profitable for the commonweal, by the nobility and lords underwritten, that sic an young fool and proud tyran (as the King) should not bear rule of them-for divers causes, therefore, they had all concluded that he should be put forth by one way or other."

Such a bond shows how deeply determined the nobles of all parties were to get rid of this treacherous and overweening young man. The rumour of some such plan reached England, and probably reached Darnley himself. It was almost certain that he had some inkling of what was about to happen. The event was not long deferred. About ten months after the death of Rizzio, the King fell ill (January 1567); his disease is said to have been small-pox. As he was recovering Mary affected solicitude for his comfort, and visited him. It was agreed that he should be removed from Glas

Murder of

Darnley.

Feb. 10.

gow, where he was ill, to Craigmillar. This plan was afterwards changed, and Edinburgh was decided upon. Darnley felt a foreboding of his fate. He told Crawford, a follower of his father's, who was visiting him, "Though he liked it not, he would trust himself in her hands though she should cut his throat." Mary wrote that night to Bothwell, describing the scene. When it was arranged that Darnley should be taken to Edinburgh, it was alleged that Holyrood was not healthy for him, and he was to be taken to Kirk-o'-field, as he understood to the palace of the Hamiltons there. But Bothwell had arranged matters better than that. A lone, half-ruinous portion of a destroyed priory had been got ready for him, a room above for himself, and a room downstairs for the Queen. There she visited him, and there as usual she subdued him and made him again in love with her. But one day she suddenly remembered that her servant Bastia (or Sebastian) was going to be married, and that she must grace the festivities with her presence. Singularly, during the visit she had just paid her husband, she twice passed the door of her own room without entering it; had she done so she would have found the bed removed and the room filled with bags of gunpowder : all the previous night Bothwell and his friends had been storing it there. After she had gone, the arrangements were completed, and two of Bothwell's men were left in the house. Perhaps Darnley discovered them and tried to fly with his page, for their bodies were found strangled in a neighbouring orchard, and not among the ruins of the house. Bothwell came down to complete the explosion, but in his hurry seems to have forgotten to replace the bodies. When the train was lighted, he rushed home to bed, and received the

1567]

MURDER OF DARNLEY

509

news of the disaster with well-feigned astonishment and cries of treason.

Such acting, however, though helped by all the influence of the Queen, did not deceive the nation. Tickets and placards were soon affixed in the night to the walls charging Bothwell and others with the murder. Lennox, the murdered man's father, demanded speedy inquiry. Such an inquiry, in some form or other, could not be refused, but care might be taken to render it quite nugatory. Bothwell was allowed to remain at large and to enjoy the full favour of the Queen. Edinburgh Castle, commanding the place of trial, was put into his hands, and the town was filled with his followers. The day for the trial was fixed, and that at so short a distance of time that Lennox could have no opportunity of collecting evidence. Such short time as there was he employed in calling together armed followers, for it was evident that no justice could be obtained unless backed by force. A proclamation was then issued forbidding him to appear with more than six followers. Of course he could not thus risk his life among Bothwell's rough Border riders. All efforts had been in vain to procure any postponement of the trial. A messenger from Elizabeth, who brought a letter urging such a course, was kept outside Holyrood Palace, and saw Bothwell ride out in triumph to be tried, kissing his hand to the Queen, whose deep sleep had just before been urged as a reason for her not receiving Elizabeth's letter. The trial was conducted according to regular form. Although Lennox himself was not there, a gentleman of his party represented him, and demanded postponement of the trial for the usual legal period. He was scoffingly told that Lennox had urged a speedy trial, and in the absence of the accuser Bothwell was acquitted.

Very shortly after (April 1567), a Parliament, or something which represented it, was summoned, and the acquittal was ratified. After the close of the Parliament, Bothwell assembled the nobility at a place called Ainslie's Tavern, and there, after a boisterous evening, some eighteen or twenty noblemen were induced to sign a bond recommending the Queen to accept Bothwell for her husband. Though they signed the bond under the pressure of the despotism which Bothwell had in fact established, the idea of the marriage was none the less hateful to them. Probably they all intended to break the bond. It was to avoid such affairs as this, and such doubtful intrigues, which were inevitable in the midst of the suppressed indignation of all classes of the people at the idea of the Bothwell marriage, that Murray had withdrawn to France. It would not do for him to sully his name

in the rough and underhand transactions which he saw were imminent, as it was his business to reserve himself till he could appear on the scene as the single, irreproachable representative of a reformed Government. The hatred with which the match was regarded was known to Bothwell, and in spite of his apparent prosperity, it seemed necessary both to him and Mary to take some instant measure to secure it ; besides which, there was some little difficulty in procuring the divorce from his wife, who was a sister of Huntly's. To sweeten what would otherwise have been an intolerable insult to the powerful family of the Gordons, much of the property which had been confiscated after the skirmish of Corrichie was to be restored. Bothwell therefore made a plan, of which Mary was probably cognizant, for carrying off the Queen. She went to see her child, who was in the keeping of the Earl of Mar at Stirling. She probably intended to have got possession of the child, but Mar was conscious that such a step would be most injurious to the cause of the opposition nobles. The Queen was therefore admitted, with only a few attendants. The interview was, according to some stories, an affecting one; according to others, the Queen tried to poison the child with an apple and a sugar-plum, "judged to be very evil compounded." As she returned from Stirling, in company with Huntly, Maitland, and Melville, and a considerable guard, Bothwell, with a force he had collected professedly to ride to the Border, blocked her path close to Edinburgh, at a place now called Fountainbridge, surrounded her escort, and, with every sign of connivance on her part, carried her off to his castle of Dunbar.1 The great Lords of Scotland—Mar, Morton, Athole, and Argyle—at once determined that, come what would, so Bothwell carries scandalous a connection must be put an end to. Either France or England might be expected to assist them, and they determined on immediate action. Meanwhile, the Queen and Bothwell returned to Edinburgh, and flaunted their loves in the eyes of the populace. Whether the Queen yielded to violence at first, as she represented, or not, it was plain that now, at all events, she was well pleased with her lover. She created him Duke of Orkney, and on the 15th of May married him in the Protestant form, and was so changed by her love, that she suffered all licenses to use the Catholic worship to be recalled, and declared her intention of adhering strictly to the Confession of 1560.

