trology, or meant that his mistress should be the dupe of a very prevailing superstition; and the stars had told that the queen should be married in the thirty-first year of her age to a foreigner, and bear one son, who would be a very great prince, and one daughter, who would be a very great princess. But the queen, who, we are convinced, thought not of marrying at all, continued her strange coquetry with Leicester, and Cecil's stars were fairly put out by more popular prophecies, which Leicester purposely encouraged, about the bear and ragged staff. The queen's ill-placed partiality to this bold bad man had excited alarmı in various quarters; and nearly three years before she advanced him to the rank of Earl of Leicester, and gave him Kenilworth Castle, the report of his having murdered his wife had been made known to her majesty. Nay, even Cecil, who for a long time stood in dread that Elizabeth would give her hand to Leicester, and who subsequently contrived to renew the matrimonial treaty with the Archduke Charles of Austria, in order to prevent this fatal measure, made a memorandum, which was probably shown to her majesty, of the earl's being "infamed by death of his wife," and being "far in debt," besides other demerits. And yet Elizabeth did not change her conduct, and Leicester still felt such high hopes as to quarrel with all who favoured the Austrian match. To return to Mary's ambassador, whose head, clear as it was, seems to have been made giddy by matches and counter-matches, and female jealousies and intrigues, Melville proceeds to state, that Elizabeth expressed a great desire to see Queen Mary; and, as this could not hastily be brought to pass, she appeared with great delight to look upon her majesty's picture. The Earl of Leicester conveyed Melville in his barge from Hampton Court to London. On their way he asked the wary Scot what his mistress thought of him for a husband. "Whereunto," says Melville, "I answered very coldly, as I had been by my queen commanded: and then he began to purge himself of so proud a pretence as to marry so great a queen, declaring that he did not esteem himself worthy to wipe her shoes, and that the invention of that proposition of marriage proceeded from Mr. Cecil, his secret enemy: for if I, said he, should have appeared desirous of that marriage, I should have offended both the queens, and lost their favour." It is difficult to 1 Burghley State Papers. In this curious minute Cecil says that, if Elizabeth marries Leicester, "it will be thought that the scandalous speeches of the queen with the earl have been true." He also says that Leicester was "like to prove unkind or jealous of the queen's majesty." Catherine de' Medici gave an unpardonable offence by asking publicly whether it were true that the Queen of England meant to marry her horsekeeper? Leicester was then master of the horse. receive, as a sincere declaration, anything that fell from the lips of that dexterous courtier, the Earl of Leicester-most difficult, where all were playing parts, and all consummate actors, to ascertain the real project in hand. It appears, however, almost certain, that the presumptuous favourite had not yet given up all hopes of marrying Elizabeth; and he was certainly the man to prefer her, with the rich and great kingdom of England, to her more youthful and far more beautiful rival, with so poor and turbulent a kingdom as Scotland. It has been suggested by an elegant writer, who has shown great tact in tracing some of the windings and intricacies of Elizabeth's character, that she encouraged this matrimonial project purely as a romantic trial of Leicester's attachment to herself, and pleased her fancy with the idea of his rejecting for her a younger and a fairer queen; and this notion not only accords with the virgin queen's taste and manners, but also with the project she evidently entertained of perplexing Mary, and delaying her marriage with any one else. Melville returned to Scotland, and found himself bound to assure his mistress that she could never expect any real friendship from Elizabeth, whose professions were full of falsehood and dissimulation. Mary's subjects, being very anxious for an heir to the throne, grew weary of these long delays, and a strong party pointed out another match which had many things to recommend it. Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was first cousin to Mary, and second cousin to Elizabeth, being the eldest son of the Earl of Lenuox, by the Lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of the Queen-dowager Margaret, sister of King Henry VIII., by the Earl of Angus, the second husband of that unruly and dissolute woman. In other words, he was the son of Mary's aunt (by the half-blood), the Lady Margaret Douglas, and the grandson of Elizabeth's aunt, Margaret Tudor. The Earl of Lennox, it will be remembered, besides stealing the French money, and attempting to betray Dumbarton Castle, adhered steadily to the English interests, for which he suffered banishment and the forfeiture of all his estates in Scotland. He retired to England, which had been his home ever since-a comfortable home, for Henry VIII., in recompense, not only gave him the hand of his niece, the Lady Margaret Douglas, but also some good estates in Yorkshire. Henry Lord Darnley had been born and brought up in England, and even his mother, the Lady Margaret, Countess of Lennox, was a native Englishwoman, having been born in 1515, just after the expulsion of her parents from Scotland. With this lady it should appear that the Queen of Scots had for some time maintained 2 "Rusé courtisan," Mezeray. 