Volume I Part 53 (1/2)

[597] From the above paragraph in Knox, it appears that the prisoners were liberated at different periods between the Winter of 1548-9, and July 1550.

[598] This statement of Knox, written in 1566, or twenty years after the event, is certainly very much opposed to a.s.sertions which are easier made than proved, that all the persons concerned in Cardinal Beaton's a.s.sa.s.sination came to a violent death. There is no doubt that Bishop Lesley says, ”Caedis ujus auctores violenta morte Deo vindice mulctantur;” (De Rebus Gestis, &c., p. 482;) but he pa.s.ses this over in silence, in his English History. Dempster also a.s.serts ”Nam nullus nefariorum percussorum non violenta morte extinctus est.”--(Hist.

Eccles. p. 89.) ”So, 'tis observed by the Protestants, that there was not one of his (Beaton's) murderers but afterwards died a violent, and, for the most part, an ignominious death.”--(Preface to Beaugue's History, p. 50.) It is not necessary to quote similar a.s.sertions reiterated by writers of the present day. James Melville died, it is true, during his imprisonment, in 1548 or 1549, but certainly not a violent death. Norman Lesley died of his wounds, but in no inglorious manner, in 1554; and nineteen years later, in August 1573, Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange, after his gallant defence of the Castle of Edinburgh, suffered an ignominious death. Any other instance of a violent death remains to be proven.

[599] James Melvin or Melville. See note 449. Spotiswood says he was ”one of the house of Carnbee.” In this way, we may conjecture he was brother of John Mailvile of Carnbee, who had charters of the lands of Granton, 21st February 1508-9, and to his wife Margaret Leirmonth, 26th May 1513. Their son, John Mailvile of Carnbee junior, and his wife Janet Inglis, had a charter of half of these lands, 26th June 1509. The person who acted such a prominent part in Cardinal Beaton's murder, was called Senior, probably to distinguish him from James, ”naturali et legitimo filio” of John Mailvile of Carnbee, who had a charter of half the lands of Carnbee, 15th November 1528.--Brist in Bartanzea, is the same as Brest, the well known sea-port of France, one of the best harbours in Europe, on the west coast of Britanny.

[600] MS. G, ”Gif we, I say, or they.”

[601] In Vautr. edit. ”yeare of our Lord.”

[602] In Vautr. edit. the word _villain_ was mistaken for the name of a person, and thus we have ”his other _William_;” and in the marginal note, ”The slaughter of that _Williame_ Davie.”--The date of this event, so memorable in Scotish history, from its relation to Queen Mary, was the 9th of March 1565-6.

[603] Balfour, as stated at page 202, was Official of Lothian, and he still retained his ecclesiastical denomination, Parson of Flisk, when raised to the bench, 12th November 1561. Immediately after Rizzio's murder, in March 1566, he was knighted, and appointed Lord Clerk-Register, in place of Mr. James Macgill, one of the conspirators.

And on the 6th December 1567, Balfour became Lord President, by the t.i.tle of Pettendreich.

[604] John Sinclair, Bishop of Brechin, died in April 1560: see subsequent note.

[605] The person here referred to, and whose baptismal name is left blank in the MS., and in all the later copies, was John Lesley, Bishop of Ross. This eminent and learned Prelate, whom Knox calls ”a priest's gett,” or illegitimate child, was the natural son of Gawin Lesley, parson of Kingussie, as Keith, in his Catalogue of Bishops, has shown from original doc.u.ments. Lesley's several preferments will afterwards be noticed. He survived till the year 1596.

[606] In Vautr. edit. ”gate;” MS. G, ”geitt.”

[607] Sir Symon Preston of Craigmillar: see note 322.

[608] In the MS. ”keape.”

[609] A treaty of peace between England and France, comprising Scotland, was concluded at Boulogne, on the 24th March, and proclaimed at Edinburgh in April 1550.

[610] There was concluded a commercial treaty between France and the Low Countries, 26th April 1550; and a treaty of peace between the Emperor Charles the Fifth and Mary Queen of Scots, 15th December 1550.

[611] From Foxe's account, of Wallace's trial, we learn that he was a native of Fail, in Ayrs.h.i.+re; and there was a family of Wallace of Feale.

Fail, or Failford, in the parish of Torbolton, was the site of a Monastery founded in 1252, which belonged to the Red Friars. (See the notices in New Stat. Account, Ayrs.h.i.+re, p. 748, &c.) The manner in which Knox speaks of Wallace as ”a simple man without learning,” may mean, without much pretension to learning, or not having enjoyed a learned education. Yet we find two persons of the same name, Adam Wallace, incorporated at Glasgow in 1536 and 1539.--His trial and execution took place in 1550; yet in the Latin verses by John Johnston of St. Andrews, on the Scotish Martyrs, the date given is 17th July 1549.

(”Constantissime demum pro testimonio Christi mortuus, Edinburgi xvii Julij 1549.”)

[612] The wife of John c.o.c.kburn of Ormiston, called in those days Lady Ormiston, was Alison Sandilands, daughter of Sir James Sandilands of Calder. Her son Alexander, was Knox's pupil: see note 472. She was still alive in 1584, when Vautrollier dedicated ”To the Honourable and vertuous Ladie Alison Sandilands, Lady of Hormiston,” the treatise called ”The Confession of Faith,” by Henry Balnaves, (see note 575,) the MS. of which had been fortunately discovered at Ormiston, by Richard Bannatyne, Knox's Secretary.

[613] Winton Castle, in the parish of Pencaitland, East Lothian, about five miles west from Haddington, appears to have been a place of great splendour, according to the glowing description of it by Sir Richard Maitland, in his ”Historie and Cronicle of the House of Seyton,” p. 35.

Winton House or Castle, ”biggit, with the yard and garding thereof,” by George second Lord Seaton, we are informed, was burned, and the policy destroyed, ”by the English of old;” but the house was re-edified by George tenth Lord Seaton, and third Earl of Winton, in 1620.

[614] The monastery of the Dominican or Black Friars was one of the largest establishments in Edinburgh, with extensive gardens, occupying the site of the building which formerly was the High School, on the rising ground to the south of the Cowgate. The close, or ”le Venelle,”

still known as the Blackfriars Wynd, formed a connexion between the Monastery and the High Street, and had been granted to the Friars by Alexander the Second. The Convent was burned to the ground by a sudden fire, on the 25th April 1528, and had only been partially rebuilt at the time of the Reformation.

[615] To the notices at page 152, respecting John Lauder, it may be added, that being one of the Auditors of the Chamberlain's Accounts for the Archbishop.r.i.c.k of St. Andrews, from 1540 to 1549, he is styled Archdeacon of Teviotdale.--(MS. Rental Book, Advocates Library.) In Foxe's account of the trial of Adam Wallace, 1550, Lauder is called Parson of Morebattle. In February 1551, he is styled Archidene of Teviotdale, and Notary Public of St. Andrews.--(Acta Parl. Scot., vol.

ii. p. 489.) In the same year, Lauder signs a deed as ”_Secretarius_” of Archbishop Hamilton, (MS. Rental Book, at St. Andrews;) as the deed referred to was cancelled, and reconfirmed in 1556, without any notice of Lauder's name, it may be conjectured that he had died during that interval.

[616] In MS. G, ”bindeth.”

[617] George Gordon, fourth Earl of Huntley, succeeded his grandfather in the year 1524. In 1546, after Cardinal Beaton's death, he became Lord High Chancellor. His subsequent history is well known; and he was killed fighting against the Earl of Murray, at Corrichie, about twelve miles from Aberdeen, 28th October 1562.--(Douglas and Wood's Peerage, vol. i.