{28} Cranstoun's deposition in Pitcairn, ii. 156, 157. At Falkland
August 6.
{30} The adversaries of the King say that these men ran up, and were
wounded, _later_, in another encounter. As to this we have no evidence,
but we have evidence of their issuing, wounded, from the dark staircase
at the moment when Cranstoun fled thence.
{38} Quoted by Pitcairn, ii. 209. The Falkland letter, as we show
later, was probably written by David Moysie, but must have been, more or
less, 'official.' Cf. p. 100, _infra_.
{40} Many of these may be read in _Narratives of Scottish Catholics_, by
Father Forbes-Leith, S.J.
{42} Carey to Cecil. Berwick, _Border Calendar_, vol. ii. p. 677,
August 11, 1600.
{44a} Deposition of Craigengelt, a steward of Gowrie's, Falkland, August
16, 1600. Pitcairn, ii. 157.
{44b} Pitcairn, ii. p. 185.
{44c} Pitcairn, ii. p. 179.
{45} Barbe, p. 91.
{48a} State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 50.
{48b} Mr. S. R. Gardiner alone remarks on this point, in a note to the
first edition of his great History. See note to p. 54, _infra_.
{52a} Apparently not Sir Thomas Hamilton, the King's Advocate.
{52b} State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 51.
{53} Pitcairn, vol. ii. p. 249.
{58} Mr. Scott suggested that a piece of string was found by Balgonie.
The words of Balgonie are 'ane gartane'--a garter. He never mentions
string.
{59} According to a story given by Calderwood, Ruthven's sword was later
found rusted in its sheath, but no authority is given for the tale.
{60} Pitcairn, ii. 197.
{61a} _The Tragedy of Gowrie House_, by Louis Barbe, 1887, p. 91.
{61b} Mr. Barbe, as we saw, thinks that Robertson perjured himself, when
he swore to having seen Henderson steal out of the dark staircase and
step over Ruthven's body. On the other hand, Mr. Bisset thought that
Robertson spoke truth on this occasion, but concealed the truth in his
examination later, because his evidence implied that Henderson left the
dark staircase, not when Ramsay attacked Ruthven, but later, when Ruthven
had already been slain. Mr. Bisset's theory was that Henderson had never
been in the turret during the crisis, but had entered the dark staircase
from a door of the dining-hall on the first floor. Such a door existed,
according to Lord Hailes, but when he wrote (1757) no traces of this
arrangement were extant. If such a door there was, Henderson may have
slunk into the hall, out of the dark staircase, and slipped forth again,
at the moment when Robertson, in his first deposition, swore to having
seen him. But Murray of Arbany cannot well have been there at that
moment, as he was with the party of Lennox and Mar, battering at the door
of the gallery chamber.--Bisset, _Essays in Historical Truth_, pp.
228-237. Hailes, _Annals_. Third Edition, vol. iii. p. 369. Note
(1819).
{63a} _Privy Council Register_, vi. 149, 150.
{63b} Pitcairn, ii. 250.
{64} Mr. Panton, who, in 1812, published at Perth, and with Longmans, a
defence of the Ruthvens, is very strong on the improbability that
Henderson was at Falkland. Why were not the people to whose house in
Falkland he went, called as witnesses? Indeed we do not know. But as
Mr. Panton looked on the King's witnesses as a gang of murderous
perjurers, it is odd that he did not ask himself why they, and the King,
did not perjure themselves on this point. (_A Dissertation on the Gowry
Conspiracy_, pp. 127-131.)
{67a} Pitcairn, ii. 222, 223.
{67b} Hudson to Cecil, Oct. 19,1600, Edinburgh. State Papers, Scotland
(Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 78.
{69a} _James Hudson to Sir Robert Cecil_.
