Chapter III: Summary (2)

The forced surrender, by the widow of Edward IV., of the royal children of England, bore an appalling resemblance to Margaret’s delivery of the royal infants James V. and the baby Alexander, to the Regent Albany. The whole world expected that James V. would disappear as speedily from this world’s scene as his relative Edward V. Queen Margaret loudly proclaimed that such would be the case. Albany bore the angry imputations of the alarmed mother with exemplary patience. Nevertheless, her plots became incessant to further their escape into England.

A vigilant eye was kept on Lord Home by the Regent; for he knew that it was on this suspicious character that the Queen chiefly depended for the abduction of her little sons from Stirling.

The delicate situation of the Queen, her weakness at such times, when she always hovered on the brink of the grave, even when surrounded by all the care of her household, made her little calculated to undertake the perils and hardships attendant on her scheme. But she fully intended making the seclusion of her sick-chamber instrumental to her escapade.

In the course of the ensuing month, Margaret wrote the following letter to Lord Dacre:--[221]

“MY LORD DACRE--

“I commend me to you as heartily as I can; and I have seen your
writing, and understand at length; and I perceive that ye are
not _sykerly_ (certainly) informed in what state I stand
in, for ye _trow_ (trust) ‘that I may pass wherever I will
wish.’ It is not true; but this bearer can show you the truth of
all, and what my mind is, and how I am constrained to do against
my will. And I pray you give him credence as ye would do to
myself, for it is o’er-long to write--for I have great trust in
this man.

“And send me your utter mind and answer in all thing, and God
keep you.

“Written with my hand this Monday.

“Your friend,
“MARGARET R.”

As a commencement to her operations, she wrote a letter to her brother, Henry VIII., which apparently was inspected by the Scottish Council; for it professes the greatest satisfaction at all the arrangements of the Regent, while all her other epistles manifest the utmost discontent. The Queen therein announced, that she meant to assume the state and dignity of “taking to her chamber,” for the birth of the child of Angus, similar to the ceremonial attending her confinements when she was Queen consort of Scotland. “Brother,” wrote Margaret, “I purpose, by the grace of God, _to take my chamber_, and lie in in my Palace of Linlithgow, within this twelve days, for I have not past eight weeks to my time; at the which, I pray Jesu to send me good speed, and happy deliverance, and to have you, dear brother, eternally in his keeping.” Her date is, Edinburgh, August 20.[222]

The ceremonial of “taking her chamber” withdrew Margaret from the public eye for some weeks; and that period she meant to employ in stealing her infants, by the aid of Lord Home, and escaping over the Border, which purpose she distinctly declared to Lord Dacre.

The Queen was, to all appearance, settled at Linlithgow in her chamber, lined with tapestry, where every breath of air was excluded, even the windows covered up--excepting one, from which the tapestry was occasionally withdrawn, if the royal patient had a great wish for light and the free breath of heaven. According to the written ordinances of her grandmother, Margaret, Countess of Richmond, she was to be served by female officers, lady-chamberlains, lady-ushers, lady-sewers, pantlers, and butlers. Men, let their rank or near relationship be what they might, were only admitted to converse with the Queen, when immured in her chamber, on occasions of life and death. To this strange ordinance, commenced by a religious ceremony, the royal mother[223] of Queen Margaret submitted in Westminster Palace, when she herself was born; of course, the Regent Albany could not expect the daughter of the heiress of York to abate one jot of this regal seclusion in her own Palace at Linlithgow. Well he knew that, if he, or any other prying lord of the creation, had made inquisition into such sacred retirement, the tongues of every female in the island, south as well as north, would forthwith have been in a virulent state of activity, and the two kingdoms had resounded with the “wrongs of the Queen of Scotland.”

