The Early History of the Scottish Union Question Part 3

[27] "A Convenient Ayd of Men of Warre, on Horse and Foot, to joyne with the power of the Scottishmen, with Artailzie Munition, and all others Instrumentis of Warre mete for the Purpose, as weall by Sea as by Land."

[28] Conventiones Scotorum contra Reginam Unionem Franciae et Scotiae designantem, et pro defensione contra Francos (_Fdera_, xv. 569).

Maitland of Lethington, in the letter in favour of an alliance between England and Scotland, from which quotations have just been given, proposes that Scotland should help to maintain order in Ireland. "The realme of Ireland," he says, "being of natour a G.o.de and fertill countrey, by reason of the continewalld unquietnes and lak of policy, ze knaw to be rather a burthen to zow then great advantage; and giff it were peaceable may be very commodious. For pacification quhayroff, it is not unknown to zow quhat service we ar abill to do."

[29] They numbered between seven and eight thousand men. The expedition seems to have cost about 230,000 (_Calendar of State Papers, Foreign_, 1560, Preface, p. ix.).

[30] Keith, 131.

[31] _Fdera_, xv. 593; Keith, 137.

[32] Act. Parl. Scot. ii. 534. The following memorandum, endorsed "the manner how the Scottis be divided, 1560," was recently found among the MSS. at Longleat, and is now printed in the _Hamilton Papers_, vol. ii.

p. 748. "The names of all the n.o.blemen temporall and spirituall of the congregacion of Scotlande:--The Duke of Chateaurialt; the Erle of Arren his sonne; the Lord James priour of St. Andros; the Erle of Arguile; the Erle of Glencarne; the Erle of Rothos; the Erle of Sutherland; the Erle of Mount.i.the; the Lorde Riven; the Lorde Boide; the Lorde Offoltrie; the Master of Lindsoye; the Master of Maxwell. The lordes and n.o.blemen newters:--The Erle of Huntleye; the Erle of Catnes; the Erle of Ath.e.l.l; the Erle Marshall; the Erle of Morton and Angus; the Erle of Arrell; the Erle of Casiles; the Erle of Eglenton; the Erle of Mountroes; the Lord Erskin; the Lord Dromond; the Lord Hume; the Lorde Rose; the Lorde Krighton; the Lord Liveston; the Lord Somervall. Dowptfull to whether parte they will incline. The lordes of the Quene's partye:--The Erle of Bodwell; the Lorde Seton; the Lorde Fleminge; the Lord Semple; the Bishopp of St. Andros; the Priour of Collingham; the Abbot of Holly Roode Howse; with all the bisshoppes and spiritualtye of the realme. The Shires as they be dewided on the one parte and thother:--The Marshe, Tividale, Annerdale, Lowden, Sterlingeshire, Galawaye, Caricke, Guile, Cunningham, Cliddesdale; all these and the people therein are newters, onles a certaine of every shire wich kepe themselfes close. Fife, Angus, Arguile, Straterne, and the Mernes; most parte Protestantes. The northe land hath promised to take parte, but not yet a.s.sured; in whose handes standeth litell helpe, wich side so ever they fall into." In Mr. Fraser Tytler's _History of Scotland_, vol. ix. p. 425, a paper is printed ent.i.tled "The Present State of the n.o.bility in Scotland, 1st July 1592."

It gives a list of the Scottish peers with a note of whether they were Protestant or Catholic, and is well worth comparing with the list in the _Hamilton Papers_. In the original, Mr. Tytler says, the names of the Catholics are marked in Burleigh's own handwriting.

[33] Mr. Froude quotes a letter from Jewel to Peter Martyr:--"It is of the greatest moment that England and Scotland be united; and I trust only those may not hinder it who wish well neither to them nor to us"

(_History of England_, vol. vi. p. 406).

[34] Act. Parl. Scot. ii. 605.

[35] The Queene's Majestie's Answere, declared to Her Counsell, concerninge the Requests of the Lords of Scotlande (Keith, 156).

[36] This, however, does not altogether apply to the Darnley marriage.

Darnley, as grandson of Margaret Tudor, was not only cousin to the Queen of Scots, but first prince of the blood in England; and Mary's great object in espousing him was to improve her chance of succeeding to the Crown of England, to which she was already heir-presumptive. But in Scotland the marriage of the queen to a Catholic could not be viewed with indifference; and the General a.s.sembly of the Church proceeded to declare that the laws against papacy applied to the royal family as well as to the subjects: "That the Papisticall and blasphemous ma.s.se, with all Papistrie and idolatrie of Paip's jurisdictione, be universallie suppressed and abolished throughout the haill realme, not only in the subjects, but also in the Q. Majestie's awn persone" (_The Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland_, p. 28).

