The Mystery of Mary Stuart
Firste I made my L. mye masters humble com̃endac̃ons vnto her Mati wth thexcuse yt he came not to mete her praing her grace not to thinke it was eathr for prowdnesse or yet for not knowinge hys duetye towardes her highnesse, but onelye for want of helye at ye present, and allso yt he woulde not p’sume to com in her presence vntille he knewe farder her minde bicause of the sharpe Wordes yt she had spoken of him to Robert Cuningham hys servant in Sterling. Wherebye he thought he Was in her Matis displesvre Notwithstanding he hathe sent hys servantᕦ and frendᕦ to waite vppon her Mati.
She aunswered yt there was no recept against feare.
I aunswered yt mye L. had no feare for anie thinge he knewe in him sellf, but onelye of the colde and vnkinde Wordes she had spoken to hys servant.
She aunswered and said yt he woulde not be a fraide in case he were not culpable.
I aunswered yt I knewe so farr of hys Lordsh. yt he desired nothing more than yt the secretts vf everye creatures harte were writtē in theire face.
She asked me yf I had anie farder com̃ission.
I aunswered no.
Then she com̃aunded me to holde mye peace.
The Wordes yt I remembr were betwixt the Kinge and the Q. in Glasco when she took him awaie to Edinbrowghe.
The Kinge for yt mye L. hys father was then absent and sicke, bye reason whereof he could not speke wth him him sellfe, called me vnto him and theise wordes that had then passed betwixt him and the Quene, he gaue me in remembraunce to reporte vnto the said mye Lord hys father.
After theire metinge and shorte speking to gethr she asked him of his lr̃es, wherein he complained of the cruelltye of som.
He aunswered yt he complained not wthowt cause and as he beleved, she woulde graunte her sellfe when she was well advised.
She asked him of hys sicknesse, he answered yt she was the cause thereof, and moreover he saide, Ye asked me What I ment bye the crueltye specified in mye lr̃es, yt procedeth of yow onelye yt wille not accepte mye offres and repentaunce, I confesse yt I haue failed in som thingᕦ, and yet greater fautes haue bin made to yow sundrye times, wch ye haue forgiuē. I am but yonge, and ye will saye ye haue forgiuē me diverse tymes. Maye not a man of mye age for lacke of Counselle, of wch I am verye destitute falle twise or thrise, and yet repent and be chastised bye experience? Yf I haue made anye faile yt ye but thinke a faile, howe so ever it be, I crave yor ᵱdone and protest yt I shall never faile againe. I desire no othr thinge but yt we maye be to geathr as husband and wife. And yf ye will not consent hereto, I desire never to rise forthe of thys bed. Therefore I praye yow give me an aunswer here vnto. God knowethe howe I am punished for makinge mye god of yow and for having no othr thowght but on yow. And yf at anie tyme I offend yow, ye are the cause, for yt whẽ anie offendethe me, if for mye refuge I might open mye minde to yow, I woulde speak to no other, but whē anie thinge ys spokē to me, and ye and I not beinge as husband and wife owght to be, necessite compelleth me to kepe it in my breste and bringethe me in suche melancolye as ye see me in.
She aunswered yt it semed him she was sorye for hys sicknesse, and she woulde finde remedye therefore so sone as she might.
She asked him Whye he woulde haue passed awaye in Thenglishe shipp.
He aunswered yt he had spokē wt thenglishe mã but not of minde to goe awaie wt him. And if he had, it had not bin wthowt cause consideringe howe he was vsed. For he had neathr to susteine him sellfe nor hys servantᕦ, and nede not make farder rehersalle thereof, seinge she knewe it as well as he.
Then she asked him of the purpose of Hegate, he aunswered yt it was tolde him.
She required howe and bye whome it was told him.
He aunswered yt the L. of Minto tolde him yt a lr̃e was presented to her in Cragmiller made bye her own divise and subscribed by certeine others who desired her to subscribe the same, wch she refused to doe. And he said that he woulde never thinke yt she who was his owne propre fleshe, woulde do him anie hurte, and if anie othr woulde do it, theye shuld bye it dere, vnlesse theye took him sleping, albeit he suspected none. So he desired her effectuouslye to beare him companye. For she ever fownde som adoe to drawe her selfe frõ him to her owne lodginge and woulde never abyde wt him past two howres at once.
