Life of Mary Queen of Scots Volume I Part 12

[93] Of Chatelherault, Argyle, Murray, Morton, and Glencairn, all of whom were summoned to the Convention, only Morton came. Keith, p. 287.

[94] Keith, p. 291, et seq.--Chalmers, vol. i. p. 139, et seq.; vol. ii.

p. 141.--Tytler, vol. i. p. 374, et seq. Melville's account of this conspiracy is, that Murray and the other Lords "had made a mynt to tak the Lord Darnley, in the Queen's company, at the Raid of Baith, and to have sent him in England as they allegit. I wot not what was in their minds, but it was ane evil-favoured enterprise whereintil the Queen was in danger, either of kepping (imprisonment) or heart-breaking; and as they had failed in their foolish enterprise, they took on plainly their arms of rebellion." Melville, p. 135. There is some reason to believe, that Knox was implicated in this conspiracy; for, in the continuation of his History, written by his amanuensis, Richard Bannatyne, under the authority of the General a.s.sembly, it appears that a Mr Hamilton, minister of St Andrews, had openly accused him of a share in it; and though Knox noticed the accusation, it does not appear that he ever satisfactorily refuted it.--Goodall, vol. i. p. 207.

[95] Keith, p. 293--Spottiswoode, p. 190.

[96] Keith, p. 294, _et seq._

[97] Keith, p. 297.

[98] Buchanan says, foolishly enough, that the predictions of "wizardly women" contributed much to hasten this marriage. They prophesied, it seems, that if it was consummated before the end of July, it would be happy for both; if not, it would be the source of much misery. It is a pity that these predictions were not true.

[99] Randolph in Robertson, Appendix, No. XI.--Keith, p. 307. Miss Benger, vol. ii. p. 214.

[100] Keith, p. 303 and 304. This was a day or two before Darnley's marriage.

[101] Keith, Appendix No. VII. p. 99, et seq.

[102] M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 106; and Tytler's Enquiry, vol.

i. p. 362 and 367.

[103] Knox, p. 389.

[104] Keith, Appendix, p. 264.

[105] Robertson, Appendix to Vol. i. Nos. XII. and XIII.

[106] Keith, Appendix, p. 114.

[107] Keith, p. 316, and Chalmers, vol. i. p. 155.

[108] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 156.

[109] Chalmers, vol. i. p. 157, and Keith, p. 319.

[110] Keith, p. 319.--Melville, p. 135.

[111] Blackwood in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 204.

[112] Keith, p. 331.

[113] Melville's Memoirs, p. 147.

[114] Conaeus in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 25.

[115] Dr Stuart, in support of his statements on this subject, quotes, in addition to the authorities already mentioned, Mezeray "Histoire de France," tome 3, and Thua.n.u.s, "Historia sui Temporis," lib. x.x.xvii. But we suspect he has done so at random; for, on referring to these works, we have been unable to discover any thing which bears upon the matter.

Chalmers, who is in general acute and explicit enough, says, that these amba.s.sadors came "to advise the Queen not to pardon the expatriated n.o.bles;" vol. ii. p. 158. Laing, who writes with so much _apparent_ candour and _real_ ability against Mary that he almost makes "the worse appear the better reason," has avoided falling into the gross error of Robertson. "It would be unjust," he says, "to suppose, that, upon acceding to the Holy League, for the preservation of the Catholic faith, she was apprised of the full extent of the design to exterminate the Protestants by a general ma.s.sacre throughout Christendom; but the instructions from her uncle rendered her inexorable towards the banished Lords."--Laing's Preliminary Dissertation to the History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 9.

[116] Keith, p. 328 and 329.

[117] Goodall, vol. i. p. 222.

[118] Several of these pennies, as they were called, both of gold and silver, remain to this day; and some of them have been already noticed. In December 1565, there was stamped a silver penny, called the _Mary Rial_, bearing on one side a tree, with the motto, _Dat gloria vires_; and the circ.u.mscription, _Exsurgat Deus, et dissipentur inimici ejus_; and, on the other, _Maria et Henricus, Dei Gratia, Regina et Rex Scotorum_. Speaking of this coin, Keith says, that "the famous ewe-tree of Crookston, the inheritance of the family of Darnley, in the parish of Paisley, is made the reverse of this new coin; and the inscription about the tree, _Dat gloria vires_, is no doubt with a view to reflect honour on the Lennox family. This tree, he adds, which stands to this day, is of so large a trunk, and so well spread in its branches, that it is seen at several miles distance."--Keith, p. 327, and Appendix, p. 118.--It stands no longer.