Under shelter, therefore, of her privileged seclusion, Queen Margaret deliberately went to work, and commenced her preparations for escape. First, she affected to be very ill indeed, on which her husband, Angus, came to Linlithgow to see her. The next night, she stole out from her palace with him and four or five servants, unaccompanied by any female. Within two or three miles of Linlithgow town, the Lord Chamberlain, Home, met her, with an escort of horsemen, “hardy, well striking fellows,” as she describes them: thus guarded, they escaped to Tantallan Castle, the famous fortress of the Douglas, within a few hours’ ride of the English frontier.[224]

Before the Queen’s escape was discovered, Lord Home proposed that his rough-riders should fire one of the Duke of Albany’s towns, and some other “ruffling.” “When the Regent’s attention was drawn from Stirling garrison,” Home said “that he hoped he should be able to carry off the royal infants (to whom his state office of Lord Chamberlain gave him access), and after joining the Queen at his stronghold of Blackater Castle, they could from thence escape into her brother’s kingdom.”[225]

All succeeded, in regard to Margaret’s escape, according to her plan of action excepting the abduction of her children. Albany’s vigilance was not to be diverted from them; and the Lord Chamberlain, Home, by his scheme of arson and “other ruffling,” rendered himself an outlaw, but gained naught besides. Home escaped to Tantallan, where Margaret, Angus, and he remained till September 23, waiting the pleasure of Henry VIII.

The fatigues of her removal had a severe effect on the health of Queen Margaret; yet the failure of Lord Home’s attempt obliged her to flee from Tantallan in such haste, that she left her jewel-box and wardrobe there. She paused on the verge of England, not daring to enter unless invited formally by her brother;[226] but being worse every moment, she took sanctuary, half-dead, at Coldstream Nunnery, the lady-prioress of which was aunt to her own faithful comptroller of the household, Robert, or, as the Queen always terms him in her letters, Robin Barton.[227]

At Coldstream Priory the Queen remained long enough to receive the sympathizing visits of old Lady Home, mother to Lord Home, Chamberlain of Scotland. The Queen’s situation occasioning her great suffering, Lady Home came to give her comfort and matronly counsel concerning her health. But directly the Queen went forward to England, an agent of the Duke of Albany, a Frenchman, called M. de Barody, in order to strike terror into her friends, seized poor Lady Home in a furious and cruel manner, set her upon a high-trotting nag, to her extreme peril and pain, carried her to the Castle of Dunbar, where he put her in the strongest prison-ward, and fed her on bread and water; “from which durance, if she be not speedily released, Queen Margaret,” said she, “verily believed, considering her feebleness of body, that the Duke of Albany’s Frenchman meant to be the death of old Lady Home.”[228]

The expected invitation of Henry VIII. at last arrived, which caused Lord Dacre to send an escort to Coldstream for Queen Margaret, for the purpose of conveying her as far as Morpeth Castle, his family residence, where she would have from his lady proper attention. At his baronial seat, he had appointed Sir Christopher Gargrave, or Gervase, to await her with “stuff,”--meaning all sorts of conveniences and comforts, which her considerate sister-in-law, Queen Katharine, had sent from London, for her accommodation and her expected confinement,[229] by the said Sir Christopher, a knight of the King’s bedchamber.

The welcome message of Dacre arrived at Coldstream almost in the last minute that Queen Margaret could be moved. So desperately ill was she taken on the road, that her convoy were forced to stop by the way, and hurry her into Harbottle or Hardbattle Castle, one of the grimmest and gauntest stone-donjons that frowned on the English frontier. It was just then garrisoned by Lord Dacre in person, who had commenced the fierce war on the Borders to which the arrival of the Duke of Albany in Scotland had given rise.

The portcullis of Harbottle was raised to admit the fainting Queen of Scotland; but not one Scot, man or woman, Lord Dacre vowed, should enter with her.[230] Here was a terrible situation for Margaret.

She was received into the rugged Border-fortress, October 5, and, after remaining in mortal agony for more than forty-eight hours, gave birth to a daughter, the Lady Margaret Douglas, whose name is familiar to every one on the pages of general history, as the immediate ancestress of our present royal family.

There were the royal mother and daughter without female attendance, in a Border castle, surrounded by a wild and barren country, which was scoured on all sides by incensed Scottish moss-troopers. And the garrison of their rugged lodgment was not many degrees quieter than the enemies it kept at bay.

