NAllONAl. LIBRARY OFSGO'II.AN]) iiililiiiiililiiitiliiM^^^^^ LORD HERRIES' MEMOIRS. -A^itt^caJi c y HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, AND A PORTION OF THE REIGN OF KING JAMES THE SIXTH. LOED HEERIES. PRINTED AT EDINBURGH. M.DCCC.XXXVI. EDINBinr.H rniNTING COMPANY. PRESENTED myt atiftot^fora €luh ROBERT PITCAIRN. ABROTSFORD CLUB, iMDCCCXXXVI. JOHN HOPE, EsQoiKE. Right Hon. The Earl of Aberdeen. Adam Anderson, Esquire. Charles Baxter, Esquire. 5 Robert Blackwood, Esquire. BiNDON Blood, Esquire. Beriah Botfield, Esquire. Hon. Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn. John Payne Collier, Esquire. 10 Rev. Alexander Dyce, B.A. John Black Gracie, Esquire. James Ivory, Esquire. Hon. Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey. George Ritchie Kinloch, Esquire. 15 William Macdowall, Esquire. James Maidment, Esquire. Rev. James Morton. Alexander Nicholson, Esquire. Robert Pitcairn, Esquire. 20 Edward Pyper, Esquire. Andrew Rutheefurd, Esquire. Andrew Shortrede, Esquire. John Smith, Youngest, Esquire. Sir Patrick Walker, Knight. 25 John Whitefoord Mackenzie, Esquire. ^fctftarg. William B. D. D. Turnbull, Esquire. PREFATORY NOTICE. The following historical Memoir lias been selected by the Editor as the subject of his contribution to The Abbotsford Club—as well from the consideration of the interesting, but still obscure, period of Scottish history to which it refers, and which it materially tends to illustrate in many minute parti- culars—as from the fact that the transcript, or rather abridg- ment, of the original j\IS. by Lord Herries, now belonging to the Faculty of Advocates, is nearly all that is known to have been preserved of the valuable historical Collections made by the members of the Scots College of Douay, which, unfortu- nately, appear to have been totally destroyed during the French Revolution. Nothing farther can be traced regarding the transcript from which this volume has been printed, than that it was purchased at a sale in jNIartin's Rooms, Edinburgh, in June 1796; and that it was presented by Charles Kirkpatiick Sharpe, Esquire, to the late Archibald Constable, Esquire, in the year 1817. The Editor has been informed that Mr Constable had at one period contemplated the publication of this work, with suitable historical illustrations, &c. under the superintendence and editorship of Sir Walter Scott; but their various other and more important mutual engagements prevented the accomplishment of that design. The ]MS. was subsequently acquired by the Faculty of Advocates at the sale of jNIr David Constable's \aluable Library, in November 1828. From internal evidence, and especially from the style and manner of tlie person by whom the original jNlS. has been ; vi PREFATORY NOTICE. transcribed and abridged, the Editor was at one time inclined to think it by no means improbable that the individual to whom we are indebted for the preservation of this fragment of Lord Herries' work might have been John Pinkerton, the historian. On more minute investigation, how^ever, the autograph assuredly appears to be considerably earlier than the period when Pinker- ton was enoajred in collecting his historical materials; and the probability is, that it must have been compiled about, or rather previous to, the middle of the last century. It is so far fortunate that some important particulars relative to the original Me- moirs have been preserved b}^ the transcriber, perhaps unde- signedly, and most likely for the purpose of serving as memo- randa for his future reference. On the fly-leaf of this MS. the transcriber has written the followiu"', as a sort of title to his work:—" An Abridgement of the Reigne of Queen Marie, faithfully copied from the Abridge- ment of the Scotish History by Lord Herries, whose JNISS. lays in the Scots Colledge of Douay, in Flanders. J. P." He has likewise preserved a copy of the general title-page of the original work, which is—" An Abridgement of the Scotishe Historie, from the first foundation untill our tyms; collected with great integritie: Beginning first with a breefe description of all the lis belonging to the C'roune of Scotland." An attempt is made to give a kind of fac-simile of the signature of Lord Her- ries, which is executed thus—" Hekueis, 1656." The transcriber then adds his own attestation, in these terms : —" What follows is copied verbatim from the original manuscript of Lord Herries, beginning by the regne of Q. Marie, pagina 310 of the MSS., and eiids pagina 436. The Queen's death is related page 501 and Lord Herreis continues his abridgement doun till the year 1631. The whole of the MSS. is of 624 pages." We have Urns an apparently authentic memorandum of the PREFATORY NOTICE. vil extent ot the original JNIS.; and perliaps, we may be pretty sate in inferring that, excepting in those instances where the transcriber distinctly notifies in his text that he has omitted or abridged particular portions ot" the narrative, we are to consider