JAMES VI.
Once more a minor became sovereign of Scotland. Not, however, as in
former cases, by the early death of the preceding monarch did the
throne become vacant again, but by a deed of abdication which the
helpless captive Queen was compelled to sign at Lochleven. On July
29th, 1567--a few days after the close of Mary’s reign--the thirteen
months old Prince of Scotland was crowned at Stirling as James VI.
The Chapel at the castle on this occasion was not the scene of the
function, the High or Parish Church being chosen as a suitable place
for the ceremony. The child was anointed by the Protestant Bishop of
Orkney, while the Earl of Atholl held the crown over the royal head.
Morton and Home took the oath for the King that he would maintain
the true religion, and after Knox had preached a sermon, the company
returned to the castle, Mar carrying the infant monarch and Atholl
bearing the crown.
For twelve years after his coronation young James resided in Stirling
Castle under the care of the family of Mar. During almost the whole
of that period the government of Scotland was carried on in the name
of the King by four Regents in succession; and Stirling, being the
sovereign’s seat, figured conspicuously in the history of the time. In
September, 1569, at a council held in the castle by the Regent Moray,
Maitland of Lethington was accused by Thomas Crawford of having taken
part in the murder of Darnley. His trial being fixed for December 21st,
Lethington was placed in confinement in the fortress, but a few days
later he was carried to Edinburgh, where he managed to escape from
bondage by the instrumentality of Kirkcaldy of Grange.[42]
Less than two years later there was thrust into Stirling Castle another
prominent member of Queen Mary’s dwindling faction. This was John
Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, the prelate who had taken the
leading part at the Prince’s baptism not many years before. He had been
seized in Dumbarton Castle on the memorable night when the King’s men
scaled the rock, and had been brought without delay to his enemies’
headquarters. Like Maitland of Lethington, he was charged with having
been implicated in the murder of James’s father, and his confinement
in Stirling, like Lethington’s, lasted for only one or two days.
The Archbishop, moreover, was held to be guilty of having encouraged
Bothwellhaugh to assassinate the Regent Moray, so after a hasty trial
he was hanged at the market cross in April, 1571.
Stirling, being at this time the young King’s home, was naturally the
headquarters of his mother’s opponents. Edinburgh, where the castle
was held for the Queen by Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange, was the
principal seat of Mary’s less powerful party. A plan was accordingly
devised by the Laird of Grange that nearly succeeded in changing, for
a time at least, the course of Scottish history. Knowing that the
leaders of the opposite faction were gathered together for a meeting
of Parliament, he resolved to surprise and capture Stirling, to seize
all the prominent supporters of the King, and to obtain possession, if
possible, of the royal child himself. Kirkcaldy was anxious to conduct
the expedition in person, but, being persuaded by his followers not to
run such a risk, he appointed the Earl of Huntly, Lord Claude Hamilton,
Scott of Buccleuch and Ker of Fernihirst to undertake the enterprise.
On the evening of the 3rd of September, 1571, these chiefs, accompanied
by three or four hundred men, rode out of Edinburgh and took the road
to Jedburgh in order to deceive their enemies as to the object of
their journey. In the gathering darkness they wheeled to the right and
made their way swiftly to within a mile of Stirling, where they halted
and left their horses.[43] One of the party, a native of the place,
knowing of the existence of a secret passage, guided the raiders into
the town at an early hour in the morning. There was not even the bark
of a dog to give the citizens alarm; the burghers and nobles were
aroused by the cries of “A Hamilton” and “God and the Queen.” Houses
were instantly broken into and most of the lords were captured with
ease, but at Morton’s lodging some fighting took place, resulting
in the slaughter of two of the Earl’s retainers. Morton, however,
eventually gave himself up to the Laird of Buccleuch, the Regent Lennox
surrendered to Spens of Wormiston, and the Earls of Glencairn and
Eglinton also submitted themselves to the adventurers.
