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diff --git a/15955.txt b/15955.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29b131e --- /dev/null +++ b/15955.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8391 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Short History of Scotland, by Andrew Lang + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Short History of Scotland + + +Author: Andrew Lang + +Release Date: May 31, 2005 [eBook #15955] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT HISTORY OF SCOTLAND*** + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1911 William Blackwood and Sons edition by David +Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +A SHORT HISTORY OF SCOTLAND + + +CHAPTER I. SCOTLAND AND THE ROMANS. + + +If we could see in a magic mirror the country now called Scotland as it +was when the Romans under Agricola (81 A.D.) crossed the Border, we +should recognise little but the familiar hills and mountains. The +rivers, in the plains, overflowed their present banks; dense forests of +oak and pine, haunted by great red deer, elks, and boars, covered land +that has long been arable. There were lakes and lagoons where for +centuries there have been fields of corn. On the oldest sites of our +towns were groups of huts made of clay and wattle, and dominated, +perhaps, by the large stockaded house of the tribal prince. In the +lochs, natural islands, or artificial islets made of piles (crannogs), +afforded standing-ground and protection to villages, if indeed these lake- +dwellings are earlier in Scotland than the age of war that followed the +withdrawal of the Romans. + +The natives were far beyond the savage stage of culture. They lived in +an age of iron tools and weapons and of wheeled vehicles; and were in +what is called the Late Celtic condition of art and culture, familiar to +us from beautiful objects in bronze work, more commonly found in Ireland +than in Scotland, and from the oldest Irish romances and poems. + +In these "epics" the manners much resemble those described by Homer. Like +his heroes, the men in the Cuchullain sagas fight from light chariots, +drawn by two ponies, and we know that so fought the tribes in Scotland +encountered by Agricola the Roman General (81-85 A.D.) It is even said +in the Irish epics that Cuchullain learned his chariotry in _Alba_--that +is, in our Scotland. {2} The warriors had "mighty limbs and flaming +hair," says Tacitus. Their weapons were heavy iron swords, in bronze +sheaths beautifully decorated, and iron-headed spears; they had large +round bronze-studded shields, and battle-axes. The dress consisted of +two upper garments: first, the smock, of linen or other fabric--in +battle, often of tanned hides of animals,--and the mantle, or plaid, with +its brooch. Golden torques and heavy gold bracelets were worn by the +chiefs; the women had bronze ornaments with brightly coloured enamelled +decoration. + +Agriculture was practised, and corn was ground in the circular querns of +stone, of which the use so long survived. The women span and wove the +gay smocks and darker cloaks of the warriors. + +Of the religion, we only know that it was a form of polytheism; that +sacrifices were made, and that Druids existed; they were soothsayers, +magicians, perhaps priests, and were attendant on kings. + +Such were the people in Alba whom we can dimly descry around Agricola's +fortified frontier between the firths of Forth and Clyde, about 81-82 +A.D. When Agricola pushed north of the Forth and Tay he still met men +who had considerable knowledge of the art of war. In his battle at Mons +Graupius (perhaps at the junction of Isla and Tay), his cavalry had the +better of the native chariotry in the plain; and the native infantry, +descending from their position on the heights, were attacked by his +horsemen in their attempt to assail his rear. But they were swift of +foot, the woods sheltered and the hills defended them. He made no more +effectual pursuit than Cumberland did at Culloden. + +Agricola was recalled by Domitian after seven years' warfare, and his +garrisons did not long hold their forts on his lines or frontier, which +stretched across the country from Forth to Clyde; roughly speaking, from +Graham's Dyke, east of Borrowstounnis on the Firth of Forth, to Old +Kilpatrick on Clyde. The region is now full of coal-mines, foundries, +and villages; but excavations at Bar Hill, Castlecary, and Roughcastle +disclose traces of Agricola's works, with their earthen ramparts. The +Roman station at Camelon, north-west of Falkirk, was connected with the +southern passes of the Highland hills by a road with a chain of forts. +The remains of Roman pottery at Camelon are of the first century. + +Two generations after Agricola, about 140-145, the Roman Governor, +Lollius Urbicus, refortified the line of Forth to Clyde with a wall of +sods and a ditch, and forts much larger than those constructed by +Agricola. His line, "the Antonine Vallum," had its works on commanding +ridges; and fire-signals, in case of attack by the natives, flashed the +news "from one sea to the other sea," while the troops of occupation +could be provisioned from the Roman fleet. Judging by the coins found by +the excavators, the line was abandoned about 190, and the forts were +wrecked and dismantled, perhaps by the retreating Romans. + +After the retreat from the Antonine Vallum, about 190, we hear of the +vigorous "unrest" of the Meatae and Caledonians; the latter people are +said, on very poor authority, to have been little better than savages. +Against them Severus (208) made an expedition indefinitely far to the +north, but the enemy shunned a general engagement, cut off small +detachments, and caused the Romans terrible losses in this march to a non- +existent Moscow. + +Not till 306 do we hear of the Picts, about whom there is infinite +learning but little knowledge. They must have spoken Gaelic by Severus's +time (208), whatever their original language; and were long recognised in +Galloway, where the hill and river names are Gaelic. + +The later years of the Romans, who abandoned Britain in 410, were +perturbed by attacks of the Scoti (Scots) from Ireland, and it is to a +settlement in Argyll of "Dalriadic" Scots from Ireland about 500 A.D. +that our country owes the name of Scotland. + +Rome has left traces of her presence on Scottish soil--vestiges of the +forts and vallum wall between the firths; a station rich in antiquities +under the Eildons at Newstead; another, Ardoch, near Sheriffmuir; a third +near Solway Moss (Birrenswark); and others less extensive, with some +roads extending towards the Moray Firth; and a villa at Musselburgh, +found in the reign of James VI. {4} + + + + +CHAPTER II. CHRISTIANITY--THE RIVAL KINGDOMS. + + +To the Scots, through St Columba, who, about 563, settled in Iona, and +converted the Picts as far north as Inverness, we owe the introduction of +Christianity, for though the Roman Church of St Ninian (397), at Whithern +in Galloway, left embers of the faith not extinct near Glasgow, St +Kentigern's country, till Columba's time, the rites of Christian Scotland +were partly of the Celtic Irish type, even after St Wilfrid's victory at +the Synod of Whitby (664). + +St Columba himself was of the royal line in Ulster, was learned, as +learning was then reckoned, and, if he had previously been turbulent, he +now desired to spread the Gospel. With twelve companions he settled in +Iona, established his cloister of cells, and journeyed to Inverness, the +capital of Pictland. Here his miracles overcame the magic of the King's +druids; and his Majesty, Brude, came into the fold, his people following +him. Columba was no less of a diplomatist than of an evangelist. In a +crystal he saw revealed the name of the rightful king of the Dalriad +Scots in Argyll--namely, Aidan--and in 575, at Drumceat in North Ireland, +he procured the recognition of Aidan, and brought the King of the Picts +also to confess Aidan's independent royalty. + +In the 'Life of Columba,' by Adamnan, we get a clear and complete view of +everyday existence in the Highlands during that age. We are among the +red deer, and the salmon, and the cattle in the hills, among the second- +sighted men, too, of whom Columba was far the foremost. We see the +saint's inkpot upset by a clumsy but enthusiastic convert; we even make +acquaintance with the old white pony of the monastery, who mourned when +St Columba was dying; while among secular men we observe the differences +in rank, measured by degrees of wealth in cattle. Many centuries elapse +before, in Froissart, we find a picture of Scotland so distinct as that +painted by Adamnan. + +The discipline of St Columba was of the monastic model. There were +settlements of clerics in fortified villages; the clerics were a kind of +monks, with more regard for abbots than for their many bishops, and with +peculiar tonsures, and a peculiar way of reckoning the date of Easter. +Each missionary was popularly called a Saint, and the _Kil_, or cell, of +many a Celtic missionary survives in hundreds of place-names. + +The salt-water Loch Leven in Argyll was on the west the south frontier of +"Pictland," which, on the east, included all the country north of the +Firth of Forth. From Loch Leven south to Kintyre, a large cantle, +including the isles, was the land of the Scots from Ireland, the +Dalriadic kingdom. The south-west, from Dumbarton, including our modern +Cumberland and Westmorland, was named Strathclyde, and was peopled by +British folk, speaking an ancient form of Welsh. On the east, from +Ettrick forest into Lothian, the land was part of the early English +kingdom of Bernicia; here the invading Angles were already settled--though +river-names here remain Gaelic, and hill-names are often either Gaelic or +Welsh. The great Northern Pictland was divided into seven provinces, or +sub-kingdoms, while there was an over-King, or Ardrigh, with his capital +at Inverness and, later, in Angus or Forfarshire. The country about +Edinburgh was partly English, partly Cymric or Welsh. The south-west +corner, Galloway, was called Pictish, and was peopled by Gaelic-speaking +tribes. + +In the course of time and events the dynasty of the Argyll Scoti from +Ireland gave its name to Scotland, while the English element gave its +language to the Lowlands; it was adopted by the Celtic kings of the whole +country and became dominant, while the Celtic speech withdrew into the +hills of the north and northwest. + +The nation was thus evolved out of alien and hostile elements, Irish, +Pictish, Gaelic, Cymric, English, and on the northern and western shores, +Scandinavian. + + + + +CHAPTER III. EARLY WARS OF RACES. + + +In a work of this scope, it is impossible to describe all the wars +between the petty kingdoms peopled by races of various languages, which +occupied Scotland. In 603, in the wild moors at Degsastane, between the +Liddel burn and the passes of the Upper Tyne, the English Aethelfrith of +Deira, with an army of the still pagan ancestors of the Borderers, +utterly defeated Aidan, King of Argyll, with the Christian converted +Scots. Henceforth, for more than a century, the English between Forth +and Humber feared neither Scot of the west nor Pict of the north. + +On the death of Aethelfrith (617), the Christian west and north exercised +their influences; one of Aethelfrith's exiled sons married a Pictish +princess, and became father of a Pictish king, another, Oswald, was +baptised at Iona; and the new king of the northern English of Lothian, +Edwin, was converted by Paullinus (627), and held Edinburgh as his +capital. Later, after an age of war and ruin, Oswald, the convert of +Iona, restored Christianity in northern England; and, after his fall, his +brother, Oswiu, consolidated the north English. In 685 Oswiu's son +Egfrith crossed the Forth and invaded Pictland with a Northumbrian army, +but was routed with great loss, and was slain at Nectan's Mere, in +Forfarshire. Thenceforth, till 761, the Picts were dominant, as against +Scots and north English, Angus MacFergus being then their leader (731- +761). + +Now the invaders and settlers from Scandinavia, the Northmen on the west +coast, ravaged the Christian Scots of the west, and burned Iona: finally, +in 844-860, Kenneth MacAlpine of Kintyre, a Scot of Dalriada on the +paternal, a Pict on the mother's side, defeated the Picts and obtained +their throne. By Pictish law the crown descended in the maternal line, +which probably facilitated the coronation of Kenneth. To the Scots and +"to all Europe" he was a Scot; to the Picts, as son of a royal Pictish +mother, he was a Pict. With him, at all events, Scots and Picts were +interfused, and there began the _Scottish_ dynasty, supplanting the +Pictish, though it is only in popular tales that the Picts were +exterminated. + +Owing to pressure from the Northmen sea-rovers in the west, the capital +and the seat of the chief bishop, under Kenneth MacAlpine (844-860), were +moved eastwards from Iona to Scone, near Perth, and after an interval at +Dunkeld, to St Andrews in Fife. + +The line of Kenneth MacAlpine, though disturbed by quarrels over the +succession, and by Northmen in the west, north, and east, none the less +in some way "held a good grip o' the gear" against Vikings, English of +Lothian, and Welsh of Strathclyde. In consequence of a marriage with a +Welsh princess of Strathclyde, or Cumberland, a Scottish prince, Donald, +brother of Constantine II., became king of that realm (908), and his +branch of the family of MacAlpin held Cumbria for a century. + + + +ENGLISH CLAIMS OVER SCOTLAND. + + +In 924 the first claim by an English king, Edward, to the over-lordship +of Scotland appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The entry contains a +manifest error, and the topic causes war between modern historians, +English and Scottish. In fact, there are several such entries of +Scottish acceptance of English suzerainty under Constantine II., and +later, but they all end in the statement, "this held not long." The +"submission" of Malcolm I. to Edmund (945) is not a submission but an +alliance; the old English word for "fellow-worker," or "ally," designates +Malcolm as fellow-worker with Edward of England. + +This word (midwyrhta) was translated _fidelis_ (one who gives fealty) in +the Latin of English chroniclers two centuries later, but Malcolm I. held +Cumberland as an ally, not as a subject prince of England. In 1092 an +English chronicle represents Malcolm III. as holding Cumberland "by +conquest." + +The main fact is that out of these and similar dim transactions arose the +claims of Edward I. to the over-lordship of Scotland,--claims that were +urged by Queen Elizabeth's minister, Cecil, in 1568, and were boldly +denied by Maitland of Lethington. From these misty pretensions came the +centuries of war that made the hardy character of the folk of Scotland. +{10} + + + +THE SCOTTISH ACQUISITION OF LOTHIAN. + + +We cannot pretend within our scope to follow chronologically "the +fightings and flockings of kites and crows," in "a wolf-age, a war-age," +when the Northmen from all Scandinavian lands, and the Danes, who had +acquired much of Ireland, were flying at the throat of England and +hanging on the flanks of Scotland; while the Britons of Strathclyde +struck in, and the Scottish kings again and again raided or sought to +occupy the fertile region of Lothian between Forth and Tweed. If the +dynasty of MacAlpin could win rich Lothian, with its English-speaking +folk, they were "made men," they held the granary of the North. By +degrees and by methods not clearly defined they did win the Castle of the +Maidens, the acropolis of Dunedin, Edinburgh; and fifty years later, in +some way, apparently by the sword, at the battle of Carham (1018), in +which a Scottish king of Cumberland fought by his side, Malcolm II. took +possession of Lothian, the whole south-east region, by this time entirely +anglified, and this was the greatest step in the making of Scotland. The +Celtic dynasty now held the most fertile district between Forth and +Tweed, a district already English in blood and speech, the centre and +focus of the English civilisation accepted by the Celtic kings. Under +this Malcolm, too, his grandson, Duncan, became ruler of Strathclyde--that +is, practically, of Cumberland. + +Malcolm is said to have been murdered at haunted Glamis, in Forfarshire, +in 1034; the room where he died is pointed out by legend in the ancient +castle. His rightful heir, by the strange system of the Scots, should +have been, not his own grandson, Duncan, but the grandson of Kenneth III. +The rule was that the crown went alternately to a descendant of the House +of Constantine (863-877), son of Kenneth MacAlpine, and to a descendant +of Constantine's brother, Aodh (877-888). These alternations went on +till the crowning of Malcolm II. (1005-1034), and then ceased, for +Malcolm II. had slain the unnamed male heir of the House of Aodh, a son +of Boedhe, in order to open the succession to his own grandson, "the +gracious Duncan." Boedhe had left a daughter, Gruach; she had by the +Mormaor, or under-king of the province of Murray, a son, Lulach. On the +death of the Mormaor she married Macbeth, and when Macbeth slew Duncan +(1040), he was removing a usurper--as he understood it--and he ruled in +the name of his stepson, Lulach. The power of Duncan had been weakened +by repeated defeats at the hands of the Northmen under Thorfinn. In 1057 +Macbeth was slain in battle at Lumphanan, in Aberdeenshire, and Malcolm +Canmore, son of Duncan, after returning from England, whither he had fled +from Macbeth, succeeded to the throne. But he and his descendants for +long were opposed by the House of Murray, descendants of Lulach, who +himself had died in 1058. + +The world will always believe Shakespeare's version of these events, and +suppose the gracious Duncan to have been a venerable old man, and Macbeth +an ambitious Thane, with a bloodthirsty wife, he himself being urged on +by the predictions of witches. He was, in fact, Mormaor of Murray, and +upheld the claims of his stepson Lulach, who was son of a daughter of the +wrongfully extruded House of Aodh. + +Malcolm Canmore, Duncan's grandson, on the other hand, represented the +European custom of direct lineal succession against the ancient Scots' +mode. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. MALCOLM CANMORE--NORMAN CONQUEST. + + +The reign of Malcolm Canmore (1057-1093) brought Scotland into closer +connection with western Europe and western Christianity. The Norman +Conquest (1066) increased the tendency of the English-speaking people of +Lothian to acquiesce in the rule of a Celtic king, rather than in that of +the adventurers who followed William of Normandy. Norman operations did +not at first reach Cumberland, which Malcolm held; and, on the death of +his Norse wife, the widow of Duncan's foe, Thorfinn (she left a son, +Duncan), Malcolm allied himself with the English Royal House by marrying +Margaret, sister of Eadgar AEtheling, then engaged in the hopeless effort +to rescue northern England from the Normans. The dates are confused: +Malcolm may have won the beautiful sister of Edgar, rightful king of +England, in 1068, or at the time (1070) of his raid, said to have been of +savage ferocity, into Northumberland, and his yet more cruel reprisals +for Gospatric's harrying of Cumberland. In either case, St Margaret's +biographer, who had lived at her Court, whether or not he was her +Confessor, Turgot, represents the Saint as subduing the savagery of +Malcolm, who passed wakeful nights in weeping for his sins. A lover of +books, which Malcolm could not read, an expert in "the delicate, and +gracious, and bright works of women," Margaret brought her own gentleness +and courtesy among a rude people, built the abbey church of Dunfermline, +and presented the churches with many beautiful golden reliquaries and +fine sacramental plate. + +In 1072, to avenge a raid of Malcolm (1070), the Conqueror, with an army +and a fleet, came to Abernethy on Tay, where Malcolm, in exchange for +English manors, "became his man" _for them_, and handed over his son +Duncan as a hostage for peace. The English view is that Malcolm became +William's "man for all that he had"--or for all south of Tay. + +After various raidings of northern England, and after the death of the +Conqueror, Malcolm renewed, in Lothian, the treaty of Abernethy, being +secured in his twelve English manors (1091). William Rufus then took and +fortified Carlisle, seized part of Malcolm's lands in Cumberland, and +summoned him to Gloucester, where the two Kings, after all, quarrelled +and did not meet. No sooner had Malcolm returned home than he led an +army into Northumberland, where he was defeated and slain, near Alnwick +(Nov. 13, 1093). His son Edward fell with him, and his wife, St +Margaret, died in Edinburgh Castle: her body, under cloud of night, was +carried through the host of rebel Celts and buried at Dunfermline. + +Margaret, a beautiful and saintly Englishwoman, had been the ruling +spirit of the reign in domestic and ecclesiastical affairs. She had +civilised the Court, in matters of costume at least; she had read books +to the devoted Malcolm, who could not read; and he had been her +interpreter in her discussions with the Celtic-speaking clergy, whose +ideas of ritual differed from her own. The famous Culdees, originally +ascetic hermits, had before this day united in groups living under +canonical rules, and, according to English observers, had ceased to be +bachelors. Masses are said to have been celebrated by them in some +"barbarous rite"; Saturday was Sabbath; on Sunday men worked. Lent +began, not on Ash Wednesday, but on the Monday following. We have no +clearer account of the Culdee peculiarities that St Margaret reformed. +The hereditary tenure of benefices by lay protectors she did not reform, +but she restored the ruined cells of Iona, and established _hospitia_ for +pilgrims. She was decidedly unpopular with her Celtic subjects, who now +made a struggle against English influences. + +In the year of her death died Fothadh, the last Celtic bishop of St +Andrews, and the Celtic clergy were gradually superseded and replaced by +monks of English name, English speech, and English ideas--or rather the +ideas of western Europe. Scotland, under Margaret's influence, became +more Catholic; the celibacy of the clergy was more strictly enforced (it +had almost lapsed), but it will be observed throughout that, of all +western Europe, Scotland was least overawed by Rome. Yet for centuries +the Scottish Church was, in a peculiar degree, "the daughter of Rome," +for not till about 1470 had she a Metropolitan, the Archbishop of St +Andrews. + +On the deaths, in one year, of Malcolm, Margaret, and Fothadh, the last +Celtic bishop of St Andrews, the see for many years was vacant or merely +filled by transient bishops. York and Canterbury were at feud for their +superiority over the Scottish Church; and the other sees were not +constituted and provided with bishops till the years 1115 (Glasgow), +1150,--Argyll not having a bishop till 1200. In the absence of a +Metropolitan, episcopal elections had to be confirmed at Rome, which +would grant no Metropolitan, but forbade the Archbishop of York to claim +a superiority which would have implied, or prepared the way for, English +superiority over Scotland. Meanwhile the expenses and delays of appeals +from bishops direct to Rome did not stimulate the affection of the +Scottish "daughter of Rome." The rights of the chapters of the +Cathedrals to elect their bishops, and other appointments to +ecclesiastical offices, in course of time were transferred to the Pope, +who negotiated with the king, and thus all manner of jobbery increased, +the nobles influencing the king in favour of their own needy younger +sons, and the Pope being amenable to various secular persuasions, so that +in every way the relations of Scotland with the Holy Father were +anomalous and irksome. + +Scotland was, indeed, a country predestined to much ill fortune, to +tribulations against which human foresight could erect no defence. But +the marriage of the Celtic Malcolm with the English Margaret, and the +friendly arrival of great nobles from the south, enabled Scotland to +receive the new ideas of feudal law in pacific fashion. They were not +violently forced upon the English-speaking people of Lothian. + + + +DYNASTY OF MALCOLM. + + +On the death of Malcolm the contest for the Crown lay between his +brother, Donald Ban, supported by the Celts; his son Duncan by his first +wife, a Norse woman (Duncan being then a hostage at the English Court, +who was backed by William Rufus); and thirdly, Malcolm's eldest son by +Margaret, Eadmund, the favourite with the anglicised south of the +country. Donald Ban, after a brief period of power, was driven out by +Duncan (1094); Duncan was then slain by the Celts (1094). Donald was +next restored, north of Forth, Eadmund ruling in the south, but was +dispossessed and blinded by Malcolm's son Eadgar, who reigned for ten +years (1097-1107), while Eadmund died in an English cloister. Eadgar had +trouble enough on all sides, but the process of anglicising continued, +under himself, and later, under his brother, Alexander I., who ruled +north of Forth and Clyde; while the youngest brother, David, held Lothian +and Cumberland, with the title of Earl. The sister of those sons of +Malcolm, Eadgyth (Matilda), married Henry I. of England in 1100. There +seemed a chance that, north of Clyde and Forth, there would be a Celtic +kingdom; while Lothian and Cumbria would be merged in England. Alexander +was mainly engaged in fighting the Moray claimants of his crown in the +north and in planting his religious houses, notably St Andrews, with +English Augustinian canons from York. Canterbury and York contended for +ecclesiastical superiority over Scotland; after various adventures, +Robert, the prior of the Augustinians at Scone, was made Bishop of St +Andrews, being consecrated by Canterbury, in 1124; while York consecrated +David's bishop in Glasgow. Thanks to the quarrels of the sees of York +and Canterbury, the Scottish clergy managed to secure their +ecclesiastical independence from either English see; and became, finally, +the most useful combatants in the long struggle for the independence of +the nation. Rome, on the whole, backed that cause. The Scottish +Catholic churchmen, in fact, pursued the old patriotic policy of +resistance to England till the years just preceding the Reformation, when +the people leaned to the reformed doctrines, and when Scottish national +freedom was endangered more by France than by England. + + + + +CHAPTER V. DAVID I. AND HIS TIMES. + + +With the death of Alexander I. (April 25, 1124) and the accession of his +brother, David I., the deliberate Royal policy of introducing into +Scotland English law and English institutions, as modified by the Norman +rulers, was fulfilled. David, before Alexander's death, was Earl of the +most English part of Lothian, the country held by Scottish kings, and +Cumbria; and resided much at the court of his brother-in-law, Henry I. He +associated, when Earl, with nobles of Anglo-Norman race and language, +such as Moreville, Umfraville, Somerville, Gospatric, Bruce, Balliol, and +others; men with a stake in both countries, England and Scotland. On +coming to the throne, David endowed these men with charters of lands in +Scotland. With him came a cadet of the great Anglo-Breton House of +FitzAlan, who obtained the hereditary office of Seneschal or _Steward_ of +Scotland. His patronymic, FitzAlan, merged in Stewart (later Stuart), +and the family cognizance, the _fesse chequy_ in azure and argent, +represents the Board of Exchequer. The earliest Stewart holdings of land +were mainly in Renfrewshire; those of the Bruces were in Annandale. These +two Anglo-Norman houses between them were to found the Stewart dynasty. + +The wife of David, Matilda, widow of Simon de St Liz, was heiress of +Waltheof, sometime the Conqueror's Earl in Northumberland; and to gain, +through that connection, Northumberland for himself was the chief aim of +David's foreign policy,--an aim fertile in contentions. + +We have not space to disentangle the intricacies of David's first great +domestic struggles; briefly, there was eternal dispeace caused by the +Celts, headed by claimants to the throne, the MacHeths, representing the +rights of Lulach, the ward of Macbeth. {20} In 1130 the Celts were +defeated, and their leader, Angus, Earl of Moray, fell in fight near the +North Esk in Forfarshire. His brother, Malcolm, by aid of David's Anglo- +Norman friends, was taken and imprisoned in Roxburgh Castle. The result +of this rising was that David declared the great and ancient Celtic +Earldom of Moray--the home of his dynastic Celtic rivals--forfeit to the +Crown. He planted the region with English, Anglo-Norman, and Lowland +landholders, a great step in the anglicisation of his kingdom. +Thereafter, for several centuries, the strength of the Celts lay in the +west in Moidart, Knoydart, Morar, Mamore, Lochaber, and Kintyre, and in +the western islands, which fell into the hands of "the sons of Somerled," +the Macdonalds. + +In 1135-1136, on the death of Henry I., David, backing his own niece, +Matilda, as Queen of England in opposition to Stephen, crossed the Border +in arms, but was bought off. His son Henry received the Honour of +Huntingdom, with the Castle of Carlisle, and a vague promise of +consideration of his claim to Northumberland. In 1138, after a disturbed +interval, David led the whole force of his realm, from Orkney to +Galloway, into Yorkshire. His Anglo-Norman friends, the Balliols and +Bruces, with the Archbishop of York, now opposed him and his son Prince +Henry. On August 22, 1138, at Cowton Moor, near Northallerton, was +fought the great battle, named from the huge English sacred banner, "The +Battle of the Standard." + +In a military sense, the fact that here the men-at-arms and knights of +England fought as dismounted infantry, their horses being held apart in +reserve, is notable as preluding to the similar English tactics in their +French wars of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. + +Thus arrayed, the English received the impetuous charge of the wild +Galloway men, not in armour, who claimed the right to form the van, and +broke through the first line only to die beneath the spears of the +second. But Prince David with his heavy cavalry scattered the force +opposed to him, and stampeded the horses of the English that were held in +reserve. This should have been fatal to the English, but Henry, like +Rupert at Marston Moor, pursued too far, and the discipline of the Scots +was broken by the cry that their King had fallen, and they fled. David +fought his way to Carlisle in a series of rearguard actions, and at +Carlisle was joined by Prince Henry with the remnant of his men-at-arms. +It was no decisive victory for England. + +In the following year (1139) David got what he wanted. His son Henry, by +peaceful arrangement, received the Earldom of Northumberland, without the +two strong places, Bamborough and Newcastle. + +Through the anarchic weakness of Stephen's reign, Scotland advanced in +strength and civilisation despite a Celtic rising headed by a strange +pretender to the rights of the MacHeths, a "brother Wimund"; but all went +with the death of David's son, Prince Henry, in 1152. Of the prince's +three sons, the eldest, Malcolm, was but ten years old; next came his +brothers William ("the Lion") and little David, Earl of Huntingdon. From +this David's daughters descended the chief claimants to the Scottish +throne in 1292--namely, Balliol, Bruce, and Comyn: the last also was +descended, in the female line, from King Donald Ban, son of Malcolm +Canmore. + +David had done all that man might do to settle the crown on his grandson +Malcolm; his success meant that standing curse of Scotland, "Woe to the +kingdom whose king is a child,"--when, in a year, David died at Carlisle +(May 24, 1153). + + + +SCOTLAND BECOMES FEUDAL. + + +The result of the domestic policy of David was to bring all accessible +territory under the social and political system of western Europe, "the +Feudal System." Its principles had been perfectly familiar to Celtic +Scotland, but had rested on a body of traditional customs (as in Homeric +Greece), rather than on written laws and charters signed and sealed. +Among the Celts the local tribe had been, theoretically, the sole source +of property in land. In proportion as they were near of kin to the +recognised tribal chief, families held lands by a tenure of three +generations; but if they managed to acquire abundance of oxen, which they +let out to poorer men for rents in kind and labour, they were apt to turn +the lands which they held only temporarily, "in possession," into real +permanent _property_. The poorer tribesmen paid rent in labour or +"services," also in supplies of food and manure. + +The Celtic tenants also paid military service to their superiors. The +remotest kinsmen of each lord of land, poor as they might be, were valued +for their swords, and were billeted on the unfree or servile tenants, who +gave them free quarters. + +In the feudal system of western Europe these old traditional customs had +long been modified and stereotyped by written charters. The King gave +gifts of land to his kinsmen or officers, who were bound to be "faithful" +(_fideles_); in return the inferior did homage, while he received +protection. From grade to grade of rank and wealth each inferior did +homage to and received protection from his superior, who was also his +judge. In this process, what had been the Celtic tribe became the new +"thanage"; the Celtic king (_righ_) of the tribe became the thane; the +province or group of tribes (say Moray) became the earldom; the Celtic +Mormaer of the province became the earl; and the Crown appointed _vice- +comites_, sub-earls, that is sheriffs, who administered the King's +justice in the earldom. + +But there were regions, notably the west Highlands and isles, where the +new system penetrated slowly and with difficulty through a mountainous +and almost townless land. The law, and written leases, "came slowly up +that way." + +Under David, where his rule extended, society was divided broadly into +three classes--Nobles, Free, Unfree. All holders of "a Knight's fee," or +part of one, holding by _free_ service, hereditarily, and by charter, +constituted the _communitas_ of the realm (we are to hear of the +_communitas_ later), and were free, noble, or gentle,--men of coat +armour. The "ignoble," "not noble," men with no charter from the Crown, +or Earl, Thane, or Church, were, if lease-holders, though not "noble," +still "free." Beneath them were the "unfree" _nativi_, sold or given +with the soil. + +The old Celtic landholders were not expropriated, as a rule, except where +Celtic risings, in Galloway and Moray, were put down, and the lands were +left in the King's hands. Often, when we find territorial surnames of +families, "_de_" "of" this place or that,--the lords are really of Celtic +blood with Celtic names; disguised under territorial titles; and finally +disused. But in Galloway and Ayrshire the ruling Celtic name, Kennedy, +remains Celtic, while the true Highlands of the west and northwest +retained their native magnates. Thus the Anglicisation, except in very +rebellious regions, was gradual. There was much less expropriation of +the Celt than disguising of the Celt under new family names and +regulation of the Celt under written charters and leases. + + + +CHURCH LANDS. + + +David I. was, according to James VI., nearly five centuries later, "a +sair saint for the Crown." He gave Crown-lands in the southern lowlands +to the religious orders with their priories and abbeys; for example, +Holyrood, Melrose, Jedburgh, Kelso, and Dryburgh--centres of learning and +art and of skilled agriculture. Probably the best service of the regular +clergy to the State was its orderliness and attention to agriculture, for +the monasteries did not, as in England, produce many careful chroniclers +and historians. + +Each abbey had its lands divided into baronies, captained by a lay +"Church baron" to lead its levies in war. The civil centre of the barony +was the great farm or grange, with its mill, for in the thirteenth +century the Lowlands had water-mills which to the west Highlands were +scarcely known in 1745, when the Highland husbandmen were still using the +primitive hand-quern of two circular stones. Near the mill was a hamlet +of some forty cottages; each head of a family had a holding of eight or +nine acres and pasturage for two cows, and paid a small money rent and +many arduous services to the Abbey. + +The tenure of these cottars was, and under lay landlords long remained, +extremely precarious; but the tenure of the "bonnet laird" (_hosbernus_) +was hereditary. Below even the free cottars were the unfree serfs or +_nativi_, who were handed over, with the lands they tilled, to the abbeys +by benefactors: the Church was forward in emancipating these serfs; nor +were lay landlords backward, for the freed man was useful as a spear-man +in war. + +We have only to look at the many now ruined abbeys of the Border to see +the extent of civilisation under David I., and the relatively peaceful +condition, then, of that region which later became the cockpit of the +English wars, and the home of the raiding clans, Scotts, Elliots, and +Armstrongs, Bells, Nixons, Robsons, and Croziers. + + + +THE BURGHS. + + +David and his son and successor, William the Lion, introduced a stable +middle and urban class by fostering, confirming, and regulating the +rights, privileges, and duties of the already existing free towns. These +became _burghs_, royal, seignorial, or ecclesiastical. In origin the +towns may have been settlements that grew up under the shelter of a +military castle. Their fairs, markets, rights of trading, internal +organisation, and primitive police, were now, mainly under William the +Lion, David's successor, regulated by charters; the burghers obtained the +right to elect their own magistrates, and held their own burgh-courts; +all was done after the English model. As the State had its "good men" +(_probi homines_), who formed its recognised "community," so had the +borough. Not by any means all dwellers in a burgh were free burghers; +these free burghers had to do service in guarding the royal castle--later +this was commuted for a payment in money. Though with power to elect +their own chief magistrate, the burghers commonly took as Provost the +head of some friendly local noble family, in which the office was apt to +become practically hereditary. The noble was the leader and protector of +the town. As to police, the burghers, each in his turn, provided men to +keep watch and ward from curfew bell to cock-crow. Each ward in the town +had its own elected Bailie. Each burgh had exclusive rights of trading +in its area, and of taking toll on merchants coming within its _Octroi_. +An association of four burghs, Berwick, Roxburgh, Edinburgh, and +Stirling, was the root of the existing "Convention of Burghs." + + + +JUSTICE. + + +In early societies, justice is, in many respects, an affair to be settled +between the kindreds of the plaintiff, so to speak, and the defendant. A +man is wounded, killed, robbed, wronged in any way; his kin retaliate on +the offender and _his_ kindred. The blood-feud, the taking of blood for +blood, endured for centuries in Scotland after the peace of the whole +realm became, under David I., "the King's peace." Homicides, for +example, were very frequently pardoned by Royal grace, but "the pardon +was of no avail unless it had been issued with the full knowledge of the +kin of the slaughtered man, who otherwise retained their _legal_ right of +vengeance on the homicide." They might accept pecuniary compensation, +the blood-fine, or they might not, as in Homer's time. {27} At all +events, under David, offences became offences against the King, not +merely against this or that kindred. David introduced the "Judgment of +the Country" or _Visnet del Pais_ for the settlement of pleas. Every +free man, in his degree, was "tried by his peers," but the old ordeal by +fire and Trial by Combat or duel were not abolished. Nor did +"compurgation" cease wholly till Queen Mary's reign. A powerful man, +when accused, was then attended at his trial by hosts of armed backers. +Men so unlike each other as Knox, Bothwell, and Lethington took advantage +of this usage. All lords had their own Courts, but murder, rape, arson, +and robbery could now only be tried in the royal Courts; these were "The +Four Pleas of the Crown." + + + +THE COURTS. + + +As there was no fixed capital, the King's Court, in David's time, +followed the King in his annual circuits through his realm, between +Dumfries and Inverness. Later, the regions of Scotia (north of Forth), +Lothian, and the lawless realm of Galloway, had their Grand Justiciaries, +who held the Four Pleas. The other pleas were heard in "Courts of +Royalty" and by earls, bishops, abbots, down to the baron, with his +"right of pit and gallows." At such courts, by a law of 1180, the +Sheriff of the shire, or an agent of his, ought to be present; so that +royal and central justice was extending itself over the minor local +courts. But if the sheriff or his sergeant did not attend when summoned, +local justice took its course. + +The process initiated by David's son, William the Lion, was very slowly +substituting the royal authority, the royal sheriffs of shires, juries, +and witnesses, for the wild justice of revenge; and trial by ordeal, and +trial by combat. But hereditary jurisdictions of nobles and gentry were +not wholly abolished till after the battle of Culloden! Where Abbots +held courts, their procedure, in civil cases, was based on laws +sanctioned by popes and general councils. But, alas! the Abbot might +give just judgment; to execute it, we know from a curious instance, was +not within his power, if the offender laughed at a sentence of +excommunication. + +David and his successors, till the end of the thirteenth century, made +Scotland a more civilised and kept it a much less disturbed country than +it was to remain during the long war of Independence, while the beautiful +abbeys with their churches and schools attested a high stage of art and +education. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. MALCOLM THE MAIDEN. + + +The prominent facts in the brief reign of David's son Malcolm the Maiden, +crowned (1153) at the age of eleven, were, first, a Celtic rising by +Donald, a son of Malcolm MacHeth (now a prisoner in Roxburgh Castle), and +a nephew of the famous Somerled Macgillebride of Argyll. Somerled won +from the Norse the Isle of Man and the Southern Hebrides; from his sons +descend the great Macdonald Lords of the Isles, always the leaders of the +long Celtic resistance to the central authority in Scotland. Again, +Malcolm resigned to Henry II. of England the northern counties held by +David I.; and died after subduing Galloway, and (on the death of +Somerled, said to have been assassinated) the tribes of the isles in +1165. + + + +WILLIAM THE LION. + + +Ambition to recover the northern English counties revealed itself in the +overtures of William the Lion,--Malcolm's brother and successor,--for an +alliance between Scotland and France. "The auld Alliance" now dawned, +with rich promise of good and evil. In hopes of French aid, William +invaded Northumberland, later laid siege to Carlisle, and on July 13, +1174, was surprised in a morning mist and captured at Alnwick. Scotland +was now kingless; Galloway rebelled, and William, taken a captive to +Falaise in Normandy, surrendered absolutely the independence of his +country, which, for fifteen years, really was a fief of England. When +William was allowed to go home, it was to fight the Celts of Galloway, +and subdue the pretensions, in Moray, of the MacWilliams, descendants of +William, son of Duncan, son of Malcolm Canmore. + +During William's reign (1188) Pope Clement III. decided that the Scottish +Church was subject, not to York or Canterbury, but to Rome. Seven years +earlier, defending his own candidate for the see of St Andrews against +the chosen of the Pope, William had been excommunicated, and his country +and he had unconcernedly taken the issue of an Interdict. The Pope was +too far away, and William feared him no more than Robert Bruce was to do. + +By 1188, William refused to pay to Henry II. a "Saladin Tithe" for a +crusade, and in 1189 he bought from Richard I., who needed money for a +crusade, the abrogation of the Treaty of Falaise. He was still disturbed +by Celts in Galloway and the north, he still hankered after +Northumberland, but, after preparations for war, he paid a fine and +drifted into friendship with King John, who entertained his little +daughters royally, and knighted his son Alexander. William died on +December 4, 1214. He was buried at the Abbey of Arbroath, founded by him +in honour of St Thomas of Canterbury, who had worked a strange posthumous +miracle in Scotland. William was succeeded by his son, Alexander II. +(1214-1249). + + + +ALEXANDER II. + + +Under this Prince, who successfully put down the usual northern risings, +the old suit about the claims to Northumberland was finally abandoned for +a trifling compensation (1237). Alexander had married Joanna, daughter +of King John, and his brother-in-law, Henry III., did not press his +demand for homage for Scotland. The usual Celtic pretenders to the +throne were for ever crushed. Argyll became a sheriffdom, Galloway was +brought into order, and Alexander, who died in the Isle of Kerrera in the +bay of Oban (1249), well deserved his title of "a King of Peace." He was +buried in Melrose Abbey. In his reign the clergy were allowed to hold +Provincial or Synodal Councils without the presence of a papal Legate +(1225), and the Dominicans and Franciscans appeared in Scotland. + + + +ALEXANDER III. + + +The term King of Peace was also applied to Alexander III., son of the +second wife of Alexander II., Marie de Coucy. Alexander came to the +throne (1249) at the age of eight. As a child he was taken and held +(like James II., James III., James V., and James VI.) by contending +factions of the nobles, Henry of England intervening. In 1251 he wedded +another child, Margaret, daughter of Henry III. of England, but Henry +neither forced a claim to hold Scotland during the boy's minority (his +right if Scotland were his fief), nor in other respects pressed his +advantage. In February 1261-1262 a girl was born to Alexander at +Windsor; she was Margaret, later wife of Eric of Norway. Her daughter, +on the death of Alexander III. (March 19, 1286), was the sole direct +descendant in the male line. + +After the birth of this heiress, Alexander won from Norway the isles of +the western coast of Scotland in which Norse chieftains had long held +sway. They complained to Hakon of Norway concerning raids made on them +by the Earl of Ross, a Celtic potentate. Alexander's envoys to Hakon +were detained, and in 1263, Hakon, with a great fleet, sailed through the +islands. A storm blew most of his Armada to shore near Largs, where his +men were defeated by the Scots. Hakon collected his ships, sailed north, +and (December 15) died at Kirkwall. Alexander now brought the island +princes, including the Lord of Man, into subjection; and by Treaty, in +1266, placed them under the Crown. In 1275 Benemund de Vicci (called +Bagimont), at a council in Perth, compelled the clergy to pay a tithe for +a crusade, the Pope insisting that the money should be assessed on the +true value of benefices--that is, on "Bagimont's Roll,"--thenceforth +recognised as the basis of clerical taxation. In 1278 Edward I. laboured +to extract from Alexander an acknowledgment that he was England's vassal. +Edward signally failed; but a palpably false account of Alexander's +homage was fabricated, and dated September 29, 1278. This was not the +only forgery by which England was wont to back her claims. + +A series of bereavements (1281-1283) deprived Alexander of all his +children save his little grandchild, "the Maid of Norway." She was +recognised by a great national assembly at Scone as heiress of the +throne; and Alexander had no issue by his second wife, a daughter of the +Comte de Dreux. On the night of March 19, 1285, while Alexander was +riding from Edinburgh to visit his bride at Kinghorn, his horse slipped +over a cliff and the rider was slain. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. ENCROACHMENTS OF EDWARD I.--WALLACE. + + +The Estates of Scotland met at Scone (April 11, 1286) and swore loyalty +to their child queen, "the Maid of Norway," granddaughter of Alexander +III. Six guardians of the kingdom were appointed on April 11, 1286. They +were the Bishops of St Andrews and Glasgow, two Comyns (Buchan and +Badenoch), the Earl of Fife, and Lord James, the Steward of Scotland. No +Bruce or Baliol was among the Custodians. Instantly a "band," or +covenant, was made by the Bruces, Earls of Annandale and Carrick, to +support their claims (failing the Maid) to the throne; and there were +acts of war on their part against another probable candidate, John +Balliol. Edward (like Henry VIII. in the case of Mary Stuart) moved for +the marriage of the infant queen to his son. A Treaty safeguarding all +Scottish liberties as against England was made by clerical influences at +Birgham (July 18, 1290), but by October 7 news of the death of the young +queen reached Scotland: she had perished during her voyage from Norway. +Private war now broke out between the Bruces and Balliols; and the party +of Balliol appealed to Edward, through Fraser, Bishop of St Andrews, +asking the English king to prevent civil war, and recommending Balliol as +a person to be carefully treated. Next the Seven Earls, alleging some +dim elective right, recommended Bruce, and appealed to Edward as their +legal superior. + +Edward came to Norham-on-Tweed in May 1291, proclaimed himself Lord +Paramount, and was accepted as such by the twelve candidates for the +Crown (June 3). The great nobles thus, to serve their ambitions, +betrayed their country: _the communitas_ (whatever that term may here +mean) made a futile protest. + +As lord among his vassals, Edward heard the pleadings and evidence in +autumn 1292; and out of the descendants, in the female line, of David +Earl of Huntingdon, youngest son of David I., he finally (November 17, +1292) preferred John Balliol (_great-grandson_ of the earl through his +eldest daughter) to Bruce the Old, grandfather of the famous Robert +Bruce, and _grandson_ of Earl David's second daughter. The decision, +according to our ideas, was just; no modern court could set it aside. But +Balliol was an unpopular weakling--"an empty tabard," the people said--and +Edward at once subjected him, king as he was, to all the humiliations of +a petty vassal. He was summoned into his Lord's Court on the score of +the bills of tradesmen. If Edward's deliberate policy was to goad +Balliol into resistance and then conquer Scotland absolutely, in the +first of these aims he succeeded. + +In 1294 Balliol was summoned, with his Peers, to attend Edward in +Gascony. Balliol, by advice of a council (1295), sought a French +alliance and a French marriage for his son, named Edward; he gave the +Annandale lands of his enemy Robert Bruce (father of the king to be) to +Comyn, Earl of Buchan. He besieged Carlisle, while Edward took Berwick, +massacred the people, and captured Sir William Douglas, father of the +good Lord James. + +In the war which followed, Edward broke down resistance by a sanguinary +victory at Dunbar, captured John Comyn of Badenoch (the Red Comyn), +received from Balliol (July 7, 1296) the surrender of his royal claims, +and took the oaths of the Steward of Scotland and the Bruces, father and +son. He carried to Westminster the Black Rood of St Margaret and the +famous stone of Scone, a relic of the early Irish dynasty of the Scots; +as far north as Elgin he rode, receiving the oaths of all persons of note +and influence--except William Wallace. _His_ name does not appear in the +list of submissions called "The Ragman's Roll." Between April and +October 1296 the country was subjugated; the castles were garrisoned by +Englishmen. But by January 1297, Edward's governor, Warenne, Earl of +Surrey, and Ormsby, his Chief Justice, found the country in an uproar, +and at midsummer 1297 the levies of the northern counties of England were +ordered to put down the disorders. + + + +THE YEAR OF WALLACE. + + +In May the _commune_ of Scotland (whatever the term may here mean) had +chosen Wallace as their leader; probably this younger son of Sir Malcolm +Wallace of Elderslie, in Renfrewshire, had already been distinguished for +his success in skirmishes against the English, as well as for strength +and courage. {36} The popular account of his early adventures given in +the poem by Blind Harry (1490?) is of no historical value. His men +destroyed the English at Lanark (May 1297); he was abetted by Wishart, +Bishop of Glasgow, and the Steward; but by July 7, Percy and Clifford, +leading the English army, admitted the Steward, Robert Bruce (the future +king), and Wishart to the English peace at Irvine in Ayrshire. But the +North was up under Sir Andrew Murray, and "that thief Wallace" (to quote +an English contemporary) left the siege of Dundee Castle which he was +conducting to face Warenne on the north bank of the Forth. On September +11, the English, under Warenne, manoeuvred vaguely at Stirling Bridge, +and were caught on the flank by Wallace's army before they could deploy +on the northern side of the river. They were cut to pieces, Cressingham +was slain, and Warenne galloped to Berwick, while the Scots harried +Northumberland with great ferocity, which Wallace seems to have been +willing but not often able to control. By the end of March 1298 he +appears with Andrew Murray as Guardian of the Kingdom for the exiled +Balliol. This attitude must have aroused the jealousy of the nobles, and +especially of Robert Bruce, who aimed at securing the crown, and who, +after several changes of side, by June 1298 was busy in Edward's service +in Galloway. + +Edward then crossed the Border with a great army of perhaps 40,000 men, +met the spearmen of Wallace in their serried phalanxes at Falkirk, broke +the "schiltrom" or clump of spears by the arrows of his archers; +slaughtered the archers of Ettrick Forest; scattered the mounted nobles, +and avenged the rout of Stirling (July 22, 1298). The country remained +unsubdued, but its leaders were at odds among themselves, and Wallace had +retired to France, probably to ask for aid; he may also conceivably have +visited Rome. The Bishop of St Andrews, Lamberton, with Bruce and the +Red Comyn--deadly rivals--were Guardians of the Kingdom in 1299. But in +June 1300, Edward, undeterred by remonstrances from the Pope, entered +Scotland; an armistice, however, was accorded to the Holy Father, and the +war, in which the Scots scored a victory at Roslin in February 1293, +dragged on from summer to summer till July 1304. In these years Bruce +alternately served Edward and conspired against him; the intricacies of +his perfidy are deplorable. + +Bruce served Edward during the siege of Stirling, then the central key of +the country. On its surrender Edward admitted all men to his peace, on +condition of oaths of fealty, except "Messire Williame le Waleys." Men +of the noblest Scottish names stooped to pursue the hero: he was taken +near Glasgow, and handed over to Sir John Menteith, a Stewart, and son of +the Earl of Menteith. As Sheriff of Dumbartonshire, Menteith had no +choice but to send the hero in bonds to England. But, if Menteith +desired to escape the disgrace with which tradition brands his name, he +ought to have refused the English blood-price for the capture of Wallace. +He made no such refusal. As an outlaw, Wallace was hanged at London; his +limbs, like those of the great Montrose, were impaled on the gates of +various towns. + +What we really know about the chief popular hero of his country, from +documents and chronicles, is fragmentary; and it is hard to find anything +trustworthy in Blind Harry's rhyming "Wallace" (1490), plagiarised as it +is from Barbour's earlier poem (1370) on Bruce. {38} But Wallace was +truly brave, disinterested, and indomitable. Alone among the leaders he +never turned his coat, never swore and broke oaths to Edward. He arises +from obscurity, like Jeanne d'Arc; like her, he is greatly victorious; +like her, he awakens a whole people; like her, he is deserted, and is +unlawfully put to death; while his limbs, like her ashes, are scattered +by the English. The ravens had not pyked his bones bare before the Scots +were up again for freedom. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. BRUCE AND THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. + + +The position towards France of Edward I. made it really more desirable +for him that Scotland should be independent and friendly, than half +subdued and hostile to his rule. While she was hostile, England, in +attacking France, always left an enemy in her rear. But Edward supposed +that by clemency to all the Scottish leaders except Wallace, by giving +them great appointments and trusting them fully, and by calling them to +his Parliament in London, he could combine England and Scotland in +affectionate union. He repaired the ruins of war in Scotland; he began +to study her laws and customs; he hastily ran up for her a new +constitution, and appointed his nephew, John of Brittany, as governor. +But he had overlooked two facts: the Scottish clergy, from the highest to +the lowest, were irreconcilably opposed to union with England; and the +greatest and most warlike of the Scottish nobles, if not patriotic, were +fickle and insatiably ambitious. It is hard to reckon how often Robert +Bruce had turned his coat, and how often the Bishop of St Andrews had +taken the oath to Edward. Both men were in Edward's favour in June 1304, +but in that month they made against him a treasonable secret covenant. +Through 1305 Bruce prospered in Edward's service, on February 10, 1306, +Edward was conferring on him a new favour, little guessing that Bruce, +after some negotiation with his old rival, the Red Comyn, had slain him +(an uncle of his was also butchered) before the high altar of the Church +of the Franciscans in Dumfries. Apparently Bruce had tried to enlist +Comyn in his conspiracy, and had found him recalcitrant, or feared that +he would be treacherous (February 10, 1306). + +The sacrilegious homicide made it impossible for Bruce again to waver. He +could not hope for pardon; he must be victorious or share the fate of +Wallace. He summoned his adherents, including young James Douglas, +received the support of the Bishops of St Andrews and Glasgow, hurried to +Scone, and there was hastily crowned with a slight coronet, in the +presence of but two earls and three bishops. + +Edward made vast warlike preparations and forswore leniency, while Bruce, +under papal excommunication, which he slighted, collected a few nobles, +such as Lennox, Atholl, Errol, and a brother of the chief of the Frazers. +Other chiefs, kinsmen of the slain Comyn, among them Macdowal of Argyll, +banded to avenge the victim; Bruce's little force was defeated at Methven +Wood, near Perth, by Aymer de Valence, and prisoners of all ranks were +hanged as traitors, while two bishops were placed in irons. Bruce took +to the heather, pursued by the Macdowals no less than by the English; his +queen was captured, his brother Nigel was executed; he cut his way to the +wild west coast, aided only by Sir Nial Campbell of Loch Awe, who thus +founded the fortune of his house, and by the Macdonalds, under Angus Og +of Islay. He wintered in the isle of Rathlin (some think he even went to +Norway), and in spring, after surprising the English garrison in his own +castle of Turnberry, he roamed, now lonely, now with a mobile little +force, in Galloway, always evading and sometimes defeating his English +pursuers. At Loch Trool and at London Hill (Drumclog) he dealt them +heavy blows, while on June 7, 1307, his great enemy Edward died at +Borough-on-Sands, leaving the crown and the war to the weakling Edward +II. + +Fortune had turned. We cannot follow Bruce through his campaign in the +north, where he ruined the country of the Comyns (1308), and through the +victories in Galloway of his hard-fighting brother Edward. With enemies +on every side, Bruce took them in detail; early in March 1309 he routed +the Macdowals at the west end of the Pass of Brander. Edward II. was +involved in disputes with his own barons, and Bruce was recognised by his +country's Church in 1310 and aided by his great lieutenants, Sir James +Douglas and Thomas Randolph, Earl of Murray. By August 1311 Bruce was +carrying the war into England, sacking Durham and Chester, failing at +Carlisle, but in January 1313, capturing Perth. In summer, Edward Bruce, +in the spirit of chivalry, gave to Stirling Castle (Randolph had taken +Edinburgh Castle) a set day, Midsummer Day 1314, to be relieved or to +surrender; and Bruce kept tryst with Edward II. and his English and Irish +levies, and all his adventurous chivalry from France, Hainault, Bretagne, +Gascony, and Aquitaine. All the world knows the story of the first +battle, the Scottish Quatre Bras; the success of Randolph on the right; +the slaying of Bohun when Bruce broke his battle-axe. Next day Bruce's +position was strong; beneath the towers of Stirling the Bannockburn +protected his front; morasses only to be crossed by narrow paths impeded +the English advance. Edward Bruce commanded the right wing; Randolph the +centre; Douglas and the Steward the left; Bruce the reserve, the +Islesmen. His strength lay in his spearmen's "dark impenetrable wood"; +his archers were ill-trained; of horse he had but a handful under Keith, +the Marischal. But the heavy English cavalry could not break the squares +of spears; Keith cut up the archers of England; the main body could not +deploy, and the slow, relentless advance of the whole Scottish line +covered the plain with the dying and the flying. A panic arose, caused +by the sight of an approaching cloud of camp-followers on the Gillie's +hill; Edward fled, and hundreds of noble prisoners, with all the waggons +and supplies of England, fell into the hands of the Scots. In eight +strenuous years the generalship of Bruce and his war-leaders, the +resolution of the people, hardened by the cruelties of Edward, the +sermons of the clergy, and the utter incompetence of Edward II., had +redeemed a desperate chance. From a fief of England, Scotland had become +an indomitable nation. + + + +LATER DAYS OF BRUCE. + + +Bruce continued to prosper, despite an ill-advised attempt to win +Ireland, in which Edward Bruce fell (1318.) This left the succession, if +Bruce had no male issue, to the children of his daughter, Marjory, and +her husband, the Steward. In 1318 Scotland recovered Berwick, in 1319 +routed the English at Mytton-on-Swale. In a Parliament at Aberbrothock +(April 6, 1320) the Scots announced to the Pope, who had been +interfering, that, while a hundred of them survive, they will never yield +to England. In October 1322 Bruce utterly routed the English at Byland +Abbey, in the heart of Yorkshire, and chased Edward II. into York. In +March 1324 a son was born to Bruce named David; on May 4, 1328, by the +Treaty of Northampton, the independence of Scotland was recognised. In +July the infant David married Joanna, daughter of Edward II. + +On June 7, 1329, Bruce died and was buried at Dunfermline; his heart, by +his order, was carried by Douglas towards the Holy Land, and when Douglas +fell in a battle with the Moors in Spain, the heart was brought back by +Sir Simon Lockhart of the Lee. The later career of Bruce, after he had +been excommunicated, is that of the foremost knight and most sagacious +man of action who ever wore the crown of Scotland. The staunchness with +which the clergy and estates disregarded papal fulminations (indeed under +William the Lion they had treated an interdict as waste-paper) indicated +a kind of protestant tendency to independence of the Holy See. + +Bruce's inclusion of representatives of the Burghs in the first regular +Scottish Parliament (at Cambuskenneth in 1326) was a great step forward +in the constitutional existence of the country. The king, in Scotland, +was expected to "live of his own," but in 1326 the expenses of the war +with England compelled Bruce to seek permission for taxation. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. DECADENCE AND DISASTERS--REIGN OF DAVID II. + + +The heroic generation of Scotland was passing off the stage. The King +was a child. The forfeiture by Bruce of the lands of hostile or +treacherous lords, and his bestowal of the estates on his partisans, had +made the disinherited nobles the enemies of Scotland, and had fed too +full the House of Douglas. As the star of Scotland was thus clouded--she +had no strong man for a King during the next ninety years--the sun of +England rose red and glorious under a warrior like Edward III. The +Scottish nobles in many cases ceased to be true to their proud boast that +they would never submit to England. A very brief summary of the wretched +reign of David II. must here suffice. + +First, the son of John Balliol, Edward, went to the English Court, and +thither thronged the disinherited and forfeited lords, arranging a raid +to recover their lands. Edward III., of course, connived at their +preparations. + +After Randolph's death (July 20, 1332), when Mar--a sister's son of +Bruce--was Regent, the disinherited lords, under Balliol, invaded +Scotland, and Mar, with young Randolph, Menteith, and a bastard of Bruce, +"Robert of Carrick," leading a very great host, fell under the shafts of +the English archers of Umfraville, Wake, the English Earl of Atholl, +Talbot, Ferrers, and Zouche, at Dupplin, on the Earn (August 12, 1332). +Rolled up by arrows loosed on the flanks of their charging columns, they +fell, and their dead bodies lay in heaps as tall as a lance. + +On September 24, Edward Balliol was crowned King at Scone. Later, Andrew +Murray, perhaps a son of the Murray who had been Wallace's companion-in- +arms, was taken, and Balliol acknowledged Edward III. as his liege-lord +at Roxburgh. In December the second son of Randolph, with Archibald, the +new Regent, brother of the great Black Douglas, drove Balliol, flying in +his shirt, from Annan across the Border. He returned, and was opposed by +this Archibald Douglas, called Tineman, the Unlucky, and on July 19, +1333, Tineman suffered, at Halidon Hill, near Berwick, a defeat as +terrible as Flodden; Berwick, too, was lost, practically for ever, +Tineman fell, and Sir William Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale, was a +prisoner. These Scots defeats were always due to rash frontal attacks on +strong positions, the assailants passing between lines of English bowmen +who loosed into their flanks. The boy king, David, was carried to France +(1334) for safety, while Balliol delivered to Edward Berwick and the +chief southern counties, including that of Edinburgh, with their castles. + +There followed internal wars between Balliol's partisans, while the +patriots were led by young Randolph, by the young Steward, by Sir Andrew +Murray, and the wavering and cruel Douglas, called the Knight of +Liddesdale, now returned from captivity. In the desperate state of +things, with Balliol and Edward ravaging Scotland at will, none showed +more resolution than Bruce's sister, who held Kildrummie Castle; and +Randolph's daughter, "Black Agnes," who commanded that of Dunbar. By +vast gifts Balliol won over John, Lord of the Isles. The Celts turned to +the English party; Edward III. harried the province of Moray, but, in +1337, he began to undo his successes by formally claiming the crown of +France: France and Scotland together could always throw off the English +yoke. + +Thus diverted from Scotland, Edward lost strength there while he warred +with Scotland's ally: in 1341 the Douglas, Knight of Liddesdale, +recovered Edinburgh Castle by a romantic surprise. But David returned +home in 1341, a boy of eighteen, full of the foibles of chivalry, rash, +sensual, extravagant, who at once gave deadly offence to the Knight of +Liddesdale by preferring to him, as sheriff of Teviotdale, the brave Sir +Alexander Ramsay, who had driven the English from the siege of Dunbar +Castle. Douglas threw Ramsay into Hermitage Castle in Liddesdale and +starved him to death. + +In 1343 the Knight began to intrigue traitorously with Edward III.; after +a truce, David led his whole force into England, where his rash chivalry +caused his utter defeat at Neville's Cross, near Durham (October 17, +1346). He was taken, as was the Bishop of St Andrews; his ransom became +the central question between England and Scotland. In 1353 Douglas, +Knight of Liddesdale, was slain at Williamshope on Yarrow by his godson, +William, Lord Douglas: the fact is commemorated in a fragment of perhaps +our oldest narrative Border ballad. French men-at-arms now helped the +Scots to recover Berwick, merely to lose it again in 1356; in 1357 David +was set free: his ransom, 100,000 merks, was to be paid by instalment. +The country was heavily taxed, but the full sum was never paid. Meanwhile +the Steward had been Regent; between him, the heir of the Crown failing +issue to David, and the King, jealousies arose. David was suspected of +betraying the kingdom to England; in October 1363 he and the Earl of +Douglas visited London and made a treaty adopting a son of Edward as king +on David's demise, and on his ransom being remitted, but in March 1364 +his Estates rejected the proposal, to which Douglas had assented. Till +1369 all was poverty and internal disunion; the feud, to be so often +renewed, of the Douglas and the Steward raged. David was made +contemptible by a second marriage with Margaret Logie, but the war with +France drove Edward III. to accept a fourteen years' truce with Scotland. +On February 22, 1371, David died in Edinburgh Castle, being succeeded, +without opposition, by the Steward, Robert II., son of Walter, and of +Marjorie, daughter of Robert Bruce. This Robert II., somewhat outworn by +many years of honourable war in his country's cause, and the father of a +family, by Elizabeth Mure of Rowallan, which could hardly be rendered +legitimate by any number of Papal dispensations, _was the first of the +Royal Stewart line_. In him a cadet branch of the English FitzAlans, +themselves of a very ancient Breton stock, blossomed into Royalty. + + + +PARLIAMENT AND THE CROWN. + + +With the coming of a dynasty which endured for three centuries, we must +sketch the relations, in Scotland, of Crown and Parliament till the days +of the Covenant and the Revolution of 1688. Scotland had but little of +the constitutional evolution so conspicuous in the history of England. +The reason is that while the English kings, with their fiefs and wars in +France, had constantly to be asking their parliaments for money, and +while Parliament first exacted the redress of grievances, in Scotland the +king was expected "to live of his own" on the revenue of crown-lands, +rents, feudal aids, fines exacted in Courts of Law, and duties on +merchandise. No "tenths" or "fifteenths" were exacted from clergy and +people. There could be no "constitutional resistance" when the Crown +made no unconstitutional demands. + +In Scotland the germ of Parliament is the King's court of vassals of the +Crown. To the assemblies, held now in one place, now in another, would +usually come the vassals of the district, with such officers of state as +the Chancellor, the Chamberlain, the Steward, the Constable or Commander- +in-Chief, the Justiciar, and the Marischal, and such Bishops, Abbots, +Priors, Earls, Barons, and tenants-in-chief as chose to attend. At these +meetings public business was done, charters were granted, and statutes +were passed; assent was made to such feudal aids as money for the king's +ransom in the case of William the Lion. In 1295 the seals of six Royal +burghs are appended to the record of a negotiation; in 1326 burgesses, as +we saw, were consulted by Bruce on questions of finance. + +The misfortunes and extravagance of David II. had to be paid for, and +Parliament interfered with the Royal prerogative in coinage and currency, +directed the administration of justice, dictated terms of peace with +England, called to account even hereditary officers of the Crown (such as +the Steward, Constable, and Marischal), controlled the King's expenditure +(or tried to do so), and denounced the execution of Royal warrants +against the Statutes and common form of law. They summarily rejected +David's attempt to alter the succession of the Crown. + +At the same time, as attendance of multitudes during protracted +Parliaments was irksome and expensive, arose the habit of intrusting +business to a mere "Committee of Articles," later "The Lords of the +Articles," selected in varying ways from the Three Estates--Spiritual, +Noble, and Commons. These Committees saved the members of Parliament +from the trouble and expense of attendance, but obviously tended to +become an abuse, being selected and packed to carry out the designs of +the Crown or of the party of nobles in power. All members, of whatever +Estate, sat together in the same chamber. There were no elected Knights +of the Shires, no representative system. + +The reign of David II. saw two Scottish authors or three, whose works are +extant. Barbour wrote the chivalrous rhymed epic-chronicle 'The Brus'; +Wyntoun, an unpoetic rhymed "cronykil"; and "Hucheoun of the Awle Ryal" +produced works of more genius, if all that he is credited with be his +own. + + + + +CHAPTER X. EARLY STEWART KINGS: ROBERT II. (1371-1390). + + +Robert II. was crowned at Scone on March 26, 1371. He was elderly, +jovial, pacific, and had little to fear from England when the deaths of +Edward III. and the Black Prince left the crown to the infant Richard II. +There was fighting against isolated English castles within the Scottish +border, to amuse the warlike Douglases and Percies, and there were +truces, irregular and ill kept. In 1384 great English and Scottish raids +were made, and gentlemen of France, who came over for sport, were +scurvily entertained, and (1385) saw more plundering than honest fighting +under James, Earl of Douglas, who merely showed them an army that, under +Richard II., burned Melrose Abbey and fired Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee. +Edinburgh was a town of 400 houses. Richard insisted that not more than +a third of his huge force should be English Borderers, who had no idea of +hitting their Scottish neighbours, fathers-in-law and brothers-in-law, +too hard. The one famous fight, that of Otterburn (August 15, 1388), was +a great and joyous passage of arms by moonlight. The Douglas fell, the +Percy was led captive away; the survivors gained advancement in renown +and the hearty applause of the chivalrous chronicler, Froissart. The +oldest ballads extant on this affair were current in 1550, and show +traces of the reading of Froissart and the English chroniclers. + +In 1390 died Robert II. Only his youth was glorious. The reign of his +son, Robert III. (crowned August 14, 1390), was that of a weakling who +let power fall into the hands of his brother, the Duke of Albany, or his +son David, Duke of Rothesay, who held the reins after the Parliament (a +Parliament that bitterly blamed the Government) of January 1399. (With +these two princes the title of Duke first appears in Scotland.) The +follies of young David alienated all: he broke his betrothal to the +daughter of the Earl of March; March retired to England, becoming the man +of Henry IV.; and though Rothesay wedded the daughter of the Earl of +Douglas, he was arrested by Albany and Douglas and was starved to death +(or died of dysentery) in Falkland Castle (1402). The Highlanders had +been in anarchy throughout the reign; their blood was let in the great +clan duel of thirty against thirty, on the Inch of Perth, in 1396. +Probably clans Cameron and Chattan were the combatants. + +On Rothesay's death Albany was Governor, while Douglas was taken prisoner +in the great Border defeat of Homildon Hill, not far from Flodden. But +then (1403) came the alliance of Douglas with Percy; Percy's quarrel with +Henry IV. and their defeat; and Hotspur's death, Douglas's capture at +Shrewsbury. Between Shakespeare, in "Henry IV.," and Scott, in 'The Fair +Maid of Perth,' the most notable events in the reign of Robert III. are +immortalised. The King's last misfortune was the capture by the English +at sea, on the way to France, of his son James in February-March 1406. +{52} On April 4, 1406, Robert went to his rest, one of the most unhappy +of the fated princes of his line. + + + +THE REGENCY OF ALBANY. + + +The Regency of Albany, uncle of the captured James, lasted for fourteen +years, ending with his death in 1420. He occasionally negotiated for his +king's release, but more successfully for that of his son Murdoch. That +James suspected Albany's ambition, and was irritated by his conduct, +appears in his letters, written in Scots, to Albany and to Douglas, +released in 1408, and now free in Scotland. The letters are of 1416. + +The most important points to note during James's English captivity are +the lawlessness and oppression which prevailed in Scotland, and the +beginning of Lollard heresies, nascent Protestantism, nascent Socialism, +even "free love." The Parliament of 1399, which had inveighed against +the laxity of Government under Robert II., also demanded the extirpation +of heresies, in accordance with the Coronation Oath. One Resby, a +heretical English priest, was arraigned and burned at Perth in 1407, +under Laurence of Lindores, the Dominican Inquisitor into heresies, who +himself was active in promoting Scotland's oldest University, St Andrews. +The foundation was by Henry Wardlaw, Bishop of St Andrews, by virtue of a +bull from the anti-pope Benedict XIII., of February 1414. Lollard ideas +were not suppressed; the chronicler, Bower, speaks of their existence in +1445; they sprang from envy of the wealth, and indignation against the +corruptions of the clergy, and the embers of Lollardism in Kyle were not +cold when, under James V., the flame of the Reformation was rekindled. + +The Celtic North, never quiet, made its last united effort in 1411, when +Donald, Lord of the Isles, who was in touch with the English Government, +claimed the earldom of Ross, in right of his wife, as against the Earl of +Buchan, a son of Albany; mustered all the wild clans of the west and the +isles at Ardtornish Castle on the Sound of Mull; marched through Ross to +Dingwall; defeated the great northern clan of Mackay, and was hurrying to +sack Aberdeen when he was met by Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar, the +gentry of the northern Lowlands, mounted knights, and the burgesses of +the towns, some eighteen miles from Aberdeen, at Harlaw. There was a +pitched battle with great slaughter, but the Celts had no cavalry, and +the end was that Donald withdrew to his fastnesses. The event is +commemorated by an old literary ballad, and in Elspeth's ballad in +Scott's novel, 'The Antiquary.' + +In the year of Albany's death, at a great age (1420), in compliance with +the prayer of Charles VII. of France, the Earl of Buchan, Archibald, +Douglas's eldest son, and Sir John Stewart of Derneley, led a force of +some 7000 to 10,000 men to war for France. Henry V. then compelled the +captive James I. to join him, and (1421) at Bauge Bridge the Scots, with +the famed La Hire, routed the army of Henry's brother, the Duke of +Clarence, who, with 2000 of the English, fell in the action. The victory +was fruitless; at Crevant (1423) the Scots were defeated; at Verneuil +(1424) they were almost exterminated. None the less the remnant, with +fresh levies, continued to war for their old ally, and, under Sir Hugh +Kennedy and others, suffered at Rouvray (February 1429), and were with +the victorious French at Orleans (May 1429) under the leadership of +Jeanne d'Arc. The combination of Scots and French, at the last push, +always saved the independence of both kingdoms. + +The character of Albany, who, under his father, Robert III., and during +the captivity of James I., ruled Scotland so long, is enigmatic. He is +well spoken of by the contemporary Wyntoun, author of a chronicle in +rhyme; and in the Latin of Wyntoun's continuator, Bower. He kept on +friendly terms with the Douglases, he was popular in so far as he was +averse to imposing taxation; and perhaps the anarchy and oppression which +preceded the return of James I. to Scotland were due not to the weakness +of Albany but to that of his son and successor, Murdoch, and to the +iniquities of Murdoch's sons. + +The death of Henry V. (1422) and the ambition of Cardinal Beaufort, +determined to wed his niece Jane Beaufort to a crowned king, may have +been among the motives which led the English Government (their own king, +Henry VI., being a child) to set free the royal captive (1424). + + + + +CHAPTER XI. JAMES I. + + +On March 28, 1424, James I. was released, on a ransom of 40,000 pounds, +and after his marriage with Jane Beaufort, grand-daughter of John of +Gaunt, son of Edward III. The story of their wooing (of course in the +allegorical manner of the age, and with poetical conventions in place of +actual details) is told in James's poem, "The King's Quair," a beautiful +composition in the school of Chaucer, of which literary scepticism has +vainly tried to rob the royal author. James was the ablest and not the +most scrupulous of the Stuarts. His captivity had given him an English +education, a belief in order, and in English parliamentary methods, and a +fiery determination to put down the oppression of the nobles. "If God +gives me but a dog's life," he said, "I will make the key keep the castle +and the bracken bush keep the cow." Before his first Parliament, in May +1424, James arrested Murdoch's eldest son, Sir Walter Fleming of +Cumbernauld, and the younger Boyd of Kilmarnock. The Parliament left a +Committee of the Estates ("The Lords of the Articles") to carry out the +royal policy. Taxes for the payment of James's ransom were imposed; to +impose them was easy, "passive resistance" was easier; the money was +never paid, and James's noble hostages languished in England. He next +arrested the old Earl of Lennox, and Sir Robert Graham of the Kincardine +family, later his murderer. + +These were causes of unpopularity. During a new Parliament (1425) James +imprisoned the new Duke of Albany (Murdoch) and his son Alexander, and +seized their castles. {57} The Albanys and Lennox were executed; their +estates were forfeited; but resentment dogged a king who was too fierce +and too hurried a reformer, perhaps too cruel an avenger of his own +wrongs. + +Our knowledge of the events of his reign is vague; but a king of Scotland +could never, with safety, treat any of his nobles as criminals; the whole +order was concerned to prevent or avenge severity of justice. + +At a Parliament in Inverness (1427) he seized the greatest of the +Highland magnates whom he had summoned; they were hanged or imprisoned, +and, after resistance, Alastair, the new Lord of the Isles, did penance +at Holyrood, before being immured in Tantallon Castle. His cousin, +Donald Balloch, defeated Mar at Inverlochy (where Montrose later routed +Argyll) (1431). Not long afterwards Donald fled to Ireland, whence a +head, said to be his, was sent to James, but Donald lived to fight +another day. + +Without a standing army to garrison the inaccessible Highlands, the Crown +could neither preserve peace in those regions nor promote justice. The +system of violent and perfidious punishments merely threw the Celts into +the arms of England. + +Execution itself was less terrible to the nobles than the forfeiting of +their lands and the disinheriting of their families. None the less, +James (1425-1427) seized the lands of the late Earl of Lennox, made +Malise Graham surrender the earldom of Strathearn in exchange for the +barren title of Earl of Menteith, and sent the sufferer as a hostage into +England. The Earl of March, son of the Earl who, under Robert III., had +gone over to the English cause, was imprisoned and stripped of his +ancient domains on the Eastern Border; and James, disinheriting Lord +Erskine, annexed the earldom of Mar to the Crown. + +In a Parliament at Perth (March 1428) James permitted the minor barons +and freeholders to abstain from these costly assemblies on the condition +of sending two "wise men" to represent each sheriffdom: a Speaker was to +be elected, and the shires were to pay the expenses of the wise men. But +the measure was unpopular, and in practice lapsed. Excellent laws were +passed, but were not enforced. + +In July-November 1428 a marriage was arranged between Margaret the infant +daughter of James and the son (later Louis XI.) of the still uncrowned +Dauphin, Charles VIII. of France. Charles announced to his subjects +early in 1429 that an army of 6000 Scots was to land in France; that +James himself, if necessary, would follow; but Jeanne d'Arc declared that +there was no help from Scotland, none save from God and herself. She was +right: no sooner had she won her victories at Orleans, Jargeau, Pathay, +and elsewhere (May-June 1429) than James made a truce with England which +enabled Cardinal Beaufort to throw his large force of anti-Hussite +crusaders into France, where they secured Normandy. The Scots in France, +nevertheless, fought under the Maid in her last successful action, at +Lagny (April 1430). + +An heir to the Crown, James, was born in October 1430, while the King was +at strife with the Pope, and asserting for King and Parliament power over +the Provincial Councils of the Church. An interdict was threatened, +James menaced the rich and lax religious orders with secular reformation; +settled the Carthusians at Perth, to show an example of holy living; and +pursued his severities against many of his nobles. + +His treatment of the Earl of Strathearn (despoiled and sent as a hostage +to England) aroused the wrath of the Earl's uncle, Robert Graham, who +bearded James in Parliament, was confiscated, fled across the Highland +line, and, on February 20, 1437, aided, it is said by the old Earl of +Atholl (a grandson of Robert II. by his second marriage), led a force +against the King in the monastery of the Black Friars at Perth, surprised +him, and butchered him. The energy of his Queen brought the murderers, +and Atholl himself, to die under unspeakable torments. + +James's reforms were hurried, violent, and, as a rule, incapable of +surviving the anarchy of his son's minority: his new Court of Session, +sitting in judgment thrice a-year, was his most fortunate innovation. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. JAMES II. + + +Scone, with its sacred stone, being so near Perth and the Highlands, was +perilous, and the coronation of James II. was therefore held at Holyrood +(March 25, 1437). The child, who was but seven years of age, was bandied +to and fro like a shuttlecock between rival adventurers. The Earl of +Douglas (Archibald, fifth Earl, died 1439) took no leading part in the +strife of factions: one of them led by Sir William Crichton, who held the +important post of Commander of Edinburgh Castle; the other by Sir +Alexander Livingstone of Callendar. + +The great old Houses had been shaken by the severities of James I., at +least for the time. In a Government of factions influenced by private +greed, there was no important difference in policy, and we need not +follow the transference of the royal person from Crichton in Edinburgh to +Livingstone in Stirling Castle; the coalitions between these worthies, +the battles between the Boyds of Kilmarnock and the Stewarts, who had to +avenge Stewart of Derneley, Constable of the Scottish contingent in +France, who was slain by Sir Thomas Boyd. The queen-mother married Sir +James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorne, and (August 3, 1439) she was +captured by Livingstone, while her husband, in the mysterious words of +the chronicler, was "put in a pitt and bollit." In a month Jane Beaufort +gave Livingstone an amnesty; he, not the Stewart family, not the queen- +mother, now held James. + +To all this the new young Earl of Douglas, a boy of eighteen, tacitly +assented. He was the most powerful and wealthiest subject in Scotland; +in France he was Duc de Touraine; he was descended in lawful wedlock from +Robert II.; "he micht ha'e been the king," as the ballad says of the +bonny Earl of Moray. But he held proudly aloof from both Livingstone and +Crichton, who were stealing the king alternately: they then combined, +invited Douglas to Edinburgh Castle, with his brother David, and served +up the ominous bull's head at that "black dinner" recorded in a ballad +fragment. {61} They decapitated the two Douglas boys; the earldom fell +to their granduncle, James the Fat, and presently, on _his_ death (1443), +to young William Douglas, after which "bands," or illegal covenants, +between the various leaders of factions, led to private wars of shifting +fortune. Kennedy, Bishop of St Andrews, opposed the Douglas party, now +strong both in lands newly acquired, till (July 3, 1449) James married +Mary of Gueldres, imprisoned the Livingstones, and relied on the Bishop +of St Andrews and the clergy. While Douglas was visiting Rome in 1450, +the Livingstones had been forfeited, and Crichton became Chancellor. + + + +FALL OF THE BLACK DOUGLASES. + + +The Douglases, through a royal marriage of an ancestor to a daughter of +the more legitimate marriage of Robert II., had a kind of claim to the +throne which they never put forward. The country was thus spared +dynastic wars, like those of the White and Red Roses in England; but, +none the less, the Douglases were too rich and powerful for subjects. + +The Earl at the moment held Galloway and Annandale, two of his brothers +were Earls of Moray and Ormond; in October 1448, Ormond had distinguished +himself by defeating and taking Percy, urging a raid into Scotland, at a +bloody battle on the Water of Sark, near Gretna. + +During the Earl of Douglas's absence in Rome, James had put down some of +his unruly retainers, and even after his return (1451) had persevered in +this course. Later in the year Douglas resigned, and received back his +lands, a not uncommon formula showing submission on the vassal's favour +on the lord's part, as when Charles VII., at the request of Jeanne d'Arc, +made this resignation to God! + +Douglas, however, was suspected of intriguing with England and with the +Lord of the Isles, while he had a secret covenant or "band" with the +Earls of Crawford and Ross. If all this were true, he was planning a +most dangerous enterprise. + +He was invited to Stirling to meet the king under a safe-conduct, and +there (February 22, 1452) was dirked by his king at the sacred table of +hospitality. + +Whether this crime was premeditated or merely passionate is unknown, as +in the case of Bruce's murder of the Red Comyn before the high altar. +Parliament absolved James on slender grounds. James, the brother of the +slain earl, publicly defied his king, gave his allegiance to Henry VI. of +England, withdrew it, intrigued, and, after his brothers had been routed +at Arkinholm, near Langholm (May 18, 1455), fled to England. His House +was proclaimed traitorous; their wide lands in southern and south-western +Scotland were forfeited and redistributed, the Scotts of Buccleuch +profiting largely in the long-run. The leader of the Royal forces at +Arkinholm, near Langholm, was another Douglas, one of "the Red +Douglases," the Earl of Angus; and till the execution of the Earl of +Morton, under James VI., the Red Douglases were as powerful, turbulent, +and treacherous as the Black Douglases had been in their day. When +attacked and defeated, these Douglases, red or black, always allied +themselves with England and with the Lords of the Isles, the hereditary +foes of the royal authority. + +Meanwhile Edward IV. wrote of the Scots as "his rebels of Scotland," and +in the alternations of fortune between the Houses of York and Lancaster, +James held with Henry VI. When Henry was defeated and taken at +Northampton (July 10, 1460), James besieged Roxburgh Castle, an English +hold on the Border, and (August 3, 1460) was slain by the explosion of a +great bombard. + +James was but thirty years of age at his death. By the dagger, by the +law, and by the aid of the Red Douglases, he had ruined his most powerful +nobles--and his own reputation. His early training, like that of James +VI., was received while he was in the hands of the most treacherous, +bloody, and unscrupulous of mankind; later, he met them with their own +weapons. The foundation of the University of Glasgow (1451), and the +building and endowment of St Salvator's College in St Andrews, by Bishop +Kennedy, are the most permanent proofs of advancing culture in the reign +of James. + +Many laws of excellent tendency, including sumptuary laws, which suggest +the existence of unexpected wealth and luxury, were passed; but such laws +were never firmly and regularly enforced. By one rule, which does seem +to have been carried out, no poisons were to be imported: Scottish +chemical science was incapable of manufacturing them. Much later, under +James VI., we find a parcel of arsenic, to be used for political +purposes, successfully stopped at Leith. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. JAMES III. + + +James II. left three sons; the eldest, James III., aged nine, was crowned +at Kelso (August 10, 1460); his brothers, bearing the titles of Albany +and Mar, were not to be his supports. His mother, Mary of Gueldres, had +the charge of the boys, and, as she was won over by her uncle, Philip of +Burgundy, to the cause of the House of York, while Kennedy and the Earl +of Angus stood for the House of Lancaster, there was strife between them +and the queen-mother and nobles. Kennedy relied on France (Louis XL), +and his opponents on England. + +The battle of Towton (March 30, 1461) drove Henry VI. and his queen +across the Border, where Kennedy entertained the melancholy exile in the +Castle of St Andrews. The grateful Henry restored Berwick to the Scots, +who could not hold it long. In June 1461, while the Scots were failing +to take Carlisle, Edward IV. was crowned, and sent his adherent, the +exiled Earl of Douglas, to treat for an alliance with the Celts, under +John, Lord of the Isles, and that Donald Balloch who was falsely believed +to have long before been slain in Ireland. + +It is curious to think of the Lord of the Isles dealing as an independent +prince, through a renegade Douglas, with the English king. A treaty was +made at John's Castle of Ardtornish--now a shell of crumbling stone on +the sea-shore of the Morvern side of the Sound of Mull--with the English +monarch at Westminster. The Highland chiefs promise allegiance to +Edward, and, if successful, the Celts are to recover the ancient kingdom +from Caithness to the Forth, while Douglas is to be all-powerful from the +Forth to the Border! + +But other intrigues prevailed. The queen-mother and her son, in the most +friendly manner, met the kingmaker Warwick at Dumfries, and again at +Carlisle, and Douglas was disgraced by Edward, though restored to favour +when Bishop Kennedy declined to treat with Edward's commissioners. The +Treaty of England with Douglas and the Celts was then ratified; but +Douglas, advancing in front of Edward's army to the Border, met old +Bishop Kennedy in helmet and corslet, and was defeated. Louis XI., +however, now deserted the Red for the White Rose. Kennedy followed his +example; and peace was made between England and Scotland in October 1464. +Kennedy died in the summer of 1465. + +There followed the usual struggles between confederations of the nobles, +and, in July 1466, James was seized, being then aged fourteen, by the +party of the Boyds, Flemings, and Kennedys, aided by Hepburn of Hailes +(ancestor of the turbulent Earl of Bothwell), and by the head of the +Border House of Cessford, Andrew Ker. + +It was a repetition of the struggles of Livingstone and Crichton, and now +the great Border lairds begin to take their place in history. Boyd made +himself Governor to the king, his son married the king's eldest sister, +Mary, and became Earl of Arran. But brief was the triumph of the Boyds. +In 1469 James married Margaret of Norway; Orkney and Shetland were her +dower; but while Arran negotiated the affair abroad, at home the fall of +his house was arranged. Boyd fled the country; the king's sister, +divorced from young Arran, married the Lord Hamilton; and his family, who +were Lords of Cadzow under Robert Bruce, and had been allies of the Black +Douglases till their fall, became the nearest heirs of the royal +Stewarts, if that family were extinct. The Hamiltons, the wealthiest +house in Scotland, never produced a man of great ability, but their +nearness to the throne and their ambition were storm-centres in the time +of Mary Stuart and James VI., and even as late as the Union in 1707. + +The fortunes of a nephew of Bishop Kennedy, Patrick Graham, Kennedy's +successor as Bishop of St Andrews, now perplex the historian. Graham +dealt for himself with the Pope, obtained the rank of Archbishop for the +Bishop of St Andrews (1472), and thus offended the king and country, +always jealous of interference from Rome. But he was reported on as more +or less insane by a Papal Nuncio, and was deposed. Had he been defending +(as used to be said) the right of election of Bishop for the Canons +against the greed of the nobles, the Nuncio might not have taken an +unfavourable view of his intellect. In any case, whether the clergy, +backed by Rome, elected their bishops, or whether the king and nobles +made their profit out of the Church appointments, jobbery was the +universal rule. Ecclesiastical corruption and, as a rule, ignorance, +were attaining their lowest level. {67} By 1476 the Lord of the Isles, +the Celtic ally of Edward IV., was reduced by Argyll, Huntly, and +Crawford, and lost the sheriffdom of Inverness, and the earldom of Ross, +which was attached to the Crown (1476). His treaty of Ardtornish had +come to light. But his bastard, Angus Og, filled the north and west with +fire and tumult from Ross to Tobermory (1480-1490), while James's +devotion to the arts--a thing intolerable--and to the society of low-born +favourites, especially Thomas Cockburn, "a stone-cutter," prepared the +sorrows and the end of his reign. + +The intrigues which follow, and the truth about the character of James, +are exceedingly obscure. We have no Scottish chronicle written at the +time; the later histories, by Ferrerius, an Italian, and, much later, by +Queen Mary's Bishop Lesley, and by George Buchanan, are full of rumours +and contradictions, while the State Papers and Treaties of England merely +prove the extreme treachery of James's brother Albany, and no evidence +tells us how James contrived to get the better of the traitor. James's +brothers Albany and Mar were popular; were good horsemen, men of their +hands, and Cochrane is accused of persuading James to arrest Mar on a +charge of treason and black magic. Many witches are said to have been +burned: perhaps the only such case before the Reformation. However it +fell out--all is obscure--Mar died in prison; while Albany, also a +prisoner on charges of treasonable intrigues with the inveterate Earl of +Douglas, in the English interest, escaped to France. + +Douglas (1482) brought him to England, where he swore allegiance to +Edward IV., under whom, like Edward Balliol, he would hold Scotland if +crowned. He was advancing on the Border with Edward's support and with +the Duke of Gloucester (Richard III.), and James had gone to Lauder to +encounter him, when the Earl of Angus headed a conspiracy of nobles, such +as Huntly, Lennox, and Buchan, seized Cochrane and other favourites of +James, and hanged them over Lauder Bridge. The most tangible grievance +was the increasing debasement of the coinage. James was immured at +Edinburgh, but, by a compromise, Albany was restored to rank and estates. +Meanwhile Gloucester captured Berwick, never to be recovered by Scotland. +In 1483 Albany renewed, with many of the nobles, his intrigues with +Edward for the betrayal of Scotland. In some unknown way James separated +Albany from his confederates Atholl, Buchan, and Angus; Albany went to +England, betrayed the Castle of Dunbar to England, and was only checked +in his treasons by the death of Edward IV. (April 9, 1483), after which a +full Parliament (July 7, 1483) condemned him and forfeited him in his +absence. On July 22, 1484, he invaded Scotland with his ally, Douglas; +they were routed at Lochmaben, Douglas was taken, and, by singular +clemency, was merely placed in seclusion in the Monastery of Lindores, +while Albany, escaping to France, perished in a tournament, leaving a +descendant, who later, in the minority of James V., makes a figure in +history. + +The death of Richard III. (August 18, 1485) and the accession of the +prudent Henry VII. gave James a moment of safety. He turned his +attention to the Church, and determined to prosecute for treason such +Scottish clerics as purchased benefices through Rome. He negotiated for +three English marriages, including that of his son James, Duke of +Rothesay, to a daughter of Edward IV.; he also negotiated for the +recovery of Berwick, taken by Gloucester during Albany's invasion of +1482. After his death, and before it, James was accused, for these +reasons, of disloyal dealings with England; and such nobles as Angus, up +to the neck as they were in treason and rebellion, raised a party against +him on the score that he was acting as they did. The almost aimless +treachery of the Douglases, Red or Black, endured for centuries from the +reign of David II. to that of James VI. Many nobles had received no +amnesty for the outrage of Lauder Bridge; their hopes turned to the heir +of the Crown, James, Duke of Rothesay. We see them offering peace for an +indemnity in a Parliament of October 1487; the Estates refused all such +pardons for a space of seven years; the king's party was manifestly the +stronger. He was not to be intimidated; he offended Home and the Humes +by annexing the Priory of Coldingham (which they regarded as their own) +to the Royal Chapel at Stirling. The inveterate Angus, with others, +induced Prince James to join them under arms. James took the +Chancellorship from Argyll and sent envoys to England. + +The rebels, proclaiming the prince as king, intrigued with Henry VII.; +James was driven across the Forth, and was supported in the north by his +uncle, Atholl, and by Huntly, Crawford, and Lord Lindsay of the Byres, +Errol, Glamis, Forbes, and Tullibardine, and the chivalry of Angus and +Strathtay. Attempts at pacification failed; Stirling Castle was betrayed +to the rebels, and James's host, swollen by the loyal burgesses of the +towns, met the Border spears of Home and Hepburn, the Galloway men, and +the levies of Angus at Sauchie Burn, near Bannockburn. + +In some way not understood, James, riding without a single knight or +squire, fell from his horse, which had apparently run away with him, at +Beaton's Mill, and was slain in bed, it was rumoured, by a priest, +feigned or false, who heard his confession. The obscurity of his reign +hangs darkest over his death, and the virulent Buchanan slandered him in +his grave. Under his reign, Henryson, the greatest of the Chaucerian +school in Scotland, produced his admirable poems. Many other poets whose +works are lost were flourishing; and _The Wallace_, that elaborate +plagiarism from Barbour's 'The Brus,' was composed, and attributed to +Blind Harry, a paid minstrel about the Court. {71} + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. JAMES IV. + + +The new king, with Angus for his Governor, Argyll for his Chancellor, and +with the Kers and Hepburns in office, was crowned at Scone about June 25, +1488. He was nearly seventeen, no child, but energetic in business as in +pleasure, though lifelong remorse for his rebellion gnawed at his heart. +He promptly put down a rebellion of the late king's friends and of the +late king's foe, Lennox, then strong in the possession of Dumbarton +Castle, which, as it commands the sea-entrance by Clyde, is of great +importance in the reign of Mary and James VI. James III. must have paid +attention to the navy, which, under Sir Andrew Wood, already faced +English pirates triumphantly. James IV. spent much money on his fleet, +buying timber from France, for he was determined to make Scotland a power +of weight in Europe. But at the pinch his navy vanished like a mist. + +Spanish envoys and envoys from the Duchess of Burgundy visited James in +1488-1489; he was in close relations with France and Denmark, and caused +anxieties to the first Tudor king, Henry VII., who kept up the Douglas +alliance with Angus, and bought over Scottish politicians. While James, +as his account-books show, was playing cards with Angus, that traitor was +also negotiating the sale of Hermitage Castle, the main hold of the +Middle Border, to England. He was detected, and the castle was intrusted +to a Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell; it was still held by Queen Mary's +Bothwell in 1567. The Hepburns rose to the earldom of Bothwell on the +death of Ramsay, a favourite of James III., who (1491) had arranged to +kidnap James IV. with his brother, and hand them over to Henry VII., for +277 pounds, 13s. 4d.! Nothing came of this, and a truce with England was +arranged in 1491. Through four reigns, till James VI. came to the +English throne, the Tudor policy was to buy Scottish traitors, and +attempt to secure the person of the Scottish monarch. + +Meanwhile, the Church was rent by jealousies between the holder of the +newly-created Archbishop of Glasgow (1491) and the Archbishop of St +Andrews, and disturbed by the Lollards, in the region which was later the +centre of the fiercest Covenanters,--Kyle in Ayrshire. But James laughed +away the charges against the heretics (1494), whose views were, on many +points, those of John Knox. In 1493-1495 James dealt in the usual way +with the Highlanders and "the wicked blood of the Isles": some were +hanged, some imprisoned, some became sureties for the peacefulness of +their clans. In 1495, by way of tit-for-tat against English schemes, +James began to back the claims of Perkin Warbeck, pretending to be +Richard, Duke of York, escaped from the assassins employed by Richard +III. Perkin, whoever he was, had probably been intriguing between +Ireland and Burgundy since 1488. He was welcomed by James at Stirling in +November 1495, and was wedded to the king's cousin, Catherine Gordon, +daughter of the Earl of Huntly, now supreme in the north. Rejecting a +daughter of England, and Spanish efforts at pacification, James prepared +to invade England in Perkin's cause; the scheme was sold by Ramsay, the +would-be kidnapper, and came to no more than a useless raid of September +1496, followed by a futile attempt and a retreat in July 1497. The +Spanish envoy, de Ayala, negotiated a seven-years' truce in September, +after Perkin had failed and been taken at Taunton. + +The Celts had again risen while James was busy in the Border; he put them +down, and made Argyll Lieutenant of the Isles. Between the Campbells and +the Huntly Gordons, as custodians of the peace, the fighting clans were +expected to be more orderly. On the other hand, a son of Angus Og, +himself usually reckoned a bastard of the Lord of the Isles, gave much +trouble. Angus had married a daughter of the Argyll of his day; their +son, Donald Dubh, was kidnapped (or, rather, his mother was kidnapped +before his birth) for Argyll; he now escaped, and in 1503, found allies +among the chiefs, did much scathe, was taken in 1506, but was as active +as ever forty years later. + +The central source of these endless Highland feuds was the family of the +Macdonalds, Lords of the Isles, claiming the earldom of Ross, resisting +the Lowland influences and those of the Gordons and Campbells (Huntly and +Argyll), and seeking aid from England. With the capture of Donald Dubh +(1506) the Highlanders became for the while comparatively quiescent; +under Lennox and Argyll they suffered in the defeat of Flodden. + +From 1497 to 1503 Henry VII. was negotiating for the marriage of James to +his daughter Margaret Tudor; the marriage was celebrated on August 8, +1503, and a century later the great grandson of Margaret, James VI. came +to the English throne. But marriage does not make friendship. There had +existed since 1491 a secret alliance by which Scotland was bound to +defend France if attacked by England. Henry's negotiations for the +kidnapping of James were of April of the same year. Margaret, the young +queen, after her marriage, was soon involved in bitter quarrels over her +dowry with her own family; the slaying of a Sir Robert Ker, Warden of the +Marches, by a Heron in a Border fray (1508), left an unhealed sore, as +England would not give up Heron and his accomplice. Henry VII. had been +pacific, but his death, in 1509, left James to face his hostile brother- +in-law, the fiery young Henry VIII. + +In 1511 the Holy League under the Pope, against France, imperilled +James's French ally. He began to build great ships of war; his +sea-captain, Barton, pirating about, was defeated and slain by ships +under two of the Howards, sons of the Earl of Surrey (August 1511). James +remonstrated, Henry was firm, and the Border feud of Ker and Heron was +festering; moreover, Henry was a party to the League against France, and +France was urging James to attack England. He saw, and wrote to the King +of Denmark, that, if France were down, the turn of Scotland to fall would +follow. In March 1513, an English diplomatist, West, found James in a +wild mood, distraught "like a fey man." + +Chivalry, and even national safety, called him to war; while his old +remorse drove him into a religious retreat, and he was on hostile terms +with the Pope. On May 24th, in a letter to Henry, he made a last attempt +to obtain a truce, but on June 30th Henry invaded France. The French +queen despatched to James, as to her true knight, a letter and a ring. He +sent his fleet to sea; it vanished like a dream. He challenged Henry +through a herald on July 26th, and, in face of strange and evil omens, +summoned the whole force of his kingdom, crossed the Border on August +22nd, took Norham Castle on Tweed, with the holds of Eital, Chillingham, +and Ford, which he made his headquarters, and awaited the approach of +Surrey and the levies of the Stanleys. On September 5th he demolished +Ford Castle, and took position on the crest of Flodden Edge, with the +deep and sluggish water of Till at its feet. Surrey, commanding an army +all but destitute of supplies, outmanoeuvred James, led his men unseen +behind a range of hills to a position where, if he could maintain +himself, he was upon James's line of communications, and thence marched +against him to Branxton Ridge, under Flodden Edge. + +James was ignorant of Surrey's movement till he saw the approach of his +standards. In place of retaining his position, he hurled his force down +to Branxton, his gunners could not manage their new French ordnance, and +though Home with the Border spears and Huntly had a success on the right, +the Borderers made no more efforts, and, on the left, the Celts fled +swiftly after the fall of Lennox and Argyll. In the centre Crawford and +Rothes were slain, and James, with the steady spearmen of his command, +drove straight at Surrey. James, as the Spaniard Ayala said, "was no +general: he was a fighting man." He was outflanked by the Admiral +(Howard) and Dacre; his force was surrounded by charging horse and foot, +and rained on by arrows. But + + "The stubborn spearmen still made good + Their dark impenetrable wood," + +when James rushed from the ranks, hewed his way to within a lance's +length of Surrey (so Surrey writes), and died, riddled with arrows, his +neck gashed by a bill-stroke, his left hand almost sundered from his +body. Night fell on the unbroken Scottish phalanx, but when dawn arrived +only a force of Border prickers was hovering on the fringes of the field. +Thirteen dead earls lay in a ring about their master; there too lay his +natural son, the young Archbishop of St Andrews, and the Bishops of +Caithness and the Isles. Scarce a noble or gentle house of the Lowlands +but reckons an ancestor slain at Flodden. + +Surrey did not pursue his victory, which was won, despite sore lack of +supplies, by his clever tactics, by the superior discipline of his men, +by their marching powers, and by the glorious rashness of the Scottish +king. It is easy, and it is customary, to blame James's adherence to the +French alliance as if it were born of a foolish chivalry. But he had +passed through long stress of mind concerning this matter. If he +rejected the allurements of France, if France were overwhelmed, he knew +well that the turn of Scotland would come soon. The ambitions and the +claims of Henry VIII. were those of the first Edwards. England was bent +on the conquest of Scotland at the earliest opportunity, and through the +entire Tudor period England was the home and her monarch the ally of +every domestic foe and traitor to the Scottish Crown. + +Scotland, under James, had much prospered in wealth and even in comfort. +Ayala might flatter in some degree, but he attests the great increase in +comfort and in wealth. + +In 1495 Bishop Elphinstone founded the University of Aberdeen, while +(1496) Parliament decreed a course of school and college for the sons of +barons and freeholders of competent estate. Prior Hepburn founded the +College of St Leonard's in the University of St Andrews; and in 1507 +Chepman received a royal patent as a printer. Meanwhile Dunbar, reckoned +by some the chief poet of Scotland before Burns, was already denouncing +the luxury and vice of the clergy, though his own life set them a bad +example. But with Dunbar, Henryson, and others, Scotland had a school of +poets much superior to any that England had reared since the death of +Chaucer. Scotland now enjoyed her brief glimpse of the Revival of +Learning; and James, like Charles II., fostered the early movements of +chemistry and physical science. But Flodden ruined all, and the country, +under the long minority of James V., was robbed and distracted by English +intrigues; by the follies and loves of Margaret Tudor; by actual warfare +between rival candidates for ecclesiastical place; by the ambitions and +treasons of the Douglases and other nobles; and by the arrival from +France of the son of Albany, that rebel brother of James III. + +The truth of the saying, "Woe to the kingdom whose king is a child," was +never more bitterly proved than in Scotland between the day of Flodden +and the day of the return of Mary Stuart from France (1513-1561). James +V. was not only a child and fatherless; he had a mother whose passions +and passionate changes in love resembled those of her brother Henry VIII. +Consequently, when the inevitable problem arose, was Scotland during the +minority to side with England or with France? the queen-mother wavered +ceaselessly between the party of her brother, the English king, and the +party of France; while Henry VIII. could not be trusted, and the policy +of France in regard to England did not permit her to offer any stable +support to the cause of Scottish independence. The great nobles changed +sides constantly, each "fighting for his own hand," and for the spoils of +a Church in which benefices were struggled for and sold like stocks in +the Exchange. + +The question, Was Scotland to ally herself with England or with France? +later came to mean, Was Scotland to break with Rome or to cling to Rome? +Owing mainly to the selfish and unscrupulous perfidy of Henry VIII., +James V. was condemned, as the least of two evils, to adopt the Catholic +side in the great religious revolution; while the statesmanship of the +Beatons, Archbishops of St Andrews, preserved Scotland from English +domination, thereby preventing the country from adopting Henry's Church, +the Anglican, and giving Calvinism and Presbyterianism the opportunity +which was resolutely taken and held. + +The real issue of the complex faction fight during James's minority was +thus of the most essential importance; but the constant shiftings of +parties and persons cannot be dealt with fully in our space. James's +mother had a natural claim to the guardianship of her son, and was left +Regent by the will of James IV., but she was the sister of Scotland's +enemy, Henry VIII. Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow (later of St Andrews), +with the Earl of Arran (now the title of the Hamiltons), Huntly, and +Angus were to advise the queen till the arrival of Albany (son of the +brother of James III.), who was summoned from France. Albany, of course, +stood for the French alliance, but when the queen-mother (August 6, 1514) +married the new young Earl of Angus, the grandson and successor of the +aged traitor, "Bell the Cat," the earl began to carry on the usual +unpatriotic policy of his house. The appointment to the see of St +Andrews was competed for by the Poet Gawain Douglas, uncle of the new +Earl of Angus; and himself of the English party; by Hepburn, Prior of St +Andrews, who fortified the Abbey; and by Forman, Bishop of Moray, a +partisan of France, and a man accused of having induced James IV. to +declare war against England. + +After long and scandalous intrigues, Forman obtained the see. Albany was +Regent for a while, and at intervals he repaired to France; he was in the +favour of the queen-mother when later she quarrelled with her husband, +Angus. At one moment, Margaret and Angus fled to England where was born +her daughter Margaret, later Lady Lennox and mother of Henry Darnley. + +Angus, with Home, now recrossed the Border (1516), and was reconciled to +Albany; against all unity in Scotland Henry intrigued, bribing with a +free hand, his main object being to get Albany sent out of the country. +In early autumn, 1516, Home, the leader of the Borderers at Flodden, and +his brother were executed for treason; in June, 1517, Albany went to seek +aid and counsel in France; when the queen-mother returned from England to +Scotland, where, if she retained any influence, she might be useful to +her brother's schemes. But, contrary to Henry's interests, in this year +Albany renewed the old alliance with France; while, in 1518, the queen- +mother desired to divorce Angus. But Angus was a serviceable tool of +Henry, who prevented his sister from having her way; and now the heads of +the parties in the distracted country were Arran, chief of the Hamiltons, +and Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, standing for France; and Angus +representing the English party. + +Their forces met at Edinburgh in the street battle of "Cleanse the +Causeway," wherein the Archbishop of Glasgow wore armour, and the +Douglases beat the Hamiltons out of the town (April 30, 1520). Albany +returned (1521), but the nobles would not join with him in an English war +(1522). Again he went to France, while Surrey devastated the Scottish +Border (1523). Albany returned while Surrey was burning Jedburgh, was +once more deserted by the Scottish forces on the Tweed, and left the +country for ever in 1524. Angus now returned from England; but the queen- +mother cast her affections on young Henry Stewart (Lord Methven), while +Angus got possession of the boy king (June 1526) and held him, a +reluctant ward, in the English interest. + +Lennox was now the chief foe of Arran, and Angus, with whom Arran had +coalesced; and Lennox desired to deliver James out of Angus's hands. On +July 26, 1526, not far from Melrose, Walter Scott of Buccleuch attacked +the forces guarding the prince; among them was Ker of Cessford, who was +slain by an Elliot when Buccleuch's men rallied at the rock called "Turn +Again." Hence sprang a long-enduring blood-feud of Scotts and Kers; but +Angus retained the prince, and in a later fight in the cause of James's +delivery, Lennox was slain by the Hamiltons, near Linlithgow. The spring +of 1528 was marked by the burning of a Hamilton, Patrick, Abbot of Ferne, +at St Andrews, for his Lutheran opinions. Angus had been making futile +attacks on the Border thieves, mainly the Armstrongs, who now became very +prominent and picturesque robbers. He meant to carry James with him on +one of these expeditions; but in June 1528 the young king escaped from +Edinburgh Castle, and rode to Stirling, where he was welcomed by his +mother and her partisans. Among them were Arran, Argyll, Moray, +Bothwell, and other nobles, with Maxwell and the Laird of Buccleuch, Sir +Walter Scott. Angus and his kin were forfeited; he was driven across the +Border in November, to work what mischief he might against his country; +he did not return till the death of James V. Meanwhile James was at +peace with his uncle, Henry VIII. He (1529-1530) attempted to bring the +Border into his peace, and hanged Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie, with +circumstances of treachery, says the ballad,--as a ballad-maker was +certain to say. + +Campbells, Macleans, and Macdonalds had all this while been burning each +other's lands, and cutting each other's throats. James visited them, and +partly quieted them, incarcerating the Earl of Argyll. + +Bothwell and Angus now conspired together to crown Henry VIII. in +Edinburgh; but, in May 1534, a treaty of peace was made, to last till the +death of either monarch and a year longer. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. JAMES V. AND THE REFORMATION. + + +The new times were at the door. In 1425 the Scottish Parliament had +forbidden Lutheran books to be imported. But they were, of course, +smuggled in; and the seed of religious revolution fell on minds disgusted +by the greed and anarchy of the clerical fighters and jobbers of +benefices. + +James V., after he had shaken off the Douglases and become "a free king," +had to deal with a political and religious situation, out of which we may +say in the Scots phrase, "there was no outgait." His was the dilemma of +his father before Flodden. How, against the perfidious ambition, the +force in war, and the purchasing powers of Henry VIII., was James to +preserve the national independence of Scotland? His problem was even +harder than that of his father, because when Henry broke with Rome and +robbed the religious houses a large minority, at least, of the Scottish +nobles, gentry, and middle classes were, so far, heartily on the anti- +Roman side. They were tired of Rome, tired of the profligacy, ignorance, +and insatiable greed of the ecclesiastical dignitaries who, too often, +were reckless cadets of the noble families. Many Scots had read the +Lutheran books and disbelieved in transubstantiation; thought that money +paid for prayers to the dead was money wasted; preferred a married and +preaching to a celibate and licentious clergy who celebrated Mass; were +convinced that saintly images were idols, that saintly miracles were +impostures. Above all, the nobles coveted the lands of the Church, the +spoils of the religious houses. + +In Scotland, as elsewhere, the causes of the religious revolution were +many. The wealth and luxury of the higher clergy, and of the dwellers in +the abbeys, had long been the butt of satire and of the fiercer +indignation of the people. Benefices, great and small, were jobbed on +every side between the popes, the kings, and the great nobles. Ignorant +and profligate cadets of the great houses were appointed to high +ecclesiastical offices, while the minor clergy were inconceivably +ignorant just at the moment when the new critical learning, with +knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, was revolutionising the study of the +sacred books. The celibacy of the clergy had become a mere farce; and +they got dispensations enabling them to obtain ecclesiastical livings for +their bastards. The kings set the worst example: both James IV. and +James V. secured the richest abbeys, and, in the case of James IV., the +Primacy, for their bastard sons. All these abuses were of old standing. +"Early in the thirteenth century certain of the abbots of Jedburgh, +supported by their chapters, had granted certain of their appropriate +churches to priests with a right of succession to their sons" (see 'The +Mediaeval Church in Scotland,' by the late Bishop Dowden, chap. xix. Mac- +Lehose, 1910.) Oppressive customs by which "the upmost claith," or a +pecuniary equivalent, was extorted as a kind of death-duty by the clergy, +were sanctioned by excommunication: no grievance was more bitterly felt +by the poor. The once-dreaded curses on evil-doers became a popular +jest: purgatory was a mere excuse for getting money for masses. + +In short, the whole mediaeval system was morally rotten; the statements +drawn up by councils which made vain attempts to check the stereotyped +abuses are as candid and copious concerning all these things as the +satires of Sir David Lyndsay. + +Then came disbelief in mediaeval dogmas: the Lutheran and other heretical +books were secretly purchased and their contents assimilated. +Intercession of saints, images, pilgrimages, the doctrine of the +Eucharist, all fell into contempt. + +As early as February 1428, as we have seen, the first Scottish martyr for +evangelical religion, Patrick Hamilton, was burned at St Andrews. This +sufferer was the son of a bastard of that Lord Hamilton who married the +sister of James III. As was usual, he obtained, when a little boy, an +abbey, that of Ferne in Ross-shire. He drew the revenues, but did not +wear the costume of his place; in fact, he was an example of the ordinary +abuses. Educated at Paris and Louvain, he came in contact with the +criticism of Erasmus and the Lutheran controversy. He next read at St +Andrews, and he married. Suspected of heresy in 1427, he retired to +Germany; he wrote theses called 'Patrick's Places,' which were reckoned +heretical; he was arrested, was offered by Archbishop Beaton a chance to +escape, disdained it, and was burned with unusual cruelty,--as a rule, +heretics in Scotland were strangled before burning. There were other +similar cases, nor could James interfere--he was bound by his Coronation +Oath; again, he found in the bishops his best diplomatists, and they, of +course, were all for the French alliance, in the cause of the +independence of their country and Church as against Henry VIII. + +Thus James, in justifiable dread of the unscrupulous ambition of Henry +VIII., could not run the English course, could not accept the varying +creeds which Henry, who was his own Pope, put forward as his spirit moved +him. James was thus inevitably committed to the losing cause--the cause +of Catholicism and of France--while the intelligence no less than the +avarice of his nobles and gentry ran the English course. + +James had practically no choice. In 1536 Henry proposed a meeting with +James "as far within England as possible." Knowing, as we do, that Henry +was making repeated attempts to have James kidnapped and Archbishop +Beaton also, we are surprised that James was apparently delighted at the +hope of an interview with his uncle--in England. Henry declined to +explain why he desired a meeting when James put the question to his +envoy. James said, in effect, that he must act by advice of his Council, +which, so far as it was clerical, opposed the scheme. Henry justified +the views of the Council, later, when James, returning from a visit to +France, asked permission to pass through England. "It is the king's +honour not to receive the King of Scots in his realm except as a vassal, +for there never came King of Scots into England in peaceful manner +otherwise." Certain it is that, however James might enter England, he +would leave it only as a vassal. Nevertheless his Council, especially +his clergy, are blamed for embroiling James with Henry by dissuading him +from meeting his uncle in England. Manifestly they had no choice. Henry +had shown his hand too often. + +At this time James, by Margaret Erskine, became the father of James, +later the Regent Moray. Strange tragedies would never have occurred had +the king first married Margaret Erskine, who, by 1536, was the wife of +Douglas of Loch Leven. He is said to have wished for her a divorce that +he might marry her; this could not be: he visited France, and on New +Year's Day, 1537, wedded Madeline, daughter of Francis I. Six months +later she died in Scotland. + +Marriage for the king was necessary, and David Beaton, later Cardinal +Beaton and Archbishop of St Andrews, obtained for his lord a lady coveted +by Henry VIII., Mary, of the great Catholic house of Lorraine, widow of +the Duc de Longueville, and sister of the popular and ambitious Guises. +The pair were wedded on June 10, 1538; there was fresh offence to Henry +and a closer tie to the Catholic cause. The appointment of Cardinal +Beaton (1539) to the see of St Andrews, in succession to his uncle, gave +James a servant of high ecclesiastical rank, great subtlety, and +indomitable resolution, but remote from chastity of life and from +clemency to heretics. Martyrdoms became more frequent, and George +Buchanan, who had been tutor of James's son by Margaret Erskine, thought +well to open a window in a house where he was confined, walk out, and +depart to the Continent. Meanwhile Henry, no less than Beaton, was +busily burning his own martyrs. In 1539 Henry renewed his intercourse +with James, attempting to shake his faith in David Beaton, and to make +him rob his Church. James replied that he preferred to try to reform it; +and he enjoyed, in 1540, Sir David Lyndsay's satirical play on the vices +of the clergy, and, indeed, of all orders of men. In 1540 James ratified +the College of Justice, the fifteen Lords of Session, sitting as judges +in Edinburgh. + +In 1541 the idea of a meeting between James and Henry was again mooted, +and Henry actually went to York, where James did not appear. Henry, who +had expected him, was furious. In August 1542, on a futile pretext, he +sent Norfolk with a great force to harry the Border. The English had the +worse at the battle of Hadden Rig; negotiations followed; Henry +proclaimed that Scottish kings had always been vassals of England, and +horrified his Council by openly proposing to kidnap James. Henry's +forces were now wrecking an abbey and killing women on the Border. James +tried to retaliate, but his levies (October 31) at Fala Moor declined to +follow him across the Border: they remembered Flodden, moreover they +could not risk the person of a childless king. James prepared, however, +for a raid on a great scale on the western Border, but the fact had been +divulged by Sir George Douglas, Angus's brother, and had also been sold +to Dacre, cheap, by another Scot. The English despatches prove that +Wharton had full time for preparation, and led a competent force of +horse, which, near Arthuret, charged on the right flank of the Scots, who +slowly retreated, till they were entangled between the Esk and a morass, +and lost their formation and their artillery, with 1200 men: a few were +slain, most were drowned or were taken prisoners. The raid was no secret +of the king and the priests, as Knox absurdly states; nobles of the +Reforming no less than of the Catholic party were engaged; the English +had full warning and a force of 3000 men, not of 400 farmers; the Scots +were beaten through their own ignorance of the ground in which they had +been burning and plundering. As to confusion caused by the claim of +Oliver Sinclair to be commander, it is not corroborated by contemporary +despatches, though Sir George Douglas reports James's lament for the +conduct of his favourite, "Fled Oliver! fled Oliver!" The misfortune +broke the heart of James. He went to Edinburgh, did some business, +retired for a week to Linlithgow, {89} where his queen was awaiting her +delivery, and thence went to Falkland, and died of nothing more specific +than shame, grief, and despair. He lived to hear of the birth of his +daughter, Mary (December 8, 1542). "It came with a lass and it will go +with a lass," he is said to have muttered. + +On December 14th James passed away, broken by his impossible task, lost +in the bewildering paths from which there was no outgait. + +James was personally popular for his gaiety and his adventures while he +wandered in disguise. Humorous poems are attributed to him. A man of +greater genius than his might have failed when confronted by a tyrant so +wealthy, ambitious, cruel, and destitute of honour as Henry VIII.; +constantly engaged with James's traitors in efforts to seize or slay him +and his advisers. It is an easy thing to attack James because he would +not trust Henry, a man who ruined all that did trust to his seeming +favour. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. THE MINORITY OF MARY STUART. + + +When James died, Henry VIII. seemed to hold in his hand all the winning +cards in the game of which Scotland was the stake. He held Angus and his +brother George Douglas; when he slipped them they would again wield the +whole force of their House in the interests of England and of Henry's +religion. Moreover, he held many noble prisoners taken at +Solway--Glencairn, Maxwell, Cassilis, Fleming, Grey, and others,--and all +of these, save Sir George Douglas, "have not sticked," says Henry +himself, "to take upon them to set the crown of Scotland on our head." +Henry's object was to get "the child, the person of the Cardinal, and of +such as be chief hindrances to our purpose, and also the chief holds and +fortresses into our hands." By sheer brigandage the Reformer king hoped +to succeed where the Edwards had failed. He took the oaths of his +prisoners, making them swear to secure for him the child, Beaton, and the +castles, and later released them to do his bidding. + +Henry's failure was due to the genius and resolution of Cardinal Beaton, +heading the Catholic party. + +What occurred in Scotland on James's death is obscure. Later, Beaton was +said to have made the dying king's hand subscribe a blank paper filled up +by appointment of Beaton himself as one of a Regency Council of four or +five. There is no evidence for the tale. What actually occurred was the +proclamation of the Earls of Arran, Argyll, Huntly, Moray, and of Beaton +as Regents (December 19, 1542). Arran, the chief of the Hamiltons, was, +we know, unless ousted by Henry VIII., the next heir to the throne after +the new-born Mary. He was a good-hearted man, but the weakest of +mortals, and his constant veerings from the Catholic and national to the +English and reforming side were probably caused by his knowledge of his +very doubtful legitimacy. Either party could bring up the doubt; Beaton, +having the ear of the Pope, could be specially dangerous, but so could +the opposite party if once firmly seated in office. Arran, in any case, +presently ousted the Archbishop of Glasgow from the Chancellorship and +gave the seals to Beaton--the man whom he presently accused of a +shameless forgery of James's will. {91} + +The Regency soon came into Arran's own hands: the Solway Moss prisoners, +learning this as they journeyed north, began to repent of their oaths of +treachery, especially as their oaths were known or suspected in Scotland. +George Douglas prevailed on Arran to seize and imprison Beaton till he +answered certain charges; but no charges were ever made public, none were +produced. The clergy refused to christen or bury during his captivity. +Parliament met (March 12, 1543), and still there was silence as to the +nature of the accusations against Beaton; and by March 22 George Douglas +himself released the Cardinal (of course for a consideration) and carried +him to his own strong castle of St Andrews. + +Parliament permitted the reading but forbade the discussion of the Bible +in English. Arran was posing as a kind of Protestant. Ambassadors were +sent to Henry to negotiate a marriage between his son Edward and the baby +Queen; but Scotland would not give up a fortress, would never resign her +independence, would not place Mary in Henry's hands, would never submit +to any but a native ruler. + +The airy castle of Henry's hopes fell into dust, built as it was on the +oaths of traitors. Love of such a religion as Henry professed, retaining +the Mass and making free use of the stake and the gibbet, was not, even +to Protestants, so attractive as to make them run the English course and +submit to the English Lord Paramount. Some time was needed to make +Scots, whatever their religious opinions, lick the English rod. But the +scale was soon to turn; for every reforming sermon was apt to produce the +harrying of religious houses, and every punishment of the robbers was +persecution intolerable against which men sought English protection. + +Henry VIII. now turned to Arran for support. To Arran he offered the +hand of his daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, who should later marry the +heir of the Hamiltons. But by mid-April Arran was under the influence of +his bastard brother, the Abbot of Paisley (later Archbishop Hamilton). +The Earl of Lennox, a Stuart, and Keeper of Dumbarton Castle, arrived +from France. He was hostile to Arran; for, if Arran were illegitimate, +Lennox was next heir to the crown after Mary: he was thus, for the +moment, the ally of Beaton against Arran. George Douglas visited Henry, +and returned with his terms--Mary to be handed over to England at the age +of ten, and to marry Prince Edward at twelve; Arran (by a prior +arrangement) was to receive Scotland north of Forth, an auxiliary English +army, and the hand of Elizabeth for his son. To the English contingent +Arran preferred 5000 pounds in ready money--that was his price. + +Sadleyr, Henry's envoy, saw Mary of Guise, and saw her little daughter +unclothed; he admired the child, but could not disentangle the cross-webs +of intrigue. The national party--the Catholic party--was strongest, +because least disunited. When the Scottish ambassadors who went to Henry +in spring returned (July 21), the national party seized Mary and carried +her to Stirling, where they offered Arran a meeting, and (he said) the +child queen's hand for his son. But Arran's own partisans, Glencairn and +Cassilis, told Sadleyr that he fabled freely. Representatives of both +parties accepted Henry's terms, but delayed the ratification. Henry +insisted that it should be ratified by August 24, but on August 16 he +seized six Scottish merchant ships. Though the Treaty was ratified on +August 25, Arran was compelled to insist on compensation for the ships, +but on August 28 he proclaimed Beaton a traitor. In the beginning of +September Arran favoured the wrecking of the Franciscan monastery in +Edinburgh; and at Dundee the mob, moved by sermons from the celebrated +martyr George Wishart, did sack the houses of the Franciscans and the +Dominicans; Beaton's Abbey of Arbroath and the Abbey of Lindores were +also plundered. Clearly it was believed that Beaton was down, and that +church-pillage was authorised by Arran. Yet on September 3 Arran joined +hands with Beaton! The Cardinal, by threatening to disprove Arran's +legitimacy and ruin his hopes of the crown, or in some other way, had +dominated the waverer, while Henry (August 29) was mobilising an army of +20,000 men for the invasion of Scotland. On September 9 Mary was crowned +at Stirling. But Beaton could not hold both Arran and his rival Lennox, +who committed an act of disgraceful treachery. With Glencairn he seized +large supplies of money and stores sent by France to Dumbarton Castle. In +1544 he fled to England and to the protection of Henry, and married +Margaret, daughter of Angus and Margaret Tudor, widow of James IV. He +became the father of Darnley, Mary's husband in later years, and the +fortunes of Scotland were fatally involved in the feud between the Lennox +Stewarts and the House of Hamilton. + +Meanwhile (November 1543) Arran and Beaton together broke and persecuted +the abbey robbers of Perthshire and Angus, making "martyrs" and +incurring, on Beaton's part, fatal feuds with Leslies, Greys, Learmonths, +and Kirkcaldys. Parliament (December 11) declared the treaty with +England void; the party of the Douglases, equally suspected by Henry and +by Beaton, was crushed, and George Douglas was held a hostage, still +betraying his country in letters to England. Martyrs were burned in +Perth and Dundee, which merely infuriated the populace. In April 1544, +while Henry was giving the most cruel orders to his army of invasion, one +Wishart visited him with offers, which were accepted, for the murder of +the Cardinal. {94} Early in May the English army under Hertford took +Leith, "raised a jolly fire," says Hertford, in Edinburgh; he burned the +towns on his line of march, and retired. + +On May 17 Lennox and Glencairn sold themselves to Henry; for ample +rewards they were to secure the teaching of God's word "as the mere and +only foundation whence proceeds all truth and honour"! Arran defeated +Glencairn when he attempted his godly task, and Lennox was driven back +into England. + +In June Mary of Guise fell into the hands of nobles led by Angus, while +the Fife, Perthshire, and Angus lairds, lately Beaton's deadly foes, came +into the Cardinal's party. With him and Arran, in November, were banded +the Protestants who were to be his murderers, while the Douglases, in +December, were cleared by Parliament of all their offences, and Henry +offered 3000 crowns for their "trapping." Angus, in February 1545, +protested that he loved Henry "best of all men," and would make Lennox +Governor of Scotland, while Wharton, for Henry, was trying to kidnap +Angus. Enraged by the English desecration of his ancestors' graves at +Melrose Abbey, Angus united with Arran, Norman Leslie, and Buccleuch to +annihilate an English force at Ancrum Moor, where Henry's men lost 800 +slain and 2000 prisoners. The loyalty of Angus to his country was now, +by innocents like Arran, thought assured. The plot for Beaton's murder +was in 1545 negotiated between Henry and Cassilis, backed by George +Douglas; and Crichton of Brunston, as before, was engaged, a godly laird +in Lothian. In August the Douglases boast that, as Henry's friends, they +have frustrated an invasion of England with a large French contingent, +which they pretended to lead, while they secured its failure. Meanwhile, +after forty years, Donald Dubh, and all the great western chiefs, none of +whom could write, renewed the alliance of 1463 with England, calling +themselves "auld enemies of Scotland." Their religious predilections, +however, were not Protestant. They promised to destroy or reduce half of +Scotland, and hailed Lennox as Governor, as in Angus's offer to Henry in +spring 1545. Lennox did make an attempt against Dumbarton in November +with Donald Dubh. They failed, and Donald died, without legitimate +issue, at Drogheda. The Macleans, Macleods, and Macneils then came into +the national party. + +In September 1545 Hertford, with an English force, destroyed the +religious houses at Melrose, Kelso, Dryburgh, and Jedburgh. {96} +Meanwhile the two Douglases skulked with the murderous traitor Cassilis +in Ayrshire, and Henry tried to induce French deserters from the Scottish +flag to murder Beaton and Arran. + +Beaton could scarcely escape for ever from so many plots. His capture, +in January 1546, of George Wishart, an eminently learned and virtuous +Protestant preacher, and an intimate associate of the murderous, double- +dyed traitor Brunston and of other Lothian pietists of the English party; +and his burning of Wishart at St Andrews, on March 1, 1546, sealed the +Cardinal's doom. On May 29th he was surprised in his castle of St +Andrews and slain by his former ally, Norman Leslie, Master of Rothes, +with Kirkcaldy of Grange, and James Melville who seems to have dealt the +final stab after preaching at his powerless victim. They insulted the +corpse, and held St Andrews Castle against all comers. + +How gallant a fight Beaton had waged against adversaries how many and +multifarious, how murderous, self-seeking, treacherous, and hypocritical, +we have seen. He maintained the independence of Scotland against the +most recklessly unscrupulous of assailants, though probably he was rather +bent on defending the lost cause of a Church entirely and intolerably +corrupt. + +The two causes were at the moment inseparable, and, whatever we may think +of the Church of Rome, it was not more bloodily inclined than the Church +of which Henry was Pope, while it was less illogical, not being the +creature of a secular tyrant. If Henry and his party had won their game, +the Church of Scotland would have been Henry's Church--would have been +Anglican. Thus it was Beaton who, by defeating Henry, made Presbyterian +Calvinism possible in Scotland. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. REGENCY OF ARRAN. + + +The death of Cardinal Beaton left Scotland and the Church without a +skilled and resolute defender. His successor in the see, Archbishop +Hamilton, a half-brother of the Regent, was more licentious than the +Cardinal (who seems to have been constant to Mariotte Ogilvy), and had +little of his political genius. The murderers, with others of their +party, held St Andrews Castle, strong in its new fortifications, which +the queen-mother and Arran, the Regent, were unable to reduce. Receiving +supplies from England by sea, and abetted by Henry VIII., the murderers +were in treaty with him to work all his will, while some nobles, like +Argyll and Huntly, wavered; though the Douglases now renounced their +compact with England, and their promise to give the child queen in +marriage to Henry's son. At the end of November, despairing of success +in the siege, Arran asked France to send men and ships to take St Andrews +Castle from the assassins, who, in December, obtained an armistice. They +would surrender, they said, when they got a pardon for their guilt from +the Pope; but they begged Henry VIII. to move the Emperor to move the +Pope to give no pardon! The remission, none the less, arrived early in +April 1547, but was mocked at by the garrison of the castle. {99} + +The garrison and inmates of the castle presently welcomed the arrival of +John Knox and some of his pupils. Knox (born in Haddington, 1513-1515?), +a priest and notary, had borne a two-handed sword and been of the body- +guard of Wishart. He was now invited by John Rough, the chaplain, to +take on him the office of preacher, which he did, weeping, so strong was +his sense of the solemnity of his duties. He also preached and disputed +with feeble clerical opponents in the town. The congregation in the +castle, though devout, were ruffianly in their lives, nor did he spare +rebukes to his flock. + +Before Knox arrived, Henry VIII. and Francis II. had died; the successor +of Francis, Henri II., sent to Scotland Monsieur d'Oysel, who became the +right-hand man of Mary of Guise in the Government. Meanwhile the advance +of an English force against the Border, where they occupied Langholm, +caused Arran to lead thither the national levies. But this gave no great +relief to the besieged in the castle of St Andrews. In mid-July a well- +equipped French fleet swept up the east coast; men were landed with guns; +French artillery was planted on the cathedral roof and the steeple of St +Salvator's College, and poured a plunging fire into the castle. In a day +or two, on the last of July, the garrison surrendered. Knox, with many +of his associates, was placed in the galleys and carried captive to +France. On one occasion the galleys were within sight of St Andrews, and +the Reformer predicted (so he says) that he would again preach there--as +he did, to some purpose. + +But the castle had not fallen before the English party among the nobles +had arranged to betray Scottish fortresses to England; and to lead 2000 +Scottish "favourers of the Word of God" to fight under the flag of St +George against their country. An English host of 15,000 was assembled, +and marched north accompanied by a fleet. On the 9th of September 1547 +the leader, Somerset, found the Scottish army occupying a well-chosen +position near Musselburgh: on their left lay the Firth, on their front a +marsh and the river Esk. But next day the Scots, as when Cromwell +defeated them at Dunbar, left an impregnable position in their eagerness +to cut Somerset off from his ships, and were routed with great slaughter +in the battle of Pinkie. Somerset made no great use of his victory: he +took and held Broughty Castle on Tay, fortified Inchcolme in the Firth of +Forth, and devastated Holyrood. Mischief he did, to little purpose. + +The child queen was conveyed to an isle in the loch of Menteith, where +she was safe, and her marriage with the Dauphin was negotiated. In June +1548 a large French force under the Sieur d'Esse arrived, and later +captured Haddington, held by the English, while, despite some +Franco-Scottish successes in the field, Mary was sent with her Four +Maries to France, where she landed in August, the only passenger who had +not been sea-sick! By April 1550 the English made peace, abandoning all +their holds in Scotland. The great essential prize, the child queen, had +escaped them. + +The clergy burned a martyr in 1550; in 1549 they had passed measures for +their own reformation: too late and futile was the scheme. Early in 1549 +Knox returned from France to England, where he was minister at Berwick +and at Newcastle, a chaplain of the child Edward VI., and a successful +opponent of Cranmer as regards kneeling at the celebration of the Holy +Communion. He refused a bishopric, foreseeing trouble under Mary Tudor, +from whom he fled to the Continent. In 1550-51 Mary of Guise, visiting +France, procured for Arran the Duchy of Chatelherault, and for his eldest +son the command of the Scottish Archer Guard, and, by way of exchange, in +1554 took from him the Regency, surrounding herself with French advisers, +notably De Roubay and d'Oysel. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. REGENCY OF MARY OF GUISE. + + +In England, on the death of Edward VI., Catholicism rejoiced in the +accession of Mary Tudor, which, by driving Scottish Protestant refugees +back into their own country, strengthened there the party of revolt +against the Church, while the queen-mother's preference of French over +Scottish advisers, and her small force of trained French soldiers in +garrisons, caused even the Scottish Catholics to hold France in fear and +suspicion. The French counsellors (1556) urged increased taxation for +purposes of national defence against England; but the nobles would rather +be invaded every year than tolerate a standing army in place of their old +irregular feudal levies. Their own independence of the Crown was dearer +to the nobles and gentry than safety from their old enemy. They might +have reflected that a standing army of Scots, officered by themselves, +would be a check on the French soldiers in garrison. + +Perplexed and opposed by the great clan of Hamilton, whose chief, Arran, +was nearest heir to the crown, Mary of Guise was now anxious to +conciliate the Protestants, and there was a "blink," as the Covenanters +later said,--a lull in persecution. + +After Knox's release from the French galleys in 1549, he had played, as +we saw, a considerable part in the affairs of the English Church, and in +the making of the second Prayer-Book of Edward VI., but had fled abroad +on the accession of Mary Tudor. From Dieppe he had sent a tract to +England, praying God to stir up some Phineas or Jehu to shed the blood of +"abominable idolaters,"--obviously of Mary of England and Philip of +Spain. On earlier occasions he had followed Calvin in deprecating such +sanguinary measures. The Scot, after a stormy period of quarrels with +Anglican refugees in Frankfort, moved to Geneva, where the city was under +a despotism of preachers and of Calvin. Here Knox found the model of +Church government which, in a form if possible more extreme, he later +planted in Scotland. + +There, in 1549-52, the Church, under Archbishop Hamilton, Beaton's +successor, had been confessing her iniquities in Provincial Councils, and +attempting to purify herself on the lines of the tolerant and charitable +Catechism issued by the Archbishop in 1552. Apparently a _modus vivendi_ +was being sought, and Protestants were inclined to think that they might +be "occasional conformists" and attend Mass without being false to their +convictions. But in this brief lull Knox came over to Scotland at the +end of harvest, in 1555. On this point of occasional conformity he was +fixed. The Mass was idolatry, and idolatry, by the law of God, was a +capital offence. Idolaters must be converted or exterminated; they were +no better than Amalekites. + +This was the central rock of Knox's position: tolerance was impossible. +He remained in Scotland, preaching and administering the Sacrament in the +Genevan way, till June 1556. He associated with the future leaders of +the religious revolution: Erskine of Dun, Lord Lorne (in 1558, fifth Earl +of Argyll), James Stewart, bastard of James V., and lay Prior of St +Andrews, and of Macon in France; and the Earl of Glencairn. William +Maitland of Lethington, "the flower of the wits of Scotland," was to Knox +a less congenial acquaintance. Not till May 1556 was Knox summoned to +trial in Edinburgh, but he had a strong backing of the laity, as was the +custom in Scotland, where justice was overawed by armed gatherings, and +no trial was held. By July 1556 he was in France, on his way to Geneva. + +The fruits of Knox's labours followed him, in March 1557, in the shape of +a letter, signed by Glencairn, Lorne, Lord Erskine, and James Stewart, +Mary's bastard brother. They prayed Knox to return. They were ready "to +jeopardy lives and goods in the forward setting of the glory of God." +This has all the air of risking civil war. Knox was not eager. It was +October before he reached Dieppe on his homeward way. Meanwhile there +had been hostilities between England and Scotland (as ally of France, +then at odds with Philip of Spain, consort King of England), and there +were Protestant tumults in Edinburgh. Knox had scruples as to raising +civil war by preaching at home. The Scottish nobles had no zeal for the +English war; but Knox, who received at Dieppe discouraging letters from +unknown correspondents, did not cross the sea. He remained at Dieppe, +preaching, till the spring of 1558. + +In Knox's absence even James Stewart and Erskine of Dun agreed to hurry +on the marriage between Mary, Queen of Scots, and Francis, Dauphin of +France, a feeble boy, younger than herself. Their faces are pitiably +young as represented in their coronation medal. + +While negotiations for the marriage were begun in October, on December 3, +1557, a godly "band" or covenant for mutual aid was signed by Argyll +(then near his death, in 1558); his son, Lorne; the Earl of Morton (son +of the traitor, Sir George Douglas); Glencairn; and Erskine of Dun, one +of the commissioners who were to visit France for the Royal marriage. +They vow to risk their lives against "the Congregation of Satan" (the +Church), and in defence of faithful Protestant preachers. They will +establish "the blessed Word of God and His Congregation," and henceforth +the Protestant party was commonly styled "The Congregation." + +Parliament (November 29, 1557) had accepted the French marriage, all the +ancient liberties of Scotland being secured, and the right to the throne, +if Mary died without issue, being confirmed to the House of Hamilton, not +to the Dauphin. The marriage-contract (April 19, 1558) did ratify these +just demands; but, on April 4, Mary had been induced to sign them all +away to France, leaving Scotland and her own claims to the English crown +to the French king. + +The marriage was celebrated on April 24, 1558. In that week the last +Protestant martyr, Walter Milne, an aged priest and a married man, was +burned for heresy at St Andrews. This only increased the zeal of the +Congregation. + +Among the Protestant preachers then in Scotland, of whom Willock, an +Englishman, seems to have been the most reasonable, a certain Paul +Methuen, a baker, was prominent. He had been summoned (July 28) to stand +his trial for heresy, but his backing of friends was considerable, and +they came before Mary of Guise in armour and with a bullying demeanour. +She tried to temporise, and on September 3 a great riot broke out in +Edinburgh, the image of St Giles was broken, and the mob violently +assaulted a procession of priests. The country was seething with +discontent, and the death of Mary Tudor (November 17, 1558), with the +accession of the Protestant Elizabeth, encouraged the Congregation. Mary +of Guise made large concessions: only she desired that there should be no +public meetings in the capital. On January 1, 1559, church doors were +placarded with "The Beggars' Warning." The Beggars (really the Brethren +in their name) claimed the wealth of the religious orders. Threats were +pronounced, revolution was menaced at a given date, Whitsunday, and the +threats were fulfilled. + +All this was the result of a plan, not of accident. Mary of Guise was +intending to visit France, not longing to burn heretics. But she fell +into the worst of health, and her recovery was doubted, in April 1559. +Willock and Methuen had been summoned to trial (February 2, 1559), for +their preachings were always apt to lead to violence on the part of their +hearers. The summons was again postponed in deference to renewed +menaces: a Convention had met at Edinburgh to seek for some remedy, and +the last Provincial Council of the Scottish Church (March 1559) had +considered vainly some proposals by moderate Catholics for internal +reform. {106} + +Again the preachers were summoned to Stirling for May 10, but just a week +earlier Knox arrived in Scotland. The leader of the French Protestant +preachers, Morel, expressed to Calvin his fear that Knox "may fill +Scotland with his madness." Now was his opportunity: the Regent was weak +and ill; the Congregation was in great force; England was at least not +unfavourable to its cause. From Dundee Knox marched with many +gentlemen--unarmed, he says--accompanying the preachers to Perth: Erskine +of Dun went as an envoy to the Regent at Stirling; she is accused by Knox +of treacherous dealing (other contemporary Protestant evidence says +nothing of treachery); at all events, on May 10 the preachers were +outlawed for non-appearance to stand their trial. The Brethren, "the +whole multitude with their preachers," says Knox, who were in Perth were +infuriated, and, after a sermon from the Reformer, wrecked the church, +sacked the monasteries, and, says Knox, denounced death against any +priest who celebrated Mass (a circumstance usually ignored by our +historians), at the same time protesting, "We require nothing but liberty +of conscience"! + +On May 31 a composition was made between the Regent and the insurgents, +whom Argyll and James Stewart promised to join if the Regent broke the +conditions. Henceforth the pretext that she had broken faith was made +whenever it seemed convenient, while the Congregation permitted itself a +godly liberty in construing the terms of treaties. A "band" was signed +for "the destruction of idolatry" by Argyll, James Stewart, Glencairn, +and others; and the Brethren scattered from Perth, breaking down altars +and "idols" on their way home. Mary of Guise had promised not to leave a +French garrison in Perth. She did leave some Scots in French pay, and on +this slim pretext of her treachery, Argyll and James Stewart proclaimed +the Regent perfidious, deserted her cause, and joined the crusade against +"idolatry." + + + +NOTE. + + +It is far from my purpose to represent Mary of Guise as a kind of +stainless Una with a milk-white lamb. I am apt to believe that she +caused to be forged a letter, which she attributed to Arran. See my +'John Knox and the Reformation,' pp. 280, 281, where the evidence is +discussed. But the critical student of Knox's chapters on these events, +generally accepted as historical evidence, cannot but perceive his +personal hatred of Mary of Guise, whether shown in thinly veiled hints +that Cardinal Beaton was her paramour; or in charges of treacherous +breach of promise, which rest primarily on his word. Again, that "the +Brethren" wrecked the religious houses of Perth is what he reports to a +lady, Mrs Locke; that "the rascal multitude" was guilty is the tale he +tells "to all Europe" in his History. I have done my best to compare +Knox's stories with contemporary documents, including his own letters. +These documents throw a lurid light on his versions of events, as given +in this part of his History, which is merely a partisan pamphlet of +autumn 1559. The evidence is criticised in my 'John Knox and the +Reformation,' pp. 107-157 (1905). Unhappily the letter of Mary of Guise +to Henri II., after the outbreak at Perth, is missing from the archives +of France. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. THE GREAT PILLAGE. + + +The revolution was now under weigh, and as it had begun so it continued. +There was practically no resistance by the Catholic nobility and gentry: +in the Lowlands, apparently, almost all were of the new persuasion. The +Duc de Chatelherault might hesitate while his son, the Protestant Earl of +Arran, who had been in France as Captain of the Scots Guard, was escaping +into Switzerland, and thence to England; but, on Arran's arrival there, +the Hamiltons saw their chance of succeeding to the crown in place of the +Catholic Mary. The Regent had but a small body of professional French +soldiers. But the other side could not keep their feudal levies in the +field, and they could not coin the supplies of church plate which must +have fallen into their hands, until they had seized the Mint at +Edinburgh, so money was scarce with them. It was plain to Knox and +Kirkcaldy of Grange, and it soon became obvious to Maitland of +Lethington, who, of course, forsook the Regent, that aid from England +must be sought,--aid in money, and if possible in men and ships. + +Meanwhile the reformers dealt with the ecclesiastical buildings of St +Andrews as they had done at Perth, Knox urging them on by his sermons. We +may presume that the boys broke the windows and images with a sanctified +joy. A mutilated head of the Redeemer has been found in a _latrine_ of +the monastic buildings. As Commendator, or lay Prior, James Stewart may +have secured the golden sheath of the arm-bone of the Apostle, presented +by Edward I., and the other precious things, the sacred plate of the +Church in a fane which had been the Delphi of Scotland. Lethington +appears to have obtained most of the portable property of St Salvator's +College except that beautiful monument of idolatry, the great silver mace +presented by Kennedy, the Founder, work of a Parisian silversmith, in +1461: this, with maces of rude native work, escaped the spoilers. The +monastery of the Franciscans is now levelled with the earth; of the +Dominicans' chapel a small fragment remains. Of the residential part of +the abbey a house was left: when the lead had been stripped from the roof +of the church it became a quarry. + +"All churchmen's goods were spoiled and reft from them . . . for every +man for the most part that could get anything pertaining to any churchmen +thought the same well-won gear," says a contemporary Diary. Arran +himself, when he arrived in Scotland, robbed a priest of all that he had, +for which Chatelherault made compensation. + +By the middle of June the Regent was compelled to remove almost all her +French soldiers out of Fife. Perth was evacuated. The abbey of Scone +and the palace were sacked. The Congregation entered Edinburgh: they +seem to have found the monasteries already swept bare, but they seized +Holyrood, and the stamps at the Mint. The Regent proclaimed that this +was flat rebellion, and that the rebels were intriguing with England. + +Knox denied it, in the first part of his History (in origin a +contemporary tract written in the autumn), but the charge was true, and +Knox and Kirkcaldy were, since June, the negotiators. Already his party +were offering Arran (the heir of the crown after Mary) as a husband for +Elizabeth, who saw him but rejected his suit. Arran's father, +Chatelherault, later openly deserted the Regent (July 1). The death of +Henri II., wounded in a tournament, did not accelerate the arrival of +French reinforcements for the Regent. The weaker Brethren, however, +waxed weary; money was scarce, and on July 24, the Congregation evacuated +Edinburgh and Leith, after a treaty which they misrepresented, broke, and +accused the Regent of breaking. {111a} + +Knox visited England, about August 1, but felt dissatisfied with his +qualification for diplomacy. Nothing, so far, was gained from Elizabeth, +save a secret supply of 3000 pounds. On the other hand, fresh French +forces arrived at Leith: the place was fortified; the Regent was again +accused of perfidy by the perfidious; and on October 21 the Congregation +proclaimed her deposition on the alleged authority of her daughter, now +Queen of France, whose seal they forged and used in their documents. One +Cokky was the forger; he saw Arran use the seal on public papers. {111b} +Cokky had made a die for the coins of the Congregation--a crown of +thorns, with the words _Verbum Dei_. Leith, manned by French soldiers, +was, till in the summer of 1560 it surrendered to the Congregation and +their English allies, the centre of Catholic resistance. + +In November the Congregation, after a severe defeat, fled in grief from +Edinburgh to Stirling, where Knox reanimated them, and they sent +Lethington to England to crave assistance. Lethington, who had been in +the service of the Regent, is henceforth the central figure of every +intrigue. Witty, eloquent, subtle, he was indispensable, and he had one +great ruling motive, to unite the crowns and peoples of England and +Scotland. Unfortunately he loved the crafty exercise of his dominion +over men's minds for its own sake, and when, in some inscrutable way, he +entered the clumsy plot to murder Darnley, and knew that Mary could prove +his guilt, his shiftings and changes puzzle historians. In Scotland he +was called Michael Wily, that is, Macchiavelli, and "the necessary evil." + +In his mission to England Lethington was successful. By December 21 the +English diplomatist, Sadleyr, informed Arran that a fleet was on its way +to aid the Congregation, who were sacking Paisley Abbey, and issuing +proclamations in the names of Francis and Mary. The fleet arrived while +the French were about to seize St Andrews (January 23, 1560), and the +French plans were ruined. The Regent, who was dying, found shelter in +Edinburgh Castle, which stood neutral. On February 27, 1560, at Berwick, +the Congregation entered into a regular league with England, Elizabeth +appearing as Protectress of Scotland, while the marriage of Mary and +Francis endured. + +Meanwhile, owing to the Huguenot disturbances in France (such as the +Tumult of Amboise, directed against the lives of Mary's uncles the +Cardinal and Duc de Guise), Mary and Francis could not help the Regent, +and Huntly, a Catholic, presently, as if in fear of the western clans, +joined the Congregation. Mary of Guise had found the great northern +chief treacherous, and had disgraced him, and untrustworthy he continued +to be. On May 7 the garrison of Leith defeated with heavy loss an Anglo- +Scottish attack on the walls; but on June 16 the Regent made a good end, +in peace with all men. She saw Chatelherault, James Stewart, and the +Earl Marischal; she listened patiently to the preacher Willock; she bade +farewell to all, and died, a notable woman, crushed by an impossible +task. The garrison of Leith, meanwhile, was starving on rats and +horseflesh: negotiations began, and ended in the Treaty of Edinburgh +(July 6, 1560). + +This Treaty, as between Mary, Queen of France and Scotland, on one hand, +and England on the other, was never ratified by Mary Stuart: she appears +to have thought that one clause implied her abandonment of all her claims +to the English succession, typified by her quartering of the Royal +English arms on her own shield. Thus there never was nor could be amity +between her and her sister and her foe, Elizabeth, who was justly +aggrieved by her assumption of the English arms, while Elizabeth +quartered the arms of France. Again, the ratification of the Treaty as +regarded Mary's rebels depended on their fulfilling certain clauses +which, in fact, they instantly violated. + +Preachers were planted in the larger town, some of which had already +secured their services; Knox took Edinburgh. "Superintendents,"--by no +means bishops--were appointed, an order which soon ceased to exist in the +Kirk: their duties were to wander about in their provinces, +superintending and preaching. By request of the Convention (which was +crowded by persons not used to attend), some preachers drew up, in four +days, a Confession of Faith, on the lines of Calvin's rule at Geneva: +this was approved and passed on August 17. The makers of the document +profess their readiness to satisfy any critic of any point "from the +mouth of God" (out of the Bible), but the pace was so good that either no +criticism was offered or it was very rapidly "satisfied." On August 24 +four acts were passed in which the authority of "The Bishop of Rome" was +repudiated. All previous legislation, not consistent with the new +Confession, was rescinded. Against celebrants and attendants of the Mass +were threatened (1) confiscation and corporal punishment; (2) exile; and +(3) for the third offence, Death. The death sentence is not known to +have been carried out in more than one or two cases. (Prof. Hume-Brown +writes that "the penalties attached to the breach of these enactments" +(namely, the abjuration of Papal jurisdiction, the condemnation of all +practices and doctrines contrary to the new creed, and of the celebration +of Mass in Scotland) "were those approved and sanctioned by the example +of every country in Christendom." But not, surely, for the same +offences, such as "the saying or hearing of Mass"?--' History of +Scotland,' ii. 71, 72: 1902.) Suits in ecclesiastical were removed into +secular courts (August 29). + +In the Confession the theology was that of Calvin. Civil rulers were +admitted to be of divine institution, their duty is to "suppress +idolatry," and they are not to be resisted "when doing that which +pertains to their charge." But a Catholic ruler, like Mary, or a +tolerant ruler, as James VI. would fain have been, apparently may be +resisted for his tolerance. Resisted James was, as we shall see, +whenever he attempted to be lenient to Catholics. + +The Book of Discipline, by Knox and other preachers, never was ratified +by the Estates, as the Confession of Faith had been. It made admirable +provisions for the payment of preachers and teachers, for the +Universities, and for the poor; but somebody, probably Lethington, spoke +of the proposals as "devout imaginations." The Book of Discipline +approved of what was later accepted by the General Assembly, The Book of +Common Order in Public Worship. This book was not a stereotyped Liturgy, +but it was a kind of guide to the ministers in public prayers: the +minister may repeat the prayers, or "say something like in effect." On +the whole, he prayed "as the Spirit moved him," and he really seems to +have been regarded as inspired; his prayers were frequently political +addresses. To silence these the infatuated policy of Charles I. thrust +the Laudian Liturgy on the nation. + +The preachers were to be chosen by popular election, after examination in +knowledge and as to morals. There was to be no ordination "by laying on +of hands." "Seeing the miracle is ceased, the using of the ceremony we +deem not necessary"; but, if the preachers were inspired, the miracle had +not ceased, and the ceremony was soon reinstated. Contrary to Genevan +practice, such festivals as Christmas and Easter were abolished. The +Scottish Sabbath was established in great majesty. One "rag of Rome" was +retained, clerical excommunication--the Sword of Church Discipline. It +was the cutting off from Christ of the excommunicated, who were handed +over to the devil, and it was attended by civil penalties equivalent to +universal boycotting, practical outlawry, and followed by hell fire: +"which sentence, lawfully pronounced on earth, is ratified in heaven." +The strength of the preachers lay in this terrible weapon, borrowed from +the armoury of Rome. + +Private morals were watched by the elders, and offenders were judged in +kirk-sessions. Witchcraft, Sabbath desecration, and sexual laxities were +the most prominent and popular sins. The mainstay of the system is the +idea that the Bible is literally inspired; that the preachers are the +perhaps inspired interpreters of the Bible, and that the country must +imitate the old Hebrew persecution of "idolaters," that is, mainly +Catholics. All this meant a theocracy of preachers elected by the +populace, and governing the nation by their General Assembly in which +nobles and other laymen sat as elders. These peculiar institutions came +hot from Geneva, and the country could never have been blessed with them, +as we have observed, but for that instrument of Providence, Cardinal +Beaton. Had he disposed of himself and Scotland to Henry VIII. (who +would not have tolerated Presbyterian claims for an hour), Scotland would +not have received the Genevan discipline, and the Kirk would have groaned +under bishops. + +The Reformation supplied Scotland with a class of preachers who were pure +in their lives, who were not accessible to bribes (a virtue in which they +stood almost alone), who were firm in their faith, and soon had learning +enough to defend it; who were constant in their parish work, and of whom +many were credited with prophetic and healing powers. They could +exorcise ghosts from houses, devils from men possessed. + +The baldness of the services, the stern nature of the creed, were +congenial to the people. The drawbacks were the intolerance, the +spiritual pretensions of the preachers to interference in secular +affairs, and the superstition which credited men like Knox, and later, +Bruce, with the gifts of prophecy and other miraculous workings, and +insisted on the burning of witches and warlocks, whereof the writer knows +scarcely an instance in Scotland before the Reformation. + +The pulpit may be said to have discharged the functions of the press (a +press which was all on one side). When, in 1562, Ninian Winzet, a +Catholic priest and ex-schoolmaster, was printing a controversial +tractate addressed to Knox, the magistrates seized the manuscript at the +printer's house, and the author was fortunate in making his escape. The +nature of the Confession of Faith, and of the claims of the ministers to +interfere in secular affairs, with divine authority, was certain to cause +war between the Crown and the Kirk. That war, whether open and armed, or +a conflict in words, endured till, in 1690, the weapon of excommunication +with civil penalties was quietly removed from the ecclesiastical armoury. +Such were the results of a religious revolution hurriedly effected. + +The Lords now sent an embassy to Elizabeth about the time of the death of +Amy Robsart, and while Amy's husband, Robert Dudley, was very dear to the +English queen, to urge, vainly, her marriage with Arran. On December 5, +1560, Francis II. died, leaving Mary Stuart a mere dowager; while her +kinsmen, the Guises, lost power, which fell into the unfriendly hands of +Catherine de Medici. At once Arran, who made Knox his confidant, began +to woo Mary with a letter and a ring. Her reply perhaps increased his +tendency to madness, which soon became open and incurable by the science +of the day. + +Here we must try to sketch Mary, _la, Reine blanche_, in her white royal +mourning. Her education had been that of the learned ladies of her age; +she had some knowledge of Latin, and knew French and Italian. French was +to her almost a mother-tongue, but not quite; she had retained her Scots, +and her attempts to write English are, at first, curiously imperfect. She +had lived in a profligate Court, but she was not the wanton of hostile +slanders. She had all the guile of statesmanship, said the English +envoy, Randolph; and she long exercised great patience under daily +insults to her religion and provocations from Elizabeth. She was +generous, pitiful, naturally honourable, and most loyal to all who served +her. But her passions, whether of love or hate, once roused, were +tyrannical. In person she was tall, like her mother, and graceful, with +beautiful hands. Her face was somewhat long, the nose long and straight, +the lips and chin beautifully moulded, the eyebrows very slender, the +eyes of a reddish brown, long and narrow. Her hair was russet, drawn +back from a lofty brow; her smile was captivating; she was rather +fascinating than beautiful; her courage and her love of courage in others +were universally confessed. {118} + +In January, 1561, the Estates of Scotland ordered James Stuart, Mary's +natural brother, to visit her in France. In spring she met him, and an +envoy from Huntly (Lesley, later Bishop of Ross), who represented the +Catholic party, and asked Mary to land in Aberdeen, and march south at +the head of the Gordons and certain northern clans. The proposal came +from noblemen of Perthshire, Angus, and the north, whose forces could not +have faced a Lowland army. Mary, who had learned from her mother that +Huntly was treacherous, preferred to take her chance with her brother, +who, returning by way of England, moved Elizabeth to recognise the +Scottish queen as her heir. But Elizabeth would never settle the +succession, and, as Mary refused to ratify the Treaty of Edinburgh, +forbade her to travel home through England. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. MARY IN SCOTLAND. + + +On August 19, 1561, in a dense fog, and almost unexpected and unwelcomed, +Mary landed in Leith. She had told the English ambassador to France that +she would constrain none of her subjects in religion, and hoped to be +unconstrained. Her first act was to pardon some artisans, under censure +for a Robin Hood frolic: her motive, says Knox, was her knowledge that +they had acted "in despite of religion." + +The Lord James had stipulated that she might have her Mass in her private +chapel. Her priest was mobbed by the godly; on the following Sunday Knox +denounced her Mass, and had his first interview with her later. In vain +she spoke of her conscience; Knox said that it was unenlightened. +Lethington wished that he would "deal more gently with a young princess +unpersuaded." There were three or four later interviews, but Knox, +strengthened by a marriage with a girl of sixteen, daughter of Lord +Ochiltree, a Stewart, was proof against the queen's fascination. In +spite of insults to her faith offered even at pageants of welcome, Mary +kept her temper, and, for long, cast in her lot with Lethington and her +brother, whose hope was to reconcile her with Elizabeth. + +The Court was gay with riotous young French nobles, well mated with +Bothwell, who, though a Protestant, had sided with Mary of Guise during +the brawls of 1559. He was now a man of twenty-seven, profligate, +reckless, a conqueror of hearts, a speaker of French, a ruffian, and well +educated. + +In December it was arranged that the old bishops and other high clerics +should keep two-thirds of their revenues, the other third to be divided +between the preachers and the queen, "between God and the devil," says +Knox. Thenceforth there was a rift between the preachers and the +politicians, Lethington and Lord James (now Earl of Mar), on whom Mary +leaned. The new Earl of Mar was furtively created Earl of Murray and +enjoyed the gift after the overthrow of Huntly. + +In January 1562 Mary asked for an interview with Elizabeth. Certainly +Lethington hoped that Elizabeth "would be able to do much with Mary in +religion," meaning that, if Mary's claims to succeed Elizabeth were +granted, she might turn Anglican. The request for a meeting, dallied +with but never granted, occupied diplomatists, while, at home, Arran +(March 31) accused Bothwell of training him into a plot to seize Mary's +person. Arran probably told truth, but he now went mad; Bothwell was +imprisoned in the castle till his escape to England in August 1562. +Lethington, in June, was negotiating for Mary's interview with Elizabeth; +Knox bitterly opposed it; the preachers feared that the queen would turn +Anglican, and bishops might be let loose in Scotland. The masques for +Mary's reception were actually being organised, when, in July, Elizabeth, +on the pretext of persecutions by the Guises in France, broke off the +negotiations. + +The rest of the year was occupied by an affair of which the origins are +obscure. Mary, with her brother and Lethington, made a progress into the +north, were affronted by and attacked Huntly, who died suddenly (October +28) at the fight of Corrichie; seized a son of his, who was executed +(November 2), and spoiled his castle which contained much of the property +of the Church of Aberdeen. Mary's motives for destroying her chief +Catholic subject are not certainly known. Her brother, Lord James, in +February made Earl of Mar, now received the lands and title of Earl of +Murray. At some date in this year Knox preached against Mary because she +gave a dance. He chose to connect her dance with some attack on the +Huguenots in France. According to 'The Book of Discipline' he should +have remonstrated privately, as Mary told him. The dates are +inextricable. (See my 'John Knox and the Reformation,' pp. 215-218.) +Till the spring of 1565 the main business was the question of the queen's +marriage. This continued to divide the ruling Protestant nobles from the +preachers. Knox dreaded an alliance with Spain, a marriage with Don +Carlos. But Elizabeth, to waste time, offered Mary the hand of Lord +Robert Dudley (Leicester), and, strange as it appears, Mary would +probably have accepted him, as late as 1565, for Elizabeth let it be +understood that to marry a Catholic prince would be the signal for war, +while Mary hoped that, if she accepted Elizabeth's favourite, Dudley, she +would be acknowledged as Elizabeth's heiress. Mary was young, and showed +little knowledge of the nature of woman. + +In 1563 came the affair of Chatelard, a French minor poet, a Huguenot +apparently, who, whether in mere fatuity or to discredit Mary, hid +himself under her bed at Holyrood, and again at Burntisland. Mary had +listened to his rhymes, had danced with him, and smiled on him, but +Chatelard went too far. He was decapitated in the market street of St +Andrews (Feb. 22, 1563). It is clear, if we may trust Knox's account, +singularly unlike Brantome's, that Chatelard was a Huguenot. + +About Easter priests were locked up in Ayrshire, the centre of +Presbyterian fanaticism, for celebrating Mass. This was in accordance +with law, and to soften Knox the girl queen tried her personal influence. +He resisted "the devil"; Mary yielded, and allowed Archbishop Hamilton +and some fifty other clerics to be placed "in prison courteous." The +Estates, which met on May 27 for the first time since the queen landed, +were mollified, but were as far as ever from passing the Book of +Discipline. They did pass a law condemning witches to death, a source of +unspeakable cruelties. Knox and Murray now ceased to be on terms till +their common interests brought them together in 1565. + +In June 1563 Elizabeth requested Mary to permit the return to Scotland of +Lennox (the traitor to the national cause and to Cardinal Beaton, and the +rival of the Hamiltons for the succession to the thrones), apparently for +the very purpose of entangling Mary in a marriage with Lennox's son +Darnley, and then thwarting it. (It was not Mary who asked Elizabeth to +send Lennox.) Knox's favourite candidate was Lord Robert Dudley: despite +his notorious character he sometimes favoured the English Puritans. When +Holyrood had been invaded by a mob who, in Mary's absence in autumn 1563, +broke up the Catholic attendants on Mass (such attendance, in Mary's +absence, was illegal), and when both parties were summoned to trial, Knox +called together the godly. The Council cleared him of the charge of +making an unlawful convocation (they might want to make one, any day, +themselves), and he was supported by the General Assembly. Similar +conduct of the preachers thirty years later gave James VI. the +opportunity to triumph over the Kirk. + +In June 1564 there was still discord between the Kirk and the Lords, and, +in a long argument with Lethington, Knox maintained the right of the +godly to imitate the slayings of idolaters by Phineas and Jehu: the +doctrine bore blood-red fruits among the later Covenanters. Elizabeth, +in May 1564, in vain asked Mary to withdraw the permission (previously +asked for by her) to allow Lennox to visit Scotland and plead for the +restitution of his lands. The objection to Lennox's appearance had come, +through Randolph, from Knox. "You may cause us to take the Lord +Darnley," wrote Kirkcaldy to Cecil, to stop Elizabeth's systems of +delays; and Sir James Melville, after going on a mission to Elizabeth, +warned Mary that she would never part with her minion, now Earl of +Leicester. + +Lennox, in autumn 1564, arrived and was restored to his estates, while +Leicester and Cecil worked for the sending of his son Darnley to +Scotland. Leicester had no desire to desert Elizabeth's Court and his +chance of touching her maiden heart. + +The intrigues of Cecil, Leicester, and Elizabeth resemble rather a +chapter in a novel than a page in history. Elizabeth notoriously hated +and, when she could, thwarted all marriages. She desired that Mary +should never marry: a union with a Catholic prince she vetoed, +threatening war; and Leicester she offered merely "to drive time." But +Mary, evasively tempted by hints, later withdrawn, of her recognition as +Elizabeth's successor, was, till the end of March 1565, encouraged by +Randolph, the English ambassador at her Court, to remain in hope of +wedding Leicester. + +Randolph himself was not in the secret of the English intrigue, which was +to slip Darnley at Mary. He came (February 1565): Cecil and Leicester +had "used earnest means" to ensure his coming. On March 17 Mary was +informed that she would never be recognised as Elizabeth's successor till +events should occur which never could occur. On receiving this news Mary +wept; she also was indignant at the long and humiliating series of +Elizabeth's treacheries. Her patience broke down; she turned to Darnley, +thereby, as the English intriguers designed, breaking up the concord of +her nobles. To marry Darnley involved the feud of the Hamiltons, and the +return of Murray (whom Darnley had offended), of Chatelherault, Argyll, +and many other nobles to the party of Knox and the preachers. Leicester +would have been welcome to Knox; Darnley was a Catholic, if anything, and +a weak passionate young fool. Mary, in the clash of interests, was a +lost woman, as Randolph truly said, with sincere pity. Her long +endurance, her attempts to "run the English course," were wasted. + +David Riccio, who came to Scotland as a musician in 1561, was now high in +her and in Darnley's favour. Murray was accused of a conspiracy to seize +Darnley and Lennox; the godly began to organise an armed force (June +1565); Mary summoned from exile Bothwell, a man of the sword. On July +29th she married Darnley, and on August 6th Murray, who had refused to +appear to answer the charges of treason brought against him, though a +safe-conduct was offered, was outlawed and proclaimed a rebel, while +Huntly's son, Lord George, was to be restored to his estates. Thus +everything seemed to indicate that Mary had been exasperated into +breaking with the party of moderation, the party of Murray and +Lethington, and been driven into courses where her support, if any, must +come from France and Rome. Yet she married without waiting for the +necessary dispensation from the Pope. Her policy was henceforth +influenced by her favour to Riccio, and by the jealous and arrogant +temper of her husband. Mary well knew that Elizabeth had sent money to +her rebels, whom she now pursued all through the south of Scotland; they +fled from Edinburgh, where the valiant Brethren, brave enough in throwing +stones at pilloried priests, refused to join them; and despite the feuds +in her own camp, where Bothwell and Darnley were already on the worst +terms, Mary drove the rebel lords across the Border at Carlisle on +October 8. + +Mary seemed triumphant, but the men with her--Lethington, and Morton the +Chancellor--were disaffected; Darnley was mutinous: he thought himself +neglected; he and his father resented Mary's leniency to Chatelherault, +who had submitted and been sent to France; all parties hated Riccio. +There was to be a Parliament early in March 1566. In February Mary sent +the Bishop of Dunblane to Rome to ask for a subsidy; she intended to +reintroduce the Spiritual Estate into the House as electors of the Lords +of the Articles, "tending to have done some good anent the restoring of +the old religion." The Nuncio who was to have brought the Pope's money +later insisted that Mary should take the heads of Murray, Argyle, Morton, +and Lethington! Whether she aimed at securing more than tolerance for +Catholics is uncertain; but the Parliament, in which the exiled Lords +were to be forfeited, was never held. The other nobles would never +permit such a measure. + +George Douglas, a stirring cadet of the great House was exciting +Darnley's jealousy of Riccio, but already Randolph (February 5, 1566) had +written to Cecil that "the wisest were aiming at putting all in hazard" +to restore the exiled Lords. The nobles, in the last resort, would all +stand by each other: there was now a Douglas plot of the old sort to +bring back the exiles; and Darnley, with his jealous desire to murder +Riccio, was but the cat's-paw to light the train and explode Mary and her +Government. Ruthven, whom Mary had always distrusted, came into the +conspiracy. Through Randolph all was known in England. "Bands" were +drawn up, signed by Argyll (safe in his own hills), Murray, Glencairn, +Rothes, Boyd, Ochiltree (the father of Knox's young wife), and Darnley. +His name was put forward; his rights and succession were secured against +the Hamiltons; Protestantism, too, was to be defended. Many Douglases, +many of the Lothian gentry, were in the plot. Murray was to arrive from +England as soon as Riccio had been slain and Mary had been seized. + +Randolph knew all and reported to Elizabeth's ministers. + +The plan worked with mechanical precision. On March 9 Morton and his +company occupied Holyrood, going up the great staircase about eight at +night; while Darnley and Ruthven, a dying man, entered the queen's supper- +room by a privy stair. Morton's men burst in, Riccio was dragged forth, +and died under forty daggers. Bothwell, Atholl, and Huntly, partisans of +Mary, escaped from the palace; with them Mary managed to communicate on +the morrow, when she also held talk with Murray, who had returned with +the other exiles. She had worked on the fears and passions of Darnley; +by promises of amnesty the Lords were induced to withdraw their guards +next day, and in the following night, by a secret passage, and through +the tombs of kings, Mary and Darnley reached the horses brought by Arthur +Erskine. + +It was a long dark ride to Dunbar, but there Mary was safe. She pardoned +and won over Glencairn, whom she liked, and Rothes; Bothwell and Huntly +joined her with a sufficient force, Ruthven and Morton fled to Berwick +(Ruthven was to die in England), and Knox hastened into Kyle in Ayrshire. +Darnley, who declared his own innocence and betrayed his accomplices, was +now equally hated and despised by his late allies and by the queen and +Murray,--indeed, by all men, chiefly by Morton and Argyll. Lethington +was in hiding; but he was indispensable, and in September was reconciled +to Mary. + +On June 19, in Edinburgh Castle, she bore her child, later James VI.; on +her recovery Darnley was insolent, and was the more detested, while +Bothwell was high in favour. In October most of the Lords signed, with +Murray, a band for setting Darnley aside--_not_ for his murder. He is +said to have denounced Mary to Spain, France, and Rome for neglecting +Catholic interests. In mid-October Mary was seriously ill at Jedburgh, +where Bothwell, wounded in an encounter with a Border reiver, was +welcomed, while Darnley, coldly received, went to his father's house on +the Forth. On her recovery Mary resided in the last days of November at +Craigmillar Castle, near Edinburgh. Here Murray, Argyll, Bothwell, +Huntly, and Lethington held counsel with her as to Darnley. Lethington +said that "a way would be found," a way that Parliament would approve, +while Murray would "look through his fingers." Lennox believed that the +plan was to arrest Darnley on some charge, and slay him if he resisted. + +At Stirling (December 17), when the young prince was baptised with +Catholic rites, Darnley did not appear; he sulked in his own rooms. A +week later, the exiles guilty of Riccio's murder were recalled, among +them Morton; and Darnley, finding all his enemies about to be united, +went to Glasgow, where he fell ill of smallpox. Mary offered a visit +(she had had the malady as a child), and was rudely rebuffed (January 1- +13, 1567), but she was with him by January 21. From Glasgow, at this +time, was written the long and fatal letter to Bothwell, which places +Mary's guilt in luring Darnley to his death beyond doubt, if we accept +the letters as authentic. {129} + +Darnley was carried in a litter to the lonely house of Kirk o' Field, on +the south wall of Edinburgh. Here Mary attended him in his sickness. On +Sunday morning, February 9, Murray left Edinburgh for Fife. In the night +of Sunday 9-Monday 10, the house where Darnley lay was blown up by +gunpowder, and he, with an attendant, was found dead in the garden: how +he was slain is not known. + +That Bothwell, in accordance with a band signed by himself, Huntly, +Argyll, and Lethington, and aided by some Border ruffians, laid and +exploded the powder is certain. Morton was apprised by Lethington and +Bothwell of the plot, but refused to join it without Mary's written +commission, which he did not obtain. Against the queen there is no +trustworthy direct evidence (if we distrust her alleged letters to +Bothwell), but her conduct in protecting and marrying Bothwell (who was +really in love with his wife) shows that she did not disapprove. The +trial of Bothwell was a farce; Mary's abduction by him (April 24) and +retreat with him to Dunbar was collusive. She married Bothwell on May +15. Her nobles, many of whom had signed a document urging her to marry +Bothwell, rose against her; on June 15, 1567, she surrendered to them at +Carberry Hill, while they, several of them deep in the murder plot, were +not sorry to let Bothwell escape to Dunbar. After some piratical +adventures, being pursued by Kirkcaldy he made his way to Denmark, where +he died a prisoner. + +Mary, first carried to Edinburgh and there insulted by the populace, was +next hurried to Lochleven Castle. Her alleged letters to Bothwell were +betrayed to the Lords (June 21), probably through Sir James Balfour, who +commanded in Edinburgh Castle. Perhaps Murray (who had left for France +before the marriage to Bothwell), perhaps fear of Elizabeth, or human +pity, induced her captors, contrary to the counsel of Lethington, to +spare her life, when she had signed her abdication, while they crowned +her infant son. Murray accepted the Regency; a Parliament in December +established the Kirk; acquitted themselves of rebellion; and announced +that they had proof of Mary's guilt in her own writing. Her romantic +escape from Lochleven (May 2, 1568) gave her but an hour of freedom. +Defeated on her march to Dumbarton Castle in the battle of Langside Hill, +she lost heart and fled to the coast of Galloway; on May 16 crossed the +Solway to Workington in Cumberland; and in a few days was Elizabeth's +prisoner in Carlisle Castle. + +Mary had hitherto been a convinced but not a very obedient daughter of +the Church; for example, it appears that she married Darnley before the +arrival of the Pope's dispensation. At this moment Philip of Spain, the +French envoy to Scotland, and the French Court had no faith in her +innocence of Darnley's death; and the Pope said "he knew not which of +these ladies were the better"--Mary or Elizabeth. But from this time, +while a captive in England, Mary was the centre of the hopes of English +Catholics: in miniatures she appears as queen, quartering the English +arms; she might further the ends of Spain, of France, of Rome, of English +rebels, while her existence was a nightmare to the Protestants of +Scotland and a peril to Elizabeth. + +After Mary's flight, Murray was, as has been said, Regent for the crowned +baby James. In his council were the sensual, brutal, but vigorous +Morton, with Mar, later himself Regent, a man of milder nature; +Glencairn; Ruthven, whom Mary detested--he had tried to make unwelcome +love to her at Lochleven; and "the necessary evil," Lethington. How a +man so wily became a party to the murder of Darnley cannot be known: now +he began to perceive that, if Mary were restored, as he believed that she +would be, his only safety lay in securing her gratitude by secret +services. + +On the other side were the Hamiltons with their ablest man, the +Archbishop; the Border spears who were loyal to Bothwell; and two of the +conspirators in the murder of Darnley, Argyll and Huntly; with Fleming +and Herries, who were much attached to Mary. The two parties, influenced +by Elizabeth, did not now come to blows, but awaited the results of +English inquiries into Mary's guilt, and of Elizabeth's consequent +action. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. MINORITY OF JAMES VI. + + +"Let none of them escape" was Elizabeth's message to the gaolers of Mary +and her companions at Carlisle. The unhappy queen prayed to see her in +whose hospitality she had confided, or to be allowed to depart free. +Elizabeth's policy was to lead her into consenting to reply to her +subjects' accusations, and Mary drifted into the shuffling English +inquiries at York in October, while she was lodged at Bolton Castle. +Murray, George Buchanan, Lethington (now distrusted by Murray), and +Morton produced, for Norfolk and other English Commissioners at York, +copies, at least, of the incriminating letters which horrified the Duke +of Norfolk. Yet, probably through the guile of Lethington, he changed +his mind, and became a suitor for Mary's hand. He bade her refuse +compromise, whereas compromise was Lethington's hope: a full and free +inquiry would reveal his own guilt in Darnley's murder. The inquiry was +shifted to London in December, Mary always being refused permission to +appear and speak for herself; nay, she was not allowed even to see the +letters which she was accused of having written. Her own Commissioners, +Lord Herries and Bishop Lesley, who (as Mary knew in Herries's case) had +no faith in her innocence, showed their want of confidence by proposing a +compromise; this was not admitted. Morton explained how he got the +silver casket with the fatal letters, poems to Bothwell, and other +papers; they were read in translations, English and Scots; handwritings +were compared, with no known result; evidence was heard, and Elizabeth, +at last, merely decided--that she could not admit Mary to her presence. +The English Lords agreed, "as the case does now stand," and presently +many of them were supporting Norfolk in his desire to marry the accused. +Murray was told (January 10, 1669) that he had proved nothing which could +make Elizabeth "take any evil opinion of the queen, her good sister," +nevertheless, Elizabeth would support him in his government of Scotland, +while declining to recognise James VI. as king. + +All compromises Mary now utterly refused: she would live and die a queen. +Henceforth the tangled intrigues cannot be disengaged in a work of this +scope. Elizabeth made various proposals to Mary, all involving her +resignation as queen, or at least the suspension of her rights. Mary +refused to listen; her party in Scotland, led by Chatelherault, Herries, +Huntly, and Argyll, did not venture to meet Murray and his party in war, +and was counselled by Lethington, who still, in semblance, was of +Murray's faction. Lethington was convinced that, sooner or later, Mary +would return; and he did not wish to incur "her _particular_ ill-will." +He knew that Mary, as she said, "had that in black and white which would +hang him" for the murder of Darnley. Now Lethington, Huntly, and Argyll +were daunted, without stroke of sword, by Murray, and a Convention to +discuss messages from Elizabeth and Mary met at Perth (July 25-28, 1569), +and refused to allow the annulment of her marriage with Bothwell, though +previously they had insisted on its annulment. Presently Lethington was +publicly accused of Darnley's murder by Crawford, a retainer of Lennox; +was imprisoned, but was released by Kirkcaldy, commander in Edinburgh +Castle, which henceforth became the fortress of Mary's cause. + +The secret of Norfolk's plan to marry the Scottish queen now reached +Elizabeth, making her more hostile to Mary; an insurrection in the North +broke out; the Earl of Northumberland was driven into Scotland, was +betrayed by Hecky Armstrong, and imprisoned at Loch Leven. Murray +offered to hand over Northumberland to Elizabeth in exchange for Mary, +her life to be guaranteed by hostages, but, on January 23, 1570, Murray +was shot by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh from a window of a house in +Linlithgow belonging to Archbishop Hamilton. The murderer escaped and +joined his clan. During his brief regency, Murray had practically +detached Huntly and Argyll from armed support of Mary's cause; he had +reduced the Border to temporary quiet by the free use of the gibbet; but +he had not ventured to face Lethington's friends and bring him to trial: +if he had, many others would have been compromised. Murray was sly and +avaricious, but, had he been legitimate, Scotland would have been well +governed under his vigour and caution. + + + +REGENCIES OF LENNOX, MAR, AND MORTON. + + +Randolph was now sent to Edinburgh to make peace between Mary's party and +her foes impossible. He succeeded; the parties took up arms, and Sussex +ravaged the Border in revenge of a raid by Buccleuch. On May 14, Lennox, +with an English force, was sent north: he devastated the Hamilton +country; was made Regent in July; and, in April 1571, had his revenge on +Archbishop Hamilton, who was taken at the capture, by Crawford, of +Dumbarton Castle, held by Lord Fleming, a post of vital moment to the +Marians; and was hanged at Stirling for complicity in the slaying of +Murray. George Buchanan, Mary's old tutor, took advantage of these facts +to publish quite a fresh account of Darnley's murder: the guilt of the +Hamiltons now made that of Bothwell almost invisible! + +Edinburgh Castle, under Kirkcaldy with Lethington, held out; Knox +reluctantly retired from Edinburgh to St Andrews, where he was unpopular; +but many of Mary's Lords deserted her, and though Lennox was shot +(September 4) in an attack by Buccleuch and Ker of Ferniehirst on +Stirling Castle, where he was holding a Parliament, he was succeeded by +Mar, who was inspired by Morton, a far stronger man. Presently the +discovery of a plot between Mary, Norfolk, the English Catholics, and +Spain, caused the Duke's execution, and more severe incarceration for +Mary. + +In Scotland there was no chance of peace. Morton and his associates +would not resign the lands of the Hamiltons, Lethington, and Kirkcaldy; +Lethington knew that no amnesty would cover his guilt (though he had been +nominally cleared) in the slaying of Darnley. One after the other of +Mary's adherents made their peace; but Kirkcaldy and Lethington, in +Edinburgh Castle, seemed safe while money and supplies held out. Knox +had prophesied that Kirkcaldy would be hanged, but did not live to see +his desire on his enemy, or on Mary, whom Elizabeth was about to hand +over to Mar for instant execution. Knox died on November 24, 1572; Mar, +the Regent, had predeceased him by a month, leaving Morton in power. On +May 28, 1573, the castle, attacked by guns and engineers from England, +and cut off from water, struck its flag. The brave Kirkcaldy was hanged; +Lethington, who had long been moribund, escaped by an opportune death. +The best soldier in Scotland and the most modern of her wits thus +perished together. Concerning Knox, the opinions of his contemporaries +differed. By his own account the leaders of his party deemed him "too +extreme," and David Hume finds his ferocious delight in chronicling the +murders of his foes "rather amusing," though sad! Quarrels of religion +apart, Knox was a very good-hearted man; but where religion was +concerned, his temper was remote from the Christian. He was a perfect +agitator; he knew no tolerance, he spared no violence of language, and in +diplomacy, when he diplomatised, he was no more scrupulous than another. +Admirably vigorous and personal as literature, his History needs constant +correction from documents. While to his secretary, Bannatyne, Knox +seemed "a man of God, the light of Scotland, the mirror of godliness"; +many silent, douce folk among whom he laboured probably agreed in the +allegation quoted by a diarist of the day, that Knox "had, as was +alleged, the most part of the blame of all the sorrows of Scotland since +the slaughter of the late Cardinal." + +In these years of violence, of "the Douglas wars" as they were called, +two new tendencies may be observed. In January 1572, Morton induced an +assembly of preachers at Leith to accept one of his clan, John Douglas, +as Archbishop of St Andrews: other bishops were appointed, called +_Tulchan_ bishops, from the _tulchan_ or effigy of a calf employed to +induce cows to yield their milk. The Church revenues were drawn through +these unapostolic prelates, and came into the hands of the State, or at +least of Morton. With these bishops, superintendents co-existed, but not +for long. "The horns of the mitre" already began to peer above +Presbyterian parity, and Morton is said to have remarked that there would +never be peace in Scotland till some preachers were hanged. In fact, +there never was peace between Kirk and State till a deplorable number of +preachers were hanged by the Governments of Charles II. and James II. + +A meeting of preachers in Edinburgh, after the Bartholomew massacre, in +the autumn of 1572, demanded that "it shall be lawful to all the subjects +in this realm to invade them and every one of them to the death." The +persons to be "invaded to the death" are recalcitrant Catholics, "grit or +small," persisting in remaining in Scotland. {137} + +The alarmed demands of the preachers were merely disregarded by the Privy +Council. The ruling nobles, as Bishop Lesley says, would never gratify +the preachers by carrying out the bloody penal Acts to their full extent +against Catholics. There was no expulsion of all Catholics who dared to +stay; no popular massacre of all who declined to go. While Morton was in +power he kept the preachers well in hand. He did worse: he starved the +ministers, and thrust into the best livings wanton young gentlemen, of +whom his kinsman, Archibald Douglas, an accomplice in Darnley's death and +a trebly-dyed traitor, was the worst. But in 1575, the great Andrew +Melville, an erudite scholar and a most determined person, began to +protest against the very name of bishop in the Kirk; and in Adamson, made +by Morton successor of John Douglas at St Andrews, Melville found a mark +and a victim. In economics, as an English diplomatist wrote to Cecil in +November 1572, the country, despite the civil war, was thriving; "the +noblemen's great credit decaying, . . . the ministry and religion +increaseth, and the desire in them to prevent the practice of the +Papists." The Englishman, in November, may refer to the petition for +persecution of October 20, 1572. + +The death of old Chatelherault now left the headship of the Hamiltons in +more resolute hands; Morton was confronted by opposition from Argyll, +Atholl, Buchan, and Mar; and Morton, in 1576-1577, made approaches to +Mary. When the young James VI. came to his majority Morton's enemies +would charge him with his guilty foreknowledge, through Both well, of +Darnley's murder, so he made advances to Mary in hope of an amnesty. She +suspected a trap and held aloof. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. REIGN OF JAMES VI. + + +On March 4, 1578, a strong band of nobles, led by Argyll, presented so +firm a front that Morton resigned the Regency; but in April 1578, a +Douglas plot, backed by Angus and Morton, secured for the Earl of Mar the +command of Stirling Castle and custody of the King; in June 1578, after +an appearance of civil war, Morton was as strong as ever. After dining +with him, in April 1579, Atholl, the main hope of Mary in Scotland, died +suddenly, and suspicion of poison fell on his host. But Morton's ensuing +success in expelling from Scotland the Hamilton leaders, Lord Claude and +Arbroath, brought down his own doom. With them Sir James Balfour, deep +in the secrets of Darnley's death, was exiled; he opened a correspondence +with Mary, and presently procured for her "a contented revenge" on +Morton. + +Two new characters in the long intrigue of vengeance now come on the +scene. Both were Stewarts, and as such were concerned in the feud +against the Hamiltons. The first was a cousin of Darnley, brought up in +France, namely Esme Stuart d'Aubigny, son of John, a brother of Lennox. +He had all the accomplishments likely to charm the boy king, now in his +fourteenth year. + +James had hitherto been sternly educated by George Buchanan, more mildly +by Peter Young. Buchanan and others had not quite succeeded in bringing +him to scorn and hate his mother; Lady Mar, who was very kind to him, had +exercised a gentler influence. The boy had read much, had hunted yet +more eagerly, and had learned dissimulation and distrust, so natural to a +child weak and ungainly in body and the conscious centre of the intrigues +of violent men. A favourite of his was James Stewart, son of Lord +Ochiltree, and brother-in-law of John Knox. Stewart was Captain of the +Guard, a man of learning, who had been in foreign service; he was skilled +in all bodily feats, was ambitious, reckless, and resolute, and no friend +of the preachers. The two Stewarts, d'Aubigny and the Captain, became +allies. + +In a Parliament at Edinburgh (November 1579) their foes, the chiefs of +the Hamiltons, were forfeited (they had been driven to seek shelter with +Elizabeth), while d'Aubigny got their lands and the key of Scotland, +Dumbarton Castle, on the estuary of Clyde. The Kirk, regarding +d'Aubigny, now Earl of Lennox, despite his Protestant professions, as a +Papist or an atheist, had little joy in Morton, who was denounced in a +printed placard as guilty in Darnley's murder: Sir James Balfour could +show his signature to the band to slay Darnley, signed by Huntly, +Bothwell, Argyll, and Lethington. This was not true. Balfour knew much, +was himself involved, but had not the band to show, or did not dare to +produce it. + +To strengthen himself, Lennox was reconciled to the Kirk; to help the +Hamiltons, Elizabeth sent Bowes to intrigue against Lennox, who was +conspiring in Mary's interest, or in that of the Guises, or in his own. +When Lennox succeeded in getting Dumbarton Castle, an open door for +France, into his power, Bowes was urged by Elizabeth to join with Morton +and "lay violent hands" on Lennox (August 31, 1580), but in a month +Elizabeth cancelled her orders. + +Bowes was recalled; Morton, to whom English aid had been promised, was +left to take his chances. Morton had warning from Lord Robert Stewart, +Mary's half-brother, to fly the country, for Sir James Balfour, with his +information, had landed. On December 31, 1580, Captain Stewart accused +Morton, in presence of the Council, of complicity in Darnley's murder. He +was put in ward; Elizabeth threatened war; the preachers stormed against +Lennox; a plot to murder him (a Douglas plot) and to seize James was +discovered; Randolph, who now represented Elizabeth, was fired at, and +fled to Berwick; James Stewart was created Earl of Arran. In March 1581 +the king and Lennox tried to propitiate the preachers by signing a +negative Covenant against Rome, later made into a precedent for the +famous Covenant of 1638. On June 1 Morton was tried for guilty +foreknowledge of Darnley's death. He was executed deservedly, and his +head was stuck on a spike of the Tolbooth. The death of this avaricious, +licentious, and resolute though unamiable Protestant was a heavy blow to +the preachers and their party, and a crook in the lot of Elizabeth. + + + +THE WAR OF KIRK AND KING. + + +The next twenty years were occupied with the strife of Kirk and King, +whence arose "all the cumber of Scotland" till 1689. The preachers, led +by the learned and turbulent Andrew Melville, had an ever-present terror +of a restoration of Catholicism, the creed of a number of the nobles and +of an unknown proportion of the people. The Reformation of 1559-1560 had +been met by no Catholic resistance; we might suppose that the enormous +majority of the people were Protestants, though the reverse has been +asserted. But whatever the theological preferences of the country may +have been, the justifiable fear of practical annexation by France had +overpowered all other considerations. By 1580 it does not seem that +there was any good reason for the Protestant nervousness, even if some +northern counties and northern and Border peers preferred Catholicism. +The king himself, a firm believer in his own theological learning and +acuteness, was thoroughly Protestant. + +But the preachers would scarcely allow him to remain a Protestant. Their +claims, as formulated by Andrew Melville, were inconsistent with the +right of the State to be mistress in her own house. In a General +Assembly at Glasgow (1581) Presbyteries were established; Episcopacy was +condemned; the Kirk claimed for herself a separate jurisdiction, +uninvadable by the State. Elizabeth, though for State reasons she +usually backed the Presbyterians against James, also warned him of "a +sect of dangerous consequence, which would have no king but a +presbytery." The Kirk, with her sword of excommunication, and with the +inspired violence of the political sermons and prayers, invaded the +secular authority whenever and wherever she pleased, and supported the +preachers in their claims to be tried first, when accused of treasonable +libels, in their own ecclesiastical courts. These were certain to acquit +them. + +James, if not pressed in this fashion, had no particular reason for +desiring Episcopal government of the Kirk, but being so pressed he saw no +refuge save in bishops. Meanwhile his chief advisers--d'Aubigny, now +Duke of Lennox, and James Stewart, the destroyer of Morton, now, to the +prejudice of the Hamiltons, Earl of Arran--were men whose private life, +at least in Arran's case, was scandalous. If Arran were a Protestant, he +was impatient of the rule of the pulpiteers; and Lennox was working, if +not sincerely in Mary's interests, certainly in his own and for those of +the Catholic House of Guise. At the same time he favoured the king's +Episcopal schemes, and, late in 1581, appointed a preacher named +Montgomery to the recently vacant Archbishopric of Glasgow, while he +himself, like Morton, drew most of the revenues. Hence arose tumults, +and, late in 1581 and in 1582, priestly and Jesuit emissaries went and +came, intriguing for a Catholic rising, to be supported by a large +foreign force which they had not the slightest chance of obtaining from +any quarter. Archbishop Montgomery was excommunicated by the Kirk, and +James, as we saw, had signed "A Negative Confession" (1581). + +In 1582 Elizabeth was backing the exiled Presbyterian Earl of Angus and +the Earl of Gowrie (Ruthven), while Lennox was contemplating a _coup +d'etat_ in Edinburgh (August 27). Gowrie, with the connivance of +England, struck the first blow. He, Mar, and their accomplices captured +James at Ruthven Castle, near Perth (August 23, "the Raid of Ruthven"), +with the approval of the General Assembly of the Kirk. It was a Douglas +plot managed by Angus and Elizabeth. James Stewart of the Guard (now +Earl of Arran) was made prisoner; Lennox fled the country. In October +1582, in a Parliament at Holyrood, the conspirators passed Acts +indemnifying themselves, and the General Assembly approved them. These +Acts were rescinded later, and James had learned for life his hatred of +the Presbyterians who had treacherously seized and insulted their king. +{144} + +In May 1583 Lennox died in Paris, leaving an heir. On June 27 James made +his escape, "a free king," to the castle of St Andrews: he proclaimed an +amnesty and feigned reconciliation with his captor, the Earl of Gowrie, +chief of the house so hateful to Mary--the Ruthvens. At the same time +James placed himself in friendly relations with his kinsfolk, the Guises, +the terror of Protestants. He had already been suspected, on account of +Lennox, as inclined to Rome: in fact, he was always a Protestant, but +baited on every side--by England, by the Kirk, by a faction of his +nobles: he intrigued for allies in every direction. + +The secret history of his intrigues has never been written. We find the +persecuted and astute lad either in communication with Rome, or +represented by shady adventurers as employing them to establish such +communications. At one time, as has been recently discovered, a young +man giving himself out as James's bastard brother (a son of Darnley +begotten in England) was professing to bear letters from James to the +Pope. He was arrested on the Continent, and James could not be brought +either to avow or disclaim his kinsman! + +A new Lennox, son of the last, was created a duke; a new Bothwell, +Francis Stewart (nephew of Mary's Bothwell), began to rival his uncle in +turbulence. Knowing that Anglo-Scottish plots to capture him again were +being woven daily by Angus and others, James, in February 1584, wrote a +friendly and compromising letter to the Pope. In April, Arran (James +Stewart) crushed a conspiracy by seizing Gowrie at Dundee, and then +routing a force with which Mar and Angus had entered Scotland. Gowrie, +confessing his guilt as a conspirator, was executed at Stirling (May 2, +1584), leaving, of course, his feud to his widow and son. The chief +preachers fled; Andrew Melville was already in exile, with several +others, in England. Melville, in February, had been charged with +preaching seditious sermons, had brandished a Hebrew Bible at the Privy +Council, had refused secular jurisdiction and appealed to a spiritual +court, by which he was certain to be acquitted. Henceforward, when +charged with uttering treasonable libels from the pulpit, the preachers +were wont to appeal, in the first instance, to a court of their own +cloth, and on this point James in the long-run triumphed over the Kirk. + +In a Parliament of May 18, 1584, such declinature of royal jurisdiction +was, by "The Black Acts," made treason: Episcopacy was established; the +heirs of Gowrie were disinherited; Angus, Mar, and other rebels were +forfeited. But such forfeitures never held long in Scotland. + +In August 1584 a new turn was given to James's policy by Arran, who was +Protestant, if anything, in belief, and hoped to win over Elizabeth, the +harbourer of all enemies of James. Arran's instrument was the beautiful +young Master of Gray, in France a Catholic, a partisan of Mary, and +leagued with the Guises. He was sent to persuade Elizabeth to banish +James's exiled rebels, but, like a Lethington on a smaller scale, he set +himself to obtain the restoration of these lords as against Arran, while +he gratified Elizabeth by betraying to her the secrets of Mary. This man +was the adoring friend of the flower of chivalry, Sir Philip Sidney! + +As against Arran the plot succeeded. Making Berwick, on English soil, +their base, in November 1585 the exiles, lay and secular, backed by +England, returned, captured James at Stirling, and drove Arran to lurk +about the country, till, many years after, Douglas of Parkhead met and +slew him, avenging Morton; and, when opportunity offered, Douglas was +himself slain by an avenging Stewart at the Cross of Edinburgh. The age +reeked with such blood feuds, of which the preachers could not cure their +fiery flocks. + +In December 1585 Parliament restored Gowrie's forfeited family to their +own (henceforth they were constantly conspiring against James), and the +exiled preachers returned to their manses and pulpits. But bishops were +not abolished, though the Kirk, through the Synod of Fife, excommunicated +the Archbishop of St Andrews, Adamson, who replied in kind. He was +charged with witchcraft, and in the long-run was dragged down and reduced +to poverty, being accused of dealings with witches--and hares! + +In July 1586 England and Scotland formed an alliance, and Elizabeth +promised to make James an allowance of 4000 pounds a-year. This, it may +be feared, was the blood-price of James's mother: from her son, and any +hope of aid from her son, Mary was now cut off. Walsingham laid the +snares into which she fell, deliberately providing for her means of +communication with Babington and his company, and deciphering and copying +the letters which passed through the channel which he had contrived. A +trifle of forgery was also done by his agent, Phelipps. Mary, knowing +herself deserted by her son, was determined, as James knew, to disinherit +him. For this reason, and for the 4000 pounds, he made no strong protest +against her trial. One of his agents in London--the wretched accomplice +in his father's murder, Archibald Douglas--was consenting to her +execution. James himself thought that strict imprisonment was the best +course; but the Presbyterian Angus declared that Mary "could not be +blamed if she had caused the Queen of England's throat to be cut for +detaining her so unjustly imprisoned." The natural man within us +entirely agrees with Angus! + +A mission was sent from Holyrood, including James's handsome new +favourite, the Master of Gray, with his cousin, Logan of Restalrig, who +sold the Master to Walsingham. The envoys were to beg for Mary's life. +The Master had previously betrayed her; but he was not wholly lost, and +in London he did his best, contrary to what is commonly stated, to secure +her life. He thus incurred the enmity of his former allies in the +English Court, and, as he had foreseen, he was ruined in Scotland--his +_previous_ letters, hostile to Mary, being betrayed by his aforesaid +cousin, Logan of Restalrig. + +On February 8, 1567, ended the lifelong tragedy of Mary Stuart. The +woman whom Elizabeth vainly moved Amyas Paulet to murder was publicly +decapitated at Fotheringay. James vowed that he would not accept from +Elizabeth "the price of his mother's blood." But despite the fury of his +nobles James sat still and took the money, at most some 4000 pounds +annually,--when he could get it. + +During the next fifteen years the reign of James, and his struggle for +freedom from the Kirk, was perturbed by a long series of intrigues of +which the details are too obscure and complex for presentation here. His +chief Minister was now John Maitland, a brother of Lethington, and as +versatile, unscrupulous, and intelligent as the rest of that House. +Maitland had actually been present, as Lethington's representative, at +the tragedy of the Kirk-o'-Field. He was Protestant, and favoured the +party of England. In the State the chief parties were the Presbyterian +nobles, the majority of the gentry or lairds, and the preachers on one +side; and the great Catholic families of Huntly, Morton (the title being +now held by a Maxwell), Errol, and Crawford on the other. Bothwell (a +sister's son of Mary's Bothwell) flitted meteor-like, more Catholic than +anything else, but always plotting to seize James's person; and in this +he was backed by the widow of Gowrie and the preachers, and encouraged by +Elizabeth. In her fear that James would join the Catholic nobles, whom +the preachers eternally urged him to persecute, Elizabeth smiled on the +Protestant plots--thereby, of course, fostering any inclination which +James may have felt to seek Catholic aid at home and abroad. The plots +of Mary were perpetually confused by intrigues of priestly emissaries, +who interfered with the schemes of Spain and mixed in the interests of +the Guises. + +A fact which proved to be of the highest importance was the passing, in +July 1587, of an Act by which much of the ecclesiastical property of the +ancient Church was attached to the Crown, to be employed in providing for +the maintenance of the clergy. But James used much of it in making +temporal lordships: for example, at the time of the mysterious Gowrie +Conspiracy (August 1600), we find that the Earl of Gowrie had obtained +the Church lands of the Abbey of Scone, which his brother, the Master of +Ruthven, desired. With the large revenues now at his disposal James +could buy the support of the baronage, who, after the execution in 1584 +of the Earl of Gowrie (the father of the Gowrie of the conspiracy of +1600), are not found leading and siding with the ministers in a resolute +way. By 1600 young Gowrie was the only hope of the preachers, and +probably James's ability to enrich the nobles helped to make them stand +aloof. Meanwhile, fears and hopes of the success of the Spanish Armada +held the minds of the Protestants and of the Catholic earls. "In this +world-wolter," as James said, no Scot moved for Spain except that Lord +Maxwell who had first received and then been deprived of the Earldom of +Morton. James advanced against him in Dumfriesshire and caused his +flight. As for the Armada, many ships drifted north round Scotland, and +one great vessel, blown up in Tobermory Bay by Lachlan Maclean of Duart, +still invites the attention of treasure-hunters (1911). + + + +THE CATHOLIC EARLS. + + +Early in 1589 Elizabeth became mistress of some letters which proved that +the Catholic earls, Huntly and Errol, were intriguing with Spain. The +offence was lightly passed over, but when the earls, with Crawford and +Montrose, drew to a head in the north, James, with much more than his +usual spirit, headed the army which advanced against them: they fled from +him near Aberdeen, surrendered, and were for a brief time imprisoned. As +nobody knows how Fortune's wheel may turn, and as James, hard pressed by +the preachers, could neglect no chance of support, he would never gratify +the Kirk by crushing the Catholic earls, by temperament he was no +persecutor. His calculated leniency caused him years of trouble. + +Meanwhile James, after issuing a grotesque proclamation about the causes +of his spirited resolve, sailed in October to woo a sea-king's daughter +over the foam, the Princess Anne of Denmark. After happy months passed, +he wrote, "in drinking and driving ower," he returned with his bride in +May 1590. + +The General Assembly then ordered prayers for the Puritans oppressed in +England; none the less Elizabeth, the oppressor, continued to patronise +the plots of the Puritans of Scotland. They now lent their approval to +the foe of James's minister, Maitland, namely, the wild Francis Stewart, +Earl of Bothwell, a sister's son of Mary's Bothwell. This young man had +the engaging quality of gay and absolute recklessness; he was dear to +ladies and the wild young gentry of Lothian and the Borders; he broke +prisons, released friends, dealt with wizards, aided by Lady Gowrie stole +into Holyrood, his ruling ambition being to capture the king. The +preachers prayed for "sanctified plagues" against James, and regarded +Bothwell favourably as a sanctified plague. + +A strange conspiracy within Clan Campbell, in which Huntly and Maitland +were implicated, now led to the murder, among others, of the bonny Earl +of Murray by Huntly in partnership with Maitland (February 1592). + +James was accused of having instigated this crime, from suspicion of +Murray as a partner in the wild enterprises of Bothwell, and was so hard +pressed by sermons that, in the early summer of 1592, he allowed the +Black Acts to be abrogated, and "the Charter of the liberties of the +Kirk" to be passed. One of these liberties was to persecute Catholics in +accordance with the penal Acts of 1560. The Kirk was almost an _imperium +in imperio_, but was still prohibited from appointing the time and place +of its own General Assemblies without Royal assent. This weak point in +their defences enabled James to vanquish them, but, in June, Bothwell +attacked him in the Palace of Falkland and put him in considerable peril. + +The end of 1592 and the opening of 1593 were remarkable for the discovery +of "The Spanish Blanks," papers addressed to Philip of Spain, signed by +Huntly, the new Earl of Angus, and Errol, to be filled up with an oral +message requesting military aid for Scottish Catholics. Such proceedings +make our historians hold up obtesting hands against the perfidy of +idolaters. But clearly, if Knox and the congregation were acting rightly +when they besought the aid of England against Mary of Guise, then Errol +and Huntly are not to blame for inviting Spain to free them from +persecution. Some inkling of the scheme had reached James, and a paper +in which he weighed the pros and cons is in existence. His suspected +understanding with the Catholic earls, whom he merely did not wish to +estrange hopelessly, was punished by a sanctified plague. On July 24, +1593, by aid of the late Earl Gowrie's daughter, Bothwell entered +Holyrood, seized the king, extorted his own terms, went and amazed the +Dean of Durham by his narrative of the adventure, and seemed to have the +connivance of Elizabeth. But in September James found himself in a +position to repudiate his forced engagement. Bothwell now allied himself +with the Catholic earls, and, as a Catholic, had no longer the prayers of +the preachers. James ordered levies to attack the earls, while Argyll +led his clan and the Macleans against Huntly, only to be defeated by the +Gordon horse at the battle of Glenrinnes (October 3). Huntly and his +allies, however, dared not encounter King James and Andrew Melville, who +marched together against them, and they were obliged to fly to the +Continent. Bothwell, with his retainer, Colville, continued, with +Cecil's connivance, to make desperate plots for seizing James; indeed, +Cecil was intriguing with them and other desperadoes even after 1600. +Throughout all the Tudor period, from Henry VII. to 1601, England was +engaged in a series of conspiracies against the persons of the princes of +Scotland. The Catholics of the south of Scotland now lost Lord Maxwell, +slain by a "Lockerby Lick" in a great clan battle with the Johnstones at +Dryfe Sands. + +In 1595, James's minister, John Maitland, brother of Lethington, died, +and early in 1596 an organisation called "the Octavians" was made to +regulate the distracted finance of the country. On April 13, 1596, +Walter Scott of Buccleuch made himself an everlasting name by the +bloodless rescue of Kinmont Willie, an Armstrong reiver, from the Castle +of Carlisle, where he was illegally held by Lord Scrope. The period was +notable for the endless raids by the clans on both sides of the Border, +celebrated in ballads. + +James had determined to recall the exiled Catholic earls, undeterred by +the eloquence of "the last of all our sincere Assemblies," held with deep +emotion in March 1596. The earls came home; in September at Falkland +Palace Andrew Melville seized James by the sleeve, called him "God's +silly vassal," and warned him that Christ and his Kirk were the king's +overlords. Soon afterwards Mr David Black of St Andrews spoke against +Elizabeth in a sermon which caused diplomatic remonstrances. Black would +be tried, in the first instance, only by a Spiritual Court of his +brethren. There was a long struggle, the ministers appointed a kind of +standing Committee of Safety; James issued a proclamation dissolving it, +and, on December 17, inflammatory sermons led a deputation to try to +visit James, who was with the Lords of Session in the Tolbooth. Whether +under an alarm of a Popish plot or not, the crowd became so fierce and +menacing that the great Lachlan Maclean of Duart rode to Stirling to +bring up Argyll in the king's defence with such forces as he could +muster. The king retired to Linlithgow; the Rev. Mr Bruce, a famous +preacher credited with powers of prophecy, in vain appealed to the Duke +of Hamilton to lead the godly. By threatening to withdraw the Court and +Courts of Justice from Edinburgh James brought the citizens to their +knees, and was able to take order with the preachers. