Mary Livingston, or, as she signed herself, Marie Leuiston, was the
daughter of Alexander, fifth Lord Livingston. She was a cousin of Mary
Fleming's, and, like her, related, though more distantly, to the
sovereign. When she sailed from Scotland in 1548, as one of the
playmates of the infant Mary Stuart, she was accompanied by both her
father and her mother. Within a few years, however, she was left to the
sole care of the latter, Lord Livingston having died in France in 1553.
Of her life at the French Court we have no record. Her first appearance
in the pages of contemporary chroniclers is on the 22nd of April, 1562,
the year after her return to Scotland. On that date, the young Queen,
who delighted in the sport of archery, shot off a match in her private
gardens at St. Andrews. Her own partner was the Master of Lindsay.[79]
Their opponents were the Earl of Moray, then only Earl of Mar, and Mary
Livingston, whose skill is reported to have been--when courtesy allowed
it--quite equal to that of her royal mistress.
The next item of information is to be found in the matter-of-fact
columns of an account book, in which we find it entered that the Queen
gave Mary Livingston some grey damask for a gown, in September,
1563,[80] and some black velvet for the same purpose in the following
February.[81] Shortly after this, however, there occurred an event of
greater importance, which supplied the letter-writers of the day with
material for their correspondence. On the 5th of March, 1564, Mary
Livingston was married to James Sempill, of Beltreis. It was the first
marriage amongst the Marys, and consequently attracted considerable
attention for months before the celebration. As early as January, Paul
de Foix, the French Ambassador, makes allusion to the approaching event:
"Elle a commencé à marier ses quatre Maries", he writes to Catharine de'
Medici, "et dict qu'elle veult estre de la bande".[82] In a letter,
dated the 9th of the same month, Randolph, faithful to his habit of
communicating all the gossip of the Court in his reports to England,
informs Bedford of the intended marriage: "I learned yesterday that
there is a conspiracy here framed against you. The matter is this: the
Lord Sempill's son, being an Englishman born, shall be married between
this and Shrovetide to the Lord Livingston's sister. The Queen, willing
him well, both maketh the marriage and indoweth the parties with land.
To do them honour she will have them marry in the Court. The thing
intended against your lordship is this, that Sempill himself shall come
to Berwicke within these fourteen days, and desire you to be at the
bridal."[83] Writing to Leicester, he repeats his information: "It will
not be above 6 or 7 days before the Queen (returning from her progress
into Fifeshire) will be in this town. Immediately after that ensueth the
great marriage of this happy Englishman that shall marry lovely
Livingston."[84] Finally, on the 4th of March, he again writes: "Divers
of the noblemen have come to this great marriage, which to-morrow shall
be celebrated".[85] Randolph's epistolary garrulity has, in this
instance, served one good purpose, of which he probably little dreamt
when he filled his correspondence with the small talk of the Court
circle. It enables us to refute a calumnious assertion made by John Knox
with reference to the marriage of the Queen's maid of honour. "It was
weill knawin that schame haistit mariage betwix John Sempill, callit the
Danser, and Marie Levingstoune, surnameit the Lustie."[86] Randolph's
first letter, showing, as it does, that preparations for the wedding
were in progress as early as the beginning of January, summarily
dismisses the charge of "haste" in its celebration, whilst, for those
who are familiar with the style of the English envoy's correspondence,
his very silence will appear the strongest proof that Mary's fair fame
was tarnished by no breath of scandal. The birth of her first child in
1566, a fact to which the family records of the house of Sempill bear
witness, establishes more irrefutably than any argument the utter
falsity of Knox's unscrupulous assertion.
John Sempill, whose grace in dancing had acquired for him the surname
which seems to have lain so heavily on Knox's conscience, and whose good
fortune in finding favour with lovely Mary Livingston called forth
Randolph's congratulations, was the eldest son of the third lord, by his
second wife Elizabeth Carlyle of Torthorwold. At Court, as may have been
gathered from Randolph's letters, he was known as the "Englishman",
owing to the fact of his having been born in Newcastle. Although of good
family himself, and in high favour at Court, being but a younger son he
does not seem to have been considered on all hands as a fitting match
for Mary Livingston. This the Queen, of whose making the marriage was,
herself confesses in a letter to the Archbishop of Glasgow, reminding
him that, "in a country where these formalities were looked to",
exception had been taken to the marriage both of Mary and Magdalene
Livingston on the score that they had taken as husbands "the younger
sons of their peers--_les puînés de leurs semblables_".[87] Mary Stuart
seems to have been above such prejudices, and showed how heartily she
approved of the alliance between the two families by her liberality to
the bride. Shortly before the marriage she gave her a band covered with
pearls, a basquina of grey satin, a mantle of black taffety made in the
Spanish fashion with silver buttons, and also a gown of black taffety.