off the Queen.

the Bor

The Lords determined to attack Bothwell, who, to be beforehand with them, ordered his followers to collect upon ders. He went down to join them, leaving the Queen at

Anger of

the nobles.

1 This fortress had been conferred on Bothwell in 1566.

1567]

MARY IMPRISONED

Battle of

June 15.

511

Borthwick Castle, whither he returned upon finding that his plan had failed. Some of the Lords, hearing where he was, rode down and nearly captured him there. With difficulty he escaped to Dunbar, whither on the following day Mary fled to him in the disguise of a page. All her own wardrobe was wanting, and she borrowed from some attendant a bodice and a little red petticoat reaching only half way down her leg. In this strange dress she issued forth with her husband, who had collected some troops at Dunbar, to meet the rebel Lords. She met them at Carberry Hill, not far from the site of the battle of Pinkie. Some attempts at media- Carberry Hill. tion were made by the French ambassador, but in vain. A single combat between Bothwell and some champion on the other side was imminent, but prevented evidently by the Queen's anxiety. The Lords' ultimatum was the dismissal of Bothwell, and as, after a hot day, his undisciplined army was melting away in search of refreshments or in desertion, and the Lords were seen advancing to execute their threats, Mary yielded at last to necessity, suffered Bothwell to tear himself from her, and gave herself up as prisoner to the Lords. Bothwell fled to Dunbar, and afterwards turned rover in the Northern The poor Queen, in her quaint dress and almost beside herself with anger, was taken into Edinburgh amid the coarse jests of the populace. All night long she was unable to calm herself, and appeared again and again at the window, with torn hair and dishevelled dress, only to encounter the sight of the terrible banner portraying her husband's death, which was erected opposite her window. There was much danger that she would be put to death; but Mary is imprisomewhat gentler counsels prevailed, and she was sent soned in Locha prisoner to Lochleven Castle. While there she was per- abdicates. suaded to abdicate in favour of her young son. Murray, who was summoned home from France, was named Regent, and till his arrival the Government was carried on by a Committee of Regency. The Lords, under his able guidance, proceeded quietly in their course, determined, if possible, that neither French nor English should mingle in the present quarrel. Eleven months elapsed, during which Mary's friends somewhat recovered from the blow they had received, and organized plans for her escape. At last, Mary escapes.

seas.

after more than one futile effort, she succeeded in leaving

leven, and

Lochleven Castle by the aid of a page known as the Little Douglas. Lord Seton met her on the shore, and a rapid ride, such as only a woman of her strength could have borne, brought her to Hamilton, where her friends were collected. Murray was at Glasgow, a few

side. Mary seeks refuge in England.

miles off, unprepared for an assault. But he succeeded in collecting Battle of Lang- troops before a blow was struck against him, and as the Queen was advancing to secure Dumbarton Castle, the stronghold on the mouth of the Clyde, he encountered and routed her forces at Langside. She fled to the South of Scotland, and, crossing the Solway, threw herself on the hospitality of England, where she was honourably received by the gentry of the neighbourhood.

May 13, 1568.

Consequent increase of

Elizabeth's dif

culties, already

enhanced by

the affairs of

The arrival of Mary still further increased the difficulties of Elizabeth. The determination to suppress heresy, arrived at in the year 1565, had shown itself chiefly in the conduct of Spain towards the Netherlands. About the same time as the abdication of Mary, the Duke of Alva the Netherlands, had succeeded the Regent, Margaret of Parma, in the government of the Netherlands. He had brought with him a powerful army, which was to reduce that refractory country and root out heresy. Shortly after the death of Charles V., edicts had been issued against the Protestants, authorizing their suppression by illegal military courts. Against these unconstitutional measures the nobles had successfully protested. Philip had withdrawn to Spain, and had left his sister to carry on the government. As far as it was possible, she had carried out the edicts, and crowds of artisans had left the country to settle in England or to join their brethren in France. The stadtholders of the provinces, headed by William of Orange and Counts Egmont and Horn, unable to check the severity of the bishops, but unwilling to rebel, had petitioned Philip to postpone the carrying out of the edicts. The common people could not wholly imitate their moderation; rebellions broke out, which were speedily checked by the stadtholders; but Philip had found the excuse he wanted, and Alva, with an army, was sent to suppress all further signs of discontent with a high hand. Counts Egmont and Horn, though they received him loyally, were imprisoned for having petitioned against the edicts, and shortly afterwards beheaded. William of Orange had taken flight in time, and with some assistance from the Germans, and from his own province of Nassau, began an open war. The opening was disastrous to William; his brother Count Louis was defeated, and his army absolutely destroyed, at the battle of Jemmingen, on July 21, and the rest of the campaign was equally unsuccessful.

The Queen's difficulties were no longer confined to the attacks of the Roman Catholics. The Puritans had sprung into of the Puritans. existence as a separate body. When first the Act of

and by the rise