It has been shown that Lord Dacre had appointed all “the stuff” with Sir Christopher Gargrave to wait the Queen’s arrival at Morpeth, because small chance would there have been of its safe arrival at Harbottle Castle, with such troops of plunderers to intercept it on its way. Sir Christopher Gargrave, however, brought the letters from Henry VIII. and Queen Katharine to Queen Margaret; but she was too ill to read them for many days. In this exigence, Sir Christopher was ordered to wait her convalescence at Morpeth.[231]

The Queen exhausted her small remaining strength by dictating, on the third day after the birth of her daughter, a letter to her kinsman the Duke of Albany of an agitating nature. “She had been forced,” she says, “for fear and danger of her life, to depart from Scotland to the realm of England.” The letter was written after the baptism of the infant--this being evident by the quaint announcement of the child’s existence in these words,--“So it is that, by the grace of Almighty God, I am now delivered, and have _a christian soul_,[232] being a young lady.”

But Margaret could not be content with the information thus given to her cousin-Regent. She concludes her epistle with an angry exhortation, in God’s name, that he should suffer her, as his honor, and right, and good justice require, to have the whole rule and governance of Scotland, and of her tender children as their tutrix, according to the will of the late King of Scotland, her spouse. The letter is not signed by the Queen, her state being very dangerous; and, indeed, the task of signifying her intentions, and entering into such agitating subjects, must have proved nearly fatal to her. It is dated October 10, 1515.

Lord Dacre has been considered remarkably insolent and neglectful in his manner of announcing the birth of the niece of his royal master; but the situation of Lord Dacre has not been properly considered. He was, in plain reality, much in the case propounded, by way of comic argument, to Dr. Johnson,--“If you were shut up in a castle with a new-born babe, what should you do with it?” And Lord Dacre, although not exactly alone with the royal babe, had aggravations of the case, of difficulty far beyond the power of Boswell’s imagination to conceive, being occupied in hourly repelling assault and siege--for the Scottish Borderers, in a state of extreme exasperation at the flight of their Queen, were hovering round the gray pile of Harbottle, ready to demolish all goers and comers from its gates, and make spoil or prey of all supplies brought within its walls. Moreover tidings came, ever and anon, that the Regent Albany, at the head of forty thousand Scotsmen, was in full march to beleaguer the castle. He had already captured all Queen Margaret’s jewels and fine clothes, at her deserted castle of Tantallan.

“Glad would we have been,” proceeds Dacre, “to have advertised your Highness of the Queen’s safe deliverance, but our causes (state) here was intricate, with so much cumber and business, that we could not ascertain your Highness of the same till this time, unless we should have sent up a post purposely for the said Queen’s deliverance, which we thought not greatly requisite.”

Poor Lord Dacre! most undeservedly are you blamed, while your moderation in using such a temperate word as “cumber,” to express the complication of troubles which had suddenly descended in the midst of Harbottle, is so remarkable, so praise-worthy. Let us coolly enumerate all that the hardy warrior had to try his patience. Assistance of the most delicate nature was indispensable, and no such requisites were at hand. A helpless baby was wailing for nourishment--its royal mother fainting between life and death within the walls of the castle, while inimical Border-riders were ranging without, ready to pounce upon and demolish every needful relay that approached Harbottle of doctors, nurses, caudles, potions, baby-clothes, and cradles. Then there was a royal christening performed the day after the unexpected arrival of the smallest guest. The stout-hearted Lord Warden must stand excused in the eyes of all considerate readers of history, if he omitted some of the ceremonious expressions and observations suitable to the rank of his guests, mother and daughter, when the difficulties of the casualty are properly appreciated. But let him plead for himself in his own unsophisticated language.

“Forasmuch,” continues the Lord Warden,[233] “as the Queen’s lying here is so _uneaseful_, and costly, by reason of the far carriage of everything, we be minded to move her Grace to Morpeth, as soon as she conveniently may, after her Grace have sought the Church for her thanksgiving. It may like your Highness to signify your mind and pleasure unto her said Grace, how ye think ye will have her to be further ordered, that we may motion and move her accordingly. Sir Christopher Gargrave went to Morpeth immediately on the Queen’s deliverance, and, by our advice, hath continued there, with such stuff as your Grace hath sent to the Queen, your _suster_, till Sunday last past, which day he delivered your letter, and disclosed your credence, greatly to the Queen’s comfort. And forasmuch as the Queen lieth yet in childbed, and _shall_ (will) keep her chamber these three weeks at least, we have advised the said Sir Christopher to remain at Morpeth until the Queen is coming thither; and then her Grace may order and prepare every part of the said stuff after her pleasure, and as to her Grace seemeth most convenient. And Almighty God have you our most _dradde_ sovereign lord in his most blessed preservation. At Harebottell, the 18th day of October.”