[119] Buchanan's History.--Melville's Memoirs.--Keith, p. 325.

[120] Goodall, vol. i. p. 227.

[121] Melville's Memoirs, p. 132 and 133.

[122] We translate from the original French of an edition, of the _Martyre de la Royne d'Escosse_, printed at Antwerp, in the year 1583,--which very nearly agrees with the Edition in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 202.

[123] Buchanan alone, of all the Scottish historians, has dared to insinuate the probability of an illicit intercourse having subsisted between Mary and Rizzio; and the calumny is too self-evidently false to merit a moment's notice. Every respectable writer reprobates so disgusting a piece of scandal, however unfavourably inclined towards Mary in other respects. Camden, Castelnau, Robertson, Hume, Tytler, Laing, and Dr Stuart, all of whom think it worth while to advert to the subject in Notes, put the falsehood of Buchanan's a.s.sertion beyond the most distant shadow of a doubt. Indeed, it is paying it too great a compliment to advert to it at all.

[124] Miss Benger, oddly enough, says, it was on Sat.u.r.day the 5th of April; a mistake into which no other historian with whom we are acquainted has fallen.--Miss Benger's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 233.

[125] The Parliament had met upon the 7th, and Mary had opened it in person, unattended by Darnley, who refused to give it his countenance; but no business of importance had as yet been transacted.

[126] This disease was "an inflammation of the liver, and a consumption of the kidneys."--_Keith_, _Appendix_, _p._ 119.

[127] Blackwood in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 204.--Goodall, vol. i. p. 252.

[128] Stranguage, p. 33.--Crawford's Memoirs, p. 9.

[129] Keith, Appendix, p. 122.

[130] Conaeus in Jebb. Vol. ii. p. 25.

[131] Robertson's Appendix to vol. i. No. xv.

[132] Keith, p. 330.--Appendix, p. 119.--Melville's Memoirs, p.

148.--Buchanan's History of Scotland, Book xvii.--Martyre de Marie in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 204.--Knox, p. 392.--Holinshed's Chronicles, p.

382.--Robertson, Appendix to Vol. i. No. xv.--Some historians have maintained, that Rizzio was actually despatched in Mary's presence. But this is not the fact, for Mary remained ignorant of his fate till next day. In a letter which the Earl of Bedford and Randolph wrote to the Privy Council of England, giving an account of this murder, and which has been published in the first series of "Ellis's Original Letters, ill.u.s.trative of English History," (vol. ii. p. 207), we find these words:--"He was not slain in the Queen's presence, as was said." Holinshed and others are equally explicit. It has been likewise said, that it was not intended to have killed him that evening; but to have tried him next day, and then to have hanged or beheaded him publicly. That there is no foundation for this a.s.sertion, is proved by the authorities quoted above; and to these may be added the letter from Morton and Ruthven to Throckmorton, and "the bond of a.s.surance for the murder to be committed," granted by Darnley to the conspirators, on the 1st of March, both preserved by Goodall, vol. i. p.

264 and 266. That the conspirators meant, as others have insisted, to take advantage of the situation in which Mary then was, and terrify her into a miscarriage, which might have ended in her death, is unsupported by any evidence; nor can we see what purposes such a design would have answered.

[133] Vide M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. i. p. 47.

[134] Knox, p. 339.--Buchanan, Book XVII.

[135] Keith, p. 332--and Appendix, 126.

[136] That something of the kind was actually contemplated, we learn from Mary herself. "In their council," she says in the letter already quoted, "they thought it most expedient we should be warded in our castle of Stirling, there to remain till we had approved in Parliament all their wicked enterprises, established their religion, and given to the King the crown-matrimonial, and the whole government of our realm; or else, by all appearance, firmly purposed to have put us to death, or detained us in perpetual captivity."--Keith, Appendix, p. 132.

[137] Ruthven's "Discourse" concerning the murder of Rizzio, in Keith, Appendix, p. 128.

[138] Keith, p. 334.--Stuart's History of Scotland, p. 138, et seq.

[139] Melville's Memoirs, p. 154--Goodall, vol. i. p. 286.--Chalmers, vol.