Volume II Part 4 (1/2)

Thus ended this famous conference, which Elizabeth had opened with so many professions of friendshi+p, which she conducted with so much duplicity, and which she concluded without any conclusion, except that of endeavouring to blacken the character of her sister Mary, and give plausibility to her continued imprisonment To a certain extent it answered her purpose She had won the reputation, in the eyes of those who looked only at the surface of things, of having endeavoured to do justice between the Queen of Scots and her nobility; she had secured the favour of the Regent; and had obtained a strong hold of the person of her rival, who and hopeless captivity[173]

CHAPTER X

MARY'S EIGHTEEN YEARS' CAPTIVITY

The last eighteen years of Mary's life were spent in imprisonment, and are comparatively a blank in her personal history She was transported, at intervals, froe of one nobleman, and sometimes of another; but for her the active scenes of life were past,--the splendour and the dignity of a throne were to be enjoyed no longer,--the sceptre of her native country was never race her hand,--her will ceased to influence a nation,--her voice did not travel beyond the walls that witnessed her confinee of twenty-five, in the priour of health, and the rapidly ripening strength of her intellectual powers She was there destined to feel in all its bitterness, that ”hope delayed maketh the heart sick” Year after year passed slowly on, and year after year her spirits became more exhausted, her health feebler, and her doubts and fears confirth settled into despair

Pree overtook her, before she was past the meridian of life; and for some time before her death, her hair hite ”with other snows than those of age” Yet, during the whole of this long period, as which would have broken many a masculine spirit, and which, even in our own times, have been seen to conquer those who had conquered enity of her character, never forgetting that she had been born a queen, orher calamities an excuse for the commission of any petty meanness, which she would have scorned in the day of her prosperity Full of incident as her previous life had been,--brilliant in many of its achievements, fortunate in some, and honourable in all, it nanihly to her praise, than all that preceded Many iues of various kinds were carried on, between the years 1569, and 1586, but as it is not the intention of this work to illustrate any parts of the history either of Scotland or England, which do not bear i but a summary of them, in so far as they were connected with her, need be introduced here

It was on the 12th of January 1569, that the Earl of Murray and the Scottish Coent having previously received from Elizabeth a loan of 5000_l_, lent hiland and Scotland,”

or in other words, as a bribe to secure his co-operation in all ti[174] Mary, on the contrary, was removed from Bolton, to the Castle of Tutbury in Staffordshi+re, farther in the interior of England, and was placed under the charge of Lord Shrewsbury, to who to allow her captive to re in any one place, lest she should forements for an escape Besides, Sir Francis Knollys had represented, that unless it was determined to keep the Scottish Queen so close a prisoner, that she should not be allowed to ride out occasionally, which would be death to her, she could not ree and provisions[175] During the year, she was taken about by Shrewsbury, on occasional visits, to several land; but Tutbury was her head-quarters; and wherever she went, she was very strictly guarded ”If I ive advice,” says one of Cecil's friends, in a letter he wrote to him about this time, ”there should very few subjects of this land have access to a conference with this lady; for, beside that she is a goodly personage (and yet in truth not corace, a pretty Scotch speech, and a searching wit, clouded with ston, and the lady his wife, which is a fair gentlewoman She hath nine women more, fifty persons in her household, with ten horses Lord Shrewsbury is very watchful of his charge; but the Queen overwatches theht ere she go to bed I asked her Grace, since the weather did cut off all exercise abroad, how she passed the tiht with her needle, and that the diversity of the colourstill even pain ive over; and with that laid her hand upon her left side, and corief newly increased there She then entered upon a pretty disputable co with the needle, affir, in her own opinion, for the h Mary thus atteht of her unjust imprisonment never ceased to prey upon her mind Elizabeth and Cecil tried to defend therounds; but they were all alike weak They said, _first_, that she was a lawful prisoner by good treaties But as they did not mention to what treaties they alluded, Chalmers supposes they meant the same kind of treaties ”which justify the Barbary Powers to detain all Christians as slaves” They said, _secondly_, that she could not be suffered to depart, till she had satisfied the wrong she had done to Elizabeth, in openly clai any just recompense But the disavowal of that claih Mary had iven it up ever since his death

They said, _thirdly_, that Elizabeth possessed a superiority over the crown of Scotland But this antiquated notion, arising from the subservience of John Baliol to Edward I, in 1292, had long been relinquished, and had never been acknowledged in any treaty between the two nations They said, _fourthly_, that the Queen of England was bound to attend to the petition of her subjects ”in h Lord and Lady Lennox had been brought forward to present a petition against Mary, it was evident that Elizabeth had no power either to grant or refuse such petition, the Queen of Scots not being one of her subjects