About the same time, Lord Dacre permitted a congress of the Scottish lords, then in insurrection against the Regent, to assemble at Harbottle. They all signed a covenant, binding themselves to free the infant King of Scots and his brother Alexander from the control of the Duke of Albany; at the same time wresting the regnant power from him, and bestowing it on the Queen. The signatures of her husband, Angus the second prince of the blood, Arran, and the firebrand of mischief, Lord Home, appear to this state paper.[234]

No wonder Margaret’s life was in danger, when proceedings of such agitating tendency were transacted around her sick-bed. Before the Queen was sufficiently recovered to leave Harbottle, she received letters from the Scottish Regent and Council, in which her flight was discussed, and her return entreated. The conduct of Margaret at this juncture is discussed with no little sagacity by our great modern historian Tytler, to whose patient research and manly candor the world is indebted for justice done to that calumniated Scottish prince, the Duke of Albany. “Notwithstanding the infatuation of the mother of his sovereign, Albany was still anxious to make a last effort for a compromise: he addressed two letters to her on the same day (October 13), the first a manifesto from the Scottish Council,[235] commencing with these words,--‘Madame, we commend our _humyle service_ to your Grace.’ The other,” continues Mr. Tytler, “was a private communication written with his own hand. The terms of both were moderate and even indulgent. The Council implored her to awake to her duty, declared their aversion to all rigorous measures, besought her to come back among them, and, as inducements, promised that she should enjoy the disposal of all benefices within her dower-lands; a benefice to her councilor, Gavin Douglas; and, lastly, the guardianship of her children, if she would solemnly promise that they should not be carried out of the kingdom. These proposals the Queen imprudently rejected, for what reason does not clearly appear. Albany’s whole conduct shows them to have been sincere; although Margaret, acting under the influence of Angus, Home, and Arran, had been taught to regard them with suspicion.”[236]

Albany, meantime, wrote to Henry VIII. that he did not in the least wish to harm or annoy the Queen; he repeated to the English monarch the advantageous terms he offered her, but without avail.[237]

The removal of Margaret and her little infant from the grim shelter of Harbottle Castle could not take place until November. When she removed to Morpeth Castle (where Lord Dacre’s family usually resided,[238] with such degree of comfort as the warlike office he held permitted), she immediately suffered a long relapse of dangerous illness, greatly aggravated by agitation of mind, arising from several causes. Lord Home was making desultory war on his own country, committing excessive outrages on the Scottish border. He had caught the same Lord Lion at Coldstream with whom Queen Margaret’s party had commenced war by giving him that remarkable box-on-the-ear, and had reft from him the Regent’s letters to King Henry VIII.[239] Albany exchanged for his captive Lord Lion the old Lady Home, whose wrongs, as she returned from waiting on Queen Margaret at Coldstream Nunnery, have been related.

In the midst of this negotiation, which greatly agitated the sick Queen, and long before she had gained strength to bear the shock, her feelings were awakened from the dullness of political treaties to all the agonies of an absent mother. One of the sons she had left in Scotland--one of those tender little ones for whose possession she was then negotiating--fell sick of some infantine disorder, and expired at Stirling Castle, December 18, 1515.[240]

Margaret’s partisans thus spoke of his death,--“Alas! it is openly spoken and repeated, that the Duke of Ross, the King’s brother, died from want of things necessary for such a prince, or else was poisoned.”[241] Another says,--“Prince Alexander, a child beautiful and promising to admiration, died at this time, or was murdered.” Margaret’s grief is best attested by the long illness which succeeded the intelligence. When she recovered, rage found utterance beyond grief; and long and loudly did she accuse Albany of poisoning her little Alexander. Yet the very circumstance of the young King, his brother, remaining lively and healthy, is a sufficient vindication of their faithful relative. Much Margaret exclaimed, both with tongue and pen, regarding Albany’s guilt; many comparisons she drew between his proceedings and those of Richard III., his father’s friend and ally. Yet the princes of York vanished together; while the death of the baby-prince of Scotland could do no good to Albany, as James V. lived and flourished.

