POISON MYSTERIES IN EARLY SCOTTISH HISTORY
According to ancient historical records Scotland had its poison
mysteries in early times.
In the year 1332 Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, who on the death of
Robert Bruce was appointed Regent during the minority of the young King
David the Second, is said to have been a victim to poison.
Hector Boece, in his _Cronikles of Scotland_, boldly attributes his
death to the malice of Edward III, King of England, who, he states, “tuk
purpos to sla him be venome.” The fatal draught is said to have been
administered to the Earl by a monk who had been sent by the English King
as a physician, with the result that the unfortunate Moray found
“certaine dolouris ilk day mair increasing in his wame,” and died very
suddenly.
The Duke of Albany, younger son of James III, according to a chronicler,
was also “posonit in oure Souverane lordis presens and palas,” which
caused “a sclandir and murmur rising in the cuntre,” but by whom it was
administered it is not known.
In 1497 Margaret Drummond, mistress of James the Fourth, is said to have
been poisoned, with her two sisters, at the instigation of the nobles
who wished the king to marry.
In 1536 Jean Douglas, Lady Glamis, grand-daughter of “Bell-the-Cat,” was
tried for having removed her husband some years before _per
intoxicationem_, and for having conspired to dispose in the same way of
King James the Fifth, who had put the whole Douglas family under ban.
She was _convicta de arte et parte proditorie conspirationis et
imaginationis interfectionis sive destructionis nobilissime personne
serenissimi domini nostri Regis per pessimum venenum lie poysone_, and
condemned to “be had to Castell hill of Edinburghe and their Brynt in
ane fyre to the deid, as ane Traytour.”
Another case of alleged poisoning famous in Scottish history is that of
the Earl of Atholl, Treasurer of the Kingdom, who died suddenly after a
reconciliation feast given by the Regent, Morton. Atholl, a near kinsman
of the King, was a Catholic; Morton “a licentious man, but a fervent
Protestant”: the two men were, besides, rivals in the State. It was
generally believed at the time that Atholl was poisoned by Morton, and
so clamorous did the popular indignation become, that by order of the
Privy Council an inquest was held in the presence of the King and his
Councillors. Six surgeons were appointed to make a post-mortem
examination. James Owhegarty, “Ireland man born leiche that ministratis
medicine in the mouth and curis outward be herbis,” testified that the
cause of death was “rank venom” introduced by the mouth. The testimony
of Alexander Prestoun, “Doctour in Medicine,” and George Boswell,
“Mediciner and Chirurgiane in Perty,” was to the same effect. Gilbert
Moncrieff gave a more guarded opinion; he considered the humour in the
stomach to be venomous, but was unable to say whether it was exterior or
interior grown within the body. David Rattray, “Chirurgiane in Conpare,”
gave it as his opinion, that death was caused by “ane extraordinarie
poyson,” adding that “ane spune put in the humour change it in the
cullour of brass.” R. Craig, “Burgess of Edinburgh, chirurgiane,”
cautiously opined that the Earl “to all appearance” had died of poison.
A non-medical witness thought that a red matter shown to him by Dr.
Prestoun was “a cauld poyson.” Several ministers also gave testimony,
one of them stating that he saw “strange and unnatural tokens in the
stomach, black and red, as it were the dregs of bread and wine mixed,
and that he had heard the dead man say that he had got offence, and God
forgive them that had done it.” Bernardino de Mendoza, the Spanish
Ambassador, writing to his King, gives the following description of the
inquest:—
They had opened the body in the presence of five doctors, three of whom
said he had been poisoned, and two that he had not. One of the latter,
to assure them that he was right, by proof, took some of the contents of
the stomach on his finger, and put it into his mouth. The effect was
that in a few hours he was thought to be dying. It is not known whether
the order to poison him came from Morton or some private person.
In the end “the physicians did upon their oath declare that his death
was not caused by any extraordinary means.” The result of the inquest
did not, however, allay the general suspicion, and Morton thought it
necessary, when he was about to die on the scaffold in 1581, to make a
solemn declaration, that he “would not for the Earldom of Atholl have
either ministered poison unto him or caused it to be ministered unto
him.”
Shortly after the death of Robert Stewart, Earl of Orkney, who was an
illegitimate brother of Queen Mary, a quarrel arose between his eldest
son Patrick and his young brothers, John, James, and William Stewart.
Eventually the latter were suspected of conspiring to poison their
brother, who had succeeded to the title, and in 1596 we find the three
brothers, John, James and William, were brought to trial and accused of
having “conspyrit and dewysit how to murthour the said Patrick Erl of
Orkney his brother, be poysoning or utherwayes be craft and guylt
dealing,” in November, 1593.
The Earl, it appears, captured his brother’s servant, who confessed he
was hired to do the deed. This confession, however, was only extorted
from him after being tortured eleven days and nights in the
“cashie-lawis,” put in the “buitis” twice a day, and “skargeit with
towis.”
Tried on the charge of plotting to murder the Earl at a banquet in the
house of David Moncriefis of Kirkwell in Orkney, John was acquitted.
Another Scottish noble, George Home, Earl of Dunbar, is said to have
been poisoned by “tablets of Sugar given him for expelling the cold” by
Secretary Cecil in 1611. A post-mortem examination was made by one
Martin Souqir, a doctor, who is said to have tried the poison by laying
his finger on the subject’s heart and touching it with his tongue (a
curious clinical test for poison on which apparently great reliance was
placed at that period), with the result that he died within a few days
thereafter.