XXIII. to have a Bothwell for their matrimonial sovereign, CHAP. with a queen so pliant to his will as Mary, combined for their mutual safety to dethrone her, that such a man might not wield the power of her regal government; and therefore resolved to crown her infant son, with a guardian regency, as best fitted to sustain the general peace and welfare. Each party prepared their forces, to decide the contest by arms; but on the 6th June, the queen and her new husband found such few supporters, that they retired from the conflict to Borthwick Castle. Surrounded by the confederate forces, Bothwell, perceiving his inferiority, escaped from its walls, while Mary fled, also in man's apparel, to Dunbar Castle. Summoning from thence, on 12th June, her subjects to her succor, two thousand again joined her; with which, after moving to the metropolis without much benefit, on 14th June she marched out of Edinburgh, to try the chance of a desperate effort. On the next day the insurgent nobles, with their divisions under Morton and Athol, met her on Carberry Hill. Bothwell offered a personal battle, to prove his innocence, and challenged the earl of Morton; but the lord of Grange taking up the defiance, Bothwell shrunk from it," and quitted the field. On his retreat, Mary surrendered herself, in vexation and fear, to the combined chiefs; and was taken, amid the insulting exultation of the multitude, to her capital," and from thence, on her persisting attachment to Bothwell, was consigned to 54 54 As he did also from Tullibardine and Lyndsay. Melv. 184. 55 The detail of all these incidents are ably given in the interesting narratives of Dr. Robertson and Mr. Hume. Keith presents the earlier statement, with the documents; and Mr. Chalmers has reviewed and colored all, and discolored much by his peculiar comments. Melville may be also read as an original narrator. 181-6. BOOK 57 the care of Douglas, in the castle of Lochleven.56 The combined lords pledged themselves to their mutual support in their public objects ;" and for the accomplishment of these, she was in the next month solicited, but in vain, to lend her authority to prosecute the murderer, and to abandon Bothwell for her husband: 5 thus giving, by her refusal, new countenance to all the former suspicions and prospective fears, and manifesting to all that no compulsion had forced her into his arms. This pertinacity in misconduct increased the public aversion to her name and government." The apprehension of Bothwell's 58 59 56 Melville says, ' The same night it was alleged that her majesty sent a letter to E. Bothwell, calling him her dear heart, whom she would never forget nor abandon for absence. This letter the bearer delivered to the lords, on which they took occasion to send her to Lochleven.' p. 185. The order for her confinement, dated 16 June 1567,' was signed by Morton, Athol, Mar, Glencarn, Ruthven, Hume, Lyndsay, Sempil, and other barons and gentlemen.' Keith, 403. 57 Keith has printed the boud, dated 16 June, by which, We, the earls, lords, barons, commissioners of boroughs, and others underwritten, engage to support each other, till the authors of the said cruel murder and ravishing be condignly punished; the said marriage dissolved; our sovereign released from the thraldom, bondage and ignominy which she has sustained by occasion of the said earl; the person of the prince reposed in full surety, and justice restored and uprightly administered.' Keith, 406. 58 On 14th July, sir N. Throckmorton wrote from Edinburgh to Elizabeth,The lords keep her very straitly, because the queen will not by any means be induced to lend her authority to prosecute the marderer; nor will consent by any persuasion to abandon the lord Bothwell for her husband; but avoweth certainly that she will live and die with him.' Lett. in Rob app 244. 59 Her attachment was so strong, that Throckmorton added, ‘She saith, that if it were put to her choice to relinquish her crown and kingdom or the lord Bothwell, she would leave her kingdom and dignity to go as a simple damsel with him; and that she will never consent that he shall fare worse, or have more harm than herself.' ib. Hence he remarks, As far as I can perceive, the principal cause of her detention is, that these lords do see the queen being of so fervent affection towards the earl Bothwell as she is.' ib. 244. 60 The common people do greatly dishonor the queen, and mind seriously either her deprivation or her destruction. The women be most furious and impudent against the queen, and yet the men be mad 63 XXIII. servants, and their confessions," did not diminish the CHAP. popular ferment. Her deposition, and the conducting of the government in the name of her son, became then resolved on; 62 and after much intreaty, she gave an assent to it, which could not have been voluntary. Murray was recalled into Scotland, and settled in the regency, and the infant prince James was crowned." Bothwell in the meantime had retired from Dunbar to the Orkneys and Shetland, pursued by the lord Grange, by the proclamations of the new government, and by the general execration." Sailing to Norway, and attempting to capture a trader, the Danish government sent out vessels of war to take him. There he was kept in a strait prison, wherein he became mad, and died miserably.'" 