the Queen to Dispose of her self in Marriage till at length came an English Ambassador who declared That his Mistress did much admire that seeing both of them were equally Allied to her they should precipitate so great an Affair without acquainting her with it and therefore she earnestly desired that they would stay a while and weigh the thing somewhat more seriously to the great Benefit probably of both Kingdoms But this Embassy effected nothing so that Queen Elizabeth dispatched Sir Nicholas Throgmorton to tell the Earl of Lennox and his Son that they had a Convoy from her to return at a set day into England and that day was now past and therefore she commanded them to return which if they refused they were to be Banished and their Goods Confiscated But this Commination would not do neither but they persisted in their purpose and because the Queen of Scots would not be thought to Marry a private man she Creates Darnley Duke of Rothsay and Earl of Ross moreover the Predictions of Wizzardly Women in both Kingdoms did contribute much to hasten the Marriage who Prophesied That if it were Consummate before the end of July it foretold much future advantage to them both if not much Reproach and Ignominy which Predictions how true will appear by and by Besides there were Rumours spread abroad of the Death of the Queen of England and the day mentioned before which she should Die. This Marriage was no sooner Consummate and Proclaimed by an Herauld at Arms in Edenburg and elsewhere but the People began to murmur grievously and especially the absent Nobility stormed mightily at it and did not only rest there but take up Arms but having no good Correspondence one with another they were soon dissipated and supprest and in some time after a Convention of the Estates of the Kingdom was Indicted to be held that so the Goods of those who were Banished might be Confiscate their Names struck out of the Nobility and their Armorial Ensigns torn to pieces And the Queen was continually solicited by David Rizzio to cut off some of the Chief of the Faction and to have a Guard of Foreigners about her Person a project that is wont to be the beginning of all Tyranny and because they should be the more at David's Devotion they must consist of Italians his own Country-men but because this must not be done bare-faced they were to come in from Flanders by piece-meal one by one and at several times too which way of procedure was another step towards this Queen's Ruin But as David's Power and Authority with the Queen daily increased so the King grew into greater Contempt with her every day for as she had rashly precipitate in Consummating the Marriage so did she as soon repent of it and gave manifest Indications of her alienated Mind For as she had presently after the Celebration of the Marriage publickly proclaimed him King by an Herauld without the Consent of the States and that afterwards in all her Mandates till that time the King and Queens Names were exprest now she changed the Order keeping both Names in but setting her own down first At length the Queen to deprive her Husband of any opportunity to do Courtesies to any began to find fault with him that whilst he was busie in Hawking and Hunting many slight matters were acted unseasonably or else were wholly neglected and therefore it would do better that she should subcribe her Name for them both and by this means he might enjoy his Pleasure and yet no publick Business be retarded The poor King was willing to gratifie her in every thing and yielded to be dismist upon such frivolous Grounds that so being remote from tha Council and Privacy of publick Affairs the obligation for all Boons might redound to the Queen her self For these were her Thoughts that if her Husbands Favour could do no good Offices to any and his Displeasure were formidable to none he would by Degrees come to be contemned of all And further to increase the Indignity David was substituted with an Iron Seal to impress the Kings Name on Proclamations Being thus fraudulently Cosened out of Publick Business least he might also prove an interrupter of their private Pleasures he was dispatch'd away in a very sharp Winter to a place called Debly with a very small Retinue far beneath the Dignity of some private Persons for a Prey rather then for any Recreation At the same time fell such a quantity of Snow that the place which was not very plentiful at best and besides troubled with Thieves was enough to starve him who was bred always at Court and used to a Liberal Diet And he would have been in great hazards of wanting Necessaries had not the Bishop of Orkney casually came thither for he knowing the scarcity of the place brought with him some Wine and other Provisions for his use The Queen not Content to advance David and as 't were to shew him to the People from such an obscure Original on the account before-mentioned but she took Counsel another way how to Cloath him with Domestick Honour for whereas the Queen had for some Months past permitted more Company than usual to sit with her at Table that so David's place in the crowd might be less envyed She thought by this shew of Popularity to gain the point that the unaccustomedness of the â—ight might by the multitudes of guest and daily usage be somewhat alleviated and so mens high Spirits by degrees be innured to bear any thing But at last it went so far that none but he and one or two more fate at Meat with her and that the narrowness of the Room might detract something from the Envy of the thing she would sometimes Eat her Junkets in a little Parlour and sometimes also at David's Lodgings but the Methods she thus used to lessen did but increase the Reflections for this maintained Suspicions and administred occasions to add Discourses Now were Men's Thoughts let loose and they were influenced the more that David in Houshold-stuff Apparrel and number of brave and stately Horses exceeded even the King himself and it made the matter look the worse that all this Ornament did not credit his Face but that rather his Face spoiled all this Ornament But the Queen not being able to amend the fault of Nature endeavoured by heaping Riches and Honour upon him to raise him up to the Degree of the Nobles that so she might hide the meanness of his Birth and the imperfections of his Body too with the vail of his lofty Promotions but care must be had that he should be advanced by Degrees least he might seem to be but a poor mercenary Senator The first attempt was made upon the account of a piece of Land near the City of Edenburg called by the Scots Malvil The Owner of the Land together with his Father-in-Law and others that were best able to perswade him were sent for and the Queen dealt with
Henry VIIth's Daughter and lastly a Peace between both Kings during their Lives This Kings Reign is remarkable upon many accounts which being not the scope of this Treatise we designedly omit But one passage I meet with in Lesley's History of this Kingdom which for the rarity of it I cannot omit and hope the Reader will not think it an Impertinent Digression About this time says the aforesaid Author The King to tell you a business that to this day is remembred with great Laughter among the Roman people created a certain Italian with whose Wit and Pleasant Conversation he was much taken Abbot of Tungland This man thinking to magnifie his own parts did on a certain time perswade the King that he was so well skilled in the Secrets of Nature and more especially in the noble Science of Chimistry that he could transmute any other Metal into Gold if the King would please to bear the Charges thereof But after much Time and Treasure spent and long Expectation of this Glorious Effect all proved Abortive and came to nothing so that the vain Braccadocio fell into great contempt both by the King and People which grieved him very sore so that he sets all his Wits on work how he might do somewhat that might regain his fame in the world and at the same recover the King's Favour At last he gave out a Report that he would by flying be in France before the Kings Ambassadors who were sent thither and were then actually under sail to pursue their Voyage and that this might not be all talk without any Performance he boldly appointed a Day and Place which was Sterling from whence to begin his flight the noise whereof brought you may be sure a great concourse of People together among whom was the King himself When the Time was come the man gets up to the Top of Sterling Castle and having fastned the Wings which he had made of the Feathers of several Fowls to his sides he lifts himself into the Air thinking to pursue his course But alas he came quickly down headlong to the ground his Wings availing him nothing whereupon the people who knew not whether they should rather Rebuke his Presumption or Pity his Misfortune flocked about him and asked him how he did he made Answer that he had broken his Thigh-bone and despaired of ever flying any more at which they all laughed their fill But this Icarus to salve the matter laid the fault of his flying wholly upon his Wings because they were not made of Eagles Feathers and the like but only of Poultry which were not fit to cut the Air with flight and which by a certain innate Virtue operating according to the Nature of those Fowl drew the Feathers downwards to the Dunghill where those Birds fed But to re-assume the Thread of our Story things continued in a tollerable state of Tranquillity till the death of Henry VII the King's Father-in-law but Henry VIII a young ambitious and active Prince had not long mounted the English Throne when he makes Preparations to recover his Right in the Kingdom of France The French King to fortifie himself as much as possible against the impending Storm requir'd Aid of the King of Scotland who by his Embassadors would have accommodated Matters and perswaded both Kings to a Peace But King Henry persisting in his Resolution the Scot won by French Promises of Money and Ammunition joyns with them in League against England and because the English Commissioners appointed to accommodate the Differences between both Nations about some Irregularities and Depredations committed upon the Borders would not come up to their Terms James takes this occasion to send Lyon King at Arms to King Henry by this time besieging Terwin with Letters of Complaints commanding him for want of satisfying the Contents of the said Letters to denounce War against England When Henry had read the Letters and advised with his Council thereupon he told the Herauld he would make him answer If he would promise faithfully to declare the same to his Master Lyon replied Whatever his Master commanded him to say to others that he was obliged to do and would but for the Commands of others to his Master therein he desired to be excused but added your Highness Letters that declare your Pleasure I am willing to carry tho' your Answer requires doing and not saying I mean that you should immediately return home The King sharply retorted I 'll return at my own Pleasure to your Damage and not at thy Master's Summons and so delivers him a Letter to carry to his Master importing he had receiv'd his Full of frivolous Complaints which had been sufficiently answer'd before sharply sets forth the baseness of the Scotch Nation but says at the same time it was always their Ancestors custom to invade his Dominions in his absence which they never offered nor durst do while he was within the Land but however that he had taken caution for his security and would not desist from his present enterprize which the Scotch King had nothing to do with as being no Competent Judge for so the words are of so high Authority to require him in that behalf c. But before the Herault arrived and the Letters could be delivered King James had precipitated his own fall at Floddenfield For having dispatched Commissions for the raising of Forces he determines to put himself at the head of them before they were fully Compleated but first goes to a place called Limuch and there heard even Song as they called it where after he had entred the Chappel came an old man to him whose hair was somewhat of a yellow red hanging down over his Shouldiers his Forehead high with Baldness bare Headed clad in a Blewish Garment with a white Girdle and had a very Reverend Countenance and said King I am sent to admonish thee that thou go not forward to the place which thou hast determined which warning if thou dost despise it shall succeed ill with thee and all such as shall attend thee Further I am Commanded to give thee Intelligence before-hand that thou eschew the familiarity and Custom or Counsell of Women if thou do otherwise it shall tend to thy Dishonour and Hurt And when he had so said he mingled himself with other Company and when Prayers were over and that the K. sought for him he could by no means be found for he was never seen after the delivery of this Message which seemed the more strange because that many who stood near him and observing all he said and intent to hear more from him could not perceive his departure of which Number David Linsey a Person of known Virtue and approved Reputation was one who told me the same saith Buchanan of a most certain truth or else I would have past it over for a Fable handed down to us by Common Fame But no premonitions from Heaven nor Advises upon Earth could divert the Career of this willfull Prince
but on he goes towards Edenburg and there takes a review of his Army and hastily marches towards the English Borders takes in several lesser places and Ravages the nighest parts of Northumberland In the mean time the King quite contrary to the premonition aforesaid being ensnared with the Beauty of a Noble Captive she was Hern's Wife of Ford neglected Military Discipline and his Army lying idle and in a Barren Country where Provisions were very scarce a great part of them in dâ—scontent disband and forsake the Service so that there were none but the Nobles with their Kindred and a few Tenants that staid behind For the greater part were of opinion they should not tarry any longer in a Country that was so Poor and withal Plundered but rather to Besiege Berwick which they had left behind them since the taking thereof alone would be much more Honourable and advantagious than all the adjacent Garrisons and that the taking thereof would not be difficult seeing the Town and Castle were unprovided to make any considerable resistance The King who supposed there was nothing too hard for his Arms especially now the English were imployed in the French Wars and being buoy'd up by the flattery of his Courtiers judged he could do that easily in his return but while he lay loitering at Ford came an English Herauld into his Camp requiring him to appoint a day and place where both Armies might give Battle whereupon the King calls a Councell of War wherein the greatest part were of opinion that it was most advisable they should return home least they might with so small a Force hazard the State of the whole Country especially seeing they had already obtained sufficient Renown Glory and Riches and fully satisfied the League of Friendship made with the French neither could there be any appearance of reason that they who were now so much diminished in their number and so weakned with the Fatigues they had undergone should now be exposed to so great a multitude of English daily increasing with Re-inforcements for it was Rumored then that the Lord Thomas Howard was arrived in the English Camp with Six Thousand old Soldiers from before Turwin And for the further inforcing hereof it was moreover added That if the King did depart the English Army must necessarily seperate and could not be drawn together that Year again as being to march from the remotest Parts of the Kingdom But and if the King must needs fight that then it were more advisable he should do it in his own Kingdom keeping the appointment both of the Time and Place always in his own Power But when the French Ambassador and such Mercenary Courtiers as took French Pensions opposed these Arguments the King who was eager for Battle and to hasten his own Ruin was easily perswaded to wait for the Enemy in that Place In the mean time when the English did not advance and engage at the day appointed by the Herault the Scotch Nobility laid hold of the opportunity afresh to go to the King before whom they laid the matter home again Alledging That the reason why they declined Battle was an Artifice of the Enemy only to gain time 'till all their Forces were come together while the Scotch dwindled away more and more and therefore it was high time they should have recourse to the like Pollicy and since the Enemy failed of their word it was no ways disgracefull to the Scots either to return into their own Country without giving them Battle or to Fight within their own Limits of which Councel the first was infallibly the best but if that were not approved off there was abundant reason for to execute the latter for seeing that the River Till was not foardable for some Miles space and could not be past by the Army but by one Bridge there a few might be able to resist a great multitude besides if part of the English Army were past the Bridge the same might easily be broken by Engines conveniently placed for that purpose so as to obstruct the passage of the rest to relieve them who of necessity must be cut to peices But so was the King taken with his own Conceit that you had as good have talked to a dead Man as to him upon this head And therefore he slightingly said That if the English Army were an Hundred Thousand strong he would Fight them With which rash Answer the Nobility were very much displeased Whereupon Archibald Dowglass Earl of Angus a Man that far excelled the rest of the Nobles both in Years and Authority endeavoured in a gentle Oration to alter the King's Resolutions enlarges upon and shews the reasonableness and advantage of the former Counsells given him by the Nobility for he made it appear that the King had been punctual in the League with France and gratified their Request in that he had now turned the English Arms before bent against the French against himself and against his own Country and had so ordered his own Affairs that those great Armies should neither injure France nor endamage Scotland seeing they were not long able to keep the field in those cold Countries and a Barren Soyl Unfurnished of necessaries for the support of Life through the Calamy of the late Wars and which at best produced but little Corn but Winter was drawing near which in those Northern parts was felt betimes And continued the Earl as for the French Ambassadors urging of us to come to a Battle I cannot think that should be looked upon as either new or strange by us that a Foreigner who hath no respect to the publick good of this Kingdom but to the private interest of his own Nation should be so lavish of other Mens blood And besides his Request is unreasonable and impudent for he would have the Scots do that which the French King a Person of the highest Prudence thinks not fit to do for his own Kingdom and Honour neither should the miscarriage of this Army be looked upon by him as a small loss because they were not so numerous for all those are here who excell either in Virtue Authority and Counsell and if these be once lost the surviving Commonalty will become an easy prey to the Conquerors What is it not at present safer and withal more profitable to protract the War For if Lewis thinks that the English can either be exhausted by Expences or wearied with delay what can be better as to the present State of things than for us to enforce the Enemy to divide their Forces that we may keep one part of their Army to watch and look after our motion making a continual shew of our readiness to make Incursions and by putting of them under a constant apprehension thereof ease the burden of the French by our Labour and Vigilancy and I think those men who I fear are more Valiant in Words than in Actions have sufficiently Consulted for their Glory and Renown under which names they would