Though Mary's enemies, however, prevailed, her friends were by no means discomfited In Scotland, Murray found that only one half of the kingdom was disposed to submit to his authority; and it was not till after a protracted and disastrous civil war, that he was able to free hiyle, Huntly, and others In England, the Duke of Norfolk was ues

So far fro alarmed by the pretended discoveries to her prejudice, he openly expressed his conviction of their falsehood, and prevailed upon a nulish nobility to second, to the best of their power, his honourable proposals to the Queen of Scots[177] Though it does not appear that he was able to obtain a personal intervieith Mary, many letters passed between them; and as she soon perceived that her best chance of restoration to the throne of Scotland was by joining her interests with those of Norfolk, (whose power and estates were so extensive, that Melville calls hih little disposed to form a new alliance, after the experience she had already had of matrimony, she would nevertheless bestow her hand on hih his means The Duke's machinations, however, which had been hitherto carefully concealed froth reached her ears, and in the utnation she scrupled not, with her usual arbitrary violence, to send him to the Tohere she kept him a close prisoner for upwards of nine months,--while the Earls of Arundel, Pembroke, and Leicester, who had favoured his views, all fell into disgrace Mary atched don, who pretended a superior right to the English succession, was joined with Shrewsbury in the co her i in the Tohen an open rebellion broke out in the Northern counties, headed by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland It is difficult to ascertain the precise causes which led to it Though there is no reason to believe that Mary gave it any encouragement, it seems to have borne some reference to her; for in the ”Declaration” published by the Earls, one ground of co the succession They marched also towards Tutbury, with the evident intention of restoring Mary to freedo, had she not been removed with all expedition to Coventry Elizabeth sent an arainst the rebels, and they were speedily dispersed;--Westmoreland concealed hi further into Scotland, was seized by Murray, and confined in the castle of Loch-Leven,--probably in the very apartments which Mary had occupied

The year 1570 opened with an event which materially affected the state of public affairs in Scotland, and which to Mary was the occasion of er which accrued to herself fro a prisoner of so otiation with the Earl of Murray for replacing his sister in his hands, when she received the unexpected and unwelcoence of his assassination The manner and cause of his death are sufficiently known to all who are acquainted with Scottish History; and though nothing can justify a e, yet it is ient had heaped upon Ha towards the latter more of pity than of hatred

Next to Mary herself, no one had held so prominent a place in Scotland as the Earl of Murray; and there is no one concerning whose character historians have more widely differed There can be no doubt that, like most human characters, it was a very mixed one; but it is to be feared that the evil preponderated A passion, and the temptations which his birth, rank, and fortune, held out for its indulgence, unfortunately led him into errors and crimes which, had he been contented with an humbler sphere, he would in all probability have avoided There are various sorts of aerous is not always that which is most apparent and reckless Murray was aion He had enough of knowledge of mankind to be aware, that no one could so safely play the villain as he who h he may have loved honesty to a certain extent, for its own sake, he loved it a great deal es to be derived fro it He was perhaps constitutionally religious; but though he was very willing to fight as a leader in the armies of the Reformation, it is soood cause with equal zeal, had he been obliged to fill only a subordinate place in its ranks There is every reason to believe that in ht the idly observed all the external forht attach to hih of ht and wrong, but too much selfishness to observe theard the in unshaken integrity, and full of the odour of sanctity He possessed the art, which few but profound politicians can acquire, of going in the wrong path, as if he were in the right, and of gaining more estimation for his errors, than others do for their virtues His conduct towards his sister was altogether unjustifiable; yet with the exception of his rebellion on the occasion of her e with Darnley, which was the least objectionable, because the boldest and ht-forward part of the whole, he contrived to inflict, and to see inflicted, the deadliest injuries, as if he unwillingly subated the; but what he had, prompted him to affect to feel as he never in reality did He possessed all the talent co; he had abundance of e He was not often cruel, because he saw it for his interest to be humane; he was a patron of literature, and attentive to his friends, because patronage and a numerous body of friends confer power He affected nevertheless an ostentatious austerity in his manners, which it was impossible to reconcile with the worldliness of his pursuits In short, he had so involved his whole character in disingenuousness, under a show of every thing that was exactly the reverse, that he was probably not aware hiood, and when froht uised villain

Notwithstanding all the ill usage she had received from him, Mary shed tears when she heard of his untiuim which need be passed on his ent in the place of Murray, whilst Elizabeth, says Robertson, ”adhering to her old syste the solicitations of Mary's friends, to multiply and to perpetuate the factions which tore in pieces the kingdootiation with Mary, as she frequently did at subsequent periods, when hard pressed by any of the more powerful friends of the Queen of Scots

