her mother the queen had taken refuge. In the autumn of 1564, the earl of Lennox went to Scotland with letters recommendatory of his suit from Elizabeth, in order that he might obtain a reversal of his attainder, and restitution of his honours and estates. It is not unlikely that the English ministers, when they began to doubt the success of Leicester, might have turned their thoughts to Lennox's return * as a means of procuring Mary's hand for Darnley; an individual not formidable, a subject of Elizabeth, the remaining fortune of whose family was in England, where it formed some pledge of his adherence to the English interest. Elizabeth, however, before the measure was adopted, attempted to dissuade Mary from it, lest it might offend the powerful house of Hamilton, the grantees of Lennox's estates. † The extreme displeasure of Mary at this dissuasion ‡ seems rather to indicate that the proposal originated in the court of Scotland; and an attempt of Elizabeth, some years before §, to promote Lennox's restoration, leads to the inference, that though some other motives may have concurred, yet her principal object was to do an act of good nature to lady Lennox, the nearest kinswoman of both queens. That it was an artifice contrived by Elizabeth to embroil the marriage with Dudley, by the interposition of a new competitor, is an assertion without and against proof; since there is the fullest evidence that the English government solicited and desired that marriage seven months afterwards. || Lord Darnley followed his father in February. "Her majesty," says sir James Melville," took well with him, and said he was the lustiest and best-proportioned * Sir J. Melville's Memoirs, p. 108. Ed. 1827.

By letter of 5th July, Keith, 253. Cecil's Diary, Murdin, 757. Melville, 108. In 1599. Haynes, 213.

Melville, p. 112. Keith, 257.

It is evident that Randolph did not despair of success before the 15th or 18th of April, 1565. Keith, Appendix, 158, 159. MS. despatches in State Paper Office. The suspicions even of Sir James Melville, in memoirs, of which a part, if not the whole, was certainly written in 1593, cannot prevail over strictly contemporary despatches. The only defect of this excellent writer is, that his diplomatic life made him too much a believer in over-refined policy.

Handsomest.

Spenser.

See Johnson and Jamieson, with the authority o

lang man that she had seen; for he was of high stature, lang and small, even and brent up*; well instructed from his youth in all honest † and comely exercises."‡ Elizabeth and Melville smiled at the effeminacy, perhaps also at the ignorance and incapacity, of the beardless stripling. But Mary, after a moment's displeasure, or affectation of it, at the presumption with which he offered himself, liked him better the more she knew him; which would have been more honourable to her if his attractions had been more refined, and if she had not remarked his animal beauties with too critical an eye. She determined to marry him. He betrayed partialities for the catholic party so imprudently as soon to rouse both the queen of England and the Scotch protestants against the union. Randolph, the English resident, cautiously insinuates his suspicions of Mary's rising passion to his court within a fortnight of Darnley's arrival.§ Argyle, a zealous protestant, expressed great apprehension of Darnley's progress. Moray said that the match would be followed by unkindness to England, and was "the most sorrowful of men." || A rumour was prevalent that Moray was about to leave the court, displeased at the more open parade of catholic rites, which his prudence prevented so long as he enjoyed his sister's undivided confidence. T My suspicions, says Randolph, on the 18th of April, are bitterly confirmed. Many with grief see the fond folly of the queen. The godly (the protestants) cry out, and think themselves undone. All good men see the ruin of their country in the marriage with Darnley.** In this temper of all the Scotch friends of the English connection, Maitland, who arrived at Westminster on the same 18th of April, could

* Straight, even.-Jamieson. A word of difficult derivation.

+ Becoming his station. Sir J. Melville, from early and long residence in France, complains that he had forgotten his mother tongue. La comtesse sa mère lui ayant fait apprendre à jouer de luth, à danser, et autre honnêtes exercises."— Castelnau, liv. v. c. 12.

Melville, 134.

MSS. State Paper Office. Randolph's despatch of 27th February. 1565: Darnley having arrived on the 13th.

Ditto, 15th March.

Ditto, 17th March.