3 Aikin. an amicable correspondence; for, when she de- | ject, and it would have been no extraordinary spatched Melville to the English court, she in- stretch of prerogative in those days to have prestructed him to deal with my Lady Margaret vented his journey, if Elizabeth had been so and with sundry friends she had in England of minded. Darnley set sail for Scotland in the different opinions. To the crown of Scotland beginning of the year 1565, and on the 16th of the Lennox family could lay no prospective claim; February he waited upon Queen Mary at Wemyss but if, according to a notion not altogether aban- Castle, in Fife, where he was most courteously doned in that age, a male were to be held as in received. Though so very tall, he was well proall circumstances coming before a female repre- portioned, and altogether a handsome young sentative, Henry Lord Darnley, the son of this man. He was in his twentieth year; the queen Margaret, Countess of Lennox, might, in case of three years older. He possessed all the courtly failure of the issue of Henry VIII., have advanced | accomplishments of the times was gallant, a claim to the English throne, which was capable showy, and liberal of his money, with which he of being placed in competition with the claim was well supplied from England. He thus of Queen Mary herself; and hence the desire of readily won the good-will of Mary's courtiers strengthening the pretensions of the Queen of and attendants, and made a favourable imprèsScots by uniting the two claims. But this union sion on her own heart; so that personal regards excited painful feelings in the breast of Elizabeth, united with political ones to recommend this who liked not to think of any one succeeding her, fatal marriage. But, according to a contempobut who seems to have entertained a horror of the 'rary account, it was afterwards ascertained that notion of the succession falling to Mary, whom she, there was magic used to charm the queen! It evidently hated more as a woman than as a sove- appears, however, that notwithstanding this reign. And yet even here she adopted no clear charm, and the more real charm of Darnley's percourse, but, on the contrary, as if she foresaw son and manners, the queen at first gave his suit the fatal results, she played into the hands of the a modest repulse, and avoided committing herself Lennox family, and permitted things which she until she had consulted with her half-brother might have prevented, and which led directly to and others. Darnley was not discouraged, nor the union. When the Earl of Lennox applied did he disdain to seek, by flatteries and other for leave to go to Scotland, to solicit the reversal means, the countenance of David Rizzio, the of his attainder, and to press his wife's claim as queen's favourite and private secretary. The heir female to the earldom of Angus, she gave Earl of Moray did not oppose the match at this her royal license, and apparently with pleasure. time, and it was recommended by Maitland. InAfter twenty years of exile, Lennox arrived in deed, according to one account given by the party Scotland, where Queen Mary received him very most friendly to Mary, her half-brother had courteously, and procured from the Scottish par- planned the match, and pressed her into it, hopliament the reversal of the attainder with resti- ing to retain his great power in the government if tution of his estates. His lady's claim on the she married a young, inexperienced, and thoughtearldom of Angus was given up-for it was held less youth. The estates of the kingdom were to be a male fief, and, what was worse, it was in assembled at Stirling, in the month of May, and the tenacious grasp of the powerful Earl of Mor- the business being formally proposed to them, ton, the chancellor, who managed it in the name they also recommended the marriage-the Lord of his nephew Archibald Douglas; but the Ochiltree alone refusing his consent, and professqueen's liberality softened the pang of this dis- ing openly that he could never agree to a king appointment. The attainder was scarcely re- who was a Roman Catholic-for the Earl of Lenversed, when the exiled lord began to adopt nox, notwithstanding some temptations to change, measures for placing his son Henry by Mary's had adhered to the old religion, and had brought side on the throne. up his son in the same faith.* 2 A few weeks after Elizabeth had again put forward Leicester, she permitted Henry Lord Darnley, "the tall lad," as she termed him, to go to Scotland. Darnley was an English sub 1 Merille. 2 But Morton and Archibald Douglas, who afterwards were th engaged in the murder of Darnley, never forgave the Lennoxes this attempt. 3 L'Innocence de la tres Illustre, tres chaste et debonnaire Princense, Madame Marie, Reine d'Escosse, &c. This curious defence of Mary's conduct was published at Paris, in 1572, while she was lingering in captivity in England. For the most part it is a piece of special pleading, but there is in it evidence of a minute acquaintance with the events and characters of the times. When intelligence of these proceedings reached the English court, Elizabeth was, or feigned to be, wonderfully incensed, and her privy council drew up a list of imaginary dangers attending 4 Whitaker, however, contends that both Darnley and his father at this time, and for the rest of their lives, at least professed Protestantism. Mary Queen of Scots Vindicated, 2d edit. 1790, iii. 135, 136.