*

authority of the sacred assembly, and promised, if she succeeded to the throne of England, that she would subject both kingdoms to the apostolic see. It appears that, at a still earlier period, in autumn 1562, she secretly excited the insurrection of the earl of Huntly, that he might take her out of the hands of Moray, by whom she was accompanied †: the catholic insurgents carried their hostilities so far as to oblige her to vanquish them in battle, and to consent to the execution of some of their leaders. The earl of Huntly was himself trampled to death in the decisive battle of Corrichie. One of his sons was executed at Aberdeen three days after. George earl of Huntly, the next son, was convicted of treason: but, after three years' imprisonment, was released from confinement, and raised to the office of chancellor, without waiting for a reversal of his attainder; as if to proclaim more loudly the impatient eagerness of the queen to manifest her enmity to her protestant subjects. This unfortunate princess had been advised by her uncles to treat Huntly as the most powerful among the catholics; and, at the time of the insurrection, to hold out hopes of her hand to John Gordon, his second son. On her journey northward on that occasion, when solicited to suppress the Roman catholic worship, she angrily answered, that she hoped, before a year was expired, to have the mass restored through the whole kingdom. The indiscretion which thus alarmed the Scottish people and the English government peculiarly unfitted her to be the tool of the subtle

Fra. Paolo. lib. 7. Pallavic. c. xx. c. 16. Wherever the cardinal describes the same event with Fra. Paolo without contradicting him, so acute, unwearied, rancorous, and well informed an opponent must be understood as assenting to all he does not deny.

+ Sir R. Gordon's History of the Earls of Sutherland, 140.

Archbishop Spottiswood, 185. The shades by which Huntly's enterprise against Moray, (whom it was intended to murder if he had been inveigled into a visit at Strathbogie, the principal seat of the Gordons,) grew into an open rebellion against the queen, are curiously indicated in the narrative of the protestant primate. Of the neighbouring clans, the Frasers and Munros had immediately joined the royal army, when the Gordons refused to surrender the castle of Inverness to the summons in the queen's name. The clan Chaltan, who were among Huntly's followers, did not forsake him till it became more apparent that his resistance was against the queen's authority. - Spottiswood, 186.

and embroiled project which had been suggested to her in France, where she had been advised to affect a confidence in the earl of Moray, and not to lay aside the mask until the European confederacy should be ready to co-operate; while she was also warned never to cut off all ties with the catholics, her only assured friends. She had learned, in the school of Catherine de' Medicis, to dissemble deeply for a short time, and an immediate object but the qualities of her sex, and the habits of her station, rendered long dissimulation painful, and disposed her to yield to the impulse of every momentary passion. Her sallies, generally pointed and animated, were circulated among the people, who considered them as proofs that all she did for the protestants was intended to deceive them, and felt towards her that bitter anger which was inspired by an insult to their understanding, which she hoped to dupe by her hypocrisy.

:

Another incident embroiled the affairs of Scotland. David Rizzio, a Piedmontese musician, who had come to Edinburgh in the train of the minister from Savoy, having been introduced into the palace as a performer in the royal band, soon ingratiated himself with the queen, and was appointed to be her private secretary. The ease with which he wrote French (the principal qualification for his office), seems originally to have recommended him to the appointment. He promoted Darnley's marriage; and, whether actuated by his own zeal, or prompted by advice from the princes of Lorrain, contributed to the re-establishment of the catholic party in power. He obeyed the instructions of the house of Guise to counteract the interposition of England for the banished lords. Darnley's subscription was engraven on a signet, the custody of which was delivered to this upstart alien, with leave to employ it.* "David," says Randolph, now worketh all, and is governor to the king."+ To every man intoxicated by sudden elevation,

66

* Knox, book v. edit. Edin 1814, ii. 176.

Randolph to Cecil, (taken without reference by Chalmers, i. 214.) "David is he that now worketh all, chief secretary to the queen of Scots, and only governor to her good man."- 3d June, 1565. State Paper Office MSS.

much of his enjoyment depends on the parade of his promotion. Rizzio gave general offence by his insolent display of favour. He affected to show writings to the queen, and to whisper in her ear, at levees crowded with the nobility. Even Moray himself" sued David earnestly, and more humbly than could be believed, with the present of a fair diamond," to obtain restoration from exile.* When the queen desired Melville to befriend David, he urged her to pardon the lords; and observed to her, that there was danger from unhappy reports of which she could not be ignorant. The mention of these reports was followed by a conversation with Rizzio in which Melville, with his accustomed frankness, warned that minion of his peril. But Rizzio disdained counsel, and despised danger. Jealousies of every sort tore asunder Darnley's disordered mind. He was conscious of having disgusted the queen by intoxication, and the brutal language which it pours forth. Though utterly incapable of the conduct of affairs, he could not brook the insignificance to which he thought himself reduced by the unbounded favour of Rizzio. A jealousy of a lower kind, whether grounded on scandalous rumours, or whispered by designing men, or suggested by his own grossness, began to haunt and torment a mind conscious of offences against Mary, and prone to ascribe to the impulse of passion every mark of favour shown by a woman towards a man.

