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HISTORY OF ENGLAND

FROM

THE FALL OF WOLSEY
TO THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA.

VOLUME VIII.
ELIZABETH.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND

THE FALL OF WOLSEY

THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA.

JAMES ANTHONY FKOUDE, M.A.

BEC1C8 PROFESSOR OF MODF.RN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

VOLUME VIII.
ELIZABETH.

€bttimt.

•

<M<1

LONDON :
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

1893.

315'

RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON <fc BUNGAY.

•• p ,

CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII,

CHAPTER XLVII.
ENGLAND ON THE SEA.

FAOB

English Sailors before the Sixteenth Century ' :. . • :' 2

Voyage of John Cabot . . . . . . . . 3

England and Spain . . . . . . . . 4

First Expansion of the English Navy . . . . 6

The Merchant Adventurers ' *V • '' . . . . 7

The African Slave-Trade .. *,' .. .. 9

Foreign Trade at the Accession of Elizabeth . . n

Alarms and Comments of Cecil . . . . . . 12

Decay of the Fisheries . * ^ .:• * , : , . . 13

Foreign Fishermen in the English Waters . .J . . 13

Cecil's Fast .<. .. ., . *w.: : *.. 15

English Gentlemen on the Coast . v ••. . * 4. 17

The Channel Privateers j... . . . . • . . 18

English Outrages and Spanish Reprisals . . . . 20

English Sailors and the Inquisition . . . . 21

Petition of Dorothy Seeley . . . . . . 22

English in en burnt in Spain . . . . 26

Ill-usage of Englishmen in Spanish Prisons . . • ,«, . 28

Exploit of Thomas Cobham *.i;i .. :.. 30

Commissions to prey on Papists . . . . '<.. , 33

Privateers and Pirates . . . . . . :;*;, 34

The Channel and the Thames . . . . 0 ¥ > 36

vi CONTENTS

PA&fi

Piracy of English Men-of-War . . . . 38

Arrest of English Ships in Spain . . . . 40

The Ports of England closed against the Flemings . . 42

Sufferings of English Prisoners . . . . 43

Elizabeth attempts to repress Piracy . . . . 46

The Pirates in Ireland . . . . . . 47

Conference at Bruges KM ;{ ', ^ 1 'I lot . . 50

The Negro Trade . . . . . . 52

First Slaving Voyage of John Hawkins . . . . 55

Second Voyage . . . . . . . . • • 59

Profits of the Adventure .. T'i&H •• •• 64

Third Voyage . . . . . . . . . . 67

Scene in Plymouth Harbour and last Protest of the

Spanish Ambassador . . . . . . 69

CHAPTER XLVIII.

CARBERRY HILL

The Murder of Darnley . . . . . . . . 71

Holyrood on the loth of February . . . . 74

Reward offered for the Discovery of the Murderers . . 78

Excitement in Edinburgh . . . . . . 79

The Queen goes to Seton . . . . . . 81

Lennox requires her to assemble the Nobility . . 85

The Queen refuses . . . . . . :.>*•'* 86

Political Importance of the Murder . . '*. u* 87

Public Opinion in Paris . . . . . . . . 88

Letter of the Spanish Ambassador in London > :•»!»' 91

Opinion in England . . . . . . - t^j, 93

Sir Henry Killigrew sent to Scotland . . -• j.u 95

Letter of Elizabeth to the Queen of Scots . . ii>Jj 96

Reception of Killigrew at Holyrood . . . . 98

History of the Conspiracy against Darnley . . fffirfO 100

CONTENTS. vii

PAOB

Preparations for the Trial of Both well . . . . 104

Humour of the intended Marriage between the Queen

and Bothwell .. .. 4,1, .. 104

Kemonstrances of the Queen's Frienda I •.,'* \o • . 106

Bothwell makes Advances to Murray . . 109

Murray leaves Scotland . . . . . . 1 10

Murray in London . . . . . . n i

Lennox petitions for a Postponement of the Trial . . 115

The Petition is supported by Elizal>eth . . . . 1 1 8

Scene at Holy rood on the 1,2 th of April . . . . 1 20

The High Court of Justice . . . . ..131

Acquittal of Bothwell 0 . , . . , . , 125

Meeting of the Scottish Parliament ,,, .. 127

Ainslie's Supper , , • » t • • * * 28

The Lords apply to Elizabeth .. ,, •• 131

Letter from Grange to Cecil », . »^ ., 131

Second Letter of Elizabeth to the Queen of Scots . . 133

Difficulties in BothwelTs Position .. ,,, f, 135

Conspiracy to carry off the Queen . . , , f . 137

The Queen at Stirling . ., ( , . , . , . 139

Bothwell carries the Queen to Dunbar .. , , « 1^2

Combination of the Lords .^ .. .. 145

Application to Elizabeth . . . . _ . , , ^145

Bothwell divorced from his Wife . . - » « • • 1 5 l

Both well and the Queen return to Edinburgh , ,, 151

The Queen marries Bothweli 1; ^ t , , „ 153

Coldness of France towards the Queen . . . . 156

The Bishop of Dunblane is sent to Paris . , . . 158

Resolution of the Lords to seize Bothwell . , . ^ 1 60

Borthwick Castle. . . . . . . .,,„ 161

Ballad on the Murder of Darnley . . . . 163

Bothwell and the Queen advance on Edinburgh .., , 167

Carberry Hill . . . . . . . . , .» j 171

Flight of Bothwell ami Capture of the Queen .. ^-.- 174

Conversation between Maitland and Du Croq •..,,* 177

viii CONTENTS.

PAGE

The Queen refuses to abandon Bothwell . . . . 180

Proposal to kill the Queen . . . . . . 180

Lochleven Castle . . . . . . . . 181

Proclamation of ther Lords . . . . . . 183

CHAPTEK XLIX.

LOCHLEVEN CASTLE.

•

Mission of de Villeroy . . . . . . . . 186

Elizabeth declares against the Lords . . 190

Sir Nicholas Throgmorton is sent to Scotland . . 194

Elizabeth promises to help the Queen . . . . 196

Hamilton and Stuart Factions . . . . . . 198

Statement of Sir James Balfour . . . . . . 199

Seizure of the Casket Letters . . . . . . 202

Effect of the Discovery . . . . . . . . 203

Difference of Opinion between Elizabeth and her Council 206

Arrival of Throgmorton at Edinburgh . . 208

Danger of Mary Stuart . . . . . . 210

Knox advises her Execution . . . . ..211

Maitland's Opinion of Elizabeth . . . . 214

Elizabeth threatens to invade Scotland . . . . 218

Return of Murray from France . . . . . . 220

Conversation between Murray and the Spanish Am-
bassador .. .. .. .. ..221

Throgmorton demands the Eelease of the Queen . . 225

The Lords propose to bring her to Trial . . . . 225

The Queen Abdicates .. .. •.. ..228

Coronation of James VI. . . . . . . 230

Effect of Elizabeth's Interference . . . . . . 232

Elizabeth in Correspondence with the Hamiltons . . 234

The Hamiltons ready to consent to the Queen's Death 236

Maitland and Throgmorton . . . . 238

CONTENTS. ix

PAGE

Advances of France to Murray . . . . . . 242

Mary Stuart's Prison . . . . . . . . 246

Interview between Murray and his Sister . . . . 248

Murray Regent of Scotland . . . . . . 252

Extreme Displeasure of Elizabeth . . . . 253

She creates a Faction for the Queen . . . . 256

Murray pacifies Scotland . . . . 258

Grange goes in pursuit of Bothwell, who escapes to

Denmark . . . . . . . . . . 260

The Regent on the Borders . . . . . . 261.

^Puritans and Catholics . . . . . . . . 262

Elizabeth's Marriage . . . . . . 265

The Archduke Charles again . . . . . . 266

Lord Sussex goes to Vienna . . . . . . 267

Difficulties of Religion . . . . . . . . 269

The Negotiation is suspended . . . . 270

Catholic Reaction in England . . . . . . 272

Philip II. expected in the Low Countries . . . . 274

Elizabeth and Leicester . . . . . . . . 277

The Archduke declines to come to England . . . . 281

Death of Lady Catherine Grey . . . . . . 282

Sussex threatens Leicester . . . . 283

The Uncertainty of the Succession . . . . 283

Letter of the Spanish Ambassador to Philip II 284

Good Feeling of Philip towards Elizabeth . . . . 287

CHAPTER L.
FLIGHT OF MART STUART TO ENGLAND.

The Hamiltons make a Party for Mary Stuart . 289

Excellence of Murray's Government . . . . 293

Reaction in Favour of the Queen . . . . . . 294

The Craigmillar Bond . . . . . . . . 295

x CONTENTS.

PAGE

Meeting of the Scotch Parliament . . . . 299

Declaratory Act against the Queen . . 300

George Douglas . . . . . . • • 3°4

Plans for the Escape of the Queen. . . . . . 307

""" — The Queen leaves Lochleven . . ... . . 309

The Gathering at Hamilton . . . . . . 311

Elizabeth proposes to Mediate . . . . . . 316

Letter of Elizabeth to the Queen of Scots 'J .- { . . 317

Murray at Glasgow .. .. .. ..319

Langside . . . . . . i V - • • 323

Defeat of the Queen's Army . . . . . . 324

Flight of Mary Stuart to the Solway . . . . 328

Uncertainty as to her Future Course . . . . 331

She crosses to England . . . . . . . . 332

Reception in Cumberland . . . . . . 333

Perplexity in Elizabeth's Council . . "V. • . ' • • 335

Mary Stuart at Carlisle Castle . . . . 340

She is placed in charge of Sir Francis Knowles and Lord

Scrope . . . . . . . . 341

-Knowles's Impression of Mary Stuart's Character . . 343

Lord Herries and Lord Fleming go up to Elizabeth 346

Elizabeth prohibits further Hostilities . . . . 347

She declines to see the Queen of Scots ';'! /• i[ . . 349

Replenishment of Mary Stuart's Wardrobe . . . . 353

Mary Stuart clamours to be heard . .'''-'. . . 358

Threatened Investigation into the Murder of Darnley . . 361

Fleming wishes to bribe Cecil . . . . . . 362

Elizabeth and Lord Herries . . . . . . 364

Preparation for the Inquiry . . . . . . 366

Removal of Mary Stuart to Bolton . . . . 368

Elizabeth's Difficulties . . . . . . . 368

Plan for assimilating the Kirk to the Church of England 370

Mary Stuart professes Conformity . . . . 372

Religious Conferences with Sir Francis Knowles . . 374

The French expected in Scotland . . . . • • 377

CONTENTS. xi

PAGE

Letter of Lord Homes to the English Council . . 380
Intention of Elizabeth in the Inquiry into the Murder

of Darnley . . . . . . . . . . 383

Commission appointed to sit at York . . . . 384

The Duke of Norfolk appointed President. . . . 386

Proposed Marriage between Norfolk and Mary Stuart 387

Opening of the Commission . . . . . . 392

Insincerity of all Parties except Murray . . . . 394

Conditions on which Murray will advance his Charges 395

Attempt to hush up the Inquiry . . . . • • 397

The Commission is Transferred to London . . 406

CHAPTER LI.
THE CASKET LETTERS.

Piety and Dogmatic Theology . . . . . 410

Growth of the Principle of Toleration . . . . 414

Religious Parties in France . . . . ..416

Calvinism .. .. .. .. ..417

Extinction of Protestantism in Spain .. .. 419

State of the Low Countries . . . . . . 421

Philip II. and Heresy . . . . . . . . 425

Last Injunctions of Charles V. . . . . . . 426

The Regent Margaret . . . . . . . . 427

Insurrection of the United Provinces against the Edicts 429

The Duke of Alva arrives at Brussels . . . . 430

Defeat of Count Louis at Jemmingen . . . . 433

Lutheran tendencies of Elizabeth . . . . 436

Scene in the Streets of London . . . . • • 437

The Privateers . . . . . . . . 439

Expulsion of the English Ambassador from Spain . . 441

Don Guerau de Espes . . . . . . . . 442

Cardinal Chatilloa is received in England . . . . 445

Xh CONTENTS,

PAGE

Mary Stuart's Suitors . . • • • • 447

Resumption of the Inquiry into the Murder of Darnley 450

Mary Stuart endeavours to stifle it . . • • 453

The Conference at Westminster . . . . . . 453

Murray accuses the Queen . .• . . • • 455

Protests of the Queen's Commissioners . . . . 458

Murray produces the Casket Letters . . . . 463

The English Nobles pronounce them genuine . . 464
Elizabeth advises the Queen of Scots to confirm her

Abdication . . . . . . . • • • 4^7

Advice of Sir Francis Knowles . . . . . . 470

Gloomy Prospects of the Protestants on the Continent 472

Toleration . . . . . . . . . . 473

Relations between Elizabeth and the Huguenots , . 475

Expedition of Sir John Hawkins to the Spanish Main 477
Destruction of the English Squadron at San Juan de

Ulloa . . . . . . . . . . 479

Spanish Treasure Ships in the English Harbours . . 480

Letter of Sir Arthur Champernowne . . . . 485

The Treasure is seized . . . . . . . . 486

Arrest of English Ships in the Low Countries . . 489

Probability of War with Spain . . . . . . 490

The Queen of Scots' Friends meditate Insurrection . . 49 1

Differences of Opinion among the English Catholics . . 492

Arrest of the Spanish Ambassador . . . . 494

Factions in Elizabeth's Council . . . . . . 495

The Queen of Scots refuses to repeat her Abdication . . 497

The Bishop of Ely . . . . . . . . 500

Plot to murder Murray . . . . . . 502

Lord Arundel works upon Elizabeth . . . . 505

Close of the Inquiry . . . . . ..511

Indignation of Sir F. Knowles . . . . . . 512

General Remarks on the Evidence against the Queen

of Scots . . . . . . . . . . 515

Private Opinion of the Bishop of Ross . . . . 521

CHAPTER XLVII.

ENGLAND ON THE SEA.

IT is the purpose of this chapter to trace the first
movements of the struggle which transferred from
Spain to England the sovereignty of the seas ; the first
beginnings of that proud power which, rising out of the
heart of the people, has planted the saplings of the
English race in every quarter of the globe, has covered
the ocean with its merchant fleets, and flaunts its flag
in easy supremacy among the nations of the earth.

In the English nature there were and are two an-
tagonistic tendencies — visible alike in our laws, in our
institutions, in our religion, in our families, in the
thoughts and actions of our greatest men : a disposition
on the one hand to live by rule and precedent, to dis-
trust novelties, to hold the experience of the past as a
surer guide than the keenest conclusions of logic, and
to maintain with loving reverence the customs, the con-
victions, and traditions which have come down to ua
from other generations : on the other hand, a restless
impetuous energy, inventing, expanding, pressing for-

TOL. VIII. 1

2 ^ REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

ward into the future, regarding what has been already
achieved only as a step or landing- place leading upwards
and onwards to higher conquests — a mode of thought
which in the half-educated takes the form of a rash dis-
dain of earlier ages, which in the best and wisest creates
a sense that we shall be unworthy of our ancestors if we
do not eclipse them in all that they touched, if we do
not draw larger circles round the compass of their
knowledge, and extend our power over nature, over the
world, and over ourselves.

In healthy ages as in healthy persons the two tend-
encies coexist, and produce that even progress, that
strong vitality at once so vigorous and so composed,
which is legible everywhere in the pages of English
history. Under the accidental pressure of special causes
one or other disposition has for a time become predomi-
nant, and intervals of torpor and inactivity have been
followed by a burst of license, when in one direction or
another law and order have become powerless ; when the
people, shaking themselves free from custom, have hur-
ried forward in the energy of their individual impulses,
and new thoughts and new inclinations, like a rush of
pent-up waters, have swept all before them.

Through the century and a half which intervened
between the death of Edward the Third and the fall of
Wolsey the English sea-going population with but few
exceptions had moved in a groove, in which they lived
and worked from day to day and year to year witt
unerring uniformity. The wine brigs made their annual
voyages to Bordeaux and Cadiz; the hoys plied witi

ENGLAND ON THE £ 3

such regularity as the winds allowed them between the
Scheldt and the Thames ; summer after summer the
' Iceland fleet ' went north for the cod and ling which
were the food of the winter fasting days ; the boats of
Yarmouth and Rye, Southampton, Poole, Brixham,
Dartmouth, Plymouth, and Fowie fished the Channel.
The people themselves, though hardy and industrious,
and though as much at home upon the ocean as their
Scandinavian forefathers or their descendants in modern
England, were yet contented to live in an unchanging
round from which they neither attempted nor desired
to extricate themselves. The number of fishermen who
found employment remained stationary ; the produce of
their labour supported their families in such comforts
as they considered necessary. The officials of the
London companies ruled despotically in every English
harbour ; not a vessel cleared for a foreign port, not a
smack went out for the herring season, without the
official license ; and the sale of every bale of goods or
every hundredweight of fish was carried on under the
eyes of the authorities, and at prices fixed by Act of
Parliament.

To men contented to be so employed and so rewarded,
it was in vain that Columbus held out as a temptation
the discovery of a New World; it was in vain that
foreigners guided English ships across the Atlantic and
opened out the road before their eyes. In 1497 John
Cabot, the Venetian, with his son Sebastian — then a little
boy — sailed from Bristol for * the Islands of Cathay/
He struck the American continent at Nova Scotia, sailed

4 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47,

up into the Greenland seas till he was blocked by the
ice, then coasted back to Florida, and returned with the
news of another continent waiting to be occupied. The
English mariners turned away with indifference ; their
own soil and their own seas had been sufficient for the
wants of their fathers ; ' their fathers had more wit and
wisdom than they ; ' and it was left to Spain, in that
grand burst of energy which followed on the expulsion
of the Moors and the union of the crowns, to add a
hemisphere to the known world and found empires in
lands beyond the sunset.

Strange indeed was the contrast between the two
races, and stranger still the interchange of character, as
we look back over three hundred years. Before the six-
teenth century had measured half its course the shadow
of Spain already stretched beyond the Andes ; from the
mines of Peru and the custom-houses of Antwerp, the
golden rivers streamed into her Imperial treasury ; the
crowns of Arragon and Castile, of Burgundy, Milan,
Naples, and Sicily, clustered on the brow of her sove-
reigns ; and the Spaniards themselves, before their
national liberties were broken, were beyond comparison
the noblest, grandest, and most enlightened people in
the known world.

The spiritual earthquake shook Europe : the choice of
the ways was offered to the nations ; on the one side
liberty, with the untried possibilities of anarchy and
social dissolution ; on the other the reinvigoration of the
creeds and customs of ten centuries, in which Christen-
dom had grown to its present stature.

ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 5

Fools and dreamers might follow their ignis fatuus
till it led them to perdition : the wise Spaniard took hia
stand on the old ways. He too would have his reforma-
tion, with an inspired Santa Teresa for a prophetess, an
army of ascetics to combat with prayer the legions of th
evil one, a most holy Inquisition to put away the enemies
of God with sword and dungeon, stake and fire. That
was the Spaniard's choice, and his intellect shrivelled
in his brain, and the sinews shrank in his self-bandaged
limbs ; and only now at last, with such imperfect deli-
verance as they have found in French civilization and
Voltairian philosophy, is the life-blood stealing again
into the veins of the descendants of the conquerors of
Granada.

Meanwhile a vast intellectual revolution, of which
the religious reformation was rather a sign than a cau>< ,
was making its way in the English mind. The dis-
covery of the form of the earth and of its place in the
planetary system, was producing an effect on the imagin-
ation which long familiarity with the truth renders it
hard for us now to realize. The very heaven itself had
been rolled up like a scroll, laying bare the illimitable
aliyss of space ; the solid frame of the earth had become
a transparent ball, and in a hemisphere below their feet
men saw the sunny Palm Isles and the golden glories of
the tropic seas. Long impassive, long unable from the
very toughness of their natures to apprehend these novel
wonders, indifferent to them, even hating them as at first
they hated the doctrines of Luther, the English opened
ili< ir eyes at last. In the convulsions which rent Eng-

6 KEIGW OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

land from the Papacy a thousand superstitions were
blown away, a thousand new thoughts rushed in, bring-
ing with them their train of new desires and new emo-
tions ; and when the fire was once kindled, the dry wood
burnt fiercely in the wind.

Having thrown down the gauntlet to the Pope,
Henry the Eighth had to look to the defences of the
kingdom ; and knowing that his best security lay in
the command of the ' broad ditch, ' as he called it, which
cut him off from Europe, he turned his mind with in-
stant sagacity to the development of the navy. Long
before indeed, when Anne Bolej^n was a child, and
Wolsey was in the zenith of his greatness, and Henry
was the Pope's ' Defender of the Faith/ he had quick-
ened his slumbering dockyards into life, studied naval
architecture, built ships on new models, and cast un-
heard-of cannon. Giustiniani in 1518 found him prac-
tising at Southampton with his new brass artillery.
The ' Great Harry' was the wonder of Northern Europe;
and the fleet afterwards collected at Spithead, when
D'Annebault brought his sixty thousand Frenchmen to
the Isle of Wight, and the * Mary Rose ' went down
under Henry's eyes, was the strongest, proudest, and
best formed which had yet floated in English waters.

The mariners and merchants had caught the impulse
of the time. In 1530, when the divorce question was in
its early stages, Mr William Hawkins of Plymouth, * a
man for his wisdom, valour, experience, and skill of sea
causes much esteemed and beloved of King Henry the
Eighth,' ' armed out a tall and goodly ship,' sailed for

1530 -53 ] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. ?

the const of Guinea, where he first trafficked with the
negroes for gold dust and ivory, and then crossed the
Atlantic to Brazil, ' where he behaved himself so wisely
with the savage people ' that ' the King of Brazil ' came
back with him to see the wonders of England, and was
introduced to Henry at Whitehall. The year after,
Hawkins wi-nt back again, and 'the King' with him ;
the King on the passage home died of change of air,
bad diet, and confinement ; and there were fears for the
Englishmen who had been left as hostages among the
Indians. But they were satisfied that there had been
no foul play ; they welcomed Englishmen as cordially
as they hated the Spaniards ; and a trade was opened
which was continued chiefly by the merchants of South-
ampton.

In 1549 Sebastian Cabot, who in his late manhood
had returned to Bristol, was appointed by Edward the
Sixth (irand Pilot of England; and as enterprise ex-
panded with freedom and with the cracking up of super-
stition, the merchant adventurers, who had started up
in London on principles of free trade, and who were to
the established guilds us the Protestants to the Catholic
bishops, sent their ships up the Straits to the Levant,
explored the Baltic, and had their factors at Novgorod.
In 1552 Captain Windham of Norfolk followed William
Hawkins to the coast of Guinea, and again in 1553,
with Antonio Pinteado, he led a second expedition to
the Bight of Benin and up the river to the Court of the
King. The same year the noble Sir Hugh AVilloughby,
enchanted like John Cabot with visions of * the Islands

REIGN OF ELIZABETH. '

[CH. 47.

of Cathay/ sailed in search of them into the Arctic
circle, turned eastward into the frozen seas, and perish-
ed in the ice.

But neither the ' frost giants ' of the north nor the
deadly vapours of the African rivers could quell the
spirit which had been at last aroused. Windham and
Pinteado died of fever in the Benin waters ; and of a
hundred and forty mariners who sailed with them, forty
only ever saw Ramhead and Plymouth Sound again ;
but the year following John Lok was tempted to the
same shores by the ivory and gold dust ; and he — first
of Englishmen — discovering that the negroes 'were a
people of beastly living, without God, law, religion, or
commonwealth,' gave some of them the opportunity of
a lift in creation, and carried off five as slaves.

It is noticeable that on their first appearance on the
west coast of Africa, the English visitors were received
by the natives with marked cordiality. The slave trade
hitherto had been a monopoly of the Spaniards and Por-
tuguese ; it had been established in concert with the
native chiefs, as a means of relieving the tribes of bad
subjects, who would otherwise have been hanged.
Thieves, murderers, and such like, were taken down to
the depots and sold to the West Indian traders.1 But

1 ' When they (the negroes of the
Rio Grande) sit in council in the
consultation-house, the king or cap-
tain sitteth in the midst and the
ciders upon the floor by him (for they
give reverence to their elders), and
the common sort sit round about

them. There they sit to examine
matters of theft, which if a man be
taken with, to steal but a Portugal
cloth from another, he is sold to the
Portugal for a slave.' — HAKLUYT,
vol. iii. p. 599.

I558-] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 9

the theory, as was inevitable, soon ceased to correspond
with the practice ; to be able-bodied and helpless be-
came a sufficient crime to justify deportation; the Por-
tuguese stations became institutions for an organi/ed
kidnapping; and when the English vessels appeared
they were welcomed by the smaller negro tribes as more
harmless specimens of the dangerous white race. But
the theft of the five men made them fear that the new
comers were no better than the rest ; the alarm was
spread all along the coast, and Towrson, a London mer-
chant, found his voyage the next year made unprofitable
through their unwillingness to trade. The injury was
so considerable, and the value of the slaves in England
M» trifling, that they were sent back; and the captain
who took them home was touched at the passionate joy
with which the poor creatures were welcomed.

Thus it was that the accession of Elizabeth found
mimm-m' living its old channels and stretching in a
thousand new directions. While the fishing trade was
ruined by the change of creed, a taste came in for lux-
uries undreamt of in the simpler days which were pass-
ing away. Statesmen, accustomed to rule the habits of
private life with sumptuary laws, and to measure the
imports of the realm by their own conceptions of the
necessities of the people, took alarm at the inroads upon
established ways and usages, and could see only ' a
most lamentable spoil to the realm, in the over quantity
of unnecessary wares brought into the port of London.' l

1 List of articles entered from I second year of Queen Elizabeth : Do-
abroad in the port of London in the I mcttic MSS. Rolls House. Note ot

kEIGN OF ELIZABETH.

JCH. 4?.

From India came perfumes, spices, rice, cotton,
indigo, and precious stones ; from Persia and Turkey
carpets, velvets, satins, damasks, cloth of gold, and silk
robes ' wrought in divers colours.' 1 Russia gave its
ermines and sables, its wolf and bear skins, its tallow,
flax, and hemp, its steel and iron, its ropes, cables, pitch,
tar, masts for ships, and even deal boards. The New
World sent over sugar, rare woods, gold, silver, and
pearls ; and these, with the pomegranates, lemons, and
oranges, the silks and satins, the scented soaps and oils,
and the fanciful variety of ornaments which was im-
ported from the south of Europe, shocked the austere
sense of the race of Englishmen who had been bred up
in an age when heaven was of more importance than
earthly pleasure. Fathers were filled with panic for the
morals of their children, and statesmen trembled before
the imminent ruin of the realm.2

To pay for these new introductions, England had
little to spare except its wool, its woollen cloths, and

commodities brought into the realm
in the year 1564 : MS. Ibid.

1 The Eastern trade was carried
on either through Russia and Poland
or else through Turkey and the Le-
vant.

2 It appears from the customs
entries that the heaviest foreign
jrade was in canvas, linen, cloth,
wood, oil, and wines. The total
value of the wine entered at the port
of London alone, in the year 1559,
was 64,000^. ; the retail selling price
being then on an average sevenpence

a gallon. The iron trade with
Sweden, Russia, and Spain was con-
siderable; and strange to say, the
English then depended on foreign
manufacturers for their knives, their
nails, their buttons, and even their
pins arid needles. Hops stand at a
large figure, and so does sugar.
Among miscellaneous articles are
found dolls, tennis-balls, cabbages,
turnips, tape and thread, glasses,
hats, laces, marmalade, baskets, and
rods for baskets. — Domestic MSS.
Rolls House.

1559] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. tt

fustians. It. was true that the demand which was opened
out abroad for these things quickened production at
home, and the English woollen manufacturers grew with
the foreign trade; but Cecil found no comfort in a partial
prosperity which withdrew labour from agriculture, and
tended to bring back or to support the great grazing
farms, which it was a passion with English statesmen to
limit or break up : he was disturbed to observe that
London was importing corn ; and in a paper of notes on
the phenomena which he saw around him, he added, as a
fact to be remarked and remembered, ' that those who
depend upon the making of cloths are of worse condition
to be quietly governed than the husbandmen/ l He
dreaded, further, the supposed fatal effect of an export of
gold, as the necessary consequence of an over- rapid
growth of commerce ; and he could see no remedy save
to * abridge ' by Act of Parliament * the use of such foreign
commodities as were not necessary/ 'whereof the excess
of silks was one/ ' excess of wine and spices another/ The
great consumption of wine especially ' enriched France,
whose power England ought not to increase;' 'the mul-
tiplying of taverns was an evident cause of disorder
amongst the vulgar, who wasted there the fruits of their
daily labour, and committed all evils which accompany
drunkenness/ Anticipating the language of the modern
Protectionist, Cecil thought it was an ill policy to encour-
age manufactures at the expense of tillage, when war

1 Notes on the state of trade, October, 1564. In Cecil'a hand :
•ntxtic MSS. Roto llouse.

12 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

might at any time throw the country back upon its own
resources.

Another strange fact, at first sight utterly inexpli-
cable, perplexed -Elizabeth's ministers. Along with the
increase of the foreign trade the ' port towns of the
realm had been steadily decaying ; ' harbours, which at
the beginning of the century ' had been well furnished
with ships and mariners/ were left with but a few boats
and barges. ' It needeth no proof,' wrote Cecil in I566,1
' that more wine is drunk now than in former times ;
let men that keep households remember whether com-
monly they spend not more wines than their grand-
fathers, yea, percase, than themselves within twelve
years ; let all noblemen compare their household books
with their ancestors', and it will be as manifest as can
be that England speiideth more wines in one year than
it did in antient times in four years.'

Other imports from foreign countries had increased
almost in the same proportion ; and yet the ports were
sinking and the navy dwindling away.

There were several causes. Much of the common
carrying trade was done by the French and Flemings ;
English enterprise was engaged in expeditions of a
different kind, to which I shall presently refer. Another
immediate and most important occasion was the cessation
of the demand for fish.

1 In old time, ' (I again quote from Sir William
Cecil,)2 ' no flesh at all was eaten on fish days;

1 Trade notes : Domestic MSS., Elizabeth, vol. xli. Rolls House.
2 Notes upon an Act for the increase of the navy, 1563 : Domestic MSF
Rolls House.

1563.] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 13

even the King could not have license; which was occasion
of eating so much fish as now is eaten in flesh upon fish
days/ In the recoil from the involuntary asceticism, beef
and mutton reigned exclusively on all tables ; and * to
detest fish ' in all shapes and forms had become a ' note '
of Protestantism. The Act of Edward,1 prescribing ' due
and godly abstinence as a means to virtue to subdue
men's bodies to their soul and spirit/ had been laughed
at and trampled on ; and thus it was that the men who
used to live * by the trade and mystery of fishing ' had
to seek some other calling. Instead of the Iceland fleet
of Englishmen which used to supply Normandy and
Brittany as well as England, ' five hundred French
vessels,2 with from thirty to forty men in each of them,'
went annually to Newfoundland, and even the home
fisheries fell equally into the hands of strangers. The
Yarmouth waters were 'occupied by Flemings and
Frenchmen/ ' the narrow seas by the French/ ' the
western fishing for hake and pilchard by a great navy
of French within kenning of the English shores.' ' The
north parts of Ireland, and especially the Bann, within
ten years, was in farm of the merchants of Chester ; and
now both the herring and salmon fishing was in the
hands of the Scots; ' ' the south part of Ireland was yearly
fished by the Spaniards;' ' so that England was besieged
round about with foreigners, and deprived of the sub-
stance of the sea fishing, being, as it appeared by God's
ordinance, peculiarly given to the same ; and more regard
had how to entice merchants and mariners to a further

1 2 & 1 Edward VI. cap. 19. ' Sio

I4 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

trade to employ themselves to carry treasure into
France, and from that to overburden the realm with
wines, rather than to recover their antient natural pos-
session of their own seas and at their own doors, in
which kind of trade men were made meeter to abide
storms and become common mariners than by sailing of
ships to Rouen or Bourdeaulx.' l

So wrote the most farsighted of English statesmen ;
and knowing that the safety of England depended upon
its fleet, and that ' to build ships without men to man
them was to set armour upon stakes on tlie sea-shore/ 2
of ' means to encourage mariners ' he could see but
three.

First, ' Merchandise ; J

Second, ' Fishing ; *

And thirdly, 'The exercise of piracy, which was
detestable and could not last.' 3

It will be seen that ' piracy ' could last ; that bucca-
neering in some irregular combination with trade and
religion, not only would be one among other means, but
the very source and seed-vessel from which the naval
power of England was about to rise.

But Cecil, who believed in God in a commonplace
manner, and had been bred up in old-fashioned objec-
tions to e the water- thieves/ could not persuade himself
that good would come of them. Trade was already
overgrown, and so far as he could judge was on the way
to become entirely ruinous. The only remedies there-

1 Trade notes : Domestic MSS., Elizabeth, vol. xli. Rolls House.
2 Ibid. s Ibid.

1563.] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. i$

fore which he could think of were, first, ' a navigation
law/ laying foreign vessels under disabilities ; and
secondly, to force once more 'a politic ordinance on
fish eating * through an unwilling and contemptuous
House of Commons. In the Parliament of 1562-3 he
brought in a Bill1 to make the eating of flesh on
Fridays and Saturdays a misdemeanour, punishable by
a fine of three pounds or three months' imprisonment ;
and, as if this was not enough, adding Wednesday as a
subsidiary half- fish day, on which ' one dish of flesh
might be allowed, provided there were served at the
same table and at the same meal three full competent
usual dishes of sea fish of sundry kinds, fresh or
salt.'

* The House of Commons/ Cecil admitted, * was very
earnest against him ; ' he carried his measure only by
arguing that if the Bill was passed it would be almost
inoperative : ' labourers and poor householders could not
observe it/ he said, ' and the rest by license or without
license would do as they would ; ' * while to satisfy the
Puritans he was obliged to add the ludicrous provision
that, * because no person should misjudge the intent of
the statute, which was politicly meant only for the in-
crease of fishermen and mariners, and not for any
superstition for choice of meats, whoever should preach
or teach that eating of fish or forbearing of flesh was
for the saving of the soul of man or for the service of

1 5 Elizabeth, cap. 4, 5.

2 Arguments in the House of Commons, February, 1562-3. Cecil's
hand : Domestic J£SS., Elizabeth, vol. xxviL

16 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

God, should be punished as the spreader of false news/1
How powerless such an Act must have been to stem
the stream of popular tendency it is needless to say.
Cecil however had, at all events, shown an honourable
detestation of the wild piratical doings which were fast
spreading ; and if events proved too strong for him, he
had delivered his own soul.

According to some persons the notion of property is
a conventional creation of human society. The beast
of prey refuses to the fat, sweet, juicy animal which
cannot defend itself a right of property in its own
flesh ; among savages there is no right but of strength ;
in more advanced stages of civilization the true be-
liever, Israelite or Mahometan, spoils the heathen with>
out remorse, of lands, goods, liberty, and life. Ulysses,
a high-bred gentleman, the friend of the gods, roves
the seas with his mariners, sacks unguarded towns, and
kills the unlucky owners who dare to defend themselves :
Bob Roy lives on Lowland cattle-lifting without forfeit-
ing romantic sympathy. The more advanced philoso-
phers indeed maintain that property itself is the only
true theft, and that the right of man ' to call anything
his own ' will disappear again as the wheel comes full
round, in the light of a more finished cultivation.

' The ancient Greeks/ says Thucydides, ' even those
not lowest in rank among them, when they first crossed
the seas betook themselves to piracy. Falling on un-
protected towns or villages they plundered them at

1 Clause to be added to the Fisheries Act, 5 Elizabeth, cap 4, 5, In
Cecil's hand : Domestic MSS., Elizabeth, vol. xxvii.

1563.] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 17

their pleasure, and from this resource they derived their
chief means of maintenance. The employment carried
no disgrace with it, but rather glory and honour ; and
in the tales of our poets, when mariners touch any-
where, the common question is whether they are pirates
— neither those who are thus addressed being ashamed
of their calling, nor those who inquire meaning it as a
reproach.'

In the dissolution of the ancient order of Europe,
and the spiritual anarchy which had reduced religion
to a quarrel of opinions, the primitive tendencies of
human nature for a time asserted themselves, and the
English gentlemen of the sixteenth century passed into
a condition which, with many differences, yet had many
analogies with that of the Grecian chiefs. With the
restlessness of new thoughts, new hopes and prospects,
with a constitutional enjoyment of enterprise and ad-
venture, with a legitimate hatred of oppression, and a
determination to revenge their countrymen who from
day to day were tortured and murdered by the Inquisi-
tion, most of all perhaps, with a sense that it was the mis-
sion of a Protestant Englishman to spoil the Amalekit es,
in other words the gold ships from Panama, or the
richly-laden Flemish traders, the merchants at the sea-
ports, the gentlemen whose estates touched upon the
creeks and rivers, and to whom the sea from childhood
had been a natural home, fitted out their vessels under
the name of traders, and sent them forth armed to the
troth with vague commissions, to take their chance of
what the gods might send.

•VOL. viii.

1 8 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

Already in this history I have had occasion to de-
scribe how, in the unsettled state of England, young
Catholics or Protestants, flying alternately from the
despotism of Edward and Mary, had hung about the
French harbours, or the creeks and bays which indent
the Irish coast, where they had gathered about them
rough, wild crews who cared nothing for creeds, but
formed a motley and mixed community living upon
plunder. Emerging when England was at war into
commissioned privateers, on the return of peace they
were disavowed and censured ; but they were secured
from effective pursuit by the weakness of the Govern-
ment, and by the certainty that at no distant time their
services would again be required. The ' vain-glorious '
Sir Thomas Seymour, finding too little scope at home
for his soaring ambition, had dreamed of a pirate sove-
reignty among the labyrinths of Scilly. During the
-Marian persecution, Carews, Killigrews, Tremaynes,
Strangwayses, Throgmortons, Horseys, Cobhams — men
belonging to the best families in England, became
roving chiefs. On Elizabeth's accession most of them
came back to the service of the Crown : Strangways,
the Red Rover of the Channel, was killed on a sand-
bank in the Seine, leading volunteers to the defence
of Rouen ; ' Ned Horsey/ the ruffling cavalier of
Arunders, who had sung the catch of evil omen to
priests and prelates, became Sir Edward Horsey,
Governor of the Isle of Wight ; the younger Tremayne
was killed doing service at Havre ; and Henry Killi-
grew became a confidential servant of Elizabeth, and

ENGLAND ON THE S&A. 19

one of her most trusted agents. But the lawless spirit
had spread like a contagion, especially through the
western counties ; and the vast numbers of fishermen
whose calling had become profitless had to seek some
new employment. Though their leaders had left them,
the pirate crews remained at their old trade; and
gradually it came about that, as the modern gentle-
man keeps his yacht, so Elizabeth's loyal burghers,
squires, or knights, whose inclination lay that way,
kept their ambiguous cruisers, and levied war on their
own account when the Government lagged behind its
duty.

A fast Flemish brig has sailed from Antwerp to
Cadiz ; something happens to her on the way, and she
never reaches her destination. At midnight carts and
horses run down to the sea and over the sands at
Lowestoft ; the black hull and spars of a vessel are seen
outside the breakers, dimly riding in the gloom ; and
a boat shoots through the surf loaded to the gunwale.
The bales and tubs are swiftly shot into the carts ; the
horses drag back their loads, which before daybreak are
sale in the cellars of some quiet manor-house; the
boat sweeps off; the sails drop from the mysterious
vessel's yards, and she glides away into the darkness to
look for a fresh victim.1

Another rich trader has run the gauntlet of the
Channel ; she is off the Land's End, and believes her
danger is past. A low black lugger slips out from

1 Piracy at Lowestoft, April, 1561 ; Donuttic MSS. Elizabeth,
vol. *vi.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

LCH. 47.

among the rocks, runs alongside, and grapples her
bulwarks ; the buccaneers swarm upon her decks —
English, French — ' twenty wild kerns with long skeens
and targets/ ' very desperate and unruly persons with-
out any kind of mercy ; ' 1 the ship is sent to Kinsale or
Berehaven, or to the bottom of the sea, as she sails fast
or ill ; the crew if they escape murder are thrust on
shore at the nearest point of the coast of France.2

The rovers were already venturing into lower lati-
tudes in search of richer prizes. In May, 1563* a galleon
was waylaid and plundered at Cape St Yincent by two
small evil-looking vessels, recognized as English by the
nights of arrows which drove the Spaniards from, the
decks ; 3 while again the Spanish ships of war provoked
a repetition of such outrages by their clumsy and awk-
ward reprisals.

About the same time the Indian fleet, coming into
the Azores, found five brigs from Bristol and Barnstaple
loading with wood. The Englishmen were getting
under weigh as the Spanish Admiral, Pedro Melendez,
entered the harbour. They neglected to salute, and
in half insolence carried the St George's cross at the
main. Melendez instantly gave chase. ' Down with

1 Piracy at the Land's End:
Domestic MSS. Elizabeth, vol. xl.

2 Illustrating these scenes, we
find a petition to the Crown in 1563
from the mayor and bailiff of Cork
for artillery and powder, ' their har-
bour being so beset with pirates,
rovers, and other malefactors, whom

they had no strength to beat off.' —
Irish MSS. Rolls House.

3 ' The mariners say plainly that
they were Englishmen, for that they
shot so many arrows that they were
not able to look out.' — Hugh Tip-
ton to Sir T. Chaloner, June i, 1563 •
Spanish MSS. Rolls House.

1563.] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 21

your flags, ye English dogs ! ye thieves and pirates ! '
he shouted, as he ran into the midst of them, firing
right and left. The crews were thrown into irons ; the
ships and cargoes were taken into Cadiz and confiscated.
The English ambassador appealed to Philip ; the case
was inquired into, and the innocent character of the
vessels was perfectly established. But when the owners
applied to have their property restored to them, Melen-
dez had made it over to the Inquisition ; the Inquisition
had sold it ; and the crews were at last glad to depart
with their empty vessels, having suffered nothing worse
than six months' imprisonment on bread and water in
the gaol at Seville.1

The Inquisition had the management of the Spanish
harbours, and the Englishman was to be considered for-
tunate who extricated himself alive from their hands.
Though the English rovers were often common plun-
derers, yet there was a noble spirit at work at the bottom
of their proceedings, which raised many of them into
the wild ministers of a righteous revenge.

In August, 1561, Thomas Nicholls, an English mer-
vlunit resident in the Canaries, wrote thus to Elizabeth's
ambassador at the Court of Philip the Second : —

* Please your lordship to consider that I was taken
prisoner by them of the Inquisition about twenty months
past, and put into a little dark house about two paces
long, laden with irons, without sight of sun or moon all
the said time of twenty months.

1 ,s/ww/«A MSS. Roll* House.

22 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

' When I was arraigned they laid to my charge that
I should say our mass to be as good or better than
theirs ; also that I went not to mass ; also that I should
say I had rather give my money to the poor than to
6uy bulls of Rome with it ; with other paltry inven-
tions. I answered, proving the allegations untrue with
many witnesses. Then they put me again in prison for
a certain space, and alleged anew against me six or
seven articles against our Queen's grace, saying her
Majesty was enemy to the faith, and her Grace was
preached to be the antichrist, and that her Grace did
maintain ' circumcision ' and the Jewish law ; and also
a friar shaked off the dust of his shoes against her and
the city of London, with such abominable and untrue
sayings. Then stood I to the defence of the Queen's
Majesty's cause, proving the infamies to be most un-
true. Then was I put in Little Ease again till the end
of twenty months finished, protesting mine innocent
blood against the judge to be demanded before Christ.'1

In the year 1563 the following petition was ad-
dressed to the Lords of Elizabeth's council : —

' In most lamentable wise showeth unto your hon-
ours your humble orator, Dorothy Seeley, of the city of
Bristol, wife to Thomas Seeley, of the Queen's Majesty's
guard, that where her said husband upon most vile,
slanderous, spiteful, malicious, and most villanous words
•spoken against the Queen's Majesty's own person by a
certain subject of the King of Spain — here not to be

Spanish MSS. Eolls House.

IS63-]

ENGLAND ON THE SEA.

uttered — not being able to suffer the same did flee upon
the >ame slanderous person and gave him a blow — so it
is, most honourable Lords, that hereupon my said hus-
band, no other offence in respect of their religion then
committed, was secretly accused to the Inquisition of
the Holy House, and so committed to most vile prison,
and there hath remained now three whole years in
miserable state with cruel torments. For redress
whereof, and for the Queen's Majesty's letter to the
King of Spain, your said suppliant was heretofore a
humble suitor to the Queen's Majesty at Bristol in that
progress ; and her Majesty then promised to write and
see redress. But whether her Majesty did by letter or
by ambassadors after sent into Spain deal with the said
King for redress I know not ; but certain it is that my
said husband, with divers others the Queen's subjects,
remain yet in prison, without hope, without your hon-
ours' help, to be delivered.1 In tender consideration
whereof and of the daily common tormenting of the
Queen's Majesty's subjects, it may please your honours
to grant your favourable, earnest letters herein to the
King of Spain — or rather to permit and suffer the
friends of such her Majesty's subjects as be there im-
prisoned, afflicted and tormented against all reason, to

1 In the list of captains Avho ac-
companied Drake to the "West Tndies
in his famous voyage of 1585-6, I
find the name of Thomas Seeley in
command of the 'Minion.' Perhaps
it was the same man. It is more
likely however that the husband of
Dorothy Scelcy was one of the many

hundred English sailors who rotted
away in the dungeons of the In-
quisition, or were burnt to please
the rabble of Valladolid, and that
Drake's companion was a son bred
up by his mother in deadly hatred
of the Spanish race.

24 REIGN GF ELIZABETH. [CH 47.

make out certain ships to the sea at their own proper
charges, and to take such Inquisitors or other such Pa-
pistical subjects to the King of Spain as they can take
by sea or land, and them, to retain in prison in England
with such torments and diet as her Majesty's subjects
be kept with in Spain ; and that it may please the
Queen's Majesty withal, upon complaint to be made
thereupon by the King of Spain or his subjects, to make
such like answer as the King of Spain now maketh to
her Majesty or her ambassador suing for her subjects
imprisoned by force of the Inquisition.

'Or that it may please her Majesty to grant unto
the Archbishop of Canterbury and other bishops, the
like commission in all points for foreign Papists as the
Inquisitors have in Spain for the Protestants, that
thereby they may be forced not to trouble her subjects
repairing to Spain, or that there may be hereupon an
interchange of delivery of prisoners — of Protestants for
the Papists ; that the Queen's Majesty's subjects may
be assured hereby that they have a Prince with such
honourable council that cannot nor will not longer en-
dure such spoils and torments of her natural subjects,
and such daily pitiful complaints hereabout ; and that
the Spaniard have not cause by the Queen's Majesty's
long sufferance to triumph, or to think that this noble
realm dare not seek the revenge of such importable
wrongs daily done to this realm by daily spoiling her
Majesty of the lives and goods of her good subjects ;
and consequently spoiling the realm of great force and
strength. And your poor supplicant, with many others

1563 ] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 25

the Queen's Majesty's subjects, shall daily pray for
your honours in health and felicity long to continue.' l

Either as the afterthought of the writer, or as the
comment of some person in authority, the following
singular note was appended to Dorothy Seeley's peti-
tion : —

' Long peace, such as it is, by force of the Spanish
Inquisition becometh to England more hurtful than
open war. It is the secret and determined policy of
Spain to destroy the English fleet and pilots, masters
and sailors, by means of the Inquisition. The Spanish
King pretends that he dare not offend the Holy House,
while it is said in England, wo may not proclaim war
against Spain for the revenge of a few, forgetting that
a good war might end all these mischiefs. Not long
since the Spanish Inquisition executed sixty persons of
St Malo in France, notwithstanding entreaty to the
King of Spain to stay them. Whereupon the French-
men armed and manned forth their pinnaces, and lay
for the Spaniards, and took a hundred and beheaded
them, sending the Spanish ships to the shore with the
heads, leaving in each ship but one only man to render
the cause of revenge ; since which time the Spanish In-
quisition has never meddled with those of St Malo/ *

The theology of English sailors was not usually of
a very rigid character. Out of seventy-one of Sir John
Hawkins's men who were taken by the Spaniards in
1567, three only held out against rack and scourge with

1 Petition df Dorothy Seeley, 1563: Spanish MSS. Rolls House.
• Ibid.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 47.

sufficient firmness to earn martyrdom; yet on the loth
of January, 1563, Sir William Cecil stated that in the
one year then last past, twenty- six English subjects had
been burnt to death in different parts of Spain/ l

But the stake was but one of many forms of judicial
murder. The following story indicates with some detail
both the careless audacity of the English and the treat-
ment to which they were exposed : — During the war
between England and France, on the i.5th of November,
1563, a fleet of eight English merchantmen, homeward
bound from the Levant, were lying in the harbour of
Gibraltar, when a French privateer, full of men and
heavily armed, came in and anchored within speaking
distance of them. The sailors on both sides were amus-
ing themselves with exchanging the usual discourtesies
in word and gesture, when the vicar of the Holy Office,
with a boat-load of priests, came off to the Frenchman ;
and whether it was that the presence of their natural
foe excited the English, or that they did not know
wha.t those black figures were, and intended merely to
make a prize of an enemy's vessel, three or four of the
ships slipped their cables, opened fire, and attempted to
run the Frenchman down.

The Spaniards, indignant at the breach of the peace
of the harbour, and the insult to the Inquisition, began
to fire from the castle ; the holy men fled terrified ; a

1 At the beginning of 1563, fo-
reigners residing in London were
forbidden to hear mass in their pri-
vate houses. The Bishop of Aquila
remonstrated, and Cecil answered,

' Q,ue en Espana han quemado este
ano viente y seis Ingleses.' — De
Quadra to Philip, January, 1563:
MS. Simancas.

1563.] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 27

party of English who were on shore were arrested,
and the alcalde sent a body of harbour police to arrest
others who were hanging in their boats about the
French vessel. The police on coming up were received
with a shower of arrows; the officer in command was
wounded ; and they were carried off as prisoners to the
English ships, where they were detained till their com-
rades on shore were restored

The next morning a second effort to seize or sink
the Frenchman was prevented by the guns of the fort-
Htafc The English had given up the game and were
sailing out of the bay, when Alvarez de Bacan happened
to come round with a strong force from Cadiz. The
ships, after a fruitless attempt at flight, were seized and
confiscated ; the ensigns were torn down and trailed re-
versed over the Spanish admiral's stern ; and the cap
tains and men, two hundred and forty in all, were con-
demned as galley slaves.1 They forwarded a memorial
to Chaloner at Madrid, telling their own story, and
praying him to intercede for them.

'Ye served some angry saint/ Chaloner wrote in
an^Nvor, 'so unadvisedly to take such an enterprise in
hand in these parts where our nation findeth so short
courtesy ; and ye played the part of wavering inconstant
heads, having once begun a matter to suffer yourselves
so vilely to be taken, which if ye had held together I
think ye needed not. Most of all I accuse the wonted
fault of all merchants of our nation who go about every

Tipton to Sir Thomas Chaloner, December 8, 1563 : Spanish
MSS.

28 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

man to shift for himself, and care not for their fellows
so they make sure work for themselves/ *

' Although the treatment of our people/ the ambas-
sador wrote in relating the matter to Elizabeth, 'has
been most cruel and rigorous, yet I must say that a
great part thereof has proceeded of the counterdealing
of our adventurers, or rather pirates, during these wars,
having spoiled and misruled the King's subjects very
much. These men would not have remained by the
heels had not other English adventurers by force broken
the jurisdiction of this King's ports, and taken French-
men out of their havens ; so at last when they chanced
to catch any such in their gripe, they determined to
make them an example for the rest/ 2

An example they did make of them, or rather of
their own wilful cruelty. England and Spain were
nominally at peace ; and the fault of the eight ships in
those lawless times had a thousand precedents to bespeak
lenient punishment. The ambassador interceded, en-
treated, explained ; Philip and Alva listened with grave
courtesy ; and a commission was appointed to examine
into the circumstances at Gibraltar. But the investiera-

tion was studiously deliberate while the treatment of the
prisoners was as studiously cruel. Nine months after
the capture there were but eighty survivors out of the
two hundred and forty ; the rest had died of cold,
hunger, and hard labour. Then at last, after humili-

1 Sir T. Chaloncr to the merchants and mariners taken at Gibraltai
March 3, 1564: Spanish MSS. Rolls Home.

2 Chaloner to the Queen, June 18, 1564 : Spanish MSS. Rolls Home.

1563.]

ENGLAND ON THE SEA.

ating apologies from Chaloner, with excuses founded
1 on the barbarous nature of sailors, occasioned by their
lives on so barbarous an element as the sea/ the famish-
ed wretches that were left alive were allowed to return
to England.1

The King of Spain had been already warned of the
danger of provoking the spirit of English sailors. ' Our
mariners/ said Sir Thomas Chamberlain to him, on his
first return from the Netherlands, * have no want of
stomach to remember a wrong offered to them, which if
they shall hereafter seek to revenge with recompensing
one wrong with another when the matter should least
be thought of, the Queen of England must be held ex-
cused.' 2 As the scene at Gibraltar was but one of many
like it ; as the cruel treatment of the crews was but a
specimen of the manner in which the Holy Office
thought proper to deal with Englishmen in every port
in Spain, so is the following illustration of Chamber-
lain's warning to Philip but a specimen also of the
(Kadly hate which was growing between the rivals for
the sovereignty of the ocean.

The sons of Lord Cobham of Cowling Castle, who
had first distinguished themselves in Wyatt's rebellion,
had grown up after the type of their boyhood, irregular

1 'Se debe considerar la poca
discretion que ordmariaraente suelen
t« nn hombres marineros, los quales
por la mas partc platicando con un
elemento tan barbaro como cs la
Mur, suelen a scr tan bien de cos-
tumbies barbuios y inquieto.s, 110

guardando aquellos respetos que
suelen tener otros hombres mas po-
liticos.' — Chaloner to Philip, Oc-
tober 1564: Spanish MSS. Molls
House.

2 Chamberlain to Elizabeth, No-
vember 15, 1561 : MS. Ibid.

jO &E1GN OF ELIZABETH. Lctt. 47.

lawless Protestants ; and one of them, Thomas Cob-
ham, was at this time roving the seas, half piratq
half knight-errant of the Reformation, doing battle
on his own account with the enemies of the truth,
wherever the service to God was likely to be re-
paid with plunder. He was one of a thousand whom
Elizabeth was forced for decency's sake to condemn and
disclaim in proclamations, and whom she was as power-
less as she was probably unwilling to interfere with
in practice. "What Cobham was, and what his kind
were, may be seen in the story about to be told.

A Spanish ship was freighted in Flanders for Bilbao ;
the cargo was valued at 80,000 ducats, and there were
on board also forty prisonefs condemned, as the Spanish
accounts say, 'for heavy offences worthy of chastise-
ment/ x who were going to Spain to serve in the galleys.
Young Cobham, cruising in the Channel, caught sight
of the vessel, chased her down into the Bay of Biscay,
fired into her, killed her captain's brother and a number
of men, and then boarding when all resistance had
ceased, sewed up the captain himself and the survivors
of the crew in their own sails and flung them over-
board. The fate of the prisoners is not related ; it
seems they perished with the rest. The ship was
scuttled ; and Cobham made off with booty, which
the English themselves admitted to be worth 50,000
ducats, to his pirate's nest in the south of Ireland.
Eighteen drowned bodies, with the mainsail for their

i ' por graves delitos dignos de punicion y castigo.'

1563.]

ENGLAND ON THE SEA

winding-sheet, were washed up upon the Spanish shores
— ' cruelty without example, of which but to hear was
enough to break the heart/ l

English hearts in like manner had been broken
with the news of brothers, sons, or husbands wasting
to skeletons in the Cadiz dungeons, or burning to ashes
in the Plaza of Valladolid. But this fierce deed of
young Cobham was no dream of Spanish slander : the
English factor at Bilbao was obliged to reply to Cha-
loner's eager inquiries that the story in its essential
features was true, and he added another instance of
English audacity. A Spanish vessel had been cut out
of the harbour at Santander by an Anglo-Irish pirate,
and carried off to sea. The captain, more merciful than
Cobham, saved the crew alive, kept them prisoners, and
was driven into another Spanish port for shelter, hav-
ing them at the time confined under his hatches. They
were discovered ; the pirates were seized and died — it
is needless to inquire how ; but so it came about that
' what with losing their goods, and divers slain having
no war, and again for religion, the Spaniards thought
that for the hurt they could do to an Englishman they
got heaven by it.' 2

Cobham was tried for piracy the next year at the
indignant requisition of Spain. He refused to plead

1 ' Tomiiron a todos los que den-
tro iban, y los cosieron en las velas,
y los echaron a la mar, y en una de
las velas se habian hallado 18 hom-
bres ahogados en la costa de Espafia.
Crueldad nunca vista, y que en solo

oyrlo quiebra el corazon.' — Louis
Romano to Cardinal Gi aim lie, Fob*
ruary 20, 1564: MS. Sitnancas.

'* Cureton to Chaloner, March 14,
1564 : Spanish MSS. EolU House.

REIGN OF ELIZABTEH.

[CH. 47

to his indictment, and the dreadful sentence was passed
upon him of the peine forte et dure.1 His relations, de
Silva said, strained their influence to prevent it from
being carried into effect ; and it seems that either they
succeeded or that Cobham himself yielded to the terror,
and consented to answer. At all events he escaped the
death which he deserved, and was soon again abroad
upon the seas.

When the Governments of Spain and England were
tried alternately by outrages such as these, the chief
matter of surprise is that peace should have been pre-
served so long. The instincts of the two nations outran
the action of their sovereigns ; and while Elizabeth
was trusting to the traditions of the House of Bur-
gundy, and Philip was expecting vainly that danger
would compel Elizabeth to change her policy, their
subjects encountered each other in every sea where the
rival flags were floating, with the passions of instinct-
ive hate. The impulse given to the English privateers
on the occupation of Havre and the breaking out of the
war with France, almost brought matters to a crisis.

While Philip was openly assisting the Duke of

1 ' The English judgment of pe-
nance for standing mute was as fol-
lows : that the prisoner be remanded
to the prison from whence he came
and put into a low dark chamber,
and there be laid on his back on the
bare floor naked; that there be
placed, upon his body as great a
weight of iron as he could bear, and
more; that he have no sustenance

save only on the first day three mor-
sels of the worst bread, and on the
second day three draughts of stand-
ing water that should be nearest to
the prison door ; and in this situa-
tion this should be alternately his
daily diet till he died, or, as an-
ciently the judgment ran, till he
answered.' — BLACKSTONE'S Com-
mentaries, book iv. chap. 25.

I563-]

ENGLAND ON THE SEA.

Guise, and Conde* was still the ally of England, letters
of marque were issued in the joint names of the
Huguenot Prince and the Earl of Warwick. Vessels
manned by mixed crews of French and English, were
sent out to prey on Spaniards, Portuguese, and all other
'Papists' with whom they might encounter; and
although their commissions were not formally recognized
by Elizabeth, yet the officers of the English ports were
ordered to supply them privately with food, arms, stores,
and anything which the service might require. In
December, 1562, one of these irregular rovers, com-
manded by Jacques le Clerc, called by the Spaniards
Pie* de Palo,1 sailed out of Havre, captured a Portuguese
vessel worth 40,000 ducats, then a Biscayan laden with
wool and iron, and afterwards chased another Spanish
ship into Falmouth, where they fired into her and drove
her ashore. The captain of the Spaniard appealed for
protection to the Governor of Pendennis ; the Governor
replied that the privateer was properly commissioned,
and that without special orders from the Queen he could
not interfere : * Pie de Palo took possession of him as a

1 Timber leg.

2 ' Le respondi6 que si la Reyna
no se le mandaba, que el no le podia
hacer, por cuanto el Pie de Palo le
babia monstrado un patente firraado
del Principe de Conde y del Conde
de "Warwick General de los Ingleses
en Havre de Grace, la cual contenia
una comission de poder prender todos
los navios y gente de Espa Soles,
Portogueses, Brctones, y otros cuales

VOL. VIII.

qutera Papistas que encontrase, en-
cargando a los ministros y oficiales
de la Reyna de Inglatierra le favor-
eciesen ayudasen y vituallasen para
su armada de todo lo necesario,'
&c. — Relacion de Nicolas de Lamia
Verde, January 20, 1563 : MS.
Simancas. Landa Verde was the
English captain.

A letter of de Quadra to Philip
at the beginning of the month states

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 47

prize, and then lying close under the shelter of Pen-
dennis waited for further good fortune. Being mid-
winter, and the weather being as usual unsettled,
five Portuguese ships a few days later were driven in
for shelter. Finding the neighbourhood into which
they had fallen, they attempted to escape to sea again ;
but Pie de Palo dashed after them, and two out of the
five he clutched and brought back as prizes.1

Elizabeth herself at the same time, catching at the
readiest and cheapest means to ' annoy the French,' had
let loose the English privateers under the usual license
from the Crown. Their commissions of course em-
powered them only to make war upon the acknowledged
enemy ; but they were not particular. Captain Sorrey,
Pie de Palo's consort, was blockading a fleet of rich
Biscayans in Plymouth, and the Crown privateers were
unwilling to be restricted to less lucrative game. If Sir
Thomas Chaloner was rightly informed, four hundred of
these lawless adventurers were sweeping the Channel in
the summer of 1563. 2 In a few months they had taken
six or seven hundred French prizes ; but the time-
honoured dispute on the nature of munitions of war, and

that similar commissions were ge-
nerally issued. — De Quadra to
Philip, January 10 : MS. Ibid.

1 ' Dice que saliendo del puerto
de Falmouth cinco navios Porto-
gueses juntos vio que salio Pie de
Palo tras ellos, y torno dos naos de
las dichas cinco, y las otras se sal-
varon 6. la vela ; loquel todo dice en
cargo de su consciencia ser verdad.'

— Relacion de Nicolas de Landa
Verde : MS. Ibid.

2 Of all historical statements
those involving numbers must be
received with greatest caution. Cha-
loner wrote from the official state-
ment sent in at Madrid.

Chaloner to the Queen, June u,
1564 : Spanish MSS. Eolls House.

1563.] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 35

the liability of neutral ships engaged in an enemy's
carrying trade, made an excuse for seizing Flemings and
Spaniards ; and the scenes which followed in the Channel
and out of it were such as it would be hard to credit,
were they not in large measure confessed and regretted
in the English State Papers.

A list, with notes in Cecil's hand, of ' depredations
committed at sea during the war on the subjects of
Philip/ contains sixty-one cases of piracy,1 of which
the following are illustrative examples : —

The ' Maria/ from St Sebastian, with a cargo of saf-
fron, valued at 4000 ducats, was taken by Captain Sorrey
and brought in as a prize to the Isle of Wight.

The * Crow/ from Zealand, was robbed of twenty- three
last of herring by boats from Foy and Plymouth.

The ' Flying Spirit/ from Andalusia, with a rich
cargo of cochineal, was plundered by Martin Frobisher.

The ' Tiger/ from Andalusia to Antwerp, with
cochineal, silk, wool, gold, silver, pearls, and pre-
cious stones, was taken by Captain Corbet and Captain
Hewet.

Such a stormy petrel as Stukely of course was busy
at such a time. Stukely, in June, 1563, took a Zealand
ship called the 'Holy Trinity/ with 3000^. worth of
linen and tapestry ; and then joining a small fleet of
west countrymen, fourteen sail in all, he lay off Ushant,
watching professedly for the wine fleet from Bordeaux,
but picking up gratefully whatever the gods might send.

1 Wander* MSS. RolU Houae. The Paper is dated May 27, 1565.

36 .REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [01.47.

"No less a person than the Mayor of Dover himself was
the owner of one of these seahawks.1 Wretched
Spaniards flying from, their talons were dashed upon the
rocks and perished. If a Fleming was caught by mis-
take, it was an easy thing with an end of loose rope and
a tourniquet to squeeze out a confession that made him
a lawful prize.

The baser order of marauders were not slow to imitate
their betters, and the Thames was no safer than the
Channel. Much of the richest merchandise which
reached London was imported in coasters from Antwerp,
and the water thieves which hung about the mouth of
the river made a handsome harvest.

1 Bartholomew Panselfen, mariner of Antwerp, age
twenty-four years or thereabouts,2 deposed and declared
on oath that about Christmas last past he was plying to
London in company with other vessels, and that coming
to Margate Hoads he found there eight or nine English
merchant ships lying at anchor. The said Bartholomew
passing them by upon his course, the sailors in the said
ships did cry out to him — ' Heave to, heave to, filz du
putain Flameng ! ' — of the which when he took no heed
but pursued his way they did shoot their cannon at him,
cutting the rigging and striking the hull of deponent's
vessel ; and moreover did fire upon him flights of innu-
merable arrows. He nevertheless keeping all sail, they

1 Flanders MSS. Rolls Souse.

2 This and the following depositions are taken from a report of a com-
mission appointed in 1565 by the Regent of the Low Countries, to inquire
into these outrages : Flanders MSS. Rolls House.

1564.] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 37

could not overtake him, and for that time he escaped
from pillage/

* Being asked whether at any other time he had been
so attacked, the said Bartholomew declared that about a
twelvemonth passed, certain Englishmen boarded his
ship, and took from him two pieces of artillery, with
powder, shot, the money which his passengers had on
their persons, with their bread, cheese, and meat.'

* Adrian Peterson, mariner of Antwerp, deposed that
being on his way to London in the January of that year,
an hour after sunset, he was boarded off Margate by eight
or ten armed men in masks whom by their voices he
knew to be Englishmen. He himself fled from them
into the hold, where he lay concealed ; but they beat his
servant, and took from the ship more than two hundred
pounds' worth of goods/

1 Bartholomew Cornelius deposed that for the whole
year past he has never made the voyage to England
without suffering some outrage, being robbed of victuals,
shirt, coat, and all the goods he has had on board. Even
in the river at Greenwich, under the very windows of the
palace, and the very eyes of the Queen, he had been fired
into four or five times, and his sails shot through/

Among the worst sufferers from these meaner piracies
were the poor Dutch fishermen. The English, who had
ceased to fish for themselves, resented the intrusion of
foreigners into their home waters. They robbed their
boats of the fish which they had taken ; they took away
their sails, masts and cordage, nets, lines, food, beds,
cushions, money ; they even stripped the men them-

38 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

selves of their clothes, and left them naked and destitute
on the water. As one specimen of a class of outrages
which were frightfully numerous —

' Francis Bertram, of Dunkirk, said and deposed that
he had been herring fishing in the north of the Channel.
He had had great success and was going home, when an
English vessel came down upon him, with forty armed
men — took from him ten last of herrings, stripped his
boat bare — to the very ropes and anchor — and sailed
away, leaving him to perish of hunger. The hull of the
vessel when he was attacked by her was painted white
and yellow ; three days later she was seen elsewhere
painted black, and the crew with blacked faces after
the manner of Ethiopians.' l

ISTor were these depredations confined to privateers
or pirates. On the I9th of December, 1563, Margaret
of Parma complained to Elizabeth of the daily thefts
and robberies of the subjects of the King of Spain com-
mitted on the coast of England — not only by persons un-
known, but by ships belonging to the Queen's own navy.

'One of your subjects, named Thomas Cotton/ said
the Regent, ' commanding your ship the ' Phoanix/
lately seized a vessel off Boulogne, belonging to a mer-
chant of Antwerp, and sent her, with a foreign crew,
into England. The 'Phoenix' came afterwards into
Flushing, and the owner of the vessel sent a water-
bailiff to arrest Captain Cotton, and make him restore
his capture or elser pay for the injury. Captain Cotton

1 Petition of the Burgomasters of Newport and Dunkirk, September
24, 1565 : Flanders MSS. Rolls House,

1564.] RNGLAtfD ON THE SKA. 39

however refused to submit to our laws. He spoke in-
solently of the King's Majesty our Sovereign, resisted
the arrest, and sailed away in contempt. Madam, these
insolences, these spoils and larcenies of the King's sub-
jrrts cannot continue thus without redress. It is pro-
vided in the treaties of intercourse between us, that the
perpetrators of violent acts shall be arrested and kept iu
ward till they have made satisfaction, and shall be pun-
ished according to their demerits. I beseech you, Madam,
to take order in these matters, and inflict some signal
chastisement, as an example to all other evil-doers. I
require that the losses of our merchants be made good—
being as they are molested and troubled ou so many
sides by the subjects of your Majesty. These, Madam,
are things that can no longer be endured.' l

Had Philip been satisfied with the state of affairs in
France he would probably have now made common cause
with Catherine de Medici, declared war against Eliza-
beth, and proclaimed Mary Stuart Queen of England.
But the break-up of the Catholic league on the death of
the Duke of Guise, the return of Montmorency to power,
und his reconciliation with Conde", had reinstated in
Catherine's cabinet the old French party which was most
jealous of Spain, and was most disposed to temporize
with the Protestants. Philip felt his early fears revive
that Mary Stuart's allegiance to France might prove
stronger than her gratitude to himself, and he hesitated
to take a step which might cripple his predominance in

1 Margaret of Parma to Elizabeth, December 19, 1563 : Flanders
USS. Soils Hous«.

4o REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

Europe. He was uneasy at the increasing disaffection of
the United Provinces, which a war with England would
inevitably aggravate ; and though again and again on
the verge of a rupture with his sister-in-law, he drew
back at the last moment, feeling ' that the apple was not
ripe/ l Determined however to check the audacity of the
privateers, and those darker cruelties of Cobham and his
friends, he issued a sudden order in January, 1564, for
the arrest of every English ship in the Spanish harbours,
with their crews and owners. Thirty large vessels were
seized ; a thousand sailors and merchants were locked up
in Spanish prisons, and English traders were excluded by
a general order from the ports of the Low Countries.
An estimate was made of the collective damage inflicted
by the English cruisers, and a bill was presented to Sir
Thomas Chaloner for a million and a half of ducats, for
which the imprisoned crews would be held as securities.2

' Long ago I foretold this/ wrote Chaloner, ' but I
was regarded as a Cassandra. For the present I travail
chiefly that our men maybe in courteous prison, a great
number of whom shall else die of cold and hunger/

With the French war still upon her hands, Elizabeth
was obliged to endure the affront and durst not retaliate.
With the Catholic party so powerful, a war with Spain,
and the contingencies which might arise from it, was too
formidable to be encountered. She wrote humbly to
Philip entreating that the innocent should not be made
to suffer for the guilty ; the wrong which she admitted

' Chaloner to Elizabeth, January 22, 1564 : Spanish MSS. Rolls House.
3 Chaloner to Kli/abeth, Jan. 20 : MS. Ibid.

1564.]

EN-GLAND ON THE SEA.

might have been done she attributed to the confusion of
the times; she protested that she had herself given
neither sanction nor encouragement to her subjects' law-
less doings ; she would do her utmost to suppress the
pirates ; and if her merchants and sailors were set at
liberty she would listen to any proposal which Philip
might be pleased to make.1

As an earnest of the good intentions of the Govern-
ment, the English Prize Courts made large awards of
restitution ; and it was proposed that a joint commission
should sit at Bruges to examine the items of the Spanish
claim.

But Elizabeth saw that she must lose no time in
settling her differences with France. Peace was hastily
concluded ; she amused Catherine and frightened Philip
with the possibility of her accepting the hand of Charles
the Ninth ; and by the beginning of the summer which
followed the close of the war, she was able to take a
bolder tone. The trade with England was of vital mo-
ment to the Low Countries. The inhibition which the
Regent had issued against English vessels had given

1 Elizabeth to Philip, March 17:
MS. Ibid.

Her subjects themselves were not
KO Mibmissivi. 'One insolence,'
wrote Chaloner, ' sundry of the
council here have much complained
of to me : that in Gallicia, upon oc-
c;i!»i«in of certain of our merchants
ilt taiiifd by the corcgidor of a port
town tht-re, the same town was shot
at with artillery out of the English

ships, and four or five of the towns-
men slain and hurt. This they term
" combatir una tierra del Rev ; y,
Quo es estosr y, Como se puedu
sufrir ? ' Sure our men have been
very outrageous. It was full time
the peace took up, or else I ween
they would yet have spoken louder.'
—Chaloner to Elizabeth, June iS
M.S. Ibid.

42 RE TON OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

the carrying trade to the Flemings ; and the ships in
Spain continuing unreleased, Elizabeth on her part at
the beginning of May retaliated upon the Duchess of
Parma by excluding Flemings from the English ports.
The intercourse between the two countries was thus at
an end. The Queen bade Chaloner say to Philip, that
' whatever injury might have been done to subjects of
Spain, she had more to complain of than he ; Spanish '
ships might have been robbed, but the offenders were
but private persons ; the banner of England had been
trailed in the dirt by public officers of Castile, as if ft
had been taken in battle from the Turks ; English sub-
jects had been seized, imprisoned, flogged, tortured,
famished, murdered, and buried like dogs in dungheaps ;
she too as well as he would bear these wrongs no longer.' l

To the letter of Margaret of Parma she replied with
equal haughtiness.

' In the month of January last,' she wrote, ' we re^
ceived intelligence from our ambassador resident in Spain
that all manner of our subjects there, with their ships
and goods, were laid under arrest, and that our subjects
themselves had been used in such cruel sort by vile im-
prisonment, torture, and famine, as more extremity could
not be showed to the greatest criminal. Nor were there
any pretences alleged for this violence, save only that a
ship on the way to that country from Flanders was
robbed by certain English vessels of war — which indeed
might be true, as hitherto we know not any certainty

1 Memorial presented by Sir T. Chaloner to Philip II., June 4, 1564;
Spanish MSS. Rolls House,

ENGLAND OK THE SEA.

thereof ; and yet no cause to make such, a general arrest
and imprisonment of so great a multitude of people;
whereof none were nor could be charged with any evil
fact, but were proved to have come thither only for mer-
chandise. Wherefore being troubled with the miserable
complaints of the wives, children, and friends of our
subjects oppressed in Spain, and seeing on the one part
you will neither by means of your edict permit our sub-
jects to come thither with their cloths, nor to bring any
commodity from thence, and on the other none of our
subjects may come into any port of Spain but they are
taken, imprisoned, and put in danger of death ; we ap-
peal to the judgment of any indifferent person, what we
ran less do but, until some redress made for these intol-
erable griefs, to prohibit that there be no such free re-
sort of merchandise from thence, to the enriching only
of a few merchants of those countries.'1

The English prisoners in Spain had suffered fright-
fully. Out of the two hundred and forty taken at
Gibraltar only eighty, as has been already said, were
alive at the end of nine months. The crew of the ' Mary
Holway/ of Plymouth, numbered fifty-two when they
went iii January into the Castle of St Sebastian. By the
middle of May twenty-four were dead of ill-usage, and
the remaining twenty-eight 'were like to die/2 Some
notion may be formed from these two instances of the
loss of life which had followed on the general arrest.

1 Kli/nheth to Margaret of Par-
ma, May 7, 1564: Flanders MSS.
fan* House.

2 The Lords of the English Coun-
cil to Chaloncr, June I : Spanish
MSS. Rolls Hou*e.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 47.

Quite evidently the Spanish and English people wanted
but a word from their sovereigns to fly like bull-dogs at
each others' throats. But the peace with France and
the eclipse of the ultra- Catholic faction at the French
Court had decided Philip that the time was not yet come ;
he listened to Chaloner's expostulations with returning
moderation ; 1 and Chaloner — though against his own
interest, for his residence in Spain was a martyrdom to
him, and a war would have restored him to England —
advised Elizabeth to postpone her own resentment. The
injuries after all had been as great on one side as the
other ; she would find every just complaint satisfied at
last, ' but not so much by the lion as by the fox ; ' and
' for the avoiding of trouble in England ' he recom-
mended her to allow ' the traffic with the Low Countries
to be redintegrate/2 He thought that there were

1 Chaloner's description of Philip
is interesting, and agrees well with
Titian's portraits.

' The King, ' he said, ' heard us
very quietly, making few and short
hut calm answers ; which his nature
to them that know it is not to be
marvelled at, seeing to all ambas-
sadors he useth the like ; for as he
hath great patience to hear at length
and note what is said, receiving
quietly what memorials or papers
are presented to him, so hardly, for
as much as I have hitherto perceived,
shall a stranger to his countenance
or words gather any great alteration
of mind either to anger or rejoice-
ment, hut after the fashion of a cer-
tain still flood. Nevertheless both

his looks and words unto me gave
show of a certain manner of extra-
ordinary contentation.' — Chaloner to
Elizabeth, June il : Spanish MSS.
Rolls House.

2 Ibid. Chaloner's lamentations
over his residence at Madrid were
piteous. ' Spain ! rather pain,' he
wrote to Sir John Mason in 1562.
Roads, food, lodging, about Madrid
itself were scarcely tolerable, and
elsewhere ' were past bearing.' The
cost of living was four times greater
than in England ; and the Duke of
Alva was the only person in whom he
found ' wisdom and courteous usage.'

' Think with yourself,' he wrote
in June, 1564, in the midst of his
trouble, ' whether this alone is not

I564.]

ENGLAND ON THE SEA.

symptoms of a revival of the old quarrels between France
and Spain, when she might look for Philip's help to
recover Calais ; and by the autumn concessions were
made on both sides. De Silva was sent to England to
heal all wounds ; the English ships and the surviving

to a free mind nn importable burden:
two years and three-quarters to bear
my cross in Spain ; a place and na-
tion misliked of all others save them-
selves ; driven here not only to for-
bear, but patiently like an ass to lay
down mine ears at things of too, too
much indignity/

His health failed at last, between
the climate, the garlic diet, and his
public worries.

' Surely I have had great wrong,'
he said in a letter to Sir Ambrose
Cave ; ' but it is the old wont of our
Court never to think upon the train-
ing of a new servant till the old be
worn to the stump. It is each man's
part to serve their prince ; but there
is a just distributing, if subjects
durst plead with kings. I have not
much more to hope, having twenty
years served four kings, now further
from wealth or that staff of age
which youth doth travail for, than I
•was eighteen years agone. Methinks
I became a retrograde crab, and yet
would gladly be at home with that
that yet resteth, to pay ray debts and
live the rest of my life perhaps con-
tentedly enough.'

Of the danger of trusting to
Spanish physicians he had frightful
evidence. In August this same year,
1564, Philip's Queen (Elizabeth of

France) miscarried of twins. Fever
followed. They bled her in both
arms ; they bled her in both feet ;
and when spasms and paroxysms
came on they cupped her, and then
gave her up and left her to die. ' She
was houselled, and the King to com-
fort her was houselled also for com-
pany ; ' and at the moment when
Chaloner was writing to England
'she was lying abandoned of her
physicians at the mercy of God. The
palace gates were shut ; the lament-
ations in the Court both of men and
women very tender and piteous ; the
chapel was filled with noblemen all
praying on their knees for her ; and
great and unfeigned moans on all
parts.'

Nature eventually proved too
strong even for Spanish doctors.
She rallied ; and they flew at her
once more. « At last by means of a
strong purgative of agaricum that
made her have twenty-two stools,
given at a venture in so desperate a
case to purge those gross humours,
she was ever since amended.'— Let-
ter of Sir Thomas Chaloner : Spanish
MSS. Rolls House.

Chaloner himself was less for-
tunate. He was recalled after long
entreaty, in 1565 ; but he died a few
weeks after he landed in England.

46 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47

sailors were released from the clutch of the Inquisition.
After a correspondence between Cecil and Egmont the
Flanders trade was reopened, and commissioners were
appointed to sit at Bruges to hear all complaints and to
settle terms of restitution. The letters of marque ex-
pired with the war, and ' the adventurers ' had to look
elsewhere to find a theatre for their exploits : some few
continued to lurk in the western rivers ; the more des-
perate, inoculated with a taste for lawless life, hung
about their old haunts in the Irish creeks — whither
Stukely, as was seen in the last chapter, after fitting out
an expedition to Florida, found it more attractive to
betake himself. Elizabeth consented to open her eyes
to proceedings which were bringing a scandal upon her
Government, and took measures at last, though of a
feeble kind, to root out these pirates' nests.

On the 29th of September, 1564, she wrote to Sir
Peter Carew at Dartmouth, that l whereas the coasts of
Devonshire and Cornwall, the Land's End, and the
Irish seas were by report much haunted with pirates
and rovers/ she desired him to fit out an expedition
with speed and secrecy to clear the seas of them.1 She
gave him discretionary powers to act in any way that
he might think good ; ' she would allow anything which
he might put in execution/ and she ' would victual his
ships out of the public stores.' Characteristically how-
ever she would give him no money ; Sir Peter and his
men might pay themselves out of whatever booty they

1 Elizabeth to Sir Peter Carew, September 29, 1564: Domestic MS S.
Elizabeth, vol. xxxiv.

1564.] ENGLAND ON THE SLA. 47

could take ; and the temptation of plunder would per-
haps rouse them into an energy which might not other-
wise be excessively vigorous.

Carew on these terms undertook the service ; he
armed three vessels, collected something under three
hundred men from among the disbanded privateers,
and in the spring of 1565 sent them out upon their
cruise.

The result may be told in the words of his own re-
port to the council.

' Running along the west coast of England and
finding nothing there meet for their purpose, they sailed
over into Ireland, where they found a hulk of Stukely's
in Cork Haven, which they brought away, himself
being, before they arrived, on shore with the Lord
Barrymore, having left certain of his men in the hulk
to guard her, who being shot unto rowed unto the
shore in their long-boat. From thence they went to
Berehaven, where, before their coming, Haydon, Lys-
inghain, and Corbet, with other pirates, their accom-
plices, had withdrawn themselves into a castle belonging
to 0 'Sullivan Bere, and also their vessels near the same,
planting their ordnance on the shore and also in the
castle so as our men were not able to annoy them.
They mustered in sight of our men five hundred gallo-
glasse and kernes besides their own soldiers, which were,
as they could judge, a hundred and sixty at the least.
Although our men had killed one of their captains with
shot, which, as I am informed, was Lysingham, yet
their own ships being shot through, nor seeing other-

48 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

wise how to prevail further, considering what force
Hay don was, having married with 0' Sullivan's sister
who had committed the charge of the castle unto his
custody, by which means he was like daily to be suc-
coured by those kernes, thought best for fear of sinking
after sundry shots between them both — which continued
from ten o'clock in the morning to four o'clock in the
afternoon— to depart, which service I for my part am
sorry had no better success.' *

The Queen's attempt to get the work done cheap
was not successful, especially as Carew's men, having
failed to obtain plunder, clamoured to be paid. The
pirates gathered fresh courage from the feebleness with
which they had been assailed ; and in the face of the
escape of Cobham, and the evident unwillingness of the
Government to use severity on the rare occasions when
a pirate was taken prisoner, it is plain that Elizabeth's
Government was not as yet awake to the necessity of
resolute dealing in the matter. In the beginning of
August, 1565, de Silva laid before Cecil a fresh list of
outrages upon Spanish commerce. He demanded ( that
the more noted pirates should be diligently inquired
after,' and that when taken and convicted 'they should
not be pardoned ; ' while cautiously but firmly he in-
sisted that the Queen's officers in the western harbours
should no longer allow them ' to take in stores and run
in and out at their pleasure ; J that ' their receivers and
comforters should be punished to the example of others •'

1 Sir Peter Carew to the Council, April 17, 1565: Domestic MSS.
Elizabeth, vol. xxxvi.

1565.] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 49

and that rewards should be offered for the discovery
and conviction of the persons most engaged in these
enterprises.1

These requests were certainly not excessive. It is
remarkable that the last was distinctly refused on the
plea that to assist justice with the offer of rewards was
contrary to English usage.2 Additional salaries how-
ever were given to the admiralty judges to quicken
their movements ; Queen's ships were sent to sea to
prosecute the search more vigorously ; and on the 1 2th
of August ' the council, taking into consideration a
complaint of the Spanish ambassador of spoils done
upon Spanish subjects upon the seas/ directed inquiry
to be made all along the English coast, with the immedi-
ate trial of all persons charged with piracy, and their
punishment on conviction ; ' her Majesty being resolved
to show to the world that she intended to deal honestly
in that matter.' 3

Nevertheless the energy of the council was still un-
equal to their professions, and there was still large de-
ficiency either of power or of will. In October a vessel
going from Flanders to Spain 'with tapestry, household
stuff, clocks,' and other curiosities, for Philip himself,
was intercepted and plundered;4 and this final audacity
seems really to liuve c rented an alarm. Harbour coni-
mis.sioners at last were actually appointed ; codes of

1 De Silva to Cecil, August 5 : Spanish MSS. Rolls Hoiue.
• 'Iltiud hoc nostrie reipublic;i> convenit, scd salaria a Regina nova
dantur judicibus in huuc usum.' — Cecil to de Silva: MSS. Ibid.

3 Council Jttgister, August 12, 1565.
4 Phayres to Cecil, Octol er 12 : Spanish MSS.
VOL. Vlll. 4

50 REIGN OF ELIZABETH, [CH. 47.

harbour rules were drawn out for the detection and de-
tention of ambiguous vessels ; and as an evidence that
the Government were in earnest, they struck faintly at
the root of the disease. The gentlemen on the coasl
* were the chief maintainers of pirates ; ' and Sir
William Godolphin, of Scilly, and the Killigrews, of
Pendennis, were threatened with prosecution.1

Yet still no one was hanged. Pirates were taken
and somehow or other were soon abroad again at their
old trade. Godolphin and Killigrew suffered nothing
worse than a short-lived alarm.

The commission met at Bruges after long delay in
the beginning of the following year. England was re-
presented by Haddon, Sir A. Montague, and Doctor
Wotton. The Spanish Government had given a proof
of their desire to settle all differences quietly by ap-
pointing to meet them, Count Montigny and Count Eg-
mont — Montigny, murdered afterwards by Philip with
such ingenious refinement at Simancas, and Egmont
the best friend that Elizabeth had in the King of Spain's
dominions.

Nevertheless, even with these two, the problem was
almost beyond solution. The proceedings had scarcely
opened when another and most audacious act of piracy
was committed at the mouth of the Thames. The
Flemish commissioners said they did not question the
good will of the Queen of England, but her conduct
was very strange. They challenged Wotton to name a

1 Council Register, November, 1565.

tS66.] ENGLAND ON ffTE SEA. 51

single pirate who had yet hem executed ; and "Wottori,
with all his eagerness to defend Elizabeth, confessed him-
self unable to mention one. They said frankly that if
the (Inert;'- < i'.vrrnnient did not see to the safety of
their own seas, 'another way must be taken* which
would lead to war.

4 For our part/ wrote Wotton ill his report to Cecil
' we must needs think our fortune very hard ; our men
in their offences are so far out of all order, and tin-
cases so lamentable if the account be true, that we can
scant tell how to open our mouths for any reasonable
satisfaction therein/ l

Elizabeth could but answer that she had done her
best, and either the story was exaggerated or ' else it
was a matter impossible to be reformed.* She said how-
ever that she had sent special persons to every port
in England with extraordinary powers, from whose exer-
tions an effect might be looked for.8 Philip fortunately
was in a most unwarlike humour, and her excuses were
accepted for more than they were worth. But the con-
ference was suspended till her good intentions had h» < -u
carried into acts; and the commissioners separated on
the 1 7th of June, still leaving all outstanding claims
unsettled.

English Protestants, it was too evident, regarded the
property of Papists as lawful prize wherever they could
lay hands on it ; and Protestantism, stimulated by these

1 Wotton to Cecil, May 13, 1566: Flanders MSS.
* Elizabeth to the Commissioners at Bruges, June i, 1566. Cecil's
band: Flanders MSS.

52 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.47.

inducements to conversion, was especially strong in the
sea-port towns. Exasperated by the murder of their
comrades in the prisons of the Inquisition, the sailors
and merchants looked on the robbery of Spaniards as at
once the most lucrative and devout of occupations ; and
Elizabeth's Government was unable to cope with a tend-
ency so deeply rooted. The destinies, beneficent or evil,
however, which watched over the fortunes of the na-
tion, provided a more distant field of lawless enterprise,
which gradually attracted the more daring spirits to it-
self; and while it removed the struggle with Spain
into a larger sphere, postponed for a few years longer
the inevitable collision, and left the Channel in peace.

It has been seen how in the early days of the Guinea
trade the English had half in play coquetted with the
capture of negroes ; how they stretched out their hands
towards the forbidden fruit, touched it, clutched at it,
and let it go : the feeble scruples were giving way be-
fore familiarity with the temptation.

The European voyagers when they first visited the
coasts of Western Africa found there for the most part
a quiet, peaceable, and contented people basking in the
sunshine in harmless idleness, unprovoked to make war
upon one another because they had nothing to desire,
a.nd receiving strangers with the unsuspecting trustful-
ness which is observed in the birds and animals of new
countries when for the first time they come in contact
with man. Remorse for the desolation created by the
first conquerors of the New World among the Indians
of Mexico and the isles, had tempted the nobler Span-

ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 53

iards into a belief that in this innocent and docile peo-
ple, might be found servants who if kindly treated
would labour without repugnance ; and thus the rem-
nants of those races whose civilization had astonished
their destroyers might be saved from the cruelty of the
colonists. The proud and melancholy Indian pined like
an eagle in captivity, refused to accept his servitude, and
died ; the more tractable negro would domesticate like
the horse or the ass, acquiesce in a life of useful bond-
age, and receive in return the reward of baptism and
the promise of eternity.

Charles the Fifth had watched over the interests of
the Indians, as soon as he became awake to their suffer-
ings, with a father's anxiety. Indian slavery in the
Spanish dominions was prohibited for ever ; but that
the colonists might not be left without labourers, and
those splendid countries relapse into a wilderness, they
were allowed to import negroes from Africa, whom as
expensive servants it would be their interest to preserve.
The Indians had cost them nothing ; the Indians had
been seized by force, chained in the mines or lashed into
the fields ; if millions perished there were millions more
to recruit the gangs. The owner of a negro whom he
had bought, and bought dear, would have the same in-
terest in him as in his horse or his cow ; he would exact
no more work from his slave than the slave could per-
form without injury to himself, and he would be the
means of saving a soul from everlasting perdition.

Nor was the bondage of the negro intended to be
perpetual, nor would the great Emperor trust him with-

§4 RElGti OF ELIZABETH [CH. 47.

out reserve to men who had already abused their powers.
The law secured to the slave a certain portion of every
week, when the time was his own ; if he was industrious
and frugal he could insist upon his freedom as soon as
he could produce the price of it ; he could become an
owner of property on his own account ; and evidence
remains that in the sixteenth century, under the pro-
tecting laws of the mother country, many a negro in the
Spanish colonies was a free and prosperous settler who
paid his taxes to the Crown.1

Negro slavery in theory was an invention of philan-
thropy— like the modern Coolie trade, an unobjection-
able and useful substitute for the oppression of races to
whom loss of freedom was death ; yet with the fatal blot
in the design that the consent of the negroes themselves,
who were so largely interested in the transaction, was
neither sought nor obtained. The original and innocent
pretext which confined the purchase to those who had
offended against the negro laws, melted swiftly before
the increase of the demand ; the beads, the scarlet
cloaks and ribands, which were fluttered in the eyes of
the chiefs, were temptations which savage vanity was
unable to resist ; they sold their own people ; they made
war on one another to capture prisoners, which had be-
come a valuable booty ; and the river mouths and har-
bours where the Portuguese traders established their
factories were envenomed centres from which a moral
pestilence crept out among the African races. The

1 I need scarcely more than allude for my authority on this subject to
the admirable book of Mr Helps on the Spanish Conquest of America.

ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 55

European first converted the negro into a savage, and
then made use of his brutality as an excuse for plung-
ing him into slavery.

The English at first escaped the dread and detesta-
tion which were inspired by the slave dealers : they
came as traders to barter for gold dust ; they were tired
upon whenever they approached the factories, and the
natives welcomed as friends the enemies of the Portu-
guese and Spaniards. But the unfortunate people were
themselves the richest part of their merchandise. The
Spanish Government, aware perhaps after a time of the
effect produced in Africa, and wishing to ensure the
good treatment of the slaves by enhancing their value,
had begun to set their faces against the slave trade.
The Governors of the Spanish- American colonies were
instructed to prevent the importation of negroes unless
under a license limn the home administration, which
was dearly bought and charily given. A duty of thirty
ducats was laid on the sale of every slave ; and thug
while the demand for labour increased with the pros-
perity of the settlements, the price was enhanced, the
supply was artificially kept down, and the English
traders at the A/ores and at Madeira came to under-
stand that license or no license the market of the West
Indies would be open to them. If slaves could be
brought to their doors the colonists would eagerly buy
them, and with discretion and courage the negro tra4e
might be made u thriving business.

The first venture was made by John Hawkins pf
Plymouth, so famous afterwards in English naval an-

56 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [cti. 47

nals, son of old William Hawkins who had brought
over the Brazilian King. John Hawkins and Thomas
Hampton, in October, 1562, fitted out three vessels, the
largest a hundred and twenty tons, and sailed with a
hundred men for Sierra Leone.1 After hanging some
time about the coast, ' partly by the sword and partly by
other means,' they collected three hundred negroes, and
crossed the Atlantic to St Domingo. Uncertain at first
how he might be received, or not caring to avow the
purpose of his voyage, Hawkins pretended on his arrival
that he had been driven out of his course by stress of
weather, that he was in want of food, and was without
money to pay his men ; he therefore requested permis-
sion to sell ' certain slaves which he had with him/
The opportunity was eagerly welcomed ; the Governor,
supposing apparently that his orders from home need
not be construed too stringently, allowed two-thirds of
the negroes to be sold ; the remaining hundred, as it
was uncertain what duty should be demanded on an
unlicensed sale, were left as a deposit with the oidores
or council of the island. Neither Hawkins nor the
Governor anticipated any serious displeasure on the
part of Philip. Hawkins invested his profits in a re-
turn cargo of hides, half of which he sent in Spanish
vessels to Cadiz under the care of his partner, and he
returned with the rest to England, as he supposed,
* with prosperous success and much gain to himself/

Prosperous in point of money the voyage undoubt-
edly was, although the profits proved less than he

First voyage of Mr John Hawkins : HAKLUYT, vol. iii. p. 594.

1563-] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 57

anticipated. He had brought away with him a testi-
monial of good behaviour from the authorities at JSt
Domingo, who would gladly have seen him return on
the same errand. The Spanish Government viewed tho
affair differently. Philip the Second, to whatever
crimes he might be driven by religious bigotry, was not
inclined to tolerate free trade in negroes, however large
the duty which he could exact upon them ; and the in-
trusion of the English into his transatlantic dominions,
his experience of them nearer home made him particu-
larly anxious to prohibit. On Hampton's arrival at Cadiz
his cargo was confiscated and sold, he himself narrowly
escaping the clutches of the Inquisition;1 the negroes
left at St Domingo were forfeited, and Hawkins saw
snatched from him a full moiety of his hard-earned
prize. He estimated his loss at forty thousand ducats ;
he cursed, threatened, and implored, with equal unsuc-
cess ; fearless of man or devil, he thought at first of going
in person to Madrid and of taking Philip by the beard in
his own den ; but Chaloner, to whom he wrote, told
him with some sarcasm ' that he would do well not to
come thither ; ' ' it was an ill time for obtaining any
suit further than the right or justice of the cause would
bear ; ' he advised him ' to attempt to obtain a part of
the thing to be demanded, by procuring some favourite
about the King to ask for the whole as a forfeit confis-
cate ; ' he might then perhaps recover some part of his
loss by a private arrangement.2

1 Hugh Tipton to Chalonur, December, 1563 : Spanish MSS. Rolls House.
2 Chaloner to Hawkins, July 6, 1564 : Spanish MSS.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

JCH. 47.