the work, as given by himself, to be verhatbn the same with the. Memoirs of Lord Herries. If such shall be held to be a reasonable and fair conclusion, in the absence of the original and genuine Memoirs of that nobleman, the present work, so far as it extends, may truly be considered as being entitled to almost the same historical credit. But, be that as it may, it must certainly be admitted to be clear that, in one particular at least, considerable liberty has been taken with the IMS. of Lord Herries by the transcriber; for obviously the orthography has been modernized and reduced by him to a certain arbitrary standard. In other respects, however, he has apparently performed his task faith- fully; although, unhappily, he has frequently thought fit to cur- tail several of the narratives, on the alleged score of the prolixity of his author. This is greatly to be regretted, because much of the interest and value of these Memoirs would otherwise have depended on the minuteness and circumstantiality of the various historical facts and details, conveyed in the very words in which they were at first narrated by the author. A few" instances of this unlucky spirit for curtailing his ori- ginal (which, probably, may have resulted more from want of leisure on the part of the transcriber, during a temporary ^ isit or residence abroad, than from mere indolence or want of relish on his part for accurate and minute historical details) shall now be briefly adverted to. After a pretty full narrative of the mur- der of Cardinal Beaton,* allusions are made to the original for * Hist. pp. 16, 1". viii PREFATORY NOTICE. tlio licentious proceedings which ensued ait er that most harbaious assassination. A<>"ain, he tliinks fit to give a mere outhne of tlie splendid ceremonial which took j)lace on the first entry of jNIary Queen of Scots into Edinburgh, on her arrival from France. " The solemnities," he says, " were trulie statlie, but too long for an abridgment. Some things we shall sie of best remark."* He is not long of repeating the same offence—for he states that Mary lost no time in sending an embassy to Elizabeth, " in which tymes long conferences were past betwixt the Queen and him, which are at length set doune in my originall, and heer for brevitie omitted."t Once more, after Riccio's murder, he abbreviates some of the particulars of iSIary's conduct.^ And again, after narrating the facts attending Darnlev's murder, it is evident that he only extracts the substance of his author's leading remarks regarding the proceedings as to the divorce between Lady Jane Gordon and Bothwell, and the subsec^uent infamous marriage of the Queen to that bad man.§ It is also much to l)e regretted that the transcriber has entirely suppressed the whole of Lord Herries' narrative of INIary's long and cruel captivity in England, which, from the original and authentic sources of direct information which he possessed, must have been equally minute and valuable, in an historical point of view. He contents himself, however, with very briefly mentioning the fact of the imprisonment of Mary in the Castle of Carlisle, shortly after her landing in England, by Lord Scroop, the English Warden; and then cuts short his labour of transcription by a flourish of his pen thus—"from whence she was transported, &c. &c. !"|| To cite only one instance more—after having described the conclusion of the proceedings of the Convention of York, held for the • " Hist.]}. 5G. -^- ^^- II'- J I'- 8:'- Jb. 104. t P- X § II PREFATORY NOTICE. ix professed purpose of considerino; jNIary's claims, he mentions the efforts whicli were made by her " to stirr up and encouradge her friends in Scotland" by addressing a long letter to the people of Scotland from the place of her captivity; but he coolly contents himself with a notification to his readers, that it "is inserted ad longum in my original."* This letter and others, he states, were intercepted by the Regent, " who was not a little astonish- ed to sie things of the secretest nature divulged." In I'elation to the authorship of these historical Memoirs, it is to be regretted that nothing which is at all definite or satis- factory can now be determined. It is by no means improbable, however, that materials may have been collected, and the ori- ginal jNIemoirs commenced, by John Jifth Lord Herries, who figures most conspicuously during a considerable portion of the most troubled period of the reign of Alary Queen of Scots. We first meet with him as SirJohn Maxwell of Terreolcs, knight, a powerful border baron, ^^'arden of the West Marches of the Kingdom, and Justiciar within the same bounds. After his succession to the titles and estates of Herries, his efforts were distinguished, if possible, by even more uncompromising zeal and devotion to the interests of his royal mistress; and it is un- questionable that headhered to her fortunes, duringall thevarious vicissitudes of her singularly chequered fate, with unshaken fidelity.