She was verye pensiffe. Whereat he fownd faulte he said to her yt he was advrtised she had browght a litter wt her.
She aunswered yt bicause she vnderstoode he was not hable to ryde on horseback, she brought a litter, yt he might be caried more softlye.
He aunswered yt yt was not mete for a sick mā to travelle yt coulde not sitt on horsebacke and especiallye in so colde weather.
She aunswered yt she would take him to Cragmiller where she might be wt him and not farre from her sonne.
He aunswered yt vppon condic̃on he would goe wth her wch was that he and she might be to geathr at bedde and borde as husband and wife, and yt she should leaue him no more. And if she would promise him yt, vppon her worde he would goe wth her, where she pleised wthowt respecte of anye dangr eathr of sicknesse, wherein he was, or otherwise. But if she would not condescend thereto, he would not goe wth her in anye wise.
She aunswered that her comminge was onelye to that effecte, and if she had not bin minded thereto, she had not com so farre to fetche him, and so she graunted hys desire and pomised him yt it should be as he had spoken, and therevppon gave him her hand and faithe of her bodye yt she woulde love him and vse him as her husband. Notwithstanding before theye coulde com to geathr he must be purged and clensed of hys sicknesse, wch she truisted woulde be shortlye for she minded to giue him the bathe at Cragmillr. Than he said he would doe what soever she would have him doe, and would love all that she loved. She required of him in especialle, whome he loved of the nobilitie and Whome he hated.
He aunswered yt he hated no mã, and loved all alike well.
She asked him how he liked the Ladye Reresse and if he were angrye wth her.
He aunswered yt he had litle minde of suche as she was, and wished of God she might serve her to her honor.
Then she desired him to kepe to him sellfe the promise betwixt him and her, and to open it to nobodye. For ᵱadventure the Lordes woulde not thinke welle of their suddine agrement, consideringe he and theye were at some wordes before.
He aunswered that he knew no cause whye theye shulde mislike of it, and desired her yt she would not move anye of thẽ against him even as he woulde stirre none againste her, and yt theye would worke bothe in one mind, otherwise it might tourne to greatr inconvenience to them bothe.
She aunswered yt she never sowght anye waie bye him, but he was in fault him sellfe.
He aunswered againe yt hys faultes were published and yt there were yt made greatr faultes than ever he made yt beleved were vnknownē, and yet theye woulde speke of greate and smale.
Farder the Kinge asked me at yt present time what I thowght of hys voyage. I aunswered yt I liked it not, bicause she tooke him to Cragmillr. For if she had desired him wth her sellf or to have had hys companye, she would haue taken him to hys owne howse in Edinbr̃. Where she might more easely visit him, than to travelle two myles owt of the towne to a gentlemãis house. Therefore mye opiniō was yt she tooke him awaye more like a prisonr than her husbande.
He aunswered yt he thowght litle lesse him sellf and feared him sellfe indeid save the confidence, he had in her promise onelye, notwithstandinge he woulde goe wth her, and put him sellfe in her handes, thowghe she showlde cutte hys throate and besowghte God to be iudge vnto them bothe.
Endorsed: ‘Thomas Crawfordᕦ deposit.’
1
Blackwood’s Magazine, December, 1889.
2
Bond.
3
Laing, ii. 284.
4
See Murdin, p. 57.
5
Among the mysteries which surround Mary, we should not reckon the colour of her hair! Just after her flight into England, her gaoler, at Carlisle, told Cecil that in Mary Seton the Queen had ‘the finest busker of a woman’s hair to be seen in any country. Yesterday and this day she did set such a curled hair upon the Queen, that was said to be a perewyke, that showed very delicately, and every other day she hath a new device of head dressing that setteth forth a woman gaily well.’ Henceforth Mary varied the colour of her ‘perewykes.’ She had worn them earlier, but she wore them, at least at her first coming into England, for the good reason that, in her flight from Langside, she had her head shaved, probably for purposes of disguise. So we learn from Nau, her secretary. Mary was flying, in fact, as we elsewhere learn, from the fear of the fiery death at the stake, the punishment of husband-murder. Then, and then only, her nerve broke down, like that of James VIII. at Montrose; of Prince Charles after Culloden; of James VII. when he should have ridden with Dundee to the North and headed the clans.