the present Possessor to part with his Inheritance and she desired his Father-in-Law and Friends to perswade him to it But this matter not meeting with the desired success the Queen took the repulse as a great Affront to her and which was worse David took it very hainously also These things being known abroad the Commonalty began to bewail the sad state of Affairs and expected that things would grow worse if Men eminent for their Families Estates and Credit should be outed of their ancient Patrimony to gratifie the Lust of a beggerly Varlet Yea many of the Elder sort called to mind and told others of the time when Cockburn wickedly slew the Kings Brother and of a Stone-cutter was made Earl of Marr which raised up such a flame of a Civil War that could not be extinguished but by the Death of the King and almost the Destruction of the Kingdom These things were spoken openly but Men did privately mutter much worse yet the King would never be perswaded to believe it unless he saw it with his own Eyes so that one time hearing that David was gone into the Queen's Bed-Chamber he came to a little Door of which he always carried the Key about him and found it Bolted on the inside which it never used to be whereupon he knocked but no body answered and so he was forced to go his ways but conceived great Wrath and Indignation in his Heart that he could not sleep that Night From that time forward he consulted with some of his Servants for he durst trust but a very few many of them having been corrupted by the Queen and put upon him rather as Spies over his Actions than Attendants upon his Person how to rid David out of the way His design they approved of but to find out a probable way to effect it was the difficulty When that Consultation had been managed for some days others of his Servants who were not privy to the Design suspecting the matter and there being evident signs of it went and acquainted the Queen therewith and withall told her that they would bring her to the place where they were and they were as good as their words For to that end they observed and watcht the opportunity when others were shut out and the King had only his Confidents about him and ordered it so that the Queen as if passing through his Chamber to her own surprized him with her Partizans whereupon she inveighed bitterly against him and highly threatned his Domesticks telling them all their Plots were in vain for she knew all their Minds and Actions and would remedy them well enough in due time Things being brought to this desperate pass the King thought fit to acquaint his Father the Earl of Lennox with his sad Condition and after some Conference they both concluded that the only remedy for the present Malady was to reconcile that part of the Nobility which were present and to recal those that were absent But great expedition was required in the thing because the day was near at hand wherein the Queen had resolved to Condemn the Nobles that were absent having appointed a Convention of the States for that purpose against the Wills of the English and French Ambassadors who interceeded in the case for they well knew that the accused had not committed such heinous Offences and besides foresaw the danger that would ensue thereupon About the same time did Queen Elizabeth send her a very obliging and long Letter full of good Advice in reference to the present State of her Kingdom and endeavouring to reduce her from a wrathful to a reconcileable Temper The Queen coming to understand that the Nobility knew that such Letters were come and that they guessed at the Contents of them she counterfeited a civiller respect to them than ordinary and began to read the Letters in the presence of many of them But when she was got about the middle David stood up and bid her Read no more she had read enough she should stop which strange carriage of his seemed to them rather Arrogant than New for they knew how imperiously he had carried it towards her heretofore yea and sometimes how he would reprove her more sharply than ever her own Husband durst do At that time the Cause of the Banished Lords was hotly agitated in the Parliament House some to gratifie the Queen's Humour would have the punishment due to Traytors past upon them others stiffly contended that they had done nothing worthy to be so severely used But David in the mean time went about to all of them one by one to feel their Pulses what every Man's Vote would be concerning the Exiles if he was chosen President by the rest of the Convention And he told them plainly the Queen was resolved to have them Condemned that it was in vain for any of them to struggle against it and besides who ever did should be sure to incuâ— the Queen's Displeasure thereby His aim herein was partly to confound the weaker Minds betwixt hope and fear and partly to exclude the most resolute out of the number of the Judges Select or Lords of the Articles or at least that the major part might be of such a Gizzard as to please the Queen and this audacious procedure and wickedness in so mean a Fellow was feared by some and hated by all Whereupon the King by his Father's Advice sent to James Douglas and Patrick Lindsey his Kinsmen the one by the Father and the other by the Mothers side who advise with Patrick Ruven an able man both for Advice and Execution but he was brought so low with long Sickness that for some months he could not get out of his Bed However they were willing to trust him amongst some few more in a matter of so great a Concernment both by reason of his great Prudence as also because his Children were Cousin-Germans to the King But here the King was told by them what a great Error he had committed before in suffering his Kinsmen and Friends to be driven from Court in favour of such a base Rascal as Rizzio yea that he himself did in effect thrust them out of the Court with his own Hands and so had advanced such a contemptible Mushroom so as that now he himself was abashed and despised of him They had also much other discourse concerning the State of the publick and the King was quickly brought to acknowledge his Fault and to promise to act nothing for the future without the Consent of the Nobility But those wise and experienc'd Counsellors thought it not safe to trust the verbal promises of an uxorious young man as believing that he might be prevailed upon in time by his Wife to deny this Capitulation to their certain Ruin and therefore they thought it adviseable to draw up the Heads of their Agreement in Writing to which he willingly and forwardly subscribed The substance whereof was That Religion should be established as it was provided for
the King of England stick most to the heart of this Court which may at last turn to a mortal Convulsion which none can be more desirous to see than My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most Obedient Servanâ— Paris June 10. 1689. N. S. LETTER IV. Of Cardinal d' Este his solliciting the Pope for Money for the late King James and his proposing a Croisade for the restoration of him to his Throne again My Lord I Have in my last endeavoured to give your Lordship the Sence and Resolution of this Court concerning the present posture of Affairs and mighty Efforts are made for the support of the late King's Interest who is as you well know now in Ireland both here and at Rome too by the Agency of this Court and least the Differences that have been so long depending between both Courts should any ways obstruct the Cause they have at length laid the foundation of an accommodation and the great motive to press it on is taken from the miserable condition of the late King's Affairs and that his Holiness could not but know that the main of the Catholicks hopes resting in the most Christian King for the redressing of them those very hopes would also vanish if his Holiness still obstinately persisted to refuse an accommodation with him The Cardinal d' Este the late Queen's Unkle is the person pitched upon to manage this Negotiation whose further instructions are to sollicite the Pope for some present supply of Money for his Nephew and not only so but to propose to the Old Father the publishing a Crolsade for the restoration of him to his Kingdoms But finding this did not relish well with the Old Dad his Eminency confin'd himself to a request that his Holiness would exhort the Emperor King of Spain and other Catholick Princes to it and mediate an accommodation between them for the more effectual carrying on the same But this is but Thunder afar off and will never endammage the Brittish Isles I heartily wish you may be as secure from intestine commotions and machinations there is nothing more talked of here and I have some reason to fear some measures have been conserted here for the fermenting of that inquietude which has possest too many amonst you upon this change of Government your Lordship will pardon me since I write with the same freedom and sincerity as formerly and remain My Lord Your Constant and most faithful Servant Paris June 17. 1689. N. S. LETTER V. Of the Queen of Spains Death the formal Story made in France of her being Poisoned and a Marriage feared between his Catholick Majesty and the Infanta of Portugal My Lord NOW things are come to an open Rupture and hostility between the two Crowns of Spain and France some account of which I have already transmitted to your Lordship you cannot conceive how violently they vend their Spite and Malice against the Spanish Court and more especially take occasion to renew publickly the discourse which was at first scarce whispered of the Queen of Spains being poisoned in which they pretend to interest themselves very much as she was a Daughter of France and say that she being secretly admonished in the midst of all the troubles that befell her to take care of her self found out a way to dispatch a Frenchman that was then in Spain to her Father the Duke of Orleans and to desire him to send her some treacle by the most cunning Courtier that was in the Kingdom that thereupon the Duke who had a most tender Love and Affection for the Queen his Daughter being deeply concerned at the News which portended his approaching Misfortune had discovered what had happened to the King who at the same time took care to send away what the Queen desir'd But that by the time that the Courier was arrived at the City of Burgos he met there with another who told him that he was carrying the News of the Queen's Death To which particulars are superadded these circumstances of her Sickness that being suddenly taken with a Vomitting she should say as formerly the deceased Madam her Mother of whose Death I have to the best of my remembrance formerly given your Lordship some account after she had drank the Glass of Succory Water to which she atttributed her Death That she was poisoned That her Vomitting was attended with most violent Convulsions which being reported to the Count de Rebenac â—enquires the French Embassador then at the Spanish Court he went to give the Queen a Visit but that When he came there entrance into her Chamber was denied him under a pretence that it was not the custom in Spain for Men to visit Women neither in Health nor Sickness That thereupon he became very importunate for Entrance urging that he came not to see her as Queen of Spain but as she was a Daughter of France and the King his Masters Niece They further add that this contest continued and was spun out to a long time under pretence of knowing the King's Pleasure and that at length after long attendance the Door was open'd to him but yet at such a time when the Queen was so very ill that she could not speak one word That she dyed within a short while after one Convulsion succeeding another till she gave up the Ghost That besides all these concurring circumstances the designs formed last Year by the Council of Spain to have his Catholick Majesty divorced from her and their applications to the Pope for that purpose under the pretended Allegations that the French before they parted with her had used all Aritifices of the Devil to prevent her having of Children but not being able to lay convincing proofs before him of the matter they had put off that project these things they say gave no small umbrage to some Clandestine practices against her life to say nothing of the project at the same time to get the â—nfanta of Portugal married to him and thereby lay a Ground-plot for the uniting of Portugal once more to Spain c. But my Lord whatever surmizes they have had of such a design then its certain there is nothing they are more apprehensive of at this time than such a Conjunction which must inevitably add one Kingdom more to the number of the Confederates and against them and all Engins are on work to divert the success of it I hope the King of England and his Allies are sensible of this and will take care to countermine the Enemy in time which are the hearty wishes of My Lord Your Lordships to serve and Command whilst Paris July 2d 1689. N. S. LETTER VI Of some secret Designs hatching against the Establisht Government in England My Lord IT is not long since I gave your Lordship a hint of the apprehensions I had of some evil Designs formed against the Established Government and I am so far from lessening the same that I grow more and more jealous of their progress day by
day Not that I am able to Name either Person or Place or positive design to your Lordship but sure I am there is a Snake in the Grass and perhaps it will be found some of those from whom was expected most Service and Fidellity will be found to act a counterpart However it be I can assure you that Barillon late Embassador in England from this Crown though he has been forced to quit the Brittish Isle ignominiously enough yet he hath found out a way to leave two if not three Frenchmen of his Train behind to no good end to be sure and I do not question but you will hear more of them without they be secured in time And though it does plainly appear both by the countenance and minutes of this Court that things do not go so trim and glibly with them in England as in former times when they had no more to do than to consult those infallible Oracles the Dutches of Portsmouth and Goodman Peters yet I do not question but it will appear that their Oracles are not quite silenced there I beg your Lordship to pardon this freedom and to entertain a favourable opinion of the sincere intentions of My Lord Your Honours to Serue and Obey Paris June 25. 1689. N. S. LETTER VII A Summary of the Articles concluded on the French King's part for restoring of the Late King James to his lost Dominions My Lord I Can't forbear taking notice to your Lordship tho' I have done it once and again already of the great difficulties I labour under to procure any true and certain intelligence of matters transacted on our side in reference to the Affairs of England And I can as little forbear endeavouring to communicate whatever such intelligence comes into my Hands to your Honour though it be accompanied with such imminent danger as you cannot but be a little sensible off and which I heartily wish none of my Friends may ever have the black apprehensions of how much more your Lordship whom I ever have and shall Love and Honour Wherefore be pleased to receive hereby the heads of those Articles agreed and concluded on the French King's part for the furthering the late King James in the recovery of his abdicated Throne and they are these following First He doth Solemnly promise and engage to assist and promote the late King his dear Brother in his Pretensions with Men Money and all possible force both by Sea and Land and firmly resolves never to lay down his Arms or be at Peace with his Enemies till such time as his said Brother shall be remounted on the English Throne and be peaceable possessor of the same Secondly That till such time as the foresaid Article should be put in full Execution and thoroughly accomplished he hath obliged himself to support him the late King and all his other dependants in his Kingdom of France or elsewhere with all suitable grandeur and dignity Thirdly That he should with utmost expedition and application assist him with a competent number of Forces by Land and a sufficient Navy by Sea towards the reducing under his Obedience the hostile part of the Kingdom of Ireland and not desist till the same were entirely recovered unto him And after that it were so reduced and subjected by their conjoint Arms the late King should be in possession of it till such time as he shall be in full possession of the English Throne but no longer But how to unravel the later Clause of this Article at present is beyond my skill and so I will leave it Fourthly He hath also over and above the preceding Engagements promised to give him all the assistances necessary from time to time both by Sea and Land for the recovery of England and Scotland unto him when he shall arrive in one or either of the said Kingdoms in Person and in the mean time hath engaged to be aiding and assisting to his party in either of the two Nations as time and occasion should serve My Lord I do question but you would be highly satisfyed to have a view of the Stipulations on the late King's part to his Gallick Majesty and I hope your Lordship has Entertained such an Opinion of me as to think my satisfaction can be no less in being able to gratify your Honours Curiosity upon this head which I shall not fail to endeavour to do and heartily wish an accomplishment of in my next who am My Lord With all due Observance Your Honours most Obedient and Devoted Ser. St. Germ. July 31. 1689. N. S. LETTER VIII Articles stipulated on King James's his part for the giving up Ireland c. to the French upon his recovery of England and Scotland My Lord THat your Lordship has safely received my last I have had some intimations of by my friend from I earnestly wish for the like success to this and your speedy receipt of it seeing it hath so luckily fallen out with me that the purport of it contains what I cannot but flatter my self will redound much to your Honours satisfaction I mean the Articles stipulated on the late King's part to the French King of which I gave an hint in my last though I could not then as much as hope with any tollerable confidence of being so soon able to procure them First then The late King hath agreed in consideration of the French King's assistances as mentioned in my last and as soon as he shall be restored and fully resetled in his Dominions and not before that he may not give any umbrage to the English to quit all manner of claim to the Title or Arms of France and take effectual care to put the same out of the Royal English Escutcheon Secondly That he shall entirely quit and resign up the soveraignty of the narrow Seas to the French and that to that purpose he shall give orders to his Ships of War c. to strike to the French Flags Thirdly That he shall be obliged to assist him the French King with thirty Capital Ships of War and Twenty Thousand Land-men in any War when he shall have occasion for them and this at his own proper cost and charges Fourthly That he shall make or enter into no allyance against France nor to any other without the French King's Privity and Consent but unfeignedly observe a perpetual League both Offensive and Defensive with the Crown of France Fifthly That he shall permit unto the French King at all times and occasions the free use of all his Ports for the retreat of his Ships and be obliged to furnish him then and there with proper Conveniences and able Workmen to repair his endamaged Ships or to build new ones when soever he shall require it Sixthly That he shall admit into his standing forces whose number and strength shall from time to time be limitted and regulated by him in concert with the French King a constant Body of Twenty Thousand French and Ten Thousand Catholick Switzers or more or
