Volume I Part 45 (1/2)
[289] All this took place about the 3d of September, or within nine days of the Governor's ratification of the English alliance, mentioned in note 273, and six days of his having issued a proclamation against the Cardinal.--(Sadler's Papers, vol. i. pp. 277, 278, 282.)
[290] On the 9th of September 1543: see note 287.
[291] Sadler, in this emba.s.sy, arrived in Edinburgh in March 1543.
Notwithstanding the treaty referred to in a previous note, he did not succeed in the great object of his mission at this time, that of gaining the Governor to a steady adherence to his original policy of favouring the Reformed doctrines, and adhering to the English in opposition to the French interest. Sadler was recalled in December 1543; and the country was speedily invaded and devastated by the English troops.
[292] Matthew Earl of Lennox returned to Scotland, by the advice of Cardinal Beaton, and landed at Dumbarton on the last day of March 1543.
[293] A blank in the MS. and in all the copies. The name of Somerville is supplied on the authority of letters from Sir Ralph Sadler to Henry the Eighth, and from the Privy Council of England to Sadler.--(Sadler, vol. i. p. 161; State Papers, vol. v. p. 280.)
[294] Sir Hugh Campbell of Loudon.
[295] In MS. G, ”was efter tane in the Lenterne, at the siege of Glasgw.”
[296] John Charteris of Couthilgourdy had been elected Provost of Perth, 1st October 1543, but was discharged, by appointment of the Governor, 26th January 1543-44, when Mr. Alexander M'Breck was chosen. Patrick Lord Ruthven, who was chosen Provost on the 7th October 1544, was attempted to be discharged on the 26th January 1544-45, and to be replaced by John Charteris; but the Ruthven party prevailing, Charteris was not admitted.
The skirmish of which Knox here gives a minute and accurate description, took place on the 22d of July 1544, when Lord Gray's partizans were repulsed with a loss of upwards of sixty men.--(Adamson's Muses Threnodie, by Cant, pp. 70, 71, 112.) Lord Gray, in October that year, received from the Cardinal a grant of part of the lands of Rescobie in Forfars.h.i.+re, for his ”ready and faithful help and a.s.sistance in these dangerous times of the Church.”
[297] Patrick Master of Ruthven was the oldest son of Patrick third Lord Ruthven, the princ.i.p.al actor in Rizzio's murder, on the 9th March 1566, and who fled into England, where he died on the 13th June that year.
Having predeceased his father, and leaving no issue, Patrick was succeeded by his next brother, William, who is styled Master of Ruthven, in a charter, 9th April 1565. This son, who was afterwards created Earl of Gowrye, was also concerned with his father in the murder of Rizzio.
[298] Moncrieffe of Moncrieffe, in the parish of Dunbarny, Perths.h.i.+re.
[299] Mary Magdalene's day, the 22d of July. But the year was 1544, and not 1543: see note 296; and the Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 84, where forty persons are said to have been slain.
[300] In MS. G, ”a pretty spaice fra the Fische-Yet.”
[301] Sadler, on the 13th of November 1543, states that ”the Governor and Cardinal are now gone over the water of Forth, into Fife and Angus,”
to gain the Earl of Rothes, the Lords Gray, Ogilvy, and Glammis, to their party, ”either by force or policy.”--(Sadler's Papers, vol. i. p.
340.)
[302] Castle Huntley, in the parish of Longforgan, built by the second Lord Gray of Foulis. He had extensive possessions in the Ca.r.s.e of Gowrye, and according to tradition, he named the Castle after his Lady, a daughter of the Earl of Huntley.
[303] In MS. G, ”Balgawy.” The place referred to is Balgavie, near Innergowrye, two or three miles from Dundee, on the road to Perth.
[304] The old name of the city of Perth.
[305] The Provost of St. Andrews in 1544, was Sir James Learmonth of Balcomie, or Dairsye.
[306] In Vautr. edit. ”their friend.”
[307] The marginal explanation having been taken into the text, the later copies read as if the Bishop of St. Andrews and the Abbot of Paisley were different persons. John Hamilton, Abbot of Paisley, became Cardinal Beaton's successor in the Metropolitan See. In MS. G, the pa.s.sage reads, ”This answer reported, was send to thame the Bishop of Sanct Andrewes, the Abbot of Pasley, Mr. David Panter,” &c., ”to desyre,” &c. In Vautr. edit. it is still further from the correct reading, by the omission of _thame_, ”This answer reported, was sent to the Bishop of Sainct Andrewes, the Abbot of Pasley,” &c.
[308] This proverbial phrase, ”Ay rynnis the fox, quhill he fute hes,”
occurs at the end of a poem ”againis Treason,” by Dunbar.--(Poems, vol.
i. p. 136.)
[309] The Parliament met at Edinburgh, in December 1543, and the following Act against Hereticks was pa.s.sed on the 15th; which may be quoted in connexion with the proceedings at Perth in the following month,--