'. . . I have had conference of this last acsyon, first wth the
King, at lenght, & then wth Henderson, but my speache was first wth
Henderson befoar the King came over the watter, betwixt whoame I
fynde no defference but yt boath alegethe takinge the dager frome
Alexander Ruthven, wch stryf on the one part maie seame to agment
honor, & on the other to move mersy by moar merit: it is plaen yt the
King only by god's help deffended his owin lyff wel & that a longe
tyme, or els he had lost it: it is not trew that Mr. Alex spok wth
his brother when he went owt, nor that Henderson vnlokt the door, but
hast & neglect of Mr. Alex, left it opin, wherat Sr Jhon Ramsay
entrid, & after hime Sr Tho. Ereskyn Sr Hew Haris & Wilsone. Yt it
is not generally trustid is of mallice & preoccupassyon of mens mynds
by the minesters defidence at the first, for this people ar apt to
beleve the worst & loath to depart frome yt fayth.
. . . .
'Edinborow this 19 of October 1600.'
{69b} Pitcairn, ii. 218.
{73} _Privy Council Register_, vi. 671.
{74a} State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 107.
{74b} Cranstoun mentioned his long absence in France to prove that he
was not another Mr. Thomas Cranstoun, a kinsman of his, who at this time
was an outlawed rebel, an adherent of Bothwell (p. 155, _infra_).
{75} State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 107.
'_George Nicolson to Sir Robert Cecil_.
. . . . .
'A man of Cannagate speaking that one Mr. Ro: Oliphant, lyeng at his
house, should haue complayned and said that "there was no justice in
Scotland, for favlters skaped fre and innocentis were punished. Mr.
Thomas Cranston was execute being innocent, and Henderson saued.
That therle of Gowry had moued that matter to him (Oliphant) in Paris
and here, that he had wth good reasons deverted him, that therle
thereon left him and delt wth Henderson in that matter, that
Henderson vndertooke it and yet fainted, and Mr. Thomas Cranston knew
nothing of it and yet was executed." This I heare, and that this
Oliphant that was Gowries servant is, vpon this mans speache of it,
againe fled. The heades of Gowry and his brother are sett vpon the
tolebuthe here this day. . . . .
'Edenb. the 5 of Decemb. 1600.'
{76} The Captain was 'a landless gentleman.' His wife owned Ranfurdie,
and the Captain, involved in a quarrel with Menteith of Kers, had been
accused of--witchcraft! The Captain's legal affairs may be traced in the
_Privy Council Register_.
{77} The proceedings of the English Privy Council at this point are
lost, unluckily. The Scottish records are in _Privy Council Register_,
1608-1611, s.v. Oliphant, Robert, in the Index.
{80} See the Rev. Mr. Scott's _Life of John_, _Earl of Gowrie_. Mr.
Scott, at a very advanced age, published this work in 1818. He relied
much on tradition and on anonymous MSS. of the eighteenth century.
{81} State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 52. For the
document see Appendix B.
{83} James himself, being largely in Abercromby's debt, in 1594 gave him
'twelve monks' portions' of the Abbacy of Cupar.--_Act. Parl. Scot._ iv.
83, 84.
{93} Mr. Henderson, in his account of William, Earl of Gowrie, in the
_Dictionary of National Biography_, mentions 'The Vindication of the
Ruthvens' in his list of authorities. He does not cite the source, as in
MS. or in print; and I know not whether he refers to 'The Verie Manner
&c.,' State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 52. The theory
of Mr. Scott (1818) is much akin to that of 'The Verie Manner,' which he
had never seen.
{94} Barbe, p. 124.
{96} State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 64.
{97} State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 64.
_Sir William Bowes to Sir John Stanhope_, _Sept._ 2, 1600.
Sr I attending hir Mties embassadr toward Newcastle happened to meet wyth
Mr Preston then on his waie from his king to hir Mtie. In renewing a
former acquaintance I found hym verie willing to possesse me wyth his
report of the death of Gowrie and his brother, in the circumstances
wherof sundrie thingis occurring hardlie probable I was not curious to
lett him see that wyse men wyth vs stumbled therat. And therfor I
thought yt wysdom in the king to deliuer his honor to the warld and
especiallie to her Mtie. And in this as in other albeit I am not
ignorant that the actions of princes must chalenge the Fairest
interpretation Yet because in deed truthe symplie canne doe no wrong And
that we owe or dearest and nearest truthes to or soueraygnes in this
matter so precisely masked lett me deliuer to youe what For myne own part
I doe belieue.
