Chapter V: Section IV: Murder of Rizzio to Murder of Darnley

_CONTENTS_

1. Murray's plea for the Rizzio rebels.

2. The relations between Mary and Darnley.
(_a_) Mary's Will.
(_b_) The Birth of Prince James.

3. Mary to Elizabeth anent her support of the rebels.

4. Mary's treatment of Darnley, and Darnley's conduct towards Mary.
(_a_) As reported by M. le Croc, the French Ambassador.
(_b_) As reported by Buchanan, with the Alloa story.
(_c_) Nau's account of the Alloa story, and a letter of
Mary's from Alloa.

5. The Ride to Hermitage.
(_a_) As reported in the Diurnal of Occurrents.
(_b_) As reported by Nau.
(_c_) As reported by Buchanan.

6. The Queen's illness at Jedburgh.

7. The Craigmillar Conference.
(_a_) As reported by Buchanan.
(_b_) In the Protestation of Huntly and Argyll.

8. The events immediately before the Darnley murder.
(_a_) Letter from Du Croc.
(_b_) The Baptism of the Prince.
(_c_) Restoration of the consistorial jurisdiction.
(_d_) Mary on Darnley's conduct.
(_e_) Beaton's warning.

9. The visit to Glasgow and the murder.
(_a_) As reported by Buchanan in the _Detection_.
(_b_) As described by Mary.
(_c_) As described by Nau.
(_d_) As described by Buchanan in his _History_.

Relations between Mary and Darnley.

_Bedford and Randolph to Cecil, from Berwick_, March 27, 1566. _Wright's Elizabeth_, vol. i. p. 235.

My Lord of Murray by a special servant sent unto us desireth your Honour's favour to these noblemen {the fugitives}, as his dear friends, and such as for his sake hath given this adventure.

"_TO THE KING WHO GAVE IT ME_"

Bequests to the King.

_Robertson's Inventories._

Before the birth of her son, Mary made a will, of which no copy is extant. But Mr. Joseph Robertson found an inventory of her jewels, made at the same time, with marginal notes, in the Queen's own handwriting, indicating their disposition. There are fifteen entries "Au Roy," from which we quote the most interesting marginal note:--

It was with this that I was
married, to the King, who A diamond ring enamelled
gave it me. in red.

There are also bequests to the Crown of Scotland, the Earl and Countess of Lennox, and the Earl of Murray, also a jewel with the marginal note:--

"To Joseph {Riccio}, which his brother gave me."

At the end of the first section of the inventory, there is the following note in Mary's hand:--

"I wish that these provisions be carried out in case that the child does not survive me, but if it live, it is to inherit everything. MARIE R."

Illustration: QUEEN MARY'S SIGNET-RING AND MONOGRAM.

Mary's Will as described in the "Book of Articles" (cf. p. 144).

_Hosack's Mary_, vol. i. p. 525.

This her rooted disdain still continuing a little before her deliverance of her birth in May or June 1566, in making of her latter will and testament, she named and appointed Bothwell among others to the tutele {guardianship} of her birth {child} and issue, and government of the realm in case of her decease, and unnaturally excluded the father from all kind of cure and regiment over his own child, advancing Bothwell above all others to be lieutenant-general.... She disponit also her whole moveables to others beside her husband.

_ELIZABETH'S RECEPTION OF THE NEWS_

The Birth of Prince James.

_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 cummer 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, "God 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 God, 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? God 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 nobles, and the people gathered in St. Giles' Church to thank God 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 godfathers and godmothers 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 Ambassador in Scotland, to the Archbishop of Glasgow, Scottish Ambassador 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 ship 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 God'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 space." ... 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 ship there provided for her; which ship 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 ship 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 nobility 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 Assizes, 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 lust. 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.

_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 Lordship 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 assuredly 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 space 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 space 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 God, her Majesty convalesces better and better.... Always, I assure your Lordship, in all this sickness, her Majesty used herself marvellous godly and Catholic, and continually desired to hear speak of God and godly 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 Ambassador in France to the Signory, from Paris_, Nov. 6, 1566. _Venetian Calendar._

The Ambassador 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 assigning 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 document (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,
Cassilis, 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 God 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 ingratitude 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, passed 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 passed 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 nobility, 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 passed 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 principal members of your Grace's nobility 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 assured 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 God 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 assure you is not at all well; and do believe the principal 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 assured, 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 God 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 nobleman 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 principal 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 superstition, 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 God, 1566 years.

