XXXIX.

France, and brought her advice from her uncle, the CHA P. cardinal of Lorraine, to whose opinion she always paid an extreme deference, by no means to pardon 1565. these protestant leaders, who had been engaged in a rebellion against her.'

THE two religions, in France, as well as in other parts of Europe, were rather irritated than tired with their acts of mutual violence; and the peace granted to the hugonots, as had been foreseen by Coligny, was intended only to lull them asleep, and prepare the way for their final and absolute destruction. The queen regent made a pretence of travelling through the kingdom, in order to visit the provinces, and correct all the abuses arising from the late civil war; and, after having held some conferences on the frontiers with the duke of Lorraine and the duke of Savoy, she came to Bayonne, where she was met by her daughter, the queen of Spain, and the duke of Alva. Nothing appeared in the congress of these two splendid courts, but gaiety, festivity, love, and joy; but amidst these smiling appearances were secretly fabricated schemes the most bloody, and the most destructive to the repose of mankind, that had ever been thought of in any age or nation. No less than a total and universal extermination of the protestants by fire and sword was concerted by Philip and Catharine of Medicis ; and Alva, agreeably to his fierce and sanguinary disposition, advised the queen-regent to commence the execution of this project, by the immediate massacre of all the leaders of the hugonots." But that princess, though equally hardened against every humane sentiment, would not forego this opportunity of displaying her wit and refined politics; and she purposed, rather by treachery and dissimulation, which she called address, to lead the protestants into the snare, and never to draw the sword till they were totally disabled from resistance.

Keith, p. 325. Melvil, p. 63. "Davila, lib. iii.

The

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1565.

Confe

deracy

protes

tants.

CHA P. The cardinal of Lorraine, whose character bore a greater affinity to that of Alva, was a chief author of this barbarous association against the reformers; and having connected hopes of success with the agagainst the grandisement of his niece, the queen of Scots, he took care, that her measures should correspond to those violent counsels which were embraced by the other catholic princes. In consequence of this scheme, he turned her from the road of clemency, which she intended to have followed; and made her resolve on the total ruin of the banished lords." A parliament was summoned at Edinburgh for attainting them; and as their guilt was palpable and avowed, no doubt was entertained but sentence would be pronounced against them. It was by a sudden and violent incident, which, in the issue, brought on the ruin of Mary herself, that they were saved from the rigour of the law.

1566.

THE marriage of the queen of Scots with lord Darnley was so natural, and so inviting in all its circumstances, that it had been precipitately agreed to by that princess and her council; and, while she was allured by his youth and beauty and exterior accomplishments, she had at first overlooked the qualities of his mind, which nowise corresponded to the excellence of his outward figure. Violent, yet variable in his resolutions; insolent, yet credulous and easily governed by flatterers; he was destitute of all gratitude, because he thought no favours equal to his merit; and being addicted to low pleasures, he was equally incapable of all true sentiments of love and tenderness. The queen of Scots, in the first ef fusions of her fondness, had taken a pleasure in exalting him beyond measure: She had granted him the title of king; she had joined his name with her own in all public acts; she intended to have procured

W

w Melvil, p. 63. Keith's Append. p. 176. p. 287. 329. Append. p. 163.

* Keith,

cured him from the parliament a matrimonial C HA P. crown: But having leisure afterwards to remark his XXXIX. weakness and vices, she began to see the danger of 1566. her profuse liberality, and was resolved thenceforth to proceed with more reserve in the trust which she should confer upon him. His resentment against this prudent conduct served but the more to increase her disgust; and the young prince, enraged at her imagined neglects, pointed his vengeance against every one whom he deemed the cause of this change in her measures and behaviour.

