and he made up two factions which tore the Kingdome till at length Milcoms Bastard Brother himself being in Englaend assisting the Danes fought him routed his Army and with the losse of his own life took away his they dying of mutuall wounds Grime of whose birth they do not certainly agree was chosen by the Constantinians who made a good party but at intercession of Forard an accounted Rabbi of the times they at last agreed Grime being to enjoy the Kingdome for his life after which Milcolumb should succeed his fathers Law standing in force but he after declining into lewdnesse cruelty and spoil as Princes drunk with greatnesse and prosperity use to do the people called back Milcolumb who rather receiving battel then giving it for it was upon Ascention day his principall Holy-day routed his Forces wounded himself took him pulled out his eyes which altogether made an end of his life all factions and humours being reconciled Milcolumb who with various Fortune fought many signall Battels with the Danes who under their King Sueno had invaded in his latter end he grew to such Covetousness and Oppression that all Authours agree he was murthered though they disagree of the manner some say by Confederacy with his servants some by his Kinsmen and Competitours some by the friends of a maid whom he had ravished Donald his Grandchild succeeded a good natur'd and unactive Prince who with a stratagem of sleepy drink destroyed a Danish Army that had invaded and distressed him but at last being insnared by his Kinsman Mackbeth who was pricked forward by Ambition and a former vision of three women of a Sour-humane shape whereof one saluted him Thane of Angus another of Murray the third King he was beheaded The severity and cruelty of Mackbeth was so known that both the sons of the murthered King were forced to retire and yield to the times whilest he courted the Nobility with largesses The first ten years he spent virtuously but the remainder was so savage and Tyrannicall that Macduff Thone of Fife fled into England to Milcolm son of Donald who by his perswasions and the assistance of the King of England enterd Scotland where he found such great accessions to his party that Mackbeth was forced to fly his death is hid in a such a mist of Fables that it is not certainly known Milcolumb the third of that name now being quietly seated was the first that brought in those gay inventions and distinctions of Honours Dukes Marquesses that now are become so ayery that some carry them from places to which they have as little relation as any as Island in America and other from Cottages and Dovecoats his first trouble was Forfar Mackbeths son who claimed the Crown but was soon after cut off some war he had with that William whom we call falsly the Conquerour some with his own People which by the Intercession of the Bishops were taken up At length quarrelling with our William the second he laid Siege to Alnwick Castle which being forced to extremity a Knight came out with the Keys on a Spear as to present them to him and yield the Castle but he not with due heed receving them was runne through the eye and slain some from hence derive the name of Piercy how truly I know not his sonne and Successour Edward following his revenge too hotly received some wounds of which within a few dayes he died Donald Bane that is white who had fled into the Isles for fear of Mackbeth promised them to the Kings of Norway if he would procure him to be King which was done with ease as the times then stood but this Usurper being hated by the People who generally loved the memory of Milcomb they set Duncan Milcombs Bastard against him who forced him to retire to his Isles Duncan a Military man shewed himself unfit for Government so Donald waiting all advantages caused him to be beheaded and restored himself but his Reign was so turbulent the Islanders and English invading on both sides that they called in Edgar sonne of Milcolmb then in England who with small assistances possest himself all men deserting Donald who being taken and brought to the King died in Prison Edgar secure by his virtues and strengthened by the English alliance spent nine years virtuously and peaceably and gave the People leave to breathe and rest after so much trouble and bloudshed His Brother Alexander sirnamed Acer or the fierce succeeded the beginning of whose Reign being disturbed by a Rebellion he speedily met them at the Spay which being a swift River and the Enemy on the other side he offered himself to foard on horse-back but Alexander Car taking the imployment from him foarded the River with such courage that the Enemy fled and were quiet The rest of his Reign some say he had the name of Acer for that some Conspiratours being by the fraud of Chamberlain admitted into his Chamber he casually waking first slew the Chamberlain and after six of the Conspiratours not ceasing to pursue the rest till he had slain most of them with his own hands this with the building of some Abbeys and seventeen years Reign is all we know of him His Brother David succeeded one