[37] "Naturallie jonit be blude and habitatioun, of ane relligioun and thairby alike subiect to the malice of the commoun enemy, be quhais Vnioun na les suretie may be expect.i.t to baith thair esteattis then dangear be thair divisioun" (_Band anent the Trew Religioun_, 31st July 1585; Act. Parl. Scot. iii. 423).

[38] Tractatus Fderis et Arctioris Amit.i.tiae, 5th July 1586 (_Fdera_, xv. 803).

[39] Mr. Tytler's view is that one of the chief objects of Elizabeth and the English ministers in entering into the League was to make it easier to deal with the Queen of Scots. "Two months before," he says, "her indefatigable minister, Walsingham, had detected that famous conspiracy known by the name of 'Babington's Plot,' in which Mary was implicated, and for which she afterwards suffered. It had been resolved by Leicester, Burghley, and Walsingham, and probably by the queen herself, that this should be the last plot of the Scottish queen and the Roman Catholic faction; that the time had come when sufferance was criminal and weak; that the life of the unfortunate, but still active and formidable, captive was inconsistent with Elizabeth's safety and the liberty of the realm. Hence the importance attached to this League, which bound the two kingdoms together, in a treaty offensive and defensive, for the protection of the Protestant faith, and separated the young king from his mother" (_History of Scotland_, viii. 288).

[40] _Calendar of Border Papers_, i. 289, 300.

[41] This letter, which is very long, will be found in Spotswood, p.

359. "Because," the bishop says, "the Letter contained the very true reasons that in end moved his Majesty to forbear violence and take a more calm course, I thought meet to set it down word by word, as it standeth in the original."

CHAPTER II

THE UNION OF THE CROWNS

A few years before the Union of the Crowns, James, in the _Basilikon Doron_, that quaint little volume of "Instructions to his dearest sonne, Henry the Prince," had alluded to the dangers which were caused by the divided state of the island. "As for the Borders," he wrote, "because I know, if ye enjoy not this whole Isle, according to G.o.d's right and your lineal descent, ye will never get leave to brooke this North and barrenest part thereof; no, not your own head whereon the crown should stand! I need not in that case trouble you with them; for then they will be the middest part of the Isle, and so as easily ruled as any part thereof." Hitherto a royal marriage had been the favourite plan for removing these dangers; but after this we enter upon a series of attempts to bring about an Union of a more complete and definite character. James came to the throne of England with his mind full of the subject. The people of Scotland antic.i.p.ated the removal of the Court to London with dismay. But to the king it opened up a dazzling prospect of power and splendour; and he lost no time in proposing the Union, and pressing it, in season and out of season, with a persistency which brings out, in a remarkable manner, the strong individuality of his character.

For some time before the death of Elizabeth, James had been doing his best to gain the goodwill of the English people; and as soon as he received the official announcement of his accession he directed his Privy Council to proclaim the news, not only in order that the fact that he was now King of England as well as Scotland should become known, but in the hope, as the proclamation expressed it, that there might be kindled in the hearts of all Scotsmen "ane loveing and kyndlie dispositioun towardis all his Majestie's subjectis inhabitantis of England."[42] Nor did he fail to impress this sentiment on the people.

On the last Sunday which he spent in Scotland he went to the Church of Saint Giles, where, when the sermon was ended, he made a speech to the congregation. It was regarded as a farewell, and was received with "such a mourning and lamentation of all sorts, as cannot well be expressed."[43]

"There is no difference," he said, to cheer his weeping subjects, "betwixt London and Edinburgh; yea, not so much as betwixt Inverness or Aberdeen and Edinburgh, for all our marches be dry, and there are ferries between them. But my course must be betwixt both, to establish peace, and religion, and wealth betwixt the countries."

The departure of James meant a great deal to Scotland. When the day came, and the cannon were booming from the old castle of Edinburgh, the citizens a.s.sembled in mult.i.tudes to gaze at the brilliant company of courtiers who were to accompany their king upon his journey to the south; but the spectacle was one which excited many fears and few hopes.

The Union of the Crowns was making great changes. The Court was leaving.