-It should rather appear, from some expressions in the letters of Randolph, that Darnley was only a suspected Papist at the most. Probably the true state of the case is to be best collected from one of these letters, in which Randolph says that "my Lord Darnley would seem to be indifferent; sometimes he goeth with the queen to the mass, and these two last days hath been at the sermons." 1 3 such a union. Maitland, who was despatched by | in appearance. The first to fall from the young Queen Mary to London to explain matters, met queen's side was her own half-brother, the Earl with a bad reception; and Sir Nicholas Throg- of Moray, who of a sudden became jealous of morton was sent down to Edinburgh to declare young Darnley, imagining that, young and her English majesty's discontent at the projected thoughtless as he was, he had betrayed an inclimatch. This skilful negotiator returned well re- nation to abridge both his political power and warded; but he had been unable to dissuade Mary his vast estates. There were plenty to drive on from the marriage, which, as he told Cecil and his Darnley in this direction. One showed a map of mistress, was "misliked of all the substance of Scotland and the possessions of Moray marked the realm." An important part of his mission upon it. Darnley said it was too much. His was to intrigue with the Earl of Moray and the words were repeated to make mischief; but Mary, discontented Protestant lords, and to promise to make peace, "willed Darnley to excuse himself them Elizabeth's assistance against their queen. to Moray." The earl bad quarrelled with John "I think," says Cecil, writing to Sir Thomas Knox, who had accused him of conniving at the Smith, on Throgmorton's return, "that my Lady queen's masses and idolatries; but now a sudden Lennox shall be committed to some further cus- reconciliation took place between the crafty politody; and my lords, her husband and son, shall tician and the zealous preacher, Moray engaging forfeit that they may [have] here with us; and to extirpate the false worship for ever. The because it is likely their foundation in England Duke of Chatellerault, who was as prone to is upon Papists, the Protestants here shall re- change and intrigue as ever, soon joined Moray; ceive more comfort, and the Papists more dis- and Glencairn, the Earl of Argyle, and others, grace." A few days after this was written the speedily followed his example, forming a confedeCountess of Lennox and her younger son were racy to oppose the marriage upon the grounds of committed to a rigorous confinement in the the dangers it would bring to religion, and the inTower, and all the property possessed by that conveniences it would draw upon the state. Meanfamily in England was seized by Elizabeth. while the preachers were not idle; and the devout Mary, it appears, had assured Sir Nicholas Throg-citizens of Edinburgh, inflamed by their dismorton that the match had proceeded too far to be set aside with honour; and she took considerable pains to prove that Henry Darnley possessed those recommendations which Elizabeth had demanded as essentials in the husband she should choose. He was, for example, an Englishman; and Elizabeth had set it down as a primary point that she should marry an Englishman. She even offered to delay the nuptials, if, by so doing, she might hope to obtain the approbation of her dear sister and cousin. But further she would not go; nor could more in reason be expected from a high-spirited woman and an independent sovereign. This correspondence by letters and ambassadors occupied some time; and the fatal marriage of Mary and Darnley was far from being so precipitate an affair as it is gener-subjects not to urge her to act against her conally represented. Elizabeth had now recourse to her old intrigues with her old friends the Lords of the Congregation; and these lords, who had been prepared by Throgmorton, turned a willing ear to her suggestions, beginning to rumour abroad that there would be no safety for the Protestant religion if the Catholic queen were allowed to have a Catholic husband. It suited this party not to heed the facts that Mary was no bigot, and that Darnley was little more than a Papist 1 Letter in Ellis and Wright. Darnley had boasted, like a fool, that if there were war with England, he and Mary should have more friends there than Elizabeth! 2 Although Darnley, as mentioned in a preceding note, after his marriage, occasionally attended the Presbyterian kirk, in courses, made a great tumult. Upon Mary's return from Stirling to her capital, the Assembly of the Kirk, countenanced by the Earl of Moray, demanded by a formal act that the queen should conform to the Protestant faith, and abolish the Roman worship throughout the realm, not only amongst her subjects, but in her own person and family. This proposal was followed by some more reasonable clauses respecting a better provision for the miserably poor Presbyterian clergy; and the document ended by entreating the young queen to suppress immediately in her realm all vice and immorality. To these demands the queen returned a gentle answer in writing. As to the mass, she said that she was not yet convinced that it was idolatrous: she desired all her loving science, as she had neither in times past