XX. Countermarching to Edinburgh as she left it, with CHAP. the hope of the support of a popular insurrection, they were disappointed; and the royal army of five thousand men advanced on their inferior forces in the metropolis; the van led by Lennox, the centre by Morton, and the rear by the king, 126 in whose division the queen appeared, with a weapon ready charged, 127 and with whom Bothwell was also acting. 128 The populace left the rebelling to their fate, who, retreating to Dumfries and being still chased onwards, sought their safety within the English borders. 129 The king and queen then issued from St. Andrew's a declaration to their people, arraigning the exorbitant ambition of the nobility who had defied them.120 they are pursued, notwithstanding their humble submission and offer to be tried by law and justice, and have retired to Dumfries, a place near our west marches, to defend themselves, we are content to let them have 300 soldiers, as of your own adventure. You shall expressly advertise them, that you send them that aid only for their defence; and not therewith to make war on their queen; or do any thing that may offend her person.' Lett. in Robertson, append. v. 3. p. 220. To avoid pledging herself or the English goverument to their cause, she expressly added: Except to preserve them from ruin, we do not yield to give them aid of money or men, and yet, we would not that either of these were known to be our act, but rather to be covered with your own desire and attempt.' ib. 221. 126 Keith, 315. 127 The despatches to Cecil of 4 September were,She wears a pistol charged when in the field. None but her husband have gilded armor; several of the lords are appointed to assassinate Darnley; queen Mary hates queen Elizabeth.' Cecil's abst. Keith, 164. 128 Acts of council in Keith, app. 115. He first appears in the public record as in the king's division at Castle hill, on 10 October. Cecil, in his abstract, has noted his letter to say, '8 October. Huntley and Bothwell are the new counsellors.' Keith, app. 165. 129 Keith, 316. 130 It is dated 3 Sept. 1565, from St. Andrew's. It charges them with their unreasonable desire to govern; for now, by letters sent from themselves to us, they make plain profession that the establishing of religion will not content them; but we must, on force, be governed by such counsel as shall please them to appoint to us.' Keith, app. p. 114. BOOK cor; The fugitive lords called upon Elizabeth for suc131 but they had disregarded her limiting advice, and pressed into personal rebellion to coerce their queen in her domestic arrangements, injuring thereby, from private interests, the great religious cause which they had united to support. Elizabeth deemed their example mischievous, and would not put England in arms against Scotland to support their illegal and intemperate violence, tho she allowed them to remain within the protection of her dominions. The duke Hamilton made his peace with Mary and her husband, on condition of residing in France; 132 and a summons of treason was issued against the other nobles who had attempted the insurrection.133 The wisest act of the English ambassador, in the commencement of 1566, was his letter of sound advice to Mary, stating what she might do that would most favour her succession to the English throne, and recommending her to forgive the offend ing lords. 134 The queen inclined to adopt his coun sel, and Rizzio favored it; 15 but a new French envoy was sent to prevent this reconciliation, and to obtain the queen's concurrence in the confederacy to suppress the Reformation every where in Europe -a sanguinary compact, which she is stated to have joined. The variable secretary, who was 136 13 They sent the abbot of Kilwinning to her. Keith, 319. Her reason was forcible: Your treason may serve for example to my own subjects to rebel against me.' p. 319. She took the distinction, that she had not excited them to arms against their queen. 139 He obtained his pardon with great difficulty. Knox, p. 426. 135 Keith, 325. 136 Melville; Keith, 326. Randolph, on 6 Feb. 1566, wrote to Cecil 137 CHAP. believed to be in the pay and service of the pope,' was gained to prefer and to promote this foreign policy.13 6 of this man's arrival; and that a bond to introduce popery in all Christendom had been signed by the queen Mary. The original to be sent back by Mr. Stephen Wilson.' Cecil's abst. p. 167: Keith's app. This man was Villaimont, or, as he is more usually called, Clernau. 137 Melv. Mem. 136; 147. 139 Keith, 326. CHAP. XXI. MARY'S DIFFERENCES WITH HER HUSBAND- BOOK MARY began her second marriage, with those II. ceremonial and kind attentions to the husband of her choice, which elevated him in the public eye, and did credit to her own feelings of propriety and regard;' while Elizabeth, not pleased with the defying indifference to her opinion, offended by the secret dealings with which the transaction had been managed, and uncertain of the consequences towards herself that were meant to be attached to it, evinced her displeasure with somewhat less than her usual judgment and self-command, by putting his mother in England into a state of personal superintendence and constraint. But the course of time soon displayed to every one, that as there is a pas 3 After the queen had married my lord Darnley, she did him great honor herself; and willed every one that would deserve her favor to do the like, and to wait upon him; so that he was well accompanied; and such as made suit to him and by him, for a while, came best sped of their errands.' Melv. 137. Her proclamation on 18 July was, 'that he should be holden and obeyed and reverenced AS KING; and that all laws and proclamations should be made in the names of Henry and Mary.' Knox, 415. 2 Melville confesses that, when in London, I had a secret charge to deal with his mother, my lady Lennox, to purchase leave for him to pass into Scotland.' p. 120. 3 Melv. 137. There seems much truth in the remark of Knox, 'In her heart, queen Elizabeth was not angry at this marriage; because a foreign prince would have made her more redoubted, and both Henry and Mary were in the same degree of consanguinity to her, children of her father's sister.' Hist. p. 407. XXI. sion from the eye which is no emotion of the heart, CHAP. and which, deriving no support from the judgment, declines as the temporary excitement of the inclination is allayed, so Mary's sensibility for Darnley perceptibly diminished as her temper and wishes were crossed by his will and humour; and as his imperfections and desire of authority awakened her criticising judgment, and stimulated her upbraiding resentment. Accustomed to royal attentions from her cradle; loving superiority, from the character of her mind as well as from fostering habit; and feeling unceasingly that all his greatness was the creation of her individual choice; she had married him on the assumption that she should always have been the queen as well as the wife; and could not brook to be reduced to see her power and influence subordinate to his counteraction or control. Her preference had not been founded on his qualities for regal greatness. It had been a girlish fancy in a womanly heart, for a tall, handsome and humoursome boy, who, exalted to a throne before he was nineteen, was intercepted in the natural and healthful growth of those moral and intellectual improvements of which he was not unsusceptible; and which in other positions of society we gradually attain, as we learn from daily experience that our personal wishes and tempers must be continually adapted, in some degree, to the feelings and con • See Elizabeth's remark to Melville, You like better yonder long lad,' pointing towards lord Darnley, who, as nearest prince of the blood, bore the sword of honor that day before her. My answer was, that no woman of spirit would make choice of such a man, that was liker a woman than a man; for he was very lusty, beardless, and lady-faced.' Melv. 120. |