Neither by this however nor by any other means
could Hawkins obtain one penny for his lost hides and
negroes ; and the result of his demands was only the
despatch of a peremptory order to the West Indies that
no English vessel should be allowed under any pretence
to trade there. Foreseeing that when the road had
been once opened hundreds would rush into it, Philip
said distinctly to the ambassador that if the English
persisted in going thither evil would come of it ; and
so impressed was Chaloner with the feelings of the
Spanish Government on the subject, that he entreated
Elizabeth earnestly to make her subjects respect their
objections.1

The warning, if Elizabeth had possessed either power
or inclination to act upon it, was not unneeded. Traces
appear of more than one attempt to follow in Hawkins's
track before he himself moved again ; and the African
tribes being now on their guard, the slave hunters had
been received with poisoned arrows, and had found a
difficulty in escaping with their lives.2

But Hawkins knew better what he was about ; he
understood how to catch negroes ; he understood how to
sell them to Spaniards, whatever Philip might please to
say ; he would not repeat the single mistake into which

1 ' Our folks must be narrowly
looked to, and specially that they
enterprise no trade or voyage to the
Indies or islands of this king's navi-
gation ; which if they do, as already
they have intelligence of some that
do propose it, surely it will breed

occasion of much matter of pick.' —
Chaloner to Elizabeth, June 18,
1564: MS. Ibid.

2 See Robert Baker's Metrical
History of Two Voyages to Guinea
in 1562 and 1563, printed by HAK-

LUYT.

1504.J ENGLAND ON THE SEA. &

ho hud fallen ; and the profits seemed so certain and
promised to be so large, that Lord Pembroke and others
of the council were ready to take shares in a second
adventure. Even the Queen herself had no objection to
turn a littli; honest money; and contenting herself with
requiring a promise from him that he would do no in-
jury to the Spaniards, she left the rest to his discretion,
and placid at his disposal one of the best ships in her
service. Cecil alone, ever honourable, ever loathing
cruelty and unrighteousness, though pressed to join
with the rest, refused, ' having no liking for such pro-
ceedings.' l

Thus encouraged and supported, Hawkins sailed
once more from Plymouth on the i8th of October,
1564, in the 'Jesus of Lubeck,' a ship of 700 tons,
armed to the teeth, his old vessel the ' Solomon/ en-
larged somewhat, perhaps with a more roomy hold, and
two Mnall sloops to run up the shallow creeks.

A rival expedition sailed at the same time and for
the same purpose from the Thames, under David Carlet,
to whom the Queen had also given a ship. Carlet had
three vessels, the 'Minion,' Elizabeth's present, the
'John the Baptist,' and the 'Merlin.' The 'Merlin'
had bad luck ; she had the powder on board for the
nigger hunt ; fire got into the magazine, and she was
blown in pii'i.vs. Carlet therefore for a time attached

• ario Cecil me ha dicho rehusado porque no le contention

que a el le ofrecieron quando partio
Achines que le admitirian como a
los tlcnias ; pero quo el lo habia

semej antes negocios.' — De Sijva to
Philip, November 5, 1565 : MS
tiimanca*.

jo REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

himself with his two remaining ships to Hawkins, and
the six vessels ran south together. Passing Teneriffe on
the 29th of November, they touched first at the Cape de
Verde Isles, where the natives * being very gentle and
loving, and more civil than any others,' it was proposed
to take in a store of them. Either however the two
commanders could not agree, or Hawkins claimed the
lion's share of the spoil; they quarrelled, and the
* Minion's' men being jealous gave the islanders to
understand what was intended, l so that they did avoid
the snares laid for them.'

After so unworthy a proceeding the West countryman
shook off his companion, and leaving Carlet to go his
own way, went down the coast past the Eio Grande,
storing his hold as he went along among the islands and
rivers. On one occasion he was played a trick by some
Portuguese which might have had bad consequences :
they offered to guide him to a village where he would
find a hundred unprotected women and children, and
they betrayed him into ambuscade, when his ^men, who
were scattered in search of plunder, were set upon by
two hundred negroes. Seven were killed and seven-and-
tweiity wounded, and in return for their loss they
carried off but ten slaves. ' Thus,' reported one of the
party, ' we returned back somewhat discomforted, al-
though the captain in a singular wise carried himself
with countenance very cheerful outwardly, although his
heart was inwardly broken at the loss of his men.'

But this was the single interruption of otherwise un-
broken success. Between purchases from the Portuguese

1564-] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 61

and the spoils of his own right arm, Hawkins in a few
weeks had swept up about four hundred slaves ; his ships
were inconveniently crowded, symptoms of fever began
to show among the crew, and the shore was no longer
safe, ' the natives having laid a plan to entrap and kill
them/ ' God however, who worketh all things for the
best, would not have it so, and by Him they escaped
danger, His name be praised.' The captain decided
that he had done enough, and headed away for the West
Indies. He was troubled at first with calms ; he feared
that the water might run short, and that part of his
cargo might die, or have to be thrown overboard.
' Almighty God however, who never suffers His elect to
perish,'1 sent a breeze in time, and the Indian islands
were reached without the loss of a man. A second ven-
ture at St Domingo was thought dangerous ; Hawkins
had arranged with the council before he sailed ' not to
take any ship or ships to any of those ports of the Indies
that were privileged to any person or persons by the
King of Spain ; ' 2 and precautions had probably been
taken to make any further trade at the scene of his first
visit impossible. He contented himself with touching
there for water, and made as fast as he could for the
mainland. His best chance to dispose of his wares was
to choose some harbour where the inhibition was un-
likely to be known, or where he would be able to force
:ui entry if it was refused; and running on into Bar-

1 Narrative of the Second Voyage of Mr John Hawkins, by one of the
party. Printed by HAKLI YT.

3 Council Register MX.

62 RE TON OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

barotta,1 lie anchored close off tlie town and went on
shore.

He at once learnt that the interdict had arrived : in
reply to his proposal to trade he was informed that the
King of Spain had forbidden the colonists under pain of
death 2 to admit any foreign vessels there or have any
dealings with them ; and he was entreated to go his way.
But the town was weak and Hawkins was strong ; he
repeated his old story that he was driven in by foul
weather, that he had a large crew, and was in distress
for food and money. He showed his commission from
Elizabeth — ' a confederate and friend of the King of
Spain ; ' and he said that unless he was allowed to trade
peaceably, his men would go on land, and might per-
haps do some injury.

The inhabitants desired negroes ; the menace was an
excuse for the Governor to yield ; but to save himself
from some portion of the blame he insisted that Hawkins
should at least pay the thirty ducats customs duty. The
English commander however had no intention of con-
tributing more than he could help to Philip's treasury.
When some valuable time had been wasted in discussion,
he cut the knot by landing a hundred men and two
pieces of cannon ; he put out a proclamation that seven
and a half per cent, was a sufficient tax to be levied on
any wares in any harbour, that his necessities were too
great to be trifled with, and that unless the people were

1 Called Burboroata in the English accounts.

2 ' Su pena de muerte,' according to the Spanish account at Simancas.
The English story says 'upon penalty to forfeit their goods.'

15651

ENGLAND ON THE SEA.

permitted to deal with him on these terms, he would not
answer for the consequences. The Governor allowed
himself to be convinced hy so effective an argument;
the planters in the neighbourhood swallowed their
scruples ; in a lew days half the cargo was happily dis-
posed of, and Hawkins sailed away with the rest, after
first exacting from the authorities, as before, a certifi-
cate of good, behaviour.1

From Barbarotta he went to Rio de la Hacha, where
the same scene was re-enacted with simple monotony.
The Governor, as before, protested that he was for-
bidden by his master to let the English trade there ;
the English commander, as before, declared that ho
was in ' an armada of the Queen of England sent about
her other affairs/ that he had been forced by contrary
winds out of his course, and that he expected hospi-
tality. The authorities again refused, again Hawkins
threatened violence, and again there was a dispute over
the .customs duties. Finally, with or without an
understanding with the Governor, a few boats* crews

1 De Silva said that the exhibi-
tion of force had been secretly con-
certed between Hawkins and the
Governor.

' El Capitan respondi6 que la
gente que el traia era mucho, y que
no podia el contenerlos, para que no
saltasen en tierra y hiciesen dafio, si
no tuvicsen licencia para contratar ;
y assi vin6 & platicar en segreto con
el Gobcrnador, y entre ellos se habia
concertado que otro dia se echase
gente en tierra y comen^-ase a querer

ir al lugar y hacer dafio, y que el
saldria, porque no lo hiciese, le dexa-
rian hacer su contratacion ; lo qual
se hiz6 assi ; y pus6 en tierra doci-
entos hombres y ciertas piec,as de
artilleria, la quales comenqaron &
pelear, pero luego ces6, y por bien
de paz le dexaron negociar, habiendo
pasado entre ellos algunas cosas por
escrito de requerimiento como se
habia entre ellos concertado.'— De
Silva to Philip, November 5, 1565 :
MS. Simancas.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 47.

with cannon once more opened the market ; the re-
maining negroes were sold off, and with the hard
money in his hand, a second testimonial, and the black
pens below decks washed clear of pollution, the fortun-
ate Hawkins put to sea in full triumph and high
spirits. Instead of hastening home he spent the
summer of 1565 cruising in the Caribbean Sea, survey-
ing the islands, mapping down the shoals and currents,
and perhaps on the look out for some lame duck or
straggler out of the Spanish treasure fleet.1

Sailing round Cuba and running up the Bahama
Channel, the English commander then turned north,
felt his way along the coast of Florida, landing from
time to time to examine the capabilities of the country,
and visiting and relieving the French settlements there.
Finally passing up to the Banks of Newfoundland, he
fed his tired and famished crews with his fishing lines ;
and so in September came safely back with his golden
spoils into Padstow Harbour, having lost in the whole
voyage, including those who had been killed by the
negroes, not more than twenty men.2

1 ' Esperando la flota de la nueva
Espana 6 tierra firma, para ver si
de paso podrian tomar algun navio
della.' — De Silva to Philip: MS.
Simancas.

- From Padstow, Hawkins wrote
the following letter to Elizabeth: —

'Please your Majesty to be in-
formed that this 2Oth day of Sep-
tember I arrived in a port of Corn-
wall called Padstow, with your
Majesty's ship the 'Jesus' in good

safety — thanks be to God— our voy-
age being reasonably well accom-
plished according to our pretence.
Your Majesty's commandment at my
departing from your Grace at Enfield
I have accomplished, so as I doubt
not but it shall be found honourable
to your Highness, for I have always
been a help to all Spaniards and
Portugals that have come in my way
Avithout any form or prejudice by me
offered to any of them, although

1565.] KttGLAtfD av Tin-: sfi/t. 65

Lord Pembroke and the other contributors made
sixty per cent, on their adventure ; nor need it be sup-
posed that Elizabeth went without her share for the
ship. Hawkins, on his arrival in London, was the
hero of the hour, affecting the most unconscious frank-
ness, and unable to conceive that he had done anything
at which the King of Spain could take offence.

' I met him/ de Silva wrote, ' in the palace, and in-
vited him to dine witli me ; he gave me a full account
of his voyage, keeping back only the means by which he
had contrived to trade at our ports. He assured me on
the contrary that he had given the greatest satisfaction
to all the Spaniards with whom he had had dealings,
and had received full permission from the governors
of the towns where he had been. The vast profit made
by the voyage has excited other merchants to undertake
similar expeditions. Hawkins himself is going out
again next May ; and the thing requires immediate
attention. I might tell the Queen that by his own
confession he has traded in ports prohibited by your
Majesty, and require her to punish him ; but I must
request your Majesty to give me full and clear instruc-
tions what to do.' l

From this time, and until his mantle descended to
his friend and pupil Francis Drake, Hawkins, or
Achines as the Spaniards called him, troubled the

many tinu.s in this tract they have
been under my power ; I have also
discovered the coast of Florida in
those parts where there is thought
to be great wealth. Your Majesty's,
VOL. vni.

&c.'— 1'j.i^ s'fi J/.V6'. Magdulen Col-
lege, Cambridge.

1 De Silva to Philip, November

MS.

66 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 47.

dreams and perplexed the waking thoughts of Philip
the Second. In every despatch in which the name is
mentioned the sprawling asterisks in the margin re-
main to evidence the emotion which it produced. The
report of that audacious voyage enhanced the warmth
with which the cause of Mary Stuart was adopted at
Madrid ; and the King of Spain was haunted with a
vague foreboding that the visits of these roving English
would carry ruin to his colonies, and menace the safety
of his gold fleets.

It would be to misread history and to forget the
change of times, to see in Hawkins and his successors
mere commonplace buccaneers ; to themselves they ap*
peared as the elect to whom God had given the heathen
for an inheritance ; they were men of stern intellect arid
fanatical faith, who, believing themselves the favourites
of Providence, imitated the example and assumed the
privileges of the chosen people ; and for their wildest
and worst acts they could claim the sanction of religious
conviction. In seizing negroes or in pillaging galleons
they were but entering into possession of the heritage
of the saints ; and England had to outgrow the the •
ology of the Elizabethan Calvinists before it could un-
derstand that the Father of Heaven respected neither
person nor colour, and that his arbitrary favour, if
more than a dream of divines, was confined to spiritual
privileges.

Again in the following year the slave fleet was
fitted for the sea. It was at the crisis in Elizabeth's
fortunes when the birth of James had given fatal

I566.] KXCLAtfD OA* /'//£ SEA 67

strength to the party of the Queen of Scots, and to
affront Philip was dangerous. When on the eve of
sailing, Hawkins was called before the council, in
deference to the imperious remonstrances of dc Silva,
and was bound in securities not to approach the West
Indies, or break the laws, or injure in any way the sub-
jects of the King of Spain. Shackled by these com-
mands he sent out his vessels without himself accom-
panying them: no English record remains to MIV
whither the expedition went; only it was known that
the ships returned loaded with gold and silver and rich
skins, and whispered stories reached de Silva's ears that
the Council's orders had not been too closely followed.
Whether the crews again effected some negro smug-
gling, which they and those who dealt with them were
alike interested in concealing, or whether the spoils
which they brought back with them formed the freight-
age of some Spanish vessel which never reached its
port, the silent ocean kept its secrets; and when the
bold adventurers came back to Plymouth, the Nether-
lands were plunging into mutiny, the Catholics in
England were shattered by the explosion at Kirk-a-
Field, and Elizabeth could afford to be more careless of
Philip's pleasure.

Her subjects might now exact restitution at their
pleasure for their murdered comrades in Spain,1 and in

1 Hakluyt seems to have known
nothing of any voyage of Hawkins's
men in 1566; but the entries in the
council books prove that some voy-

age or other was contemplated ; uiul
the following words of de Silva in
October, 1 567, refer distinctly to the
year preceding.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 48.

the very midst of de Silva's outcries, in the autumn of
1567, the ' Jesus ' was again placed at Hawkins's dis-
posal; four more ships, all powerfully armed, were
equipped as her consorts ; and the intention was scarcely
concealed with the faintest affectation of denial, to
dare the King of Spain to do his worst, and to carry
slaves, whether he would or not, to the American
colonies.

The two countries were thus drifting fast into un-
declared war, and peace existed but in name. While the
fleet was preparing for sea in Plymouth a Spanish ship
of war came into Catwater with the Castilian flag fly-
ing ; she had prisoners on hoard from the Netherlands,
probably insurgents ; and Hawkins, affecting to suppose
that she was come in with bad intentions, at once fired
upon her,1 and forced her to lower her flag. The pri-

* V. Md. mando cl ano pasado &
Fennar y a John Achines quando
enviaban sus navios que no partiesen
sin primero dar fian9as de que no
irian a aquellas partes, ni tratasen
mal los subditos de su Md. que to-
pasen en el mar. Que segun soy
avisado no lo cumplieron, en espe-
cial John Achines, como es cosa
sabida, y se entiende de sus marine-
ros, y por el oro y plata y cueros que
han traido. Sobre lo qual V. Md.
sera servida mandar que se haga lo
que conforme a razon y justicia se
dcbe, como contra personas que han
contravenido al mandamiento de V.
Md. ; que todo es materia dc mala
consequencia, y que los que cometen

estos delitos 6 los que los mandan
hacer y los que no los han castigado
deben desear que la buena amistad
que hay entre V. Md. y el Key mi
Sen or no se conserve procurandolo
con semej antes excesses y otros talcs,
unos robando por la mar a sus sub-
ditos, otros yendo adoles esta pro-
hibido,' &c.— De Silvato Elizabeth,
October 6, 1567: Spanish MSS.
Rolls House.

•• ' Hizo tirar desde una torre, y
tan bien de los dichos navios seis 6
siete canonagos, hasta dar dentro dc
mi navio con las balas, y por esta
causa me fue fo^ado de quitar las
banderas de V. Md., lo qual nunca
me ha succdido en iiingun lugar dc

1567.] ENGLAND ON THE SEA. 69

soncrs in the confusion escaped, took refuge on board
the ' Jesus/ and a few days after were carried off in a
Flemish vessel.

So violent an outrage could not be wholly over-
looked ; and Elizabeth sent to Plymouth to make in-
quiries ; but Hawkins merely affected astonishment at
her displeasure. He assumed that the Spaniard had in-
tended to break the peace of the port, and claimed the
thanks of his sovereign for having protected the honour
of the realm.1

'Your mariners/ said, the Spanish ambassador to
Elizabeth, 'rob my master's subjects on the sea, and
trade where they are forbidden to go ; they plunder
our people in the streets of your towns ; they attack our
vessels in your very harbours, and take our prisoners
from them ; your preachers insult my master from their
pulpits ; and when we apply for justice we are answered
with threats.

' We have borne with these things, attributing them
rather to passion or rudeness of manners than to any
deliberate purpose of wrong ; but seeing that there is
no remedy and no end, I must now refer to my sove-
reign to learn what I am to do. I make however
one concluding appeal to your Majesty; I entreat
your Majesty to punish this last outrage at Ply-

Inglatierra en xvii 6 xviii anos que
ha que tengo este cargo.' — Copia de
Capitulo de Cartes que M. de Waclicn
scrivio asu Md. September 23, 1567:

MS. Simanca*.

1 ' Copia de la Carta de Achines
al Secrotario Cecil.' — MS,

7c KEIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 47.

mouth, and to preserve the peace between the two na-
tions.' l

Elizabeth gave a smooth answer ; she affected — per-
haps she felt — some real regret and displeasure ; but
Hawkins was allowed to sail, where the slow foot of
justice at length came up with him.

De Silvato Elizabeth, October 6, 1567 : Spanish MSS. Rolls Home..

CHAPTER XLVIII,

CARBERRY H1U-,

IflNOIlMOUS crimes are not subjects on ,r$7.
_LJ which it is desirable to encourage an in- Ia

terest, and had the assassination of Darnley been no
more than a vulgar act of wickedness — had the mysteries
connected with it and the results arising from it ex-
tended only to the persons, the motives, and the escape
or punishment of the perpetrators or their accessories,
it might have remained a problem for curious specula-
tion, but it would neither have deserved nor demanded
the tedious attention of the historian. Those events
only are of permanent importance which have either
affected the fortunes of nations, or have illustrated in
some signal manner the character of the epochs at which
they have occurred. If the tragedy at Kirk o'Field had
possessed no claim for notice on the first of these
grounds, deeds of violence were too common in the
givut families of Scotland in the sixteenth century to
have just itied a minute consideration of a single special
act of villuny.

72 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

But the death of the husband ofjhe AueenjDf Scots
gf_incid_ents which, like the

murder of Caosar, have touched the interests of the en-
tire educated world. Perhaps there is no single re-
corded act, arising merely out of private or personal
passions, of which the public consequences have been so
considerable. The revolution through which Scotland
and England were passing was visibly modified by it ;
it perplexed the counsels and complicated the policy of
the great Catholic Powers of the Continent ; while the
ultimate verdict of history on the character of the
greatest English statesmen of the age, must depend
upon the opinion which the eventual consent of man-
kind shall accept on the share of the Queen of Scots
herself in that transaction. If the Queen of Scots was
the victim of a conspiracy, which at the present day and
with imperfect knowledge can nevertheless be seen
through and exposed, it is impossible to believe that
men like Sir William Cecil, Sir Nicholas Bacon, or
Lord Bedford were deceived by so poor a contrivance ;
and as the vindication of the conduct !_of_the_ English
Government proceeds on the assumption of her guilt,
so the determination of her innocence wilL equally be
the absolute condemnation of Elizabeth andJEHzohetyQ
advisers.

Yet the difficulty of the investigation has been oc-
casioned only by the causes which make it necessary.
Had the question been no more than personal, it would
long ago have been decided ; but we have to do with a
case on which men have formed their opinions, not on

1567.] CARD ERR Y HILL. 73

the merits of the evidence, but through the passions or
traditions of the party to which they have belonged.
The interests of the Catholics required at the time that
a plea of innocence on behalf of the Queen of Scots
should formally be preferred before the world. The
same cause, reinforced by the later political sympathies
of the adherents of the Stuarts, converted afterwards
the formal plea into a real one. And thus things once
considered certain, and against which no contemporary
evidence can be adduced deserving to be called by the
name, have been made doubtful by the mere effect of
repeated denial. Conjectures have been converted into
facts by hardy assertions; and now, when the older
passions are cooling down, sentimentalism prolongs
the discussion with the materials accumulated to its
hand.

It is therefore of the highest importance to ascer-
tain "tHe immediate belief^of the time at which the
murder took place, while party opinions were_still un-
H! taped and party action undetermined. The reader is
invited to follow the story as it unfolded itself from day
to day. He will be shown each event as it occurred,
with the impressions which it formed upon the minds
of those who had best means of knowing the truth.
He will see the judgment passed upon the conduct of
the Queen of Scots, both by friend and foe, before the
explanations and interpretations which form her general
defence had as yet been put forward by her advocates ;
and thus, when he comes to the circumstances under
which these explanations were laid before the world, he

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 48.

will be in a position to judge for himself the degree of
credibility which attaches to them.

Taking up the narrative therefore where it was left •
in the 45th chapter of this history, the reader will con-
sider himself at Holyrood on the morning of the loth
of February. By the time that day had broken, the
King's death, and the apparent manner of it, was
known throughout the town. The people were rushing
about the streets. The servants of the Court were talk-
ing eagerly in knots about the quadrangle of the palace.
It was ascertained at the lodge that the Earl of Both-
well or some of his people had passed out after the
Queen had returned the preceding night, and had
entered again after the explosion. An instinct, ex-
plained by the character of the man, pointed at once
to the Earl as the assassin ; and as Paris, the French
page, crossed the court to his master's room, ' all men
looked askance at him/ and read guilt in his white
cheeks and shuffling movements.1

1 Nicholas Hubert, alias French
Paris, was Both well's page. He left
Scotland soon after the murder,
being too much terrified to remain
there, and for eighteen months was
supposed to have been drowned.
But he had probably spread the re-
port himself, that there might be no
further inquiry after him. It was
discovered afterwards that he had
rejoined his master in Denmark, and
in the early summer of 1569 the
Regent Murray or the Regent Mur-
ray's friends got possession of his

person ' by policy.' In some way or
other he was kidnapped and brought
over to Leith. His capture was
carefully kept secret. He was taken
privately to St Andrews, where the
Regent happened to be, and ex-
amined by George Buchanan, Robert
Ramsay, Murray's steward, and John
Wood, his confidential secretary.
Paris made two depositions, the first
not touching Mary Stuart, the second
fatally implicating her. This last
was read over in his presence. He
signed it, and was then executed,

1567.]

. CAR BERRY II ILL.

The Ormistons, Dalgleish, Powry, Hepburn, and the
other conspirators were already collected as he entered.
Bothwell asked him savagely why he stood shaking
there, with such u hangdog look upon him. He said
miserably that he was afraid of being found out and
punished. ' You ? ' said the Earl, glaring at him —
' you ? Yes, you are a likely person to be suspected.
Look at these gentlemen. They have lands and goods,
wives and children, and they have risked them all in
my service. The sin, if sin it be, is mine, not yours. I
tell you the Lords of Scotland have done this deed. A
wretch like you is safe in your insignificance/ Collect-
ing his spirits as he could, Paris went to the apart-
ments of the Queen, where Bothwell followed him
directly after. Mary Stuart had slept soundly, but was
by this time stirring. The windows were still closed. The
room was already hung with black, and lighted with
candles. She herself was breakfasting in bed, eating
composedly, as Paris observed, a new-laid egg.1 She

that there might be no retractation
or contradiction. The haste and the
concealment were intended merely to
baffle Elizabeth, who it was feared
would attempt to get hold of him
and suppress his evidence. She did,
in fact, hear that he was in the Re-
gent's hands, and she instantly wrote
to desire that his life might be
spared, but it was too late to be of
use to the poor wretch. The antici-
pation of her interference had hast-
» in (I his death ; he was hanged
before IUT li-ttrr arrivi-d, and his de-

position countersigned by the ex-
aminers, which is now in the Record
Office, was forwarded in reply.
— Depositions and declarations of
Nicholas Hubert, August, 1569 :
MSS. Scotland, Rolls House. De-
positions of French Paris, printed
in Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, and in
Goodall, vol. ii. p. 76. For the ac-
count of Paris's capture and Eliza-
beth's letters, see also MSS. Scot-
land, Rolls House.

1 ' Le Lundy matin entre neuf et
ilix ht-nros, lc diet Paris diet qn'il

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[en. 48.

did not notice or speak to him, for Bothwell came close
behind and talked in a low voice with her behind the
curtain.

Whatever may or may not have been her other bad
qualities, timidity was not one of them ; and if she was
innocent of a share in the murder, her self-possession was
equally remarkable. Her husband, the titular King of
Scotland, had been assassinated the night before in the
middle of Edinburgh, not two hours after she had her-
self left his side. The perpetrators were necessarily
men about the Court, and close to her own person.
She professed to believe that she was herself the second
object of the conspiracy, yet she betrayed neither
surprise nor alarm. The practical energy, at other
times so remarkable, was conspicuously absent. She
did not attempt to fly. She sent for none of the
absent noblemen to protect her ; the vigour, the resolu-
tion, the fiery earnestness which she had shown on the
murder of Kizzio — of these there was no outward
symptom. Leaving the conspirators to meet in council
and affect to deliberate, she spent her morning in
writing a letter to the Archbishop of Glasgow, her
ambassador in Paris, informing him of the catastrophe :
declaring her resolution, which it might have been
thought unnecessary to insist upon, of punishing the
murderers as soon as they should be discovered. But

cntre dans la chambre cle la Reyne,
laquelle estoit bien close, et son lict
la tendu du noire en signe de deuil,
et de la chandelle allumee dedans

icelle, la ou Madame de Bryant luy
donnoit a dejeuner d'ung oeuf frais.'
— Second deposition of Paris : Prr-
CAIRN, vol. i. part 2, p. ^OQ.

1567.] CAKB&MYHtLL ft

she took no active steps to discover them. Lennox,
Darnley's father, was at Glasgow or near it, but she
did not send for him. Murray was within reach, but
she did not seem to desire his presence ; although she
told the Archbishop that only accident had interfered
with her intention of spending the previous night at
Kirk o'Field, — that ' whoever had taken the enterprise
in hand, it had been aimed as well at herself as at the
King, since the providence of God only had prevented
her from sleeping in the house which was destroyed/ l

Later in the day a despatch came in from the Arch-
bishop himself, containing a message to her from
Catherine de Medici that her husband's life was in
danger, and another letter to the same effect from the
Spanish ambassador in London ; but, alas ! as she
said in her reply, ' the intimation had come too late.'
The plot, it seems, was known in Paris, and known to
de Silva ; yet she, if she was to be believed, was inno-
cent of all suspicion of it.

In the afternoon there was a faint show of iim-»ti-
gatioii. Argyle and Bothwell went to inspect the ruins.
The body was brought down to Holyrood, and the serv-
ants who had survived the explosion and the inhabitants
of the adjoining houses were sent for and questioned.

night past, being February 9 ; and

1 The letter of the Queen of
Scots to the Archbishop is printed
both by Keith and Lubanoff. It is
dated February 1 1 . But there is an
evident mistake, or the Queen added
the date the day after the letter was
written, for she describes the murder
as haviug been committed <>u the

in a second letter, written a week
after, she says, ' we received your
letter upon the loth of this in>t;int,
and that same day wrait to you.' —
Mary Stuart to the Archbishop « f
Glasgow, February 18: LADANOFK,
vol. ii.

REIG.V OF ELIZABETH.

. 48.

Feb. n.

They could tell but little, for who, it was said, ' dared
accuse Bothwell, who was doer, judge, inquirer, and
examiner ? ' l Even so however, and in the midst of
their alarm, awkward hints and facts were blurted out
which it was desirable to keep back, and the witnesses
were not pressed any further.

The next morning (Tuesday) a proclama-
tion appeared, signed by Bothwell, Maitland,
and Argyle, offering a reward of 2OOO/. for the dis-
covery of the murderer, with a free pardon to any ac-
complice who would confess. In the evening, after
dusk, an anonymous placard was fixed against the door
of the Tplbooth, accusing Bothwell and Sir James Bal-
four as the immediate perpetrators, and containing, in
addition, the ominous words, ' that the Queen was an
assenting party, through the persuasion of the Earl
Bothwell and the witchcraft of the Lady Buccleuch.'2

Surrounded by his own retainers, with
every member of the council at Edinburgh, if
not as guilty as himself, yet implicated too deeply to
act against him, Bothwell met the challenge with open

Feb. 13.

1 BUCHANAN.

2 Margaret Douglas, wife of Sir
Walter Scott of Buccleuch, was the
daughter of the Earl of Angus, and
cousin of Morton. Like her sister
Lauy lleres, she had been one of the
many mistresses of Bothwell, and it
was by her that the Earl had been
especially recommended to the notice
of Mary Stuart. She does not ap-
pear to have been a very modest

lady. Sir "William Dnny, writing
to Cecil, said : ' I dare not deliver
unto your honour the Lady Buc-
cleuch's speech, yea openly, of her
telling the cause that she bred his
greatness with the Queen by, nor of
her speech of the Queen, nor of his
insatiateness towards women.' —
Drury to Cecil, May, 1567: Border
MSS. Rolls House

1 567. 3 c.i A'# /«: A- A' ) • ////. /,. 79

defiance. In a second proclamation he invited bis ac-
cuser to come forward, prove bis cbarge, and claim bis
reward. An answer instantly appeared, again un-
signed, but declaring that if the 2Ooo/. was produced
and was deposited in some indifferent band, and if two
of tbe Queen's servants, Bastian, and Joseph llizxio, Da-
vid's brother, were arrested, the writer, and ' four others
with him/ would declare themselves and make good
their words. Perhaps the names mentioned suggested
too close a knowledge of dangerous facts. The men
were not arrested, and the council said no more j but as
the silence and inaction continued, the tongues of all
men were loosed, and the thoughts which were in the
minds of every one burst into the air. Midnight cries
were heard in the wynds and alleys of Edinburgh, cry-
ing for vengeance upon the Queen and Bothwell. Each
day as it broke showed the walls pasted with * bills,' in
which their names were linked together in an infamous
union of crime — and, bold as they were, they were
startled at the passionate instinct with which their
double guilt had been divined. Fifty desperate men
guarded the Earl whenever he appeared in the street.
If he spoke to any one * not assured his friend, his hand
was on his dagger hilt ; ' and he swore savagely, ' that
if he knew who were the setters-up of the bills and
writings, he would wash his hands in their blood/1

The atmosphere of Edinburgh grew unpleasant.
The (\>urt thought of removing into easier and safer

Drury to Cecil, February 28: Border

REIGN OF ELIZABETIt.

[CH. 48.

quarters at Stirling, and an intimation was conveyed to
Lord Mar, who was in charge of the castle, that the
Queen wished to be his guest. Mar however declined
to admit within the gates a larger force than he could
keep in order, and Bothwell dared not leave his fol-
lowers behind him. The hereditary guardian of the
Prince was too important a person to quarrel with, and
it was necessary to put up with the refusal.1

Secured as he was of the support or silence of the
principal noblemen, Bothwell had evidently not been
pgerjared for such an outburst of emotion about a mere
murder. A thrust with a dirk or a stroke with a sword
was the time-hallowed and custom-acknowledged method
of ridding the world of an enemy. The pitiful desertion
of his companions after E/izzio's murder had left Darn-
ley almost without a single friend ; and but for a new
spirit which waj^jjpuring with the Reformation into
Scottish life, the mere destruction of a troublesome boy
would have been but the wonder of a day, forgotten in
the next tragedy. The change of times however was
not understood till it was felt, and it was supposed that
a short absence of the Court would give time for pas-
sion to cool. Forty days of close seclusion was the
usual period prescribed for Royal mourning ; but the
Queen found the confinement injurious to her health,
and as Stirling was impracticable, she turned her

1 ' The Earl of Mar is not the
best liked of, for he might have had
guests. But he will have no more
than such as he may rule. He hath

been dealt with, but he will not
yield.'— Sir William Drury to Cecil.
February 19: Border MS 'S.

1567.]

CAKBRKRY HILL.

thoughts elsewhere.1 Darnley was privately buried at
Holyrood on the night of the I5th; his horses and
clothes were given to Both well ; * and on the morning
of the 1 6th, Mary Stuart, attended by Both-
well, Huntly, Argyle, Maitland, Lords Flem-
ing, Livingston, and a hundred other gentlemen, rode
away to the house of Lord Seton, near Preston Pans.
The Archbishop of St Andrews, the Primate of Scot-
land, gave the party the sanction of his right reverend
presence. As a Hamilton, he could not butjook stiih
favour on the destruction of the heir of the rival house
of Lennox. The Queen was committing herself to a
course, of which the end, to his experienced eyes, was
tolerably clear ; and Mary Stuart once out of the way,
Chatelherault, by prescriptive right, would again be-
come Regent, and the baby- Prince alone remain be-
tween the house of Hamilton and the Scottish crown.8
Lord Seton entertained the royal party in person.

1 Leslie, Bishop of Boss, the first
champion ' of Queen Mary's honour/
gives a singular reason for her neg-
lect of the usual observance on this
occasion. As to the forty days of
mourning, he said, which ought to
have been kept, ' Kings might be
mourned for in that way ; but Darn-
ley was only a king by courtesy ; he
was a subject, and took his honour
from his wife, and therefore her
Grace mourned after another sort.'
— Defence of Queen Mary's Honour,
printed by Anderson.

* The clothes were sent to a
tailor to be altered for their new
VOL. vui.

owner. The tailor said it was the
custom of the country, the clothes of
the dead were always the right of
the hangman. — CALDKRWOOD.

3 The false dealing of the Hamil-
tons, which in the sequel will appear
more clearly, was seen through at
the time. Sir William Drury wrote,
' It is judged the Bishop of St An-
drews encourages the Queen and
Bothwell in this manner to proceed
not from any good- will to either of
them, but for both their destructions
the rather to bring his friends to
their purpose.' — Drury to Cecil, Ma)
6: Borfa-MSS.

KEfGW OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 48.

The Queen, relieved from the suggestions and remi-
niscences of Edinburgh, recovered rapidly from the
indisposition which was the excuse of her departure.
The days were spent in hunting and shooting, varied
only with the necessary attention to immediate and
pressing business. Elizabeth was to be written to. She
could not be left without formal information of her
cousin's death ; and Sir Robert Melville, whom Eliza-
beth knew and liked, was chosen as the bearer of the
communication. The Queen of England had objected
so strongly to the original marriage with Darnley, and
had been so indignant and alarmed at the consummation
of it, that it was doubtless expected that she would ac-
cept placidly the news that he was put out of the way.
To sweeten the information still further, and remove all
possible unpleasantness, Mary Stuart empowered Mel-
ville to say that she was now prepared to yield on the
great point which she had so long contested, to ratify
the disputed clause in the Treaty of Leith, and abandon
i her pretensions to Elizabeth's crown.1

In France also there were special matters
Feb. 16—24. , -,

to be arranged with convenient speed. More

than once already Mary Stuart had experienced the in-
convenience of the unprotected condition in which she

1 ' Quant aux trois choses qui
m'ont estee communiquez par Mel-
ville, j'entends par toutes ces in-
structions que eontinuez en grande
envie de me satisfaire, et qu'il vous
contentera d'octroyer la requeste que
my lord Bedford vous faict en mon
nom pour la ratification de vostre

traicte qui 6 ou 7 ans pass£es en
estoit faict, vous promettant que je
la demandois aultant pour vostre
bien que pour quelque proffit qui
m'en resouldra.' — Elizabeth to the
Queen of Scots, February 24, 1567 :
MSS. Scotland, Rolls House.

I567.]

CARHERRY HILL.

lived at liolyrood. The sovereign, though feudal head
of the military force of the kingdom, yet commanded
the services of the lieges only through the noblemen to
whom they owed their first obedience ; and while the
Earl of Argyle had but to raise his linger and 5000
breechless followers would be ready at the moment to
follow him through life and death, the sovereign, if tht
uobles held aloof, commanded but the scanty services of
the scattered vassals of the Crown lands. The present
prospects of the Court were at least precarious. She
felt that neither she herself nor Bothwell would be the
worse for the presence of a foreign guard undistracted
by the passions of Scottish factions. She had therefore
already begun the arrangements for the enrolment of a
company of French harquebuss-men. Her French dowry
would pay for them. They could be called the Prince's
Guard, and Bothwell could command them. The times
were growing more urgent, and she wrote a second letter
from Seton House to the Archbishop of Glasgow, desiring
him to ask at once for the unpaid arrears which were
owing to her ; to accept no refusal ; if he could not get
the whole, to take as much as the Court would give ;
and she would then send over some one to enlist men for
her service.1

1 'And for the company of men-
at-arms, we pray you use even the
like diligence to have the matter
brought to pass in favour of the
Prince our son, as we mentioned in
our other letters sent you for that
purpose; and although the whole

company's payment cannot be grant-
ed, leave not off but take that which
shall be offered. The captain must
be our son ; for the lieutenant there
is none in that country (France)
whom we can be content to place in
that room. Upon your advertise-

84 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48-

As to the murder, it was evidently hoped that no-
thing more need be said or done about it. The al-
teration which had passed over the Scottish people
with the Beformation, the responsibility to European
opinion, the sense of which was spreading every-
where with the growth of intellectual light, was un-
felt and unconjectured by the party assembled at Seton ;
and as long as Huntly, Bothwell, and Argyle held to-
gether and held with the Queen, they commanded a
force which for the present there was no one able to
encounter.

But the Earl of Lennox, though unable to act,
was not disposed to sit down thus passively.
The Queen of Scots had written civilly to him,
and had professed a wish to be guided by his advice ;
but he knew Mary's character too well to trust im-
plicitly her general and smooth professions. He must
have known the fears which Darnley had himself
expressed before his removal to Kirk oj Field. He
had seen him during his illness, and could hardly have
been deceived about the character of it. He must have
heard from Crawford the particulars of Mary Stuart's
visit to Glasgow ; and if the people generally, on mere
outward grounds of suspicion, were already fastening
upon the Queen as an accomplice in the murder, no
doubt at all could have rested in the mind of Lennox.

racnt we shall send thither either I his travel frustrate; for otherwise

the lieutenant or some qualified per-
sonage for him to take up his com-
pany, heing aforehand assured by
you that he shall speed and not find

we would be loathe that our proceed-
ing should be known.' — Mary Stuart
to the Archbishop of Glasgow, Feb-
ruary 18: LABANOFF, vol. ii.

1567.] CARBEKKY HILL. 85

Not daring to repair to Edinburgh, he remained
watching the direction of events at his house at Houston
in Renfrewshire, and from thence he replied to the
Queen's letter with a demand that she should instantly
assemble the entire nobility of the realm to investigate
the extraordinary catastrophe.

The propriety of such a course was so obvious, that
if the Queen had really desired that the truth should
be discovered, she would have adopted it of her own
accord. No inquiry was possible while the Court and
administration were under the control of a single faction.
Mary Stuart however calmly answered that she had
already ' caused proclaim a Parliament,' which would
meet in the spring. Nothing would then be left un-
done to further the trial of the matter, and it was
unnecessary to anticipate their assembly. Lennox
rejoined that a murder was no ' Parliament matter.'
Time was passing away, and the assassin might fly the
realm in the interval. Particular persons had been
publicly accused, and at least her Majesty might order
the arrest of those persons, call the Lords together,
and invite the denouncers to present their evidence.
* So/ he said, ' shall your Majesty do an honourable and
godly act in bringing the matter to sic a narrow point,
us either it shall appear plainly, or else the tickets shall
be found vain of themselves, and the parties slandrretl
be exonerated and put to liberty.'1

A call of the Peers would have brought up Murray,

1 Correspondence between the I Scots, February and March, 1567,
Earl of Lennox and the Queen of | printed by Keith and by Labanon".

86 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 4&

Atholl, Mar, and possibly others, who, if not Darnley's
friends, yet would feel the enormity of the murder, and
had no interest in the concealment of the criminals.
Under their protection the yet warm scent of the as-
sassins could be traced, some or other of them be caught,
and the truth made known.

It is impossible to believe that Mary Stuart desired
any such result. Quite evidently she desired to ' tract
time/ that the excitement might die away. She
answered that she could not assemble the Lords before
the Parliament, ' as they would think double convening
heavy to them •' as to apprehending the persons
named in the tickets on the Tolbooth door, there were
so many that she did not know on which ticket to
proceed ; but, treating Lennox as if it concerned him
only and not herself or public justice at all, she said
that if among those accused there was any one whom
he desired to have brought to trial, ' upon his advertise-
ment she would proceed to the cognition taking.'1

But Mary Stuart was not to escape so easily. Al-
though Darnley's rank and the wilcT manner of his
death" had startled people into more tlmn_u^uaLattejition,
had no interests circled about the Queen beyond those
which ^touched herself andher own^subjects^the murder
might^ have passed but as one bad deed of a lawless
ag^_ But Mary Stuart and her proceedings were of
exceptional importance, far bej^ond the limits of her
own kingdom^ Whether tlTe Huguenots should main-

1 Correspondence between the I Scots, February and March, 1567,
Karl of Lennox and the Queen of I printed by Keith and by Labanofl'.

1 567.] CARD ERR Y HILL. ,v.\ 87

tain themselves in France — whether the Netherlands
were to preserve their liberties in the wrestling-match
which was about to open with Spain — whether, in fact,
the Pope and the Catholics were to succeed or fail in the
great effort now to be made to trample out the Reform-
ation— these vast matters depended on whether Eng-
land should be Catholic or Protestant ; and whether
England, for that generation or that century, should bo
Catholic or Protestant depended on whether Mary Stuart
was or was not to be looked to as the heir-presumptive
to Elizabeth's crown.

It has been seen that the marriage with Darnley
had been considered and brought about among the
English Catholics with a single view to this end. The
proposal when first thought of had been submitted to
Philip the Second, and had received his sanction as a
step of supreme importance towards the reunion of
England with Rome ; while the fear and jealousy with
which the marriage had been regarded by Elizabeth
and Cecil showed how large advantage the Catholic
cause had gained by it. Darnley stood next to Mary
Stuart in the line of succession. He was an English
subject, and the national jealousy of aliens did not ex-
tend to him. His own peculiar party in England, fos-
tered as it had been by his mother's intrigues, had been
as large at one time as that of the Scottish Queen her-
self: and to the Great Powers, who were considering
how best to recover England from heresy, the union oi
the two pretensions had been a triumph of political
adroitness, and a matter of special gratitude to Pro-

88 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

vidence. Thus when it was first whispered that the
Queen of Scots and her husband were on bad terms,
their differences became a prominent subject in the
correspondence of the Spanish Court. Thus when
darker rumours stole abroad, that Darnley's life was in
danger, the Cardinal of Lorraine wrote to put the Queen
on her guard ; and the Spanish ministers both in Lon-
don and Paris took upon themselves to warn her ' well
to govern herself, and take heed whom she did trust.' ]
Thus when it became known that he was actually dead,
the Queen of Scots, in the first heat of disappointment,
was regarded as having trifled away the interests of a
great cause, for no object but her own private indulg-
ence. She^Jmd^en_a^mitted_as ajtartner in a game,
in which the stak&JEagithe future of the world, and she
had wrecked the prospe^ts_^f_^ex-par_ty in a petty
episode of intrigue and folly.

The opinion of Paris was as decided, and as decidedly
expressed, as the opinion of Edinburgh. The Arch-
bishop of Glasgow, when her letter reached him, did
his best to persuade people to accept her version of the
story. But Mary Stuart was too well known at the
French Court, and so far from being able to convince
others of her innocence, the Archbishop evidently was
unable to convince himself.

' He would/ he said in answer to her, ' he would he
could make her understand what was said of the miser-
able state of Scotland, the dishonour of the nobility,

Drury to Cecil, February 14 : Border MSS.

1567-] CARBERRY HILL. 89

the mistrust and treason of her subjects.' — 'Yea, she
herself was greatly and wrongously calumnit to be
motive principal of the whole, and all done by her
order.' He gathered from her Majesty's letter that it
' had pleased God to preserve her to take vigorous ven-
geance.' ' He could but say that rather than that ven-
geance were not taken, it were better in this world had
she lost life and all.' * Now was the time for her to
show that she deserved that reputation for religion
which she had gained for herself, by showing the fruits
< f it, and doing such justice as to the whole world might
declare her innocency.' ' There is sa mickle ill spoken,'
he concluded, ' that I am constrained to ask you mercy
that I cannot make the rehearsal thereof. Alas, Madam !
all over Europe this day there is no purpose in hand so
frequent as of your Majesty and of the present state
of your realm, whilk is for the most part interpreted
sinisterly.' l

Mary Stuart would have rather heard from thn
Archbishop that he had obtained the money for her
body-guard, and his letter must have increased her
anxiety for their arrival. If she was innocent all this
tii no, the ground must have been prepared beforehand
with marvellous skill. Before any evidence, genuine
or forged, had been produced against her, on the first
news of the catastmphp, t>ip> gppnral instinct had settled
upon her as the principal offender. If there be a diffi-
culty in believing that so young a Princess would have

1 The Archbishop of Glasgow to Mary Stuart, March 6: Printed by
KEITH.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[en. 48.

lent herself to such, a crime, it is singular that her
friends in Paris, who were most interested in her well-
doing, should have jumped so readily to so hard a con-
clusion.

It has been already mentioned l that among the first
to bring the news to London was Moret, minister of the
Duke of Savoy at Mary Stuart's Court, in whose train
David Bizzio had originally come to Scotland. The
opinion of Moret — a Catholic, a warm friend of the
Queen, and fresh from the scene — is of considerable
moment. The second day after the murder he hurried
away from Edinburgh, ' better pleased with his return/
as he explained to Sir William Drury on his passage
through Berwick, than when he went that way to the
scene of his embassy. On reaching London he hast-
ened to the Spanish ambassador. He was cautious in
what he said, but when de Silva cross- questioned him
about the Queen, although he did not expressly con-
demn her, he said not a word in her exculpation, and
left the ambassador certainly to infer that he suspected
her to have been guilty.2 He mentioned, among other
circumstances, one which had left a painful impression
upon him. Darnley, it seems, had intended to present
a pair of horses to the Duke of Savoy, and a day or two
before his death had told the Queen that he wished to see

1 Supra, cap. 45.

2 ' For las quales parccc que in-
duce sospecha de haber sabido o per-
mitido la Reyna este tratado ; y aun
apuritandole quc me dixese lo que le
parecia conforme a lo quc el habia

visto y colegido, si la Reyna tenia
culpa dcllo, aunque no la condefio
de palabra no la salbo nada.' — De
Silva to Philip, March i. 1567 : MS

Simancas.

1567.] CARBERRY HILL. 91

Moret. She had said in answer that Moret was so
angry about Rizzio's murder that he would not go near
him : she had not the slightest ground for such a state-
ment, and had only wished to prevent the interview.1

On the 1 9th, Sir Robert Melville arrived with Mary
Stuart's letter. From him de Silva learnt further par-
ticulars, but again nothing to reassure him. Melville
indeed said that the Queen was innocent ; but he grew
confused when he was pressed closely,1 and his defence
was made more difficult when it became known that,
instead of remaining in retirement at Holyrood, the
Queen was amusing herself with her cavaliers at Seton.

Among the loudest to exclaim against her was Lady
Margaret ^Lennox, Darnley's mother, the maker of the
match which had ended so disastrously. This lady had
been hitherto expiating her offences in that matter in a
room in the Tower. She was rejejsed_immediately
after the murdejy and was besieging the Court with her
clamours. Melville complained of her language to de
Silva, but de Silva could not refuse to sympathize with
her.

1 1 told Melville,1 he wrote, ' that I was not surprised.
The wisest men would at times forget themselves in ex-
cess of sorrow, much more a woman in a case so piteous.
For it is not she alone who suspects the Queen to be
guilty of the murder ; there is a general opinion that
it has been done in revenge for the Italian secretary.*

1 De Silva to Philip, March I, 1567: MS. Simancas.

* ' Veole algo confnso.'— De Silva to Philip, February 22 : MS. Ibid.

3 De Silva to Philip, February 22 : MS. Ibid.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 48.

The heretics declare her guilt to be certain, their dislike
of her assisting their suspicions. The Catholics are
divided. The King's party are violent and angry. Her
own friends defend her. It is scarcely conceivable that
a Princess who had given so many proofs of piety and
virtue should have consented to such a business : but
should it so turn out to have been, she will lose many
friends, and the restoration of the Catholic faith in this
realm through her instrumentality will have become
more difficult. I have done all that was possible both
with the Queen of England and others, as in your Ma-
jesty's service I am bound to do ; and inasmuch as the
interests at stake are so considerable, I have entreated
her Highness to take no positive step without consulting
those who are good friends to your Majesty. However
it be, the consequences cannot fail to be serious. This
Queen perhaps may use the opportunity to interfere in
Scotland, not for any love which she felt for the late
King, but for her own purposes, the circumstances ap-
pearing to furnish her with a reasonable excuse.'1
) The belief in Mary Stuart's innocence, it thus ap-
pears, was limited to a single fraction of the English
/Catholics — in other words, to those whose interests in-
i clined them to a favourable judgment of her. But
there was one person who, if the popular theory of the
relation between the two sovereigns is correct, should
have rushed at once, under all the influence of public

1 De Silva to Philip, February
1 7, February 22, February 26 : MS.
Simancas. The words in the text

are extracted from three different
despatches.

1 567. ] CARBERR Y IIIL I. . 93

and personal jealousy, to the most unfavourable conclu-
sion, and yet who suspended her judgment and remained
incredulous. Elizabeth herself received the news of the
murder with profound emotion. She was in mourning
when she admitted Moret to an audience. Melville and
his message were both eminently unsatisfactory, and she
was convinced that there was some concealed mystery
which the Queen of Scots could have explained more
fully if she had chosen. Measures of precaution were
taken at the palace for the better security of Elizabeth's
own sleeping- rooms, and the guard was sifted and scru-
tinized. She told de Silva that, much as she had dis-
approved of the marriage, the murdered Prince was her
cousin, and she must insist upon an inquiry into the
circumstances ; yet, however the world might murmur,
she could not believe that the Queen of Scots was herself
accessory to his death. She dwelt upon every point in
the story which seemed to make for her. The report
that she was gone with Bothwell to Seton she rejected
as utterly incredible till it was proved beyond possi-
bility of doubt.

De Silva, notwithstanding his private opinion, en-
couraged her scepticism. More than one English noble-
man, who had hitherto favoured the Scottish succession,
had declared himself as intending for the future to ad-
vocate the rival claims of Lady Catherine Grey, who,
though dying slowly of harsh treatment, had yet some
months of life before her, and had borne children of am-
biguous legitimacy to inherit what right she possessed.
Elizabeth regarded this unfortunate woman with a de-

REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48

Gestation and contempt beyond what she had felt at the
worst times for Mary Stuart. De Silya knew her temper,
and worked upon her jealousy by suggesting a likelihood
of some movement in Lady Catherine's favour.1

She said she would at once send some one down to
Scotland to inquire into the truth, and enable her to
silence the scandalous reports which were flying. The
Queen of Scots might have been deeply in fault ; she
had been on bad terms with her husband ; she had per-
haps felt little regret for his death, and had been culpa-
bly unwilling to discover or punish the criminals ; but
Elizabeth was jealous of the honour of a sovereign prin-
cess, and this was the worst which she would allow.

Both^she and Cecil thought the opportunity a favour-
able one for terminating the disorders of Scotland, and
saving Mary Stuart herself from the perils injwhich her
carelessness ancf folly were involving her. If the Treaty
of Leith was now ratified, it had been all along under -
stood that the recognition of Mary Stuart as Elizabeth's
heir would speedily follow. The two countries would
then, at no distant time, be united, and the occasion
might be used, when Mary Stuart's critical position
would secure her compliance, to urge her to accept for
herself the modified Protestantism of England, and to
revive the old project of a preliminary union of the
Churches.

However unseasonable the intrusion of such a subject
at such a crisis may at first sight appear, it proves at

De Silva to Philip, February 22 : MS. Simancas.

'567-1

C A KB EX A Y HILL

any rate that Elizabeth did not as yet contemplate the
probability of a quarrel with her cousin as one of the
consequences of the murder, or she would not have
chosen the time to propose a measure which would ne-
cessarily draw them closer together. The more it is
considered, the more evidently it will be seen to have
been a token of essential good- will, and therefore in the
main of confidence. Sir Henry Killigrew was chosen as
the instrument of this well- intended but entirely useless
diplomacy. He was directed to sound the ministers of
the Kirk on the possibility of their being induced to
consent ; while Cecil by letter invited Maitland to work
upon the Queen of Scots.1

This was part of Killigrew's mission. The other
was to ascertain, as far as possible, the truth about the
murder, and to impress on Mary Stuart herself a keener
sense than she seemed to feel of her faults, of her duties,
and of her danger. It was the same advice which had
been urged upon her by the Archbishop of Glasgow,
and Elizabeth, to give it emphasis, wrote to her with her
own hand :

1 Cecil's letter on the subject lias
not been foun J,but Maitland' s answer
to it survives. Maitland was glad
of anything which would divert the
minds of Elizabeth and Cecil from
dangerous ground. ' For the mark,'
he wrote, ' which you do wish in your
letter I should shoot at, to wit that
her Majesty would allow your estate
in religion, it is one of the things on
earth I most desire. I dare be bold

enough to utter my fancy in it to her
Majesty, trusting that she will not
like me the worse for uttering my
opinion and knowledge in that which
is profitable for her every way ; and
I do not despair but although she
will not yield at the first, yet with
progress of time that point shall be
obtained.1— Maitland to Cecil, March
13 : .1/5. Scotland, Rollt House.

96 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

f Madam,' she said, 'my ears have been so astounded,
my mind so disturbed, my heart so shocked at the news
of the abominable murder of your late husband, that
even yet I can scarcely rally my spirits to write to you ;
and however I would express my sympathy in your
sorrow for his loss, so, to tell you plainly what I think,
my grief is more for you than for him. Oh, Madam, I
should ill fulfil the part either of a faithful cousin or
of an affectionate friend, if I were to content myself
with saying pleasant things to you and made no effort
to preserve your honour. I cannot but tell you what
all the world is thinking. Men say that, instead of
seizing the murderers, you are looking through your
fingers while they escape; that you will not punish
those who have done you so great a service, as though
the thing would never have taken place had not the
doers of it been assured of impunity.

' For myself, I beseech you to believe that I would
not harbour such a thought for all the wealth of the
world, nor would I entertain in my heart so ill a guest,
or think so badly of any prince that breathes. Far
less could I so think of you, to whom I desire all ima-
ginable good, and all blessings which you }^ourself
could wish for. But for this very reason I exhort, I
advise, I implore you deeply to consider of the matter —
at once, if it be the nearest friend you have, to lay
your hands upon the man who has been guilty of the
crime — to let no interest, no persuasion, keep you from
proving to every one that you are a noble Princess and
a loyal wife. I do not write thus earnestly because I

1567.] CARBERRY IIl^L. 97

doubt you, but for the love which I bear towards you.
You may have wiser councillors than I am — I can w<-ll
believe it — but even our Lord, as I remember, had a
Judas among the twelve : while I am sure that you
have no friend more true than I, and my affection may
stand you in as good stead as the subtle wits of others.'1

Supposing the Queen of Scots to have been really
free from the deepest shade of guilt, her warmest well-
wisher could not have written more kindly or advi- d
her more judiciously. To have followed the counsel to)
given, had the power been left her, would have been to
defeat thehopesof all who desired herruin,and to recover
to herself that respect and honour which, whether guilty
or innocent, she was equally forfeiting.

Mary Stuart however for the present was incapablo
of receiving advice, nor did Elizabeth's words reach the
exigencies of her position. The accounts which reach < d
her from so many sides might indeed have revealed to
.her the storm which was gathering, and so have awak-
ened her fears; but of fear she was constitutionally
destitute. The arrival of Elizabeth's messenger toucl i « I
lier only so far that it recalled her to the necessity • i
observing the forms of decency, and when she h<
that some one was coming, she hastened back to Holy-
^ood just in time to receive him. Killigrew reach « d
Edinburgh on the 8th of March, one day behind IHT.
He was entertained at dinner by the clique who had at-
tended her to Seton, and in the afternoon was admitted

1 Elizabeth to the Queen of Scots, February 24 (the original i< \\\
French) : JISS. Scotland, Holla House.

VOL VIII. 7

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH.

to a brief audience. The windows were half closed, the
rooms were darkened, and in the profound gloom the
English ambassador was unable to see the Queen's face,
but by her words she seemed ' very doleful.' She ex-
pressed herself warmly grateful for Elizabeth's kindness,
but said little of the murder, and turned the conversa-
tion chiefly on politics. She spoke of Ireland, and un-
dertook to prevent her subjects from giving trouble
there; she repeated her willingness to ratify the Treaty
of Leith, and professed herself generally anxious to
meet Elizabeth's wishes. With these general expres-
sions she perhaps hoped that Killigrew would have
been contented, but on one point his orders were posi-
tive, He represented to her the unanimity with which
Both well had been fastened upon as one of the murder-
ers of the King ; and before he took his leave he suc-
ceeded in extorting a promise from her that the Earl
should be put upon his trial.1 His stay in Scotland was
to be brief, and the little which he trusted himself to-
write was extremely guarded. The people he rapidly
found were in no humour to entertain questions of
Church policy. The mind of every one was riveted on
the one all-absorbing subject. As to the perpetrators,
he said there were ' great suspicions, but no proof/ and
so far 'no one had been apprehended/ 'He saw no
present appearance of trouble, but a general misliking

1 « The size for the Earl's trial is
the rather done by the Queen for the
observing of her promise to Mr
Killigvc\v, for she said and assured

him that the Earl should be put
upon his trial.'— Drury to Ceeil,
March 29: Border JI1SS. Rolls
House.

1567. J CARBEKR Y HILL. 99

among the commons and some others which abhorred
the detestable murder of their King, as a shame to the
whole nation — the preachers praying openly that God
would please both to reveal and revenge — exhorting all
men to prayer and repentance/ l

One other person of note he saw, and that was the
Earl of Murray — Murray, whose conduct in these mat-
ters lias been painted in as black colours as his sister's
was painted by Buchanan. Murray, since the murder,
had remained quiet — doing nothing because he saw no-
thing which he could usefully do. He had made one
effort to arrest Sir James Balfour, but he had been in-
stantly crossed by Both well,2 and he could stir no fur-
ther without calling on the commons to take arms — a
desperate measure for which the times were not yet ripe.
He was therefore proposing to withdraw as quietly as
possible into France. He wrote by Killigrew's hands
to Cecil for a safe-conduct to pass through England,
and, careful only not to swell the accusations which
were rising against the Queen, he entreated that neither
Cecil nor any one ' should judge rashly in so horrible a
crime/ 3

With this and the letter from Maitland about the
union of the Churches, Killigrew, in less than a week,
returned to London. No sooner was his back turned
than the Queen went again to Seton ; and now for the

1 Sir U. Killigrew to Cecil,
March 8: AtSS. Scotland, Rolls

Jfnllfi>:

• Sir John Foster to Cecil, March

3 : Border MSS.

3 Murray to Cecil, March 13
MSS. Scotland.

300 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 48.

first time it began to be understood that, although-
Both well was to be tried for the King's murder, he was
intended for the King's successor, and that at no distant
time the Queen meant to marry him. He had a wife
already indeed, as the reader knows — a Gordon, Lord
Huiitly's sister, whom he had but lately wedded ; but
there were means of healing the wound in the Gordons'
honour, by the restoration of their forfeited estates ; and
Huntly, it seems, though with some misgivings, was a
consenting party in the shameful compact.

We are stepping into a region where the very atmo-
sphere is saturated with falsehood, where those who out-
wardly were bosom friends wrere plotting each other's
destruction, and those who were apparently as guilty as
Bothwell himself were yet assuming an attitude to him,
at one moment of cringing subserviency, at the next of
the fiercest indignation ; where conspiracy was spun
within conspiracy, and the whole truth lies buried be-
yond the reach of complete discovery. Something how-
ever, if not all, may be done towards unravelling the
mystery.

There is much reason to think that the intention of
assassinating the unlucky Henry Darnley was known
far beyond the circle of those who were immediately
concerned in the execution of the deed. It had beeii
foreseen from the first by those who understood his cha-
racter, and who knew how inconvenient people were
disposed of in Scotland, that his life ' would be of no
long continuance there.' His loose habits had early
estranged him from the Queen The Douglases, and his

1567.3 CARBERR Y HILL. 101

other kinsmen who had joined him in the murder of
Iii/xio, he had converted into mortal enemies by his
desertion of them afterwards. He was at once meddle-
8ome and incapable, weak and cowardly, yet insolent
and unmanageable. He had aimed idly at the life of
the Earl of Murray. He had intruded himself into
politics, and had written vexatious letters to the Pope
and to the King of Spain. As the heir of the House of
Lennox, he was the natural enemy of the Hamiltons and
all their powerful kindred ; and in one way or another
he had given cause to almost every nobleman in Scot-
land, except his father, to feel his presence there unde-
sirable. His coming at all, though submitted to out of
deference to the English Catholics, had revived sleeping
feuds, and had broken up the unity of the council ;
while at the same time it had estranged Elizabeth, and
alienated the Protestant lords, who had before been as
loud as the rest in claiming the English succession for
their sovereign. The marriage, so far as Scotland was
concerned, had been a mistake. Could he have been
got rid of by a divorce his life might have been spared ;
but a divorce would have tainted the Prince's legiti-
macy, and the Prince's birth had given treble strength
to the Queen's party in England — strength sufficient, it
might be hoped, to overcome, after the first shock, the

•leu -sure which might be created among them by his
father's removal.

All these points had been talked over at Craigmillar,
before the baptism of James at Stirling. A bond was
signed there by Argyle, Bothwell, Huntly, Sir James

102 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

Balfour, and perhaps by Maitland, the avowed object of
which was Darnley's death. Morton, by his own con-
fession, was invited to join, and had only suspended his
consent till assured under the Queen's hand of her ap-
proval. There were other writings also, it will be seen,
which were afterwards destroyed, because more names
were compromised by them. But it seems equally cer-
tain that the relations between the Queen and Bothwell
were kept secret between themselves. Darnley was to
be made away with, only to open a way to some noble
alliance with France or Spain ; certainly not that his
place might be taken by a ruffian Border Earl, whose
elevation would be the most fatal of obstacles on the
Queen's road to the high place which Scotch ambition
desired for her.

Nor again were the other noblemen — unless perhaps
Argyle be an exception — acquainted beforehand with
the means by which the murder was actually effected.
Had the work been left to such a man as Maitland,
the wretched creature would have been made away with
by poison — as was unsuccessfully tried at Stirling — or
in some artificially created quarrel, or by some contriv-
ance in which foul play, though it might be guessed at,
could not have been proved. In that case it might have
been hoped that Elizabeth, who had proclaimed Barn-
ley traitor, had held his mother close prisoner in the
Tower, had resented the marriage as an immediate at-
tack upon her crown, would not look too curiously into
a casualty so much to her advantage ; and Mary Stuart,
free to choose another husband, might make fresh con-
ditions for her nlace in the succession.

1567.] C./AV>Y:M' Y HILL. 103

But Hnthwi'll had withdrawn the management into
his own liands. Although Mail land was in correspond-
ence with the Queen when Darnley was brought up
from Glasgow to Kirk o'Field, there is no reason to sup-
pose that he was admitted further into Bothwell's plans ;
and the murder had been brought about with such in-
genious awkwardness that it had startled all Kin
into attention. Unable to move, for their signature
compromised them, the lords could but sit still and wait
for what was to follow ; but it is easy to understand the
irritation with which they must have regarded the in-
truding blockhead who had marred the game, even
though they could see no present means by which the
fault could be rectified. It is easy to comprehend how
intense must have been their disgust, as they began to
find that, after all, they had been Bothwell's dupes —
that he had been using them as the stepping-stones to
Ms own lust and his own ambition.

The populace of Edinburgh had come early to their
own conclusions on the relations between the Queen and
the Earl. On her return to Seton after Killigrew's de-
parture, although she had promised that he should be
placed on his trial for the murder, she took no pains to
conceal the favour with which she regarded him. There
were moments when her danger struck her, and she had
passing thoughts of flying to France : but she had
reason to fear no very favourable reception there. The
French Court had not even gone through the form of
sending to condole with her on her widowhood. Tho
office had been proposed to the Marquis de Rambouillet,
but he had declined it, and no one had been chosen in

104

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[en. 4S.

his place.1 But Catherine de Medici and Charles had
written to tell her that if she did not exert herself to
discover and punish the assassin, she would cover her-
self with infam}r, and that she could expect for the
future no friendship or support from France.2 In that
direction there was little to be looked for : so the Queen
gathered up her nerves, resolving to trust her own re-
sources, and to defy the world and its opinion.

As a preparation for the trial, she placed in Botli-
well's hands the castles of Edinburgh, Blackness, and
Iiichkeith. Dunbar he held already, and Dumbarton
was to be given to him as soon as he could collect a
sufficient force to hold it.3 Another placard, accusing
him, was hung up on the Tolbooth door. The sup-
posed author, a brother of Murray of Tullibardine, was
proclaimed traitor. The ports were watched for him,
and any ' shipper ' who should carry him out of the
kingdom was threatened with death.4 That Bothwell
could be found guilty was certainly never contem-
plated as a possible contingency, for it was no longer a
secret that the Queen meant to marry him as soon as he
could be separated from his wife. The preliminaries of
the divorce were being hurried forward, and Lady Both-

1 Don Francis de Alava to Philip
II. March 15: TEULET, vol. i.

3 * The Queen-mother and the
French King did also write very
sorely to the Queen, assuring her
that if she performed not her pro-
mise in seeking by all her power to
have the death of the King their
cousin revenged, and to clear herself,

she should not only think herself
dishonoured, hut to receive them for
her contraries, and that they would,
he her enemies.' — Drury to Cecil,,
March 29 : Border MSS.

3 Ibid.

4 Royal Proclamation, March 121
ANDERSON.

'56M

CARBEKR Y HILL.

105

well, in tear of a worse fate for herself, had been in-
duced to sue for it. A plea was found in Bothwell's
own iniquities ; and that no feature might be wanting
to complete the foulness of the picture, his paramour,
Lady Buccleuch, was said to be ready, if necessary, to
come forward with the necessary evidence.1

The moral feeling of the age was not sensitive.
The Tudors, both in England and Scotland, had made
the world familiar with scandalous separations ; and
there wore few enormities for which precedents could
not be furnished from the domestic annals of the north-
ern kingdom. Yet there was something in the present
proceeding so preposterous, that even those most callous
in such matters were unable to regard it with indiffer-
ence. The honour of the country, the one subject on
which Scottish con^-imces were sensitive, was compro-
mised by so monstrous an outrage upon decency. The
Queen's political prospects would be ruined, without
any one .countervailing advantage whatever, if it was
allowed to take place. There was no national party to
gratify, no end to gain, no family alliance to support or
strengthen the Crown. Such a marriage under such
circumstances would simply be a disgrace. It would be
at once the consummation of an enormous crime, and a
public defiant confession of it in the face of all men.

1 « For the divorce between Both-
well and his Avife tins is arranged,
that the same shall come of her —
alleging: this— that she knoweth he
hath had the company of the Lady
Buccleuch since she was married to

him.' — Drury to Cecil, March 29:
Border MSS. And again: ' It is
thought that the Lady of Buccleuch,
if need be, will nftirm he hath so
done.' — Same to same, April 13 :
Ibid.

106 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

The murder itself might have been got over, and the
private adultery, even if it had been discovered, might
have been concealed or condoned. But to follow up the
assassination of her husband by an open marriage with
the man whom all the world knew by this time to have
been the murderer, was entirely intolerable. In such
hands the baby-Prince would be no safer than his father,
and one murder would soon be followed by another.

When it became certain that so extraordinary
a step was seriously contemplated, Sir James Melville
says,1 that ' every good subject who loved the Queen
had sore hearts.' Lord Herries, the most accomplished
of her friends, a man of the world, who saw what
would follow, was the first to hasten to her feet to re-
monstrate. The Queen received him with an affectation
of surprise. She assured him that ' there was no such
thing in her mind/ and he could but apologize for his
intrusion and retire from the Court at his best speed,
before Bothwell had heard what he had done.

Melville himself tried next, and he received oppor-
tune assistance from a quarter to which of all others
Mary Stuart could least afford to be indifferent. Thomas
Bishop, her agent in England, of whom we shall hear
again, and who was eventually hanged, being at this
moment the expositor of the feelings of the leading
English Catholics, wrote a letter to Melville, which he
desired him to show to the Queen.

'It was reported in England,' Bishop said, 'that

Memoirs of Sir James Melville.

1567.] C ARE ERR Y HILL. 107

her Majesty was to marry the Earl Bothwell, the mur
derer of her husband, who at present had wife of his
own, and was a man full of all sin. He could scant
believe that she would commit so gross an oversight, sc
prejudicial every way to her interest and to the noble
mark he knew she shot at. If she married that man
she would lose the favour of God, her own reputation,
.and the hearts of all England, Ireland, and Scotland.'

Thus armed, Sir James Melville, ever Mary Stuart's
best adviser — and, even when she went her own wil-
ful way, the first to conceal her faults — entered his
sovereign's presence and placed the letter in her
hands. She read it, but she was in no condition to
profit by it. She refused to believe that the letter had
been written by Bishop. She said it was a device of
Maitland's ' tending to the wreck of the Earl Bothwell,'
.and she sent for Maitland and taxed him with it. He,
of course, assured her that he had nothing to do with
it. His opinion she already knew, and he did not care
to press it further. He told Melville that he had done
more honesthr than wisely, and that if Bothwell heard
of it he would kill him.

* It was a sore matter,' said Melville, ' to see that
good Princess run to utter wreck, and nobody to fore-
warn her of her danger.' He once more protested to
her that the letter was genuine, and that, whoever
wrote it, it contained only the deepest truth. ' He
found she had no mind to enter upon the subject.' '

Memoirs of Sir James Melville.

loS REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 48.

There was nothing more to be done. He did not then
know the extent to which she had committed herself, and
ae and her other friends could but stand by with folded
hands and wait the result.

The Earl of Lennox, encouraged by the promises
extorted by Killigrew, after a fortnight's silence, ac-
cepted the Queen's challenge to name the persons whom
he accused. He specified Bothwell, with two of his
followers; Sir James Balfour and four foreigners,
palace minions — Bastian, whose marriage had been the
excuse for the retreat of the Queen from Kirk o' Field,
John de Bourdeaux, Joseph Rizzio> the favourite's
brother, and Francis, one of Mary Stuart's personal
servants. She replied that the Lords would in a few days
assemble at Edinburgh. The persons named in his
letter should then be arrested and abide their trial ; and
Lennox himself, 'if his leisure or commodity might
suit,' was invited to be present.1

A trial of some sort could not be avoided. The
question now was, in what form it would be best en-
countered. Argyle, Huntly, Maitland, the Archbishop
of St Andrews, and several others were in Bothwell's
power. Unless they consented to stand by him, he held
their signatures to the Craigmillar bonds, and could
produce them to the world. Yet feeling, as he could
not choose but feel, the ticklish ground on which he
stood with them — feeling too, perhaps, that there was
no permanent safety for him as long as he remained so

1 Mary Stuart to the Earl of Lennox, March 23 : KEITH.

1567.] CARBERRY I/ILL.

hateful to the no\v^JnrmHlnJ2Jft_jjr^a nf f.h

classes- — he made an attempt to gain the Earl of
Murray, the one trusted leader of the popular party.
The Queen sent for her brother to Seton.

Bothwell — if Lord Herries, who is the authority
for the story, is to be believed — admitted his own guilt,
but insisted * that what he had done and committed was
not for his private interest only, but with the consent
of others — of Murray himself with the rest/ He there-
fore threw himself on Murray's honour, and invited him
to subscribe a bond to stand by him in his defence.

The Queen added her entreaties to BothwelTs, but
she, as well as he, signally failed. Murray professed
himself generally anxious to discharge his duties to his
sovereign, but bond of any kind he refused to sign.1

The refusal may be laid to his credit, if the fair
measure of a man's honesty is the standard of his time.
As to his consent to the murder, he peremptorily
denied that it had been ever spoken of in his presence.
It is .unlikely that he should have been entirely ignor-
ant of a conspiracy to which the whole Court in some
degree were parties. His departure from Edinburgh on
the morning of the murder suggests that he was aware
that M>me dark deed was intended which he could not
prevent. Yet it is to be observed that Bothwell
himself, in his conversation with Paris before the deed
was done, professed to expect nothing better from him
than neutrality ; and thus, had there been no inner

KEITH, vol. ii. p. 609, note.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[cu. 48,

intrigue, and had the assassination been merely po-
litical, he would have had no claim on Murray's help
or forbearance. Yet, to decline to be the friend of the
man who at the moment held the strength of Scotland
in his hands, was no safe step for any man. Murray'*
life was in danger ; x and seeing nothing that he could
usefully do, and not caring to expose himself needlessly,
he determined to carry out the resolution which he had
already formed of leaving Scotland. Before he went he
held a consultation with the Earl of Morton, and others
who were in Morton's confidence ; and, again, if Herries
told the truth, something of this kind was determined
upon. They saw no means of preventing the marriage
without violence. The Queen was so infatuated that it
was useless to appeal to her ; and they could not conceal
from themselves that the Prince's life was in as great
danger as the Queen's honour. They agreed that as
soon as possible she should herself be laid under re-
straint, and Bothwell be seized and put to death. Both-
well however was too powerful to be openly attacked,
nor would there be a chance of reaching him through a
court of justice. The road to his overthrow lay through
a seeming compliance with his wishes — through perjury,
treachery, and such arts as men like Morton and Mait-
land had no objection to meddle with, but not such as-
suited the Earl of Murray. Lord Herries says that
they arranged among themselves that < Morton should

1 * It was determined of late to
slay the Earl of Murray. Some are
he should be slain in

Scotland as live abroad.' — Drury to
Cecil, March 29 : Border MSS.

1 567. ] CARD ERR Y HILL. 1 1 f

manage all.' There would be wild work, in which it
was not desirable that Murray should bear a part. ' He
would be the fitter afterwards to return and take the
Government.' l Herries was not present at this con-
ference, and could only have heard what passed there
at second hand. It is more probable that Morton laid
before Murray the line of action which he proposed to
follow, that Murray simply declined to have anything
to do with it, and that he left Scotland in time to pre-
vent calumny itself from fastening upon him a share
in the events which followed. He went first to England,
passing through Berwick on the J oth of April,
and reaching London six days after. The
truest account of his feelings, so far as his regard for
the Queen of Scots allowed him to express them, will
be found in the following letter from the Spanish am-
bassador to Philip : —

DE SILVA TO PHILIP II.2

London, April 21.

* The Earl of Murray, brother of the Queen of Scot-
land, arrived here on the i6th of this month. The next
morning he had a long interview with the Queen. I do
not yet know what passed between them. He paid a visit
to me the day before yesterday. He came to see me, he
said, not only on account of the friendship between his
Sovereign and your Majesty, but out of private regard
for myself. He told me that he had his Queen's per-

1 KEITH, vol. ii. pp. 609, 610, note,
2 MS. Simcuicas.

1 1 2 REIGN OF ELIZABE TIL [CH. 48.

mission to go to Italy, and see Milan and Venice. He
was going through. France, though he would have much
preferred Flanders, had not the Low Countries been so
much disturbed. He had told his mistress, he said, that
he wished to travel and see the places which he had men-
tioned ; but in point of fact the Earl Bothwell wras his
enemy, and his life was not safe ; the Earl Bothwell
had four thousand men under his command, with the
castles, among others, of Edinburgh and D unbar, which
contained all the guns and powder in the realm ; and for
himself, he did not mean to return till the Queen, had
done justice upon the King's murderers and their con-
federates. He could not honourably remain in the realm
while a crime so strange and so horrible was allowed to
pass unpunished. If any tolerable pains were taken,
he said, the guilty parties could easily be discovered.
There were from thirty to forty persons concerned in it,
one way or another. He mentioned no names, but it
was easy to see that he thought Bothwell was at the
bottom of it.

' I asked him whether there was any truth in the
report that Earl Bothwell was divorcing his wife. He
said it was so ; and from his account of the matter one
never heard of anything so monstrous. The wife, to
whom he has not been married a year, is herself the
petitioner, and the ground which she alleges is her hus-
band's adultery. I inquired whether he had ill-treated
her, or if there had been any quarrel between them. He
said, No. Her brother, Lord Huntly, had persuaded
her into presenting the petition to please Bothwell ;

i s67.] C A KB ERR Y HILL \ 1 3

and the Queen, at Bothwell's instance, lias restored to
Huntly his forfeited lands.

' lie told me that the general expectation was, that
after the divorce the Queen meant to marry Both well ;
but for himself he could not believe a person so nobly
gifted as his sister could consent to so foul an alliance,
especially after all that had passed. She was a Catholic,
too, and a divorce on such a ground was but a cessation
of cohabitation — a divorce a foro, as the lawyers called
it, which did not enable either party to marry again so
long as both were living. I asked if it would be per-
mitted by his religion. He said it would not ; but the
French ambassador is confident, for all this, that if the
divorce can be obtained, the Queen means to marry
him/

While the world outside was speculating in this way,
preparations were going forward at last for Both well's
trial. The nth of April was fixed as the day on which
he was to take his place at the bar. Notice was served
on Lennox, requiring him to be present and to produce
his evidence ; and the Order of Council by which these
arrangements were made, was signed, absurdly enough,
by Bothwell himself, in connection with Huntly and
Argyle. The Crown might have been expected to be a
party to the prosecution; but the Crown made itself
ostentatiously neutral, and it rather seemed as if, in the
eyes of the Government, the real criminal was the ac-
cuser. By the rule of the Court forty days should ha v«>
been allowed to Lennox to collect his witnesses. The

VOL. VIII. 8

ii4 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48,

day chosen for the trial left him but fifteen ; and while-
his unhappy Countess in London was besieging the ear
of the Spanish ambassador with her denunciations of
Mary Stuart,1 her husband was daily expecting that the
proceedings would be brought to an abrupt end by hi&
own murder.

Meantime, at Seton another document was prepared,
to which the Queen and Bothwell set their hands. It
was drawn by Lord Huntly — or at least it was in hia.
handwriting. It set forth that the Queen being a
widow, and being unwilling to remain without a pro-
tector in so troubled a country, she had thought it desir-
able to take to herself a husband. There were various
objections to a foreigner, and therefore for his many
virtues, she had made choice of James, Earl of Bothwell,
whom she proposed to marry as soon as his separation
from 'his pretended wife' should be completed by form
of law.

To this engagement the Earl added a corresponding
pledge, that being free, and able to make promise of
marriage, in respect of the consent of his said pretended
spouse to the divorce, he did promise on his part to take
her Majesty to be his lawful wife.2 His brother-in-law
and the Queen having thus committed themselves, ho

1 'Aunque es cuerda, esta apa- I -De Silva to Philip, March 24;
sionada como madre, y en su opinion MS. Simancas.

2 This is one of the famous casket

la Reyna de Escocia no esta libre d
la muerte de su marido. Esta tan
lastimada de la muerte del hijo que

documents, the authenticity of which
will be discussed hereafter. It is

ella misiua conflesa que no tiene in- printed in Anderson's Collection.
tento a otra cosa si no a la vergan^a.' 1

1567.] C ARE ERR Y HILL. 1 1 5

put the bond nway in a casket, together with his re-
maining treasures of the same kind, in case they might
be useful to him in the future — among the rest the fatal
letter which the Queen had written to him from Glas-
gow, and which she had entreated him to burn.

Thus fortified, Bothwell was prepared to encounter
his trial. Tullibardine's brother, James Murray, the
author of the Placards, was to have boen Lennox's prin-
cipal witness. The Queen made his appearance impos-
sible, by ordering that he should be arrested on a charge
of treason the first moment that he showed himself.
Edinburgh swarmed with BothwelTs satellites ; Lennox
himself durst not venture thither till he had raised force
enough to protect his life ; and the short time allowed
made it equally impossible for him to assemble his
friends or prepare his evidence. lie therefore wrote
once more to the Queen, to beg that a later day might
be named, and that proper means might be taken to en-
able him to do justice to a cause in which she was her-
self the person principally concerned. He again re-
quested that the accused parties might be arrested and
kept in confinement ; above all, that they should not be
allowed to remain in her Majesty's company. ' It was
never heard of/ he justly said, ' but that in trial of so
odious a fact, suspected persons were always apprehend-
ed— of what degree soever they might be — even suppos-
ing they were not guilty of the fact till the matter was
truly tried.' * Suspected persons continuing still at
liberty, being great in Court and about her Majesty's
person, comforted and encouraged them and theirs, and

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[en. 48.

discouraged all others that would give evidence against
them ; so that if her Majesty suffered the short day of
law to go forward after the manner appointed, he as-
sured her Majesty she should have unjust trial.' l

To this application Mary Stuart replied that Lennox
had himself objected to delay ; she had named an early
day in compliance with his own wishes, and she could
not now make a change. Lennox had expected some
such answer, and had made the best use of his time.
He had come up to Stirling from Glasgow, and, though
still inferior in force to Bothwell, had found men to go
with him to Edinburgh, who would make a fight for it
before he was murdered.2 But the Queen had a fresh
objection immediately ready. The presence of so many
armed men of different factions would be dangerous to
the peace of the capital. She required him therefore
to limit his train to six of his personal servants.3 It
seemed as if she positively wished to convince the world
that Bothwell's cause was her own. Bothwell was to
stand his trial for the murder surrounded by an army
of his and her retainers. By leaving the prosecution
to Lennox, she treated the cause as if it were one in
which public justice was in no way concerned ; and she
forbade him to use the most ordinary means of self-pro-
tection in the discharge of the duty which she had cast
upon him. Her message could have but one effect. The

1 The Earl of Lennox to the
ee:i of Scots, April u ; Cotton.

CALIG. B. IX. Printed in
Keith.

2 Sir John Foster, in a letter to

Cecil of April 15, says he had raised
3000 men : Border MSS. Rolls

3 Foster to Cecil, April 15 : Ibid.

1567.] CARBERRY HILL. 117

trial would be opened, Lennox would not appear, and
the charge would fall to the ground.

Her clear intellect must have been subdued to the
level of Bothwell's before she could have expected to
blind the world by these poor devices. Yet she evidently
fancied that it would pass for a sufficient discharge of
all that was required of her, and that the trial once
over, the matter would be heard of no further.

As the day drew near, there was an ominous still-
ness in Edinburgh — a stillness made more awful by wild
voices heard about the streets at night.1 Some of the
wretches who were concerned in the murder had to be
made safe, for fear they might reveal too much. One,
who wandered about in the darkness, proclaiming him-
self guilty, was caught and shut up in a prison, ' called,
from the loathsomeness of the place, the four thieves'
pit/2 Another, who was thought dangerous, was
knocked on the head and buried out of the way.3

Lennox, guessing how his own remonstrances would
be received, had sent a message through Sir William

1 4 There is a man that nightly
gocth about Edinburgh, crying peni-
tently and lamentably in certain
streets of the town for vengeance on
those that caused him to shed inno-
cent blood. ' 0 Lord, open the
heavens, and pour down vengeance

those which are about him.' — Drury
to Cecil, April 10 : Border I[SS.

- Drury to Cecil, April 19 : MS.
Ibid.

5 * A servant of Sir James Bal-
four, who was at the murder, was
secretly killed, and in like manner

on me and those that have destroyed 1 buried, supposed upon lively pre-
the innocent.' The man walketh in ! sumption of utterance of some matter

the night accompanied with four or
five to guard him, and some have
offered to take knowledge of him,
but they have been defended by

either upon remorse of conscience or
other folly which might tend to the
whole discovery.' — Ibid.

! 1 8 REIGN OF ELIZABE TH. [CH. 48.

Drury to Elizabeth, requesting her to back his petition
for delay.1

Elizabeth, 'like an honourable Princess/ had in-
stantly written to the Queen of Scots. The messenger
rode for his life, and reached Berwick with the letter
on the night of the nth of April. The trial was to be
on the next day ; and Sir William Drury sent it on by
one of his officers, with a charge to him to deliver it
without delay into Mary Stuart's hands. The officer,
with his guide, was at Holyrood a little after
daybreak, and, th£u^jmsuccessftiHn_ar£e^
ing Mary Stuart on her road to ruin, he has preserved,
as in a photograph, the singular scene of which he was
the witness.

His coming had been expected, and precautions had
been taken to prevent him from gaining admittance.
On alighting at the gate and telling the porter that he
was the bearer of a despatch from the Queen of Eng-
land, he was informed that the Queen of Scots was not
yet awake and could not be disturbed. The door was
closed in his face, and he wandered about the meadows
till between 9 and i o, when he again presented himself.
By this time all the Palace was astir ; groups of Both-
well' s retainers were lounging about the lodge ; it was
known among them that some one was come from Eng-
land ' to stay the assize,' and when the officer attempted
to pass in, he was thrust back with violence. At the
noise of the struggle, one of the Hepburns came up and

Drury to Cecil, April 6 : Border MSS.

1 567. ] CAKBEKR Y HILL. \ \ 9

told him that the Earl, umL'r>tanding that he had letters
for the Queen, advi<od him to go away and return in
the evening ; ' the Queen was so molested and disquieted
with the business of that day, that he saw no likelihood
of any time to serve his turn till after the Assize.' lie
argued with the man, but to no sort of purpose. The
gate was thrown back, and the quadrangle and the open
space below the windows were fast filling with a crowd,
through which there was no passage. Troopers were
girthing up their saddles and belting on their sabres ;
the French guard were trimming their harquebusses,
and the stable-boys leading up and down the horses of
the knights. The Laird of Skirling, Captain of the
Castle under Bothwell, strode by and told the guide
that he deserved to be hanged for bringing English
villains there ; and presently the Earl appeared, walk-
ing with Maitland. The officer was chafing under ' the
reproaches ' of the ' beggarly ' Scots, who were throng-
ing round him and cursing him. They fell back as
Bothwell approached, and he presented his letter. The
Earl perhaps felt that too absolute a defiance might be
unwise. He took it, and went back into the Palaro,
but presently returned and said, * that the Queen was
still sleeping ; it would be given to her when the work
of the morning was over.' A groom at this moment
led round his horse — Darnley's horse it had been, and
once perhaps, like Roan Barbary, ' ate bread from
Richard's royal hand!' The Earl sprang upon hi*
back, turned round, and glanced at the windows of the
Queen's room. A servant of the French ambassador

120

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[en.

touched the Englishman, and he too looked in the same
direction, and saw the Queen ' that was asleep and could
not be disturbed/ nodding a farewell to her hero as he
rode insolently off.1

So went the murderer of Mary Stuart's husband to
his trial, followed by his Sovereign's smiles and attended
by the Hoyal guard ; and we are_called upon to believe
that the Queen, the arch-plotter of Europe, the match
iiTlntellect for the shrewdest of European statesmen,
was the one person in Scotland who had no suspicion of
his guilt, and was the victim of her own guileless inno-
cence. Victim she was, fooled by the thick-limbed
scoundrel whom she had chosen for her paramour, duped
by her own passions, which had dragged her down to
the level of a brute. But the men were never born wha
could have so deceived Mary Stuart, and it was she her-
self who had sacrificed her own noble nature on the foul
altar of sensuality and lust.

As the Earl passed through the outer gate, a long
loud cheer rose from the armed multitude. Four thou-
sand ruffians lined the Canongate, and two hundred
Hackbutters formed his body-guard as he rode between
the ranks. The high court of justice — so called in
courteous irony — was held at the Tolbooth, where he
alighted and went in. His own retainers took posses^
sion of the doors, ' that none might enter but such as
were more for the behoof of one side than the other/ 2
There were still some difficulties to be overcome, and

1 Drury to Cecil, April — : Border
AiSS. Printed in the Appendix to

the 9th volume of Mr Tytlcr's His-
tory of Scotland. ~ Ibid.

1567]

HILL.

121

the anxiety to prevent a prosecutor from appearing was
not without reason. The court could not be altogether
packed, and there might be danger both from judges
and from jury.1 The Earl of Argyle presided as here-
ditary Lord Justice, and so far there would be no
difficulty ; but there were four assessors, one or more of
whom might prove unmanageable if the case went for-
ward— Lord Lindsay, Henry Balnavis, the Commend-
ufor of Dunfermline, and James McGill, the Clerk of
the Register. On the jury were the Lord of Arbroath,
(.'hatelherault's second son and presumptive heir of the
House of Hamilton, and the Earl of Cassilis (the
original of Walter Scott's * Front de Bccuf '). These
would be true to Bothwell through good and evil.
But the Earl of Caithness, the chancellor of the
Assize, was doubtful ; Lord Maxwell had been Darn-
ley's special friend, and Herries was truer to his
mistress than to the dark man whom he feared as her
evil genius.3

At eleven o'clock the Earl took his place at the bar.
No trustworthy account has been preserved of the ap-
pearance of the man. In age he was not much past

1 Drury to Cecil, April — : Border
MSS. Printed in the Appendix to
the Qth volume of Mr Tytlcr's Hit-
tory of Scotl(t)td.

2 The jury consisted of the Earls
of Caithness, Rothcs, and Cu>-ilis
the Lord of Arbroath, Lords Ross,
Scinpill, Maxwell, Ilerries, Oii-
pliaut, and Boyd, the Master of
Fur In s, Gordon of Lochinvar, Cock-

burn of Lanton, Somerville of Cam-
busnetham, a Mowbray, and an
Ogilvy. Morton had been sum-
moned, but had refused. He would
have been glad to please the Queen,
he said, but ' for that the Lord Darn-
ley was his kinsman he would rather
pay the forfeit.' — Drury to Cecil,
April — : Border MSS.

122 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 48..

thirty. If the bones really formed part of him which
have been recently discovered in his supposed tomb in
Denmark, he was of middle height, broad, thick, and,
we may fancy, bull-necked. His gestures were usually
defiant, and a man who had lived so wild a life could
not .have been wanting in personal courage ; but it was
the courage of an animal which rises with the heat of
the blood, not the collected coolness of a man who was
really brave.

He stood at the bar 'looking down and sadlike.'
In the presence of the machinery of justice his inso-
lence failed him ; the brute nature was cowed, and the
vulgar expression 'hangdog' best described his bear-
ing. One of his attendants, Black Ormiston, who had
been with him at Kirk o' Field, ' plucked him by the
sleeve.' ' Fye, my Lord/ he whispered, ' what Devil
is this ye are doing ? Your face shaws what ye are.
Hauld up your face, for God's sake, and look blythly.
Ye might luik swa an ye wore gangand to the dead.
Alac and wae worth them that ever devysit it. I trow
it shall gar us all murne.'

' Haud your tongue,' the Earl answered ; ' I would
.not yet it were to do. I have an outgait fra it, come as
it may, and that ye will know belyve.' l

The Clerk of the court now began to speak.
'Whereas Matthew, Earl of Lennox,' he said, 'had de-
lated the Earl Bothwell of the murder of the late King,
her Majesty, by advices of council and at the instance

1 Confession of the Laird of Ormiston : PITCAIRN, vol. i. p. =;i2.

1567.] CARBERRY HILL. 123

of tlie Earl Bothwell himself, had ordained a court of
Justiciaries to be held in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh
for doing justice upon the said Earl, and the Earl of
Lennox was required to appear and prove his charge.'

The indictment followed. It had been drawn with
a grotesque contrivance to save the consciences of such
among the jury as were afraid of verbal perjury, for it
charged the Earl with having committed the murder on
February 9th ; and whatever was the way in which
Darnley was killed, the deed was certainly not done till
an hour or two after midnight. Of this plea it will be
seen that the Lords on the panel were not ashamed to
avail themselves when afterwards called to account for
their conduct.

Bothwell, of course, pleaded not guilty. Lennox
was called, and did not answer; and the case would
have collapsed, as every one present probably desired,
when a person appeared whose part had not been ar-
ranged in the programme. Lennox was absent, but
one of his servants, Robert Cunningham, ventured into
the arena instead of him, and, rising among the crowd,
said:

' My Lords, I am come here, sent by my master, the
Earl of Lennox, to declare the cause of his absence this
day. The cause of his absence is the shortness of the
time, and that he is denuded of his friends and servants
who should have accompanied him to his honour and
surety of his life; and he, having assistance of no
friends but himself, has commanded me to desire a
sufficient day, according to the weight of the cause

124

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH.

wherethrough he may keep the same. And if your
Lordships will proceed at this present, I protest that
if the persons who pass upon assize and inquest of
twelve persons that shall enter on panel this day do
clear the accused person of the murder of the King,
that it shall be wilful error and not ignorant, by reason
that person is notorely. known to be the murderer of
the King ; and upon this protestation I require ane
document/

The protest was in proper form. The precipitation
of the trial had been contrary to precedent ; and Cun-
ningham's demand, in the regular course of things,
should have been supported by the Queen's advocates
who were present in the court. They sat silent how-
ever.1 Bothwell's counsel produced Lennox's original
letter, in which he had urged the Queen to lose no
time in pressing the inquiry. The Queen had but
done what the prosecutor desired, and he . had now
therefore no right to ask for more delay. There was
no prosecution, no case, no witnesses. The indict-
ment was unsupported. They required the court to
accept the Earl's plea, and to pronounce him ac-
quitted.

Cunningham said no more and the jury withdrew.
Composed as they were of some of the best blood in
Scotland, they did not like the business. There was
' long reasoning,' and the evening was closing before

1 * The Queen's advocates that
should have inveighed against Both-
well are much condemned for their

silence. The like at an assize hath
not been used.' — Drury to Cecil,
April — : Border MSS.