less of them in proportion to the Troops of his own Subjects and this after his full re-settlement on the Throne And not only so but shall deliver up Dover Castle Plymouth and Portsmouth to be Garrisoned by French Soldiers as cautionary Towns for the security of performance Seventhly That in regard of the Situation of the Irish Ports and their conveniency for the French Fleets as also in consideration of the agreement of the Irish with the People of France in Religion He shall after his full restoration to the English and Scotch Kingdoms be obliged to give Ireland to the French King in full compensation of all the Moneys he has already expended or shall expend further in his Quarrel and for vindicating of his right to his Dominions But that however because of the Scituation of the Islands of Sicily and Sardinia in the Mediteranean for the English Navigation and Trade into the Levant the sly Monsieur hath obliged himself to conquer those Kingdoms for the late King at his own Expence and with his own Arms and to give them up entirely to him in lieu of his Kingdom of Ireland Eighthly That still towards the furthering a stricter Friendship and Allyance between the two Nations of England and France and for perpetuating a mutual amity and sincere Correspondence If in case by the Violent or Natural Death either of King William or Prince George of Denmark or both of them one or both of the Princesses Royal shall become Widdows and that their Persons can be seized That then they shall be convey'd with all expedition and secrecy into France and be put into the French King's Power and shall there be Married Nolens Volens to such Prince or Princes as he shall appoint or think fit for them Ninthly That the Eldest or Surviving Issue of such Marriage shall succeed to the Crowns of Ireland and Scotland and England only to remain to the pretended Prince of Wales with the American Plantations Thus My Lord I have now given you the Stipulations so much desired by you I 'le leave your Lordship to descant and make such use of them as your known Wisdom and Ability shall direct for the good of the King and Country and shall reserve some further things which I cannot conveniently Write now and which relate to this subject to another opportunity and in the mean time I am and ever shall remain My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and Faithful Servant Paris Aug. 19. 1689. N. S. LETTER IX Some Reflections upon King James's League with the French King with an account of some further terms agreed upon between them in relation to the English Protestants in Ireland My Lord THis Court is mighty uppish upon the success of the late King James or I may more truly say their own in Ireland which if totally reduced by their conjoint Arms is to be one day their own as appears by the seventh Article stipulated between the two Kings and of which I gave your Lordship an account in my last And 't is not doubted but the Count d' Avaux hath already taken Livery and seisin of it privately in his Majesty's Name And that it is really so I am not only assured of by the said Articles but the same is more then probable by the great care and exactness that is had at Brest and other Ports of the Ocean to keep an account of all the Cloaths Arms Ammunition and Provisions that are shipped off there for Ireland and which according to some of the accounts stated and transmitted hither somewhat whereof I have had the opportunity to have a slight view of are set down at such extravagant rates as if they designed in a short time not only to ballance the account with him for Ireland but to make him considerably their Debter over and above for the carrying on another Game But they may chance to reckon without their Host in this as well as all the rest I pray God keep King William and his Royal Consort and may she and her Royal Sister be never so unhappy as to fall into the French power as your Lordship sees has been again conserted by the Ninth and last Article If ever it should so happen which God of his Mercy avert and that any such Match or Matches shall come to pass and issue come thereof my Friend hath secretly whispered me That then the pretended Prince of Wales is not like to be long liv'd But I still trust all these towering hopes of our Enemies will evaporate into Smoak and that their designs shall have as little Effect upon the lives and fortunes of our true Princes as their contrivances against the Religion and property of their Subjects shall become abortive and fruitless and whom they have agreed upon to treat in the following manner First That all possessors of Lands in Ireland that are of the Protestant Religion and will not turn Papists shall be bound to sell their Estates at a set price to the French King who shall let them out to the old Irish proprietors at certain Quit-rents and services that shall in a reasonable time reimburse him of the purchase Money Secondly But still to shew their good Nature and Lenity it s agreed that all Protestants that will shall have leave freely to depart with their Effects whither soever they please And lastly That such as will stay shall have liberty of Conscience granted them for the space of Twenty Years till the Country shall be fuller stockt with French Catholicks and other Papists I am well satisfied your Lordship will not think these Machinations a matter of nothing but as a good Patriot which you have shewed your self to be in the most Arbitrary times will stir up your self and honest Countrymen to obviate them seasonably which I as heartily wish as I have little reason to doubt it who am My Lord Your faithful and most Obedient Servant Paris Octo. 27. 1689. N. S. LETTER X. Of King James's Army in Ireland and Duke Schomberg's with Cardinal Bouillon's Motion for a Contribution for the support of the former My Lord THE raising of the Siege of London-derry and the landing of the English Army without interruption in Ireland under Duke Schomherg with other successes and advantages are so far from discouraging this Court in their hopes of a speedy conquest of that Kingdom that they have already in the Cabinet vaunted it to be as good as their own and that perhaps they need not stay for another Campaign to re-establish the late King upon the Throne of England and put themselves in an entire possession of the other Kingdom according to the full extent and meaning of the Stipulated Articles which I have formerly transmitted to your Lordship But because Money here is very hard to come by in such a proportion as to answer those vast Expences they are at to carry on the War upon the Continent which must be got at any rate they have resolved to carry on the Irish
so taken up continually with the one or the other of them that he has of late neglected his ordinary Recreations and Divertisements I am confident there is a grand design formed against England and I have had no obscure intimation of it though I cannot possibly penetrate into any one distinct particular I heartily wish there may be as much precaution used on your side to ward off the blow But while matters are thus secretly agitated in the Cabinet the noise of Monsieur Tourville's disgrace is with great industry bandied about both in City and Country and nothing omitted to let the Confederates also come to the knowledge of it which perhaps may carry as great a Mystery in the Womb of it as the rest Some attribute it to one thing some to another many stick not to say it arises from his holding some sort of Correspondence with the Enemy others that some latent Maligner of his advancement has done him some ill Office at Court I heartily wish for the Confederates sake France had occasion to shift her Admirals often But believe me my Lord these are meer illusions and amusements and the French King knows his interest better than to lay aside at such a juncture as this the most understanding Sea-Officer he has in his Kingdom and you will find he will command a more formidable Fleet next Summer than ever yet he has done It s whispered also as if the Swede had been won to the French Interest and that besides the divertion he will give to the Confederates in Pomerania he will send a squadron of ships to join those of this Crown early in the Year which the Confederates ought to be as sedulous to prevent as they are to watch the motions of the Grand Duke of Tuscany to whom its commonly reported there have been proposals made of a match to be made between the Dauphin and the Princess of Tuscany in hopes by means of that Allyance to oblige him as being the most potent Prince of Italy to declare for the Crown of France or at least to perswade the Duke of Savoy to an accommodation But yet my Lord if my intelligence fail not they have much more reason to fear such a match struck up with the Infanta of Portugal as giving a fair prospect to far greater future advantages then any solid present ones that might reasonably be expected from that other Allyance with the grand Duke more especially since the Dauphine will have in her right not only a particular pretention to the Crown of the King her Father but also a very plausible one to the Kingdom of Spain and so an advantage may be made of both at the same time I wish the Spaniards were as jealous of this match as they are of their Wifes then there may be some hopes of frustrating the same Your Lordship knows how far the knowledge of these things may be useful to the present Constitution and so I refer them entirely to your consideration and management who am My Lord Your most Humble and entirely devoted Serv. Versailles Nov. 7. 1690. N. S. POSTSCRIPT This Letter I have been forced to keep by me for some days for want c. but it gives me the opportunity to acquaint you that there is advice that the Infanta of Portugal is dead which quite puts an end to the Negotiation above mentioned and may ease the Confederates of their cares to obviate it but the malignity of this Court will not suffer some of them and particularly the House of Austria to go untraduced when 't is already given out aloud that the life of that Princess was cut short to secure the Crown to the Successors devoted to the House of Austria I am My Lord Your Humble Servant LETTER XVIII Reports in France of a design formed in Spain to give up the Netherlands to some Forreign Prince c. My Lord THis Court is not a little Allarmed or at least seem to be so at the late advises from Spain of some proposals made there in the Council of State that seeing the defence of the Spanish Netherlands costs much more than the Revenue thereof amounts to that they should be surrendred over to some Prince or other who would undertake their defence doing only homage to the King of Spain It s not unknown to your Lordship how about Eight Years ago they had some thoughts of surrendring them to the Duke of Bavaria and nothing more certain than that this Court broke then the neck of that design But though the Dukes apprehensions at that time of engaging himself by such a procedure in a War with France was the reason the business went no further yet that can be no obstacle now he is actually engaged in the Confederacy against France But how disgustful soever this proposal is to the Ministers here that other motion in the same Council to leave those provinces to their own management with permission to change themselves into a Republick and provide for their own safety as they should think most expedient is much more dreaded by them as foreseeing such a form of Government might according to the example of the Switz Cantons though of different principles in Religion so league themselves with the States General as for ever after to prove a Wall of Brass against all the attempts of this Crown But while these and other matters are slowly deliberated it s well if some part of these Provinces be not filched away by the Arms of France In the mean time I can assure your Lordship there are vast Preparations made and some very grand Enterprize at hand on that side and some considerable Pass may be seiz'd without the Confederates are as forward and vigilant to defend as the French Arms are to Attack which I am sure is not believed at this juncture I am as heartily sorry I cannot be more particular in my information as I am always forward to transmit all that I think any ways worthy to be known and desirous to approve my self My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most Obedient Serv. Versailles Feb. 7. 1691. N. S. LETTER XIX Of the City of Mons besieged by the Arms of France and the reason why King James was not there My Lord YOur Lordship cannot now but see the Effects of part of what I have writ to you in my last the close consultations and vast Preparations that were made were not for nothing I am not well informed I confess of what Preparations the Confederates have made to obviate the enterprize in hand but I can assure your Lordship they have a very poor opinion of them here and they as little question the speedy reducing of Mons under the Obedience of the Crown of France as they do the safe return of their King laden with Trophies for the taking of it But many People are not a little surprized to see that while the King and all the Princes of the Blood expose themselves to the Hazards and Toils
of War That the late King whom some have so much cried up for a Lover of Military Glory has no Share therein But his Admirers have found out as they think a very plausible Pretence for his Absence Because it is not known in what Quality he would have appeared in the Field But the Truth is my Lord they have no great Opinion of his Valour and Conduct and he has succeeded so very ill in his own Concerns and Undertakings that they are very much afraid his Presence should infuse some malignant Influence into the French King's Designs And whatever Veneration those now in England of his Interest and from thence denominated according to his Name may have for him there is hardly a Day passes here wherein some Satyrical Piece or other does not appear against him far enough from sparing Personal Reflections But this will make the Confederates in general but small Amends for the Loss of Mons However I could not but once take notice of it to your Lordship desiring you to believe how ready I am to the utmost of my Intelligence My Lord To Serve and Obey you whilst Paris April 18. 1691. N. S. LETTER XX. Of the Raising of the Siege of Coni and of the Death of that Grand Minister of State to the French King the Marquis of Louvois and also of Monsieur Barillon's once the French King's Ambassador in England My Lord THE general Affairs of the War are so publick that your Lordship cannot but come to the Knowledge of such Transactions as fall out from Time to Time as soon as any other in the Kingdom and they are such at this Juncture as sufficiently perplex this Court especially so far as they regard Italy and Savoy in particular from whence they have just received the bad News of the raising the Seige of Coni which is yet but whispered amongst them But your Lordship may so far rely upon my Intelligence in this particular as confidently to report it in England of which News I question not your giving hereby the first Intelligence But though this ill Success is so much the more mortifying to this Court in that they fully reckoned upon the Taking of the Place seeing all others that had hitherto been besieged by their Arms on that side have made little or on Resistance and that they own themselves they have lost before it Eighteen Hundred of the best of their Men Yet another Accident has my Lord this very Day happened here which at present seems more surprizing and a greater Subject of Discourse than the other and that is the Death of our Grand Minister of State the Marquess de Louvois Your Lordship knows what Relation I have stood to him in and what Word I sent you once by Major H if there was a Possibility of his seeing you of my then Circumstances upon the same Foot Things being still much the same I shall not further trouble you with a vain Repetition of what I am now well assured the said Major has reported to your Honour but observe That the Marquess having dined with the Princess d'Espenoy and Madam de Soubize he found himself presently after ill in the King's Chamber from whence he retired into his own to be Let Blood but not finding any Ease by Bleeding in one Arm and being extreamly oppressed in his Spirits nothing would content him but he must needs be Let Blood in the other and thereupon died at the same time These my Lord are the naked Circumstances of this Great Man's Departure and you may relie upon it though I do not question but many may be apt to ascribe his Death to some extraordinary and violent Cause since I have even already heard a Whisper of it in a Corner But whatever Reflections the World may make upon the Causes of his Death I foresee there will be no less Animadversions upon the Train of Consequences that may attend it Perhaps many of the Confederates may be apt to believe that the Death of Monsieur de Louvois may produce such an Alteration of Affairs here as may not a little contribute to the Advantage of theirs since much of the happy Success that has hitherto attended the King's Designs will be ascribed to the Address Cunning and Policy of this Minister and that the French Lilies will wither in another's hands I do very well know that such Suggestions carry a great Appearance of Truth in them But if I may freely deliver my Opinion to your Lordship from my own Observation and Experience I cannot but declare my self contrary to the aforesaid Sentiments which if any Ways relyed on will be found to prove but broken Reeds For believe me my Lord the French King has had a greater Share in the publick Transactions of his Kingdom than any of his Ministers for all the Time I have known France And no one understands his own Affairs and Interests as well as himself to say nothing of the Assistance of so many politick Persons and Men of great Abilities he has constantly about his Person and who serve him with more than ordinary Zeal and Affection which will sufficiently compensate for the Loss of one single Minister Your Honour cannot but be sensible why I observe this at the present Juncture such an Aery Advantage as this is like to prove can bring no solid benefit to my Country but a real Detriment will infallibly succeed a Dependance upon it But the Death of Monsieur Barillon which happened a few Hours before the other and who knew England better than any other French-man may I trust conduce more to the Tranquility of the Kingdom within which none more passionately desires to hear of than My Lord Your ever Obliged and Most Faithful Serv. Versailles July 16. 1691. N. S. LETTER XXI Of Monsieur Pompone's being made Minister of State And of some Particulars relating to a Peace said to be offered by France to the Confederates My Lord WHat I observed to your Lordship in my last how vain the Hopes of the Confederates were like to prove of any good Advantage to their Affairs by the Death of Monsieur de Louvois appears here daily more and more by divers Instances that might be given But I shall only confine my self to inform your Honour that the Advancement of Monsieur Pompone to be Prime Minister of State is a clear Demonstration of the Truth I have advanced as 't is of the King 's great Skill and Judgment also Though indeed it must be owned that this new Favourite enters upon his Ministry in a ticklish Juncture of Time yet for my own part I am fully satisfied Things are not so bad with France as the World would believe them to be and the following Proposals of Peace intended to be or as some say already offered to the Confederates would insinuate of which I communicate to your Lordship a Copy as I have received them from a Friend with some difficulty First That the Most Christian King will acknowledge