The Queen’s party seemed to have triumphed completely, but their
easily-won victory led to their defeat. The Borderers, unable to resist
the temptation of plunder, rushed in all directions in search of booty,
so that when the Earl of Mar sallied forth from the castle with a band
of musketeers, a panic at once ensued. The citizens armed themselves
and turned on their despoilers, while the castle soldiers kept up a
fire from behind the walls of Mar’s unfinished house. The raiders were
demoralised and quickly took to flight, but rather than allow the
Regent Lennox to be rescued, a man named Calder fired his pistol at
the Earl. By throwing himself in front of his distinguished prisoner,
Spens of Wormiston was shot, and the bullet passing through his body,
mortally wounded Lennox. The dying Regent was conveyed to the castle,
where in the evening he passed away. His death was deplored not only by
his friends but by his foe, Kirkcaldy of Grange, who had desired the
Raid of Stirling to be, if possible, a bloodless triumph.[44]
Little more than a year had elapsed when another Regent died in
Stirling Castle. This was the King’s hereditary keeper, John, Earl of
Mar, who had been elected to govern the realm in the room of James’s
grandfather, Lennox.[45] The cares of state and the worries of the
civil war seem to have been responsible for the Regent’s premature
decease, although the usual report of poisoning was given circulation
at the time. Mar left the charge of the King and the castle to his
brother, Alexander, Master of Erskine, for his son, the new Earl, a
companion of James, was a boy not much older than the King.
The next governor, the Regent Morton, was in favour of the young
sovereign’s continuing his residence at Stirling. His education was
meanwhile receiving attention from George Buchanan and Peter Young, the
former a brilliant scholar and a strict disciplinarian, the latter too
full of respect for the Lord’s Anointed to oppose his pupil’s wayward
will. “My Lady Mar was wise and sharp,” wrote Sir James Melville, “and
held the King in great awe; and so did Mr. George Buchanan. Mr. Peter
Young was gentler and was loath to offend the King at any time, and
used himself warily, as a man that had mind of his own weal, by keeping
of His Majesty’s favour; but Mr. George was a Stoic philosopher, and
looked not far before the hand.”
In June, 1574, Killigrew, the English ambassador, visited Stirling
Castle, and heard James translate into French a chapter, chosen at
random, of a Latin version of the Bible; while to show that his
accomplishments were not confined to intellectual pursuits, the King
delighted the English envoy by an exhibition of dancing.[46] Weldon, in
his oft-quoted description of James, writes: “His legs were very weak
... that he was not able to stand at seven years of age.”[47] Weldon’s
unflattering portrait of the King is held by some to be a faithful
representation; but the statement regarding James’s physical weakness
seems to be untrue, for if he could not stand at seven, he would surely
be unable to give a display of dancing when exactly eight years of age.
Later in the same year the two famous Melvilles--Andrew and his nephew
James--were presented to their sovereign at Stirling. The younger man
notes in his Diary that the boy monarch, on account of his strange and
extraordinary gifts, was the sweetest sight in Europe that day. The
writer goes on to say: “I heard him discourse, walking up and doun
in the auld Lady Mar’s hand, of knowledge and ignorance, to my great
marvel and astonishment.”[48]
James had companions at work and play in those schooldays at the
castle. The young Earl of Mar, Lord Invertyle and others learnt
their lessons with their King at Stirling. That Buchanan showed no
favouritism in his dealings with his pupils will be seen by the
following story, originally told by Invertyle: The Earl of Mar
possessed a tame sparrow which the King was anxious to obtain. On the
young nobleman’s refusing to hand over the bird to his sovereign, a
struggle between the two playmates ensued, ending in the death of the
sparrow. Mar burst into tears at the loss of his pet, and Buchanan,
being informed of the cause of the weeping, gave the King a box on the
ear, and told him he was a true bird of the bloody nest of which he was
come.[49]
That the stern preceptor was not devoid of humour the following
anecdote will show. The young King’s readiness to grant requests
thoughtlessly was noted by Buchanan with distress. Determined to teach
the boy a lesson, he requested him to sign two documents, the purport
of one being to transfer the regal power to Buchanan for fifteen days.