'567-1

CARBERRY HILL.

they reappeared. Caithness, before the verdict was
given in, read a declaration in all their names that,
whereas no person had come forward to support the
charge, ' they could but deliver according to their
knowledge,' and therefore could not be accused of
' wilful error/ For himself, as if disdaining to avail
himself of the subterfuge prepared for him, he put in
his personal protest* that the Dillay w;is not true in
respect that the murder was committed on February
j oth, and not on the 9th/ and ' so the acquittal that
way but cavillously defended/

With these qualifications, as it were washing their
hands of the transaction to which they were made
parties, Caithness and half the jury returned a verdict
of Not Guilty. 'The rest neither quitted him nor
•cleared him, but were silent/ l

So at seven o'clock in the evening the business was
happily terminated. The Queen had kept her proinix-
to England and France ; and the Earl, gathering up
his courage again, ' fixed a cartel against the Tolbooth
door ' as he left it — ' wherein he offered to fight in
single combat with any gentleman undefamed that durst
charge him with the murder/

The Court would have acted more wisely had they
left the insolent farce unplayed. The indignation of
the Edinburgh burghers appeared in ' the libels ' which
covered the walls. 'The Lords 'were charged 'with

1 Drury to Cecil, April 15 : Border
MSS. For Bothwell's trial see the
^printed account iu KEITH and AN-

DERSON, and the Scotch and Border
MSS. for April, 1567, in the Boll*
House.

126 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 4*.

wilful manoeuvring to cover knavery/ ' Farewell,
gentle Harry/ was written at one place, ' but vengeance
on Mary/ At another, a rude caricature represented
Bothwell as a frightened hare surrounded by a ring of
swords ; Mary Stuart as a mermaid crowned, flashing
fury out of her eyes, and lashing off the hounds that
were pursuing her lover with a huntsman's double thong.

Murray of Tullibardine in his brother's place replied
to the challenge by offering to prove Bothwell' s guilt
upon his body, with the sovereigns of France and Eng-
land for judges of the combat.1

Sir William Drury himself, boiling over with scorn
and anger, waited only* for Elizabeth's permission to
anticipate Murray and fight Bothwell himself;2 and
when the Queen of Scots ventured from Holyrood
through the city, the women in the Grassmarket rose
at their stalls as she passed, and screamed after her,
' God save your Grace, if ye be sackless of the King's
death— of the King's death ! ' 3

1 Underneath Murray's cartel were these lines : —
It is not enough the puir King is dead,
But michand murtheraris occupied his stead,
And doubell addulterie has all this land schamit,
But all ye sillie Lordis man be defamit,
And wilfully ye man gar yourselves manswarin.
God put some end unto this sorrowful time,
And have ye saikless, nor troublit of this crime.

Scotch MSS. April 13, Rolls House.

2 ( If I thought it might stand
with the Queen my sovereign's fa-
vour, I would answer it, and commit
the sequel to God. I have sufficient
to charge him with, and would prove

it upon his body as willingly as ob-
tain any suit I have.' — Drury to
Cecil, April—, 1567.- Border MSS.
3 Ibid.

1567-] CARBERRY HILL. 127

One more unsigned but ominous ' bill ' was set up
upon the Market Cross. ' I am assured there is none
that pfofesses Christ and his Evangel that can with any
upright conscience part the Earl Both well and his wife,
albeit she justly prove him an abominable adulterer;
and that by reason he has murdered the husband of her
he intends to murry, whose obligation and promise of
marriage he had long before the murder was done.* l

Every hour it was evident that the relations be-
tween the Queen and Bothwell were becoming known.
Too many persons had been admitted to the secret.
The truth was oozing out piece by piece from a hundred
whispering tongues^ and all the air was full of it.

But the goal was near in view, and they had gone
too far to halt or hesitate. Two days after the trial, a
Parliament, or such packed assembly as the Queen
called by the name, met at Edinburgh. Lennox escaped
to England. The Earls of Mar and Glencairn applied
for license 'to depart the realm for a season/ The
Archbishop of St Andrews and four other prelates, six
Earls, of whom Bothwell and Argyle were two, six
other noblemen, and a few commoners, represented the
Legislature of Scotland. To bribe the Protestants, an
Act of Religion was passed, and the Queen for the first
time formally recognized the lie formation. The price
of~£ne divorce was paid to Huntly, and the Gordon
estates were restored, while in return 'the purgation of
Bothwell was confirmed, and the assize allowed for

1 Scotch MSS., April, 1567.

528 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

good/ l To silence mutinous tongues, it was enacted that,
* whereas various writings had been set up to the slan-
der, infamy, and reproach of the Queen's Highness and
divers of the nobility, the Queen and Estates ordained
that in time coining, when any such placard or defama-
tion was found, the person first seeing the same should
take it or destroy it, that no further knowledge nor
copy should pass of the same ; if such person failed
therein, and either the writing was copied or proceeded
to further knowledge among the people, the first seer
and finder should be punished in the same manner as
the first inventor and upsetter, if he was apprehended ;
the defamers of the Queen should be punished with
death, and all others with imprisonment at the Queen's
pleasure.'2

Five days were sufficient for these measures. The
Parliament was dissolved on the 19th, and the same
evening, to celebrate the occasion, the Earl of Both-well
invited the Peers and Bishops to sup with him at a place
called Ainslie's Tavern. The Primate and five other
Prelates, among whom was Leslie, the afterwards cele-
brated Bishop of Ross, the Earls of Argyle, Huntly,
Sutherland, Cassilis, Eglinton, and some others, were
present. The wine went round freely, and at length
Both well rose and produced a bond, which he offered to
their signature, as he pretended, by the Queen's desire.
The first clauses related personally to himself.

'The undersigned' were required to say that, inas-

Drury to Cecil, Apvil 19 ; Sor-

dt, MSS.

2 Proceedings of Parliament,
April, 1567 : Printed in KEITH.

1567. ] CARBERR Y HILL. 129

much as the accusation against the Earl of Both well hud
been disposed of in open court, and as all noblemen in
honour and credit with their sovereign were subject to
suspicion and calumnies, they were determined to resist
such slanders, and if the Earl was again accused, they
would stand by him and take part with him.

So far there was little difficulty ; most of the guests
were more or less interested in suppressing future in-
quiry into the business of the Kirk o' Field. The re-
maining paragraphs were of graver import. The ' bond '
continued thus : —

'Considering further the time present, and how the
Queen's Majesty their sovereign was now destitute of
a husband, in which solitary state the commonwealth of
their country would not permit her to continue, should
her Majesty be moved by respect of his faithful services
to take the Earl Bothwell to her husband, they and
every one of them, upon their honour, truth, and fidi-
lity, promised to advance and set forward the marriage
with their counsel, satisfaction, and assistance, as soon
as the law would allow it to be done, and to esteem any
one as their common enemy and evil wilier who en-
deavoured to hinder it.'

To this precious document from twelve to twenty
noblemen,1 besides the bishops, were induced to set

1 The original bond was de-
stroyed. It survives only in copies,
the signatures were supplied by re-
collection, and the different lists do
not agree. The Scotch list, usually
printed as authentic, contains Mur-
VOL. VIII.

ray's name, though Murray was in
England ; Glencairn's, though there
is no evidence that he was in Edin-
burgh at the time; and Morton's,
who can be proved distinctly not to
have signed. A list found among

I3o REIGN OF hLTZABETH. [CH. 48.

their "hands : some, like the Primate, in deliberate
treachery, to tempt the Queen into ruin ; some, it was
afterwards pretended, in fear of Bothwell's 'hack-
butters/ who surrounded the house ; some, perhaps the
most, from moral weakness and want of presence of
mind. Eglinton ' slipped away/ and saved his honour
thus. Morton and Maitland either did the same, or
they had sufficient fortitude to withhold their signa-
tures. They said generally that they would not oppose
the marriage ; but they declined to commit themselves
to the bond.1

Such was the celebrated Ainslie's supper, of all bad
transactions, in that bad time, in common esteem the
most disgraceful, yet a fit sequel to what had preceded
it, and on the whole less mischievous than the trial at
the Tolbooth. At the supper the noble Lords and other
high persons did but compromise their own characters,
in which there was little left to injure. Injthe High
flf Justice the fountains of .society-jcere poisoned^

By neither one nor the other did Bothwell gain
much. All hated him, even those who seemed his friends ;
and he himself had little confidence in the promises
which he had taken such pains to obtain. Meanwhile

the French State Papers bespeaks House.
credibility by the omission of Murray
and Glencairn, though again it is
obviously inaccurate, since this also
contains the name of Morton. See
the lists in KEITH, vol. ii. p. 566,
Lawson's edition, and ' A Copy of
the Bond signed by the Lords, April
19, 1567.'— .flf/Stf. Scotland, Rolls \

1 ' The Lords have subscribed a
bond to be Bothwell's friends in all
actions, saving Morton and Leding-
ton, who, though they yielded to the
marriage, yet in the end refused to
be his in so general terms.' — Drury
to Cecil, April 27 : Border MSS.

1 567.] CAKBERR Y HILL. 131

r,he people — those to whom Knox had contrived to bring
some knowledge of right and wrong, those who could
feel the natural indignation of honest men against
atrocious wickedness — began at this last outrage to rouse
themselves to action. Glencairn and Mar, though they
had thought of leaving the country, were still at their
posts, and Mar for the present was keeping watch over
the infant Prince at Stirling. If only Elizabeth would
support them, they might yet make an effort to save
their Queen from completing her dishonour. They could
none of them trust Elizabeth. She had forfeited their
confidence once for all in her shuffling desertion of
Murray. Whatever she might privately feel or desire,
they could not feel certain that, even in their present
circumstances, she would maintain them openly in re-
sistance to their sovereign. Yet it was impossible to sit
still ; and Sir AVilliam Kirkaldy, of Grange, was selected
in Murray's absence to feel the temper of the English
Government. The day after Ainslie's supper, Grange
wrote thus to Cecil : —

* It may please your Lordship to let me understand
what will be your sovereign's part concerning the late
murder committed among us ; for albeit her Majesty
was slow in all our last trouble, and therefore lost that
favour we did bear unto her, yet nevertheless if her
Majesty will pursue for the revenge of the late murder,
I dare assure your Lordship she shall win thereby all
the hearts of all the best in Scotland again. Further,
if we understood that her Majesty would assist us and
favour us, we should not be long in revenging of this

I32 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

murder. The Queen caused ratify in Parliament the
cleansing of Bothwell. She intends to take the Prince
out of the Earl of Mar's hands, and put him into Both-
well' s keeping, who murdered the King his father.
The same night the Parliament was dissolved, Bothwell
called the most part of the noblemen to supper, for to
desire of them their promise in writing and consent for
the Queen's marriage, which he will obtain ; for she has
said that she cares not to lose France, England, and her
own country for him, and shall go with him to the
world's end in a white petticoat ere she leave him.
Yea, she is so far past all shame, that she has caused
make an Act of Parliament against all those that shall
set up any writing that shall speak anything of him.
Whatever is unhonest reigns presently in this Court.
God deliver them from their evil.'1

Elizabeth was incredulous as ever, as to any actual
complicity of the Queen of Scots in the murder itself,
Yet the treatment of her officer, the trial, and the
general news which came in day after day from Scot-
land, had already compelled her to see how deeply
Mary Stuart was compromising herself. She spoke to
the Spanish ambassador, with genuine distress, of the
contemptuous evasion of her desire that the trial might
be postponed. The Spanish ambassador, in his account
to Philip, seemed equally scandalized. ' The Earl/ he
said, ' had been acquitted by the Queen of Scots' own
order. Lennox was not allowed to be present ; the Court

1 Grange to Cecil, April 20 : MSS. Scotland. Rolls House.

1567.]

CARBERRY HILL.

133

was surrounded by armed men in the Earl's pay ; and
though a majority of the judges, under the Queen's in-
fluence, had acquitted Bothwell, because no prosecutor
appeared, many of them had refused to vote.'1

On the arrival of Grange's letter, Elizabeth deter-
mined to make one more eftbrt, and force the Queen of
Scots to see the construction which Europe was placing
upon her conduct. A paper of notes, in Cecil's hand,
dated the 25th of April, contains the substance of hia
thoughts about it. * The inquiry into the murder could
not and should not be stifled. The Queen of Scots
should be made to understand what manner of bruits and
rumours were spread through all countries about her,
gathered as they were by indifferent men upon behold-
ing the proceedings in Scotland since the King's death.
If it was true that she thought of marrying Both well,
so monstrous an outrage must be prevented.' Lord
Grey, as a person unconnected with Scotch practices,
was chosen to go down to Holyrood and reason with
her. He was instructed to tell the Queen of Scots that
Kli/abeth was simply shocked at the reports which were
brought to her. ' No discovery had been made of the
malefactors.' 'Such as were most touched with the

1 ' No pareci6 acusador ni testigo
contra el Conde, y assi fue dado por
libre por la mayor parte de los
jueces; porque la Reyna mando
que declarasen: y los demas no
quisieron votar en cllo, parecicndoles
que no halna libcrtad en el juicio,
porquc rl Comic Botlnvcll teuia con-

sigo mucha gente, y el de Lennox no
podia venir sino con seis a caballo
como se le habia ordenado, por
manera que no vino quien acusase
ni hablase en ello, segun me certifi-
can.'— De Silva to Philip, April 21 :
MS. Simaiifas.

134 kEIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48

crime were most favoured, retained in credit, and bene-
fited with gifts and rewards. The father, and others
of the King's friends, that should orderly seek the
revenge, were forced by fear to retire from the Court,
and some of them deprived of their offices/ ' Her Ma-
jesty was greatly perplexed what to do in a case of such
moment/ whether to believe nothing of what she heard,
( or, giving credit but in some part, to enter into doubt-
fulness of the Queen's integrity, which of all other
things she most misliked to conceive.7 ' The Queen of
Scots was her sister and kinswoman. The young gen~
tleman that was foully murdered was a born subject of
her realm, and in like degree her kinsman/ The world
pointed with one consent at Bothwell as the assassin.
' His malice to the King was notoriously deadly. The
King in his life feared his death by Bothwell, and sought
to have escaped out of the realm.' Yet the castles
of Edinburgh and Leith had been since given in charge
to this man, ' and generally all credit and reputation
conveyed only to him and his that were most commonly
charged with the King's death ' ( Contempt, or at least
neglect, had been used in the burial of the King's body.
His father, his kin, and his friends, were forced to pre-
serve themselves by absence ; ' and while Lennox was
forbidden to appear at the trial with more than six of
his servants, ' the person accused was attended with
great companies of soldiers.'1

As in her first letter, when first she heard of the

1 Instructions to Lord Grey sent I — , 1567. In Cecil's hand: MSS.
in post to the Queen of Scots, April I Scotland, Soils House.

1567.] CARBZRRY HlLL. 13$

murder, as in the despatch of Killigrew, as in her in-
effectual effort to prevent Mary Stuart from committing
herself to the mockery of justice, so again in this in-
tended message, Elizabeth was fulfilling those duties of
kind Miid wise friendship, which Mary Stuart's advocates
complained afterwards that she had been deprived of;
but before Grey could start on his mission, fresh news
arrival, which made this and every other effort in the
Qiu-eii of Sent. N' interests unavailing.

Notwithstanding Ainslie's supper, neither the Earl
nor the Queen could feel assured that their marriage
a r ra 1 1 Cements would progress satisfactorily. They could
not conceal from themselves that it was regarded by every
one with intense repugnance. Bothwell, as events after-
wards proved, possessed not a single friend among the
Lords, and not to be his friend at such a time was to be
his deadly enemy. Morton and Maitland affected to be
not ill-disposed towards him ; but their negative attitude
was more than suspicious, and the delay, even of the few
weeks which would elapse before the Divorce Court could
release Bothwell from his wife, might give an oppor-
tunity for commotion at home, or for some interference
from Elizabeth, which might equally be fatal to their
wishes. Nor was the Earl's position with the band of
desperadoes that he had collected about him any more
reassuring. He had no money to pay them with. Two
days after the separation of the Parliament they mutinied
in the hall at Holyrood. Bothwell attempted to seize
one of the ringleaders, but his comrades instantly inter-
fered ; and tbu Earl, after a savage altercation, could

'36

REIG.N OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 48.

only quiet them by promises, which he could not hope
to redeem, except by some speedy measure which would
give him the immediate control of the kingdom.

On the 22nd of April, the day which followed this
commotion, Mary Stuart went to Stirling, professedly to
visit her child. The general suspicion was that she in-
tended, if possible, to get the Prince into her own hands,
and either carry him back with her to Edinburgh, or
place both the child and Stirling Castle in Both well's
keeping. If this was her design, it was defeated by the
prudence of the Earl of Mar, who, in admitting the
Queen within the gates, allowed but two ladies to ac-
company her. But there was a second purpose in the
expedition, which the following letters will explain : l —

THE QUEEN OF SCOTS TO THE EARL BOTHWELL.

1 Of the time and place I remit me to your
brother2 and to you. I will follow him, and

April 23

1 These letters were found in the
celebrated casket with the others to
which reference has been already
made. I accept them as genuine
because, as will be seen, they were
submitted to the scrutiny of all the
leading English peers, and especially
to those noblemen who were most
interested in discovering them to be
forged ; because so long as the letters
were known to be in existence, their
authenticity was never challenged
by the great Catholic powers, nor
an impartial examination of them
ever demanded by the Queen of
Scots or her friends ; and generally
because there is no ground whatever
to doubt the genuineness of the en-

tire set of the casket letters, except
such as arises from the hardy am?,
long-continued but entirely baseless
denial of interested or sentimental
partisans. Had the Queen of Scots
appealed to Spain or France, and
had either Philip or Charles IX. or
the House of Lorraine demanded
the production of the letters before
a court in which they should them-
selves be represented, Elizabeth could
not have re fused; and that no such de-
mand was made will be proof sufficient
to any one acquainted with the state
of Europe that Mary Stuart herself
dared not encounter such an ordeal.
2 Bothwell's brother-in-law, the
the Earl of Huntly.

1567- ] CARBEKR Y HILL. 137

will fail in nothing in my part. He finds many dilli-
culties. I think he does advertise you thereof, and what
he desires for the handling of himself. As for the
handling of myself, I heard it once well devised. Me-
thinks that your services and the long amity, Having
the goodwill of the Lords, do well deserve a pardon,
if above the duty of a subject you advance yourself,
not to constrain me, but to assure yourself of such
place near unto me, that other admonitions or foreign
persuasions may not let me from consenting to that
that you hope your service shall make you one day
to attain ; and to be short, to make yourself sure of the
Lords and free to marry ; and that you are constrained
for your surety, and to be able to serve me faithfully, to
use an humble request joined to an importune action ;
and to be short, excuse yourself and persuade them the
most you can that you are constrained to make pursuit
against your enemies. You shall say enough if the
matter or ground do like you, and many fair words to
Ledington.1 If you like not the deed, send me word,
and leave not the blame of all unto me.1

Amidst obscurity in some of the allusions, the drift
of this letter is generally plain, when interpreted by
what actually occurred. Lest interference in Scotland,
or the admonition or persuasion of England or France,
should dash the cup from their lips, the lovers had laid
a plan, to which the Earl of Iluntly was a consenting
party, that Bothwell should carry off the Queen by

1 Maitland.

138 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.48.

seeming force. She was to return to Edinburgh on the
24th ; she could be intercepted on the way, and the
violence which had been offered to her would then make
the marriage a necessity ; while Both well could plead
his own danger, and the general difficulties of his po-
sition, as an excuse for his precipitancy.

It was a wild scheme — not so wild perhaps in Scot-
land as it would have seemed in any other country, but
still full of difficulty. Lord Huntly, on mature consi-
deration, was against attempting it ; the Queen could not
travel without a strong escort, and the escort, though
it might be under Huntly 's own command, would resist
unless taken into the secret.

A few hours after the last letter the Queen wrote
again : —

' My Lord, since my letter written, your brother-in-
law that was came to me very sad, and has asked my
counsel what he should do after to-morrow, because
there are many here, and among them the Earl of
Sutherland, who would rather die than suffer me to be
carried away, they conducting me — and that he feared
there should some trouble happen of it — that it should
be said of the other side he was unthankful to have be-
trayed me.

' I told him he should have resolved with you upon
all that, and that he should avoid if he could those that
were most mistrusted.1 He has resolved to write there-
of to you by my opinion ; for he has abashed me to see

1 i. e'. in selecting the men who I choose those on whom lie could rely
were to foim her guard, he should I not to resist.

1567-] CAKBERRY HILL. 139

him so unresolved at the need. I assure myself he will
play the part of an honest man ; but I have thought
good to advertise you of the fear he has that he should
be charged and accused of treason, to the end that with-
out mistrusting him, you may be the more circumspect,
and that you may have the more power. We had

erday l more than 300 horse of his and Livingston's.
For the honour of God be accompanied rather of more
than less, for that is the principal of my care.'

Again, and still more deeply, it seems that Huntly's
mind misgave him. In a third note, the Queen said
that he had returned a second time and ' preached unto
her that it was a foolish enterprise, and that with her
honour she could never marry Bothwell, seeing that he
was married already ; his own people would not allow
her to be carried off, and the Lords .would unsay their
promises/

' I told him/ she said, * that seeing I was come so
far, if you did not withdraw yourself of yourself, no
persuasion nor death itself should make me fail of my
promise. — I would I were dead, for I see all goes ill.
Despatch the answer that I fail not, and put no trust
in your brother for this enterprise, for he has told it.' 2

This last note must have been written from
Stirling at midnight, between the 23rd and
24th of April. Bothwell was lying in wait at Liulith-

1 On the way to Stirling, April 22.

2 This is confirmed by Sir AVil-

liain l»rury, who \\ritca to Cecil : —
•Bothwell was secretly at Liulith-
gow the night before he took the

Queen. In the morning he broke
with Iluutly of his determination
for the having the Queen, which in
no respect he would yield unto.' —
Border MSS. Holla

140

REIGN OF ELIZABETH:

[CH. 48

gow, and not daring to trust Himtly further, the Queen
sent it to him by the trusted hands of Paris, the page.1
The Earl, when Paris found him, was lying asleep, ' his
captains all about him/ He rose, wrote a hasty answer,
and as he gave it into the page's hands said, ' Recom-
mend me humbly to her Majesty, and say I will meet
her on the road to-day at the bridge.' 2

The scheme had got wind. The Queen's own move-
ments, the considerable preparations which had been
made by Bothwell at Dunbar, and the large number of
armed men which he had collected at Linlithgow, had
quickened the already roused suspicions of the people.3

1 ' Je vous envoye ce portier car
je n'ose me fier a vostre frere de ces
lettres ni de la diligence.' The ori-
ginal French of this letter, and of
one other, has at last been recovered.
The solitary critical objection to the
genuineness of the letters has been
rested on the obvious fact, that, al-
though Mary Stuart corresponded
with Bothwell in French, the French
version which was published by
Buchanan contained Scotch idioms
and must have been translated from
Scotch. It was naturally conjectured
in reply that the originals were out
of Buchanan's reach, and that his
French and Latin versions of the
letters were retranslations from the
Scotch translation, Avhich was made
when they were first discovered. It
is now certain that this was the truth.
On the examination of the original
letters at "Westminster, two were
produced before the others, and of
these two, copies were taken at the

time, one of which, that which. I
have quoted in the text, is at Hat-
field among Cecil's notes of the ex-
amination. The other, that com-
mencing 'Monsieur, s'y 1'ennuy de
vostre absence,' is in the Record
Office MSS. MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS,
vol. ii. No. 66. This part of the
question may thus be said to be set
at rest. The Hatfield letter is en-
dorsed ' From Stirling upon the
ravishment.'

2 ' Recommendes me humblement
a la Majestic, et luy dictes que j'yray
aujourdhuy la trouver sur la chemyn
au pont.' — Confession of Nicholas
Hubert called Paris : PITCAIBN, vol.
i. p. 510.

3 On the morning of the 24th Sir
William Drury wrote from Berwick :
— ' This day the Queen returns to
Edinburgh or Dunbar. The Earl
Bothwell hath gathered many of his
friends, some say to ride in Liildis-
dale ; but there is feared some other

I567.]

CARBERRY HILL.

141

Huntly had betrayed the secret, dreading the indigna-
tion of the noblemen who were still hoping to save the
Queen ; and so well it was known, that Lennox, writing
from some hiding-place where he was waiting fora ship
to take him to England, was able to inform his wife
particularly of what was about to happen.1 The Queen
however was too infatuated to care for the consequences :
on the morning of the 24th she took leave of the
Prince ; not finding herself able to carry him with her
as she had meant to do, she commended him rather
needlessly to the care of the Earl, whose chief business
was to protect him from his mother ; 2 she then mounted
her horse, and attended by Huntly, Maitland, James
Melville, and her ordinary guard, she prepared for the

purpose which he intendeth much
different from that, of the which I
believe shortly I shall be able to ad-
vertise more certainly.' — Drury to
Cecil, April 24 : Border MSS.

1 ' The Queen retunis this day
from Stirling. The Earl of Both-
well hath gathered many of his
friends. He is minded to meet her
this day, and take her by the way
and bring her to Dunbar. Judge
ye if it be with her will or no.' —The
Earl of Lennox to Lady Lennox,
April 24: MSS. Scotland, Roll*

2 Sentiment, both in words and
in painting, has made much of this
parting charge of Mary Stuart to
the Earl of Mar. The story current
at the time in Scotland, though as
improbable as the fine sentiments
attributed on the occasion to the

Queen, is more characteristic of
contemporary feeling. Sir William
Drury writes : —

•At the Queen's last being at
Stirling, the Prince being brought
unto her, she offered to kiss him, but
the Prince would not, but put her
face away with his hand, and did to
his strength scratch her. She took
an apple out of her pocket and of-
fered it, but it would not be received
by him, but the nurse took it, and to
a greyhound bitch having whelps the
apple was thrown. She ate it, and
she and her whelps died presently ;
a sugar loaf also for the Prince was
brought thither at .the same time
and left there for the Prince, but the
Earl of Mar keeps the same. It w
judged to be very evil compounded.'
—Drury to Cecil, May 20: Border
MSS.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[en. 48.

concluding passage of Bothwell's melodrama. The first
act of it had been tlie King's murder, the second the
trial at the Tolbooth ; the scene of the third was Al-
mond Bridge, two miles from Edinburgh on the road to
Linlithgow. There, as he had promised, the adventur-
ous Earl lay waiting for the Queen of Scotland ; as the
royal train appeared he dashed forward with a dozen of
his followers and seized her bridle-rein ; her guard flew
to her side to defend her, when, with singular com-
posure, she said she would have no bloodshed ; her peo-
ple were outnumbered, and rather than any of them
should lose their lives, she would go wherever the Earl of
Bothwell wished. Uncertain what to do, they dropped
their swords. Huntly submitted to be disarmed, and,
with Maitland and Melville, was made prisoner. Their
followers dispersed, and Bothwell, with his captives and
the Queen, rode for Dunbar. The thinnest veil of affect-
ation was scarcely maintained during the remainder of
the journey. Blackadder, one of Bothwell's people
who had charge of Melville, told him, as they went
along, that it was all done with the Queen's consent.1
Drury, writing three days later from Berwick, was able
to say that the violence which had been used was only ap-
parent.2 The road skirted the south wall of Edinburgh.
Some one was sent in, as if to ask for assistance for the
Queen, and Sir James Balfour replied by firing the
Castle guns at Bothwell's troop ; but ' the pieces had

1 Memoirs of Sir James Melville.

2 « The manner of the Earl Both-
well's meeting with the Queen,

though it appears to be forcible, yet
it is known to be otherwise.' — Drury
to Cecil, April 27 : Border MSS.

1567.]

CARBERR Y If ILL.

'43

been charged very well with, hay/1 and gave out sound
merely. Even the Spanish ambassador, in transmit-
ting to Philip the opinion of a trustworthy Catholic
informant, could but say that ' all had been arranged
beforehand, that the Queen, when the marriage was
completed, might pretend that she had been forced into
consent/ 2

It was twelve o'clock before the party reached Dun-
bar. There, safe at last in his own den, the Earl turned
like a wolf on the man who had attempted to stand be-
tween him and his ambition. ' Maitland/ it is said,
' would have been slain that night/ but for the protec-
tion which his mistress threw over him. Huntly and
Bothwell both set on him, and Mary Stuart — be it re-
membered to her honour — thrust her body between the
sword-points and the breast of one whose fault was that
ho had been her too faithful servant. ' She told Huntly
that if a hair of Islington's head did perish, she would
cause him forfeit lands and goods and lose his life/8
Melville and Huntly wore released the following morn-
ing, but Maitland was detained close prisoner, and was
still in danger of mnrder. He contrived to communi-
cate with the English at Berwick, to whom he intended
if possible to escape. The Queen remained to suffer

1 Drury to Cecil, May : Border
MSS.

2 De Silva to Philip, May 3 :
MS. Simancas.

3 Maitland himself described the
scene to Drury. It is likely that
Huntly had consulted Maitland .at

Stirling, that Maitland revealed the
scheme to the Lords, and that
Huntly desired to save himself from
Bothwell's fury at Maitland's ex-
pense.— Drury to Cecil, May 6:
Border 3fSS.

144

RETGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

(according to her subsequent explanation of what befell
her) the violence which rendered her marriage with
Both well a necessity, if the offspring which she ex-
pected from it was to be born legitimate.

Butjthis concluding outrage determined the action
of the nobility. The last virtue whicF"7aHecTar Scot
was jealousy of his country's honour — and they felt
that they were becoming the byword of Europe. They
wrote to Mary on the 27th of April offering her their
swords, if it was true that she had been carried off un-
willingly,1 and requesting to be certified of her plea-
sure ; but whatever that pleasure might be, they de-
termined to acquiesce no longer in her remaining the
companion of Bothwell. Elizabeth had given them no
sign of encouragement, but du Croq, the French am-
bassador, said, that whenever they pleased to ask for it,
ihey might have assistance from France. The Scotch
alliance was of infinite moment to the Court of Paris ;
the Queen of Scots had forfeited for a time the affection
even of her own relations ; she had flung away the in-
terests of the Catholic League upon a vulgar passion ;
and if the Scots would return to their old alliance, the
French Court were ready to leave them free to do as
they pleased with her. There was a profound belief
that the Queen of Scots was a lost woman ; that she
would be a disgrace to any cause with which she was
connected ; and if the friendship of Scotland could be

1 The Lords to the Queen of I MS. in possession of Mr Richard
Scotland, April 27, from Aberdour : | Almack.

1567; CARBERRY HILL. . 145

recovered to France by sacrificing her, it would be
cheaply purchased.

Thus assured of support from one side or the other,
the Earls of Mar, Morton, Athol, Argyle, and others,
assembled at Stirling a few days after Mary Stuart was
carried off. They were determined at all hazards to
take her out of Bothwell's hands, and if, after the letter
which they had addressed to her, she persisted in re-
maining with him, they made up their minds to depose
her and crown the infant Prince.1 Kirkaldy, a friend
of England, induced them with some difficulty to con-
sult Elizabeth once more.

' The cold usage of my Lord of Murray/ Sir Robert
Melville wrote to Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, ' lost your
sovereign many hearts in this realm ; they may be re-
covered, if she will be earnest in this most honest cause,
and nourish a greater love than ever was between the
countries, that both Protestant and Papist may go one
way.2

'The Queen/ wrote Kirkaldy to Lord Bedford,3
' will never cease till she has wrecked all the honest men
of this realm. She was minded to cause Both well rav-
ish her to the end that she may the sooner end the
marriage which she promised before she caused murder
her husband. There is many that would revenge the
murder, but that they fear your mistress. The Queen
minds hereafter to take the Prince out of the Earl of

Urury to Cecil, May 5 : Border

J/.vv.

May 5, 1567: MSS. Scotland,

Rolls House.

* Grange to Bedford, April 26 :
MSS. Ibid.

VOL. vm. 10

146

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 48.

May.

Mar's hands, and put him in his hands that murdered
his father. I pray your Lordship let me know what
your mistress will do, for if we seek France we may
find favour at their hands, but I would rather persuade
to lean to England.'

Elizabeth still continued silent, and the
French overtures continuing, the Lords were
unwilling to wait longer upon her pleasure. It was
known that Bothwell intended to destroy the Prince,
for fear the Prince when he grew to manhood should
revenge his father's death. There was no time to be
lost, and they insisted on knowing explicitly what
they were to look for from England. Du Croq, they
said, had promised in the name of the King of France,
that if they would relinquish the English alliance, they
should have assistance to ' suppress ' Bothwell. Du
Croq had warned the Queen herself that if she mar-
ried Bothwell, ' she must expect neither friendship nor
favour ' from the French Court. .Finding that ' she
would give no ear ' to his remonstrances, he had offered
to join the Lords at Stirling openly in his master's
name ; he had been lavish of promises if at the same
time they would abandon the English alliance ; and the
Lords gave Elizabeth to understand that she must send
them some answer, and hold out to them some encour-
agement, or the hand so warmly offered by France
would be accepted.1

1 Sir Robert Melville impressed
on Cecil the same view of the ques-
tion.

' Thus far,' he said, ' 1 will make
your honour privy. France has of-
fered to enter in bond with the no

I567-1

CARBEKRY HILL.

Elizabeth, since her misadventure at the time of tin;
Darnley marriage, had resolved to have no more to do
with Scotch insurgents. Interference between subject
and Sovereign had never been to her own taste. She
had yielded with but half a heart to the urgency of
Cecil, and she had gone far enough to commit herself,
without having intended even then to go farther. The
result had been failure, almost dishonour, and the
alienation of a powerful party who till that time had
been her devoted adherents. She was again confronted
with a similar difficulty, and at a time which was ex
tremely critical. The eight years, at the end of which,
by the terms of the peace of Cambray, Calais was to be
restored to England, had just expired. She had sent in
her demand, and the French Government had replied
that the peace of Cambray had been violated by Eng-
land in the occupation of Havre, and that they were no
longer bound by its provisions. On the part of Eng-
land, it had been rejoined that the peace had been first
broken by France in the usurpation of the English arms
by Mary Stuart and the Dauphin, and by the notorious
preparations which had been made to dethrone Eliza-
beth in their favour. So the dispute was hanging.
The feeling between the two countries was growing sore

liility of the realm, and to give
divers pensions to noblemen and
gnitlt men, which some did like well
of; hut the honest sort have con-
i huk J and brought the rest to the
same effect, and will do nothing that
will offend your Sovereign without

the fault be in her Majesty ; and it
appears both Papist and Protestant
serve together with an earnest af»
fection for the weal of their coun
try.'— Robert Melville to Cecil, May
7 : MSS. Scotland.

148 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

and dangerous, and in the midst of it Elizabeth was en-
countered by the dilemma of having to encourage a fresh
revolt of the Scots, or of seeing the entire results of
Cecil's policy undone, and Scotland once more in per-
manent alliance with England's most dangerous neigh-
bour. "What was she to do ? As usual, she attempted
to extricate herself by ambiguities and delays. Lord
Grey's instructions were out of date before he had
started. She did not renew them ; Grey remained at
the Court, and she communicated with the Lords
through the Earl of Bedford, who had returned to
• Berwick.

The rescue of the Queen, she said, the prosecution of
the murderers of Darnley, and the protection of the
young Prince, were objects all of which were most de-
sirable ; she was pleased to find her own friendship pre-
ferred to that of France ; but she desired to be informed
' how she might, with honour to the world and satisfac-
tion to her conscience,' ' intermeddle ' to secure those
objects. She could not see how it could be said that the
Queen of Scots was forcibly detained by Both well, see-
ing that ' the Queen of Scots had advertised her in
a contrary manner ; ' and again, however much the
punishment of the murderers was to be wished for, if
Bothwell married the Queen — ' being by common fame
the principal author of the murder ' — she could not tell
how it could be brought about ' without open show of
hostility.' The Lords therefore must tell her more
particularly how they meant to proceed, and she hoped
their intentions might be such as ' she could allow of in

I567-]

CARBERRY HILl

honour and conscience.' As to deposing the Queen and
crowning the Prince, ' she thought it very strange for
example's sake.1 l

Elizabeth was more than usually enigmatical, since
her real object was one which she durst not avow.
Both she and^the French desired to get the person of
the Prince into their hands, under pivtence of providing
for his safety, and whichever first approached the sub-
ject might throw the prize into the hands of the other.
Bedford however was permitted to hint what the Queen
could not say, and to make the suggestion less unpalat-
able, he was allowed — as usual on his own responsi-
bility— to hold out indefinite hopes to the Lords that
they might calculate on Elizabeth's assistance more
surely than her own letter implied.8

But events were moving too fast for diplomacy of this
kind. It was now publicly understood in Scotland that
the marriage waited only till Bothwell's divorce suit was
concluded, and the people were growing daily more
fearless in the expression of their indignation. The
boys at Stirling played the murder of Darnley before
the Lords. The trial of Bothwell followed, and the boy
who represented Bothwell was found guilty, hurried to
the gallows, and hung with such hearty goodwill that,
like the London youth who played Philip before Wyatt's
insurrection, he was half dead before they cut him
down.3 The law courts in Edinburgh were closed, as

1 Bedford to Grange, June 5 ;
Bedford to Cecil, June 5: MSS.
Scotland, Rolls House.

8 Ibid.

3 Drury to Cecil, .May 14 : Border
MSS.

r5o REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

if the powers of the magistrates had ceased with the
Queen's confinement. The whole country was hushed
into the stillness which foretold the coming storm.
Mary Stuart herself appeared entirely careless. She
replied at last to the question which had been presented
to her by the Lords : ' It was true/ she said, ' that she
nad been evil and strangely handled ; ' but she had
fiince ' been so well used and treated that she had no
cause to complain, and she wished them to quiet them-
selves.' l The Hamiltons, for their own purposes, had
held aloof from the Stirling confederates ; the Arch-
bishop of St Andrews, the Duke's brother, had charge
of the divorce case, which he was hurrying forward
with all the speed which his courts allowed ; and rely-
ing on the treacherous support of his family, she despised
alike the warnings and the menaces of the rest.2 The
difficulty foreseen by de Silva had occurred in Both-
well's suit ; the divorce being demanded by the wife on
the ground of her husband's adultery, the law did not
permit him to marry again. Lady Buccleuch had come
to the rescue by volunteering to swear that he had
promised marriage to her before he had married Lady
Bothwell, and that the latter, therefore, was not lawfully
his wife ; 3 but shameless as the parties were, this re-
source was too much for their audacity ; and at length
a cousinship in the fourth degree was discovered between

1 Drury to Cecil, May 5 : Border
MSS.

2 ' The Hamiltons are furtherers
of the divorce, and not least glad-
dened with the proceedings at Court,

hoping the rather to attain the
sooner to their desired end.' — Drury
to Cecil, May 2 : M8S. Ibid.

3 Same to the same, April 30 :
MSS. Ibid.

1567-] CARhERRY HILL. 151

the Hepburns and the Gordons, for which the required
dispensation had not been procured. On this ground
the Archbishop declared Bothwell's marriage null ; for
fuller security a suit was instituted in the Protestant
Consistorial Court on the plea of adultery ; and thus in
the first week in May the Earl found himself as free to
marry again as his own and the Archbishop's iniquity
could render him. The object of the stay at Dunbar
having been accomplished, he returned, on the 3rd, to
Edinburgh, accompanied by the Queen. On the follow-
ing Sunday * the banns ' were asked in St Giles's
Church. The minister, John Craig, refused at first to
publish them ; but Both well threatened to hang him,
and he submitted under protest.1 Maitland, who was
still kept with the Court as a prisoner, sent private
word to Drury that the marriage would certainly take
place, and that he himself intended to escape at the first
opportunity and join his friends.2

On the 6th, Mary Stuart dared the indignation of
Edinburgh by riding publicly through the streets with
Both well at her bridle-rein. On the 7th, the last forms
of the divorce were completed, and on the 8th, the
Queen informed the world by proclamation that, moved
by Bothwell's many virtues, she proposed to take him
for her husband. The Court was still surrounded by a
band of cut- throats. The Queen had 5000 crowns,
besides her jewels. The gold font which Elizabeth

- nted at James's baptism was melted down at the

1 Robert Melville to Cecil, May 7 : MSS. Scotland
2 Drury to Cecil, May 6 : Bonier MSS.

152 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

Mint ; l and thus provided with means of paying their
wages at least for a time, she assured herself that she
had nothing to fear. On the 1 2th, she appeared in the
Court of Session ; ' Whereas the judges/ she said, ' had
made some doubt to sit for the administration of justice,
in consequence of her captivity ; she desired them to
understand that although she had been displeased at
her capture, the EarPs subsequent good behaviour, the
recollection of his past services, and the hope of further
service from him in the future had induced her to for-
give him. She was now free, and under no restraint.
The business of the State could go forward as usual, and
as a token of her favour she intended to promote the
Earl to. further honour/

The same day she created Bothwell Duke of Orkney,
' the Queen placing the coronet on his head with her
own hands/ 2

One distinct glimpse remains of this man now on the
eve of his marriage, and before Mary Stuart's degrada-
tion was completed. Sir James Melville, since his re-
lease from Dunbar, had kept at a distance from the
Court, not liking the Earl's neighbourhood. He came
however once more to Holyrood to see his mistress
before all was over. When he entered the hall he
found the new-made Duke sitting at supper there with
Huntly and some of the ladies of the Court. The Duke

1 Grange to Bedford, May 8: MSS. Scotland. Drury to Cecil,
May 31 : MSS. Border.

2 KEITH.

1 567 . J C ARE ERR Y HILL. 153

f bade him welcome/ said he was a stranger, and told
him to sit down and eat. ' I said/ writes Melville — he
may relate the scene in his own words — ' I said that I
had supped already. Then he called for a cup of wine
and drank to me, saying, * You need grow fatter ; the
zeal of the Commonwealth hath eaten you up and made
you lean/ Then he fell in discoursing with the gentle-
women, speaking such filthy language that they and I
left him and went up to the Queen/ l

To make an end of this.

In the early daylight at four in the morning, on the
jjth of May, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, Queen
of France, and heir-presumptive to the English crown,
became the wife of this the foulest ruffian among her
subjects. The French ambassador, though earnestly
entreated, refused to be present. The ceremony was
performed in the Council Chamber, not in the chapel.
Adam Bothwcll, Bishop of Orkney, who called himself
a Protestant, officiated ; and hopeless of gaining the
Catholics, the Earl expected idly that he might earn
favour with the Reformers by bringing the Queen to
dishonour openly the Catholic forms, and allow herself
to be married with the Calvinist service. It was not
without a pang that Mary Stuart made this last sacri-
fice to her passion, and broke the rules of a religion
which no temptation hitherto had prevailed on her to
part with. -She was married 'in her dool weed/ in
deep mourning, ' the most changed woman in the face

1 Memoirs of Sir James Melville.

154

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 48

that in so little time without extremity of sickness had
been seen.' She heard mass that day for the last time,
and thenceforth so long as they remained together both
she and her husband were to be Protestants. In true
Calvinistic fashion the Earl did public penance for
his past iniquities. A sermon followed the marriage,
in which the bishop ' did declare the penitence of
the Earl Bothwell for his life past, confessing him-
self to have been an evil and wicked liver, which
he would now amend, and conform himself to the
Church.' l The passive Queen in all things submitted.
His first act was to obtain a revocation from her of
all licenses to use the Catholic services, and a declara-
tion that for the future the Act of Religion of 1560,
prohibiting the mass to every one, should be strictly
maintained.2

It seems as if the fatal step once taken, Mary
Stuart's spirit failed her. More than once already in
her sane intervals she had seen through the nature of
the man for whom she was sacrificing herself. She had
been stung by his coldness, or frightened at his indiffer-
ence, which she struggled unsuccessfully to conceal
from herself; and the proud woman had prostrated
herself at his feet, in the agony of her passion, to plead
for the continuance of his love.3

1 Drury to Cecil, May 16 ; Bor-
der MSS. 2 KEITH.

3 How profoundly she was at-
tached to Bothwell appears in the
following letter — one of the two of
which I have recovered the original

words. It was written just before
the marriage.

' Monsieur, — Si 1'ennuy de
vostre absence, celuy de vostre oubli,
la crainte du dangier tant promis
dun chacun a vostre tant ayrae per-

I567.]

CARBERR Y HILL.

'55

She was jealous of his divorced wife, to whom she
suspected that he was still attached, and he in turn was

sonne peuvent me consoller, je vous
en lesse a juger ; veu le malheur quo
mon cruel sort et continuel malheur
m'avoient promis, a la suite des in-
fortunes et craintes, tant recentes
que passes, de plus longue main, les
quell es vous scares. Mais pour tout
celu jc me vous accuserai ni de pen
lie Bouvenance, ni de pen dc soigne,
wt moins encore de vostre promesse
violee, ou de la froideur de vos let-
ires ; m'cstant ya tant randue vostre
quc cc qu'il vous plaist m'est agre-
able ; ct sont mes penses tant volon-
tereinent aux vostres asubjectes, que
jc v(<iilx prosnpposer que tout ce que
vient de vous procode non par aul-
cune des causes desusdictes, ains pour
telles qui sont justes et raisounables,
et telles que jc desire moymesme :
quc est 1'ordre que Tn'aves promis de
prcndre final pour la seurte et honor-
able service du seul soubticn de ma
vie, pour qui seul je la veux con-
server et sans 3equol je ne desire que
breve mort: or est pour vous tes-
moiirner combien humblement sous
vos coniinaiitleiiu'nt je me soubmetz,
jc vous ay envoie en signe d'homage
par Paris I'nnicment du chief, con-
ducteur des aultres memlm-s, inlt rant
que vous investatit de la dcspoille
luy qui est principal, lo rest ne peult
que vous cstre subject ; et avecques
le consentement du cceur, an lieu du
quil, puis que le vous ay ja lesse, je
vous rnvoie un sepulcre de pierre
dure, peinct du noir, seme de larmes
et de ossenient*. La pierre je la

compare a mon cueur qui comme luy
est talle en un seur tombeau, ou re-
ceptacle de vos commandments, et
sur tout du vostre nom et memoire,
que y sont enclos comme mes cho-
vcuLx en la bague, pour jamais n'en
sortir que la mort ne vous pcrmet
fuire trophee des mes os : comme la
bague en est reraplie, en signe que
vous aves fayt cntiere conqueste de
moy de mon cueur, et j usque a vous
en lesser les os pour memoir de vostro
victoire et de mon agrcable porto.

'Lea larmes sont sans nombre,
ainsi sont les craintes, de von- <!• •>
plair ; les plcurs de vostre absence
et lo desplaiser de ne pouvoir estrc
en effect exterieur vostre comme je
suys sans faintyse dc cueur ct
d' esprit : et a bon droit quand mes
merites seront trop plus grands que
dc la plus perfayte que jamais feut,
et telle que je desire estre : et met-
tray peine en condition de contrefair
pour dignement estre employee soubs
vostre domination. Resents la done
mon seul bicn en aussi bonne part
comme avecques extreme joie j'ay
fait vostre manage, qui j usque a
celuy de nos corps en public ne
sortira de mon sein, c.omme racrque
de tout ce que jay ou espere ni de-
sire de felicite en ce monde. Or
craignant mon cueur de vous ennuyer
autant a lire que je me plaise descrir,
je finiray, apres vous avoir baise los
mains d' aussi grande affection, que
je prie Dieu o le seul soubtien de ma
vie vous la donner longue et hcu-

156

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 48.

irritated at any trifling favour which she might show
to others than himself.1 On the day of her marriage
she told du Croq that she was so miserable that she only
wished for death ; 2 and two days after, in Both well's
presence, she called for a dagger to kill herself.3 Du
Croq gave her poor consolation. He told her that her
marriage was utterly inexcusable ; if the Queen-mother
had not forbidden him to leave his post he would not
have remained in Edinburgh after it had taken place,
and he refused to pay respect to Both well as her hus-
band.4 Yet her periods of wretchedness were but the

reuse, et a moy vostre bonne grace
comme le seul bien que je desire et a
quoyje tends.' — MSS. MARY QUEEN
OP SCOTS, vol. ii. No. 66. Rolls
House.

1 ' There is often jars between
the Queen and the Duke already.
He was offended with her for the
gift of a horse which was the King's
to the Abbot of Arbroath' (Lord
John Hamilton). — Drury to Cecil,
May — , 1567 : Border MSS. The
anger about Arbroath may have been
jealousy. ' There is a witch in the
North Land,' Drury wrote on the
20th of May, l that affirms that the
Queen shall have yet to come two
husbands more ; Arbroath shall be
one of them, to succeed the Duke
now, who she says shall not live half
a year or a year at the most. The
fifth husband she names not, but she
says in his time she shall be burned,
which death divers doth speak of to
happen to her, and as yot it is said
she fears the same."

2 A very commonplace reason
was given by Maitland for her un-
happiness. 'Both well,' he said,
' would not let her look at any one,
or let any one look at her, et qu'il
scavoit bien qu'elle aymoit son plaisir
et a passer son temps aultant que
autre dumond.' — Du Croq to Cathe-
rine de Medici, June 17: TEULET,
vol. ii.

3 Du Croq to Catherine de Me-
dici, May 18: Ibid. Sir James
Melville, probably referring to the
same scene, says, ' The Queen mean-
while was so disdainfully handled
and with such reproachful language,
that in presence of Arthur Erskine,
I heard her ask for a knife to stab
herself; 'or else,' said she, 'I shall
drown myself.' ' — Memoirs of Sir
James Melville.

4 ' Si est ce que jay parle bieu
hault . . . ni depuis ne 1'ay point
voullu recognoistre comme rrmry de
la Reyne.1 — TEULET, vol. ii.

1567.] CARBERRY HILL. 157

intermittent cold fits in the fever of her passion. She
had sacrificed herself soul and body, and he held her
enthralled in the chains of her own burning affection.
In Scotland generally there was yet outward still
ness. The Lords had threatened that if she married
they would crown the Prince. It seemed as if they
had thought better of it, for they dispersed to their
homes ; and the Queen, taking courage, sent a demand
to the Earl of Mar for the surrender of Stirling and of
the child. Elizabeth's uncertain answer had delayed
the resolution to act ; and Mar, not venturing to give
a direct refusal, could only reply that * he dared not
deliver the Prince out of his hands without consent of
the Estates.' The answer was allowed to pass. It was
not Both well's object to precipitate a quarrel, and he
continued to follow the course which he began at his
marriage by paying court to the Protestants. He
attended the daily sermons with edifying regularity,
and was pointedly attentive to the ministers. Every
day he rode out with the Queen, and was ostenta-
tiously respectful in his manner to her. There were
pretty struggles when he would persist in riding ' un-
bonneted,' and she would snatch his- cap and force it on
his head. * The hate of the people increased more and
more,' yet he would not see it ; and though he went
nowhere without a guard, yet he offered himself as a
guest at the meals of the unwilling Edinburgh citizens.
On the 25th of May, to amuse the people, there was a
pageant at Leith, and a sham fight on the water was
got up by BothwelPs followers. Everything was tried

t$S REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

to dispel the strangeness, and make the marriage
appear like any other ordinary event. The Bishop of
Dunblane was sent to Paris, to pacify the Queen's
friends there. He was to excuse her as having been
forced into marrying Both well by what had happened
at Dunbar ; yet not so severely to blame him as to
make him appear unfit to be her husband. It was but
a limping message. She said in her instructions to the
Bishop, that the Earl had been misled into violence by
the vehemency of his love, that he had been a faithful
servant in her past troubles, and, that persecuted as he
was by calumny, she had no means of saving his life
except by becoming his wife. Not very consistently
with this argument, she said that all Scotland seemed
to be at his devotion. Her people desired to see her
married rather to a native Scot than to a stranger.
Bothwell had shocked her in many ways ; especially he
ought to have considered what was due to her religion
Yet she did not wish that too much fault should be laid
upon him. The past could not be recalled. He wa^
her husband, and she trusted that other courts would
accept him as such. It might be objected that he had
been already married; but a legal divorce had been
pronounced, and he was free before she became his
wife.1

She could not conceal from herself the lameness of
the explanation, but she hoped it would be admitted as
tolerable; and she wrote at the same time to the

1 Instructions to the Bishop of Dunblane: KEITH.

1567-]

CARBERRY HILL.

159

Archbishop of Glasgow, begging him ' to bestow his
study in the ordering of the message, and in persuad-
ing those to whom it was directed to believe that it
was the truth.' l

Dunblane made but a poor apologist. He spoke of
himself when he arrived as a fugitive for religion from
a country where the Catholic faith would no longer be
permitted to exist. The Archbishop of Glasgow did
his best, with truth or without it. He ventured a false-
hood to the Spanish ambassador, assuring him that the
report that she had forsaken her religion was incorrect,
and that the day after her marriage a thousand persons
had heard mass with her. Dunblane however let out
the fatal certainty, and with it his own fears, that ' unless
God set to His hand, there would soon be no more nui->
in Scotland.' 8

The French Court received the apology with open
and undisguised contempt. Mary Stuart was regarded
as a lost woman, and their own policy was now to antici-
pate England in supporting the Lords, to get the Prince

1 Mary Stuart to the Archbishop
of Glasgow, May 27 : LAUANOFF,
vol. ii.

- ' l)uto me el dicho embujudur
(the Archbishop of Glasgow, ambas-
sador at Paris) que el dia siguicnte
del matnmoiiio de su ama, fue pub-
licamente a la missa, y que hubo
mill personas en ella. Dice el
obispo (de Dunblane) que es burla,
y verdad que el proprio dia que se
cas6, oy6 missa, y de la capilla donde
la oy6 fue a una sala grande donde

se lii/6 el inatrinumio por rnano du
uno obispo el mayor herege que ay
en aquel reyno ; y que toda la ceri-
monia fue a la Calvinista : y ninguno
de los dias despues del roatrimonio
sabe que se haya dicho en su casa,
y 4111- album's partieulares la liacni
dccir en sus casaa secretaiuentc*, pcro
que esto se acabara presto si Dios
no pone su mano.' — Don Frances de
Alava a Felipe II. Junio 16 : TEU-
LET, vol. v.

I DO

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 48.

into their hands, and recover thus the influence which
they had lost. 'The Queen-mother/ wrote Sir H.
Norris,1 ' is minded all she can to make profit of this
cruel murder, and to renew the old practices there with
as many as shall be able to serve her turn/ 2

1 Your Majesty/ said du Croq to his mistress, ' may
show yourself as displeased as you will with this mar-
riage. It is a bad business. For myself, I had better
withdraw, and leave the Lords to play their game for
themselves/ 3

It was not to be long in playing. The first week in
June, Argyle, Morton, Athol, Glencairn, the Master of
Graham, Hume, Herries, Lindsay, Tullibardine, Grange,
and many other noblemen and gentlemen, rejoined Mar
at Stirling. Maitland stole away to them from the
Court without leave-taking. Catholic and Protestant
for once were going heartily together.

Their first thought was to make a stoop on Holy
rood, surround the palace, and take Both well prisoner.
Argyle, who was himself too deeply committed in the
murder to take an active part, sent warning to the
Queen ; and the Duke, seeing plainly that the crisis was
come, and that he must fight or perish, determined to
be the first in the field. Money was again wanting.
Mary Stuart had not disposed of her jewels, and the
guard was mutinous and untrustworthy. Bothwell's
chief strength lay among the borderers. He sent word

1 The English minister at Paris.

2 Sir H. Norris to Sir N. Throg-
luorton, May 23 : Gonway MSS.

Rolls House.

3 Du Croq to Catherine de Me-
dici, May 1 8 : TEULET, vol. ii.

1567.] CAKBEKRY HILL. 161

to his friends to collect at Melrose on the yth of June ;
and dropping the Queen at Borthwick Castle on his
way, hastened down, with as many of his men as
would follow him, to place himself at their head. He
was out of favour with fortune. Maxwell, Herries,
and Lord Hume prevented the borderers from moving
and on reaching the rendezvous he found no one there
He returned upon his steps, rejoined the Queen, and
sent to Huntly, the Archbishop of St Andrews, and
Sir James Bulfour, who were in Edinburgh Castle, to
come to him with all the force which they could raise.
The Lords themselves meanwhile on hearing of the
Queen's departure had removed to Edinburgh. Both-
well' s messenger was intercepted by a band of Mor-
ton's followers; and Morton, learning where Bothwell
was, attempted to surprise him. Hume, Lindsay, and
Mar, joined the party, and on the night of
the loth (Tuesday) they galloped down to
]>t>rthwick, and surrounded the castle in the darkness.
Some of them, professing to represent the succours
expected from Edinburgh, presented themselves at the
gate ; they said that they were pursued, and clamoured
for admittance. The Duke at the moment was step-
ping into bed. He flung on his clothes on hearing the
noise, and reached the court-yard barely in time to dis-
cover the mistake and prevent the stratagem from
being successful. But the castle was unfurnished and
could not long be defended. He knew that if he was
taken he would be instantly killed, that his dangerous
secrets might die with him; and, accompanied only by

VOL. VIII. 11

152

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 48.

a son of Lord Cranston, he slipped out by a postern
among the trees. The fugitives were seen and chased,
and they separated to distract their pursuers, who un-
luckily followed and caught the wrong man. Both well
was not an arrowshot distant; and young Cranston in
his terror pointed to the way which he had taken, but
he was not believed. The Duke escaped to Haddington,
and thence to Dunbar.

The Lords, not knowing at first that he was gone,
were shouting under the windows — ' calling him traitor,
murderer, butcher/ ' bidding him come out and main-
tain his challenge/ The Queen too was not spared, and
foul taunts were flung at her, which she, desperate now
and like a wild cat at bay, returned in kind.1 When
they learned that Bothwell had escaped, they drew off,
leaving the Queen to dispose of herself as she pleased,
and returned to Edinburgh. They arrived at eight in
the morning. The Castle party had shut the gates, but
Lindsay scaled the wall without meeting any resistance,
and the Lords then entering in a body repaired to the
marketplace, and declared publicly that they had risen
in arms ' to pursue their revenge for the death of the
King/ Du Croq, anxious to prevent bloodshed, went

1 ' With divers undtitiful and un-
seemly speeches used against their
Queen and Sovereign, too evil and
unseemly to be told, which, poor
Princess, she did with her speech
defend, wanting other means in her
revenge.'— Drury to Cecil, June 12.
These words were crossed out in the

MS. and made illegible, though from
the fading of the second ink they
can now again be read. The letter
perhaps had to be shown to Eliza-
beth, and Cecil may have feared to
let her see what might exasperate
her too much against the Lords.

1567.]

CARBZRRY HILL.

163

to the Castle to consult Huntly, and by Huntly's advice
sent to Mary to offer to mediate. She replied that he
might do what he could, but if the Lords intended to
injure her husband she would make no terms with
them.1

Thus events were left to their course, and as the
mountain heather when kindled in the dry spring
weather blazes in the wind, and the flame spreads and
spreads till all the horizon is ringed with fire, so at the
proclamation of the Lords the hearts of the Scotch
people flashed up in universal conflagration. The mur-
dered Darn ley was elevated into a saint and endowed
with all imaginary virtues ; * and in flying broadsheets

1 'Mais s'ilz ataquoicnt ii son
mari qu'ellc nc vouloit poinct d'ap-
pointment.' — Du Croq to Charles
IX., June 12 : TEULET, vol. ii.

» The feeling of the Scottish peo-

ple at this crisis is singularly and
powerfully expressed in the follow-
ing ballad, which was printed on
broadsheets and scattered about
Edinburgh :—

A BALLAD.

To Edinburgh about six hours at morn,

As I was passing panttand out the way,
Ane bonny boy was sore making his moan ;

His sorry song was Oche and wallaway !
That ever I should lyve to see that day,

Ane King at eve with sceptre, sword, and crown ;
At morn but a deformed lump of clay,

With traitors strong so cruelly put down !
Then drew I near some tidings for to speir,

And said, My friend, what makis thee sa way ;
Bloody Bothwell hath brought our King to beir

And flatter and fraud with double Dalilay.
At ten houris on Sunday late at een

When Dalila and Bothwell bade good-night,
OS her finger false she threw ane ring,

And said, My Lord, ane token you I plight.

1 64 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.48.

of verse, every Scot who could wield blade, couch lance,
or draw trigger, was invited to take part in the revenge.

She did depart then with an untrue train,
And then in haste an culverin they let craik,

To teach their feiris to know the appoint time
About the Kinge's lodging for to clap.

To dance that night they said she should not slack,
With leggis lycht to hald the wedow walkan ;

And baid fra bod until she heard the crack,
Whilk was a sign that her good Lord was slain.

0 ye that to our Kirk have done suhscryve,
These Achans try alsweill traist I may,

If ye do not the time will come belyve,
That God to you will raise some Josuay ;

"Whilk shall your bairnis gar sing wallaway,
And ye your selvis be put down with shame j

Eemember on the awesome latter day,

"When ye reward shall receive for your blame.

1 ken right well ye knaw your duty,

Gif ye do not purge you ane and all,
Then shall I write in pretty poetry,
In Latin laid in style rhetorical ;

Which through all Europe shall ring like ane bell,

In the contempt of your malignity.
Fye, flee fra Clytemnestra fell,

For she was never like Penelope.

"With Clytemnestra I do not fane to fletch
Who slew her spouse the great Agamemnon ;

Or with any that Ninus' wife does match,

Semiramis quha brought her gude Lord down.

Quha do abstain fra litigation,

Or from his paper hald aback the pen ?

Except he hate our Scottish nation,

Or then stand up and traitors' deeds commend ?

Now all the woes that Ovid in Ibin,

Into his pretty little book did write,
And many mo be to our Scottish Queen,

For she the cause is of my doleful dyte.

1567.] CARBERRY HILL. 165

A message came up from Berwick that if there was
*x> be a civil war, the Lords had better send the Prince

Sa mot her heart be fillet full of syte,

As Herois was for Leander's death ;
Herself to slay for woe who thought delyte,

For Henry's sake to lik° our Queen was laith.

The dolour als that pierced Dido's heart,
When King Enee from Carthage took the flight ;

For the which cause unto a brand she start,
And slew herself, which was a sorry sight

Sa might she die as did Crcusa bright,
The worthy wife of douty Duke Jason ;

Wha brint was in ane garment "wrought by slight
Of Medea through incantation.

Her laughter light be like to true Thisbe,
"When Pyramus she found dead at the well,

In languor like unto Penelope,
For Ulysses who long at Troy did dwell

Her dolesome death be worse than Jezebel,
"Whom through an window surely men did thraw ;

Whose blood did lap the cruel hundys fell,
And doggis could her wicked bainis gnaw.

Were I an hound —oh ! if she were an hare,

And I an cat, and she a little mouse,
And she a bairn, and I a wild wod bear,

I an ferret, and she Cuniculus.

To her I shall be aye contrarius —

When to me Atropos cut the fatal thread,

And fell deithis dartys dolorous,

Then shall our spirits be at mortal feid.

My spirit her spirit shall douke in Phlegethon,

Into that painful filthy flood of hell,
And then in Styx and Lethe baith anone —

And Cerberus that cruel hound sa fell

Shall gar her cry with mony gout and yell,

0 wall away that ever she was born,
Or with treason by ony manner mell,

Whilk from all bliss should cause her be forlorn.

i66

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 48.

to England for security. It was a poor dishonest over-
ture, and at the moment and in their present humour
they had no leisure for such small intrigues. They had
taken in hand an unexampled enterprise, and till the
work was done they would not let their minds be called
away from it.

On Wednesday night, the I ith, Mar^Stuart her-
self stole away, disguised as a man, from Borthwick.
Bothwell met her on the road and brought her to Dun-
bar, where she arrived at three in the morning.
There, without wardrobe, without attendants save the
Duke's troopers, she borrowed a dress from some
woman about the place. The Captain of Inchkeith,
a Frenchman in Bothwell's pay, who came in at his
master's summons, found the Queen of Scotland in a
short jacket with a red petticoat which scarcely reached
below her knees,1 the royal dignity laid aside with the
royal costume— but once more herself in her own free,
fierce nature, full of fire and fury. As before, when
she had fied to the same Dunbar after Rizzio's murder,
she seemed to need no rest. Her one thought was to
rally every man from every corner of the country who
would rise in her cause. The hackbutters were got to-
gether, two hundred of them, some light field-pieces,
and a few score of horse. Bothwell went off towards
the Border again, where his own people were at last

1 'Estantadverlije partis de ceste
ville pour les aller trouver a Donbar,
oil elle estoit abillee d'une cotte
rouge qui ne luy venoyt que a deuiie
de la jambe, et avoit emprunte ung

tounriche (sic) avec un tafetaz pat-
dessus.' — TEULET, vol. ii. p. 303.
The account in Calderwood says
merely ' a short petticoat little syder
than her knees,' vol. ii. p. 364.

1 567. J C ARE ERR Y HILL. 167

gathering to join him ; and not caring to be cooped up
in D unbar, the Queen dared her fate, and resolved to
advance against the Confederate Lords. On Thursday
morning she had reached D unbar — on Saturday she
moved out of it at the head of some six hundred men,
who in one way or another she had scraped together.
Both well joined her at Haddington with sixteen hun-
dred more, and together they went on to Seton. There,
in that spot, full to her of evil memories, they passed
the night. The next day they meant to be in Edin-
burgh, where they hoped to find the Castle still held for
them by Sir James Balfour.

Hearing that the Queen was coming, the Lord*
made up their minds for the struggle. The same
Saturday, before midnight, the trumpets sounded to
horse. By two o'clock on the Sunday morn-
ing their little army was on the road to Mus-
selburgh — two thousand men more or less — about as
many as were with the Queen and Bothwell. Tho
dawn was clear and cloudless, the still opening of a hot
June day, as they wound along the valley under Ar-
thur's Seat. Their banner was spread between two
sprnrs. The figure of a dead man was wrought upon
it lying under a tree ; a shirt lay on the ground, a
broken branch, and a child on its knees at its side,
stretching its hands to heaven and crying, * Judge and
iwcnge my cause, 0 Lord/

So in the grey light they swept on ; at five they
were at the old bridge at Musselburgh, and there halted
to breakfast. Du Croq, in the absence of positive in-

1 68 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

structions, could not commit himself by accompanying
them, but he followed at a distance, and while they
were waiting came up and again volunteered to mediate.
Whatever had been their sovereign's faults, he said
they were bound to remember that she ivas their sove-
reign. As they had not accepted his previous over-
tures, he could not answer what the Court of France
might do, and victory might be as embarrassing to
them as defeat.

Had the Lords shown any resolute intentions of
throwing themselves upon France, his language would
doubtless have been very different ; but they had seen
in both France and England a mean desire to make
political advantage out of their difficulties, and with
serious business in hand they did not choose to be
trifled with.

They replied coldly that there were but two modes
by which bloodshed could be avoided. If the Queen
would abandon the wretch whom she called her hus-
band, they were ready to return to their allegiance. If
Both well would maintain his own challenge, either alone,
or with as many seconds as he pleased, they would pro-
duce on their side an equal number, who were ready to
fight in the quarrel.

Du Croq, apparently conscious that neither of these
alternatives would be accepted, asked if there was no
third expedient. They said that they could think of
nothing else. They would rather be buried alive than
leave the King's murder unexamined into and unpun-

1567-] C ARE ERR Y HILL. 169

Hied. The God of Heaven would revenge it upon
them if they sat still.

Du Croq asked to be allowed to go forward to the
Queen. They were most unwilling to consent. They
knew not what he might say or do. He promised that
if he failed to persuade her to make some concessions
he would not remain with her. They still hesitated,
but at last Maitland interposed and they yielded. They
gave him a few horse for an escort, and bade him go to
the Queen or go where he would.

Mary Stuart, on the news that the Lords were ad-
vancing, had been early in the field at Seton. Her
pr n nous could be seen from beyond the bridge, two
miles distant, on the brow of the hills towards Preston
Pans, on the ground on which the English army had
slept twenty years before, the eve of the battle of
Pinkie Cleugh. Du Croq was led into her presence.
She was sitting on a stone in the dress which she had
borrowed at Dunbar. He told her how it would grieve
the King of France and the Queen-mother to hear the
issue at which she had arrived with her subjects. He
told her what the Lords had said, and implored her to
consider what she was doing.

She said fiercely that the Lords were going against
tlu'ir own plighted word. They had themselves ac-
quitted the Earl of the crime of which they now ac-
( u>ed him. They had themselves recommended her to
marry him. They should submit and sue for mercy,
and she would then receive them back into her favour.

170 RETGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

While she was speaking, Bothwell came up with his
suite. Du Croq saluted him distantly, but declined to
take his hand l He demanded in a loud voice, that all
who were standing round might hear, whether it was
against himself that the Lords' enmity was directed.

Du Croq replied, in the same high tone, that the
Lords had assured him of their loyalty to the Queen ;
and he added, dropping his voice, 'of their mortal
enmity to his Lordship.'

Again Bothwell asked what hurt he had done to
them — they envied his elevation — but fortune was a
friend to all who had the spirit to accept her favours —
and there was not one of them who would not gladly be
in his place. But he desired no bloodshed, he said, and
since things were come to that pass, if the Lords would
produce a champion of sufficient rank, he would waive
his own privileges as the Queen's consort, and would
meet him in the field ; his cause was good, and God
would be on his side.

Mary Stuart, fuming and chafing, here broke in.
' The quarrel was hers,' she cried. * The Lords should
yield, or try their chances in a battle.'

' Then there is no need for further parley,' said
Bothwell ; ' and your Excellency may, if you please, be
like the envoy who tried to mediate between Scipio and
Hannibal. He could do nothing, and stood aside, and
so witnessed the most splendid spectacle in the world.'

Du Croq, in his account of the scene, credited Both-

1 ' Nous nous saluasmes, mais je ser.' — Du Croq to Charles IX : TEU-
ne me presentay point pour 1'embras- LET, vol, ii.

1567. ] CARBERR Y /////.. 1 7 r

well with bearing himself like a man, and with display-
ing fine qualities as a commander. He thought that if
his followers were true to him, he might, after all, come
out victorious. Not a single nobleman was on his side ;
but he rather gained than lost by their absence, because
he commanded alone. Tears rose into Mary Stuart's
eyes as du Croq took leave of her. He rode back to the
Lords, and told them that she insisted on their laying
down their arms. They said it was impossible ; and he
withdrew from the field.

The two parties were by this time close together
The Confederate force, after crossing the river, had
edged along the meadows towards Dalkcitb, on the
eastern bank, before turning to the hills; and then
sweeping round, they took up a position on the ridge of
Cowsland, with the sun upon their backs. In front of
them was a hollow, ' two or three crossbow-shots across/
and on the opposite side the Queen's lines, covering the
slopes and crest of the present park at Carberry.1

Here, from eleven o'clock till two, the armies re-
mained confronting each other ; each side being unwill-
ing to lose the advantage of the ground, and descend to
the attack. The day was intensely hot. Both well's
men showed no anxiety to fight ; and some wine-casks
having followed them from Seton, as the day wore on,
they began to fall into the rear to drink.2 They were

1 l L'aultve couste voyant que
nous avious 1'advautuige do cost
cndroit, ilz marchcnt et gaignent
une autre mont a deux ou trois jects
d'arballatre Tung de

Narrative of the Captain of Inch-
kt-itli : TEUI.ET, vol. ii. p. 305. Thia
precise description renders the spot
easy to be identified.
2 Ibid.

172 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.48.

ordered back to their ranks ; but they paid no atten-
tion ; and at last not more than three or four hundred
men remained about the Queen. The humour of the
men was evidently cold. There was a general feeling
that the quarrel was personal ; that if the Duke was
willing to fight it out alone, there was no reason why
he should not be allowed to do so; and at last two
French gentlemen went across to learn whether the
Lords would still abide by their proposal.

Tullibardine, who had before taken up the challenge
which Bothwell pinned against the Tolbooth door, in-
stantly stepped forward. The Duke made no difficulty;
but the Queen, cowardly for him, though for herself
incapable of fear, found an excuse in Tullibardine's
rank. 'He was too mean a man/ she said, 'to fight
her husband/

Bothwell, villain as he was, would not show the
white feather in the field, and in the Queen's presence :
'Let Morton meet him, then,' he said.

Morton desired nothing better. Morton better than
any one knew Bothwell's guilt, for Bothwell had tried
to make him a partner of it. But Lord Lindsay, clear
himself of any stain of faint complicity in the crime,
claimed precedence as a nearer kinsman of the dead
King. Morton gave place. Lindsay stepped out be-
fore the lines, ' prayed, on his knees, that God would
preserve the innocent, and punish those who had shed
innocent blood/ and then stripped off his armour.
Morton gave him the huge double-handed sword of
Angus B ell- the- Cat ; while Bothwell implored Mary

I567.J

CARBERRY HILL.

'73

Stuart to consent that he should undertake the combat.

She, torn with a thousand feelings, hate and rage,
and terror for her husband's safety, agreed, and again
refused, and then cried passionately to the group who
were round her, that ' if they were men they would go
down all upon the traitors, and sweep them from the
hillside.'1

But her wild words fell powerless. In the long de-
lay, the two parties had intermixed, and conversed
freely. The merits of the quarrel were too well under
stood. The order was given for an advance in the
Queen's army, but not a man stirred ; and she was
forced to feel that her case was desperate. Finding
Bothwell did not come forward, two hundred Con-
federate horse, led by Kirkaldy of Grange, crossed the
hollow to the right, as if to cut off his retreat. Still
thinking only of Bothwell's safety, she sent a message,
with a white flag, to desire Grange to come to her.

He approached and knelt at her feet. She asked,
passionately, if it was impossible for the Lords to be
reconciled to her husband. Grange answered that the
Lords were irrevocably determined to take him or die.
But glad enough as they would be to kill Bothwell, she
knew well that there were some of them to whom
as a prisoner he would be dangerously inconvenient ;

1 The Bishop of Ross, in his ' De-
fence of Queen Mary's Honour,' says
that she prevented an engagement
from a desire to spare her subjects.
Nothing can be more untrue. The
Captain of Inchkeith says distinctly,

1 Elle ne desiroit autre chose que de
les faire combattre, et persuada Mon-
sieur le Due plusieurs fois a cc faire
et se advancer.' — TEULET, vol. ii.
p. 306.

i74 REIGX OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 4$.

she induced Grange to go again to consult his friends ;.
and he returned presently, with a message, that if the
Queen would leave the Earl, and return with them to
Edinburgh, she would be well treated, ' and the Duke
might go where he pleased ; but she must come to an
immediate resolution, or it would be too late, as the
evening was growing on.

The Lords were seen mounting their horses ; the
men astir, and preparing to cross the hollow. The
Queen's force had been all day melting away, and was
now reduced to a handful of the Duke's personal fol-
lowers. Even escape, except with the permission of
their enemies, was become impossible ; and with a bitter
wrench of disappointment, the Queen saw that so it
must be. There was nothing left but to bid him fare-
well. He bade her remember her promise to be true to
him. She wrung his hand, and with a long, passionate
kiss they parted. Bothwell sprung upon his horse, and
galloped off with his servants unpursued. ^The Queen,
turning to Grange, said she was ready to go with him ;
and scornful, proud, defiant as ever, she allowed him to
conduct her into the lines of the Confederate Noblemen.

She was received by Morton and Hume with the
usual signs of homage. She required them to take her
to the Hamiltons, who were believed to be in force in
the neighbourhood. Morton said briefly it could not
be. He told her that she was now in her proper place,
among her true and faithful subjects. She felt that she
was a prisoner, and that the net had closed about her.
The first famt tokens of respect which had been paid

1567.] CARBERRY HILL, tft

to her soon disappeared. As she passed between the
ranks, a long, fierce cry arose out of the crowd, ' Burn
the whore ! ' — ' Burn the murderess of her husband ! ' l
The Queen shuddered at the horrible sound ; 2 Grange
and others rode up and down, striking at the speakers
with the flat of their swords to silence them ; but it was
to no purpose ; the pent-up passion of a whole people
was bursting out. As she was borne along, the banner,
with Daruley's body on it, was flaunted before her eyes.
8he had touched no food since the night before, ' and
could scarce be held upon her saddle for grief and faint-
ness ; ' but, like some fierce animal brought to bay and in
the clutch of the hounds, she still fought and struggled.
*I expected,1 wrote du Croq, 'that the Queen would
have been gentle with the Lords, and have tried to
pacify them ; but on her way from the field, she talked
of nothing but hanging and crucifying them all.' 3
They protested that their intention had been only to
punish Bothwell for his crimes. She said they should
never do it while she lived.4 Lindsay was the special
object of her fury. ' Give me your hand, my Lord,' she
said to him, as he rode beside her. ' By this hand,' she
swore, as he gave it, ' by this hand, which is now in
mine, I will have your head for this, and thereof a —

1 Narrative in CALDERWOOD.

2 ' After her coining in to the
Lords upon Sunday in the field, the
Ivirl of Atliol's company, with the
Lord of Tullibardinc's and others

who were of the North parts, with | p. 310.

one voice cried in her hearing 4 Burn 4 Sir John Foster to Elizabeth,

the whore,' which much amazed and i June 20: Border

grieved her, and bred her tears
amain.' — Drury to Cecil, June 20 .
Border MSS.

3 Du Croq to Catherine de
i, June 17: TEULET, vol ii.

1 76 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48

sure you.'1 She lingered on the road wherever she
could, looking for the Hamiltons to rescue her ; and the
long June evening was growing dark as they brought
her at last into Edinburgh. She was in the same wild
costume, but 'her face was now disfigured with dust
and tears/ The crowd was so dense in the streets, that
they could but move at a foot's pace in single file, and
from all that close-packed throng, and from every stair
and window, there rained only yells, and curses, and
maledictions. Through it all she was forced along, the
road leading her past Kirk o' Field, which still lay
charred in ruins. A lodging had been prepared for her
at the Provost's house, at the corner of the Grass-
market. Supper was on the table ; but she was one of
those high-blooded people, whose bodies do not ask at-
tention when the soul is sick. She desired to be taken
to her room instantly ; but even privacy was at first
denied her. The shrieking mob crowded on the stairs,
and forced themselves into her very presence, till Mait-
land, whom she saw under the window and called to
help her, came up and drove them out. To Maitland
she could speak as to one who had but lately owed his
life to her. When they were alone, she asked him, in
agony, why they had torn her from her husband, with
whom, she had looked to live and die ? 2 He told her,
that they were doing her no injury, they were constilt-

der MSS.

Drury to Cecil, June 18: Bor- tentment du monde.' — Du Croq to
Catherine de Medici, June 1 7 : TETJ-
LET, vol. ii.

8 ' Avec le quel elle pensoit vivre
et mourir avec le plus grand con-

1567.] CARBERRY HILL 177

ing only both her honour and her interest. ' She did
not know the Duke/ he said. * Since her pretended
marriage with him, he had, again and again, assured
Lady Bothwell that she only was his wife, and that the
Queen was his concubine ; ' he said he could show her
Bothwell's own letter which contained the words. But
nothing which he could say produced the least effect.1
The only desire of the Lords, at this time, was to wake
her from her dream, and induce her to sacrifice the
wretch to whom she had attached her fortunes ; she her-
self, with a devotion which their joint crimes could not
deprive of beauty, told Maitlarid, at last, that she would
be content to be turned adrift with Bothwell in a ship
upon the ocean, to go where the fates might carry
them.8

Maitland, when he left the Queen, had a conversation
with du Croq, in which he seemed to think that if she
would not give up Bothwell, this was the best course
to be pursued with her. She might go where she
would, he said, provided it was not to France. Du
Croq replied that if she went to France, the King
would judge her deeds as they deserved, for the un-

1 De Silva was even informed
that the Duke after his marriage
spent several days iu each week with
the wife that he had divorced.
•A\isan quo el Bothwell todavia
estaba algunos dias de la semana
con la nmger con que habia hecho el
divorcio.' — De Silva al Roy, Junio
21 : MSS. Simancas. De Silva had

Scotland, and his words therefore
have an independent value.

2 * La fin de leurs propos fut que
estant roduicte en 1'extremite ou
elle estoit elle ne demandoit sinon
qu'ilz Irs missent tous deux dans un
navire pour les envoyer la ou la
fortune les conduiroit.' — Du Croq to
Catherine de Medici, June 17 : TEU-

his own Catholic correspondent in LET, vol. ii.

VOL. VIII. 12

T78

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 48.

happy truth was but too surely proved.1 The ambas-
sador would have been well pleased had the Queen, Both*
well, and Prince been sent to France, all three of them
— the Queen to be shut up in a convent, Both well to be
hanged, and the Prince to be educated in French sym-
pathies. He told Maitland they would find it harder
to keep the Queen than to take her. If they called in
the English to assist them, the King of France would
indisputably take the Queen's part. Maitland could
only reply that so far they had had no intelligence
with any foreign Power at all. They desired only to
be left to themselves, and they could settle their own
quarrels. If his master interfered, then indeed they
would be driven back upon England, but they would
far rather see both the Prince and the realm under the
^pen protection of France.

France, replied du Croq, would scarcely take part
avowedly against the Queen, but France would leave
them to do as they pleased, provided the English were
not allowed to meddle.2

Du Croq knew as well as Maitland that for de-
throned princes there is but one safe prison, and these
words might easily have been Mary Stuart's death-
warrant. Had it been so, she would have fallen in
the midst of her faults with a perverted heroism which
would have gone far to make the world forgive them.

1 ' Je luy dictz. au contraire que
je vouldrois qu'ilz y fussent et le Roy
en jugeroit comme le faict le merite
car les maleureux faicts sont trop

prouv^s.' — Ibid.

2 Du Croq to Catherine de Medici,
June 17 : TEULET, vol. ii.

I567.]

CARBERRY HILL.

'79

* During all these scenes/ said the Captain of Inchkeith,
' I never saw man more hearty and courageous than
the Queen. She desired nothing so much as to fight
out her quarrel in fair battle with the Lords/ l Left
alone to brood over Maitland's story, the poor creature
wrote a few passionate words of affection to Bothwell,
which she bribed a boy to carry to Dunbar. The boy
took the money, and carried the note to the Lords.

As day broke, in a fresh spasm of fury, she flung

i • i • June 16.

open me window, and with hair all loose and

bosom open, she shrieked for some friend to come and set
her free. In answer, the banner, was again dangled before
her, and hung where she could not look out without en-
countering its terrible design. She could touch no food
It was said that she had made a vow to eat nothing
till she was again with the Duke. A woman who saw
her at the window flung some bitter taunts at her. She
turned venomously, 'threatened to cause burn the town,
and slocken the fire with the blood of its inhabitants.' *
Thus beating against the bars of her cage, she passed
the weary hours. While she continued in such a
humour what was to be done with her ? The letter to
Bothwell added fuel to the already excited passions of
the Lords. In meddling with sovereigns fear is ever
mixed with considerations of policy; to rise in arms

1 ' Je ne veult point oublier que
durant toutes les menecs par cyde-
vant mentionnees je ne veis jamais
homme de plus grand cueur et de
plus grand courage pour mettre une
entreprise a execution de bataille

que la Reyne de sa part : car j'estime
que son principal but estoit pour
donner la bataille aux seigneurs
dessus nommez.' — Recit des Evene-
ments : TEULET, vol. ii.
2 CALDEBWOOD.

i8o REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

against the Prince, if it fails, is death ; and there
was usually but a short shrift for such dangerous
prisoners. Once before she had slipped through the
Lords' hands. They could not risk such a misadventure
a second time, and though safe on the side of France,
they knew not what to look for from Elizabeth.

Once more they entreated her to abandon Both-
well. But 'she would agree to nothing whereby
the Duke should be in danger ; ' 1 and in a council
which was held on Monday, voices were already raised
to make a swift end with her. She had committed
crimes, it was said, for which a common woman would
have deserved to die; if, because she was their sove-
reign, it was unlawful to execute her, it was unlawful
also to keep her a prisoner ; so long as she lived there
would for ever be conspiracies to set her at liberty, and
'it stood them on their lands and lives to make her
safe/ 2

Morton, to his credit, interfered, at least to protract
the catastrophe, till they had made a further effort to
tame her spirit. Some one prophetically said, that ' as
Morton was a stayer of justice, he should feel the justice
of God strike him with the sword ; ' but his own con-
science was not so clear in the business of the murder
that he could allow the whole weight of it to be visited
on the Queen.

It was necessary however to determine upon some-
thing, for the people were becoming fast uncontrollable.

1 Note of occurrents in Scotland, June 24 : MSS. Scotland, Rolls
Mouse. 2 CALDERWOOD.

1567.] CARBERRY HILL. 181

The Laird of Blackadder, one of Both well's officers, was
brought into Edinburgh in the morning. Tic had been
taken at sea, in attempting to escape from Dunbar.
Report said that he was one of the murderers, and as he
was dragged through the street, the mob rushed at him
with knives and stones, and it was with the greatest
difficulty that he was brought alive into the gaol.1 If
the Queen remained in the town, the house might be
broken into, and she might be torn in pieces. At
Kinross, on the borders of Fife, in the most Protestant
district of Scotland, far away from Gordons or Hamil-
tons, or Catholic Highlanders, lay the waters of Loch-
leven, made immortal in Scottish history by the events
of the few next months. Towards the middle of the
lake, half a mile from the shore, was an island about an
acre in extent, on which a castle stood belonging to Sir
William Douglas, half-brother to the Earl of Murray.
Here, under the charge of the Lady of Lochleven, once
the mistress of her father, the Lords determined to
immure their sovereign till they could resolve at leisure
on her fate. When informed of their intention, Mary
Stuart fiercely charged them with treachery. She had
placed herself in their hands, she said, under promise of
fair treatment, and they were breaking their plighted
word. It was coldly answered that she too had pro-
mi.Mxl to separate herself from Both well, and on the
}»a>t night she had assured him of her unfailing affec-
tion. She must submit to be restrained till she could be
brought to some better mind.

1 Drury to Cecil, June 20 : Border MSS.

1&> REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

It was unsafe to remove her by daylight. Blackadder
had swift justice or swift injustice. He was tried,
sentenced, executed, and quartered, all in a few hours,
protesting his innocence to the last ; but the citizens
were in no humour to discriminate. After dark, on
Monday evening, the Queen was taken down to Holy-
rood. The streets were full as ever, and a guard of 300
men was barely sufficient to keep off the howling people.
She went on foot between Athol and Morton, amidst
weltering cries of ' Burn her ! — burn her ! She is not
worthy to live. Kill her ! — drown her ! ' * Could the
mob have reached her, she would have been sent swiftly
with a stone about her neck into the Nor Loch. The
palace was not safe, even for the night. In an hour or
two she was carried on to Leith, and across the water
to Burnt Island ; a rapid ride of twenty miles brought
her thence to the island fastness, where early
on Tuesday (so precipitately the work was de-
signed and executed), the Queen of Scotland was left to
rest and to collect her senses.

Having thus secured their prisoner, the Confederate
Noblemen drew up in form a defence of their proceed-
ings. The composition of it showed more regard for
the Queen's honour than for the completeness of their
own justification : they brought no charge against her
of any worse crime than infatuated love for a bad man.
As yet they had evidently formed no intention of push-

1 Drury to Cecil, June 20 : Border MSS. Narrative of the Captain of
Inchkeith : TEULET, vol. ii.

1567-] CAKBERR Y HILL. 183

iiig mutters to extremity, and meant rather to leave the
road still open for her to extricate herself.

The late King, they said, having been shamefully
murdered, ' the fame thereof was in six weeks dispersed
in all realms and among all Christian nations ; Scotla-iid
was abhorred and vilipended ; the nobility and whole
people no otherwise esteemed but as if they had been
all participant of so unworthy and horrible a crime/
* None of the Scottish nation, though he was never so
innocent, was able for shame in any foreign country to
show his face.' There had been ' no manner of just
trial.' There was no prospect of any just trial. The
murderers could not be arrested, because the chief of
them ' made the stay.' The Earl Both well had appeareo
at the bar, but he came there ' accompanied with a great
power of waged men of war, that none should compeer
to pursue him.' The murder was committed, and justice
was smothered and plainly abused.

' Adding mischief to mischief, the Earl Both well had
beset her Majesty's way, took and ravished her most
noble person, and kept her prisoner at Dunbar, while
sentence of divorce was pronounced between him and
his lawful wife, grounded upon the cause of his own
turpitude.' He had thus pretended to marry her
.Majesty ; her faithful subjects were allowed no access
to her ; ' her chamber door was continually watched by
men of war ; ' and the noblemen, though too late, began
to consider her Highness's shameful thraldom, and the
danger of the fatherless Prince ; his father's murderer

1 84 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 48.

and his mother's ravisher being clad with the principal
strength of the realm, and garnished with a guard of
mercenaries.

To deliver their sovereign from ignominy, to preserve
the Prince, and to see justice ministered, they had taken
arms ; and they bound themselves never to leave their
enterprise till the King's murderers had been executed,
the wicked marriage dissolved, their sovereign released
from the ruffian with whom she had connected herself,
and the .Prince placed in safety.

1 The which to do and faithfully perform/ they then
and there bound themselves, ' as they would answer to
Almighty God upon their honour, truth, and fidelity —
as they were noblemen and loved the honour of their
native country ; — wherein if they failed in any point
they were content to SP stain the spot of perjury, infamy,
and perpetual untruth, and to be accounted culpable
of the above-named crimes, and enemies and betrayers
of their native country for ever.'1

1 Band of tlie Lords, June 16 : Printed in KEITH.

CHAPTER XLIX.

LOCHLEVEN CASTJ.K.

THE ex- Queen of France, -the sister-in-law of tho
King, the niece of the Cardinal of Lorraine, might
naturally have looked for support to the country which
had so long been her home. The Queen of England
might have been expected to regard her misfortunes with
indifference if not with satisfaction. Whatever might
have been their personal feelings, both Charles and
Catherine on one side, and Elizabeth on the other, were
determined in the course which they pursued by public
considerations alone. From France Mary Stuart found
the most settled disregard ; from Elizabeth, immediate
and active friendliness.

As soon as it was known in Paris that the Lords had
taken arms against the Queen, the first thought, as du
Croq anticipated, was of the effect which the insur-
rection might produce, or of the use to which it might
be turned, in renewing the old relations between France
and Scotland. The Queen's cause, even before her
capture at Carberry had been heard of, wa& obviously

REIGN Of ELIZABETH.

[CH. 49.

regarded as hopeless. Catherine de Medici was only
afraid that Elizabeth would use the opportunity to
weave a new strand in the Anglo-Scotch Alliance, and
determined to be beforehand with her. "Without waiting
to see how far her alarms would be verified, she sent
for the Earl of Murray, who was then in Paris, to per-
suade or bribe him into consenting that the Prince should
be made over to her ; while M. de Yilleroy was de-
spatched to Scotland to come to an understanding with
the Confederate Lords. The Queen-mother explained
her views to de Villeroy himself with the utmost dis-
tinctness, and she left him free to take such measures in
connection with du Croq as should seem most expedient
upon the spot.

' She was very sorry for the Queen of Scots/ Catherine
said, ' and would gladly have been of use to her had it
been possible ; but the interests of France were first to
be thought of. The Queen of Scots was herself the
cause of all her misfortunes, and, as God was just, it was
likely enough that the Lords would bring the enterprise
which they had taken in hand to some result which the
world would not be able to find severe fault with.1 The
English, in pursuit of their own purposes, would un-
doubtedly support them, if they were not already en-
couraging them underhand. It was essential to super-
sede the English : it was essential to France to preserve

1 ' Et qu'il pourroit estre, comme
Dieu est juste, qae leurdict entre-
prise viendroit a quelque effect dont
le fondement ne seroit pas blasme ne

improuve de tout le raonde.'— Me-
moir e pour M. le Villeroy : TEULET,
vol. ii.

1567-] LOCttLEVEN CASTLE. 187

the attachment of the Scotch people; and that attach-
ment could nut and would not be preserved if the Lords
supposed that France intended to interfere with them.
The Lords must be assured that the Most Christian King
would stand by them in promoting anything which
would be to the advantage of the realm ; the King
wished well to the Queen, but he did not mean to thwart
them in her behalf when they were but doing what was
reasonable and just. He hoped only that without vio-
lating these principles, some means might be found of
reconciling his sister-in-law with her subjects."

In the commission of de Villeroy Catherine thus ac-
cepted the exact position of the Confederate Lords them-
selves. The most unprincipled woman in Europe, ex-
cept perhaps the Queen of Scots herself, confessed to a
consciousness that in certain cases God insisted that
justice should be done, that it was useless to tight
against him, and that it was therefore most prudent to
take the same side of the question.

Elizabethja-w^differently both her interests and her
obligations. Elizabeth, though she had given many pro-
vocations to the Catholic Powers, had as yet but little
reason to complain of their conduct to herself. Her
ministers, acting in her name and not without her sanc-
tion, had supported the Huguenots in France with arms
and money, and had fomented the growing disquiet in
the Low Countries ; but the Protestant propagandism of
Cecil had always been personally distasteful to half the

1 M<!nioire pour M. le Villeroy : TLULKT, vol. ii.

i88 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

council, and in reluctantly acquiescing in his policy the
Queen had defended herself behind political reasons
which had a real existence, and which both France and
Spain had not refused to recognize. The retaliatory
schemes for a Catholic insurrection in England and
Ireland had been so far uniformly discountenanced by
Philip II. He had arrested the anathemas of successive
Popes at the moment when they were about to be de-
livered ; and Elizabeth, whose conceptions of the royal
prerogative strengthened as she grew older, believed it
necessary to her own security, as unquestionably it har-
monized with her own feelings, to practise a correspond-
ing forbearance.

Her desertion of the Earl of Murray at the time of
the Darnley marriage had not been wholly cowardice.
The insurrection had been encouraged by Cecil and
Bedford against her own judgment. It failed for want
of the support which, at the last moment, she refused to
give, and in disowning Murray she had but asserted in
public what from the first had been her private opinion.
In entire opposition to those who would
have persuaded her now to retrace her steps,
and to use the present opportunity for reviving her in-
fluence in Scotland, she chose a course which Catherine
de Medici would herself have dictated, had she been
asked in what way Elizabeth could most effectually play
into her hands. On first hearing that the Lords were
about to take arms, she had expressed some kind of
hesitating approval. Their movements were avowedly
directed rather against Both well than the Queen ; and for

1567.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 189

the Queen's own interests she was eager to see her sepa-
rated from the man who, as long as he remained at her
side, implicated her in the world's eye in his own crimes :
Elizabeth's relationship with Darnley entitled her to
demand that Both well should not be allowed to go un-
punished; and as the Prince's kinswoman, she might
fairly desire to protect him from his father's murderer.

But even so, she had refused to sanction an armed
movement against Mary herself ; and when she learned
that, without consulting her pleasure further, they had
captured their sovereign in the field, and were holding
her prisoner at Lochleven, she1 saw only a precedent of
disobedience which her own Catholic subjects might
imitate against herself.

Cecil, Bacon, Bedford, Mildmay, Knollys, all ihose
members of her council who were on the side of the
Reformation, saw in what had befallen the Queen of
Scots the natural and providential consequences of her
own crimes. Elizabeth felt an instinctive prescience
of the hard judgment of posterity upon herself; she
feared, if she looked on, that she would be suspected of
indulging a jealous dislike of a dangerous rival; and
she dreaded, on the other hand, the recoil upon herself
of the example of a successful revolt. 'Two special
causes move her Majesty,' so Cecil writes, describing
Elizabeth's feelings : ' one that she be not thought to the
world partial against the Queen ; the other, that by this
example none of her own be encouraged.'1 Leicester,

1 Cecil to Throgmorton, August 1 1 : Comcay MISS.

190

REIGN1 OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 49.

relating doubtless the language which, he heard daily
from her own lips, wrote at the same time, ' that how-
ever wicked a sovereign, the subject's duty was to obey :
the wicked sovereign being sent by heaven as much as
the good ; the one for the happiness of the subject, the
other as their scourge.'1

On two points Elizabeth was at once decided : first,

hat Mary Stuart should be instantly restored to liberty
and to her sovereign state ; secondly, that in the pro-
secution for the murder of Darnley, Mary Stuart should

icrself escape accusation, and that means should be
taken to cover her reputation. Having formed this
resolution, her next step was to write to the Queen of

1 ' There is no persuading the
Queen Majesty,' Leicester continues,
* to disguise or use policy, for she
cannot but break out to all men her
affection to this matter, and saith
most earnestly she will become an
utter enemy to that nation if that
Queen perish. And for my part,
though I must confess her acts to
be loathsome and foul for any prince,
yet is the punishment more un-
natural, and in my conscience un-
justly and without authority done
upon her — and surely will never
prosper with the doers. I know
not what wresting of Scripture may
be used, but these rules we have
plain for us in Scripture. In the
Old law we have the example of
David, who not to die would ever
touch his anointed Sovereign, when
he had him in his will and danger
to do what he listed with him.

