Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume 1 (of 2)

99

Randolph in Robertson, Appendix, No. XI. – Keith, p. 307. Miss Benger, vol. ii. p. 214.

100

Keith, p. 303 and 304. This was a day or two before Darnley’s marriage.

101

Keith, Appendix No. VII. p. 99, et seq.

102

M’Crie’s Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 106; and Tytler’s Enquiry, vol. i. p. 362 and 367.

103

Knox, p. 389.

104

Keith, Appendix, p. 264.

105

Robertson, Appendix to Vol. i. Nos. XII. and XIII.

106

Keith, Appendix, p. 114.

107

Keith, p. 316, and Chalmers, vol. i. p. 155.

108

Chalmers, vol. i. p. 156.

109

Chalmers, vol. i. p. 157, and Keith, p. 319.

110

Keith, p. 319. – Melville, p. 135.

111

Blackwood in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 204.

112

Keith, p. 331.

113

Melville’s Memoirs, p. 147.

114

Conæus in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 25.

115

Dr Stuart, in support of his statements on this subject, quotes, in addition to the authorities already mentioned, Mezeray “Histoire de France,” tome 3, and Thuanus, “Historia sui Temporis,” lib. xxxvii. But we suspect he has done so at random; for, on referring to these works, we have been unable to discover any thing which bears upon the matter. Chalmers, who is in general acute and explicit enough, says, that these ambassadors came “to advise the Queen not to pardon the expatriated nobles;” vol. ii. p. 158. Laing, who writes with so much apparent candour and real ability against Mary that he almost makes “the worse appear the better reason,” has avoided falling into the gross error of Robertson. “It would be unjust,” he says, “to suppose, that, upon acceding to the Holy League, for the preservation of the Catholic faith, she was apprised of the full extent of the design to exterminate the Protestants by a general massacre throughout Christendom; but the instructions from her uncle rendered her inexorable towards the banished Lords.” – Laing’s Preliminary Dissertation to the History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 9.

116

Keith, p. 328 and 329.

117

Goodall, vol. i. p. 222.

118

Several of these pennies, as they were called, both of gold and silver, remain to this day; and some of them have been already noticed. In December 1565, there was stamped a silver penny, called the Mary Rial, bearing on one side a tree, with the motto, Dat gloria vires; and the circumscription, Exsurgat Deus, et dissipentur inimici ejus; and, on the other, Maria et Henricus, Dei Gratia, Regina et Rex Scotorum. Speaking of this coin, Keith says, that “the famous ewe-tree of Crookston, the inheritance of the family of Darnley, in the parish of Paisley, is made the reverse of this new coin; and the inscription about the tree, Dat gloria vires, is no doubt with a view to reflect honour on the Lennox family. This tree, he adds, which stands to this day, is of so large a trunk, and so well spread in its branches, that it is seen at several miles distance.” – Keith, p. 327, and Appendix, p. 118. – It stands no longer.

119

Buchanan’s History. – Melville’s Memoirs. – Keith, p. 325.

120

Goodall, vol. i. p. 227.

121

Melville’s Memoirs, p. 132 and 133.

122

We translate from the original French of an edition, of the Martyre de la Royne d’Escosse, printed at Antwerp, in the year 1583, – which very nearly agrees with the Edition in Jebb, vol. ii. p. 202.

123

Buchanan alone, of all the Scottish historians, has dared to insinuate the probability of an illicit intercourse having subsisted between Mary and Rizzio; and the calumny is too self-evidently false to merit a moment’s notice. Every respectable writer reprobates so disgusting a piece of scandal, however unfavourably inclined towards Mary in other respects. Camden, Castelnau, Robertson, Hume, Tytler, Laing, and Dr Stuart, all of whom think it worth while to advert to the subject in Notes, put the falsehood of Buchanan’s assertion beyond the most distant shadow of a doubt. Indeed, it is paying it too great a compliment to advert to it at all.