THERE was in the court one David Rizzio, who Murder of had of late obtained a very extraordinary degree of Rizzio. confidence and favour with the queen of Scots. He was a Piedmontese, of mean birth, son of a teacher of music, himself a musician; and, finding it difficult to subsist by his art in his own country, he had followed into Scotland an ambassador, whom the duke of Savoy sent thither to pay his compliments to Mary, some time after her first arrival. He possessed a good ear and a tolerable voice; and as that princess found him useful to complete her band of music, she retained him in her service after the departure of his master. Her secretary for French dispatches having, some time after, incurred her displeasure, she promoted Rizzio to that office, which gave him frequent opportunities of approaching her person and insinuating himself into her favour. He was shrewd and sensible, as well as aspiring, much beyond his rank and education; and he made so good use of the access which fortune had procured him, that he was soon regarded as the chief confident, and even minister of the queen. He was consulted on all occasions; no favours could be obtained but by his intercession; all suitors were obliged to gain him by presents and flattery; and the man, insolent from his new exaltation, as well as rapacious in his acquisitions, soon drew on himself the hatred of the nobility

2

and

1566.

CHAP. and of the whole kingdom. He had at first emXXXIX. ployed his credit to promote Darnley's marriage; and a firm friendship seemed to be established between them: But on the subsequent change of the queen's sentiments, it was easy for Henry's friends to persuade him that Rizzio was the real author of her indifference, and even to rouse in his mind jealousies of a more dangerous nature. The favourite was of a disagreeable figure, but was not past his youth; and though the opinion of his criminal correspondence with Mary might seem of itself unreasonable, if not absurd, a suspicious husband could find no other means of accounting for that lavish and imprudent kindness with which she honoured him. The rigid austerity of the ecclesiastics, who could admit of no freedoms, contributed to spread this opinion among the people; and as Rizzio was universally believed to be a pensionary of the pope's, and to be deeply engaged in all schemes against the protestants, any story to his and Mary's disadvantage received an easy credit among the zealots of that communion.

RIZZIO, who had connected his interests with the Roman catholics, was the declared enemy of the banished lords; and by promoting the violent prosecution against them, he had exposed himself to the animosity of their numerous friends and retainers. A scheme was also thought to be formed for revoking some exorbitant grants made during the queen's minority; and even the nobility who had seized the ecclesiastical benefices, began to think themselves less secure in the possession of them: The earl of Morton, chancellor, was affected by all these considerations, and still more by a rumour spread abroad, that Mary intended to appoint Rizzio chancellor in

a

2 See note (H) at the end of the volume. Melvil, p. 64.

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1566.

his place, and to bestow that dignity on a mean and CHAP. upstart foreigner, ignorant of the laws and language of the country. So indiscreet had this princess been in her kindness to Rizzio, that even that strange report met with credit, and proved a great means of accelerating the ruin of the favourite. Morton, insinuating himself into Henry's confidence, employed all his art to inflame the discontent and jealousy of that prince; and he persuaded him that the only means of freeing himself from the indignities under which he laboured, was to bring the base stranger to the fate which he had so well merited, and which was so passionately desired by the whole nation. George Douglas, natural brother to the countess of Lenox, concurred in the same advice; and the lords Ruthven and Lindesey, being consulted, offered their assistance in the enterprise; nor was even the earl of Lenox, the king's father, averse to the design. But as these conspirators were well acquainted with Henry's levity, they engaged him to sign a paper, in which he avowed the undertaking, as tending to the glory of God and advancement of religion, and promised to protect them against every consequence which might ensue upon the assassination of Rizzio.d All these measures being concerted, a messenger was dispatched to the banished lords, who were hovering near the borders; and they were invited by the king to return to their native country.

THIS design, so atrocious in itself, was rendered 9th March: still more so by the circumstances which attended its execution. Mary, who was in the sixth month of her pregnancy, was supping in private, and had at table the countess of Argyle, her natural sister, with Rizzio and others of her servants. The king entered the room by a private passage, and stood at the back VOL. V.

H

of

b Buchanan, lib. xvii. c. 60. Crawford, p. 6. Spotswood, p. 194. Knox, p. 393. Jebb, vol. i. p. 456. c Crawford, p. 7.

d Goodall, vol. i. p. 266. Crawford, p. 7.

C