In the New we have plain com-
mandments to obey and loye our
princes, yea though they be evil —
for God sendeth them not for us to
punish at our will when they fault,
but appointeth them to us if they
be evil to plague us for our faults.
The words be plain and the example
true. I mean for my part with
God's grace to keep it, and I am
heartily sorry that those there do
no better follow it. For what doth
the world say, but subjects having
gotten their prince into their hands
for fear of their own estates and for
ambition to rule, depose their sove-
reign and make them themselves by
a colour the head governours. "Well,
well, though she have been very
evil some ways, yet is she over*
hardly recompensed.' — Leicester to
Thrograorton, August 6 : Conway
MSS. Rolls House.

1567.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. r9i

Scots herself ; and as she was going to act towards her
^vith so substantial kindness, she seized the opportunity
no add another sisterly admonition.

When the Bishop of Dunblane was sent to Paris to
announce the Queen's marriage with Bothwell, Sir
Robert Melville came to London on the same errand.
Kli/ubeth had as yet taken no notice of the communica-
tion. ' Madam/ she now wrote, ' it hath been always
held for a special principle in friendship that prosperity j !
provideth, but adversity proveth friends ; whereof at
this time finding occasion to verify the same with our
actions, we have thought meet, both for our professions
and your comfort, in these few words to testify our
friendship, not only by admonishing you of the worst,
but also to comfort you for the best.' ' We have under-
stood by Robert Melville such things as you gave him
in charge to declare on your behalf concerning your
estate, and specially of as much as could be said for the
allowance of your marriage. Madam, to be plain with
you, our grief hath not been small, that in this your
marriage so slender consideration hath been had, that,
as we perceive manifestly, no good friend you have in
the whole world can like thereof: and if we should
otherwise write or say we should abuse you ; for how
could a worse choice be made for your honour, than in
great haste to marry -such a subject, who besides other
notorious lacks, public fame hath charged with the
murder of your late husband, besides the touching of
yourself also in some part, though we trust in that be-
halt ' iulst-lv :- And with what peril have you married

192 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

him that hath another wife alive, whereby neither by
God's law nor man's yourself can be his lawful wife,
nor any children betwixt you legitimate ! Thus you
see plainly what we think of the marriage, whereof we
are heartily sorry that we can conceive no better, what
colourable reason soever we have heard of your servant
to induce us thereto. We wish, upon the death of your
husband, the first care had been to have searched out
and punished the murderers ; which having been done
effectually — as easily it might have been in a matter so
notorious — there might have been many more things
tolerated better in your marriage than that now can be
suffered to be spoken of. And surely we cannot but
for friendship to yourself, besides the natural instinct
that we have of blood to your late husband, profess our-
selves earnestly bent to do anything in our power to
procure the due punishment of that murder against any
subject that you have, how dear soever you hold him ;
and next thereto, to be careful how your son the Prince
may be preserved, for the comfort of you and your
realm ; which two things we have from the beginning
always taken to heart, and therein do mean to continue ;
and would be very sorry but you should allow us there-
in, what dangerous persuasions soever be made to you
for the contrary.

' Now for your comfort in such adversity as we have
heard you should be in — whereof we cannot tell what
to think to be true — we assure you, that whatsoever we
can imagine meet to be for your honour and safety that
shall lie in our power, we will perform the same ; that

1567.] LOCffLEVEN CASTLE, tg$

it shall well appear you have a good neighbour, a dear
sister, a faithful friend ; and so shall you undoubtedly
always find us and prove us to be indeed towards you ;
for which purpose we are determined to send with all
speed one of our trusty servants, not only to understand
your state, but also, thereupon, so to deal with your
nobility and people, as they shall find you not to lack
our friendship and power for the preservation of your
honour and greatness/ l

It would seem from the tone of this letter as if th«
details of the Queen of Scots* misadventures were as yet
but vaguely known in London. Elizabeth appeared
only to understand that the Queen of Scots was on bad
terms with her subjects, and had met with some large
disaster. In the same spirit, and by the same messen-
ger, she wrote to the Lords.

She never clearly remembered that the Scotch no-
bility were not her own subjects. She addressed them
habitually in the language of authority, and on the
present occasion took on herself to dictate, as if she was
their Lady Paramount, the line of conduct which she
expected them to pursue.

First she required the evidence of Both well's guilt
to be laid out distinctly before her, that ' she might be
induced to believe the same by all probable means.'
He might then be divorced from the Queen of Scots,
and be punished with his accomplices. His castles
she desired to see be placed in the hands of * neutral

1 Elizabeth to the Queen of Scots, June 23 : MSS. Scotland, Rollt
c.

VOL. Mil. . J3

194

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CK. 49.

noblemen/ who should bind themselves to admit no
French or Spanish troops into Scotland ; and the Queen
should for the future be assisted in the administration
by a council, to be chosen by the Parliament of Scot-
land. Elizabeth said that she expected the Act for the
establishment of the Protestant religion to be at length
formally ratified; and the Constitution so established
would then be upheld and guaranteed by the English
Government.1

Thus having arranged all things to her own satis-
faction, she chose Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, the
strongest supporter in the Court of Mary Stuart's claims
on the English succession, to carry down her pleasure
to the Confederate Noblemen. That he would be per-
mitted to see Mary Stuart was assumed as a matter of
course. Elizabeth believed that she had but to express
her pleasure as to the settlement of the State to be im-
mediately obeyed ; and still more satisfied with herself
and her good intentions, she thought proper to accom-
pany the execution of them with a second and stronger
admonition to the Queen of Scots, on the magnitude of
her recent offences.

1 Her fame and honour/ she said, ( had been in all
parts of Christendom impaired and decayed ; ' her hus-

1 Notes for the government of
Scotland for Sir N. Throgmorton,
July, 1567: MSS. Scotland, Soils
House. At the foot of the page
Cecil wrote the following most sig-
nificant note : —

' Athaliah Rcgina intercepta per

Joash regem.'

Meaning, perhaps, that if Mary
Stuart was continued on the throne,
she would destroy the Prince if she
could, and if the Prince was saved
from her, he in turn might revenge
on her his father's death.

1567-] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 19^

bund hud been horribly murdered, almost in her pre-
sence, and the perpetrators of the crime were going at
large unpunished and unsought after. ' She had favour-
ed and maintained the Earl of Bothwell, a man of in-
famous life, and notoriously charged by all the world as
the principal assassin. She had assisted him in procur-
ing a divorce such as was never heard of ; that a man
guilty should for his own offence put away his innocent
wife, and that to be coloured by form of law ; ' and
finally, * she had brought mortal reproof upon herself,
by taking that defamed person to be her husband.'

' These doings/ Elizabeth continued, ' had been so
shocking, that she had never thought to have dealt
more with the Queen of Scots in the way of advice,'
' taking her by her acts to be a person desperate to re-
cover her honour/ She had not been alone in her ill
opinion of her. ' Other princes, the Queen of Scots1
friends and near kinsfolk, were of like judgment.' Her
capture and imprisonment however had * stirred a new
alteration and passion of her mind.' She 'felt her
stomach provoked to an inward commiseration of her
sister ; ' nor ' could she suffer her, being by God's
ordinance a Princess and Sovereign, to be in subjection
to those who by nature and law were subject to her/
She intended to interfere in her favour, and ' to do as
much for her (the circumstances of her case being con-
sidered), as if she was her natural sister or only
daughter.' The Queen of Scots must tell Throgmortotf
the whole truth, * that her subjects might be repre-'
hended for things unduly laid to her charge.' ' Whero!

I96 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49

her faults could not be avoided or well covered, the
dealing therein should be so used and tempered as her
honour might be stayed from ruin, and her state re-
covered to some better accord/ If her subjects would
not consent to make arrangements with her, ' she
should not lack English aid to compel them thereto/

So much for the message to the Queen, whom, at
the same time, Elizabe^h_J:ecommended_' to usej^isdpni^
and not passion in her Adversity ;' and to remember
thlitTieFown faults had brought her to the trouble in
which she found herself.

To the Lords she assumed the power and the lan-
guage of supreme feudal arbiter. She directed Throg-
morton to tell them that ' she neither would nor could
endure, for any respect, to have their Queen and Sove-
reign to be by them imprisoned, or deprived of her
State, or put in peril of her person/ Subjects had no
right to take upon themselves to reform the faults of
princes ; they might seek the amendment of their
Queen's faults by counsel and humble requests ; if
they did not succeed, they ' should remit themselves to
Almighty God, in whose hands only princes' hearts
remained/ For * doing justice upon the murderers,'
she believed the Queen of Scots would consent to it.
If she refused, the Lords could do no more : but Eliza-
beth conceived ' that some power existed in herself,
and that for the punishment of horrible and abominable
facts, one prince and neighbour might use compulsion
with another/

Finally, she impressed on Throgmorton himself the

1567.]

LOCHLEVE.V CASTLE.

197

desirableness of bringing the Prince to England. He
would then be out of personal danger, ' and many good
things might ensue to him of no small moment ; ' that
is to say, the road would be opened to him towards the
succession. * She meant truly and well to the child ; '
and while she cautioned Throgmorton to be wary in
approaching so ticklish a subject, she said at the same
time, ' that of all matters by him to be compassed, she
would most esteem of his success in this/ !

In the policy which she was pursuing, Elizabeth may
have consulted wisely for her own reputation ; but her
attitude of haughty dictation was the last which she
ought to have assumed, if she desired Scottish statesmen
to be guided by her wishes. The tone of semi-com-
mand was certain to irritate the national sensitiveness ;
nor had she understood the extraordinary complication
of Scotch parties and interests.

1 Instructions to Sir N. Throg-
morton, June 30: MSS. Scotland,
Roll* House. From the commence-
ment of the disturbances both France
and England had been making over-
tures to get possession of the Prince.
De Silva writes on the 2ist of June
to Philip: —

'Tienen al Principe en mucha
fruarda. El Embajador que esta en
aquel Reyno por el Rey do Francia
ha hecho gran instaucia para haberle,
como tengo escrito por todas las vias
que he podido — prometieiido a los
Softer es y a otros de parte de su
Rey pensiones y otras dadivas por
cartas d<0 Rey. Resolutamente le

han respoiidido que no sc le quicreu
dar ... y & los que se le pedian de
parte desta Reyna, que tenian en
mucho el cuidado que mostraba do
la seguridad de su vida, pero que no
querian que < 1 nifio saliese ni se
criase fuera de aquel reyno.' — MSS.

On the istb of July, Cecil wrote
to Sir H. Sidney :—

* We are in secret contention with
the French who shall get the Prince
of Scotland. They fish with hook*
of gold, and we but with speech.
Sir N. Throgmorton is in Scotland
about these matters.1— MSS. Ireland^
Roll* House.

198 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49

In the hatred of Bothwell the Lords of all creeds
and parties had been unanimous. Glencairn, Mar, and
Lindsay among the Protestants, Caithness and Athol
among the Catholics, had been unconnected from the
first with the intrigue for Darnley's murder, and were
sincere in their horror of it. Argyle, Huntly, Mait-
land, and Sir James Balfour, who had been parties with
Bothwell to the bond at Craigmillar, were equally in-
dignant at his relations with the Queen, and equally do*
termined to separate him from her.

Np^sooner however was Mary Stuart at Lochleven,
than private feuds, and political divisions and sympa-
thies, split and rent the Confederacy in all directions.
Some had French sympathies ; some were for the old
religion, and some were for the new. After the Queer
and the Prince, the next place in the succession was
disputed between the House of Hamilton and the House
of Lennox. If the Queen was deposed, the Regency, in
the Prince's minority, would go by the custom of Scot-
land to the nobleman next in blood to the Crown. The
Queen, by her marriage with Darnley, had estranged
the Hamiltons. The Hamiltons, in return, had been
privy to the murder, and had encouraged afterwards
the marriage of the Queen with Bothwell, simply in
the hope that she, too, would be ruined, the Prince
probably murdered also, and the throne of Scotland be-
come theirs.

On the other hand, the Protestants, and the friends
of England and of the House of Lennox, were opposed
equally to the claims of a family who were half Papist

1567.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 199

and halt' I Ycnrh. A fortnight after Carberry Hill, Sir
William Drury wrote that already the question was
asked of every man, ' Was he a Hamilton or a Stuart/
1 The Hamiltons could not digest that the Prince should
be at the devotion of England ; ' and there was a strong
anti- English faction at their back : while Morton,
Athol, Ruthven, and Mar were utterly opposed to
them ; if the Prince died, these noblemen would have
the crown go to Darnley's younger brother; and
Drury ' thought it would prove hard for Scotland to
nourish both families/ 1

And, again, the difficulties were scarcely less in
making a fair inquiry into the circumstances of the
murder. The world demanded an investigation ; yet if
the investigation was more than a form, the names of
four or five of the most powerful men in the country
could hardly fail to be compromised. Sir James Balfour
made no secret of his own share in the crime. He too,
like the rest, was furious at having been taken in by
Bothwell and the Queen ; and he earned his own pardon
by surrendering Edinburgh Castle to the Lords, and by
a frank confession of all that he knew. ' The Queen,' he
said, ' one day sent for him, and after a few flattering
words expressing the confidence which she placed in
him, said that she could never forgive the King for his
ingratitude, and for the death of David Rizzio ; he had
become so hateful to her that she could not bear the
sight of him ; she wished to have him killed, and bhe

Drury to Cecil, June 29, and July i : MSS. Kwder.

200

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 49.

desired Balfour's assistance.' Balfour, according to his
own story, had replied, ' that in any other matter he
would gladly serve her, but that to kill a king was more
than he dared.' The Queen said that with her sanction
he might do it ; she was his sovereign and he was bound
to obey her. He again declined, and then she said he
was a coward, and if he betrayed her confidence it
should cost him his life.1 This account fell in but too
well with what was already known ; but the Lords, bad
and good, working together for their several ends, were
obliged to shield those who, like Balfour, were ready to
desert to them ; and it was no less necessary to conceal
the evidence which implicated Argyle and Huntly.

An open and candid exposure of the whole truth —
such an exposure as would have satisfied the demands
of Elizabeth; or have acquitted the Confederates before
the bar of posterity for their treatment of their own
sovereign— was believed to be impossible.

1 The Catholic correspondent of
de Silva is the authority for Sir
James Balfour's confession. The
exact words are worth preserving.

' El qual declare que la Beyna le
habia mandado llamar un dia aparte,
y le habia dicho despues de haber
encarecido la confian<ja que del tenia,
que ella estaba muy indignada del
Rey por la rauerte del secretario
David, y por la gran ingratitud que
con ella habia usado ; y assi le tenia
tan ab,:rrecido que no podia verle, y
estaba determinado de le hacer ma-
tar, y que lo queria executar por su
mano, y le pedia y mandaba se en-

cargase dello. A lo qual el habia
respondido que en cualquiera otra
cosa le serviria como era obligado,
mas que en esto no lo podia haccr
por ser su marido tenido y publicado
por Key. E que le habia replicado
que el lo debia y podia hacer por
su mandado, que era su Reyna
natural ; y que escusandose otra vez,
le habia dicho que lo dexaba de
hacer de cobarde y no por otro re-
speto, y que le mandaba su pena de
muerte que no descubriese a nadie lo
que le habia dicho.'— De Silva to
Philip, September 6 • MSS. Si-

1567.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 201

Meanwhile the body of the people, untroubled by
difficulties of this kind, yet made unjust too on their
side by the violence of religious fanaticism, had fastened
the guilt exclusively on Mary Stuart. They had learnt
from Knox that Papistry was synonymous with devil-
worship. The Queen, long hateful to them as the
maintainer of Romish enormities, had now, like another
Jezebel, shown herself in her true colours ; and as she
had been a signal example of the moral fruits of her
creed, so they desired to make her as signally an ex-
ample in her punishment.

No sooner had she been despatched to Lochleven,
than Glencairn, with a party of Calvinist zealots, purged
the chapel at Holyrood of its Catholic ornaments, melt-
ing down the chalices, and grinding the crucifixes to
powder ; while the alleys and wynds of Edinburgh were
searched from loft to cellar, and such servants of the
palace or followers of Both well as were found lurking
there were seized and brought to trial. Sebastian,
whose marriage on the night of the murder had been
the excuse for the Queen's departure from the house at
Kirk o* Field, was one of the first to be taken, and it is
to the credit of his examiners, considering the temper
of the times, that he was acquitted. Blackadder, it has
been seen, was convicted, hanged, and quartered in a
few hours. Powrie and Patrick Wilson were examined
under torture.1 They confessed to their own share in

1 ' The council order the said per.
sons to be put in the irons and tor-

the verity, provided always that this
cause being for a Prince's murder,

mcnts for furthering of the trial of be not taken as a precedent in other

202

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 49.

the murder, and were reserved — probably because they
knew no dangerous secrets — to keep their evidence
available. On the 2oth of June Sir James Balfour
placed in the hands of the Confederates a body of docu-
ments, which for the first time revealed to many of them
the inner history of the whole transaction. The Earl of
Bothwell, on leaving Edinburgh for the Borders, had
left in Balfour' s hands the celebrated casket which con-
tained the Queen's letters to himself, some love sonnets,
the bond signed at Seton before his trial, and another,
probably that which was drawn at Craigmillar after the
Queen's illness. The casket itself was a silver ena-
melled box, one of the treasures which Mary Stuart had
brought with her from France. She had bestowed it
upon her lover, and her lover in return had made use
of it to preserve the proofs that he had been acting in
the murder only as the instrument of his mistress, and
with the authority of half her council.1 Being of in-
finite importance to him, he sent Dalgleish, one of his
servants, from D unbar after his flight from Carberry
Hill, to fetch it. Balfour gave it to Dalgleish, but sent
private word to the Confederates, who captured both
the prize and its bearer.

That the Queen had in some way and to some degree
been an accomplice in the murder was already evident

cases.' — Sitting of the Lords of
Secret Council, June 27 : KEITH.

1 That some casket was discovered
cannot be denied by the most san-
guine defender of the Queen of
Scots, for it was admitted by her

own advocate. The only point on
which a question can be raised, is
the exact nature of its contents. — See
the statement of Lord Herries,
KEITH, vol. i. p. 683, note.

1567.]

LOCHLEVEN CASTLE.

203

to all the world, except perhaps to Elizabeth. But her
relations with Bothwell, the terms on which the had
placed herself with him while she was still encumbered
with a husband, the treachery, for which ' infernal ' is
not too hard an epithet, with which she had enticed him
to the scene of his destruction, and the secret history of
her capture at the Bridge, though conjectured too ac-
curately by popular suspicion, had not as yet been dis-
tinctly known, and the proofs of these things laid out in
deadly clearness acted on the heated passions of the
Lords like oil on fire.

Even unscrupulous politicians like Maitland, who had
seen no sin in ridding the world of a vindictive un-
manageable boy, might feel anger, might feel in a sense
legitimate indignation, when they perceived the villany
to which they had lent themselves. They might have
experienced too some fear as well as some compunction,
if, as Lord Ilerries said, the casket contained the Craig-
millar bond, to which their names remained affixed.
This at least it was necessary to keep secret, and un-
certain what to do they sent one of their number in
haste to Paris to the Earl of Murray, to inform him of
the discovery of the letters, and to entreat him to hurry
back immediately.1

1 The theory that the letters were
forged in the later maturity of the
conspiracy against the Queen falls
asunder before the proof that the
contents of the most important of
them were known to Murray before
he left France. If forged, therefore,
the letters must have been forged in

the first heat and confusion of the
revolution — at a time when the Con-
federates were endeavouring if pos-
sible to screen the Queen's reputation
if she could be induced to abandon
Bothwell. On his way through Lon-
don at the end of July, Murray sa\?
the Spanish ambassador, and d«

204

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 49

John Knox, who had been absent from Scotland
since the death of Rizzio, and had been half inclined
to abandon his poor country altogether and return to
Geneva and Calvin, came back at this crisis to resume
the command of the Church, and the General Assembly
met at Edinburgh on the 25th of June. Chatelhera'ult
was at Paris, paying his court to Charles and Catherine.
The Archbishop of St Andrews, Lord Arbroath, Argyle,

Silva, who had the fullest confid-
ence in Murray's integrity, gave the
following account to Philip of the
conversation which had passed he-
tween them : —

' Se vin6 a declarer mas, diciendo
me que por la voluntad que le habia
mostrado, me queria decir lo que no
nabia querido commuuicar &. esta
Reyna, aunque ella le habia dado
algunas puntadas en ello, pero de
lejos. Era que el tenia por gran
difficultad que se pudiese concertar
este negocio, porque era cierto que
la Reyna habia sabidora de la
muerte de su marido ; de que el
estaba muy penado ; y que se habia
sabido sin duda por una carta de la
Reyna scripta a Bothwell, demas de
tres pliegos de papel, toda en su pro-
pria mano y firmada de su nombre.
En la qual escribia en sustancia que
no tardase en poner en execution lo
que tenian ordinado, porque su ma-
rido le decia tantas buenas palabras
por enganarle y traerle a su voluntad,
que podria ser que la moviese a ello ;
sino se haria lo demas con presteza,
y que ella misma iria a traerle, y

vendrian a una casa en el camino, a
donde procuraria se le diese algun
bevediza ; y que si esto no pudjese
hacerse le pondria en la casa a donde
estaba ordenado lo del fuego para la
noche que se habia de casar un criado
suyo, como se hizo. Y que el se
procurase de desembara9ar de su
muger, apartandose della 6 dandole
alguna bebida con que muriese, pues
sabia que ella por el se habia puesto
en aventura de perder su honr? y
Reyno y lo que tenia en Francia y a
Dios, contentandose con su sola per-
sona. Y que demas desto, habia
hecho otro estrafio y no visto trato
la noche de la muerte que habia sido
el dar una sortiza a su marido, ha-
biendole hecho muchos amores y
regalos teniendole tratado la muerte,
que habia sido aun peor que lo demas
que se diria ; y que lo de la carta lo
sabia de quien le habia visto y leydo ;
y lo demas era notorio, de que el
estaba lastimadissimo por el honor
de la casa de su padre.' — De Silva
to Philip, August 2 : MSS. Si-

1567.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 205

Huntly, Crawford, Herries, Seton, Fleming — all those
who preferred the French alliance to the English — were
assembled at Hamilton Castle watching the proceedings
of the other party. As the best hope of a peaceful
solution of the difficulties in which they found them-
selves, the Confederates invited these noblemen to join
them at Edinburgh in a General Convention. The
request was declined, but not so declined as to leave no
hope that it might be accepted on certain conditions.
It was understood that the support of the Hamiltons
would be given freely to the party who had imprisoned
the Queen, if the succession to the Regency were deter-
mined in their favour.

Such was the condition of parties, humours, and dis-
positions in Scotland which Elizabeth had sent Throg-
inorton to command and control. Some intelligent
intimation of the confusion which he was to find there
had been already sent to Cecil by Maitland. It was
important to make England feel that France was ready
and willing to take the Lords under its protection on
the Lords' own terms. To himself, Maitland said, the
English alliance had always appeared most beneficial to
Scotland, and he preferred even in the present emerg-
ency to work in harmony with the English Court.
M. de Villeroy however had come over with such warm
and liberal offers from the King of France, that if
Elizabeth refused to support them, if Elizabeth inter-
fered between them and the Queen, they would be com-
pelled to close with the French proposals. De Villeroy

206 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. ICH. 49-

would otherwise throw himself upon the Hamiltons,
and there would be a civil war.1

Throgmorton had started before Maitlaiid's letter
arrived, but it produced no eifect upon Elizabeth. She
had provided means, as she supposed, to parry the danger
from France ; for if the Confederate Lords refused to
release Mary Stuart, Throgmorton too was directed to
address himself to the Hamiltons. The threatened civil
war was not, in Elizabeth's opinion, too dear a price for
her cousin's liberty. She was prepared to take part
with the pretensions of the family who had been the
unvarying opponents of England, if they on their side
would join with her in the procuring the release of the
Queen, and Charles might support, if he pleased, the
Protestant noblemen in oppressing his own kinswoman.

In the hope that if she had time to think Elizabeth
would not persist in so extraordinary a policy, Throg-
morton lingered on the road. He stopped at Gorham-
bury to talk to Bacon ; he was ten days in reaching
Berwick ; while Elizabeth was counting the hours which
would have to pass before he could reach Edinburgh,
and sent message after message to him to make haste.

Bacon, Cecil, and Leicester alike deplored the deter-
mination into which she had settled herself ; the highest
interests of England were being sacrificed; but their
opinions ajid their remonstrances were alike disregarded.
Leicester had to tell Throgmorton, in a passage which
he underlined, ' that he did not see any possibility that

1 Maitland to Cecil, July I : MSS. Scotland, Rolls House.

1567 ] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 207

the Queen's Majesty could be won to deal as she should
or would do, if the Queen of Scots were not in personal
danger ; ' l and Throgmorton, on whom the truth of the
situation forced itself more and more clearly as he ap-
proached Scotland, could but reply, ' that he was very
sorry that the Queen's Majesty's disposition altered not
towards the Lords ; for, when all was done, it was they
which would stand her in more stead than the Queen
her cousin, and would be better instruments to work
Home benefit and quiet to her Majesty and the realm
than the Queen of Scotland, who was void of good fame.' *
Thus reluctantly he was driven forward on his un-
promising mission. He had left London on the ist of
July; on the I2th he was at Fast Castle, where Mait-
land and Hume met him, and confirmed his misgivings
of the probable effect of his message. They said, briefly,
that they had no kind of trust in Elizabeth. In all her
transactions with them she had considered no interests
but her own. She was still playing her old game ; and
if they ' ran her fortune,' and allowed her to direct them
in their present condition, they well knew ' she would
leave them in the briars.' Throgmorton spoke of the
siege of Leith. They replied that in expelling the
French she had been consulting her own safety, not
theirs ; ' and upon other accidents which had chanced
since, they had observed such things in her Majesty's
doings as had tended to the danger of such as she had
dealt withal, to the overthrow of her own designments,

1 Leicester to Throgmorton, July 8 : Contcay MSS.
a Throgmorton to Cecil, July n : Comoay MSS.

208 KhlGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49

and little to the satisfaction of any party.' As to her
present message, Maitland said, with a smile, that she
had better leave them to themselves. The French ' were
ready to deliver them of their Queen for ever, to end her
life in France, in an abbey reclused ; ' the French would
protect the Prince, and protect the Confederate Noble-
men from Elizabeth, or from any one ; and they them-
selves intended either to close with their proposals, or
else ' do what they thought meet for their State and
country, and use their remedies as occasion should move
them/ Throgmorton asked whether he could see the
Queen. They replied that it was highly unlikely. The
French ambassador had been refused, and they would
not offend their friends in Paris, by showing favours to
the minister of Elizabeth which had been withheld from
du Croq, unless Elizabeth would pay a higher price for
their preference than she seemed inclined to offer. As
to setting the Queen at liberty, 'it was but folly' to
speak of such a thing. If the Queen of England in-
sisted upon this, it could only be because ' she meant
their undoing/ 1

At Edinburgh Sir Nicholas found the same humour,
or a humour, if possible, more unfavourable to England.
He did not think Mary Stuart to be in present personal
danger. She was closely guarded, but her health was
reported to be good ; and, so far as he could learn, there
appeared to be no intention either of publishing her guilt
or of touching her life. She might be released, he was

1 Throgmorton to Cecil, July 12 : Conway

1567.] LOCHLEVEK CASTLE. 209

told, if she would make up her mind to give up Both-
well ; but she continued obstinate ; ' she avowed con-
stantly that she would live and die with him ; ' ' if it
were put to her choice whether she would relinquish
crown and kingdom or the Lord Bothwell, she would
rather leave her kingdom and dignity to live as a simple
damsel with him ; and she would never consent that he
should fare worse or have more harm than herself/1

So long as this mood continued, neither the persua-
sions nor threats of England should unlock the gates of
Lochleven Castle. But, so far as Throgmorton could
learn, the purpose of the Confederate Noblemen ended
in her confinement, and if they were left to themselves
they did not mean to hurt her.

The Clergy and Commons however wefe in a less
gentle temper. The General Assembly had been pro-
rogued after a short session, but was to reopen on the
2Oth of July. It was understood that Mary Stuart*
deposition, if not her death, would then be fiercely de-
manded ; and ' the chiefest of the Lords durst not show
her as much lenity as they would/ in fear of the people.
' The women were most furious and impudent against
her ; yet the men were mad enough/ AndJhe_Queen's
peril jwas aggravated_by^ the peculiar infamy of the
Hamiltons, who in form and outwardly were pretending
to be on her side ; but rather * because they would have
the Lords destroy her, in fear that otherwise she might
be recovered from them by violence.' The Queen once

1 Throgmorton to Elizabeth, July 14: JI/.S'.S1. Scotland.

VOL. VIII. U

210 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. |CH. 49.

dead, the only considerable obstacle would be removed
which stood between them and the crown.1 Treachery
so profound might have seemed incredible ; but it was
in harmony with all their previous conduct, and it
was brought to a point and openly avowed immediately
after.

The danger was greater and more immediate than
Throgmorton supposed. The mission and message of
de Yilleroy had conclusively satisfied the Confederates
that they had nothing to fear from France. He had
told them that if the Queen were sent to Paris, she
would be taken care of there, and should trouble them
no further ; and they would at once have closed with his
terms, but for the reflection that ' time would help to
cancel her" disgrace ;' and that ' she might be an instru-
ment at some future time to work new unquietness.'
De Yilleroy carried back their refusal ; but no resent-
ment followed, and no change of tone. Catherine de
Medici, so far from taking offence, sent a second minister,
M. de Lignerolles, a gentleman of her household, with a
mission precisely similar. De Lignerolles was ordered
to reconcile the Hamiltons and the Confederate Noble-
men ; to do something for the Queen, if possible, but
chiefly and especially to draw Scotland nearer to France ;
to assure all parties that France desired merely the well-
being of their country, and was ready to support them
in any measure which they considered necessary. In
other words, that they might do what they pleased

Throgmorton to Elizabeth, July 14 : MS 8. Scotland

LOCin.EVEK CASTLE. 211

provided they would renounce England, and reattach
themselves to their old allies.1

Thus, day after day, it grew more likely that the
Lords would take the brief sure way with Mary Stuart,
and the tone taken by Elizabeth only increased her
danger. Throgmorton had not been idle. He had
found means to communicate with her. He had urged
her to consent to the single condition under which he
could hope to interfere for her successfully, but he found
her as obstinate as others had found her. ' She would
by no means yield to abandon Bothwell as her husband,
but would rather die.' She believed, or affected to be-
lieve, that she was with child ; but a situation which
suspends the execution of an ordinary criminal, only
tended to precipitate the fate of the Queen of Scotland,
and the prospect of issue from so detestable a marriage
' hardened the Lords to greater severity against her/

Both John Knox and his fellow-minister Craig agreed
in advocating the execution. 'They were furnished
with many arguments, some from Scripture, some from
histories, some grounded, as they said, upon the laws of
the realm.' — ' The Commons convened at the Assembly
did mind manifestly the Queen's destruction ; ' and ' it
was a public speech among all people, and among all
estates, that the Queen had no more liberty to commit
murder nor adultery than any other private person/2

The unhappy woman, alarmed at last at the fate

1 Instructions to M. de L.gnerolles : TEDLET, vol. ii.
2 Throgmorton to Elizabeth, July 18; Throgmorton to Cecil, July 16
July 18: MSS. Scotland.

212 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

which, appeared so near her, made an effort to save her-
self. Subdued, or half- subdued, and obstinate only in
her love for Bothwell, she begged that they would
remember at least that she was her father's daughter,
and their Prince's mother. If it would save her life,
she said that she would make over the government
either to her brother or to a council of the Lords, or
to any person or persons they might be pleased to name.

But it was not likely to avail her. ' The preachers
were of one mind ' that she should be put to death.
The more moderate among the noblemen ' durst not
speak for her, to avoid the fury of the people/ Murray
himself, detained at Paris, sent over his friend, Mr El-
phinstone, to intercede, but seemingly without effect.
' The people were greatly animated against her.' The
Confederates ' were too far over the stream to leave them-
selves unprovided for : ' and ' the common voice declared,
that it should not lie in the power of any within the
realm, or without, to keep her from condign punishment
for her notorious crimes/1

Unhappily, the hands which would have executed
this high act of justice were themselves impure. Those
who talked the loudest of the guilt of murder, had felt
no horror at the murder of Bizzio ; and even with Knox
himself, and with his iron-hearted congregation, the rage
against the Queen was but partly due to her moral
iniquities. They too were men of no very tender
nerves; and had Darnley proved the useful Catholic

Throgmorton to Cecil, July 18 : MSS. Scotland.

1567- J LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 213

which the Queen intended him to be, they would have
sent him to his account with as small compunction
as Jael sent the Canaanite captain, or they would have
blessed the arm that did it with as much eloquence as
Deborah.

So far as Throgmorton could judge, there were four
possibilities. Maitland, who had the merit of remem-
bering his own share in Darnley's death, proposed that
the Queen should be released and restored to a titular
sovereignty. The power could be vested wholly in a
council, and her hands tied so that she could do no
harm. Legal securities could be taken for the estab-
lishment of the Protestant religion ; the Prince could
be conveyed to some safe place, either France or Eng-
land, as convenience might dictate ; and Both well be
taken, divorced, and executed. Morton and Athol pre-
ferred shaking off the Queen, and making arrangements
for her confinement for life in England, if Elizabeth
would consent to take charge of her. The Prince
should be crowned, and Scotland governed by the Lords.

But neither of these opinions found general favour.
The mass of the people, ignorant of the secret history
of the murder, insisted that the Queen should be pub-
licly tried, and if found guilty should either remain ;i
prisoner among themselves, where she could give no
more trouble, or else be put to death.

Of these last alternatives the second was most likely
to be preferred, 'for they dreaded mutation among
themselves, the commiseration of foreign princes, and
likewise that in time the Scots themselves would have

214 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

compassion for her.' Throgmorton interceded, argued,
protested. Subjects, he said, could not sit in judgment
on their sovereign. If they executed her, ' they would
wipe away her infamy/ and ' turn upon themselves the
indignation of the world.' But the fierce rhetoric of
Knox, with the bloody annals of the chosen people for
his text, tore to shreds these feeble considerations.
The English minister was told that ' in extraordinary
enormities and monstrous doings there had been and
must be extraordinary proceedings. New offences did
in all States occasion new laws and new punishments.'
' Surely,' said Maitland to him with bitter truth, * the
Queen of England has taken an ill way to have us at her
devotion. The Earl of Murray found cold relief and
small favour at her hand, and now she has sent here
to procure our Queen's liberty. I would I had been
banished my country for seven years on condition the
Queen your mistress had dealt liberally and friendly
with us. However the case fall out we shall find little
favour at her hands more than fair words.'1

1 1 pray you advise,' Throgmorton privately wrote to
Cecil, * I pray you advise what is best ; and so as the
Queen being dead either in body or estate, this Prince
and country come not in the French devotion to one
camp. If her Majesty do not in time win these Lords
and recover her crazed credit among them before they
have ended these matters without her advice, I see they
will take a course little to our advantage.'2

1 Throgmorton to Cecil, July 19: KEITH
2 Throgmorton to Cecil, July 19 : MSS, Scotland, Rolls Souse.

1567.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 215

It seemed as if, overborne by the storm, and by the
hopelessness of the situation, the English ambassador
now gave up the Queen for lost, and was turning his
thoughts and his efforts to preserving the alliance
between England and Scotland. Even this would be
no easy matter, so exasperated were the Scots at the
tone which Elizabeth had assumed to them. * II perde
le jeu qui laisse la partie/ said Maitland to him in
another conversation : ' to my great grief I speak it,
the Queen my Sovereign may not be abydin among us,
and this is no time to do her good if she be ordained to
have any. Therefore take heed that the Queen your
mistress do not lose the goodwill of this company
irreparably. I assure you if the Queen's Majesty deal
not otherwise than she doth you will lose all, and it
shall not lie in the power of your wellwillers to help it
no more than it doth in our power now to help the
Queen our Sovereign.'1

Mary Stuart's sun was now at the point of setting.
The people well knew her nature, and among the pas-
sions which were distracting them, the fear, which is
the mother of cruelty, was not the least powerful. In
thejr eyes the gentle sufferer of modern sentimentalism
was a trapped wild cat, who, it' the rayy was opened,
would fix claw and fang into their throats. On the
2 ist of July, at a meeting of the council, the milder
propositions of Maitland and Morton were definitively
set aside. It was resolved to proceed immediately with

1 Throgmorton to Elizabeth, July 21 : MSS. Scotland.

216

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 49.

the coronation of the Prince. If the Queen consented
— as when she first knew the extent of her danger slie
nad promised to do — her life would be spared, and her
letters and the other evidences of her ' infamy ' would
be withheld from public knowledge. If she refused,
the truth in all its deformity would be laid before
the world. In some form or other she would be
brought to trial and as certainly condemned. Under
no circumstances should she leave the realm ; and
' having gone so far/ ' they would not think to find any
safety so long as she was alive.' Mary Stuart herself
looked for nothing but extremity. From a loophole
in the round tower which was her prison in an angle of
Lochleven Castle, she called to a child who was allowed
to wander on the island, and bade him ' tell her friends
to pray to God for her soul — her body was now worth
but little.' 1

John Knox, who, in theological language, expressed
the conclusions of keen, cool, political sagacity, * did
continue his severe exhortations against her, threaten-
ing the great plagues of God to the whole country and
nation if she was spared from condign punishment.'2

Elizabeth's behaviour at this crisis was more credit-

1 The Spanish ambassador heard
this from Elizabeth : — ' La Reyna me
habia dicho que despues que la habian
puesto en la torre con tanta estre-
clieza y poca compania, que habia
visto por una ventanilla un muchacho
que por ser do poca edad las guardas
no teuian cuenta, y solia darle algu-

nos avisos, y le habia dicho que
dixese a sus amigos que rogasen 6
Dios por el alma, que el cuetpo valia
poco,' — De Silva al Key, Julio 26 ;
MSS. Simancas.

2 Throgmorton to Elizabeth, Jul}
21 : MSS. Scotland.

1567-] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 217

able to her heart than to her understanding. She had
only to remain neutral, and she would be delivered for
ever from the rival who had troubled her peace from
the hour of her accession, and while she lived would
never cease to trouble her. There was no occasion for
her to commit herself by upholding insurrection. The
Scots were no subjects of hers, and she was not answer-
able for their conduct. The crime of Mary Stuart's
execution — if crime it would be — would be theirs not
hers ; and if she did not interfere to prevent or revenge
it, the ultimate effect would' inevitably be to draw
the bands closer between Scotland and England. Yet
she forgot her obvious interest ; and her affection and
her artifices vanished in resentment and pity. Her in-
dignation as a sovereign was even less than her sorrow
for a suffering sister. She did not hide from herself
the Queen of Scots' faults — but she did not believe in
the extent of them ; they seemed as nothing beside the
magnitude of her calamities, and she was prepared to
encounter the worst political consequences rather than
stand by and see her sacrificed.

' You may assure those Lords,' she wrote in answer
to Throgmorton's last letters, 'that we do detest and
abhor the murder committed upon our cousin the King ;
but the head cannot be subject to the foot, and we can-
not recognize in them any right to call their Sovereign
to account. You shall plainly tell them that if they de-
termine anything to the deprivation of the Queen their
Sovereign, we are well assured of our own determina-
tion that we will make ourselves a plain party against

?. 1 8 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

them to the revenge of their Sovereign for all posterity.
As to the French alliance, it will grieve them in the
end as much as it will injure England ; and yet were it
otherwise, we cannot, nor will for our particular profit
at this time, be induced to consent to that which we
cannot in conscience like or allow, but shall remit the
consequences thereof to the goodwill and favour of
Almighty God, at whose hands we have found no lack
in the doing or omitting anything whereunto our con-
science has induced us.' l So she wrote to Scotland ;
and the Spanish ambassador, who was suspicious enough
generally of her motives, was satisfied that she meant
what she said. If the Lords persevered, she told him,
she would call on France to join with her in punishing
them ; if France refused, and gave them countenance,
she would invite Philip to hold France in check, while
she herself sent an English army to Scotland to set the
Queen at liberty and replace her on her throne.2 Yet
she felt that her menaces might miss their effect, nay,
perhaps might produce, if she attempted to act upon
them, the very thing which she most dreaded. She
might revenge Mary Stuart's death, but she would not
prevent the Lords from killing her if .she provoked
them to extremities. And again, when it came to the
point, the sending troops to Scotland on such an errand,
against the opinion of half her council, might involve
an English revolution. Violently as she was affected,
she could not hide the truth from herself, and therefore

1 Elizabeth to Throgmorton, July 27 : MSS. Scotland.
2 Elizabeth to de Silva, July 29 : JIISS. Simancas.

1567.]

LOCHLEVEN CASTLE.

219

for the immediate purpose — saving Mary Stuart's life
— she looked with much anxiety to the return of the
Earl of Murray from France. On Murray's regard for
his sister, and on Murray's power to protect her, she
believed that she could rely. On his passage through
London in April, whatever might have been his secret
thoughts, he had breathed no word of blame against
her. He had mentioned to do Silva the reports which
were current in Scotland, but he had expressly said
that he did not believe them. To Elizabeth ' he never
spoke one dishonourable word of her ; ' and in Eliza-
beth's opinion he ' was so far from the consent of any
confederacy against her, that she was certainly per-
suaded, her sister had not so honourable and true a serv-
ant in Scotland.'1 De Silva except ed him by name to
Philip as the one Scottish nobleman whose behaviour
in all the transactions which had followed the murder
had been irreproachable.2

He had found no little difficulty in escaping from
France. Catherine, who eight years before had tried

1 HeneagctoCecil,July8: MSS.
Scotland. So Leicester, writing to
Throgmorton, says, ' I have thought
good to require you if ye possibly may
to let that Queen understand, as I
bear faith to God and my Prince, I
never heard directly or indirectly any
unreverend word from my Lord of
Murray's mouth towards the Queen
his Sovereign — but as dutifully and
honourably as the best affected sub-
ject in the world ought and should
speak of their Prince— which my

testimony I would not give to abuse
any one ; neither is there any cause
specially at this time that I should
do so. But as I have always thought,
so do I now verily believe, my Lord
of Murray will show himself a most
faithful servant and subject to her
Majesty to adventure his life for her.'
—Leicester to Throgmorton, July 8 :
Conway MSS.

2 De Silva to Philip, July : MSS.
Simancas.

220

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

LCH. 49.

to gain him, now renewed her overtures with increased
earnestness, as more and more she knew that he was
the only man whose integrity could be relied on, and
who, as she hoped, had been divorced from his English
sympathies by Elizabeth's ill usage of him. She offered
him rank, pension, power, the Scotch Regency, even
the Scotch crown she would have offered him, if he
would lend himself to French interests. He had an-
swered simply that he could agree to nothing prejudicial
to his sister and to his nephew. If the French Court
would assist in saving the Queen he would be grateful
for their help,1 but he declined accepting power for
himself. His personal injuries had not blinded him to
the advantages of the English alliance to Scotland, and
he met Catherine's advances so coldly that she invented
pretences to detain him in Paris. She complained that
he had a right English heart.'2 She found him en-
tirely unwilling to lend himself to the evil game which
she was playing.

At last ' by his discreet and wise answers he rid
himself out of her hands,'3 and made his way to the
sea. Still afraid of what might befall him, he durst
not venture to cross the Channel in a French vessel, but
had sent beforehand to Rye for an English fishing-boat.4

1 Alava to Philip, July 13 : TEU-
LET, vol. v.

2 Sir H. Norris to Cecil, July 23 :
MSS. France.

3 Ibid.

4 ' The Earl of Murray finding
himself in some discontentment by

his long delay of the French King,
as also in hazard of detaining by
force, beside peril of his person by
such as have grudged much his af-
fection towards England, required
my lord my master (Sir H. Norris)
to assist him by some policy to escape

I567.]

LOCHLEVEN CASTLE.

221

Once in England, his object was to reach his own coun-
try with the least possible delay. He had formed no
settled plan. He knew at last the full magnitude of
his sister's guilt, for though he had not seen her letters
to Both well, he had received an accurate description of
the worst of them ; yet he was determined to do his
best for her, and, at the same time, to prevent his friends
from breaking with England. It was necessary for him
to pass again through London. Elizabeth sent for him,
and spoke to him in a style which, had he been capable
of resentment, might have tempted him to reconsider
his intentions. He was obliged to tell her that his
country had claims upon him, prior either to his sister's
or her own.1

He had again a long conversation with de Silva, and
spoke more openly to him than he had cared to do to
the Queen. De Silva expressed a hope that something
might be done with his sister short of dethronement— -
something like that which had been proposed by Mait-
land, and accompanied with proper securities against

Bocretly out of France ; whereupon I
was despatched towards Dieppe to
stay some English bark under some
colour — for my Lord of Murray will
pass in no Frenchman — and if I find
not an Englishman, then to haste
over to Rye to provide him with ;\11
diligence : where I am arrived this
afternoon ; and mean as soon as wind
and tide serve, God willing, to repair
towards Dieppe again, where a mes-
senger attends my arrival to give
knowledge to my Lord of Murray at

the Court, whereby he may under
assurance of this vessel determine and
adventure his purpose.' — Thomas
Jenyr to Cecil, July 13 : MSS
France,

1 ' Notwithstanding so many
practices, the Earl of Murray will
continue a good Scotsman. The hard
speeches used by her Majesty to him
hath somewhat drawn him from the
affection he was of to this realm.' —
Bedford to Cecil, August 10: Sor-
der MSS.

222 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

further mischief from her. Murray required no press-
ing. Could Both well be caught and hanged, he thought
such an arrangement not entirely out of the question,
and both he and his friends would not, if they could
help it, offend Elizabeth. De Silva, who understood
thoroughly the entire truth, scarcely offered to advise
under circumstances so extraordinary. Murray how-
ever, he said, might do what no one else could do. The
Lords would trust him as their friend, and the Queen
as her brother. Murray answered that as de Silva had
spoken so reasonably, he would be entirely frank with
him. The difficulty of an arrangement had been in-
finitely increased by the discovery of the Queen's let-
ters to Bothwell. They had revealed (and he related
the substance of one of them) the most profound and
horrible treachery. She had brought dishonour upon
his father's house, and had made her restoration all but
impossible. Her life however he had good hopes that
he could save.1

He impressed de Silva with the very highest opinion
of his character, and he impressed no less favourably
such of Elizabeth's Ministers as spoke with him. Sir
Walter Mildmay, with whom he spent a night on his way

down to Scotland, found him 'very wise and
August. . J

still very well affected to the maintenance of

friendship between the two realms ; ' ' content to forget
his own particular griefs,' and shrinking only from the
responsibilities which were waiting for him.2

1 De Silva to Philip, August 2 : MSS. Simancas.
• Sir Walter Mildmay to Cecil, August 4 : Domestic MSS. Eolls House.

1 567-]

LOCHLEVEN CASTLE.

223

Bedford, whom he saw at Berwick, found him ' nei-
ther over pitiful nor over cruel ; ' inclined, at all events, to
prevent the Queen from being put to death, but refusing
to commit himself further — much, in fact, in Bed-
ford's own humour, and such as Bedford wholly ap-
proved.1

Meantime events in Scotland had been moving with
accelerating speed. Each post which came in from
England brought fiercer threats from Elizabeth, which
all the warnings of her council could not prevent her
from sending. It might have been almost supposed
that with refined ingenuity she was choosing the means

1 Bedford had formed a strong
opinion as to the impolicy of Eliza-
beth's attitude. She had herself
written to explain her views to him.
4 Although,' she said, ' apparent ar-
guments may be made that the neg-
lecting of that Queen's estate in this
her captivity, by supporting of the
others, might tend greatly to our
particular profit and surety — yet
finding the same not agreeable to
our princely honour, nor the satis-
faction of our conscience, we cannot
agree to certain demands made to us
for the contrary, whereof we have
thought good to let you understand
our meaning.' — Elizabeth to the
Earl of Bedford, July 20.

Bedford, commenting to Cecil on
this letter, says : ' Those that serve
must be directed always, though
oftentimes it be to their great grief
to put in execution all that they be
commanded. I am sorry to see that

her Majesty is no better affected
to the Lords in Scotland. How much
it shall stand us in stead to embrace
their gentle offers and good wills,
ivill one day appear.' — Bedford to
Cecil, July 25 and August I : Eor-
dtr MSS.

Sir Walter Mildmay, writing also
to Cecil on the same subject, says :
'The matters in Scotland are come to
a far other conclusion than as I per-
ceived by your first was looked for
here ; but surely to none other thai^
was like to follow, the case itself
and the proceedings considered. A
marvellous tragedy, if a man repeat
it from the beginning, showing the
issue of such as live not in the fear
of God.'— Mildmay to Cecil, August
4: Domestic MSS.

To Mildmay also it seemed false
wisdom to attempt to arrest or
change the natural retribution foi
crime.

224

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 49.

most likely to bring about the catastrophe which she
most affected to dread.1

The letters from Edinburgh were all to the same
purpose, that the louder Elizabeth menaced the more
obstinate became the Lords. They would tolerate no
interference between themselves and the imprisoned
Queen. It was a Scottish question, which Scots and
Scots alone should deal with. They would send the
little James to be educated in England — but on one
condition only.

' Let your Queen/ said Maitland to the English am-
bassador, ' exalt our Prince to the succession of the
crown of England, for fault of issue of her Majesty's
body. That taking place, he shall be as dear to the
people of England as to the people of Scotland, and
the one will be as careful for his preservation as the
other. Otherwise it will be reported that the Scot-
tishmen have put their Prince to be kept in safety as
those who commit the sheep to be kept by the wolves.'2
On the 24th of July a full meeting of the

July 24.

council was held in the Tolbooth. Throg-

morton, compelled to obey the instructions which he

1 ' Her Majesty remains in her
first opinion ; we have shown her
that if the Lords are left out of hope
of her Majesty, it will not only be a
means of the greatest extremity to
that Queen, but also a perpetual loss
of those which neither she, nor hers,
are like to recover again. It is
showed her further, that the thing
which she would fainest should not

come to pass of all other things is
by this her manner of dealing most
likely to be brought to pass the
sooner against her. She answers
still she will not comfort subjects
against their Prince.' — Leicester to
Throgmorton, July 22 : Conway
M88.

2 Throgmorton to Leicester, July
26 ; MSS. Scotland.

1567.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 225

received from home, demanded audience, and in his
mistress's name required them formally to release their
Queen. Without condescend inu; to notice his request;
they also communicated formally the decision at which
they had themselves arrived.

' In consideration of the Queen's misbehaviour,' her
public misgovernment, and her private and personal
enormities, ' they could not permit her any longer to
put the realm in peril by her disorders.' If she would
resign the crown, ' they would endeavour to preserve
both her life and honour, both which otherwise stood
in great danger.' If she refused, the Prince would be
crowned, and she herself, in compliance with the demand
of the General Assembly, would be placed 011 her trial
for her husband's murder, and for other crimes.1 She
would be indicted on three several counts : — * the breach
of the laws of the realm,' the Statute of Religion of 1560,
which had been passed in her absence, and which she»
had never yet ratified, but which, nevertheless, they
assumed to be binding upon her; ' iucontinency with
Jitithwell as with others, having sufficient evidrir c
against her ' in each particular case ; and thirdly, the
murder, in which * they said they had as apparent proof
against her as might be, as well by the testimony of her
own handwriting which they had recovered, as also by
sufficient witnesses.'

1 ' The General Assembly hath
made request that the murder of the
late King may be severely punished,
according to the Law of God, ac-
cording to the practice of their own

realm, and according to the law
which they call Jus Gentium, Avitli-
out respect of any person.' — Throg-
morton to Elizabeth, July 25 : C//
way 3fSS.

VOL. VIII. 15

226 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

'Jus gentium/ as well as precedent, there might
perhaps be for the essentials of this proceeding. The
doctrine of the responsibility of princes to their subjects
had been preached thirty years before by Reginald Pole,
when the Catholics were at issue with Henry VIII. ;
but kings and queens, when they had committed crimes,
had been brought to justice so far by the wild method
of assassination, and the establishment of a formal court
in which a prince regnant could be indicted, was a new
feature in European history. The messenger chosen to
carry to Lochleven the intimation of the council's in-
tentions was the rugged Lindsay, the man of few words,
who would have fought Bothwell at Carberry, and
whom Mary Stuart had sworn to hang. Ruthven went
with him, son of the hard Earl who had been the first
to seize Rizzio in her cabinet, and Robert Melville the
diplomatist. These three represented the three parties
.into v/hich the Lords were divided. Lindsay was the
mouthpiece of the fiery zealots of the Assembly ; Ruth-
ven belonged to the more moderate faction of Morton
and Mar ; while Melville, as the secret agent of Mait-
land and Throgmorton, carried a note from the latter
concealed in the scabbard of his sword, advising Mary
to comply with any demand which should be presentc d
to her, and assuring her that no act which she might do
under such compulsion could prejudice her rights.

Short time was allowed her for reflection. The same
morning on which the council communicated their pur-
pose to the English minister, Lindsay repaired to Loch-
leven. Persuasion was to be tried first, and Melville

1567 ] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 227

was admitted alone to the Queen's presence. He found
her still unbroken — at times desponding, at times
' speaking as stout words as ever she did/1 Having an
unexpected opportunity of speaking privately to her, he
gave her Throgmorton's message, and added another
directly from Elizabeth, with which he had been charged
also, if he was able to give it ; that ' at all times she
might count upon a sure friend in the Queen of Eng-
land/

These fatal words — the prime cause of Elizabeth's
long troubles in after years — ' were no small comfort to
her in her grief/2 She said she would rather be in
England under Elizabeth's protection, ' than obliged to
any prince in Christendom/ Her proud blood boiled
at the indignities which were thrust upon her, and in
her first passion she fought fiercely against all that
Melville could urge. But his arguments, coupled with
the dreadful recollection of the Sunday night which
followed her capture at Carberry, told at last upon her.
The council had sent three instruments for her signa-
ture— one her own abdication ; another naming the Earl
of Murray Regent, or, if Murray should refuse the offer,
vesting the Government in a council ; a third empower-
ing Lindsay and the Earl of Mar and Morton to proceed
to the coronation of her son. It has been said that
when the papers were laid before her, and she hesitated
to sign them, Lindsay clutched her arm and left the
print of his gauntleted hand upon the flesh ; that hav-

1 Bedford to Cecil, August IO : Border MSS.
» Sir R. Melville to Elizabeth, July 29 : MSS. Scotland.

223

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[en. 49.

ing immediate death before lier if slie refused, she wrote
her name at last with a scornful allusion to his brutal-
ity, and a contemptuous intimation of the worthlessness
of concessions so extorted. The story rests on 'faint
authority. If the Queen of Scots had hinted that she
would not consider herself bound by the act to which
she was setting her hand, her life would unquestionably
have been forfeited ; and however violent the intentions
of Lindsay's party, it appears certain that she was not
informed that her life was in immediate danger.

However it was— whether in fear, or, as is far more
likely, relying secretly on the assurance that an abdi-
cation obtained from her in her present condition would
have no legal validity — she signed the papers, and Lind-
say returned the same night with them to Edinburgh.
Yet her peril was scarcely diminished. The instru-
ments for the coronation of the Prince, it was under-
stood, would be immediately acted on. Conscious of
the effect which such an act would produce on Elizabeth,
Throgmorton interceded with Maitland at least for a
few days' delay. Maitland said that for himself he
wished what the Queen of England wished ; but ' he
was in place to know more than Throgmorton knew,'

1 The following mutilated frag-
ment of a note addressed to her by
Throgmorton remains in the Rolls
House. It is dated the 28th of July,
four days after her abdication : —

* Madam, I have received your

memoir. I cannot obtain

lords to have access to your Majesty:
and nevertheless . . . assure yourself

the Queen my Sovereign hath great
.... your good, and relieve you of
your calamity and peril, which J find

greater than my Sovereign

doth suspect. It behoveth

somewhat to eschew the personal
danger towards you, which is much
greater than your Majesty doth un-
derstand.'

1567 ] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 229

and if Throgmorton meddled or used 'threatening
speech/ it would be the Queen's death-warrant. He
could only entreat him, if he valued her preservation, to
be silent. On the afternoon of the 2<5th the

July 2C

English ambassador was conducted again to
the Tolbooth.

There stood or sat before him that stern body of
fierce men — some who, in the fervour of godliness, had
made the Scottish Reformation — some, the most of
them, who had played with it for mere worldly purposes,
but had all united on the purpose which they had then in
hand. There they were, earls, barons, lords, and gen-
tlemen, in armour every one, with their long boots and
long steel spurs, ready to mount and ride. He was told
briefly that the Queen had resigned, that they were
going forthwith to Stirling to crown the Prince, and he
was invited to accompany them.

Notwithstanding Maitland's caution, Throgmorton
dared not be silent. Solemnly, in the name of his mis-
tress, he protested against an act which would bring
down upon them the indignation of Europe. In his own
person he pleaded with such of them as he privately knew
or could hope to influence. At least he urged them to
wait for the return of Murray ; and as to the coronation,
he declared, that he neither might nor would 'be pre-
sont at any such doings/

They were prepared for his remonstrances, and pre-
pared to defy them. The Lords who sat in front said
briefly that they must do their duty ; the realm could
not be left without a prince, and the government would

230 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.49.

be administered for the future ' by the wisest of the
nobility.' A loud cry rose from the crowd of gentle-
men who stood behind, that 'the realm could not be
governed worse than it had been ; the Queen was ad-
vised by the worst council or no council/

The Lords rose : 'My Lord/ they said, 'we will trouble
you no further ; the day passeth away, and we have far
to ride.' Their horses were before the gate ; they
mounted, and the iron cavalcade streamed away across
the Grassmarket. Three days later, so far as subjects
could make or unmake their sovereign, the reign of
James VI. had commenced.

Throgmorton could only write to request his recall.
He dreaded now that Elizabeth would reply to so daring
a contempt of her commands by some open act of hos-
tility ; and that, whatever else might come of it, Mary
Stuart's doom would then be sealed. 'As the case
stands with this miserable Queen/ he wrote the morning
after the Lords' departure, ' it shall be to little purpose
to me to have access to her, or to treat with her ac-
cording to my instructions. It is to be feared that this
tragedy will end in the Queen's person after this coron-
ation, as it did begin in the person of David the Italian
and the Queen's husband/ *

Yet Throgmorton's efforts had not been wholly thrown
away : Mary Stuart's throne was lost irrecoverably, and
her life was hanging by a thread ; but both her life and
the exposure and infamy which would accompany her

Throgmorton to Cecil, July 26 : JtfSS. Scotland.

1567.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 231

public trial might yet be prevented, if Elizabeth could
only be kept quiet. To this Mary Stuart's best friends
in Scotland, and Elizabeth's wisest ministers at home,
had now to address themselves.

Sir Robert Melville wrote directly to the Queen of
England : — ' What may yet fall out to the worst,' ho
said, * I am in great doubt. Your Majesty may be re-
membered that at my last being with your Highness I
feared this extremity, and could give no better advice
for my Sovereign's weal than by gentle dealing with
these Lords, in whose hands lies both to save and to
spill. The greater number be so bent on rigour against
my mistress, that extremes had been used if your High-
ness's ambassador had not been present, who did so
utter both his wisdom and affection to her Majesty, that
he only did put aside the present inconvenience, and
did so procure the matter as both life and honour have
been preserved.'

Preserved chey were for the moment ^ but with the
first move of an English soldier towards Scotland — with
the first symptoms of an active intention to restore
Mary Stuart to her throne by force — it was equally cer-
tain that they would not be preserved. The Lords would
not expose themselves to the risk of any such contin-
gency. Throgmorton, not daring to address his mistress
herself, applied himself to Leicester. 'He could but
deplore,' he said, 'the dangerous discommodious opinion J
in which her Majesty had fixed herself; an opinion

1 Sir R. Melville to Elizabeth, July 29 : MSS. Scotland.

232 REIGN OF ELIZABETH, [011.49.,

which would be at once politically ruinous to England,
and fatal to Mary Stuart herself. ' Whether it was
fear, fury, or zeal which had carried the Lords so far,'
he could not tell, but this he could boldly affirm, ' that
nothing would so soon hasten her death as the doubt
that the Lords might conceive of her redemption to
liberty and authority by the Queen's Majesty's aid.' l

In England, though with extreme difficulty and with
but limited means, the council were labouring to the
same purpose. Elizabeth for a time seems to have been
utterly ungovernable. Her imagination had painted a
scheme in which she was to appear as a beneficent fairy
corning out of the clouds to rescue an erring but un-
happy sister, and restore her to her estate, with a whole-
some lecture on her past misconduct. It was an attitude
pleasing to her fancy and gratifying to her pride, and
all was shattered to the ground. Throgmorton no longer
even wished to see Mary Stuart. To read to her Eliza-
beth's admonition ' appeared too hard considering her
calamity and temptation : ' 2 and the proud Queen, who
could never realize that the Scots were not her own sub-
jects, writhed under her defeat.

Cecil, who understood his mistress best, ventured
only quiet protestations 'when, opportunity offered it-
self,' and modified the violence which he could not
wholly check. Those who were at a distance from the
Court were more outspoken. Sir Walter Mildmay
could not conceive what moved the Queen to strive

1 Throgmorton to Leicester, July 31 : MSS. Scotland.
2 Ibid.

I567.]

LOCHLEVEN CASTLE.

233

against the stream, and trouble herself with unnecessary
quarrels/ The Earl of Bedford, from Berwick, remon-
st rated on grounds of public morality, and insisted on.
the practical mischief which was already resulting from
it. Bothwell was still at large. The want of settled
government in Scotland had let loose the Borderers,
who were his sworn friends and allies; on the 15th of
July, 'by procurement of the Earl of Bothwell, a
thousand horse had crossed the marches and pillaged
Northumberland ; ' yet because the Border thieves called
themselves the Queen of Scots' friends, Elizabeth had
distinctly forbidden the English marchers to retaliate.
' The marchers/ she had told Bedford, ' could not be al-
lowed to redress their own injuries ; ' 1 nor would she
permit the regular forces at Berwick to redress them
either, lest, by the just execution of the Border laws,
she should lend even this remote semblance of counten-
ance to the Lords. The wardens all along the line from-
Carlisle to Berwick had written for instructions in anger
and perplexity.2 Never in all recent experi-
ence had the Border been in such confusion ;
yet Elizabeth's displeasure had been reserved for Bed-
ford, whom she accused of having taken part against the
Queen of Scots. The old Earl proudly acknowledged the
truth of the charge. ' Wishing the Lords well/ he said,
' I cannot but sav that I have favoured them and their

August.

1 Elizabeth to Bedford, July 20:
Border MSS.

2 Scrope and Sir John Foster to
Cecil, July, 1567 ; Bedford to Cecil,

July 13 ; Bedford to Cecil, July 15 ;
Bedford to Cecil, July 19: MSS.

234 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49-

actions, because I see that it is good and honourable, and
their Queen's doings abominable and to be detested.' l

It would have been well if Elizabeth had rested here;
but after her conversation with Murray, and not liking
the language in which he replied to her menaces, she
ventured upon a step, which, if it had been likely to
succeed — as in the end, and when circumstances changed,
it succeeded but too fatally — might have created, and
was intended to create, a civil war in Scotland. She
Lad directed Throgmorton when she sent him on his
commission, if he failed with the Confederate Lords, to
address himself to the Hamiltons. She had been warned
of the game which the Hamiltons were playing, but sho
believed that she could tempt them through their ambi-
tion to declare themselves for the Queen ; and while
Throgmorton was busy with the Lords, she attempted
through some other agent to work upon their adver-
saries. Tier advances were not successful.

' I understand by a very sure friend/ Bedford wrote
to Cecil, ' that her Majesty does work with the Hamil-
tons against the Lords, and that somewhat has been
offered to them in that behalf. Her Majesty has spent
much money to rid the French out of this country, and
this is the next way to bring them in again, and breed
her Majesty great disquietness in the end — what else I
dare not say. Her Majesty is a wise princess, and you
and the rest be wise councillors. As soon as the Hamil-
tons understood thereof they sent to the Lords and

1 Bedford to Throgmorton, August 4 : Cwway MSS.

LOCHLEVEN CASTLE.

2J5

offered the sooner to agree ; so that thus little was saved,
for this was the way to have one Scotsman cut another's
throat/ l

The effect indicated by Bedford was brought more
plainly before Throgmorton, who himself also knowing
what Elizabeth expected of him, had put out feelers in
the same direction/ * The Hamiltons, as Bedford truly
said, immediately betrayed to the Lords the advances
which had been made to them. So wild Elizabeth's
movements seemed to both parties, that each assumed
she must be influenced by some sinister motive. The
Hamiltons imagined that she wished to weaken Scotland
by a civil war ; Ma it land, who more respected her
ability than her principles, suspected her of an insi-
dious desire to provoke them to make an end of the
Queen/ 3

Both concurred in believing that she meant ill to

1 Bedford to Cecil, July—, 1567 ;
Border MSS.

- On the 6th of August Leicester
wrote to him to say that ' her Ma-
jesty did will that he should make
all search and inquiry to know what
party might be made for the Queen,
whether the house- of Hamilton did
stand for her or no, and that as
much encouragement as was pos-
sible might be given to them for
their better maintenance therein.' —
Conway MSS.

3 Throgmorton, after the corona-
tion, in obedience to orders from
home, had given a severe message to
Mnitland. ' It is you,' said Maitland I

in reply, < that seek to bring her death
to pass, what show soever the Queen
your mistress and you do make to
save her life and set her at liberty.
The Hamiltons and you concur to-
gether— you have nothing in your
mouths but liberty, and nothing less
in your hearts. I have heard what
you have said to me. I assure you
if you should use this speech unto
them which you do unto me, all the
world could not save the Queen's
life three days to an end — and as
the case standeth, it will be much
ado to save her life.' — Throgmorton
to Elizabeth, August 9 : MSS. Scot-

?3& REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 49.

them, and to Scotland, and, in consequence, instant and
sinister overtures came in from all the noblemen who
had hitherto held aloof from the Confederates. The true
objects of the Hamiltons, long suspected, now began to
show themselves. They cared nothing for the Queen ;
they cared much for the greatness of their house, and
something they cared for Scotland. They had no hu-
mour to fill the country with blood to please their ' auld
enemies ; ' and if the Confederate Lords would resolve
finally to abandon the detested alliance with England,
return to their old traditions, accept France for their
patron, and admit the Hamilton succession, the prisoner
at Lochleven might cease to be a difficulty. Her life, in
fact, was the only obstacle to an immediate union of
parties. Were she once dead no question could be
raised about her. So long as she lived there was the
fear that she might one day be restored by Elizabeth ;
and if the Hamiltons came over to the Lords while this
possibility continued, * they would lose her thanks for
their former well-doings, incur as much danger as those
who had been first and deepest in the action against
her, and suifer most having most to lose/ 'Let the
Lords proceed/ they said ; ' let them provide for them-
selves and such as would join with them, that they
should come to no dangerous reckoning — (meaning
thereby the despatch of the Queen, for they said they
could not honour two suns), and it should not be long
ere they could accord and run all one course/ These
were the words which on the 9th of August were re-
ported to Throgmortoii by Murray of Tullibardine, as a

1567.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 237

communication which had been just received from the
counter-coiiit'deracy at Hamilton Castle. Throgmortoii
had heard something of it before. The Archbishop was
known to have promoted the Bothwell marriage merely
to ruin the Queen ; yet selfishness and baseness so pro-
found seemed scarcely credible when laid out in black
and white.

* Surely/ Throginorton said, 'the Hauiiltons could
make more by the Queen's life than by her death.
They might make a better bargain by marrying her to
the Lord of Arbroath.'

The alternative had been considered, Tullibardiue
replied, but after careful thought had been laid aside.
4 They saw not so good an oiitgate by this device as By
the Queen's destruction ; for she being taken away,
they accounted but the little King betwixt them and
home. They loved not the Queen : they knew she had
110 great fancy to any of them, and they thus much
ieared her, the more because she was young and might
have many children, which was the thing they would be
rid of.'

* -My Lord/ he continued, as he saw Throgmorton
still half incredulous, * never take me for a true
gentleman if this be not true that I tell you. The
Archbishop of St Andrews and the Abbot of Kilwin-
niiig l have proposed this much to me within these
forty-eight hours/ 2

The substantial truth of Tullibardine's words was

1 Gawcn Hamilton.
• Throgmorton to Elizabeth, August 9: MSS. Scotland.

238 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. ICH. 49.

easily ascertained. Both the Hamiltons and Lord
Huntly had made the same proposals, had suggested
the same measures through separate messengers ; and,
perplexed and fatally disheartened, Throgmorton went
once more to Mar and Maitland, on whose general
moderation he believed that he could rely. From
neither of them however could he gather any com-
fort. Mar told him that he would do what he could
for the Queen in the way of persuasion, 'but to save
her life/ he said, ' by endangering her son or his
estate, or by betraying my marrows, I will never do-
it, my Lord Ambassador, for all the gowd in the
world/ 1

Maitland was scarcely less discouraging, and replied
to his appeal with mournful bitterness.

' My Lord/ he said, e we know all the good pur-
poses which have passed between you and the Hamil-
tons and the Earl of Argyle and Huntly. You know
how I have proceeded with you since your coming
hither; I have given you the best advice I could to
prevent extremity, and either the Queen your sovereign
will not be advised, or you do forbear to advise her. I
say unto you, as I am a Christian man, if we which
have dealt in this action would consent to take the
Queen's life from her, all the lords which hold out and
lie aloof from us would come and join with us within
two days. My Lord Ambassador, if you should use
ihe speech to the Lords which you do to me, all the

1 Throgmorton to Leicester, August 9 : MSS. Scotland.

1567.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 239

world could not save the Queen's life three days to an
end/ l

At length, and after weary expostulations, Throg-
morton succeeded in extracting a promise * that the
woeful Queen should not die a violent death, unless
some new accident occurred/ before the coming of
Murray, who was now daily expected. It was high
time indeed for Murray to arrive. Two days after,
there was a scene at Westminster, which, if the Lords
had heard of it before Murray was on the spot to con-
trol them, would have been the signal for the final close
of Mary Stuart's earthly sufferings. On the nth of
August, 'at four o'clock in the afternoon/ Elizabeth
sent for Cecil, 'and entered into a great offensive
speech/ reproaching him for having as yet contrived
no means for the rescue or protection of the Queen of
Scots. Cecil giving evasive answers, the Queen pro-
duced a letter which she required him to send to Throg-
mnrtoii. It was to inform the Lords that whatever
other princes might do or forbear to do, she for herself,
1 if they continued to keep their sovereign in prison, or
should do or devise anything that might touch her life
or person, would revenge it to the uttermost upon such
as should be in any wise guilty thereof/ She told Cecil
that she would immediately declare war. She insisted
that Throgmorton should deliver her words as an im-
mediate message from herself, and that ' as roundly and
as sharply as he could, for he could not express it with

1 Throgmorton to Elizabeth, August 9 ; Throgmovton to Cecil, August
9 : MSS. Scotland.

240 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. ICH. 49.

more veneniency than she .did mean and intend.' 1
It was Cecil's duty to speak plainly, and furious as
Elizabeth was, he did not hesitate. He exhausted every
kind of direct argument. At length, when nothing
which he could say would move her, he suggested what
Maitland had already hinted as the belief which was
growing up in Scotland, 'The malice of the world
would say that she had used severity to the Lords to
urge them to rid away the Queen.' Such an interpret-
ation of her conduct had not occurred to her. Full of
her immediate object, she had forgotten that her past
artifices might recoil upon her when she least deserved
it. She hesitated, and at the moment an opportune
packet came in from Edinburgh assuring her that a
single hostile move would be the Queen's death-warrant.
Even this, and the too possible calumny, did not wholly
convince her. She still insisted that her letter should
be sent ; but she so far modified her orders that she
allowed the ambassador ' to use discretion in the persons
to whom it should be shown/ She named Murray,
who by this time she knew must have arrived, and
Maitland, 'in. whom with the other she reposed most
trust to preserve the Queen.' 2

She had counted rightly on Murray, though to his
face she had abused and threatened him. One word
from him, or no word — for his silence would have been
enough — and his sister would have had as short measure
as she had allowed to Darnley. The same 1 1 th of

1 Elizabeth to Throgmovton, August 1 1 : Oonway JISS.
* Cecil to Throgmorton, August u : Conicay M SS.

1567.] LOCIILEVEN CASTLE. 241

August, while Elizabeth was storming at Westminster,
ho rode into Edinburgh, uncertain whether to accept
the Regency, to which he learnt at Berwick that he
was to be raised ; uncertain how to act on any side till
he had seen his sister's letters with his own eyes — till
he had spoken with his sister himself.

His selection as Regent spoke well for the intentions
of the Confederates. He was the only prominent noble-
man who had carried himself innocently and honour-
ably through the wild doings of the past years. I To
was a Calvinist, yet he was too generous to be a fanatic,
and the Catholic Courts in Europe respected the in-
tegrity which they had tried and failed to corrupt.
His appointment would be unpalatable to the Hamil-
tons, yet they would find a difficulty in opposing it. In
the minority of the sovereign they claimed the Regency
by proximity of blood, yet until they had recoguizi-d
the Queen's deposition they could not contend for the
administration of her government ; while the French,
to whom they might have looked for support, were will-
ing and eager to give their help to Murray — if Murray
in turn would desert the English alliance.

And what cause had Murray to prefer the friendship
of a sovereign who had betrayed him into rebellion, and
then repudiated her own instructions — who had re-
proached him openly in her own Court for conduct
which she had herself invited him to pursue, and had
then left him to bear as he might the consequences of
having consented to serve her? Why should he prefer
Elizabeth, who had even now dismissed him from her

70L. VIII. 16

.242 REIGX OF ELIZABETH. [en. 49-.

presence with menaces and • Lard words/ to Catherine-
dc Medici and Charles, who had loaded him with hon-
ours, tempted him with presents, and were ready to-
support him with the armed hand of France in taking
the place to which he was called by his country ? It
would seem as if he could have given no intelligible
reason, except there were objects which he preferred to
his own personal interest. The hand of France was
still extended to him, and every practical difficulty
would have been removed by his acceptance of it.
Although he had stolen away from Paris, Catherine
had shown no resentment. De Lignerolles overtook
him between London and Berwick, but only to bring
him a magnificent present, and to renew the offer of
the pension which he had refused. While Elizabeth
was flattering herself that Catherine would go along
with her, that troops which were reported to be assem-
bling in Normandy under M. de Martigues were to be
used in assisting her to crush the Confederate Lords, de
Lignerolles accompanied Murray to Edinburgh, where
he assured Throgmorton ' that the whole Protestants of
France would live and die in those men's quarrels ; *
that if de Martigues came, 'it would be with a good
force to succour them/ 1 He explained distinctly that
while his formal instructions were to intercede for the
liberty of the Queen, yet if the Lords refused, 'they
being noblemen of another countrj7", and not the King's
subjects but his friends, the King could do no more but

1 Throgmorton to Cecil, August 12 : MSS. Scotland.

156;.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 243

be sorry for his sister's misfortunes.' He told Maitland
' that the King his master was as careful for their safe-
ties as they themselves could be, and to that end ad-
vised them to provide substantially. France cared only
for the old league, and could be as well contented to
take it of the little King as otherwise.' 1

It would have perhaps been better for the interests
of Europe if the support thus offered by France had been
accepted, if Murray's integrity had been less, or his
political insight had been greater. If the Scotch noble-
men, supported by the nearest relatives of the Queen,
had brought her to trial for her crimes and publicly
executed her, she at least would have ceased to be an
element of European discord. Her claims on England
and the question of her guilt would have at once and for
ever been disposed of. The French Government would
have insensibly committed themselves on the side of the
Reformation, by uniting with a party who had been
its great promoters in another country. Their depend-
ence upon the Guises would have been weakened ; their
connections with the Huguenots would have been drawn
closer ; the smouldering remnant of the Catholic faction
in Scotland would have been extinguished ; and Eng-
land and France, no longer divided by creed, might
have been drawn together, with Scotland as a connecting
link, and hand in hand have upheld in Europe the great
interests of freedom.

Other consequences, it is true, might have followed.

1 Throgmorton to Cecil, August 12 : MSS. Scotland.

844 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [0*1.49.

Mary Stuart, in life or death, was (lie pivot, of many
possibilities; and speculat ions ' as to what, ini^lit have

been ' aro usually worthless j yet this particular re-
sult, looked a! by Hie lio-ht of „{•(,.,• events, appears so

much more likely than any other, that the loss of an

opportunity, \vliicli, if caught and used, mi^ht have pre-

vontod such tremendous misfortunes, cannot 1>< pa cd

over without, some expression of regret.

For the first two days after Murray's m-mal it
•Htfned as if France would gain the day. He had left,

Mli/aheth foaming with indignation at the conduct of

the Lords ; he knew that it would be idle to ask her

to reroo-ni/e a government, oi' \vliicli he was tin* head ;

while Catherine was ready to receive a minister from
him at the French Court, and Maitland was already

spoken oi' as the person who was to be sent to Paris.
When the casket and its contents were laid before him,
4 none spoke more bitterly against the tragedy and the

players therein than Hurray ; none showed so little
liking to such horrible sins/1 He expressed * great

commiseration towards his sister/ and lie hesitated about

the Eegenoy ; yet it was clear that, in spite of Elizabet h,
' he intended to take his fortune with the Lords/ He
told Throgmorton that ' he would not gladly live in
Scotland if they shovUd miscarry or abandon his friend-

.ship.'

Uelore lie formed a final resolution lie insisted that
he must, see the Queen, and the Lords, after some hesi-

Throgiuorton to Cecil, August 12 : MS$. Sfot/umf, AVAv J!otuo.

1567-] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 24}

tation, consented. He ' showed himself much perplexed,
honour and nature moving him one way, his duty to
his friends and to religion drawing him the other.'
Time, at any rate, would be gained, and there was no
longer a fear, as there had been a few days previously,
that the Queen would be secretly murdered. Her friends
could only hope that Elizabeth would give the Lords no
ii< >h provocation, and would be brought to consider the
situation more temperately.

'I trust,' Throgmorton wrote on the I4th to Leicester,
* that the woeful lady hath abidden the extremity of her
affliction ; and the way to amend her fortune is for the
Queen's Majesty to deal in her speech more calmly than
she doth, and likewise not to let them see that her Ma-
jesty will shake off all their friendship, for surely that
will bring a dangerous issue. Scotland, and all the
ablest and wisest of the nation, will become good French,
which will breed and nourish a cumbrous sequel to her
.Majesty and her realm.'1

Elizabeth too on her side was ' perplexed,' as reason
alternated with passion. She was able to acknowledge
Murray's difficulties, and she feared at times ' he would
be in more peril himself than be able to do anything for
his sister ; she doubted the matter to be so handled as
he must either endanger himself or dishonour himself: '
but she trusted that * he would show himself such an
one as he seemed to her he would be.'2 That he would
dishonour himself there was little likelihood, and for

1 MSS. Scotland, Roll* House.
2 Leicester to Throgniorton, August 6 : Conn-ay 3fSS.

246 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

personal danger Murray cared as much for it as noble-
minded men are in the habit of caring ; but his position
was one in which more than moral qualities were wanted.
For the work cut out for him ' he had too much of the
milk of human kindness.'

The curtain rises for a moment over the interior of
Mary Stuart's prison-house. When the first rage had
passed away, she had used the arms of which nothing
could deprive her ; she had flung over her gaolers the
spell of that singular fascination which none who came
in contact failed entirely to feel. She had charmed
even the lady of Lochleven, to whose gentle qualities
romance has been unjust ; and, ( by one means or another
she had won the favour and goodwill of the most part of
the house, as well men as women, whereby she had
means to have intelligence, and was in some towardness
to have escaped.' l So alarming an evidence of what she
might still do to cause disturbance of course increased
her peril, and for the two weeks which followed she was
confined a close prisoner in the rooms set apart for her
use.

The island on which the castle stands was then
something under an acre in extent. The castle itself
consisted of the ordinary Scotch tower, a strong stone
structure, five .and twenty feet square, carried up for
three or four stories, which formed one corner of a large
court from ninety to a hundred feet across. The base-
ment story was a flagged hall, which served at the same

Throgmorton to Elizabeth, August 5 : MSS. Scotland.

1507.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 247

time for kitchen and guardroom. The two or three
rooms above it may have been set apart for the lord and
lady and their female servants. The court was enclosed
by a battlemented wall eighteen or twenty feet high,
along the inner sides of which ran a series of low sheds
and outhouses, where the servants, soldiers, and re-
tainers littered in the straw. In the angle opposite the
castle was a round turret, entered, like the main build-
ing, from the court ; within, it was something like an
ordinary lime-kiln from seven to eight feet in diameter ;
the walls were five feet thick, formed of rough hewn
stone rudely plastered, and pierced with long narrow
slits for windows, through which nothing larger than a
cat could pass, but which admitted daylight and
glimpses of the lake and the hills. This again was
divided into three rooms, one above the other ; the
height of each may have been six feet ; in the lowest
there was a fireplace, and the windows show marks of
grooves, which it is to be hoped were fitted with glas.s.
The communication from room to room must have been
by ladders through holes in the floors, for there was no
staircase outside, and no space for one within.

Here it was, in these three apartments, that tho
Queen of Scots passed the long months of her im-
prisonment. Decency must have been difficult in
such a place, and cleanliness impossible. She had
happily a tough, healthy nature, which cared little for
minor discomforts. At the worst she had as many
luxuries as the wives and daughters of half the peers
in Scotland. At her first coming she had been allowed

248 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.49.

to walk on the battlements and on the terrace outside
the gate ; but since her attempt to escape she had been
strictly confined to her tower ; and she was still a close
prisoner there when, on the I5th of August, the Earl
of Murray, accompanied byUthol, Morton, and Lind-
say, arrived at the island.

The brother arid sister met without the presence of
witnesses ; and the character of the interview can be
gathered only from what one or the other cared to re-
veal. Thus much Throgmorton was able to tell. The
Queen received Murray ' with great passion and weep-
ing,' which however produced no effect. Murray un-
derstood her tears by this time as well as Knox.
He sat with her for several hours, but he was cold and
reserved. She was unable to infer from his words
' either the ill which he had conceived of her or meant
towards her/ She tried to work upon his weakness,
and she failed. But the meeting did not end there : in
the evening, ' after supper/ they were again together,
and then it seems that Murray spoke out his whole
heart. Deep into the night, until ' one of the clock *
they remained ; the young, beautiful, brilliant Queen
of Scotland, fresh from acts

. ' That blurred the grace and blush of modesty —

fresh from ' the enseamed bed ' of a brutal cut-throat,
and the one man in all the world who loved her as his
father's daughter, who had no guilt upon his own heart,
like so many of those who were clamouring for her
death, to steel his heart towards her, who could make

I567-]

LOCHLEVEiV CASTLE.

249

allowances only too great for the temptations by which
she had been swept away.

1 Plainly without disguising he did discover unto
her all his opinions of her misgovemment, and laid
before her all such disorders as might either touch her
conscience, her honour, or her surety.' ' He behaved
himself rather like a ghostly father unto her than like
a councillor/ and she for the time was touched or
seemed to be touched. Her letters had betrayed ' the
inmost part of her ' too desperately for denial. * Some-
times/ says Throgmorton, ' she wept bitterly ; some-
times she acknowledged her unadvisedness ; some
things she did confess plainly ; some things she did
excuse, some things she did extenuate/ l What
Throgmorton could not venture to report more plainly
to Elizabeth, Lady Lennox added to the Spanish
ambassador : — ' The Queen of Scots admitted to her
brother that she knew the conspiracy for her husband's
murder.' a

He left her for the night, ' in hope of nothing but
God's mercy, willing her to seek to that as her chiefcst
refuge/ Another interview in the morning ended less
painfully. It has pleased the apologists of the Queen
of Scots to pretend an entire acquaintance with Mur-
ray's motives ; to insist that he had intended to terrify

1 Throgmorton to Elizabeth, Au-
gust 20 : KEITH.

- ' Milady Margarita ma ha en-
viado adecir que luego que el Conde
du Murray llego ;i Escocia fu6 fc
hablar a la Reyna, la qual trato con

el de su deliberacion, encomcudan-
dole lo que toca §. su vida y nego-
cios ; y que la Reyna habia confesado
que supo el trato de la muerte de su
marido.' — De Silva to Philip, August
30 : JfSS. Simancas.

250 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

her, merely that she might again consent to make over
the government to him. How, in the sense of these
writers, the government of Scotland could have been
an object of desire either to Murray or to any man, is
less easy to explain. A less tempting prospect to per-
sonal ambition has been rarely offered — a Regency
without a revenue, over a country which was a moral,
social, and religious chaos. He had the certain hatred
of half the nobility before him if he allowed the Queen
to live ; the certain indignation and perhaps the open
hostility of Elizabeth if he accepted the government ;
the imminent risk of an early and violent death.
With these conditions before him, ambition, unless to
save his sister, or at his own deadly peril to bring his
country out of the anarchy in which it was weltering,
could have had but little influence with Murray, and am-
bition such as that does not compass its ends with baseness.
He had forced her to see both her ignominy and
her danger, but he would not leave her without some
words of consolation. He told her that he would assure
her life, and if possible he would shield her reputation,
and prevent the publication of her letters. Liberty she
could not have, neither would she do well at present
* for many respects ' to seek it. He did not wholly be-
lieve her professions of penitence : he warned her ' that
if she practised to disturb the peace of the realm, to
make a faction in it, to escape from Lochleven, or to
animate the Queen of England or the French King to
trouble the realm ; ' finally, ' if she persisted in her
affection for Bothwell,' — his power to protect her would

1567 ] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 251

be at an end. If, on the contrary, 'she would acknow-
ledge her faults to God ; if she would lament her sins
past, so as it might appear that she detested her former
life and intended a better conversation and a more
modest behaviour ; ' ' if she would make it evident that
she did abhor the murder of her husband, and did mis-
like her former life with Bothwell, and minded no re-
venge to the Lords and others who had sought her re-
formation/— all might yet be well, and she might hope
•eventually to recover her crown.

* She took him in her arms and kissed him.' They
spoke of the government : she knew that in his hands,
and his only, her life would be in no danger, and she
implored him not to refuse it. He told her distinctly
the many objections — he knew that it would be a post
of certain peril — but she pressed him, and he con-
sented. Then * giving orders for her gentle treatment
and all other good usage/ he took his leave, with new
fits of tears, kisses, and embraces.1

* Kisses and embraces ! ' and from that moment, as
Mary Stuart had hated Murray before, so thenceforth
she hated him with an intensity to which her past dis-
like was pale and colourless. He had held a mirror
before her in which she had seen herself in her true
depravity ; he had shown her that he knew her as she
was, and yet he spared her ; while she in turn played
upon his affections, despised him as imbecile, and the
injury of his kindness she never forgave.

Tbrogmorton to Elizabeth, August 20.

252 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 49.

Even in the eyes of men of the world his conduct
was profoundly imprudent.

'The Earl of Murray/ said James Melville, who
understood Mary Stuart as well as he, ' instead of com-
forting his sister, entered with her Majesty in re-
proaches, giving her such injurious language as was like
to break her heart : we who blamed him for this lost
his favour. The injuries were such as they cut the
thread of love betwixt the Queen and him for ever/ l

The men of the world would have killed her, or
made friends with her : had Murray been as they he
would have seen the force of the alternative, but he
would not have fulfilled his duty better as an affection-
ate brother or a Christian nobleman.

was to be Regent, and the Queen of

Scots' deposition wasjto be confirmed, with Elizabeth's
pleasure or without. The state of Scotland demanded
it — his sister's safety demanded it, fume or fret as sove-
reign princes might at the example. The theory that
when rulers misconducted themselves, subjects must
complain to God, and if God took no notice must sub-
mit as to a divine scourge, was to find no acceptance.
The study of the Old Testament had not led the Scots
to any such conception of what God required of them.
' The Lord Regent,' reported Throgmorton, three days
later, ' will go more stoutly to work than any man hath
done yet ; for he seeks to imitate rather some who have
led the people of Israel than any captain of our days.

1 Memoirs of Sir .fames Melville.

1567.] LOCHLEVEX C.iSTLE. 253

As I can learn, he mcancth to use no dallying, but
either he will have obedience to this young King of all
estates in this realm, or it shall cost him his life. He
is resolved to defend the Lords and gentlemen that have
taken this matter in hand, though all the princes in
Christendom would band against them/1

Thus the difficultiegjwhich Jay-bfifore^him were not
long in showing themselves. Since the Queen was to
TxTallowed to live, the Hamiltons and their friends con-
sidered that the}' would best consult their own interests
by holding aloof. Elizabeth, even before she heard that
he had made his decision, sent him word that she would
never recognize his government, and threatened him
with ' public ignominy.' *

To the Hamiltons he replied, ' that there should be
no subject nor place within the realm exempted from
the King's authority,' or from obedience to himself as
Regent there.3 To Elizabeth he said, that his course
' was now past deliberation/ and ' for ignominy and ca-
lumniation, he had no other defence but the goodness
of God, his upright conscience, and his intent to deal
sincerely in his office. If that would not serve he had
no more to say, for there was none other remedy but he
must go through with the matter.'4

Throgmorton asked him whether there was a hope
that the Queen would be released. He replied that as

1 Throgmorton to Cecil, August
20: MSS. Scotland.

2 Cecil to Throgmorton: Conway

3 Throgmorton to Elizabeth, Au-

gust 23.

Throgmorton to Cecil, Septem-

ber I : MUS. Scotland.

254 FEIGN OF ELIZABETH [CH. 49.

long as Bothwell was at large and unpunished, it could
not be spoken of, and ' they would not merchandise for
the bear's skin before they had caught the bear/ The
Queen's liberty would depend upon her own behaviour :
' if she digested the punishment of the murderer/ with-
out betraying ' any wrathful or revengeful mind/ and
if Elizabeth would seek the quiet of Scotland, and not
endeavour to trouble him ' by nourishing contrary fac-
tions/ the Lords would be more compliant than for the
present they were disposed to be.1 Meanwhile her life
and her reputation were for the present safe. The pub-
lication of the letters would, at any moment, serve as-
his complete defence against public censure ; he said
that he would forbear from using this advantage as
long as he was let alone ; but Murray, or Maitland for
him, warned the English ambassador that if Elizabeth
' made war upon them/ ' they would not lose their lives*
have their lands forfeited, and be reputed rebels
throughout the world, when they had the means ia
their hands to justify themselves, however sorry they
might be for it.'2

The gauntlet was thus thrown down to Elizabeth.
If she hesitated to take it up, and to send an army by
way of reply into Scotland, it was from no want of will
to punish the audacious subjects who had dared to de-
pose their sovereign. So angry was she that when
Cecil and his friends remonstrated with her, she re-
proached them with themselves meditating disloyalty ;

1 Throgmorton to Cecil, Septem- I 2 Throgmorton to Elizabeth, Au
ber i : MSS. Scotland. \ gust 22 : KEITH.

IS67-]

LOCHLLVEN CASTLE.

255

and those Ministers who had laboured for years in
drawing Scotland and England together, and smoothing
the way for a more intimate union, saw their exertions

fJJTe Q.iifipn'a thfinriftg nf tfr

nc.83 of prince&l To avoid forcing Murray upon
France, Cecil ventured to hint that she should receive
a minister at the Court from him. She told Cecil he
was a fool2 for suggesting anything ' so prejudicial to
the Queen/ and she sought a more congenial adviser in
de Silva ; who, however well he thought of Murray,
and whatever ill he knew of the Queen of Scots, was
too glad of an opportunity to encourage a quarrel
among Protestants.

4 The Queen/ de Silva wrote to Philip, ' assured me
that she not only meant to set the Queen of Scots at
liberty, but was determined to use all her power to
punish the Confederate Lords. She said she would send

1 ' The Queen's Majesty is in con-
tinual offence against all these Lords,
and we here cannot move her Ma-
jesty to mitigate it do what we can, |
or to move her to hide it more than
she doth. But surely the more we
deal in it the more danger some of
us find in her indignation ; and
specially in conceiving that we are
not dutifully minded to her Majesty
as our Sovereign ; and where such
thorns be, it is no quiet treading.
For howsoever her Majesty shall in
this cause (touching her so nearly as
it seemeth she conceiveth, though I
trust without any just cause) be
offended with my arguments, I will,

after my opinions declared, obey her
Majesty to do that which is my office.
Very sorry I am to behold the like-
lihood of the loss of the fruit of
seven or eight years' negotiations
with Scotland, and now to suffer a
divorce between this realm and tliat,
where neither of the countries shall
take either good or pleasure thereof.
If religion may remain, I trust the
divorce shall be rather in words and
terms than in hearts ; and of this
I have no great doubt.' — Cecil to
Throgmorton, August 20: Coittcay
MSS.

8 ' Noting in me no small folly.'
-Ibid.

256 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [01-1.49.

;some one to the King of France to tell him what she
was going to do, and to express her hope that other
Princes would stand by her ; especially, she told me,
she depended upon our Sovereign, the greatest of them
all, meaning by these words your Majesty. Your Ma-
jesty, she was confident, would not allow the French to
interfere in defence of the rebels.

' Every one/ I replied, ' would approve of such con-
duct on the part of her Highness in a just and honest
•cause. Your Majesty, I was quite sure, could be always
relied upon by your friends, and above all by her
Highness, to whom your Majesty had borne such pecu-
liar goodwill.

' She desired me not to repeat what she had said, for
there were persons about her who for their own pur-
pose did not agree with her views in the matter, and
she did not wish them to know what she was going to
•do. She had spoken to me because she counted on my
discretion, and because in all her communications with
me, she had found me the truest friend that she pos-
sessed.' l

As a step towards the intervention which she medi-
tated, she had again made secret advances to the Ha-
miltons. She was aware of the proposals with which
they had approached the Confederate Lords. She was
aware that they were Catholic and French, and that in
assisting them she was feeding the enemies of all which
her own Government had most carefully laboured to

1 De Silva to Philip, August — : MSS. Simancas.

1567.]

LOCHLEVEN CASTLE,

257

encourage. Yet if they would form * party for the.

Queen ami against Murray, other drawbacks were tri-
vial in comparison.

They, at all events, had no objection to receive
Elizabeth's money. Maitland said they would take it
and laugh at her. Throgmorton thought that anyhow
it would be utterly thrown away.1 But the Hamiltons
intimated as much readiness to meet her wishes as
would ensure her supplying them. They selected Lord
Herries, a smooth-tongued plausible person, to make
arrangements either with Elizabeth in person, if she
would allow him to come to London, or with any per-
son whom she would depute to meet him on the Bor-
ders.2

1 ' As to the Hamiltons and their
faction,' ' their conditions be such,
their behaviour so inordinate, the
most of them so unable, their Hying
so vicious, their fidelity so fickle,
their party so weak, as I count it
lost whatsoever is bestowed upon
them.' — Throgmorton to Cecil, Au-
gust 20 : MSS. Scotland.