[The jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts had been abolished
in 1560. It was the Archbishop who pronounced 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 passed 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.

_Mary to the Archbishop of Glasgow, from Edinburgh_, January 20, 1567._ Keith's History_, vol. i. p. 101.

For the King our husband, God knows always our part towards him; and his behaviour and thankfulness to us is semblablement well known to God and the world; specially our own indifferent subjects see it, and in their hearts, we doubt not, condemn the same. Always we perceive him occupied and busy enough to have inquisition of our doings, which, God willing, shall aye be such as none shall have occasion to be offended with them, or to report of us any way but honourably; howsoever he, his father, and their fautors speak, which we know want no good will to make us have ado, if their power were equivalent to their minds.

_A WARNING TO THE QUEEN_

_The Archbishop of Glasgow to Queen Mary, from Paris_, January 17, 1567. _Keith's History_, vol. i. p. 103.

I have heard some murmuring ... that there be some surprise to be trafficked in your country, but he {the Spanish ambassador} would never let me know of any particular, only assured me he had written to his master to know if by that way he can try any further, and that he was advertised and counselled to cause me haste toward you herewith.... Finally, I would beseech your Majesty right humbly to cause the captains of your guard be diligent in their office; for notwithstanding that I have no particular occasion wherein I desire it, yet can I not be out of fear till I hear of your news.... And so I pray the eternal Lord to preserve your Majesty from all dangers, with long life and good health.

The Visit to Glasgow and the Murder.

_Buchanan's Detection_ (First Scots translation, in _Anderson's Collections_, vol. ii. pp. 17-24).

[Buchanan's account of Queen Mary's visit to Glasgow should be
supplemented by a comparison with Crawford's "Deposition" (pp.
208-213), with the Glasgow Letter (pp. 167-182), and with the
passage from Nau's "Memorials" on p. 111.]

Herself goes to Glasgow; she pretends the cause of her journey to be to see the King alive, whose death she had continually gaped for the month before. But what was indeed the true cause of that journey, every man may plainly perceive by her letters to Bothwell. Being now out of care of her son, whom she had in her own ward, bending herself to the slaughter of her husband, to Glasgow she goes, accompanied with the Hamiltons, and other the King's natural enemies.

_KIRK-OF-FIELD_

Bothwell, as it was between them before accorded, provides all things ready that were needful to accomplish the heinous act; First of all, a house, not commodious for a sick man, nor comely for a King, for it was both riven and ruinous, and had stood empty without any dweller for divers years before, in a place of small resort, between old falling walls of two kirks, near a few almshouses for poor beggars. And that no commodious means for committing that mischief might be wanting, there is a postern door in the Town Wall, hard by the house, whereby they might easily pass away into the fields. In choosing of the place, she would needs have it thought that they had respect to the wholesomeness. And to avoid suspicion that this was a feigned pretence, herself the two nights before the day of the murder, lay there in a lower room, under the King's chamber. And as she did curiously put off the shows of suspicion from herself, so the execution of the slaughter she was content to have committed to another.

_THE QUEEN GOES TO HOLYROOD_

About three days before the King was slain, she practised to set her brother, Lord Robert, and him at deadly feud, making reckoning that it should be gain to her, whichsoever of them had perished. For matter to ground their dissension, she made rehearsal of the speech that the King had had with her concerning her brother; and when they both so grew in talk, as the one seemed to charge the other with the lie, at last they were in a manner come from words to blows. But while they were both laying their hands on their weapons, the Queen feigning as though she had been perilously afraid of that which she earnestly desired, called the Earl of Murray, her other brother, to the parting, to this intent, that she might either presently bring him in danger to be slain himself, or in time to come to bear the blame of such mischief as then might have happened....