whose profuse prodigality upon the Abbeys brought the revenew of the Crown so prevalent was the superstition of those dayes almost to nothing he had many battels with our Stephen about the title of Maud the Empresse and having lost his excellent wife and hopefull Sonne in the flower of their dayes he left the Kingdome to his Grandchildren the eldest whereof was David a simple King baffled and led up and down into France by our Henry the second which brought them to such contempt that he was vext by frequent Insurrections especially them of Murray whom he almost extirpated the latter part of his Reign was spent in building of Monasteries he himself tyed by a Vow of Chastity would never marry but left his Successor his brother William who expostulating for the Earldom of Northumberland gave occasion for a War in which he was surprized and taken but afterwards releast upon his doing Homage for the Kingdom of Scotland to King Henry of whom he acknowledged to hold it and puting in Caution the Castles of Roxborough once strong now nothing but ruins Barwick Edinburgh Sterling all which notwithstanding was after released by Richard Ceur de Lyon who was then upon an expedition to the Holy War from whence returning both he and David Earl of Huntington brother to the King of Scots were taken Prisoners the rest of his Reign saving the rebuilding of Saint Johnstone which had been destroyed by the waters whereby he lost his eldest Son and some Treaties with our King John was little worth the memory only you will wonder that a Scottish King could Reign fourty nine years and dye in peace Alexander his sonne succeeded famous for little save some Expeditions against our King John some Insurrections and a Reign two years
was memorable for nothing but his breaking with George Earl of March to whose daughter upon the payment of a great part of her portion which he never would repay he had promised his Son David for an husband to take the Daughter of Douglas who had a greater which occasioned the Earl of March to make many in-rodes with our Henry Hot-spur and a famous Duel of three hundred men a piece whereof of the one side ten remained and of the other one which was the onely way to appease the deadly Feuds of two Families The Inter-reign was governed by Robert who enjoying the power he had too much coveted little minded the libertie of his Nephew onely he sent some Auxiliaries into France who they say behaved themselves worthily and his slothfull Son Mordac who making his Sons so bold with indulgence that one of them kill'd a Faulcon on his fist which he denied to give him he in revenge procured the Parliament to ransom the King who had been eighteen years prisoner This James was the first of that Name and though he was an excellent Prince yet had a troublesom Reign first in regard of a great Pension raised for his Ransome next for Domestick Commotions and lastly for raising of money which though the Revenue was exhausted was called Covetousnesse which having offended Robert Graham he conspired with the Earl of Athol slew him in his Chamber his Wife receiving two wounds endeavouring to defend him This James left the second a boy of six years whose infancy by the mis-guidance of the Governour made a miserable People and betrayed the Earl Douglas to death and almost all that great Family to ruine but being supplanted by another Earl Douglas the King in his just age suffered minority under him who upon displeasure rebelled and was kill'd by the Kings own hand afterwards having his middle years perpetually molested with Civill broils yet going to assist the Duke of York against Henry the Sixth he was diverted by an English Gentleman that counterfeited himself a Nuncio which I mention out of a Manuscript because I do not remember it in our Stories and broke up his Army soon after besieging Roxburgh he was slain by the bursting of a Cannon in the twenty ninth year of his Age James the Third left a Boy of seven years governed by his Mothe afterwards the Boyds through the perswasions of Astrologers and Witches to whom he was strongly addicted he declined to Cruelty which so inraged the Nobility that headed by his son they conspired against him routing his Forces near Sterling wherein he flying to a Mill and asking for a Confessor a Priest came who told him that though he was no good Priest yet he was a good Leech and with that stabb'd him to the heart A Parliament approved his death and ordered Indemnities to all that had sought against him James the Fourth a Boy of fifteen years is made King Governed by the murtherers of his Father a prodigall vain-glorious Prince slain at Floddon Field or as some suppose at Kelsey by the Humes which as the Manuscript alledges seems more probability in regard that the Iron Belt a Ring to which he added every year which he wore in repentance for the death of his Father was never found and there were many the day of the Battell habited like him His Successor was his son James the Fifth of that Name a Boy of not above two years of age under whose minority what by the Mis-government