But after appointing Co Morton and others to an; Mary still continued in her prison, and Morton returned ho been ree About this period Elizabeth's temper was particularly soured, by an excoainst her, and which she erroneously supposed had been prepared in concert with Mary A person of the naate of the Bishop of London's palace, and, refusing either to fly or conceal himself, he was seized and executed for the crime In her ill humour, Elizabeth also ordered that Mary should not be allowed to go abroad, and she did not revoke this order, until strong representations were made to her of the cruel effect produced by it on the health of the Queen, whose constitution was nowpained her, had of late greatly increased, and she was obliged to have recourse to strengthening baths of white wine[178] During this year she was removed from Tutbury to Chatsworth, and from Chatsworth she was taken to the Earl of Shrewsbury's castle at Sheffield,--”a town,” says Careat renown for the smiths therein” She had not at thewho friend Willialas, Castel her French physician, and Roulet her French Secretary The latter died when she was at Sheffield, and his death afflicted her much All communication with her friends at a distance was denied her; and her letters were continually intercepted, and either copies, or the originals, sent to Cecil Yet she had too proud a spirit to give way to unavailing complaints; and when she wrote to inquire after her faithful servant the Bishop of Ross, whom Elizabeth had put into confinement, from a jealousy of his exertions for his mistress, all she allowed herself to say was, that she pitied poor prisoners, for she was used like one herself

In the year 1571, the Duke of Norfolk, who had been by this tied froues for the liberation of Mary, and his own e with her The secret correspondence was renewed between the commentary of her purposes, and certain love-letters in a private character, known to them two” The Duke was now resolved either to erous ga, he scrupled not to have recourse to otiations both with one Rodolphi, a Florentine ent of the Court of Rome, and with the Spanish ambassador; and with them he boldly entered into an extensive conspiracy, which, if successful, would entirely have subverted the Governland with a numerous army, and should be immediately joined by hiht to the throne, call upon all good Catholics to support the of Spain, readily entered into the sche to his wishes, when the treachery of one of Norfolk's servants made Elizabeth acquainted with the whole conspiracy The Duke was immediately seized, and thrown into prison; and, after several private exauilty, and condemned to death Elizabeth, who cultivated a reputation for extren the warrant for Norfolk's execution But she was at length able to shut her heart against his many noble qualities, his princely spirit, and valuable services, and she ordered him to be led to the scaffold He there confessed that he had been justly found guilty, in so far as he had dealt with the Queen of Scots, in weighty and ie of his own Queen He died, as he had lived, with undaunted courage When the executioner offered hi, ”I fear not death;” and, laying his head on the block, it was taken off at one blow

Elizabeth was extreuilt, and, for this purpose, sent Commissioners to her to reproach her with her offences Mary heard all they had to say with the utmost calmness; and, when they called upon her for her answer, she replied, that though she was a free Queen, and did not consider herself accountable, either to them or their mistress, she had, nevertheless, no hesitation to assure them of the injustice of their accusations She protested that she had never ie with Norfolk,--that she had never encouraged him to raise rebellion, or been privy to it, but was, on the contrary, land which h Rodolphi had been of use to her in the transmission of letters abroad, she had never received any froave ear to all who offered to assist her, and in hope of effecting her deliverance, had corresponded with several in cipher,--that so far fro any hand in the Bull of excommunication, when a copy of it was sent her, she burned it after she had read it,--and that she held no con State, upon any dom Satisfied with this reply, the Commissioners returned to London[179]

All the dom of Scotland The Earl of Lennox was a feeble and very inco hi that the current of popular feeling was becoainst the unjust i, many of those who had stood by Murray deserted to the opposite faction Ae, the first the ablest statesman, and the second the best soldier in the country It was now almost impossible to say which side preponderated Both parties levied ared towns, and ordered executions ”Fellow-citizens, friends, brothers,” says Robertson, ”took different sides, and ranged the factions In every county, and alsmen_ and _Queensmen_ were names of distinction Political hatred dissolved all natural ties, and extinguished the reciprocal good-will and confidence which hold led itself with these civil distinctions, and contributed not a little to heighten and to inflame theent, was the taking of the Castle of Dumbarton from the Queen's Lords The Archbishop of St Andrehoed without a trial, and the sentence was immediately executed No Bishop had ever suffered in Scotland so ignolad to get rid of one who had been very zealous against them, the nobles who supported the Queen were exasperated to the last degree by so violent a measure, and their ord became,--”Think on the Archbishop of St Andrews!” Lennox was sacrificed to hisbeen suddenly taken, in an expedition contrived by Grange, Lennox, after he had surrendered himself prisoner, was shot by command of Lord Claud Hamilton, brother to the deceased Archbishop; and in his rooent

