38 Anniversary Address. 



there is an entry dated 21st October, 1534, of £700 to lord 

 Maxwell * " for keping the House of Armytage and Rewling 

 of the inhabitants of Liddisdale be y e space of seven months; " 

 and on the 14th February, 1540, a farther sum of £100 is 

 given to him " for beting and mending of y e castle of Hermi- 

 tage." 



The king's premature death in 1542 allowed Bothwell to 

 return to Scotland, where he resumed his place in the Parlia- 

 ment of 1542-3 and procured a reversal of the compulsory 

 resignation of his estates. The long minority of the infant 

 princess Mary gave rise to a repetition of the disorders that 

 had proved so fruitful of calamity during her father's non-age. 

 Henry VIII. was anxious to bring about a marriage between 

 the heiress of Scotland and his son Edward, and with this 

 object secured a strong party among the Scottish nobility. 

 But he was foiled by the opposition of Cardinal Beaton, to 

 whom Bothwell attached himself. Incensed at the failure 

 of this cherished scheme, Henry resolved to attack Scot- 

 land in force, and whilst preparations were making he 

 ordered the wardens of the Marches to organize a plan of 

 retaliation and plunder until the main army was ready to 

 move. One of these officers, Sir Thomas Wharton, accord- 

 ingly reported f that, " upon the Middle Marches, they trust 

 to burn and make waste all the dwellers in Liddisdale except 

 within the castle of Hermitage, as also to compel the dwellers 

 without the said castle to do service to the King's Highness." 

 This policy was so well carried out that most of the Liddis- 

 dale clans were compelled + to take part in the English 



* Robert, fifth lord Maxwell, one of the king's most faithful and trusted nobles 

 had married Agnes Stewart, Bothwell's mother. 



+ See State Papers, V. 345. " The opinions of Sir Thos. Wharton, Sir J. 

 Louther, Jno. Leigh, and Edward Aglionby for annoyance, as they trust to God 

 shall be done to Scotland this winter by the Marches." Dated 23rd Sept., 1543. 



X The Armstrongs, who were the most influential clan in the valley below 

 Hermitage, appear to have suffered especially at the hands of the English, for 

 Henry ordered Sir Thos. Wharton at this time to liberate the chiefs of the name who 

 •were then his prisoners . on condition of their ravaging the estates of the Scottish 

 lords opposed to him. 



Letters of the duke of Suffolk to lord Wm. Parr, dated 10th and 11th Sept., 

 1543, quoted by Tytler, V. 289, 310. 



