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pressed her desires that he might come to Scotland as soon as might be, but wished him to delay coming till he should hear from her once more, that she might have all things prepared for his reception. He upon that wrote to her in a very vehement style, pressing her to zeal and fortitude of mind, in carrying on the restoring the catholic religion in her kingdom with that he sent her over four thousand crowns, and sent one Edmund Hay, a Jesuit, and a man of a cunning and penetrating temper, to be a secret assistant to her in particular, he pressed her either to punish, or at least to disgrace Lethington, who he believed set on all the tumults, and was a determined heretic, and a favourer of the earl of Murray.

Con has printed these letters*. Pius the Fifth's letter bears date the 16th of June 1566. In it "he recommends his nuncio to her confidence, who was then bishop of Mondovi (Montis Regalis), and promises all possible assistance to her, in her design of bringing back her kingdom to the obedience of the holy see." Queen Mary's answer bears date the 9th of October that year, from Edinburgh: "she in it acknowledges the pope's favour and bounty to her: she adds some high expressions of her sense of the pope's zeal and piety, and promises to treat his nuncio with all respect and confidence. She tells him that she had borne a son, and that she had brought her nobility, though not without much difficulty, to consent that he should be publicly baptized after the manner of the catholic church. She promises to bring him up in that religion; and she hoped this should prove a good beginning of restoring the right use of the sacraments in her dominions." The pope seemed much pleased with this beginning of his pontificate; and in his answer, on the 22d of January following, "he congratulates the birth and baptism of her son, and prays that it may have a good effect.

Three months passed before Laurea had any intimation from the queen concerning his coming over: upon which he sent the bishop of Dunblane, who was then at Paris, with copious advices to that queen, and continued to press her very earnestly by his letters to admit of his coming over: the substance of all which is set forth in his life. He tells us further," that the queen held a convention of the estates, and had obtained two things of them, not without difficulty: the one was, that her child should be baptized according to the rites of the Roman church; and the other was, that the pope's nuncio should be admitted with due respect.'

* Life of Queen Mary, printed at Rome, an. 1624.

Upon this the nuncio designed to go to Antwerp, thinking that the navigation would be safer from thence than from Calais. But then he adds, "that such a barbarous and impious crime was committed in Scotland, that it gave a horror to think of it, much more to write of it." Of what follows in that life I will add a verbal translation.

"The king, as was said, had the small-pox; upon which, that the contagion might not endanger the queen, he retired to a house at some distance from the palace. As he began to recover, he was often visited by her. One day they supped together, and after much discourse, and that they had diverted themselves till it was late, the queen pretended she could not stay with him all night, for one of her maids of honour being married that day, she must, according to the custom of former queens, see the bride put to bed. She was scarce gone, when some gunpowder that was secretly laid under the house was fired, so that the whole house was blown up, and the king killed: though some said that he was not blown up, but that, hearing some noise of armed men, he had got out by a back-door into a neighbouring garden; and that he and one of his servants were strangled before the house was blown up. It is certain that the king's dead body was found in that garden, with no other hurt, but that about his neck a blackness appeared all round it. When this base murder was known, all people were struck with horror some spoke severely of the queen herself: libels were published upon it; and some haying discovered that Bothwell was the author of this horrid murder, they charged him as being not only an assassinate, but a cruel hangman. It being on such occasions ordinary for people to search into and to discover such things.

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"Bothwell, though a heretic, had been always zealous for the queen, and faithful to her: and he had lately with great courage rescued her out of a danger she was in from a very great sedition: besides that, the queen loved him desperately; therefore he, in hope to be married to the queen, first divorced his wife, as if upon adultery that might be so done, that he might marry another wife, and then he cruelly contrived the murdering the king. The queen, after she had borne down some very wicked reports concerning herself and Bothwell, being afraid of some tumult that might have been fatal to them, thought fit to leave Edinburgh. So she carried her son with her to Stirling, a place of defence: having laid (as is probable) a design with Bothwell how matters were to be managed. A few days after she pretended to go out a hunting; then Bothwell with two hundred horse seemed to surprise her, and to seize her by force. But the

queen coming back with him to the castle, presently made him duke of Orkney, and declared him her husband. That marriage did neither prove happy nor lasting it being a conjunction that had nothing of the matrimonial dignity in it, but had sprung from a partnership in an unworthy crime. Murray was then out of Scotland; but he had left Ledington among others behind him, who were to raise new quarrels and tumults upon every occasion. It was easy to Ledington to work up the minds of the people, who were universally enraged against the queen and Bothwell, to a great flame: therefore a tumultuary army being in haste brought together at Edinburgh, they marched towards Stirling. But when the queen heard that, she, with a few women, and some of her court, went to them. They received her with due respect and being asked why they came thither armed, they answered, they came only to punish Bothwell for the crimes committed by him, both in the base and cruel murder of the king, and in the force he had put on her person. The queen justified Bothwell; and said, he had done nothing but by her consent: this did provoke them to such a degree of indignation, that they cried all out with one voice, Then, Madam, you shall be our prisoner:' and without more delay, they imprisoned her in a castle within an island in Lochlevin; appointing only one footman and two ordinary women to attend upon her."