The queen remained behind with the young Princes and the Princess Elizabeth; but it was known that they were soon to follow, and that, henceforth, they would live in England. Their old Scottish home, the ancient palace of Holyrood, was being dismantled already; and soon nothing would remain in the royal apartments, but some stray pieces of furniture, and a few yards of faded tapestry. It was true that to Scotland there was still left that independence which had been so hardly won. The Parliament remained in the same position as before; but a new official was spoken of, a Royal Commissioner, who was, in future, to represent the sovereign at the meetings of the Estates. The separate Scottish Executive, too, was to be continued, in the shape of the Privy Council; but it was to be divided into two parts, the one to sit in England, and the other in Scotland; and it was evident that, in future, the real centre of influence in Scottish affairs would be London.

To some of the Scottish people the future seemed very bright. During the reign of Elizabeth, there were seldom so many as a hundred Scotsmen in London at any one time. But now politicians like the future Earl of Haddington, at that time Lord Advocate Hamilton, saw that in the wide field which lay before them, greater things could be done than within the narrow bounds of Scotland. George Heriot, who followed the king to England, doubtless knew that he could hold his own, and add to his wealth, among the merchant princes of London. Gay young men, like Lord Dalgarno in _The Fortunes of Nigel_, looked forward to the amus.e.m.e.nts and dissipation of London, and to the chance of filling their empty pockets by marriages with English heiresses. And among the humbler members of the royal retinue there were not a few adventurers who were glad to visit England, and share the spoil with their betters. So great, indeed, was the rush of Scotsmen to England, that soon after the accession a proclamation was issued that no Scotsman was to cross the Tweed, or sail for England, without a pa.s.sport from the Privy Council.[44] But those who remained behind, and especially the tradesmen of Edinburgh, who had supplied the Court, saw no chance of gain, but rather much risk of loss, in the change which was taking place.

In England, though James himself was received with demonstrations of loyalty, his Scottish followers were regarded with mingled contempt and hatred. Scotland, it was said, was a land where the n.o.bles were beggars, and the merchants were pedlars. The coa.r.s.est satire was poured forth against the barren and unknown territory from whence the new king had come. Indeed it is difficult for us, in the nineteenth century, to realise the scornful way in which Englishmen spoke of Scotland, though we may form some idea of the language which was used from the specimens which have been preserved of what was actually printed, circulated, and probably believed at that time. "The air," thus runs one of those productions, "might be made wholesome, but for the stinking people that inhabit it. The ground might be made wholesome, had they wit to manure it. Their beasts be generally small, women excepted, of which sort there are no greater in the world.... As for fruits, for their grandam Eve's sake they never planted any, and for other trees, had Christ been betrayed in this country, as doubtless he should have been, had he come as a stranger amongst them, Judas had sooner found the grace of repentance than one tree to hang himself on.... The Scriptures, they say, speak of elders and deacons, but not a word of deans and bishops.

Their discourse is full of detraction, their sermons nothing but railings, and their conclusion, heresy or treason.... They christen without the cross, marry without a ring, receive the Sacrament without reverence, die without repentence, and bury without divine service."[45]

And even among those Englishmen who knew that the popular ideas of Scotland were erroneous, there was a profound feeling of jealousy lest James should fill too many of the places about the Court with his countrymen. It was suspected that if he got his own way, almost every Scotsman in London would soon be clad in velvet and satin, and wearing a costly beaver instead of a blue bonnet; and James took great pains, for a long time after his accession, to a.s.sure the English courtiers that he had no intention of promoting Scotsmen over the heads of Englishmen. "I was ever rooted," he wrote to Lord Cranbourne, "in that firm resolution never to have placed Scottishmen in any such room, till, first, time had begun to wear away that opinion of different nations; and, secondly, that this jealous apprehension of the Union had worn away; and, thirdly, that Scotsmen had been brought up here at the foot of Gamaliel."

Before James had been many days in England he issued a proclamation, in which it was announced that there was to be a complete Union of the Kingdoms. "In the meane tyme," he said, "till the said Union be established, his Majestie doth hereby repute, hold, and esteeme, and commandes all His Highnesse subjects to hold and esteeme, both the Two Realmes as presently united, and as one Realme and Kingdome, and the subjects of both as one People, Brethern, and Members of one Bodye."[46]

The personal peculiarities of James, which amounted to eccentricities, his firm belief in the maxims of his own _Basilikon Doron_ and his complete abhorrence of the doctrines which Buchanan, in the old days, had tried to teach him, are prominent features of the controversy concerning the Union. The tenacity with which he clung to his conception of the royal prerogative is nowhere more apparent than in his speeches and proclamations, and in everything he did for the purpose of forwarding his favourite scheme. When the Parliament of England was found to be less subservient than he had expected, he pointed to Scotland as an example. "This I must say for Scotland," he exclaimed, "and may truly vaunt it; here I sit and govern it with my pen. I write, and it is done; and by a clerk of the council I govern Scotland now, which others could not do by the sword." These were not altogether idle words; but it would have been wiser to refrain from boasting of a supremacy such as the proudest of the Tudors had never ventured to claim.