The King being readie to take horse was wythdrawen in discourse with the
Mr of Gowrie, a learned sweet and hurtles yong gentleman, and one other
attending. Now were it by occasion of a picture (as is sayde) or
otherwise, speech happening of Earle Gowrie his father executed, the king
angrelie sayde he was a traitour, whereat the youth showing a greeved and
expostulatorie countenance and happelie Scot-like Woordis, the King,
seeing hymself alone and wythout weapon, cryed, Treason, Treason. The Mr
abashed much to see the king so apprehend yt, whilest the king wold call
to the Lords, the Duke, Marre, and others that were attending in the
court on the king comming to horse, putt his hand with earnest
deprecations to staie the king, showing his countenance to them wythout
in that moode, immediatlie falling on his knees to entreat the King. At
the K. sound of Treason, from out of the Lower Chamber hastelie running
Harris the physician Ramsey his page and Sr Thomas Erskyn came to where
the king was Where Ramsey runne the poore gentleman thorough, sitting as
is saide vpon his knees.
At this stirr the earle wyth his Mr Stablere and somme other, best
knowing the howse and the wayes, came first to the slaughter where
finding his brother dead and the king retyred (For they had perswaded hym
into a countinghouse) some fight beganne between the earle and the
others. Mr Preston saies that vpon thar relation that the king was
slayne the earle shronke from the pursuyte, and that one of the afornamed
rushing sodainlee to the earle thrust hym through that he fell down and
dyed. This matter seeming to haue an accidentall beginning, to gyve it
an honorable cloake is pursued wyth odious treasons coniurations &c.
imputed to the dead earle, wyth the death of the Mr Stabler, Wyth making
knyghtis the actors, And manye others such as I know are notified to you
long ere this. The ministers as I heare are asked to make a thankgyving
to god, where they think more need of Fasting in Sackclothe and Ashes, to
the kingis much discontenting. This I must not saie (as the scholers
terme yt) to be categoricallie true, but heupatheticallie {98} I take yt
so to be. Wherevpon maie be inferred that as the death of the twoe First
maie be excused by tendering the verie showe of hazard to the King, so is
the making of religion and iustice cloakes to cover accidentall
oversightis a matter which both heaven and earth will iudge. . . .
From Bradley this 2de of Sept.
Yor poore Frend to commannd.
WILLM. BOWES.
{98} Hypothetically?
{103} Calderwood, vi. 84.
{104} Pitcairn, ii. 248 _et seq._
{105a} Calderwood, vi. 98.
{105b} _Ibid._ vi. 130.
{107a} Calderwood, vi. 147.
{107b} _Ibid._ vi. 156.
{110} Mr. Bruce appears to have gone to France in 1599-1600, to call
Gowrie home. In a brief account of his own life, dictated by himself at
about the age of seventy (1624), he says, 'I was in France for the
calling of the _Master_' (he clearly means _Earl_) 'of Gowrie' (Wodrow's
'Life of the Rev. Robert Bruce,' p. 10, 1843). Calderwood possessed, and
Wodrow (_circ._ 1715) acquired, two 'Meditations' by Mr. Bruce of August
3, 4, 1600. Wodrow promises to print them, but does not, and when his
book was edited in 1843, they could not be found. He says that 'Mr.
Bruce appears to have been prepared, in Providence,' for his Gowrie
troubles, judging (apparently) by these 'Meditations.' But Mr. Henry
Paton has searched for and found the lost 'Meditations' in MS., which are
mere spiritual outpourings. Wodrow's meaning is therefore obscure. Mr.
Bruce had great celebrity as a prophet, but where Wodrow found prophecy
in the 'Meditations' of August 3, 4, 1600, is not apparent (Wodrow's
'Bruce,' pp. 83, 84. Wodrow MSS., Advocates' Library, vol. xliv. No.
35).
{111} Calderwood, vi. 49, 66-76.
{114} Pitcairn, ii. 196.
{118} Bain, _Calendar_, ii. 350; Nau, p. 59.