severe Account by an Armed Power from the King they chose one Mackdonald for their Captain who readily enough embraced the Command and shortly after routed some Troops sent against them under the Conduct of a Nobleman whom they took Prisoner and afterwards slew with which Success they were not a little elated and flushed Hereupon the King call'd a Council to consult what to do among whom Mackbeth so famed upon the Stage was one who exclaiming much against the Precariousness of the Government and the mistaken Lenity of the King towards notorious Offenders did notwithstanding promise that if they were pleased to leave that Affair to his and Bancho's Management he did not doubt but in a very short time to give a good account of the Rebels Hereupon he and Bancho were joyn'd in Commission to go against them and in some time set out with a Body of Men towards Lochquaber The fame of whose Approach struck the Enemy with such a panick Fear that they dispersed in great Numbers leaving their Captain Mackdonald almost destitute who notwithstanding with the small Remains he had left with him adventurously gave them Battle but being routed he fled for Refuge to an adjacent Castle and finding himself environn'd by his Enemies on all sides and no way left for his Escape he first slew his Wife and Children and then laid violent Hands upon himself to prevent as he dreaded a severer Punishment This Rebellion being thus happily supprest by the good Conduct and Managment of Mackbeth and Bancho another more dangerous Storm did upon the Neck of it threaten Scotland for Sweno King of Norway landed at Fife with a puissant Army designing no less than to make an entire Conquest of the Kingdom of Scotland Duncane to obviate as much as might be the Intentions of the Enemy raises Forces with utmost Diligence and next to himself entrusted the Command of them with the two aforesaid Chieftains Mackbeth and Bancho who had but a little while before done him signal Service against his Rebellious Subjects Near Calrose the two Armies engaged and fought for a considerable time with incredible obstinacy but at last the Danes prevailed and the Scots were totally routed and Duncane fled to the Castle of Bertha which Sweno laid close siege to forthwith Mackbeth in the mean time rallies and raises more Forces to whom the King by the Advice of Bancho sent word that he should not march to his Relief till he had further Orders The King in the interim entertains a feigned Treaty of Surrender with Sweno and to elude the Matter yet further sent his Army as a Donative some Provisions of Ale and Bread out of the Castle but had first mixt both with the Juice of Banewort a noxious Herb which did so intoxicate the Danish Soldiers who feasted greedily thereon that they generally fell all fast asleep upon which Mackbeth had Orders sent him to march up without delay and fall upon them which he did with that success that the whole Army was slain save the King and about ten Men more who with great difficulty fled to their Ships But the Rejoycings made for this Victory were scarce cold when another Danish Army sent by Canutus to the assistance of Sweno landed at Kingcorn which were also encountred by Mackbeth and Bancho and utterly routed Some time after this as Buchanan Boethius and other Scotch Writers relate tho' in a different manner As Mackbeth and Bancho without any other Company were agoing to a place called Fores where the King then resided it fortuned that they met three Women upon the Road of a very strange Aspect and Habit one of them saluted Mackbeth Thane of Angus another of Murrey and the third King of Scotland with which kind of Salutation they were both very much surpriz'd and Bancho said to the Women why so unkind to me as to bestow nothing upon me when you have assigned to my Companion not only high Preferments but even the Kingdom of Scotland Nay but reply'd the first of them we have greater Favours in store for thee he shall reign indeed but with an unhappy end and leave none of his Posterity to inherit the Crown but of thee shall those be born who shall govern the Scotch Nation by a long Succession of continued descent And this I take to be the Ground of Dr. Heylin's saying in his Scotia that it was strangely foretold this Bancho above three hundred Years before it began to be fulfill'd that he indeed should not be King but that out of his Loyns should come a Race of Kings that should for ever rule Scotland This Apparition for so it was afterwards interpreted made at first no great Impressions on the Spirits either of the one or the other so as that they made no other use of it than to jear one another ever and anon therewith Bancho frequently calling Mackbeth by way of ridicule King of Scotland and the other as often entertaining him with the Appellation of Father of many Kings till such time which happened not long after that the Thane of one of the foresaid places being condemned and executed for Treason Mackbeth was bountifully invested by the King in all his Lands Livings and Offices which being interpreted by him as a favourable Presage and as it were a Praeludium towards the Accomplishment of the foresaid Prediction concerning him it raised his Hopes mightily and he begins to set all his Wits on work and to imploy all his Engines among whom Bancho was chief who gave him all the Assistance he could in his bloody Designs for to attain to the Crown which not long after by a barbarous Parricide for a good King is Father of his Country he accomplish'd having slain the King at Inverness or as others write at Botgosvane in the sixth Year of his Reign and so was forthwith crowned at Scone Mackbeth to ingratiate himself with the People without which no Government tho' never so just can long subsist gets several good and wholsome Laws enacted for the publick Weal But this was an effect rather of Policy than any natural Disposition and good Genius in him as did afterwards appear and as Tyrants are always uneasie he was never without dreadful Apprehensions that he should be served the same sawce himself as he had done by his Predecessor and the Prediction foremention'd did not a little contribute thereunto especially that part of it that referr'd to the posterity of Bancho's attaining in time to the possession of the Diadem And as nothing is more terrible to a wicked Usurper than the Thoughts of a Successor especially without his own Line former Confederacies for the attainment of the Supream Power being now disregarded and quite effaced with the Cares to secure it for indeed there is but little Faithfulness to be expected from Associates in Villany be their mutual Engagements never so solemn he makes it his whole business to cut off Bancho who had been so instrumental to advance him
the very Practice of Richard the III toward Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham and therefore in order to put his projected Design in execution he invites him together with his Son Fleance to a supper which he had prepared for them They suspecting no Treachery in the matter made no scruple to come and feasted merrily and when all was over prepared to return to their own Lodgings but they were on their way thither without the Pallace-Gates to prevent the suspition of the King 's having any Hand in it assaulted by several Russians whom he had hired for that purpose who slew the Father outright But the Son thro' the favour of the dark Night happily escaped and being sensible of the danger he was in if he stay'd in Scotland from the Jealousie and Malice of Mackbeth who he was now fully satisfied had contrived the Murder of his Father tho' the other endeavour'd all he could to suppress it and make appear it was only a matter of chance he fled into Wales He had not been there long but that he grew into great Favour and Esteem with Trahern Prince of that part of the Country call'd Northwales but into far greater Intimacy and even to an unlawful Familiarity with his Daughter so as that she was got with Child by him which at length coming to the Ears of her Father he was so enraged with the Dishonour done to his Family by this Fugitive and so sensibly touch'd with his Violation of the Rules of Hospitality that nothing less would satisfie him than his Blood and so he slew him The Daughter he also severely used who was at last brought to Bed of a Son whom they named Walter who tho' but meanly Educated by his Grandfather's Commandment did notwithstanding prove to be a Person of high Resolution and expert in Business This Walter having on a time happen'd to fall out with one of his Companions occasion'd chiefly by the other 's reproaching of him with his illegitimacy and calling him Bastard he became so enraged thereat that he flew upon him and slew him outright But bethinking himself immediately of what he had done with the great danger he was in if he stay'd any longer in the Country he resolv'd to flee and make the best of his way for Scotland his Father 's native Country where he had not long arrived but he happen'd into the Company of some English Gentlemen come thither to attend Queen Margaret Wife to Milcolm King of Scotland and Sister to Edgar Atheline Kinsman and right Heir to Edward the Confessor and behaved himself so orderly and with such a winning Conversation that he became highly esteem'd of them This by degrees made way for him to attain the King's favour who entertain'd so good an Opinion of him that when in some time after Tumults and some popular Disorders had happen'd in the parts about Galloway and the adjacent Islands he thought fit to entrust him with the Care of that Affair and Walter was so successful in his Enterprize that he quickly suppress'd the Disorders slew the Captain and Ringleaders of those Commotions and reduced that part of the Country into a very good Decorum and Order I do not find the King ever restor'd him to the Inheritance of his Grandfather Bancho and the Thaneship of Lochquaber but however it was he was so far satisfied with his Conduct and so fully sensible of the Service he had done him that he bestowed a new Dignity upon him which was that of Steward of Scotland This was an English term and the English frequenting that Kingdom so much at that time by reason of their Concourse to and Attendance upon Queen Margaret together with some other concurring Accidents might be the occasion of the Introduction of it It was no doubt a considerable power he was entrusted with by virtue of this new Office but I do not think it much different as to the nature of it but only in respect to its extent from that of Thane which Term and Office annext to it because so often mention'd already and may perhaps more hereafter I shall endeavour a little to explicate and I hope the Reader will think it no impertinent Digression Thane therefore is derived by some from the old Saxon word Thegn which cometh of Thenian i. e. Ministrare alicui and made to signifie sometime a Nobleman sometime a Freeman another while a Magistrate and sometime an Officer or Minister thus Mr. Lambert in his Exposition of Saxon Words interprets it Vavasour's Explication of it is much to the same purpose but Skene de verborum Significatione saith that it is the name of a Dignity and appears to be equal with the Son of an Earl and that Thanus was a Freeholder holding his Lands of the King hence Thanagium Regis signified a certain part of the King 's or property whereof the Rule and Government appertainâ—d to him who therefore is called Thane he is opinion it is originally a Dutch word deduced from Teiner a Servant and Teinâ—â— to serve and therefore may signifie a Servant as an Vnderthane does an inferiour Thane or Subject he further adds that when a Person was accused of Theft but not in the Fang that is as we say with the manner of it there being no sufficient proof brought against him he was oblig'd to purge himself by the Oath of seven and twenty Men and of three Thanes and so much shall suffice concerning the name and office of Thane To return therefore to our designed story you are first to note by way of Recapitulation the bloody Foundation that has been laid here Bancho the Grandfather conspiring with Mackbeth to imbrue his Hands in the innocent Blood of Duncane his lawful and rightful Prince and that not long done when the same fate attended himself and that by the contrivance of his own bloody Associate as a just reward of his Treason Fleance the Son upon this forced to flee his native Country there ungratefully defiling that Prince his Daughter who cherished him in his Bosom but now as a Monster of Ingratitude he rid his Country and the Earth of him at the same time by a violent and tragical Death and lastly Walter the Grandson but base born was forced to the same shift as his Father before him tho' with a better Fate the one being under a necessity to forsake his native soil to avoid being barbarously as well as injuriously murder'd by a jealous-headed Tyrant but the other to shun the Justice of his Country that cried out for Vengeance against him for shedding of Blood Walter being vested in the high Office aforesaid left his Title and Dignity for a sirname to his Family ever after and from hence forward we find but little mention either of him or his Posterity till the contest between the Bruce's and Baliol's about the Crown of Scotland which was above Two Hundred Years after We shall therefore only endeavour to give you the Genealogy down to the said time
that our History may appear to be all of a piece and void of Breaks as much as may be Walter therefore had a Son named Alane who as they say follow'd Godfrey of Bullogn into the Holy Land in the Year 1099. Alexander was his Son who begat Walter Stuart he had Issue Alexander whose Son was John the Father of Walter Stuart that marry'd the Daughter of King Robert Bruce and begat on her Robert Stuart call'd in the Scotch Chronology Robert the second King of Scotland but he was the first Stuart that was advanced to the Throne of that Kingdom But before we can fairly come to give you an exact Account hereof it will be necessary to premise a short Scheme of the Contests between the said Baliol and Bruce because somewhat interwoven with the Affair of this Family Upon the disastrous death of Alexander the Third who broke his Neck as he was gallopping his Horse at Kingcorn over the West-clift of the place near the Sea-side and left no Issue but had only a Grand-child by his Daughter in Norway very young and who died soon after Scotland fell under an Interregnum for the space of six Years and nine Months as Buchanan computes it for so long it was between the Death of Alexander and the declaring of John Baliol King of Scotland and in the mean time you may be sure there wanted not Pretensions to the Crown and the case briefly was thus William King of Scotland had a Brother named David Earl of Huntington and great Uncle to this Alexander the III. which David had three Daughters Margaret marry'd to Allan Lord of Gallaway Isabel to Robert Bruce Lord Annadale and Cleveland and Adda to Henry Hastings Earl of Huntington now Allane begat on his Wife Margaret a Daughter named Dornadilla marry'd in process of time to John Baliol after King of Scotland and two other Daughters Bruce by his Wife Isabel had Robert Bruce Earl of Carrick as having married the Inheritrix thereof but as for Huntington he laid no manner of Claim Now the question was whether Baliol in right of the eldest Daughter or Robert Bruce being descended of the second but a Male should have the Crown he being in the same Degree and of the more worthy Sex The Controversie was tossed up and down by the Governors and Nobles of the Kingdom for a long time but at last upon serious deliberation it was agreed to refer the whole matter to the decision of Edward the I. King of England which he was not a little glad of For resolving to fish in these troubled Waters he stirs up eight Competitors more that he might further puzzle the Cause and at length with twenty four Councellors half Scots half English and a great many Lawyers so handled the Business that after a great many cunning delays he secretly tampers with Bruce who was then conceiv'd to have the better Right of the Business that if he would acknowledge to hold the Crown of him he would adjudge it in favour of him But he generously answering That he valued a Crown at a less rate than for the wearing of the same to put his Country under a Foreign Yoke Edward turns about and makes the same motion to Baliol who did not stick to accept of it Baliol having thus gotten a Crown as unhappily kept it for he was no sooner