obliged, nor intended for the future to oblige, any man to a forced compliance, but had granted to all liberty to serve God after their own persuasion. She promised to do her best to relieve the wants of the established clergy. But she had not sufficient confidence in her own royal power to engage that there should be no more vice and immorality in Scotland, and she left that particular clause unanswered. the view, no doubt, of conciliating that formidable body, they A series of dark plots and conspiracies was meanwhile set on foot by both parties, for Mary had still a powerful party that recommended the marriage. Darnley, who showed his true character betimes, is said to have made arrangements for assassinating the Earl of Moray; and Moray (this fact is positive), in conjunction with the Earl of Argyle and other lords, encouraged by the English queen, laid an ambush for the purpose of making Darnley, his father, and the queen prisoners, with the intention of delivering up the two former to Elizabeth, and placing Mary in some sure prison in Scotland. Both plots failed; and on the 28th of July, Darnley, having previously been created Earl of Ross and Duke of Rothesay, was proclaimed king at the marketcross of Edinburgh, and the next day he was married to the queen, according to the Catholic ritual, in the royal chapel at Holyroodhouse.' THE ROYAL CHAPEL, HOLYROOD.-From a view by Storer. " The Earl of Moray, the Duke of Chatellerault, the Earls of Argyle, Glencairn, and Rothes, who had already garrisoned their castles and purchased (with English money) much ammunition, Randolph says, "They were married with all the solemnities of the Popish time, saving that he (Darnley) heard not the mass." Banns of marriage had been proclaimed previously at the proper parish church (that of the Canongate). There were two proclamations regarding Darnley's royal dignity-by the first, set forth the day before the marriage, it was ordered that he should be styled king, and treated as such; by the second, which was issued the day after the marriage, it was directed that the queen's husband should be styled king, and that all public documents In flew to arms; but, before they could assemble their forces, the queen in person met them at the head of a royal army. Mary, who took the field before the honeymoon was past, was clad in light armour, and carried pistols at her saddlebows. Her quickness and decision disconcerted the lords, who, without facing her, began to retreat, marching rapidly from place to place, and fighting nowhere; so that this strange campaigu got the name of the "Round-about Raid." the end, notwithstanding their turning and doubling, they were fain to disband their forces and flee into England. As they had taken up arms at the instigation of Elizabeth, they made sure of her aid and protection; and Moray and Hamilton, the noble abbot of Kilwinning, posted up to London to explain. But the English queen had seldom a very lively sympathy for the weak and unfortunate; and by this time, what with her succouring the Huguenots in France, and, over and over again, the insurgents in Scotland, she had obtained among crowned heads a character which she was anxious to be rid of. The French and Spanish ambassadors, and the envoys of other powers, had loudly complained that she was setting a fatal example, by countenancing rebellions and insurrections, and betraying the cause of sovereigns in general. Among living monarchs there was not one that entertained higher notions of the regal dignity, or who was less tolerant of popular discontents at home. She was stung to the quick by these remonstrances, and being, besides, fearful of provoking a coalition against her, she absolutely refused to receive the two envoys unless they agreed to declare publicly that she had in nowise incited them to the late insurrection, and that there neither was nor had been any correspondence or understanding between her and them. The Earl of Moray and the abbot of Kilwinning, who probably knew perfectly well that this was only to throw dust in the eyes of foreign courts, agreed to say whatever she chose. Then the adroit Elizabeth admitted them to an audience, at which she took care that the French and Spanish ambassadors should be present. And when the two Scots had finished their solemn declaration exculpating her, she turned short upon them, saying, "You have now spoken the truth; for neither I, nor any in my name, hath instigated your revolt from your sovereign. Begone, like traitors as ye are!" 3 should run in his name and hers, as King and Queen of Scotland. As Darnley was proclaimed, no man said so much as Amen, saving his father, that said aloud, "God save his grace!" This curious campaign is happily described in a few words in old French-Tout ainsi armez qu' ilz estoient, ilz alloient par le pais Escossois CONNILLANS (burrowing like rabbits), de place en place, jusqu'à tant qu'ils arriverent en Angleterre.