After asking one or two random questions, the sovereign willingly
signed the papers without taking trouble to read their contents; and
that same day the tutor acted the part of King to the astonishment of
the courtiers and the utter amazement of James. At length Buchanan
informed his pupil that he had temporarily resigned his crown, and as
the King continued to appear bewildered, the document was produced.
Before James had time to recover from his discomfiture, the tutor
followed up his practical lesson by a discourse on the evils that are
likely to accrue from the rashness and carelessness of kings.[50]
Buchanan’s interest in education during the Stirling period of his
life was not confined to the training and instruction of the monarch
and his companions. He was appointed president of the commission which
met in Stirling Castle to consider the question of a standard Latin
grammar, as teachers had been complaining of the confusion arising from
the various manuals in use throughout the country. The result of the
proceedings was that Buchanan and two commissioners, Andrew Simson and
James Carmichael, schoolmasters, undertook to produce a new book which
was to supersede all the others. In due time the joint work of these
eminent scholars appeared, but it never became established as the one
and only grammar.[51]
The room still exists in the Keep of the castle where George Buchanan
and Peter Young are believed to have discharged their pedagogic duties,
and a terrace below is called the _Prince’s Walk_, where James, it
is said, was wont to take the air before returning to his studies.
Doubtless the young King and his comrades romped on this narrow
playground, but it owes its name more likely to James’s son, Prince
Henry, for the father was a crowned monarch before his education
began, and the terrace is known not as the _King’s_ but as the
_Prince’s Walk_.
[Illustration: THE KEEP AND THE PRINCE’S WALK.]
The regency of Morton was, on the whole, a time of peace, but his
enemies were all the time planning his overthrow. The greater part of
the nobility was hostile to the Regent; thus when the King, at the
instigation of Argyll, and with the approval of Buchanan and Alexander
Erskine, summoned a convention of peers to Stirling Castle in March,
1578, Morton felt compelled to send in his resignation. The clever
Earl, however, soon found an opportunity of placing himself again in
power. On the morning of the 26th of April, the young Earl of Mar,
possibly acting on Morton’s advice, called for the keys of the castle
as though he intended to ride forth to hunt. Although the hour was
about six o’clock the Master of Erskine was already astir, and meeting
his nephew’s followers at the gate, he called his servants to his
assistance. After a scuffle, in which the Master’s eldest son was so
severely crushed that he died next day, the parties withdrew to the
hall to discuss the situation. The proceedings resulted in the young
Earl of Mar’s being allowed to take over the charge of the King and
the keeping of Stirling Castle.[52] It was also decreed that James was
to remain in the castle, that no earl was to be received within
the gates with more than two servants, no lord with more than one
attendant, and no gentleman with any retainer at all.[53] The stirring
events of that morning made such an impression on the youthful King,
that for several nights his sleep was disturbed by visions of the fray.
Morton was not long in breaking through the decrees. Riding secretly by
night from Edinburgh to Stirling, towards the end of May, he persuaded
Mar to admit him and his followers into the royal castle. Once within
the same building as the King, the Earl was now as powerful as before.
He managed to arrange the formation of a new Council, with himself in
the principal place, and he persuaded the King to order the Parliament,
which had been summoned to meet at Edinburgh, to assemble in the hall
of Stirling Castle. The opponents of Morton, naturally objecting to the
Estates being convened within the walls of a fortress, were determined
not to appear without a protest, so they sent the Earl of Montrose
and Lord Lindsay of the Byres to lay their remonstrances before the
King. James opened the Parliament in person, and before any business
was transacted, Lord Lindsay protested against its proceedings. Morton
interrupted him and ordered him to sit down, but Lindsay disobeyed
the command until it was repeated by the King. Later in the day the
intrepid lord again arose to make objections, and this time also he
was silenced by James, who, at Morton’s prompting, declared that the
Parliament was free and that those who loved him would think as he
thought.[54]
Morton’s recovery of power rendered civil war imminent. Argyll and
Atholl raised the town of Edinburgh and were joined by the Borderers
of Teviotdale and the Merse. Angus, on the other side, was preparing
his forces at Stirling. The armies came within sight of each other near
the town of Falkirk, and some skirmishing took place, but through the
intervention of two leading ministers of the church and of Bowes, the
English ambassador, an agreement was arrived at without any fighting
taking place. The settlement left things much as they were, with the
power in Morton’s hands, but the Earl of Montrose and Lord Lindsay of
the Byres were admitted into the Council.