invested with it and done Homage to King Edward according to Agreement but the Aberthenys having slain Mackduff Earl of Fife he not only pardon'd them the Fact but gave them a piece of Land that was in Controversie between them Whereupon Mucduff's Brother being enraged makes a Complaint of him to King Edward who sent for him used him so that he made him rise from his Seat at Parliament and go to the Bar and answer for himself He hereupon was so enraged at this manner of Usage that when King Edward sent to him for Assistance against the French he absolutely refused it and proceeded so far as to renounce his Homage to him This incensed King Edward to the quick and so with an armed Power he hastens to Berwick where he routed the Scots took and kill'd to the number of Seven Thousand of them among them most of the Nobility of Fife and Lowthian and some time after gave them also a great Overthrow at Dunbar which occasion'd the immediate surrender of the Castle of the said place into his Hands After this he marches to Montross where Baliol was brought to resign up both himself and his Crown to King Edward all the Scotch Nobility at the same time doing him Homage The Consequence whereof was that Baliol was sent Prisoner to London and from thence after a Years detention into France But while Edward was possess'd of all Scotland one William Wallace arose who tho' but a private Man bestirred himself in the publick Calamity of his Country and gave the English several notable Foyls This brought King Edward into Scotland again with an Army and falling upon Wallace routs him who was overcome with Emulation and Envy from his Countrymen as well as power from the Enemy upon which he laid by his Command and never acted after but by slight Incursions but the English Army after this being beaten at Roslin Edward comes in again and takes Sterling and makes them all render him Homage Robert Bruce Son to the foresaid Bruce that contested with Baliol for the Crown was in King Edward's Court and him the King had often promised to put in possession of the Crown But Bruce finding at last that all his promises were illusory and nothing but smoak he enters into a Confederacy with John Cummin sirnamed the Red how he might get the Kingdom but being basely betray'd by him to King Edward he had much ado to make his escape and when he was got into Scotland the first thing he did was to stab Cummin at Drumâ—reis and then got himself Crown'd King at Scone Never did any Man come with greater disadvantage to the possession of a Crown or underwent greater Hardships for the sake of it He was beaten over and over by King Edward's Troops forced to flee to the Highlands with one Companion or two and to lurk in the Mountains in great misery as if he had been rather a Beast of prey than a rational Creature And while he was in this miserable State it is storied of him by Fourdon That being in a Morning lying down on his Bed in a little Cottage whither he was glad to retire and make the same his Pallace he espies a Spider striving to climb up into her Web which she had spun to the roof of the House but failing of her purpose the first time she attempts it the second and third time and so on to the sixth and last wherein she accomplishes it and gets in the King who as well as his Companion had all the while view'd the Action said Now let 's get up and hasten to the Lowlands to try our Fortunes
long e're they seized upon the Kings Evil Councellors that were about him and sent them all away save only John Ramsey a very young man that clung to the King and who intreated for him that he might be spared The rest were lead to Judgment and with the loud cries of the Army calling for Justice upon those miscreants were hanged out of the way and such forwardness was shewed to have them dispatched speedily that when they wanted Ropes upon such a sudden occasion every one was ready to offer his Horses Halter or the Reins of his Bridle for that purpose These Wretches were charged with many private injuries and among the more publick ones was their advising the King to Coin base Copper Money which the Common people by way of reproach called Black-Money and that this was the principal cause of the scarcity that was in the Land the want of Trade and many other Calamities too long to be incerted To the Kings charge was laid the unjust death of the Earl of Mar his Brother his advancing of Cockram a Mason to the said Earldom his practising of Magick and resolvedness to destroy his Relations This done they returned to Edenburg and appointed the King himself to be kept in the Castle of the said City by the E. of Atholl and in the mean time they send to the English Army for a Cessation of Arms for three Months The Duke of Albany was honourably received into his Country again and had the Castle of Dunbar with the Earldoms of March and Mar conferred upon him and was withal Proclaimed the Kings Lieutenant General While things were in this state the English take the Castle of Berwick the Town having been surrendred to them before The Duke of Albany making a faint of relieving the same but did nothing At length the Duke accompanied with the Chancellor Archbishop of St. Andrews and others went to Sterling to pay the Queen and Prince a visit they had not been there long when the Queen entering into a secret Conference with the Duke unknown to the rest about the King's Confinement and urging how noble and generous as well as advantagious an act it would be in him to imploy his power for his releasement he consents to the undertaking and so returning to Edenburg besieged the Castle and took it remov'd the Earl of Athol and so sets the King and all his Servants at liberty for which extraordinary favour the King shewed him great tokens of his affections but they were not long-lived for the remembrance of old offences are of greater force in a degenerous and impotent mind than fresh kindnesses And to foment his jealousies he had always those at his Elbow who never ceased to upbraid the Duke to him of affecting too much popularity and to construe the same as an infallible sign of his intentions to snatch at the Crown when ever a fit opportunity presented The Duke who was not ignorant of those jealousies entertained of him and at last finding there was a design formed against him of no less than taking away his Life and that as appeared by poyson withdraws privily into Dunbar Castle And the King as conscious of his evil doings fearing the displeasure of his Nobles hereupon withdraws also into the Castle of Edenburg where the Earls of Angus Buchan and others forsook him and assisted the Duke But the King being haunted still by his Evil Spirits I mean those vile fellows whom he had again placed about his Person he summoned the Duke and his adherents to appear and answer for such treasonable Crimes as he had to lay to their Charge and withall prepared an Army to Besiege Dunbar which the Duke having notice off he flies into England And afterwards being accompanied with the Earl of Dowglass and others was engaged to invade the Marches of his own Country but meeting with ill success and being checked by the King of England for his ill Conduct he grew sullen thereupon and withdrew secretly into France where not long after according to the usual fate of his Family running at Tilts with Lewis Duke of Orleans he was wounded with the splinter of a Spear and thereof Dyed So that here is two of them gone the fate of the third is now approaching with winged hast For the King having once got a Peace with the English and the Castle of Dunbar into his hands which seemed for some time to put a check upon his exorbitance he returns to his old haunts gives himself over not only to be guided by Favourites and mean Persons as before who were his Leeches to drain his Subjects to satiate his covetous desires but to unlawful pleasure with loose Women Among the men Favourites John Ramsey saved as you have heard before by the Kings importunity from an Halter was chief This Man having been advanced to the dignity of Lord Stuard K of the ing's Houshold and endowed with many large demesns became so elated in mind that not being content with that large fortune nothing would serve but he must have an order that none besides himself and his Companions should go armed in those places where the King resided designing by this devise to fortifie himself and his Faction against the Nobility of the Kingdom whom he found to go frequently armed themselves and accompanied with such as were well provided for their defence But this Edict procured him more hatred than it wrought fear in his Enemies In the mean time the King minded nothing as much as to gratifie his mind with the blood of those who were thought to be the Authors of Rebellion And seeing he could not bring about his purposes he endeavours to surprise them by cunning for feigning to be reconciled to one of them after another he entertained them with that gentleness and in so soothing a manner as came below the Dignity of a Prince to do Others of them who excelled in Riches and Power he accumulated with Rewards and Honours making David Lindsey Earl Crawford Duke of Montross and George Earl of Angus he would have frequently in his Company carrying it so by communicating his secret Counsels unto him as if he were throuhgly reconciled But his Rewards and Blandishments had but little effect upon any of them in respect to any opinion his Sincerity for they who knew his disposition doubted not but all that semblance of Goodness and Favour tended to no other end than either to surprise them one after another or to set them at variance one against another which when he had got the chief of Nobility to Edenburg did more clearly appear for having sent for Dowglass to him into the Castle he shewed him what a brave opportunity he now had to be revenged on them for if he did but secure the Heads of the Factions and punish them the rest would be quiet That if he lett his opportunity that presented it self slip he could never afterward hope for such another Dowglass who well knew that the Kings mind
was as implacable towards him as the rest of them cunningly discusses that rash and evil Counsel arguing with him what a base and flagitious offence all the world would look upon it to be if he should without due Process of Law suddenly hale to execution so many Illustrious Persons to whom he was reconciled as having given his Royal Word for pardoning of what was past and that not long since and now secur'd with the Publick Faith for the fierce and enraged minds of Enemies would not be broken with the ruine of a few and coming once to despair of Pardon they would turn their wrath into fury and the consequence of that would be that they would grow more stobborn and obstinate and less value the King's Authority and their own lives and if your Highness will take my Counsel continued the Earl Iâ—ll put you in a way whereby to salve the King's Honour and Dignity and that revenge may at the same time be prosecuted For I having gathered my Friends and Tenants together will openly and in the day time lay hold of them and then you may try them where you will and punish them as you please and this will be not only more Honourable but also more safe for the King than if they should be killed at unawares in the Night as it were by Thiefs The King believing the Earl spoke what he thought for he knew well enough that he was able to perform what he promised he gave him many thanks for his advise and dismissed him laden with large Promises of Reward The Earl having warned the Peers to take care of their safety and to withdraw from the imminent danger that hung over their Heads does himself also retire to a place of safety The King from hence forwards finding his secret Counsels laid open and not daring to trust any body betook himself to the Castle of Edenburg and from thence being conveyed by Sea to the Countries beyond the Forth which still were obedient to him did in a short time levy a good Army And now the Nobility who before designed nothing but that the King should amend in his male administration finding all accommodation with him desperate and his evil disposition incurable bend all their Counsels to remove him A bad Steward its most certain he had been and now they are resolved to call him to a severe account for the same The great difficulty that stood in their way and which they were deliberating to remove was whom they should appoint to be their Captain who when the King were brought to a compliance might be constituted Vicegerent of the Kingdom It was adjudged highly necessary it should be a person that was pleasing to the Commonallity of an Illustrious Name That the Faction might not be opprest and weakned out of an envy to his Greatness and at last after they had thought of one and another they pitched unanimously upon the King 's own Son the Prince of Scotland who being taken from his Keepers and Governours of his tender years was urged to a speedy compliance for if otherwise they were resolved to transfer the Kingdom into the hands of the King of England who would take care to root out him and his Family for the better security of it Now the King had past over the Forth and pitched his Tents at a place called Blackness and the Sons Army ready prepared to give Battle were not a far off But by the mediation of the Earl of Athol the King's Uncle things were at present brought to an accommodation and Athol himself was delivered as an Hostage to Adam Hepborn Earl of Bothwell in whose custody he remained till the K. death which now was not far off But the agreement as being between such as had an incurable jealousie of one another did not last long In the mean time Couriers and Mediators past continually from one to another at last the Lords gave determinate answer That seeing the King acted nothing sincerely with an intention to perform they adjudged it better to be engaged in a certain War than a delusive and treacherous Peace That the only hopes of agreement was if the King would Abdicate the Throne and have his Son advanced in his room if not it would be to no purpose for them to try and frustrate one another with Conferences The King not to be wanting to himself in this desperate Fortune orders his Embassadors in England and France to communicate this answer to those Kings whom he earnestly sollicites to make use of their Authority or if need were their Forces too in his behalf for the repressing of the insolence of a few Rebels and reduce them to Reason and their Duty and to esteem his Fortune common with their to own and such as might by the Contagion thereof easily creep to other Nations He sent also to Eugenius IIII. Pope of Rome to intreat him out of his Paternal care and love to the Scotish Name and Nation to send a Legate into Scotland to enforce the Rebells according to the Authority of his Holiness's Power and Jurisdiction to lay down their Arms and obey their King The Pope having one Adrian Castlean for his Legate in England a Man of great Learning and Prudence he Writes to him to use his endeavour to compose the Scotch Affairs and bring them to a settlement But this came a day after the fare for the Lords who knew well enough that these proceedings of the King abroad were in agitation and withall that his mind was implacable towards them resolved before he should have an opportunity to augment the number of his Forces to try it out by Arms and though they had the Kings Son with them as well to manifest their Authority to the Common People as to shew that they were not angry with or had no quarrel against their Country but a pernicious King who would have ruined them yet least the minds of the people should be alienated by the cunning or forreign Ambassadors and other accidents that attend procrastination they were busied night and day how to commit all to the hazard of a Battle But the Kings timerousness was an obstacle to their eagerness and hast who because he had ordered considerable Levies to be made for the augmentation of the Troops he had on foot already in the northern parts of the Kingdom did in the mean time keep himself close within the Castle of Edenburg But that he might precipitate his fate he was brought by his Followers whether designedly or ignorantly is uncertain to forsake this wholsome Counsel which he looked upon to be safest for him for they perswaded him that by reason of the frequent tides there which might cause delay and danger to them that were about to meet together it were more adviseable he should go to Sterling Castle the best situated place of any for gathering of Forces together out of all parts of the Kingdom That he would be as safe there as in Edenburg Castle