{121a} _Form of certain Devices_, &c. See _Papers relating to William_,
_Earl of Gowrie_, London, 1867, pp. 25-29.
{121b} Form of examination and death of William, Earl of Gowrie.
British Museum, Caligula, c. viii. fol. 23.
{126} Thorpe, _Calendar_, ii. 650
{127a} _De Natione Anglica et Scota Juristarum Universitatis Patavinae_
Io. Aloys. Andrich. Patavii, 1892, pp. 172, 173.
{127b} Ottavio Baldi to the King, June 22, 1609. Record Office.
Venice, No. 14, 1608-1610. See _infra_, Appendix A, 'Gowrie's Arms and
Ambitions.'
{128a} Gowrie's letters of 1595 are in Pitcairn.
{128b} State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxiii. No. 85.
G. Nicolson to Sir Robert Cecil.
Edinborough, 25 December, 1598.
. . . . .
'I heare Gowry is become a papist. But the K. takes little care to
this, And yet sure it importes him most to se to it, vnlest he
accompt otherwais of it than he hath cause, except he haue other
pollicy than I will conjecture.' Compare Galloway's sermon, in
Pitcairn, ii. 249, and _A Short Discourse_, ii. 231, 232.
{129a} Simancas, iv. pp. 653, 654, 677, 680, 715.
{129b} Compare note, p. 110, _supra_.
{130a} _Winwood Memorials_, pp. 1, 156. Hudson to Cecil. State Papers,
Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 19.
{130b} _Border Calendar_, vol. ii. May 29, 1600. Carey to Cecil.
{131a} The whole proceedings are printed in Arnot's _Criminal Trials_.
{131b} Nicholson to Cecil, June 22, June 29, 1600. Tytler, vol. ix. pp.
325, 326, 1843.
{131c} This date I infer from Cranstoun's statement. On August 5 he had
scarcely seen the Ruthvens, to speak to, for a fortnight.
{133} _Border Calendar_, vol. ii. p. 698, Oct. 21, 1600. Carey to
Cecil.
{134a} Calderwood, vi. 71.
{134b} A defender of Gowrie, Mr. Barbe, has the following 'observes'
upon this point. It has been asserted by Calderwood that, 'while the
Earl was in Strathbraan, fifteen days before the fact' (say July 20),
'the King wrote sundry letters to the Earl, desiring him to come and hunt
with him in the wood of Falkland, which letters were found in my lord's
pocket, as is reported, but were destroyed.' Mr. Barbe then proves that
letters _were_ sent to Gowrie and Atholl in the last days of July. It is
certain that a letter was sent to Gowrie about July 20, possibly a
sporting invitation, not that there was any harm in an invitation to join
a hunting party. James is next accused of 'trying to stifle the rumour'
about this 'letter,' by a direct denial. This means that Craigengelt,
Gowrie's caterer, was asked whether he knew of any man or boy who came to
Gowrie from Court, and said that he did not, a negative reply supposed to
have been elicited by the torture to which Craigengelt was certainly
subjected. We only know that at the end of July letters were sent to
Gowrie, to Inchaffray, to Atholl, and to Ruthven. Whether his reached
Gowrie or not, and what it contained, we cannot know.
{137} _Privy Council Register_, vi. 194.
{140a} Cf. p. 110, note.
{140b} _Border Calendar_, i. 491.
{142} _Tragedy of Gowrie House_, pp. 29, 31.
{147} As to Bothwell's whereabouts, in 1600, he left Brussels in March,
nominally to go to Spain, but, in June, the agent of the English
Government in the Low Countries was still anxious to hear that he had
arrived in Spain. When he actually arrived there is uncertain. Compare
Simancas, iv. p. 667, with State Papers, Domestic (Elizabeth)
(1598-1600), p. 245, No. 88, p. 413 (March 24, April 3, 1600), p. 434,
May 30, June 9, p. 509. Cecil meant to intrigue with Bothwell, through
Henry Locke, his old agent with Bothwell's party, Atholl, and Gowrie
October 1593). Compare _infra_, p. 160.
{152} _Privy Council Register_, ii. 217, 218.
