1566. member remained still unsatisfied, he might appear CHA P. before the privy council, and there give his reasons. XXXIX. As the members shewed a disposition, notwithstanding these peremptory orders, still to proceed upon the question, Elizabeth thought proper by a message to revoke them, and to allow the house liberty of debate. They were so mollified by this gracious condescension, that they thenceforth conducted the matter with more calmness and temper; and they even voted her a supply, to be levied at three payments, of a subsidy and a fifteenth, without annexing any condition to it. The queen soon after dissolved the 2d Jan. parliament, and told them with some sharpness in the conclusion, that their proceedings had contained much dissimulation and artifice; that, under the plausible pretences of marriage and succession, many of them covered very malevolent intentions towards her; but that, however, she reaped this advantage from the attempts of these men, that she could now distinguish her friends from her enemies." But do 66 you think," added she, "that I am unmindful "of your future security, or will be negligent in settling the succession? That is the chief object of my concern; as I know myself to be liable to mortality. Or do you apprehend that I meant to en"croach on your liberties? No: it was never my meaning; I only intended to stop you before you approached the precipice. All things have their "time; and though you may be blessed with a sovereign more wise or more learned than I, yet I assure you, that no one will ever rule over you, "who shall be more careful of your safety. And "therefore, henceforward, whether I live to see the "like assembly or no, or whoever holds the reins of government, let me warn you to beware of provoking your sovereign's patience, so far as you 66 "have 1567. 1567. CHA P." have done mine. But I shall now conclude, that, XXXIX. " notwithstanding the disgusts I have received (for "I mean not to part with you in anger), the greater part of you may assure themselves that they go "home in their prince's good graces." "S ELIZABETH carried farther her dignity on this occasion. She had received the subsidy without any condition; but as it was believed that the commons had given her that gratuity with a view of engaging her to yield to their requests, she thought proper, on her refusal, voluntarily to remit the third payment; and she said, that money in her subjects purses was as good to her as in her own exchequer. BUT though the queen was able to elude, for the present, the applications of parliament, the friends of the queen of Scots multiplied every day in England; and besides the catholics, many of whom kept a treasonable correspondence with her, and were ready to rise at her command," the court itself of Elizabeth was full of her avowed partisans. The duke of Norfolk, the earls of Leicester, Pembroke, Bedford, Northumberland, sir Nicholas Throgmorton, and most of the considerable men in England, except Cecil, seemed convinced of the necessity of declaring her the successor. None but the more zealous protestants adhered either to the countess of Hertford, or to her aunt, Eleanor countess of Cumberland; and as the marriage of the former seemed liable to some objections, and had been declared invalid, men were alarmed, even on that side, with the prospect of new disputes concerning the succession. Mary's behaviour also, so moderate towards the protestants, and so gracious towards all men, had procured her universal respect;" and the public was willing to ascribe any imprudences, into which she had fallen, to her youth S D'Ewes, p. 116, 117. u t Camden, p. 400. w Melvil, p. 53. 61. 74. XXXIX. youth and inexperience. But all these flattering CHAP. prospects were blasted by the subsequent incidents; where her egregious indiscretions, shall I say, or 1567. atrocious crimes, threw her from the height of her prosperity, and involved her in infamy and in ruin. THE earl of Bothwel was of a considerable fa- Murder of mily and power in Scotland; and though not dis- Darnley. tinguished by any talents either of a civil or military nature, he had made a figure in that party, which opposed the greatness of the earl of Murray, and the more rigid reformers. He was a man of profligate manners; had involved his opulent fortune in great debts; and even reduced himself to beggary by his profuse expences; and seemed to have no resource but in desperate councils and enterprises. He had been accused more than once of an attempt to assassinate Murray; and though the frequency of these accusations on all sides diminish somewhat the credit due to any particular imputation, they prove sufficiently the prevalence of that detestable practice in Scotland, and may in that view serve to render such rumours the more credible. This man had of late acquired the favour and entire confidence of Mary; and all her measures were directed by his advice and authority, Reports were spread of more particular intimacies between them; and these reports gained ground from the continuance or rather increase of her hatred towards her husband.y That young prince was reduced to such a state of desperation, by the neglects which he underwent from his queen and the courtiers, that he had once resolved to fly secretly into France or Spain, and had even provided a vessel for that purpose." Some of the most considerable nobility, on the other hand, observing her rooted aversion to him, had proposed some expedients for a divorce; and though Mary * Keith, p. 240. y Melvil, p. 66. 77. is CHA P. is said to have spoken honourably on the occasion, XXXIX. and to have embraced the proposal no farther than 1567. it should be found consistent with her own ho a nour and her son's legitimacy, men were inclined to believe that the difficulty of finding proper means for effecting that purpose, was the real cause of laying aside all farther thoughts of it. So far were the suspicions against her carried, that when Henry, discouraged with the continual proofs of her hatred, left the court and retired to Glasgow, an illness of an extraordinary nature, with which he was seized immediately on his arrival in that place, was universally ascribed by her enemies to a dose of poison, which it was pretended, she had administered to him. WHILE affairs were in this situation, all those who wished well to her character, or to public tranquillity, were extremely pleased, and somewhat surprised to hear that a friendship was again conciliated between them, that she had taken a journey to Glasgow on purpose to visit him during his sickness, that she behaved towards him with great tenderness, that she had brought him along with her, and that she appeared thenceforth determined to live with him on a footing more suitable to the connections between them. Henry, naturally uxorious, and not distrusting this sudden reconciliation, put himself implicitly into her hands, and attended her to Edinburgh. She lived in the palace of Holy-rood-house; but as the situation of the place was low, and the concourse of people about the court was necessarily attended with noise, which might disturb him in his present infirm state of health, these reasons were assigned for fitting up an apartment for him in a solitary house, at some distance called the Kirk of Field. Mary here gave him marks of kindness and attachment; she conversed cordially with him; and she lay some nights in a room below his; but on the 2 Camden, p. 404. Goodall's Queen Mary, vol. ii. p. 317. the ninth of February, she told him, that she would CHA P. XXXIX. pass that night in the palace, because the marriage of one of her servants was there to be celebrated in 1567. her presence. About two o'clock in the morning the whole town was much alarmed at hearing a great noise; and was still more astonished, when it was discovered that the noise came from the king's house, which was blown up by gun-powder; that his dead body was found at some distance in a neighbouring field; and that no marks either of fire, contusion, or violence, appeared upon it.b No doubt could be entertained but Henry was murdered; and general conjecture soon pointed towards the earl of Bothwel as the author of the crime. But as his favour with Mary was visible, and his power great, no one ventured to declare openly his sentiments; and all men remained in silence and mute astonishment. Voices, however, were heard in the streets, during the darkness of the night, proclaiming Bothwel, and even Mary herself, to be murderers of the king; bills were secretly affixed on the walls to the same purpose; offers were made that, upon giving proper securities, his guilt should be openly proved. But after one proclamation from the court, offering a reward and indemnity to any one that would discover the author of that villany, greater vigilance was employed in searching out the spreaders of the libels and reports against Bothwel and the queen, than in tracing the contrivers of the king's assassination, or detecting the regicides,d THE b It was imagined that Henry had been strangled before the house was blown up. But this supposition is contradicted by the confession of the criminals; and there is no necessity to admit it in order to account for the condition of his body. There are many instances that men's lives have been saved who had been blown up in ships. Had Henry fallen on water he had not probably been killed. C Melvill, p. 78. Cabala, p. 136. tions, vol. ii. p. 38, vol. iv. p. 167, 168. Keith, p. 374. d Anderson's Collec Spotswood, p. 200. |