* The Archbishop of St Andrews,
the Lords Fleming, Arbroath, and
Boyd to Throgmorton, August 19 :
MSS. Scotland.

As the name of Lord Herries will
occur frequently in the following
pages, the following account of him
will not be out of place : —

'The Lord Herries is the cunning
horseleech and the wisest of the
whole faction, but, as the Queen of
Scotland saith, there is no one can
be sure of him. He taketh pleasure I
VOL. via.

to bear all the world in hand. Here
among his own countrymen he is
noted to be the most cautelous man
of his nation. It may like you to
remember that he suffered his own
hostages, the hostages of the Lairds
of Lochinvar and Garlics, his next
neighbours, to be hanged for pro-
mises broken by him. Thus much
I speak because he is the likeliest
and the most dangerous man to en-
chant you.' — Throgmorton to Cecil,
August 20.

Bedford's opinion was much the
same : —

'I hear,' he wrote, 'that the Lord
Herries desireth to come up to the
Queen's Majesty. He is the subtlest
and falsest man for practice that is
in Scotland.' — Bedford to Cecil, Au-
gust—: Border MS S.

238

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 49.

September.

She was prudent enough to refrain from receiving
him herself, and she commissioned Lord Scrope, the
governor of Carlisle, who was more than half a Catholic,
to represent her. She sent Herries 3000 marks,1 and,
both through Scrope and Throgmorton, she gave the
Hamiltons to understand that ' she allowed their pro-
ceedings ' in resisting Murray, and would uphold them
to the utmost of her power.

Mary Stuart's misdoings, however, were_too recent
to allow a party as yet to form itself which could openly
take the field in her cause. Elizabeth would have lighted
up a civil war if she could. The Hamiltons, Argyle,
Huntly, Fleming, and several other noblemen,
met at Glasgow at the beginning of Septem-
ber, to consider what could be done ; but ' the more
they disputed the greater difficulty they found/ 2 Ar-
gyle was offered the lieutenancy of the federation, but
he refused, and, with Gawen Hamilton and Lord Boyd,
' made his peace ' with Murray. Herries told Scrope,
that ' he could not be sure of four persons besides him-
self to stand firmly on the Queen's side/ 3 The oppor-
tunity was gone, he said, or was not yet come. On re-
turning from the Borders he followed the example of
his friends, and on the I5th of September, Murray was
able to tell the English ambassador, not without some
irony, ' that the noblemen who had stood out had all at
last submitted ; so that he praised God there appeared
no break in the whole wall/

1 Sir James Melville to Throg-
morton, September 10 : MSS. Scot-
land.

2 Ibid.

3 Scrope to Cecil, September 12:
Border MSS.

1567-] LOCHLEVKN CASTLE. 259

Elizabeth could but digest her disappointment and
the loss of her money as best she could. She of course
recalled her Minister. De Lignerolles had returned to
Paris loaded with presents. Throgmorton took his
leave, happy only in his ill-success, and was allowed to
accept nothing. In obedience to orders, when offered
the usual compliments, he said 'that he would take
anything which the Queen of Scotland might be pleased
to give him ; he could receive no present from a King
who had attained that honour by injuring his mother/
He was told briefly that ' such expressions did but breed
contention to no purpose. He had better say no more
and go his way/ 1

The administrative relations between the two coun-
tries were left in confusion. Bedford was forbidden to
recognize the commissions of the Scottish wardens—
running as they did in James's name — and had to
manage the Borders as he could. Scrope, at Elizabeth's
secret command, continued to correspond with Herries,
and Herries, who was on the point of leaving Scotland
and giving up the game, consented to remain. The
Hamiltons professed to have yielded from an inability
to believe that the English Government could seriously
pursue a policy so contrary to English interests. Could
they be assured ' that her Grace would enter into the
matter,' they promised to hold themselves in readiness,
watch their opportunities, and endeavour to the best of
thoir ability to carry out her wishes.

1 Thrn^morton to Cecil, September — : MSS. Scotland

26o REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

So were the seeds sown of those miserable feuds,
which for five years harassed the hearths and homes of
Scotland — which made for ever impossible that more
temperate spirit, which but for this might have softened
the rigours of Calvinism — which caused the eventual
ruin of the person whose interests Elizabeth was intend-
ing to serve, by tempting her to take refuge in the do-
minions of a sovereign who was so persistently pretend-
ing to be her friend.

Meanwhile the Regent was left with a few months of
quiet, to show the world the happier fate which might
have been in store for Scotland, had Cecil's counsels
and Bedford's stormy protests found a listener in their
Queen.

Tullibardine and Kirkaldy of Grange set out in pur-
suit of Both well, who when the country began to settle
had fled from Dunbar to his dukedom in the Orkneys,
and was there leading the wild life of a pirate chieftain.
Being warned of their coming, he crossed to the Shet-
lands, and there, among the narrow channels and inlets,
he was at his last shift, when Grange's ship, in hot pur-
suit of him, ran upon a rock. Grange sprang into a
boat to continue the chase, but the vessel was sinking,
and he could not leave his crew to drown. The occasion
of so much confusion and misery made his way to Den-
mark, where the King long protected him in expecta-
tion that Mary Stuart would be restored, and afterwards
threw him into prison, where hediedy His pursuers
returned to Leith, having missed their principal prey,
but having taken many of his followers, among others

1567.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 261

the young Laird of Tallo, who, with Hepburn, fired the
train in the house at Kirk o' Field. The
Regent set himself to the solid work of restor-
ing the majesty of justice and extinguishing the anarchy
which was reducing the noble kingdom of the Stuarts to
a second Ireland. The first sufferers were the Border
thieves, who had given so much trouble to the English
wardens. Stooping down unexpectedly 'on market
day ' at Ha wick, he seized six-and- thirty of them, hot-
handed in their iniquities. Thirteen were promptly
hanged, nine with stones about their necks were sent
to the bottom of the nearest pool ; fourteen were taken
off to Edinburgh, and for some months at least the
peaceful traders could carry a full purse through Lid-
disdale.1

Elizabeth oniier side hod her hands full of vexa-
tions and troubles of another sort, which explain if they
do not excuse her violence and perverseness. The
powerful party which, in Parliament and out of it, had
so long advocated the Queen of Scots' succession, though
disorganized by Dar nicy's death, had not been de-
stroyed. The Queen of Scots' participation in the
murder was known as yet only through rumour, and
the many Catholics who had so long looked upon her as
thrir one stay and hope, could not easily part with so
dour an expectation. The Confederate Lords had from
the first determined if they spared her life to respect
her reputation, and beyond the circle of those who were

1 Sir William Drury to Cecil, November 3 : MSS. Scotland.

262

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 49.

admitted to state secrets, men affirmed her guilt or
denied it according to the complexion of their creed.
While the attitude which would be assumed by Eliza-
beth was yet uncertain, the Archbishop of Glasgow had
been able to tell Don Francis de Alava, that if the
Queen of England supported the Lords, she would have
a war upon her hands at home with which all the world
would ring ; l and all over the northern counties dis-
guised priests were gliding from house to house, ' under
colour of religion/ . pouring out eloquent sentiment
about the lost faith of their fathers ; already represent-
ing the Lochleven prisoner as a suffering saint ; and
' by their lewd practices ' * seducing good subjects
through their own simplicity into error and disloyalty/2
Nor as yet was the Established Church successful in
gaining the allegiance of the country generally. While
the Catholics were encroaching on one side of the Via
Media, the Puritans were denouncing it upon the other.
The prosecutions of the London clergy had hardened
the sufferers and multiplied their followers, and the
Bishops were denounced as ' imps of Antichrist, with
whom it was sinful to hold communion/ The clergy
were generally taking wives, and the Queen, as little

1 Alava to Philip, July 26 : TEU-
LET, vol. v.

2 The Queen to the Bishop of
Chester, February 3, 1568 ; The
Queen to the Earl of Derby, Feb-
ruary 3 ; The Queen to the Sheriff
of Lancashire, February 21 : Do-
mestic MSS. Rolls House. Among

the persons named as 'busy' in these
doings were Allen, afterwards Car-
dinal, Vance, ex-warden of Winches-
ter, Murray who had been chaplain
to Bonner, Marshal late Dean of
Christ Church, Hargrave late vicar
of Blackbourne, and ' one Norris
terming himself a physician.'

1567-8.]

CASTLE.

263

as ever able to reconcile herself to it, caught eagerly at
every scandalous report, true or false, which was brought
to her.1

The Church of England as by law constituted gave
no pleasure to the earnest of any way of thinking. To
the ultra- Protestants it was no better than Romanism \
to the Catholics or partial Catholics it was in schism
from the communion of Christendom ; while the great
middle party, the common sense of the country, of whom
Elizabeth was the representative, were uneasy and dis-
satisfied. They could see in the new constitution no
defined principle which had borne the test of time, and
they were watching, with an anxiety which they did not
care to conceal, both the extravagances of the Protestant
refugees from the Continent, with whom London was
swarming, and the recovering energy of the Catholic
Powers abroad. In Spain and Italy the faint begin-
nings of the Reformation had been trampled out. Ger-
many was torpid. In France, though there was a mo-

1 Beans and canons were the most
guilty in the Queen's eyes. She
had endeavoured to preserve at least
these as types of the true spiritual
order; and in some instances they
had misappropriated the property of
the Church to the use of their fami-
lies. A charge of this kind had been
brought against the Dean and Chap-
ters of Canterbury, and had par-
ticularly exasperated her. It was
perhaps exaggerated. Parker writes
on the 1 2th of August, '1 have in-
formation from Canterbury church
of the Dean there, of whom so great

information was made that he had
sold and divided such a huge quan-
tity of plate and vestry ornaments
that it is no marvel though Pope
Hildeband's spirit walketh furious-
ly abroad to slander the poor mar-
ried estate. Credit is so ready to
believe the worst. Sed qui habitat
in cujlis irridebit eos. The broken
plate and bullion found in the church
he, with consent of all the chapter,
converted to the church uses only. —
Parker to Cecil, August 12, 1567:
Domestic MSS.

264 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 49-

meiitary lull in the struggle, and the Court were in-
clining to the Huguenots, yet there was no sign as yet
of the growth of any strong national feeling which
would hold in check the violence of the two factions.
Two deadly enemies who had tried each other's strength
were watching an opportunity to renew the conflict at
advantage with a hate which was deepening every
hour. Of the Netherlands the condition will be de-
scribed hereafter more particularly. It is enough to say
that the Crown of Spain and the popular leaders had
come at last to an open breach. At the time that Mary
Stuart was taken prisoner at Carberry Hill the Duke of
Alva was bringing a Spanish army to Brussels to over-
whelm liberty and heresy in a common destruction, and
Philip the Second was expected there in the autumn to
superintend the consummation in person.

It was easy to foresee the effect which would be pro-
duced upon the English Catholics by the presence, in
their immediate neighbourhood, of the Spanish Sove-
reign, once England's titular King, to whom they had
so long looked for guidance and help, at the head of a
large body of victorious troops — absolutely victorious,
as it was assumed they must be in the unequal struggle
which was before them.1 It seemed but too likely that

1 The excitement was naturally
greatest in the North. On the 2oth
of December a letter to Lord Pem-
broke says: ' I hear by Mr Garrard,
the recorder of Chester, that there
is in Lancashire a great number of
gentlemen and others of the best sort
— it is reputed 500— that have taken

a solemn oath among themselves
that they will not come at the com-
munion nor receive the sacrament
during the Queen's Majesty's reign,
whom God long preserve, besides
other matters concluded amongst
them not certainly known but only
to themselves. Whatever the matter

1567-8-] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 265

England would drift into the condition of France, and
that, in spite of the efforts of the Government, a war of
creeds was at no great distance.

Amidst so many elements of disquiet, all parties in
Elizabeth's Council — Cecil as well as the Duke of Nor-
folk, Sir Francis Knowles as well as Arundel and Sussex
— turned their minds again to devise means by which
the foreign relations of the country could be re-estab-
lished, and one chief cause of dissatisfaction be removed
at home. The Queen's marriage question had now for
some time been allowed to sleep. The Queen of Scots'
succession had come gradually to be looked upon as a
certainty. The Catholics had set their hearts upon it
as the term of their own sufferings. The political ad-
vantages contingent upon the union of the crowns had
reconciled the body of the nation to the prospect of a
stranger, and Elizabeth's own inclinations had long
pointed in the same direction. The murder of Darnley
had revived the old uncertainties. Even men like
Arundel and Norfolk had not as yet recovered suffi-
ciently from the shock of that transaction to contem-
plate Mary Stuart's accession as any longer a possibility,
and once more it became necessary to reopen the weary
grievance.

While Leicester had not even yet wholly abandoned
hopes,1 the council had gone back to Charles of Austria,

be, they seem to rejoice greatly at I out of Lutherans and heretics as
the report of the King coming — as if 1 they term who please them.' — R.
they should thereby be made able j Hurleston to the Earl of Pembroke,
to take order for the setting up of | December 20 ; Domestic MSS.
their Popish kingdom, and rooting | l In April the lovers were com-

266 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. (011.49.

the alliance which every day made more desirable for a
sovereign in Elizabeth's position. Married to Charles
she would be at once out of danger from Spain.

The Archduke at the Court of his father and brother
had learned the principles of moderation, which the
necessities of their position imposed upon the Emperors
of Germany. Himself a Catholic, he had learned to
tolerate without difficulty the Lutheranism of the Augs-
burg Confession, and the efforts, both of the Queen
and the higher classes in England, were to keep the
Church as near as possible to the Augsburg theology,
and to steer it clear of the Genevan channel into which
the more earnest Reformers were rapidly setting. Hav-
ing been trifled with for seven years, the Emperor could
not have been expected to make further advances. If
the subject was to be re-opened, the initiative might
naturally have been taken by England. But the Eng-
lish Ministers could not obtain permission from Eliza-
beth to do more than indicate that if Maximilian would
begin she would not again disappoint him. Maximilian
made slight informal overtures, and in May Lord
Sussex was chosen to go to Yienna to carry the Garter
to the Emperor, and arrange, if possible, the conditions
of the marriage.

nmnicating with ' tokens,' and ' meta- | commended the manner of his writ-

phors.' Leicester had complained
of Elizabeth's ' extreme rigour.'
Elizabeth had called him ' a came-
leon which changed into all colours
save innocency.' * At the sight of
his cypher, the Black Heart, she had
shown sundry affections.' ' She had

ing,' perhaps as Olivia commended
Malvolio's yellow stockings ; with
much else of a half-serious, half-
mocking kind ; which Leicester's
friends watched anxiously, and sent
him daily reports of. — Throgmorton
to Leicester, May 9 : Domestic MSS.

1567-8.]

CASTLE.

267

Very reluctantly Elizabeth had been brought so far
upon the way. A month elapsed before she could re-
solve on the form ot'Su^i -\'> instructions, and almost a
second before she could allow him to set out. At last,
in the middle of July, while the Queen of Scots was in
so much danger at Lochleven, she permitted him to go,
and on the 9th of August he was at Vienna.

This time she was supposed to be serious. So agi-
tilted was Catherine cle Medici, that she at once renewed
her offer of Charles IX., and even proposed to restore
Calais if she would take her son. Elizabeth said briefly
she could not make herself ridiculous,1 and she alarmed
Catherine still more by her unusual decision.

The history of this last earnest effort to bring about
the Austrian marriage throws so sharp a light into the
undercurrents of English feeling, that it is worth while
to follow it closely.

The first point in the instructions which Sussex at.
last received was on his behaviour at the presentation of
the Garter. Those high ceremonies were always ac-
companied with a religious service. Sussex was for-
bidden to be present at mass, but he was to suggest that
the investiture should take place in the afternoon ; and
he might attend vespers ' with safety to his conscience/
Making the best excuses which he could for Elizabeth's
past treatment of the Archduke, he was then to say when
he opened his commission, that —

1 ' Le otfrecieron -a Calais si se hici-
cse L-l inatrimonio. La Reyna dix6 que
no da' a lugar a que el mundo vea

una comedia tan graciosa eomo mm
vieja y uu nino a la puerta de la
Iglesia,' — De Silva to Philip, July 9.

268 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

c Whatever might by report or otherwise come to his
Majesty's ears to the contrary, the Queen was still free
to marry whenever God should move her ; and although
she had been for many years of mind not to enter into
marriage, yet the great necessity which her subjects
laid upon her had brought her, contrary to her natural
inclination, to give ear to the Emperor's motion/ Other
proposals had been made to her, but she had ever pre-
ferred the Archduke to her other suitors, and she now
trusted that, if certain difficulties could be overcome, the
marriage might be finally concluded. The Emperor
had intimated that his brother would expect permission
to have Catholic service in his household. ' Many incon-
veniences had happened in other countries from main-
taining contrariety of religion/ and in England, though
*,here had been many changes, ' there was never allowed
any contrariety therein at one time.' ' England differed
in that from all other States, that it could not suffer
those diversities of religion which others were seen to
do/ It was to be hoped therefore that the Archduke
would be content with the English Liturgy. There
was nothing in it which was not in Scripture, and no
one calling himself a Christian need dislike any part of
it. He and every man might think what they pleased.
'The law touched no man's conscience, so as public
order was not violated by external act or teaching/
The country had been so far peaceably governed under
this system, and it could not be altered.

So reasonable this view of the matter appeared to
Elizabeth, that she did not anticipate the possibility of

1567.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 269

a difficulty being made about it, unless the negotiations
should come to nothing on other grounds. The Arch-
duke had been himself heard to say, 'alleging what
troubles might come of diversities of religion, that he
would not only forbear to hear mass in England, but
would adventure his blood upon any that should move
disturbance in the realm upon that occasion.' ' At all
events/ the Queen said, ' it would touch her reputation
to change her laws for a marriage, and the example
would breed more trouble than could well be remedied/
The Archduke had better come to England and see,
and be seen ; and Sussex was directed ' to use private
persuasions ' to induce him to return with the embassy.

The religious difficulty was in reality nothing but aa
excuse. Elizabeth however pretended to be sincerely
anxious that the treaty should go forward, and the ob-
jection to allowing a Catholic service was so far well
grounded, that the Spanish ambassador had declared
again and again that the first mass said publicly in
England would be a signal for a general insurrection.
And it is clear that what Elizabeth said was not re-
garded as in any sense fatally conclusive. Whether
the Archduke had or had not used the words imputed
to him, he at least paused to consider. Eventually,
neither he nor the Emperor would undertake the re-
sponsibility of a decision till they had sent to consult
Philip.

While a messenger therefore was despatched to
Spain, Sussex remained in state at Vienna, ' f ed evt-rv
day with spiced dishes from the Imperial table,' and

270 REIGK OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

( dainty fruits from the gardens at Schonbrunn.' It
was not till the 24th of October that the Austrian Go-
vernment— in possession at last of Philip's views — were
in a position to enter upon the question.

Maximilian declined to interfere, and left

^ ovember.

the decision to his brother. The Archduke
insisted at once that he could not go to England to be
looked at, and then if the Queen did not like him, to
find himself cast aside on the pretext of religion. He
was afraid that religion would be made use of to cover
less producible objections, and insisted on seeing his
way clearly before going further. Sussex said, ' that
although he had not her Majesty's eyes, whereby he
might judge of features that would best like her, he
felt assured that she would find no just cause to satisfy
the world why she should after sight mislike him.'
But the Archduke had been long trifled with. He chose
to know where he was standing, and if he went to Eng-
land, Elizabeth should either accept him or be forced
into the discourtesy of passing a personal slight upon
the Imperial House. He said he would not give up his
religion, but he was willing to abandon the open pro-
fession of it. He must hear mass, but it should be
either privately in his room, or anywhere that the
Queen might choose to appoint, and the world should
know nothing of it. This was his only condition. If it
were conceded, he would accompany the embassy to the
English Court.

Lord Sussex, who believed the marriage indispens-
able to Elizabeth's safety, reported the Archduke's

1567.] LOCHLEVEK CASTLE. 271

words, and added a hope that before she decided, ' God
would send her Majesty good advice/ If her consent
would be dangerous to the Reformed faith, if public
scandal were likely to arise from it, no true friend to
England, he said, would advise her to yield. If the
real objections were taken away by the secrecy, and
there remained only 'an imaginary danger, not grounded
upon reason/ then ' he that should dissuade her from an
alliance which alone could defend her from many cer-
tain perils, would do an ill deed towards God, her
Majesty, and the Realm.' l

So Sussex wrote to the Queen. With Cecil he was
more explicit. The Archduke, he said, would allow no
Ki i irishman to attend the Catholic service or know that
it existed. He promised ' to be advised by the Queen
if public offence should grow of it.' He would himself
accompany her Majesty to the services of the Estab-
lished Church ; and he stipulated only that if he went
to England, and if on seeing him she disliked his per-
son, she should not betray the engagements which he
had offered to make. Sussex pointed out to Cecil what
Cecil knew as well as he — the pleasure which the mar-
riage would give throughout England ; the hope of
issue, ' with the avoiding of bloodshed in a disputed
succession ; ' the security to the Queen's throne ; the
advantages to herself ' of the companionship of a virtu-
ous Prince ; ' ' the satisfaction of the nobility ; ' the
prospects which it would bring with it of universal

1 Smsox to Elizabeth, October 24 : MSS. Germany, Roll* House.

272 REIGN OF ELIZABETH, [CH. 49.

peace in Europe ; tlie probability of the Prince's con-
version, and the effect which that conversion would
produce on the spread of the Gospel.

1 Without it/ he concluded — and his words are most
significant, — ' I foresee discontent, disunion, bloodshed
of her people — perhaps in her own time, for this cause,
and the ruin of the realm in the end ; which bloody
time threateneth little respect of religion, but much
malice and revenge for private ambition on all sides ;
which many by wilful blindness for other respects will
not see, and yet put on spectacles to search a scruple
under colour of religion/1

No words could have expressed more clearly the
conviction which was forcing itself upon Elizabeth's
statesmen, that the quiet which she had hitherto en-
joyed was not to last much longer, and that some
dangerous convulsion or other was fast approaching.
The disasters of the Queen of Scots were hastening the
crisis. The Catholics had been patient in the expecta~
tion of the Scottish succession. Their cause was gain-
ing ground everywhere in Europe. They had them-
selves been recruiting their numbers and recovering
strength and confidence through the fear or the reluct-
ance of the Queen, to allow the laws to be enforced against
them. They would not sit still under their disappoint-
ment, and if the succession question was to remain an
open sore, they would be drawn into intrigue, con-
spiracy, and rebellion. In his concluding words, Sus-

1 Sussex to Cecil, October 27 : MSS. Germany, Jfolls House.

IS67.]

LOCHLEVEN CASTLE.

273

sex evidently referred to Elizabeth's evil genius, the
Earl of Leicester, who, when it served his turn, had been
ready to swear by Philip and the council of Trent, and
who now, it seemed, had changed colours. In resent-
ment at the determined hostility of the Catholic noble-
men, Leicester had gone over to the Puritans, carrying
or seeming to carry the Earl of Pembroke along with
him.1 Caring only for his own miserable self, he had
divided the council upon the . marriage with the cry of
' Popery ; ' frightened the bishops ; and set on Jewel to
stir the passions of the London mob.8

A Protestant panic was systematically kindled. The
deposed Catholic prelates were placed in straiter con-
finement.3 Suspected houses in London were searched,
and strangers found there were made to give account of

1 ' Lo que mas aprieta los Catoli-
cos cs ver que el Condc de Leicester
se ha mucho confirmado en la here-
gia ; y que le sigue el Cunde de Pem-
broke a quien ban tenido por Ca-
tolico.'— De Silva to Pbilip, De-
cember i : MSS. Simanau.

2 For the news which I know
you are most anxious to hear of —
which is of the Duke Charles, and
of my Lord of Sussex's proceedings
therein, there is and hath been such
working to overthrow that, as the
like hath not been — which is pitiful
to hear of. The council here at
this present are in manner divided
touching the same, and it is made a
matter of religion, and they say they
do it for conscience' sake. But God
knciwcth what conscience is in them
which go about to hinder it. My

TOI. VIII.

Lord of Leicester, my Lord Steward
(Pembroke), my Lord Marquis (of
Northampton), and the Vice Cham-
berlain (Sir T. Heneage), be against
his coming in My Lord Cham-
berlain (Lord Howard of Effingham),
my Lord Admiral (Lord Clinton),
Mr Secretary (Cecil), and Mr Con-
troller (Sir James Crofts), do wish his
coming in. Whereupon Jewel made
a sermon at Paul's Cross upon Sun-
day was sennight, his theme being —
' Cursed be he that goeth about to
build again the walls of Jericho ' —
meaning thereby the bringing in of
any doctrine contrary to this.' — Sir
G. S. to the Earl of Derby : Dome*tu
MSS. Rolls Howe.

4 De Silva to Philip, November
I : MSS. Simancas.

274

RF.IGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

themselves and their religion. English Catholics, who
had attended mass at the Spanish ambassador's chapel,
were arrested and imprisoned.1 De Silva himself was
supposed to have a concealed band of two thousand
assassins ready to take arms. The judges were called
before the Star Chamber, and ordered to enforce the
laws against all persons found possessed of books of
Romish theology. Magistrates, und all other officials,
were summoned to the bishops' courts, and offered the
oath of allegiance ; and steps were taken to eject per-
sons suspected of holding Catholic opinions out of the
Royal household. Elizabeth remained passive. The
excitement might be useful to her if she were to decide
on rejecting the Archduke. When de Silva complained,
she professed ignorance of what was going on, and pro-
mised to put a stop to it ; but nothing was done, and
she was so suspicious and sensitive, that he scarcely
dared approach the subject with her.

The irritation was at its height, when a report was
spread that Philip had sailed for the Low Countries,
that he was coming to England by the way, and might
any day arrive at Portsmouth. What it meant none
could tell. Lord Montague was directed to hold him-
self in readiness ' to wait on the King ' with all com-
modity for his refreshing, and Sir Adrian Poynings was
sent down with troops to be ready ' for all events.'2

1 De Silva to Philip, December
I : MSS. Sitnancas.

2 ' The King of Spain on his way
to the Low Countries may pass
through the narrow seas and per-

haps touch at Portsmouth* — and
because that town is a town of for-
tifications, and not so furnished with
men as this case happening were
meet and convenient for all events,

1567.]

LOCHLEVEtf CASTLE.

The possibility of such a visit had been forest* -n a-
curly as August. The beacons \\viv trimmed, the coasts
were armed, and corps of matchlock volunteers had
been tunned along the Channel shores, with privileges
and exemptions, and prizes to encourage them to prac-
tise shooting.1

Many of these precautions, as wise in themselves,
\VCTO encouraged by Cecil — yet he exerted himself none

three hundred men to be well sorted
uud appointed to attend upon Sir
Adrian Poynings, and be disposed in
places near about the town where
they may be in readiness to be
speedily sent for and used as the
said captain shall think meet.' —
Directions to Sir Adrian Poynings,
August 27 : Domestic MSS.

1 ' In the port towns along the
south and west from Newcastle to
Plymouth a corps to bo formed of
4000 harquebuss-men, to be taken
from the artificers of each town, be-
tween the ages of 18 and 30, to be
duly exercised and held ready for
service when called upon. Every
member of the corps to receive four
pounds a year — out of the which at
his own cost to provide a morion, a
good substantial harqucbuss, with a
compass stock of such bore that every
three shots may weigh one ounce ;
flask, touch-box, sword and dagger
— a jerkin of cloth, open at the sides
and sleeves, with a hood of the same
cloth fastened to (he collar of the
same jerkin.

'The Queen to provide ammu-
nition.

1 For the better alluring of men
to the service, the persons joining to
have certain immunities, estimations,
and liberties '—as * to be called har-
quebuss-men of the Crown— to wear
a scutcheon of silver with a harquc-
buss under a crown, and to be
promised preferment in garrisons
royal as places should fall vacant ;
to be free of the towns where they
dwell ; to pay no tenths, fifteenths,
nor subsidies; to be free from all
town rates and from muster-rolls
except their own ; to have liberty to
shoot at certain fowl, with respect of
time and place, and without hail shot.
The magistrates to provide each year
public games of shooting ; the bes*
prizes to be of twenty shillings at
least, the second fifteen shillings,
and every man's adventure to be bat
sixpence.

* An old soldier in every town to
be sergeant. The use ftf the bow to
be continued in villages— and plea-
sant means to be used to draw the
youth thereunto.' — Order for the en-
couragement of harquebus* - men,
November 3, 1567: Jhmeetic J/o-b
Rolls Howie.

2 76 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

the less to thwart the unexpressed purpose for which
the panic was excited. True to the original principles
of Henry VIII /s reformation, the main body of the
English nation had no sympathy with revolutionary
fanaticism. They adhered to the political traditions,
and the alliance with Spain. They looked coldly on
the Huguenots ; coldly on ' the beggars ' of Flanders
who had risen in arms to shake off the Inquisition.
Genevan Protestantism was not to be established in
England without a civil war ; and Cecil, good reformer
as he was, was a better Englishman. When the Arch-
duke's proposals arrived, the advocates of the marriage
all considered that he had asked for nothing which
ought not to be granted to him. ' My goodwill to the
match '— -the Duke of Norfolk wrote to Cecil on the I5th
of November — ' remains as firm as ever it was, and by
the reasonable demand of the Archduke is more in-
creased. There is no prince of his calling, of his un-
derstanding, that would of himself, by advice, yield
further upon uncertainty than as I think by his offer
he doth. If it were granted in the form that he re-
quires it, I see not that any so great hurt shall grow
thereby, as we are sure the whole realm is like to incur
if her Majesty's marriage with this Prince, in whom
our whole hope consists, should break off, and thereby
leave the whole realm desperate both of marriage and
succession — the danger whereof you and I, as also the
well-wishers both to her Majesty and the realm, did so
lately see and fear. If the matter may come to in-
different hearing, there will be as earnest Protestants

1567.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 277

that will maintain it, making not religion a cloke for
every shower, as the other, perhaps for private practices
naming one thing or minding another, will show rea-
son to overthow it.*1

' The private practices ' unfortunately had a formi-
dable advocate in Elizabeth herself. Elizabeth was
never so good a Protestant as when religious zeal could
save her from marriage, and Leicester's suit was never
listened to more favourably than when his pretensions
might serve to interrupt another man's. Four weeks
of irresolution intervened before she would decide what
to say. The influences which were brought to bear
upon her can be gathered only from the anxieties of the
Archduke's supporters, who saw their hopes failing
them.

A second mysterious letter of the Duke's, on the
24th, implies certainly that Leicester was being too suc-
cessful. ' If matters being hot be so soon cooled,' he
said, ' I pray God there grow no danger to them that
you and I have much care of. I like not the practices
that now so fast work. My ears have glowed to hear
that I have heard within these two days concerning
nuptial devices. First they mind to fight with their
malicious tongues, and afterwards I warrant they will
not spare weapons if they may.'2

Bad news too had been sent by Cecil to Vienna. ' If
Protestants be but Protestants,' wrote Sussex in reply,
1 1 mistrust not a good resolution. If some Protestants

1 The Duke of Norfolk to Cecil, I - Norfolk to Cecil, November 24:
November 15 : Domestic MSS. \ MSS. Ibid.

278 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49-

have a second interest which they cloke with religion,
and place he given to their council, God defend the
Queen's Majesty with His mighty hand, and dispose of
us all at His pleasure. It seemeth to me good reason
and council that the Queen's Majesty should look to
her own surety. God, if he have not forsaken us, will
direct all to the best, and send her good council herein.
And if He have forsaken us and will suffer our ruin, as
I have done my best to procure the Queen's Majesty's
marriage in this place, for conscience' sake — only, I
take God to record, to defend her from peril — so if by
the breach thereof her peril grow, I will end as I have
begun, and spend my life in her defence how soon so-
ever I be driven thereunto.' l

Elizabeth, in resisting the importunacy of her early
Parliaments on the subject of her marriage, had ad-
mitted that circumstances might occur which would
require so great sacrifice at her hands. If it pre-
sented itself in the form of a duty, she had intimated
that she would not then be found wanting in fulfilling
her obligations to her subjects. That time had come —
if ever it was to come. The wisest of her advisers
were now making a final effort to prevent the imminent
collision of parties and principles, certain to take place
if she died — but too likely in her own lifetime, unless
something was done to give hope of an undisputed
succession. They failed ; for what reason curiosity may
speculate. ' The hearts of princes are unsearchable/

1 Sussex to Cecil, December 19 : MSS. Germany y Rolls

I567.]

LOCHLEVEX CASTLE.

279

and the heart of Elizabeth was more intricate than
those of most of her order. She hoped to conciliate the
Catholics by playing tricks in Scotland, and to make
her own sovereign person sacred in their eyes by declaring
herself the champion of Mary Stuart ; l and the result
was a chain of conspiracies in which she was the per-
petual mark for assassination.

With the Archduke she was in her old difficulty.
She knew that she ought to accept him. While the
sacrifice was distant, she believed herself capable of
making it ; as it drew nearer, her constitutional dislike
of marriage, and the excellences of the adored Leices-
ter, unnerved her resolution. The letters of Sussex
\\i-iv in London on the loth of November;
on the nth of December Elizabeth collected
herself to reply.

She had grave doubts, she said, whether the mass
was not an offence against God. She could not go
against her conscience, and even could she be satisfied

1 'Archbishop Parker extracted
out of his two Catholic prisoners Dr
Boxall and Thirlby, the ex-bishop
of Ely, a general condemnation of
rebellion under all circumstances,
except the one which the Arch-
bishop forgot to mention— when the
prince to be resisted was excom-
municated by the Pope. Parker in-
vited them to dinner, and asked them
afterwards to give their opinion
whether subjects were justified, un-
der any circumstances, in taking
arms against their sovereign. Of
course they gave the answers which

were expected of them. The Apos-
tles, they said, had always obeyed
the Roman Emperors, and no Christ*
ians except such wicked heretics as
Calvin, had held any other view
about it.'— De Silva to Philip, No-
vember i, 1567. The Catholic doc-
trine on the subject was an ex-
tremely convenient one. When a
sovereign was deposed by the Pope,
he ceased to be a sovereign. But the
Bishop of Ely had forgotten that
responsibility of princes to their
subjects had been preached in the
broadest sense by Reginald Pole.

2.8o REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

that there would be no sin in complying, the political
objections seemed unsurmountable. Secrecy was im-
possible; at all events she could not consent without
consulting the Peers. ( God had so far prospered her
by keeping England in peace, while Scotland, France,
and Flanders were torn by war ; and she minded still
to please Him by continuing her whole realm in one
manner of religion/ At the same time she was ex-
tremely anxious that the treaty should not be broken
off : she could not concede the point in the form in
which it had been placed before her ; but ' it might be
otherwise qualified with circumstances to avoid the
danger/ If the Archduke could be induced to come
over, the question could be settled in a few words. She
desired Sussex to assure the Emperor how much she
valued his friendship. If the one difficulty could be
overcome, 'she declared that she so entertained the
marriage that nothing else could stop it, God Almighty
assisting the same : ' and at all events, the Archduke
for the time of his stay in England ' should have the
free exercise of his religion in such convenient form as
he required/ *

It seems that this last most reasonable condition
had been distinctly insisted upon by Philip : without it
the Archduke could not possibly comply with the
Queen's invitation. Had he received the promise given
in these distinct words, he would in a few hours have
been on his way to England ; and had he once arrived,

1 Elizabeth to Sussex, December j i : MSS. Germany.

1567.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 281

Elizabeth would have found it extremely difficult to
escape from the marriage. She possibly felt this ; for
before the courier could leave, she had introduced a
qualifying clause into the letter which at once destroyed
the confidence that her language otherwise would have
reasonably created. Her suitor was to be allowed the
use of his religion only ' so far as should be found
possible.1

The Archduke on receiving this message replied at
once that he could not stir without a distinct engage-
ment. Sussex employed all his eloquence to remove his
scruples. He said that there were so many people at homo
who were interested in preventing the marriage, that if
he stood out he would give them a formidable advant-
age. If the Archduke would only accompany him
everything would be done which he desired, and all
objections would be removed. Lord Sussex insisted
that he was too good a friend to the House of Austria
to mislead him on such a point, or affect more certainty
than he felt. But the Archduke was peremptory. If
there was no other objection, he could not displease the
King of Spain. Maximilian was generally gracious ;
the Archduke was affectionate and confidential ; but so
far as insisting that during the first visit to England
the Queen's expectant husband should not be made a
heretic prematurely, they were both immoveable.

In the pause which followed, an accidental '567-8.

. December to
circumstance of some importance required January.

Sussex's presence in England. Leicester, as he well
knew, was at the bottom of the whole difficulty ; and

282 RETGiV OF ELIZABETH, [CH. 49.

he believed that he could better counteract this perni-
cious influence in person. The occasion of his return
was the close in death of the long illness of Lady
Catherine Grey. This poor lady had been guilty of
being by the will of Henry the VIII. the next heir to
the English crown. She had been the object of the
political schemes of all parties in turn who hoped to
make use of her ; and she had committed the impru-
dence (as will be remembered) of contracting a secret
marriage with Lord Hertford, which had furnished an
excuse for her perpetual imprisonment. She had sunk
at length under hard treatment and separation from her
husband, and had died a victim partly to the Queen's
jealousy and partly to the hard conditions of the times.
She had left two boys behind her of ambiguous legiti-
macy, and Sussex was required to assist in discussing
the difficult questions which arose upon her decease.
The settlement of the Austrian alliance however was
of far deeper moment : to this, on his arrival in Eng-
land, he immediately addressed himself, and under-
standing well in what quarter he could alone- work suc-
cessfully, he went directly to Leicester.

He believed that his remonstrances were not wholly
thrown away. Leicester pretended to be moved ; but
there were still doubts, manoeuvres, and deceptions.
De Silva had long been satisfied that the Q.ueen was in-
sincere from the beginning, and Sussex found but too
surely that de Silva was right. If the pains which he
had taken ended in nothing — if Leicester deceived him,
und the Queen allowed herself to be misled by sinister

I$6S.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE. 283

persuasions into betraying the interests of the country
— the Earl said he would publish to the world the names
of those who had occasioned the failure ; the whole realm
should know who the persons were that had laboured so
fatally for its ruin.1 Events moved too quickly to allow
1 1 i i n to accomplish h is t h reat. The negotiations dropped
once more and died away, and when years after Eliza-
beth would have again played the same game, the Arch-
duke refused to be any more, the toy of her caprice, and
gave his hand elsewhere. The calamities followed which
Sussex had foreseen. Half the English peerage drifted
into treason — the Catholics became the tools of the
Jesuits, and Lord Surrey's son followed his father to the
scaffold.

The uncertainty of the succession which had been
the prime occasion of Queen Catherine's divorce, of the
rupture with Rome, of Henry's matrimonial <li-aMn-,
was still the root of the reviving agitation. The Catho-
lics could have found no party to support them in an
insurrection, had the political stability of the country
been otherwise assured ; and had the Catholics remained
quiet, there would have been no persecution of them to
bring down the thunder of the Vatican and to provoke
the long-suffering of Spain. The anxiety of Philip for
the restoration of the authority of Rome, great as it
legitimately was, was not so great as his desire to main-
tain a firm and moderate government in England ; and
Kli/abeth might have remained in her own creed, un-

1 J)e Silvato Philip, Mnrch 20, 1568: MSS. Sitn«ncaj.

284 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

disturbed by interference from the Catholic Powers, if
the internal peace had not been broken by discontents
of which religion was but the secondary cause.

One aspect of Elizabeth as she sailed along on the
surface of this seething ocean — the eyes with which she
looked around upon it, the language in which she talked
about herself, her prospects, the attitude of foreign
Powers, and her own marriage, — may be seen in a letter
of de Silva's written while she affected to be in suspense,
before the return of Sussex, and after the rumours had
been dispelled of the immediate coming of Philip.

DE SILVA TO PHILIP II.

'•January 17.

' I waited upon the Queen yesterday in behalf of your
Majesty. I told her that your Majesty was in good
health, at which she expressed a lively pleasure. She
asked about the state of Flanders : I informed her that
I had received the most satisfactory assurances from the
Duke of Alva and others in authority there, and that all
was quiet.

'She then said that reports had reached her of some
league or confederation, supposed to exist between the
Pope, the Emperor, your Majesty, the King of France,
and other Christian princes, the object of which was
the settlement of religion, and in consequence, with a
special direction against herself. Her subjects believed
— she took care to tell me that she herself did not — that
your Majesty was coming yourself to England, to give
her trouble and to force her back into submission to
the Pope.

1568.] LOCHLEVEN CASTLE 285

1 1 suid that I was surprised at her listening to such
extravagant nonsense. Those reports were circulated
by persons who wished to cause estrangement between
your Majesty and herself; to lead her to suspect your
Majesty who had always been her friend, and to commit
herself to the support of a fanatical party who would
entangle her in a course of action by which she would
forfeit the goodwill with which your Majesty regarded
her. Your Majesty might -be willing at all times to
resume your personal happy relations with her; but
these persons sought to force her into a position where
your Majesty could not befriend her without first
exacting satisfaction, and where she herself would be
unable to credit your Majesty with the kind feelings
towards her which in fact you entertained.

' ' The story was/ she said, ' that as soon as order
had been restored in France, your Majesty, the Em-
peror, and (he French King intended to send a forinul
deputation to her, to request her to give up her religion
and return to communion with Rome ; to say that she
had no right to make herself singular; that while
England remained in schism, the rest of Europe would
never be at peace ; and that if she refused to consent,
they would be forced to take arms against her, and
make over her crown to some other person/

1 ' She did not think this likely/ she said, ' but if
they tried any such game, they would find that she
knew how to defend herself/ She spoke with as much
spirit as if the danger was already at her door.

' I told her it was all baseless nonsense — your Majesty

286 &EIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 49.

was her good friend, and would never be anything else,
unless she herself gave occasion for it, which I was sure
she would not do. Your Majesty did not covet other
princes' dominions, least of all hers.

' ' It was not pretended/ she replied, ' that your
Majesty aimed at anything beyond restoring the old
religion. No other reason, she was well aware, would
so far influence your Majesty/

' I said everything I could think of to quiet her. Your
Majesty, I reminded her, had shown in all your actions
that the chief object of your life was to resist the
Turks, the common enemy of Christendom, and to be
able to give account to God and the world of the coun-
tries which God had committed to your special charge.
You meddled nowhere else, and had no wish to cause
trouble and disturbance among your neighbours' sub-
jects. This had been the uniform practice both of your
Majesty and your predecessors, and I told her as her
friend that she ought not to lend her ears to any such
idle slanders. Especially, I trusted she would take no
ill-considered step which might compel your Majesty
to change your attitude towards her. She should not
let herself be misled by those who made it their busi-
ness to stir up sedition and move rebellion against
princes. I assured her positively that your Majesty
would never injure her, or allow her to be injured,
As to her religion, the Catholic princes were not with-
out good hopes of her. Your Majestj^, for the love
which you bore towards her, desired naturally to see
her adopt what you believed to be the true creed ; but

1568.] LOCHLEVEtf CASTL&. 287

your Majesty was not the keeper of her conscience, and
you would not expose yourself to the inconveniences
which would arise from the dissolution of your alliance
with England.

' This, I think, satisfied her, for she turned to other
subjects. Doubtless there are accursed people about
her Court who feed her with suspicions — restless, mali-
cious creatures on all sides of her. I advised her to
be cautious with them, or they would bring her into
trouble. Her business, I told her, was to preserve
peace at home, and not to quarrel with her friends
abroad. She confessed at last that those who most
worried her were those whom she had most obliged,
and who ought to have helped her in her difficulties. I
said it was just what I expected. The Catholics were
her firmest support, because the Catholics, as might be
seen everywhere, were obedient to their princes.' l

It is necessary to insist that de Silva, in his account
of Philip's feelings towards Elizabeth, was speaking the
exact truth. Spain had endured a thousand injuries
from the English buccaneers, for which no reparation
had been made, and none was likely to be obtained ; yet
sooner than quarrel with Elizabeth and break an alli-
ance which his present relations with the Netherlands
made more than ever necessary to him, he submitted
to intolerable wrong ; he bore with his sister-in-law's
heresy ; he stood between her and the Pope ; he was

De Silva to Philip, January 17: MSS. Simanca*.

2S8 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. |cn. 49.

deaf to the clamours of her Catholic subjects, believing,
or trying to believe, that the grace of God might at last
work upon her. "When he received de Silva's account
of the conversation, he approved with undisguised
emphasis of all which had been said in his name. ' He
was/ he said, l and he always would be, the sincere
friend of that poor Princess, who he trusted would at
no distant period return to her senses, and for whose
conversion he would never cease to labour/ 1

Philip to de Silva, February, 1568 : MSS. Simancas.

CHAPTER L.

FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND.

N the first measures directed against the
Queen of Scots Catholic and Protestant

had acted together. She had outraged her old friends
by having consented to be married with Calvinistic
forms. Of the Reformers not one had been deluded to
her side by her seeming apostasy from Rome. JThe
establishment of the Government of the Earl of Murray
threw back the two parties into their natural antagon-
i-iu. The disiiU'.vinl noblemen might seem to submit,
but their hostility to the Regent, if unavowed, was no
less determined. As the Queen had not been put to
death, her restoration, at least to liberty, was regarded
by every one as, sooner or later, inevitable ; and as the
Hamiltons saw themselves cut off from the advantages
which they expected from her destruction, it remained to
them to make the best of their position, and to fall back
on the alternative which Throgmorton supposed that
they would have originally preferred. They resolvi-d
to carry out the scheme for which they had called the

VOL. VIII. 19

i9o REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. $6.

unsuccessful meeting at Glasgow, to refuse to recognize
the abdication, and as soon as Bothwell could be dis-
posed of by death or divorce, to make a fourth husband
for Mary Stuart out of the Lord of Arbroath, the heir-
presumptive of their house. While therefore Argyle,
Huntly, Herries, and the rest of their friends made
terms with Murray, Arbroath himself, with his uncle,
the Archbishop of St Andrews, and Lord Fleming, shut
themselves up in Dumbarton, calculating either on the
eventual armed support of Elizabeth, or on some turn
in the revolving wheel of French politics which would
bring the Court under the control of the Guises. The
Duke of Chatelherault remained in Paris, representing
steadily to Catherine de Medici that it was to him and
his family, and not to the Protestants, that France must
look for the recovery of its hold upon Scotland. Parties,
he said, would subside into their proper relations as soon
as Elizabeth's preposterous attitude should end, as end
it must. Elizabeth was for the present threatening the
Scotch Reformers in the hope of pleasing Spain and her
own Catholic subjects ; while the French Court was
supporting them under Huguenot influence, because the
Huguenots looked for popularity in France by bringing
back the Scots to their old alliance. But all this was
but temporary — a mere eddy in the real stream ; and
Catherine was but deluding herself if she expected that
tendencies so utterly anomalous would in the end pre-
vail. So the Duke argued, not altogether with success.
Catherine, like her husband Henry, was indifferent
which party among her subjects she made use of, so

1567.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 291

France gained strength by it ; and there was a sym-
pathy between the Scotch Calvin ists and the Huguenots
which both refused to the colder ritualism of England.
She preferred to watch and wait till Elizabeth perhaps
might drive Murray into accepting the hand which so
far she had held out to him in vain.1

In spite of the Haniiltons' incredulity, Elizabeth
persisted till she had all but produced this very result.
As if to prove that she was sincere in her present pro-
fessions, she proposed to Catherine to unite with her in
closing the ports of both France and England against
the Scots — that * the people being letted from their
traffic/ might rise against the Government.* Catherine
of course refused. Elizabeth found that if she moved
she must move alone ; and either the agitated condition
of her own country, her own prudence, or the refusal of
the council to countenance hostilities, held her back

1 Elizabeth's principal difficulty
in raising a party for the Queen in
Scotland arose from a doubt whether
she would bo able to act upon her
own feelings, however strong they
might be. On the 2Oth of Septem-
ber Herries wrote to Lord Scrope : —
' I have received writings from my
Louis of St Andrews and Arbroath
in answer to Sir N. Throgmorton's
letters. Because they are not sure
of the Queen's Grace's mind, your
Sovereign, they dare not be plain.
Howbeit it is the thing they most
desire, and if they may see help
a-Hiredly they will do their utter
power.'

And again, September 21 :—
' If there be any hope the Queen'a
Majesty of England will take to do
in this cause, I pray your Lordship
advertise me. I believe if her Grace
would enter into the matter, the
Regent and the Lords neither would
nor durst refuse such appointment as
her Highness thought good should be
made, if it were but only they under-
stood she would bend her mind to
have it so : except they understand the
nobility of England would not assist
the Queen therein' —Border MSS. :
September, 1567.

3 Elizabeth to Sir H. Norris,
September 27 : Printed in KKITII.

292

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 50.

from committing herself by overt interference. She
gave general assurances to the Hamiltons, which pre-
vented them from surrendering Dumbarton ; but at this
point she restrained herself, and Murray felt himself
growing daily stronger in his seat. 'The sale of part of
the Queen's jewels gave him funds for his immediate
necessities.1

So far as his ability reached ' he dealt very roundly
and sharply/ The Earls of Argyle and Huntly raised

1 Every step in Murray's admin-
istration—and therefore this among
the rest — has heen a subject for his-
torical reprobation. Yet the sale in
itself would seem too simple to re-
quire to be defended. Mary Stuart
was held to have forfeited her crown,
and in justice to have forfeited her
life. She left behind her jewels of
great value, an empty treasury, and
a country in a state of anarchy. The
Regent, with the consent of the
Scotch Parliament, availed himself
of a resource which he could use
without distressing the people. . .
No secret was made of it. 'The
Ilegent,' Sir Wm. Drury wrote on
the 3Oth of September, ' is very bare
of money. The Queen's jewels shall
to gage, if not sold outright, if a
chapman or a lender upon reasonable
interest may be gotten.' — JJorder
MSS.: 1567.

A case of pearls was brought to
London in the spring of 1568. After
gome hesitation, they \vevepurchased
for 12,000 crowns by Elizabeth ; and
she too has fallen in for her share of
consequent obloquy. The proceed-

ing seemed so little improper to .
Catherine de Medici that she wrote
to her ambassador in England in the
following words ; — ' Quant au bagues
de la Eeyne d'Escosse, et desquelles
la Reyne d'Angleterre a retenu les
perles, comme vous m'avez despuis
maude, il n'est plus de besoing de
vous mectre en pique ; pour ce que
je desire qu'elle les retienne toutes
comme il est bien raisonable ; et si jo
les avoiz je les luy envoyerois.' — La
Reyne Mere a M. de la Forest, May
21 ; Of. M. de la Forest a la Reyne
Mere, May 2 and May 15 : TEULET,
vol. ii.

Elizabeth afterwards called Mur-
ray to account for the remainder.
Murray answered : ' This I may
boldly affirm unto your Highness,
that neither I nor any friend of mine
has been enriched with the value of
a groat of any her goods to our
private uses. Neither, as God knows,
did the ground and occasion of any
of my actions proceed of sic a mind.'
— Murray to Elizabeth, October 6,
1568 : MSS. Scotland.

1567.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 293

no difficulties, and opposed him in nothing ; the coun-
try settled into quiet, and Mary Stuart herself ceased
to complain of her confinement. Fascinating the house-
hold of Lochleven, and even winning over by her
charms the austere mother of the Regent, she recovered
her health and her spirits. Those who had been loud-
est in their outcries against her began to soften and
make excuses for her errors.1 The reaction of feeling
which Maitlaiid had foretold 'to Throgmorton as a rea-
son for severity, set in even sooner than it was expected.
She became, in the severe language of the Puritan
Bedford, ' merry and wanton ; ' * and in default of other
occupation, she amused her lonely hours with the ador-
ation of the younger brother of the Lord of the Castle,
(icoiMre Douglas.3 'The Regent made fair weather
with her/ as a step towards restoring her to liberty,4
and Scotland was already forgetting its indignation in
sentimental compassion.

Nor was there even wanting a more le-
gitimate cause for the revulsion. The guilt
of the murder had been rested wholly on Bothwell and
the Queen. As the persons concerned in it were suc-
cessively caught and examined, many great names
appeared in their confessions, as more or less implicated,
and such facts could not wholly be concealed from the
world. Bonds were mentioned, which unfortunately
were still in existence, signed by the most powerful of

' Drnry to Cecil, September 30.
* Bedford to Cecil, October 23 ;

Border

3 Drury to Cecil, November 28

Ibid.

894 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

the nobility. Hepburn of Bolton, one of the last of
Bothwell's servants who had been brought to trial,
spoke distinctly to having seen one of them. Ormis-
ton, another of the murderers, swore to the same names ;
and Hepburn charged Sir James Balfour with having
contrived the whole conspiracy. "Whatever care might
be taken to keep these depositions secret, it was im-
possible to prevent some hints of what they contained
from leaking out ; and men began to ask why, when so
many were guilty, the Queen should have been left to
bear the burden alone ? l

A measure, which the Lords had not intended, but
which circumstances forced upon them, aggravated the
growing feeling. The deposition of a Sovereign, the
coronation of a child, the constitution of a Regency,
made it necessary that Parliament should meet. The
reviving sympathy with the Queen made every one who
had taken part in the revolution anxious to provide for
his safety ; and with regard to the murder itself, there
was a general desire, in which Murray probably shared,
to punish Both well and his instruments, but to drop a
veil over the guilt of others whose acquiescence in his
government was essential to its stability.

The famous casket which, till Murray's return from
France, had been in the hands of Morton, was by him
on the 1 6th of September placed in the charge of the
Regent. The Regent undertook that the letters and

1 Avisos de Escocia que envia el Embajador Guzman de Silva : MS/S,

1567.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 295

writings which it contained should ' always bo ready
and forthcoming to the Earl of Morton and the re-
maining noblemen that entered into the quarrel,1 in
«ue the world should call on them 'to manifest the
ground and equity of their proceedings.' l The writings
which it was desirable to keep were those only which
affected the Queen and Bothwell. If, as there is reason
to believe, the Craigmillar Bond was in the casket also,
the destruction of it was as much a matter of moment
to those whose names were written on it as the pre-
servation of the rest. Hepburn, on the scaffold, men-
tioned the Bond, and insisted that it would be found,
if Bothwell's papers were searched.8 It would be asked
for, and the existence of it was dangerous to all parties
for lluiitly's and Argylo's names were on it as well as
Maitland's. The Parliament was to open in December.
A preliminary meeting of the Lords was held at the
end of November. Their first act, as Sir William
Drury on the a8th informed Cecil, was to reduce the
dangerous document to ashes.8 The act itself was emi-
nently natural. To have permitted it, may pass for a
blot on Murray's escutcheon, if the paper was ever in
his hands; more probably, it was never allowed to
reach his eyes. Yet even if it was done with his full-
est consent, his conduct might well be defended. To

1 Records of the Scottish Council,
printed in ANDERSON'S Collection.
9 Avisos de Escocia : MSS. Si-

mancas.

3 * The writing which did com-
prehend the names and consents of I

the chiefs for the murdering of the
King is turned to ashes ; the same
that concerns the Queen's part kept
to be shewn.'— Drury to Cecil, No-
vcmher 28 : Border MSS.

296 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

punish every one who was tainted with complicity in
the murder was simply impossible. To attempt it would
be to break up the Government, to surrender Scotland
to civil war, to foreign invasion, and to a future in which
nothing was certain but its misery. In the people who
were rising into power beyond the circle of the Lords,
there was a fervid and deep-toned religion — but it was
Calvinism in its hardest form, — Calvinism moulded on
the Israelitish pattern, fierce, ruthless, and unmanage-
able. The nobles themselves were, for the most part,
without God, creed, or principle ; while England and
France — keen observers of all that passed — were ready,
each or both of them, to step in on the first sign of in-
ternal confusion. There was still in Scotland a small
minority of wise, upright, noble-minded men, who
would have stood by Murray had there been any chance
that Murray could himself stand if he took another
course. But to do this he must have been able to say
to Elizabeth, • Thus I am placed, and thus is Scotland
placed ; help us through these dark entanglements, and
earn the gratitude of every Scot who has the fear of
God in his heart/ Such words would have found a
response in Cecil, but he might as well, and well he
knew it, have tried to melt with his eloquence the rock
of Edinburgh Oastle as the English Queen. To the
modern student, the guilt of all parties who were im-
plicated in Darnley's murder appears very much the
same. To those who were bred up in that wild age and
life, a stab with a dirk was an ordinary exodus out of
life, an ordinary feature of passionate revenge ; while

1567.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 297

the conspiracy of a faithless wife and the assassination
of an inconvenient husband were crimes which had
been always infamous.

The Lords would perhaps have extended the am-
nesty to the Queen, and Murray obviously wished that
this should be done ; yet the exigencies and the danger
of the other culprits again prevented even justice. The
Lords were liable to be called in question by the Eu-
ropean Powers for dethroning their sovereign. The
union among themselves — ill-cemented as it was — might
lissolve, or a revolution might restore Mary Stuart to
the throne, by the aid of one or other of the many fac-
tions among themselves. Their mutual security required
that they should all commit themselves to an approval
of the Queen's dethronement, and to a formal statement
of the grounds on which it had been carried out. They
were ready to defend, as they called it, the Queen's
honour; to keep secret among themselves the proofs
wh icli they possessed of her criminality; but they
could afford no mysteries one towards the other ; and it
seemed impossible, with a sufficient regard to their own
safety, to avoid passing some formal censures upon her.
A second meeting was held on the 4th of December, to
consider how in case the Queen's deposition should be
approved in Parliament, 'perfect law and security might
be had' for those who were concerned in forcing it upon
her. Among the persons present were Murray, Glen-
( aim, Semple, Grange, — of all the Protestant leaders
flic least capable of dishonourable conduct. Maitland and
Balfour were there also, the two who had most to con-

298

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 50.

ceal. The Regent was already shrinking from Maitland,
not liking his ' politic ' and crooked ways,1 but he could
not do without him ; and ' after a long reasoning, no
other way ' to their object could be found ' but, as they
said, by opening and revealing the truth and ground of
the whole matter, from the beginning, plainly and up-
rightly.' 'So far as the manifestation thereof might
tend to the dishonour of the Queen, they were most
loath to enter on it ; ' but ' the sincerity of their inten-
tions could not otherwise be made known ; ' ' there was
so much uncertainty at home and abroad ' that ' the
world could by no other means be satisfied of the right-
eousness of their quarrel ; ' ' God would suffer no wick-
edness to be hid, and all actions founded not on the
simple and naked truth had no continuance nor sta-
bility/2

The crime which Maitland had contemplated was so
different from, and, as he regarded it, so much more
innocent than, that which had been actually perpetrated,
that he may have employed this language without any
scruple of conscience. The publication itself was no
more than he had told the English ambassador that
Elizabeth would force upon them.

1 Throgmorton, writing to Sir
Robert Melville, deplores the grow-
ing differences between them. ' Mait-
land,' he said, was a man of great
ability, and the Regent < wronged
himself in not making larger use
of his services.' He admitted how-
ever that Maitland had an ' intoler-
ably' high opinion of himself, and

desired to dictate in everything
according to worldly policy, while
the Regent endeavoured ' to direct
all his conduct immediately by the
Word of God.'— Throgmorton to
Melville, May 6, 1568: TEULET,
vol. ii.

2 Act of Secret Council, Decem-
ber 4 : Burghley Papers, vol. i.

1567.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 299

The Parliament met on the i%5th of December.
Four bishops, fourteen abbots, twelve earls, fifteen lords,
three eldest sons of earls, and thirty ' burrows ' were
present ; a number of the representatives of the Com-
mons without precedent in Scotch history. A series of
Acts embodying the resolutions of the council were
prepared by the Lords of the Articles — among whom
were Huntly and Argyle.1

The abdication at Lochleven, the coronation of
James, and the Regency of Murray were successively
declared to have been lawful ; and lastly, in an Act
' anent the retention of their Sovereign Lord's mother's
person/ the genuineness of the evidence by which her
share in the murder was proved, was accepted as beyond
doubt or question. When the measure was laid before
Parliament, Lord Herries, with one or two others, pro-
tested, not against the truth of the charges, but 'against
an Act which was prejudicial to the honour, power, and
estate of the Queen.' * But their objections were over-

1 The share taken by these two
noblemen in preparing the Acts of
tlii-; Parliament have an important
bearing on the authenticity of the
Casket Letters. The letters formed
the chief ground on which one of
the Acts was based. Lord Huntly
was repeatedly mentioned in them,
with details of his conduct, which
could have been known to no one
but himself and the Queen ; and had
no such conversations taken place
as the Queen described, no one could
have contradicted them more easily.
Argyle and he indeed declai xl that

their assent was conditional on the
Queen's acquiescence, and they pub-
lished a statement in which they
accused Murray of having been privy
to the murder : yet they said nothing
about a forgery of the letters, which,
if real, they could not but have
known ; and had they been able to
prove— had they been able even
plausibly to assert— that there had
been foul play against the Queen,
the whole of Europe would at once
have declared on her side.

2 Herries to Mary Stuart : TEC-
LET, vol. ii. p. -587.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 50.

ruled. The Acts were passed ; the last and most im-
portant declaring 'that the taking of arms by the Lords
and Barons, the apprehension of the Queen's person,
and generally all other things spoken arid done by them
to that effect, since the loth of February last period,
were caused by the said Queen's own default.' ' It was
most certain, from divers her privy letters, written
wholly with her own hand to the Earl of Bothwell,
and by her ungodly and dishonourable proceeding to a
pretended marriage with him, that she was privy art
and part of the device and deed of the murder, and
therefore justly deserved whatever had been done to
her. Indirect counsel and means had been used to hold
back the knowledge of the truth, yet all men were
fully persuaded in their hearts of the authors and de-
visers of the fact. The nobility perceiving the Queen
so thrall and so blindly affectionate to the private
appetite of the tyrant, and perceiving also that both
he and she had conspired together such horrible cruelty,
they had at length taken up arms to punish them.' l

At first it was proposed to send a copy of this Act
to the Courts of France, Spain, England, and the Em-
pire, to accompany it not with the letters, but with the
independent evidence of those who had directly accused
the Queen — for instance, with Hepburn's 2 — and to in-

1 Acts of Parliament begun at
Edinburgh, December 15: ANDER-
SON'S Collection.

a ' Juan Hepburn de Bolton ha
acusado a la Eeyna del homicidio,
v los Senores tienen determinado

de enviar a todos los grandes Princi-
pes asi a la Reyna como a todos los
demas de la Xdad, para tener su
parecer ado proceder attento el do-
licto de la muerte de su marido.
Hepburn's evidence, as it is pub-

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 301

quire what, in the opinion of the great Powers, was
the conduct they ought to pursue. Had their hands
been clean they might have done it. Mary Stuart's
cause would have been judged freely by her peers, and
her name would have vanished out of history ; but the
experiment, except in part, was too dangerous to risk.

Having done with the Queen, the Parlia- is6g
ment went on to re-enact the great measure January-
of 1560 for the establishment of the Kirk. Here it
was that the reaction of the last seven years became
conspicuous, and the opposition to the Regent, which
barely showed itself in the interest of the Queen, ap-
peared in formidable dimensions. The Catholic noble- <
in en might have been conciliated with toleration, but
toleration formed no part of Murray's or any other sin- \
cere creed in the i6th century. He insisted that the
Catholic religion should be prohibited under pain of
death in all parts of Scotland ; and he carried his point,
but at a heavy cost. Caithness and Athol, and the
Bishop of Murray, spoke freely and indignantly for the
rights of conscience, and the large minority which sup-
ported them went over in a body at the close of the
session to the side of disaffection and the Hamiltons.

Compromises there indeed were ; but compromises

lished, docs not touch the Queen.
It was found perhaps that if sent it
must he sent entire, and that he had
told too much. There was already
di -atisfaction in Scotland at the
supposed mutilation of Hepburn's
depositions. Men asked 'porque

Juan Hepburn de Bolton y los otros
no fueron compelidos a declarar
publicamcnte la manera de la muerte
del Rev, y quienes fueron los que
consintieron en ella.' — Avisos de
Escocia, 7 de Enero 1568: MSS.
Simanca*

J02 kEIGN OF ELIZABETH. [ctt. $6.

wliicli sought to save the purity of the faith at the ex-
pense of honour and integrity. The Acts against the
Queen professed to tell the whole truth, and told but
half of it. A Commission was appointed to consider the
limits of the Jurisdiction of the Kirk. Maitland, who
believed in nothing, and Balfour, who had been re-
warded for his treachery to Both well by the Priory of
Pittenweem, sat upon it by the side of Knox, and
Craig, and Spots wood. The strangeness of the picture
received a new touch in the public shame which the
General Assembly dared to inflict on the proudest of
the Scotch nobles, and which the great McCallummore
consented to accept at its hands. To punish the Bishop
of Murray for his conduct in Parliament, a charge of
adultery was brought against him, for which he stood in
sackcloth in the Chapel Royal at Stirling during the
service. ' At his side stood the Earl of Argyle, in like
raiment, for the like offence,' and the Countess of Argyle
also, the Regent's sister, ' for having slandered the Kirk
in assisting at the baptism of the King in Papistical
manner.' 1

The most confident historian may well distrust his
ability either to understand or to reproduce the temper
of an age in which such a scene was possible. The
public disgrace of high-born sinners however could
hardly have assisted in producing the peace for which
so much else was sacrificed ; and something of the storm

1 Avisos de Escocia, 7 Enero : MSS. Simancas. Report of the General
Assembly, December 25 : CALDEKWOOD.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 303

about to break over Scotland may be traced to an ab-
sence of worldly wisdom in the new-born Church.

Nevertheless neither the political nor the spiritual
mischiefs which resulted from the Parliament were im-
mediately visible. The Regent seemed to have tided
over his most pressing difficulties. The great nobles
were outwardly on good terms with him ; a marriage
was talked of between his daughter and a son of Lord
1 1 untly, and between Lady Murray's sister and a brother
of Argyle. The session closed on the 29th of December.
On the ^rd of January Dalgleish, Powrie, Hepburn,
and Hay of Tallo were hanged and quartered. A day
or two after, Nicholas Elphinstone, Murray's confident ial
secretary, carried copies of the Acts to Elizabeth, with
explanations, so far as explanation was possible, of the
grounds on which they had been passed. Elizabeth's
anger would now have had time to cool, and it was
hoped that on a quiet view of the situation she would
IK- induced to take Scotland under her protection, ac-
knowledging the Regency, and win the heart of the
whole nation by adopting James as her successor at la>t .l

For his sister Murray's hope was that by some ob-
scure marriage she might at once disappoint the Hamil-
tons and give security to the country for her future be-
haviour. His mother had looked with interested favour
on the intimacy which was growing between her
younger son and the Queen. Mary Stuart, either to
relieve the lassitude of her confinement, or more pro

M. de la Forest au Roy, February 2, 1568: TEULET, vol. ii.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 50.

bably to secure the services of a devoted slave to assist
her escape, had allowed Lady Douglas to believe that
she was thinking seriously of taking him for her hus-
band, and Lady Douglas was entirely willing that he
should be promoted to so questionable an honour. The
Regent however, more aware than his mother of the
construction which the world would place on such an
arrangement, refused to hear of it. George Douglas
was sent from the castle to pine lovesick into treason,
and the Regent cast his thoughts upon Lord Methuen,
grandson of the Methuen who was the third husband of
Margaret Tudor, as a person whose insignificance would
keep Mary Stuart in the shade, and hold down her rest-
lessness in innocent retirement.1

But neither was the Queen of Scots to be disposed of
by any such placid arrangement, nor was Murray to
reap so quiet a harvest from the seed which had been
sown at the Parliament. A doubt was gathering over
his probity through the concealment of Bothwell's ac-
complices ; and the noble families of Scotland were eager
to revolt against the despotic assumptions of the Kirk.
The severity of Murray's administration made an enemy
of every man who had cause to fear the hand of j ustice.
Elizabeth resisted his advances with a steadiness which
forced him, in spite of himself, to look to France at last
for support ; 2 but his application came at a time when

1 l)e Silva to Philip, April 24,
1568: MSS. Simancas. Drury to
Cecil, April, 1568: Border MSS.

2 In April Murray sent an agent

to Paris to tell the Queen-mother
and the King that, except for the
hope that they would assist him, he
wculd never have undertaken the

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 305

the returning influence of the Guises was inclining Ca-
therine once more to the side of her daughter-in-law.

Cecil continued to press on Elizabeth the prudence of
maintaining the young King, but Elizabeth remained im-
practicable. Cecil, in his own letters to Murray, durst not
give him the title of Regent, and rumour, busy in aggra-
vating the differences between Murray's party and Eng-
land, reported that the Earl had taken offence at the slight
upon his dignity.1 There was no fear that Murray and
Cecil would permanently misunderstand each other, but
the Queen would allow no kind of approach between
the Governments of the two countries. Elphinston
went to and fro with messages and counter-messages
but Elizabeth recognized him only so far as to buy the
Queen of Scots' pearls of him ; and, at length, to con-
sent that the "Wardens of the English Marches should
transact business with the de facto administration. To-
wards Elphinstone himself she showed characteristic dis-
pleasure. All the protests of the council could not in-
duce her to make the usual allowance for his post horses,
and Throgmorton could but hope that ' so good a gentle-
man would not, for his particular ill-treatment, do any-

praise to God, nothing curious or
ambitious of them — my travail tend-
ing unto another form, that is, next
to God's glory, to entertain the peace,
and minister justice to my Sove-
reign's subjects so long as it shall
please God that I sustain the
burden.' — Murray to Cecil, Feb-
ruary 28. 1568: Burgh ley Papers,
vol. i.

government. He undertook to main-
tain the French alliance, and begged
that none of the Queen's French con-
nections should be allowed to come
over to trouble the peace of Scotland.
— Memorandum d'un agent de Mur-
ray, envoy6 vers le Roy de France et
la Reine Mere : TKULET, vol. ii. p.

349-

1 Murray, whrn the story reached
him, wrote : ' For style or title, I am,
VOL. viir.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

LCH. 50.

thing which might mar the good intelligence betwixt
the realms, however sufficient cause there might have
been to put that devotion to hazard.' !

France sent but cold answers. In the past autumn
Catherine could not find words strong enough to express
her indifference to her daughter-in-law or her goodwill
to the Administration by which she had been deposed.
Now, after a short uncertainty,2 the balance inclined
again to Mary Stuart. In the place of the Huguenot
de Lignerolles, M. de Beaumont, a Guisiaii and a Ca-
tholic, was sent to Scotland to mediate in the Queen's
interests ; or, in other words, if the Regent would not
consent to his suggestions, to recognize and assist the
Hamiltons.

Under these circumstances it could not be but that
some effort would before long be made for Mary Stuart's
release. So long as she remained in Lochleven a rising
in arms in her cause would probably be the signal for
her death ; but with the assistance of George Douglas
she was in close correspondence with her friends. She
had confederates in the castle, and was kept aware of all
the efforts which were being made in her favour. As
the hold of the Regent upon Scotland grew weaker, a
general sense prevailed that she would not be much

1 Throgmortou to Sir Wm.Drury,
May 6 : TEULET, vol. ii.

2 The reply of the French Court
to Murray's memorial is preserved in
two drafts of a letter, one of which
was a mere acknowledgment that it
had been received ; the other, by
the addition and alteration of a few

sentences, is most markedly favour-
able to Mary Stuart. Which of the
two was sent does not appear ; but
the tide was turning, and the second
represented the intended policy of
the Queen-mother.— TEULET, vol.
ii. p. 37i.

1565?.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 30}

March.

longer a prisoner — either she would escape, or her brother
himself would be obliged to let her go. The compromises
at the Parliament had failed of their effect after all.
Murray had entangled himself in crooked ways to re-
concile Argyle and Huntly to the Kegency ; but when
the papers which committed them were in the flames,
they followed their natural tendencies, and swayed back
to the Hamiltons and the Catholics. He had succeeded
only in offending the noblest of his own friends, and
tlu- world believed that he Would either fall or come to
an arrangement with his sister.

Neither she however nor the Hamiltons
desired that she should purchase her freedom
by any fresh engagements ; and throughout the spring
successive plans were formed and tried for her escape.1
At first it was proposed to carry her off by a coup-de-
muin. There were but thirty effective men in the gar-
rison. A heavy barge was kept on the lake to carry
supplies to the island, and the crew had agreed to ferry
over an armed party sixty or seventy strong, who, coming
suddenly on the guard, could easily overpower them. A
Frenchman in the Queen's service, who had not been
admitted into the secret, discovered something of what
was going on, and supposing it to be a contrivance of
the Protestant fanatics to take her out of Murray's

1 The story in the text, which
differs in some respects from that
which is commonly received, is the
account given by young Beton to
the Spanish ambassador in London,
lirtun assisted personally in her

escape, and was sent by her imme-
diately after to London and Paris to
communicate the particulars of it. —
De Silva to Philip, June — : MSS.
Simctn&u.

3o8

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 50.

hands and destroy her, he gave a hint to Sir William
Douglas ; the barge was broken up, and for the future
a skiff, sculled by a single pair of hands, was alone
allowed to approach the island. One person was more
easy to deal with than many. The solitary boatman
was next bribed ; a foundling page in the castle, who
had been adopted by the Laird of Lochleven, and called
after him the Little Douglas, undertook to seduce the
sentinels, open the gate in the night, and bring the
Queen to the waterside.1 This plan too threatened to

1 Another story was told by Sir
W"m. Drury, and was repeated by
de Silva to Philip. De Silva's
words are a mere translation of
Drury's, and he had evidently no
other authority for what he was
writing.

Drury's words are :— ' On the
75th of March she enterprised an
escape, and was rather the nearer
effect through her accustomed long
lying in bed all the morning. The
manner of it was thus : There cometh
in to her the laundress, early, as at
other times before she was wonted,
and the Queen, according to such a
secret practice, putteth on her the
weed of the laundress, and so with the
fardel of clothes, and the muffler
upon her face, passeth out and enter-
eth the boat to pass the loch. After
some space, one of them that rowed
said merrily, ' Let us see what man-
ner of dame this is,' and therewith
offered to pull down her muffler,
which to defend she put up her
hands, which they spied to be very

fair and white ; wherewith they
entered into suspicion who she was,
beginning to wonder at her enter-
prise ; whereat she was little dis-
mayed, but charged them upon
danger of their lives to row her
over, which they nothing regarded,
but eftsoons rowed her back again,
promising her that it should be
secreted, and especially from the
lord of the house under whose guard
she lieth.' — Drury to Cecil, April 3 .
MSS. Border.

This is highly picturesque, and
under some aspects carries with it
internal probability. Circumstantial
legends too require time for their
growth, and Drury's letter was
written within eight days of the
date which he gives for the attempt ;
on the other hand, Beton, who was
employed all the spring in arranging
the plan, says nothing of it, and it
seems unlikely that such a venture
would have been risked unless the
boatmen had been prepared. Pos-
sibly however they might have

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 309

May 2.

fail. Sir William Douglas, through some suspicion of
the man, dismissed him, and appointed another ; but he
fortunately quarrelled with the substitute after a few
days* trial, replaced the first, and all was thus made
easy again.1 The outer gate of the castle was every day
locked at sunset, the keys were brought to Douglas, and
were laid on the table at his side. On the
evening of the second of May, between eight
and nine — perhaps in the waning light, when the torches
were not yet kindled, when the wine made eyes dim
and ears heavy — the little page who stood behind
him, covered the keys with a plate, and swept them off
the board unobserved. He glided out, and crossed tht
court to the round tower. The Queen was waiting in
the dress of one of her servants, and with a little girl at
her side, walked quietly with him to the gate. Four or
five men were standing about, but the light was faint,
and they were supposed only to be two of the castle women
who were going on shore.2 They passed out uninter-
rupted, the page locking the gate behind him. They
sprang into the skiff, carried off the oars and rowlocks

been detained by some accident at
the castle, and others sent across in
their places. This supposition would
harmonize better with the rest of the
story, and the conduct attributed to
Mary is extremely like her in all
respects.

1 De Silva says that Lndy Loch-
Icvcn herself had been gained over,
which is possible, but not likely.

2 In an Italian account printed by

Labanoff, it is said that the Queen
wore a white veil with a red fringe,
which on getting out she waved as
a preconcerted signal to her friend*
on shore. Mr Tytler accepts so
picturesque an incident, but Bcton
is silent. If the light would have
allowed such a thing to be »cen
half a mile off, it is extremely un-
likely that there would have been
any signalling.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 50.

from the castle boats, to make pursuit impossible, and
in a few minutes they were on shore.1

George Douglas, young Beton, and the Laird of
Bicarton, a kinsman of Bothwell, were waiting for them.
After walking a mile, they found a party of cavaliers,
who had emptied Lochleven's stables to mount them-
selves, and had provided a horse for the Queen. A few
yards further was Lord Seton with fifty servants. There
was not a moment to lose. The country was all Protest-
ant, and might be raised by beacons. The girl who had
been the companion of the flight was left behind — there
were no means of taking her away, and as the Queen
was free, she said, 'they might do what they would
with her.' Off shot the troop — off and away into the
darkness ! Eleven months had passed since Mary
Stuart had been in the saddle, but confinement had
not relaxed the sinews which no fatigue could tire.
Neither strength nor spirit failed her now. Straight
through the night they galloped on, and drew bridle
first at Queen's Ferry. Claud Hamilton, with fresh
horses, was on the other side of the Forth, and they
sprang to their saddles again. A halt was allowed
them .at Lord Seton's house at Long Niddry, but the
Queen required no rest. While the men were stretch-
ing their aching legs, Mary Stuart was writing letters
at her table. She wrote a despatch to the Cardinal of
Lorraine, and sent a messenger off with it to Paris.

1 Don Francis de Alava says that
in case he had failed to secure the
keys, the little page had made a

ladder with a couple of oars lashed
together. — Alava to Philip, May 22 :
TEULET, vol. v.

.I5<&] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 3*4

She sent Ricarton to collect a party of the Hepburns
and recover Dunbar, bidding him, when the- castle was
secured, go on to Bothwell, and tell him that she was
free. Two hours were spent in this way, and then to
horse again. Soon after sunrise she was at Hamilton
among her friends.1

Ricarton missed Dunbar ; Lord Hume was too quick
for him ; but at Hamilton it must have seemed as if the
loyal hearts of the Scottish nation had sprung to life to
greet their sovereign. There were two Scotlands-^ihen
as tnr oiituries to come — as perhaps at the present
hour; tin- Scotland «>!' Kiu.x ;'ii<l tin- A»«-ml>ly, the

land of the Cathoiiai «»d Mary Stuart | the 8q»f»
land of feudalism, and the Scotland of democracy and the
middle classes ; the Scotland of chivalry and sentiment,
the Scotland of hard sense und Puritan austerity. Those
who now rallied to the standard of the Queen were the
ancestors or the forerunners of Montrose and Claver-
house. On one side was a blind, passionate, devoted
loyalty, appealing to the impetuous instincts of gener-
osity and heroism — on the other the unromantic intel-
ligence of a people whose history was beginning, and
in whose veins instead of noble blood was running the
fierce fever of Calvinism.

At Hamilton were gathered the Catholics
who hated the Reformation, and those with
whose disordered lives the Puritan discipline had dealt

May 3.

News from Scotland, May 9 :
.V. Sfotlnul, Roll* House. Re-
lacion de la nianera que la Reyna

dc Escocia se libro dc la prision.
MSS. Simanca*.

3i2 XEIGN OF ELIZABETH. |CH. 50.

hardly — those who for deeds of lawlessness had felt the
heavy hand of Murray — those who in blind sincerity be-
lieved that Mary Stuart was their lawful sovereign, who
did not choose to scan too closely her past misdoings, and
who had looked to her and hers to bring about the
great day when a Scottish prince should sit upon the
English throne.

There within a week of her arrival came Argyle and
Huntly. There came Cassilis, Eglinton, Crawford,
Rosse, Montrose, Sutherland, and Errol. There came
Fleming from Dumbarton rock, and Livingston, and
Boyd, and Herries, and Maxwell, and Oliphant ; abbots
whom the hated Calvinists had robbed of office and
home, and bishops looking to the Queen to give them
back their crosiers and their creed. There too came
de Beaumont, happy that the freedom for which he had
come to intercede was achieved without his interference.
Never in so brief a time was so proud an assembly
brought together. Five days after Mary Stuart had
left Lochleven six thousand men were gathered round
the walls of Hamilton, who had sworn to set her again
on the throne of her fathers.

In that motley host there were many interests and
many passions — half of them for one cause or another
would at any other time have cheerfully cut the throats
of the other half ; but they agreed to set aside their
minor differences. To prevent quarrels they bound
themselves in the name of God, and on their faith and
honour, ' to know nothing but their duty to the Queen
till her enemies were crushed/ ' to sink all disputes

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 313

among themselves for the better prosecution of their
enterprise/ ' and to refer them when the great cause
was gained to the arbitration of their sovereign.' l

The Queen rose bravely to the level of the moment,
and shook off the spell which the Bothwell connection
had thrown over her. She remembered Bothwell at the
moment of her escape ; but at Hamilton, surrounded
by her loyal subjects, she was once more herself — the
accomplished politician, the brilliant woman of the
world, skilled in every art which could attach a friend,
conciliate a foe, or recover a respect which had been
forfeited.

Dainty as she was naturally in her person, she was
without a dress except the maid's in which she had left
Lochleven, and Hamilton Castle, it seemed, could not
provide her with a second.2 But troubling herself little
with such inconveniences, she was taking the measure
of her position, and with incomparable skill and speed
doing all that mind could suggest to strengthen her
cause. She professed herself willing to grant an amnesty
in Scotland to every one except to Morton and Lindsay,
by whom she was taken at Carberry, to Lord Semple,
who had written the ballads against her, to Sir James
Balfour, who had betrayed her letters, and to the
Provost of Edinburgh, at whose house she had passed
the first night of her captivity. To the Cardinal of

1 Bond made by the Lords of the
Queen's party at Hamilton, May 8 :
signed by nine carls, eighteen lords,
nine bishops, twelve abbots, and
ninety-three other knights and gen-

tlenun.— MSS. Scotland.

2 Beton told de Silva ' quo no tenia
mas de una ropa de una criada que
tomo para salirse.' — De Silva to
Philip, May 14: MSS. Sinuinca*.

ji4 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. $&

Lorraine she wrote at leisure a second letter of melting
ingenuousness. For her past faults she said she im-
plored pardon of God and the world ; God and only
He had delivered her from captivity, and she would
show her thankfulness by the constancy with which in.
life and death, as a private woman and as Queen of
Scotland, she would evermore be true to Holy Church.
She besought her uncle to intercede for her with the
Queen-mother and the King ; and she promised for the
future to be guided by his advice in everything.1

She despatched Beton to Paris, commissioning him
at the same time to say that without assistance she might
be unable to maintain herself, and requesting therefore
that a thousand harquebuss-men might be sent to her
help without delay. By Beton's hand she wrote also
to Elizabeth, whom he was to see on his way through
London. To Elizabeth she said that she was now free,
and that she looked to her for the help which in the
past autumn she had so often promised. To the Spanish
ambassador she sent a private message, excusing her
inability to write to him, from the spies by which she
was surrounded. She desired him to tell the King of
Spain that the charges reported against her were false,
that the real criminals were the Lords by whom she
had been imprisoned, that she was staunch to the
Catholic faith, and looked to him to advise her as to her
future conduct.

1 There are two accounts of this
letter— one in the Italian narrative,
printed by LABANOFF, vol. vii. p.
135 J the other in a despatch of the

Spanish ambassador at Paris to the
Duke of Alva, May 20, 1568
TEULET, vol. v.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 315

France, England, and the Spanish ambassador were
equally embarrassed with these communications. Do
Silva, too well acquainted with tho exact truth, an-
swered vaguely that he would write to his master, who
would be happy to hear that she continued true to her
religion.1 Franco could not move actively without the
consent either of Spain or of England. The Cardinal
of Lorraine consulted Alava, do Silva's brother ambas-
sador at Paris. Alava, afraid to give an opinion with-
out instructions, declined to advise, and answered with
generalities.8

The Spaniards, who would desolate Europe for an
opinion, were scrupulous about moral crimes; and
Philip seemingly had ceased to interest himself in the
fortunes of the Queen of Scots. QB Elizabeth the effect
of the escape was to open her eyes to the realities of
her own position. "While Xochleven held its prisoner
fast, it was easy to promise and to threaten. When it
Uvame necessary to act, the dangers and difficulties
rose before her with tremendous distinctness. &[ary
Stuart at the mercy of her revolted subjects, and Mary
Stuart at the head of an army made up of those who
had ever lu-i-n m..M ,,{,j)(,,c<l to Kn-land, weiv diti'eivut
persons ; and her first impulse was to support the Re-
gent.3 But she was confronted with a dilemma in which
the choice of sides was not easy. Beton told her that

1 DC Silva to Thilip, May 14 :
J/6'6'. Simancas.

2 Alava to Alva, May 20 : TKU-

LET, Vol. V.

3 ' i praise G<>d our Queen will

assist the good Earl of Murray rather
than this unlucky woman and her
friends.' — Throgmorton to Drury,
May 6 : TEULET, vol. ii.

3i6 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

he was instructed first to apply for help to herself. If
she refused, but only if she refused, he was to go on to
France. If she would keep her promise, and replace
the Queen of Scots on the throne, the Queen of Scots
' would look for no other friend.' What was Elizabeth
to do ? To allow France to interfere against the Pro-
testants would be entirely ruinous. To take the Queen's
side in the field against Murray would be absurd ; and
when the Queen of Scots was free and at large, after
her fair speeches and promises of the past autumn, nei-
ther to assist her herself nor permit her to seek help
elsewhere, would be an outrage against justice and de-
cency.

So far as a middle course was possible, she at last
alighted upon it. She sent down a Mr Leighton post-
haste to Scotland, directing him to go first to Murray
and tell him. that he must submit to the Queen, or she
would interfere and compel him ; and next to go on to
Mary Stuart, and insist that she must accept 'Eliza-
beth's arbitration between herself and her subjects/
' that force should cease on both parts, and no new col-
lection of power be made/ Elizabeth claimed to me-
diate because she was the Queen of Scots' nearest
kinswoman and neighbour, because she believed that
the Scottish people would listen more willingly to her
than to any o.ther prince, and because, if they refused,
she could more easily enforce their obedience. She inti-
mated at the same time that foreign interference could
not and should not be tolerated. If the Queen of Scots
called in the French, ' she would have to conclude that

1563.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 317

the principal intention was to renew old quarrels/ She
would simply ' impeach ' them by force, and towards
* her sister ' she would be moved to alter her mind con-
trary to her natural desire.1

If the Queen of Scots rejected the offers which were
thus made to her, Elizabeth would have extricated her-
self from her engagements. If she accepted them, some
compromise might have been arranged which would not
have been a wholly intolerable solution of the difficulty.
The assumption of authority in the tone of the message
would have rendered less disagreeable conditions un-
palatable, but Elizabeth, it is likely, sincerely desired
to bring about a reconciliation between Mary Stuart
and her subjects, since she accompanied her proposals
with one of those peculiarly disagreeable letters which
she felt herself entitled to write when she intended to
be kind. Mary Stuart had missed the lecture which was
to have been administered by Throgmorton ; but cir-
cumstances were changed, and it could now be delivered
with propriety.

'Madam/ wrote Elizabeth, 'my Hand has seldom
performed its office towards you since your unfortunate
captivity. I could not write to you without pain. But
hearing the joyful news of your escape, affection for
you as my near relation, and my sense of what is due
to the honour of a Queen, constrain me to send you
these few words. The bearer is a gentleman who visits

1 Instruction to Mr Leighton, | troubles in Scotland when Mr
sent to Scotland, May 15: MSS. \ Leighton was sent thither after the
Scotland. Considerations of the | escape from Lochleven : AN'DEHSON

3 1 8 KEIGN OF ELIZABE TH. »pH . 50.

you on my behalf, and will declare my opinion to you
at length, touching your state and honour, of which I
am as careful as you yourself could desire. That in
times past you have shown small respect for that state
and that honour, here, where I now am, I can only be
distressed to think ; were I in your presence, I would
say it to you in words- sufficiently distinct. Had you
cared as much for your honour as you cared for a miser-
able miscreant, all the world would have grieved for
your calamities ; whereas, to speak the plain truth, the
number who have done so is but small.

'But I write to congratulate, and this is not the
time for reproaches. Pardon, Madam, that interest in
your good name and fame which forces me into express-
ing feelings on which I should dwell more largely, did
not compassion for your condition cut them short, and
lead me rather into the consideration of your present
necessities. I am not so inhuman as to withhold advice
from any one who asks for it, least of all will I be back-
ward in giving Advice to you ; I will say to you what I
would have said to myself, were I in the same con-
dition. Listen therefore, I entreat you, to what
the bearer has to report to you. Listen to it as
you would listen to myself. I, as you will under-
stand by him, do not forget my promise. Do you, if
you please, remember, that those who have two
strings to one bow may shoot strongly, but they
rarely hit the mark. This gentleman will explain the
text. His sufficiency is such that I need not weary you

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 319

with longer writing. The Creator be your guide in all
you do.'1

Cecil meanwhile had communicated with the Regent
through Elphinstone, to a purpose considerably different
from the message sent through Leighton. Elizabeth,
notwithstanding her clearer sight of the inconvenience,
would still have restored the Queen of Scots to some
kind of authority. Cecil, who simply wished that she
should remain deposed, desired that there should be no
necessity for English or any other interposition. He
had therefore recommended Murray * to use expedition
in quieting the troubles,' and to crush the Queen and
those who had collected about her without a moment's
delay.2

Murray, as well aware as Cecil of the need of haste,
required no urging. At the time of the Queen's escape
he was at Glasgow, and she herself brought the news
of it. Lord Herries, as a purposed diversion, had made
a disturbance on the Borders ; and the Regent was on
his way down to Dumfries to re-establish order. Look-
ing, as usual, after those parts of his duty with inflexible
resolution, with steady justice and unaccustomed purity
of hand, he was fighting against his unpopularity, and
commanding the respect of those who hated him.

1 Elizabeth to the Queen of Scots,
May 17: MSS. Scotland.

2 ' I did declare unto my Lord
Regent's Grace your advice and

troubles, of the which something
your Lordship will understand by
tin's gentleman bearer hereof — what
is done, and what to be done.' —

opinion touching expedition to be Elphinstone to Cecil, May 21:
for quieting of the present I MSS. Scotland.

323 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

Whatever his political errors, he was forcing Scotland
to admit that a more upright ruler had never guided her
fortunes.1 Herries meant that he should have been
far away before the Queen's flight, but rumours of some
plan for her marriage with Lord Arbroath, some sus-
picious movements of de Beaumont, and a gathering of
' Papists ' at Dumbarton, had detained him, and he was
but a few miles from Hamilton when he learnt that she
was there. He had but his ordinary guard with him,
and he was advised to fall back on Stirling ; but he
would hear of nothing which would seem like weakness,
and he stayed boldly where he was. The inhabitants
of Glasgow, all Lennox-men, flew to arms. Proclama-
tions, calling such Scots as were loyal to their King to
come to him, were sent round and were swiftly an-
swered.2 A few minutes' — at most a few hours' —
notice was all that then was wanted. There was a
stack of arms in every house in the Lothians, and the
farmer and his men had but to buckle their sword-
belts, put on their steel caps and breastplates, and
strap a wallet with some cold meat and bread behind
their saddles, to be equipped for a week's campaign.

Lord Hume came across with 600 men from Dun-
bar. Kirkaldy, leaving a garrison in Edinburgh Castle,
hastened over with some hundreds of harquebuss-men,
and one after another followed Mar, Morton, Ochiltree,

1 'That which is much liked is i the same.'— Drury to Cecil, April
that he taketh no money, as afore 26 : Cotton MSS., CALIG. B. ix.
by others was continually used in 2 Proclamation made by the Earl
composition, but punisheth to the of Murray from Glasgow, May 3 :
death always as crimes that deserve Cotton. MSS. CALIG. i. 55.

1 568. ] FLIGHT OF MARY STUAR T TO ENGLAND. 32 1

Semple, Lindsay, Ruthven, the old-tried Lords of the
Congregation. Sir John Foster, feeling as all loyal
Englishmen felt, wrote with ' comfortable ' words, tell-
ing Murray that he need fear no trouble from the
Borders.1

While the chivalry of Scotland were with the
Queen, the Regent found himself, before many days, at
the head of a force, better armed, better appointed, and
outnumbering hers. He had this advantage too, that
his army was united heart and soul with one distinct
purpose.8 The Marian Lords, notwithstanding their
bond to forget their private schemes and quarrels, were
plotting for their several purposes, as if the victory wa*
gained, and were already forcing on the unwilling
Queen the hard conditions of their support. She too,
had the choice been open to her, would have preferred
other protectors to the selfish and treacherous Hamiltons.
No love had been lost between them and her while she
was still on the throne. She had mortified them by her
contemptuous rejection of the suit of the Earl of Arran ;
Chatelherault had been in arms with Murray to pre-
vent the marriage with Darnley ; and she could scarcely
have been kept in ignorance of the terms offered by
them to the Lords in the first weeks of her imprison-

1 ' We received your comfortable
and friendly letter, thanking you
heartily thereof. We doubt nothing
but the same God who began the
action shall conduct it to a happy
and comfortable end; for we are
right well accompanied with the

VOL. VIII.

whole noblemen that entered in the
action from the beginning.'— Mur-
ray to Sir John Foster, May 9, from
Glasgow : MSS. Scotland.