A curious circumstance attended the sick Queen’s vehement accusations. Years afterward, when she was on remarkably loving terms with the handsome Regent, all her partisans renewed the vehement charge of murder which she raised at Morpeth against him, without perhaps having believed it herself--for it was a political outcry, like those which in subsequent centuries were used with more success as party-weapons against the Anglo-Stuarts.

A sorrow yet harder to bear likewise beset Margaret at Morpeth. Her husband, tired of waiting in attendance for her recovery, thought fit to accept the favorable terms offered him by the Regent, and, deserting her, decamped into Scotland. The time he chose for this escapade offended her as much as his mode of action, insomuch that she never forgave his conduct. It was on the very day when her life was despaired of, at Morpeth (January 17, 1515–16), that he perpetrated his desertion of her and his infant, signed the treaty with the Regent, and went back to Scotland. The poor Queen was suffering under the crisis of a typhus fever, from which she was not expected to recover.[242]

Her friend and priest, Dr. Magnus, ventured to offer his advice to Henry VIII. that he should “write comfortable letters to his sister and send for her; because she hath daily messengers coming out of Scotland, so that she is troubled in her mind, and put to study, to imagine and cast what answer to make to them.” Magnus was evidently her amanuensis in answering many of these dispatches, for he adds, “We have taken care that her letters to the Scottish Regent be so worded, that no good understanding shall ensue between them.” Yet he is evidently in dread lest Margaret should soon break through all his cunning diplomatic tricks of writing, and send to the Regent different matter; since he adds--

“Her Grace doth not make us privy to every thing, yet she as yet, as a great wise woman, resteth on this--namely, that she will do nothing without the consent of your Grace.”[243]

These representations had the desired effect, especially as they were backed by a gentle, and at that time an all-powerful pleader at the ear of Henry VIII., being his excellent Queen, Katharine of Arragon, who ever showed kind and sisterly attention to Margaret Tudor.

Under her influence, Henry VIII. sent a frank invitation for his sister to come to his court at London for her solace. He thought proper to request her husband to accompany her. Angus thanked his brother-in-law, with many professions of humble gratitude, and promised to give his attendance on his spouse the day she set forward to the south.[244]

The first fine days of April brought to Morpeth Castle a gay and noble cavalcade, sent from London, with all things suitable for the accommodation of the languishing and destitute Queen of Scotland. One of Henry VIII.’s gentlemen of the bedchamber, William Blackwell, “clerk of his spicery,” escorted a large supply of silver vessels for Margaret’s use, with all proper officers to wait upon her on her journey. “Sir Thomas Parr, Katharine of Arragon’s equerry, arrived with the present from his Queen of her favorite white pony or palfrey, with her own easy pillion, to her sister Margaret.”[245] And to the care of Sir Thomas Parr, the tender and humane Katharine especially intrusted the care of her forlorn sister-in-law’s person.

Angus, it would seem (according to the assertion of his cotemporary. Hall the chronicler), had made his appearance at Morpeth, for the purpose of escorting his consort to her brother’s court; but some distrust subsequently seized on his fluctuating mind.

“When Queen Margaret was ready to depart, she asked for her husband. But he had not kept his promise, having departed to Scotland; which made her to muse on this sudden absence. Howbeit, the English lords greatly encouraged her to keep her own promise to the King her brother. So, when she was somewhat appeased, she set forward; and in every town she was well received.”[246]

Notwithstanding the deep mortification Queen Margaret had suffered before her countrymen, by the recreant desertion of her spouse at the commencement of her journey, yet it is evident, from the tenor of the following letter, that her spirits felt the pleasant change of a southern progress, from languishing on a sick-bed in a dismal northern donjon. She thus wrote to Henry VIII. while resting at Stony-Stratford, on her London-ward journey.

“DEAREST BROTHER--[247] As heartily as I can, I
recommend me unto you, and let you _wit_ (know) that
yesternight I came hither, so being comforted of you in my
journey in many and sundry _wises_ (ways) that, loving be
to our Lord God, I am in right good _heal_ (health), and
as joyous of my said journey toward you as any woman may be
in coming to her brother, as I have great cause, and am most
desirous now to come to your presence, and to have sight of your
person, in whom, next to God, is mine only trust and confidence.