** Ditto, 7th April. - Keith, App. 159.

not expect much success in his errand, which was to desire the queen's consent to the marriage of his mistress. The English council were alarmed. On the 23d of April, letters were despatched to recal Lennox and Darnley from Scotland; and, on the 1st of May, resolutions were adopted by the privy council of the utmost importance; and which, notwithstanding their somewhat pedantic arrangement, with a sprinkling of rhetorical diction *, are not only admirable models of our ancient language, but pregnant proofs how high Cecil, who was the writer, ought to be placed among the first class of wise statesmen. They are remarkable also for a frankness and overflowing good faith, which avow all the motives of the actors without trusting any part of them to insinuation, and circuitous or ambiguous phraseology; and, as it should seem from their tenor, not leaving the most delicate matters to be cautiously hinted in conversation. The substance of this momentous determination was, that the marriage of the queen of Scots with lord Darnley would be dangerous to the protestant religion; that it would strengthen the league of catholic princes which now visibly threatened Europe; that it was big with peril to the title by which her majesty filled the English throne; that the performance of Mary's promise to renounce her pretension to England had been for nearly six years evaded; that, as nothing but force, or the fear of force, could then prevent the marriage, the whole council agreed that it was lawful and necessary to provide for the safety of England, by strengthening the fortifications and reinforcing the garrison of Berwick; that the wardens of the borders should be prepared at an hour's notice, either to defend their own frontier, or to invade Scotland. On the latter measure alone there was a difference of opinion, some being indisposed to actual warfare. When it became evident that Mary was resolved to cut short negotiation

* Determination of the privy council of England on the marriage of the queen of Scots, 1st May, 1565. Keith, 280.

Summary of the consultation of the privy council, 4th June, 1565,Robertson's Appendix, No. X. .

by hurrying on her marriage, Throgmorton was instructed, in case of a total failure of his attempts, to persuade the lords of the congregation, and all the Scottish protestants, to withstand the marriage, unless Darnley should promise to adhere to the reformed religion, which he had openly professed in England.*

In the mean time lord James Stuart, who had been created earl Moray, the undisputed chief of the reformed party, who had been prime minister to the queen his sister since her return from France, withdrew from court, as a testimony against an union fraught, in his judgment, with destruction to his country and to his faith. Seldom, in so turbulent a country as Scotland ruled in the name of a young woman, and but just escaped from civil war, has any administration been conducted with such firmness, or has been attended with such signal success, as that which Moray guided during a critical period of four years. The reputation of Mary's government, we are told, was spread over all countries.† His firm and equal hand had reduced the highlands and borders to an obedience unknown for centuries to wild and lawless tribes. As the protestants entirely and justly trusted Moray's zeal for their religion, he was enabled to temper their fanaticism, and to prevent at least its breaking out into civil war. He appears to have conducted himself with spotless faith towards his sister, and to have obtained a degree of quiet which no other Scotsman could have ensured. The queen was not insensible of his fidelity, nor of the influence of his name. On the 8th of May, 1565, she commanded him to repair to her at Stirling, where, in Darnley's chamber, she earnestly besought him to subscribe a writing in which the marriage was recommended. She repeated her importunities for two successive days. She even appealed to him as a Stuart, and implored him to help her attempts to execute the will of their father, king James, whose earnest desire it was to keep the crown of

Sir James Melville, 134.

Sir James Melville, 130. He, who had lived so many years abroad, well knew the opinion of the continental nations.

Scotland on the head of a Stuart. He desired time to consider proposals thus urgently pressed, and alleged the unreasonableness of such a writing without an assembly of the peerage; adding, that he disliked the marriage, because he feared that Darnley would be an enemy of true Christianity. "Hereupon arose an altercation in which the queen gave him many sore words. He answered with humility, but nothing could be obtained from him."* In Mary's letter to Elizabeth which followed, says sir Nicholas Throgmorton †," there neither wanted eloquence, anger, despite, nor passionate love." The banns of an ill-fated union were published on Sunday the 22d of July, 1565. Darnley was promoted, on the same day, to the princely dignities of duke of Albany` and earl of Ross; and, on Sunday the 29th, the queen had the misfortune to indulge her headlong passion, by bestowing her hand on an undeserving favourite. The nuptials were solemnised according to the rites of the church of Rome; though Darnley withdrew during the celebration of mass. The English minister describes the insolence of the simpleton intoxicated by his triumph. "He rather seems to be a monarch of the world, than he whom we have seen and known as lord Darnley.” ‡ Meanwhile Thomworth, a gentleman of Elizabeth's household, was despatched as her envoy to Edinburgh, with instructions to threaten Mary, if she should practise aught for the overthrow of the reformation in England, and to warn her more amicably against attempting to change the established church of Scotland. In the answer, it seems doubtful whether Mary offers a promise to abstain from promoting a religious counterrevolution in England; but, with respect to the alteration of religion in Scotland §, Mary only says,

"that

Keith's Appendix, 160. Knox, ii. 144. Edin. ed. 1814 Randolph's despatch of 8th May, 1565. MSS. Paper Office. The words in the text to which inverted commas are prefixed are those of Randolph. + Despatch to Leicester, 11th May, 1565.

Randolph, 31st July. Ellis, ii. 200.

Thomworth's instructions, 30th July. State Paper Office. Published with Mary's answer, but without dates, Keith's Appendix, 99. The answer con ains no specific words about religion in England; but a note, without title or subscription, written on the same paper with the MS. is more explicit.