Although not holding the title of regent, the Earl of Morton was now as
powerful as ever he had been. His opponents felt themselves incapable
of compelling him to deliver up their sovereign, and so secure did
Morton consider his position and the King’s to be, that on the 12th of
June, 1579, James was allowed to leave the castle by the nether bailey
gate at five o’clock in the morning, with his own domestics, and was
permitted to remain in the Park until seven o’clock at night. This was
the first occasion on which the King passed beyond the castle walls
without the protection of an armed guard.[55]
Morton’s day of triumph, however, was beginning to draw to a close.
There arrived in Scotland a man from France, who quickly won the
favour of King James, and who set himself to restore Queen Mary to the
throne, to overthrow the Protestant religion in Scotland and to ruin
the Earl of Morton. He was successful in only the last of these three
enterprises. This remarkable person was Esmé Stewart, Lord of Aubigny
in France, and nephew of the Regent Lennox. “He was a man of comely
proportion, civil behaviour, red-bearded, honest in conversation.”[56]
Recommended to James by the Guises, whose special agent he was, he
arrived at Stirling in September, 1579, and was presented to the King
in the hall of the castle. The artful schemer was not long in winning
James’s favour. Soon he received the wealthy Abbey of Arbroath, which
had been in the possession of the Hamilton family, and about the same
time he was made a privy-councillor and was given the Earldom of
Lennox.
Esmé Stewart had not been many months at Court before a rumour was
reported to the Earl of Mar to the effect that the half-foreign
favourite and his partisans intended to remove the King to Dumbarton,
and afterwards to convey him secretly to France. The night of the
10th of April, 1580, was believed to be the time arranged by the
conspirators for carrying out their plan. The rumour, whether
well-founded or not, gave rise to intense excitement in the castle.
When the dreaded evening came round, Mar placed soldiers both within
and without the King’s apartment, and ordered them on no account to
allow anyone to enter the room. Lennox, armed and supported by a guard
of friends, prepared to defend himself in his own chamber, for he heard
the threatening shouts in the courtyard and knew that his life was in
danger.
The night passed away, however, without an attack being made upon
Stirling, although in the morning the Earls of Argyll, Glencairn and
Sutherland--friends of Esmé Stewart, Lord Lennox--endeavoured without
success to gain admittance to the castle.[57]
Lennox and another rising favourite, James Stewart, together worked
for the hated Morton’s fall, and as the King was completely in
their hands and bore no love to the stern ex-regent, the Earl was
condemned to death in 1581, for being “art and part” in the murder of
Darnley. Yet not much more than a year after Morton’s death, Lennox’s
ascendency came to an end. A number of nobles--Mar, Gowrie, Lindsay and
others--seized the King at Ruthven Castle, near Perth, and virtually
held him a prisoner, while Lennox was ordered to leave the country--a
step which at last he reluctantly took. James was brought back to
Stirling, and, although chafing at the restraint, was compelled to
announce that he was a free King and that he desired to reside in the
castle. But the Ruthven Raiders were unable to keep their sovereign
for more than ten months in their hands. In June, 1583, a plot for the
recovery of his freedom was formed, and he escaped from Falkland Palace
to St. Andrews, where he threw himself into the castle.