“Advertising you, dearest brother, (that) I have received this
day a letter from my son’s ambassadors now in London, which
letter I send you herein inclosed, and have addressed unto them
mine answer severally in two sundry letters (copy whereof I also
send unto you), that, upon notice had of the same, it may like
you to command _whether_ (which) of the said letters it
seems best at your pleasure shall be delivered.

“And the Holy Trinity have you, my most dearest Brother, in
tuition and governance. At Stony-Stratford, the 27th day of
April.

“Your loving _Suster_,

“MARGARET.”

Endorsed--“Unto my dereste broder the King’s Grace.”

Her stages to London were very short and easy, for it was the sixth day after the date of this letter that the recorder of London, Edward Hall, thus notes her arrival--“The Queen of Scotland made her entry into London, May 3, 1516, riding behind Sir Thomas Parr on a white palfrey. She was richly beseen with a great company of lords and ladies.” She came first to Baynard’s Castle, and from thence she was convoyed by water to Greenwich Palace, where she was received right joyously by the King her brother, Queen Katharine, and the French Queen, her sister.[248]

One of the first questions demanded by King Henry was, “Where is my Lord of Angus?” He was perforce informed of the peculiar mode in which his brother-in-law had absented himself. Henry manifested his national antipathies, as well as his disdain for his sister’s injuries, by the exclamation--“Done like a Scot!”[249]

Many brilliant festivals were devised on account of Queen Margaret’s visit. Among others, the King proclaimed a grand tournament in her honor, which took place May 19 and 20. Henry held the lists with his favorite and brother-in-law, Suffolk, very gayly attired; their housings and tabards were embroidered with golden honeysuckles, after which “they ran volant against all comers, very pleasant to see;” and in this _volant_ course Henry knocked over, man and steed, Sir William Kingston, a tall and burly knight, a feat which mightily gratified all the loving lieges then looking on. And when night approached, Henry and his train went to Queen Katharine’s chamber, where the King disarmed; and when his helmet was removed, the Queen of Scots, and her sister Mary, as well as his own Queen Katharine, affected great surprise and pleasure at finding that the victorious knight, who had gained such renown by the overthrow of the gigantic Kingston, proved to be the King. Such was ever the etiquette of Henry’s tournaments. The royal party then sat down to a sumptuous banquet, prepared in honor of the Queen of Scots.[250]

Every individual of Margaret’s family surrounded her at Greenwich, for the purpose of welcoming her, by keeping the merry month of May as one continued festival. The reunion of the Queens of the house of Tudor with their brother and sister-in-law, has been commemorated by the artist who illuminated one of Henry VIII.’s music-books, still preserved in the Harleian Collection. On the first page are the arms of England; and beneath, the badges of Henry VIII. and Katharine of Arragon, the rose and pomegranate, richly illuminated; and opposite is the daisy or Marguerite and the marygold--one flower being the badge of Margaret Queen of Scotland, the other, of her sister Mary, Queen Dowager of France, then recently united to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. The date is 1516.

During the whole of the summer, Margaret kept up, by means of her letters, an active series of intrigues against the Scottish Regent. Although much incensed with her husband, she instigated him, by her correspondence, to aid the King, her brother, in the unworthy task of wounding and betraying Scotland for the promotion of their private ambition. Lord Dacre refers Cardinal Wolsey to Queen Margaret for information regarding a scheme of his to subjugate the Regent.

She betrayed all the private affairs of the Scottish government to her brother’s council, while Angus privily aided the unscrupulous warfare carried on by the general of the English boundaries. Such was the true but disgraceful position of Queen Margaret and her spouse, during her sojourn in England.

The intolerable aggressions carried on by the collusion of her husband with the English warden, had caused the Scottish Regent to talk of visiting the court of Henry VIII., for the purpose of civilly remonstrating on the mutual evils caused by such wicked warfare. The heart of Margaret leaped with joy at the very idea of her rival in empire thus putting himself in the power of her unscrupulous brother. But she fairly owned that the news was too good to be true.