68 65 But a party of her noble friends, after her deluder's expulsion, began to unite in her favor;" and in the beginning of the following May, she was assisted to escape from Lochleven Castle, and with such forces as she could obtain on her side, under Argyle, endeavored, on 13th May 1568, to move from Hamilton to Dumbarton Castle. The regent met her with a superior army at Langside, in Ren enough.' Lett. ib. On 8th July the envoy's dispatch was, 'She will by 63 Melville describes the solicitations, p. 189–192. 6 Keith. 65 Melv. 186, 7. 66 Ib. 186. 67 Melville has inserted their counter-bond, p. 195. It is signed by St. Andrews, Argyle, Huntley, Arbroath, Galloway, Ross, Fleming, Herries, and three others p. 196. 68 By the aid of George Douglas, the brother of her noble keeper and the regent's half brother: the old lady her mother was also thought to be upon the council.' Melv. 199. 11. BOOK frewshire, and defeated her friends." Losing her last hope of retrieving her power and splendors, she fled immediately sixty miles without stopping, to escape a re-imprisonment, till she reached an abbey near Kirkcudbright. From thence she wrote to the governor at Carlisle, to know if she might come there in safety; but without waiting for his answer, winged by her fears, she embarked in a small fishing boat for Cumberland, and arrived at Workington, from which she soon passed to Carlisle;" having, from the rapidity of her movements, been obliged to reach the English territory in a state of comparative destitution." 69 Melv. 200-2. news, 70 She arrived there on the evening of Sunday, 18th May 1568. The that strange persons had landed from Scotland at the creek of Workington, drew several gentlemen immediately to the spot, where, finding her to be the queen, they conveyed her respectfully to Cockermouth, which belonged to the earl of Northumberland. He first apprised Elizabeth of her arrival. She remained there till the deputy of Carlisle, having collected all the gentlemen of the county, conducted her as honorably as the manner of the country would yield,' to the castle of that town. Cecil's paper in Anders. v. 4. p. 1-3. Elizabeth 'sent express commandment to the deputy to treat her with all honor and favor that he could; and commanded the lady Scroop, sister of the duke of Norfolk, to repair with other ladies and gentlewomen to attend on her.' ib. 71 Lowther, the deputy governor, on 18th May, reported to Cecil, 'That the Scottish queen's attire was very mean; that she had no other to change; that she had very little money; and that he had himself defrayed the charge of her journey from Cockermouth to Carlisle.' MS. Paper Office, cited by Chalm. 1. p. 440. Northumberland claimed her as his prize, having landed within his liberty, and obtained an order from the council at York for her being delivered to him; on this being refused by Lowther, the earl told him that he was a varlet, and too low a man to pretend to such a charge. Chalm. p.446. From subsequent events it may have been happy for Elizabeth that the varlet so firmly resisted the nobleman. CHAP. XXIV. MARY'S RECEPTION-HER RESIDENCE AT CARLISLE AND AND SCOTLAND. XXIV. THE HE presence of any foreign queen in England, CHAP. with such unremoved imputations as accompanied Mary, would have at any time embarrassed its government, unless moral conduct had ceased to be an object of public estimation. To receive her with honor, when the tainting accusation had not been disproved, was impossible; and in addition to this personal difficulty, Mary was a princess whose visit to England, from the other circumstances of her previous conduct, could not but be disquieting to Elizabeth, and to those who wished the continuation of the national tranquillity. The Roman Catholic portion of the British islands and of the continent, had been taught to consider her as the rightful queen of the English throne, and Elizabeth as an illegitimate usurper. Mary had maintained the claim, and assumed the royal arms and title accordingly,' ' Elizabeth, on 8th June 1568, desired that it might be stated to her at Carlisle, that the points by which her own mind was much ' touched' were, that she had not regarded the avenge of the death of her husband, and the infamy of marrying a person, known not only as the principal murderer, but also having a lawful wife alive.' See the note in Cecil's hand, in Ander. v. 4. p. 66. 2 See Vol. 3. ch. 18. note 79. |