of Tutors what by the factions of the Nobility Scotland was wasted almost into famine and solitude yet in his just age he proved an industrious Prince but could not so satisfie the Nobility but he and they continued in a mutuall hate till that barbarous execution of young Hamilton so fill'd him with remorse he dream-that Hamilton came and cut off his Arms and threatned after to cut off his Head and displeased the people that he could not make his Army fight with the English then in Scotland whereupon he dyed of grief having heard the death of his two sons who dyed at the instant of his Dream and leaving a Daughter of five dayes old whom he never saw This was that Mary under whose minority by the weaknesse of the Governour and ambition of the Cardinall the Kingdome felt all those woes that are threatned to them whose King is a Child Till at length the prevalency of the English Arms awakes for her Cause brought the great designe of sending her into France to perfection so at five years old she was tâ—ansported and at fifteen married to the Daulphin Francis after King whilest her mother daughter of the Guise in her Regency exercised all Rage against the Professours of the pure Religion then in the dawn who after two years left her a childlesse Widow so that at eighteen she returned into Scotland to succeed her Mother then newly dead in her exorbitoncies This young Couple in the transport of their Nuptiall solemnities took the Arms and Title of England which indiscreet Ambition we may suppose first quickned the jealousie of Elizabeth against her which after kindled so great a flame In Scotland she shewed what a strange influence loose education hath upon youth and that weaker Sex all the French effeminacies came over with her the Court lost that little severity which was left David Rize was the onely Favourite and it too much feared had those enjoyments which no woman can give but she that gives away her honour and chastity But a little after Henry Lord Darnly coming with Matthew Earl of Lenox his father into Scotland she cast an eye upon him and married him Whether it were to strengthen her pretension to England he being come of Henry the Sevenths Daughter as we shall tell anon or for to colour her Adulteries and hide the shame of an impregnation though some have whispered that she never conceived and that the son was supposititious or some Phrenzy of affection drew her that way certain it is she soon declined her affection to her husband and encreased it to David he being her perpetuall Companion at Board and managing all Affairs whilst the King with a contemptible train was sent away insomuch that some of the Nobility that could not digest this entred a Conspiracy which the king headed and slew him in her Chamber This turn'd all the neglect of her Husband into rage so that her chiefest businesse was to appease her Favorites Ghost with the slaughter of her Husband poyson was first attempted but it being it seems too weak or his youth overcoming it that expectation failed But the Devil and Bothwel furnish'd her with another that succeeded she intices him being so sick that they were forc'd to bring him in an horse-litter to Edenburgh where she cherisht him extreemly till the credulous young man began to lay aside suspition and hope better so she puts him in a ruinous House near the Palace from whence no news can be had brings in her
own bed and lyes in the House with him and at length when the Designe was ripe causes him one Sunday night with his servant to be strangled thrown out of the window and the House blown up with Gun-powder her own rich bed having been before secretly conveyed away This and other performances made her favour upon Bothwel so hot that she must marry him the onely obstacle was he had a Wife already but she was compell'd to sue for a Divorce which so great Persons being concern'd it was a wonder was in granting so long as ten dayes Well she marries but the more honest nobilitie amazed at those exorbitances gather together and with arms in hands begin to expostulate The new-married people are forc'd to make back Southwards where finding but slender assistances and the Queen foolishly coming from Dunbar to Leith was glad at last to delay a parley till her Dear was escaped and then clad in an old tottered coat to yield her self a prisoner Being brought to Edenburgh and used rather with hate of her former enormities then pity of her fortune she received a message that she must either resign the Crown to her son James that was born in the time of her marriage with Darnby or else they would proceed to another Election and was forc'd to obey So the Child then in his Cradle was acknowledged James the Sixth better known afterwards by the Title of Great Brittain The wretched mother flying after into England was entertained though with a Guard by Queen Elizabeth but after that being suborned by the Papists and exasperated by the Guizes she entered into plots and machinations so inconsistent with the safety of England that by an Act of Parliament she was condemned to