1 Drury to Cecil, May 12 : Cot-
ton. MSS. CALIO. B. ix.

322 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.50.

ment. The Arbroath marriage was detestable to her ;
and her best wish was to escape out of their hands and
shut herself up in Dumbarton with Lord Fleming.
But the Hamiltons had her in their power, and would
not p'art with her. They intended, and de Beaumont
went along with them, that Arbroath should be her
husband ; and ' they thought by having her in pos-
session, they should bring their purpose to pass.' l

There was no agreement too as to who should com-
mand their forces : the followers of one nobleman
would not obey another. The Queen desired to avoid
a battle. She feared that a victory gained by the
Hamiltons would be as troublesome to her as defeat.
The Hamiltons, burning to see themselves supreme in
Scotland, were clamouring to crush the Regent in one
deciding blow. So the precious time was wasted, while
Murray day after day grew stronger, and at length
they found themselves the weaker party. It was no
longer safe for them to wait to be attacked at Hamilton,
and they were compelled to yield to the Queen's en-
treaties, and attempt to convoy her to Dumbarton
With this object they broke up on the morn-
ing of the 13th. of May. They were still
without a denned plan. Argyle had the nominal com-
mand, but was either ill or incapable. The young
Hamiltons were eager for a fight, and insisted on de-

1 Drury to Cecil May 12. Mel-
ville writes in his Memoirs : ' Some
said that the Archhishop of St
Andrews was minded to cause the
Queen to marry the Lord Hamilton

(i.e. Arbroath) in case they had ob-
tained the victory ; and I was since
informed that the Queen herself
feared the same, and therefore she
pressed to convey her to Dumbarton.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 323

fying Murray by marching close to Glasgow. Their
numbers in all were about six thousand, of whom the
Hamiltons and their kinsmen made more than half.
The Regent, well informed by spies of their intended
movement^, was ready to receive them. They took the
road by the south bunk of the Clyde, and two miles
from Glasgow they came on Murray, strongly posted
at Langside. He had brought but a part of his force
with him. He had only two hundred horse and four
thousand foot all told ; but they were tried soldiers,
armi'd half of them with harquebusses. He had taken up
his position at his leisure. From the ridge of Langside
hill a long straggling village descended in the direction
in which the Queen was approaching. The Regent had
occupied the cottages and farm-buildings on each side
of the street as far as it reached. His main body
spread out on the brow at the higher end, and there he
wailed to be attacked. The enemy were long in coming
up. Argylehad fallen fainting from his horse, malice
said ' for fault of courage and spirit.' It was too late to
choose another commander, and after an hour's delay,
losing the little order with which they had started,
they plunged on, Lord Claud Hamilton and Sir James
Hamilton of Evandale, leading. No attempt was made
to turn Murray's position, though it might easily have
i done. Up the lane they came, horse and foot to-
y-ether, a mere huddling crowd, till they were between
the houses, when the harquebuss-men at close quarters
poured in their fire from lx>hind the walls. Still they
struggled forward. The leading companies, though

324 REIGN OF ELIZABETH [CH. 50.

desperately cut up, forced their way at last through,
the village to the open ground above, where they were
faced by Murray's solid lines ; and there, for three-
quarters of an hour they stood and fought. Their
spears crossed and locked so thickly that the smoking
pistols which those behind flung over the heads of their
comrades in their enemies' faces, were caught as they
fell upon the level shafts. The Hamiltons' artillery —
some field-pieces which were following in the rear — be-
gan to open ; but after the first round a shot from a
gun of the Regent's killed the officer in command ; an
artilleryman dropped his linstock in the confusion,
which blew up the powder waggon.1

Lord Herries, with a squadron of horse, at first had
better fortune. Sweeping round up the hill to the left,
he fell on the rear of the Regent's right wing, sent
Ochiltree half-dead to the ground with a sword- stroke,
badly wounded Hume, and was driving all before him,
when Grange, Lindsay, and Douglas of Lochleven came
to the rescue, checked his short success, and hurled him
back by the way that he came.

All was lost then. The Hamiltons had stood as long
as there was hope of help coming to them, but when
they saw Herries fly, they too broke, scattered, and ran.
A party of Highlanders, who had hung hitherto about
the skirts of the fight, now flung themselves with whoops
and yells upon the fugitives, and but for Murray's
prompt humanity would have destroyed the whole of

1 Drury to Cecil, May 15 : Cotton. MSS. CALIQ. C. i.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 325

them. Instantly however Murray sent orders over
the field that no more blood should be shed.1 Young
Ochiltree had Lord Seton down, and would have killed
him in revenge for his father, but the Regent himself
struck Ochiltree's sword out of his hand. There was no
pursuit, and the loss of life, considering the sharpness
of the fighting, was small. A hundred and forty
Harailtons were killed, shot chiefly in the village, and
twice as many more were wounded ; but the rout was
utter and complete. The Queen's ' army ' was gone
into the air ; the guns were taken ; Seton, llosse, Evan-
dale, Montgomery, Cassilis, two sons of the Archbishop
of St Andrews, and three hundred, ' all of the surname
of Hamilton/ were prisoners. Eglinton hid himself
till nightfall in the straw in an outhouse, and then fled
iu the darkness. Huntly, who was coming up to join
the Queen, and was too late for the battle, turned about
and rode for the North. Two days later Hamilton Castle
surrendered, and the Regent was engaged in punishing
his own men who had continued to plunder, and in
granting free pardons to such of his enemies as had
fallen into his hands. It would have been better for
Scotland had he given them that ' justice' which ho
gave the Border thieves. Among them — the name
should be noted — was Hamilton of Bothwellhauorh.*

1 ' Le Comte de Murray pria
ceulx de sa compagnic de s'ubstenir
dYtl'iuion du sang, autrement tous
les gens de pied estans en plus grand
nombrc quc ceulx de cheval eussent
cntiercnu'iiti'stcik-taictz.' — Afertise-

ment d'Escosse du xvi de May : TEU-
LET, vol. ii. All accounts agree on
Murray's conduct.

2 Account of the battle of Lang-
side : MtiS. Scotland, Roll* //««.«.

326 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

Mary Stuart had watched the battle from a hill some
half-mile distant, with Fleming, Boyd, and young Max-
well, a son of Lord Herries, remaining to guard her.
They had waited till they saw the Hamiltons broken,
and they had been seen then to gallop off together, no
one at first knew whither. Maitland, loyal, whatever
his faults, to Scotland and Scotland's interests, wrote to
Cecil that there was again ' a breathing time.' If
Elizabeth would now support the Eegent, France would
leave them to themselves, and all would again go well.
If not — if there was to be more uncertainty, more
talk of the rights of sovereigns, more insisting upon
mediation — he entreated Cecil, for God's sake, to
' bring his mistress to deal plainly with them, that they
might know what she meant, and to what they were to
trust.' l

To ask Elizabeth ' to deal plainly ' was to ask the
winds to say from what quarter they were about to
blow. Rumour, which carried to Berwick the first
news of Murray's victory, brought with it a report
that the Queen of Scots was in Dumbarton. Bedford
sent an express to the Eegent to tell him he must at
once capture the place at whatever cost, before his mis-
tress had time to interfere with him.2

The course which would be taken either in France
or England was utterly uncertain. It was only known
that the northern counties — Northumberland, Durham,
Westmoreland, and Yorkshire, swarming as they were

1 Maitland to Cecil, May 21 : Scotch MSS. Jtolls House.
2 De Silva to Philip, May 22 : MSS. Simancas,

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 327

with Catholics — were in the wildest excitement. They
knew as yet only of the Queen of Scots' escape, and were
lighting bonfires everywhere to celebrate it.1 With
Kli/nbeth's sanction, or perhaps without it, they would
be ready, when they heard of her defeat, for any instant
action. And whither had the Queen of Scots gone?
Humour, as usual, had strayed far from the mark. She
Lad meant, even after the defeat, to reach Dumbarton,
If possible ; but she had left the field too late. The
country had risen, and all the roads were beset. Pea-
sants, as she struggled along the by-lanes, cut at her
with their reaping-hooks. The highway was occupied
by Murray's horse. Harassed — for once terrified — for
she knew what would be her fate if she fell again into
the hands of the Confederates — she turned south, and
with six followers, those who had been with her on the
hill, and Livingston, George Douglas, and the found-
ling page, who had contrived to rejoin her, she made
for Galloway. There, in the country of Lord Herries,
she would be safe for a week or two at least, and the
\vould be open to her if she wished to leave Scotland.
By cross-paths, by woods and moors, she went, as if
death was behind her — ninety-two miles without alight-
ing from her horse.- 31 any a wild gallop she had had
already for her life. She had ridden by moonlight in
two hours from Holyrood to Dunbar, after the murder

1 John Nichols to Cecil, May 22 :

Scotland.

2 Her own words are, ' Quatre
vingt ct doiize milles a travers
champs sans m' arrester ou descen-

dre.'— Mary Stuart to the Cardinal
of Lorraine, June 21 : LABANOFF,
vol. ii. But she did not invariably
tell the truth. She must at least
have changed ho:

328 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

of Rizzio ; she "bad gone in a night from Lochleven to
Hamilton ; but this, fated to be her last adventure of
this kind, was the most desperate of all. Then she had
clear hope before her — now there was nothing but
darkness and uncertainty. At night she slept oil the
bare ground ; for food she had oatmeal and buttermilk.
On the third day after the battle she reached Dundren-
nan Abbey on the Solway.1

Whither next ? Herries, who had followed her
with de Beaumont as fast as horses could carry them,
said that he would undertake to keep her safely where
she was for forty days at least. She could communicate
meanwhile with her friends, and could then either go
round by water to Dumbarton, or wherever else she
pleased. De Beaumont was of the same opinion. Her
party in Scotland would rally to her if she remained in
the country ; or, if they did not, she could make her
way at any moment to France.2

But the Border gentlemen — if such a word as gen-
tlemen may be so misused — were already speculating
how best to make their peace with the Regent. They
had felt the weight of his hand once, and were in no
haste for a second experiment. Mary Stuart doubted
Herries' power much, and she was not entirely confident
of his loyalty ; while she had no good feeling towards
de Beaumont, who had pressed the Arbroath marriage

1 Dundrennan is ninety miles
from Langsidc by the nearest road.
Mary Stuart for safety went across
the country and made the distance
longer, but her story is not very

consistent. She says she was out
three nights, yet she was certainly
at Dundrennan on the I5th.

2 De Silva to Philip, June 5 :
MSS, Simaucas.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 329

on her, or towards the Government which de Beaumont
represented. She was not ignorant of the kind inten-
tions of her mother-in-law towards her at the time of
her first imprisonment. She was afraid, with good
reason, that if Catherine saw her way to the restoration
of French influence in Scotland, no interest of hers
would be a serious obstacle. If she trusted herself in
1'iiris, some cloister door might open for her, from which
escape would be less easy than from Lochleven.

With_an_impulse which appeared sudden, yet which
commended itself to her deliberate judgment, she re-
solved neither to continue under the doubtful protection
of Ilerrics, nor to sail for France or Dumbarton, but
to throw herself on the gc-nen>.Mty of her 8J8ter_pf
England, — oi' that Elizabeth whose crown she had
claimed, whose policy she had thwarted, whose subjects
she had tampered with ; whom, till her love for Both-
well had for a time suspended her political passion,
the most intense desire of her heart had been to humble
into the dust.

Their relative positions would not at first sight have
seemed to advise a step of such importance ; yet the
arguments which told against the venture, told also on
the other side. Elizabeth had every reason to fear and
dislike her ; yet Elizabeth, before her troubles, had
been in favour of her succession, and had since been
her most conspicuous friend. Elizabeth had threatened
that if a hair of her head were touched, she would
harry Scotland with fire and sword. Elizabeth had
refused to re-cognize the Regent's government. To the

330 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

last day of her imprisonment Elizabeth had repeated
her promises of help, and with money as well as words,
had kept alive the spirits of her party. She had neg-
lected her obvious interests, she' had quarrelled with
her most trusted ministers, because they would not go
along with her. Whatever had been her motives —
whether pity for the sufferings of a sister-queen, or a
disbelief in the charges brought against her, or a
dread of countenancing an example of rebellion which
might be turned against herself — she alone of all the
European Sovereigns had interfered to prevent the
Lords from going to the extremities to which they
were inclined.

Mary Stuart had not received the message sent
through Leighton, and Elizabeth's second letter of ad-
monition, like the first, unfortunately never reached its
destination. But that too would have made but little
difference so long as Elizabeth^ attitude towards her
remained substantially favourable. She probably but
half understood Elizabeth's character ; she underrated
her ability, and she misconstrued her eccentricities
into weakness ; and with a just confidence in her own
extraordinary powers, she might think that she had but
to appear at the English Court to carry all before her.
The English Catholics had ever been devoted to her,
and she could still count her adherents among them by
thousands. More than half the Peers and two-thirds
of the country- gentlemen had long determined on her as
Elizabeth's successor ; and though her late misdoings
had shaken and divided them, yet the mystery which

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 331

had been observed in keeping back the proofs of her
guilt had created doubts where none existed ; and
Kli/abeth's repeated trifling with their desire for her
marriage had driven them back, in spite of themsel
towards the person on whom they had before united.
Mary Stuart knew all this; she knew the political and
spiritual interests which were involved in her well-
doing, and she might easily believe that once present
among persons who were so anxious to think favourably
of her, with her passionate eloquence she could convert
her faults into virtues, and represent herself as an in-
nocent sufferer for others' crimes.

It might seem too that while she had all to gain, she
could lose nothing. Elizabeth, at worst, could but re-
fu<e to receive her, and allow her a free passage to the
Continent. She was, or believed herself to be, in pre-
sent danger of capture and death ; while across the
Border she would be in absolute security. The very
boldness of the hazard suited her daring temperament.
She saw herself in imagination kneeling at Elizabeth's
feet before the assembled barons of England, an injured
and beautiful suppliant flying for protection against
her rebellious subjects ; a few passionate words would
dispel the calumnies which clouded her fame; a thou-
sand swords would leap from their scabbards to avenge
her, and she would return in triumph to Scotland es-
corted by the English chivalry.

Such seem to have been her feelings, as afterwards at
intervals they broke from her; and it was to no purpose
that the cooler judgment of Herries laid before her

332

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 50.

the opposing possibilities. Elizabeth might feel and
speak strongly, yet her acts might correspond ill with
her words. She might mean kindly, but in moment-
ous affairs of State, the conduct of governments was deter-
mined by interest, and feeling had little to do with it.1

Mary Stuart however had a supreme confidence in
herself, which could not be shaken. Herries sent over
by her orders to one of the Lowthers, who was governor
of Carlisle under Lord Scrope, to inquire if he would
receive her. She wrote herself to Elizabeth
to say, that being driven from her kingdom
by her subjects, she threw herself on her sister's hospi-
tality ; 2 and giving herself but one night to rest at
Dimdrennan, without waiting for an answer even from
Lowther, without a change of clothes or the commonest
necessaries of life, the next morning, Sunday the i6th
of May, she embarked in an open fishing^Eioat, crossed
the Sblway, and landed in the evening at Workington.
Herries went with her, with Fleming, Livingston,
George Douglas, and a dozen more. The secret of her
rank could not be kept. She had a quiet night, and in the

1 The Queen of Scots was not
alone in her expectations. The
French ambassador in London writes
on the 22nd of May : — ' Aucuns
m'ont voulu dire que si la Reyne
d'Angleterrc n'est surmontee etvain-
cue par une obstinee deliberation
et remonstrance des siens, qu'elle
tiendra tousjours ladicte Dame
d'Escosse pres d'elle, avec toutes les
courtoysies et faveurs dont elle se
pourra adviser. Mais ceulx la fondent

leur discours selon mon faible juge-
nient sur les choses apparentes et sur
les propoz qui pour ung temps ont
course de leur entretien et amytie
comme si au gouvernement des gran-
des estatz et principaultez les par-
ticulieres affections debvoient avoir
quelque lieu.' — M. de la Forest au
Roy de France, May 22 ; TEULET,
vol. ii.

2 Mary Stuart to Elizabeth, May
15 : LABANOPF, vol. ii.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 333

morning she had time to write again to Eliza-
beth, painting her desolate condition, and
begging permission to repair immediately to her pre-
sence.1 But the news of her adventurous arrival spread
swiftly among the Cumberland squires, who hurried
into the town with their offers of service ; and in the
evening Lowther came from Carlisle to escort her with
him to the castle there. He was a loyal subject, but he
was a Catholic, and, like all his family, had been well
disposed in past times to her title. To him she was the
second person in the realm, though with her good
name a little clouded, and he thought himself bound to
treat her as a princess, till more particular instructions
should come to him from London. The story of her
coming flew from lip to lip. Town and village, farm
and manor-house, all over the northern counties were
frantic with enthusiasm. The sons of the Pilgrims of
Grace, who for years had fixed their eyes on her as
their coming deliverer, who had corresponded with her,
and all but conspired with her, came pouring into Car-
lisle. Her most eager hopes could not have been more
brightly realized than they seemed in those first days.
She held a little court in the castle, where all who
wished to see her were received and welcomed. She
knew their names, and had a word for every one.
Eloquent and voluble, she rushed to the story of the
murder, using the moments wisely while she had them,

' Mary Stuart to Elizabeth, May 17. From Working-ton ; LABAXOKK,

vol. ii.

334

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. $0.

and pouring out her indignant exculpations.1 Among
the rest came Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland,2
with some Fairfaxes and Vavasours, to pay his homage ;
and it seemed to Percy, after he had spoken with her,
that Lowther was too mean a host for so great a visitor,
and that it would be well if he were to carry her with him
to Alnwick. He had come prepared with the necessary
authority ; so strangely men's heads were turned, that
the Council of York had given him a warrant under
their hand and seal to take possession of her person,
and Mary Stuart, of course, desired nothing better.
Fortunately for himself, Lowther retained sufficient
sense to insist on waiting till he had heard from the
Queen. The Earl was violent, 'used great threateiiings,
and very evil words and language/ 3 but he was obliged
to go away as he came.

So far however this was the one check of the suc-
cess of those first few days, which might well have
seemed to justify the wisdom of Mary Stuart's enter-
prise. In London, both Queen and council were in the
utmost perplexity. They were taken utterly by sur-
prise, and no kind of plan of conduct had been formed
beforehand for so unlooked-for a contingency. Eliza-

1 'Many gentlemen of divers
shires, here near adjoining within
your realm, have heard her daily
defences and excuses of her inno-
cency, with her great accusation of
her enemies, very eloquently told
before our coming hither.'— Lord
Scrope and Sir F. Knowles to Eliza-

beth, May 29 : Cotton. MSS. CALIQ
i. 76.

2 Son of Sir Thomas Percy, exe-
cuted after the Pilgrimage of Grace.

3 Lowther to Cecil, May 22 ; Sir
F. Knowles to the Earl of Northum-
berland, May 25 : MSS. QUEEN OF
SCOTS, Rolls House.

1568.3 FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 33$

beth's personal impulse was to receive her visitor at
Court as her letter requested, and to treat her as a
Sovereign. The French and Spanish ambassadors,
who both suspected Elizabeth's sincerity, and therefore
watched her closely, satisfied themselves that this was
her serious wish, and that, left to herself, she would
have done exactly what the Queen of Scots had calcu*
lated on.

'The Queen/ said de Silva, ' has always shown her-
self favourable to the Queen of Scots, and now takes
her part with the council.' l t The Queen/ said M. de
la Forest, ' supports the Queen of Scots' cause with all
her power. She tells her ministers that she shall be
entertained as her rank and greatness deserve.' *

But both de Silva and M. de la Forest alike added
that Elizabeth's best advisers were altogether at vari-
ance with her. To support her opinion, she had sent
for the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Arundel, and the other
leaders of the Catholic and semi-Catholic party ; she
had refused to come to a resolution without them ; but
the ambassadors believed that the objections to the
course which she proposed were so considerable, that
she would be forced to give way.

A paper remains in Cecil's hand which shows that
he had at once comprehended the situation in all its
aspects.

The first necessity was to ascertain whether the
Queen of Scots was or was not a falsely accused person.

1 De Silva to Philip, May 22 : MSS. Simancas.
' M. de la Forest au Hoy, May 22 : TEULET, vol. ii.

J36 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.50.

If she was innocent, no measures could be too imme-
diate or too decisive in her favour. She must be in-
stantly restored to her throne, and enabled to punish
those who had slandered her character as a pretext for
their own rebellion. But this possibility Cecil evidently
entertained but faintly. The weight of the difficulty
lay in choosing what to do with her if she was guilty —
guilty, as all the world at first believed her to be, and
as every one still believed her to be, except those who
were interested in finding her to be innocent. What-
ever might be the theoretic immunities of Sovereigns,
the most determined champion of divine right could
not but see a wide difference between the claims of an
innocent and maligned lady and those of a cold-blooded
murderess and adulteress. Catholics were as little loyal
as Protestants when it suited their convenience, and
Knox himself had not preached the responsibility of
princes more emphatically than Cardinal Pole. To
force such a woman as the Queen of Scots was said to
be upon an unwilling people, was an outrage upon the
unwritten code of common sense which no formula
could be strained to justify. Had she been merely the
Sovereign of an independent people, unconnected with
England in any way, Elizabeth might have declined to
interfere ; she might have allowed her unwelcome guest
to return as she had come, and to seek the assistance
elsewhere which she felt herself unpermitted to give.

But setting aside the semi-feudal authority which
the English Crown asserted over Scotland, the two
countries had been connected since the Reformation

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STVART TO ENGLAND. 337

in relations too close to be now disowned. England
was the natural guardian of Scotch Protestantism, and
the life of England itself depended on the keeping out
of Scotland those foreign armies which, if England
would not take up her cause, the Queen of Scots would
seek undoubtedly to introduce there. Moreover, those
rights in England, on which the Queen of Scots so
much insisted, entailed obligations along with them.
She was heir-presumptive to the crown, and not heir-
presumptive only, but * she had openly made challenge
to that crown, not as second person after the Queen's
Majesty, but before her.'1 She had not yet ratified the
treaty by which she retired from these pretensions, and
should she now pass into France, 'all the old perils
would be revived with the more extremity : her stomach
kindled with ire and anger vindicative, and her bold-
ness to attempt the more, upon the opinion that she had
of a great party in England — some for religion, some
for her title, others for discontent and love of change.'
She would ' marry some foreign prince ; ' ' the old
league between France and Scotland would be renewed
to the sworn malice of England ' — ' the danger being
greater because England and Burgundy were then knif
together/ and now England was without a friend.
France had possession of Calais, and with a few galleys
could block the passage of the Straits. English trade
would be destroyed, ' without which the Queen's Go-
veriniu-nt could not stand/ while the introduction of

1 Things to be considered on the Queen of Scots' coming to England ;
in Cecil's hand: Printed by ANDERSON.

Y<>!.. vm. 22

338 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

artillery had revolutionized war : the longbow — the
great English weapon — had become useless, and France
was now the stronger of the two countries.

Yet, on the other hand, to detain the Queen of Scots
in England seemed equally dangerous. ' She would
practise and make a party to seize the crown at the
first opportunity.' * She would increase the boldness
of all evil subjects, both in causes of religion and all
other ; ' while the Catholic Powers would have a fail
pretext for interfering, if a princess, whose crimes they
would ignore, whose independence they would insist
upon, was kept as a prisoner in a country to which she
had come of her own free will. Her old claim upon
the crown and the yet unratified treaty of Leith would
be an answer in law to their complaints ; but the large
number of Catholics in England, and their dangerous
humour, made extremities undesirable ; and, notwith-
standing the scandal, supposing the guilt of the Queen
of Scots to be proved, the most prudent course would
be / to devise how to cover the dishonour of the crime,
and how to settle her in her realm with such kind of
government as might preserve the same from the tyranny
of the French, and continue the accord between the two
Realms/ Difficult as this would be, it on the whole
promised best for England, provided the Protestants in
Scotland could be induced to consent. To reconcile
them to it, means would be taken to continue the Earl of
.Murray in the reality of power ; the Protestant religion
should be established there in complete legal form with
the consent of the Sovereign ; the treaty of Leith should

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 339

be accepted, and the Queen of Scots should bind her-
self not to marry without the consent of Elizabeth.1

In any previous century in the world's history — in
Rome or Greece, in the ages of Faith in mediceval
Europe, or in England in the golden era of the Plan-
tngenets — such a difficult)' would have been disposed of
more swiftly and more effectively. It is a proof of the
change of times, that the old methods of getting rid of
pretenders to thrones were not thought of, or were
thought of only that means might be taken to avert the
suspicion that they had been resorted to. Elizabeth's
first care was to order that thd Queen of Scots' food
should be prepared by her own servants, lest an acci-
dental illness should be imputed to poison.9 The Queen
of Scots was not to be imprisoned and then to disappear ;
she was not even to be treated as the unhappy Lady
Catherine Grey had been treated under a provocation
infinitely less. But — setting aside formalities, and look-
ing only at the essential features of the case — the beau-
tiful and interesting sufferer was manifestly a dangerous
animal which had run into a trap, difficult to keep, yet
not to be allowed to go abroad till her teeth were drawn
and her claws pared to the quick.

Yet Cecil could very imperfectly as yet convince his
mistress. Elizabeth was troubled witli her theories of

1 Things to be considered on the
Queen of Scots' coming to England :

AM>! i.- \'s Collection.

2 ' Dixo me la Reyna qtie no le
'quitiiscn los officiates eseoceces qu<>

tenia para el servicio de sti mesa,

comida y bebida, porque si suc-
cediese alguna desgracia de enferme-
dad natural no se imputarfe & otra
cosa.'— DC Silva to Philip, June 5 :
MSS. Sifatnicas.

34o KEIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

sovereignty ; troubled with the recollection of her
promises, which she had found it more easy to shake off
when there was only an Earl of Murray to be betrayed ;
troubled with her personal feelings for the Queen of
Scots ; troubled with dislike of Puritans and fear of
Catholics ; troubled generally with an inability to
grapple with any question in its straightforward bear-
ings.

The accounts of the fine Court which was being held
at Carlisle possibly quickened her resolutions. She was
brought to see that the murder must be privately in-
vestigated ; that she must abandon her intention of re-
ceiving the Queen of Scots at Court till the Queen of
Scots had established her innocence, and meanwhile
that she should not escape. A guard of 200 men was
sent from Berwick to Carlisle Castle — men so faithful,
ihat if there was any attempt at flight, Elizabeth ex-
pressed a fear that they would make short work of their
charge.1

She told the Spanish ambassador that the Queen of
Scots should be treated as a princess, but with less dis-
tinction than would have been shown her had she come
to England with an unblemished reputation. Lord
Scrope, who was in London at the time, returned in
haste to relieve Lowther of his command. Elizabeth
wrote briefly to the Queen of Scots to say that for the

1 Dio me &. entender que habian I Reyna se quisiere salir por alguna
venido a Carlisle docientos arcabu- parte, y la viesen, la matarian.— De

zeros y todos tan fieles a su servicio
que tenia temor de que si aquella

Silva to Philip, June 5 : MSS. Si-

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 341

present she could not see her, but that her cause should
receive proper consideration ; and Sir Francis Knowles,
— Elizabeth's cousin — whose keen, hard sense would be
proof against Mary Stuart's reported fascinations, was
sent with Scrope to take charge of her person, to com-
municate his mistress's intentions, and to report upon
her character.

A sharp note from Cecil had already checked the
assiduities of the northern gentlemen. Sir F. Knowles
on his way down read a lecture to Northumberland and
the Council of York for their forwardness.
On the evening of the 28th of May he arrived
at Carlisle; having been met six miles out by Lord
Herries, who was eager to hear whether his own fears
or his mistress's more sanguine visions were to be con-
firmed. Together they rode back to the town, and EK-
zabeth's minister stood in Mary Stuart's presence.

' We found her,' he wrote to the Queen, * in her
chamber of presence, ready to receive Tis, when we de-
clared unto her your Highnesses sorrowfulness for her
lamentable misadventure. We found her in her answers
to have an eloquent tongue and a discreet head ; and it
seemeth by her doings she hath stout courage and liberal
heart adjoined thereto. After our delivery of your
Highness's letter, she fell into some passion with the
water in her eyes, and therewith she drew us with her
into her bedchamber, where she complained for that
your Highness did not answer her expectation for ad-
mitting her into your presence forthwith.'

Her own declarations of innocence she had supposed

342 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 56.

would be taken as sufficient answer to the charges
against her. As she found thai, there was to be an in-
quiry, she forgot that when she wished to work on Eli-
zabeth's feelings she had represented herself as flying
out of her realm < to save her life ; ' she now said ' that
she had come freely, and not of necessity, and she desired
to be allowed to pass into France, to seek aid at other
princes' hands/

Knowles told her that England could not allow a
French force to be landed in Scotland ; but if she would
throw herself without reserve upon Elizabeth, ' all con-
venient means would be used for her relief and comfort/
whether she could prove her innocence or not.

But she had not come to England to seek ' relief
and comfort ' qualified with the word convenient. Im-
pressed by her evident spirit and daring, Knowles saw
at a glance that she was a person with whom it would
be dangerous to trifle. Elizabeth had ordered him to
prevent her. escape, yet not to treat her as a prisoner.
Difficulties of many kinds would arise from so ambigu-
ous a commission, and after his first interview he re-
commended that she should be offered the alternate
either of returning to Scotland as she had come, or of
remaining with her own consent in England till an ar-
rangement could be made for her. For himself he be-
lieved that she would choose to remain. She would
know that if she returned, a hint to the Earl of Murray
would render her escape to France almost impossible.
To keep her against her will in England, a prisoner yet
not a prisoner, so close to the Borders, would be alto-

FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 343

gether impossible ; and to carry her ' further into the
realm might be a way to a dangerous sedition.' 1

The more Knowles saw of Mary Stuart the more he
was struck with her — struck with her courage, struck
with her contempt for idle form and ceremony, her
downright human force and vigour. He spoke to her
with most Puritan plainness on her past history. She
did not avoid the subject, but burst habitually into
viol i'n t invectives against her brother and the Lords.

1 1 thought to myself/ he wrote a day later, * that if
I should not object somewhat to make the matter dis-
putable whether the Lords did well or not, that then
she would be the more clamorously offended with your
Majesty if you should not answer her requests accord-
ing to her expectation. Wherefore I objected to her
that in some cases princes might be deposed by their
subjects lawfully—' as, if a Prince should fall into mad-
ness— and/ said I, * what difference is there between
lunacy and cruel murdering ? for the one is an evil
humour proceeding of melancholy, and the other is an
evil humour proceeding of choler. The question is,
whether your Grace deserved to be put from the Go-
vernment or not ; for if your Grace should be guilty
of any such odious crime as deserved deposal, how
should they be blamed that have deposed you ? ' Hi-iv-
upMU her Grace began to clear herself after her accus-
tomed manner. The tears fell from her eyes. I said
vour Highness would be gladdest in the world to see

Knowles to Elizabeth, May 29 : Cotton.

344

REIGN GF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

her Grace well purged of this crime, that thereby your
Grace might aid her fully and amply to her advance-
ment to the Government again/ 1

Mary Stuart never resented direct speak-
ing. After a fortnight's experience Knowles
wrote to Cecil : — ' This lady and Princess is a notable
woman. She seemeth to regard no ceremonious hon-
our besides the acknowledgment of her estate royal.
She showeth a disposition to speak much, to be bold,
to be pleasant, to be very familiar. She showeth
a great desire to be revenged of her enemies. She
shows a readiness to expose herself to all perils ic
hope of victory. She desires much to hear of hardi-
ness and valiancy, commending by name all approved
hardy men of her country, although they be her
enemies ; and she concealeth no cowardice even in
her friends. The thing she most thirsteth after is
victory ; and it seemeth to be indifferent to her to have
her enemies diminished either by the sword of her
friends, or by the liberal promises and rewards of her
purse, or by divisions and quarrels among themselves.
So that for victory's sake pain and peril seem pleasant
unto her ; and in respect of victory wealth and all
things seem to her contemptuous and vile. Now what
is to be done with such a lady and Princess, or whether
such a Princess and lady be to be nourished in our
bosom, or whether it be good to halt and dissemble
with such a lady, I refer to your judgment. The

1 Knowles to Elizabeth, May 30 : Printed by ANDERSON.

1 568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 345

plainest way is the most honourable in my opinion.
The easiest way is to aid and countenance the Regent
in time; and if these spots in the Queen's coat be
manifest, the plainer and sooner her Highness doth
reveal her discontentation therewith, the more honour-
able it will be ; and it is the readiest way to stop the
mouths of factious murmuring subjects.' l

' The plainest way was the more honourable way/
60 Maitland had said also, perhaps with a reserve in
favour of himself and his friends. So without any re-
serve had Cecil, Bedford — every honourable minister
that Elizabeth possessed — declared to her from the first;
but Elizabeth had not listened, and did not intend to
listen.

Mary Stuart's single anxiety was to gain admission
into Elizabeth's presence. She knew instinctively that
if she could obtain that, she would obtain everything.
After reflecting for a night on the letter brought by
Knowles, she determined to send Herries and Fleming
to London to give such explanations as would satisfy
the Queen if she wished to be satisfied, and to say that
if the Queen would consent to see her, she was able to
clear herself fully, and only wished for an opportunity
to do it ; that, however, time was pressing ; she had come
to England for assistance against her insurgent subjects;
she had preferred to seek for it from Elizabeth, because
she looked upon her as her truest friend. Elizabeth
moreover was in a sense the cause of her misfortunes,

Knowles to Cecil, June u : ANDERSON.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 50.

for the Lords who had now driven her from her country
were those whom she had pardoned and taken back into
favour at Elizabeth's intercession. Others would assist
her if Elizabeth would not ; but she turned first to her
neighbour and kinswoman. She made no conditions.
'She placed her cause unreservedly in Elizabeth's hands,
and she believed she would not appeal to her in vain.
But help would be useless if it was not immediate ; and
if Elizabeth for any reason declined to interfere, so as
she had come to England relying on many times re-
peated promises of friendship, she trusted she would
be allowed at least a free passage through the country
to go where she pleased.' l

With this message, and with an anxiety not wholly
gratuitous for the possible consequences to themselves,2
the two noblemen started for London ; Herries intend-
ing to remain there, Fleming, if he could obtain per-
mission, to go on to Paris. Herries was to assure
Elizabeth that the Queen of Scots preferred her friend-
ship to that of all the world. Fleming was to tell
Catherine de Medici that the Queen of Scots, being
forbidden by Elizabeth to seek help from France, was
obliged for the present to seem to submit ; but France
was her natural ally. Should Elizabeth trifle with her,
she entreated that 3000 French troops might be sent

1 ' Me fiant en .vostre amytie
pour vos frequentes lettres.' —Mary
Stuart to Elizabeth, May 28 : LA-

BANOFF, Vol. ii.

2 Knowles told Cecil that ' if her
Majesty cad mean to detain the

Queen of Scots at Carlisle, he should
beware that the Lord Herries re-
turned not thither again.' —Knowles
to Cecil, May 31 ; Cotton. MSS.
CALIG. B. ii.

: 568.] FLIGHT OF MARY S TUAR T TO ENGLAND. 34 7

immediately to Dumbarton, and she herself, as soon ;»>
she could extricate herself, would make haste to Paris.
Her friends in Scotland meanwhile were in urgent nrrd
of money, her dowry was three years in arrears, aiul
she requested the Cardinal of Lorraine to send her
twenty-five or thirty thousand pounds immediately
through some London agent.1

Elizabeth, on receiving the Queen of Scots' letter,
construed it into a consent that there should be a com-
plete investigation, which she assumed or seemed to
assume must issue in the condemnation of the Lords.
She told Herries that she intended to restore the Queen
of Scots to her throne. She sent a Mr Middlemore, a
gentleman of the Household, to Murray, requiring him
4 to abstain from all acts of hostility against the Quern's
friends, both by law and arms/ and ' to impart to her
plainly and sufficiently the grounds of his proceeding '
She addressed him as a criminal on his defence, called
to answer for a rebellion against his sovereign.2 But
she refused Lord Fleming a passport to France. * She
was not wise/ she said, 'but she was not so wholly
bereft of her senses as to allow the Chatellain of Dum-
barton/ the one fortress in Scotland which was open to
reception of a French force, to go on a mission the ob-
ject of which could be only the introduction of the
French into the country.3

1 Instructions to Lord Fleming,
May 30 : LABANOFF, vol. ii.

2 Elizabeth to Murray, June 8 :
MSS. Scotland, Sells House

3 Elizabeth to theQueeii of Scots,
June 30 : MSS. QUEEN OF SOOTS,
Soils House.

348 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

A second set of instructions to Middlemore in Cecil's
hand qualified towards Murray the Queen's severity.
The interdiction of further hostilities was explained into
a- friendly advice ' not to hazard himself and his friends
by way of battle/ ' but to be content that the universal
controversies might be ended otherwise than by shed-
ding of blood : ' if 'he should find his adversaries bent
to extremity and that there was no other way for de-
fence of himself but to levy his force/ Elizabeth ' meant
not, in respect that he had heretofore remitted himself
to her orders, to suffer him to be oppressed/ l The two
attitudes, inconsistent with each other, were compli-
cated still more by a private message which Wood,
Murray's secretary, had sent down in Cecil's name, that
ne should be quick in his measures, and if possible crush
the Hamilton s and their faction before Middlemore
arrived. • ••'•*.-«i

The Regent's experience of the Queen of England
must have prevented him from feeling surprise at such
ambiguous orders, however much it perplexed his posi-
tion, and left the door open to endless recrimination in
the future. He had been exerting himself to the ut-
most since Langside in quieting the country and tramp-
ling out the disaffection. It remained his duty as a
ruler to prevent open violation of public law. He
continued to repress and punish overt acts of disorder,
giving his proceedings as little as possible a political
character; while to Elizabeth he announced that he

1 Elizabeth to Middlemore, June 8 : MSS. Scotland.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 349

desired nothing better than to place himself and his
friends in her hands. * The further her Highness dipped
into the matter, the further she would find herself re-
solved/ the more completely she would be satisfied * that
the noblemen of Scotland had not entered upon this
enterprise without good ground and occasion.'1

Perhaps to give Murray more time, the same mes-
senger who carried the Queen's directions to him was
sent round by Carlisle to the Queen of Scots. To her
Elizabeth could but repeat what she had said already.
'She could not receive her in such sort as she would it'
she were not taxed with a horrible crime ; ' but she in-
tended to take her and her cause into her protection,
and according to the justice of her plea would prosecute
her adversaries.

Her communications with Mary Stuart Elizabeth
preferred to keep in her own hands, not trusting them
to Cecil.

' Madam,' so ran the letter with which Middlemore
was charged, ' I have heard at length from my Lord
Herries your desire to defend yourself, in my presence,
from the matter laid to your charge. Oh, Madam !
there is not a creature living who more longs to hear
your justification than myself; not one who would lend
more willing ear to any answer which will clear your
honour. But I cannot sacrifice my own reputation on
your account. To tell you the plain truth, I am already
thought to be more willing to defend your cause than to

1 Murray to Elizabeth, June 22 : JtfSS Scotland.

350 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

open my eyes to see the things of which your subjects
accuse you. Did you but know who the persons are by
whom I ain warned to be on my guard, you would not
think that I could afford to neglect these warnings.
A.nd now, seeing that you are pleased to commit your-
self to my protection, you may assure yourself I will
have that care both of your life and honour, that neither
yourself nor your nearest relations could be more con-
cerned for your interests. On the word of a prince, I
promise you, that neither your subjects, nor any advice
which I may receive from my own councillors, shall
move me to ask anything of you which may endanger
you or touch your honour.

' Does it seem strange to you that you are not al-
lowed to see me ? I entreat you put yourself in my
place. When you are acquitted of this crime I will
receive you with all honour ; till that is done I may
not ; but afterwards, I swear by God, that I shall never
see person with better will, and among all earthly
pleasures I will hold this to be the first.

' The gentleman who will give you this letter will
tell you the commission with which he is charged to
your subjects. I have held no communication with
them since your first imprisonment, nor would I do so
now except for your own advantage. I trust I may
succeed in bringing these sad matters to a good end.
There is no one thing in all the world which I desire SG
much. The sufficiency of the bearer is such that I need
not trouble you with a longer letter. God be with you

1 5<>8. ] FLIGHT OF MAR Y STUAR T TO ENGLAND. 35 1

in all your good actions, and deliver you from those
••vho bear you malice/ l

There spoke Elizabeth herself — Elizabeth and not
Cecil. The Queen represented one aspect of the Go-
vernment, the Minister another. To the Queen Murray
was a rebel — to Cecil he was the saviour of Scotland.
In this and in all the complicated actions of English
policy sometimes one element prevailed, sometimes
another ; sometimes the two interfused, yet never wholly
mingling. The Queen was the imperious sovereign —
Cecil the clear-eyed Protestant statesman ; and thus a
picture is for ever left upon the mind of inconsistency,
hypocrisy, and broken faith; when Elizabeth — only
too often — yielded to her own impulses, and was then
driven to shifts to extricate herself from positions, of
which Cecil's steady sense showed her the- weakness or
the danger.

It was essential that the party in Scotland who were
intriguing to bring over the French should be put down
with the least possible delay. The more completely
Murray could pacify Scotland, the more "easy would be
the intended compromise. Elizabeth might have avowed
as much as this in the face of Europe without danger.
It was essential also that the Queen of Scots' guilt or
innocence should be fully established ; yet Elizabeth
could tell her on the word of a prince that she was in-
viting her to consent to nothing which could affect her

1 Elizabeth to Mary Stuart, June 8 ; MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS, Roll*
House.

352 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. <<; [CH. 50.

honour, as if it was impossible that the inquiry should
terminate unfavourably.

Nor was this all. With her own people Elizabeth,
pursued habitually a course so peculiarly trying, that
the best of them were often tempted to abandon her
service. Particular things became, from time to time,
necessary to be done which she did not choose to order,
and her ministers had to act on their own responsibility,
that she might be able afterwards to disown them.
Scrope and Knowles were directed to see that the Queen
of Scots did not escape ; yet she would give them no
authority to hold her prisoner. Under these circum-
stances she could not be left safely at Carlisle. The
council, with a view simply to her safe keeping, con-
cluded that she must be removed further into the country ;
and Pomfret and Fotheringay had both been thought of.
Elizabeth knew and approved. She directed Middle -
more to persuade the Queen of Scots to consent, by r^-
presenting it as a partial accomplishment of her own
desire to be taken to the Court ; ' so as the cause should
grow, to be advanced to a fuller degree of her own con-
ten tation.'1 If however she refused to go, those in
charge of her were left without direction how to proceed;
they might remove her by force, but only at their own
peril.

If the extreme difficulty of the position may be
allowed to palliate these subterfuges, no such excuse can
be urged for those acts of occasional meanness which

1 Instruction to Middlemore, June 8 : Printed in ANDERSON.

1508. J FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 353

wounded Elizabeth's reputation in the contempt excited
by them more deeply than the most high-handed in-
justice.

In the flight from Langside Mary Stuart had of
course brought no change of dress with her, and neither
Dundrennan nor Carlisle could supply her wardrobe
with ordinary clean linen. She had represented her
condition in her first letter. Elizabeth sent her a couple
of torn shifts, two pieces of black velvet, and two pa its
of shoes.1 The Queen of Scots, herself generous to ex-
travagance, was at first disposed to decline this ext i u-
ordinary contribution to her comfort/ 8 She received it
in silence, with a manner ' which argued rather her
scornful acceptation of the same than grateful ; ' 3 and
Sir Francis Kiiowles, by whom the things were presented,
was obliged for shame to shield his mistress by saying
that he thought 'her Highness's maid had mistaken,
and had sent things necessary for such a maid-servant
as she was herself.'4

The Queen of Scots' bodily necessities were relieved
speedily by the arrival of her own dresses, sent by Mur-
ray from Lochleven. Her own ladies followed to attend
upon her. She had no further inconvenience in this
way ; but Elizabeth, who was in reality her best friend,
who was fighting for her against all her own ministers,

* M. de Montmorin me dice que
lo que se le envio de parte de la
Reyna quando llego fueron dos
camisas mines, y dos piezas de
terciopelo negro y dos pares de
rapatos y no otra cosa.'— De Silva a

su Mag*1, 27 de Junio : MSS. Si-
mancas.

* Knowles to Cecil, June 15 : Cot-
ton. MSS. CALIG. B. ix.

3 Knowles to Cecil, June 12 :
ANDEKSON. 4 Ibid.

VOL. Till. 23

354 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [OH. 50.

and, guilty or innocent, wished only to give her a fresh
chance upon the throne which she had forfeited, with
these poor mean tricks taught her only to mistrust the
sincerity of words so indifferently supported, and still
more fatally to despise her character and underrate her
ability.

' Halting on both knees ' meanwhile, as Knowles and
Scrope described their condition, her guardians had
struggled, till Middlemore arrived, to keep their uneasy
guest in tolerable humour. Large numbers of Scots
came across the Border to see her, in sufficient force, if
they had tried, to overpower the garrison. Twice they
took her hunting, but ' she galloped so fast/ her retinue
were so well horsed, and the Border was so near, that
when she wanted to go out again, they were obliged to
tell her * that she must hold them excused.'1 The coun-
try about Dumfries was under the Maxwells^ and was the
stronghold of her friends. During the troubles of the
winter and spring, wild bands of thieves had swarmed
out of those parts again and again, and harried the
Cumberland marches. They were dangerously near
Carlisle, and Cecil having given a hint to Murray, their
past disturbances were made a pretext for a joint visit-
ation of the Border by the English and Scotch wardens.
Murray came down in person, and Scrope took the
field to act in concert with him. The plea of justice was
real, but it assumed a political meaning. The offenders
who were to suffer were chiefly the tenants of Lord

1 Knowles to Cecil, June 15 : Cotton. MSS. CALIG. B. ix.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 355

Herries. The Queen of Scots exclaimed that it Mas a
bmich of faith. She was answered that it was mere
matter of police. She desired that if the people were
pressed by the Regent they might take refuge in Eng-
land. Scrope told her that he could not depart from
the usual order. When the wardens hunted in pairs it
was to cut off from the thieves the possibility of escape.
If her party were weaker they had better submit. She
flung out like a hot horse as she felt the rein.

* The Queen/ said Knowles, * being dedicate only to
revenge in hope of victory by the aid of strangers,
could not forbear to say that she had liefer all her part v
were hanged than that they should submit to the Earl
of Murray. If she were not detained by force she
would go to Turkey rather than she would have p»
She wished herself again in her own realm to abide all
adventures. Her Highness's council did mean to dally
and delay the time to the advancement of the Earl 'of
Murray's prosperity/1

In this humour Middlemore found her. In saying
that she would commit her cause to Elizabeth, she lia<l
never dreamt of consenting to an investigation into lu«
past conduct. She had meant only that she would ac-
cept Kli/aboth's support in preference to that of France ;
and she had trusted to her own entreaties, or to the
skill of Herries, to have obtained Elizabeth's consent,
either to her coming at once to London, or else to her
I'm- passage into France. Middlemore hud to say to

1 Knowles to Cecil, June 12 : ANDERSON.

356 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50

her, that ' before declaration of her innocency of the foul
fact laid against her/ she could not be received at the
Court. The detention of Fleming and Elizabeth's letter
told the rest. The fair words and fair promises could
not conceal that the cause of her dethronement was to
be examined into; and if her letters were once pro-
duced, it was idle to tell her that her honour would not
Suffer.

She said she would answer to the Queen — let the
Queen admit her to her presence, and hear her scatter
her subjects' calumnies. Middlemore said that for
Elizabeth to receive her, would defeat the purpose ;
'the world \tould say her Majesty was partial, and no
competent judge ; ' ' the other side would not accept
her Majesty's arbitration, and she would be unable to
help her.'

This was still worse : Elizabeth was not to be partial
— 4he other side were to be heard, and would of course
bring out their proofs. Had Mary Stuart been innocent
she would have welcomed the opportunity of the fullest
and freest inquiry — had she been innocent she would
have been the first to insist that the truth should be
dragged out — but the caught bird could only batter its
wings against the bars of its cage in hopeless rage.

She burst ' into great passion and weeping,' com-
plaining of her evil usage. She had no judge but God,
she said ; * none could take upon them to judge princes.'
She 'knew her degree,' and in placing herself in the
hands of Elizabeth, she had meant only to give her own
personal explanation of what had passed. ' I would and

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 357

did mean/ she said, ' to have uttered such matter unto
her as I would have done for no other, nor never yet
did to any. Who can compel me to accuse myself? I
see how things frame evil for me : I have many enemies
about the Queen. If she will not help my misery her-
self, she can do no less than suffer me to pass to other
princes.'

Middlemore made the dishonest suggestion of her
removal from Carlisle. She asked fiercely if she was a
prisoner. He said ' that there was no such thing
meant ; ' but she was not to be played with. Elizabeth,
she said, should gain nothing by keeping her. The
Duke of Chatelherault was heir of Scotland after the
Prince. She would appoint the Duke her deputy, and
he would ' prosecute her quarrel ' with all the power of
France and all the means which money, friends, reli-
gion, hate of England, or any other interest could hold
to her side.1

' To be plain with you/ wrote Knowles,2 ' there is
no fair semblance of speech that seemeth to win credit
with her. This cold dealing will not satisfy her fiery
stomach. It is vanity to think she will be stayed by
courtesy or bridled by fear from bringing the French
into Scotland, or from employing all her force of money,
men of war, and of friendship to satisfy her bloody
appetite.'

' Put away from your mind/ Mary Stuart herself
wrote to Elizabeth, ' put away the thought that I came

1 Middlemore to Cecil, June 14 : I 2 Knowles to Cecil, June 13-
ANIII ::. I Ibid.

358 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

hither to save my life. Neither Scotland nor the world
would have refused me a refuge. I came to recover
my honour and to obtain help to chastise my false ac-
cusers— not to answer these charges against me as if I
were their equal, but myself to accuse them in your
presence. For the cautions which you say you have re-
ceived from great persons, God forbid that I should be
a reproach to you ; but my cause requires haste. Let
me try what other princes can do for me, and no blame
will then rest with you. Restored to my throne by their
hands, I will then come again to you, and defend my
honour for my honour's sake, and not for any need to
answer to my traitor subjects. Innocent as, thank God,
I know myself to be, do not wrong me, having so late
escaped from one prison, by holding me in another ;
with your delays and your uncertainties you hurt me
more than my false enemies. I will defer myself to you
in friendship and goodwill, but never, never to plead my
tause against my subjects, unless they stand before you
m manacles. Madam, I am no equal of theirs, and I
would sooner die than so, by act of mine, declare my-
self.' l

From Mary Stuart Middlemore went on to Murray
He found him on the Border with ' six thousand men
and great artillery,' and he told him that it was the
Queen's pleasure that he should desist from further hos-
tilities. But the Regent was not attacking enemies but
punishing outlaws. Under this plea, in Middlemore's

Mary Stuart to Elizabeth, June 13 (abridged) : LABANOFF, vol. ii,

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUAKT TO ENGLAND. 359

presence, and without remonstrance, he burnt the houses
of Loch invar and another Border gentleman, who were
with the Queen of Scots at Carlisle. Next he read as
sharp a lesson to the Maxwells ; Scrope watching the
marches opposite, and in the English proclamations in
the Border towns recognizing Murray, if not as Regent,
yet as lawful governor of Scotland.1

The change of phrase could not conceal from Marv
Shiart that Murray's authority was virtually acknow-
ledged. Knowles tried to pacify her by saying simply
that her brother was in possession of the Government,
and as such they were obliged to treat with him ; ' lie
had no other countenance than the necessity of the case
did require.' But she saw too plainly what all these
symptoms meant; while she was in Scotland in prison,
Elizabeth had called the Lords rebels, and had helped
the Hamiltons to make a party against them ; now it
was clear eiiDugh that Murray was to be sustained in
power till the impossible time when, after public in-
quiry, she had cleared her own character.

' I would the Regent had her again/ said the per-
plexed Knowles ; * surely I think you shall see her grow
so impatient and so intolerable in her devices and Drac-
i< ' s shortly, that it will be time for her Highness to
plainly and sharply with her.' 3

1 Between the realities and the
pretences of things, Scrope was on
ticklish ground. 'If we had not
ailvi.-od ourselves better,' wrote
Knowles, ' the name of Regent had
been in the proclamations ; but I was
tvonmVd this last night withal in my

bed, and in the morning we altered
it to the name of Governor, and
some other things withal.' — Knowles

to , June 16: Cotton. MSS.

GALIO. C.

2 Knowles to , June 17 : Cot-

ton. J(SS. CALIG. C. Progress of

36o REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

In London, meanwhile, Herri es and Fleming were
finding themselves no less embarrassed. It was no ob-
ject of theirs to obtain the conditional and limited re-
storation of the Queen of Scots with the continued
supremacy in the government of Murray and the Pro-
testants. These, they saw, were the best results which
they could look for from the threatened inquiry, and
they had rather hoped to prevent inquiry altogether.

In an audience on the i yth of June Herries attempted
a protest. His mistress, he said, would have risked the
worst which could befall her in Scotland, had she known
how she would be treated. Elizabeth answered that she
had taken charge of the cause and would go through
with it ; she intended to restore the Queen of Scots to
her crown, either by t appointment ' or by force ; but
she must hear both sides before she would determine the
conditions.

Herries said that she had no right to constitute her-
self a judge between the Sovereign and subjects of a
foreign realm. She replied that she would not quarrel
for the name of judge, but on the reality she intended
to insist.1

Matters were now looking serious. Herries's worst
anticipations were being confirmed. A full meeting of
the privy council was held on the 2oth of June to con-
sider Midcllemore's report of his interview with Mary
Stuart.2 It was resolved unanimouslv, or with no ex-

the Regent of Scotland, beginning
the nth day of June, 1568 : Cotton.
MSS. Ibid.

1 M. de la Forest au Boy, June
19 : TEULET, vol. ii.

2 Present, Bacon, Norfok, North

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 361

pressed disagreement, that the Queen of Scots, whether
she would or not, must be brought further into England ;
that, notwithstanding her objection, the investigation
into the murder of Darnley should proceed ; and that for
' avoiding of all mistakes ' the ambassadors of the Great
Powers should be present when it took place. Her
request either to be restored to her crown, or to be
allowed to leave the realm ' without trial heard/ could
not be assented to. To restore her thus would be to de-
clare her innocent of the crimes with which she was
charged, and would enable her to crush and ruin the
best friends that England possessed among her subj« N.

To let her go would be to throw her upon France ;
and ' her Majesty would never be free from practices
and enterprises/ To restore her 'in title and name,
without authority of government,' was thought ' so hard
a matter,' that it would be even dangerous to proceed
that way. She would ' burn with hate and revenge.'
The French and the Pope would take up her cause ; and
after her breach of faith on the treaty of Leith, no pro-
inisrs which she might make could be relied upon.1

The council, in Matthew Parker's language, felt that
' they had the wolf by the ear/ and were under no
mistake about the animal's character.2 Arundel and Nor-

nmpton, the Lord Steward, Arundel,
Unll'ord, Leicester, Clinton, the Lord
Chamberlain, Cecil, Sadler, and Sir
Walter Mildmay.

1 Proceedings of the Privy
Council, June 20 : ANDERSON.

2 ' I am much careful for the
success that may rise to the Queen's

Majesty and the realm by the arrival
of the Scottish lady. I fear quod
bona Regina nostra auribus lupum
ferret. God grant the event of your
council to be prosperous.' — Matt.
Parker to Cecil, June 1 1 : Domestic
Jftft

362 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

folk probably had opinions of their own, but they hesi-
tated to give voice to them. Lord Fleming consulted the
Spanish ambassador. He begged de Silva to impress on
Philip that the Queen of Scots was a devoted Catholic,
and, as such, deserved his support ; advice, he thought,
might be given to Elizabeth, that the course which she
was pursuing was a dangerous one, and he inquired
whether it might not be possible to bribe Cecil and Bed-
ford and Pembroke.1 ' I told the Lord Fleming/ said
de Silva, ' that for the present his mistress had better
submit to the Queen of England's wishes, and avoid
giving her cause for offence. Time would show how he
could best work on those who were now opposed to her.
They were greedy of money, doubtless ; but they might
not choose to commit themselves ; and he should ap-
proach them first by other and better means. Above all,
he should warn his mistress to be careful what she said
about the Queen of England to the nearest friend that
she possessed.

1 The Lord Fleming/ de Silva continued, 'informed
me that he had secured the support of the Duke of Nor
folk, and I think he has. If it prove so, the Queen of
Scots will have a strong party in the country, for the
Duke is much beloved and has many friends. Men
change so fast that the old party who used to support
her seem already to have forgotten the crimes laid to

' Lo que deseaba que le advir-
tiese fue que orden podria tener para
quo su Reyna hiciese lo que le con-
viniese, y tuviese de su parte a los
Condes do Pembroke, Bedford y t\

Cecil, que eran sus contraries, y si
seria bueno darles algun dinero.' —
De Silva to Philip, June 20, 1568 :

MSS. Simancas,

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 363

her charge ; and unless means are taken to get rid of
her, the Queen of England will find herself in more
trouble than she imagines/1

Do Silva's opinion of the Queen of Scots had been so
distinctly formed and so repeatedly expressed in his
lot t ITS, that she had ceased to be an object of interest
either to himself or to Philip, He had thought and he
had said that she could be no longer looked to for the
purposes for which they had once hoped to make her
useful. The confidence therefore so far between him-
self and Elizabeth had been unimpaired. He had spoken
with perfect freedom to her about the Queen of Scots,
In -cause he had nothing to conceal. But Philip's policy
would naturally follow the wishes of the Catholic noble-
men in England. If Norfolk and Arundel were con-
tented to overlook the Queen of Scots' misdoings, foreign
princes had no reason to be more scrupulous.

1 Joi h Fleming and Herries threatened Elizabeth freely
with the displeasure of the Catholic Powers, and claimed
especially * the King of Spain ' as one of those to whom
the Queen of Scots would appeal ; and Elizabeth's recent
experience made her begin to feel uneasy.

De Silva paid her a visit on the day of his conversa-
tion with Fleming. She did not mention the Queen of
Scots' name ; and when de Silva approached the subject,
she gave him cold answers.

'I saw that she suspected me,' he wrote, ' so I said
that she knew my anxiety for her welfare. She knew

DC Silva to Philip, June 20, 1568: MSS. Simanoat.

364 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

how much I wished that she should extricate herself
successfully from her present embarrassment ; and I
recommended her therefore, in the first place, to keep a
sharp eye upon myself.

'She stared, laughed, and said that she understood
what I meant ; and she believed I wished her well. She
intended, she said, to remove the Queen of Scots from
the Border, whether she liked it or not ; and she would
not see her until she had cleared her reputation ; but
she had sent for the Earl of Murra}^, and would go into
the matter as soon as possible. The result which she
expected from it was that the abdication at Lochleven
would have to be treated as a dead letter ; the Queen
of Scots would be restored, but under conditions that
the administration of Government should remain with
those who were now in power. To France, at all events,
she is not to go.' 1

To this general resolution Elizabeth firmly adhered.
Herries continued to remonstrate. He insisted, like his
mistress, that a Sovereign Prince ought not to be made
to answer to the accusations of her subjects. Elizabeth
said that she wished only to find a means by which
the Queen of Scots could be acquitted. This, once done,
she should be at once replaced with honour.

' But suppose/ said Herries, ' as God forbid, that my
mistress should not be completely acquitted ? '

' In that case,' she said, ' I will do my best. I will
not encourage subjects in rebellion for any manner of

1 Do Silva to Philip, June 20 : MSS. Simancas.

• 568. J FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TV ENGLAND. 365

cause ; I will make arrangements which will save her
honour and restore her, notwithstanding/

Herries made one more effort.

' If your Highness will not help my mistress/ he said,
' then let her go. Do not treat her worse than you
would treat any common Scot or Frenchman who might
come into your realm. Entertain her in England as
you will ; spend a thousand pounds a day upon her
maintenance ; all the splendour will but sicken her if you
do no more. She would sooner go back to Scotland in
the same boat in which she came, and seek her fortune
through the world, than remain in this realm, excluded
from the presence of your Majesty.'

He was wasting his words. Elizabeth stood to the
position that she would hear the cause first and then
decide. * As to her going to France/ she said, ' I will
not lower myself in the eyes of my fellow Sovereigns,
by acting like a fool. The King her husband, when
she was in that country, gave her the style and arms
of this realm. I am not anxious for a repetition of that
affair. I can defend my own right. But I will not, of
my own accord, do a thing which may be turned to my
hurt. To let her return to Scotland as she came would
be neither to her honour nor mine. I will use my best
diligence, and settle matters with as much speed as
may be/ l

With this resolution Lord Herries was obliged to

1 Notes in Cecil's hand, describ-
ing the occurrences of May and June,
1568 • MSS. Qi Etx OF SCOTS,

Rolls House. Lord Herries to Mary
Stuart, June 28 : TEULET, vol. ii.

366 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

be content ; there was nothing left but to make the best
of it. Elizabeth insisted on inquiry, but whatever the
result, she still undertook that the Queen of Scots
should be reinstated, and her honour saved. The truth,
that is to say — whatever it might prove to be — was not
to be made public to the world. Whether such a plan
would turn out practicable, might easily be doubted ;
but her intention, which Herries took care to publish,
produced an effect in Scotland which she might or
might not have foreseen.

Since the Lords, at all events, were to expect to re-
ceive their Queen again among them, they began na-
turally to calculate how far it would be safe for them to
press their charges. ' To charge her directly with the
murder, and then to enter into a qualification with her,
all men might judge how dangerous that should be ; '
and Murray, not choosing to step forward in the dark
and make himself Elizabeth's catspaw, immediately
sent translations of the casket letters to London. He
said that he could produce the originals, and prove
them to be in the Queen's hand. He desired to know
whether they were to be admitted in evidence ; and if
admitted, what effect would follow.1

It is usually said that Elizabeth's object in insisting
on the investigation was to disgrace the Queen of Scots
in the eyes of Europe, that she might be able, with
better show of justice, to keep her afterwards a prisoner.
Had this been her purpose, the answer -to Murray's

1 Notes of matters to be reported to the Queen's Majesty of England,
•Tune 24 : MSS. Scotland, Rolls House.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 36?

questions would have been easily made. But the dis-
grace was exactly what sho wished to avoid. She wished
only that so much evidence should be brought forward
as would justify the Lords in their rebellion, and
would justify Elizabeth also in restoring the Queen
with a character slightly clouded; to be maintained
under her own protectorate, and with her hands so
bound as to incapacitate her from further mischief.

Sho replied to Murray's questions, * that she never
meant to have the Queen accused ; she desired merely
to hear what the Lords had to say for themselves/ as u
step towards a quiet end ; * she did not mean so to deal
in the cause as to proceed to any condemnation of the
Queen of Scots, but rather to compound all differences
between her and her subjects, and not to allow any
faults that should appear to be in the Queen/ l

Had both the Lords and Mary Stuart placed them-
selves unreservedly in Elizabeth's hands, this pro-
gramme would have been probably carried out, and she
would have been allowed once more to try the experi-
ment of sovereignty ; but the Lords on their side had
too much reason to be distrustful, and to the Queen of
Scots Elizabeth's character was an enigma. The tor
tuous rind of a disposition which at heart was sincerely
well disposed to her she construed into elaborate
hypocrisy, and she was too proud to take back her
crown on such conditions, if she could have persuaded
herself that Elizabeth would give it to her.

Questions and Answers, June 30, in Cecil's hand : ANDKIUMJN.

368

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

LCH. 50,

Bolton Castle, in Yorkshire, had been selected as
the place to which she was to be moved. She told
Knowles that she would not go there unless she was
carried. She wrote to her French uncles to say that,
her life was in danger through her fidelity to the
Catholic religion. ' She had made great wars in Scot-
land/ she said to her keepers. ' She prayed God she
made no troubles in other realms also.' ' If they kept
her prisoner, they should have enough to do with her.' l
In the belief that she would make some desperate
effort to escape before she could be moved, her windows
were grated with iron. Her male servants were sent
out of the castle at sunset ; and when she walked or
rode she was attended by a hundred of the Berwick
guard.2 She carried out her threat of delegating her
sovereign power. Chatelherault, who was in
Paris, was appointed Regent in her name.
Arbroath and the Archbishop of St Andrews were com-
missioned to represent the Duke in Scotland, till he
himself could bring a French army to Dumbarton;3
while in England, her agents were incessantly busy at
the houses of the Catholic Peers.

Elizabeth frankly admitted to de Silva the diffi-
culties in which she found herself. What to do with
the Queen of Scots, unless to send her back as a titular
sovereign, she could not tell. If she was restored with

1 Knowles to Cecil, June 21 :
Cotton. MSS. CALIG. C.

2 De Silva to Philip, June 27 :

Simaneas

3 Commission by the Queen of
Scots to the Duke of Chatelherault,
July 12: LAB AN OFF, vol. ii.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MAKY STUART TO ENGLAND. 369

any kind of power, she would crush Murray and the
Lords. If she was kept in England, she would breed
an insurrection. Darnley's murder seemed utterly for-
gotten ; she had explained away her marriage with
Bothwell by pretending that it was forced upon her,
and the Catholics easily believed what they wished to
be true.1

But, so long as she addressed herself to France
rather than to Spain, Elizabeth could feel comparatively
A safe. Philip, for his own sake, would never permit
France to meddle in England ; and Philip was, as yet,
holding out no note of encouragement to Mary Stuart
to turn her thoughts towards himself.

De Silva had given cold answers to Fleming, how-
ever he had jested with Elizabeth about his own dan-
gerous character.

The Queen of Scots wrote herself to Philip in the
usual strain, representing herself as a martyr for her
religion — sacrificed to an heretic conspiracy. She divw
piteous pictures of the sufferings of the band of saints
who were perishing for her cause and Heaven's.2

Philip expressed considerable doubt whether she
had any religion at all.3 lie contented himself with
sending a general message of goodwill, and cautioned
his ambassador against committing himself with her in
any way.4

1 De Silva to Philip, July 3:
MSS. Sitnancaa.

• Mary Queen of Scots to Philip,
July 1 1 : MSS. Siniancas.

3 Mary Stuart to Philip, Novem-
ber 30 : LABANOFF, vol. ii.

* Instructions to Don Guerau
d'Espes : MSS. Simanca*.

VOL. VIII. 24

A?O REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. $6,

Hoping that it might be so,, yet necessarily uncer-
tain, Elizabeth could only persevere in the course
which she had marked out for herself.

On the 1 3th of July, the threatened move to Bolton
was carried into effect in spite of extreme ' stout threat-
enings/ and other ' tragical demonstrations/

Elizabeth had still sent no orders, but Knowles knew
what he was to do ; after a fruitless attempt to bring
his prisoner to consent, he let her understand that her
consent would be dispensed with ; and when she found
that resistance would be useless she submitted.1 She
had to submit also to the discovery that neither France
nor Spain was in any hurry to move for her ; and that
assistance, if it came at all, would be too late to ward
off the detested inquiry. It was necessary to try some
other plan, and, ever quick and adroit, she caught at a
weapon, which might either protect her from Elizabeth
or quicken the languor of the Catholic Powers.

A favourite scheme of the Queen of England was to
model the Church of Scotland after her own ; to intro-
duce North of Tweed, bishops, gowns, surplices, and
the English Liturgy, which the Scots had once adopted
and had abandoned under the influence of Knox. She
detested Puritans and all their works ; she believed that
the compromise which promised to answer in England
would answer equally across the Border, and that Ca-
tholic and Calvinist could unite upon it as a common
ground. She knew that the party at present in power

Knowles to Cecil, July 14 : Cotton. MSS. CALIG. C.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STLART TO ENGLAND. 371

in Scotland would listen to no such proposal. Mary
Stuart was well aware of Elizabeth's wishes. They had
been more than once directly communicated to her, and
the proposal had been renewed to Lord Herries. Find-
ing that he could not alter her general purpose, Herries
had inquired what the conditions of the restoration
were to be if tlie examination turned out unfavourably ?
Elizabeth said that the Queen of Scots would have to
ratify the treaty of Leith; to relinquish her alliance
with France ; to submit to be divorced from Bothwell ;
and allow him to be prosecuted and punished.1 'She
must also abandon the mass in Scotland, and receive
the Common Prayer after the form of England.' If
she woidd make no difficulty on these points, the rest
could easily be arranged ; and Elizabeth repeated her
promise that she should be reinstated in her realm.

The terms were better than might have been ex-
pected. If the Queen of Scots were to be replaced at
nil events, it became gradually clear to Herries that
Elizabeth could not wish to press the inquiry too far ;
iind he withdrew his objections to it. 'As to religion/
he said, ' he wished it in his heart to be in Scotland as
it was in England/ and he believed that all the Queen's
friends there would be satisfied to have it so.2

1 Even Lord Herries admitted
that she ought not to bo restored un-
conditionally. 'The Lord Hrrrius'
\\rotc Knowles, after a conversation
with him, ' mislikes not in words
that >he should be bridled in her
regiment by the assistance of noble-
men of the realm, in consideration of

her rashness and foul marriage with
the Earl of Bothwell, whom he
would have pernecuted to death.' —
Kuowles to Cecil, July 28: ANDER-
SON.

« Herries to , July 28 : MSS.

QCEEN OF SCOTS, Rolls Rouse.

372 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.50.

Thus instructed, Herries had taken leave of Eliza-
beth, and had gone down to Bolton to lay the proposals
before his mistress. Instantly seeing her advantage,
after some decent ' show of scruple/ she consented to
all the conditions. She knew that the Lords would re-
fuse the last — she knew that by seeming to agree to it,
she could gain a point against them. As if she had
undergone a sudden metamorphosis,, she ceased to threat-
en or complain ; she grew submissive, gentle, and com-
pliant. She wrote to Murray in a tone half conciliatory,
half mildly reproachful. She began a diligent attend-
ance at the sermons and service in Bolton church. She
won Knowles's heart, and half disarmed his suspicions,
by the complacency with which she listened while the
castle chaplain declaimed against Papistry. She even
learnt to use the slang of Protestant theology, ' seeming
repentantly to acknowledge that her offence and neg-
ligence of her duty towards God had justly deserved
the injurious punishments and disgrace done to her by
her adversaries.' 1

These symptoms were hopefully reported
to Murray, and he was at the same time in-
formed officially that his sister was certainly to be re-
stored. The English had yet to serve a long appren-
ticeship before they would understand the person with
whom they were dealing. Murray had a longer ex-
perience, and knew her better. He could but say that
he trusted the Queen of England was consulting for

1 Knowles to Cecil, July 28 : ANDERSON.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 373

' God's glory in what she was doing, so he and his
friends might be the less careful of their own/ To
Mary Stuart's letter to him he replied briefly, courte-
ously, but with no confidence. She had charged him
with having sought her life. He said that if he had
been as willing to shorten her days as the Hainiltons,
who were now disturbing Scotland in her name, she
would long before ' have been rid of her mortal life/
He called God to witness that he had dearly loved her ;
and for his other offences ' he was ready to give account
at all times, and would be found to have done nothing
but the duty of an honest man, and of a good member
of the commonwealth of which he was born a subject/ l

As to her piety and Church-of-Englandism, Murray
told Scrope he was glad to hear that she had become so
religious, and he would be more glad if he believed her
sincere ; otherwise ' her resorting to the Kirk of Eng-
land did but serve her turn to move godly men to con-
ceive a good opinion of her conformity and towardness/8

She could not blind Murray; but that was of no
importance if she could blind Knowles, and, through
Knowles, Elizabeth. The next point was to alarm the
Catholic Powers, by intimating that if they did not help
her she would be driven to change her religion.

'The Queen/ she wrote to de Silva, ' promises to
compromise matters between me and my rebels, and
to restore me to my crown, if I will forsake the French,

1 Murray to the Queen of Scots,
August 7 : 3/i$'.v. QUEEN OF SCOTS,
Roll* Howte.

2 Murray to Scrope, August 7 :
MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS, Rolls Howte.

374

REIGN OF ELIZABETH,

[CH. 50.

give up my claim to her crown, and change religion in
my realm to the form which is established here. My
Protestant subjects detest it as much as I do ; but she
is using her advantage — not indeed that she cares about
the miserable thing in itself — to force me and the poor
Catholics to agree; and though for my own part I would
sooner be murdered, yet you had better consider the
possibilities, and send word to the King your master.' l
Could Knowles have read this letter over her shoulder
he would have been spared some mistakes and more
disappointments ; but for the present she had riveted
her chains upon him. The wonderful woman had
mastered the precisely correct form of words on ' Justi-
fication by Faith.' Knowles was proud of his pupil,
and elated at the progress which she was making under
his charge.2 His satisfaction indeed was but short-

1 The Queen of Scots to de Silva,
July 31 : MSS. Simancas.

2 Knowles had spoken to Herries
with some contempt of the furs and
tippets of the Anglican bishops, and
Herries had made Elizabeth angry by
repeating the words. Knowles wrote
to Cecil to excuse himself. His
letter shows how cunningly the
Queen of Scots had wrought upon
him.

' As touching the fault that is
found with me at the Court, that my
commending of the religious usages
in Scotland after the form of Ge-
neva did so much disallow the
formularies of England as thereby I
might hinder the Queen's disposition
to embrace the forms of England,

and give her rather occasion by
misliking of both to rest in the old,
which her Majesty thinketh very
prejudicial to the purpose she in-
tendeth ; I answer that it is an easy
thing for the Court of England to
find fault with, me being a simple
poor man. I commended not the
form of Geneva before the form of
England ;• but ho\vever the Court
doth expound my letters, I am sure
there is never a man here that doth
think that my speeches hath hin-
dered the disposition of this Queen
to favour either the form of the
Common Prayer or the truth of the
religion of England.

' My Lord Herries understood me
and so did this Queen, howsoever

1568.) FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 375

lived. The Catholics in the neighbourhood of TJolton
hud "been disturbed by a report that she was going over.
She could not admit them to her confidence, and it was
dangerous to mislead them too far. She took an oppor-
tunity, when a large number of the Yorkshire gentle-
men were assembled at the castle, to make a public
declaration that she was still of the Papist religion.
Sir Francis reproached her gently for her backslidings ;
and she allowed him to see the price which was to be
paid for her conversion. 'Would you have me lose
France and Spain, and all my friends in other places/
MH >.;iid, 'by seeming to change my religion, and yet
I am not assured that the Queen, my good sister, will
be my friend to the satisfaction of my honour and
expectation ? ' l

She had so far the advantage in the game that she

my Lord Herrics make religion to
serve his policy. They understood
me that under pretence of favouring
the forms of England, such a rigor-
ous condemnation of the forms of
Geneva might be brought into Scot-
land thnt nil the learned men of
Scotland that have consciences there
miirlit thereby be banished or put to
silence ; and they being so defaced,
a high way should be made open to
Papistry.

' Well, if I be he that is found
out to be a hindcrer of religion, I
trust yet that this my fault will be
amended or eschewed by others.
But. surely this Queen doth seem
outwardly not only to favour the
form, but also the chief articles of

the religion of the Gospel, namely,
justification by faith only : and she
hearcth the faults of Papistry revealed
by preaching or otherwise with con-
tented ears nnd with gentle and
weak replies, and she doth not seem
to like the worse of religion through
me. She does not dislike my plain
dealing. Surely she is a rare woman :
for as no flattery can lightly abuse
her, so no plain speech Recmeth to
offend her, if she think the speaker
thereof to be an honest man ; and by
this means I would make you believe
she thinks me an honest man.' —
Kmmles to Cecil, August 8 : MSS.

>p SCOTS, Roll* Hottfte.
1 Knowlcs to Cecil, September
21 VSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS.

376

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 50.

understood what she wanted, and played her cards
accordingly. Elizabeth, having struck into a crooked
road, was stumbling perpetually into uncertainties,
doubts, and contradictions. To the Queen of Scots her
language was always uniform : ' Put yourself in my
hands without reserve ; I will listen to nothing which
shall be said against you ; your honour shall be safe,
and you shall be restored to your throne/ When she
used these words she meant them. The Earl of Lennox
applied for permission to appear at the investigation, to
give evidence against the Queen.1 Elizabeth found that
if he were examined too much might be discovered, and
he was forbidden to be present.2 Yet, at other times,
her mind misgave her before the shadow of coming
troubles. She told de Silva that the Queen of Scots
should be restored, but restored without power, and
her acquittal should be so contrived that a shadow of
guilt should be allowed still to remain. She had too
many friends in England, and to declare her entirely
innocent would be dangerous to the country and to
herself.3

1 The form of Lennox's request
was that he might be present ' at
the trial for the murder of his son,
the chief actor wherein was at present
in England.'— Lennox to Cecil, Au-
gust 1 8 : MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS.

- ' Le Conte de Lennox a fort
presse la Reyno qu'il luy feust permis
de se trouver en ceste assemblee de
Seigneurs, pour la declairer ce qu'il
a veu et s<jayt de la mort du feu
Roy son filz a 1'encontre de la lleyne

d'Escoce. Ce que la dicte dame luy
a desnye tout a plat.'— M. de la
Forest a la Reyne-mere, August 25 :
TEULET, vol. ii.

3 'La Reyna me dixo que lo que
pensaba hacer era que volviese a su
Reyno con nombre de Reyna, mas
que lo que toca al gobierno no habia
de tener nada, y pensaba en lo de su
justificacion hacer de manera que
aquello quedase en dubio ; porque
si se declaraba su innocencia, para

i $68.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 377

Whore there was so much uncertainty and vacilla-
tion neither the Lords nor the Queen of Scots could
tell whut to look for. To Murray it seemed certain
that Elizabeth would declare for his si>ter. He could
but entreat ' that his cause should not be determinately
condemned or impaired before it might be duly heard ; ' *
and, as Cecil advised, he made the most of the time
that was left to him in scattering and breaking up the
assemblies of Mary Stuart's friends wherever they
collected.

She, on her part, had but to work in their support
with every implement which sentiment or policy or re-
ligion placed within her reach. Leaving her message
to work on Philip, she besieged France with fresh and
fresh petitions. George Douglas and Lord Claude
Hamilton joined Chatelherault at Paris, praying that if
the King would not help them, they might be at least
allowed to raise volunteers. The Queen's dowry pro-
vided funds, and a thousand men at least were ex-
pected to land either at Dumbarton or Aberdeen, led
by Chatelherault in person.2

At one moment Mary Stuart was so confid-

_ _ _ , September.

ent that they were coming, that she sketched
a programme for their proceedings as soon as they
should be on shore : and while she tried to throw Eliza-
beth off her guard by assuring her ' that she desired to

las cosns deste Reyno seria peligroso,
y por los umigos que tenia, y se con-
tra i-llu tnmbien tenia sus inconveni-
• nt« s.' — Do Silva to Philip, August
9 : MISS. Sitnat&as.

1 Knowles to Cecil,. September 6:
MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS.

2 Drury to Cecil, August 21 •
Cotton. MSS. CAUQ. C.

378 RETGN OF EL7ZABETH. [CH. 50.

dedicate her life and heart to her/ 1 she was directing
her party in Scotland to lead the French to Stirling
or Edinburgh, destroying the coTmtry as they went ;
to get possession, if possible, of the person of the
Prince; and if they could catch the Regent or his
friends, to hang them without delay.2

The French did not come, and these intentions
therefore could not be executed. Meanwhile time wore
on. First August and then September had been ap-
pointed for the investigation : but Elizabeth was still
irresolute. No steps had been taken, and the Queen of
Scots began to hope that she might escape it altogether.
Although unconverted, she had not lost wholly the
power of charming Knowles. She made pretty presents
to his wife.3 She begged him ' to travail for her
private access to her Majesty ; ' she had something to
say ' which would turn to her Highness's singular
commodity/ and to her Highness she desired to devote
herself for ever.4 To Elizabeth herself she wrote that

1 ' Je desire vous dedier ma vie
et cueur pour jamais.' — Mary Stuart
to Elizabeth, September i : LABAN-
OFF, vol. ii.

2 '"We pray you that incontinently
so soon as the Frenchmen are arrived,
ye cause all our nobility and their
forces to pass forward with them in
diligence towards our son, to see if
he may be gotten in hand, or else to
Edinburgh, destroying all the coun-
try thereabout that our enemies get
no vivres. And if it be possible that
ye may got any of their great men in

hand of our rebels, spare them not,
but dispatch them hastily and spe-
cially.'— Marie Stuart a un Ereque
Ecossais, September 9 : LABANOFF,
vol. ii.

3 ' You see how she corrupteth
me. The token to bestow upon my
wife is a pretty chain of pomander
beads, finely laced with gold wire.'
— Knowles to Cecil, September i :
MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS.

* Knowles to Cecil, August 26
MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS,

I-J68.] FLIGHT OF MAKV STUART TO ENGLAND. 379

she would rely on her and her alone ; ' she would aban-
don all her foreign friends ; Elizabeth should be the
0110 support to which alone she would trust.' * She
told Knowles, with a misleading candour, that 'if her
Highnetis did arbitrate the matter between her and her
subjects as between equals — although she would take
what she might get, she would not be so much bound
to her Highness as otherwise she would be glad to be.'
She made him believe that she was 'resigned' to
Kli/abeth's pleasure; that she would 'restrain herself
for the future from offensive speeches and writings.'
He felt and expressed some kind of confidence that she
was sincere,* and Elizabeth was but too willing to
believe it was as ho said.3

Thus there was more delay — delay threatening to bo
indefinite. For Mary Stuart nothing could be more ad-
vantageous ; every day that the inquiry was postponed
would make an unfavourable decision against her more

1 Mary Stuart to Elizabeth, Sep-
tember 15 : LARANOFF, vol. ii.

2 Knowles to Cecil, September
6: J/.SY?. QI-KEX OF Scora

' It is scarcely necessary to say
that she was as little sincere then as
at any time before or after. She told
Elizabeth she would devote herself
entirely to her. She was writing at
thosamo time to the Queen of Spain,
that since she had been in
England she had learnt much of the
st:iti- of the country. It would be the
easiest thing in the world to re-
establish religion there, and she would
do it or die. The northern counties

were devoted to the Catholic faith,
and she would teach the Queen of
England what it was to interfere
between subject and sovereign. * She
fears an insurrection so much,' the
Queen of Scots wrote, « that for this
reason she will perhaps restore me ;
but she will have me stained with the
suspicion of the crimes of which I am
unjustly accused. They are tempt-
ing me to change my religion, but I
will never do it. Assure the King
your husband from me that I will die
in the Catholic faith.'— Mary Stuart
to the Queen of Spain, September
24 : LAIJANOFF, vol. ii.

380 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [011.50.

difficult. Scotland unfortunately was less able to wait.
The country was divided between two armed parties,
each of which, according to Elizabeth's public declara-
tion, was forbidden to move against the other. There
was no recognized government, and when it had been
said so distinctly that the Queen was coining back, what
authority the Regent possessed would have diminished
of itself, had there been no counteracting influence.
But the crooked spirit with which the whole nation
was interpenetrated was at work on both sides of the
Border. It was impossible that the ordinary course of
justice could be left suspended. Murray, at the secret
instigation of Cecil, called a Parliament, enforced for-
feitures, punished breaches of the public peace and
the Queen's friends in the name of the Prince. The
Hamiltons and Gordons retaliated wherever they were
strong enough with burning and murdering, but suffer-
ing more than they could inflict, and to both alike the
condition of the country was intolerable. Each cla-
moured to Elizabeth that her commands were broken by
their adversaries ; both alike complained against the
suspense which was plunging Scotland into anarchy.
Lord Herries had received from Elizabeth distinct pro-
mises that the Queen should be reinstated, and Lord
Herries was therefore first and loudest in his outcries.

His mistress, he wrote to the English council, had
come to England upon the promises and honour of their
sovereign. There had been a time, both in England
and Scotland, when a plighted word was sacred. He
called on Elizabeth, ' according to that old custom/ in

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 381

the nume of the Eternal God, and the honour of the
noble and princely blood of the kings from whom she
was descended, 'to fulfil the engagements which she
had made, to place his mistress in her own country, and
cause her to be obeyed as queen there. If she would
do this, or would name a day/ at the farthest, beyond
which it should not be delayed, he and all the Peers of
Scotland who were true to her, would leave Franco
to God, would make a league with England, and accept
any conditions which would be for the welfare of the
whole island, 'both in religion, in the punishment of
the Earl of Bothwell, and for a mutual bond of amity
perpetually to remain/ If, after tempting his mistress
with fine words, ' which were the only cause of her
coming into England,' Elizabeth now chose to forget or
deny what she had written, they must be content to
leave the Queen where she was, but they would cull in
the French or the Spaniards, or both, 'to expulse the
treasonable, false, pretended authority which now took
upon itself to rule them/1

So said Lord Herries, while the Lords, on the other
side, were as loud iii their complaints, that but for
Elizabeth, and for the fatal support which she persisted
in giving to the Queen, their country would have been
at peace. Come what would, they said, they would lay
their case before the world. ' The Regent/ wrote his
secretary John Wood to Cecil,2 ' would have been con-

1 Lord Ilevrics to the English
Council, September 3; Cotton. MISS.
CALIQ. C.

2 Wood to Cecil, September 6

MSS.

3§2 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CM. 56.

tent, with surety of state and substance to himself and
his friends, to have let all causes of conscience and
honour be smothered in oblivion;' 'but, having been
moved to the contrary by the Queen of England's
former dealings, he was now deliberating to put King,
nation, state, his life, and all in hazard before he should
not in person maintain his innocency and meaning in
his late proceedings/

Before the Queen should be thrust again upon the
neck of Scotland, Murray insisted that he would be
heard; and, with a half-apology, he desired Cecil to
send him a safe-conduct, lest he should be held a pri-
soner in London at the Queen of Scots' demand.1

If to inspire all parties with equal distrust was a
proof of her impartiality, Elizabeth had so far effectu-
ally performed the part which she had undertaken.
She had made contradictory promises to everybody in
turn. She had misled everybody ; and now, when one
and the other began to publish what she had said, no
one knew how to act or what to look for. Her incon-
sistencies passed at times beyond vacillation into de-
liberate insincerity. To the French ambassador, to de
Silva and Lord Herries, she distinctly and repeatedly
said that at all events, and whatever came of the in-
vestigation, the Queen of Scots should be restored.
She made this positive declaration because, without it,

1 ' As for safe-conduct, we mean
nothing less than to sue for any such
thing, if it was not that the King
my sovereign's mother might perad-
veuture desire [the Queen's Ma-

jesty ?] to detain us, as well as her
that entered in that realm without
her warrant.' — Murray to Cecil,
September 7; MSS. Scotland.

i$6S.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 3*3

the Queen of Scots would not have consented that the
investigation should take place. Yet a memoir of Cecil,
dated on the 23rd of September, states, with an em-
phasis marked by the underlining of the words, 'that
it ican not meant, if the Queen of Scots should be found
y nitty of the murder, to restore her to Scotland, hoiceeet
her friends might brag to the contrary. )l

Elizabeth herself, to keep hold on Murray's con-
fidence, repeated to him, under her own hand, the words
of Cecil. ' Reports/ she said, * were spread in Scot-
land, that whatever should fall out on the hearing of
tliu Queen of Scots' cause to convince or acquit her
concerning the horrible murder, she had determined to
restore her to her kingdom. She could not endure such
reports to have credit. It was entirely devised to her
di>linimur ; and, should the Queen of Scots be found
guilty, it would behove her to consider otherwise of her
cause.' 2

Murray could but acknowledge graciously a com-
niunicatiun which, nevertheless, he but half believed.3
The Queen of England had changed her mind, or had
varied in her expressions, so many times already, that
he eould feel no confidence in her ; and, with nothing
to trust to but a general determination to act uprightly

1 Notes iu Cecil's baud: MSS.
QUKKX OF SCOTS.

* Elizabeth to Murray, September
20 : MSS. Scotland. Even here it
seems as if there was an intended
ambiguity. The concluding para-
graph originally ran, 4 we would

think of sundry things meeter tor
us to do for her.' These words are
crossed through and those in the text
substituted.

3 Murray to Elizabeth, Septem-
ber 28: Ibid.

384 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50

himself, lie prepared to meet whatever fortune had in
store for him.

The necessity of doing something, rather than any
growth of positive purpose, at length forced Elizabeth
forward. Uncertain what would come of the inquiry,
she had never ceased to feel that she could do nothing
till it had taken place ; and as the present suspense
could no longer be continued, the preparations for it at
length began. There were three parties to be repre-
sented— the Confederate Lords, the Queen of Scots, and
the English Government. The form of proceedings was
the same which had been at first suggested. The Lords
were to be charged with rebellion, and would make such
answers as would suit best with the pre-arranged result
of the trial — whatever that was to be. Elizabeth had
said that she would not restore the Queen of Scots if she
were found guilty ; it might be therefore necessary to
suppress the more serious charges against Jier. Yet, if
she was to be left with a reputation still clouded, enough
would have to be advanced to make her innocence appear
at least doubtful.

So artificial a game depended much on the persons
selected to play it. The time was to be the first week
in October, the place York, the seat of the Northern
Government. The English Commissioners were the
Earl of Sussex, Sir Ralph Sadler, and the Duke of Nor-
folk, representing the three parties in the council
Sussex was President of the council of the North, a
solid, English, conservative nobleman, neither particu-
larly able nor particularly high-principled, but moder-

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 385

ate, t oil-rant, and anxious above all things to settle
difficult questions without quarrels or bloodshed. Sadler,
the old servant of Henry VIII., was a Protestant and
almost a Puritan. He had been trained for thirty years
in Northern diplomacy, and had held Mary Stuart in
his arms when she was a baby. Norfolk, the premier
peer of England, was a Catholic in politics, though in
creed he professed himself an Anglican. He and Arun-
del, his father-in-law, were the leaders of the great
party most opposed to Cecil and the Reformers — of the
old aristocracy, who hated revolution, favoured the
Spanish alliance, the Scotch succession, and as much
Catholicism as was compatible with independence of the
Roman See.

By one of the three Commissioners the office was
undertaken most reluctantly. Sadler, a man of most
clear convictions and most high purpose, would have
borne a part gladly in any duty in which his conscience
was to be his guide ; he had little inclination to enter
a slippery labyrinth, where he was to take his direction
from the undefined, contradictory, and probably imprac-
ticable intentions of Elizabeth. He asks Cecil to select
some one wiser and more learned than he. Questions
would arise of ' who was a tyrant ? ' — ' who might depose
a tyrant ? ' 'It was a matter which touched not Scot-
laiul and England only/ but all kingdoms ; and for
himself, 'he had liefer serve her Majesty where he
might adventure his life for her/ than among subjects
so critical as these.1 There were some thoughts of

1 Sadler to Cecil, August 29 ; MSS. QCEEN OF SCOTS.
VOL. vin. 25

386

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 50.

October.

employing Sir Francis Knowles. Knowles was supposed
to wish it, and to be displeased that his name was not
in the list; and Mary Stuart hoped that she
•might turn his imagined jealousy to her ad-
vantage.1

The Duke of Norfolk accepted his nomination in a
far different spirit. Notorious as he had made himself
in his past advocacy of Mary Stuart's succession, his ap-
pointment may he taken as a sufficient proof that Eliza-
beth did not intend that the examination should turn
out unfavourably for her. Norfolk would be President
of the Commission, and, as such, would have the princi-
pal voice in managing the proceedings and directing the
conclusion. Norfolk however had a further purpose, a
secret between himself and his friends, which had not
entered into Elizabeth's programme. The English aris-
tocracy considered themselves even more interested in
tiding Mary Stuart over her difficulties than her party
in Scotland. They believed as much as they wished to
believe of her delinquencies. She was the only person
in their interests who could be maintained, by right of
blood, as a competitor for the succession. They were
not disloyal to Elizabeth; but, as Elizabeth did not
choose to marry, they did not choose to spend their lives

'• ' Je viens d'appercevoire que le
diet Knollys est marry de n' avoir
este ling de commissionaires et pour
ceste occasion il est picque centre le
Due. Je vouldray que cela fust
cause de le detourner de la faveur
qu'il porte aux aiiltros, et qu'il se

rangeast a faire quelque chose pour
moy ; si ceste jalousie entre eux
se pouvoit par quelque moyen aug-
menter il n'y avroit poing de perte
pour nous.' — Mary Stuart to the
Bishop of Ross, October 5 : LA-
BANOFF, vol. ii.

1 568. ] FL rGffT OF MARY S TUA RT TO ENGLA ND. 38 7

with a prospect, as soon as she was gone, of a repetition
of the wars of the Roses. The Duke of Norfolk was a
third time a widower ; his last wife, Lady Dacre, had
just died, as it' providentially to create the opportunity ;
and Lord Arundel and others of the peers of the old
blood, as distinguished from the upstarts who had been
created by the Reformation, had resolved among them-
selves, as a means of disposing of the complications
which so perplexed Elizabeth, that the Queen of Scots
should marry him. There were two parties among these
noblemen ; some, like Arundel, Montague, and the Earls
of Northumberland and "Westmoreland, were Catholics;
some, like Lord Derby and Norfolk himself, Protestants
with a Catholic inclination. But their Protestantism
eat lightly on them ; and if the government passed into
their hands, a reconciliation coidd easily be effected with
the rest of Europe. The most serious political objec-
tions against the Queen of Scots' succession lay in some
possible dangerous connections which she might form
on the continent. Her marriage with the first noble-
man in England would at once remove all uncertainty
on this score, and silence scandal against her character.
It was thought that Elizabeth herself would be in-
duced or forced to consent to the arrangement. The
Duke himself, though not at first ardent in the matter,
had played with the idea. He entertained (as will ap-
pear in the sequel) no more doubt than Cecil of the
Uueon of Scots' share in the murder of Darnley; but
she was not likely to repeat a proceeding of which the
i-nnx •<]tiem-es had Uvn so inconvenient to her; and the

3ga REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

prospect of sharing a crown and giving a dynasty to
England was a large counterweight to the questionable
features of the alliance. It is certain that the Duke
went down to York with the scheme already formed in
his mind. Lord Montague spoke of it to the Spanish
ambassador, while the conference was in progress, as a
matter already considered and arranged by the Catholic
party ; and the ambassador, in laying it before Philip,
as Lord Montague desired, told the King that the pro-
ject was so far matured that, with hifl approbation, it
would be certain of success.1

The Queen of Scots, knowing nothing of the door
which was thus being opened for her, having failed to pre-
vent the inquiry, prepared to meet it as best she could.
On the whole however she was satisfied that it would be
little more than formal. Norfolk sent her a message,
through his sister, Lady Scrope, that she had nothing to
fear ;2 and she summoned to Bolton such of her friends
as were to represent her, to consult with them. On the
part of the Lords, the Regent himself intended to be pre-
sent, with the Earl of Morton, Lord Lindsay, and George
Buchanan. Maitland was coming with them unofficially ;
partly because the Regent was afraid to leave him be-

1 Puntos de las Cartas tie Don Duke of Norfolk, who was first in
Guerau de Espes, August 25, No- commission. She had learnt this hy

vember 6 ; Don Guerau de Espes
a su Magd., October 30 : MSS. Si-

- ' The Queen of Scots told me
that there was no such danger as
I supposed, for I should find the
judges favourable, principally the

a message from the Duke to Lady
Scrope ; and she had many other
good friends, who would all be with
the Duke at York, and would per-
suade him to favour her cause.' —
Confession of the Bishop of Eoss,
printed hy MTIRPIN,

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 389

Lind, partly of his own will ' to travail for mitigation of
the rigours intended/1 For the Queen would appear
Herries, Boyd, Livingston, Cockburn of Skirling, the
friends of her misfortunes, who had accompanied or fol-
lowed her to England ; and lastly, John Leslie, Bishop
of Ross, who was afterwards to play so large a part in
connection with her history. It was this Leslie, who,
when she was first returning from France to Scotland,
was sent by Huntly and the Catholic lords to invite her
to land among them at Aberdeen ; it was he who was
supposed to have contrived her 'ravishment' by Both-
well : he was still under forty, a man of infinite faith-
fulness, courage, and adroit capability.

On him and Herries Mary Stuart chiefly depended.
When he came to her at Bolton, he found her entirely
at ease. She told him that all had been arranged. The
Regent and his friends were to be called to answer for
their offences before the English commission ; they were
to admit their faults, receive their pardons, and ' so all
matters be compounded/

Such, it seems, was Norfolk's message. The Bishop,
who had come from Scotland, knew better, or thought
he knew better, what the Lords intended. lie said that
he was sorry she had agreed to the Conference. When
the Lords were accused, they intended to accuse her in
ret urn, and ' utter all they could in their defence, though
it was to her dishonour/ She had half persuaded him
that he was mistaken, when Sir Robert Melville arrived

Confession of the Bishop of Ross, printed by MDBDIN.

390

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

LCH. 50.

with a hurried letter from Maitland. It was too true
' that Murray was wholly bent to utter all he could
against the Queen, and to that effect had carried with
him to York all the letters which he had to produce
against the Queen for proof of the murder/ Maitland's
wife, Mary Fleming that was, had procured a copy of
them, which he enclosed.1

For the first time Mary Stuart now knew which of
her letters had fallen into the Lord's hands, and the
discovery was sufficiently alarming. The Bishop said
however that he thought still ' the matter might be
ended by agreement before it came to accusation/ He
advised the Queen to travail to that end with her friends
at York and at the Court ; 2 and promising to do his best
himself, he hastened off to the scene of action.

