The death of the Regent Moray proved a great blow to the infant king’s
party, for there was no man of equal mark and energy to take his place.
The friends of the exiled queen raised their heads again, and in a
force which might well give the ruling party some anxiety. Seeing the
imminence of the danger, Elizabeth yielded to the wishes of Mary’s
enemies, and sent an army under the Earl of Sussex into Scotland in
April, who ‘burnt, herrit, and destroyit sae mickle of the Merse
and Teviotdale as they might be masters of, asseizit the castle of
Farniehirst, and demolishit the same, and thereafter past to Hawick
and to Branksholm, and burnt and herrit the same,’ thus punishing the
Scotts, Kerrs, and others who had lately made a hostile incursion
in Mary’s behalf into England. Towards the end of the month, they
besieged and took Hume Castle. A similar army under Sir William Drury
entered Scotland in the ensuing month, and committed the like havock
in Lanarkshire, so as to disable the queen’s friends of the house of
Hamilton. The sufferings thus occasioned in certain districts were
dreadful, and the principal sufferers were the poor. In Hume Castle,
when taken by Sussex, ‘was the hale guids and gear perteining to the
hale tenants of my Lord Hume, wherethrough the saids puir tenants
were allutterly herrit.’ The devastation at Hamilton was ‘in sic sort
and maner as the like in this realm has not been heard before.’ And
when the English troops came thence to Linlithgow on their return,
‘they herrit all the Monkland, the Lord Fleming’s bounds, my Lord
Livingstone’s bounds, together with all their puir tenants and friends,
in sic maner that nae heart can think thereon but the same must be
dolorous.’--_D. O._ Yet this was but a foretaste of the woes which a
disputed succession was now for three years to lay upon the land.
At the dictation of Elizabeth--for the Protestant lords in Scotland
were wholly subservient to her--Matthew, Earl of Lennox, paternal
grandfather of the young king, was elected Regent (July 17, 1570).
The real ruling spirit was the Earl of Morton, who lost no time in
proceeding against some friends of Queen Mary in the north. Taking the
town of Brechin, which had been held for her, he caused thirty-one
of the garrison to be mercilessly put to death. ‘The deaths of thir
persons were greatomly bewailit by mony.’ At the same time, the Earl
of Sussex made an inroad into Dumfriesshire, cast down many houses of
Mary’s friends, ‘burnt certain houses in the town of Dumfries, and reft
and spulyit all that they micht get.’ Three considerable districts in
Scotland were this summer reduced to a desert.
The Gordon power in the north, that of the Hamiltons and Argyle in the
west, and the Border chiefs, formed the great centres of Mary’s party,
which altogether was so strong, that it must have triumphed but for the
backing which the other party received from England. As matters stood,
the king’s friends were able to maintain themselves in possession of
the country at large, holding Stirling as the seat of government, while
Kirkaldy of Grange, governor of the Castle of Edinburgh, unexpectedly
went over to the queen’s side, as did Maitland of Lethington, and
some others lately arrayed against her. Edinburgh and its castle
consequently became a centre of operations for that party. Then
commenced an intestine war, at first consisting of mutual devastations
on each other’s lands, but soon assuming a sanguinary character. It
is not consistent with our design to relate it in detail; but a few
characteristic proceedings are given in the chronicle, usually in the
simple and pathetic language of the time.
Lennox being killed in a surprise at Stirling (September 3, 1571),
the Earl of Mar was chosen to the vacant regency. Under him the war
advanced with even increased ferocity, until it came to be a rule
that no quarter should be given on either side. In little more than
a twelvemonth, this gentle-natured noble sunk under the burden of
government; ‘the maist cause of his deid was that he lovit peace, and
could not have the same.’--_D. O._ The Earl of Morton, the ablest
man of the whole party since Moray, but merciless and greedy in the
extreme, succeeded, with the full approbation of the Mistress of the
Protestant party of Scotland.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1570.