Their inability to hold the King in their power was disastrous to the
leaders of the Raid of Ruthven; consequently they lost little time
in arranging a scheme to place themselves again in command. The Earl
of Mar and the Master of Glamis had retired to the north of Ireland,
but in the spring of 1584 they stealthily crossed the Channel, and on
the 17th of April, with five hundred horse, they seized the Castle
of Stirling. James at once raised an army in Edinburgh and marched
to attack the rebels. No fighting of any sort took place, however,
for the insurgent lords, taken aback by the King’s swift action and
disappointed in the support of their friends, fled towards the Border
before the royal army appeared. The small garrison which they left to
guard the fortress surrendered at once to the King. The constable and
three of the men were hanged as a sign of the royal displeasure.[58]
On the failure of the conspiracy, the Earl of Gowrie, who had come to
be regarded with distrust by both parties, was tried at Stirling and
executed almost beneath the walls of the castle.
In November, 1585, another Raid of Stirling occurred. The exiled lords
who had forsaken the castle in the previous year, collected their
forces in the south of Scotland, where they were joined by a number
of the Border lairds. Proclaiming that they sought to save the King
and the country from the evil rule of James Stewart, Earl of Arran,
they advanced northwards with some nine hundred men and camped at St.
Ninians on November 1st. Next morning at daybreak they crept into
the town, like Buccleuch and Fernihirst fourteen years before, while
Arran and Montrose, who had kept watch on the walls, immediately took
to flight, the former seeking safety beyond the Bridge of Forth, the
latter finding refuge in the castle with the King. Having captured
the town with comparative ease, the lords proceeded to invest the
fortress which they knew to be ill prepared for a siege. After sending
messengers to treat with the invaders, James agreed to surrender, for
his attempt to escape by bribing William Maxwell of Newark, who had
charge of one of the postern doors, was discovered by the besiegers.
The nobles entered the castle on the 4th of November, assuring their
sovereign that they had acted from motives of loyalty, while he replied
that words were unnecessary, as their weapons had spoken quite loudly
enough. Differences were settled for the time, and James professed to
be pleased with the change; Arran was banished for ever from the Court,
and to Mar, who had forfeited his hereditary privilege, the custody of
Stirling Castle was restored.
Too often in Scottish history the conduct of the barons towards the
sovereign was insolent and disloyal; but there were occasions in which
their coercive action was fraught with good to the country. The nobles
who captured James VI. at Ruthven Castle and who besieged him in his
own stronghold of Stirling, were actuated to some extent by selfish
motives, but at the same time they realised that their measures were
such as would confer real benefit upon the land. Yet although the
weakness of the King in placing his trust in unpopular favourites
justified the daring steps taken by the nobles, it is not a matter
for wonder that in his later life the shout of “Treason” escaped from
James’s lips whenever an unexpected incident occurred.
James VI. married Anne, second daughter of Frederick II. of Denmark,
in 1589, and Stirling Castle was chosen to be the birthplace of their
eldest son, who was born in February, 1594. For the Prince’s baptism
great preparations were made, including the hasty reconstruction of
the Chapel, for James was always anxious to impress his visitors with
the dignity of the Scottish Court. The foreign representatives arrived
at Stirling before the end of August, and on the 30th of that month
the christening service was held.[59] The Prince was carried to the
Chapel by Elizabeth’s representative, the Earl of Sussex, who walked
under a canopy supported by the Lairds of Cessford, Buccleuch, Dudhope
and Traquair; and in the procession Lord Hume carried the ducal crown,
Lord Seton bore the basin and Lord Livingstone the towel. The chief
officiating clergyman was David Cunningham, Bishop of Aberdeen, who
at the King’s command named the royal infant Frederick Henry, and
thereafter addressed the congregation in Latin. At the conclusion
of the service the company retired to the Prince’s chamber, where
James created his child a knight and bestowed on him the usual titles
belonging to the eldest son of the King. After a number of less
important knights had been made, supper was served in the great hall of
the castle, at which, for the entertainment of the guests, a decorated
chariot and ship were drawn in, containing viands for the later courses
of the banquet.[60] No ill-timed jest spoilt the pleasure of the
party, as on the occasion of the festivities in celebration of James’s
baptism; but this time, owing to the religious change in Scotland, no
French representatives were present at Stirling.