{153} _Privy Council Register_, ii. 622, 699.
{155a} _Privy Council Register_, vi. 73, 74.
{155b} State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 13, No. 21.
{156} _Hatfield Calendar_, viii. 147, 399.
{157} For these letters of Logan's, see _Hatfield Calendar_, vols. iii.
iv. under 'Restalrig,' in the Index.
{158} _Privy Council Register_, vol. v., s. v. 'Logan' in the Index.
{159} _Border Calendar_, vol. ii. Willoughby to Cecil, January 1, 1599.
{160a} Pitcairn, ii. 405-407.
{160b} See Thorpe's _Calendar_, vol. ii., s. v. 'Mowbray, Francis' in
the Index.
{161} He had sold Nether Gogar in 1596.
{162} Some of the papers are in the General Register House, Edinburgh.
{164} The evidence for all that occurred to Sprot, between April and
July 1608, is that of a manuscript _History of the Kirk of Scotland_, now
in the Advocates' Library. It is written in an early seventeenth-century
hand. Calderwood follows it almost textually up to a certain point where
the author of the MS. history says that Sprot, on the scaffold, declared
that he had no promise of benefit to his family. But Calderwood
declares, or says that others declare, that Sprot was really condemned as
a forger (which is untrue), but confessed to the Gowrie conspiracy in
return for boons to his wife and children.
We have, of course, no evidence that anything was done by Government, or
by any one, for Mrs. Sprot and the children. The author of the MS.,
which Calderwood used as he pleased, avers that Sprot denied on the
scaffold the fact that he had any promise. Neither draft nor official
account confirms the MS. history on the point of no promise. The
official _draft_ of his last moments (from its interlineations, each
signed by the Clerk of Council) appears to have been drawn up on the
spot, or hurriedly, as soon as Sprot was dead. This is the aspect of the
_draft_ of the account; the official _printed_ account says that there
was 'no place of writing on the scaffold, in respect of the press and
multitude of people' (Pitcairn, ii. 261).
{169} Vol. ii. pp. 282-7.
{170} Letter I is a peculiar case, and was not, perhaps, spoken of by
Sprot at all.
{183} Laing, _Charters_, Nos. 1452, 1474-76, 2029.
{198} _Hatfield Calendar_, iv. 659.
{199a} Pitcairn, iii. Appendix vii.
{199b} _Border Calendar_, i. 486, 487.
{202} Thorpe, ii. 614, 616, 617. _Border Calendar_, i. 457.
{203} _Privy Council Register_, viii. 150-2, 605.
{206a} Pitcairn, ii. 287, _n_ 2.
{206b} Neville to Cecil, Paris, Feb. 27, 1600. Willoughby to Cecil,
Berwick, April 22, 1600. _Winwood Memorials_, p. 166. _Border
Calendar_, ii. 645.
{217} The peculiarities of spelling are those recognised as Logan's, and
easily imitated by the forger.
{221} He had not the letter before him at this moment, and may have
forgotten.
{222} Spottiswoode, vol. iii. pp. 274, 282.
{224} Cromarty, _An Historical Account_, _&c._, 92 (1713).
{227a} Calderwood, vi. 780.
{227b} In the Auchendrane case (1615), the public, partisans of the
murderers, wished the only witness to be hanged, just to see if he would
persevere in his confession.
{239} _Melrose Papers_, vol. i. pp. 72, 73.
{243a} Pitcairn, ii. 289-290.
{243b} _Ibid._ ii. 292.
{247} _State Papers_, Venice, R.O., No. 14, 1608-10. Hill Burton,
_History of Scotland_, vol. vi. pp. 135, 136. Note. Edition of 1870.
{248} This information I owe to Mr. Anderson, with the reference to
Crawfurd, and other details.
{249} Burnet's _History of his Own Time_, vol. i. pp. 24, 25, mdccxxv.
{250a} _Papers relating to William_, _first Earl of Gowrie_, p. 30.
(Privately printed, 1867.)
{250b} Sanderson, p. 226.
{251a} Scott, pp. 282, 284.
{251b} _Border Calendar_, vol. i. p. 491.