-L'Innocence, &c. 3 Cecil has given an account in his own way of this remarkable audience. According to him, Moray testified before God The noble and quasi-royal Moray, and the | est degree embittering and exasperating. And high-born Kilwinning went; but it was only to yet, in spite of these grounds of wrath-the the southern side of the Scottish borders, where greater part of which were as clear as the sun Elizabeth not only suffered them to skulk and at noon-day-the English agent alludes in mysto correspond with the factious in Scotland, but terious terms to some secret and disgusting causes also supplied them with money. Mary, how- for Mary's enmity. And here we may remark ever, was strong in the affections of a portion of that Randolph, who was a scandal-monger of the her people, and she proceeded with spirit against first order, must have known that there was a the fugitive lords: they were summoned to ap- taste for such dark rumours in the English court, pear, and, failing to do so, were declared rebels. and that Elizabeth encouraged indecent scanOne Tamworth, a dependant of the Earl of Lei- dals and reports things which were afterwards cester, was sent down to Scotland with a special turned against herself.' mission: Mary, who must have known the encouragement which the English court had given to her half-brother and the rest, "refused utterly that Queen Elizabeth should meddle to compound the controversies between her subjects and her." In order not to recognize Darnley as king, Tamworth did not apply for a pass, for the want of which he was very properly arrested by Mary's authorities on his return homeward. Randolph, who stayed, ventured to tell Mary that she could be sure of Queen Elizabeth if she would. The queen replied that she had not begun this quarrel, adding, “It was her fault, for I demanded those things in Lord Leicester that were fit, and she refused. This man that I have taken hath a right-a right-he (Leicester) had none! For your part, Mr. Randall, you hold intelligence with my rebels, especially Moray, against whom I will be revenged, should I lose my crown." For this rage against her half-brother-and we have only partial evidence to prove that it was so vehement, and we know by positive facts that it was not lasting-there should seem to be sufficient ground in the Earl of Moray's conduct. Almost the first use that Mary made of her royal authority was to aggrandize and enrich the Bastard; she had placed in his hands nearly the whole power of the government-she had consulted his wishes in all matters, and yet he had taken up arms against her, had allied himself with her enemies, and had aimed at depriving her both of her crown and her liberty. The subject, real or pretended, of the quarrel was one nearest to a woman's heart; and if, as there are grounds for believing, Moray had at first proposed, or strongly recommended the match with Darnley, his conduct in making that marriage the pretext of his rebellion was surely to the full-sults and tumults. During the preceding festival that he only meant, in all his doings, the honour of the Almighty and the preservation of the Protestant religion; and Elizabeth "spoke very roundly to him before the ambassadors," saying "that whatsoever the world said or reported of her, she would by her actions let it appear that she would not, for the price of a world, maintain any subject in any disobedience against the prince. For, besides the offence of her conscience, which should condemn her, she knew that Almighty God might justly recompense her with the like trouble in her own realin; and so brake off with her speech any further with him." Mary convoked a parliament for the purpose of attainting Moray and his associates, and procuring the consequent forfeiture of their estates; but it was presently seen both that her vengeance was not implacable, and that most of the fugitive lords were quite ready to purchase pardon by abject submission. These lords, indeed, who had co-operated but not coalesced, had soon disagreed in their misfortunes. Their leaders, the Earl of Moray and the Duke of Chatellerault, had rebelled upon very different principles-Moray, with an eye to the keeping or increasing his authority, and Chatellerault with an eye to the succession, for he was still generally acknow ledged as the next heir to the throne after Mary. The duke, that man of many changes, was made of more pliable materials than the earl, and was the first to negotiate with the queen, who before the assembling of parliament had promised him and his party a separate pardon. Moray's friends then applied in his behalf, and some of Mary's partizans in England recommended to her as a wise step, and as one likely to please all Protestants in both kingdoms, an immediate amnesty in favour of him and his party, who were men celebrated throughout the island for their zeal for the Reformed doctrines. The queen was ready to sign a free pardon, when her uncle, the Cardinal of Lorraine, who was in many respects her evil genius, and to whose wisdom and experience she always paid great deference, advised her against the measure, and she allowed the proceedings to go on in the parliament. There was another matter, however, which she had more at heart, and that was to procure some degree of toleration for the Catholics, and for herself the exercise of her religion without in It would not be difficult to fill a large volume with the attacks made on the virtue of the virgin queen and the chastity of her court by contemporary writers. Elizabeth's open partiality for the infamous Leicester, did not in this case escape their cou ments. These things were chiefly, but not entirely composed by English Papists who had been driven in exile into France and Spain, and who represented Elizabeth as a monster of impudicity and the Catholics generally gave as much credit to their accounts as the Protestants gave to the scandals reported by Buchanan and others touching Queen Mary's virtue. |