A few months before he departed from Scotland to take possession of
the English crown, James looked down from Stirling Castle upon a
strange and striking spectacle. On December 21st, 1602, a band of
riders, consisting mainly of women, was observed advancing from the
west. It was seen that the principal members of the party were bearing
bloodstained garments and were displaying them to view with the object
of attracting attention. The procession wound its way up the castle
hill, and at the King’s command was admitted within the gates.
Alexander Colquhoun of Luss was the leader of the company, and from
him the King learned that a party of Macgregors had raided the lands
of Glenfinlas in the Lennox, had plundered the farms of the Colquhoun
tenants, and had killed and wounded a number of men, and that these
women bearing the bloody shirts were the relatives of the clansmen who
had innocently suffered.
The sorrowing deputation and the accompanying tale of woe so greatly
shocked King James that he granted a commission to Alexander Colquhoun,
giving him licence to repress such crimes and to lay hold of any
malefactors. The knowledge that their enemies possessed this commission
so enraged the Macgregors that they rose in great force to oppose the
Colquhouns, and inflicted upon them a heavy defeat at the memorable
conflict of Glenfruin.[61] Their triumph, however, although sweet for
the moment, brought long and bitter sorrow to the victors, as they
came to be regarded as the most lawless of the Highland clans, and
were pursued with fire and sword at the instance of the Government.
To assist in crushing the indomitable race, the Earl of Mar, in 1611,
sent two pieces of ordnance from Stirling Castle, to be used in the
guerrilla warfare against the hunted Clan Gregor.[62]
James VI.’s son, Henry, was the last Prince of Scotland to be
brought up in Stirling Castle. He spent nine years--exactly half of
his life--in his royal birthplace on the rock. The King’s former
companion, the Earl of Mar, was appointed guardian of the boy, and
Annabella, the Countess-Dowager, was authorised to assist her son in
his charge. James had perfect confidence in the friend of his youth,
but the Queen, partly, perhaps, from political motives and partly from
a natural desire to be with her child, endeavoured in 1595 to remove
the Prince from the custody of Mar. This intrigue becoming known to
the sovereign led to a quarrel between him and his Consort, the result
being that the Earl received a written statement from the King granting
him full charge of the boy until he should reach the age of eighteen
years:--“1595, July 24. Stirling.--Milorde of Mar. Because in the
suretie of my sonne consistis my suretie and that I have concreditid
unto you the chairge of his keiping upon the trust I have of youre
honestie, this present thairfore sall be ane warrande unto you not to
delyver him out of youre handis except I commande you with my awin
mouth, and being in sikke cumpanie as I my self sall best lyke of,
otheruayes not to delyver him for any chairge or message that can cum
from me. And in kayce God call me at any tyme that nather for Quene
nor Estaitis pleasure ye delyver him quhill he be auchtein yeiris of
age and that he commande you himself. At Stirling the xxiiij of Julie,
1595. James R.”[63]
The Queen succeeded in a later attempt to gain possession of her son.
After James had set out for England to occupy Elizabeth’s throne, she
made her way to Stirling in April, 1603, in order to seize the person
of the Prince. The family of Mar, refusing to deliver their charge,
even when a band of nobles appeared in support of the Queen, Anne, in
her disappointment, fell dangerously ill, whereupon the King dispatched
the Duke of Lennox with instructions to the Earl of Mar to deliver the
Prince to the Duke.[64] In order to appease the Queen, Lennox and the
Council handed the boy to his mother, who at once began her journey
with her son, reaching Windsor at the end of June, after a progress of
more than four weeks.