It was she, too, who furnished the bridal dress, which cost £30, as
entered in the accounts under date of the 10th of March:--
Item: Ane pund xiii unce of silver to ane gown of
Marie Levingstoune's to her mariage, the unce xxv s.
Summa xxx li.
The "Inuentair of the Quenis movables quhilkis ar in the handes of
Seruais de Condy vallett of chalmer to hir Grace", records, further,
that there was "deliueret in Merche 1564, to Johnne Semples wiff, ane
bed of scarlett veluot bordit with broderie of black veluot, furnisit
with ruif heidpece, thre pandis, twa vnderpandis, thre curtenis of
taffetie of the same cullour without freingis. The bed is furnisit with
freingis of the same cullour." To make her gift complete, the Queen, as
another household document, her wardrobe book, testifies, added the
following items:--
Item: Be the said precept to Marie Levingstoun xxxi elnis
ii quarters of quhite fustiane to be ane marterass,
the eln viii s. Summa xii li xii s.
Item: xvi elnis of cammes to be palzeass, the eln vi s.
Summa iiij li xvj s.
Item: For nappes and fedders; v li.
Item: Ane elne of lane; xxx s.
Item: ij unce of silk; xx s.
The wedding for which such elaborate preparation had been made, and for
which the Queen herself named the day, took place, in the presence of
the whole Court and all the foreign ambassadors, on Shrove Tuesday,
which, as has already been mentioned, was on the 5th of March. In the
evening the wedding guests were entertained at a masque, which was
supplied by the Queen, but of which we know nothing further than may be
gathered from the following entry:--
Item: To the painter for the mask on Fastionis evin
to Marie Levingstoun's marriage; xij li.[88]
The marriage contract, which was signed at Edinburgh on the Sunday
preceding the wedding, bears the names of the Queen, of John Lord
Erskine, Patrick Lord Ruthven, and of Secretary Maitland of Lethington.
The bride's dowry consisted of £500 a year in land, the gift of the
Queen, to which Lord Livingston added 100 merks a year in land, or 1000
merks in money. As a jointure she received the Barony of Beltreis near
Castle Semple, in Renfrewshire, the lands of Auchimanes and Calderhaugh,
with the rights of fisheries in the Calder, taxed to the Crown at £18,
16s. 8d. a year.[89]
A few days after the marriage, on the 9th of March, a grant from the
Queen to Mary Livingston and John Sempill passed the great seal. In this
official document she styles the bride "her familiar servatrice", and
the bridegroom "her daily and familiar serviter, during all the
youthheid and minority of the said serviters". In recognition of their
services both to herself and the Queen Regent, she infeofs them in her
town and lands of Auchtermuchty, part of her royal demesne in Fifeshire,
the lands and lordships of Stewarton in Ayr, and the isle of Little
Cumbrae in the Firth of Clyde.
After her marriage "Madamoiselle de Semple" was appointed lady of the
bedchamber, an office for which she received £200 a year. Her husband
also seems to have retained some office which required his personal
attendance on the Queen, for we know that both husband and wife were in
waiting at Holyrood on the memorable evening of David Rizzio's murder.
The shock which this tragic event produced on Mary was very great, and
filled her with the darkest forebodings. She more than once expressed
her fear that she would not survive her approaching confinement. About
the end of May or the beginning of June, shortly before the solemn
ceremony of "taking her chamber", she caused an inventory of her
personal effects to be drawn up by Mary Livingston and Margaret Carwod,
the bedchamber woman in charge of her cabinet, and with her own hand
wrote, on the margin opposite to each of the several articles, the name
of the person for whom it was intended, in the event of her death and of
that of her infant. Mary Livingston's name appears by the side of the
following objects in the original document, which was discovered among
some unassorted law papers in the Register House, in August, 1854:--
Quatre vingtz deux esguillettes xliiij petittes de mesme
facon esmaillez de blancq.
Une brodure du toure contenante xxv pieces esmaille de
blanc et noir facon de godrons.
Vne brodeure doreillette de pareille facon contenante
xxvij pieces esmaillees de blanc et noir.
Vne cottouere de semblable facon contenante lx pieces de
pareille facon esmaillee de blanc et noir.
Vng carcan esmaille de blanc et noir contenant dixsept
pieces et a chacune piece y a vng petit pandant.
Vne chesne a saindre de semblable facon contenante liiij
pieces esmaillees de blanc et noir et vng vaze au bout.
Vne corde de coural contenante lxiij pieces faictes en vaze.
Vne aultre corde de coural contenante treize grosses pieces
aussy en vaze.
Vne aultre corde de coural contenante xxxviij pieches plus
petittes aussy en vaze.
Vng reste de patenostres ou il a neuf meures de perles et
des grains dargent entredeux.
Vne saincture et cottouere de perles garnie bleu et grains
noir faict a roisteau.
Item: haill acoustrement of gold of couter carcan and
chesne of 66 pyecis.