In the year 1572, Mary's cause sustained a serious injury, by the atrocious onots in France, which exasperated all the Protestants throughout Europe, and h Mary herself, so far fro lent any countenance to this ness to constrain the conscience of any one, and had been all her life the strenuous advocate of toleration, yet, recollecting her connexion with Charles IX and Catharine de Medicis, whose sanguinary fury made itself so conspicuous on this melancholy occasion, her enemies took care that she should not escape fro advantage of the excite, used every exertion to secure the circulation of Buchanan's notorious ”Detection of Mary's Doings,” which had been published a short time before She ordered Cecil to send a nuhaht be presented to the King, and leading persons of the French Court ”It is not amiss,” Cecil wrote, ”to have divers of Buchanan's little Latin books to present, if need be, to the King, as from yourself, and likewise to some of the other noblerace her, _which must be done before other purposes can be attained_” Cecil himself printed and circulated a small treatise, in the shape of a letter, fro an account of the ”Detection,” and the credit it deserved The publication, on the other hand, of Bishop Lesley's ”Defence of Queen Mary's Honour,” was positively interdicted; and Lesley was obliged to send the manuscript abroad, before he was able to present it to the world To such low and cowardly devices were Elizabeth and her Minister under the necessity of resorting, to blacken the character of Mary, and justify their own iniquitous proceedings![180]

In Scotland, too, Mary's party, beginning to see the hopelessness of the cause, was gradually dwindling away Through Mar's exertions, a general peace ht have been obtained, had not Morton's superior influence and persevering cruelty drawn out the civil war to the last dregs Mar, finding himself thwarted in every measure he proposed for the tranquillity of his country, fell into a deep melancholy, which ended in his death, before he had been a year in office Morton succeeded him without opposition, and iainst all the Queen's friends, ere now divided into two parties, the one headed by Chatelherault and Huntly, and the other by Maitland and Grange

After gaining soes over both, he concluded a peace with the forh on all sides, in conjunction with soth forced the latter to surrender Kircaldy of Grange, the bravest and ed at the Cross of Edinburgh; and Secretary Maitland, ith all his talents, had vacillated tooa si his days,” says Melville, ”after the old Roman fashi+on”

About the same time, John Knox concluded his laborious, and, in e Appearing as he did, in treacherous and turbulent tiher praise, because it enabled him the more successfully to maintain an influence over the minds of his countrymen, and effect those iht and belief, which his superior abilities pointed out to hiious is, but they were to be attributed ed, than to any fault of his own His very violence and acri prejudices, and no less confirmed partialities, were perhaps the very best instru the cause of the Refor of Murray, the fickleness of Maitland, or the ferocity of Morton He pursued a steady and undeviating course; and though loved by few, he was reverenced by e, in particular,--and not the e inspired by the possession of physical strength, but the far nobler courage arising fro feature of his rave of Knox,--”Here lies he who never feared the face of man”

In the year 1573, Mary, at her own earnest request, was removed, for the benefit of her health, from Sheffield to the Wells at Buxton The news she had lately received from Scotland, and the apparent annihilation of all her hopes, had affected her not a little ”Though she rief,” the Earl of Shrewsbury wrote to Cecil, ”yet this news nips her very sore” At Buxton, which was then the ed to live in complete seclusion; and it may easily be conceived, that the waters could be of little benefit to her, without the aid of air, exercise, and ah detained at a distance, took every means in his power to afford her consolation, and wrote two treatises, after the manner of Seneca, expressly applicable to her condition; both of which he sent to her The first was entitled,--”_Piae afflicti animi meditationes divinaque remedia_,” and the second,--”_Tranquillitatis animi conservatio et munimentum_” She thanked him for both of these productions, and assured him, that she had received much benefit from their perusal With many parts of the first, in particular, she was so pleased, that she occupied herself in paraphrasing them into French verse[181] Lesley was soon afterwards allowed by Elizabeth to pass into France, where he long continued to exert hi, on her account, several foreign courts, and exposing hiood old age in 1596, and his memory deserves to be cherished, both for the many amiable qualities he possessed in private life, and his inflexible fidelity and attachment to the Queen of Scots[182]

In 1574, a fresh misfortune overtook Mary, in the death of her brother-in-law, Charles IX He was succeeded on the throne by the Duke of Anjou, who took the title of Henry III, and was little inclined to exert hi at enmity with the house of Guise But a still more fatal bloas the death of her uncle, the Cardinal of Lorraine, who had ever made it a part of his policy to identify her interests with his own, and to whom she had always been accustoreatest distresses