On his father’s accession to the English throne, the Prince of Scotland
at once became Duke of Cornwall, and almost immediately after his
arrival in England he was invested with the Order of the Garter. Not
until 1610 was young Henry created Prince of Wales, a title which he
was destined to enjoy for little more than two years. In October, 1612,
he began to suffer from headaches and languor, but always making light
of bodily ailments, he continued to lead an active life and to play his
favourite games. Fever, however, most probably typhoid, compelled him
to take to his bed. The best physicians were in attendance during his
illness, but from the first there was little hope of recovery, and on
the 6th of November he lost his speech and peacefully passed away.
So much beloved was the Prince by the people, and such a sensation did
his early death create, that nearly all the eminent authors of the day,
and many undistinguished mourners, wrote verses extolling his virtues
and lamenting his demise. Donne, Heywood and Drummond of Hawthornden,
were among the poets whose elegies were called forth by the national
bereavement. Henry was a young man of great force of character, who
held strong opinions on the topics of the day, and who did not fear
to speak out his mind concerning some of his father’s actions. He was
naturally of a religious disposition, being strict in his attendance at
the services of the Church, and his own deliberations on the different
forms of faith led him to become a stronger Protestant than James.
Kind-heartedness was one of Henry’s characteristics. His pedagogue in
the early Stirling days had been Adam Newton, a man whom the Prince
always held in the highest esteem. Newton continued to discharge
the duties of tutor after the Royal Family had migrated to England,
but, like William Dunbar at the Court of James IV., he longed to be
presented to an ecclesiastical benefice. In January, 1606, His Royal
Highness sent a letter to the King, reminding him of his promise to
give preferment to the tutor, and stating that for two years past
Master Newton had been looking for the Deanery of Durham. James
complied with his son’s request, and in September the faithful tutor
was rewarded with the coveted position.[65]
Steadfast attachment to his early friends was a feature of Henry’s
character. When an infant in Stirling Castle, he had been lovingly
cared for by David Murray the attendant who slept in his chamber. The
trusty Scot followed his young master to England and the friendship
between them grew closer as the Prince advanced in years, till at last,
when the fatal fever had rendered him almost speechless, he called out
repeatedly for David. When Murray approached the bed the dying youth
recognised his life-long companion, but sighed as he muttered again and
again “I would say somewhat but I cannot utter it.”[66]
According to the French ambassador, de la Boderie, Henry spent less
time in study than in out-of-door exercise and games. “None of his
pleasures,” says the Ambassador, writing when the boy was little more
than twelve, “savour the least of a child. He is a particular lover of
horses and what belongs to them; but is not fond of hunting; and when
he goes to it, it is rather for the pleasure of galloping, than that
which the dogs give him. He plays willingly enough at Tennis, and at
another Scots diversion [golf] very like mall; but this always with
persons elder than himself, as if he despised those of his own age. He
studies two hours a day, and employs the rest of his time in tossing
the pike, or leaping, or shooting with the bow, or throwing the bar,
or vaulting or some other exercise of that kind; and he is never idle.
He shows himself likewise very good natured to his dependants, and
supports their interests against any persons whatever; and pushes what
he undertakes for them or others, with such zeal, as gives success to
it.”[67]
The Frenchman was probably wrong in supposing that the Prince played
golf with persons older than himself because he despised those of his
own age. The likelihood is that, as golf was introduced into England by
Scotsmen who went south with James, only amongst his father’s northern
courtiers would Henry be able to find opponents and partners for
his game. An anecdote of the Prince regarding golf is told by Strutt
in _The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England_. “At another
time playing at goff, a play not unlike to pale-maille, whilst his
schoolmaster stood talking with another, and marked not his highness
warning him to stand farther off, the prince thinking he had gone
aside, lifted up his goff-club to strike the ball; mean tyme one
standing by said to him, ‘beware that you hit not master Newton’:
wherewith he drawing back his hand, said, ‘Had I done so, I had but
paid my debts.’” Henry’s remark seems to infer that good Master Newton
had not spared the rod in the course of his tutorial duties, just as
George Buchanan, a generation earlier, did not shrink from chastising
the Prince’s father in the schoolroom at Stirling Castle.