Only on one occasion after this do we find mention of Mary Livingston in
connection with her royal mistress. It is on the day following the
Queen's surrender at Carberry, when she was brought back a prisoner to
Edinburgh. The scene is described by Du Croc, the French Ambassador. "On
the evening of the next day," he writes in the official report forwarded
to his court, "at eight o'clock, the Queen was brought back to the
castle of Holyrood, escorted by three hundred arquebusiers, the Earl of
Morton on the one side, and the Earl of Athole on the other; she was on
foot, though two hacks were led in front of her; she was accompanied at
the time by Mademoiselle de Sempel and Seton, with others of her
chamber, and was dressed in a night-gown of various colours."[90]
After the Queen's removal from Edinburgh the Sempills also left it to
reside sometimes at Beltreis, and sometimes at Auchtermuchty, but
chiefly in Paisley, where they built a house which was still to be seen
but a few years ago, near what is now the Cross. Their retirement from
the capital did not, however, secure for them the quietness which they
expected to enjoy. They had stood too high in favour with the captive
Queen to be overlooked by her enemies. The Regent Lennox, remembering
that Mary Livingston had been entrusted with the care of the royal
jewels and wardrobe, accused her of having some of the Queen's effects
in her possession. Notwithstanding her denial, her husband was arrested
and cast into prison, and she herself brought before the Lords of the
Privy Council. Their cross-questioning and brow-beating failed to elicit
any information from her, and it was only when Lennox threatened to "put
her to the horn", and to inflict the torture of the "boot" on her
husband, that she confessed to the possession of "three lang-tailit
gowns garnished with fur of martrix and fur of sables". She protested,
however, that, as was indeed highly probable, these had been given to
her, and were but cast-off garments, of little value or use to anyone.
In spite of this, she was not allowed to depart until she had given
surety "that she would compear in the council-chamber on the morrow and
surrender the gear".
Lennox's death, which occurred shortly after this, did not put an end to
the persecution to which the Sempills were subjected. Morton was as
little friendly to them as his predecessor had been. He soon gave proof
of this by calling upon John Sempill to leave his family and to proceed
to England, as one of the hostages demanded as security for the return
of the army and implements of war, sent, under Sir William Drury, to lay
siege to Edinburgh Castle.
On his return home, Sempill found new and worse troubles awaiting him.
It happened that of the lands conferred upon Mary Livingston on her
marriage some portion lay near one of Morton's estates. Not only had the
Queen's gift been made by a special grant under the Great and Privy
Seals, but the charter of infeofment had also been ratified by a further
Act of Parliament in 1567, when it was found that the proposal to annul
the forfeiture of George Earl of Huntly would affect it. It seemed
difficult, therefore, to find even a legal flaw that would avail to
deprive the Sempills of their lands and afford the Regent an opportunity
of appropriating them to himself. He was probably too powerful, however,
to care greatly for the justice of his plea. He brought the matter
before the Court of Session, urging that the gift made by the Queen to
Mary Livingston and her husband was null and void, on the ground that
it was illegal to alienate the lands of the Crown. It was in vain that
Sempill brought forward the deed of gift under the Great and Privy
Seals, the judges would not allow his plea. Thereupon Sempill burst into
a violent passion, declaring that if he lost his suit, it would cost him
his life as well. Whiteford of Milntoune, a near relative of Sempill's,
who was with him at the time, likewise allowed his temper to get the
better of his discretion, and exclaimed "that Nero was but a dwarf
compared to Morton". This remark, all the more stinging that it was
looked upon as a sneer at the Regent's low stature, was never forgiven.
Not long after the conclusion of the lawsuit, both Sempill and Whiteford
were thrown into prison on a charge "of having conspired against the
Regent's life, and of having laid in wait by the Kirk, within the
Kirkland of Paisley, to have shot him, in the month of January, 1575, at
the instigation of the Lords Claud and John Hamilton". After having been
detained in prison till 1577, John Sempill was brought up for trial on
this capital charge. His alleged crime being of such a nature that it
was probably found impossible to prove it by the testimony of witnesses,
he was put to the torture of the boot, with which he had been threatened
on a former occasion. By this means sufficient was extorted from him to
give at least a semblance of justice to the sentence of death which was
passed on him. In consideration of this confession, however, the
sentence was not carried out. Ultimately he was set at liberty and
restored to his family. His health had completely broken down under the
terrible ordeal through which he had gone, and he only lingered on till
the 25th of April, 1579.
Of Mary Livingston's life after the death of her husband but little is
known. From an Act of Parliament passed in November, 1581, it appears
that tardy justice was done her by James VI, who caused the grants
formerly made to "umquhile John Semple, of Butress, and his spouse, to
be ratified". Her eldest son, James, was brought up with James VI, and
in later life was sent as ambassador to England. He was knighted in
1601. There were three other children--two boys, Arthur and John, and
one girl, Dorothie.
The exact date of Mary Livingston's death is not known, but she appears
to have been living in 1592.