Thus the pope's nuncio understood this matter. There are some inconsiderable circumstances in this relation wrong told; yet the main of the story agreeing with other relations, shows how falsely this matter has been since that time represented, not only by writers in the church of Rome, but by many among ourselves, to put better colours on this odious business. To this (that I may end all this unhappy matter at once, without adding any reflection on it, or telling what were the censures that passed on this occasion; of which I have a great variety on both sides by me, in books printed very near that time), I shall only add another very important passage, that is in the life of that cardinal (p. lxxiv), relating to the_testament, which that queen wrote with her own hand in French, the day before she was beheaded. In it "she expressed her constant zeal for the catholic religion; and provided, that if the prince, her son, did not renounce the false and heretical persuasions which he had drank in, the inheritance of the crown of England should never descend to him; but should devolve from him to Philip king of Spain. When this original will was brought to the cardinal, he examined it with great care that so it might appear that it was truly her last will, and

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that it ought to be acknowledged as such. He compared it with the letters he had formerly received from that queen and not only he himself, but one Lewis Owen, an Englishman (bishop of Casana), then Rome, whom the writer calls a pious and a most honest man, signed and attested it. The will being thus confirmed, and as it were fortified by a public authority, he delivered it to the count of Olivares, the king of Spain's ambassador, that it might be faithfully transmitted to that king himself." I have put the words of the author of that life, in the language in which he wrote it, in the Collection (No. xciv); so that the reader may compare the translation I have given with the original. I leave this dismal relation as I found it in these vouchers, without any further canvassing of that black affair; which was followed by a train of very extraordinary transactions.

The Scottish nation, both papists and protestants, concurred in the new settlement; of which I shall give a particular account from an authentic proof lately found in Scotland, and now kept in the library of the college of Glasgow it is the first bond of association that was entered into, upon the resignation of the crown, which the queen was prevailed on to make (by force, as she afterwards declared, when she made her escape out of the prison, with which she was threatened); she sent it by the Lord Lindsay (ancestor to the earl of Crawford), and the Lord Ruthven, afterwards made earl of Gowry. This bears date at Edinburgh, the 24th of July 1567. By it she resigned the crown to her son; and during his infancy, she named the earl of Murray to be regent, who was then in France, and did not come to Scotland, at least he did not sign this bond before the 22d of August. But in the council-book, on the 25th of July, the bond itself is entered on record; and the council removing to Stirling on the 29th of July, the queen's resignation was presented, and received by the earls of Morton, Athol, Glencairn, Mar, Monteith, the Master of Grame, the Lord Home, and the bishop of Orkney, in the name of the three estates: and the earl of Morton taking the coronationoath in the name of the prince, he was anointed and crowned by the bishop of Orkney, who did indeed little honour to this ceremony; for he, a few days before, had performed the nuptial ceremonies between the queen and the earl of Bothwell. Upon all this, the bond (which is in the Collection, No. xcv) was made to this purpose: "That whereas the queen, being weary of the pains and travail of government, and desiring that in her life-time her son might be placed in the kingdom, and be obeyed by all her subjects,

had resigned the crown in favour of her son: they therefore promised, and bound themselves to assist their king, in setting him on the throne, and putting the crown on his head and that they should give their oaths of homage, with all dutiful obedience, to him, as became true subjects; and should concur in establishing him in his kingdom, and resist all such as should oppose it."

This was made up in some sheets of vellum; and there are above two hundred hands of the most eminent families of that kingdom set to that bond. Twenty-five of these were then earls and lords; and there are fifteen others, whose families are since that time advanced to be of the nobility. The noblemen are, the earl of Murray (who signs James regent), the earls of Huntley, Argyle, Athol, Morton, Mar, Glencairn, Errol, Buchan; the Lords Graham, Home, Ruthen, Sanquar, Glams, Lindsay, Carlisle, Borthwick, Innermaith, Uchiltry, Sempil, Methven, Cathcart, Grey, Ross, Lovat, and the master of Montross; for earls' sons were then so designed. The noble families, whose ancestors signed this bond, are, Buccleugh, Queensberry, Athol, Roxburgh, Anandale, Galloway, Findlater, Panmur, Dalhousy, Leven, Stair, Kenmore, Jedburgh, Cranston, Kircudbright.

Besides those who subscribed the first bond, there was a second bond (that is likewise in the Collection, No. xcvi), entered into in April 1569; “ by which they did not only acknowledge the king's authority, but likewise (during the king's minority) the authority of the earl of Murray, as regent; renouncing all other authority. And they swear to observe this bond; in which, if they failed, they are contented to be counted false, perjured, and defamed for ever." This, besides many of those who signed the former bond, was signed by the earls of Crawford and Cassilis, and the Lords Salton, Ogilby, Oliphant, and the ancestors of the earls of Seaforth and Southesk, and of the Lord Duffus. And in a subsequent bond, signed to the earl of Morton when he was regent, there are five other lords who signed it the earl of Angus, ancestor to the duke of Douglas; the Lord Levingston, Drummond, Boyd, and Hoy of Yester, the ancestors of the earls of Linlithgow, Perth, and Kilmarnock, and of the marquis of Tweedale.

These were for the greatest part protestants: but there were many papists that joined with them. The earl of Huntley, ancestor to the present duke of Gordon, was the head of the popish party. The earl of Athol, whose name was Stuart, and whose family is since extinct in the male line, protested against the Reformation in parliament, and

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