The conditions under which Elizabeth generally
thought that the Queen of Scots might be restored have
been already partially stated : — The confirmation of the
treaty of Leith, an engagement that no future league
should be made with France, a promise that she should
not marry without the Queen of England's consent, the
punishment of the murderers of the King, the main-
tenance of Murray at the head of the de facto govern-
ment, and, as a compensation, the recognition of the
Hamilton title ; and finally, the establishment in Scot-
land of the forms and constitution of the Anglican
Church.3

1 Confession of the Bishop of
Ross, printed by MUKDIN.

2 Ibid.

8 Notes on Matters of Scotland,
August 8. Cecil's hand: MSS.
Domestic, Rolls House.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLANb. 39!

On these terras the English Commissioners brought
powers from the Queen to compound all outstanding
quarrels between the two parties, and take measures
for Mary's return. That the restoration was to take
place at all events, Elizabeth did not venture to say ;
she did not venture to make the Earl of Murray cl«--
perate : * If the Queen of Scots should be proved to have
been a party to the murder/ then indeed * her Majesty,
as she had herself written to the Earl of Murray, would
think her unworthy of a kingdom;' but 'her desire
from the beginning had been always that the said Qmvn
might be found innocent/ at least of the worst of the
charges against her ; and should Murray ' either forbear
to charge her with the murder / or should his proofs ap-
pear insufficient, the Commissioners were then to con-
sider ' in what sort she might be restored to her crown,
without danger of a relapse to fall into misgovermneiit,
or without the danger of her subjects to fall into her
displeasure without their just deserts/1 These instruc-
tions perhaps represent the conclusions in which Eliza-
beth's vacillation had for the present settled. The
Queen of Scots' substantial guilt was tacitly implied,
but Murray was, if possible, to confine himself to charges
of misgovernment, be silent upon the murder, keep back
letters which, if produced, would make reconciliation
impossible, and allow the Queen to return in such a form
as to prevent further aberrations.

With these conditions, could Murray be brought to

1 Instructions by Queen Elizabeth to her Commissioners going to
York : GOODALL, vol. ii. p. 97.

392

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 50.

consent to them, the Bishop of Ross intended generally
to comply. The commission which he carried away from
Bolton empowered him to yield on all tolerable points,
especially to consent, after all, to the establishment of
Anglicanism, which would be so grateful to Elizabeth.1
If accusations were brought against the Queen which
touched her honour, he was to deny them generally,
and refuse to enter upon the subject. It was hoped
however that Murray would prove manageable, and that
this contingency would not arise.

The Bishop and his friends were the first to arrive,
reaching York on Saturday, the 2nd of October. Sus-
sex, Sadler, and Norfolk came in the next day, and on
Monday morning they were joined by Murray, Morton,
and their companions. Lord Westmoreland lay in wait
on the moors for the party coming from Scotland, to get
possession of the Casket and destroy it ; but either they
took another road, or were in too strong force to be
meddled with.

Besides the principal parties, the town was filled
with swarms of politicians, practisers, and Scotch and
English Catholics, all collecting to watch the progress

1 ' "When it was desired that the
religion as it presently is in Eng-
land should be established and used
in my realm, it is to be answered
by you that, albeit I have been
instructed and nourished in that
religion which has stood long time
within my realm, and been observed
by my predecessors, called the auld
religion, yet nevertheless I will use

the counsel of my dearest sister the
Queen's Majesty of England there-
anent, by the advice of my estates
in Parliament, and labour that is in
me to cause the same have place
through all my realm as it is pro-
posed, to the glory of God and uni-
formity of religion in time coming.'
— Commission to the Bishop of Ross,
September 29 : LABANOFF, vol. ii.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUAR1 TO ENGLAND. 393

of the strange assembly, and, by fair means or foul, help
forward the interests of Mary Stuart.

The first three days were spent in preliminaries. A
protest was entered by the Bishop of Ross to save the
sovereign rights of Scotland, disclaiming the jurisdic-
tion of an English court. On the part of England, a
counter-assertion was put in of feudal superiority.
Both the objection and reply were understood to be
formal, and were passed over ' with merry and pleasant
speeches/ Out of court meanwhile the Commissioners
talked over among themselves the condition of the cause;
and Norfolk, in a private letter on the 6th, told Cecil
that, ' if all was true which was steadfastly affirmed/
he feared ' the matter would fall out very foul.'1

Business commenced on the 8th by the presentation
on the part of the Queen of Scots, of a charge against
Murray and his associates for bearing arms against
their sovereign ; and the time had come for Murray to
put in his defence. What was he about to say ? The
days during which the parties had been together had
not been wasted. Had Lord Herries and the Bishop of
Ross believed that the Casket letters were forged, they
would have shrunk from no inquiry and sought no
compromise ; they would have stood on the high vant-
age ground of tru+h, and have simply demanded redress
for their calumniated sovereign. Instead of this, they
had been at work, in concert with Maitland, to persuade
Murray into silence, to work upon his interests, and to

1 Norfolk to Cecil, October 6 : MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS.

394

KEIGN OF ELIZABETH.

jck

work upon his fears.1 They told him, and they told
Morton, that if they would say nothing of the murder,
1 the Queen of Scots would make with them what rea-
sonable end she could devise;'2 while, on the other
hand, whatever Elizabeth might now say to him, for
her own immediate ends, she was really determined to
restore the Queen of Scots at all events and under all
circumstances ; they held her promise in her own
handwriting ; 3 and if Murray was now to inflict so deep
a wound upon his mistress, she would never forgive him.

Murray had come to the conference prepared to act
honourably, and the fear of evil consequences to him-
self would not much have influenced him ; but he had
proved in his own person the value of Elizabeth's fair
words ; and he determined not to proceed till he had
made another effort to ascertain where he was standing.

He said therefore that although he was well able to
reply to the Queen of Scots' charges, and to show that
he and his friends had good grounds for what they had
done, yet they were unwilling to charge the King their
sovereign's mother with crimes vhich hitherto they had
concealed, ' and manifest to the world her infamy and
dishonour/ Before they would venture on a step so

1 Knowles, who was present at
"X oi-k, wrote on the gth of October to
Cecil : ' I see that my Lord Herries,
for his part, laboureth a reconcilia-
tion to be had without the extremity
of odious accusations. My Lord of
Ledington also saith to me that he
would wish these matters to be
ended in dulce manner, so that it

might be done with safety. — MSS.
QUEEN OF SCOTS, Rolls Home.

2 Norfolk to Pembroke, Leicester,
and. Cecil, October 1 1 : MSS. Ibid.

3 ' They did not let to say that
they had your Majesty's promise
to show in writing to confirm the
same.' — Norfolk, Sussex, and Sadler
to Elizabeth, October 9: Ibid.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 39$

lh<>v required to be informed whether the lan-
which they had heard from Herries was true,
and whether, if the Queen of Scots was proved guilty,
she was really to be forced upon them again.

The Commissioners pointed, in reply, to the instruc-
tions given by Elizabeth to themselves ; her Highness
hoped that the Queen ol Scots might be found innocent ;
if it proved otherwise, she would not stain her conscience
with the maintenance of wickedness.

Murray said that, notwithstanding these words,
there was a very general belief that the Queen of Scots
was to be replaced, * however matters fell out.' It was
so reported in Scotland ; and it was so said at that very
moment at York. He could not but suspect that,
'although her Highness might not restore the said
Queen immediately, yet means would bo wrought to
her relief at a later time, to their no little danger.'
He produced four questions, to which he said he must
have a clear answer before he would proceed with the
accusations.

First. Had the Commission power to pass sentence
of guilty or not guilty, according to the merits of the
case?

>nd. If they had this power, did they intend to
use it ?

Third. If he made his charge, and proved it, what
was to be done with the Queen of Scots ?

Fourth. Would the Queen of England, in that case,
maintain the authority of the young King ?

' The cause/ he said, ' was so weighty, and it touched

396 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

them all so near, that they all resolved not to accuse
the Queen of the murder until the}^ knew for certain
what they were to look for/

' They be in hopes and comfort/ wrote the Commis-
sjoners, ' that if they do not bring up the worst charges,
the Queen of Scots will be induced to a reasonable com-
position .; and on the other side, if they proceed to
extremity, they be out of hope of any good composition,
and so shall live always in danger.'1

' It seems/ Sussex wrote separately, ' they be bent
to one of two ends — either to prove her guilty of the
murder, and then never to hearken after to any com-
position, wherein they will not deal before they may be
assured that if the murder is tried, the Queen will so
keep her as she shall by no means work their hurt
hereafter — or else leaving off entirely to charge her with
the murder, seek a reconcilement and composition of all
causes, without touching her any ways in her honour.'2

It might have been thought from the language of
her Commission that this was precisely the end at which
Elizabeth was aiming. She did not wish the Queen of
Scots to be found guilty ; she had seemed to desire that
she should not be accused. But such a conclusion
would not have answered, because it would have been
too complete. She would be unable to detain the
Queen of Scots any longer in England ; she would have
purchased for herself only the resentment and suspicion
of all parties : and the stain, which she admitted to the

1 Norfolk, Sadler, and Sussex to Elizabeth, October 9: MSS. QUEEN OF
SCOTS.

2 Sussex to Cecil, October Q : MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS-

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 397

Spanish ambassador that she desired should rest upon
the Queen of Scots, would disappear in the absence of
accusation. The Catholic world would universally
accept the acquittal, and the danger of her own position
would be infinitely aggravated. The consequences of
her own crooked conduct were coming back upon her.
She had not meant, and she did not mean, to act un-
fairly; but she would not accept the lessons which
Knowles had tried to teach her, that the more honourable
way was the plain way ; she could never travel with
comfort on a straight road anywhere.

On the morning of the 9th, while Murray was still
pausing upon his answer, Norfolk rode out with Mait-
land to Cawood, and told him at great length, that,
whatever happened, Elizabeth had determined ' not to
end the cause at that time.' She professed to wish that
Murray should avoid extremities, yet, in reality, she
intended him ' to utter all he could to the Queen of
Scots' dishonour ; to cause her to come in disdain with
the whole subjects of the realm, that she might be the
more unable to attempt anything to her disadvantage.'
' Without appointing the matter,' she intended to keep
the Queen of Scots in England till ' she should think
time to show her favour.' She was making use of the
Lords for her own purposes ; she was merely saying to
them whatever would answer her immediate end, and
she would throw them over as soon as it suited her con-
venience.1

1 The Bishop of Ross to the Queen of Scots, October 9 part cipher. —
Cotton, xsa. CAUQ. C

398 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

Norfolk himself was so little careful of truth that
perhaps he invented this dangerous statement as a means
of working upon Murray ; but it was so precisely a
repetition of the former treatment which Murray had
met with ; it agreed so closely with her language to de
Silva, that in all probability it was no more than a
betrayal of the confidence which his mistress had really
reposed in him. Maitland begged the Duke to speak
to the Regent himself, and the next morning arranged
a private interview between them. The Duke explained
to Murray at length the feelings of the English nobility
on the Scotch succession. He spoke of Mary Stuart's
claims to the crown ; of the powerful party who, for
various reasons, were desirous of supporting those
claims ; and the injury which would be inflicted, both on
her own and the Prince's prospects, if her character was
publicly stained. After dwelling again on what he had
said to Maitland, he added, truly or falsely, another
illustration of Elizabeth's insincerity. She pretended
to desire, he said, that Both well should be taken and
punished, yet she had refused to intercede with the King
of Denmark for his extradition ; * her Majesty would
never solicit the same, but purposely held him living
above the said Queen's head to stay her from any other
marriage/ He pointed out how much safer it would
be for Murray now, when the opportunity was open to
him, to come to an understanding with his own sove-
reign : and then, indirectly approaching his own great
secret, the Duke said, 'it would be convenient the
Queen of Scots had more children, there oeing but one

1568 .] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 399

bairn proceeded of her ; ' Scotland and England were
alike interested in the increase of her family, and Mur-
ray's own fortunes depended on it also, ' the Hamiltons,
his unfriends, having the next claim to the crown of
Scotland, and the issue of her body being likely to be
more affectionate to him and his than any other that
could attain to that room.' l

Murray's position was now an exceedingly difficult
one. He knew by experience that Elizabeth was per-
fectly capable of betraying him. However careless he
might be of his own interests, he had his party and his
country to consider as well as himself. It was open to
him, by a private agreement with his mistress, to obtain
every security which he desired for the government of
Scotland. The Protestant religion could be firmly
established ; the threatened civil war averted ; all feuds
forgotten, all parties reconciled in a general act of
indemnity ; and the powerful body of English nobles
and stau^nion who were in favour of the Scotch succes-
sion laid under the deepest of all obligations. What
was Elizabeth to him, that for her sake he should risk
all these advantages, with 110 better ground than he
possessed for believing that he could count upon her
sincerity P

He reflected for a day, and on the nth he gave in
his first formal reply to the Commissioners of the Queen

1 This conversation \v;is related
a year after by Murray himself to
Elixaheth, October 29, 1569 : JISS.
Scotland. It agrees in substance

with the account given by Melville
in his Memoirs; Melville having been
at York at the time, and behind the
scenes.

4oo REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

of Scots. Either lie could not or he would not wait for
the answers to his four questions ; and avoiding every-
thing approaching to a charge against her of having
been concerned in the murder, he laid the guilt on
Both well ; he defended the rebellion and the Lochleven
imprisonment on tie ground simply of the Queen's
marriage and Both well's crimes, with his obvious inten-
tion of erecting a tyranny in Scotland. It amounted
to no more than a political defence, which the Queen of
Scots herself might accept without disgrace ; and the
accusations, as far as they touched herself, were so
framed as to admit of easy reply.

More however, it was indicated, remained behind,
which could be produced if necessary. The Queen of
Scots' Commissioners rejoined, accepting and replying
to Murray's points ; and there was then a pause, till
further instructions could be received from London.

But although Murray refused to proceed pub-
licly with the weightier charges, he allowed the Com-
missioners to see in private what he was able to produce.
Norfolk was doubtless not without curiosity to know
something of the woman of whom he was thinking as
his wife ; and being as he was a weak, amiable man,
with qualities which those who play for the high stakes
of this world ought not to possess, he was staggered at
so tremendous a revelation, and evidently began to
hesitate at the prospect which his friends designed for
him. Buchanan himself could scarcely have rendered
more emphatic the language in which he described his
first impression.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MAK\ STUART TO ENGLAND. 401

1 They showed me/ he wrote, ' a horrible and loDg
letter of her own hand, as they say, containing foul
matter and abominable to be either thought of or written
by a prince, with divers fond ballads, discovering such
inordinate and filthy love betwixt her and Both well, her
loathsomeness and abhorring of her husband that was
murdered, and the conspiracy of his death in such a sort,
as any good and godly man cannot but detest and abhor
the same/

The Lords, he said, were ready to swear that both
letters and verses were in her own handwriting ; the
contents were such that they could scarcely have been
invented ; and ' as it was hard to counterfeit so many
and so long letters, so it seemed from the matter of them
and the manner in which they were discovered, that
God, in whose sight murder and bloodshed were abomin-
able, would not permit the same to be hid or concealed/ *
He enclosed extracts from the letters in his despatch,
and he left it to Elizabeth to say whether, if they were
genuine, * which he and his companions believed them
to be/ there could be any doubt of the Queen of Scots'
guilt.

So far the Duke wrote in concert with Sussex and
Sadler, and were there nothing more, and had he been
an abler man, he might be suspected of endeavouring
merely to blind the English Government as to his own
views; but in a private letter of his own to Cecil, Pem-
broke, and Leicester he added more to the same purpose,
which show plainly that he was himself shaken. There

1 The Commissioners at York to Elizabeth, October 1 1 : ANDERSON.
VOL. VLU. 26

402

REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

were but two courses to be taken, he said : ' If the fact
should be thought as detestable and manifest to them
as, for anything he could perceive, it seemed to him/
the simplest and safest course would be 'condign
punishment, with open demonstration to the whole
world, with the whole circumstances, and plain, true,
and indifferent proceeding therein.' If this could
not be permitted, ' such composition would have to
be made as in so broken a cause might be : ' and the
Ilamiltons and the Regent would have to be reconciled.
' Without those differences were concluded, they would
make but botched work/ l

The greatest difficulty would then lie in the scheme
which the Ilamiltons had formed for marrying the
Queen of Scots to Lord Arbroath. But there were
ways of meeting this. Fresh from the perusal of the
letters, it seemed to strike him that the woman who
could write them was not born for high dignity, or was
a fit match even for himself ; some meaner union would
be more suitable ; and Knowles suggested to him the
possibility of marrying her to some younger brother of
a noble English house, some relative of the Queen's on
the mother's side, such, for instance, as ' young Mr
George Carey/ second son of Lord Hunsdon. 'So
matched/ Elizabeth need have no fear of her, and
young Carey, with his fortune to make, would not be
particular.2

1 Norfolk to Pembroke, Leicester, and Cecil, October 1 1 : MSS.
QUEEN OP SCOTS.

2 Knowles to Norfolk, October 15 : Cotton. MSS CALIG. C.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 403

It seemed likely however that these and such specu-
lations would be thrown away, and that the Scots
would come to an agreement among themselves which
would take the matter out of English hands. While
the conference was suspended, Knowles returned to
Bolton. Mary Stuart, who knew nothing of what had

• 'd, received him with eager inquiries, 'Whether
the Lords would proceed with their odious accusations,
or whether they would stay and be reconciled to her ? '
' If they fell to extremities,' she said, ' they should be
answered roundly and to the full, and then were they
past all reconciliation.' She would swear her letters
were forged ; she would insist on being heard in person,
and she would charge Morton and Maitland with having
themselves been parties to the murder. But Knowles
gathered from her that she had no desire to play so
desperate a game ; she might ruin them, but she could
scarcely save herself. Her anxiety was evidently to
make some arrangement which would prevent her
letters from being published.1 Distrusting Elizabeth
as much as Murray distrusted her, she was now, through
her friends, using all her endeavours to work upon the
Lords ; and she seemed very likely to succeed.

Lord Sussex, in an able letter, laid before Cecil the
whole bearing of the question.

' The matter would have to end either by finding the
Queen guilty, or by some composition which would
save her reputation. The first method would be the

1 Kiu.wks to Norfolk, October 15 : Cotton. MSB. CALIG. C.

4°4

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

LCH. 50.

best, but it would require Murray's help, and Murray,
for two reasons, might now decline to give it.

She would disown the letters, and in return accuse
his friends of manifest consent to the murder hardly to be
denied. The King was young and delicate, and might
possibly die. If the Queen were judicially dishon-
oured, the Hamiltons would succeed to the crown of
Scotland, and in right of blood would claim the
immediate government. Murray would not part with
the Regency, and Hamilton would not be second to
Murray.

' The Hamiltons desired that the proceedings should
be dropped, that the Queen should be restored in name,
but remain in England ; while Scotland, in respect of
her misgovernment, should be ordered by a council of
the nobility, to be named by the Queen of England/

Murray wished that she should repeat her abdica-
tion and withdraw her complaints against him and his
friends. He would then forbear to accuse her further,
destroy the casket, and hold out hopes to her of even-
tual restoration, ' in proof of his forgetting her dis-
pleasure/

Between these two views the Scots were at present
divided ; but the danger most to be dreaded was ' that
both sides might eventually pack together, so as, under
colour of composition, to unwrap their mistress of their
present slander, and purge her openly. Within short
time they would demand of the Queen her delivery
home to govern her own realm ; she also making like
request — and the Queen, having no just cause to de-

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 405

tain her, would have her for a mortal enemy ever after.'1
To this point Elizabeth had brought it : she had
spun refinement within refinement, artifice within ar-
tifice. The Queen of Scots was to be accused and not
accused, acquitted and not acquitted, restored and not
restored. So many objections could be urged against
any one course, that she had thought to neutralize
them by adopting all at once, and the web which she
had wrought out with so much pains was about to be
rent in pieces. When the Queen of Scots came to
England, it would have been easy to require Murray
to produce the proofs of the crimes with which he
charged her : she might have submitted the letters and
depositions to the twelve judges and the English Par-
liament ; and then, publishing the truth without con-
cealment or hesitation, have dared the Catholic Powers
to interfere in such a cause. But theories of the rights
of sovereigns, and the intellectual enjoyment of hand-
ling a difficult subject artificially, forbade so simple a
proceeding.

When it came to the point, she could not make up
ner mind, after all, whether she wished Murray to go
on with his charges or not. His four questions, when
they were brought to London, seemed to force her to
some positive conclusion, but she struggled against the
necessity of decision. She said at first that 'they
needed no particular answer ; ' the Earl of Murray
should be contented to leave the matter to herself and

1 Sussex t.» C«il, October 22: Illustrations of English History, vol
i. p. 458.

4o6 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. fen. 56.

her own judgment ; ' on hearing the cause she would
do or cause to be done what should be agreeable to the
honour of Almighty 'God, the maintenance of the inno-
cent, and the reproof of the guilty.'

Such phrases would have answered no good pur-
pose : she would have satisfied Murray that no good
was to be expected from her, and have driven him
faster than ever into a compromise. But suddenly,
while she was hesitating what answer to give, a whisper
ran round the Court that the Duke of Norfolk was to
marry the Queen of Scots. What it meant, with which
party it originated — the how, the when, the why of it —
was all obscure to her ; but it was a sharp revelation to
Elizabeth that others could scheme beside herself. The
dangers which she had feared from the Queen of Scots'
presence in England had started out of the ground at
her very feet,1 and at once on the instant she cancelled
the York Commission, resumed the cause into her own
hands, and summoned all parties to London, where the
conclusion could be heard in her presence. Sussex
might remain where he was; Norfolk might use the
opportunity to survey the fortifications at Berwick;
Sadler, Maitland, and Herries were ordered back to her
immediately, that 'she might be better informed in cer-
tain matters.' The Queen of Scots' Commissioners, she
was particularly anxious, should not be alarmed. She

' Y porque se levanto un rumor
que el Duque de Norfolk, que cs
viudo, queria casarse con la Reyna de
Escocia, la Reyna de Inglaterra raando
luego deshacer aquel ajuntamiento,

y hizo vcnir aqui los diputados.' —
Relation del Negocio de la Sere-
nissima Reyna de Escocia: MSS.
Simancas.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 40?

that she still desired only to discover the ea-
means for her sister's restitution.1

Evidently Elizabeth's first impulse was to rid herself
as rapidly as possible of a guest who promised to be so
troublesome. If before she had been three months in
the country she had entangled the premier nobleman of
England in her meshes, what might not be expected in
the future ? Among those to whom the state of things
was known, the expectation at this moment was of some
rapid compromise, by which the Queen of Scots would
be immediately replaced. The great object would be to
separate her from the Catholic party. She had offered
to consent to the establishment in Scotland of the
Anglican religion ; this or something like it would be
probably the chief condition insisted on ; and unless the
Great Powers showed more interest in her than they
had hitherto displayed, her zeal for Catholicism, it was
feared, would give way under the trial.2 France cared

1 The Queen to Norfolk, Sussex,
^nd Sadler, October 16 : MSS.
QUEEN OF S«

2 M. de la Forest, the French am-
bassador in England, was superseded
at this crisis by La Mothe FSnelon,
whose despatches throw so much
light on tlie history of the coming

The Archbishop of Glasgow,
Mary's Minister in Paris, had a con-

>n with him before he started,
and was horrified by hearing La
.Mothe say that he intended to
advise the Queen of Scots to give
way about religion. The words
which La Mothe Fenelon used, as

reported in Spanish by Alava to
Philip, are these : — ' Sefior Einba-
jador yo voy a n-Mdir en la Corte
de Inglaterra y a servir a la Rcyna
vuestra aina ; y para que sus cosas
vayan bicn a la fee, debeis de aconsc-
jarla que no este tan dura como
hasta aqui, sino que se dcxc llovar
al sabor de sus vassallos, r-orque
dcsta mancra ella sera Reyna obe-
decida y querida. En fin dice el
obispo que claramente le di.\6 que
hiciese officio para que se acommo-
dase en lo de la religion, y en todo lo
demas con sus vassallos.' — Alava to
Philip, October 30 : TEULET, vol. ii.

4o8 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 50.

only for the alliance with Scotland, and was ready to
jet religion take its chance. Spain had been so far
entirely silent towards her, and accident had led her to
believe that she was more neglected than, she actually
was. A passionate letter, which she had written to the
Spanish Minister in London, had been left a month un-
answered. The key of her cipher had been lost, and
the letter could not be read. The Archbishop of
Glasgow at Paris told Don Francis de Alava that she
had been constant so far, in the hope that the King of
Spain would take her part. If Spain failed her she
would yield, and the Catholics of England and Scotland
would then cease to struggle.

Mary Stuart so far had been without interest to
Philip. He knew her to be a bad woman ; she was
connected closely with France, and he had no political
inducement to meddle for other reasons in her favour.
If France however shook her off or became indifferent,
if the English Catholics were willing to overlook her
delinquencies, and if she and they would commit them-
selves to Spanish direction, his scruples might possibly
be overcome. Uncertain, yet hoping that it might be
so, Alava wrote to Cayas, Philip's secretary, to plead
for her.

'The Queen of Scots/ he allowed, 'had made a few
mistakes in her life/ not to use a harder word for them.1
'It would require some skill to bring his Majesty to
hold out a hand to her ; but he was a great prince ; and

' Aunque aya andado estrope- I greso de su vida.'— Alava to Cayas :
en algunas cosas en el pro- I TEULET, vol. v.

1568.] FLIGHT OF MARY STUART TO ENGLAND. 409

in the service of God, and considering the present con-
dition of the world, his Majesty might overlook her
faults, and accept her as sound.' l

What that condition of the world was, with the
present aspect of the great struggle between Popery
and Protestantism, and the bearing of it upon the
English crisis, will be described in the following
chapter.

1 ' Aunquc pucdc tener alguna arte
csto, para haccr salir &. su Majestad
a ayudarla, artc cs quo parcsce quc su
Majestad puede pasarla y tomarla
por la buena pues cs en cl servicio

de Dios y bien de las raatcrius que
hoy se tratan en el mundo. Su
Majestad es Catolico y magnauimo
Principe,' &c.— Ibid.

410

CHAPTER LI.

THE CASKET LETTERS.

WHEN the Roman poet denounced the service of
the gods as a malignant and accursed supersti-
tion, the deserved reproach of religion was on the eve
of passing away. The creeds of the ancient nations
were the expression of their thoughts upon themselves
and upon the world in which they lived. Encompassed
within and without by invisible forces, now beneficent
and life-giving, now terrible in destructiveness, they
saw in all of them, in sunshine and storm, in plenty
and famine, in health and disease, the work of beings
whose envy would not permit mankind to be continu-
ously happy. They painted the immortal Lords of the
Universe after the image of the strongest and worst of
their own race, and strove with prayers and sacrifices
to propitiate their jealous caprice. Hence came those
real or legendary rites in Aulis, where the noblest of the
maidens of Greece was offered as a victim to the spirit
of the storm : hence those memorable lines of Lucre-
tius, which form the epitaph of dying Paganism.

THE CASKET LETTERS. 41 1

A now era was about to duwn. Christ came bring-
ing with him the knowledge that God was not a demon,
but a being of infinite goodness — that the service re-
quired of mankind was not a service of ceremony, but a
service of obedience and love — obedience to laws of
morality, and love and charity towards man. In the
God whom Christ revealed, neither envy was known
nor hatred, nor the hungry malice which required to
be appeased by voluntary penances or bloody offerings.
The God made known in the Gospel demanded of His
children only the sacrifice of their own wills, and for
each act of love and self-forgetfulness bestowed on them
the peace of mind which passed understanding.

Such a creed, had it remained as it came from its
Founder, would have changed the aspect of the earth.
It would not have expelled evil, for evil lies in .veltish-
ness, and the conquest of self is the discipline which,
if it be permitted to conjecture the purposes of the
Almighty, human beings are sent into the world to
learn : but it would have bound together in one com-
mon purpose all the good, all the generous, all the
noble-minded, whose precepts and whose example would
have served as a guide to their weaker brethren. It
would not have quarrelled over words and forms. It
would have accepted the righteous act whether the
doer of it preferred Paul or Cephas. In that religion
hate would have no place, for love, which is hate's
opposite, was its principle; nor could any cruel passion
have found its sanction where each emotion was required
to resolve itself into charity.

4 1 2 REIGN OF E LIZ ABE TH. [CH . 5 1

But the rules of life as delivered in the Gospel were
too simple and too difficult : too simple, because men
could not thus readily shake off the dark associations
which had grown around the idea of the Almighty ; too
difficult, because the perfect goodness thus assigned
to Him admitted no compromise, refused the ritualistic
contrivances which had been the substitute for practical
piety, and exacted imperatively the sacrifice which man
ever finds most difficult — the sacrifice of himself. Thus
for the religion of Christ was exchanged the Christian
religion. God gave the Gospel ; the father of lies in-
vented theology ; and while the duty of obedience was
still preached, and the perfect goodness of the Father
in heaven, that goodness was resolved into a mystery of
which human intelligence was not allowed to apprehend
the meaning. The highest obedience was conceived to
lie in the profession of particular dogmas on inscrutable
problems of metaphysics, the highest disobedience in
the refusal to admit propositions, which neither those
who drew them nor those to whom they^were offered,
professed to be able tcr understand. Forgiveness and
mercy were proclaimed for moral offences ; the worst
sins were made light of in comparison with heresy :
while it was insisted that the God of love, revealed by
Christ, would torture in hell-fire for ever and for ever
the souls of those who had held wrong opinions on the
composition of His nature, however pure and holy their
lives and conversation might be.

So again God became as man, and was made in
man's image, and so came back ferocity and hate, and

THE CASKET LETTERS. 413

pride, and slander, and cruelty, .sanctioned by the creed
which had been sent into the world to overcome them.
The wells of life were poisoned, and the truth itself was
made the instrument of evil. Those who were most
sincerely anxious to do the will of God, believed that
they could best please Him by zeal for correctness of
doctrine. Those who desired only to please themselves,
could satisfy their consciences and earn the applause of
the godly by proclaiming formulas which it cost them
nothing to maintain, and by compounding for the in-
dulgence of their passions by the exactness of their
ceremonial observance. If God himself, the supremely
good, so hated theological mistakes that for speculative
error alone there was no mercy, but only the utmost
extremity of torture which Omnipotence could inflict,
then what could His servants do but judge as He judged,
employ the same balance, imitate, as far as their feeble
passions could extend, the example of their Master, and
most hate what he most hated ? Though warned against
the comparison by their Founder, they saw in the history
of the Chosen People the pattern of the treatment which
befitted the worshippers of strange gods. Death to
men, to women, to the baby at the breast ; death to th<i
beast of the field accursed by idolatrous companion-
ship ; the brick-kilns for the agony of fire, the harrow to
tear the flesh from the bones.

* By their fruits ye shall know them.' Through
Christ came charity and mercy. From theology came
strife and hatred, and that fatal root of bitterness of
which our Lord spoke himself in the mournful prophecy,

4i4 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

that He tad not come to send peace on earth, but a
sword. When His name and His words had been
preached for fifteen centuries, there were none found
who could tolerate difference of opinion on the opera-
tion of Baptism, or on the nature of His presence in the
Eucharist ; none, or at least none but the hard-hearted

> children of the world. The more religious any man
was the more eager was he to put away by fire and
sword all those whose convictions differed from his own.
The Reformation was the beginning of a new order
of things. The recognition that false dogmas had for
many centuries been violently intruded upon mankind

1 — and the consequent revolt against the authority which
imposed them, were in reality a protest against the
dogmatic system and an admission of the rights of
conscience. When the visible unity of the Church was
once broken, the multitude of opinions which ensued
compelled their reciprocal toleration ; and the experience
:hat men of different persuasions can live together with
mutual advantage and mutual respect, has untwisted
slowly the grasp of the theological fingers from the
human throat. The truth again begins to be felt,
though as yet it can hardly be avowed, that religion
does not consist in an assent to propositions ; that the
essence of it is something which is held alike by Catholic
and Anglican, Arminian, Lutheran, Calvinist, Samaritan,
or Jew.

Yet this, the greatest of all the consequences which
flowed from the Reformation, was the furthest from the
minds of the Reformers themselves, and there were few

THE CASKET LETTERS. 415

among them who would not have been loud in drpn rat-
ing so undesiivd a catastrophe. The first and greatest
<>} them contented themselves chiefly with negation —
protesting against the lies with which the Church of
Rome was choking them. But as the struggle deepened,
the fiery tempers which it developed could not rest till
they had produced positive doctrines which they could
inflict at the sword's point as remorselessly as their
late tyrants. The guidance of the great movement was
snatched from the control of reason to be made over to
Calvinism ; and Calvinism, could it have had the world
under its feet, would have been as merciless as the
Inquisition itself. The Huguenots and the Puritans,
the Bible in one hand, the sword in the other, were
ready to make war with steel and fire against all which
Europe for ten centuries had held sacred. Fury en-
countered fury, fanaticism fanaticism — and wherever <
Calvin's spirit penetrated, the Christian world was
di vided into two armies, who abhorred each other with
a bitterness exceeding the utmost malignity of mere
human hatred.

The great religious drama of the sixteenth century
was played out between five countries, England, Scot-
land, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. The more
moderate genius of Lutheranism delayed the conflict in
Germany to a later generation. Could the English
aristorrary have had their way it would have been de-
layed in Kii^-land also, but they played their cards

In Paris tho traditions lingered of the wars between

4l0 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

Charles and Francis. Catherine de Medici and her

sons cared less for religion than for France, and they

dreaded Spain more than they hated Protestantism.

The Queen-mother and the French nobility had not

forgotten St Quentin, or their lost provinces in Italy,

or their forfeited supremacy in Europe. Henry II.,

who, it was said, would have made an alliance with the

, i Devil if it would second the interests of France, and

his widow, who was of the same way of thinking,

would have gladly reconciled Catholic and Huguenot,

that the united country might be the stronger against

her foreign rivals. For the Huguenots, as such, neither

Henry nor his Queen had felt either respect or regard.

The King had contemplated more than once a general

massacre of them, as the best means of settling a

troublesome question. He had spoken of it to the

Prince of Orange after St Quentin. The Duke of Alva

afterwards talked it over with Catherine at Bayonne.

' But the swords of the bravest of their subjects were too

useful to be sacrificed in the uncertain condition of

Europe, and Henry had ever a second policy in reserve,

of which the King of Navarre, the Colignys, and the

English alliance were the instruments. Catherine de

Medici had declined upon the whole to be guided by

Alva. A league was afterwards believed to have been

concluded, .between France and Spain and the Pope,

for the extermination of the heretics ; but the House of

Lorraine had taken upon themselves, without authority,

to speak for their country ; and when the death of the

Duke of GuLse had relieved the Court from the heavy

THE CASKET LETTERS. 4*7

pressure of his influence, the efforts of the Government
were directed ever to the discovery of some possible
system of toleration by which Catholic and Protestant
might live together without flying at one another's
throats, each with some kind of liberty to pray to God
in their own form and way. It was not in mercy, for
Catherine had no such weakness. It was not in large-
minded wisdom, for her understanding was mean and
narrow. She was emphatically a godless woman ; she
cared nothing for religion either way ; she inherited a
jealousy and suspicion of Spain, and she wished to keep
France undisturbed by civil war.

Yet whatever her motives, her policy would have
been a happy one had her subjects allowed her to
pursue it. In France however, as in most other places,
the passions of the multitude were too hot for control.
The Reformation had entered there in the form of
Calvinism. The Huguenot was as unmanageable as
the Catholic : had he power, as he had will, he would
li;t\. dragooned lY;m<t as Calvin dragooned Geneva.
Both sides were possessed with a vindictive hatred, and
both alike made impossible the maintenance of the edicts
with which from time to time the Queen-mother had
attempted to pacify them. The minister could not
preach in Paris, the priest could say no mass at Rochelle ;
and with the smothered flames bursting out now here
now there in local massacres, they lay watching each
other in suspended hostility, and only waiting their
opportunity to strike some deadly blow.

After four years' precarious observance the peace of
VOL. viu. 27

4i 8 REIGN OF ELIZABETH [011.51.

Amboise was broken. The Admiral and the Prince of
Conde", in the summer of 1567, encountered some sus-
pected treachery against themselves by an attempt to
seize and carry off the young King. Missing their
purpose, they took the field, and in a battle under the
walls of Paris the old Constable Montmorency was
killed. A second treaty followed;1 concessions were
made on both sides, and again there was a hope of
peace. But it came to nothing. In the summer of
1568 the Prince of Conde was established at Rochelle,
the virtual sovereign of France south of the Loire ; and
with the same curious sympathy between the Reforma-
tion and buccaneering which had shown itself in Eng-
land, his fleets were roving the ocean by the side of
Hawkins and Frobisher.

In France some fierce catastrophe Was visibly ap-
proaching. The people were at fever heat, the Govern-
ment purposeless and incompetent. Far different was
the attitude of Spain. Other nations were divided in
opinion. Spain had no such difficulty. The faint foot-
prints of Protestantism in Castile had been easily
erased by the Inquisition. The conquest of Grenada,
and the crusading enthusiasm which had accompanied
it, had revived the heroism and the superstition of the
twelfth century. New life had sprung up in the decay-
ing monasteries. The religious orders, in the genuine
fervour of the middle ages, girt their loins with sack-
cloth, disciplined their rebellious flesh with scanty diet

1 March 7, 1568.

THE CASKET LETTERS. 419

and knotted cord, and, with the revived austerities, re-
gained their power over the intellects and consciences of
men. As the Puritans of New England regarded the
warlock and the witch, so to the fanatical Ca>tilians
those accursed infidels who denied Christ's bodily
presence in the Holy Eucharist appeared as children of
Satan, monsters self-infected with a leprosy of soul ;
and every man who feared God set himself with heart
and arm, life and substance, to root out the poison from
v corner of the land.

In the Peninsula the work was soon finished. Each
priest and monk was a ready-made soldier of the In-
quisition— without mercy, even as God, in their view of
Him, was without mercy. The civil power lent a will-
ing hand. Evidence was not sifted too curiously when
the object was to make a clean sweep of a nest of vipers.
Suspicion was certainty : for none were suspected who
were not at least lukewarm ; and to be lukewarm was
to be a heretic at heart. The rack, the dungeon, the
slake, the gibbet, soon purified the Spanish dominions
of Philip II. In Sicily, Naples, and Lombardy there
was even less difficulty. In the neighbourhood of the
Papacy art throve, and science and Machiavellian states-
manship ; but there was not religion enough to make
men care whether their creed was true or false. Beyond
the Atlantic Christianity was as yet known only in the
form in which it had been preached by the Dominicans ;
the only heretics who had set foot there were the
English pirates, whose missionary exploits were not con-
siderable

420

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 51.

But there was one plague-spot in the Spanish Em-
pire—one damning exception to the splendid orthodoxy
of the subjects of the Castilian Prince. Political in-
genuity has as yet contrived no scheme of government
which on the whole works better than monarchy by
hereditary succession. To choose a ruler by the accident
of birth is scarcely less absurd in theory than the
method so much ridiculed by Plato, of selection by lot :
yet the necessity of stability, and the difficulty, hitherto
unsurmounted, of finding any principle of election
which will work long without confusion, have brought
men to acquiesce in an arrangement for which reason
has nothing to urge ; and to provide a remedy for the
mischief otherwise inevitable by erecting a sovereignty
of law, supreme alike over monarch and subject, and
by restricting the privileges of the Crown within strict
constitutional limits.

The evil of the hereditary principle appears in its
most aggravated form, when, through royal intermar-
riages, two nations have been tied together which have
no natural connection either in language, habit, or tra-
dition ; especially when they are situated at a great
distance from one another, and when a .country before
independent is governed by the deputy of an alien sove-
reign.

Such was the position of the densely-peopled group
of Provinces on the mouth of the Rhine, under the
Spanish Prince. Their own dukes, long the equals of
the proudest of the European sovereigns, had become
extinct. The title and the authority had lapsed to a

THE CASKET LETTERS. 421

monarch who was ignorant of their language, indifferent
to their customs, and with interests of his own separate
from, and perhaps opposite to, theirs. It was the more
necessary for them to insist on their established here-
ditary privileges, larger, happily for them, than those
which bound the hands of any other duke or king. So
long as these rights remained unviolated, the Nether-
lands had given little cause to their new sovereign to
complain of their loyalty. The people had found their
advantage in being attached to a powerful monarchy,
which protected them from their dangerous neighbours.
They had paid for the connection by contributing freely
with their wealth and blood to the greatness of the
Empire of which they were a part.

They had endured without complaining occasional
excesses of the prerogative, but they had endured them
as permitted by themselves, not as encroachments which
they were unable to resist. The observance of the
coronation oath was not left to the authority of con-
science, and the monarch was without power to perjure
himself however great might be his desire. Every pro-
vince hud its own jurisdiction — its separate governor,
by whom its military strength was administered ; every
town had its charter and its municipal constitution, and
against the will of the citizens legally declared, no
foreign garrison might be admitted within their walls;
oppression was impossible, until the civil liberties which
the King had sworn to respect were first invaded and
crashed.

Tims the Provinces were thriving beyond all other

422 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [Cii. 51.

parts of Europe. Their great cities were the marts of
the world's commerce — their traders covered the seas,
and the produce of their looms was exposed for sale in
every market-place in Christendom. Their merchants;
were succeeding to the wealth and the importance which
were fading from Genoa and Venice ; and their sove-
reigns had been long careful to conciliate the loyalty of
subjects so eminently useful. The burghers of Bruges
and Antwerp had done more for Charles Y. in his long
grapple with France than the mines of Mexico and
Peru ; and until the Provinces felt the first shock of the
religious convulsion, no question had risen to overcloud
the pride of the Flemings in the glories of their Im-
perial master.

Where the minds of men were in such activity, the
doctrines of the Reformation readily found entrance ;
yet notwithstanding, with skilful handling, the collision
might have been avoided between the people and the
Crown, and the Netherlands might have been held
loyal, not only to the Spanish Crown but to the See of
Rome. As in England, the movement began first
among the artisans and the smaller tradesmen. The
possession of wealth inclines men everywhere to think
well of the institutions under which they have pros-
/ \ pered, and the noblemen and opulent citizens of Flan-
ders and Brabant were little inclined to trouble them-
selves with new theories. They were Catholics because
they had been born Catholics, but they held their re-
ligion with those unconscious limitations which are ne-
cessitated by occupation in the world. The modern

THE CASKET LETTERS. 423

Knglishman confesses the theoretic value of poverty,
the danger of riches, and the paramount claims upon his
attention of a world beyond the grave ; yet nono the
less he regards the accumulation of wealth as a personal
and national advantage. He labours to increase his own
income ; he believes that he does well if he leaves his
family beyond the necessity of labouring for their live-
lihood: he reads and respects the Sermon on the
Mount ; he condemns and will even punish with moder-
ation those who impugn its inspiration; yet in the
practical opinions which he professes and on which he
acts, he directly contradicts its precepts. The attitude
of the wealthy Netherlander towards the Catholic faith
was very much the same. He did not wish to become
a Protestant. He was ready to treat the profession of
Protestantism as a considerable offence; but as the
Publican was nearer the kingdom of heaven than the
Pharisee, so the manufacturers of Ghent were protected
from fanaticism by their worldliness. They were will.
iii£ to continue Catholics themselves ; and to maintain
the Catholic Church in all its dignity and honour; but
tlu v did not desire to ruin themselves and their country
by the death or exile of their most industrious workmen.

Between this point of view and that of the Spaniard
there was an irreconcileable difference. The Catholic
religion was of course true, paramount — or whatever
rl>o it wished to be called; but they believed in it as

•Mished nsligionfl always are believed in by men who
have much else of a useful kind to think about. To the
Spaniard, on tho other hand, his religion was the all in

424 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

all. It did not change his nature — because his mind
was fastened on the theological aspect of it. He was
cruel, sensual, covetous, unscrupulous. In his hunger
for gold he had exterminated whole races and nations
in the New World. But his avarice was like the ava-
rice of the spendthrift. Of the careful concentration
of his faculties in the pursuit of wealth by industrious
methods, he was incapable. The daily occupation of
the Fleming was with his ledger or his factory — the
Spaniard passed from the mass and the confessional to
the hunting-field, the tilt-yard, or the field of battle.

The most important of the national characteristics
were combined in the person of Philip II. The energy,
the high-mettled spirit, the humour, the romance, the
dash and power of the Spanish character had no place
in him. He was slow, hesitating, and in common mat-
ters uncertain. If not deficient in personal courage, he
was without military taste or military ambition. But
he had few vices. During his marriage with Mary
Tudor, he indulged, it is said, in some forbidden plea-
sures ; but he had no natural tendencies to excess,
and if he did not forsake his faults in this way, he was
forsaken by them. He was moderate in his habits, care-
ful, businesslike, and usualty kind and conciliatory. He
could under no circumstances have been a great man ;
Dut with other opportunities he might have passed
muster among sovereigns as considerably better than
the average of them : he might have received credit for
many negative virtues, and a conscientious application
to the common duties of his ofiice. He was one of

THE CASKET LETTERS. 425

those liiniti d but not ill-moaning men, to whom religion
furnishes usually a healthy principle of action, and who
are ready and eager to submit to its authority. In tho
unfortunate conjuncture at which he was set to reign,
what ought to have guided him into good became the
source of those actions which have made his name in-
famous. "With no broad intelligence to test or correct
his superstitions, he gave prominence, like the rest of
his countrymen, to those particular features of his creed
which could be of smallest practical value to him. He
saw in his position and in his convictions a call from
Providence to restore through Europe the shaking
fabric of the Church, and he lived to show that the
most cruel curse which can afflict the world is the ty-
ranny of ignorant conscientiousness, and that there is
no crime too dark for a devotee to perpetrate under tho
seeming sanction of his creed.

Charles V., in whom Burgundian, German, and
Spanish blood were mixed in equal proportions, was as
much broader in his sympathies than Philip as he was
superior to him in intellect. He too had bated heresy,
but as Emperor of Germany he had been forced to beai
with if. His edict for the suppression of the new
opinions in the Netherlands was as cruel as the most
impassioned zealot could desire, and at times and places
the persecution had been as sanguinary as in Spain :
but it was limited everywhere by the unwillingness of
the local magistrates to support the bishops; in some
of the States it was never enforced at all, and every-
where the Emperor's difficulties with France soon com

426 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

pelled him to let it drop. The war outlived him. The
peace of Cambray found Philip on the throne, ready to
take advantage of the leisure which at last had arrived.
Charles, in his dying instructions, commended to his
son those duties which he had himself neglected. He
directed him to put away the accursed thing, to rebuild
the House of the Lord, which, like another David, he
was himself unfit to raise. Philip received the message
as a divine command. When the Emperor died he was
at Brussels. He had ten thousand Spanish troops with
him, a ready-made instrument for the work. He set
himself at once to establish more bishops in the Pro-
vinces, with larger inquisitorial powers. It was not to
be the fault of the sovereign if the bill of spiritual health
was not as clean in his northern dominions as in Arra-
gon and Castile.

But each year of delay had made the problem more
difficult of solution. Protestantism, while it left the
higher classes untouched, had spread like a contagion
among the commons. The congregations of artisans in
every great town and seaport numbered their tens of
thousands. The members of them were the very flower
of the provincial industry ; and the edicts contemplated
their extermination by military force, acting as the un-
controlled instrument of improvised illegal tribunals.
The ordinary local courts were to be superseded by mere
martial law ; and the JSTetherland nobles did not choose
to surrender themselves bound hand and foot to Spanish
despotism. Their constitutional rights once suspended
for their spiritual purgation, might be lost for ever ;

THE CASKET LETTERS. 427

mid without professing any oympathy with heresy,
with the most eager declaration that they desired as
ardently as Philip the re-establishment of orthodoxy,
they refused to allow the location of foreign garrisons
among them. They claimed their right to deal with
tln'ir own people by their own laws; and Philip, after
a burst of passion, had been compelled to yield. The
Spanish troops were sent home, and the King, leaving
his sister, the Duchess of Parma, to do her best without
them, returned to Madrid, to bide his time. Seven
years passed before an opportunity arrived to reopen
the question. The Regent Margaret, assisted by her
faithful minister, the Bishop of Arras, laboured assidu-
ously to do her brother's pleasure. Notwithstanding
the opposition, she found instruments more or less will-
ing to enforce the edicts — some sharing Philip's bigotry,
some anxious to find favour in his eyes. Men capable
of great and prolonged efforts of resistance are usually
slow to commence struggles of which they, better than
any one, foresee the probable consequences. Year after
year some hundreds of poor men were racked, and hanged,
and burnt, but no blessing followed, and the evil did not
abate. The moderate Catholics, whose humanity had
not been extinguished by their creed, became Lutherans
in their recoil from cruelties which they were unable to
pi went; and Lutheranism, face to face with its ferocious
«'iu my, developed quickly into Calvinism. The hunted
workmen either passed into France to their Huguenot
brothers, or took service with the privateers, or migrated
by thousands into England with their families, carrying

428

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 51.

with them their arts and industries. Factories were
closed, trade was paralyzed, or was transferred from the
Scheldt to the Thames. The spirit of disaffection went
deeper and deeper into the people, and the hard-headed
and indifferent man of business was converted by his
losses into a patriot. To the petitions for the modera-
tion of the edicts the Duchess of Parma could answer
only that she had no power, or that she must consult
her brother ; and the noblemen, who had first interposed
to prevent the continuance of the Spaniards among them,
began to consult what further steps might be possible.
Foremost among these were the Stadtholders of the
different provinces, "William of Nassau Prince of Orange,
Count Egmont the hero of Gravelines and St Quentin,
Montigny, Horn, and the Marquis Berghen. The Prince
of Orange was still under thirty and capable of new
impressions, his friends were middle-aged men, un-
likely to -change their creed, but unwilling to sit by
and see their fellow-countrymen murdered. Some-
thing they were able to effect for a time, by impeding
the action of their own courts ; but local remedies were
partial and difficult to carry out. The vague powers of
the bishops superseded the laws of the States, and the
laws themselves had been formed in Catholic times when
heresy was universally regarded as a serious offence :
the Stadtholders could not alter them without open
revolt against the Sovereign, which as yet they had not
contemplated. They could but solicit Philip therefore to
moderate the violence of the administration, and sus-
pend the edicts till milder measures had been tried.

THE CASKET LETTERS. 429

Such advice to the Kin g of Spain was like the carnal
policy of the children of Israel in making terms with
the idolaters of Canaan. What to him were the lives
and industries of his subjects compared to their immor-
tal souls ? Better that the Low Countries were restored
to the ocean from which they had been recovered, better
that every man, woman, and child should perish from
off the land, than that he should acknowledge or endure
as his subjects the enemies of God. To him the man
who endeavoured to protect a heretic was no less in-
iumnus than the heretic himself. Compared with the
MTV ice of the Almighty, the rights of the Provinces
were mere forms of man's devising ; and, with a purpose
hard as the flinty pavement of his own Madrid, he tem-
porized and gave doubtful answers, and marked the
name of every man who petitioned to him for modera-
tion, that he might make an example of him when the
time for it should come.

At length, driven mad by their own sufferings, en-
couraged by the attitude of their leaders, and by the
apparent absence of any force which could control them,
the commons of the Netherlands rose in rebellion,
sacked churches and cathedrals, burnt monasteries,
killed monks when they came in their way, set up their
own service's, and broke into the usual excesses which
the Calvinists on their side considered also supremely
meritorious.

The Stadtholders put them down everywhere, used
the gallows freely, and restored order; but the thing
was done, the peace had been broken, and Philip had

43o R&IGN OF ELIZABETtf. [Cti. 5*.

the plea at last for which he had long waited — that his
subjects were in insurrection, and required the presence
of his own troops to bring them to obedience. An
army, small in number but perfect in equipment and
discipline, was raised from among the choicest troops
which Spain and Italy could provide. The ablest living
soldier was chosen to command them. The Duchess of
Parma was superseded, and the military government of
the Netherlands was entrusted to Ferdinand of Toledo,
Duke of Alva.

The name of Alva has descended through Protest-
ant tradition in colours black as if he had been dipped
in the pitch of Cocytus. Religious history is partial in
its verdicts. The exterminators of the Canaanites are
enshrined among the saints, and had the Catholics come
off victorious, the Duke of Alva would have been a
second Joshua. He was now sixty years old. His life
from his boyhood had been spent in the field, and he
possessed all the qualities in perfection which go to the
making of a great commander and a great military
administrator. The one guide of his life was the law
of his country. He was the servant of the law and not
its master, and he was sent to his new government to
enforce obedience to a rule which he himself obeyed,
and which all subjects of the Spanish Crown were bound
to obey. His intellect was of that strong practical kind
which apprehends distinctly the thing to be done, and
uses without flinching the appropriate means to do it.
He was proud, but with the pride of a Spaniard — a
pride in his race and in his country. He was ambitious,

THE CASKET LETTERS. 431

but it was not an ambition which touched his loyalty to
I or king. In him the Spain of the sixteenth cen-
tury found its truest and most complete representative.
Careless of pleasure, careless of his life, temperate in
his personal habits, without passion, without imagina-
tion, with nerves of steel, and with a supreme conviction
that the duty of subjects was to obey those who were
set over them — such was the famous, or infamous, Duke
of Alva, when in June, 1567, in the same month when
Mary Stuart was shut up in Lochleven, he set out from
Italy for the Netherlands. He took with him ten
thousand soldiers, complete in the essentials of an army,
even to two thousand courtesans, who were under mili-
tary discipline. He passed over Mont Cenis through
Savoy, Burgundy, and Lorraine. In the middle of
August he was at Thionville ; before September he had
entered Brussels.

The Prince of Orange, who knew the meaning of
his coming, had provided for his safety and had re-
treated with his four brothers into Germany. Egmont,
conscious of no crime except of having desired to serve
his country, remained with Count Horn to receive the
new governor. In a few weeks they found themselves
arrested, and with them any nobleman or gentleman
that Alva's arm eould reach, who had signed the peti-
tions to the King. Proceeding to business with calm
skill, the Duke distributed his troops in garrisons among
the towns. With a summary command he suspended
the local magistrates and closed the local courts. The
administration of the Provinces was made over to a

432

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

LCH. 51.

council of which he was himself president, and from
which there was no appeal. Tribunals commissioned
by this body were erected all over the country, and so
swift and steady were their operations, that in three
months eighteen hundred persons had perished at the
stake or on the scaffold.1

Deprived of their leaders, and stupefied by these
prompt and dreadful measures, the people made little
resistance ; a few partial efforts were instantly crushed,
and their one hope was then in the Prince of Orange.
The Prince, accepting Alva's measures as an open vio-
lation of the constitution, without disclaiming his alle-
giance to Philip, at once declared war against his re-
presentative, raising money on the credit of his own
estates, and gathering contributions wherever hatred of
Catholic tyranny opened a purse to him. He raised
two armies in Germany, and while he himself prepared
to cross the "Meuse, his brother, Count Louis, entered
Friesland. Fortune was at first favourable. D'Arem-
berg, who was sent by Alva to stop Louis, blundered
into a position where even Spanish troops could not
save him from disaster and defeat. The patriots won
the first battle of the war, and d'Aremberg was killed.2
But the brief flood- tide soon ebbed. Alva waited only
to send Horn and Egmont to the scaffold, and took the

1 History of the Dutch Republic,
vol. i. p. 136. The merits of Mr
Motley's history have been recog-
nized so generally, that further praise
would be impertinent and superflu-
ous. I may be permitted however

as a fellow-traveller on a parallel
road, to thank him for the light with
which his pages never fail to furnish
me whenever I turn to them.

2 Battle of Heiliger Lee, May
23, 1568.

1568.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 433

field in person. Count Louis' military chest was badly
furnished, and soon empty. The Germans would not
fight without pay, and Louis had no money to pay them
Mith. As Alva advanced upon them they fell back
'without order or purpose, till they entrapped themselves
in a peninsula on the Ems, and there, in three miserable
hours, Count Louis saw his entire force mowed down by
his own cannon, which the Spaniards took ;it the first
rush, or drowned and smothered in the tideway or the
uiud. The Duke's loss, if his own report of the engage-
ment was true, was but seven men.1 The account most
favourable to the patriots does not HUM- it above eighty.
Count Louis, with a few stragglers, swain the* river and
made his way to his brother, for whose fortune so tre-
mendous a catastrophe was no favourable omen. The

man States, already lukewarm, became freezing in
their indifference. Maximilian forbade Orange to levy
troops within the Kmpire. Orange however had a
position of his own in Nassau, from which he could act
at his own risk upon his own resources. He published
a justification of himself to Europe. By loan and
mortgage, by the sale of every acre which he could
dispose of, he again raised money enough to move; and
on the ^th of October he led thirty thousand men over
the Meuse and entered Brabant.

So matters stood on the Continent in the summer
and autumn which followed Mary Stuart's flight to
England, and they had contributed no little to Eliza-

1 Battle of Jemmingen, July 21.
VOL. vin. 28

434 REIGN Of ELIZABETH. [CH. 5j.

beth's embarrassment. If the Prince of Orange fared
no better than Count Louis, the Reformation, it ap-
peared, would be trampled out in the Low Countries,
and the close neighbourhood of Alva with a victorious
army of Catholic fanatics could not but affect consider-
ably the temper of her own people. Personally Eliza-
beth had but little sympathy with the Netherlander.
She was a Lutheran, and the Netherlanders were Cal-
vinists. The refugees caused her continual trouble,
both in themselves and in the rapidity with which they
made proselytes. The Lutherans detested the Calvin-
ists as bringing a reproach upon the Reformation. The
Catholics encouraged them by affecting to make a
marked distinction between the two forms of heresy.
They avoided meddling with the Confession of Augs-
burg, till they had first disposed of the more dangerous
doctrines of Geneva ; and they desired it to be under-
stood that, except for Calvin, and Calvin's disciples, the
wounds of Europe might be amicably healed.

This feeling lay at the bottom of much of Eliza-
beth's Church policy. So long as the Church of Eng-
land was not Genevan she might hope to be let alone.
If Scotland could be recovered from Geneva, the King
of Spain would have the less temptation to interfere in
behalf of Mary Stuart. De Silva, with entire honesty,
confirmed her in this impression, warning her only
against those who, by driving her further, would make
reconciliation impossible ; and she, in turn, listened
with seeming satisfaction to the account of Alva's suc-
cesses. When Egmont was executed, she expressed

1568.]

THE CASKET LETTERS.

433

some regret that he had not been heard in his defence ;
but she admitted that he had deserved his fate, and she
complained of the unreasonableness of mankind, who
when crimes were committed clamoured for their pun-
ishment, and when the punishment came could only
compassionate the sufferers.1 The ambassador was
allowed to celebrate the battle of Jemmingen with
high mass, Te Deum, and a grand festivity with Inn
Catholic friends.8 Elizabeth, speaking of the action,
said, that the Duke's victory reminded IKT of what wiia
said of a gentleman who, with his servant, was set upon
by a dozen thieves, and killed or disabled them all, —
' One man with a head on his shoulders was worth n
dozen without/ She 'was delighted at the Duke's
/ success, as she was with any good fortune which befell
her brother, the King of Spain/*

Something of this language was perhaps affected.
Elizabeth, with the Queen of Scots upon her hands,
could not afford to sympathize with rebels. Unfortun

1 'Diciendomequceracosaestrafia
la condieion y liviandad de los hom-
brea ; porque quando vcian a los que
habian excedido libros, los deseaban
yer castigados, y quando los veian
en elcastigo,8emovian a compassion.'
— De Silva to Philip, June 20 :
MSS. Mmanais.

* ' News bo come that tbe Duke
of Alva bath given a great overthrow
unto the Protestants, and hath slain
of them to the number of 7000.
And tor joy thtreof, the ambassador
of Spain, which lytth in my Lord

Paget's house, made '& great bonfire
and set out two hogsheads of good
claret to drink, come who would,
and two of beer, the which I and
my wife went in and drank there ;
the which there was of my neighbour*
that said we were partakers of their
fornication because we drank of their
wine.' — Oswald Wilkinson to the
Earl of Northumberland, August 9 ;
Domettie MSS.

» De Silva to Philip, August 9
Tbid.

436

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 51.

ately, rebellion and Protestantism in all countries but
her own were going hand in hand, and she was alike
frightened and exasperated at .seeing that the Reform-
ing part of her own subjects were drifting further and
further from her own standing- ground. More and more
every day they were shifting in the Genevan direction ;
her own council was tainted, and her Catholic subjects
had better and better ground for complaining of the
laws, which forbade them the exercise of their own
creed, when doctrines equally heretical from the
Lutheran point of view might be taught openly in the
churches. Thus, being for ever in fear of the example
being turned against herself, she disclaimed for herself
all sympathy with the foreign Protestants. She osten-
tatiously claimed communion for her own Anglicanism
with the mystic body of the visible Church, and de
Silva caught at every opportunity of encouraging her
humour, applauding the loyalty of her Catholic subjects,
and contrasting their temper with the anarchic liber-
tinism of the heretics.1

1 A noticeable passage occurs in
one of de Silva's letters, showing how
far less inveterate the Catholics real-
ly were against the Lutheran and
Anglican theory than against the
Calvinists. It was Calvinism which
was making the rent incurable, and
splitting Christianity into the Ro-
manism of Trent and a fanaticism
which fought the battle of liberty
with a spirit which a milder creed
would have failed to evoke, but
which, when the victory was gained,

became itself a tyranny no more
tolerable than that of Rome itself.

'Those,' said de Silva, ' who call
themselves of the religio purissima
go on increasing. They are the same
as Calvinists, and they are styled
Puritans because they allow no cere-
monies nor any forms save those which
are authorized by the bare letter of
the Gospel. They will not come to
the churches which are used by the
rest, nor will they allow their minis-
ter to wear any marked or separate

I568.]

THE CASKET LETTERS.

437

She was going on progress at the end of the sum-
mer. On the 6th of August she came down from Hamp-
ton Court, and spent a day at the Charterhouse as a guest
of the Duke of Norfolk. She went through the streets
as usual in an open carriage, that the people might see
her. She was received everywhere with the passionate
enthusiasm which showed that her policy had endeared
her permanently to the people. De Silva, who accom-
panied her, remarked on the pleasure which such a
scene must give her. She said that her subjects loved
her because, while the other nations of Europe were

self and to princes generally. Li-
bertines I called them — for revolt
against authority in all forms is their
real principle. I said, I understood
she had been advised to give up the
Confession of Augsburg, to which she
had professed to adhere, and to take
to this other form. I trusted she
would be careful, and would not al-
low herself to be misled.

' She answered that I need not
alarm myself; not one of her council
would dare to propose such a thing
to her.

« I said that this was very likely.
The council knew that she was too
but though they might not
suggest it openly, they might put
things before her in such a way tin:
she might take fright, and so be
brought round to their purpose.
There were plenty of such people in
the country, but their number would
not save them, and they would come
to ruin at last.'— De Silva to Philip
July 3 : MSS. Simanca*.

Some of them have been
taken up, but they have no fear of
prison and otfer themselves to arrest
of their own accord.

4 So far as we can see, the major-
ity of Protestants here believe in
Calvin, but they hold so many
opinions together, that I cannot tell
for certain what they are, nor can
they agree on any point among them-
selves. If they were not blind they
would see their own folly. There
is a suspicion that a party in the
council would like to bring the
Queen over to their views ; that so
all the Protestants in England might
be of one mind. I f they were agreed,
they think they would be better
able to maintain themselves, and
they would then endeavour to give
the same complexion to heresy every-
where else. I thought it would be
a serious misfortune if these persons
were to succeed, and I therefore took
occasion to warn the Queen of the
danger from these libertines to her-

43g REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

tearing each other in pieces, they alone, under her rule,
were living in safety under their own nne and fig-tree.
« To God she owed it/ she said ; ' it was the marvellous
work of His hand/ Where the crowd was thickest, she
stopped her horses, stood up, and spoke to those who
were nearest to her. At one place de Silva remarked
a venerable-looking man putting himself conspicuously
forward, shouting l Vivat Regina ! Honi soit qui mal y
pense ! ' ' That/ said the Queen, with evident pride,
' is a priest of the old religion/ ' And thus, Madam/
rejoined the ambassador, ' you see a proof of what Catho-
lics are. Catholics are the support of thrones, which
heretics destroy. In them your Majesty will find the
loyalty which will be your stay in the day of trouble,
and therefore I have ever prayed you to take care of
them, and to forbid their ill-treatment.1

Elizabeth had clung as it were convulsively to this
happier aspect of her Catholic subjects, hoping that a
time would come when the Anglicans and they could
come together on some moderate common ground — such
a ground as might have been found for all Europe, had
not passion been called in to deal with questions which
only intellect could grapple with. But the passion was
there, and growing. The two moving powers in the
Western Churches were Calvinism and Ultramontanism,
and it became daily more manifest to Elizabeth that,
besides these moderate loyal Catholics, there were
others, disciples of the new school of Jesuitry and the

1 Pe Silva to Philip, August 9 : MSS. Simancas

1568.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 439

Tridentine council ; men by whom she was herself re-
garded as the bastard offspring of adultery, who ac-
knowledged no Sovereign on earth but the Pope of
Rome, and no country but the so-called Church — men
who were only watching for the moment when she could
be tripped up and hurled out of her seat, to make room
for the murderer of Darnley. It was this spirit which
was filling the Netherlands with blood. It was this,
though she might try to shut her eyes to it, which had
triumphed at Jemmingen. A day or two after the
scene in the London streets she wentr to St Albans, and
there Cecil, writing to Sir Henry Sidney in Ireland,
said, —

* The overthrow of Count Louis with the triumph of
the Duke of Alva being brought to the Court, have
eaused the Queen's Majesty to give some hearing to such
as think her security cannot have continuance if these
planets keep their course/ ' I trust,' he added, and
the tone was most significant — ' I trust her Majesty
shall have good counsel. An ounce of advice is more
worth to be executed beforehand than in the sight of
perils ; but as long as I have served the Queen's Ma-
jesty, Epimetheus has had more to do than Prometheus/ l

Other causes had arisen also to make Elizabeth un-
( a-y for her relations with Spain. Her languid attempts
to suppress the privateers had been evaded and laughed
at. The Channel was less infested, but they had ex-
tended their ravages to the ocean. They had united

1 Cecil to Sir Henry Sidney, August 10 : MSS.

440 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

\rith the Huguenots of Rochelle, and sailing under
Conde's flag and with Conde's commission, they had
made a prey of Papists wherever they could catch them.
The Duke of Alva rated the injury annually done by
them to Spanish commerce at 300,000 ducats/ On this
point Philip still showed laudable forbearance. But a
quarrel of a different kind had broken out at Madrid,
which threatened immediate mischief. Dr Man, the
English Minister, on his first arrival there had been
allowed to use the Anglican service in his own house,
* without danger of the Inquisition ; ' but the privilege
was confined to his own person ; his secretaries and
servants were expected to be present at mass. Elizabeth,
jealous for the Catholic character of her Liturgy, did
not choose that Anglican formularies should be re-
garded with less favour than she herself extended, under
analogous circumstances, to the Missal and the Breviary.
The household of the Spanish ambassador were no
more compelled to attend church than the ambassador
himself, and she insisted that Dr Man's retinue should
have analogous indulgence. She would not ' endure
such inequality/ and made the concession a condition
of the residence of an English Minister at the Spanish
Court.2

Dr Man had been ill- selected for a critical and diffi-
cult post. As a clergyman he believed it to be his duty
to testify to his faith. He had talked largely and fool-

1 Guerau d'Espes to Philip, August 25 : MSS. Simancas.
2 Elizabeth to Doctor Man, February, 1568 : MSS. Spain, Rolls
House.

1568.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 441

i>lily ;i( Spanish dinner- tables on the Christian mys-
teries, and had fallen under the notice of the spiritual
authorities. When he presented his demand for an
extension of his privilege, he not only was met with a
prompt refusal, but his personal exemptions were with-
drawn. He was told that no schism should be intro-
duced into Spain — on any plea. The King could not
grant permission if he would, for the King as much as
his people ' was subject to the Holy House of the In-
quisition/ l The Queen of England must submit ' to
tlie order which her grandfather, father, brother, and
other her predecessors had been contented withal.'

A man of the world would have been silent : the
Doctor remarked upon the reply in language which was
held indecent. He was removed from Madrid and placed
in confinement in a house six miles distant from the
( -n v ; and soon after, without waiting for the letters of
recall which were on their way from England, Philip
took the strong step of sending him his passports and
ordering him to leave the country. It was not to be
construed — unless Elizabeth chose to take it so — into
breaking off diplomatic relations with England. For
the sake, of the Catholics, Philip still desired to keep an
ambassador of his own in London; but he did intend
to make a change in those relations, and a change which
had a distinct reference to the events which were in
progress in Flanders. His present minister had been
chosen when Philip wished to conciliate Elizabeth, and

1 IWtor Man to Elizabeth, April 6; Man to Cecil, April 23: JfSS
Ibid.

442 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

to remove the unpleasant impressions which had been
left by the Bishop of Aquila. De Silva was a high-
bred, sensible man of the world, prudent, moderate, with
a natural disinclination for intrigue; capable of be-
lieving that schismatic Governments might be useful
allies, and that Catholics were not necessarily saints.
De Silva was now to be recalled, and a successor was
appointed to his place better suited to present exigen-
cies, in the person of Don Guerau or Gerald de Espes.
On Don Guerau had descended the dropped mantle of
de Quadra. Inferior to his prototype in natural genius
for conspiracy, inferior to him in intellectual apprecia-
tion of the instruments with which he was working —
he was nevertheless, in hatred of heresy, in unscrupu-
lousness, in tenacity of purpose and absolute careless-
ness of personal risk to himself, as fit an instrument as
Philip could have found to communicate with the
Catholics, and to form a party among them ready for
any purpose for which the King of Spain might desire
to use them.

Though his character was unknown before
his coming to England, yet Elizabeth instinct-
ively felt that mischief was intended by the change.
When de Silva waited on her at Hatfield to take leave,
she concealed neither her alarm nor her regret. ' Her
intercourse with him,' she said, ' had been always agree-
able. She would have been well pleased if he had re-
mained, and she trusted in God that there was no
mystery in his going/

To remove her misgivings de Silva laid the blame

1568.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 443

on himself. He said that he * had been recalled nt hii
own request because the English climate disagreed
with him.'

She shook her head and seemed but little satisfied.
Cecil told him that she wag disquieted with the
rumours of a Catholic coalition against her. De Silva
was known to have received letters from the Queen of
Scots, and Alva and the Cardinal of Lorraine were be-
lieved to be in correspondence on the same subject.
The Queen feared that having laid a train of gunpow-
der, he was leaving it to be exploded by his successor.1
The suspicion was natural, but it exceeded the truth.
De Silva was able to assure Cecil with a clear con-
science that, so far as he was concerned, the alarm was
groundless.

Nor was Philip, as yet, in any way determined what
course he meant to follow. Whatever might be his re-
lations with the House of Lorraine, he was as far as
ever from an understanding with the French Govern-
ment. He still entertained no thought of taking up
Mary Stuart ; and although he was determined sooner
or later to recover England in some way to the Holy
See ; although he was satisfied that as long as England
remained in its present state the Netherlands would
never be effectually pacified, yet in his instructions to
Don Gucrau he directed him especially to avoid com-
mitting himself with the friends of the Queen of Scots ;
mid while he was to animate the Catholics, he was on

De Silva to Philip, August 19 : JTSS.

444

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 51

no account to give Elizabeth any open grounds of com-
plaint.1

But Elizabeth and her Ministers as yet but little
understood the extreme slowness with which Philip
moved. They saw Alva shaking his bloody sword
across the Channel ; they saw their ambassador dis-
missed with contumely out of Spain; they saw de
Silva recalled, and his removal imperfectly explained.
These signs confirmed the threatening rumours of which
the air was full ; and the Queen, with the Mary Stuart
problem on her hands, began to listen to those who told
her that, whatever her private feelings, the safety of
her throne depended on the Protestants of the Con-
tinent being saved from utter destruction. A brief but
pathetic letter came from the Prince of Orange to Cecil,
describing the condition of his country, and rather in-
dicating a wish than expressing a hope for Elizabeth's
assistance.2

1 Instructions to Don Guerau de
Espes, June 28, 1568 : MSS. Siman-
cas.

2 ' M. SECILE, — Vous avez (com-
me je ne double aucunement) assez
entendu de quelle fa<jon le Due
d'Alva avec ses adherens depuis sa
venue au Pays Bas ai precede,
et procede encores journellement,
contre les pauvres Chrestiens, illec-
ques estants ses cruaultez inhu-
manitez et tyrannies si notoires qu'il
n'est besoing de les specifier, sans
jamais avoir prins aucun regard
aux droictz, usances, priveleges, et
coustumes du pays ny au qualitez et

services de ceulx qu'il ait si injuste-
ment executez, banniz, et descbassez :
chose certes qui a bon droict doibt
mouvoir tout homme a pitie et
compassion, veu mesmement que sa
tyrannic s'est tant desbordee qu'elle
n'a laisse lieu quelconque a raison ni
justice. Done pour 1' affection que
j'ay tousjours eu au service du Hoy
et au bien de celuy pais suis este
reduict eu ceste extremite que d'user
contre ce mal si exorbitant du re-
mede que ce gentilhorarae vous dira,
vous priant que sur ce qu'il vous
declaira de ma part le voulliez croire
comme moy mesme ; et en cas qu'il

I56&]

THE CASKET LETTERS.

445

The Prince of Conde, whose cause was identified
with that of Orange (for he too knew that if Alva was
unchecked the Huguenots would be soon trampled out
in France), sent the younger Coligny, the Cardinal of
Chatillon, to London, to tempt the Queen into a Protest-
ant league. The Queen's dynastic affectations were seri-
ously shaken. Money was conveyed privately to Orange,
and further measures, it will be seen, were contemplated
in his favour. The Cardinal Chatillon was * well re-
ceived ' by Elizabeth, the rather, as Cecil italicizes in
one of his private notes, to disp/ease all Papist; and
while in the same paper he said ' that it was not in-
tended the Queen of Scots should be proved guilt \
the murder/ yet ' there would be no haste made of hi T
delivery, until the success was seen of the matter of
France and Flanders.' l

The agitation will now be easily imagined

J October,

with which at this crisis the Queen learnt that

a marriage was being talked of between the Queen of
Scots and the Duke of Norfolk. Between her own

vous rcqncra dc vostre addresse vers
p;i M;ijo>to, luv prrstiT cn ce vo«tre
bonne aydeet assistance. — Vostirtrrs
affectionnc servitcur, WM. DE NAS-
SAU. August 22.'— J/.V.V. Ftanftre*,
Rolls House.

1 Notes in Cecil's hand, Septem-
ber 23 : MSS. Scotland, Rolls House.
It was necessary to move with ex-
treme caution. The majority of the
council was stiil opposed to a Pro-
testant policy. Alva had applied for
leave to supply his army in Eiiglai*-

with winter clothes, and also with
horses. The old Lord Treasurer,
the Marquis of Winchester, 'thought
it good for his opinion that the
Queen's Majesty should show her
*l favour in that suit, for that
the same might move the Duke to
be ready for her Grace when he
might do her any service.' — The
Marquis of Winchester to Cecil, Sep.
tember 22: MSS. Domestic, Rolls
House.

446 &E1GN Of ELIZABETH. [CH. 51

vacillations and the clouds rising over the Continent
the problem had become fearfully complicated. To de-
tain Mary Stuart in England ' without disgracing her
to the world/ would be at once dishonourable and
dangerous.1 If the more direct alternative could not
be encountered, then to marry her to some steady Pro-
testant, and allow her, so trammelled, to return to
Scotland was the safest course which could be followed.
But Norfolk, the first Peer in England, at once weak,
flexible, and ambitious, hanging on the confines of the
two religions, and dangerously liable to be tempted
into Papistry, was tho very last person with whom she
could be safely trusted.

It has been seen that if Norfolk was not profoundly
treacherous he was himself wravering about the mar-
riage ; but he was no less anxious to prevent the charges
against the Queen of Scots from being pressed ; and
those who desired Norfolk to have her for political
reasons had not been frightened by Murray's disclosures.
Before the Conference broke up at York, the Bishop of
Boss, Maitland, and Melville talked it over, and agreed
that the alliance was the most promising means of keep-
ing Murray silent. The Bishop afterwards had a long
conversation with the Duke. Maitland, he said, recom-
mended that the Queen of Scots should renew her abdi-
cation, the condition on which Murray insisted as the
price of his forbearance ; ' she would then be restored
to her country with honour, and. within six months

1 Knowles to Cecil, October : M8S. MARY QUEEN OP SCOTS, Holh Ho

1568.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 44?

might revoke all that she had done.'1 The Duke an-
swered that 'anything was well to prevent the present
infamy and slander.' If Murray produced the letters,
' the Queen of Scots would be dishonoured for ever/ and
* the Christian princes could no longer make suit for her
delivery.'2 At whatever hazard and by whatever means
her good name must be protected, * and time would
work the rest.'

Norfolk said nothing to the Bishop about the mar-
riage, but he had allowed Muitland to open the'sul>j< •• t
with him, and with or without his sanction Norfolk's
sister, Lady Scrope, was feeling the pulse of the Queen
ota.

The Commissioners then separated. Norfolk went
north as he was ordered, and a week or two after made
hi- way to London. Sadler, Maitland, Murray, Herries,
Livingston, and the rest repaired directly to the Court ;
while the Bishop of Ross passed round by Bolton to
consult his mistress, and take out fresh powers for the
second Conference. Knowles too had gone again
thither full of his own scheme of marrying her to his
cousin Carey. Mary Stuart had thus two English alli-
ances already projected for her. She had left another
in Scotland with the heir of the Hamiltons, while < \-
posure was hanging over her for crimes which in any
other age would have disqualified her from further
matrimonial speculation. It was a strange world — but
none the less a real one. To her, just then, the ex-

IV'iilession of the Bishop of Host.— MLRUIX, p. 52. 2 Ibid.

443

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 51.

posure was the one matter of most importance, and she
turned the different intrigues to account. She had so
far no serious notion of accepting any of these suitors.
She thought only of tiding over her present difficulty,
and holding her friends together. She amused Chatel-
herault therefore with the expectation .that as soon as
she was released she would accept the hand of Lord
Arbroath ; 1 she listened graciously to Lady Scrope ;
while she flattered Sir Francis into believing that her
real preference, on the whole, was for the scheme which
he had suggested to Norfolk ; and misleading him pur-
posely as to the person of whom she was speaking, she
let him think ' that she would not greatly mislike to be
offered some near kinsman of the Queen's Majesty on
the mother's side.'2

Thus provided on all sides' — the Catholics forming a
coalition for her into which they were labouring to
bring the King of Spain ; her cause gradually identify-
ing itself with the struggle on the Continent ; the Duke
of Norfolk being proposed to her by the great English
party who had maintained her claims to the succession ;

1 ' It seemeth to be her policy to
work to marry with my Lord of Ar-
broath, not only because the Duke
and his house are dedicated to the
French, but also because it were
her own peril to countenance the
Duke to govern upon any other occa-
sion. But in hope thereof, however
she be detained, she will counte-
nance and maintain the Duke to the
uttermost, unless her Majesty should

think good to alter the matter by an
English marriage.' — Knowles to
Cecil, October 25 : Cotton. MSS.
CALIG. C. i.

2 Knowles to Cecil, October 20 :
MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS, Rolls House.
The Duke of Norfolk was related to
the Queen on the mother's side, as
well as the children of Lord Huns-
don.

1568] THE CASKET LETTERS. 449

and the two sections of her own subjects labouring to
come to a compromise in her favour through their joint
distrust of Elizabeth — the Queen of Scots prepared to
meet the future, confident on the whole that, among so
many combinations in her favour, the danger which
she lately feared would be warded off. In renewing
Yhe commission of the Bishop of Ross and his com-
panions, she again empowered them to accept Eli/a-
beth's conditions ; she declared herself still ready to
abandon France, and to make a permanent alliance with
England ' for the weal of bolli realms.' She was will-
ing to agree to any measure for her divorce from Both-
well ; and while to Spain and France she was protest-
ing that she was a true daughter of the Papacy, she
repeated her consent to the establishment of the
Anglican Church Constitution in Scotland.1 If the
Conference took a dangerous turn, and if, contrary to
expectations, Murray pushed his accusation, the com-
mission was to be understood to be cancelled, and the
Bishop and his friends were to withdraw.

Elizabeth herself meanwhile had grown, as has been
seen, into a harsher humour. The aggressive attitude
of the Catholics had frightened her, and the Norfolk
rumour, whether there was foundation for it or not, con-
vinced her that the Queen of Scots could not safely be
allowed to come off with flying colours.2 After endless

1 Mary Stuart to the Bishop of
Ross, October 22: LABANOFF, vol. ii.

2 ' The Queen's Majesty is now at
the point so careful for her own
surety and state, as I perceive the

Queen of Scots shall not by favour
be advanced to greater credit than
her cause will deserve, and I think
it is rather to put her back than to
further her. This percase the bearer

VOL. VIII. 2 'i

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 51.

efforts to evade giving a direct answer to Murray's four
questions, and with a saving clause that ' she would not
compel or embolden the Earl of Murray to enter into
accusations, for that she principally wished the honour
and estate of the Queen of Scotland to be preserved,1
she brought herself to promise that, ' if the guilt of the
said Queen might manifestly and certainly appear/ she
would neither herself restore her, nor permit her to be
restored, unless with assurances for her future behaviour,
such as Murray himself should be satisfied with. With
a profound sense of the importance of the occasion,
and to leave no excuse for a complaint of unfair dealing,
she summoned a great council of the Peers ; and Nor-
folk, Winchester, Arundel, Derby, Northumberland,
Westmoreland, Shrewsbury, those among the English
nobles who had made themselves most conspicuous as
the advocates of the Queen of Scots' pretensions, were
required especially to be present at an investigation
which at last she determined to make complete.2 If
the realm was to be further troubled in Mary Stuart's
interest, Elizabeth did not mean to leave her friends
excuse for pretending, in public or private, that they
believed her to have been unjustly accused.

As soon as this resolution became known it was
foreseen that the Queen of Scots would attempt to
escape. She hunted daily about Bolton in the wildest

understandeth not, nor I dare utter
it to him — but write it to be burned
by yourself.'— Cecil to Sir H. Sid-
ney, October 22: MSS. Ireland,
Rolls House.

1 Note in Cecil's hand, October

30 : MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS, Rolls
House,

2 Proceedings at the Council at
Hampton Court, October 30 : GOOD-
ALL, vol. ii.

1568.]

THE CASKET LETTERS.

45'

weather, galloping so fast that her guard could scarce
keep at her side. The country was open to the Border.
Knowlos represented that ' a dozen or two troopers might
easily come over the moors, leaving relays of horses on
the way/ and carry her off; while 'to be hindered of
her exercise would be death to one of her disposition.' l
Kli/abeth therefore, after quarrelling with the expense,

replenished Lord Scrope's stables. ' A dozen

11 j i L j November,

men well armed and mounted were to accom-
pany her wherever she went, and a dozen more patrolled
under the walls at night/ 8 The Berwick harquebuss-
men had returned home after the move from Carlisle.
Knowles however, thus reinforced, undertook to' hold
her safe, and having a kinsman's privilege, although
he himself would not leave his charge, he sent Elizabeth
in writing a few sentences of advice. When the Peers
were assembled, he recommended her to hear what they
would have to say, ' and not prejudicate them with
the opening of her opinions beforehand. If the nobility
and council did not heartily and sincerely join with her
in that grand cause, danger would come of it/3

Care was taken that the evidence should be complete.
Besides the letters, there were persons present in Lon-
don who had been more or less connected with the
murder, who were aware of the Queen's part in it, and
ready to depose to what they knew.4

1 Knowles to Cecil, October 25 :
Cotton MSS., CALIG C. i.

- Knowles to Cecil, November 5
and 12 : MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS.

3 Ibid.

4 Nothing remains to show who

tbese persons were, but that tlu-ro
were such persons in London, ap-
pears from a singular note to Cecil
from Francis Walsingham, who here
appears upon the stage for the first
time. The note is in these words: —

452

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

The intention even yet was not to find her guilty
before the world. The Peers only were to be compelled
to look the truth in the face, and to be forced for shame
to withdraw their countenance from her. When that
was done, a composition of some kind could be dis-
covered to which Scotland might consent ; Mary Stuart's
misdoings might be varnished over, and she might be
spared from formal condemnation.1

Such an issue to the Queen of Scots appeared little
less dneadful than a public declaration of her iniquities.
Her friends, she trusted, might still prevent it, but

'Sir, — 1 was willed by my friend
to advertise you, that if for the dis-
covery of the Queen of Scots' consent
to the murder of her husband there
lacketh sufficient proofs, he is able,
if it shall please you to use him, to
discover certain that should have
been employed in the said murder
who are here to be produced. Thus
most humbly taking my leave of
your Honour, I beseech God to direct
all your doings to his honour. Your
Honour's to command, FRANCIS
WALSINGHAM. November 20.' —
MSS. QUEEN OP SCOTS, Rolls House.

1 Notes in Cecil's hand, Novem-
ber 21 : MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS.
Cecil, according to his habit, drew
a scheme of the situation, and divided
it into Greek antitheses : —

dya9ov

di'd

pattov ( (OT-C).

'The best for England,' he said,

'but not the easiest,' would be to
leave the Queen of Scots deprived,
and Scotland to continue as it was.
The next best and not so hard,
that the Queen of Scots should be
persuaded to allow her son to re-
main King ; she herself to keep the
name of Queen, and Scotland to be
governed by a commission. The
Anglican Church to be established ;
a general amnesty declared ; the
Hamilton succession allowed and
guaranteed; the Queen of Scots her-
self to remain in England, and not
to leave it without Elizabeth's per-
mission ; and the young King to be
brought up in England also, with a
view to his eventually succeeding to
the English crown.

These conditions would at any
time have satisfied Scotland, with 01
without the confirmation of Mary
Stuart's deposition ; but, to the last
of them especially, Elizabeth herselt
could never be brought to consent.

THE CASKET LETTERS 453

her best hope was with her own subjects. If she was
to be restored at all, she knew that for her own sake,
as well as for the honour of Scotland, they would pre-
fer to receive her back with an unstained name ; and
since the restoration still formed a part of Elizabeth's
programme, she made use of the lever to work on
Murray : she sent him word that so long as he and his
friends abstained from accusing her, she was ready ' to
make an appointment ; ' and to give them any security
they desired for their lives, their estates, and their share
in the administration of the country. If, on the other
hand, they chose to dishonour their Queen at the bar
of a foreign prince, 'no love or assured reconciliation
could be obtained afterwards/ She did not wish to
act-use her subjects ; still less did she wish them to
accuse her. If they would abstain from ' rigorous and
extreme dealing,' she on her part would forget that
they hud rebelled against her.1

She knew that Murray had good reason to mistrust
Kli/al>eth, and she believed that her overtures would
he accepted. If she failed and the accusation proceeded,
she demanded to be heard in person before the assembled
English Peers.2

With, this prelude the Conference re-opened at West-
minster on the 25th of November. The three English
Commissioners were re-appointed ; Bacon, Arundel,
Leicester, Clinton, and Cecil were added to their num-
ber ; the remaining noblemen who had received a sum-

1 The Queen of Scots to the I November 22: GOODALL, vol. ii.
Bishop of Ross and Lord Herrics, I 7 Ibid.

454

REIGN OF ELIZABE TH. [CH . 5 1 .

mons were to join them at a later stage in the inquiry.
To evade the appearance of a claim to exercise juris-
diction, the Painted Chamber, a room never used for
judicial purposes, was selected as the place of meeting.
On vthe first day the commission was read, the oaths
taken, and the formalities got over. The Bishop of
Ross entered a ' protestation, that while ready to treat
for an arrangement, he was submitting to no form of
judgment, nor would admit any judge or judges what-
ever' to have authority over his Sovereign.

The next day, Friday the 26th, the serious
part of the business began. The proceedings
were taken up where they had been dropped at York.
The accusations against Murray were read over, with
his imperfect answer. The replies which he had so far
made had been easily answered. He was asked if he
had a further defence.

It seems when he rose that 110 one present knew
what he intended to say. Every effort had been made
to induce him to be silent, and Elizabeth's explanations
had not been of that frank and unreserved kind which
alone, he had said at York, would tempt him to proceed.
Neither is there reason to suppose that any further pro-
mises had been made to him in private. He felt, pos-
sibly, that with falsehood and purposes half-avowed all
around him, the only safe treading for him was on the
open road. His friends believed that he had fallen
into a snare which Elizabeth had laid for him. If it
was so, he at least brought off his good name untarn-
ished from that nest of illusion and intrigue.

1568.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 455

II .slid, that he himself, and the Lords his confed-
erates, had sought only, in all which they had done, to
clear Scotland of the disgrace which the murder of
Darnley had brought upon it. The world had seen
their unwillingness to publish matters to strangers which
tended to the Queen's infamy. They could have cleared
their conduct long before, had they cared to make known
the evidence against her which they possessed and on
which they had acted ; but they had chosen rather to
endure the reproach which was cast upon them; and he
would have still remained silent, ' if the continuance of
Scotland in the state of a kingdom and the profession
of true religion' would have permitted. He had no
delight to see his Sovereign dishonoured, but his adver-
saries left him ' no choice but to produce the writings
which they knew that he possessed.' With these words,
the Regent laid on the table a written declaration that
his sister had been the contriver and deviser of the
murder of which Bothwell had been the instrument.

The accusation was given in. The evidence on
which all would turn was still in reserve. It was not
the assertion that she had approved of the murder
which she feared, for that might have been forgiven ;
but Maitland had sent her copies of the contents of the
casket — the careless sonnets, in which she had allowed
her passion to run over ; the letters, in which she had
exposed the very inmost working of the madness which
had possessed her, with the details of her treachery to
her miserable husband, at which she had herself re-
volted in the heat of her delirium. Bothwell had pre-

456 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

served them all, and all were in Murray's hands ; and
no man or woman was ever born into the world who could
contemplate, without terror, such exposure of their
inner selves.

The conference was prorogued for three days. The
English Commissioners went down to Hampton Court
to inform the Queen of what had passed. It was perhaps
supposed that Mary Stuart, sooner than allow matters
to advance further, would fling herself at Elizabeth's
feet — abdicate, marry George Carey, marry anybody,
or do anything — to escape the deadly disgrace.

On the 29th the session was renewed. The Bishop
of Ross was late in coming, and while the Commissioners
were waiting for his appearance, the Earl of Lennox,
who, it seems, had at last obtained permission to be
present, applied to be heard in confirmation of Mur-
ray's charges. It was a departure from the scheme
which Elizabeth had designed ; Murray was to have
been merely a defendant, and the Queen of Scots the
plaintiff. It was decided however that Lennox should
be admitted, and he was allowed to speak at length
about the murder. ' He produced in writing ' parts
of such matters as he conceived to be true for charg-
ing the Queen of Scots, and he appealed to God and
the Queen of England for justice.

As he finished speaking, the Bishop of Ross entered
with his colleagues. On learning what had taken place,
they again withdrew to consult. ' After some reason-
able time they returned and said, they had found it very
strange and a thing unlocked for, that the other party

I568.J THE CASKET LETTERS 457

could put in writing any such matter with such boldness
and in such sort, especially considering the Queen their
Sovereign had so much benefited the greater part of
them/ They were ready to defend her if necessary,
' but it became not subjects to touch their Sovereign in
such manner/ ' The matter was of great weight/ and
they could not say on the moment what answer they
were prepared to give.

As Elizabeth had misled the Queen of Scots into
taking refuge in England, so now she had broken
the promise with which she had tempted her to con-
sent to the investigation. The Bishop went for
advice to La Mothe F^nelon, whom the favourable

ption of Cardinal Chatillon had made better inclined
than was at first expected to the Queen, of Scots' in-
terests.

Had there been any chance of making a successful
defence, it is idle to pretend that the Bishop of Ross
would not have tried it ; but in the possible innocence
of Mary Stuart no tolerably well-informed person
affected in private to believe. La Mothe thought that
her life was in danger. The lawyers said, that having
come into the realm without a passport, she had fallen
under Elizabeth's jurisdiction, and might be tried at
the suit of the Earl of Lennox for the murder of an
English subject. She might deny her letters, but in
the presence of so much corroborative evidence her own
word would hardly avail her. It was thought at
one time that she had better say that she was innocent ;
but that if she was not innocent, Bothwell was a necro-

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

ICH. 51.

December.

mancer, and that she had been bewitched.1 Her friends
must have been hard pressed to think of such an ex-
cuse. La Mothe, on the whole, advised the Bishop to
parry the charges by recusation, to evade the issues,
and ' tract time/ Meanwhile he would inform his own
Court, and some one would be sent over from France to
remonstrate with Elizabeth against trying a crowned
Princess.2

On the ist of December the Bishop and
Lord Herries intimated that they were pre-
pared to reply. The Earl of Arundel, who had been
absent hitherto from a real or pretended illness, had
now joined his colleagues. Herries spoke first. He
said that he had considered Murray's charges. They
were mere calumnies invented by him and his friends
from a fear that they would be deprived of the estates
which had been granted to them in the Queen's minor-
ity. He required the Commissioners, as they were men
of honour, and ' divers of them of the most antient and
noble blood of the realm,' to suspend their opinion, and
consider how dangerous the example might be if sub-
jects were allowed to depose their princes. Among
those who now appeared as her accusers, were some
who had been themselves parties to the conspiracy.

1 ' Et que Ton pourra aussi
alleguer que quant bien la dicte
Dame auroit attempte quelque chose
en cest endroict, ce qu'elle ne fit onc-
ques, le Conte de Boduel 1'y auroit
Induicteet contrainte par force d' en-
chantment etd'ensorcelement, comme

il en scjait bien le mestier, n'ayant
faict plus grande proffession du temps
qu'il estoit aux escolles que de lire
et estudier en la negromancie et
magie defendu.' — La Mothe Fenelon
au Eoy, November 29 : Depeches,
vol. i. ' 2 Ibid.

THE CASh'ET LETTERS. 4^9

II crries was here on dangerous ground, for ho was
rhielly touching Maitland, and Maitland was working
day and night for the Queen.

The Bishop of Ross followed. He said that ho \\ a^
forbidden by his commission to enter upon the question
which had now been raised. The Conference had been

nibled to hear the complaints of his mistress against
Murray, not that she herself should answer before it as
a criminal. The Earl of Murray had been allowed to
accuse her, contrary to the engagements of the Queen
of England. If his mi>tivss were to reply, she would
reply only in person * for declaration of her innocency '
before the Queen and llio Peers.1

Elizabeth was still at Hampton Court, and as the
Bishop declined to take an answer except from Elizabeth
herself, the Conference was adjourned thither. At the
next session, on Friday, December 3rd, the Queen ap-
peared and took her seat. A private intimation had
!>«•]. coiiM-yed to the Bishop, ' that whether his mistress
was faulty or not faulty, she would be found in fault in
the end, and by colour thereof the Queen of England
would forsake her.' 2 The Bishop at once charged Eli-
zabeth with breach of faith. She had been told from
the tiivt that the Queen of Scots had forbidden her Com-
iii Dinners to reply to any accusation which touched her
honour. He had been sent with his colleagues to con-
sult on the moans of reconciling her with her subjects.