In the formidable contest against the national prejudices of Englishmen, on which he was about to enter, James secured a powerful ally. Bacon had been one of those who received the honour of knighthood on the day of the coronation; and he lost no time in taking the king's side on the question of the Union, which he supported with the subtilty of a scholiast, and with the broad views of a statesman and philosopher. To the debates in Parliament, to the Council Board of the Commission on Union, to the famous discussion, in the Exchequer Chamber, on the question of the post-nati, he brought all the resources of his mind, and threw himself into the struggle with an enthusiasm which could not possibly have been feigned. He played the part, though without success, which was afterwards played by Somers in the reign of Anne; and he seems, from the very first, to have perceived with the eye of genius exactly how far it was safe to go in the direction of abolishing international distinctions.

His first contribution to the cause of the Union was to impress upon the king the exact state of the case, and what were the various points which would have to be decided. The kingdoms were, he showed, already united in religion and in language. No sea rolled between them. The same king reigned over both. But, nevertheless, there were separate Parliaments, separate Councils of State, and separate offices of the Crown. There was one peerage for England, and another for Scotland. There were two very different systems of law, and each country had its own peculiar code of legal procedure. All these various inst.i.tutions, and, in addition, a ma.s.s of minor details of greater or less importance, would have to be considered in adjusting the terms of Union.[47]

On the knotty question of whether there should be an uniformity of laws, Bacon, from the outset, in opposition to the opinion of the judges and of the majority of English lawyers, maintained that, while the public law of the United Kingdoms should be a.s.similated, the private law of each country should be left untouched; a conclusion which was arrived at a century later, when the Union was actually accomplished. "For," he said, "that which concerneth private interest of _meum_ and _tuum_, in my opinion, it is not at this time to be meddled with. Men love to hold their own as they have held, and the difference of this law carrieth no mark of separation."[48]

But before a single step could be taken, the two Parliaments had to be consulted. James shrewdly calculated that if the Parliament of England could be gained, the Scottish Estates would readily agree to his wishes. He accordingly wrote to the Privy Council of Scotland, in January 1604, informing them that the English Parliament was to meet in March, when the project of an Union would be discussed, and telling them to call the Scottish Parliament together about the end of April; and he gave express commands that no subject except the Union was to be considered. If the Estates agreed, as he a.s.sumed they would, to the desirability of an Union, they were to appoint commissioners to meet with commissioners who would, by that time, have been appointed by the Parliament of England.[49]

The English Parliament met on the 19th of March. The speech in which James recommended the Union was long, and had evidently been prepared with great pains. What G.o.d had joined, he urged, no man should put asunder. "I am the husband," he said, "and the whole island is my lawful wife. I am the shepherd, and it is my flock. I hope, therefore, no man will be so unreasonable as to think that I, that am a Christian king under the gospel, should be a polygamist and husband of two wives."

Apart from some grotesque ill.u.s.trations such as this, the speech was well worthy of the occasion. But the king's proposals were not cordially received; and it was only under considerable pressure that, at a conference of both Houses, a Commission was appointed. At the head of the Commission was Lord Chancellor Ellesmere; and among the members were Robert Lord Cecil and Sir Francis Bacon. They were empowered to consult with commissioners to be appointed by the Parliament of Scotland concerning an Union of the Kingdoms, and such other matters as, upon mature deliberation, should appear necessary for the honour of his Majesty and the common good of both realms.

The Scottish Parliament, which had been summoned to meet in April in order that it might approve of the Union and appoint commissioners, was prorogued from time to time, and did not meet for business until the beginning of July, when the Estates a.s.sembled at Perth.