_THE MURDER_

When all things were ready prepared for performing this cruel fact ... the Queen, for manners' sake, after supper, goes up to the King's lodging. There being determined to show him all the tokens of reconciled good will, she spent certain hours in his company, with countenance and talk much more familiar than she had used in six or seven months before. At the coming in of Paris, she broke off her talk and prepared to depart. This Paris was a young man born in France, and had lived certain years in the houses of Bothwell and Seton, and afterwards with the Queen. Whereas the other keys of that lodging were in custody of the King's servants, Paris, by feigning certain fond and slender causes, had in keeping the keys which Bothwell kept back, of the back gate and the postern. He was in special trust with Bothwell and the Queen, touching their secret affairs. His coming (as it was before agreed among them) was a watchword that all was ready for the matter. As soon as the Queen saw him, she rose up immediately, and feigning another cause to depart, she said, "Alas! I have much offended toward Sebastian this day, that I came not in a mask to his marriage." This Sebastian was an Avernois {Auvergnois}, a man in great favour with the Queen, for his cunning in music, and his merry jesting, and was married the same day. The King thus left, in manner, alone, in a desolate place, the Queen departs, accompanied with the Earls of Argyle, Huntly, and Cassilis, that attended upon her. After that she was come into her chamber, after midnight, she was in long talk with Bothwell, none being present but the captain of her guard. And when he also withdrew himself, Bothwell was there left alone, without other company, and shortly after retired into his own chamber. He changed his apparel, because he would be unknown of such as met him, and put on a loose cloak, such as the Swartrytters[18] wear, and so went forward through the watch to execute his intended traitorous fact. The whole order of the doing thereof may be easily understood by their confessions who were put to death for it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [18] German. Black Riders, or heavy cavalry. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bothwell, after the deed was ended that he went for, returned, and as if he had been ignorant of all that was done, he gat him to bed. The Queen, in the meantime, in great expectation of the success, how finely she played her part (as she thought) it is marvell to tell; for she not once stirred at the noise of the fall of the house, which shook the whole town, nor at the fearful outcries that followed, and confused cries of the people (for I think there happened her not any new thing unlooked for) till Bothwell, feigning himself afraid, rose again out of his bed, and came to her with the Earls of Argyle, Huntly, and Athole, and with the wives of the Earls of Mar and Athole, and with the Secretary. There, while the monstrous chance was in telling, while every one wondered at the thing, that the King's lodging was even from the very foundation blown up in the air, and the King himself slain; in this amazedness and confused fear of all sorts of persons, only that same heroical heart of the Queen maintained itself, so far from casting herself down into base lamentations and tears, unbeseeming the royal name, blood, and estate, that she matched, or rather far surmounted all credit of the constancy of any in former times. This also proceeded of the same nobility of courage, that she sent out the most part of them that were then about her, to inquire out the manner of the doing, and commanded the soldiers that watched to follow, and she herself settled her to rest, with a countenance so quiet, and mind so untroubled, that she sweetly slept till the next day at noon. But lest she should appear void of all naturalness at the death of her husband, by little and little, at length she kept her close, and proclaimed a mourning not long to endure.

_MARY ON THE MURDER_

Mary's Description of the Murder.

_Queen Mary to the Archbishop of Glasgow_, February 11 [10?], 1567. _Keith's History_, vol. i. p. 101.

_A PLOT AGAINST BOTH KING AND QUEEN_

We have received this morning your letters of the 27th January by your servant Robert Dury, containing in one part such advertisement as we find by effect over true. Albeit the success has not altogether been such as the authors of that mischievous fact had preconceived in their mind, and had put it in execution, if God in His mercy had not preserved us and reserved us, as we trust, to the end that we may take a rigorous vengeance of that mischievous deed, which as it should remain unpunished, we had rather lose life and all. The matter is horrible and so strange as we believe the like was never heard of in any country. This night past, being the 9th February, a little after two hours after midnight, the house wherein the King was lodged was in an instant blown in the air, he lying sleeping in his bed, with such a vehemency, that of the whole lodging, walls, and other, there is nothing remained, no, not a stone above another, but all carried far away or dashed in dross to the very ground-stone. It must be done by force of powder, and appears to have been a mine. By whom it has been done, or in what manner, it appears not as yet. We doubt not but according to the diligence our Council has begun already to use, the certainty of all shall be used shortly; and the same being discovered, which we wot God will never suffer to lie hid, we hope to punish the same with such rigour as shall serve for example of this cruelty to all ages to come. Always whoever have taken this wicked enterprise in hand, we assure ourselves it was dressed as well for us as for the King; for we lay the most part of all the last week in that same lodging, and were then accompanied with the most part of the Lords that are in this town that same night at midnight, and of every chance tarried not all night, by reason of some mask in the Abbey: but we believe it was not chance, but God that put it in our head. We despatched the bearer upon the sudden, and therefore write to you the more shortly....

