never dismayed, nor never thought that so much[15] to be in her that I find.

She repented nothing, but (when the lords and others at Inverness came in the morning from the watch) that she was not a man, to know what life it was to lie all night in the fields, or to walk on the causeway with a jack and knapsack, a Glasgow buckler, and a broad sword.

... His {Huntly's} house is fair, and best furnished of any ... in the country; his cheer is marvellous great; his mind such as it ought to be towards his Sovereign.

[The last sentence is _a propos_ of a visit made by Argyll and Randolph to Huntly.]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [15] So the "Calendar," but Chalmers, in quoting, reads, probably correctly, "stomach."

_THE WATER OF SPEY_

_Randolph to Cecil, from Aberdeen_, September 24.

When he {Huntly} understood that the Queen had caused the captain of the Castle of Inverness to be hanged, and committed the others to prison, he thought there was no other way with him but to execute his former determination or be utterly undone. Therefore he a.s.sembled such force as he could make, and committed them to the care of his son, John Gordon, purposing to have met the Queen at her return homeward at the water of Spey, a place where good advantage might have been had. The Queen (being advertised of their purpose), by the advice of her Council, a.s.sembled, of those they call Highlandmen and other, above 2000, and so increased as she rode that at the pa.s.sage of the water they were above 3000. As she rode forward diverse reports were brought ... some said that there was not a man to be seen, which was nearest the truth, for when the night before there were in that wood 1000 horse and foot, they had all departed, whereof the Queen had advertis.e.m.e.nt before she came to the Spey ... what desperate blows would not have been given, when every man should have fought in the sight of so n.o.ble a Queen and so many fair ladies ... your honour can easily judge.... That night (being Sunday) the Queen came to a house of the Laird of Banke {Banff?} ... On Tuesday last she arrived at Old Aberdeen, preparing herself against her entry the next day into the new town, where she was honourably received with spectacles, plays, interludes, and others as they could best devise....

They presented her with a cup of silver, double gilt, well wrought, with 500 crowns in it; wine, coals, and wax were sent in, as much as will serve her while she remains here.

"_BE BLITHE AND BLISSFUL, ABERDENE_"

_Ibid. from Aberdeen_, September 30.

Since the Queen's arrival at Aberdeen they have consulted how to reform this country. It was thought best to begin at the head, and that the Earl of Huntly shall either submit himself and deliver up his disobedient son, John Gordon, in whose name all these pageants have been wrought, or utterly to use all force against him for the subverting of his house for ever. For this purpose she remains here a good s.p.a.ce, and has levied 120 arquebusiers, and sent to Lothian and Fife for the Master of Lindsay, Grange, and Ormiston. Her purpose is to take the two houses held against her, for which purpose she has a cannon within sixteen miles all ready, and other pieces there are in this town sufficient.

_Ibid. Maitland of Lethington to Cecil from Aberdeen_, October 1.

The Earl of Huntly will plead not guilty, and seems to charge the youth and folly of his children with whatever is amiss. If any fault be his, it may be thought to have proceeded from too great simplicity rather than any craft or malice, especially by so many as have had experience of how he has always been accustomed to deal.

_THE SKIRMISH AT CORRICHIE_

_Ibid. Randolph to Cecil from Aberdeen_, October 28.

Huntly having a.s.sembled 700 persons, marched towards Aberdeen to apprehend the Queen and do with the rest at his will. She sent forth a sufficient number against him before he came to the town, so that this day the Earls of Murray, Athol, Morton, and 2000 others marched to the place where he was encamped, about twelve miles from hence {viz.

Corrichie}, and environed him, so that after some defence he yielded himself, as did John Gordon and another son named Adam Gordon, seventeen years of age, who are brought into this town alive, but the Earl himself, after he was taken, without either blow or strike, being set on horseback before him that was his taker, suddenly falleth from his horse stark dead, without word, that he ever spake, after that he was upon horseback.

_Ibid. Randolph to Cecil from Aberdeen_, November 2.

After Huntly was brought into this town it was consulted what should be done with his corpse. Some thought he should be buried, and nothing else done; others that he should be beheaded; the last was that his bowels should be taken out and the body reserved until Parliament, that there he might be convicted of treason, in which mind they remain. John Gordon confessed all and lays the fault on his father. He is not yet condemned, but doubtless will not escape.

_EXECUTION OF SIR JOHN GORDON_

_Randolph to Cecil from Edinburgh_, November 18. _Keith's History_, vol. ii. p. 175.

After the defeat of the Earl of Huntly consultation was had what should become of his body; it was resolved that it should be kept till the Parliament, that, according unto the order, judgment might be given against him in the three estates. His son, John Gordon, within three days after was beheaded in Aberdeen, and execution done upon certain others that were taken at the same time.

_Lethington to Cecil from Dundee_, November 14. _Keith's History_, vol. ii. p. 182.

I am sorry that the soil of my native country did ever produce so unnatural a subject as the Earl of Huntly hath proved in the end against his sovereign, being a princess so gentle and benign, and whose behaviour hath been always such towards all her subjects, and every one in particular, that wonder is it that any could be found so ungracious as once to think evil against her.... I have heard it whispered that in this late storm of yours {Elizabeth's illness} a device was intended there to prefer some other in the succession to my mistress, which I cannot think to be true, seeing none is more worthy for all respects, nor hath so good a t.i.tle. If her religion hath moved anything, seeing her behaviour such toward these that be of the religion within her own realm, yea, and the religion itself, which is a great deal more increased since she came home than it was before, I see no reason why those that be zealous of religion should suspect her.

_A GRUESOME SPECTACLE_

1563.--28th May. The Sentence on the Earl's Body.

_Rutland MSS. at Belvoir, quoted in the Marquess of Huntly's Annals of Aboyne_, pp. 467-468.