“MY LORD CARDINAL,”[251] wrote Margaret to Wolsey, “I
am gladder of the tidings that the King’s Grace (Henry VIII.)
_telled_ me of the Duke of Albany, that he will come
hither, which I beseech God may be true, but I dread it be not.

“My Lord, I think (it) right long till I speak with you; for
next to the King’s Grace my most trust is in you, and you may
do me most good of any. And I pray you, my Lord, as soon as any
body comes out of Scotland, that you will send me word, for I
think long till I hear tidings.

“No more, but God have you in his keeping.

“Your friend,
“MARGARET R.”

The Queen was right in her surmises. The Scottish Regent repented of his Quixotic proposal of visiting the court of Henry VIII. However, he behaved with knightly courtesy regarding that species of property belonging to Queen Margaret which is usually dearest to a lady’s heart. The master of Graystock College was commissioned by Lord Dacre to pass over the Border, and, according to an agreement made with the Scottish ambassadors, to receive, in the presence of the English Herald Clarencieux,[252] her plate and jewels, which had been captured at Tantallan by the Regent’s forces. Commissioners likewise, accompanied by Rothsay, the Duke of Albany’s herald, were to journey to Queen Margaret’s Scottish dower lands and gather in her rents and dues. If incessant complaints of poverty, and even destitution, which form a species of begging chorus to all Queen Margaret’s numerous epistles, may be credited, she never received any of her Scottish immunities. But her word, either written or spoken, was not to be trusted, as the merest cursory view of her letters proves. Whether her revenues came safely over the Border can not be ascertained; but that her fine clothes and jewels certainly did, may be shown by an inventory of them which has remained for centuries in the Chapter House, Westminster. It is addressed to herself.

“MADAME,--In our most humble manner we commend
our service to your Grace. Your procurators, factors, and
commissioners are here, and have shown to our good lord, my Lord
Governor, and us, your letters under your seal and subscription
manual for the receiving of your goods left by you in this
realm, and also for raising and uptaking of the rents and duties
of your lands, which your procurators, our said Lord Governor
and we, have thankfully received, and well entreated, and shall
so do to good and final end of all your matter, according to the
tenor of the recess made by our Sovereign Lord’s ambassadors
lately in England; and so it is that your said procurator has
received the goods underwritten pertaining to your Grace--that
is to say, a _cheffroun_[253] (cheveron), with a chain
containing 57 links, weighing 1¾ oz. gross weight; one cheveron
with points of gold, with 61 pearls in crammesy (crimson)
velvet; a cheveron set with gold, of 21 rubies, 33 pearls; one
bird of gold and two small _beleis_ (bells), with heads and
pendant of gold; one obligation of the Laird of Bass, containing
2 thousand marks, made to the Bishop of Caithnes as treasurer
for the time to your Grace, or to any others his factors,
subscribed and under the seals of the Lord Berwick, Sir Patrick
Creichton of Cranstoun Riddale, and William Carmychell; one
collar of gold, enameled with white roses and red, weighing 6
oz.; one collar of gold weighing 6 oz.; one piece of the Laird
of Bass’ chain, containing x (10) links, weighing 42 oz.; one
pair of sleeves of cloth of gold lined with crammesy (crimson)
satin; one other pair of sleeves of cloth of gold; the King of
France’s great diamond, set upon a red hat of silk; one ruby
balatt upon a black hat, with three pearls; one piece of yellow
satin containing 2 fr. ells; three other pieces of yellow satin;
one piece of white taffeta; one piece of tawny satin ramanys;
one lining of gown-sleeves of red velvet; one packet with
letters closed of obligations of Kilmarnock and others; four
_codbers_; five hats of silk; one partlet of gold-fret set
upon crammesy satin, with 12 diamonds, 14 rubies, 25 pearls;
one (partlet) of cloth of gold; one partlet of white taffeta
with three pearls; one partlet of taffeta goldsmiths’ work; one
pair of sleeves of black velvet; one busk with damask gold, with
ten with gold-wire; certain ribbons and sewing silk; one pair
of beads coral gaudeit (garnished), with 6 pearls; one pair
of beads of jasper with four gaudes; one pair of black beads;
one pair of white beads; your Grace’s testament; two beasts of
silver (probably Agnus Dei) with holy wax; one hede, or hide,
of sewed work; four pieces of _crisp_ (probably crape);
one _pomander_ (or scent ball), with silver; one stone of
crystal; one coffer of bone; four books; one tergatt (perhaps
target or shield) of gold of our lady.