long Wound his left Arm almost cut off in two several places could scarce hang to his Shoulder and had been besides shot through several parts of his Body with Arrows and this seems to have the greatest appearance of truth in it tho' what Buchanan and others his Countrymen alledge is not improbable viz. That after the King found the Battle encline to the English without any hopes of retrieving it he passed the Tweed and near Kelso was slain by Humes's followers it remaining uncertain whether it was done by his Command or that these Ruffians thinking to gratify the humour of their Patron were in hopes when the King was once cut off they might transact what villany they pleased impunedly but if he survived they were in great apprehensions of being called to a severe account for their tardiness during the Battle To which they also add other conjectures that the very night after the Battle the Monastery of Kelso was seised by one Carr a confident of Hume and the Abbot chasheered which its likely he durst not have attempted if he had known the King had been alive But these things are so uncertain says Buchanan that when Hume was afterward called to an Account and Tryed for the Fact by the Earl of Murrey the King 's base Son it came to nothing they were not able to prove it upon him but withal adds that Lawrence Faliser a Person of integrity but then a Lad and spectator of of the Action did often affirm to him that he had seen the King on Horse Back pass the Tweed and hence many took occasion to report which lasted many years that the King was alive and would appear in due time after he had pay'd his vow of going to Jerusalem to view the Holy Sepulcre But this savours two much like the legendary Story of Arthur of old and of Charles Duke of Burgundy not many Years before of whom they related such another Tale But to return and take for granted that he died as before noted upon the place of Battle his Body being enclosed in a Sheet of Lead was brought into England and by the Kings Command laid in some bye Vault or Corner without any Funeral rites he saying That it was a due punishment for one who had perjuriously broken his League So that Death it self had not put a Period to his misfortune Tho' otherwise he was a Prince of great perfections both of Body and Mind and endued with most of those Royal Virtues that are necessary for the equal poize of a Scepâ—er which caused that sharp but true saying to drop from the Pen of a learned Author upon him that he perished Non suo sed Stuartorum Fato The loss of James IIII. in this manner seemed to carry with it the most dreadfull presages of Confusion and Misery that ever threatned any Country for he left his Queen Margaret and two Sons behind him the Eldest whereof James V. that succeeded him in the Kingdom being not fully two years old most of the Nobility who bore any thing of Wisdom and Authority before them being slain in the foresaid Battle and the major part of such as survived by reason of their Youth or Incapacity of their mind very unfit to meddle with matters of State especially in so teachy a time as that was And those who were left alive of the better sort who had any thing of Prudence through Ambition and Covetousness abhorring all Counsels tending to Peace and Concord However something must be done for the Publick weal and as the fittest expedient for a settlement a Parliament was convened at Sterling who Proclaimed James V. King and according to the Deseased King's Will The Queen was constituted Regent of the Kingdom so long as she remained a Widdow But she soon after Marrying Archembald Dowglass Earl of Angus a young Gentleman who for Lineage Comliness and other Accomplishments might be ranked amongst the prime Nobility of Scotland lost her Office and Authority and this occasioned a great feud among the Nobility The Dowglassian Party endeavoured to have the Queen continued in the Office Alledging That this was the way to have Peace with England which was not only advantagious but highly necessary for them at that time as matters stood with them But the Humes whereof Alexander Hume Warden of all the Marches and a very Potent Man was head making up the adverse faction under pretence of publick Good and that it was against the old Laws of the Kingdom to have a Woman however otherwise dignifyed to be Regent stiffly opposed the Queen and her Adherents so that at last after they had passionately struggled about the choise either out of wicked Ambition or secret Envy They past by all that were there present and incline to choose John Duke of Albany Son of Alexander of whom we have spoken before Brother of James III. and who lived then in good Repute in France from whence soon after he arrived in Scotland The Duke was ignorant of the old Customs of the Country as having been bred abroad all his Days which John Hepburn a Crafty Knave and one who had contested with Andrew Foreman about the Archbishoprick of St. Andrew's a little before well observing makes it his business to insinuate himself into the Regents Favour under pretence of informing him of the Laws and Manners of the Land but in Truth and Reality that he might advance himself upon the wrack and ruine of others And to this End he tells the Regent there were at that time three Factions in the Kingdom the one headed by Archibald Dowglass Earl of Angus the Queens Husband who was wonderfully Popular and upon the account of his Alliance with England and his own Personal and Hereditary Merits bore a Spirit too big for a private Man Alexander Hume was the next whose Power and Interest was so great that there was a necessity of repressing of him in time Foreman his former Competitor was the third who said he 't was true was not to be feared upon the account of Kindred and Nobleness of descent yet by reason of his great Wealth he would make a great Accession of Strength to what Party soever he inclined But to this last Part the Governor gave little heed as knowing it to be an invidious accusation of Hepburn proceeding from the noted feuds between Foreman and himself But the suspicion of Hume sunk deeper into the Regents mind which the other quickly perceiving he falls in for his own security with the interest of the Queen and her Husband and lamenting the danger the young King might be in if he should fall into the Regents Hands who was next Heir and bent to translate the Kingdom to himself he perswades the Queen to retire with the King to her Brother into England But these Consultations were not so secretly carried on but that the Governor had notice thereof who being an Active Man hastens with all his Forces to Sterling and quickly took the
aid at hand had set themselves in array at the Bridge of the River Aven which is about a mile from Linlithgow and placed a small Guard upon the Bridge to secure the Pass and drew up the rest of their Forces at the brow of the Hiâ—â— which they knew the Enemy must pass Lennox seeing that this passage over the Bridge was stopped Commanded his Men to pass over a small River a little above by the Nunnery called Manuell and so to beat the Hamiltonians from the Hills before Dowglass's Forces had joyned them The Lennoxians advanced towards the Enemy thorough thick and thin but were much incommoded by the others throwing of Stones down the Hills upon them and when they came to handy strokes the word was given that the Dowglasses were at hand and indeed they from their march ran in hastily into the Fight and soon carried the Day so that Lennox's Men were grievously wounded and put to flight The Victory was used by the Hamiltonians with much cruelty and among the Number of the slain was the Earl of Lennox himself highly lamented by all Persons and more especially by the King himself who now saw no visible hopes of ever retrieving his Liberty and could not choose but see how fatal his presence was to all that attempted it Now the Dowglasses are Lords paramount and carry all before them those that had taken up Arms against their King as they phrased it for fear of a Tryal were forced to compound with them for money or to put themselves into the Clanships of the Hamiltons or themselves and such as refused they utterly ruined yea and the Queen her self thought fit to retire to a place of Secrecy least she should fall into the hands of her Husband whom she hated But fury abating with time and the Dowglasses being severally intent upon other matters and concerns and secure as they thought as to the Kings Departure from them gave him at last an opportunity to gain his Liberty which all the former attempts of his Friends could not effect for him They believed now that his mind was fully Reconciled to them by those Blandishments and Immoderate Pleasures they had indulged him in and besides thought that if he were minded to remove there was no faction strong enough to oppose them neither was there any strong Garrison whither to retire but only to Sterling Castle which was allotted to the Queen for her Habitation And then it was deserted for a time by the Queens Officers when she hid her self for fear of the Dowglasses and when the tumult was a little appeased 't was somewhat Fortified but rather for a shew then any real defence The King having obtained some small relaxation saw that this must be his only refuge and and therefore he deals privately with his Mother to exchange that Castle and the Lands adjoining for other Lands as convenient for her and providing all other requisites as private as he could the Dowglasses not being so intent as formerly in their watch over him he retired by night with a small retinue from Falkland to Sterling whither he soon sent for some of the Nobles to come to him and others hearing the News came of their own accord so that now he seemed sufficiently secured against all force Then he issued out a Proclamation that the Dowglasses should abstain from all the Administration of publick affairs and that none of their Dependants should come within 12 miles of the Court upon pain of Death This Proclamation was quickly seconded with an Assembly of the Nobles at Edenburg where they had such Terms offered them as they would not accept whereupon their Offices were taken from them and themselves Summoned to attend the Parliament at Edenburg But they knowing the danger Endeavoured to seise upon Edenburg and dissolve the Parliament but failed in the attempt So that thâ— Earl of Angus retired to his Castle of Tanâ—allon and the Parliament proceeded in their business and the Earl with his Brothers Relations and intimate Friends were out Lawed They on the other hand being enraged at these proceedings and seeing all hopes of Pardon cut off betook themsâ—lves to open force and Committed all sorts of Outrages upon the Lands of their Enemies and with their Horse advanced many times to the very Gates of Edenburg so that the City was almost besieged by them The King thinking to unroost them all at once raises Forces and lays siege to Tantallon Castle but all that ever he could do could not take it At length the Dowglasses finding the Hamiltons and the rest of their Friends fail them found it necessary to retire for their better safety into England from whence came Ambassadors shortly after about settling a firm Peace between both Kingdoms and with the same labour to procure the Restitution of the Dowglasses King James was mighty desirous to have Tantallon Castle in his Power and at the same time his mind as averse to the Restoration of the Dowglasses and for that reason the matter was convassed too and fro for some Days and no temper of Accommodation could be found out But at length they came to this That Tantallon Castle should be surrendered to K. James a Truce between both Nations for five Years and the other demands in referrence to the Dowglasses he promised to grant under his Signet When the Castle was surrendered according to Composition the King failed of his Royal Word and not one of the Dowglasses were permitted to return which was foul prevarication in him and a stain that will not easily be blotted off his Memory seeing this was a principal matter in the Agreement and the Equivalent for the Castle The Truce about half expired was infringed by a War between both Nations which the French Ambassador endeavoured to compose and about the same time James transacts with the French King and afterward with the Emperor about a Match which was like to endanger his life For the Hamiltons almost confident of the Succession yet looking upon it a long way about to stay either for Fortuitous or Natural dangers to befall him and fearfull in case he married he might have Lawfull Issue of his own studied to hasten his Death by Treachery a fair opportunity was offered them to effect it by his Night-walkings to his Misses having but one or two in Company but however it were they ne'er could put their purpose in Execution The Emperor's offers were rejected and at last he went over himself into France to seek him a Wife and brings over along with him Magdelen Daughter to Francis the French King but she died soon after and had no issue The Death of Magdalen did but whet his desires to get him another Wife and to that End he dispatched Cardinal David Beaton and others into France to treat of a Match between himself and Mary of the House of Guise Widdow to the Duke of Longeville by whom he had two Sons and a Daughter of whom you 'll hear by
and by But before her arrival in Scotland John Forbes a young Gentleman of a great Family was accused of a Design he had many years before to Assassinate the King It was believed to be a malitious prosecution of the Huntley's but Condemned he was and lost his head and a few Days after came on another Tryal which on the account of the Family of the accused Parties the Novelty of it and the heinousness of the punishment was very Lamentable and Tragical and plainly shews the Kings mind was cruel and implacable Joan Dowglass Sister to the Earl of Angus of whom we have said so much and Wife to John Lyons Lord of Glames also her Son and latter Husband Gilespy Campell John Lyons Kinsman to her former Husband and an old Priest were accused for endeavouring to poyson the King All these tho' they lived continually in the Country far from the Court and their Friends and Servants could not be brought to witness any thing against them yet were put on the rack to extort a Confession from them and so were Condemned and shut up in Edenburg Castle Joan Dowglass was burnt alive with great Commiseration of all the Spectators The Nobleness both of her self and Husband did much affect the beholders Besides she was in the vigour of her youth much celebrated for her rare Beauty and in her very punishment she shewed a manlike Fortitude But that which people were more concerned for was that they thought the enmity against her Brother who was banished did her more prejudice then her own objected Crime Her Husband endeavoured to escape out of the Castle of Edenburg but the Rope being too short to let him down to the foot of the Rock brake almost all the bones of his body with the fall and so ended his Days Their Son a young Man and of greater Innocent simplicity then to have the suspicion of such a wickedness justly charged upon him was for all that shut up a Prisoner in the Castle And the accuser of all these William Lyons by name afterwards perceiving that so eminent a Family was like to be utterly ruined by his false Information Repented when it was too late and confessed his offence to the King Yet so bloody was he an instance I think hardly to be parallelled in all the records of time that it did not prevent the Execution of the Condemned or hinder their Estates from being Confiscate and the aforesaid young Gentleman was not discharged from his Imprisonment and Restored to his Inheritance till after the King's Death which is now upon the Wing But as we have given you the Tragical part of his past life in all the Circumstances of them we shall depeint unto you all the concurrent causes of his Tragical and Untimely Death and to that End we are necessitated to recount some few things to you that in order of time precede and you must note That King Henry VIII having upon the account of his Divorce from Queen Katherine Proclaimed himself head of the Church and utterly disclaimed the Pope's Authority in England he thereby contracted great enmity not only from Rome but also from Spain and the Empire Wherefore to strengthen himself against any Combination that he expected to be made against him he was desirous to entertain a strict amity with his Nephew James V. of Scotland and to that End directs Ambassadors to him inviting him to a Conference at York whither Henry offered to come and meet him Alledging That by such an interview matters might be better concerted for the mutual Interest of both Kingdoms K. James after a serious Deliberation returns Answer he would attend his Unkle at the Time and Place appointed who thereupon made very great preparations to Entertain him with utmost solemnity But the Scotch Clergy apprehensive least their King through his Unkles Perswasions and Example might be wrought upon to shake off the Pope's Authority in Scotland as he had done in his own Dominions Resolve to do the utmost of their endeavours to prevent the intended interview and so mustering up all their Forces by themselves and the Kings minions and flatterers acquaint him with the evil Câ—nseâ—uence of his going to England shew how King James I. had been kept Prisoner in England how ill the French their old Confederates and the Emperor would take it at his hands That King Henry was excommunicate that a dangerous Heresy had overspread not only the greatest part of that Kingdom but had infected even the King himself That many of his own Nobility were favourers of the said Heresy which notwithstanding if he took care timously to suppress it would be of mighty advantage to him and he might very much increase his revenue by their Estates a list of whose names they presented to him which he put in his Pocket thinking it a very profitable proposal and therefore with all expedition to be put in Execution The Lord Grang his Treasurer and who secretly favoured the Reformation was then much in his favour and to him the King shews the foresaid List telling him what great advantage he would make of it whereat the Treasurer smiled and withall desired leave to speak his mind freely upon which the King drew his Sword and merily said to him I le kill thee if thou speak against my profit Then the Treasurer began to set before him at large the various troubles of his Reign while in minority and what an hand the Clergy had in all the disorders that he had not been long a free Prince And that though his Majesty had done very much in thâ— time in setling the Highlands and the Borders yet desired him to consider of what a dangerous consequence it might be if his Nobility should get intelligence that some greedy fetches had been insinuated to him under pretence of Heresie to dispoile them of their Lives and Inheritances And thereby endanger his own Estate at the instance of those whose Estates were in danger and who would hazard him and his to save their own I mean continued the Treasurer the Prelates who are afraid least your Majesty according to the Example of the King 's of England and Denmark and other Princes of the Empire should make the like Reformation among them and therefore they are clearly against your having any familiarity with the King of England or to have your Affairs so settled as to give you leisure to look into and reform the abuses of the Church Then he went on and shewed him how the Revenues of the Crown were wasted and the vast Estates of the Clergy their addictedness to the Pope their sly carriage in insinuating themselves into all secrets of State the wisdom of the Venetians in that particular in excluding the whole Levitical Order from their Senate-house the gross abuses of the Church of Rome the scandalous lives of the Scotch Clergy and last of all urged how dishonourable and dangerous it would be to his Majesty not to keep his word with