James had directed the Scottish ministers to make the Union the only subject of deliberation, and had also promised that the expenses incurred by the commissioners from Scotland would be defrayed out of his own purse. The Estates, however, had no sympathy with the policy of the king. The n.o.bles grumbled among themselves, and would fain have resisted. But the royal orders were peremptory; and thirty-two commissioners were appointed to "confer, treat, and consulte upon a perfyte Unioun of the realmes of Scotland and England."[50] The first name on the Commission was that of John, Earl of Montrose, Lord Chancellor of Scotland; and among his colleagues were a number of distinguished men. Alexander Seton, then known as Lord Fyvie, was afterwards the first Earl of Dunfermline. James Elphinstone, Secretary of State, had recently been raised to the peerage as Lord Balmerino, a t.i.tle a.s.sociated, in Scottish history, with a long series of family misfortunes, which culminated in the execution of his descendant, the last lord, after the Rebellion of 1745. Sir Thomas Hamilton, whom James nicknamed "Tam o' the Cowgate," was then Lord Advocate, and, after holding almost every great office of State in Scotland, became Earl of Haddington in the reign of Charles the First. Another place in the Commission was occupied by Sir Thomas Craig of Riccarton, author of the _Jus Feudale_, whose Latin history of the Union, which has never been published, is preserved in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates.

Some of the terms which occur in the Act appointing these commissioners are such as to suggest the idea that James himself had been the draughtsman. The Estates, in language not usually to be found in the statute-book, declare that the Act is pa.s.sed in order that "as the present age is ravished in admiration with an so fortunate beginning, so that the posterity may rejoice in the fruition of such an effectual Union of two so famous and ancient Kingdoms, miraculously accomplished in the blood and person of so rare a monarch."

But the Estates, while ready to lavish praise on the king, were determined that the Union was not to interfere with the independence of Scotland. It was noticed that while the English Act for the Union contained a clause declaring that his Majesty had no intention of altering the fundamental laws and customs of England, nothing had been said as to preserving the laws and customs of Scotland. This was regarded as suspicious; and there was inserted in the Scottish Act a provision that the commissioners were to take care that nothing was done which was inconsistent with the ancient rights and liberties of Scotland.[51]

There was also pa.s.sed, at the same time, a statute which provided that the Commissioners on Union should have no power to treat "in any manner of way that may be hurtful or prejudicial to the religion presently professed in Scotland."[52]

The commissioners, who had thus been appointed by the Parliaments, were summoned to meet in the Painted Chamber at Westminster in October.[53]

But James, too impatient to await the result of their deliberations, and resolved to carry matters with a high hand, issued a long and wordy proclamation, in which he stated that he thought fit to abolish the names of England and Scotland, and to a.s.sume, "by the force of our royal prerogative," the t.i.tle of King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland.[54] This t.i.tle was to be used in all public doc.u.ments. The Borders were in future to be known as the Middle Shires. A flag was to be prepared bearing the Cross of Saint George and the Cross of Saint Andrew. New coins, with such mottoes as "Quae Deus conjunxit nemo separet," and "Henricus rosas Jacobus regna," were to be struck at the Mint in honour of the Union.

This proclamation was most unpopular in both England and Scotland. The judges were of opinion that the adoption of the t.i.tle of King of Great Britain would invalidate all legal processes.[55] The king soon found that he had gone too far; and, after a time, he consented to wait until his wishes could be accomplished with the sanction of Parliament.

On the 20th of October, the Commissioners on Union met at Westminster.

"A grave and orderly a.s.sembly," is the account which Bacon gives of them. On the English side the lead was taken by Bacon and Cecil; while of the Scottish commissioners, Sir Thomas Hamilton and Lord Fyvie seem to have been the most prominent. It was soon evident that the Scottish peers were afraid that the Union would diminish their own power, and indifferent to the commercial advantages which it would confer upon their country. The commoners from Scotland also had their doubts about the Union. They entirely failed to appreciate the benefits of the colonial trade which it would open up; and they seem to have resented, to an extent which blinded their judgments, the removal of the Court to London.

The English commissioners also put obstacles in the way of an agreement. Against the advice of Bacon, but with the support of the judges, they insisted on an uniform system of laws for the two countries; a proposal to which the representatives of Scotland would not listen.[56] They also maintained that it was unreasonable that Scotsmen should be made capable of holding offices under the Crown in England; and on this point there was a keen argument.

After a series of discussions, which lasted for about five weeks, Bacon and Sir Thomas Hamilton were instructed to embody the findings of the commissioners, in the form of a Treaty of Union, for the approval of the Parliaments. "It is curious now," says Professor Ma.s.son, "to imagine the great English philosopher and 'Tam o' the Cowgate' thus seated together, for perhaps two or three evenings, over the doc.u.ment which was to descend to posterity as the draft Treaty of Union between England and Scotland, and to speculate how shrewdly 'Tam o' the Cowgate' must have looked after the substance of the doc.u.ment, while he may have deferred to Bacon's superior expertness in strictly English idiom and wording."[57]