6
The papers used by Lennox in getting up his indictment against Mary are new materials, which we often have occasion to cite.
7
Mr. Henderson doubts if Darnley knew French.
8
M. Jusserand has recently seen the corpse of Bothwell. Appendix A.
9
Actio, probably by Dr. Wilson, appended to Buchanan’s Detection.
10
Teulet, ii. p. 176. Edinburgh, June 17, 1567.
11
See a facsimile in Teulet, ii. 256.
12
Appendix B. ‘Burning of the Lyon King at Arms.’
13
The private report is in the Lennox MSS.
14
See the sketch, coloured, in Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. i. p. 184.
15
See description by Alesius, about 1550, in Bannatyne Miscellany, i. 185-188.
16
Information from Father Pollen, S.J.
17
This gentleman must not be confused with Ormistoun of Ormistoun, in Teviotdale, ‘The Black Laird,’ a retainer of Bothwell.
18
Riddell, Inquiry into the Law and Practice of the Scottish Peerage, i. 427. Joseph Robertson, Inventories, xcii., xciii. Schiern, Life of Bothwell, p. 53.
19
Randolph to Cecil, Edinburgh, Sept. 23, 1560. Foreign Calendar, 1560-61, p. 311.
20
Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots, p. 236, note 32.
21
Cal. For. Eliz. 1561-62, iv. 531-539.
22
Knox, Laing’s edition, ii. 322-327. Randolph to Cecil ut supra.
23
Knox, ii. 347.
24
Knox, ii. 473.
25
Hay Fleming, p. 359, note 29.
26
Knox, ii. 479.
27
See Cal. For. Eliz. 1565, 306, 312, 314, 319, 320, 327, 340, 341, 347, 351.
28
Calendar, Bain, ii. 223.
29
Bain, ii. 213.
30
Ibid. ii. 242, 243.
31
Hosack, i. 524.
32
Cal. For. Eliz. 1564-5, 464.
33
Bain, ii. 222-223.
34
Bain, ii. 225. Cal. For. Eliz. 1564-5, 464, 495. Hay Fleming, pp. 380, 381.
35
Miss Strickland avers that ‘existing documents afford abundant proof, that whenever Darnley and the Queen were together, his name was written by his own hand.’
36
October 31, 1565. Bain, ii. 232.
37
Bain, ii. 234.
38
Randolph to Cecil, Nov. 19, Dec. 1, 1565. Bain, ii. 241, 242.
39
Bain, ii. 242.
40
Buchanan, Historia, 1582, fol. 210.
41
Bain, ii. 247.
42
The Foreign Calendar cites Randolph up to the place where amantium iræ is quoted, but omits that. The point is important, if it indicates that Randolph had ceased to believe in Mary’s amour with Riccio. Cf. Bain, ii. 248.
43
Nau, p. 192.
44
The subject is discussed, with all the evidence, in Hay Fleming, pp. 379, 380, note 33.
45
Ruthven’s Narrative. Keith, iii. 260. There are various forms of this Narrative; one is in the Lennox MSS.
46
Goodall, i. 274.
47
Bain, ii. 255.
48
Printed in a scarce volume, Maitland’s Narrative, and in Tytler, iii. 215. 1864.
49
Bain, ii. 259-261.
50
Goodall, i. 266-268.
51
Hosack, ii. 78, note 3.
52
See Dr. Stewart, A Lost Chapter in the History of Mary Queen of Scots, pp. 93, 94.
53
This is alleged by Mary, and by Claude Nau, her secretary.
54
Goodall, i. 264, 265.
55
Bain, ii. 289.
56
Cal. For. Eliz. viii. 51.
57
Bain, ii. 276. Cal. For. Eliz. viii. 52.
58
Cal. For. Eliz. viii. 62.
59
Bain ii. 278.
60
Ibid. ii. 281.
61
See Joseph Robertson’s Inventories, 112.
62
Bain, ii. 283.
63
Melville, pp. 154, 155.
64
Bain, ii. 288, 289.
65
Bain, ii. 290.
