who had taken great pains to inquire into all the particulars of that matter, did always believe it was a real conspiracy 9. One thing, which none of the historians have taken any notice of, and might have induced the earl of Gowry to have wished to put king James out of the way, but in such a disguised manner that he should seem rather to have escaped out of a snare himself, than to have laid one for the king, was this: upon the king's death he stood next to the succession to that (the) crown of England; for king Henry the seventh's daughter that was married to king James the fourth, did after his death marry Dowglas earl of Angus: but they could not agree: so a precontract was proved against him: upon 19 which, by a sentence from Rome, the marriage was voided, with a clause in favour of the issue, since born under a marriage de facto and bona fide. Lady Margaret Dowglas was the child so provided for. I did peruse the original bull confirming the divorce. After that, the queen dowager married one Francis Steward, and had by him a son made lord Methuen by king James the fifth. In the patent he is called frater noster uterinus. He had only a daughter, who was mother or grandmother to the earl of Gowry: so that by this he might be glad to put the king out of the way, that so he might stand next to the succession of the crown of England. He had a brother then a child, who when he grew up, and found he could not carry the name of Ruthen, which by an act of parliament made after this conspiracy none might carry, he went and lived beyond sea; and it was given out that he had the philosopher's stone. He had two sons, who died with9 Melvil makes nothing of it. S. out issue; and one daughter, married to sir Anthony Vandike the famous picture drawer, whose children, according to his pedigree, stood very near to the succession of the crown ". It was not easy to persuade the nation of the truth of that conspiracy: for eight years before that time king James, on a secret jealousy of the earl of Murray, then esteemed the handsomest man of Scotland, set on the marquis of Huntly, who was his mortal enemy, to murder him; and by a writings, all in his own hand, he promised to save him harmless for it. He set the house in which he was on fire: and the earl flying away was followed and murdered, and Huntly sent Gordon of Buckey with the news to the king: soon after, all who were concerned in that vile fact were pardoned, which laid the king open to much censure. And this made the matter of Gowry to be the less believed. Charles at friend to When king Charles succeeded to the crown, he King was at first thought favourable to the puritans; for first a his tutor and all his court were of that wayt: and the puriDr. Preston, then the head of the party, came up in the coach from Theobald's to London with the king and the duke of Buckingham; which being against (But compare the earl of Cromarty's History of the Conspiracies of the earls of Gowry; p. 10-12. in which the ground of this pretended pedigree is removed, as has been already noticed in the Preface to this edition of Burnet's History.) S (Abp. Spotiswood calls it a commission to apprehend "and bring Murray to his "trial." Hist. b. vi. an. 1592.) He was always very partial to the Scotish nation. Dr. VOL. I. Heylin, in his history of the D tans. the rules of the court gave great offence: but it was said, the king was so overcharged with grief, that he wanted the comfort of so wise and so great a man. It was also given out, that the duke of Buckingham offered Dr. Preston the great seal: but he was wiser than to accept of it. I will go no further into the beginning of that reign with relation to English affairs, which are fully opened by others. Only I will tell one particular which I had from the earl of Lothian, who was bred up in the court, and whose father, the earl of Ancram, was gentleman of the bedchamber, though himself was ever much 20 hated by the king. He told me, that king Charles was much offended with king James's light and familiar way, which was the effect of hunting and drinking, on which occasions he was very apt to forget his dignity, and to break out into great indecencies: on the other hand the solemn gravity of the court of Spain was more suited to his own temper, which was sullen even to a moroseness. This led him to a grave reserved deportment, in which he forgot the civilities and the affability that the nation naturally loved, to which they had been long accustomed nor did he in his outward deportment take any pains to oblige any persons whatsoever : so far from that, he had such an ungracious way of shewing favour, that the manner of bestowing it was almost as mortifying as the favour was obliging. I turn now to the affairs of Scotland, which are but little known ". " Nor worth knowing. S. (By way of censure on the author's diffusiveness when mentioning the affairs of Scot land Swift has thus interlined the title of the work: The History of (Scotland in) his own Times.) signed to tithes and lands in The king resolved to carry on two designs that He dehis father had set on foot, but had let the prosecu- recover the tion of them fall in the last years of his reign. The church first of these was about the recovery of the tithes Scotland to and church lands: he resolved to prosecute his fa- the crown. ther's revocation, and to void all the grants made in his minority, and to create titular abbots as lords of parliament, but lords, as bishops, only for life. And that the two great families of Hamilton and Lenox might be good examples to the rest of the nation, he, by a secret purchase, and with English money, bought the abbey of Aberbroth of the former, and the lordship of Glasgow of the latter, and gave these to the two archbishoprics. These lords made a shew of zeal after a good bargain, and surrendered them to the king. He also purchased several estates of less value to (for) the several sees; and all men, who pretended to favour at court, offered their church lands to sale at a low rate. In the third year of his reign the earl of Nithisdale, then believed a papist, which he afterwards "Lord Clarendon says, that the duke of Lenox sold his estate much the cheaper, that it might be consecrated to so pious an end. Besides, according to lord Clarendon, the lands purchased of the duke of Lenox were not to be settled on either of the archbishoprics, but on the bishopric of Edinburgh, which was at this time erected. To the same purpose Collier's Eccles. Hist. vol. II. p. 756. Dr. Bliss's MS. note on this history. (Lockhart of Carnwark, in his Letters written in the year 1724 respect ing Burnet's History, asserts professed, having married a niece of the duke of Buckingham's, was sent down with a power to take the surrender of all church lands, and to assure all who did readily surrender, that the king would take it kindly, and use them all very well, but that he would proceed with all rigour against those who would not submit their rights to his disposal. Upon his coming down, those who were most concerned in those grants met at Edinburgh, and agreed, that when they were called together, if no other argument did prevail to make the earl of Nithisdale desist, they would fall upon him and all his party in the old Scotish manner, and knock them on the head. Primrose told me one of these lords, Belhaven, of the name of Dowglass, who was blind, bid 21 them set him by one of the party; and he would make sure of one. So he was set next the earl of Dunfrize: he was all the while holding him fast: and when the other asked him what he meant by that, he said, ever since the blindness was come on him he was in such fear of falling, that he could not help the holding fast to those who were next to him he had all the while a poniard in his other hand, with which he had certainly stabbed Dunfrize, * This brings to my remembrance a story I heard the first duke of Bolton tell of himself before a great deal of company: that when the bill of exclusion was debating in the house of lords, the old earl of Peterborow said that was a cause in which every man in England was obliged to draw his sword, and laid his hand upon his own, as if he designed to draw it immediately, which created a great disorder, and every body seemed preparing to do the like: upon which the duke of Bolton said he got as near to the marquis of Halifax as he could, being resolved to make sure of him, in case any violence had been offered: and that there were more who had taken the same resolution, though he did not name them. D. |