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. THE GOWRIE CONSPIRACY. + + +James, in reducing the Kirk, relied as much on his cunning and +"kingcraft" as on his prerogative. He summoned a Convention of preachers +and of the Estates to Perth at the end of February 1597, and thither he +brought many ministers from the north, men unlike the zealots of Lothian +and the Lowlands. He persuaded them to vote themselves a General +Assembly; and they admitted his right to propose modifications in Church +government, to forbid unusual convocations (as in Edinburgh during the +autumn of 1596); they were not to preach against Acts of Parliament or of +Council, nor appoint preachers in the great towns without the Royal +assent, and were not to attack individuals from the pulpit. An attempt +was to be made to convert the Catholic lords. A General Assembly at +Dundee in May ratified these decisions, to the wrath of Andrew Melville, +and the Catholic earls were more or less reconciled to the Kirk, which at +this period had not one supporter among the nobility. James had made +large grants of Church lands among the noblesse, and they abstained from +their wonted conspiracies for a while. The king occupied himself much in +encouraging the persecution of witches, but even that did not endear him +to the preachers. + +In the Assembly of March 1598 certain ministers were allowed to sit and +vote in Parliament. In 1598-1599 a privately printed book by James, the +'Basilicon Doron,' came to the knowledge of the clergy: it revealed his +opinions on the right of kings to rule the Church, and on the tendency of +the preachers to introduce a democracy "with themselves as Tribunes of +the People," a very fair definition of their policy. It was to stop them +that he gradually introduced a bastard kind of bishops, police to keep +the pulpiteers in order. They were refusing, in face of the king's +licence, to permit a company of English players to act in Edinburgh, for +they took various powers into their hands. + +Meanwhile James's relations with England, where Elizabeth saw with dismay +his victory over her allies, his clergy, were unfriendly. Plots were +encouraged against him, but it is not probable that England was aware of +the famous and mysterious conspiracy of the young Earl of Gowrie, who was +warmly welcomed by Elizabeth on his return from Padua, by way of Paris. +He had been summoned by Bruce, James's chief clerical adversary, and the +Kirk had high hopes of the son of the man of the Raid of Ruthven. He led +the opposition to taxation for national defence in a convention of June- +July 1600. On August 5, in his own house at Perth, where James, summoned +thither by Gowrie's younger brother, had dined with him, Gowrie and his +brother were slain by John Ramsay, a page to the king. + +This affair was mysterious. The preachers, and especially Bruce, refused +to accept James's own account of the events, at first, and this was not +surprising. Gowrie was their one hope among the peers, and the story +which James told is so strange that nothing could be stranger or less +credible except the various and manifestly mendacious versions of the +Gowrie party. {156} + +James's version of the occurrences must be as much as possible condensed, +and there is no room for the corroborating evidence of Lennox and others. +As the king was leaving Falkland to hunt a buck early on August 5, the +Master of Ruthven, who had ridden over from his brother's house in Perth, +accosted him. The Master declared that he had on the previous evening +arrested a man carrying a pot of gold; had said nothing to Gowrie; had +locked up the man and his gold in a room, and now wished James to come +instantly and examine the fellow. The king's curiosity and cupidity were +less powerful than his love of sport: he would first kill his buck. +During the chase James told the story to Lennox, who corroborated. +Ruthven sent a companion to inform his brother; none the less, when the +king, with a considerable following, did appear at Gowrie's house, no +preparation for his reception had been made. + +The Master was now in a quandary: he had no prisoner and no pot of gold. +During dinner Gowrie was very nervous; after it James and the Master +slipped upstairs together while Gowrie took the gentlemen into the garden +to eat cherries. Ruthven finally led James into a turret off the long +gallery; he locked the door, and pointing to a man in armour with a +dagger, said that he "had the king at his will." The man, however, fell +a-trembling, James made a speech, and the Master went to seek Gowrie, +locking the door behind him. At or about this moment, as was fully +attested, Cranstoun, a retainer of Gowrie, reported to him and the +gentlemen that the king had ridden away. They all rushed to the gate, +where the porter, to whom Gowrie gave the lie, swore that the king had +not left the place. The gentlemen going to the stables passed under the +turret-window, whence appeared the king, red in the face, bellowing +"treason!" The gentlemen, with Lennox, rushed upstairs, and through the +gallery, but could not force open the door giving on the turret. But +young Ramsay had run up a narrow stair in the tower, burst open the +turret-door opening on the stair, found James struggling with the Master, +wounded the Master, and pushed him downstairs. In the confusion, while +the king's falcon flew wildly about the turret till James set his foot on +its chain, the man with the dagger vanished. The Master was slain by two +of James's attendants; the Earl, rushing with four or five men up the +turret-stair, fell in fight by Ramsay's rapier. + +Lennox and his company now broke through the door between the gallery and +the turret, and all was over except a riotous assemblage of the town's +folk. The man with the dagger had fled: he later came in and gave +himself up; he was Gowrie's steward; his name was Henderson; it was he +who rode with the Master to Falkland and back to Perth to warn Gowrie of +James's approach. He confessed that Gowrie had then bidden him put on +armour, on a false pretence, and the Master had stationed him in the +turret. The fact that Henderson had arrived (from Falkland) at Gowrie's +house by half-past ten was amply proved, yet Gowrie had made no +preparations for the royal visit. If Henderson was not the man in the +turret, his sudden and secret flight from Perth is unexplained. Moreover, +Robert Oliphant, M.A., said, in private talk, that the part of the man in +the turret had, some time earlier, been offered to him by Gowrie; he +refused and left the Earl's service. It is manifest that James could not +have arranged this set of circumstances: the thing is impossible. +Therefore the two Ruthvens plotted to get him into their hands early in +the day; and, when he arrived late, with a considerable train, they +endeavoured to send these gentlemen after the king, by averring that he +had ridden homewards. The dead Ruthvens with their house were forfeited. + +Among the preachers who refused publicly to accept James's account of the +events in Gowrie's house on August 5, Mr Bruce was the most eminent and +the most obstinate. He had, on the day after the famous riot of December +1596, written to Hamilton asking him to countenance, as a chief nobleman, +"the godly barons and others who had convened themselves," at that time, +in the cause of the Kirk. Bruce admitted that he knew Hamilton to be +ambitious, but Hamilton's ambition did not induce him to appear as +captain of a new congregation. The chief need of the ministers' party +was a leader among the great nobles. Now, in 1593, the young Earl of +Gowrie had leagued himself with the madcap Bothwell. In April 1594, +Gowrie, Bothwell, and Atholl had addressed the Kirk, asking her to favour +and direct their enterprise. Bothwell made an armed demonstration and +failed; Gowrie then went abroad, to Padua and Rome, and, apparently in +1600, Mr Bruce sailed to France, "for the calling," he says, "of the +Master of Gowrie"--he clearly means "the Earl of Gowrie." The Earl came, +wove his plot, and perished. Mr Bruce, therefore, was averse to +accepting James's account of the affair at Gowrie House. After a long +series of negotiations Bruce was exiled north of Tay. + + + +UNION OF THE CROWNS. + + +In 1600 James imposed three bishops on the Kirk. Early in 1601 broke out +Essex's rebellion of one day against Elizabeth, a futile attempt to +imitate Scottish methods as exhibited in the many raids against James. +Essex had been intriguing with the Scottish king, but to what extent +James knew of and encouraged his enterprise is unknown. He was on ill +terms with Cecil, who, in 1601, was dealing with several men that +intended no good to James. Cecil is said to have received a sufficient +warning as to how James, on ascending the English throne, would treat +him; and he came to terms, secretly, with Mar and Kinloss, the king's +envoys to Elizabeth. Their correspondence is extant, and proves that +Cecil, at last, was "running the Scottish course," and making smooth the +way for James's accession. (The correspondence begins in June 1601.) + +Very early on Thursday, March 24, 1603, Elizabeth went to her account, +and James received the news from Sir Robert Carey, who reached Holyrood +on the Saturday night, March 26. James entered London on May 6, and +England was free from the fear of many years concerning a war for the +succession. The Catholics hoped for lenient usage: disappointment led +some desperate men to engage in the Gunpowder Plot. James was not more +satisfactory to the Puritans. + +Encouraged by the fulsome adulation which grew up under the Tudor +dynasty, and free from dread of personal danger, James henceforth +governed Scotland "with the pen," as he said, through the Privy Council. +This method of ruling the ancient kingdom endured till the Union of 1707, +and was fraught with many dangers. The king was no longer in touch with +his subjects. His best action was the establishment of a small force of +mounted constabulary which did more to put down the eternal homicides, +robberies, and family feuds than all the sermons could achieve. + +The persons most notable in the Privy Council were Seton (later Lord +Dunfermline), Hume, created Earl of Dunbar, and the king's advocate, +Thomas Hamilton, later Earl of Haddington. Bishops, with Spottiswoode, +the historian, Archbishop of Glasgow, sat in the Privy Council, and their +progressive elevation, as hateful to the nobles as to the Kirk, was among +the causes of the civil war under Charles I. By craft and by illegal +measures James continued to depress the Kirk. A General Assembly, +proclaimed by James for July 1604 in Aberdeen, was prorogued; again, +unconstitutionally, it was prorogued in July 1605. Nineteen ministers, +disobeying a royal order, appeared and constituted the Assembly. Joined +by ten others, they kept open the right of way. James insisted that the +Council should prosecute them: they, by fixing a new date for an +Assembly, without royal consent; and James, by letting years pass without +an Assembly, broke the charter of the Kirk of 1592. + +The preachers, when summoned to the trial, declined the jurisdiction. +This was violently construed as treason, and a jury, threatened by the +legal officers with secular, and by the preachers with future spiritual +punishment, by a small majority condemned some of the ministers (January +1606). This roused the wrath of all classes. James wished for more +prosecutions; the Council, in terror, prevailed on him to desist. He +continued to grant no Assemblies till 1608, and would not allow "caveats" +(limiting the powers of Bishops) to be enforced. He summoned (1606) the +two Melvilles, Andrew and his nephew James, to London, where Andrew +bullied in his own violent style, and was, quite illegally, first +imprisoned and then banished to France. + +In December 1606 a convention of preachers was persuaded to allow the +appointment of "constant Moderators" to keep the presbyteries in order; +and then James recognised the convention as a General Assembly. Suspected +ministers were confined to their parishes or locked up in Blackness +Castle. In 1608 a General Assembly was permitted the pleasure of +excommunicating Huntly. In 1610 an Assembly established Episcopacy, and +no excommunications not ratified by the Bishop were allowed: the only +comfort of the godly was the violent persecution of Catholics, who were +nosed out by the "constant Moderators," excommunicated if they refused to +conform, confiscated, and banished. + +James could succeed in these measures, but his plan for uniting the two +kingdoms into one, Great Britain, though supported by the wisdom and +eloquence of Bacon, was frustrated by the jealousies of both peoples. +Persons born after James's accession (the _post nati_) were, however, +admitted to equal privileges in either kingdom (1608). In 1610 James had +two of his bishops, and Spottiswoode, consecrated by three English +bishops, but he did not yet venture to interfere with the forms of +Presbyterian public worship. + +In 1610 James established two Courts of High Commission (in 1615 united +in one Court) to try offences in morals and religion. The Archbishops +presided, laity and clergy formed the body of the Court, and it was +regarded as vexatious and tyrannical. The same terms, to be sure, would +now be applied to the interference of preachers and presbyteries with +private life and opinion. By 1612 the king had established Episcopacy, +which, for one reason or another, became equally hateful to the nobles, +the gentry, and the populace. James's motives were motives of police. +Long experience had taught him the inconveniences of presbyterial +government as it then existed in Scotland. + +To a Church organised in the presbyterian manner, as it has been +practised since 1689, James had, originally at least, no objection. But +the combination of "presbyterian Hildebrandism" with factions of the +turbulent _noblesse_; the alliance of the Power of the Keys with the +sword and lance, was inconsistent with the freedom of the State and of +the individual. "The absolutism of James," says Professor Hume Brown, +"was forced upon him in large degree by the excessive claims of the +Presbyterian clergy." + +Meanwhile the thievish Border clans, especially the Armstrongs, were +assailed by hangings and banishments, and Ulster was planted by Scottish +settlers, willing or reluctant, attracted by promise of lands, or planted +out, that they might not give trouble on the Border. + +Persecution of Catholics was violent, and in spring 1615 Father Ogilvie +was hanged after very cruel treatment directed by Archbishop +Spottiswoode. In this year the two ecclesiastical Courts of High +Commission were fused into one, and an Assembly was coerced into passing +what James called "Hotch-potch resolutions" about changes in public +worship. James wanted greater changes, but deferred them till he visited +Scotland in 1617, when he was attended by the luckless figure of Laud, +who went to a funeral--in a surplice! James had many personal bickerings +with preachers, but his five main points, "The Articles of Perth" (of +these the most detested were: (1) Communicants must kneel, not sit, at +the Communion; (4) Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost must be observed; and +(5) Confirmation must be introduced), were accepted by an Assembly in +1618. They could not be enforced, but were sanctioned by Parliament in +1621. The day was called Black Saturday, and omens were drawn by both +parties from a thunderstorm which occurred at the time of the +ratification of the Articles of Perth by Parliament in Edinburgh (August +4, 1621). + +By enforcing these Articles James passed the limit of his subjects' +endurance. In their opinion, as in Knox's, to kneel at the celebration +of the Holy Communion was an act of idolatry, was "Baal worship," and no +pressure could compel them to kneel. The three great festivals of the +Christian Church, whether Roman, Genevan, or Lutheran, had no certain +warrant in Holy Scripture, but were rather repugnant to the Word of God. +The king did not live to see the bloodshed and misery caused by his +reckless assault on the liberties and consciences of his subjects; he +died on March 27, 1625, just before the Easter season in which it was +intended to enforce his decrees. + +The ungainliness of James's person, his lack of courage on certain +occasions (he was by no means a constant coward), and the feebleness of +his limbs might be attributed to pre-natal influences; he was injured +before he was born by the sufferings of his mother at the time of +Riccio's murder. His deep dissimulation he learnt in his bitter +childhood and harassed youth. His ingenious mind was trained to +pedantry; he did nothing worse, and nothing more congenial to the cruel +superstitions of his age, than in his encouragement of witch trials and +witch burnings promoted by the Scottish clergy down to the early part of +the eighteenth century. + +His plantation of Ulster by Scottish settlers has greatly affected +history down to our own times, while the most permanent result of the +awards by which he stimulated the colonisation of Nova Scotia has been +the creation of hereditary knighthoods or baronetcies. + +His encouragement of learning left its mark in the foundation of the +Town's College of Edinburgh, on the site of Kirk-o'-Field, the scene of +his father's murder. + +The south-western Highlands, from Lochaber to Islay and Cantyre, were, in +his reign, the scene of constant clan feuds and repressions, resulting in +the fall of the Macdonalds, and the rise of the Campbell chief, Argyll, +to the perilous power later wielded by the Marquis against Charles I. +Many of the sons of the dispossessed Macdonalds, driven into Ireland, +were to constitute the nucleus of the army of Montrose. In the Orkneys +and Shetlands the constant turbulence of Earl Patrick and his family +ended in the annexation of the islands to the Crown (1612), and the +Earl's execution (1615). + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. CHARLES I. + + +The reign of Charles I. opened with every sign of the tempests which were +to follow. England and Scotland were both seething with religious fears +and hatreds. Both parties in England, Puritans and Anglicans, could be +satisfied with nothing less than complete domination. In England the +extreme Puritans, with their yearning after the Genevan presbyterian +discipline, had been threatening civil war even under Elizabeth. James +had treated them with a high hand and a proud heart. Under Charles, +wedded to a "Jezebel," a Catholic wife, Henrietta Maria, the Puritan +hatred of such prelates as Laud expressed itself in threats of murder; +while heavy fines and cruel mutilations were inflicted by the party in +power. The Protestant panic, the fear of a violent restoration of +Catholicism in Scotland, never slumbered. In Scotland Catholics were at +this time bitterly persecuted, and believed that a presbyterian general +massacre of them all was being organised. By the people the Anglican +bishops and the prayer-book were as much detested as priests and the +Mass. When Charles placed six prelates on his Privy Council, and +recognised the Archbishop of St Andrews, Spottiswoode, as first in +precedence among his subjects, the nobles were angry and jealous. Charles +would not do away with the infatuated Articles of Perth. James, as he +used to say, had "governed Scotland by the pen" through his Privy +Council. Charles knew much less than James of the temper of the Scots, +among whom he had never come since his infancy, and _his_ Privy Council +with six bishops was apt to be even more than commonly subservient. + +In Scotland as in England the expenses of national defence were a cause +of anger; and the mismanagement of military affairs by the king's +favourite, Buckingham, increased the irritation. It was brought to a +head in Scotland by the "Act of Revocation," under which all Church lands +and Crown lands bestowed since 1542 were to be restored to the Crown. +This Act once more united in opposition the nobles and the preachers; +since 1596 they had not been in harmony. In 1587, as we saw, James VI. +had annexed much of the old ecclesiastical property to the Crown; but he +had granted most of it to nobles and barons as "temporal lordships." Now, +by Charles, the temporal lords who held such lands were menaced, the +judges ("Lords of Session") who would have defended their interests were +removed from the Privy Council (March 1626), and, in August, the temporal +lords remonstrated with the king through deputations. + +In fact, they took little harm--redeeming their holdings at the rate of +ten years' purchase. The main result was that landowners were empowered +to buy the tithes on their own lands from the multitude of "titulars of +tithes" (1629) who had rapaciously and oppressively extorted these tenths +of the harvest every year. The ministers had a safe provision at last, +secured on the tithes, in Scotland styled "teinds," but this did not +reconcile most of them to bishops and to the Articles of Perth. Several +of the bishops were, in fact, "latitudinarian" or "Arminian" in doctrine, +wanderers from the severity of Knox and Calvin. With them began, +perhaps, the "Moderatism" which later invaded the Kirk; though their +ideal slumbered during the civil war, to awaken again, with the teaching +of Archbishop Leighton, under the Restoration. Meanwhile the nobles and +gentry had been alarmed and mulcted, and were ready to join hands with +the Kirk in its day of resistance. + +In June 1633 Charles at last visited his ancient kingdom, accompanied by +Laud. His subjects were alarmed and horrified by the sight of prelates +in lawn sleeves, candles in chapel, and even a tapestry showing the +crucifixion. To this the bishops are said to have bowed,--plain +idolatry. In the Parliament of June 18 the eight representatives of each +Estate, who were practically all-powerful as Lords of the Articles, were +chosen, not from each Estate by its own members, but on a method +instituted, or rather revived, by James VI. in 1609. The nobles made the +choice from the bishops, the bishops from the nobles, and the elected +sixteen from the barons and burghers. The twenty-four were all thus +episcopally minded: they drew up the bills, and the bills were voted on +without debate. The grant of supply made in these circumstances was +liberal, and James's ecclesiastical legislation, including the sanction +of the "rags of Rome" worn by the bishops, was ratified. Remonstrances +from the ministers of the old Kirk party were disregarded; and--the thin +end of the wedge--the English Liturgy was introduced in the Royal Chapel +of Holyrood and in that of St Salvator's College, St Andrews, where it +has been read once, on a funeral occasion, in recent years. + +In 1634-35, on the information of Archbishop Spottiswoode, Lord Balmerino +was tried for treason because he possessed a supplication or petition +which the Lords of the minority, in the late Parliament, had drawn up but +had not presented. He was found guilty, but spared: the proceeding +showed of what nature the bishops were, and alienated and alarmed the +populace and the nobles and gentry. A remonstrance in a manly spirit by +Drummond of Hawthornden, the poet, was disregarded. + +In 1635 Charles authorised a Book of Canons, heralding the imposition of +a Liturgy, which scarcely varied, and when it varied was thought to +differ for the worse, from that of the Church of England. By these +canons, the most nakedly despotic of innovations, the preachers could not +use their sword of excommunication without the assent of the Bishops. +James VI. had ever regarded with horror and dread the licence of +"conceived prayers," spoken by the minister, and believed to be +extemporary or directly inspired. There is an old story that one +minister prayed that James might break his leg: certainly prayers for +"sanctified plagues" on that prince were publicly offered, at the will of +the minister. Even a very firm Presbyterian, the Laird of Brodie, when +he had once heard the Anglican service in London, confided to his journal +that he had suffered much from the nonsense of "conceived prayers." They +were a dangerous weapon, in Charles's opinion: he was determined to +abolish them, rather that he might be free from the agitation of the +pulpit than for reasons of ritual, and to proclaim his own headship of +the Kirk of "King Christ." + +This, in the opinion of the great majority of the preachers and populace, +was flat blasphemy, an assumption of "the Crown Honours of Christ." The +Liturgy was "an ill-mumbled Mass," the Mass was idolatry, and idolatry +was a capital offence. However strange these convictions may appear, +they were essential parts of the national belief. Yet, with the most +extreme folly, Charles, acting like Henry VIII. as his own Pope, thrust +the canons and this Liturgy upon the Kirk and country. No sentimental +arguments can palliate such open tyranny. + +The Liturgy was to be used in St Giles' Church, the town kirk of +Edinburgh (cleansed and restored by Charles himself), on July 23, 1637. +The result was a furious brawl, begun by the women, of all presbyterians +the fiercest, and, it was said, by men disguised as women. A gentleman +was struck on the ear by a woman for the offence of saying "Amen," and +the famous Jenny Geddes is traditionally reported to have thrown her +stool at the Dean's head. The service was interrupted, the Bishop was +the mark of stones, and "the Bishops' War," the Civil War, began in this +brawl. James VI., being on the spot, had thoroughly quieted Edinburgh +after a more serious riot, on December 17, 1596. But Charles was far +away; the city had not to fear the loss of the Court and its custom, as +on the earlier occasion (the removal of the Council to Linlithgow in +October 1637 was a trifle), and the Council had to face a storm of +petitions from all classes of the community. Their prayer was that the +Liturgy should be withdrawn. From the country, multitudes of all classes +flocked into Edinburgh and formed themselves into a committee of public +safety, "The Four Tables," containing sixteen persons. + +The Tables now demanded the removal of the bishops from the Privy Council +(December 21, 1637). The question was: Who were to govern the country, +the Council or the Tables? The logic of the Presbyterians was not always +consistent. The king must not force the Liturgy on them, but later, +their quarrel with him was that he would not, at their desire, force the +absence of the Liturgy on England. If the king had the right to inflict +Presbyterianism on England, he had the right to thrust the Liturgy on +Scotland: of course he had neither one right nor the other. On February +19, 1638, Charles's proclamation, refusing the prayers of the +supplication of December, was read at Stirling. Nobles and people +replied with protestations to every royal proclamation. Foremost on the +popular side was the young Earl of Montrose: "you will not rest," said +Rothes, a more sober leader, "till you be lifted up above the lave in +three fathoms of rope." Rothes was a true prophet; but Montrose did not +die for the cause that did "his green unknowing youth engage." + +The Presbyterians now desired yearly General Assemblies (of which James +VI. had unlawfully robbed the Kirk); the enforcement of an old +brief-lived system of restrictions (_caveats_) on the bishops; the +abolition of the Articles of Perth; and, as always, of the Liturgy. If +he granted all this Charles might have had trouble with the preachers, as +James VI. had of old. Yet the demands were constitutional; and in +Charles's position he would have done well to assent. He was obstinate +in refusal. + +The Scots now "fell upon the consideration of a band of union to be made +legally," says Rothes, their leader, the chief of the House of Leslie +(the family of Norman Leslie, the slayer of Cardinal Beaton). Now a +"band" of this kind could not, by old Scots law, be legally made; such +bands, like those for the murder of Riccio and of Darnley, and for many +other enterprises, were not smiled upon by the law. But, in 1581, as we +saw, James VI. had signed a covenant against popery; its tenor was +imitated in that of 1638, and there was added "a general band for the +maintenance of true religion" (Presbyterianism) "_and of the King's +person_." That part of the band was scarcely kept when the Covenanting +army surrendered Charles to the English. They had vowed, in their band, +to "stand to the defence of our dread Sovereign the King's Majesty, his +person and authority." They kept this vow by hanging men who held the +king's commission. The words as to defending the king's authority were +followed by "in the defence and preservation of the aforesaid true +religion." This appears to mean that only a presbyterian king is to be +defended. In any case the preachers assumed the right to interpret the +Covenant, which finally led to the conquest of Scotland by Cromwell. As +the Covenant was made between God and the Covenanters, on ancient Hebrew +precedent it was declared to be binding on all succeeding generations. +Had Scotland resisted tyranny without this would-be biblical pettifogging +Covenant, her condition would have been the more gracious. The signing +of the band began at Edinburgh in Greyfriars' Churchyard on February 28, +1638. + +This Covenant was a most potent instrument for the day, but the fruits +thereof were blood and tears and desolation: for fifty-one years common- +sense did not come to her own again. In 1689 the Covenant was silently +dropped, when the Kirk was restored. + +This two-edged insatiable sword was drawn: great multitudes signed with +enthusiasm, and they who would not sign were, of course, persecuted. As +they said, "it looked not like a thing approved of God, which was begun +and carried on with fury and madness, and obtruded on people with +threatenings, tearing of clothes, and drawing of blood." Resistance to +the king--if need were, armed resistance--was necessary, was laudable, +but the terms of the Covenant were, in the highest degree impolitic and +unstatesmanlike. The country was handed over to the preachers; the +Scots, as their great leader Argyll was to discover, were "distracted men +in distracted times." + +Charles wavered and sent down the Marquis of Hamilton to represent his +waverings. The Marquis was as unsettled as his predecessor, Arran, in +the minority of Queen Mary. He dared not promulgate the proclamations; +he dared not risk civil war; he knew that Charles, who said he was ready, +was unprepared in his mutinous English kingdom. He granted, at last, a +General Assembly and a free Parliament, and produced another Covenant, +"the King's Covenant," which of course failed to thwart that of the +country. + +The Assembly, at Glasgow (November 21, 1638), including noblemen and +gentlemen as elders, was necessarily revolutionary, and needlessly +riotous and profane. It arraigned and condemned the bishops in their +absence. Hamilton, as Royal Commissioner, dissolved the Assembly, which +continued to sit. The meeting was in the Cathedral, where, says a +sincere Covenanter, Baillie, whose letters are a valuable source, "our +rascals, without shame, in great numbers, made din and clamour." All the +unconstitutional ecclesiastical legislation of the last forty years was +rescinded,--as all the new presbyterian legislation was to be rescinded +at the Restoration. Some bishops were excommunicated, the rest were +deposed. The press was put under the censorship of the fanatical lawyer, +Johnston of Waristoun, clerk of the Assembly. + +On December 20 the Assembly, which sat on after Hamilton dissolved it, +broke up. Among the Covenanters were to be reckoned the Earl of Argyll +(later the only Marquis of his House), and the Earl, later Marquis, of +Montrose. They did not stand long together. The Scottish Revolution +produced no man at once great and successful, but, in Montrose, it had +one man of genius who gave his life for honour's sake; in Argyll, an +astute man, not physically courageous, whose "timidity in the field was +equalled by his timidity in the Council," says Mr Gardiner. + +In spring (1639) war began. Charles was to move in force on the Border; +the fleet was to watch the coasts; Hamilton, with some 5000 men, was to +join hands with Huntly (both men were wavering and incompetent); Antrim, +from north Ireland, was to attack and contain Argyll; Ruthven was to hold +Edinburgh Castle. But Alexander Leslie took that castle for the +Covenanters; they took Dumbarton; they fortified Leith; Argyll ravaged +Huntly's lands; Montrose and Leslie occupied Aberdeen; and their party, +in circumstances supposed to be discreditable to Montrose, carried Huntly +to Edinburgh. (The evidence is confused. Was Huntly unwilling to go? +Charles (York, April 23, 1639) calls him "feeble and false." Mr Gardiner +says that, in this case, and in this alone, Montrose stooped to a mean +action.) Hamilton merely dawdled and did nothing: Montrose had entered +Aberdeen (June 19), and then came news of negotiations between the king +and the Covenanters. + +As Charles approached from the south, Alexander Leslie, a Continental +veteran (very many of the Covenant's officers were Dugald Dalgettys from +the foreign wars), occupied Dunse Law, with a numerous army in great +difficulties as to supplies. "A natural mind might despair," wrote +Waristoun, who "was brought low before God indeed." Leslie was in a +strait; but, on the other side, so was Charles, for a reconnaissance of +Leslie's position was repulsed; the king lacked money and supplies; +neither side was of a high fighting heart; and offers to negotiate came +from the king, informally. The Scots sent in "a supplication," and on +June 18 signed a treaty which was a mere futile truce. There were to be +a new Assembly, and a new Parliament in August and September. + +Charles should have fought: if he fell he would fall with honour; and if +he survived defeat "all England behoved to have risen in revenge," says +the Covenanting letter-writer, Baillie, later Principal of Glasgow +University. The Covenanters at this time could not have invaded England, +could not have supported themselves if they did, and were far from being +harmonious among themselves. The defeat of Charles at this moment would +have aroused English pride and united the country. Charles set out from +Berwick for London on July 29, leaving many fresh causes of quarrel +behind him. + +Charles supposed that he was merely "giving way for the present" when he +accepted the ratification by the new Assembly of all the Acts of that of +1638. He never had a later chance to recover his ground. The new +Assembly made the Privy Council pass an Act rendering signature of the +Covenant compulsory on all men: "the new freedom is worse than the old +slavery," a looker-on remarked. The Parliament discussed the method of +electing the Lords of the Articles--a method which, in fact, though of +prime importance, had varied and continued to vary in practice. Argyll +protested that the constitutional course was for each Estate to elect its +own members. Montrose was already suspected of being influenced by +Charles. Charles refused to call Episcopacy unlawful, or to rescind the +old Acts establishing it. Traquair, as Commissioner, dissolved the +Parliament; later Charles refused to meet envoys sent from Scotland, who +were actually trying, as their party also tried, to gain French mediation +or assistance,--help from "idolaters"! + +In spring 1640 the Scots, by an instrument called "The Blind Band," +imposed taxation for military purposes; while Charles in England called +The Short Parliament to provide Supply. The Parliament refused and was +prorogued; words used by Strafford about the use of the army in Ireland +to suppress Scotland were hoarded up against him. The Scots Parliament, +though the king had prorogued it, met in June, despite the opposition of +Montrose. The Parliament, when it ceased to meet, appointed a Standing +Committee of some forty members of all ranks, including Montrose and his +friends Lord Napier and Stirling of Keir. Argyll refused to be a member, +but acted on a commission of fire and sword "to root out of the country" +the northern recusants against the Covenant. It was now that Argyll +burned Lord Ogilvy's Bonny House of Airlie and Forthes; the cattle were +driven into his own country; all this against, and perhaps in consequence +of, the intercession of Ogilvy's friend and neighbour, Montrose. + +Meanwhile the Scots were intriguing with discontented English peers, who +could only give sympathy; Saville, however, forged a letter from six of +them inviting a Scottish invasion. There was a movement for making +Argyll practically Dictator in the North; Montrose thwarted it, and in +August, while Charles with a reluctant and disorderly force was marching +on York Montrose at Cumbernauld, the house of the Earl of Wigtoun made a +secret band with the Earls Marischal, Wigtoun, Home, Atholl, Mar, Perth, +Boyd, Galloway, and others, for their mutual defence against the scheme +of dictatorship for Argyll. On August 20 Montrose, the foremost, forded +Tweed, and led his regiment into England. On August 30, almost +unopposed, the Scots entered Newcastle, having routed a force which met +them at Newburn-on-Tyne. + +They again pressed their demands on the king; simultaneously twelve +English peers petitioned for a parliament and the trial of the king's +Ministers. Charles gave way. At Ripon Scottish and English +commissioners met; the Scots received "brotherly assistance" in money and +supplies (a daily 850 pounds), and stayed where they were; while the Long +Parliament met in November, and in April 1641 condemned the great +Strafford: Laud soon shared his doom. On August 10 the demands of the +Scots were granted: as a sympathetic historian writes, they had lived for +a year at free quarters, "and recrossed the Border with the handsome sum +of 200,000 pounds to their credit." + +During the absence of the army the Kirk exhibited symptoms not favourable +to its own peace. Amateur theologians held private religious gatherings, +which, it was feared, tended towards the heresy of the English +Independents and to the "break up of the whole Kirk," some of whose +representatives forbade these conventicles, while "the rigid sort" +asserted that the conventiclers "were esteemed the godly of the land." An +Act of the General Assembly was passed against the meetings; we observe +that here are the beginnings of strife between the most godly and the +rather moderately pious. + +The secret of Montrose's Cumbernauld band had come to light after +November 1640: nothing worse, at the moment, befell than the burning of +the band by the Committee of Estates, to whom Argyll referred the matter. +On May 21, 1641, the Committee was disturbed, for Montrose was collecting +evidence as to the words and deeds of Argyll when he used his commission +of fire and sword at the Bonny House of Airlie and in other places. +Montrose had spoken of the matter to a preacher, he to another, and the +news reached the Committee. Montrose had learned from a prisoner of +Argyll, Stewart the younger of Ladywell, that Argyll had held counsels to +discuss the deposition of the king. Ladywell produced to the Committee +his written statement that Argyll had spoken before him of these +consultations of lawyers and divines. He was placed in the castle, and +was so worked on that he "cleared" Argyll and confessed that, advised by +Montrose, he had reported Argyll's remarks to the king. Papers with +hints and names in cypher were found in possession of the messenger. + +The whole affair is enigmatic; in any case Ladywell was hanged for +"leasing-making" (spreading false reports), an offence not previously +capital, and Montrose with his friends was imprisoned in the castle. +Doubtless he had meant to accuse Argyll before Parliament of treason. On +July 27, 1641, being arraigned before Parliament, he said, "My resolution +is to carry with me fidelity and honour to the grave." He lay in prison +when the king, vainly hoping for support against the English Parliament, +visited Edinburgh (August 14-November 17, 1641). + +Charles was now servile to his Scottish Parliament, accepting an Act by +which it must consent to his nominations of officers of State. Hamilton +with his brother, Lanark, had courted the alliance and lived in the +intimacy of Argyll. On October 12 Charles told the House "a very strange +story." On the previous day Hamilton had asked leave to retire from +Court, in fear of his enemies. On the day of the king's speaking, +Hamilton, Argyll, and Lanark had actually retired. On October 22, from +their retreat, the brothers said that they had heard of a conspiracy, by +nobles and others in the king's favour, to cut their throats. The +evidence is very confused and contradictory: Hamilton and Argyll were +said to have collected a force of 5000 men in the town, and, on October +5, such a gathering was denounced in a proclamation. Charles in vain +asked for a public inquiry into the affair before the whole House. He +now raised some of his opponents a step in the peerage: Argyll became a +marquis, and Montrose was released from prison. On October 28 Charles +announced the untoward news of an Irish rising and massacre. He was, of +course, accused of having caused it, and the massacre was in turn the +cause of, or pretext for, the shooting and hanging of Irish prisoners--men +and women--in Scotland during the civil war. On November 18 he left +Scotland for ever. + +The events in England of the spring in 1642, the attempted arrest of the +five members (January 4), the retreat of the queen to France, Charles's +retiral to York, indicated civil war, and the king set up his standard at +Nottingham on August 22. The Covenanters had received from Charles all +that they asked; they had no quarrel with him, but they argued that if he +were victorious in England he would use his strength and withdraw his +concessions to Scotland. + +Sir Walter Scott "leaves it to casuists to decide whether one contracting +party is justified in breaking a solemn treaty upon the suspicion that in +future contingencies it might be infringed by the other." He suggests +that to the needy nobles and Dugald Dalgettys of the Covenant "the good +pay and free quarters" and "handsome sums" of England were an +irresistible temptation, while the preachers thought they would be +allowed to set up "the golden candlestick" of presbytery in England +('Legend of Montrose,' chapter i.) Of the two the preachers were the +more grievously disappointed. + +A General Assembly of July-August 1642 was, as usual, concerned with +politics, for politics and religion were inextricably intermixed. The +Assembly appointed a Standing Commission to represent it, and the powers +of the Commission were of so high a strain that "to some it is terrible +already," says the Covenanting letter-writer Baillie. A letter from the +Kirk was carried to the English Parliament which acquiesced in the +abolition of Episcopacy. In November 1642 the English Parliament, +unsuccessful in war, appealed to Scotland for armed aid; in December +Charles took the same course. + +The Commission of the General Assembly, and the body of administrators +called Conservators of the Peace, overpowered the Privy Council, put down +a petition of Montrose's party (who declared that they were bound by the +Covenant to defend the king), and would obviously arm on the side of the +English Parliament if England would adopt Presbyterian government. They +held a Convention of the Estates (June 22, 1643); they discovered a +Popish plot for an attack on Argyll's country by the Macdonalds in +Ireland, once driven from Kintyre by the Campbells, and now to be led by +young Colkitto. While thus excited, they received in the General +Assembly (August 7) a deputation from the English Parliament; and now was +framed a new band between the English Parliament and Scotland. It was an +alliance, "The Solemn League and Covenant," by which Episcopacy was to be +abolished and religion established "according to the Word of God." To +the Covenanters this phrase meant that England would establish +Presbyterianism, but they were disappointed. The ideas of the +Independents, such as Cromwell, were almost as much opposed to presbytery +as to episcopacy, and though the Covenanters took the pay and fought the +battles of the Parliament against their king, they never received what +they had meant to stipulate for,--the establishment of presbytery in +England. Far from that, Cromwell, like James VI., was to deprive them of +their ecclesiastical palladium, the General Assembly. + +Foreseeing nothing, the Scots were delighted when the English accepted +the new band. Their army, under Alexander Leslie (Earl of Leven), now +too old for his post, crossed Tweed in January 1644. They might never +have crossed had Charles, in the autumn of 1643, listened to Montrose and +allowed him to attack the Covenanters in Scotland. In December 1643, +Hamilton and Lanark, who had opposed Montrose's views and confirmed the +king in his waverings, came to him at Oxford. Montrose refused to serve +with them, rather he would go abroad; and Hamilton was imprisoned on +charges of treason: in fact, he had been double-minded, inconstant, and +incompetent. Montrose's scheme implied clan warfare, the use of exiled +Macdonalds, who were Catholics, against the Campbells. The obvious +objections were very strong; but "needs must when the devil drives": the +Hanoverian kings employed foreign soldiers against their subjects in 1715 +and 1745; but the Macdonalds were subjects of King Charles. + +Hamilton's brother, Lanark, escaped, and now frankly joined the +Covenanters. Montrose was promoted to a Marquisate, and received the +Royal Commission as Lieutenant-General (February 1644), which alienated +old Huntly, chief of the Gordons, who now and again divided and paralysed +that gallant clan. Montrose rode north, where, in February 1644, old +Leslie, with twenty regiments of foot, three thousand horse, and many +guns, was besieging Newcastle. With him was the prototype of Scott's +Dugald Dalgetty, Sir James Turner, who records examples of Leslie's +senile incompetency. Leslie, at least, forced the Marquis of Newcastle +to a retreat, and a movement of Montrose on Dumfries was paralysed by the +cowardice or imbecility of the Scottish magnates on the western Border. +He returned, took Morpeth, was summoned by Prince Rupert, and reached him +the day after the disaster of Marston Moor (July 2, 1644), from which +Buccleuch's Covenanting regiment ran without stroke of sword, while +Alexander Leslie also fled, carrying news of his own defeat. It appears +that the Scottish horse, under David Leslie, were at Marston Moor, as +always, the pick of their army. + +Rupert took over Montrose's men, and the great Marquis, disguised as a +groom, rode hard to the house of a kinsman, near Tay, between Perth and +Dunkeld. Alone and comfortless, in a little wood, Montrose met a man who +was carrying the Fiery Cross, and summoning the country to resist the +Irish Scots of Alastair Macdonald (Colkitto), who had landed with a force +of 1500 musketeers in Argyll, and was believed to be descending on +Atholl, pursued by Seaforth and Argyll, and faced by the men of Badenoch. +The two armies {181} were confronting each other when Montrose, in plaid +and kilt, approached Colkitto and showed him his commission. Instantly +the two opposed forces combined into one, and with 2500 men, some armed +with bows and arrows, and others having only one charge for each musket, +Montrose began his year of victories. + +The temptation to describe in detail his extraordinary series of +successes and of unexampled marches over snow-clad and pathless mountains +must be resisted. The mobility and daring of Montrose's irregular and +capricious levies, with his own versatile military genius and the heroic +valour of Colkitto, enabled him to defeat a large Covenanting force at +Tippermuir, near Perth: here he had but his 2500 men (September 1); to +repeat his victory at Aberdeen {182} (September 13), to evade and +discourage Argyll, who retired to Inveraray; to winter in and ravage +Argyll's country, and to turn on his tracks from a northern retreat and +destroy the Campbells at Inverlochy, where Argyll looked on from his +galley (February 2, 1645). + +General Baillie, a trained soldier, took the command of the Covenanting +levies and regular troops ("Red coats"), and nearly surprised Montrose in +Dundee. By a retreat showing even more genius than his victories, he +escaped, appeared on the north-east coast, and scattered a Covenanting +force under Hurry, at Auldearn, near Inverness (May 9, 1645). + +Such victories as Montrose's were more than counterbalanced by Cromwell's +defeat of Rupert and Charles at Naseby (June 14, 1645); while presbytery +suffered a blow from Cromwell's demand, that the English Parliament +should grant "freedom of conscience," not for Anglican or Catholic, of +course, but for religions non-Presbyterian. The "bloody sectaries," as +the Presbyterians called Cromwell's Independents, were now masters of the +field: never would the blue banner of the Covenant be set up south of +Tweed. + +Meanwhile General Baillie marched against Montrose, who outmanoeuvred him +all over the eastern Highlands, and finally gave him battle at Alford on +the Don. Montrose had not here Colkitto and the western clans, but his +Gordon horse, his Irish, the Farquharsons, and the Badenoch men were +triumphantly successful. Unfortunately, Lord Gordon was slain: he alone +could bring out and lead the clan of Huntly. Only by joining hands with +Charles could Montrose do anything decisive. The king, hoping for no +more than a death in the field "with honour and a good conscience," +pushed as far north as Doncaster, where he was between Poyntz's army and +a great cavalry force, led by David Leslie, from Hereford, to launch +against Montrose. The hero snatched a final victory. He had but a +hundred horse, but he had Colkitto and the flower of the fighting clans, +including the invincible Macleans. Baillie, in command of new levies of +some 10,000 men, was thwarted by a committee of Argyll and other noble +amateurs. He met the enemy south of Forth, at Kilsyth, between Stirling +and Glasgow. The fiery Argyll made Baillie desert an admirable +position--Montrose was on the plain, Baillie was on the heights--and +expose his flank by a march across Montrose's front. The Macleans and +Macdonalds, on the lower slope of the hill, without orders, saw their +chance, and racing up a difficult glen, plunged into the Covenanting +flank. Meanwhile the more advanced part of the Covenanting force were +driving back some Gordons from a hill on Montrose's left, who were +rescued by a desperate charge of Aboyne's handful of horse among the red +coats; Airlie charged with the Ogilvies; the advanced force of the +Covenant was routed, and the Macleans and Macdonalds completed the work +they had begun (August 15). Few of the unmounted Covenanters escaped +from Kilsyth; and Argyll, taking boat in the Forth, hurried to Newcastle, +where David Leslie, coming north, obtained infantry regiments to back his +4000 cavalry. + +In a year Montrose, with forces so irregular and so apt to go home after +every battle, had actually cleared militant Covenanters out of Scotland. +But the end had come. He would not permit the sack of Glasgow. Three +thousand clansmen left him; Colkitto went away to harry Kintyre. Aboyne +and the Gordons rode home on some private pique; and Montrose relied on +men whom he had already proved to be broken reeds, the Homes and Kers +(Roxburgh) of the Border, and the futile and timid Traquair. When he +came among them they forsook him and fled; on September 10, at Kelso, Sir +Robert Spottiswoode recognised the desertion and the danger. + +Meanwhile Leslie, with an overpowering force of seasoned soldiers, horse +and foot, marched with Argyll, not to Edinburgh, but down Gala to Tweed; +while Montrose had withdrawn from Kelso, up Ettrick to Philiphaugh, on +the left of Ettrick, within a mile of Selkirk. He had but 500 Irish, who +entrenched themselves, and an uncertain number of mounted Border lairds +with their servants and tenants. Charteris of Hempsfield, who had been +scouting, reported that Leslie was but two or three miles distant, at +Sunderland Hall, where Tweed and Ettrick meet; but the news was not +carried to Montrose, who lay at Selkirk. At breakfast, on September 13, +Montrose learned that Leslie was attacking. What followed is uncertain +in its details. A so-called "contemporary ballad" is incredibly +impossible in its anachronisms, and is modern. In this egregious +doggerel we are told that a veteran who had fought at Solway Moss a +century earlier, and at "cursed Dunbar" a few years later (or under +Edward I.?), advised Leslie to make a turning movement behind Linglie +Hill. This is not evidence. Though Leslie may have made such a +movement, he describes his victory as very easy: and so it should have +been, as Montrose had only the remnant of his Antrim men and a rabble of +reluctant Border recruits. + +A news letter from Haddington, of September 16, represents the Cavaliers +as making a good fight. The mounted Border lairds galloped away. Most +of the Irish fell fighting: the rest were massacred, whether after +promise of quarter or not is disputed. _Their captured women were hanged +in cold blood some months later_. Montrose, the Napiers, and some forty +horse either cut their way through or evaded Leslie's overpowering +cavalry, and galloped across the hills of Yarrow to the Tweed. He had +lost only the remnant of his Scoto-Irish; but the Gordons, when Montrose +was presently menacing Glasgow, were held back by Huntly, and Colkitto +pursued his private adventures. Montrose had been deserted by the clans, +and lured to ruin by the perfidious promises of the Border lords and +lairds. The aim of his strategy had been to relieve the Royalists of +England by a diversion that would deprive the Parliamentarians of their +paid Scottish allies, and what man might do Montrose had done. + +After his first victory Montrose, an excommunicated man, fought under an +offer of 1500 pounds for his murder, and the Covenanters welcomed the +assassin of his friend, Lord Kilpont. + +The result of Montrose's victories was hostility between the Covenanting +army in England and the English, who regarded them as expensive and +inefficient. Indeed, they seldom, save for the command of David Leslie, +displayed military qualities, and later, were invariably defeated when +they encountered the English under Cromwell and Lambert. + +Montrose never slew a prisoner, but the Convention at St Andrews, in +November 1645, sentenced to death their Cavalier prisoners (Lord Ogilvy +escaped disguised in his sister's dress), and they ordered the hanging of +captives and of the women who had accompanied the Irish. "It was certain +of the clergy who pressed for the extremest measures." {186a} They had +revived the barbarous belief, retained in the law of ancient Greece, that +the land had been polluted by, and must be cleansed by, blood, under +penalty of divine wrath. As even the Covenanting Baillie wrote, "to this +day no man in England has been executed for bearing arms against the +Parliament." The preachers argued that to keep the promises of quarter +which had been given to the prisoners was "_to violate the oath of the +Covenant_." {186b} + +The prime object of the English opponents of the king was now "to hustle +the Scots out of England." {187} Meanwhile Charles, not captured but +hopeless, was negotiating with all the parties, and ready to yield on +every point except that of forcing presbytery on England--a matter which, +said Montereuil, the French ambassador, "did not concern them but their +neighbours." Charles finally trusted the Scots with his person, and the +question is, had he or had he not assurance that he would be well +received? If he had any assurance it was merely verbal, "a shadow of a +security," wrote Montereuil. Charles was valuable to the Scots only as a +pledge for the payment of their arrears of wages. There was much +chicanery and shuffling on both sides, and probably there were +misconceptions on both sides. A letter of Montereuil (April 26, 1646) +convinced Charles that he might trust the Scots; they verbally promised +"safety, honour, and conscience," but refused to sign a copy of their +words. Charles trusted them, rode out of Oxford, joined them at +Southwell, and, says Sir James Turner, who was present, was commanded by +Lothian to sign the Covenant, and "barbarously used." They took Charles +to Newcastle, denying their assurance to him. "With unblushing +falsehood," says Mr Gardiner, they in other respects lied to the English +Parliament. On May 19 Charles bade Montrose leave the country, which he +succeeded in doing, despite the treacherous endeavours of his enemies to +detain him till his day of safety (August 31) was passed. + +The Scots of the army were in a quandary. The preachers, their masters, +would not permit them to bring to Scotland an uncovenanted king. They +could not stay penniless in England. For 200,000 pounds down and a +promise, never kept, of a similar sum later, they left Charles in English +hands, with some assurances for his safety, and early in February 1647 +crossed Tweed with their thirty-six cartloads of money. The act was +hateful to very many Scots, but the Estates, under the command of the +preachers, had refused to let the king, while uncovenanted, cross into +his native kingdom, and to bring him meant war with England. But _that_ +must ensue in any case. The hope of making England presbyterian, as +under the Solemn League and Covenant, had already perished. + +Leslie, with the part of the army still kept up, chased Colkitto, and, at +Dunavertie, under the influence of Nevoy, a preacher, put 300 Irish +prisoners to the sword. + +The parties in Scotland were now: (1) the Kirk, Argyll, the two Leslies, +and most of the Commons; (2) Hamilton, Lanark, and Lauderdale, who had no +longer anything to fear, as regards their estates, from Charles or from +bishops, and who were ashamed of his surrender to the English; (3) +Royalists in general. With Charles (December 27, 1647) in his prison at +Carisbrooke, Lauderdale, Loudoun, and Lanark made a secret treaty, _The +Engagement_, which they buried in the garden, for if it were discovered +the Independents of the army would have attacked Scotland. + +An Assembly of the Scots Estates on March 3, 1648, had a large majority +of nobles, gentry, and many burgesses in favour of aiding the captive +king; on the other side Argyll was backed by the omnipotent Commission of +the General Assembly, and by the full force of prayers and sermons. The +letter-writer, Baillie, now deemed "that it were for the good of the +world that churchmen did meddle with ecclesiastical affairs only." The +Engagers insisted on establishing presbytery in England, which neither +satisfied the Kirk nor the Cavaliers and Independents. Nothing more +futile could have been devised. + +The Estates, in May, began to raise an army; the preachers denounced +them: there was a battle between armed communicants of the preachers' +party and the soldiers of the State at Mauchline. Invading England on +July 8, Hamilton had Lambert and Cromwell to face him, and left Argyll, +the preachers, and their "slashing communicants" in his rear. Lanark had +vainly urged that the west country fanatics should be crushed before the +Border was crossed. By a march worthy of Montrose across the fells into +Lanarkshire, Cromwell reached Preston; cut in between the northern parts +of Hamilton's army; defeated the English Royalists and Langdale, and cut +to pieces or captured the Scots, disunited as their generals were, at +Wigan and Warrington (August 17-19). Hamilton was taken and was +decapitated later. The force that recrossed the Border consisted of such +mounted men as escaped, with the detachment of Monro which had not joined +Hamilton. + +The godly in Scotland rejoiced at the defeat of their army: the levies of +the western shires of Ayr, Renfrew, and Lanark occupied Edinburgh: Argyll +and the Kirk party were masters, and when Cromwell arrived in Edinburgh +early in October he was entertained at dinner by Argyll. The left wing +of the Covenant was now allied with the Independents--the deadly foes of +presbytery! To the ordinary mind this looks like a new breach of the +Covenant, that impossible treaty with Omnipotence. Charles had written +that the divisions of parties were probably "God's way to punish them for +their many rebellions and perfidies." The punishment was now beginning +in earnest, and the alliance of extreme Covenanters with "bloody +sectaries" could not be maintained. Yet historians admire the +statesmanship of Argyll! + +If the edge which the sword of the Covenant turned against the English +enemies of presbytery were blunted, the edge that smote Covenanters less +extreme than Argyll and the preachers was whetted afresh. In the Estates +of January 5, 1649, Argyll, whose party had a large majority, and the +fanatical Johnston of Waristoun (who made private covenants with Jehovah) +demanded disenabling Acts against all who had in any degree been tainted +by the _Engagement_ for the rescue of the king. The Engagers were +divided into four "Classes," who were rendered incapable by "The Act of +Classes" of holding any office, civil or military. This Act deprived the +country of the services of thousands of men, just at the moment when the +English army, the Independents, Argyll's allies, were holding the Trial +of Charles I.; and, in defiance of timid remonstrances from the Scottish +Commissioners in England, cut off "that comely head" (January 30, 1649), +which meant war with Scotland. + + + +SCOTLAND AND CHARLES II. + + +This was certain, for, on February 5, on the news of the deed done at +Whitehall, the Estates proclaimed Charles II. as Scottish King--if he +took the Covenant. By an ingenious intrigue Argyll allowed Lauderdale +and Lanark, whom the Estates had intended to arrest, to escape to +Holland, where Charles was residing, and their business was to bring that +uncovenanted prince to sign the Covenant, and to overcome the influence +of Montrose, who, with Clarendon, of course resisted such a trebly +dishonourable act of perjured hypocrisy. During the whole struggle, +since Montrose took the king's side, he had been thwarted by the +Hamiltons. They invariably wavered: now they were for a futile policy of +dishonour, in which they involved their young king, Argyll, and Scotland. +Montrose stood for honour and no Covenant; Argyll, the Hamiltons, +Lauderdale, and the majority of the preachers stood for the Covenant with +dishonour and perjury; the left wing of the preachers stood for the +Covenant, but not for its dishonourable and foresworn acceptance by +Charles. + +As a Covenanter, Charles II. would be the official foe of the English +Independents and army; Scotland would need every sword in the kingdom, +and the kingdom's best general, Montrose, yet the Act of Classes, under +the dictation of the preachers, rejected every man tainted with +participation in or approval of the Engagement--or of neglecting family +prayers! + +Charles, in fact, began (February 22) by appointing Montrose his +Lieutenant-Governor and Captain-General in Scotland, though Lauderdale +and Lanark "abate not an ace of their damned Covenant in all their +discourses," wrote Hyde. The dispute between Montrose, on the side of +honour, and that of Lanark, Lauderdale, and other Scottish envoys, ended +as--given the character of Charles II. and his destitution--it must end. +Charles (January 22, 1650) despatched Montrose to fight for him in +Scotland, and sent him the Garter. Montrose knew his doom: he replied, +"With the more alacrity shall I abandon still my life to search my death +for the interests of your Majesty's honour and service." He searched his +death, and soon he found it. + +On May 1, Charles, by the Treaty of Breda, vowed to sign the Covenant; a +week earlier Montrose, not joined by the Mackenzies, had been defeated by +Strachan at Carbisdale, on the south of the Kyle, opposite Invershin, in +Sutherlandshire. He was presently captured, and crowned a glorious life +of honour by a more glorious death on the gibbet (May 21). He had kept +his promise; he had searched his death; he had loyally defended, like +Jeanne d'Arc, a disloyal king; he had "carried fidelity and honour with +him to the grave." His body was mutilated, his limbs were exposed,--they +now lie in St Giles' Church, Edinburgh, where is his beautiful monument. + +Montrose's last words to Charles (March 26, from Kirkwall) implored that +Prince "to be just to himself,"--not to perjure himself by signing the +Covenant. The voice of honour is not always that of worldly wisdom, but +events proved that Charles and Scotland could have lost nothing and must +have gained much had the king listened to Montrose. He submitted, we +saw, to commissioners sent to him from Scotland. Says one of these +gentlemen, "_He_ . . . sinfully complied with what _we_ most sinfully +pressed upon him, . . . _our_ sin was more than _his_." + +While his subjects in Scotland were executing his loyal servants taken +prisoners in Montrose's last defeat, Charles crossed the sea, signing the +Covenants on board ship, and landed at the mouth of Spey. What he gained +by his dishonour was the guilt of perjury; and the consequent distrust of +the wilder but more honest Covenanters, who knew that he had perjured +himself, and deemed his reception a cause of divine wrath and disastrous +judgments. Next he was separated from most of his false friends, who had +urged him to his guilt, and from all Royalists; and he was not allowed to +be with his army, which the preachers kept "purging" of all who did not +come up to their standard of sanctity. + +Their hopeful scheme was to propitiate the Deity and avert wrath by +purging out officers of experience, while filling up their places with +godly but incompetent novices in war, "ministers' sons, clerks, and such +other sanctified creatures." This final and fatal absurdity was the +result of playing at being the Israel described in the early historic +books of the Old Testament, a policy initiated by Knox in spite of the +humorous protests of Lethington. + +For the surer purging of that Achan, Charles, and to conciliate the party +who deemed him the greatest cause of wrath of all, the king had to sign a +false and disgraceful declaration that he was "afflicted in spirit before +God because of the impieties of his father and mother"! He was helpless +in the hands of Argyll, David Leslie, and the rest: he knew they would +desert him if he did not sign, and he yielded (August 16). Meanwhile +Cromwell, with Lambert, Monk, 16,000 foot and horse, and a victualling +fleet, had reached Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, by July 28. + +David Leslie very artfully evaded every attempt to force a fight, but +hung about him in all his movements. Cromwell was obliged to retreat for +lack of supplies in a devastated country, and on September 1 reached +Dunbar by the coast road. Leslie, marching parallel along the +hill-ridges, occupied Doonhill and secured a long, deep, and steep +ravine, "the Peaths," near Cockburnspath, barring Cromwell's line of +march. On September 2 the controlling clerical Committee was still +busily purging and depleting the Scottish army. The night of September 2- +3 was very wet, the officers deserted their regiments to take shelter. +Says Leslie himself, "We might as easily have beaten them as we did James +Graham at Philiphaugh, if the officers had stayed by their own troops and +regiments." Several witnesses, and Cromwell himself, asserted that, +owing to the insistence of the preachers, Leslie moved his men to the +lower slopes on the afternoon of September 2. "The Lord hath delivered +them into our hands," Cromwell is reported to have said. They now +occupied a position where the banks of the lower Broxburn were flat and +assailable, not steep and forming a strong natural moat, as on the higher +level. All night Cromwell rode along and among his regiments of horse, +biting his lip till the blood ran down his chin. Leslie thought to +surprise Cromwell; Cromwell surprised Leslie, crossed the Broxburn on the +low level, before dawn, and drove into the Scots who were all unready, +the matches of their muskets being wet and unlighted. The centre made a +good stand, but a flank charge by English cavalry cut up the Scots foot, +and Leslie fled with the nobles, gentry, and mounted men. In killed, +wounded, and prisoners the Scots are said to have lost 14,000 men, a +manifest exaggeration. It was an utter defeat. + +"Surely," wrote Cromwell, "it is probable the Kirk has done her do." The +Kirk thought not; purging must go on, "nobody must blame the Covenant." +Neglect of family prayers was selected as one cause of the defeat! +Strachan and Ker, two extreme whigamores of the left wing of the godly, +went to raise a western force that would neither acknowledge Charles nor +join Cromwell, who now took Edinburgh Castle. Charles was reduced by +Argyll to make to him the most slavish promises, including the payment of +40,000 pounds, the part of the price of Charles I. which Argyll had not +yet touched. + +On October 4 Charles made "the Start"; he fled to the Royalists of +Angus,--Ogilvy and Airlie: he was caught, brought back, and preached at. +Then came fighting between the Royalists and the Estates. Middleton, a +good soldier, Atholl, and others, declared that they must and would fight +for Scotland, though they were purged out by the preachers. The Estates +(November 4) gave them an indemnity. On this point the Kirk split into +twain: the wilder men, led by the Rev. James Guthrie, refused +reconciliation (the Remonstrants); the less fanatical would consent to +it, on terms (the Resolutioners). The Committee of Estates dared to +resist the Remonstrants: even the Commissioners of the General Assembly +"cannot be against the raising of all fencible persons,"--and at last +adopted the attitude of all sensible persons. By May 21, 1651, the +Estates rescinded the insane Act of Classes, but the strife between +clerical Remonstrants and Resolutioners persisted till after the +Restoration, the _Remonstrants_ being later named _Protesters_. + +Charles had been crowned at Scone on January 1, again signing the +Covenants. Leslie now occupied Stirling, avoiding an engagement. In +July, while a General Assembly saw the strife of the two sects, came news +that Lambert had crossed the Forth at Queensferry, and defeated a Scots +force at Inverkeithing, where the Macleans fell almost to a man; Monk +captured a number of the General Assembly, and, as Cromwell, moving to +Perth, could now assail Leslie and the main Scottish force at Stirling, +they, by a desperate resolution, with 4000 horse and 9000 foot, invaded +England by the west marches, "laughing," says one of them, "at the +ridiculousness of our own condition." On September 1 Monk stormed and +sacked Dundee as Montrose sacked Aberdeen, but if he made a massacre like +that by Edward I. at Berwick, history is lenient to the crime. + +On August 22 Charles, with his army, reached Worcester, whither Cromwell +marched with a force twice as great as that of the king. Worcester was a +Sedan: Charles could neither hold it nor, though he charged gallantly, +could he break through Cromwell's lines. Before nightfall on September 3 +Charles was a fugitive: he had no army; Hamilton was slain, Middleton and +David Leslie with thousands more were prisoners. Monk had already +captured, at Alyth (August 28), the whole of the Government, the +Committee of Estates, and had also caught some preachers, including James +Sharp, later Archbishop of St Andrews. England had conquered Scotland at +last, after twelve years of government by preachers acting as +interpreters of the Covenant between Scotland and Jehovah. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. CONQUERED SCOTLAND. + + +During the nine years of the English military occupation of Scotland +everything was merely provisional; nothing decisive could occur. In the +first place (October 1651), eight English Commissioners, including three +soldiers, Monk, Lambert, and Deane, undertook the administration of the +conquered country. They announced tolerance in religion (except for +Catholicism and Anglicanism, of course), and during their occupation the +English never wavered on a point so odious to the Kirk. The English +rulers also, as much as they could, protected the women and men whom the +lairds and preachers smelled out and tortured and burned for witchcraft. +By way of compensation for the expenses of war all the estates of men who +had sided with Charles were confiscated. Taxation also was heavy. On +four several occasions attempts were made to establish the Union of the +two countries; Scotland, finally, was to return thirty members to sit in +the English Parliament. But as that Parliament, under Cromwell, was +subject to strange and sudden changes, and as the Scottish +representatives were usually men sold to the English side, the experiment +was not promising. In its first stage it collapsed with Cromwell's +dismissal of the Long Parliament on April 20, 1653. Argyll meanwhile had +submitted, retaining his estates (August 1652); but of five garrisons in +his country three were recaptured, not without his goodwill, by the +Highlanders; and in these events began Monk's aversion, finally fatal, to +the Marquis as a man whom none could trust, and in whom finally nobody +trusted. + +An English Commission of Justice, established in May 1652, was +confessedly more fair and impartial than any Scotland had known, which +was explained by the fact that the English judges "were kinless loons." +Northern cavaliers were relieved by Monk's forbidding civil magistrates +to outlaw and plunder persons lying under Presbyterian excommunication, +and sanitary measures did something to remove from Edinburgh the ancient +reproach of filth, for the time. While the Protesters and Resolutioners +kept up their quarrel, the Protesters claiming to be the only genuine +representatives of Kirk and Covenant, the General Assembly of the +Resolutioners was broken up (July 21, 1653) by Lilburne, with a few +soldiers, and henceforth the Kirk, having no General Assembly, was less +capable of promoting civil broils. Lilburne suspected that the Assembly +was in touch with new stirrings towards a rising in the Highlands, to +lead which Charles had, in 1652, promised to send Middleton, who had +escaped from an English prison, as general. It was always hard to find +any one under whom the great chiefs would serve, and Glencairn, with +Kenmure, was unable to check their jealousies. + +Charles heard that Argyll would appear in arms for the Crown, when he +deemed the occasion good; meanwhile his heir, Lord Lorne, would join the +rising. He did so in July 1653, under the curse of Argyll, who, by +letters to Lilburne and Monk, and by giving useful information to the +English, fatally committed himself as treasonable to the Royal cause. +Examples of his conduct were known to Glencairn, who communicated them to +Charles. + +At the end of February 1654 Middleton arrived in Sutherland to head the +insurrection: but Monk chased the small and disunited force from county +to county, and in July Morgan defeated and scattered its remnants at Loch +Garry, just south of Dalnaspidal. The Armstrongs and other Border clans, +who had been moss-trooping in their ancient way, were also reduced, and +new fortresses and garrisons bridled the fighting clans of the west. With +Cromwell as protector in 1654, Free Trade with England was offered to the +Scots with reduced taxation: an attempt to legislate for the Union +failed. In 1655-1656 a Council of State and a Commission of Justice +included two or three Scottish members, and burghs were allowed to elect +magistrates who would swear loyalty to Cromwell. Cromwell died on the +day of his fortunate star (September 3, 1658), and twenty-one members for +Scotland sat in Richard Cromwell's Parliament. When that was dissolved, +and when the Rump was reinstated, a new Bill of Union was introduced, +and, by reason of the provisions for religious toleration (a thing +absolutely impious in Presbyterian eyes), was delayed till (October 1659) +the Rump was sent to its account. Conventions of Burghs and Shires were +now held by Monk, who, leading his army of occupation south in January +1660, left the Resolutioners and Protesters standing at gaze, as hostile +as ever, awaiting what thing should befall. Both parties still cherished +the Covenants, and so long as these documents were held to be for ever +binding on all generations, so long as the king's authority was to be +resisted in defence of these treaties with Omnipotence, it was plain that +in Scotland there could neither be content nor peace. For twenty-eight +years, during a generation of profligacy and turmoil, cruelty and +corruption, the Kirk and country were to reap what they had sown in 1638. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. THE RESTORATION. + + +There was "dancing and derray" in Scotland among the laity when the king +came to his own again. The darkest page in the national history seemed +to have been turned; the conquering English were gone with their +abominable tolerance, their craze for soap and water, their aversion to +witch-burnings. The nobles and gentry would recover their lands and +compensation for their losses; there would be offices to win, and "the +spoils of office." + +It seems that in Scotland none of the lessons of misfortune had been +learned. Since January the chiefs of the milder party of preachers, the +Resolutioners,--they who had been reconciled with the Engagers,--were +employing the Rev. James Sharp, who had been a prisoner in England, as +their agent with Monk, with Lauderdale, in April, with Charles in +Holland, and, again, in London. Sharp was no fanatic. From the first he +assured his brethren, Douglas of Edinburgh, Baillie, and the rest, that +there was no chance for "rigid Presbyterianism." They could conceive of +no Presbyterianism which was not rigid, in the manner of Andrew Melville, +to whom his king was "Christ's silly vassal." Sharp warned them early +that in face of the irreconcilable Protesters, "moderate Episcopacy" +would be preferred; and Douglas himself assured Sharp that the new +generation in Scotland "bore a heart-hatred to the Covenant," and are +"wearied of the yoke of presbyterial government." + +This was true: the ruling classes had seen too much of presbyterial +government, and would prefer bishops as long as they were not pampered +and all-powerful. On the other hand the lesser gentry, still more their +godly wives, the farmers and burgesses, and the preachers, regarded the +very shadow of Episcopacy as a breach of the Covenant and an insult to +the Almighty. The Covenanters had forced the Covenant on the consciences +of thousands, from the king downwards, who in soul and conscience loathed +it. They were to drink of the same cup--Episcopacy was to be forced on +them by fines and imprisonments. Scotland, her people and rulers were +moving in a vicious circle. The Resolutioners admitted that to allow the +Protesters to have any hand in affairs was "to breed continual distemper +and disorders," and Baillie was for banishing the leaders of the +Protesters, irreconcilables like the Rev. James Guthrie, to the Orkney +islands. But the Resolutioners, on the other hand, were no less eager to +stop the use of the liturgy in Charles's own household, and to persecute +every sort of Catholic, Dissenter, Sectary, and Quaker in Scotland. +Meanwhile Argyll, in debt, despised on all sides, and yet dreaded, was +holding a great open-air Communion meeting of Protesters at Paisley, in +the heart of the wildest Covenanting region (May 27, 1660). He was still +dangerous; he was trying to make himself trusted by the Protesters, who +were opposed to Charles. It may be doubted if any great potentate in +Scotland except the Marquis wished to revive the constitutional triumphs +of Argyll's party in the last Parliament of Charles I. Charles now named +his Privy Council and Ministers without waiting for parliamentary +assent--though his first Parliament would have assented to anything. He +chose only his late supporters: Glencairn who raised his standard in +1653; Rothes, a humorous and not a cruel voluptuary; and, as Secretary +for Scotland in London, Lauderdale, who had urged him to take the +Covenant, and who for twenty years was to be his buffoon, his favourite, +and his wavering and unscrupulous adviser. Among these greedy and +treacherous profligates there would, had he survived, have been no place +for Montrose. + +In defiance of warnings from omens, second-sighted men, and sensible men, +Argyll left the safe sanctuary of his mountains and sea-straits, and +betook himself to London, "a fey man." Most of his past was covered by +an Act of Indemnity, but not his doings in 1653. He was arrested before +he saw the king's face (July 8, 1660), and lay in the Tower till, in +December, he was taken to be tried for treason in Scotland. + +Sharp's friends were anxious to interfere in favour of establishing +Presbyterianism in England; he told them that the hope was vain; he +repeatedly asked for leave to return home, and, while an English preacher +assured Charles that the rout of Worcester had been God's vengeance for +his taking of the Covenant, Sharp (June 25) told his Resolutioners that +"the Protesters' doom is dight." + +Administration in Scotland was intrusted to the Committee of Estates whom +Monk (1650) had captured at Alyth, and with them Glencairn, as +Chancellor, entered Edinburgh on August 22. Next day, while the +Committee was busy, James Guthrie and some Protester preachers met, and, +in the old way, drew up a "supplication." They denounced religious +toleration, and asked for the establishment of Presbytery in England, and +the filling of all offices with Covenanters. They were all arrested and +accused of attempting to "rekindle civil war," which would assuredly have +followed had their prayer been accepted. Next year Guthrie was hanged. +But ten days after his arrest Sharp had brought down a letter of Charles +to the Edinburgh Presbytery, promising to "protect and preserve the +government of the Church of Scotland as it is established by law." Had +the words run "as it may be established by law" (in Parliament) it would +not have been a dishonourable quibble--as it was. + +Parliament opened on New Year's Day 1661, with Middleton as Commissioner. +In the words of Sir George Mackenzie, then a very young advocate and man +of letters, "never was Parliament so obsequious." The king was declared +"supreme Governor over all persons and in all causes" (a blow at Kirk +judicature), and all Acts between 1633 and 1661 were rescinded, just as +thirty years of ecclesiastical legislation had been rescinded by the +Covenanters. A sum of 40,000 pounds yearly was settled on the king. +Argyll was tried, was defended by young George Mackenzie, and, when he +seemed safe, his doom was fixed by the arrival of a Campbell from London +bearing some of his letters to Lilburne and Monk (1653-1655) which the +Indemnity of 1651 did not cover. He died, by the axe (not the rope, like +Montrose), with dignity and courage. + +The question of Church government in Scotland was left to Charles and his +advisers. The problem presented to the Government of the Restoration by +the Kirk was much more difficult and complicated than historians usually +suppose. The pretensions which the preachers had inherited from Knox and +Andrew Melville were practically incompatible, as had been proved, with +the existence of the State. In the southern and western shires,--such as +those of Dumfries, Galloway, Ayr, Renfrew, and Lanark,--the forces which +attacked the Engagers had been mustered; these shires had backed Strachan +and Ker and Guthrie in the agitation against the king, the Estates, and +the less violent clergy, after Dunbar. But without Argyll, and with no +probable noble leaders, they could do little harm; they had done none +under the English occupation, which abolished the General Assembly. To +have restored the Assembly, or rather two Assemblies--that of the +Protesters and that of the Resolutionists,--would certainly have been +perilous. Probably the wisest plan would have been to grant a General +Assembly, to meet _after_ the session of Parliament; not, as had been the +custom, to meet before it and influence or coerce the Estates. Had that +measure proved perilous to peace it need not have been repeated,--the +Kirk might have been left in the state to which the English had reduced +it. + +This measure would not have so much infuriated the devout as did the +introduction of "black prelacy," and the ejection of some 300 adored +ministers, chiefly in the south-west, and "the making of a desert first, +and then peopling it with owls and satyrs" (the curates), as Archbishop +Leighton described the action of 1663. There ensued the finings of all +who would not attend the ministrations of "owls and satyrs,"--a grievance +which produced two rebellions (1666 and 1679) and a doctrine of +anarchism, and was only worn down by eternal and cruel persecutions. + +By violence the Restoration achieved its aim: the Revolution of 1688 +entered into the results; it was a bitter moment in the evolution of +Scotland--a moment that need never have existed. Episcopacy was +restored, four bishops were consecrated, and Sharp accepted (as might +have long been foreseen) the See of St Andrews. He was henceforth +reckoned a Judas, and assuredly he had ruined his character for honour: +he became a puppet of Government, despised by his masters, loathed by the +rest of Scotland. + +In May-September 1662, Parliament ratified the change to Episcopacy. It +seems to have been thought that few preachers except the Protesters would +be recalcitrant, refuse collation from bishops, and leave their manses. +In point of fact, though they were allowed to consult their consciences +till February 1663, nearly 300 ministers preferred their consciences to +their livings. They remained centres of the devotion of their flocks, +and the "curates," hastily gathered, who took their places, were +stigmatised as ignorant and profligate, while, as they were resisted, +rabbled, and daily insulted, the country was full of disorder. + +The Government thus mortally offended the devout classes, though no +attempt was made to introduce a liturgy. In the churches the services +were exactly, or almost exactly, what they had been; but excommunications +could now only be done by sanction of the bishops. Witch-burnings, in +spite of the opposition of George Mackenzie and the Council, were soon as +common as under the Covenant. Oaths declaring it unlawful to enter into +Covenants or take up arms against the king were imposed on all persons in +office. + +Middleton, of his own authority, now proposed the ostracism, by +parliamentary ballot, of twelve persons reckoned dangerous. Lauderdale +was mainly aimed at (it is a pity that the bullet did not find its +billet), with Crawford, Cassilis, Tweeddale, Lothian, and other peers who +did not approve of the recent measures. But Lauderdale, in London, +seeing Charles daily, won his favour; Middleton was recalled (March +1663), and Lauderdale entered freely on his wavering, unscrupulous, +corrupt, and disastrous period of power. + +The Parliament of June 1663, meeting under Rothes, was packed by the +least constitutional method of choosing the Lords of the Articles. +Waristoun was brought from France, tried, and hanged, "expressing more +fear than I ever saw," wrote Lauderdale, whose Act "against Separation +and Disobedience to Ecclesiastical Authority" fined abstainers from +services in their parish churches. In 1664, Sharp, who was despised by +Lauderdale and Glencairn, obtained the erection of that old grievance--a +Court of High Commission, including bishops, to punish nonconformists. +Sir James Turner was intrusted with the task of dragooning them, by +fining and the quartering of soldiers on those who would not attend the +curates and would keep conventicles. Turner was naturally clement and +good-natured, but wine often deprived him of his wits, and his soldiery +behaved brutally. Their excesses increased discontent, and war with +Holland (1664) gave them hopes of a Dutch ally. Conventicles became +common; they had an organisation of scouts and sentinels. The +malcontents intrigued with Holland in 1666, and schemed to capture the +three Keys of the Kingdom--the castles of Stirling, Dumbarton, and +Edinburgh. The States-General promised, when this was done, to send +ammunition and 150,000 gulden (July 1666). + +When rebellion did break out it had no foreign aid, and a casual origin. +In the south-west Turner commanded but seventy soldiers, scattered all +about the country. On November 14 some of them mishandled an old man in +the clachan of Dalry, on the Ken. A soldier was shot in revenge +(Mackenzie speaks as if a conventicle was going on in the neighbourhood); +people gathered in arms, with the Laird of Corsack, young Maxwell of +Monreith, and M'Lennan; caught Turner, undressed, in Dumfries, and +carried him with them as they "went conventicling about," as Mackenzie +writes, holding prayer-meetings, led by Wallace, an old soldier of the +Covenant. At Lanark they renewed the Covenant. Dalziel of Binns, who +had learned war in Russia, led a pursuing force. The rebels were +disappointed in hopes of Dutch or native help at Edinburgh; they turned, +when within three miles of the town, into the passes of the Pentland +Hills, and at Bullion Green, on November 28, displayed fine soldierly +qualities and courage, but fled, broken, at nightfall. The soldiers and +countryfolk, who were unsympathetic, took a number of prisoners, +preachers and laymen, on whom the Council, under the presidency of Sharp, +exercised a cruelty bred of terror. The prisoners were defended by +George Mackenzie: it has been strangely stated that he was Lord Advocate, +and persecuted them! Fifteen rebels were hanged: the use of torture to +extract information was a return, under Fletcher, the King's Advocate, to +a practice of Scottish law which had been almost in abeyance since +1638--except, of course, in the case of witches. Turner vainly tried to +save from the Boot {208} the Laird of Corsack, who had protected his life +from the fanatics. "The executioner favoured Mr Mackail," says the Rev. +Mr Kirkton, himself a sufferer later. This Mr Mackail, when a lad of +twenty-one (1662), had already denounced the rulers, in a sermon, as on +the moral level of Haman and Judas. + +It is entirely untrue that Sharp concealed a letter from the king +commanding that no blood should be shed (Charles detested hanging +people). If any one concealed his letter, it was Burnet, Archbishop of +Glasgow. Dalziel now sent Ballantyne to supersede Turner and to exceed +him in ferocity; and Bellenden and Tweeddale wrote to Lauderdale +deprecating the cruelties and rapacity of the reaction, and avowing +contempt of Sharp. He was "snibbed," confined to his diocese, and "cast +down, yea, lower than the dust," wrote Rothes to Lauderdale. He was held +to have exaggerated in his reports the forces of the spirit of revolt; +but Tweeddale, Sir Robert Murray, and Kincardine found when in power that +matters were really much more serious than they had supposed. In the +disturbed districts--mainly the old Strathclyde and Pictish Galloway--the +conformist ministers were perpetually threatened, insulted, and robbed. + +According to a sympathetic historian, "on the day when Charles should +abolish bishops and permit free General Assemblies, the western Whigs +would become his law-abiding subjects; but till that day they would be +irreconcilable." But a Government is not always well advised in yielding +to violence. Moreover, when Government had deserted its clergy, and had +granted free General Assemblies, the two Covenants would re-arise, and +the pretensions of the clergy to dominate the State would be revived. +Lauderdale drifted into a policy of alternate "Indulgences" or +tolerations, and of repression, which had the desired effect, at the +maximum of cost to justice and decency. Before England drove James II. +from the throne, but a small remnant of fanatics were in active +resistance, and the Covenants had ceased to be dangerous. + +A scheme of partial toleration was mooted in 1667, and Rothes was removed +from his practical dictatorship, while Turner was made the scapegoat of +Rothes, Sharp, and Dalziel. The result of the scheme of toleration was +an increase in disorder. Bishop Leighton had a plan for abolishing all +but a shadow of Episcopacy; but the temper of the recalcitrants displayed +itself in a book, 'Naphtali,' advocating the right of the godly to murder +their oppressors. This work contained provocations to anarchism, and, in +Knox's spirit, encouraged any Phinehas conscious of a "call" from Heaven +to do justice on such persons as he found guilty of troubling the godly. + +Fired by such Christian doctrines, on July 11, 1668, one Mitchell--"a +preacher of the Gospel, and a youth of much zeal and piety," says Wodrow +the historian--shot at Sharp, wounded the Bishop of Orkney in the street +of Edinburgh, and escaped. This event delayed the project of +conciliation, but in July 1669 the first Indulgence was promulgated. On +making certain concessions, outed ministers were to be restored. Two-and- +forty came in, including the Resolutioner Douglas, in 1660 the +correspondent of Sharp. The Indulgence allowed the indulged to reject +Episcopal collation; but while brethren exiled in Holland denounced the +scheme (these brethren, led by Mr MacWard, opposed all attempts at +reconciliation), it also offended the Archbishops, who issued a +Remonstrance. Sharp was silenced; Burnet of Glasgow was superseded, and +the see was given to the saintly but unpractical Leighton. By 1670 +conventiclers met in arms, and "a clanking Act," as Lauderdale called it, +menaced them with death: Charles II. resented but did not rescind it. In +fact, the disorders and attacks on conformist ministers were of a +violence much overlooked by our historians. In 1672 a second Indulgence +split the Kirk into factions--the exiles in Holland maintaining that +preachers who accepted it should be held men unholy, false brethren. But +the Indulged increased in numbers, and finally in influence. + +To such a man as Leighton the whole quarrel seemed "a scuffle of drunken +men in the dark." An Englishman entering a Scottish church at this time +found no sort of liturgy; prayers and sermons were what the minister +chose to make them--in fact, there was no persecution for religion, says +Sir George Mackenzie. But if men thought even a shadow of Episcopacy an +offence to Omnipotence, and the king's authority in ecclesiastical cases +a usurping of "the Crown Honours of Christ"; if they consequently broke +the law by attending armed conventicles and assailing conformist +preachers, and then were fined or imprisoned,--from their point of view +they were being persecuted for their religion. Meanwhile they bullied +and "rabbled" the "curates" for _their_ religion: such was Leighton's +"drunken scuffle in the dark." + +In 1672 Lauderdale married the rapacious and tyrannical daughter of Will +Murray--of old the whipping-boy of Charles I., later a disreputable +intriguer. Lauderdale's own ferocity of temper and his greed had created +so much dislike that in the Parliament of 1673 he was met by a +constitutional opposition headed by the Duke of Hamilton, and with Sir +George Mackenzie as its orator. Lauderdale consented to withdraw +monopolies on salt, tobacco, and brandy; to other grievances he would not +listen (the distresses of the Kirk were not brought forward), and he +dissolved the Parliament. The opposition tried to get at him through the +English Commons, who brought against him charges like those which were +fatal to Strafford. They failed; and Lauderdale, holding seven offices +himself, while his brother Haltoun was Master of the Mint, ruled through +a kind of clique of kinsmen and creatures. + +Leighton, in despair, resigned his see: the irreconcilables of the Kirk +had crowned him with insults. The Kirk, he said, "abounded in furious +zeal and endless debates about the empty name and shadow of a difference +in government, in the meanwhile not having of solemn and orderly public +worship as much as a shadow." + +Wodrow, the historian of the sufferings of the Kirk, declares that +through the riotous proceedings of the religious malcontents "the country +resembled war as much as peace." But an Act of Council of 1677 bidding +landowners sign a bond for the peaceable behaviour of all on their lands +was refused obedience by many western lairds. They could not enforce +order, they said: hence it seemed to follow that there was much disorder. +Those who refused were, by a stretch of the law of "law-burrows," bound +over to keep the peace of the Government. Lauderdale, having nothing +that we would call a police, little money, and a small insufficient force +of regulars, called in "the Highland Host," the retainers of Atholl, +Glenorchy, Mar, Moray, and Airlie, and other northern lords, and +quartered them on the disturbed districts for a month. They were then +sent home bearing their spoils (February 1678). Atholl and Perth (later +to be the Catholic minister of James II.) now went over to "the Party," +the opposition, Hamilton's party; Hamilton and others rode to London to +complain against Lauderdale, but he, aided by the silver tongue of +Mackenzie, who had changed sides, won over Charles, and Lauderdale's +assailants were helpless. + +Great unpopularity and disgrace were achieved by the treatment of the +pious Mitchell, who, we have seen, missed Sharp and shot the Bishop of +Orkney in 1668. In 1674 he was taken, and confessed before the Council, +after receiving from Rothes, then Chancellor, assurance of his life: this +with Lauderdale's consent. But when brought before the judges, he +retracted his confession. He was kept a prisoner on the Bass Rock; in +1676 was tortured; in January 1678 was again tried. Haltoun (who in a +letter of 1674 had mentioned the assurance of life), Rothes, Sharp, and +Lauderdale, all swore that, to their memory, no assurance had been given +in 1674. Mitchell's counsel asked to be allowed to examine the Register +of the Council, but, for some invisible technical reasons, the Lords of +the Justiciary refused; the request, they said, came too late. Mackenzie +prosecuted; he had been Mitchell's counsel in 1674, and it is impossible +to follow the reasoning by which he justifies the condemnation and +hanging of Mitchell in January 1678. Sharp was supposed to have urged +Mitchell's trial, and to have perjured himself, which is far from +certain. Though Mitchell was guilty, the manner of his taking off was +flagrantly unjust and most discreditable to all concerned. + +Huge armed conventicles, and others led by Welsh, a preacher, marched +about through the country in December 1678 to May 1679. In April 1679 +two soldiers were murdered while in bed; next day John Graham of +Claverhouse, who had served under the Prince of Orange with credit, and +now comes upon the scene, reported that Welsh was organising an armed +rebellion, and that the peasants were seizing the weapons of the militia. +Balfour of Kinloch (Burley) and Robert Hamilton, a laird in Fife, were +the leaders of that extreme sect which was feared as much by the indulged +preachers as by the curates, and, on May 2, 1679, Balfour, with Hackstoun +of Rathillet (who merely looked on), and other pious desperadoes, passed +half an hour in clumsily hacking Sharp to death, in the presence of his +daughter, at Magus Moor near St Andrews. + +The slayers, says one of them, thanked the Lord "for leading them by His +Holy Spirit in every step they stepped in that matter," and it is obvious +that mere argument was unavailing with gentlemen who cherished such +opinions. In the portraits of Sharp we see a face of refined goodness +which makes the physiognomist distrust his art. From very early times +Cromwell had styled Sharp "Sharp of that ilk." He was subtle, he had no +fanaticism, he warned his brethren in 1660 of the impossibility of +restoring their old authority and discipline. But when he accepted an +archbishopric he sold his honour; his servility to Charles and Lauderdale +was disgusting; fear made him cruel; his conduct at Mitchell's last trial +is, at best, ambiguous; and the hatred in which he was held is proved by +the falsehoods which his enemies told about his private life and his +sorceries. + +The murderers crossed the country, joined the armed fanatics of the west, +under Robert Hamilton, and on Restoration Day (May 29) burned Acts of the +Government at Rutherglen. Claverhouse rode out of Glasgow with a small +force, to inquire into this proceeding; met the armed insurgents in a +strong position defended by marshes and small lochs; sent to Lord Ross at +Glasgow for reinforcements which did not arrive; and has himself told how +he was defeated, pursued, and driven back into Glasgow. "This may be +accounted the beginning of the rebellion in my opinion." + +Hamilton shot with his own hand one of the prisoners, and reckoned the +sparing of the others "one of our first steppings aside." Men so +conscientious as Hamilton were rare in his party, which was ruined +presently by its own distracted counsels. + +The forces of the victors of Drumclog were swollen by their success, but +they were repulsed with loss in an attack on Glasgow. The commands of +Ross and Claverhouse were then withdrawn to Stirling, and when +Livingstone joined them at Larbert, the whole army mustered but 1800 +men--so weak were the regulars. The militia was raised, and the king +sent down his illegitimate son, Monmouth, husband of the heiress of +Buccleuch, at the head of several regiments of redcoats. Argyll was not +of service; he was engaged in private war with the Macleans, who refused +an appeal for help from the rebels. They, in Glasgow and at Hamilton, +were quarrelling over the Indulgence: the extremists called Mr Welsh's +party "rotten-hearted"--Welsh would not reject the king's authority--the +Welshites were the more numerous. On June 22 the Clyde, at Bothwell +Bridge, separated the rebels--whose preachers were inveighing against +each other--from Monmouth's army. Monmouth refused to negotiate till the +others laid down their arms, and after a brief artillery duel, the Royal +infantry carried the bridge, and the rest of the affair was pursuit by +the cavalry. The rival Covenanting leaders, Russel, one of Sharp's +murderers, and Ure, give varying accounts of the affair, and each party +blames the other. The rebel force is reckoned at from five to seven +thousand, the Royal army was of 2300 according to Russel. "Some +hundreds" of the Covenanters fell, and "many hundreds," the Privy Council +reported, were taken. + +The battle of Bothwell Bridge severed the extremists, Robert Hamilton, +Richard Cameron and Cargill, the famous preachers, and the rest, from the +majority of the Covenanters. They dwindled to the "Remnant," growing the +fiercer as their numbers decreased. Only two ministers were hanged; +hundreds of prisoners were banished, like Cromwell's prisoners after +Dunbar, to the American colonies. Of these some two hundred were drowned +in the wreck of their vessel off the Orkneys. The main body were penned +up in Greyfriars Churchyard; many escaped; more signed a promise to +remain peaceful, and shun conventicles. There was more of cruel +carelessness than of the deliberate cruelty displayed in the massacres +and hangings of women after Philiphaugh and Dunaverty. But the +avaricious and corrupt rulers, after 1679, headed by James, Duke of York +(Lauderdale being removed), made the rising of Bothwell Bridge the +pretext for fining and ruining hundreds of persons, especially lairds, +who were accused of helping or harbouring rebels. The officials were +rapacious for their own profit. The records of scores of trials +prosecuted for the sake of spoil, and disgraced by torture and injustice, +make miserable reading. Between the trials of the accused and the +struggle with the small minority of extremists led by Richard Cameron and +the aged Mr Cargill, the history of the country is monotonously wretched. +It was in prosecuting lairds and peasants and preachers that Sir George +Mackenzie, by nature a lenient man and a lover of literature, gained the +name of "the bluidy advocate." + +Cameron and his followers rode about after issuing the wildest +manifestoes, as at Sanquhar in the shire of Dumfries (June 22, 1680). +Bruce of Earlshall was sent with a party of horse to pursue, and, in the +wild marshes of Airs Moss, in Ayrshire, Cameron "fell praying and +fighting"; while Hackstoun of Rathillet, less fortunate, was taken, and +the murder of Sharp was avenged on him with unspeakable cruelties. The +Remnant now formed itself into organised and armed societies; their +conduct made them feared and detested by the majority of the preachers, +who longed for a quiet life, not for the establishment of a Mosaic +commonwealth, and "the execution of righteous judgments" on "malignants." +Cargill was now the leader of the Remnant, and Cargill, in a conventicle +at Torwood, of his own authority excommunicated the king, the Duke of +York, Lauderdale, Rothes, Dalziel, and Mackenzie, whom he accused of +leniency to witches, among other sins. The Government apparently thought +that excommunication, to the mind of Cargill and his adherents, meant +outlawry, and that outlawry might mean the assassination of the +excommunicated. Cargill was hunted, and (July 12, 1681) was captured by +"wild Bonshaw." It was believed by his party that the decision to +execute Cargill was carried by the vote of Argyll, in the Privy Council, +and that Cargill told Rothes (who had signed the Covenant with him in +their youth) that Rothes would be the first to die. Rothes died on July +26, Cargill was hanged on July 27. + +On the following day James, Duke of York, as Royal Commissioner, opened +the first Parliament since 1673-74. James secured an Act making the +right of succession to the Crown independent of differences of religion; +he, of course, was a Catholic. The Test Act was also passed, a thing so +self-contradictory in its terms that any man might take it whose sense of +humour overcame his sense of honour. Many refused, including a number of +the conformist ministers. Argyll took the Test "as far as it is +consistent with itself and with the Protestant religion." + +Argyll, the son of the executed Marquis, had recovered his lands, and +acquired the title of Earl mainly through the help of Lauderdale. During +the religious troubles from 1660 onwards he had taken no great part, but +had sided with the Government, and approved of the torture of preachers. +But what ruined him now (though the facts have been little noticed) was +his disregard of the claims of his creditors, and his obtaining the lands +of the Macleans in Mull and Morven, in discharge of an enormous debt of +the Maclean chief to the Marquis, executed in 1661. The Macleans had +vainly attempted to prove that the debt was vastly inflated by familiar +processes, and had resisted in arms the invasion of the Campbells. They +had friends in Seaforth, the Mackenzies, and in the Earl of Errol and +other nobles. + +These men, especially Mackenzie of Tarbet, an astute intriguer, seized +their chance when Argyll took the Test "with a qualification," and +though, at first, he satisfied and was reconciled to the Duke of York, +they won over the Duke, accused Argyll to the king, brought him before a +jury, and had him condemned of treason and incarcerated. The object may +have been to intimidate him, and destroy his almost royal power in the +west and the islands. In any case, after a trial for treason, in which +one vote settled his doom, he escaped in disguise as a footman (perhaps +by collusion, as was suspected), fled to England, conspired there with +Scottish exiles and a Covenanting refugee, Mr Veitch, and, as Charles +would not allow him to be searched for, he easily escaped to Holland. +(For details, see my book, 'Sir George Mackenzie.') + +It was, in fact, clan hatred that dragged down Argyll. His condemnation +was an infamous perversion of justice, but as Charles would not allow him +to be captured in London, it is most improbable that he would have +permitted the unjust capital sentence to be carried out. The escape was +probably collusive, and the sole result of these intricate iniquities was +to create for the Government an enemy who would have been dangerous if he +had been trusted by the extreme Presbyterians. In England no less than +in Scotland the supreme and odious injustice of Argyll's trial excited +general indignation. The Earl of Aberdeen (Gordon of Haddo) was now +Chancellor, and Queensberry was Treasurer for a while; both were +intrigued against at Court by the Earl of Perth and his brother, later +Lord Melfort, and probably by far the worst of all the knaves of the +Restoration. + +Increasing outrages by the Remnant, now headed by the Rev. Mr James +Renwick, a very young man, led to more furious repression, especially as +in 1683 Government detected a double plot--the wilder English aim being +to raise the rabble and to take or slay Charles and his brother at the +Rye House; while the more respectable conspirators, English and Scots, +were believed to be acquainted with, though not engaged in, this design. +The Rev. Mr Carstares was going and coming between Argyll and the exiles +in Holland and the intriguers at home. They intended as usual first to +surprise Edinburgh Castle. In England Algernon Sidney, Lord Russell, and +others were arrested, while Baillie of Jerviswoode and Carstares were +apprehended--Carstares in England. He was sent to Scotland, where he +could be tortured. The trial of Jerviswoode was if possible more unjust +than even the common run of these affairs, and he was executed (December +24, 1684). + +The conspiracy was, in fact, a very serious affair: Carstares was +confessedly aware of its criminal aspect, and was in the closest +confidence of the ministers of William of Orange. What his dealings were +with them in later years he would never divulge. But it is clear that if +the plotters slew Charles and James, the hour had struck for the Dutch +deliverer's appearance. If we describe the Rye House Plot as aiming +merely at "the exclusion of the Duke of York from the throne," we shut +our eyes to evidence and make ourselves incapable of understanding the +events. There were plotters of every degree and rank, and they were +intriguing with Argyll, and, through Carstares who knew, though he +refused a part in the murder plot, were in touch at once with Argyll and +the intimates of William of Orange. + +Meanwhile "the hill men," the adherents of Renwick, in October 1684, +declared a war of assassination against their opponents, and announced +that they would try malignants in courts of their own. Their manifesto +("The Apologetical Declaration") caused an extraordinary measure of +repression. A test--the abjuration of the _criminal_ parts of Renwick's +declaration--was to be offered by military authority to all and sundry. +Refusal to abjure entailed military execution. The test was only +obnoxious to sincere fanatics; but among them must have been hundreds of +persons who had no criminal designs, and merely deemed it a point of +honour not to "homologate" any act of a Government which was corrupt, +prelatic, and unholy. + +Later victims of this view of duty were Margaret Lauchleson and Margaret +Wilson--an old woman and a young girl--cruelly drowned by the local +authorities at Wigtown (May 1685). A myth represents Claverhouse as +having been present. The shooting of John Brown, "the Christian +Carrier," by Claverhouse in the previous week was an affair of another +character. Claverhouse did not exceed his orders, and ammunition and +treasonable papers were in Brown's possession; he was also sheltering a +red-handed rebel. Brown was not shot merely "because he was a +Nonconformist," nor was he shot by the hand of Claverhouse. + +These incidents of "the killing time" were in the reign of James II.; +Charles II. had died, to the sincere grief of most of his subjects, on +February 2, 1685. "Lecherous and treacherous" as he was, he was humorous +and good-humoured. The expected invasion of Scotland by Argyll, of +England by Monmouth, did not encourage the Government to use respective +lenity in the Covenanting region, from Lanarkshire to Galloway. + +Argyll, who sailed from Holland on May 2, had a council of Lowlanders who +thwarted him. His interests were in his own principality, but he found +it occupied by Atholl and his clansmen, and the cadets of his own House +as a rule would not rally to him. The Lowlanders with him, Sir Patrick +Hume, Sir John Cochrane, and the rest, wished to move south and join +hands with the Remnant in the west and in Galloway; but the Remnant +distrusted the sudden religious zeal of Argyll, and were cowed by +Claverhouse. The coasts were watched by Government vessels of war, and +when, after vain movements round about his own castle, Inveraray, Argyll +was obliged by his Lowlanders to move on Glasgow, he was checked at every +turn; the leaders, weary and lost in the marshes, scattered from +Kilpatrick on Clyde; Argyll crossed the river, and was captured by +servants of Sir John Shaw of Greenock. He was not put to trial nor to +torture; he was executed on the verdict of 1681. About 200 suspected +persons were lodged by Government in Dunottar Castle at the time and +treated with abominable cruelty. + +The Covenanters were now effectually put down, though Renwick was not +taken and hanged till 1688. The preachers were anxious for peace and +quiet, and were bitterly hostile to Renwick. The Covenant was a dead +letter as far as power to do mischief was concerned. It was not +persecution of the Kirk, but demand for toleration of Catholics and a +manifest desire to restore the Church, that in two years lost James his +kingdoms. + +On April 29, 1686, James's message to the Scots Parliament asked +toleration for "our innocent subjects" the Catholics. He had substituted +Perth's brother, now entitled Earl of Melfort, for Queensberry; Perth was +now Chancellor; both men had adopted their king's religion, and the +infamous Melfort can hardly be supposed to have done so honestly. Their +families lost all in the event except their faith. With the request for +toleration James sent promises of free trade with England, and he asked +for no supplies. Perth had introduced Catholic vestments and furnishings +in Holyrood chapel, which provoked a No Popery riot. Parliament would +not permit toleration; James removed many of the Council and filled their +places with Catholics. Sir George Mackenzie's conscience "dirled"; he +refused to vote for toleration and he lost the Lord Advocateship, being +superseded by Sir James Dalrymple, an old Covenanting opponent of +Claverhouse in Galloway. + +In August James, by prerogative, did what the Estates would not do, and +he deprived the Archbishop of Glasgow and the Bishop of Dunkeld of their +Sees: though a Catholic, he was the king-pope of a Protestant church! In +a decree of July 1687 he extended toleration to the Kirk, and a meeting +of preachers at Edinburgh expressed "a deep sense of your Majesty's +gracious and surprising favour." The Kirk was indeed broken, and, when +the Revolution came, was at last ready for a compromise from which the +Covenants were omitted. On February 17, 1688, Mr Renwick was hanged at +Edinburgh: he had been prosecuted by Dalrymple. On the same day +Mackenzie superseded Dalrymple as Lord Advocate. + +After the birth of the White Rose Prince of Wales (June 10, 1688), +Scotland, like England, apprehended that a Catholic king would be +followed by a Catholic son. The various contradictory lies about the +child's birth flourished, all the more because James ventured to select +the magistrates of the royal burghs. It became certain that the Prince +of Orange would invade, and Melfort madly withdrew the regular troops, +with Claverhouse (now Viscount Dundee) to aid in resisting William in +England, though Balcarres proposed a safer way of holding down the +English northern counties by volunteers, the Highland clans, and new +levies. Thus the Privy Council in Scotland were left at the mercy of the +populace. + +Of the Scottish army in England all were disbanded when James fled to +France, except a handful of cavalry, whom Dundee kept with him. Perth +fled from Edinburgh, but was taken and held a prisoner for four years; +the town train-band, with the mob and some Cameronians, took Holyrood, +slaying such of the guard as they did not imprison; "many died of their +wounds and hunger." The chapel and Catholic houses were sacked, and +gangs of the armed Cameronian societies went about in the south-west, +rabbling, robbing, and driving away ministers of the Episcopalian sort. +Atholl was in power in Edinburgh; in London, where James's Scots friends +met, the Duke of Hamilton was made President of Council, and power was +left till the assembling of a Convention at Edinburgh (March 1689) in the +hands of William. + +In Edinburgh Castle the wavering Duke of Gordon was induced to remain by +Dundee and Balcarres; while Dundee proposed to call a Jacobite convention +in Stirling. Melfort induced James to send a letter contrary to the +desires of his party; Atholl, who had promised to join them, broke away; +the life of Dundee was threatened by the fanatics, and on March 18, +seeing his party headless and heartless, Dundee rode north, going +"wherever might lead him the shade of Montrose." + +Mackay now brought to Edinburgh regiments from Holland, which overawed +the Jacobites, and he secured for William the key of the north, the +castle of Stirling. With Hamilton as President, the Convention, with +only four adverse votes, declared against James and his son; and Hamilton +(April 3) proclaimed at the cross the reign of William and Mary. The +claim of rights was passed and declared Episcopacy intolerable. Balcarres +was thrown into prison: on May 11 William took the Coronation oath for +Scotland, merely protesting that he would not "root out heretics," as the +oath enjoined. + +This was "the end o' an auld sang," the end of the Stuart dynasty, and of +the equally "divine rights" of kings and of preachers. + +In a sketch it is impossible to convey any idea of the sufferings of +Scotland, at least of Covenanting Scotland, under the Restoration. There +was contest, unrest, and dragoonings, and the quartering of a brutal and +licentious soldiery on suspected persons. Law, especially since 1679, +had been twisted for the conviction of persons whom the administration +desired to rob. The greed and corruption of the rulers, from Lauderdale, +his wife, and his brother Haltoun, to Perth and his brother, the Earl of +Melfort, whose very title was the name of an unjustly confiscated estate, +is almost inconceivable. {225} Few of the foremost men in power, except +Sir George Mackenzie and Claverhouse, were free from personal profligacy +of every sort. Claverhouse has left on record his aversion to severities +against the peasantry; he was for prosecuting such gentry as the +Dalrymples. As constable of Dundee he refused to inflict capital +punishment on petty offenders, and Mackenzie went as far as he dared in +opposing the ferocities of the inquisition of witches. But in cases of +alleged treason Mackenzie knew no mercy. + +Torture, legal in Scotland, was used with barbarism unprecedented there +after each plot or rising, to extract secrets which, save in one or two +cases like that of Carstares, the victims did not possess. They were +peasants, preachers, and a few country gentlemen: the nobles had no +inclination to suffer for the cause of the Covenants. The Covenants +continued to be the idols of the societies of Cameronians, and of many +preachers who were no longer inclined to die for these documents,--the +expression of such strange doctrines, the causes of so many sorrows and +of so many martyrdoms. However little we may sympathise with the +doctrines, none the less the sufferers were idealists, and, no less than +Montrose, preferred honour to life. + +With all its sins, the Restoration so far pulverised the pretensions +which, since 1560, the preachers had made, that William of Orange was not +obliged to renew the conflict with the spiritual sons of Knox and Andrew +Melville. + +This fact is not so generally recognised as it might be. It is therefore +proper to quote the corroborative opinion of the learned Historiographer- +Royal of Scotland, Professor Hume Brown. "By concession and repression +the once mighty force of Scottish Presbyterianism had been broken. Most +deadly of the weapons in the accomplishment of this result had been the +three Acts of Indulgence which had successively cut so deep into the +ranks of uniformity. In succumbing to the threats and promises of the +Government, the Indulged ministers had undoubtedly compromised the +fundamental principles of Presbyterianism. . . . The compliance of these +ministers was, in truth, the first and necessary step towards that +religious and political compromise which the force of circumstances was +gradually imposing on the Scottish people," and "the example of the +Indulged ministers, who composed the great mass of the Presbyterian +clergy, was of the most potent effect in substituting the idea of +toleration for that of the religious absolutism of Knox and Melville." +{226} + +It may be added that the pretensions of Knox and Melville and all their +followers were no essential part of Presbyterial Church government, but +were merely the continuation or survival of the clerical claims of +apostolic authority, as enforced by such popes as Hildebrand and such +martyrs as St Thomas of Canterbury. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. WILLIAM AND MARY. + + +While Claverhouse hovered in the north the Convention (declared to be a +Parliament by William on June 5) took on, for the first time in Scotland +since the reign of Charles I, the aspect of an English Parliament, and +demanded English constitutional freedom of debate. The Secretary in +Scotland was William, Earl of Melville; that hereditary waverer, the Duke +of Hamilton, was Royal Commissioner; but some official supporters of +William, especially Sir James and Sir John Dalrymple, were criticised and +thwarted by "the club" of more extreme Liberals. They were led by the +Lowland ally who had vexed Argyll, Hume of Polwarth; and by Montgomery of +Skelmorley, who, disappointed in his desire of place, soon engaged in a +Jacobite plot. + +The club wished to hasten the grant of Parliamentary liberties which +William was anxious not to give; and to take vengeance on officials such +as Sir James Dalrymple, and his son, Sir John, now Lord Advocate, as he +had been under James II. To these two men, foes of Claverhouse, William +clung while he could. The council obtained, but did not need to use, +permission to torture Jacobite prisoners, "Cavaliers" as at this time +they were styled; but Chieseley of Dalry, who murdered Sir George +Lockhart, President of the College of Justice, was tortured. + +The advanced Liberal Acts which were passed did not receive the touch of +the sceptre from Hamilton, William's Commissioner: thus they were +"vetoed," and of no effect. The old packed committee, "The Lords of the +Articles," was denounced as a grievance; the king was to be permitted to +appoint no officers of State without Parliament's approbation. Hamilton +offered compromises, for William clung to "the Articles"; but he +abandoned them in the following year, and thenceforth till the Union +(1707) the Scottish was "a Free Parliament." Various measures of +legislation for the Kirk---some to emancipate it as in its palmy days, +some to keep it from meddling in politics--were proposed; some measures +to abolish, some to retain lay patronage of livings, were mooted. The +advanced party for a while put a stop to the appointment of judges, but +in August came news of the Viscount Dundee in the north which terrified +parliamentary politicians. + +Edinburgh Castle had been tamely yielded by the Duke of Gordon; +Balcarres, the associate of Dundee, had been imprisoned; but Dundee +himself, after being declared a rebel, in April raised the standard of +King James. As against him the Whigs relied on Mackay, a brave officer +who had been in Dutch service, and now commanded regiments of the Scots +Brigade of Holland. Mackay pursued Dundee, as Baillie had pursued +Montrose, through the north: at Inverness, Dundee picked up some +Macdonalds under Keppoch, but Keppoch was not satisfactory, being +something of a freebooter. The Viscount now rode to the centre of his +hopes, to the Macdonalds of Glengarry, the Camerons of Lochiel, and the +Macleans who had been robbed of their lands by the Earl of Argyll, +executed in 1685. Dundee summoned them to Lochiel's house on Loch Arkaig +for May 18; he visited Atholl and Badenoch; found a few mounted men as +recruits at Dundee; returned through the wilds to Lochaber, and sent +round that old summons to a rising, the Fiery Cross, charred and dipped +in a goat's blood. + +Much time was spent in preliminary manoeuvring and sparring between +Mackay, now reinforced by English regulars, and Dundee, who for a time +disbanded his levies, while Mackay went to receive fresh forces and to +consult the Government at Edinburgh. He decided to march to the west and +bridle the clans by erecting a strong fort at Inverlochy, where Montrose +routed Argyll. A stronghold at Inverlochy menaced the Macdonalds to the +north, and the Camerons in Lochaber, and, southwards, the Stewarts in +Appin. But to reach Inverlochy Mackay had to march up the Tay, past +Blair Atholl, and so westward through very wild mountainous country. To +oppose him Dundee had collected 4000 of the clansmen, and awaited +ammunition and men from James, then in Ireland. By the advice of the +great Lochiel, a man over seventy but miraculously athletic, Dundee +decided to let the clans fight in their old way,--a rush, a volley at +close quarters, and then the claymore. By June 28 Dundee had received no +aid from James,--of money "we have not twenty pounds"; and he was between +the Earl of Argyll (son of the martyr of 1685) and Mackay with his 4000 +foot and eight troops of horse. + +On July 23 Dundee seized the castle of Blair Atholl, which had been the +base of Montrose in his campaigns, and was the key of the country between +the Tay and Lochaber. The Atholl clans, Murrays and Stewarts, breaking +away from the son of their chief, the fickle Marquis of Atholl, were led +by Stewart of Ballechin, but did not swell Dundee's force at the moment. +From James Dundee now received but a battalion of half-starved Irishmen, +under the futile General Cannon. + +On July 27, at Blair, Dundee learned that Mackay's force had already +entered the steep and narrow pass of Killiecrankie, where the road +skirted the brawling waters of the Garry. Dundee had not time to defend +the pass; he marched his men from Blair, keeping the heights, while +Mackay emerged from the gorge, and let his forces rest on the wide level +haugh beside the Garry, under the house of Runraurie, now called Urrard, +with the deep and rapid river in their rear. On this haugh the tourist +sees the tall standing stone which, since 1735 at least, has been known +as "Dundee's stone." From the haugh rises a steep acclivity, leading to +the plateau where the house of Runraurie stood. Mackay feared that +Dundee would occupy this plateau, and that the fire thence would break up +his own men on the haugh below. He therefore seized the plateau, which +was an unfortunate manoeuvre. He was so superior in numbers that both of +his wings extended beyond Dundee's, who had but forty ill-horsed +gentlemen by way of cavalry. After distracting Mackay by movements along +the heights, as if to cut off his communications with the south, Dundee, +who had resisted the prayers of the chiefs that he would be sparing of +his person, gave the word to charge as the sun sank behind the western +hills. Rushing down hill, under heavy fire and losing many men, the +clans, when they came to the shock, swept the enemy from the plateau, +drove them over the declivity, forced many to attempt crossing the Garry, +where they were drowned, and followed, slaying, through the pass. Half +of Hastings' regiment, untouched by the Highland charge, and all of +Leven's men, stood their ground, and were standing there when sixteen of +Dundee's horse returned from the pursuit. Mackay, who had lost his army, +stole across the Garry with this remnant and made for Stirling. He knew +not that Dundee lay on the field, dying in the arms of Victory. Precisely +when and in what manner Dundee was slain is unknown; there is even a fair +presumption, from letters of the English Government, that he was murdered +by two men sent from England on some very secret mission. When last seen +by his men, Dundee was plunged in the battle smoke, sword in hand, in +advance of his horse. + +When the Whigs--terrified by the defeat and expecting Dundee at Stirling +with the clans and the cavaliers of the Lowlands--heard of his fall, +their sorrow was changed into rejoicing. The cause of King James was +mortally wounded by the death of "the glory of the Grahams," who alone +could lead and keep together a Highland host. Deprived of his leadership +and distrustful of his successor, General Cannon, the clans gradually +left the Royal Standard. The Cameronian regiment, recruited from the +young men of the organised societies, had been ordered to occupy Dunkeld. +Here they were left isolated, "in the air," by Mackay or his +subordinates, and on August 21 these raw recruits, under Colonel Cleland, +who had fought at Drumclog, had to receive the attack of the Highlanders. +Cleland had fortified the Abbey church and the "castle," and his +Cameronians fired from behind walls and from loopholes with such success +that Cannon called off the clansmen, or could not bring them to a second +attack: both versions are given. Cleland fell in the fight; the clans +disbanded, and Mackay occupied the castle of Blair. + +Three weeks later the Cameronians, being unpaid, mutinied; and Ross, +Annandale, and Polwarth, urging their demands for constitutional rights, +threw the Lowlands into a ferment. Crawford, whose manner of speech was +sanctimonious, was evicting from their parishes ministers who remained +true to Episcopacy, and would not pray for William and Mary. Polwarth +now went to London with an address to these Sovereigns framed by "the +Club," the party of liberty. But the other leaders of that party, +Annandale, Ross, and Montgomery of Skelmorley, all of them eager for +place and office, entered into a conspiracy of intrigue with the +Jacobites for James's restoration. In February 1690 the Club was +distracted; and to Melville, as Commissioner in the Scottish Parliament, +William gave orders that the Acts for re-establishing Presbytery and +abolishing lay patronage of livings were to be passed. Montgomery was +obliged to bid yet higher for the favour of the more extreme preachers +and devotees,--but he failed. In April the Lords of the Articles were +abolished at last, and freedom of parliamentary debate was thus secured. +The Westminster Confession was reinstated, and in May, after the last +remnants of a Jacobite force in the north had been surprised and +scattered or captured by Sir Thomas Livingstone at Cromdale Haugh (May +1), the alliance of Jacobites and of the Club broke down, and the leaders +of the Club saved themselves by playing the part of informers. + +The new Act regarding the Kirk permitted the holding of Synods and +General Assemblies, to be summoned by permission of William or of the +Privy Council, with a Royal Commissioner present to restrain the +preachers from meddling, as a body, with secular politics. The Kirk was +to be organised by the "Sixty Bishops," the survivors of the ministers +ejected in 1663. The benefices of ejected Episcopalian conformists were +declared to be vacant. Lay patronage was annulled: the congregations had +the right to approve or disapprove of presentees. But the Kirk was +deprived of her old weapon, the attachment of civil penalties (that is +practical outlawry) to her sentences of excommunication (July 19, 1690). +The Covenant was silently dropped. + +Thus ended, practically, the war between Kirk and State which had raged +for nearly a hundred and twenty years. The cruel torturing of Nevile +Payne, an English Jacobite taken in Scotland, showed that the new +sovereigns and Privy Council retained the passions and methods of the +old, but this was the last occasion of judicial torture for political +offences in Scotland. Payne was silent, but was illegally imprisoned +till his death. + +The proceedings of the restored General Assembly were awaited with +anxiety by the Government. The extremists of the Remnant, the +"Cameronians," sent deputies to the Kirk. They were opposed to +acknowledging sovereigns who were "the head of the Prelatics" in England, +and they, not being supported by the Assembly, remained apart from the +Kirk and true to the Covenants. + +Much had passed which William disliked--the abolition of patronage, the +persecution of Episcopalians--and Melville, in 1691, was removed by the +king from the Commissionership. + +The Highlands were still unsettled. In June 1691 Breadalbane, at heart a +Jacobite, attempted to appease the chiefs by promises of money in +settlement of various feuds, especially that of the dispossessed Macleans +against the occupant of their lands, Argyll. Breadalbane was known by +Hill, the commander of Fort William at Inverlochy, to be dealing between +the clans and James, as well as between William and the clans. William, +then campaigning in Flanders, was informed of this fact, thought it of no +importance, and accepted a truce from July 1 to October 1 with Buchan, +who commanded such feeble forces as still stood for James in the north. +At the same time William threatened the clans, in the usual terms, with +"fire and sword," if the chiefs did not take the oaths to his Government +by January 1, 1692. Money and titles under the rank of earldoms were to +be offered to Macdonald of Sleat, Maclean of Dowart, Lochiel, Glengarry, +and Clanranald, if they would come in. All declined the bait--if +Breadalbane really fished with it. It is plain, contrary to Lord +Macaulay's statement, that Sir John Dalrymple, William's trusted man for +Scotland, at this time hoped for Breadalbane's success in pacifying the +clans. But Dalrymple, by December 1691, wrote, "I think the Clan Donell +must be rooted out, and Lochiel." He could not mean that he hoped to +massacre so large a part of the population. He probably meant by +"punitive expeditions" in the modern phrase--by "fire and sword," in the +style current then--to break up the recalcitrants. Meanwhile it was +Dalrymple's hope to settle ancient quarrels about the "superiorities" of +Argyll over the Camerons, and the question of compensation for the lands +reft by the Argyll family from the Macleans. + +Before December 31, in fear of "fire and sword," the chiefs submitted, +except the greatest, Glengarry, and the least in power, MacIan or +Macdonald, with his narrow realm of Glencoe, whence his men were used to +plunder the cattle of their powerful neighbour, Breadalbane. Dalrymple +now desired not peace, but the sword. By January 9, 1692, Dalrymple, in +London, heard that Glencoe had come in (he had accidentally failed to +come in by January 1), and Dalrymple was "sorry." By January 11 +Dalrymple knew that Glencoe had not taken the oath before January 1, and +rejoiced in the chance to "root out that damnable sect." In fact, in the +end of December Glencoe had gone to Fort William to take the oaths before +Colonel Hill, but found that he must do so before the Sheriff of the +shire at remote Inveraray. Various accidents of weather delayed him; the +Sheriff also was not at Inveraray when Glencoe arrived, but administered +the oaths on January 6. The document was taken to Edinburgh, where Lord +Stair, Dalrymple's father, and others caused it to be deleted. Glengarry +was still unsworn, but Glengarry was too strong to be "rooted out"; +William ordered his commanding officer, Livingstone, "to extirpate that +sect of thieves," the Glencoe men (January 16). On the same day +Dalrymple sent down orders to hem in the MacIans, and to guard all the +passes, by land or water, from their glen. Of the actual _method_ of +massacre employed Dalrymple may have been ignorant; but orders "from +Court" to "spare none," and to take no prisoners, were received by +Livingstone on January 23. + +On February 1, Campbell of Glenlyon, with 120 men, was hospitably +received by MacIan, whose son, Alexander, had married Glenlyon's niece. +On February 12, Hill sent 400 of his Inverlochy garrison to Glencoe to +join hands with 400 of Argyll's regiment, under Major Duncanson. These +troops were to guard the southern passes out of Glencoe, while Hamilton +was to sweep the passes from the north. + +At 5 A.M. on February 13 the soldier-guests of MacIan began to slay and +plunder. Men, women, and children were shot or bayoneted, 1000 head of +cattle were driven away; but Hamilton arrived too late. Though the aged +chief had been shot at once, his sons took to the hills, and the greater +part of the population escaped with their lives, thanks to Hamilton's +dilatoriness. "All I regret is that any of the sect got away," wrote +Dalrymple on March 5, "and there is necessity to prosecute them to the +utmost." News had already reached London "that they are murdered in +their beds." The newspapers, however, were silenced, and the story was +first given to Europe in April by the 'Paris Gazette.' The crime was +unprecedented: it had no precedent, admits of no apology. Many an +expedition of "fire and sword" had occurred, but never had there been a +midnight massacre "under trust" of hosts by guests. King William, on +March 6, went off to his glorious wars on the Continent, probably hoping +to hear that the fugitive MacIans were still being "prosecuted"--if, +indeed, he thought of them at all. But by October they were received +into his peace. + +William was more troubled by the General Assembly, which refused to take +oaths of allegiance to him and his wife, and actually appointed a date +for an Assembly without his consent. When he gave it, it was on +condition that the members should take the oaths of allegiance. They +refused: it was the old deadlock, but William at the last moment withdrew +from the imposition of oaths of allegiance--moved, it is said, by Mr +Carstares, "Cardinal Carstares," who had been privy to the Rye House +Plot. Under Queen Anne, however, the conscientious preachers were +compelled to take the oaths like mere laymen. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. DARIEN. + + +The Scottish Parliament of May-July 1695, held while William was abroad, +saw the beginning of evils for Scotland. The affair of Glencoe was +examined into by a Commission, headed by Tweeddale, William's +Commissioner: several Judges sat in it. Their report cleared William +himself: Dalrymple, it was found, had "exceeded his instructions." Hill +was exonerated. Hamilton, who commanded the detachment that arrived too +late, fled the country. William was asked to send home for trial +Duncanson and other butchers who were with his army. The king was also +invited to deal with Dalrymple as he thought fit. He thought fit to give +Dalrymple an indemnity, and made him Viscount Stair, with a grant of +money, but did not retain him in office. He did not send the subaltern +butchers home for trial. Many years later, in 1745, the MacIans insisted +on acting as guards of the house and family of the descendant of Campbell +of Glenlyon, the guest and murderer of the chief of Glencoe. + +Perhaps by way of a sop to the Scots, William allowed an Act for the +Establishment of a Scottish East India Company to be passed on June 20, +1695. He afterwards protested that in this matter he had been "badly +served," probably meaning "misinformed." The result was the Darien +Expedition, a great financial disaster for Scotland, and a terrible +grievance. Hitherto since the Union of the Crowns all Scottish efforts +to found trading companies, as in England, had been wrecked on English +jealousy: there had always been, and to this new East India Company there +was, a rival, a pre-existing English company. Scottish Acts for +protection of home industries were met by English retaliation in a war of +tariffs. Scotland had prohibited the exportation of her raw materials, +such as wool, but was cut off from English and other foreign markets for +her cloths. The Scots were more successful in secret and unlegalised +trading with their kinsmen in the American colonies. + +The Scottish East India Company's aim was to sell Scottish goods in many +places, India for example; and it was secretly meant to found a factory +and central mart on the isthmus of Panama. For these ends capital was +withdrawn from the new and unsuccessful manufacturing companies. The +great scheme was the idea of William Paterson (born 1658), the +far-travelled and financially-speculative son of a farmer in +Dumfriesshire. He was the "projector," or one of the projectors, of the +Bank of England of 1694, investing 2000 pounds. He kept the Darien part +of his scheme for an East India Company in the background, and it seems +that William, when he granted a patent to that company, knew nothing of +this design to settle in or near the Panama isthmus, which was quite +clearly within the Spanish sphere of influence. When the philosopher +John Locke heard of the scheme, he wished England to steal the idea and +seize a port in Darien: it thus appears that he too was unaware that to +do so was to inflict an insult and injury on Spain. There is reason to +suppose that the grant of the patent to the East India Company was +obtained by bribing some Scottish politician or politicians unnamed, +though one name is not beyond probable conjecture. + +In any case Paterson admitted English capitalists, who took up half of +the shares, as the Act of Patent permitted them to do. By December +William was writing that he "had been ill-served by some of my +Ministers." He had no notice of the details of the Act of Patent till he +had returned to England, and found English capitalists and the English +Parliament in a fury. The Act committed William to interposing his +authority if the ships of the company were detained by foreign powers, +and gave the adventurers leave to take "reparation" by force from their +assailants (this they later did when they captured in the Firth of Forth +an English vessel, the _Worcester_). + +On the opening of the books of the new company in London (October 1695) +there had been a panic, and a fall of twenty points in the shares of the +English East India Company. The English Parliament had addressed William +in opposition to the Scots Company. The English subscribers of half the +paid up capital were terrorised, and sold out. Later, Hamburg +investments were cancelled through William's influence. All lowland +Scotland hurried to invest--in the dark--for the Darien part of the +scheme was practically a secret: it was vaguely announced that there was +to be a settlement somewhere, "in Africa or the Indies, or both." +Materials of trade, such as wigs, combs, Bibles, fish-hooks, and +kid-gloves, were accumulated. Offices were built--later used as an +asylum for pauper lunatics. + +When, in July 1697, the secret of Panama came out, the English Council of +Trade examined Dampier, the voyager, and (September) announced that the +territory had never been Spain's, and that England ought to anticipate +Scotland by seizing Golden Island and the port on the mainland. + +In July 1698 the Council of the intended Scots colony was elected, bought +three ships and two tenders, and despatched 1200 settlers with two +preachers, but with most inadequate provisions, and flour as bad as that +paid to Assynt for the person of Montrose. On October 30, in the Gulf of +Darien they found natives who spoke Spanish; they learned that the +nearest gold mines were in Spanish hands, and that the chiefs were +carrying Spanish insignia of office. By February 1699 the Scots and +Spaniards were exchanging shots. Presently a Scottish ship, cruising in +search of supplies, was seized by the Spanish at Carthagena; the men lay +in irons at Seville till 1700. Spain complained to William, and the +Scots seized a merchant ship. The English Governor of Jamaica forbade +his people, by virtue of a letter addressed by the English Government to +all the colonies, to grant supplies to the starving Scots, most of whom +sailed away from the colony in June, and suffered terrible things by sea +and land. Paterson returned to Scotland. A new expedition which left +Leith on May 12, 1699, found at Darien some Scots in two ships, and +remained on the scene, distracted by quarrels, till February 1700, when +Campbell of Fonab, sent with provisions in the _Speedy Return_ from +Scotland, arrived to find the Spaniards assailing the adventurers. He +cleared the Spaniards out of their fort in fifteen minutes, but the +Colonial Council learned that Spain was launching a small but adequate +armada against them. After an honourable resistance the garrison +capitulated, and marched out with colours flying (March 30). This +occurred just when Scotland was celebrating the arrival of the news of +Fonab's gallant feat of arms. + +At home the country was full of discontent: William's agent at Hamburg +had prevented foreigners from investing in the Scots company. English +colonists had been forbidden to aid the Scottish adventurers. Two +hundred thousand pounds, several ships, and many lives had been lost. "It +is very like 1641," wrote an onlooker, so fierce were the passions that +raged against William. The news of the surrender of the colonists +increased the indignation. The king refused (November 1700) to gratify +the Estates by regarding the Darien colony as a legal enterprise. To do +so was to incur war with Spain and the anger of his English subjects. Yet +the colony had been legally founded in accordance with the terms of the +Act of Patent. While the Scots dwelt on this fact, William replied that +the colony being extinct, circumstances were altered. The Estates voted +that Darien _was_ a lawful colony, and (1701) in an address to the Crown +demanded compensation for the nation's financial losses. William replied +with expressions of sympathy and hopes that the two kingdoms would +consider a scheme of Union. A Bill for Union brought in through the +English Lords was rejected by the English Commons. + +There was hardly an alternative between Union and War between the two +nations. War there would have been had the exiled Prince of Wales been +brought up as a Presbyterian. His father James VII. died a few months +before William III. passed away on March 7, 1702. Louis XIV. +acknowledged James, Prince of Wales, as James III. of England and Ireland +and VIII, of Scotland; and Anne, the boy's aunt, ascended the throne. As +a Stuart she was not unwelcome to the Jacobites, who hoped for various +chances, as Anne was believed to be friendly to her nephew. + +In 1701 was passed an Act for preventing wrongous imprisonment and +against undue delay in trials. But Nevile Payne continued to be untried +and illegally imprisoned. Offenders, generally, could "run their +letters" and protest, if kept in durance untried for sixty days. + +The Revolution of 1688-89, with William's very reluctant concessions, had +placed Scotland in entirely new relations with England. Scotland could +now no longer be "governed by the pen" from London; Parliament could no +longer be bridled and led, at English will, by the Lords of the Articles. +As the religious mainspring of Scottish political life, the domination of +the preachers had been weakened by the new settlement of the Kirk; as the +country was now set on commercial enterprises, which England everywhere +thwarted, it was plain that the two kingdoms could not live together on +the existing terms. Union there must be, or conquest, as under Cromwell; +yet an English war of conquest was impossible, because it was impossible +for Scotland to resist. Never would the country renew, as in the old +days, the alliance of France, for a French alliance meant the acceptance +by Scotland of a Catholic king. + +England, on her side, if Union came, was accepting a partner with very +poor material resources. As regards agriculture, for example, vast +regions were untilled, or tilled only in the straths and fertile spots by +the hardy clansmen, who could not raise oats enough for their own +subsistence, and periodically endured famines. In "the ill years" of +William, years of untoward weather, distress had been extreme. In the +fertile Lowlands that old grievance, insecurity of tenure, and the +raising of rents in proportion to improvements made by the tenants, had +baffled agriculture. Enclosures were necessary for the protection of the +crops, but even if tenants or landlords had the energy or capital to make +enclosures, the neighbours destroyed them under cloud of night. The old +labour-services were still extorted; the tenant's time and strength were +not his own. Land was exhausted by absence of fallows and lack of +manure. The country was undrained, lochs and morasses covered what is +now fertile land, and hillsides now in pasture were under the plough. The +once prosperous linen trade had suffered from the war of tariffs. + +The life of the burghs, political and municipal and trading, was little +advanced on the mediaeval model. The independent Scot steadily resisted +instruction from foreign and English craftsmen in most of the mechanical +arts. Laws for the encouragement of trades were passed and bore little +fruit. Companies were founded and were ruined by English tariffs and +English competition. The most energetic of the population went abroad, +here they prospered in commerce and in military service, while an +enormous class of beggars lived on the hospitality of their neighbours at +home. In such conditions of inequality it was plain that, if there was +to be a Union, the adjustment of proportions of taxation and of +representation in Parliament would require very delicate handling, while +the differences of Church Government were certain to cause jealousies and +opposition. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. PRELIMINARIES TO THE UNION. + + +The Scottish Parliament was not dissolved at William's death, nor did it +meet at the time when, legally, it ought to have met. Anne, in a +message, expressed hopes that it would assent to Union, and promised to +concur in any reasonable scheme for compensating the losers by the Darien +scheme. When Parliament met, Queensberry, being Commissioner, soon found +it necessary (June 30, 1702) to adjourn. New officers of State were then +appointed, and there was a futile meeting between English and Scottish +Commissioners chosen by the Queen to consider the Union. + +Then came a General Election (1703), which gave birth to the last +Scottish Parliament. The Commissioner, Queensberry, and the other +officers of State, "the Court party," were of course for Union; among +them was prominent that wavering Earl of Mar who was so active in +promoting the Union, and later precipitated the Jacobite rising of 1715. +There were in Parliament the party of Courtiers, friends of England and +Union; the party of Cavaliers, that is Jacobites; and the Country party, +led by the Duke of Hamilton, who was in touch with the Jacobites, but was +quite untrustworthy, and much suspected of desiring the Crown of Scotland +for himself. + +Queensberry cozened the Cavaliers--by promises of tolerating their +Episcopalian religion--into voting a Bill recognising Anne, and then +broke his promise. The Bill for tolerating worship as practised by the +Episcopalians was dropped; for the Commissioner of the General Assembly +of the Kirk declared that such toleration was "the establishment of +iniquity by law." + +Queensberry's one aim was to get Supply voted, for war with France had +begun. But the Country and the Cavalier parties refused Supply till an +Act of Security for religion, liberty, law, and trade should be passed. +The majority decided that, on the death of Anne, the Estates should name +as king of Scotland a Protestant representative of the House of Stewart, +who should not be the successor to the English crown, save under +conditions guaranteeing Scotland as a sovereign state, with frequent +Parliaments, and security for Scottish navigation, colonies, trade, and +religion (the Act of Security). + +It was also decided that landholders and the burghs should drill and arm +their tenants and dependants--if Protestant. Queensberry refused to pass +this Act of Security; Supply, on the other side, was denied, and after a +stormy scene Queensberry prorogued Parliament (September 16, 1703). + +In the excitement, Atholl had deserted the Court party and voted with the +majority. He had a great Highland following, he might throw it on the +Jacobite side, and the infamous intriguer, Simon Frazer (the Lord Lovat +of 1745), came over from France and betrayed to Queensberry a real or a +feigned intrigue of Atholl with France and with the Ministers of James +VIII., called "The Pretender." + +Atholl was the enemy of Frazer, a canting, astute, and unscrupulous +ruffian. Queensberry conceived that in a letter given to him by Lovat he +had irrefutable evidence against Atholl as a conspirator, and he allowed +Lovat to return to France, where he was promptly imprisoned as a traitor. +Atholl convinced Anne of his own innocence, and Queensberry fell under +ridicule and suspicion, lost his office of Commissioner, and was +superseded by Tweeddale. In England the whole complex affair of Lovat's +revelations was known as "The Scottish Plot"; Hamilton was involved, or +feared he might be involved, and therefore favoured the new proposals of +the Courtiers and English party for placing limits on the prerogative of +Anne's successor, whoever he might be. + +In the Estates (July 1704), after months passed in constitutional +chicanery, the last year's Act of Security was passed and touched with +the sceptre; and the House voted Supply for six months. But owing to a +fierce dispute on private business--namely, the raising of the question, +"Who were the persons accused in England of being engaged in the +'Scottish Plot'?"--no hint of listening to proposals for Union was +uttered. Who could propose, as Commissioners to arrange Union, men who +were involved--or in England had been accused of being involved--in the +plot? Scotland had not yet consented that whoever succeeded Anne in +England should also succeed in Scotland. They retained a means of +putting pressure on England, the threat of having a separate king; they +had made and were making military preparations (drill once a-month!), and +England took up the gauntlet. The menacing attitude of Scotland was +debated on with much heat in the English Upper House (November 29), and a +Bill passed by the Commons declared the retaliatory measures which +England was ready to adopt. + +It was at once proved that England could put a much harder pinch on +Scotland than Scotland could inflict on England. Scottish drovers were +no longer to sell cattle south of the Border, Scottish ships trading with +France were to be seized, Scottish coals and linen were to be excluded, +and regiments of regular troops were to be sent to the Border if Scotland +did not accept the Hanoverian succession before Christmas 1705. If it +came to war, Scotland could expect no help from her ancient ally, France, +unless she raised the standard of King James. As he was a Catholic, the +Kirk would prohibit this measure, so it was perfectly clear to every +plain man that Scotland must accept the Union and make the best bargain +she could. + +In spring 1705 the new Duke of Argyll, "Red John of the Battles," a man +of the sword and an accomplished orator, was made Commissioner, and, of +course, favoured the Union, as did Queensberry and the other officers of +State. Friction between the two countries arose in spring, when an +Edinburgh jury convicted, and the mob insisted on the execution of, an +English Captain Green, whose ship, the _Worcester_, had been seized in +the Forth by Roderick Mackenzie, Secretary of the Scottish East India +Company. Green was supposed to have captured and destroyed a ship of the +Company's, the _Speedy Return_, which never did return. It was not +proved that this ship had been Green's victim, but that he had committed +acts of piracy is certain. The hanging of Green increased the animosity +of the sister kingdoms. + +When Parliament met, June 28, 1705, it was a parliament of groups. +Tweeddale and others, turned out of office in favour of Argyll's +Government, formed the Flying Squadron (_Squadrone volante_), voting in +whatever way would most annoy the Government. Argyll opened by +proposing, as did the Queen's Message, the instant discussion of the +Union (July 3). The House preferred to deliberate on anything else, and +the leader of the Jacobites or Cavaliers, Lockhart of Carnwath, a very +able sardonic man, saw that this was, for Jacobite ends, a tactical +error. The more time was expended the more chance had Queensberry to win +votes for the Union. Fletcher of Saltoun, an independent and eloquent +patriot and republican, wasted time by impossible proposals. Hamilton +brought forward, and by only two votes lost, a proposal which England +would never have dreamed of accepting. Canny Jacobites, however, +abstained from voting, and thence Lockhart dates the ruin of his country. +Supply, at all events, was granted, and on that Argyll adjourned. The +queen was to select Commissioners of both countries to negotiate the +Treaty of Union; among the Commissioners Lockhart was the only Cavalier, +and he was merely to watch the case in the Jacobite interest. + +The meetings of the two sets of Commissioners began at Whitehall on April +16. It was arranged that all proposals, modifications, and results +should pass in writing, and secrecy was to be complete. + +The Scots desired Union with Home Rule, with a separate Parliament. The +English would negotiate only on the lines that the Union was to be +complete, "incorporating," with one Parliament for both peoples. By +April 25, 1706, the Scots Commissioners saw that on this point they must +acquiesce; the defeat of the French at Ramilies (May 23) proved that, +even if they could have leaned on the French, France was a broken reed. +International reciprocity in trade, complete freedom of trade at home and +abroad, they did obtain. + +As England, thanks to William III. with his incessant Continental wars, +had already a great National debt, of which Scotland owed nothing, and as +taxation in England was high, while Scottish taxes under the Union would +rise to the same level, and to compensate for the Darien losses, the +English granted a pecuniary "Equivalent" (May 10). They also did not +raise the Scottish taxes on windows, lights, coal, malt, and salt to the +English level, that of war-taxation. The Equivalent was to purchase the +Scottish shares in the East India Company, with interest at five per cent +up to May 1, 1707. That grievance of the shareholders was thus healed, +what public debt Scotland owed was to be paid (the Equivalent was about +400,000 pounds), and any part of the money unspent was to be given to +improve fisheries and manufactures. + +The number of Scottish members of the British Parliament was fixed at +forty-five. On this point the Scots felt that they were hardly used; the +number of their elected representatives of peers in the Lords was +sixteen. Scotland retained her Courts of Law; the feudal jurisdictions +which gave to Argyll and others almost princely powers were retained, and +Scottish procedure in trials continued to vary much from the English +model. Appeals from the Court of Session had previously been brought +before the Parliament of Scotland; henceforth they were to be heard by +the Judges, Scots and English, in the British House of Lords. On July +23, 1706, the treaty was completed; on October 3 the Scottish Parliament +met to debate on it, with Queensberry as Commissioner. Harley, the +English Minister, sent down the author of 'Robinson Crusoe' to watch, +spy, argue, persuade, and secretly report, and De Foe's letters contain +the history of the session. + +The parties in Parliament were thus variously disposed: the Cavaliers, +including Hamilton, had been approached by Louis XIV. and King James (the +Pretender), but had not committed themselves. Queensberry always knew +every risky step taken by Hamilton, who began to take several, but in +each case received a friendly warning which he dared not disregard. At +the opposite pole, the Cameronians and other extreme Presbyterians +loathed the Union, and at last (November-December) a scheme for the +Cameronians and the clans of Angus and Perthshire to meet in arms in +Edinburgh and clear out the Parliament caused much alarm. But Hamilton, +before the arrangement came to a head, was terrorised, and the intentions +of the Cameronians, as far as their records prove, had never been +officially ratified by their leaders. {250} There was plenty of popular +rioting during the session, but Argyll rode into Edinburgh at the head of +the Horse Guards, and Leven held all the gates with drafts from the +garrison of the castle. The Commissioners of the General Assembly made +protests on various points, but were pacified after the security of the +Kirk had been guaranteed. Finally, Hamilton prepared a parliamentary +mine, which would have blown the Treaty of Union sky-high, but on the +night when he should have appeared in the House and set the match to his +petard--he had toothache! This was the third occasion on which he had +deserted the Cavaliers; the Opposition fell to pieces. The _Squadrone +volante_ and the majority of the peers supported the Bill, which was +passed. On January 16, 1707, the Treaty of Union was touched with the +sceptre, "and there is the end of an auld sang," said Seafield. In May +1707 a solemn service was held at St Paul's to commemorate the Union. + +There was much friction in the first year of the Union over excisemen and +tax-collectors: smuggling began to be a recognised profession. Meanwhile, +since 1707, a Colonel Hooke had been acting in Scotland, nominally in +Jacobite, really rather in French interests. Hooke's intrigues were in +part betrayed by De Foe's agent, Ker of Kersland, an amusingly impudent +knave, and were thwarted by jealousies of Argyll and Hamilton. By +deceptive promises (for he was himself deceived into expecting the aid of +the Ulster Protestants) Hooke induced Louis XIV. to send five men-of-war, +twenty-one frigates, and only two transports, to land James in Scotland +(March 1708). The equinoctial gales and the severe illness of James, who +insisted on sailing, delayed the start; the men on the outlook for the +fleet were intoxicated, and Forbin, the French commander, observing +English ships of war coming towards the Firth of Forth, fled, refusing +James's urgent entreaties to be landed anywhere on the coast (March 24). +It was believed that had he landed only with a valet the discontented +country would have risen for their native king. + +In Parliament (1710-1711) the Cavalier Scottish members, by Tory support, +secured the release from prison of a Rev. Mr Greenshields, an +Episcopalian who prayed for Queen Anne, indeed, but had used the liturgy. +The preachers were also galled by the imposition on them of an abjuration +oath, compelling them to pray for prelatical Queen Anne. Lay patronage +of livings was also restored (1712) after many vicissitudes, and this +thorn rankled in the Kirk, causing ever-widening strife for more than a +century. + +The imposition of a malt tax produced so much discontent that even +Argyll, with all the Scottish members of Parliament, was eager for the +repeal of the Act of Union, and proposed it in the House of Peers, when +it was defeated by a small majority. In 1712, when about to start on a +mission to France, Hamilton was slain in a duel by Lord Mohun. According +to a statement of Lockhart's, "Cavaliers were to look for the best" from +Hamilton's mission: it is fairly clear that he was to bring over James in +disguise to England, as in Thackeray's novel, 'Esmond.' But the sword of +Mohun broke the Jacobite plans. Other hopes expired when Bolingbroke and +Harley quarrelled, and Queen Anne died (August 1, 1714). "The best cause +in Europe was lost," cried Bishop Atterbury, "for want of spirit." He +would have proclaimed James as king, but no man supported him, and the +Elector of Hanover, George I., peacefully accepted the throne. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. GEORGE I. + + +For a year the Scottish Jacobites, and Bolingbroke, who fled to France +and became James's Minister, mismanaged the affairs of that most +unfortunate of princes. By February 1715 the Earl of Mar, who had been +distrusted and disgraced by George I., was arranging with the clans for a +rising, while aid from Charles XII. of Sweden was expected from March to +August 1715. It is notable that Charles had invited Dean Swift to visit +his Court, when Swift was allied with Bolingbroke and Oxford. From the +author of 'Gulliver' Charles no doubt hoped to get a trustworthy account +of their policy. The fated rising of 1715 was occasioned by the Duke of +Berwick's advice to James that he must set forth to Scotland or lose his +honour. The prince therefore, acting hastily on news which, two or three +days later, proved to be false, in a letter to Mar fixed August 10 for a +rising. The orders were at once countermanded, when news proving their +futility was received, but James's messenger, Allan Cameron, was detained +on the road, and Mar, not waiting for James's answer to his own last +despatch advising delay, left London for Scotland without a commission; +on August 27 held an Assembly of the chiefs, and, _still without a +commission from James_, raised the standard of the king on September 6. +{254a} + +The folly of Mar was consummate. He knew that Ormonde, the hope of the +English Jacobites, had deserted his post and had fled to France. + +Meanwhile Louis XIV. was dying; he died on August 30, and the Regent +d'Orleans, at the utmost, would only connive at, not assist, James's +enterprise. + +Everything was contrary, everywhere was ignorance and confusion. Lord +John Drummond's hopeful scheme for seizing Edinburgh Castle (September 8) +was quieted _pulveris exigui jactu_, "the gentlemen were powdering their +hair"--drinking at a tavern--and bungled the business. The folly of +Government offered a chance: in Scotland they had but 2000 regulars at +Stirling, where "Forth bridles the wild Highlandman." Mar, who promptly +occupied Perth, though he had some 12,000 broadswords, continued till the +end to make Perth his headquarters. A Montrose, a Dundee, even a Prince +Charles, would have "masked" Argyll at Stirling and seized Edinburgh. In +October 21-November 3, Berwick, while urging James to sail, absolutely +refused to accompany him. The plans of Ormonde for a descent on England +were betrayed by Colonel Maclean, in French service (November 4). In +disguise and narrowly escaping from murderous agents of Stair (British +ambassador to France) on his road, {254b} James journeyed to St Malo +(November 8). + +In Scotland the Macgregors made a futile attempt on Dumbarton Castle, +while Glengarry and the Macleans advanced on Inveraray Castle, negotiated +with Argyll's brother, the Earl of Islay, and marched back to +Strathfillan. In Northumberland Forster and Derwentwater, with some +Catholic fox-hunters, in Galloway the pacific Viscount Kenmure, cruised +vaguely about and joined forces. Mackintosh of Borlum, by a +well-concealed movement, carried a Highland detachment of 1600 men across +the Firth of Forth by boats (October 12-13), with orders to join Forster +and Kenmure and arouse the Border. But on approaching Edinburgh +Mackintosh found Argyll with 500 dragoons ready to welcome him; Mar took +no advantage of Argyll's absence from Stirling, and Mackintosh, when +Argyll returned thither, joined Kenmure and Forster, occupied Kelso, and +marched into Lancashire. The Jacobite forces were pitifully +ill-supplied, they had very little ammunition (the great charge against +Bolingbroke was that he sent none from France), they seem to have had no +idea that powder could be made by the art of man; they were torn by +jealousies, and dispirited by their observation of Mar's incompetence. + +We cannot pursue in detail the story of the futile campaign. On November +12 the mixed Highland, Lowland, and English command found itself cooped +up in Preston, and after a very gallant defence of the town the English +leaders surrendered to the king's mercy, after arranging an armistice +which made it impossible for Mackintosh to cut his way through the +English ranks and retreat to the north. About 1600 prisoners were taken. +Derwentwater and Kenmure were later executed. Forster and Nithsdale made +escapes; Charles Wogan, a kinsman of the chivalrous Wogan of 1650, and +Mackintosh, with six others, forced their way out of Newgate prison on +the night before their trial. Wogan was to make himself heard of again. +Mar had thrown away his Highlanders, with little ammunition and without +orders, on a perfectly aimless and hopeless enterprise. + +Meanwhile he himself, at Perth, had been doing nothing, while in the +north, Simon Frazer (Lord Lovat) escaped from his French prison, raised +his clan and took the castle of Inverness for King George. He thus +earned a pardon for his private and public crimes, and he lived to ruin +the Jacobite cause and lose his own head in 1745-46. + +While the north, Ross-shire and Inverness, were daunted and thwarted by +the success of Lovat, Mar led his whole force from Perth to Dunblane, +apparently in search of a ford over Forth. His Frazers and many of his +Gordons deserted on November 11; on November 12 Mar, at Ardoch (the site +of an old Roman camp), learned that Argyll was marching through Dunblane +to meet him. Next day Mar's force occupied the crest of rising ground on +the wide swell of Sheriffmuir: his left was all disorderly; horse mixed +with foot; his right, with the fighting clans, was well ordered, but the +nature of the ground hid the two wings of the army from each other. On +the right the Macdonalds and Macleans saw Clanranald fall, and on +Glengarry's cry, "Vengeance to-day!" they charged with the claymore and +swept away the regulars of Argyll as at Killiecrankie and Prestonpans. +But, as the clans pursued and slew, their officers whispered that their +own centre and left were broken and flying. Argyll had driven them to +Allan Water; his force, returning, came within close range of the +victorious right of Mar. "Oh, for one hour of Dundee!" cried Gordon of +Glenbucket, but neither party advanced to the shock. Argyll retired +safely to Dunblane, while Mar deserted his guns and powder-carts, and +hurried to Perth. He had lost the gallant young Earl of Strathmore and +the brave Clanranald; on Argyll's side his brother Islay was wounded, and +the Earl of Forfar was slain. Though it was a drawn battle, it proved +that Mar could not move: his forces began to scatter; Huntly was said to +have behaved ill. It was known that Dutch auxiliaries were to reinforce +Argyll, and men began to try to make terms of surrender. Huntly rode off +to his own country, and on December 22 (old style) James landed at +Peterhead. + +James had no lack of personal courage. He had charged again and again at +Malplaquet with the Household cavalry of Louis XIV., and he had +encountered great dangers of assassination on his way to St Malo. But +constant adversity had made him despondent and resigned, while he saw +facts as they really were with a sad lucidity. When he arrived in his +kingdom the Whig clans of the north had daunted Seaforth's Mackenzies, +while in the south Argyll, with his Dutch and other fresh reinforcements, +had driven Mar's men out of Fife. Writing to Bolingbroke, James +described the situation. Mar, with scarcely any ammunition, was facing +Argyll with 11,000 men; the north was held in force by the Whig clans, +Mackays, Rosses, Munroes, and Frazers; deep snow alone delayed the +advance of Argyll, now stimulated by the hostile Cadogan, Marlborough's +favourite, and it was perfectly plain that all was lost. + +For the head of James 100,000 pounds was offered by Hanoverian chivalry: +he was suffering from fever and ague; the Spanish gold that had at last +been sent to him was lost at sea off Dundee, and it is no wonder that +James, never gay, presented to his troops a disconsolate and discouraging +aspect. + +On January 29 his army evacuated Perth; James wept at the order to burn +the villages on Argyll's line of march, and made a futile effort to +compensate the people injured. From Montrose (February 3-14) he wrote +for aid to the French Regent, but next day, urged by Mar, and unknown to +his army, he, with Mar, set sail for France. This evasion was doubtless +caused by a circumstance unusual in warfare: there was a price of 100,000 +pounds on James's head, moreover his force had not one day's supply of +powder. Marshal Keith (brother of the Earl Marischal who retreated to +the isles) says that perhaps one day's supply of powder might be found at +Aberdeen. Nevertheless the fighting clans were eager to meet Argyll, and +would have sold their lives at a high price. They scattered to their +western fastnesses. The main political result, apart from executions and +the passing of forfeited estates into the management of that noted +economist, Sir Richard Steele, and other commissioners, was--the disgrace +of Argyll. He, who with a petty force had saved Scotland, was +represented by Cadogan and by his political enemies as dilatory and +disaffected! The Duke lost all his posts, and in 1716 (when James had +hopes from Sweden) Islay, Argyll's brother, was negotiating with Jacobite +agents. James was creating him a peer of England! + +In Scotland much indignation was aroused by the sending of Scottish +prisoners of war out of the kingdom for trial--namely, to Carlisle--and +by other severities. The Union had never been more unpopular: the +country looked on itself as conquered, and had no means of resistance, +for James, now residing at Avignon, was a Catholic, and any insults and +injuries from England were more tolerable than a restored nationality +with a Catholic king. + +Into the Jacobite hopes and intrigues, the eternal web which from 1689 to +1763 was ever being woven and broken, it is impossible here to enter, +though, in the now published Stuart Papers, the details are well known. +James was driven from Avignon to Italy, to Spain, finally to live a +pensioner at Rome. The luckless attempt of the Earl Marischal, Keith, +his brother, and Lord George Murray, brother of the Duke of Atholl, to +invade Scotland on the west with a small Spanish force, was crushed on +June 10, 1719, in the pass of Glenshiel. + +Two or three months later, James, returning from Spain, married the fair +and hapless Princess Clementina Sobieska, whom Charles Wogan, in an +enterprise truly romantic, had rescued from prison at Innspruck and +conveyed across the Alps. From this wedding, made wretched by the +disappointment of the bride with her melancholy lord,--always busied with +political secrets from which she was excluded,--was born, on December 31, +1720, Charles Edward Stuart: from his infancy the hope of the Jacobite +party; from his cradle surrounded by the intrigues, the jealousies, the +adulations of an exiled Court, and the quarrels of Protestants and +Catholics, Irish, Scottish, and English. Thus, among changes of tutors +and ministers, as the discovery or suspicion of treachery, the bigotry of +Clementina, and the pressure of other necessities might permit, was that +child reared whose name, at least, has received the crown of Scottish +affection and innumerable tributes of Scottish song. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. THE ARGATHELIANS AND THE SQUADRONE. + + +Leaving the fortunes of the Jacobite party at their lowest ebb, and +turning to the domestic politics of Scotland, after 1719, we find that if +it be happiness to have no history, Scotland had much reason to be +content. There was but a dull personal strife between the faction of +Argyll and his brother Islay (called the "Argathelians," from the +Latinised _Argathelia_, or Argyll), and the other faction known, since +the Union, as the _Squadrone volante_, or Flying Squadron, who professed +to be patriotically independent. As to Argyll, he had done all that man +might do for George I. But, as we saw, the reports of Cadogan and the +jealousy of George (who is said to have deemed Argyll too friendly with +his detested heir) caused the disgrace of the Duke in 1716, and the +_Squadrone_ held the spoils of office. But in February-April 1719 George +reversed his policy, heaped Argyll with favours, made him, as Duke of +Greenwich, a peer of England, and gave him the High Stewardship of the +Household. + +At this time all the sixteen representative peers of Scotland favoured, +for various reasons of their own, a proposed Peerage Bill. The Prince of +Wales might, when he came to the throne, swamp the Lords by large new +creations in his own interest, and the Bill laid down that, henceforth, +not more than six peers, exclusive of members of the Royal Family, should +be created by any sovereign; while in place of sixteen _representative_ +Scotland should have twenty-five _permanent_ peers. From his new hatred +of the Prince of Wales, Argyll favoured the Bill, as did the others of +the sixteen of the moment, because they would be among the permanencies. +The Scottish Jacobite peers (not representatives) and the Commons of both +countries opposed the Bill. The election of a Scottish representative +peer at this juncture led to negotiations between Argyll and Lockhart as +leader of the suffering Jacobites, but terms were not arrived at; the +Government secured a large Whig majority in a general election (1722), +and Walpole began his long tenure of office. + + + +ENCLOSURE RIOTS. + + +In 1724 there were some popular discontents. Enclosures, as we saw, had +scarcely been known in Scotland; when they were made, men, women, and +children took pleasure in destroying them under cloud of night. +Enclosures might keep a man's cattle on his own ground, keep other men's +off it, and secure for the farmer his own manure. That good Jacobite, +Mackintosh of Borlum, who in 1715 led the Highlanders to Preston, in 1729 +wrote a book recommending enclosures and plantations. But when, in 1724, +the lairds of Galloway and Dumfriesshire anticipated and acted on his +plan, which in this case involved evictions of very indolent and ruinous +farmers, the tenants rose. Multitudes of "Levellers" destroyed the loose +stone dykes and slaughtered cattle. They had already been passive +resisters of rent; the military were called in; women were in the +forefront of the brawls, which were not quieted till the middle of 1725, +when Lord Stair made an effort to introduce manufactures. + + + +MALT RIOTS. + + +Other disturbances began in a resolution of the House of Commons, at the +end of 1724, _not_ to impose a Malt Tax equal to that of England (this +had been successfully resisted in 1713), but to levy an additional +sixpence on every barrel of ale, and to remove the bounties on exported +grain. At the Union Scotland had, for the time, been exempted from the +Malt Tax, specially devised to meet the expenses of the French war of +that date. Now, in 1724-1725, Scotland was up in arms to resist the +attempt "to rob a poor man of his beer." But Walpole could put force on +the Scottish Members of Parliament,--"a parcel of low people that could +not subsist," says Lockhart, "without their board wages." Walpole +threatened to withdraw the ten guineas hitherto paid weekly by Government +to those legislators. He offered to drop the sixpence on beer and put +threepence on every bushel of malt, a half of the English tax. On June +23, 1725, the tax was to be exacted. The consequence was an attack on +the military by the mob of Glasgow, who wrecked the house of their Member +in Parliament, Campbell of Shawfield. Some of the assailants were shot: +General Wade and the Lord Advocate, Forbes of Culloden, marched a force +on Glasgow, the magistrates of the town were imprisoned but released on +bail, while in Edinburgh the master brewers, ordered by the Court of +Session to raise the price of their ale, struck for a week; some were +imprisoned, others were threatened or cajoled and deserted their Union. +The one result was that the chief of the Squadrone, the Duke of Roxburgh, +lost his Secretaryship for Scotland, and Argyll's brother, Islay, with +the resolute Forbes of Culloden, became practically the governors of the +country. The Secretaryship, indeed, was for a time abolished, but Islay +practically wielded the power that had so long been in the hands of the +Secretary as agent of the Court. + + + +THE HIGHLANDS. + + +The clans had not been disarmed after 1715, moreover 6000 muskets had +been brought in during the affair that ended at Glenshiel in 1719. +General Wade was commissioned in 1724 to examine and report on the +Highlands: Lovat had already sent in a report. He pointed out that +Lowlanders paid blackmail for protection to Highland raiders, and that +independent companies of Highlanders, paid by Government, had been +useful, but were broken up in 1717. What Lovat wanted was a company and +pay for himself. Wade represented the force of the clans as about 22,000 +claymores, half Whig (the extreme north and the Campbells), half +Jacobite. The commandants of forts should have independent companies: +cavalry should be quartered between Inverness and Perth, and Quarter +Sessions should be held at Fort William and Ruthven in Badenoch. In 1725 +Wade disarmed Seaforth's clan, the Mackenzies, easily, for Seaforth, then +in exile, was on bad terms with James, and wished to come home with a +pardon. Glengarry, Clanranald, Glencoe, Appin, Lochiel, Clan Vourich, +and the Gordons affected submission--but only handed over two thousand +rusty weapons of every sort. Lovat did obtain an independent company, +later withdrawn--with results. The clans were by no means disarmed, but +Wade did, from 1725 to 1736, construct his famous military roads and +bridges, interconnecting the forts. + +The death of George I. (June 11, 1727) induced James to hurry to Lorraine +and communicate with Lockhart. But there was nothing to be done. +Clementina had discredited her husband, even in Scotland, much more in +England, by her hysterical complaints, and her hatred of every man +employed by James inflamed the petty jealousies and feuds among the +exiles of his Court. No man whom he could select would have been +approved of by the party. + +To the bishops of the persecuted Episcopalian remnant, quarrelling over +details of ritual called "the Usages," James vainly recommended +"forbearance in love." Lockhart, disgusted with the clergy, and siding +with Clementina against her husband, believed that some of the wrangling +churchmen betrayed the channel of his communications with his king +(1727). Islay gave Lockhart a hint to disappear, and he sailed from +Scotland for Holland on April 8, 1727. + +Since James dismissed Bolingbroke, every one of his Ministers was +suspected, by one faction or another of the party, as a traitor. +Atterbury denounced Mar, Lockhart denounced Hay (titular Earl of +Inverness), Clementina told feminine tales for which even the angry +Lockhart could find no evidence. James was the butt of every slanderous +tongue; but absolutely nothing against his moral character, or his +efforts to do his best, or his tolerance and lack of suspiciousness, can +be wrung from documents. {264} + +By 1734 the elder of James's two sons, Prince Charles, was old enough to +show courage and to thrust himself under fire in the siege of Gaeta, +where his cousin, the Duc de Liria, was besieging the Imperialists. He +won golden opinions from the army, but was already too strong for his +tutors--Murray and Sir Thomas Sheridan. He had both Protestant and +Catholic governors; between them he learned to spell execrably in three +languages, and sat loose to Catholic doctrines. In January 1735 died his +mother, who had found refuge from her troubles in devotion. The grief of +James and of the boys was acute. + +In 1736 Lovat was looking towards the rising sun of Prince Charles; was +accused by a witness of enabling John Roy Stewart, Jacobite and poet, to +break prison at Inverness, and of sending by him a message of devotion to +James, from whom he expected a dukedom. Lovat therefore lost his +sheriffship and his independent company, and tried to attach himself to +Argyll, when the affair of the Porteous Riot caused a coldness between +Argyll and the English Government (1736-1737). + + + +THE PORTEOUS RIOT. + + +The affair of Porteous is so admirably well described in 'The Heart of +Mid-Lothian,' and recent research {265} has thrown so little light on the +mystery (if mystery there were), that a brief summary of the tale may +suffice. + +In the spring of 1736 two noted smugglers, Wilson and Robertson, were +condemned to death. They had, while in prison, managed to widen the +space between the window-bars of their cell, and would have escaped; but +Wilson, a very stoutly built man, went first and stuck in the aperture, +so that Robertson had no chance. The pair determined to attack their +guards in church, where, as usual, they were to be paraded and preached +at on the Sunday preceding their execution. Robertson leaped up and +fled, with the full sympathy of a large and interested congregation, +while Wilson grasped a guard with each hand and a third with his teeth. +Thus Robertson got clean away--to Holland, it was said,--while Wilson was +to be hanged on April 14. The acting lieutenant of the Town Guard--an +unpopular body, mainly Highlanders--was John Porteous, famous as a +golfer, but, by the account of his enemies, notorious as a brutal and +callous ruffian. The crowd in the Grassmarket was great, but there was +no attempt at a rescue. The mob, however, threw large stones at the +Guard, who fired, killing or wounding, as usual, harmless spectators. The +case for Porteous, as reported in 'The State Trials,' was that the attack +was dangerous; that the plan was to cut down and resuscitate Wilson; that +Porteous did not order, but tried to prevent, the firing; and that +neither at first nor in a later skirmish at the West Bow did he fire +himself. There was much "cross swearing" at the trial of Porteous (July +20); the jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to be hanged on +September 8. A petition from him to Queen Caroline (George II. was +abroad) drew attention to palpable discrepancies in the hostile evidence. +Both parties in Parliament backed his application, and on August 28 a +delay of justice for six weeks was granted. + +Indignation was intense. An intended attack on the Tolbooth, where +Porteous lay, had been matter of rumour three days earlier: the prisoner +should have been placed in the Castle. At 10 P.M. on the night of +September 7 the magistrates heard that boys were beating a drum, and +ordered the Town Guard under arms; but the mob, who had already secured +the town's gates, disarmed the veterans. Mr Lindsay, lately Provost, +escaped by the Potter Row gate (near the old fatal Kirk-o'-Field), and +warned General Moyle in the Castle. But Moyle could not introduce +soldiers without a warrant. Before a warrant could arrive the mob had +burned down the door of the Tolbooth, captured Porteous--who was hiding +up the chimney,--carried him to the Grassmarket, and hanged him to a +dyer's pole. The only apparent sign that persons of rank above that of +the mob were concerned, was the leaving of a guinea in a shop whence they +took the necessary rope. The magistrates had been guilty of gross +negligence. The mob was merely a resolute mob; but Islay, in London, +suspected that the political foes of the Government were engaged, or that +the Cameronians, who had been renewing the Covenants, were concerned. + +Islay hurried to Edinburgh, where no evidence could be extracted. "The +High Flyers of our Scottish Church," he wrote, "have made this infamous +murder a point of conscience. . . . All the lower rank of the people who +have distinguished themselves by the pretensions of superior sanctity +speak of this murder as the hand of God doing justice." They went by the +precedent of the murder of Archbishop Sharp, it appears. In the Lords +(February 1737) a Bill was passed for disabling the Provost--one +Wilson--for public employment, destroying the Town Charter, abolishing +the Town Guard, and throwing down the gate of the Nether Bow. Argyll +opposed the Bill; in the Commons all Scottish members were against it; +Walpole gave way. Wilson was dismissed, and a fine of 2000 pounds was +levied and presented to the widow of Porteous. An Act commanding +preachers to read monthly for a year, in church, a proclamation bidding +their hearers aid the cause of justice against the murderers, was an +insult to the Kirk, from an Assembly containing bishops. It is said that +at least half of the ministers disobeyed with impunity. It was +impossible, of course, to evict half of the preachers in the country. + +Argyll now went into opposition against Walpole, and, at least, listened +to Keith--later the great Field-Marshal of Frederick the Great, and +brother of the exiled Earl Marischal. + +In 1737 the Jacobites began to stir again: a committee of five Chiefs and +Lords was formed to manage their affairs. John Murray of Broughton went +to Rome, and lost his heart to Prince Charles--now a tall handsome lad of +seventeen, with large brown eyes, and, when he pleased, a very attractive +manner. To Murray, more than to any other man, was due the Rising of +1745. + +Meanwhile, in secular affairs, Scotland showed nothing more remarkable +than the increasing dislike, strengthened by Argyll, of Walpole's +Government. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. THE FIRST SECESSION. + + +For long we have heard little of the Kirk, which between 1720 and 1740 +passed through a cycle of internal storms. She had been little vexed, +either during her years of triumph or defeat, by heresy or schism. But +now the doctrines of Antoinette Bourignon, a French lady mystic, reached +Scotland, and won the sympathies of some students of divinity--including +the Rev. John Simson, of an old clerical family which had been notorious +since the Reformation for the turbulence of its members. In 1714, and +again in 1717, Mr Simson was acquitted by the Assembly on the charges of +being a Jesuit, a Socinian, and an Arminian, but was warned against "a +tendency to attribute too much to natural reason." In 1726-29 he was +accused of minimising the doctrines of the creed of St Athanasius, and +tending to the Arian heresy,--"lately raked out of hell," said the Kirk- +session of Portmoak (1725), addressing the sympathetic Presbytery of +Kirkcaldy. At the Assembly of 1726 that Presbytery, with others, +assailed Mr Simson, who was in bad health, and "could talk of nothing but +the Council of Nice." A committee, including Mar's brother, Lord Grange +(who took such strong measures with his wife, Lady Grange, forcibly +translating her to the isle of St Kilda), inquired into the views of Mr +Simson's own Presbytery--that of Glasgow. This Presbytery cross-examined +Mr Simson's pupils, and Mr Simson observed that the proceedings were "an +unfruitful work of darkness." Moreover, Mr Simson was of the party of +the _Squadrone_, while his assailants were Argathelians. A large +majority of the Assembly gave the verdict that Mr Simson was a heretic. +Finally, though in 1728 his answers to questions would have satisfied +good St Athanasius, Mr Simson found himself in the ideal position of +being released from his academic duties but confirmed in his salary. The +lenient good-nature of this decision, with some other grievances, set +fire to a mine which blew the Kirk in twain. + +The Presbytery of Auchterarder had set up a kind of "standard" of their +own--"The Auchterarder Creed"--which included this formula: "It is not +sound or orthodox to teach that we must forsake sin in order to our +coming to Christ, and instating us in Covenant with God." The General +Assembly condemned this part of the Creed of Auchterarder. The Rev. Mr +Hog, looking for weapons in defence of Auchterarder, republished part of +a forgotten book of 1646, 'The Marrow of Modern Divinity.' The work +appears to have been written by a speculative hairdresser, an +Independent. A copy of the Marrow was found by the famous Mr Boston of +Ettrick in the cottage of a parishioner. From the Marrow he sucked much +advantage: its doctrines were grateful to the sympathisers with +Auchterarder, and the republication of the book rent the Kirk. + +In 1720 a Committee of the General Assembly condemned a set of +propositions in the Marrow as tending to Antinomianism (the doctrine that +the saints cannot sin, professed by Trusty Tompkins in 'Woodstock'). +But--as in the case of the five condemned propositions of Jansenius--the +Auchterarder party denied that the heresies could be found in the Marrow. + +It was the old quarrel between Faith and Works. The clerical petitioners +in favour of the Marrow were rebuked by the Assembly (May 21, 1722); they +protested: against a merely human majority in the Assembly they appealed +to "The Word of God," to which the majority also appealed; and there was +a period of passion, but schism had not yet arrived. + +The five or six friends of the Marrow really disliked moral preaching, as +opposed to weekly discourses on the legal technicalities of +justification, sanctification, and adoption. They were also opposed to +the working of the Act which, in 1712, restored lay patronage. If the +Assembly enforced the law of the land in this matter (and it did), the +Assembly sinned against the divine right of congregations to elect their +own preachers. Men of this way of thinking were led by the Rev. Mr +Ebenezer Erskine, a poet who, in 1714, addressed an Ode to George I. He +therein denounced "subverting patronage" and + + "the woful dubious Abjuration + Which gave the clergy ground for speculation." + +But a Jacobite song struck the same note-- + + "Let not the Abjuration + Impose upon the nation!" + +and George was deaf to the muse of Mr Erskine. + +In 1732, 1733, Mr Erskine, in sermons concerning patronage, offended the +Assembly; would not apologise, appeared (to a lay reader) to claim direct +inspiration, and with three other brethren constituted himself and them +into a Presbytery. Among their causes of separation (or rather of +deciding that the Kirk had separated from them) was the salary of +Emeritus Professor Simson. The new Presbytery declared that the +Covenants were still and were eternally binding on Scotland; in fact, +these preachers were "platonically" for going back to the old +ecclesiastical claims, with the old war of Church and State. They +naturally denounced the Act of 1736, which abolished the burning of +witches. After a period of long-suffering patience and conciliatory +efforts, in 1740 the Assembly deposed the Seceders. + +In 1747 a party among the Seceders excommunicated Mr Erskine and his +brother; one of those who handed Mr Erskine over to Satan (if the old +formula were retained) was his son-in-law. + +The feuds of Burghers and Antiburghers (persons who were ready to take or +refused to take the Burgess oath), New Lights and Old Lights, lasted very +long and had evil consequences. As the populace love the headiest +doctrines, they preferred preachers in proportion as they leaned towards +the Marrow, while lay patrons preferred candidates of the opposite views. +The Assembly must either keep the law and back the patrons, or break the +law and cease to be a State Church. The corruption of patronage was +often notorious on one side; on the other the desirability of burning +witches and the belief in the eternity of the Covenants were articles of +faith; and such articles were not to the taste of the "Moderates," +educated clergymen of the new school. Thus arose the war of "High +Flyers" and "Moderates" within the Kirk,--a war conducing to the great +Disruption of 1843, in which gallant little Auchterarder was again in the +foremost line. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. THE LAST JACOBITE RISING. + + +While the Kirk was vainly striving to assuage the tempers of Mr Erskine +and his friends, the Jacobites were preparing to fish in troubled waters. +In 1739 Walpole was forced to declare war against Spain, and Walpole had +previously sounded James as to his own chances of being trusted by that +exiled prince. James thought that Walpole was merely angling for +information. Meanwhile Jacobite affairs were managed by two rivals, +Macgregor (calling himself Drummond) of Balhaldy and Murray of Broughton. +The sanguine Balhaldy induced France to suppose that the Jacobites in +England and Scotland were much more united, powerful, and ready for +action than they really were, when Argyll left office in 1742, while +Walpole fell from power, Carteret and the Duke of Newcastle succeeding. +In 1743 Murray found that France, though now at war with England over the +Spanish Succession, was holding aloof from the Jacobite cause, though +plied with flourishing and fabulous reports from Balhaldy and the +Jacobite Lord Sempill. But, in December 1743, on the strength of alleged +Jacobite energy in England, Balhaldy obtained leave from France to visit +Rome and bring Prince Charles. The Prince had kept himself in training +for war and was eager. Taking leave of his father for the last time, +Charles drove out of Rome on January 9, 1744; evaded, in disguise, every +trap that was set for him, and landed at Antibes, reaching Paris on +February 10. Louis did not receive him openly, if he received him at +all; the Prince lurked at Gravelines in disguise, with the Earl +Marischal, while winds and waves half ruined, and the approach of a +British fleet drove into port, a French fleet of invasion under +Roqueville (March 6, 7, 1744). + +The Prince wrote to Sempill that he was ready and willing to sail for +Scotland in an open boat. In July 1744 he told Murray that he would come +next summer "if he had no other companion than his valet." He nearly +kept his word; nor did Murray resolutely oppose his will. At the end of +May 1745 Murray's servant brought a letter from the Prince; "fall back, +fall edge," he would land in the Highlands in July. Lochiel regretted +the decision, but said that, as a man of honour, he would join his Prince +if he arrived. + +On July 2 the Prince left Nantes in the _Dutillet_ (usually styled _La +Doutelle_). He brought some money (he had pawned the Sobieski rubies), +some arms, Tullibardine, his Governor Sheridan, Parson Kelly, the titular +Duke of Atholl, Sir John Macdonald, a banker, Sullivan, and one +Buchanan--the Seven Men of Moidart. + +On July 20 his consort, _The Elizabeth_, fought _The Lion_ (Captain +Brett) off the Lizard; both antagonists were crippled. On [July +22/August 2] Charles passed the night on the little isle of Eriskay; +appealed vainly to Macleod and Macdonald of Sleat; was urged, at +Kinlochmoidart, by the Macdonalds, to return to France, but swept them +off their feet by his resolution; and with Lochiel and the Macdonalds +raised the standard at the head of Glenfinnan on August [19/30]. + +The English Government had already offered 30,000 pounds for the Prince's +head. The clans had nothing to gain; they held that they had honour to +preserve; they remembered Montrose; they put it to the touch, and +followed Prince Charlie. + +The strength of the Prince's force was, first, the Macdonalds. On August +16 Keppoch had cut off two companies of the Royal Scots near Loch Lochy. +But the chief of Glengarry was old and wavering; young Glengarry, +captured on his way from France, could not be with his clan; his young +brother AEneas led till his accidental death after the battle of Falkirk. + +Of the Camerons it is enough to say that their leader was the gentle +Lochiel, and that they were worthy of their chief. The Macphersons came +in rather late, under Cluny. The Frazers were held back by the crafty +Lovat, whose double-dealing, with the abstention of Macleod (who was +sworn to the cause) and of Macdonald of Sleat, ruined the enterprise. +Clan Chattan was headed by the beautiful Lady Mackintosh, whose husband +adhered to King George. Of the dispossessed Macleans, some 250 were +gathered (under Maclean of Drimnin), and of that resolute band some fifty +survived Culloden. These western clans (including 220 Stewarts of Appin +under Ardshiel) were the steel point of Charles's weapon; to them should +be added the Macgregors under James Mor, son of Rob Roy, a shifty +character but a hero in fight. + +To resist these clans, the earliest to join, Sir John Cope, commanding in +Scotland, had about an equal force of all arms, say 2500 to 3000 men, +scattered in all quarters, and with very few field-pieces. Tweeddale, +holding the revived office of Secretary for Scotland, was on the worst +terms, as leader of the _Squadrone_, with his Argathelian rival, Islay, +now (through the recent death of his brother, Red Ian of the Battles) +Duke of Argyll. Scottish Whigs were not encouraged to arm. + +The Prince marched south, while Cope, who had concentrated at Stirling, +marched north to intercept him. At Dalnacardoch he learned that Charles +was advancing to meet him in Corryarrick Pass (here came in Ardshiel, +Glencoe, and a Glengarry reinforcement). At Dalwhinnie, Cope found that +the clans held the pass, which is very defensible. He dared not face +them, and moved by Ruthven in Badenoch to Inverness, where he vainly +expected to be met by the great Whig clans of the north. + +Joined now by Cluny, Charles moved on that old base of Montrose, the +Castle of Blair of Atholl, where the exiled duke (commonly called Marquis +of Tullibardine) was received with enthusiasm. In the mid-region between +Highland and Lowland, the ladies, Lady Lude and the rest, simply forced +their sons, brothers, and lovers into arms. While Charles danced and +made friends, and tasted his first pine-apple at Blair, James Mor took +the fort of Inversnaid. At Perth (September 4-10) Charles was joined by +the Duke of Perth, the Ogilvys under Lord Ogilvy, some Drummonds under +Lord Strathallan, the Oliphants of Gask, and 200 Robertsons of Struan. +Lord George Murray, brother of the Duke of Atholl, who had been out in +1715, out in 1719, and later was _un reconcilie_, came in, and with him +came Discord. He had dealt as a friend and ally with Cope at Crieff; his +loyalty to either side was thus not unnaturally dubious; he was suspected +by Murray of Broughton; envied by Sullivan, a soldier of some experience; +and though he was loyal to the last,--the best organiser, and the most +daring leader,--Charles never trusted him, and his temper was always +crossing that of the Prince. + +The race for Edinburgh now began, Cope bringing his troops by sea from +Aberdeen, and Charles doing what Mar, in 1715, had never ventured. He +crossed the Forth by the fords of Frew, six miles above Stirling, passed +within gunshot of the castle, and now there was no force between him and +Edinburgh save the demoralised dragoons of Colonel Gardiner. The sole +use of the dragoons was, wherever they came, to let the world know that +the clans were at their heels. On September 16 Charles reached +Corstorphine, and Gardiner's dragoons fell back on Coltbridge. + +On the previous day the town had been terribly perturbed. The old walls, +never sound, were dilapidated, and commanded by houses on the outside. +Volunteers were scarce, and knew not how to load a musket. On Sunday, +September 15, during sermon-time, "The bells were rung backwards, the +drums they were beat," the volunteers, being told to march against the +clans, listened to the voices of mothers and aunts and of their own +hearts, and melted like a mist. Hamilton's dragoons and ninety of the +late Porteous's Town Guard sallied forth, joining Gardiner's men at +Coltbridge. A few of the mounted Jacobite gentry, such as Lord Elcho, +eldest son of the Earl of Wemyss, trotted up to inspect the dragoons, who +fled and drew bridle only at Musselburgh, six miles east of Edinburgh. + +The magistrates treated through a caddie or street-messenger with the +Prince. He demanded surrender, the bailies went and came, in a hackney +coach, between Charles's quarters, Gray's Mill, and Edinburgh, but on +their return about 3 A.M. Lochiel with the Camerons rushed in when the +Nether Bow gate was opened to admit the cab of the magistrates. Murray +had guided the clan round by Merchiston. At noon Charles entered "that +unhappy palace of his race," Holyrood; and King James was proclaimed at +Edinburgh Cross, while the beautiful Mrs Murray, mounted, distributed +white cockades. Edinburgh provided but few volunteers, though the ladies +tried to "force them out." + +Meanwhile Cope was landing his men at Dunbar; from Mr John Home (author +of 'Douglas, a Tragedy') he learnt that Charles's force was under 2000 +strong. He himself had, counting the dragoons, an almost equal strength, +with six field-pieces manned by sailors. + +On September 20 Cope advanced from Haddington, while Charles, with all +the carriages he could collect for ambulance duty, set forth from his +camp at Duddingston Loch, under Arthur's Seat. Cope took the low road +near the sea, while Charles took the high road, holding the ridge, till +from Birsley brae he beheld Cope on the low level plain, between Seaton +and Prestonpans. The manoeuvres of the clans forced Cope to change his +front, but wherever he went, his men were more or less cooped up and +confined to the defensive, with the park wall on their rear. + +Meanwhile Mr Anderson of Whitburgh, a local sportsman who had shot ducks +in the morass on Cope's left, brought to Charles news of a practicable +path through that marsh. Even so, the path was wet as high as the knee, +says Ker of Graden, who had reconnoitred the British under fire. He was +a Roxburghshire laird, and there was with the Prince no better officer. + +In the grey dawn the clans waded through the marsh and leaped the ditch; +Charles was forced to come with the second line fifty yards behind the +first. The Macdonalds held the right, as they said they had done at +Bannockburn; the Camerons and Macgregors were on the left they "cast +their plaids, drew their blades," and, after enduring an irregular fire, +swept the red-coat ranks away; "they ran like rabets," wrote Charles in a +genuine letter to James. Gardiner was cut down, his entire troop having +fled, while he was directing a small force of foot which stood its +ground. Charles stated his losses at a hundred killed and wounded, all +by gunshot. Only two of the six field-pieces were discharged, by Colonel +Whitefoord, who was captured. Friends and foes agree in saying that the +Prince devoted himself to the care of the wounded of both sides. Lord +George Murray states Cope's losses, killed, wounded, and taken, at 3000, +Murray, at under 1000. + +The Prince would fain have marched on England, but his force was thinned +by desertions, and English reinforcements would have been landed in his +rear. For a month he had to hold court in Edinburgh, adored by the +ladies to whom he behaved with a coldness of which Charles II. would not +have approved. "These are my beauties," he said, pointing to a burly- +bearded Highland sentry. He "requisitioned" public money, and such +horses and fodder as he could procure; but to spare the townsfolk from +the guns of the castle he was obliged to withdraw his blockade. He sent +messengers to France, asking for aid, but received little, though the +Marquis Boyer d'Eguilles was granted as a kind of representative of Louis +XV. His envoys to Sleat and Macleod sped ill, and Lovat only dallied, +France only hesitated, while Dutch and English regiments landed in the +Thames and marched to join General Wade at Newcastle. Charles himself +received reinforcements amounting to some 1500 men, under Lord Ogilvy, +old Lord Pitsligo, the Master of Strathallan (Drummond), the brave Lord +Balmerino, and the Viscount Dundee. A treaty of alliance with France, +made at Fontainebleau, neutralised, under the Treaty of Tournay, 6000 +Dutch who might not, by that treaty, fight against the ally of France. + +The Prince entertained no illusions. Without French forces, he told +D'Eguilles, "I cannot resist English, Dutch, Hessians, and Swiss." On +October [15/26] he wrote his last extant letter from Scotland to King +James. He puts his force at 8000 (more truly 6000), with 300 horse. +"With these, as matters stand, I shal have one decisive stroke for't, but +iff the French" (do not?) "land, perhaps none. . . . As matters stand I +must either conquer or perish in a little while." + +Defeated in the heart of England, and with a prize of 30,000 pounds +offered for his head, he could not hope to escape. A victory for him +would mean a landing of French troops, and his invasion of England had +for its aim to force the hand of France. Her troops, with Prince Henry +among them, dallied at Dunkirk till Christmas, and were then dispersed, +while the Duke of Cumberland arrived in England from Flanders on October +19. + +On October 30 the Prince held a council of war. French supplies and guns +had been landed at Stonehaven, and news came that 6000 French were ready +at Dunkirk: at Dunkirk they were, but they never were ready. The news +probably decided Charles to cross the Border; while it appears that his +men preferred to be content with simply making Scotland again an +independent kingdom, with a Catholic king. But to do this, with French +aid, was to return to the state of things under Mary of Guise! + +The Prince, judging correctly, wished to deal his "decisive stroke" near +home, at the old and now futile Wade in Northumberland. A victory would +have disheartened England, and left Newcastle open to France. If Charles +were defeated, his own escape by sea, in a country where he had many well- +wishers, was possible, and the clans would have retreated through the +Cheviots. Lord George Murray insisted on a march by the western road, +Lancashire being expected to rise and join the Prince. But this plan +left Wade, with a superior force, on Charles's flank! The one +difficulty, that of holding a bridge, say Kelso Bridge, over Tweed, was +not insuperable. Rivers could not stop the Highlanders. Macdonald of +Morar thought Charles the best general in the army, and to the layman, +considering the necessity for an _instant_ stroke, and the advantages of +the east, as regards France, the Prince's strategy appears better than +Lord George's. But Lord George had his way. + +On October 31, Charles, reinforced by Cluny with 400 Macphersons, +concentrated at Dalkeith. On November 1, the less trusted part of his +force, under Tullibardine, with the Atholl men, moved south by Peebles +and Moffat to Lockerbie, menacing Carlisle; while the Prince, Lord +George, and the fighting clans marched to Kelso--a feint to deceive Wade. +The main body then moved by Jedburgh, up Rule Water and down through +Liddesdale, joining hands with Tullibardine on November 9, and +bivouacking within two miles of Carlisle. On the 10th the Atholl men +went to work at the trenches; on the 11th the army moved seven miles +towards Newcastle, hoping to discuss Wade at Brampton on hilly ground. +But Wade did not gratify them by arriving. + +On the 13th the Atholl men were kept at their spade-work, and Lord George +in dudgeon resigned his command (November 14), but at night Carlisle +surrendered, Murray and Perth negotiating. Lord George expressed his +anger and jealousy to his brother, Tullibardine, but Perth resigned his +command to pacify his rival. Wade feebly tried to cross country, failed, +and went back to Newcastle. On November 10, with some 4500 men (there +had been many desertions), the march through Lancashire was decreed. Save +for Mr Townley and two Vaughans, the Catholics did not stir. Charles +marched on foot in the van; he was a trained pedestrian; the townspeople +stared at him and his Highlanders, but only at Manchester (November 29- +30) had he a welcome, enlisting about 150 doomed men. On November 27 +Cumberland took over command at Lichfield; his foot were distributed +between Tamworth and Stafford; his cavalry was at Newcastle-under-Lyme. +Lord George was moving on Derby, but learning Cumberland's dispositions +he led a column to Congleton, inducing Cumberland to concentrate at +Lichfield, while he himself, by way of Leek and Ashburn, joined the +Prince at Derby. + +The army was in the highest spirits. The Duke of Richmond on the other +side wrote from Lichfield (December 5), "If the enemy please to cut us +off from the main army, they may; and also, if they please to give us the +slip and march to London, I fear they may, before even this _avant garde_ +can come up with them; . . . there is no pass to defend, . . . the camp +at Finchley is confined to paper plans"--and Wales was ready to join the +Prince! Lord George did not know what Richmond knew. Despite the +entreaties of the Prince, his Council decided to retreat. On December 6 +the clans, uttering cries of rage, were set with their faces to the +north. + +The Prince was now an altered man. Full of distrust, he marched not with +Lord George in the rear, he rode in the van. + +Meanwhile Lord John Drummond, who, on November 22, had landed at Montrose +with 800 French soldiers, was ordered by Charles to advance with large +Highland levies now collected and meet him as he moved north. Lord John +disobeyed orders (received about December 18). Expecting his advance, +Charles most unhappily left the Manchester men and others to hold +Carlisle, to which he would return. Cumberland took them all,--many were +hanged. + +In the north, Lord Lewis Gordon routed Macleod at Inverurie (December +23), and defeated his effort to secure Aberdeen. Admirably commanded by +Lord George, and behaving admirably for an irregular retreating force, +the army reached Penrith on December 18, and at Clifton, Lord George and +Cluny defeated Cumberland's dragoons in a rearguard action. + +On December 19 Carlisle was reached, and, as we saw, a force was left to +guard the castle; all were taken. On December 20 the army forded the +flooded Esk; the ladies, of whom several had been with them, rode it on +their horses: the men waded breast-high, as, had there been need, they +would have forded Tweed if the eastern route had been chosen, and if +retreat had been necessary. Cumberland returned to London on January 5, +and Horace Walpole no longer dreaded "a rebellion that runs away." By +different routes Charles and Lord George met (December 26) at Hamilton +Palace. Charles stayed a night at Dumfries. Dumfries was hostile, and +was fined; Glasgow was also disaffected, the ladies were unfriendly. At +Glasgow, Charles heard that Seaforth, chief of the Mackenzies, was aiding +the Hanoverians in the north, combining with the great Whig clans, with +Macleod, the Munroes, Lord Loudoun commanding some 2000 men, and the +Mackays of Sutherland and Caithness. + +Meanwhile Lord John Drummond, Strathallan, and Lord Lewis Gordon, with +Lord Macleod, were concentrating to meet the Prince at Stirling, the +purpose being the hopeless one of capturing the castle, the key of the +north. With weak artillery, and a futile and foolish French engineer +officer to direct the siege, they had no chance of success. The Prince, +in bad health, stayed (January 4-10) at Sir Hugh Paterson's place, +Bannockburn House. + +At Stirling, with his northern reinforcements, Charles may have had some +seven or eight thousand men wherewith to meet General Hawley (a veteran +of Sheriffmuir) advancing from Edinburgh. Hawley encamped at Falkirk, +and while the Atholl men were deserting by scores, Lord George skilfully +deceived him, arrived on the Falkirk moor unobserved, and held the ridge +above Hawley's position, while the General was lunching with Lady +Kilmarnock. In the first line of the Prince's force the Macdonalds held +the right wing, the Camerons (whom the great Wolfe describes as the +bravest of the brave) held the left; with Stewarts of Appin, Frazers, and +Macphersons in the centre. In the second line were the Atholl men, Lord +Lewis Gordon's levies, and Lord Ogilvy's. The Lowland horse and +Drummond's French details were in the rear. The ground was made up of +eminences and ravines, so that in the second line the various bodies were +invisible to each other, as at Sheriffmuir--with similar results. When +Hawley found that he had been surprised he arrayed his thirteen +battalions of regulars and 1000 men of Argyll on the plain, with three +regiments of dragoons, by whose charge he expected to sweep away +Charles's right wing; behind his cavalry were the luckless militia of +Glasgow and the Lothians. In all, he had from 10,000 to 12,000 men +against, perhaps, 7000 at most, for 1200 of Charles's force were left to +contain Blakeney in Stirling Castle. Both sides, on account of the heavy +roads, failed to bring forward their guns. + +Hawley then advanced his cavalry up hill: their left faced Keppoch's +Macdonalds; their right faced the Frazers, under the Master of Lovat, in +Charles's centre. Hawley then launched his cavalry, which were met at +close range by the reserved fire of the Macdonalds and Frazers. Through +the mist and rain the townsfolk, looking on, saw in five minutes "the +break in the battle." Hamilton's and Ligonier's cavalry turned and fled, +Cobham's wheeled and rode across the Highland left under fire, while the +Macdonalds and Frazers pursuing the cavalry found themselves among the +Glasgow militia, whom they followed, slaying. Lord George had no pipers +to sound the recall; they had flung their pipes to their gillies and gone +in with the claymore. + +Thus the Prince's right, far beyond his front, were lost in the tempest; +while his left had discharged their muskets at Cobham's Horse, and could +not load again, their powder being drenched with rain. They received the +fire of Hawley's right, and charged with the claymore, but were +outflanked and enfiladed by some battalions drawn up _en potence_. Many +of the second line had blindly followed the first: the rest shunned the +action; Hawley's officers led away some regiments in an orderly retreat; +night fell; no man knew what had really occurred till young Gask and +young Strathallan, with the French and Atholl men, ventured into Falkirk, +and found Hawley's camp deserted. The darkness, the rain, the nature of +the ground, and the clans' want of discipline, prevented the annihilation +of Hawley's army; while the behaviour of his cavalry showed that the +Prince might have defeated Cumberland's advanced force beyond Derby with +the greatest ease, as the Duke of Richmond had anticipated. + +Perhaps the right course now was to advance on Edinburgh, but the +hopeless siege of Stirling Castle was continued--Charles perhaps hoping +much from Hawley's captured guns. + +The accidental shooting of young AEneas Macdonnell, second son of +Glengarry, by a Clanranald man, begat a kind of blood feud between the +clans, and the unhappy cause of the accident had to be shot. Lochgarry, +writing to young Glengarry after Culloden, says that "there was a general +desertion in the whole army," and this was the view of the chiefs, who, +on news of Cumberland's approach, told Charles (January 29) that the army +was depleted and resistance impossible. + +The chiefs were mistaken in point of fact: a review at Crieff later +showed that even then only 1000 men were missing. As at Derby, and with +right on his side, Charles insisted on meeting Cumberland. He did well, +his men were flushed with victory, had sufficient supplies, were to +encounter an army not yet encouraged by a refusal to face it, and, if +defeated had the gates of the hills open behind them. In a very +temperately written memorial Charles placed these ideas before the +chiefs. "Having told you my thoughts, I am too sensible of what you have +already ventured and done for me, not to yield to your unanimous +resolution if you persist." + +Lord George, Lovat, Lochgarry, Keppoch, Ardshiel, and Cluny did persist; +the fatal die was cast; and the men who--well fed and confident--might +have routed Cumberland, fled in confusion rather than retreated,--to be +ruined later, when, starving, out-wearied, and with many of their best +forces absent, they staggered his army at Culloden. Charles had told the +chiefs, "I can see nothing but ruin and destruction to us in case we +should retreat." {287} + +This retreat embittered Charles's feelings against Lord George, who may +have been mistaken--who, indeed, at Crieff, seems to have recognised his +error (February 5); but he had taken his part, and during the campaign, +henceforth, as at Culloden, distinguished himself by every virtue of a +soldier. + +After the retreat Lord George moved on Aberdeen; Charles to Blair in +Atholl; thence to Moy, the house of Lady Mackintosh, where a blacksmith +and four or five men ingeniously scattered Loudoun and the Macleods, +advancing to take him by a night surprise. This was the famous Rout of +Moy. + +Charles next (February 20) took Inverness Castle, and Loudoun was driven +into Sutherland, and cut off by Lord George's dispositions from any +chance of joining hands with Cumberland. The Duke had now 5000 Hessian +soldiers at his disposal: these he would not have commanded had the +Prince's army met him near Stirling. + +Charles was now at or near Inverness: he lost, through illness, the +services of Murray, whose successor, Hay, was impotent as an officer of +Commissariat. A gallant movement of Lord George into Atholl, where he +surprised all Cumberland's posts, but was foiled by the resistance of his +brother's castle, was interrupted by a recall to the north, and, on April +2, he retreated to the line of the Spey. Forbes of Culloden and Macleod +had been driven to take refuge in Skye; but 1500 men of the Prince's best +had been sent into Sutherland, when Cumberland arrived at Nairn (April +14), and Charles concentrated his starving forces on Culloden Moor. The +Macphersons, the Frazers, the 1500 Macdonalds, and others in Sutherland +were absent on various duties when "the wicked day of destiny" +approached. + +The men on Culloden Moor, a flat waste unsuited to the tactics of the +clans, had but one biscuit apiece on the eve of the battle. Lord George +"did not like the ground," and proposed to surprise by a night attack +Cumberland's force at Nairn. The Prince eagerly agreed, and, according +to him, Clanranald's advanced men were in touch with Cumberland's +outposts before Lord George convinced the Prince that retreat was +necessary. The advance was lagging; the way had been missed in the dark; +dawn was at hand. There are other versions: in any case the hungry men +were so outworn that many are said to have slept through next day's +battle. + +A great mistake was made next day, if Lochgarry, who commanded the +Macdonalds of Glengarry, and Maxwell of Kirkconnel are correct in saying +that Lord George insisted on placing his Atholl men on the right wing. +The Macdonalds had an old claim to the right wing, but as far as research +enlightens us, their failure on this fatal day was not due to jealous +anger. The battle might have been avoided, but to retreat was to lose +Inverness and all chance of supplies. On the Highland right was the +water of Nairn, and they were guarded by a wall which the Campbells +pulled down, enabling Cumberland's cavalry to take them in flank. +Cumberland had about 9000 men, including the Campbells. Charles, +according to his muster-master, had 5000; of horse he had but a handful. + +The battle began with an artillery duel, during which the clans lost +heavily, while their few guns were useless, and their right flank was +exposed by the breaking down of the protecting wall. After some +unexplained and dangerous delay, Lord George gave the word to charge, in +face of a blinding tempest of sleet, and himself went in, as did Lochiel, +claymore in hand. But though the order was conveyed by Ker of Graden +first to the Macdonalds on the left, as they had to charge over a wider +space of ground, the Camerons, Clan Chattan, and Macleans came first to +the shock. "Nothing could be more desperate than their attack, or more +properly received," says Whitefoord. The assailants were enfiladed by +Wolfe's regiment, which moved up and took position at right angles, like +the fifty-second on the flank of the last charge of the French Guard at +Waterloo. The Highland right broke through Barrel's regiment, swept over +the guns, and died on the bayonets of the second line. They had thrown +down their muskets after one fire, and, says Cumberland, stood "and threw +stones for at least a minute or two before their total rout began." +Probably the fall of Lochiel, who was wounded and carried out of action, +determined the flight. Meanwhile the left, the Macdonalds, menaced on +the flank by cavalry, were plied at a hundred yards by grape. They saw +their leaders, the gallant Keppoch and Macdonnell of Scothouse, with many +others, fall under the grape-shot: they saw the right wing broken, and +they did not come to the shock. If we may believe four sworn witnesses +in a court of justice (July 24, 1752), whose testimony was accepted as +the basis of a judicial decreet (January 10, 1756), {290} Keppoch was +wounded while giving his orders to some of his men not to outrun the line +in advancing, and was shot dead as a friend was supporting him. When all +retreated they passed the dead body of Keppoch. + +The tradition constantly given in various forms that Keppoch charged +alone, "deserted by the children of his clan," is worthless if sworn +evidence may be trusted. + +As for the unhappy Charles, by the evidence of Sir Robert Strange, who +was with him, he had "ridden along the line to the right animating the +soldiers," and "endeavoured to rally the soldiers, who, annoyed by the +enemy's fire, were beginning to quit the field." He "was got off the +field when the men in general were betaking themselves precipitately to +flight; nor was there any possibility of their being rallied." Yorke, an +English officer, says that the Prince did not leave the field till after +the retreat of the second line. + +So far the Prince's conduct was honourable and worthy of his name. But +presently, on the advice of his Irish entourage, Sullivan and Sheridan, +who always suggested suspicions, and doubtless not forgetting the great +price on his head, he took his own way towards the west coast in place of +joining Lord George and the remnant with him at Ruthven in Badenoch. On +April 26 he sailed from Borradale in a boat, and began that course of +wanderings and hairbreadth escapes in which only the loyalty of Highland +hearts enabled him at last to escape the ships that watched the isles and +the troops that netted the hills. + +Some years later General Wolfe, then residing at Inverness, reviewed the +occurrences, and made up his mind that the battle had been a dangerous +risk for Cumberland, while the pursuit (though ruthlessly cruel) was +inefficient. + +Despite Cumberland's insistent orders to give no quarter (orders +justified by the absolutely false pretext that Prince Charles had set the +example), Lochgarry reported that the army had not lost more than a +thousand men. Fire and sword and torture, the destruction of tilled +lands, and even of the shell-fish on the shore, did not break the spirit +of the Highlanders. Many bands held out in arms, and Lochgarry was only +prevented by the Prince's command from laying an ambush for Cumberland. +The Campbells and the Macleods under their recreant chief, the Whig +Macdonalds under Sir Alexander of Sleat, ravaged the lands of the +Jacobite clansmen; but the spies of Albemarle, who now commanded in +Scotland, reported the Macleans, the Grants of Glenmoriston, with the +Macphersons, Glengarry's men, and Lochiel's Camerons, as all eager "to do +it again" if France would only help. + +But France was helpless, and when Lochiel sailed for France with the +Prince only Cluny remained, hunted like a partridge in the mountains, to +keep up the spirit of the Cause. Old Lovat met a long-deserved death by +the executioner's axe, though it needed the evidence of Murray of +Broughton, turned informer, to convict that fox. Kilmarnock and +Balmerino also were executed; the good and brave Duke of Perth died on +his way to France; the aged Tullibardine in the Tower; many gallant +gentlemen were hanged; Lord George escaped, and is the ancestor of the +present Duke of Atholl; many gentlemen took French service; others fought +in other alien armies; three or four in the Highlands or abroad took the +wages of spies upon the Prince. The 30,000 pounds of French gold, buried +near Loch Arkaig, caused endless feuds, kinsman denouncing kinsman. The +secrets of the years 1746-1760 are to be sought in the Cumberland and +Stuart MSS. in Windsor Castle and the Record Office. + +Legislation, intended to scotch the snake of Jacobitism, began with +religious persecution. The Episcopalian clergy had no reason to love +triumphant Presbyterianism, and actively, or in sympathy, were favourers +of the exiled dynasty. Episcopalian chapels, sometimes mere rooms in +private houses, were burned, or their humble furniture was destroyed. All +Episcopalian ministers were bidden to take the oath and pray for King +George by September 1746, or suffer for the second offence transportation +for life to the American colonies. Later, the orders conferred by +Scottish bishops were made of no avail. Only with great difficulty and +danger could parents obtain the rite of baptism for their children. Very +little is said in our histories about the sufferings of the Episcopalians +when it was their turn to be under the harrow. They were not violent, +they murdered no Moderator of the General Assembly. Other measures were +the Disarming Act, the prohibition to wear the Highland dress, and the +abolition of "hereditable jurisdictions," and the chief's right to call +out his clansmen in arms. Compensation in money was paid, from 21,000 +pounds to the Duke of Argyll to 13 pounds, 6s. 8d. to the clerks of the +Registrar of Aberbrothock. The whole sum was 152,237 pounds, 15s. 4d. + +In 1754 an Act "annexed the forfeited estates of the Jacobites who had +been out (or many of them) inalienably to the Crown." The estates were +restored in 1784; meanwhile the profits were to be used for the +improvement of the Highlands. If submissive tenants received better +terms and larger leases than of old, Jacobite tenants were evicted for +not being punctual with rent. Therefore, on May 14, 1752, some person +unknown shot Campbell of Glenure, who was about evicting the tenants on +the lands of Lochiel and Stewart of Ardshiel in Appin. Campbell rode +down from Fort William to Ballachulish ferry, and when he had crossed it +said, "I am safe now I am out of my mother's country." But as he drove +along the old road through the wood of Lettermore, perhaps a mile and a +half south of Ballachulish House, the fatal shot was fired. For this +crime James Stewart of the Glens was tried by a Campbell jury at +Inveraray, with the Duke on the bench, and was, of course, convicted, and +hanged on the top of a knoll above Ballachulish ferry. James was +innocent, but Allan Breck Stewart was certainly an accomplice of the man +with the gun, which, by the way, was the property neither of James +Stewart nor of Stewart of Fasnacloich. The murderer was anxious to save +James by avowing the deed, but his kinsfolk, saying, "They will only hang +both James and you," bound him hand and foot and locked him up in the +kitchen on the day of James's execution. {293} Allan lay for some weeks +at the house of a kinsman in Rannoch, and escaped to France, where he had +a fight with James Mor Macgregor, then a spy in the service of the Duke +of Newcastle. + +This murder of "the Red Fox" caused all the more excitement, and is all +the better remembered in Lochaber and Glencoe, because agrarian violence +in revenge for eviction has scarcely another example in the history of +the Highlands. + + + + +CONCLUSION. + + +Space does not permit an account of the assimilation of Scotland to +England in the years between the Forty-five and our own time: moreover, +the history of this age cannot well be written without a dangerously +close approach to many "burning questions" of our day. The History of +the Highlands, from 1752 to the emigrations witnessed by Dr Johnson (1760- +1780), and of the later evictions in the interests of sheep farms and +deer forests, has never been studied as it ought to be in the rich +manuscript materials which are easily accessible. The great literary +Renaissance of Scotland, from 1745 to the death of Sir Walter Scott; the +years of Hume, a pioneer in philosophy and in history, and of the Rev. +Principal Robertson (with him and Hume, Gibbon professed, very modestly, +that he did not rank); the times of Adam Smith, of Burns, and of Sir +Walter, not to speak of the Rev. John Home, that foremost tragic poet, +may be studied in many a history of literature. According to Voltaire, +Scotland led the world in all studies, from metaphysics to gardening. We +think of Watt, and add engineering. + +The brief and inglorious administration of the Earl of Bute at once gave +openings in the public service to Scots of ability, and excited that +English hatred of these northern rivals which glows in Churchill's +'Satires,' while this English jealousy aroused that Scottish hatred of +England which is the one passion that disturbs the placid letters of +David Hume. + +The later alliance of Pitt with Henry Dundas made Dundas far more +powerful than any Secretary for Scotland had been since Lauderdale, and +confirmed the connection of Scotland with the services in India. But, +politically, Scotland, till the Reform Bill, had scarcely a recognisable +existence. The electorate was tiny, and great landholders controlled the +votes, whether genuine or created by legal fiction--"faggot votes." +Municipal administration in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth +centuries was terribly corrupt, and reform was demanded, but the French +Revolution, producing associations of Friends of the People, who were +prosecuted and grievously punished in trials for sedition, did not afford +a fortunate moment for peaceful reforms. + +But early in the nineteenth century Jeffrey, editor of 'The Edinburgh +Review,' made it the organ of Liberalism, and no less potent in England +than in Scotland; while Scott, on the Tory side, led a following of +Scottish penmen across the Border in the service of 'The Quarterly +Review.' With 'Blackwood's Magazine' and Wilson, Hogg, and Lockhart; +with Jeffrey and 'The Edinburgh,' the Scottish metropolis almost rivalled +London as the literary capital. + +About 1818 Lockhart recognised the superiority of the Whig wits in +literature; but against them all Scott is a more than sufficient set-off. +The years of stress between Waterloo (1815) and the Reform Bill (1832) +made Radicalism (fostered by economic causes, the enormous commercial and +industrial growth, and the unequal distribution of its rewards) perhaps +even more pronounced north than south of the Tweed. In 1820 "the Radical +war" led to actual encounters between the yeomanry and the people. The +ruffianism of the Tory paper 'The Beacon' caused one fatal duel, and was +within an inch of leading to another, in which a person of the very +highest consequence would have "gone on the sod." For the Reform Bill +the mass of Scottish opinion, so long not really represented at all, was +as eager as for the Covenant. So triumphant was the first Whig or +Radical majority under the new system, that Jeffrey, the Whig pontiff, +perceived that the real struggle was to be "between property and no +property," between Capital and Socialism. This circumstance had always +been perfectly clear to Scott and the Tories. + +The watchword of the eighteenth century in literature, religion, and +politics had been "no enthusiasm." But throughout the century, since +1740, "enthusiasm," "the return to nature," had gradually conquered till +the rise of the Romantic school with Coleridge and Scott. In religion +the enthusiastic movement of the Wesleys had altered the face of the +Church in England, while in Scotland the "Moderates" had lost position, +and "zeal" or enthusiasm pervaded the Kirk. The question of lay +patronage of livings had passed through many phases since Knox wrote, "It +pertaineth to the people, and to every several congregation, to elect +their minister." In 1833, immediately after the passing of the Reform +Bill, the return to the primitive Knoxian rule was advocated by the +"Evangelical" or "High Flying" opponents of the Moderates. Dr Chalmers, +a most eloquent person, whom Scott regarded as truly a man of genius, was +the leader of the movement. The Veto Act, by which the votes of a +majority of heads of families were to be fatal to the claims of a +patron's presentee, had been passed by the General Assembly; it was +contrary to Queen Anne's Patronage Act of 1711,--a measure carried, +contrary to Harley's policy, by a coalition of English Churchmen and +Scottish Jacobite members of Parliament. The rejection, under the Veto +Act, of a presentee by the church of Auchterarder, was declared illegal +by the Court of Session and the judges in the House of Lords (May 1839); +the Strathbogie imbroglio, "with two Presbyteries, one taking its orders +from the Court of Session, the other from the General Assembly" (1837- +1841), brought the Assembly into direct conflict with the law of the +land. Dr Chalmers would not allow the spiritual claims of the Kirk to be +suppressed by the State. "King Christ's Crown Honours" were once more in +question. On May 18, 1843, the followers of the principles of Knox and +Andrew Melville marched out of the Assembly into Tanfield Hall, and made +Dr Chalmers Moderator, and themselves "The Free Church of Scotland." In +1847 the hitherto separated synods of various dissenting bodies came +together as United Presbyterians, and in 1902 they united with the Free +Church as "the United Free Church," while a small minority, mainly +Highland, of the former Free Church, now retains that title, and +apparently represents Knoxian ideals. Thus the Knoxian ideals have +modified, even to this day, the ecclesiastical life of Scotland, while +the Church of James I., never by persecution extinguished (_nec tamen +consumebatur_), has continued to exist and develop, perhaps more in +consequence of love of the Liturgy than from any other cause. + +Meanwhile, and not least in the United Free Church, extreme tenacity of +dogma has yielded place to very advanced Biblical criticism; and Knox, +could he revisit Scotland with all his old opinions, might not be wholly +satisfied by the changes wrought in the course of more than three +centuries. The Scottish universities, discouraged and almost destitute +of pious benefactors since the end of the sixteenth century, have +profited by the increase of wealth and a comparatively recent outburst of +generosity. They always provided the cheapest, and now they provide the +cheapest and most efficient education that is offered by any homes of +learning of mediaeval foundation. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +{2} A good example of these Celtic romances is 'The Tain Bo Cualgne.' + +{4} The best account of Roman military life in Scotland, from the time +of Agricola to the invasion by Lollius Urbicus (140-158 A.D.), may be +studied in Mr Curie's 'A Roman Frontier Post and Its People' (Maclehose, +Glasgow, 1911). The relics, weapons, arms, pottery, and armour of Roman +men, and the ornaments of the native women, are here beautifully +reproduced. Dr Macdonald's excellent work, 'The Roman Wall in Scotland' +(Maclehose, 1911), is also most interesting and instructive. + +{10} For the Claims of Supremacy see Appendix C. to vol. i. of my +'History of Scotland,' pp. 496-499. + +{20} Lord Reay, according to the latest book on Scottish peerages, +represents these MacHeths or Mackays. + +{27} 'Iliad,' xviii. 496-500. + +{36} As Waleys was then an English as much as a Scottish name, I see no +reason for identifying the William le Waleys, outlawed for bilking a poor +woman who kept a beer house (Perth, June-August, 1296), with the great +historical hero of Scotland. + +{38} See Dr Neilson on "Blind Harry's Wallace," in 'Essays and Studies +by Members of the English Association,' p. 85 ff. (Oxford, 1910.) + +{52} The precise date is disputed. + +{57} By a blunder which Sir James Ramsay corrected, history has accused +James of arresting his "whole House of Lords"! + +{61} The ballad fragments on the Knight of Liddesdale's slaying, and on +"the black dinner," are preserved in Hume of Godscroft's 'History of he +House of Douglas,' written early in the seventeenth century. + +{67} The works of Messrs Herkless and Hannay on the Bishops of St +Andrews may be consulted. + +{71} See p. 38, note 1. + +{89} Knox gives another account. Our evidence is from a household book +of expenses, _Liber Emptorum_, in MS. + +{91} As to the story of forgery, see a full discussion in the author's +'History of Scotland,' i. 460-467. 1900. + +{94} There is no proof that this man was the preacher George Wishart, +later burned. + +{96} A curious controversy is constantly revived in this matter. It is +urged that Knox's mobs did not destroy the abbey churches of Kelso, +Melrose, Dryburgh, Roxburgh, and Coldingham: that was done by Hertford's +army. If so, they merely deprived the Knoxian brethren of the pleasures +of destruction which they enjoyed almost everywhere else. The English, +if guilty, left at Melrose, Jedburgh, Coldingham, and Kelso more +beautiful remains of mediaeval architecture than the Reformers were wont +to spare. + +{99} This part of our history is usually and erroneously told as given +by Knox, writing fifteen years later. He needs to be corrected by the +letters and despatches of the day, which prove that the Reformer's +memory, though picturesque, had, in the course of fifteen years, become +untrustworthy. He is the chief source of the usual version of Solway +Moss. + +{106} The dates and sequence of events are perplexing. In 'John Knox +and the Reformation' (pp. 86-95) I have shown the difficulties. + +{111a} The details of these proceedings and the evidence for them may be +found in the author's book, 'John Knox and the Reformation,' pp. 135-141. +Cf. also my 'History of Scotland,' ii. 58-60. + +{111b} See 'Affaires Etrangeres: Angleterre,' xv. 131-153. MS. + +{118} Mary's one good portrait is that owned by Lord Leven and Melville. + +{129} I have no longer any personal doubt that Mary wrote the lost +French original of this letter, usually numbered II. in the Casket +Letters (see my paper, "The Casket Letters," in 'The Scottish Historical +Review,' vol. v., No. 17, pp. 1-12). The arguments tending to suggest +that parts of the letter are forged (see my 'Mystery of Mary Stuart') are +(I now believe) unavailing. + +{137} I can construe in no other sense the verbose "article." It may be +read in Dr Hay Fleming's 'Reformation in Scotland,' pp. 449, 450, with +sufficient commentary, pp. 450-453. + +{144} It appears that there was both a plot by Lennox, after the Raid of +Ruthven, to seize James--"preaching will be of no avail to convert him," +his mother wrote; and also an English plot, rejected by Gowrie, to poison +both James and Mary! For the former, see Professor Hume Brown, 'History +of Scotland,' vol. ii. p. 289; for the latter, see my 'History of +Scotland,' vol. ii. pp. 286, 287, with the authorities in each case. + +{156} Of these versions, that long lost one which was sent to England +has been published for the first time, with the previously unnoticed +incident of Robert Oliphant, in the author's 'James VI. and the Gowrie +Mystery.' Here it is also demonstrated that all the treasonable letters +attributed in 1606-1608 to Logan were forged by Logan's solicitor, George +Sprot, though the principal letter seems to me to be a copy of an +authentic original. That all, _as they stand_, are forgeries is the +unanimous opinion of experts. See the whole of the documents in the +author's 'Confessions of George Sprot.' Roxburghe Club. + +{181} Colkitto's men and the Badenoch contingent. + +{182} Much has been made of cruelties at Aberdeen. Montrose sent in a +drummer, asking the Provost to remove the old men, women, and children. +The drummer was shot, as, at Perth, Montrose's friend, Kilpont, had been +murdered. The enemy were pursued through the town. Spalding names 115 +townsmen slain in the whole battle and pursuit. Women were slain if they +were heard to mourn their men--not a very probable story. Not one woman +is named. The Burgh Records mention no women slain. Baillie says "the +town was well plundered." Jaffray, who fled from the fight as fast as +his horse could carry him, says that women and children were slain. See +my 'History of Scotland,' vol. iii. pp. 126-128. + +{186a} Craig-Brown, 'History of Selkirkshire,' vol. i. pp. 190, 193. +'Act. Parl. Scot.,' vol. vi. pt. i. p. 492. + +{186b} 'Act. Parl. Scot.,' vol. vi. pt. i. p. 514. + +{187} Hume Brown, vol. ii. p. 339. + +{208} The Boot was an old French and Scottish implement. It was a +framework into which the human leg was inserted; wedges were then driven +between the leg and the framework. + +{225} Many disgusting details may be read in the author's 'Life of Sir +George Mackenzie.' + +{226} Hume Brown, ii. 414, 415. + +{250} Dr Hay Fleming finds no mention of this affair in the Minutes of +the Societies. + +{254a} All this is made clear from the letters of the date in the Stuart +Papers (Historical Manuscript Commission). + +{254b} In addition to Saint Simon's narrative we have the documentary +evidence taken in a French inquiry. + +{264} See 'The King over the Water,' by Alice Shield and A. Lang. +Thackeray's King James, in 'Esmond,' is very amusing but absolutely false +to history. + +{265} 'The Porteous Trial,' by Mr Roughead, W.S. + +{287} See the author's 'History of Scotland,' iv. 446-500, where the +evidence is examined. + +{290} 'Register of Decreets,' vol. 482. + +{293} Tradition in Glencoe. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT HISTORY OF SCOTLAND*** + + +******* This file should be named 15955.txt or 15955.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/9/5/15955 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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