_NAU'S ACCOUNT OF THE MURDER_

_Nau's Memorials_, p. 33.

He {the King} went to Glasgow, where he was seized with the small-pox. He sent several times for the Queen, who was very ill, having been injured by a fall from her horse at Seton. At last she went, stayed with him, and attended him on his return to Edinburgh.... On his return to Edinburgh, the King lodged in a small house outside the town, which he had chosen in the report of James Balfour and some others. This was against the Queen's wishes, who was anxious to take him to Craigmillar, for he could not stay in Holyrood Palace lest he should give infection to the Prince. On his own account, too, he did not wish any one to see him in his present condition.... While he was in this house, the King was often visited by the Queen, with whom he was now perfectly reconciled. He promised to give her much information of the utmost importance to the life and quiet of both of them.... He warned her more particularly to be on her guard against Lethington, who, he said, was planning the ruin of the one by the means of the other.... That very night, as her Majesty was about to leave the King, she met Paris, Lord Bothwell's _valet-de-chambre_, and noticing that his face was all blackened with gunpowder, she exclaimed in the hearing of many of the lords, just as she was mounting her horse, "Jesu, Paris, how begrimed you are!" At this he turned very red.

On the 10th of February 1567, about three or four o'clock in the morning, a match was put to the train of gunpowder, which had been placed under the King's house. It was afterwards made public that this had been done by the command and device of the Earls of Bothwell and Morton, James Balfour, and some others, who always afterwards pretended to be most diligent in searching out the murder which they themselves had committed. Morton had secretly returned from England, to which he had been banished.

_THE ORIGIN OF THE CRIME_

This crime was the result of a bond into which they had entered. It was written by Alexander Hay, at that time one of the clerks of the Council, and signed by the Earls of Moray, Huntly, Bothwell, and Morton, by Lethington, James Balfour, and others, who had combined for this purpose. They protested that they were acting for the public good of the realm, pretending that they were freeing the Queen from the bondage and misery into which she had been reduced by the King's behaviour.... He was but deceiving the Queen, whom they often blamed for so faithfully having come to a good understanding with her husband; and they told her that he was putting a knife not only to their throats but to her own.

The King's body was blown into the garden by the violence of the explosion, and a poor English valet of his, who slept in his room, was there killed.... Earl Bothwell was much suspected of this villainous and detestable murder.... If we may judge by the plots, deeds, and contrivances of his associates, it would seem that after having used him to rid themselves of the King, they designed to make Bothwell their instrument to ruin the Queen, their true and lawful sovereign.

Their plan was this, to persuade her to marry the Earl of Bothwell, so that they might charge her with being in the plot against her late husband, and a consenting party to his death. This they did shortly after, appealing to the fact that she had married the murderer.

_ANOTHER ACCOUNT BY BUCHANAN_

Buchanan (_Translated from History_, xx. 35).

The Archbishop of St. Andrews, who lived nearest, willingly undertook the task of killing the King, when it was offered to him, both on account of old enmities, and in the hope of bringing the succession nearer his own family. He chose, accordingly, six or eight of the most abandoned of his retainers, and entrusted the matter to them, giving them the keys of the King's lodging. They entered very quietly into his chamber, strangled him as he lay sleeping, and carried his body through the postern into a garden beside the walls. Then, at a given signal, fire was applied to the house.

[The question as to the manner of Darnley's death has given rise to
considerable discussion. The depositions of Hay, Hepburn, and Paris
(vide pp. 144, 215-218) agree in representing that the King was
killed by the explosion. On the other hand, Drury, who wrote to
Cecil on 24th April {Foreign Calendar}, and Count Moretta, the
agent of the Duke of Savoy, who was in Edinburgh {Labanoff, vii.
108}, state that he was strangled. The facts that the bodies of
Darnley and his servant, Taylor, were found together, in the
garden, at some little distance from the house, without violent
injury; that Darnley's pelisse and slippers were found beside him;
and that the other bodies were found among the ruins, must be taken
into account in forming a judgment on the question.]