death which she after received by an hatchet at Fothering-gay Castle The infancy of her son was attended with those Domestick evils that accompany minority of Kings In his youth he took to wife the Daughter of Denmark a woman I hear little of saving that Character Salust gives Sempronia she could saltare elegantius quam necesse est probae with whom he supposing the Earl Gowry too much in League caused him and his brother to be slain at their own House whither he was invited he giving out that they had an intent to murther him and that by miracle and the assistance of some men whom he had instructed for that purpose and taught their tale he escap'd For this Deliverance or to say better assasination he Blasphemed God with a solemne Thanksgiving once a year all the remainder of his life Happy had it been for us if our fore fathers had laid hold of that happy opportunity of Elizabeths death in which the Teuthors took a period to have performed that which perchance in due punishment hath cost us so much blood and sweat and not have bowed under the sway of a Stranger disdained by the most generous and wise at that time and onely supported by the Faction of some and sloth of others who brought but a slender title and however the assentation of the times cryed him up a Solomo weak commendations for such an advancement The Former stood thus Margaret eldest daughter to Henry the Seventh was married to James the Fourth whole Son James the Fifth had Mary the Mother of James the Sixth Margaret after her first Husbands death martyrs Archibald Douglas Earl of Angus who upon her begot Margaret wife of Matthew Earl of Lenox and Mother of that Henry Darnly whose Tragical end we just now mentioned Now upon this slender Title and our internal dissentions for the Cecilians and Essezians for several ends made perpetual applications got Jammy from a Revenew of 30000. li. to one of almost two Millions though there were others that had as fair pretences what else can any of them make the Statute of 25. Ed. 3 expresly excluding Forreigners from the Crown and so the Children of Charls Brandon by Mary the Second Daughter Dowager of France being next to come in And the Lady Arbella being sprung from a third Husband the Lord Stewart of the said Margaret and by a Male Lyne carried surely a formidable pretention it should seem that even that iniquitie which was personally inherent to her made her dayes very unhappy and most part captive and her death 't is thought somewhat too early so cruel are the Persecutions of cowardly minds even against the weakest and most unprotected innocence And indeed his right to the Crown was so satisfactorie even to the most judicious of those days that Tobie Matthew having a suit about some priviledges which he claimed to his Bishoprick which was then Durham wherein the King opposed him having one day stated the Case before some of his friends and they seeming to approve of it yes sayes he I could wish he had but half so good a Title to the Crown and 't is known that some speeches of Sir Walter Rawley too generous and English for the times was that which brought him to Trial and Condemnation for a feigned crime and afterwards so facilitated that barbarous design of Gundamar to cut of his head for a crime for which he was condemned fourteen years before and which by the Commissions he after received according to the opinion of the then Lord Chancellour and the greatest Lawyars was in Law pardoned This may besides our purpose but we could not sever this Consideration unless we would draw him with an half face and leave as much in umbrage as we expressed That which most solemnized his Person was first the consideration of his adhering to the Protestant Religion whereas we are to consider that those slieght velitations he had with Bellarmine and the Romanists tended rather to make his own Authoritie more intrinsecally intense and venerable then to confute any thing they said for he had before shakt them off as to Forreign Jurisdiction and for matter of Poperie it appeared in his latter time that he was no such enemie to it both by his own Compliances with the Spanish Ambassadours the design of the Spanish Match in which his Son was personally imbarkt and the slow assistances sent to his Daughter in whose safetie and protectiod Protestantism was at that time so much concerned For his knowledge he had some glancings and niblings which the severitie of the excellent Buchanan forc'd into him in his younger time and after conversatian somewhat polisht but though I bear not so great a contempt to his other works as Ben. Johnson did to his Poetrie yet if they among many others were a going to the fire they would not be one of the first I should rescue as possibly expecting more severe and refin'd judgement in many other And knowing that he that had so many able Wits at command might easily give their their Oracles through his mouth but suppose the things generous and fit to live as I am not yet convinced yet what commendations is this to a King who should have other ausinesse then spinning and