66
Bain, ii. 294.
67
Nau, 20, 22.
68
Bain, ii. 296.
69
Detection, 1689, pp. 2, 3.
70
Cal. For. Eliz. viii. 118.
71
Stevenson, Selections, pp. 163-165.
72
Cheruel, Marie Stuart et Catherine de Médicis, p. 47.
73
Robertson, Inventories, p. 167.
74
Bain, ii. 300.
75
Detection (1689), p. 4.
76
Bain, ii. 440.
77
Bannatyne, Journal, p. 238. This transference of disease, as from Archbishop Adamson to a pony, was believed in by the preachers.
78
Teulet, Papiers d’État, ii. 139-146, 147, 151. See also Keith, ii. 448-459.
79
Frazer, The Lennox, ii. 350, 351.
80
Cal. For. Eliz. ix. 354, 355.
81
Laing, ii. 331, 334.
82
Nau, p. 35.
83
Bain, ii. 599, 600.
84
Bain, ii. 276.
85
Diurnal, p. 99.
86
See the evidence in Hay Fleming, 414, note 61.
87
Cal. For. Eliz. viii. 139. Diurnal, 101.
88
Teulet, ii. 150.
89
Laing, ii. 72.
90
Hay Fleming, 418, 419.
91
Queen Mary at Jedburgh, p. 23.
92
Bain, ii. 597-599. Anderson, iv. pt. ii. 186. Keith, iii. 290-294.
93
Goodall, ii. 359.
94
Historia, fol. 214.
95
Keith, iii. 294. Bain, ii. 600.
96
Laing, ii. 293, 294.
97
The original MS. has been corrected by Lennox, in the passages within brackets. The italics are my own.
98
Bain, ii. 516, 517.
99
De Brienne came to Craigmillar on November 21, 1566, Diurnal.
100
Nau, p. 33.
101
Bain, ii. 293, 310.
102
Melville, p. 172. (1827.)
103
Crawford, in his deposition against Mary, says that she spoke sharp words of Lennox, at Stirling, to his servant, Robert Cunningham.
104
Keith, i. xcviii.
105
Bain, ii. 293. This Rogers it was who, later, informed Cecil that ‘gentlemen of the west country’ had sent to Darnley a chart of the Scilly Isles. If Darnley, among other dreams, thought of a descent on them, as he did on Scarborough, he made no bad choice. Mr. A. E. W. Mason points out to me that the isles ‘commanded the Channel, and all the ships from the north of England,’ which passed between Scilly and the mainland, twenty-five miles off. The harbours being perilous, and only known to the islesmen, a small fleet at Scilly could do great damage, and would only have to run back to be quite safe. Darnley, in his moods, was capable of picturing himself as a pirate chief.
106
Hay Fleming, p. 415, note 63.
107
Labanoff, ii.
108
Labanoff, i. 396-398. Mary to Beaton, Jan. 20, 1567.
109
Hosack, ii. 580. Crawford’s deposition.
110
Hosack, i. 534.
111
Cal. For. Eliz. viii. 163, 164. January 9, 1567.
112
See Appendix C, ‘The date of Mary’s visit to Glasgow.’
113
The ‘undermining and’ are words added by Lennox himself to the MS. They are important.
114
Maitland of Lethington.
115
Cal. For. Eliz. viii. 167-168.
116
On July 16, 1583, she wrote from Sheffield to Mauvissière, the French Ambassador, bidding him ask the King of France to give Archibald Douglas a pension, ‘because he is a man of good understanding and serviceable where he chooses to serve, as you know.’ She intended to procure his pardon from James (Labanoff, v. 351, 368). She employed him, and he betrayed her.
117
Laing, ii. 223-236.
118
Bain, ii. 599, 600.
119
Registrum de Soltre, p. xxxv, Bannatyne Club, 1861.
120
Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh, March 14, 1541.
121
Registrum de Soltre, xxxvii.
122
Burgh Records, Nov. 5, 1557.
123
Burgh Records, Feb. 19, 1560, March 12, 1560.
124
Burgh Records.
125
Keith, ii. 151, 152. Editor’s note.
126
Registrum de Soltre, p. xli.
127
Burgh Records, Feb. 19, March 12, 1560.
