SCOTLAND (HISTORY). 



147 



criminal intercourse between them, Darnley, aided 

 by a few nobles, murdered him almost in her 

 presence. This increased and confirmed that 

 hatred which had already taken possession of her 

 mind. Bothwell, a nobleman of the most unbounded 

 ambition, unguarded by any scruples, insinuated 

 himself into Mary's favour; and the services which 

 he had rendered her, joined to her resentment against 

 her husband, seem to have induced her to follow 

 a mode of conduct which it is impossible to justify. 

 Soon after the birth of the only child which she 

 ever had, and who was afterwards known by the 

 name of James VI., Darnley was murdered. Both- 

 well is known to have been the perpetrator of the 

 deed; and suspicions were propagated that the 

 queen herself was privy to the crime. Bothwell 

 was brought to trial, but under circumstances 

 which favoured the accused, and he was declared 

 by a jury innocent of a crime of which all the 

 world believed him guilty. Emboldened by this, 

 Bothwell convened a number of the principal no- 

 bility, and prevailed upon them to sign a bond, in 

 which they not only declared him innocent of 

 Darnley 's death, but recommended him as the fit- 

 test person whom her majesty could choose for a 

 husband. Thus authorized, he suddenly appeared 

 at the bridge of Ci'amond with a thousand horse, 

 as Mary arrived there on her return from Stirling 

 to Edinburgh, took the queen's horse by the bridle, 

 and surrounding and disarming her attendants, led 

 her to the strong castle of Dunbar, of which he 

 was governor. The defenders of Mary contend, 

 that she was seized by force, and her honour vio- 

 lated, and that her subsequent marriage with Both- 

 well was inevitable. Her detractors, on the other 

 hand, affirm, that Bothwell's conduct met with her 

 approval, and that the force apparently used was 

 merely to cover the shame of a guilty passion. It 

 is not to be denied, that her marriage to that pro- 

 fligate and ambitious man is the most unjustifiable 

 point in her history, and dearly did she pay the penalty 

 of her folly. So grossly did Bothwell use her after 

 he had secured her hand, that she has been heard 

 to pray for a knife to stab herself with, rather than 

 endure his ill-treatment. The Scottish nobles and 

 people were roused with indignation at her con- 

 duct. An army was speedily collected, and on the 

 twelfth of June, 1567, they issued a proclamation 

 avowing the cause of their taking arms to be, to 

 deliver the queen from the captivity of her hus- 

 band, to preserve the prince, and to punish the 

 murderers of the late king. Both parties made 

 hasty preparations for hostile collision, and an army 

 soon collected around the queen. Mary and Both- 

 well marched from Dunbar towards Edinburgh: 

 the lords of the congregation advanced to meet 

 them; and at Carberry-hill, a battle was every mo- 

 ment expected, which was to decide a distracted 

 country. But Mary, after a short communication 

 with Kirkaldy, who commanded an advanced party, 

 agreed to quit Bothwell, to join the associated 

 lords, by whose councils she was now willing to 

 be directed, on condition of their " respecting her as 

 their born princess and queen." Bothwell left the 

 field and sailed for the Orkney islands, where he 

 was pursued by Kirkaldy of Grange, but he escaped 

 in a boat, and proceeded to Denmark, whe/e he 

 was thrown into prison, and died. Mary was con- 

 ducted to Edinburgh, amidst the reproaches of her 

 subjects. After the repose of a wretched day, she 

 was committed a prisoner to the fortalice of Loch- 

 levi-n, which was kept by William Douglas, who 



had married the concubine of James V., the mother 

 of the bastard Murray. Whatever pretences were 

 still used, by the associated lords, it is apparent, 

 that they had finally resolved to dethrone the 

 queen ; and she was forced, on the 24th of July 



1567, to sign a formal resignation of the crown. 

 She, at the same time, assented to the regency of 

 Murray. After these events, and notwithstanding 

 the utmost degree of watchfulness, Mary made her 

 escape from Lochleven castle on the 2d of May 



1568. As she had many friends, she was soon sur- 

 rounded by an army. The queen and the regent 

 Murray now prepared for war. But the fortune 

 and conduct of Murray prevailed at the battle of 

 Langside, on the 13th of May, 1568. Mary fled 

 from the field of battle, first to Kirkcudbright, and 

 afterwards across the Solway to Workington in 

 England, where she claimed the protection of her 

 cousin, Elizabeth. The stricken deer might as 

 well have sought refuge in the den of the tiger. 

 After nineteen years of weary captivity, Mary was 

 sacrificed to the jealous feelings of her rival. Her 

 execution took place at Fotheringay castle, on the 

 8th February, 1587. 



Murray, a natural brother of Mary's, and in se- 

 cret league with Elizabeth, held the regency of 

 Scotland till the 26th Feb. 1570, when he was 

 shot in the streets of Linlithgow, by Hamilton of 

 Bothwell Haugh, whose wife had been expelled her 

 house, and driven to insanity, by the harshness of 

 Murray's measures. The earl of Lennox, the earl 

 of Mar, and the earl of Morton, were regents in 

 succession. In 1578, a party attached themselves 

 to the young king (James VI.) while yet a boy, 

 and he assumed the reins of government. Means 

 were taken to remove Morton. He was convicted 

 of participating in the murder of Darnley, and exe- 

 cuted on the 2d June, 1581. In 1589, James sailed 

 to Denmark, where he married Ann, daughter of 

 Frederic II. in the sixteenth year of her age. The 

 year 1600 was distinguished by the Gowrie conspi- 

 racy against the life or liberty of James. On the 

 19th March, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died, and James 

 succeeded to the crown of England. From that 

 time till near the middle of the last century, Scot- 

 land declined not only in importance but in wealth. 

 Considered rather as an appendage of England, 

 than as a part of Britain, it enjoyed none of those ad- 

 vantages which its alliance with that kingdom 

 seemed at first to promise. It had a parliament of 

 its own; but was in form more than in reality, the 

 seat of government. Neglected by its nobles, who 

 attached themselves to the court in England; des- 

 pised, sometimes oppressed, by its princes, who for- 

 got that to it they owed their origin, Scotland became 

 every day less considerable, till the reign of Anne, 

 when Britain was, by a treaty between the two 

 countries, declared to be an inseparable kingdom. 



V. From the accession of James to the English 

 throne to the Union of the two kingdoms, A. D. 

 1707. The period of time from the union of the 

 crowns to the union of the kingdoms, was charac- 

 terized by civil wars and national revolutions. 

 James, at the age of thirty-seven, ascended the 

 throne of England, amidst the acclamations of his 

 subjects, both Scots and English. An unusual 

 calm ensued within his ancient kingdom. The 

 spirit of the nobles seems to have been somewhat 

 broken, or was perhaps turned to more distant 

 views of ambition, and other objects of pursuit. 

 I There were seven Scottish parliaments called by 

 James, after his accession, wherein he presided, by 

 K 2 