“_These goods following were delivered of before to your Grace
in England_:--

“One cheveron with a bird of gold, with 71 pearls; one cheveron
with a chain of gold white enameled; one cheveron with a point,
with setts of pearl; one cheveron set with goldsmiths’ work,
with 35 pearls; one cheveron with leaves of gold, with 8 rubies
and 18 pearls; one new chain of gold, containing 40 links and 5
knoppis, weighing 9 oz.; one pair of sleeves of gold-wire; one
ruff of taffeta; one partlet of black velvet, with goldsmiths’
work, set with 30 pearls; and one _patlat_ of damas gold.

“Your furrings (fur trimmings) in Sterling, because of
the Bishop of Galloway’s being in the north, _couth_
(could) not be gotten at, whilst now he is coming, and shall
_hastily_ (quickly) be delivered to your said procurators.

“As to the remainder of the goods asked by them, we understand
that they are the King’s (James V.), and pertain to his grace,
and that you may not ask them at this time by reason of the
recess. And if you would ask them by reason of executory,
whenever it please your grace to come in Scotland and accept
the office of executor, with the charge that follows thereto by
the law--that is to say, acquitting of the King’s debts,[254]
we trust my lord governor shall be well contented; and we, for
our interest, _that you have all our sovereign lord the King’s
goods, whom God assoil_! except the heirship pertaining to
our sovereign lord now, your son.[255]

“Madam, in all things your Grace’s pleasure charge us, you
shall find us ready servitours, as knows God, whom have your
Excellency in keeping.

“Subscribed by command and deliverance of us your
servitours, the Lords of Council of Scotland, and in our
presence; and given under the Great Signet at Edinburgh,
the 29th day of September.

The duplicate of this document exists in the public records of Scotland,[256] entitled, “Inventory of the jewels and _baggis_,[257] being in the coffer taken furth at Tantallan, delivered to the Commissioners of the Queen’s Grace, now being in England. September 25, 1516.”

Sir Alexander Jardin had taken charge of Queen Margaret’s jewel-coffer, and earnestly demanded her receipt to his inventory, which is the Scottish duplicate of that now published from the Chapter House. “The great diamond given by the King of France, worth 8000 crowns of gold, and worn on a red hat,” being in the same place and order as in the English list. But the Scottish inventory has, in addition, the chapel furniture of the Queen, delivered to her priest William Husband, one of her commissioners, and to John Sympson, his assistant, who give their receipt to the Scottish Lords of the Council, by the hands of the Master of St. Antony’s, “for a book belonging to Queen Margaret, a vestment of cloth of gold, a vestment of green velvet, an altar cloth of gold tissue, a dessour of gold cloth, a _lyer_ of velvet; a cushion of velvet, a chalice, and two cruets of silver, a silver sacring bell, and two other books.” These were sent the ensuing month, being Oct. 11, 1516.

So completely did Queen Margaret withdraw her personal property from Scotland, that Robert Spittell, her tailor in Edinburgh, had to surrender to William Husband, her priest, on Sunday evening, Oct. 12, 1516, all her fur trimmings, being two pair of ermine cuffs, three _wide sleeves_, and half a lining of ermine for a night-gown, seven edges of ermine, and four linings of miniver.

These furrings are mentioned in the Chapter House list as not attainable until the return of the Bishop of Caithness.

A relic of her visit to England, probably the same coffer mentioned in the Scotch inventory as the receptacle of her _bagues_ or smaller jewels, has been preserved by the descendants of Lord Forester, as a gift of Mary Queen of Scots, which it might very well be, and yet have pertained originally to her grandmother, whose emblems are more distinctively expressed by the ornaments. The fact that Queen Margaret’s personals were captured at Tantallan, as our documents assert, makes it appear that the casket with the Douglas bearings came from that stronghold, being of black oak and silver, beautifully carved all over with crowned hearts of Douglas, and flower-Marguerites surmounted with regal crowns. The initial M. frequently occurs, likewise crowned.