128
Laing, ii. 254.
129
Lennox MSS.
130
See Hay Fleming, p. 434.
131
Lennox’s sources must have been Nelson and the younger Standen, to whom Bothwell gave a horse immediately after the murder. Standen returned to England four months later.
132
Diurnal, 105, 106.
133
Keith, i. cii.
134
Register Privy Council, i. 498.
135
Melville, p. 174, Bannatyne Club.
136
Labanoff, vii. 108, 109, Paris. March 16, 1567.
137
Hosack, i. 536, 537.
138
Spanish Calendar, i. 635, April 23.
139
Hosack, i. 534. The ‘Book of Articles,’ of 1568, was obviously written under the impression left by a forged letter of Mary’s, or by the reports of such a letter, as we shall show later. Yet the author cites a Casket Letter as we possess it.
140
Bain, ii. 393.
141
This is not, I think, a letter of September 5, but of September 16, but in Foreign Calendar Elizabeth, viii. p. 342, most of the passage quoted by Mr. Hosack is omitted.
142
Laing, ii. 28.
143
Cal. For. Eliz. viii. p. 392.
144
Laing, ii. 256.
145
Diurnal, 127, 128. Cal. For. Eliz. viii. 393.
146
Hosack, ii. 245.
147
This was obvious to Laing. Replying to Goodall’s criticism of verbal coincidences in the confessions, Laing says, ‘as if in any subsequent evidence concerning the same fact, the same words were not often dictated by the same Commissioner, or recorded by the Clerk, from the first deposition which they hold in their hands.’ It does not seem quite a scientific way of taking evidence.
148
See the Confessions, Laing, ii. 264.
149
Bain, ii. 312, 313.
150
Arnott and Pitcairn, Criminal Trials.
151
Buchanan, History (1582), fol. 215.
152
Maitland Miscellany, iv. p. 119.
153
French Foreign Office, Registre de Depesches d’Ecosse, 1560-1562, fol. 112.
154
Cal. For. Eliz. viii. p. 7, No. 31.
155
Cal. For. Eliz. viii. 229. Drury would not here add to our confidence by saying that ‘Sir Andrew Ker’ (if of Faldonside) ‘with others were on horseback near to the place for aid to the cruel enterprize if need had been.’ Ker, a pitiless wretch, was conspicuous in the Riccio murder, threatened Mary, and had but lately been pardoned. After Langside, he was kept prisoner, in accordance with Mary’s orders, by Whythaugh. But the Sir Andrew of Drury is another Ker.
156
Bain ii. 321, 325.
157
Cal. For. Eliz. viii. 252.
158
Bain, ii. 394. Cullen is spelled ‘Callan,’ and is described as Bothwell’s ‘chalmer-chiel.’
159
Bain, ii. 355.
160
Cal. For. Eliz. viii. 500. Hosack, i. 350, note 2, and Schiern’s Bothwell.
161
Laing, ii. 269.
162
Bain, ii. 698.
163
See Appendix B, ‘The Burning of the Lyon King at Arms.’
164
Bain, ii. 667, 668.
165
Laing, i. 256, 257.
166
Laing, ii. 253.
167
Murdin, i. 57.
168
Laing, ii. 286, 287.
169
Laing, ii. 259.
170
Laing, ii. 254.
171
Laing, ii. 267, 268.
172
Laing, ii. 287.
173
Anderson, 1, part II., 76, 77.
174
Nau, Appendix ii. 151, 152. The Jesuits’ evidence was from letters to Archbishop Beaton.
175
Murdin, p. 57.
176
In the ‘Book of Articles,’ and in the series of dated events called ‘Cecil’s Journal.’
177
Hay Fleming, p. 444.
178
Spanish Calendar, i. 628. For Moray’s dinner party, cf. Bain, ii. 317.
179
Spanish Calendar, i. 635.
180
Laing, ii. 244.
181
Labanoff, ii. 2-4.
182
Venetian Calendar, vii. 388, 389. There were rumours that Lennox had been blown up with Darnley, and, later, that he was attacked at Glasgow, on February 9, by armed men, and owed his escape to Lord Semple. It is incredible that this fact should be unmentioned, if it occurred, by Lennox and Buchanan.