1 Proceedings of the Commission, December I : GOODALL, rol. ii.
Compare MSS. QUKKN <>i S< UTS, Jfollt House.

2 Cotton. MSS. CAUG. C. I.

460 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51,

Since they had been allowed or encouraged to take their
present attitude, those hopes were now at an end. The
Queen of Scots ' would never hereafter extend her clem-
ency to them/ He demanded the instant arrest of
Murray and his friends, and permission to his mistress
to appear in her own defence*

The tone was bold. ' The Commission had now en-
tered/ as Sir Francis Knowles expressed it, 'into the
bowels of the odious accusation/ JSTow, more than ever,
Knowles entreated Cecil to make clear work with it ;
being sure only of this, ' that unconstant wavering or
unsound agreement might breed great dangers/ l Every
one agreed that since the Queen of Scots had been ac-
cused, her request to be allowed to speak for herself
ought not to be refused. It was a quasi admission of
English jurisdiction in Scottish causes — a concession in
itself of no small importance. Some thought that she
should be heard before the Queen in person, with the
whole body of the peers and privy councillors, arid
that the foreign ambassadors should be allowed a voice.
Others thought that although the ultimate judgment
should rest with the Queen, the cause itself should be
tried by Special Commission, and the ambassadors,
though present, should be admitted only as spectators.
But all allowed that in some form or other Mary Stuart
ought to be allowed the natural right of every accused
person. Almighty God had not condemned Adam, till
Adam had been called to answer for himself.2

1 Knowles to Cecil, December 6 : MS8. QUEEN OF SCOTS.
2 L'advis des advocatz : Deptches de M. la Mothe Fenelon, vol. i.
P. 51

1568.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 461

But there was to be no trifling. If a court of this
kind was to be held at all, the Bishop of Ross was not
permitted to remain in any illusion on the form which the
proceedings would assume. If the Queen of Scots ap-
peared on one side, the evidence would be brought for-
ward on the other.

The Bishop and Herries, laying aside the high
language which they had used in the Court, now re-
quested a private interview with Cecil and Leicester.
They said that their mistress 'had desired from the "be-
ginning that the cause should be ended by some good
appointment with her subjects.' They had believed the
wish to be shared by Elizabeth, and before the accusa-
tion was pressed further on either part, they were anx-
ious to know whether something of the kind was not
still possible.

Cecil, that he might be sure that there was no mis-
understanding, made them repeat the words. He then
conducted them to Elizabeth, to whom they again sug-
gested the desirableness of stopping the case.

Elizabeth had either intentionally contrived the situ-
ation, or instantly availed herself of its advantages.
She said politely, that however desirable a compromise
might have been, it would now be fatal to her sister's
honour. The Earl of Murray should be required to
prove his allegation — she did not doubt that he would
fail — and the Queen of Scots' good name would then be
saved without either compromise or need of answer.

The Bishop felt his mistake, but could not extricate
himself. He said his mistress ought to be heard at
once ; ' being able to allege matter why Murray ought

462 REIGN OF ELIZABETH [CH. 51.

not to be allowed to propose anything against her, much
less prove anything in her absence against her honour/

But Elizabeth seemed more jealous for the Queen of
Scots' reputation than the Queen of Scots herself. She
said, ' that she did so much prefer the estimation of her
sister's innocency, that before she would allow the mat-
ter to be stayed, she must have the Earl of Murray
roundly and sharply charged with his audacious de-
faming of his Sovereign/ The Earl of Murray would
of course answer, and everything would be exposed.

Escape was now impossible. If that was her reso-
lution, the Bishop coldly said, that she must do as she
pleased. For himself, he would but enter his protest
and withdraw. He was forbidden to be a party to any
further proceedings, and, so far as he had power to
close it, he declared the -Conference at an end.1

The Court was thus left alone with the Regent. The
Bishop appeared only on the next session to repeat
what he had said to the Queen. Murray was then in-
troduced and put upon his defence. He was told that
although he had forgotten his duty of allegiance in ac-
cusing his Sovereign of so horrible a crime, yet the
Queen of England would not forget her office of a good
neighbour, sister, and friend. If he had anything to
allege in justification of himself, her Commissioners
were ready to hear him.

Yery reluctantly, embarrassed by his negotiations
with Norfolk, against Maitland's advice, for Maitland

1 Proceedings at Hampton Court, Saturday, December 4 : GOODALL,
vol. ii.

i568.J

THE CASKET LETTERS.

463

believed that he was ruining himself and his friends ;
; i gainst his own feelings, for he perhaps alone of the
whole party had some real affection for his father's
daughter, — Murray, thus driven, produced the fatal
casket. The depositions of the murderers who had
been executed were read over, with the acts of the Scot-
tMi Parliament of the preceding December. Nelson,
Darnley's servant, gave an account of the last night at
Kirk o* Field. Crawford related the scene at Glasgow
before Darnley was brought to Edinburgh, with other
particulars. The entire evidence against the Queen of
Scots was placed in the hands of the council, and the
time was now come for the presence of the noblemen
who were most her friends. The Marquis of North-
ampton, the Earls of Bedford and Pembroke, Lord
William Howard, and Sir Walter Mildmay had already
joined the Commission. To these were now added tlio
Earls of Northumberland, Westmoreland, and Derby,
the Earls of Shrewsbury, Worcester, Huntingdon, and
Warwick. The casket was opened, and the letters,
sonnets, and contracts were taken out and read. They
were examined long and minutely by each and every
of the Lords who were present. ' They were compared
for the manner of writing and fashion of orthography
with other letters before written by the Queen of S<
in the collation whereof no difference was found.*1

' No difference was found.' All the wishes to find

ic proceedings in GOOD-
AM-, the MS. account in the Rolls
House and a most curious document

entitled ' Relacion del negocio de la
Serm» Reyna de Escocia.'— MS&
Sitnancas.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 51.

the Queen of Scots innocent, or at least her guilt ' un-
proven,' could not remove the overwhelming force of
the proofs. At first only four — Cecil, Sadler, Leicester,
and Bacon — declared themselves convinced. The rest
either thought, or said they thought, that there was still
room for doubt, or that they must suspend their judg-
ment till the Queen of Scots had been heard, or that
they had themselves no right to be her judges. But
Bacon pressed them to say whether, in the face of
these letters, the Queen of Scots could be admitted into
Elizabeth's presence; and then, ' the said Earls severally
made answer, that they had therein seen such foul mat-
ters as they thought truly in their consciences that her
Majesty had just cause to refuse to see her, until some
answer had been made first, tending in some way to
clear the weight of the charge. They could not think
it meet for her Majesty's honour to admit the said Queen
to her presence as the case did stand.'1

The Queen of Scots, in applying to be heard in per
son, had contemplated a pageant in Westminster Hall,
a jury determined to acquit her whether guilty or in-
nocent, a declamatory defence in which she would say
' that the charges against her were false because she,
on the word of a princess, did say that they were

1 Proceedings of the isth of De-
cember : GOODAIJL, vol. ii. The
first sight of these papers seems to
have affected the whole party as it
had affected Norfolk at York. The
Earl of Northumberland being asked

afterward, whom at that time he
found addicted to the Scottish Queen,
answered, ' he found none addicted. '
— Sharp's Memorials of the Rebellion
°f 15&9 ' Appendix, p. 208.

2 ' Surely I think that this Queen

K68.]

THE CASKET LETTERS.

465

She was made to feel, that if she met the charge at
all she must meet it formally and in detail, before a
court which would try the cause by the received laws
of evidence. After receiving the opinion of the Peers,
Elizabeth sent for the Bishop of Ross, and gave him a
choice of three ways in which the Queen of Scots might
make her reply. She might either defend herself in
writing, or in person before a committee of noblemen
who should go down to Bolton ; or she might be heard
by counsel, and select himself or any other person to
represent her. Till this had been done, Elizabeth said,
she could not see her ; and she told the Bishop that
' those who advised her to abstain from answering ex-
cept in her own person, however they should seem good
servants, did rather betray her to procure her condemn-
ation.'

To this point, after all the promises and fair speeches,
the question had been brought round at last. Elizabeth
had tempted the Queen of Scots into England and then
had imprisoned her. She hud brought her to consent

never meant to answer the odious
accusations of her adversaries, unless
she might be assuredly promised be-
forehand that your Majesty would
end and judge her cause to her
honour, according to the persuasion
of my Lord Henries' message, or un-
less that your commissioners and your
Majesty would take a short answer
for a sufficient answer— that is to
say, that tbe accusations of her ad-
vrrsiries are false, because that she
on the word of a princess will say
VOL. VIII.

that they are false. If this kind of
argument will satisfy your Majesty
for a sufficient answer, you may
soon, I think, have it ; but I think
it vain in these causes to look for
her answer as standing to her justi-
fication formally in probable order
and sort, without her assurance
aforehand that, however the matter
shall fall out, yet the judgment
shall fall on her side.' — Knowles to
Elizabeth, December 26: MSS.
QUEEN OF SCOTS, Rolls House.
30

466 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

to an inquiry, with promises so often repeated that her
honour should be in no peril, that even with her past
experience the Queen of Scots was forced to believe her;
yet the Queen of Scots was entangled again in the
ineshes, and the fine words had turned out to be as
wind. In both cases Elizabeth had not meant to de-
ceive ; but a vacillating purpose and shifting humour
had been as effective as the most deliberate treachery.

The Bishop did not care to pick his words. He re-
minded the Queen of the many letters in which she had
told his mistress ' to have but one string to her bow,' to
trust to her, and to be safe. She had promised that
Murray should not be admitted to her presence ; yet
she had not only admitted him, but had allowed him to
utter words there which no subject should be allowed
to use against his prince. He quoted Trajan for the
sanctity of sovereigns ; and he said that if she would
not restore his mistress as she had bound herself to do,
at least she ought in honour to open her prison and let
her go where she would.

Elizabeth could only say that she had desired sin-
cerely to make some arrangement between the Queen of
Scots and her subjects ; ' but seeing their unnatural be-
haviour in accusing her, it was now impossible. She
must now pursue the inquiry and punish her accusers,
unless their charges were held to be proved.'1

What more was to be elicited when the great point
had been gained of disgracing the Queen of Scots be-

1 Proceedings, Thursday, December 16 : GOOD ALL, vol. ii.

1568.J THE CASKET LETTERS. 467

fore the English Peers, it was not easy at first sight to
perceive, but the intricacies of Elizabeth's purpose were
as yet far from unfolded. She said that an arrangement
was impossible; but, as will be presently seen, .she
meant only such an arrangement as should leave the
Queen of Scots able to pretend that she had made con-
cessions which she might have refused if she pleased.
She did not wish her to keepr-an unwilling prisoner to
plot and conspire. She dared not challenge the opinion
of Europe by passing sentence upon her, nor would she
pronounce openly in favour of the responsibility 01
princes. She wished only to force the Queen of Scots
to abandon her defence, to throw herself unreservedly
on her own forbearance and agree to terms — the mean-
ing of which, however plausibly disguised, would have
been a substantial confession of guilt.

Still detaining the Bishop in London therefore she
wrote to Knowles to say that, ' for avoiding the extre-
mities ' which appeared to be impending over her, she
advised the Queen of Soots to confirm the abdication
which she had made at Lochleven. She might ground
it on her weariness of government and on her desire to
see her son established on the throne. She might her-
self remain in England as long as might seem convenient,
1 and the whole cause wherewith she had been charged
would be then committed to perpetual oblivion.' l She
desired Knowles to use his influence to bring her to
comply. He might tell her * that as matters could be

Elizabeth to Knowlea, December 22 : GOOD A 1.1,, vol. ii.

468

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[en. 51

proved, she could in no way discharge herself of the
murder/ If the Regent or the Regent's friends had
been parties to it also, their guilt did not excuse hers.
It was impossible, without offence to God and con-
science, ' to bear so far with a murderess as to restore
her to her estate/ The English Government could not
do it, and would not allow another Power to do it ; and,
if she continued obstinate, 'her crime must be notified
to the world/ The Queen of Scots had publicly laid
title to the English Crown, and had never made satis-
faction for that wrong. It would be therefore foolish
Itud childish to set her at liberty, and give the oppor-
tunity of stirring fresh troubles with her friends abroad.
There would be a civil war in Scotland through the
Hamiltons, and her child ' could have no long con-
tinuance ' amidst the factions there. All these incon-
veniences would be remedied by her abdication. The
present order would be maintained ; the Prince would
be brought up in England, and educated with a pros-
pect of succeeding to the English crown.1

1 Minute of a memorial in Cecil's
hand, December 22 : Cotton. MSS.
CALIG. C. i.

It would seei i as if these direc-
tions to Knowles were an after-
thought, and that at first the Queen
had intended to press for an answer.
A letter is extant, dated one day before
Cecil's minute, from Elizabeth to the
Queen of Scots, written as if there
were no such underhand purposes at
all ; the only suspicious feature in it
being the compliment to the Bishop of

Ross, who was intended to have been
the bearer of it. As the Bishop did
not go till some days after, the letter
was probably never sent ; but it is
worth preserving, as showing how
extremely uncertain Elizabeth was,
as to how she should proceed.

' Madame (so Elizabeth wrote), —
While your cause hath been here
treated upon we thought it not need-
ful to write anything thereof unto
you, supposing always that your
commissioners would thereof adver-

1568.]

THE CASKET LETTERS.

469

If the advice failed to produce its effect, it was hinti-d
that Sir Francis might try what could be done by
another removal. At Bolton, under charge of Lord
Scrope, the Queen of Scots was still comparatively
among her friends. If she was carried deeper into the
realm, and kept in closer confinement at Tutbury
Castle,1 her spirit might perhaps be tamed. But Eliza-

rise as they saw cause. And now
since they have broken this confer-
ence by refusing to make answer, as
they say by your commandment, and
for that purpose they return to you ;
although we think you shall by them
perceive the whole proceedings, yet
we cannot but let you understand
that as we have been very sorry of
long time for your mishaps and great
troubles, so find we our sorrows now
doubled in beholding such things as
are produced to prove yourself cause
of all the same ; and our grief herein
is also increased in that we did not
think at any time to have seen or
heard such matter of so great appear-
ance to charge and condemn you.
Nevertheless, both in friendship, na-
ture, and justice, we are minded to
cover these matters and stay our
judgment, and not gather any sense
hereof to your prejudice, before we
may learn of your direct answer
thereunto, according as your commis-
sioners understood our direct mean-
ing to be ; and as we trust they will
advise you for your honour to agree
to make answer, so surely, both as
a prince and near cousin, most
earnestly as we may in terms of
friendship we require and charge you

not to forbear from answering ; and
for our part, as we are heartily sorry
and dismayed to find such matters
of your charge, so shall we be as
heartily glad and well contented to
hear of sufficient matter for your dis-
charge. Although we doubt not but
you are well certified of the diligence
and care of your ministers having
your commission, yet can wo not
but especially note unto your good
choice of the Bishop of Ross, who
hath not only faithfully and warily,
but also so can fully and diligently,
behaved himself both privately and
publicly, as we cannot but in this sort
commend him unto you ; for in our
judgment we think ye have not any
that in loyalty and faithfulness can
overmatch him ; and this we are the
bolder to write because we take it
the best trial of a good servant to
be in adversity, out of which we
heartily wish you to be delivered by
justification of your innocency, foit
otherwise no liberty can profit you
in sight of the world.'— MSS. i ,'
OF SCOTS, Dc-cember 2 1 : Roll*
House.

1 On the Trent in Staffordshire,
not far from Burton.

476 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. $1.

beth would give -no commands. She expected Sir
Francis, like ner other servants, to act for himself,
and to be disavowed if the consequences were incon-
venient.

Once already Sir Francis had been made use of in
this way. He did not care to be so treated a second
time. He was profoundly loyal to Elizabeth. He be-
lieved that the underhand policy which she was pursuing
with the Queen of Scots was precisely the most danger-
ous which she could have chosen, and the plain lan-
guage in which he expressed himself shows that Eliza-
beth's Ministers did not hesitate to tell her disagreeable
truths.

1 As touching this Queen's remoring,' he wrote,
'your Majesty and Mr Secretary have wished it, and
every man thinks it necessary, and I am provoked to
take the matter in hand, without sufficient warrant, as I
did at Carlisle. But if I might speak with reverence,
your Majesty hath dealt with her removings, both at
Carlisle and now again, as though your Majesty would
gladly all was well, so that it was nothing long of your-
self. And surely your Majesty's forbearing to assist us
at Carlisle with your sufficient authority — far contrary
to our expectations — hath stricken the hope of main-
tenance and good backing of me in your service, so far
from my heart that I shall never be so hardy as to ad-
venture upon such an enterprise again, without sufficient
warrant beforehand for the accomplishment thereof.
And this example, added to divers other experiences
that I have had and seen since your Majesty's reign,

1568.] THE CASKET LETTEKS. 471

hath made me the more to fear your Majesty's estate if
any sharp troubles should happen to arise. Wherewith
being disquieted, I was so bold before the entrance of
the great consultation, to advise your Majesty to lay the
whole burden of this weighty matter upon your faithful
councillors, and to encourage, and maintain and back
them, by your Majesty's following of their resolutions,
fully and wholly without delay or alteration ; for if your
Majesty, after your good and faithful councillors have
resolved, shall discourage them by staying your assent
thereunto until all the passions of your mind be satisfied,
then how your faithful servants may be discouraged
thereby to stand you at your need it is doubtful, or
rather fearful, for me to consider.' l

How it fared with the other part of Knowles' in-
structions will be presently seen. Meanwhile the im-
mediate cause of the Queen of Scots formed but a part
of Elizabeth's perplexities ; and events in the Nether-
lands, events in the English Channel, events far away
in the Gulf of Mexico, combined to agitate yet further
the passions of which Kuowles spoke. As if to give point
to his warnings of danger, a series of reverses had driven
Conde* back from the Loire ; and the Prince of Orange
in the Netherlands had fared scarcely better than his
brother. lie had taken his thirty thousand Germans
over the Mouse, expecting that the country would rise
on the Spaniards, and that Alva would be forced into a
battle. The country lay quiet till Alva had been first

Knowles to Elizabeth, December 26 : JfSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS.

472

REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

defeated ; and Alva, knowing that time would fight for
him, and that the Prince's scanty finances would soon
be exhausted, declined to fight except at certain advan-
tage. The Germans, after a few weeks of ineffectual
marching, began to mutiny and desert. The Prince had
to retreat, without even the honour of a lost engage-
ment ; and feeling that the Papists were his real ene-
mies, and that it mattered little to which nation they
belonged, he thought at first of crossing France and join-
ing Conde. But his men refused to follow him, and at
the time of the conference at Westminster, he was fall-
ing back into Nassau, bankrupt, it seemed, in fortune
and reputation. On land all was going ill ; on another
element however the Protestants found better fortune.
The ocean gave a home to those whom the land had re-
jected, and Rochelle became the rendezvous of the
French, Dutch, and English privateering crusaders, who
in their light, swift cruisers hovered round the mouth of
narrow seas, and preyed on Catholic commerce under
whatever flag it sailed. With these lawless heroes
Elizabeth's Government had a natural affinity. Most
of the vessels had been built in English yards or were
manned by English subjects. They were carrying on
war at no cost to the Crown against the general enemy
of the Reformation, and even Cecil was reconciled at
last to men whose marauding doings were covered by the
flag of a Protestant prince. Chatillon's mission to Lon-
don was to persuade Elizabeth, if possible, to renew the
alliance of 1562, to forget Havre and its misfortunes,
and to use the opportunity once more to recover Calais,

1568.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 473

or some town which she might hold as security for the
restoration of Calais. The temptation was strong,
especially when the French Government showed signs
of favouring Mary Stuart. Elizabeth talked metaphori-
cally to La Mothe Fenelon of her lion's nature, gentle
and soft unless provoked, and then terrible in her anger.
Portault, the Prince of Condi's admiral, went and came
among the English ports, and sold his prize cargoes in
Plymouth market. Admiral Winter, with Elizabeth's
own fleet, was preparing for sea, and intended, as was
believed, to carry money, powder, and arms to Rochelle.

Elizabeth herself, when La Mothe pressed her
closely, of course insisted that she had no such mean-
ing as was imputed to her. She disavowed all interest
in Conde ; if her subjects showed favour to the pirates,
she said that it was without her knowledge and against
her orders.

La Mothe reminded her that she herself did not
loli rate' two religions in England; she ought not to bo
.surprised therefore if the French Government fol-
lowed her example. She said (and her answer was re-
markable), that her policy in religious matters had
been only to keep the peace ; if Catholics and Protest-
ants had been allowed their separate services, they
would have been perpetually fighting ; and if the
Queen-mother had consulted her in the first instance,
she woidd have advised, that as, after all, both parties
worshipped the same God, one service or the other
should have been prohibited in France. Since the
.>n-mother had preferred to attempt toleration, it

474 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. $1.

would have been better if the experiment had lasted
longer. She understood the difficulty however. She
had no sympathy with the Huguenots, and she trusted
that the defeats which they had sustained would be a
lesson everywhere to subjects who took up arms against
their princes,1

Yet all this meant nothing, except so far as it was a
description of the principles of Elizabeth's own govern-
ment. Chatillon appeared openly at Court. The pro-
bability of a war with France was freely talked of, and
the desirableness of it was discussed and approved by
the Council of Peers who had met at the Hampton
Court Conference. The petition of the Prince of
Orange found no favour with the Queen. He had
pleaded on the ground of a common religion, and the
danger to England from the triumph of the Spaniards
in the Low Countries. The English nobles did not re-
cognize the identity of religion. They were, most of
them, well inclined to Spain, and Orange obtained
nothing except some 30,000^. raised by subscription for
him in the Protestant churches. Against France, on
the other hand, there was the old national animosity.
The wound of Calais was still fresh and rankling, and
however strong might be the feeling of men like
Aru'ndel and Norfolk against the Huguenots, their
patriotism was not unwilling to submit to an alliance
with them if the lost jewel could be replaced in the
English tiara.

Such was the general sentiment of the council, ana

1 La Mothe Fenelou au Roy, December 5 and lo : Depeches, vol. i.

1568.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 475

it was probably shared by Elizabeth. Cecil only
thought differently. Cecil alone of the Queen's ad-
viM-rs comprehended the true bearing of European
politics. To him the recovery of a single poor town
was as nothing compared to the stake for which the
great game was being played ; and Cecil saw that the
real enemy of England was not France, but Spain.
France, rent in half by the civil war, must either toler-
ate the Reformers, or exhaust her strength in holding
them down. Spain erect, united, Catholic in heart and
intellect, and blazing with religious enthusiasm — Spain,
if she conquered Protestantism in the Netherlands,
would soon, as Orange said, conquer it in England also.
It was idle to say this to the Peers at Hampton
Court, for half of them desired nothing better than
Philip's successful interference. Cecil therefore con-
tented himself with throwing obstacles in the way of
the quarrel with France. There was not sufficient pro-
vocation, he said. They were unprepared. If they
began with France they might have Spain on their
hands also before all was over. Cond£ might be assisted
indirectly, but open war was unnecessary and dangerous.
Leicester and Pembroke went with him, and they took
the Queen along with them. She told La Mothe Fenelon
that as long as the question was merely between subject
and sovereign she would not interfere ; if the Catholic
Powers entered into the long-talked-of league against
herself, then, but only then, she would make a counter-
league and light out the quarrel.1

1 La Mothe Fenelon au Roy, December 28 ; Depec/i&i, voL i.

476 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

As regarded Spain, and as a means of at least in-
directly helping Orange, Cecil was preparing for an
act of desperate audacity, to which by some unknown
means he had obtained Elizabeth's warrant. The story
turns to the Spanish Main.

It will be remembered that Philip's Government, on
hearing that Sir John Hawkins was preparing on a
large scale for a third voyage to the West Indies, had
given formal notice to Elizabeth that unless these buc-
caneering expeditions were prohibited, serious conse-
quences would follow. Sir John had been sent for by
the council : he had been reprimanded, enjoined to re-
spect the laws which closed the ports of the Spanish
Colonies against unlicensed traders, and de Silva was
told that Philip should have no further ground for com-
plaint. Elizabeth however, who had lent Hawkins
ships of her own, and thus was interested in the ad-
venture, interfered reluctantly. The slave trade was so
profitable, that on the last voyage she had realized sixty
per cent, on the capital which she and her council had
risked upon it. Hawkins persuaded her that he would
not only himself be ruined if he was prevented from
sailing, but that the crews whom he had engaged, if he
turned them adrift, would be 'driven to misery/ and
' be ready to commit any folly.' He promised that ' he
would give no offence to the least of her Highiiess's
allies and friends/ ' The voyage which he pretended
was to lade negroes in Guinea, and sell them in the
West Indies, in truck of gold, pearls, and emeralds,
whereof he doubted not but to bring home great abund-

1568.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 477

ance, to the contentation of her Highness and the
benefit of the whole realm/ l

The sale of negroes in the West Indies being the
very thing which Philip was most desirous to prevent,
it was not very clear how it could be prosecuted as
innocently as 1 1 a\\ kins pretended. His arguments how-
ever, or the greatness of the temptation, satisfied Eli/n-
beth's scruples. In October, 1567, he sailed from Ply-
mouth with five well-appointed vessels, one of them the
Queen's ship ' Jesus/ which carried his flag on his first
voyage ; and among those who went with him was the
after-hero of English history, his young * kinsman/
Francis Drake.

The voyage, though commencing with a storm, was
prosperous beyond the most glittering hopes which he
had formed upon his past successes. Hawkins ran
down to Sierra Leone, where he formed an alliance with
a tribe which were at war with a neighbouring tribe.
He sacked a densely peopled town, and was rewarded
with as many prisoners as he could stow ; and by the
spring of the following year he was among the Spanish
settlements, doing a business which realized the wildest
dreams of Eldorado. Where the ports were open he
found an easy market ; where the governor attempted
to keep him out he forced an entrance as usual, and found
the planters no less willing to deal with him. Stray ships
were stopped and plundered where their cargoes were
worth the seizure. And thus before the summer was

1 Sir John Hawkins to Elizabeth, September 15, 1567 : Domestic
SfSS. Rolls House.

478

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 51.

over, he had amassed, in bars of gold and silver, in
precious stones and other commodities, property worth
more than a million pounds.1 Before he could sail for
England the ships' "bottoms required a scouring. Their
spars had suffered in a gale of wind in the Gulf of
Mexico. At the beginning of September therefore he
put into San Juan de Ulloa to refit, take in water and pro-
visions, and dispose of four hundred negroes, ' the best
and choicest ' which he had, that still remained unsold.2
The halcyon weather was about to close in a tornado.
The small harbour of San Juan de Ulloa is formed by a na-
tural break- water which lies across the mouth of the bay.
The day after the English ships entered, a Spanish fleet
appeared outside, consisting of thirteen men of war, the
smallest of them larger than the 'Jesus :' a force from
which in the open sea escape might have been possible,
but with which, under the fairest conditions, it would
have been madness to have sought an engagement. If
Hawkins could have made up his mind to dispute the
entrance of a Spanish admiral into one of his own har-
bours, he believed that he could have saved himself, for
the channel was narrow, and the enemy's numbers would
give him no advantage. But neither his own nor Eliza-
beth's ingenuity could have invented a pretext for an
act of such desperate insolence. At best he would be
blockaded, and sooner or later would have to run. The

1 Hawkins rates the ships and
freight together as worth before
his disaster i,8oo,ooo£. — HAKLUYT,
vol. iii. p. 620.

2 Process and examination of
Hawkins' voyage. — Domestic MSS.,
vol. liii Rolls House.

1568.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 479

Spaniards passed in and anchored close on board the
Englishmen. For three days there was an interchange
of ambiguous courtesies. On the fourth Philip's admiral
had satisfied himself of Hawkins* identity. He had
been especially sent upon this coast to look for him ;
nn (I by the laws of nations he was unquestionably justi-
fied in treating the English commander as a pirate. The
form of calling on him to surrender was dispensed with.
The name of Hawkins was so terrible that the Spaniards
dared not give him warning that he was to be attacked.
They took possession of the mole in the dark, and
mounted batteries upon it; and then from shore and
sea every jjun which could be brought to bear opened
upon the ' Jesus ' and her comrades. Taken by surprise,
for many of their boats' crews were in the town, the
English fought so desperately that two of the largest of
the Spanish ships were sunk, and another set on fire.
The men on shore forced their way on board to their
companions ; and, notwithstanding the tremendous odds,
the result of the action still seemed uncertain, when the
Spaniards sent down two fire-ships, and then Hawkins
saw that all wae over, and that vessels and treasures
wore lost. The only hope now was to save the men.
The survivors of them were crowded on board two small
tenders, one of fifty tons, the other rather larger, and
leaving the 'Jesus' and the other ships, the gold and
silver bars, the negroes, and their other spoils to burn or
sink, they crawled out under the fire of the mole and
gained the open sea. There their position scarcely seemed
less desperate. They were short of food and water

4g0 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

Their vessels had suffered heavily under the fire ; they
were choked up with men, and there was not a harbour
west of the "Atlantic where they could venture to run ;
a hundred seamen volunteered to take their chance on
shore some leagues distant down the coast, and after
wandering miserably in the woods for a few days, they
were taken and carried as prisoners to Mexico. Haw-
kins and Drake, and the rest, made sail for the English
Channel, which in due time, in torn and wretched plight,
they contrived to reach, and where a singular state of
things was awaiting their arrival.

The Duke of Alva had expected that the wars of the
Netherlands would pay their own expenses. He had
promised Philip that a stream of gold a yard deep should
flow into the Spanish treasury from the confiscated
hoards of the heretic traders. He had been less success-
ful as a financier than as a soldier. The pay of his
army was many months in arrear. The troops had won
victories, but they had gained no plunder by them, and
were fast breaking into dangerous mutiny. So pressing
were the Duke's difficulties that Philip had been obliged
to borrow half a million of money from two banking
houses at Genoa. The bankers had establishments in
the Netherlands, but the bullion there had been driven
away or buried, and the contract with Philip required
them to deliver the loan in silver dollars at Antwerp.
It was therefore sent round by sea, the chests, for greater
safety, being divided among many vessels. Two or
three ran the gauntlet of the Channel in safety, but in-
formation of the prize got wind among the privateers.

1568.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 481

The precious fleet had been chased, scattered, and driven
into the English harbours, and the treasure for which
Alva was so impatiently waiting was hiding in Foy,
Plymouth, and Southampton. The basking sharks were
prowling outside on the watch to seize them if they
ventured to sail, and, as they feared, were not at all
unlikely to snatch them as they lay at anchor. Fran-
cesco Diaz, the captain of one of these treasure ships,
when he entered Plymouth harbour, found thirteen
French cruisers there, with half-a-dozen English con-
sorts, carrying the flag of the Prince of Conde ; they
were taking turns, night and day, to scour the Channel :
their commissions professed to empower them, in the
service of God, to seize any Catholic ship that they came
across, to whatever nation it belonged.1 They brought in
their prizes under the eyes of Diaz, and sold them wit li-
out interference from the authorities, the mayor being
one of the most forward purchasers. He began to fear
that he was in the wolf's den, from which there was no
escape, and where he would be devoured if he remained.2
And he had a special ground for uneasiness. Sir John
Hawkins had not yet returned, nor any news of him ;
but the disaster at San Juan was known on board the
Spanish ships ; and as the most mischievous of the

1 ' Algunos de los piratas ingleses
traen una carta de marca del Car-
dinal Chatillon que reside en Lon-
dres, y en nombre del Principe de
Conde, y diciendo que por servicio
de Dios daba licencia para que ro-
basen y pcrsiquiescn todos los navios

ygente delos Catholicos de cualquier
nacion que fuesen. Esto oie decir (i
un mercador espauol que habia leido
una de las dichas cartas de marca.'
— Relacion qui hace Francesco Diaz
MSB. Simanctu.
3 Ibid.

VOL. viir. 31

4$2 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51

cruisers at Plymouth were owned by William Hawkins,
Sir John's brother,1 the Spaniards feared that unless
they could extricate themselves before the truth came
out, short work would be made with them. They knew
that he might be looked for any day. To put Plymouth
in good humour therefore, one of them, who professed
to have just returned from the Indies, pretended to bring
the information for which the town was longing, and
dressed his tale to flatter the national pride and gratify
the avarice of Hawkins' friends and family. Sir John
had been in the enchanted garden of Aladdin, and had
loaded himself with gold and jewels. He had taken a
ship with 800,000 ducats ; he had sacked a town, and
had taken infinite heaps of pearls and jewels there. A
Spanish fleet, forty-four sail of them, had passed a har-
bour where he was dressing his ships. The captains
had held a council of war to consider the prudence of
attacking him, but the Admiral had said, ' for the ship?
that be in the harbour I will not deal with them, for
they being monstrous ships, will sink some of us and put
us to the worse : wherefore let us depart on our voyage ;
and so they did.' ' The worst boy in those ships might
be a captain for riches,' and the Spaniard ' wished to
God he had been one of them.'2

The pleasant story was pleasantly received. It
might have answered its end had there been time for
it to work, but the wind which brought the fable
brought the truth behind it. Two days later William

1 Relation qui hace Francesco Diaz : MSS. Simancds.
* Report of Hawkins' voyage, December 2, 1568 : Domestic MSS.

1568.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 483

Hawkins sent to Cecil the news of the real catastrophe.
Elizabeth had lost her venture, but if she was bold she
might reimburse herself at Philip's cost. Philip, as
the story was now told, had robbed the subjects of her
Majesty; 'her Majesty might now make stay of King
Philip's treasure till recompense was made;' or, 'if it
did not please her Majesty to meddle in the matter,
although she herself was the greatest loser therein/ yet
Hawkins hoped 'her Majesty would give her subjects
leu YC to meddle with it.' 'In that way he would not
only have recompense to the uttermost, doing as good
service as could be desired with little cost,' but 'he
looked also to please God therein, for the Spaniards
were God's enemies.' l

A little later a small tattered bark sailed slowly into
Plymouth. Francis Drake, who landed from her, rode
post to London with details, and William Hawkins sent
by his hand a schedule of the property destroyed, and
requested leave to act on the commission which he held
from the Prince of Conde.

It is difficult to see by what reasoning these western
sailors persuaded themselves that wrong had been done
by the Spaniards, unless it were — which was very much
the fact — that they believed that the universe was theirs
to do what they pleased with. Cecil probably was not
under this impression ; but it was an opportunity at a
critical moment to assist the Prince of Orange, to crip-
ple Alva, to punish Philip for the expulsion of Doctoi

1 William Hawkins to Cecil, December 3 ; Domestic MSS>

484

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 51.

Man, and, more than all, to end Elizabeth's vacillations,
and force her into the bold position which, as it seemed
to him, her safety required her to assume. The loss of
money touched her to the quick. The profit which she
had so nearly gained in Sir John's infamous trade she
regarded as something of her own of which she had been
robbed. She consulted the Bishop of Salisbury, and
the excellent Jewel confirmed the theory that God
would be pleased to see the Spaniards plundered ; l and
while an intimation was sent to Orange that a diversion
would be made in his favour, Cecil was allowed to con-
sult the vice-admiral of the West, Sir Arthur Cham-
pernowne, as to the most convenient means of effecting
the seizure. Sir Arthur, in his younger days, had been
concerned with Sir Peter Oarew in the western rising
against Queen Mary : he was now in office under Eliza-
beth, and using his authority for something, more than
connivance at the irregular doings of the privateers.
Three ships of his own, which he had fitted out at
Dartmouth, were cruising with Portault, under com-
mand of his son Henry. At that very moment Port-
ault was offering him 60,000 ducats for his private
advantage if he would shut his eyes while the treasure
was carried off for Conde. But Sir Arthur's patriotism
had been stronger than his cupidity. ' Such a mass of
money he conceived to be most fit for the Queen's Ma-

* * Supe entretanto la exortacion
que el Obispo de Sareberi, grande he
rege, habia hecho a esta Reyna para
que usurpase este dinero, y como
habia despachudo al Conde Palatine

al Doctor Junio su mismo agente, y
dado tambien aviso al Principe de
Orange.' — Guerau de Espes § su
Magd. de primero de Enero, 1569:
MSS. Simancas.

I568.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 485

jesty, and not to be enterprised by a subject.' lie
placed a guard over the Spanish vessels, insisting that
he could not expose the Queen's Government to the re-
proach which would fall upon it if her good allies, King
Philip's subjects, suffered wrong in English waters;
and he replied to Cecil's letter in language which
showed some insight into his own sovereign's character.
He admitted that there was no sufficient pretext for
open violence. The vessels lay in a position where
they could not be cut out by the privateers * without
slandering of the State.' Yet there were ways in which
the thing might be done, and yet no fault attach to the
Government. ' If it shall seem good to your Honour,'
Sir Arthur wrote, 'that I, with others, shall give the
attempt for the recovery of the treasure to her Majesty's
use, which cannot be without blood, I will not only take
it in hand to be brought to good effect, but also receive
the blame thereof unto myself, to the end so great a
commodity should redound to her Grace ; hoping that
after bitter storms of her displeasure showed at the be-
ginning to colour the fact, I shall find the calm of her
favour in such sort, as I am most willing to hazard my-
self to serve her Majesty. Great pity it were that such
a booty should escape her Grace ; and surely I am of
that mind that anything taken from that wicked nation
is both necessary and profitable to our commonweal.' l
The letter ended with the vice-adiniraPs offer of 'his
boy Henry ' to be the instrument of the exploit.

Sir Arthur Champcrnowne to Cecil, December 19 : Domestic MSS.

486

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 51.

Sir Arthur doubtless would have made clean work ;
but unfortunately not more than half the treasure was
in the western harbours. The rest was in Southampton
water; and the Court, if they took any of it, were
determined to take all. While Cecil was hesitating
what to do, two English privateers, sailing under the
flag of the Prince of Orange,1 brought into Plymouth
some Spanish and Portuguese prizes said to be worth
200,000 ducats. Don Guerau sent in a complaint to
Elizabeth, and at the same time mentioned the money,
and expressed alarm for its safety. Elizabeth, who
perhaps had not yet made up her mind to take it,
offered, with many apologies for the insecurity of the
seas, either to bring it over-land to London and trans-
port it thence to Alva, or to send some of her own ships
to convoy it through the Channel. The ambassador, who
had heard rumours of intended mischief, accepted the
second alternative as the least dangerous. He thanked
the Queen for her friendliness, and had dismissed the
subject from his mind, when he heard that at Foy,
Plymouth, and Southampton the treasure had been
simultaneously seized, brought on shore, and placed
under guard, the crews arrested, and the ships de-
tained.2 Sending a messenger on the instant to Alva,

1 Orange as well as Conde had
issued letters of marque.

2 Francesco Diaz thus describes
the scene at Plymouth : ' The vice-
admiral of those parts,' he says,
' sent for us, and insisted that as long
us the treasure was on hoard he

could not be answerable for its
safety : and that for our own sakes,
as well as our masters', it must be
unloaded at the ports. We declined
to consent, so he left us under guard
at his own house, went to our ships
with his people and took from the

1568.]

THE CASKET LETTERS.

487

Don Guerau went to the Queen for an explanation. A
week passed before he could be admitted to an audience.
Kli/abeth then told him not to be alarmed. The
audacity of the pirates had obliged her to take tho
money under her own charge, but that it would be kept
in perfect safety. Don Guerau in the same tone ac-
knowledged her kindness, but he said that the Duke of
Alva was in urgent need of it, and he begged that it
miijht be forwarded without delay.

Elizabeth played her part awkwardly. It would
have been better if she had said at first what she meant
to say eventually. It had been ascertained that the
money, though taken up by Philip, was the property of
the Genoese till it was delivered at Antwerp. After
(imitating a few minutes, she said that she had herself
occasion for a loan. The agents of the owners in Lon-
don were willing that she should keep it. Don Guerau,
with an astonishment which was probably unfeigned,
declared that the money had been sent by his master to

hold sixty-four chests of silver,
which he deposited in the town-hall.
A few days after he searched in like
manner all the Spanish and Flemish
ships in the harbour, broke up the
cargoes, and took out whatever he
<1, small and great. He ill-used
our sailors, beating some, throwing
others into the sea, and then distri-
buted us all in different prisons, say-
ing that we should be held to ex-
change for the Englishmen who
had been taken by the Spaniards. I
asked him why he used such cruelty
with your Majesty's subjects, when

Spain and England were at peace ?
He told me I ought to thank him for
being more merciful than the Duke
of Alva, who had cut off the heads
of divers Englishmen in Flanders.
Some of our party he sent up to
London, after taking from us all the
money we possessed. They were
thrust into a prison there, where
many died of hunger and disease ;
while heretics were sent to preach
the heathen gospel to them.' — Rela-
tion que hace Francesco Diaz : MSS.
Simancas.

488 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

pay his troops. He would not believe that Elizabeth
was serious. Elizabeth however would give him no other
answer. The Genoese, she said, might lend where they
pleased. If they preferred her to the King of Spain,
he had no right to complain.

Don Guerau, as brave as he was haughty, did not
waste his time in remonstrances. The seizure, so far as
he could learn, originated in the determination of Cecil
to support the Prince of- Orange. Half the money was
to be sent to the Prince, to enable him to raise another
army ; the rest was to be spent in doubling the English
fleet.1 No time was to be lost. The English trade
with Flanders, though diminished, was still the main
source of the wealth of the London merchants. Don
Guerau drew up a statement of the circumstances in
Spanish and English, which he circulated in the City,
and sent his secretary in a swift boat across the Channel
to urge Alva to immediate reprisals. London, he hoped,
would mutiny and force the Queen to yield.

I569. The Duke, to whom the loss of the money

lary' was a serious inconvenience, required no urg-
ing ; by an order instant and summary, every English
resident in the Low Countries was arrested, every
English ship was seized, the cargoes sequestered and
the crews imprisoned; couriers sped across France to

1 Guerau de Espes to Philip, De-
cember 27 and January i ; De Espes
to the Duke of Alva, December 30 :

criminate plunder ; some boxes of
sweetmeats were taken, which the
Duchess of Alva had sent to her

3fSS. Simnncas. At Southampton j husband.
as well as Plymouth there was indis- I

1 569. ] THE CASKE T LE TTERS. 489

Philip that the embargo might be extended to Spain
and Italy, before the English could take the alarm
and fly.

It seems that Elizabeth had expected that her ex-
cuse would be accepted, that she could accomplish
safely by a trick what she would not venture to attempt
by force. When she found that she had failed, her
heart for a moment sank.1 The catastrophe so long
threatened had come, and Spain, the old ally, whose
connection with England had outlived, so far, the
shock of the Reformation, was an enemy at last. lint
it was too late to retire. A retaliatory edict was issued.
All Spaniards and Netherlander in England found
themselves prisoners. The order of arrest was extended
to the Channel, where every vessel owned by a subject
of Philip was declared liable to seizure. At eleven
o'clock on a January night, the mayor and aldermen
went round to the merchants' houses, sealed up their
warehouses, and carried them off from their beds to the
Fleet. Frightened families of Spaniards crowded for
protection to the ambassador. The ports were closed ;
Don Guerau's own letters were intercepted, and he
himself, to prepare for the worst, burnt such of his
papers as were dangerous.

The immediate advantage in the arrest was largely
on the side of England ; even without Philip's silver,
the value of the Spanish and Flemish goods detained

1 ' A hi Royna le tomaron unas grundes case-as quando Ic sup 6.' — Don
Guerau to Philip, January 8: MSS. Simanccu.

49o KE1GN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51

far exceeded what had been seized by Alva. Yet the
manner in which the breach had been brought about
was not creditable. The suppression of trade .created
general discontent in London, and an affront so open to
an ally could not but seem objectionable to the old
English Peers, who looked on Orange as a rebel, and
cared little for the heretics whom Alva was burning
and beheading. The new question which had arisen
divided parties in the same line on which they had
been already separated by the cause of the Queen of
Scots. The prospect of a war with Spain kindled the
hopes of the Catholics, and made her friends more
anxious than ever to secure Philip's interest for her.
The Bishop of Ross told Don Gruerau that all the
noblemen who were interested for his mistress would
stand by Spain in the present quarrel. Mary Stuart
herself, so sanguine was she, sent him word that if the
King of Spain would help her, she would in three
months be Queen of England, and mass should be said
in every church throughout the island ; l and stealthy
language of the same kind began to be used to him by
English Peers themselves. Don Guerau's instructions
left him unable to enter into any engagements in Mary
Stuart's interests ; but under the new circumstances he
held himself at liberty to hear what her friends had to
say ; and the Earl of Northumberland came one night

1 ' La Reyna de Escocia dixo al
criado mio, direis al Embajador que
si su amo me quiere socorrer, antes

terra y la misa se celebrara por
toda ella.' — Don Guerau to Philip,
January 8 : MSS. Simancas,

la- i

1569.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 491

to his house, and had a long conversation with him.
Unfortunately for the Catholic cause, an awkward
(piarrel had arisen among the noblemen most inclined
to it. Lord Dacres of Naworth, the richest and most
powerful of the Northern Peers, had died in 1566,
leaving one son and three daughters. The son, while
still in his minority, was killed throe years later l>y a
fall from his horse. The widow had married the Duke
of Norfolk, and had died also a few months later, leaving
the Duke the guardian of her children. According to
ancient usage, the Dacres estate would have gone with
tlie title to the late Lord's brother, Leonard. But
Norfolk, not for his wards' sake entirely, but to secure
the splendid inheritance in his own family, hud be-
trothed the girls to his three sons, and claimed tin-
property for them against their uncle. The suit was
pending ut this particular moment. Leonard Dacres —
Leonard of the crooked back as he was called — had
mid the title and taken possession of Naworth
Castle. lie was a strong Catholic, and his cause was
warmly supported by the Earls of Northumberland,
('uinberlund, and many of the gentry of the northern
shires. There was a general unwillingness to see an-
other great family perish out of the already attenuated
ranks of the English Peerage. The Queen was holding
the balance between the claimants, and the decision
seemed likely to rest rather with her than with the
judges. With the prospect of a revolution which would
transfer the crown to Mary Stuart, the Northern Lords
hud been throughout unfavourable to the scheme for

492

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 51.

marrying her to the Duke of Norfolk, who was not a
Catholic, and, too powerful already, would then carry
all before him. They had communicated their views to
the Queen of Scots herself, but she was anxious at any
rate to use Norfolk's help till she was extricated from
her difficulties, and begged them to be silent.1

The injunction however did not extend to the Span-
ish ambassador. Northumberland was ambitious for
her, and he asked Don Gruerau whether Philip himself
might not, in the interests of the Church, be induced to
take her. The ambassador, who was in bed, said
nothing, but ' wagged his head on the pillow as though
he meant it could not be/ 2 If the Queen of Scots
wished it, he said that Don John of Austria might not
be so impossible, but for the present union among the
Catholics was of the first importance. They should
agree together on some common course, and other
questions could be settled afterwards. At all events it
was agreed that the ambassador should urge Philip to
take up the Queen of Scots' cause, while the Catholic
nobles in the council and out of it should draw to-
gether, form a party with the more moderate Protest-

1 'Some liked her marriage one
way and some another way. The
Earl of Westmoreland and some of
the Nortons liked well the match
with the Duke. My cousin Dacres
and I wished her bestowed on a
sound Catholic, even if it was some
foreign prince ; but this was kept
secret among ourselves, for that the

Queen sent to me, and I think to
some others too, to Avill us to seem
contented and to like the match.' —
Confession of the Earl of Northum-
berland: Border MSS. Rolls House.
2 Confession of the Earl of North-
umberland : Border MSS. Rolls
House.

1569.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 493

ants, and either force the Queen to change her policy,
or place themselves at Philip's disposition.1

Don Guerau was now satisfied that Cecil had made
a false move, and that he at least could be overthrown.
He suggested to La Mothe Fenelon that they two
together should demand Cecil's dismissal of the Queen,
as the enemy of the quiet of Christendom. If she
refused, France might unite with Spain in closing the
harbours of the Continent against the English. The
Catholics outnumbered the Protestants, and that one
step, bringing ruin as it would on half the families in
the country, would ensure a revolution.- He wrote
to Philip to the same purpose, advising him to use his
influence with the Court of Paris. If Europe refused
to trade with England till England was reconciled to
Rome, Cecil would be overthrown, and without Cecil
the Queen would do as the Catholics wished. ' It is
Cecil/ he said, ' who rules all now, and prompts the
villain tricks which trouble us. No words can tell the
depth of Cecil's heresy ; and as he sees the Protestant
cause going to the ground he grows as furious as if
possessed by ten thousand fiends/ And again : — ' The
chief of the council is Cecil, a man of low extraction,
cunning, false, malicious, full of all deceit, and so true
an Englishman that he thinks all the sovereigns of
Christendom cannot conquer this island. He it is who

1 The account of the interview
given hy Don Guerau to Philip
agrees closely with Northumberland's
own confession. Don Guerau only
did not mention to his master the

marriage which the Earl had pro-
jected for him.

2 La Mothe i la Reyne-mere, De-
cember 28 : Depeches, vol. i.

494

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH.

governs all. He is diligent, acute, and never keeps
faith or word. He thinks we are none of us a match for
him ; and so far he has succeeded, but now he is verging
to his fall/1

For the present indeed Cecil's star was still domi-
nant. Don Guerau' s house had been watched, and his
midnight visitors had been seen though not identified.
A few days after the general arrest the ambassador was
ordered to considei himself a prisoner within his own
walls, and to think himself happy that he was treated
with more respect than his master had shown to Doctor
Man. A guard was placed at his gates, and a brother
of Sir Francis Knowles was placed in charge of him.
But Don Guerau believed that he could afford to despise
affronts of this kind, and that heresy had made Cecil
blind. In writing to a friend he described himself as
a prisoner to Queen Oriana, but he professed to make
a jest of his enchantment, and he sent the note unsealed
that the guard might see the contempt which he felt for
his gaolers.2

The council were provoked at his impertinence, and
united in telling him ' that such vain fancies and poesies

1 Relacion dada por Don Guerau
de Espes.

2 ' Do not be surprised to hear
that I am arrested. In this island
there are the enchantments of
Amadis. Arcelaus lives — but I am
well and in health, and though. I am
a prisoner to Oriana, I fancy we shall
not need an Urganda to make it all
end in comedy.'

Knowles, enclosing the note to
Cecil, says : —

'By this you may see his boldness,
his devotion, his stomach. AYe Avatch
the fox with care and diligence ;
but his berry is large, and on every
part full of starting holes — our nets
be slender and weak, and I doubt
not you see the peril.' — Spanish
MSS. Rolls House.

1569.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 49$

were unbecoming. He would be treated as a seditious,
insolent person, unfit to be admitted into the presence
of a prince, and he should serve as an example to all
others who should dare to attempt the like/1

So far Arundel and Norfolk went along with (Veil
and Bacon ; but in public policy wide differences \\
opening, and Don Guerau was not without reason for his
confidence. Cecil, knowing that the Spanish Government
was still too much embarrassed with the Netherlands to
go to war with England, except at the last extremity,
but knowing also that if the Protestants on the Continent
were crushed, England's turn must inevitably follow,
was not inclined to sit still till the enemy was at the
Cities. He desired to show the struggling nations that
England was not afraid of the giant who was trampling
on them ; he proposed to assist them as far as possible
short of openly taking part in the quarrel, and by com-
mitting the Queen to their cause, determine her also to
a more consistent course with the growing difficulties
at home. But the old-fashioned statesmen were now
decidedly against him. The Peers and even the council
were split in factions. Catholics, semi-Catholics, Angli-
r:ms, moderates differed among themselves, but were all
afraid of Cecil and eager to turn to account the present
opportunity. [Representations were made to Elizabeth
that the money must be given up. The Duke of Norfolk,
not contented with remonstrating with Elizabeth, ex-
pressed his disapproval of the seizure to Don Guerau

1 Reply of the Council to Don Guerau, January 14 : Spanish MSS.

496 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

himself. The ferment was so great, both, at the Court
and in the City, that the Queen to quiet it issued a 'not
very honest proclamation, laying the blame of the quarrel
on Spain.

The treasure-ships, she said, had been driven by
pirates into English harbours, and she had taken charge
of the money at the Spanish ambassador's request. She
had then discovered that it did not belong to the King
of Spain, but was the property of ' certain merchants/
' She was considering whether, being thrust as it were
into her hands, she might not herself borrow some part
of it, when, at the first move, and without waiting for
an explanation, the Duke of Alva had laid violent hands
on the English ships and cargoes in the Netherlands,
and had so forced her to retaliate.'1

The effect which this new element of discord would
produce on the process of the Queen of Scots was at
first uncertain. Either, as Cecil hoped, the sudden
boldness towards Spain would be the commencement of
a firmer policy, or it might be that, with the prospect
of war upon her hands, the Queen would still persist in
temporizing. For some days previous to the arrest it
had seemed that Cecil would have his way. The Duke
of Norfolk, who was opposed to him on foreign policy,,
appeared to go with him about Mary Stuart ; either be-
cause he was playing a deep game, or because he was:
aware of the objections of Northumberland and other of
the Catholics to his marriage with her.

1 Royal Proclamation, January 6 : Domestic MSS.

1569.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 497

Sir Francis Knowles had laid before her Elizabeth's
advice that she should abdicate, and a letter from the
Bishop of Ross showed that he had ceased to hope, and
that she must choose between compliance and disgrace.
In a private interview with Cecil, Leicester, and Nor-
folk, the Bishop found 'that judgment was almost
confirmed in favour of her adversaries/ He had argued
and prayed, ' but nothing altered them/ ' The Duke of
Norfolk was sorest of the three/ The disdain of the
King, the advancing of Bothwell, the conspiracy of the
murder, all seemed to be so distinctly proved, that un-
less the Queen of Scots would either reply through her
commissioners, or submit without qualification, the evi-
dence against her would be published and the inquiry
end in her formal condemnation.1

The Queen of Scots herself had been equally despond-
ent. She had borne up at first against Knowles with
all her pride and firmness ; she stood upon her rights ;
she said that she would live and die a Queen ; she
would not degrade herself by answering to her subjects'
accusations.

' Finding her persist in her old humour,' Knowles
told her he was not surprised that she would not an-
swer. ' He thought her the wiser woman, because it
passed his capacity to see how by just defence she could
disburden herself of the crimes that were laid against
her/ She said she could defend herself if she pleased.
Knowles told her that she had better do it, then, for if

1 The Bishop of Ross to John Fitzwiiliam, December 25 : MSS QUEEN
or SCOTS, Roll* House.

vor. vi rr. 32

49fc REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

she refused ' she would provoke the Queen his mistress
to take her as condemned and to publish the same to
her utter disgrace and infamy/

She still ' answered stoutly ; ' ' she said she would
make all princes know how evil she was handled ; she
had come on trust into England ; she could not believe
the Queen would condemn her, hearing her adversaries
and not hearing her/

But Knowles made her understand that she was not
refused a hearing when she could be heard by counsel,
or heard in private by a commission. After her injuri-
ous ' claiming and making title to the crown/ she had
nothing to complain of in her treatment. She must
meet the charges against her in detail, and really dis-
prove them, or else she must submit. ' By courtesy
and discreet behaviour she might yet provoke the Queen
to save her honour, and cause the accusations and writ-
ings that were to be showed against her to be committed
to oblivion/1

She said that if she submitted, it would be construed
into a confession that she was guilty. She was afraid
of being 'entrapped and allured/2 She consulted
Scrope, but Scrope gave her the same advice ; and both
to him and Knowles it appeared, that if she could be
assured that her letters would not be published, and if
the Bishop of Boss, when he came down to her, used
the same language as Knowles had used, she would give
way. All however depended upon Elizabeth's firmness.

1 Sir $, Knowles to Elizabeth, December 26 : QUEEN of SCOTS' MSS
3 Ibid.

1569.]

THE CASKET LETTERS.

495

The Queen of Scots would hold out ' as long as one foot
of hope was left to her. She was persuaded that God
iiad given Elizabeth such temperature of affection that
she would never disgrace her, however she should refuse
to yield to conformity ; ' and Knowles had the courage
to repeat to the Queen, that ' although her Majesty's
judgment must needs be ruled by such affections and
passions of her mind as happened to have dominion
over her,' in her actions she would do wisely to accept
' the resolutions digested by the deliberate consultation
of her most faithful councillors.'1

Unfortunately, at the moment when it was necessary
to act, and when her constitutional irresolution made a
decision, as usual, so difficult, Elizabeth's ' passions and
affections ' were irritated by a ridiculous accident. She
was on the point of yielding to Cecil, and of assuming
an attitude more becoming in a Protestant sovereign, —
a part of this bolder policy would hav« been an open
declaration in favour of the Earl of Murray, — when a

1 Knowles to Elizabeth, January
I: Burghley Paper*, vol. i.; and
again to Cecil, December 3 1 , Knowles
writes : —

* This Queen docs not seem to my
Lord Scrope nor me greatly to mis-
like our advice for her yielding in this
matter, but she depends much upon
the coming of the Bishop of Ross,
and she mistrusts to be allured and
not to be plainly dealt withal for the
saving of her honour. Whatever
the Bishop of Ross shall persuade
her, if her Majesty would handle this

matter stoutly and roundly, I think
verily she would yield upon hope, or
rather upon assurance, that her Ma-
jesty would save her honour and use
her favourably. But if the Bishop
of Ross and the rest of her commis-
sioners shall find her Majesty to be
tender, and shrinking either to deal
straightly with her until she do
yield, or to maintain my Lord of
Murray's government throughly,
then surely I look not for her yield-
ing.'— Cotton. MSS. CALIO. C. I.

5oo

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

[CH. 51.

Protestant bishop used the opportunity to offend her
on the point where she was most sensitive. Marriage,
under all forms, was disagreeable to her ; the marriage
of the clergy was detestable ; the marriage, and espe-
cially the re-marriage, of her prelates approached incest.
Dr Coxe, the Bishop of Ely, a grey-haired old gentle-
man— one of the patriarchs of the Reformation — had
been left a widower, and at his age he might, with no
great difficulty, have remained in that condition. But
it could not be. He explained his difficulty to Cecil
with ludicrous gravity. He said that he wished 'to
spend the remainder of his life without offence to God.
The Queen's displeasure was death to him, but the dis-
pleasure of the Almighty was more to be dreaded. The
Almighty had left him without one special gift, and
placed him in the number of those who could not receive
the saying of Christ. He was between Scylla and
Charybdis ; but it was more dreadful to fall into the
hands of the living God ; ' and a second wife was a
necessity.1

The incontinence of the Bishop came opportunely to
the help of the Queen of Scots. Either this flagrant
illustration of the tendencies of Protestantism, or the
Spanish difficulty, or her own incurable vacillation, de-
stroyed at the last moment Elizabeth's almost com-
pleted purpose. She sent down the Bishop of Ross to
Bolton, apparently to confirm the message sent through

1 'Me etiam senem suo dono
destituit, et in illorum me vult esse
numero qui non capiunt verbum hoc

— ut ait Christus Dominus Nosier.'
—The Bishop of Ely to Cecil, De-
cember 29 : Domestic MSS.

1569.] THE CASKET LETTERS. soi

Sir Francis Knowles ; but at her parting interview she
told him pointedly that, ' come what would, his mistress
should be a Queen still ; ' and ' by speech, gesture, or
countenance* she made him understand that he need
not be alarmed — she meant to keep her promises and
' deal favourably ' with the Queen of Scots after all.
Satisfied now that all was well, the Bishop flew to
Bolton. He carried with him the happy news that the
council was in confusion, that England was on the eve
of a war with Spain, and that a Catholic revolution was
immediately impending. He had seen the Spanish am-
bassador ; he carried letters or brought messages from
the Earl of Northumberland ; and at once from the
edge of despondency Mary Stuart sprang back into
energy and life. She was again the sovereign princess,
with all her rights and all her pride. She sent word,
as has been seen, to Don Guerau that with Philip's help
she would in three months be Queen of England. She
saw herself in imagination pass with a spring from her
prison to the first place in Catholic Europe, and pro-
tected by Elizabeth from the only blow which she
feared.

She wrote a letter to her friends in Scotland, to lash
them into fury preparatory to the expected insurrection.
She described herself as betrayeci, tricked, oppressed.
The Earl of Murray had compounded with Elizabeth to
betray the Prince and admit English garrisons into
Edinburgh and Stirling. Scotland was to be held in
fee of the English Crown, and its ancient independence
destroved. It was said that the Prince was to be

S02 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

Elizabeth's successor ; but Cecil and Murray had con-
cluded a private arrangement in favour of the children
of the Earl of Hertford. Scotland was betrayed — be-
trayed foully by Murray — ••' to the ancient and natural
enemies of the realm/ They had begun with attempt-
ing to persuade her ' to renounce her crown/ but God
and good Scotch hearts would provide a remedy. ' In
the spring they would have help of their friends/
Meanwhile, they must proclaim Murray's treason in
every corner of the land, and hold the rebels in check
till foreign aid should come.1

Every word of this letter was false ; but the Queen
of Scots knew that it would answer its immediate pur-
pose, in stirring Scottish pride ; and at the same time,
and to prevent further trouble with the casket letters, a
party of Yorkshire Catholics, the Nortons of Norton
Conyers and others, undertook to intercept Murray on
his return to the Border, kill him, and destroy the
papers.

Having thus fired Mary Stuart with new hopes, the
Bishop went again to London to concert further mea-
sures with his friends among the Peers. His first step
was characteristic and curious. He was aware that
Elizabeth was haunted by the spectre of a possible
league between France and Spain and the Papacy.
Information calling itself authentic had come late in

1 The Queen of Scots to the
Abbot of Arbroath, January — .

2 ' Murray was to have been mur-
dered on his way back to Scotland
from Hampton Court, to be done

about Northallerton, by the Nortons,
Markinfield, and others.' — Confes-
sion of the Bishop of Ross : MURDIN,
p. 52.

1569.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 503

December, from Paris, that ' both France and Spain had
within the realm a practice for the alteration of religioi
and the advancement of the Queen of Scots to th«
crown ; ' and Walsingham, commenting upon it to Cecil,
could but say that ( in the divisions reigning in England
there was less danger in fearing too much than too little,
and that there was nothing more dangerous than
security.' l At once, while his mistress was inventing
a lie of one sort, the Bishop of Ross composed another,
to work on Elizabeth's fears, to earn her gratitude, and
to throw her oft' her guard by his seeming frankness.
He addressed himself to Lord Arundel as the member
of the council through whom it would be most easy to
approach her. He said that a secret had been revealed
to him, which his affection for Elizabeth forbade him to
conceal. He could not be silent when he saw danger
approaching her. The King of Spain had directed the
Duke of Alva and Don Guerau ' to treat and conclude
with the Queen of Scots for her marriage in three seven «1
ways.' The King of Spain offered her either the Arch-
duke Charles or Don John of Austria, or, if she preferred
it, himself. On her acceptance of any one of these suit-
ors, he was ready with the whole force of Spain to re-
place her on her own throne, and to maintain whatever
interest she possessed in the throne of England. The
] hike of Alva had sent an agent to England to see and
consult her. The Bishop said that he had himself seen
tin's man, learned his errand, and undertaken to lay the

Walsingham to Cecil, December 20 : Domestic MS$.

504 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51

question before his mistress ; but he, for his own part,
wished her always to see in Elizabeth her only pillar,
and to seek no other friend. Instead of carrying the
message to Bolton therefore he had desired Arundel
to communicate it to the Queen of England. She might
use it for her best commodity, and he trusted to her
honour that she would not betray him.1

In the presence of the real correspondence between
Philip and Don Guerau and between Philip and the
Duke of Alva, it may be said with certainty that no
agent had been sent from Flanders on any such business,
that no such instructions had been sent to the Spanish
ambassador, and that in the whole story there was not
one particle of truth. Alva was only desirous of post-
poning or avoiding a war, and Philip had not yet
brought himself to regard the Queen of Scots as a person
with whom he could entertain any kind of communica-
tion. Arundel however carried the Bishop's note to
Elizabeth ; he had perhaps assisted in composing it.
Coming as it did from the Queen of Scots' confidential
minister, it answered its purpose completely in deceiv-
ing Elizabeth. It harmonized but too well with her
own alarms and with the violent arrests and reprisals ;
and Lord Arundel followed up the effect which it had
manifestly produced by laying in writing before her
his own objections to extreme measures against Mary
Stuart. She could not but see, he said, the danger to
which both she and England were exposed ; the neutral-

1 The Bishop of Ross to the Earl of Arundel, January 3, 1569 : JtfSS.
QUEEN OF SCOTS.

1569.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 505

ity if not the friendship of Scotland was indispensable ;
and the Queen of Scots, could she make a friend of her,
would be a more useful ally than the Earl of Murray.
Her Majesty supposed that if she published the Queen
of Scots' letters, the Queen of Scots would be 'defamed*
and disgraced, and there woxdd be no more trouble
about her. He thought that she would find herself mis-
taken. The world would see only on one side a person
churning the English throne, and on the other, 'a party
to keep her from her own,' blackening her rival's re-
putation as a means of protecting herself against her
pretensions. The Queen of Scots had powerful friends
in England whom the publication would mortally offend.
The country was already in serious peril, and it would
be far better if terms could be arranged with Murray,
and the Queen of Scots be allowed to return. 'It is
not a strong persuasion for one that hath a crown/ he
added significantly, ' to move another to leave her crown
for that her subjects will not be ruled. It may be a
new doctrine in Scotland, but it is not good to be taught
in England/ 1

These last words must have touched Elizabeth to the
quick. She had made up her mind a few days before to
iimve straight-forward. Arundel's arguments found her
already wavering and quickened her retreat. She had
first affected to desire nothing but a compromise. By
iiiMsting on the production of the letters she had done
her best to make a compromise impossible, while she had

1 Arundcl to Elizabeth, January — : MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS.

506 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. |CH. 51

made an enemy of Mary Stuart for ever. Now she de-
sired to fall back upon her first plan. She was like the
captain of a vessel seeking to enter an unknown har-
bour, who, with two channels before him each intricate
and dangerous, and two pilots each advocating a differ-
ent course, cannot choose between them, yet listens now
to one and now to another, and will not give up the
helm to either, and so drives blindly upon the breakers.
She resolved to insist no longer on the abdication. The
Queen of Scots should remain Queen, reign jointly with
her son, and, should he die, resume her crown abso-
lutely ; she wished only to make the proposal ' seem to
proceed from the Queen of Scots herself without com-
pulsion.' l

It was now the Queen of Scots' turn to assume the
high tone. Seeing that Elizabeth was afraid to go for-
ward, she instructed the Bishop of Ross to say that she
was ready to reply to the charges. The Conference had
been suspended for a fortnight ; nothing had passed in
the interval except high words, which were followed by
a challenge, between Lindsay and Lord Herries. On
the 7th of January the Bishop of Ross again appeared
at the session. He assumed and pretended to believe
that his mistress was still called upon to abdicate. He
said that he was commanded in her name to refuse. The
World would say she was her own judge, and 'she
would be abhorred by the people of the whole island.'
She would reduce herself to the rank of a private person

1 Note of measures to be taken, January 7 : Cotton. M$S, CALJG.
C, 1,

1569.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 507

and might be placed on her trial. Should her son die
she would be set aside, and be in perpetual fear of her
life ever after.

Borne one — it is uncertain who — proposed that ' she
should remain in the rank of a Queen/ and ' provision
might be made* for the contingency of the Prince's
death.1 The Bishop said, that for no consideration
would she consent. She would be deserted by her
friends abroad, and her own subjects would tear them-
selves to pieces. She would agree to nothing, either in
form or substance, which would make her less than a
true Queen. The Earl of Murray and his colleagues in
accusing her had wickedly lied. They were themselves
the first inventors and conspirators of murder : some of
them had been the executors of it. She was prepared
to prove her words, and she demanded copies of the
racket letters and of the other evidence, to enable her to
make her defence.

Elizabeth was left to make the best or the worst of
the position in which she had placed herself. Neither
she nor Mary Stuart intended to pursue the inquiry
further. Mary Stuart had consented to answer because
she knew that she would not be called upon to answer.
Elizabeth had but to save her own dignity, in which
she succeeded moderately well. She said she would not
refuse the copies, but before they were placed in the
Bishop's hands, she desired both him and his mistress
to consider what they were doing. From the first she

1 Answer of the Queen of Scots, with notes on the margin, January
9 : M SS. QUEEN OF SCOTS,

508 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

' had herself wished to have the Queen's cause come to
the best effect it might for her own weal/ ' If the said
writings were delivered, she must then of necessity
make answer without any cavillation for lack of admis-
sion to her Majesty's presence ; and by her answers it
must needs ensue that she should be proved either in-
nocent or culpable of the horrible crimes of which she
was as yet but accused and not convicted/ ' If she
should not by her answers prove herself innocent, no
further favour could be honourably shown towards her.
She must therefore choose whether she would put the
whole matter upon direct trial, or have the cause other-
wise ended for her quietness and honour also.' If she
determined to proceed, she must send a declaration
1 under her own hand,' that if ' she should not prove
herself clear and free from the crimes imputed to her,
she would then be content to forbear request of any
favour at her Majesty's hands.' On the receipt by the
council of a paper to this effect, written and signed by
herself, copies of her letters would then be furnished to
her, and if she was found innocent, all that reason could
require would be immediately done for her.1

It is needless to say that no such declaration was
ever made by the Queen of Scots. She had already the
advantage of the position. She had not refused to
answer, and was safe from exposure, which was the only
danger that she feared. Murray's presence in England
was no longer necessary. He was called before the Com-

1 Answer to the demands of the Queen of Scots, January 13, in Cecil
hand. — MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS.

1569.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 509

missioners and informed by Cecil that, whereas he and his
friends had been summoned to answer before the Queen
of England for their revolt against their sovereign,
' Nothing had been brought against them which im-
paired their honour and allegiance ; ' nor, on the other
hand, ' had anything been sufficiently produced or shown
against the Queen their Sovereign, whereby the Queen
of England should conceive or take any evil opinion of
the Queen her good sister for anything yet seen/ The
disordered state of Scotland requiring the Earl of Mur-
ray's presence there, her Majesty would not detain him
longer ; ' he and his adherents ' were at liberty ' to
depart in the same estate in which they were before
their coming into the realm.1

The meaning of this sentence was entirely intelligible
to Murray. lie had been tricked by false promises into
bringing forward accusations which he would not have
made unless with the understanding that his sister's
deposition would be confirmed. Elizabeth had again
made use of him for her own purposes, and intended to
restore Mary Stuart, or not restore her, as it might suit
her future convenience. The private arrangement with
certain members of the English council, to which he
was in consequence induced to consent, and the means
by which he escaped from the plot which had been
formed for his murder, will be told in the following
chapter. For the present, and while still before the
Commission, he required, before he departed, to be con-
fronted with the Bishop of Ross and Lord Herries.
They were brought in, and he inquired whether they

5ic5 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

intended to persist in accusing him of having had a
share in the murder. They said that they had brought
the charge at the command of their mistress ; and when
the copies of the letters were in her hands, ' they would
answer in defence of her innocence, and would also
nominate particularly such persons as were guilty/
They were asked whether they would specially accuse
the Earl of- Murray, or whether they thought in their
consciences that the Earl of Murray was guilty. They
said that they had no certain knowledge. Information
of various kinds had reached them, but it was not for
them to offer their thoughts and meaning. They were
acting as the representatives of their mistress, and with-
out further instructions they would say no more.1

Murray offered to accompany them to Bolton, that
the Queen, if she dared, might accuse him in their pre-
sence. But the Bishop declined the proposal. He knew
very well that against Murray she could say nothing.
She might have accused Morton of having been privy
to the conspiracy ; she might have charged Maitland
with having signed the bond at Craigmillar ; but to
secure their conviction she would also have secured her
own: Maitland was now her friend, and she required
his services ; and Maitland who with a word could have
silenced her defence, and Mary Stuart who had no
motive for ruining him unless she was driven to desper-
ation, preferred to be mutually silent.

So terminated in impotence and self- contradiction

1 Proceedings at Hampton Court, January 10 and u: GOOD ALL.
vol. ii.

1 $69.] THE CASKE T LE TTEKS. 5 f I

the long and shapeless inquiry. Murray was able to
say that he was allowed to return to the Regency. The
friends of the Queen of Scots could say that Elizabeth
still refused to recognize him as Regent, and had con-
fessed in the sentence that the Queen of Scots' guilt had
not been proved. The world at large, the continental
Courts, who had hitherto believed her to be indisput-
ably a party to the murder, the English Catholics, whose
interest in her succession disposed them to believe in her
innocence, interpreted by their wishes the inconsecutive-
ness and insincerity of the conclusion. Elizabeth had
desired to leave the Queen of Scots unconvictdfc yet with
a blemished reputation ; the truth had been forced upon
the Peers, and so fur she had gained her object ; but
beyond the circle of those who had seen the letters, she
had created nn impression that the Queen of Scots
might, after all, have been falsely accused ; that Eliza-
beth could not condemn her, yet for her own sinister
objects reftisod to acquit her, and had aggravated the
injustice of the imprisonment by hypocrisy and perfidy.

Cecil has left no record of the feelings with which
he witnessed so wretched a result ; but so dangerous
appeared the Queen's vacillations, that Sir Francis
Knowles, next to Cecil the most faithful of her minis-
ters, believed her no longer capable of conducting the
government.

* I see,' he wrote, * that her Majesty shall never be
able to raise her decayed credit, nor pluck up the hearts
of her good subjects, nor prevent and escape the perils
that are intended towards her, unless she do utterly

5 j 2 REIGN OF E LIZ ABE TH. [CH. 5 1.

give over the government of her weighty affairs unto
the most faithful councillors in whom she puts most
special trust. Surely i.e her Majesty would do so, and
back them with a merr} and courageous cheer, and put
her trust in God for the success, then I would not
doubt but she should have as much honour in the end,
and as good safety withal, as she could reasonably wish
and desire. But if her Majesty will needs be the ruler,
or half ruler,, of these weighty affairs herself, then my
hope of any good success is clean overthrown/ l

Fearless in the rectitude of his purpose, the noble
old man dared to lay the truth before Elizabeth herself.
He told her that his sworn duty as privy councillor
'obliged him to plainness/ The Duke of Alva was
presuming upon her unwillingness to go to war to dis-
credit her before the world, and the cause of Spain and
the cause of the Queen of Scots would be linked to-
gether.

' You have good councillors/ he said, ' provident,
trusty, careful, no delighters in war, nor prodigal wast-
ers of your treasure. Your Majesty need not trouble
yourself with casting of doubts and discommodities or
of dangerous inconveniences, whereby you may dis-
courage them to stretch out the sinews of their wits to
resolve most probably for your honour and safety.
Kather contrary wise, your Majesty had need to en-
courage them with casting your care upon them, and
taking their resolutions in good part, and to harden

Sir F. Knowles to Cecil, January 17 : MSS. QUEEN or SCOTS.

1569-] THE CASKET LET7*ERS. 513

them in the prosecution thereof; lest otherwise they
pluck in their horns and shrink in their sinews, and so
lay the burden from themselves, either wholly or raan-
gledly, on your Majesty's back. And hereupon must
needs follow such wrestlings together of the affections,
perturbations, and passions of your mind, that much
time will be lost before your judgment can be settled
to resolve. And yet time is precious. It is not pos-
sible for your Majesty's faithfid councillors to govern
your State unless you shall resolutely follow their opin-
ions in weighty affairs. Your Majesty shall never be
well served unless you will back, comfort, and encourage
them. I stand in very hard terms with your Majesty,
for please your eye I cannot, since nature hath not
given it to me, and to please your ear I would be fain ;
but my calling, my oath, and my conscience do force
me to rudeness. To be silent I dare not, lest the guilt
of your peril should light upon my head.' l

History, ever prone to interpret unfavourably the
ambiguous conduct of sovereigns, has accepted her
enemies' explanation of Elizabeth's behaviour. She has
been allowed credit for ability at the expense of princi-
ple and character. To her own ministers she appeared
to be incapable, through infirmity of purpose, of form-
ing any settled resolution whatever ; to be distracted
between conflicting policies and torn by feminine emo-
tions, of which, if jealousy of the Queen of Scots was
one, a weak and unreasoning tenderness was no less

1 Sir F. Knowles to Elizabeth, January 17 : MSS QUEEN OP SCOTS.
VOL. viu. 33

5 14 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51

certainly another. She had followed Cecil's counsel to
the point where she made the Queen of Scots her mortal
enemy. She had stopped short before the exposure which
would have secured her from the effects of the Queen
of Scots' hatred ; and amidst the tricks, the subterfuges,
the broken promises through which she had floundered
from the hour of Mary Stuart's arrival in England, she
will be misjudged if an element of generosity is not ad-
mitted among her motives. Her advisers saw only the
danger to which she was exposing both herself and the
State. She too was conscious of the danger. She did
not shut her- eyes to Mary Stuart's character, yet she
could not refuse her pity to a fallen Queen. With a
letter which she wrote to her when all was over, the
story of the Conference may end.

THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND TO THE QUEEN OF SCOTS.

' January 20.

' It may be, Madam, that in receiving a letter from
me, you may look to hear something which shall be for
your honour. I would it were so — but I will not de-
ceive you. Your cause is not so clear but that much
remains to be explained. As I understand it, my heart,
which directs my hand, forbids me to write, because the
fruit of a sorrowing spirit is bitter, and I had rather
something else than pen of mine should shed such
drops upon you. Your commissioners will tell you
what has passed. If they do not tell you also what
sincere goodwill I have myself shown towards you, they
deceive you and they do me too much wrong. Only let

1569 J THE CASKET LETTERS.

515

me advise you this. Let not the fine promises, the
pleasant voices, which will do you honour through the
world, wrap you round in clouds and hide the daylight
from your eyes. Those do not all love you who would
persuade your servants that they love you. Be not
over-confident in what you do. Be not blind nor think
me blind. If you are wise, I have said enough.'1

Of the murder of Darnley there was henceforth
no more to be heard. That chapter of crime was closed ;
and to the reader who has followed the story attent-
ively, it might seem superfluous to add further com-
ments upon its features. Mary Stuart's share in that
business however being one of the vexed points of his-
tory, and the political consequences of the accusations
against her having been so considerable, a few conclud
ing words will not be out of place.

At the time of the catastrophe, the body of public
opinion in England, the predominant weight of moder-
ate statesmanship, was in favour of recognizing the
Queen of Scots as successor to Elizabeth's crown.
Thenceforward the open advocacy of her claims, in
Parliament or out of it, was no longer possible. She
had still powerful friends, but they were divided among
themselves, and encumbered with the consciousness of
a cause which they dared not avow. Dropping their
character of English statesmen, they became conspir-
ators, moving in the dark, and compromising them-

1 Abridged from the French original ;—MSS. QUEEN OF SCOTS, Rollt

5I6 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [01.51.

selves with treason and foreign intrigues, and thus
gradually all that was honourable and noble fell away
from their side. The mass of English country gentle-
men, at the outset but cold friends of Protestantism,
became converts through their patriotism, and Mary
Stuart was left to an ever-narrowing circle of Catholic
fanatics, to whom the Pope was dearer than their
country.

That the primd facie case was strong against her,
her warmest advocates will scarcely deny. She was
known to have been weary of her husband and anxious
to get rid of him. The difficulty and the means of dis-
posing of him had been talked over in her presence,
and she had herself suggested to Sir James Balfour to
kill him. She brought him to the house where he was
destroyed. She was with him two hours before his
death, and afterwards threw every difficulty in the way
of any examination into the circumstances of his end.
The Earl of Bothwell was publicly accused of the mur-
der ; she kept him close at her side ; she would not
allow him to be arrested ; she went openly to Seton
with him before her widowhood was a fortnight old.
When at last, unwillingly, she consented to his trial,
Edinburgh was occupied by his retainers. He pre-
sented himself at the Tolbooth surrounded by the Royal
Guard, and the charge fell to the ground, because the
Crown did not prosecute and the Earl of Lennox had
been prevented from appearing. A few weeks later she
married Bothwell, though he had a wife already, and
when her subjects rose in arms against her and took

1 569. ] THE CASKE T LE T'lERS. 5 1 7

her prisoner, she refused to allow herself to be divorced
from him. After the discovery of her letters, her guilt
appeared so obvious and so shocking that all parties in
Scotland agreed to try her and execute her, and sha
was only saved by the interference of Elizabeth. In
Scotland, England, France, and Spain there was at first
but one opinion — de Silva in London, du Croq in Edin-
burgh, alike entertained no sort of doubt about her ;
nor was it till the political jealousy of the Hamiltons
raised a faction against Murray, and till party interests
became involved in those of the Queen, that it became
convenient to suppose her to be innocent. On her flight
into England, her first object was to prevent inquiry,
and when it could no longer be evaded, she herself, her
commissioners, and her English friends exerted them-
selves to persuade Murray to keep back the serious
charges against her. She was ready to compound for
his silence by granting him perfect immunity for his
rebellion ; although if her letters were not genuine, he
had not only risen in arms against her, but was shield-
ing himself by forgery of the basest kind. Had the
Queen of Scots been really innocent, so far from evad-
ing inquiry she would naturally have been the first to
insist upon it ; she would have demanded it as a right
of Elizabeth ; she would have called on France and
Spain to see that she had fair play. If they failed her,
she had friends enough in England to watch over her
interests. Instead of this, her one word throughout
was compromise. So long as ' the odious charges ' were
not pressed she was ready to make all concessions, and

5i8 REIGN OF ELIZABETH [CH. 5*

France, when France moved for her, protested only
against a Sovereign Princess being placed upon her
trial.

From first to last, her own conduct, and the conduct
of her friends, was exactly what it would have been
"Supposing her guilty. Even in her own correspondence,
though she denies the crime, there is nowhere the clear
ring of innocence, the frank indignation against slander
which makes its weight felt, even when the evidence is
weak which supports the words. La Mothe Fenelon,
though eager to extricate her from her difficulties, yet
never spoke of her even to his own Court as suffering
under calumny. His advice to her representatives was
to gain time, to parry the charges, to make difficulties,
to decline to answer.

Of the English Commissioners, and of the Peers who
sat with them, not one, whatever the Bishop of Eoss
might afterwards pretend, professed to think her inno-
cent. Norfolk, the most interested in her acquittal,
said distinctly that he thought her guilty — by the
Bishop of Ross's own admission he was harder against
her than even Cecil. Her letters were read by several
noblemen so well inclined towards her that they broke
into rebellion in her cause and the Pope's, yet, after the
most careful comparison of the incriminating letters
with others of unquestionable authenticity, they could
detect no difference in the handwriting to sustain a
suspicion that they were forged.

The solitarjr ground for believing those letters to be
spurious is Mary Stuart's own denial that she wrote

I569.]

THE CASKET LETTERS.

S'9

till-in, yet her denial was accompanied with the most
earnest anxiety that they should bo destroyed, while it
would have been by their preservation alone that she
could successfully disprove her hand in them.1 The
age which could have produced forgeries so ingenious
would have produced also the skill which could detect
them, and her mere assertion weighs little against the
recorded results of a careful examination by men who
had the highest interest in discovering a fraud. It is
in a high degree unlikely that a forger would have ven-
tured on producing so many letters, touching on so
many subjects, with the danger of exposure increasing
in an accelerating ratio, when a single letter would
have served his purpose. It is still more unlikely — it

1 Sergeant Barbara, during the
Duke of Norfolk's trial, mentioned a
curious fact in connection with these
letters, and with Mary Stuart's anx-
iety about them. 'The Duke,' he
said, ' was privy to the device that
Lidington accompanied the Earl of
Murray (to York) only to under-
stand his secrets and to betray him,
and that Lidington stole away the
and kept them one night, and
caused his wife to write them out.
Uowbcit the same were but copies
translated out of French into Scotch,
»vhieh when Lidington's wife had
written out, he caused them to be
sent to the Scottish Queen. She
laboured to translate them again
into French as near as she could to
the originals whence she wrote them
— but that was not possible to do,

but there was some variance in the
phrase, by which variance, as God
would, the subtlety of that practice
came to light.'

This passage as it stands increases
the mystery rather than relieves it.
Why should the Queen of Scots
make a re-translation ? If she suc-
ceeded exactly, she would only have
added a fresh proof against herself.
She perhaps intended to make dupli-
cates, which could be exchanged for
the originals, in which the compro-
nii-in^ passages could be omitted;
but the conjecture most inadequately
meets the difficulty. It is ouly evi-
dent that she was in deep anxiety
about the letters, and did everything
in her power to prevent them from
being examined.

520 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51.

is morally impossible — that if they had been forged,
some evidence of the truth should not eventually have
come out. The secret must have been known to many
persons, and the Bishop of Ross and Herries could
hardly have missed the traces of it. Maitland, for one,
must have known it, for the letters were in existence
before Murray's return from France, when the entire
control of the Confederate party lay with him and the
Earls of Morton and Mar. Maitland went over to
Mary Stuart's party, devoted what remained of his life
to her, and died in her cause. At any moment he
might have secured her triumph by revealing the fraud.
If fear for himself kept him silent while alive, he might
have left papers behind him which told the truth after
his death. Yet no hint of the kind was ever dropped
by him or any one. To have carried out a complicated
forgery with such complete success that, neither at the
time nor after, the traces of it should ever be discovered,
must have been a feat of such extraordinary difficulty,
that only the very strongest inconsistency in the letters
themselves with the other features of the case would
justify a belief that it had been accomplished.

And assuredly that inconsistency does not exist.
The hardihood of Mary Stuart's advocates has grown
with time. The Catholics made her innocence an article
of faith. Under the Stuarts it became an article of
loyalty. Through religious and political tradition it
has been passed on to the spurious chivalry of modern
times, which assumes that she could not have been
wicked because she was beautiful and a Queen. A seem-

1569.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 521

iii^ solid surface will form on a morass by long accretion
of weeds and scum, and in like manner out of suppo>i-
tion and conjecture, and hard assertion, out of the mere
mass of so called authorities who profess to have ex-
amined the evidence and come to a favourable conclu-
sion, a plausible ground has been erected from which
she can be noisily and boldly defended. Her original
champion was contented with a more modest tone. The
Bishop of Ross would unquestionably have said all in
her favour which the most strained probabilities al-
lowed. During the progress of the Catholic conspiracy
he published a tract to satisfy the doubts which were
abroad about her, and he was driven to arguments such
as these : — The Queen of Scots was unlikely to have
murdered her husband, because had she desired his death,
she could have had him executed for the assassination of
E-izzio. It was unlikely that Bothwell would have pre-
served such letters as she was said to have written to
him. These letters were neither signed, sealed, nor
dated, and her hand could easily be counterfeited. If
they were genuine they did not contain ' any express
commandment of any unlawful act or deed to be com-
mitted or perpetrated/ neither did they ' ratify or specify
the accomplishment of any such fact already past.' They
afforded only presumptions 'by unseen and uncertain
.queries, aims, and conjectural supposings.' Allowing
that she was as guilty as the Lords pretended, they had
no right to depose her. Considering Lord Darnley's
offence, ' a simple murder, in her being a prince could
not deserve such extreme punishment/ and 'subjects

522

REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

had no warrant to set their hands upon their sovereign/
1 David was an adulterer and murderer, and God was
angry with him, yet was he not by his subjects de-
prived.' They ought to have ' dissembled the matter/
fl,nd to have left her punishment to Heaven.1

The reasoning required falsehood to carry it down.
The Bishop said that Murray was self- convicted, be-
cause on his first coming to York he did not allege any
such crime against the Queen of Scots, but produced
the charge only when he could not otherwise ' serve his
turn/ None knew better than the Bishop of Ross for

• * Defence of Queen Mary's Honour,
by Morgan Philips : Printed ^AN-
DERSON.— The real author was the
Bishop of Ross. The parallel of
David was so obviously apt that it
was much in use among the more
naive of the Queen of Scots' support-
ers. On the 4th of June, 1571, Avhen
Edinburgh was in the hands of the
Queen's friends, the Bishop of Gal-
loway, who was entirely devoted to
her, preached a sermon in St Giles'
church, with the intention of bring-
ing back the more obstinate citizens
to their loyalty. The ministers had
objected to pray for the Queen. ' I
would wish you, oh inhabitants of
Edinburgh,' said the Bishop, 'to
send for your ministers and cause
them pray for the Queen. For this
I may say, she is their lawful magis-
trate, for that her father was our
native King, and her mother was
likewise an honourable princess,
and she gotten and born in lawful

bed. Thus far to prove my argu-
ment that she ought to be prayed
for. And further, all sinners ought
to be prayed for. If we should not
pray for sinners, whom for should
we pray ? seeing God came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to re-
pentance. Saint David was an adul-
terer, and so was she. Saint David
committed murder in slaying Uriah
for his wife, and so did she. But
what is this to the matter? The
more wicked she Jbe, her subjects
should pray for her to bring her to
the spirit of repentance. For Judas
was a sinner, and if he had been
prayed for- he had not died in de-
spair. No inferior subject has power
to deprive or depose the lawful
magistrate, he or she whatsoever ;
albeit they commit whoredom, mur-
der, incest, or any other crime.' —
Sermon preached by the Bishop of
Galloway, June 4, 1571 : MSS.
Scotland, Eolls House. •

1569.] THE CASKET LETTERS. 523

what reason Murray had been silent. None had been
more urgent to keep htm silent. With even greater
audacity he declared that ' the nobles of England ap-
pointed to hear the matter not only found the Queen of
Scots innocent, but fully understood that her accusers
were the contrivers and workers of the crime, and per-
fectly knowing her innocency, they had moved her to
accept the noblest man in England in marriage/1

What ' the noblest man in England ' himself thought
about the matter, and what the Bishop of Ross knew
that he thought, has been already seen. Elizabeth's
extraordinary sentence had alone made it possible to
publish so enormous a lie. The details of the proceed-
ings fortunately survive to test the value of the Bishop's
words.

But the Bishop put forward his defence only to serve
an immediate purpose, and it is not to be accepted even
as an expression of his private opinion. When the con-
spiracy broke down, and Mary Stuart's air-castles had
dissolved, and the web of treason so diligently wrought
was rent in pieces, then, seeing the end of his false-
hoods, the Bishop dropped the mask and betrayed his
real estimate of his mistress's character — an estimate
by the side of which Buchanan's Mary is an angel.

Doctor Wilson, the Master of the Court of Re-
quests, thus described the language in which the Bishop
of Ross spoke to him of his mistress : —

'IK; seeineth very glad that these practices are come

The Duke of Norfolk.

5 24 REIGN OF ELIZABE TH. [CH. 5 1 .

to light, saying they are all naught, and he hopeth when
folk will leave to be lewd his mistress shall speed the
better. He saith further, upon speech I had with him,
that the Queen his mistress is not fit for any husband ;
for first, he saith, she poisoned her husband the French
King, as he hath credibly understood ; again, she con-
sented to the murder of her late husband, the Lord
Darnley ;• thirdly, she matched with the murderer, and
brought him to the field to be murdered ; and last of
all, she pretended marriage with the Duke, with whom,
as he thinks, she would not long have kept faith, and
the Duke should not have had the best days with her.'

Well might Doctor Wilson exclaim, ' Lord, what a
people are these : what a Queen, and what an ambas-
sador ! ' l

With these words all that need be said upon the
subject may fitly close, and the reader must be left to
his own judgment.

It is less easy to speak with confidence of the con-
duct of Elizabeth. She was in a position where there
were no precedents to guide her, and she lost her way
in its perplexities. To countenance subjects in rebellion
was doubtless dangerous, and according to the principles
of the time unjust ; but occasions rise where the highest
right is the highest wrong ; where the sovereign, who
is the representative of order and justice, becomes the
representative rather of crime and villany, where so-
ciety is inverted, and the rules belonging to it must be

1 Doctor Thomas Wilson to Burghley, November 8, 1571 : MSS
Eatjield.

1569-] THE CASKET LETTERS. 525

road hack wards. When the Scottish people took Mary
Stuart prisoner and with general consent prepared to
try her for the murder, either Elizabeth ought not to
have interfered, or she might have interfered only to
insist on a strict and exhausting investigation. The
truth would then have been known and proclaimed, and
if the spectacle of a crowned head upon the scaffold had
been deemed intolerable, the Queen's life might after-
wards have been spared without danger.

But Elizabeth — troubled with the fear of encourag-
ing a perilous example, troubled with a dislike of the
Protestants whom she knew that she had injured,
doubting whether Mary Stuart was really guilty, or if
guilty whether many of those who were in arms against
her were not as deeply implicated as herself — first for-
bade the trial, and then, by refusing to recognize the
Regent, encouraged the Hamiltons to form a party
against him for themselves and for the Queen. On the
defeat at Langside and the flight into England, she
immediately found herself face to face with enormous
difficulties. She could not decently replace her on her
throne till the evidence which the Regent offered to
produce had been probed and tested ; she could not
allow a Princess who had claimed her own crown, who
had assumed her title and had never formally abandoned
it, who was known to be the object of the hopes of all
those among her subjects who were disaffected to her-
self and the Reformation — she could not allow such a one
to go abroad and call the armies of France and Spain in-
to Scotland under pretence of reinstating her, when the

526 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 51

only purpose with which these powers would help her
would be the proximate conquest of England.

Yet to keep her against her will when she had
come to England in reliance upon promises which
ought never to have been made, was an act which in
itself had but too much resemblance to perfidy ; and
Elizabeth, had no interests but her own been likely to
suffer, should have encountered, to her own inconveni-
ence, the consequences of her own words and actions.
So perhaps she would have done had she been a private
person ; but as a sovereign she was responsible for tho
welfare of her country ; and the very existence of
England and Scotland also was at stake. That, under
such circumstances, she should have endeavoured to
find some middle course was natural and not inde-
fensible. Yet no compromise was possible while the
truth was left uncertain ; and when the truth, to which
she had closed her eyes, was forced upon her, what was
she to do ? If she could not restore Mary Stuart till
the charges against her had been examined into, still less
could she do it when the full extent of the fault was
known ; still less again could she let her go, exasperated
by indignity and disappointment, without publishing
her infamy ; and this she had again bound herself by a
solemn engagement not to do.

Thus it seems as if she was driven into the course
which she eventually followed. It was dangerous to
keep Mary Stuart, for in England she would be a focus
of insurrection ; yet there was still a hope that she
might have learnt wisdom by suffering, and that by

1569] THE CASKET LETTERS. 527

care and kindness she might be brought at last to see her
real interests. Time woiild soften the recollection of
her misdoings; by patient endurance of calamity she
might recover her shaken reputation, and so eventually
she might be replaced without objection in the position
which she had forfeited.

With this possibility, for she herself knew that it
was nothing more, Elizabeth allowed the Conference to
terminate in an absurd conclusion, and accepted for her-
self a reputation for double-dealing or hypocrisy, which
she deserved in form but not perhaps in substance.
In the details of the proceedings she provoked the
hardest interpretation of her motives. She swayed
to and fro under the thousand considerations which
the situation alternately suggested, and she said one
thing and said another, said- one thing and did another,
as fear, duty, policy, natural pity, or natural spleen took
successive possession of her. The consequences, in many
ways, were disastrous; yet less disastrous than they
would have been had she set her prisoner free. She
herself was the worst sufferer in eighteen years of
danger and disquiet, and in a stain upon her good
name and fame ; but the first false step involved the
rest by a tragic necessity. Had she left Mary Stuart
to the justice of her countrymen, there would have
been no civil war in Scotland, and the chequered
times on which England was entering would have
worn a fairer complexion.

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v.8

Froude, James Anthony
History of England
New ed.

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