hereunto As for their part it should be their earnest desire and study to pretermit no occasion of perpetuating the Peace betwixt the two Neighbour Nations and that there was but one sure way to induce an amnesty of all past differences and to stifle the spring of them for ever by the Queen of England's Declaring by an Act of Parliament Confirmed by the Royal assent That their Queen was Heiress to the Kingdom of England next after her self and her Children if ever she had any And when the Ambassador had urged the equity and reasonableness of such a Law and how beneficial it would be to all Britain by many Arguments he added in the close That she being her nearest Kinswoman ought to be more intent and diligent than others in having such an Act made and that the Queen his Mistress did expect that Testimony of good will and respect from her To which the Queen of England made Answer to this purpose I wonder she hath forgot how that before her departure out of France that after much urging she promised that the League made at Leith should be Confirmed She having faithfully engaged it should be so as soon as e're she returned to her own Country I have continued she been put off with Words long enough now it is time if she had any regard to her Honour that her Actions should answer her Words To which the Ambassador replied That he was sent on that Embassy but a very few Daâ—â—s after the Queens arrival before she had entred upon the Administration of any publick affairs that she had been hitherto taken up in treating of the Nobility many of whom she had never seen before who came from diverse parts to perform their dutiâ—ull Salutations to her but that she was chiefly employ'd about settling the State of Religion which how troublesome and difficult a thing it is said he Your self well know Hence he proceeded to shew that his Mistress had had no vacant time at all before his departure neither had she yet called sit Men for her Council to Consult about various affairs especially since the Nobility who lived in the remotest parts of the North had not been yet able to attend her before his coming away with whose advice matters of sâ—ch publick moment could and ought to be transacted which words somewhat incensed Queen Elizabeth and said What need hath the Queen to make any Consultation about that which she hath obliged her self to under Hand and Seal he replyed I can give no other answer at present for I received no Command about it neither did our Q. expect that an account thereof would now be required of me and you may easily consider with your self what Just causes of delay she at present lies under and after some other Words the Queen returned to the main point and said I observe what you most insist upon in behalf of the Queen and in seconding the Requests of the Nobles you put me in mind That your Queen is descended from the Blood of the King 's of England and that I am bound to love her by a natural Obligation as being my near Kinswoman which I neither can nor will deny I have also made it evident to the whole World that in all my Actions I ne'er attempted any thing against the good and Tranquility of her self and her Kingdom those who are acquainted with my inward thoughts and inclinations are conscious that tho' I had just cause of offence given by her using my Arms and claiming a Title to my Kingdom yet I could hardly be perswaded but that these seeds of hatred came from others and not from her self However the case stands I hope she does not pretend to take away my Crown whilst I am alive nor hinder my Children if I have any to Succeed me in the Kingdom But if any Calamity should happen to me before as she shall never find that I have done any thing to prejudice the right she pretends to have to the Kingdom of England so I never thought my self obliged to make a disquisition into what that right is and I am of the same mind still and so shall leave it to those who are skillfull in the Law to determine As for your Queen she may expect this confidently of me that if her cause be just I shall not prejudice it in the least I call God to witness that next to my self I know none that I would prefer before her or if the matter come to a dispute that can exclude her Thou knowest said she who are the Competitors by what assistance or in hopes of what Force can such poor Creatures attempt such a mighty thing After some further discourse the Conclusion was short That it was a business of great weight and moment and that this was the first time she had entertained serious thoughts about it and therefore she had need of longer time to dispatch it Some Days after she sent for the Ambassador again and told him That she extreamly wondered why the Nobility should demand such a thing of her upon the first arrival of the Queen especially knowing that the causes of former offences were not yet taken away But continued she What pray do they require that I having been so much wronged should before any satisfaction received gratify her in so large a manner This demand is not far from a threat If they proceed on in this way let them know that I have Force at home and Friends abroad as well as they who will defend my just right To which he answered That he had shewn clearly at first how that the Nobility had insisted on this hopefull Medium of Concord partly out of Duty to their own Queen in a prospect to maintain her â—weal and increase her Dignity and partly out of a desire to contribute and settle publick Peace and Amity and that they dealt more plainly with her then with any other Prince In this Cause proceeds said he your known and experimented good will towards them and also upon the account of their own safety For they knew they must venture Life and Fortune if any body did oppose the right of the Queen or if any War did arise betwixt the Nations on that Account And therefore their desires did not seem unwarantable or unjust as tending to the cradicating the seeds of all Discords and the settling of a firm and solid Peace She rejoyned If I had Acted any thing that might diminish your Queens right then your demand might have been Just that what was amiss might be amended but this postulation is without an Example that I should wrap my self up in my Winding-Sheet while I am alive neither was the like asked before by any Prince however I take not the good intention of your Nobility amiss and the rather because it is an Evidence to me that they have a desire to promote the Interest and Honour of their Queen And I do put as great a value upon their
Heart to dishonour the King's Mother or how could you answer afterward for what you were doing seeing it tended to hazard the King her Sons Right to England intending to bring his Mothers Honesty in question it had been rather the Duty of you her Subjects to cover her Imperfections if she had any remitting to God and Time to punish and put order thereto who is the only Judge over Princes Lidingtown shewing his Innocence and Desire to have the accusation supprest the Duke asked if the Regent could keep secret and being thereof assured by Lidingtown he took occasion next day to enter into a Conference with the Regent and after some preliminary Discourse spoke to him to this effect That he would be very faithful to the Queen his Mistress as long as she lived but that she was too careless what might come after her about the Peace and Welfare of her Country tho' it was the Interest of the Kingdom of England to take greater notice thereof by determining the Succession to prevent Troubles that otherwise might ensue that tho' they had divers times essay'd to do something therein at every Parliament yet their Queen had evidenced great discontent thereat shewing thereby that she cared not what Blood was shed after her for the Right and Title of the English Crown which consisted only in the Person of the Queen and King of Scotland her Son which had been put out of doubt ere now if matters had not fallen out so unhappily at home and yet he and other Noblemen of England as Fathers of their Country were minded to be careful thereof watching their opportunity but that they wondred what could move him to come there and accuse their Queen for albeit she had done or suffered harm to be done to the King her Husband yet there was respect to be had to the Prince her Son upon whom he and many in England had fixed their Eyes as Mr. Mâ—lvill who had been late Ambassador there could testifie he therefore wished that the Queen should not be accused nor dishonoured for that to her Sons sake and for respect to the right both had to succeed to the Crown of of England and further the Duke said I am sent to bear your Accusation but neither will I nor the Queen my Mistress give out any Sentence upon the Accusation and that you may understand the verity of this point more clearly you shall do well the next time that I require you before the Council to give in your Accusation in Writing to demand again my Mistress's Seal and Hand Writing before you shew your Folly that in case you accuse she shall immediately Convict and give out her Sentence according to the proof of the matter otherwise that you will not open the Pack which if her Majesty shall refuse to grant unto you which doubtless she will do then assure your self that my Information is true and take occasion hereupon to stay from further Accusation This Discourse catched the Regent and he promised to comply therewith in every part and so at the next meeting with the Council demanded the foresaid security from the Queen before he would give in his Accusation hereupon they sent Post to Court to know what to do and the Queen's answer was That being a true Princess her Word and Promise would be abundantly sufficient Cecill and Wood the Regents Secretary were amazed at this manner of procedure and therefore it was advised to desire the Lords on both sides to come from York to Court where the Queen was able to give more ready answers and resolves In the mean time the Duke Regent and Lidingtown put their Heads together and agreed That the Regent should by no means consent to accuse the Queen and that the Duke should obtain to him the Queen's Favour with a Confirmation of the Regency and so would go on as sworn Brethren the one to Rule Scotland and the other England c. When the Regent was arrived at Hampton-Court where the Queen then resided he was daily prest to give in his Accusation especially by those about him who thought it strange that he should be so slow until at length they were advertised by one of the Lords of the Queen's â—action of all that had past between the Regent and Duke of Norfolk for the Duke had secretly given the Queen of Scots notice of what he had done she to one of her Confidents who advertised the Earl of Morton of the whole Morton took it very ill that the Regent should engage in any such thing without his knowledge but before either he or his Friends would take upon them to know any thing of the matter they consult together and resolve to get Mr. John Wood to acquaint Cecil with the whole desiring him to press forwards the Accusation wherein of himself he was abundantly eager They left nothing and one for their part to effectuate the same putting the Regent in hopes one while that the Queen would give her Hand and Seal that she would Convict the Queen of Scots if he accused her others of the firmest of them persuaded him that she would ne'er give it under Hand and Seal designing thereby to distract him to see what he would do in case he obtain'd his Desire Mr. Wood said it was fit to carry in all the Writs to the Council and he would keep the Accusation in his Bosom and would not deliver it till the thing demanded of the Queen was first granted The rest of the Regents Lords and Councellors had concluded among themselves that as soon as the Duke of Norfolk as chief of the Council should require the Accusation they would all with one Voice persuade the Regent to give it in Lidingtown and Sir James Melvill prest the Regent to remember his Engagements to the Duke who replied he would do well enough and that it would not come to that length and being accordingly brought before the Council the Duke demanded the Accusation the Regent required assurance from the Queen for the Prosecution in case he gave it in 〈◊〉 to this it was answered as before that the Queen was a true Princess and that her Word was sufficient and all the Council cryed Would he distrust the Queen who had given such proof of her Friendship to Scotland The Regents Council chimed in with them and said the same thing whereupon Cecill â—ed If they had the Accusation there yes says Mr. Wood and with that pluckt it out of his Bosom but I will not deliver it says he till her Majesty's Hand and Seal be delivered to the Regent for what he demands he had no sooner said the Words but the Bishop of Orkney snatch'd the Paper out of his hand saying Let me have it I 'll present it Wood ran after him as if he would have taken him but up gets the Bishop to the Council Board and gives in the Accusation which made the Lord Chamberlain of England cry out Well done Bishop thou art
the frankest Fellow among them all none of them will make thy leap good meaning his former leaping out of the Lord Grang's Ship to save himself but Lidingtown seeing the Regents unconstancy rounds him in the Ear that he had disgraced himself and put his Life in danger by the loss of so good a Friend as the Duke of Norfolk and that he had lost his Reputation for ever The Regent soon repents his Folly and desires to have the Accusation again alledging he had some more to add thereto but was answered That they would keep what they had and were ready to receive any addition he should please to give in The Duke of Norfolk had much ado to keep his Countenance Wood tip'd the wink upon Cecil who smiled upon him again the Regents company were Laughing only Lidingtown had a sorrowful Heart and the Regent himself left the Council with Tears in his Eyes and retired to his Lodgings at Kingstown and continued there for a long time in great displeasure and fear without Money to spend or hopes to get any from the Queen In the mean time the Agreement between the Duke and Regent was told the Queen for Morton caused one John Willock to declare what had past between them to the Earl of Huntingdon who caused the Lord Leicester to acquaint the Queen therewith The Duke finding how all things stood thought to out-brave it and stuck not to tell the Queen her self While he lived he would ne'er Offend her but Serve and Honour her and after her the Queen of Scots as in his Opinion truest Heir and the only means for saving of Civil Wars and much Bloodshed that might fall out which Words were as a Dagger to the Queen's Heart though for the time she dissembled her Displeasure but to further this great Man's Fall though Sir Nicholas Throgmorton seemed to mean honestly he got the Duke and Regent reconciled again and then the Duke declared to him that he was resolved to marry the Queen of Scots his Mistress and that he would never permit her to come into Scotland nor yet that she should ever Rebel against the Queen of England during her time and also that he had a Daughter who would be a fitter Match for King James than any other for many Reasons and so procured the Sum of Two Thousand Pounds from the Queen for the Regent for which himself became security and was forced afterward to pay the same When the Regent had got the Money he was easily induced by some about him to acquaint the Queen with all that had past between the Duke and himself and withall engaged to transmit back unto her all the Letters which the Duke should write to him when he came into Scotland which was done accordingly The Duke was then the greatest Subject in Europe he Ruled the Queen and all those that were familiar with her and was Courted by all Factions both Protestants and Papists both paying him a very great Deference and at that time commanded all the North of England and it was in his Power to have set the Queen of Scots at liberty if he had pleased but when the Queen had had his Letters from Scotland she sent for the Duke to come to Court whereupon he first posted in haste to Secretary Cecil on whose Advice and Friendship he much relied who told him there was no danger he might come and go at his Pleasure no man would or durst offend him and so the Duke only with his own Train came to Court Cecil in the mean time informed the Queen that the necessity of the time obliged her not to omit this occasion but to take the matter stoutly upon her self and forthwith command her Guards to lay hands upon the Duke or else no other durst do it which if she did not at this time she would endanger the safety of her Crown The Queen embraced the Advice and so orders the Duke to be secured when he thought all England was at his Devotion who after a long Imprisonment was Executed ending his Life as Sir James Melvill says devoutly in the Reformed Religion From Carlisle this forlorne Queen was removed to Bolton under the custody of Sir Francis Knowles and from thence to Tutbury under the Care of the Earl of Shrewsbury and in whose custody she remained for the space of Fifteen years but the many Attempts made for her Liberty and other more dangerous suspicions increasing against her caused her to be committed to the keeping of Sir Anias Pawlet and Sir Drue Druery where she sollicited with more greater importunity than ever the Bishop of Rome and the Spaniard by Sir Francis Inglefield to hasten what they had in hand with all speed against the Queen of England whatever became of her and at length holding correspondence with Babington and the rest of the Conspirators against Queen Elisabeth's Life which you may read in Cambden's Elizabeth at large this drew on the fatal Day whereon she was to be called to an account for what she had done and to this end it was agreed to have her Tryed upon the late Statute made against such as should attempt any violence against the Queen's Person c. and 24 Lords and others of inferior Degree were Commissionated by the Queen's Patent for her Tryal who met Octob. 11. 1586. in Fothringham Castle in the County of Northampton where the Queen of Scots was then in custody and next day sent Sir Walter Mildmay and others to her with the Queen's Letter about her Crimes and Tryal which when she had read she complained of her ill usage excused her carriage and seemed to question the Commissioners Authority but they justify their Authority and advise her to appear to her Tryal but she excepted against the new Law and required to have her Protestation admitted which was denied at length she is brought on the 14 th Day to appear to whom Bromley the Chancellor made a Speech how Queen Elizabeth their Sovereign being informed of her Conspiracies against her Life she was now called upon to Answer for the same and to clear her self if she could and make her Innocency appear to the World here she would have urged her Protestation again of being no Subject of England but a Crowned Head but that being again rejected she submitted her self to a Trial and after a long Hearing and several proofs made of her being privy to the Design against the Queen's Life and of her intention to convey her Title and Claim to the Kingdom of England to the Spaniard c. The Court Adjourned till the 25 th of October to the Star-Chamber at Westminster at what time Wacee and Curle her Secretaries did viva voce voluntarily and without hope of Reward avow all and every the Letters and Copâ—es of Letters produced at the Trial to be True and Real upon which Sentence was pronounced against her and Ratified by the Seals and Subscriptions of the Commissioners in these words By their unanimous