The lords of the council, in the beginning of 1566, were Huntly, Bothwell, and Athol; all either catholics or favourers of the catholic party. They, with the effectual aid of Rizzio, dissuaded Mary from yielding to the entreaties of Elizabeth, or to the prudent counsel of Melville, which concurred in exhorting her to pardon so ́powerful a body of nobles as those who were then exiles in England. The banished lords, who had taken up arms on the principle of resisting the queen's marriage unless their religion was established by law, required the ratification of the acts of the convention of 1560, by an + Ibid. 140.

* Melville, 147.

undisputed parliament, to secure to the reformed church the privileges which it had practically enjoyed for six years, under those acts of that assembly of the estates which were obliged to be irregular. The leaders who had taken refuge in England were the duke of Chastelherault, the earls of Moray, Glencairn, and Rothes, the lords Boyd and Ochiltree, with ten of those considerable landholders called lairds,-a term which agrees with the English lords, though slightly varying in pronunciation and writing,-who at this time sat in parliament only as commissioners from the inferior barons, but who still differed from the peers more in privilege than in honour.* These gentlemen, the best of their time, were joined by the interest of the reformation in unnatural union with the worst offspring of civil confusion,—with Morton, à profligate though able man; with Ruthven, distinguished even then for the brutal energy with which he executed wicked designs; and with the brilliant and inconstant Lethington, admired by all parties, but scarcely trusted by any for in the measures of all numerous bodies, and especially in those seasons of commotion and peril which render every succour welcome, the good are often compelled to endure the co-operation of the bad. In this case the exiled lords, of whom many were as irreproachable as the corrupting power of intestine war will suffer men long to continue in that unhappy condition of society, must not be held to be guiltless, even though the most deplorable part of the scenes which ensued should be directly ascribed to the known depravity of their associates, or to the accidents which usually attend lawless broils. The earl of Lennox was indignant that the influence of his son should be eclipsed by the favour of Rizzio. Darnley himself

betrayed symptoms of being goaded by passions more clamorous and rancorous than political jealousy. Lennox advised him to sacrifice his antipathies, and to seek the means of revenge in a coalition with the protestant

See Jamieson on the word, for the exact agreement of laird with the English word lord. It afterwards denoted a landholder who held of the crown, but was not knighted. I doubt this last limitation, though adopted by the learned lexicographer.

lords.* Darnley accordingly, on the 10th of February, sent Douglas, his uncle, to lord Ruthven, to complain that Rizzio had abused the king in many sorts, and done him wrongs which could no longer be borne. Ruthven, fearful that the blandishments of the queen might extort secrets from her simpleton husband, refused to answer. "It is a sore case," said Darnley, "that I can get no help against this villain David.” "It is your own fault," replied Douglas; "you cannot keep a secret." Then the king swore on the Gospel that he would not betray Ruthven. That crafty assassin still seemed to hesitate: but this hesitation ceased when he obtained Darnley's assent to a treaty with the banished lords, in which he promised to obtain for them a general amnesty, and the continuance of the reformed religion; and they agreed to be the friends of his friends and the enemies of his enemies, including, as an object guaranteed by the agreement, his right of succession as next heir after the queen or her progeny.† Before the final conclusion, Darnley was obliged to quiet the apprehensions of the murderers by a written instrument; a sort of effrontery seldom known but in the history of that fierce age, in which, after declaring the necessity of cutting off and slaying certain persons who had abused her majesty's confidence, Darnley binds himself to keep them "scathless" § for the execution of David in the queen's presence, or otherwise to protect them, declaring that what was done was his own device and invention. This writing (which, perhaps more explicitly than any other known document, avowed its object to be murder,) was subscribed on the 1st of March; and on Saturday the 9th of the same month, between seven and eight o'clock in the evening, in the palace of Holyrood House, it was carried into execution. Perhaps it was hastened by the impatience and importunity of Darnley, as well as by the approach of the parliament, which was summoned to meet on the 12th, for the attainder of the lords.

*Spottiswood, 194.

+ Keith, Appendix, 120, 121. Cotton. Lib. Calig. b. ix. 211. 1st March, 1566. Harmless.