contrived that the Earl of March should give him an invitation to be at the place two or three days before the time under pretence that the preparations he had made of Wild Meats and other things for his Reception would be spoiled if he came not somewhat sooner than the appointed day a silly excuse but on he goes contrary to the advice of some about him who were sensible of the inconveniencies that might attend it especially since the Lords whom he had summoned could not be there so soon and when he arrived at St. Andrews he took up his Lodgings at an old Inn whose greatest security was the Yard Dykes of little consideration Melvil who saw the vanity of such doings goes to the Provost to see what force he could make for the Kings security in case he were exposed to any danger who answered very few and those not to be relied upon but returning to the King and believing that the Proclamation had been made that no Man should come to the Convention unsent for he found the Abbot of Dumfermling and the Earl of Marshal there the Abbot who was of the contrary Faction yet did by his Wit and Dissembling Practices so manage the King that the Proclamation was not only stopped but Missive Letters sent to the rest of the Nobility to come but under the Restriction that each Nobleman should come attended with no more than two Persons Some of his Adherents who foresaw this would unravel the whole design reminded him of the danger and advised him to retire into the Castle which they could not persuade him to do till after Supper Next day all the Lords as well written as unwritten for came to St. Andrews the latter strongly armed and the others not The Abbot who was with the King in the Castle pretending all manner of Zeal for his Service advised him to let none of the Lords come within the Castle accompanied with any more than twelve Persons which tho' he were now in a place of security if well managed had like to have brought him again into a State of Captivity for the next morning the Castle was full of Men and the contrary Party being well Armed had already possest themselves of the Stair-Head and Galleries resolving a second time to be Masters of the King and all his Followers but the Earl of March his Gentlemen with the Provosts Men and some others got thither with such diligence that the design was rendered Abortive for that time so that next day the King for fear of a further surprise gave them fair Words promising all alike there of his Favour and Protection which for the time seemed to give Contentment to all the parties In the mean while the Earl of Arran got the Favour to be confined in his own House at Kinneall from whence he sends to Congratulate his Majesty's safe deliverance begging leave to come to Court to kiss the King's Hand which for the time was deninied but he still persisting in his Sollicitation by the help of some Friends and promising to make no manner of stay but to withdraw again to his Habitation the King whose Affections were still towards him and Born it seems to be ruled by others tho' he could not chuse but know he was obnoxious to the whole Kingdom and had been a principal Cause of the King 's former confinement grants him leave the Earl had no sooner access no more thought of his Promise but staid not only at Court but in a short time altered all the ways of procedure with a design to draw the management of all publick Affairs to himself as before this was a great mortification to many about the King and Colonel Steward resented it highly saying That if his Majesty suffered that Villain to remain at Court he would yet again undo all but at last they were reconciled and became great Friends and from henceforward the Earl managed the King Council and all other Affairs of the Kingdom as despotically as if he had been Grand Signior or Mayor of the Palace in France the King was easily induced by him to spend most of his time a Hunting and to be content with whatever Relation he gave him of the Publick Affairs and when he had gained this point he bent his whole force for to ruin the Ruthwen Road Lords notwithstanding the Publick Faith given them for their Indemnity Queen Elizabeth about this time sent to King James a sharp Letter concerning his mismanagement of his Affairs and promised to send Sir Francis Walsingham into Scotland by whom she said she intended to deal with him as an Affectionate Sister and one from whom he might see he should receive Honour and Contentment with more safety to himself and Kingdom than by following the pernicious Councils of those crafty dissembling Advisers about him but there was nothing could stop the career of this mighty Favourite Arran who obtains the Government of Sterling-Castle to the rest and banished several Noblemen as the Earls of Mar Angus c. and by his insolent behaviour drove the Noble Earl of Gawry and almost all other honest Men from Court at length Walsingham arrived who after he had been with the King and pursued his Instructions prepared to return home Arran would fain have entred into a familiar Conference with him but Sir Francis disdained to speak with him the other enraged with the conceived affront and finding no other way of Revenge but what must bring great dishonour upon the King a poor tool to suffer it gave Orders that the Captains of Berwick and several worthy Gentlemen who came to convoy Secretary Walsingham should not be suffered to enter into the King's Presence-Chamber and not content herein when the King had ordered a rich Diamond to the value of 700 Crowns to be given to the Secretary instead thereof the Earl puts a scornful Present upon him of a Ring with a Chrystal stone sett therein only a Presumption undoubtedly that Harry 8. would have punisheed with the loss of his Head had the Earl been his Subject but this way of procedure was so far from exciting the King to vindicate his own Honour which was abominably blemish'd hereby that when he was determined to go to Edenburg to call a Convention of the Estates more Honours must be put upon the Earl for to that of the Government of Sterling-Castle already in his Hands was added that of Edenburg Castle the two most important Fortresses in the Kingdom and least a Military Power was not yet sufficient both for his Greatness and Security he gets himself Declared Lord Chancellor and so Head of the Civil Power in the Kingdom and now he Triumphs making the whole Subjects tremble under him and by daily seeking out and inventing new crimes against others to get their Lands and Possessions several of the Nobility he banished but more especially shot directly at the Earl of Gawrey's Life and Estate but the Earl could not be content to Domineer as he
to the abrogating of which by the enormous power of the Sword because he could by no means be induced he was brought thither to undergo a Martyrdom for his People Then he prayed and being minded by the Bishop to satisfie the Spectators as to his Religion he said that he had deposited the Testimony of his Faith with that holy Man meaning the Bishop That his Life and Profession had been well known and that now he died in the Christian Faith according to the Profession of the Church of England as the same was left him by his Father of Blessed Memory And then turning about to the Officers and professing the hopes he had of his Salvation he began to prepare for the Circumstances of Death The Bishop put on his Night-cap and uncloathed him to his Sky-coloured Sattin Wastcoat he delivered his George to the Bishop's hands and charged him to remember to give the same to the Prince and having prayed again he stooped down to the Block and had his Head severed from his Body at one Blow about Two of the Clock in the Afternoon the day aforesaid in the year 1648. dying the same death as to kind as his Grandmother Mary Queen of Scots had done sixty two years and eight days before at Fothringham Castle in Northamptonshire and I think was no whit inferior to her in the misfortunes of his Life And to note a few his three Favourites to wit Buckingham Laud and Strafford undergoing a violent death and the two latter falling by the Axe as forerunners of his own destiny And as to his own Personal errors when Bristol was cowardly surrendred by Fines had he then marched to London as he might have done very well all had been his own but loytering to no purpose at Gloucester he was soon after well banged by the Earl of Essex When he had worsted Essex in Cornwall he neglected the like opportunity of getting to London Guilty he was of the same oversight in not commanding the Duke of Newcastle to march Southwards toward the Metropolis of England before the Scots entred the English Borders and in not doing the like himself after he had taken Leicester for there was nothing then that could have hindred him to become Master of the City The same ill success he had as to his Treaties about being restored And in short he was generally unfortunate in the World in the esteem not only of his Enemies but in some sort of his Friends too for as the later were n'er pleased with his breach of Faith so the former would say he could never be fast enough bound and the Blood that some years before dropt upon his Statue at Greenwich and the falling off of the Silver Head of his Cane at his Trial were interpreted as dismal presages of his disastrous fate His Head and Trunk after the Execution were immediately put into a Coffin and conveyed to the Lodgings in Whitehall and there Embowelled and from thence conveyed to St. James House and Coffined in Lead About some fortnight after the Duke of Lennox Marquess of Hartford Earl of Southampton and Bishop of London got leave to bury the Body which they conducted to the Chappel at Windsor and Interred it there in the Vault of Henry the Eight with this Inscription only upon his Coffin Charles King of England And herein he was more unhappy than his Grandmother Mary for whereas her Corpse were some years after her death taken up by her Son King James and Reposited with all the Funeral Pomp that could be in the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh her Great Grand Father This King's Remains notwithstanding the Commons had Voted in 1669 the Sum of 50000 l. for the Charge of taking it up a Solemn Funeral had of it and a Monument for it yet lay neglected as if it had been blasted by fate King Charles the Second his Son they said forbidding of it A Physician that made inspection into the dissection of the Body related that nature had designed him above the most of mortal men for a long life but Providence ordered it otherwise for he was cut off in the Forty ninth year of his Age being his Climacterical and twenty fourth of his Reign leaving six Children behind him three Sons Charles Prince of Wales James Duke of York and Henry Duke of Gloucester whereof the two Elder were Exiles and three Daughters Mary Princess of Orange Elizabeth a Virgin who not long survived him and Henrietta Maria born at Exeter Charles his Eldest Son who was then at the Hague when he heard of his Father's disastrous fate assumed the Title of King of England c. tho an Exile and without any Kingdom to command He was born at St. James's May 30. 1630. it was said a Star appeared over the place where he had been born in broad day which in those times was interpreted to prognosticate his happiness but the Ecclipse of the Sun which happened presently after was no less a presage of his future Calamities There was little remarkable in him or concerning him till the year 1639 when the unhappy disaster of breaking his Arm befell him and that not long after he was afflicted with a violent Feaver accompanied with a little of the Jaundice but having at length recovered his perfect health and the fatal differences begun long before but now daily increasing between the King his Father and the People he accompanied him into the North of England where he was a Spectator of that dismall Cloud which tho small at its first gathering yet was pregnant with that dreadful storm which in a short time spread it self over him his Father and three Nations For going to take possession of Hull as they thought they were by Sir John Hotham denied Entrance and forced to wait several hours at the Gate all in vain From this time forward the War increasing between the King and Parliament he was first spectator of that successless Battle to his Father's Arms at Edgehill staid some time after at Oxford From thence returning to the Field and the King's forces in the West under the command of the Lord Hopton of which the Prince was nominally General being routed by General Fairfax he was necessitated to retire to the Isle of Scilly and from thence betook himself into France To whom his Father now depriv'd of Command himself sent a Commission of Generalissimo of those few Royalists that survived the late unhappy overthrows and this brought him to the Isle of Guernsey where he possest himself of some Vessels that lay there and having joyned them to those he had brought with him out of France he sailed from thence into the Downs where he seized several rich Merchant-Ships and expected some Land-forces from Holland raised by the Prince of Orange for his Service But alas he was as unfortunate now in his Warlike attempts as his Father had been before and was still in his Treaties of Peace for Poyer and Langhorn who made a
to run away with the prey from both of them The People of England were no more satisfied before with their imaginary happiness in the King's Restoration but they were now upon the ill management of Affairs the much Treasure that had been spent to so little purpose and more especially upon our Conjunction with the French to the manifest hazard of the Protestant Religion as well as the Civil Rights of Europe as much uneasie and suspitious of the Court-proceedings And it did not a little incense them that the French made such a Progress in Flanders and got all by Land while we got nothing but Blows at Sea and therefore the House of Commons on the 31. of October 1673. Voted that considering the present State of the Natition they would not take into further Consideration any Aids or Charges upon the Subject except it did appear that the obstinacy of the Dutch did render it necessary nor before the Kingdom should be effectually secured from Popery and Popish Counsels and other Grievances redressed which procedure thunder-struck the King and his Frenchified Council so as that a Peace with the Dutch was quickly huddled up and so he then set up for a Mediator of Peace between the rest and the Treaty spun out to a very great length at Nimeguen and was at last concluded after some years Conferences without King Charles consent by Beverning the Dutch Agent which spared him a labour of entring into an actual War with Franee as the Parliament would have had him and to which he was as unwilling as he had been before forward in his engaging against the Dutch a Protestant State The remainder of his succeeding Reign was as uneasie to himself and to the Nation upon the account first of the Popish Plot the many endeavours to stiffle it the Bill of Exclusion and the Division of the Nation into Whig and Torry hereupon then that called the Presbyterian Plot both Plots they said against his life which if true he was the more unhappy for which last the Noble Lord Russel suffered and the Great Earl of Essex had his Throat Barbarously cut in the Tower of London the King's Prison and King Charles had the unhappiness to be there that day where he had not been hardly in twenty years before And last of all the forfeiture and seizure of Charters which tho carried on with great fury in his Reign that thereby he might have a Parliament of his own choosing as Cromwell had and so do what he pleased yet he did not live to compleat his designs Tho' the Censures upon the manner of his Death are various yet most are agreed says the Author of the Introduction to King Charles II. Character there was some fraud in it some ascribing it to the intreagues of France who as they Undid his Father by a Wife Ruined the Son by a Mistress and therefore alleadge that the French King being weary of feeding him with Pensions and dreading his natural Parts if upon any disgust he should come to unite with his Parliaments against France he thought it his Interest to take him off and make way for a Successor who as he made open profession of his own Religion would be more pliable to his dictates Then as touching the method of effecting it they say that the Dutchess of P. who bewitched him with her Amours and had not only drained the substance of his Body but likewise the substance of his Purse either of which being once accomplished the Love of a St â—t to her Paramour vanishes so that having a mind to change Gallants or seeing no more hopes of former advantages she gave him such Provocatives as made him act beyond his natural Strength and threw him into those Apoplectick Fits which carryed him off There are others who ascribe his Death to the Romish Faction who being angry at his having so often deceived them and impatient till they came to a tryal of skill for establishing their Religion while Lewis XIV was in the height of his Power and Glory did therefore administer the fatal Dose which sent King Charles II. a Packing and brought his Brother to the Throne under whose auspicious Conduct they made no question of restoring the Church of Rome to the full possession of all she had formerly enjoy'd in these three Kingdoms It 's certain there were some accidents fell out some time before the King's Death that raised some Jealousy in the breast of the Romanists who thought by that he would upon the presenting of the first opportunity face about as they found by experience he had more then once done and fall in with the Interest of a Party he now for some years by their instigation had been endeavouring to destroy and root out of the World And what rendred their suspitions of him the more incurable was that a Pamphlet having been spread abroad a little before Christmas 1684. setting forth that the Earl of Essex had not cut his own Throat but had been Murdered by Russians set on by the Papists c. the King upon the hearing of it should say Well I am resolved to examine Essex's Cause once more And that he might meet with no obstruction in the way he ordered the Duke his Brother to prepare to go for Scotland which the other whether smelling the design or that the train to blow the King up was already layd by him absolutely refused to do this occasioned high words between them insomuch that the late M. of H. who was well known to be a great favourite coming on the Sunday before the King Dyed to wait upon him after Evening Service he found him in his Closet alone under great concern of Mind puffing after a more then ordinary rate and looking pensive with his Face towards the ground which the M. observing made him stand still till the King looking up asked hastily How now my Lord How do you do to which the M. answering the better to see his Majesty well and soforth the King returned again to his former posture but at length broke forth into these Words My Lord will you be ingenious with we and answer me one question to which the Marquess replying he would if he could Then said the King I charge you upon your Alleagiance to tell me how I stand affected with the People of England The M. after some pause answered Sir you have been always ranked among the mercifull and Clement Princes and have given evident Testimonies of your being so upon various occasions but I must tell your Majesty that of late your Government has been somewhat uneasy to your People Well said the King one thing I am resolved on I 'll once more throw my self upon the People of England and to that end will go this week into the City and I 'le call a Parliament at the Guild-Hall the M. was somewhat surprized at these words and said Sir If that be your Resolution I pray God to bless it but let me beg of