The departure of Prince Henry for the south, after his father had come
to his new inheritance, marks the end of the history of Stirling Castle
as a regular dwelling-place of royalty. The ancient seat of monarchy
was seldom occupied by princes after James had made his progress to
London; but from time to time distinguished persons were lodged in the
forsaken pile, albeit their stay within the fortress was not of their
own seeking. In November, 1604, John, fifth Earl of Cassillis, was
brought as a prisoner to Stirling from Blackness, his offence being
that in the course of a dispute with his wife he attacked her in the
presence of the Privy Council and dragged her out of the chamber. As
the nobleman soon repented of his deed and sent a letter expressing his
contrition to the Council, he was released from the castle at the end
of the year, but was forbidden to pass further east than Linlithgow.[68]
In the following year Stirling Castle received as prisoners men of
lowlier rank but of loftier spirit than Cassillis. These were several
Presbyterian ministers, who, with others that were warded in Blackness,
had attended the Assembly at Aberdeen in 1605, although the Privy
Council, at James’s instigation had forbidden all persons to appear
at such a meeting. For about one year the disobedient clergymen were
detained in the castle by the King.[69]
James at this time was inclined for little toleration towards either
Presbyterians or Roman Catholics. In 1608, George, first Marquis of
Huntly, was warded in Stirling Castle for refusing to abjure the Romish
religion, and for alleged disloyalty, while for the same reasons the
Popish Earl of Erroll was placed in confinement in Edinburgh.[70]
After enduring imprisonment for many months, Huntly and Erroll wrote
to their sovereign vainly beseeching him to grant them liberty, “for
the King (as the treuth was) thought that he could not preserue the
publicke peace better, then be keiping thesse birdes of prey so caidget
wpe.”[71] In the beginning of 1610, however, the Marquis was released
on the understanding that henceforward he should embrace the Protestant
faith.
Just about the time of Huntly’s discharge the Earl of Mar, in his
capacity of Sheriff of Stirlingshire, placed in the Palace at Stirling
Castle a man named John Murray, who was charged with murder or
manslaughter. The delinquent should have been lodged in the Tolbooth
of the town, but the magistrates, “being movid with some foolishe
consait,” as Mar complained to the Privy Council, refused to concern
themselves with the Sheriff’s prisoners, and so he was obliged to turn
the King’s Palace into a common gaol. However, the Lords of Council
listened to the Earl’s petition and ordered the Stirling magistrates to
receive in future such persons as he should apprehend.[72]
[Illustration: THE CHAPEL ROYAL.]
James was once again to reside in the home of his early days. Before
leaving Scotland he had promised his people that he would return to
his native land every three years; but only once in the course of his
English reign did he pass within the borders of his northern kingdom.
The summer of 1617 was the season chosen for the visit. Edinburgh,
Dundee, St. Andrews and Glasgow were honoured by the presence of the
King, and the inhabitants of Stirling had twice an opportunity of
according welcome to their sovereign. The early days of July were spent
by James in the familiar castle, and again towards the end of the month
he came to reside in the Palace.
It was at the time of this, his last, visit to the castle that he heard
the Regents of Edinburgh College discourse on the various branches of
philosophy. A rumour had gone abroad that James intended to suppress
the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, leaving the more ancient
St. Andrews and Glasgow to be the Oxford and Cambridge of Scotland.[73]
The Regents had desired to address the King at Edinburgh, but as no
opportunity was given to them in the capital they made the journey to
Stirling, hoping, doubtless, to impress him with their erudition and to
justify the existence of their college. The scene of the disputation
was the Chapel of the castle, where, on the evening of the 19th of
July, a number of Scottish and English lords assembled with the King.
Speeches were delivered in Latin and Greek, the pronunciations of the
ancient tongues being after the Scottish mode, so that James took
occasion to call the Englishmen’s attention to the superior grace which
the languages acquired when spoken in the manner prevalent north of the
Tweed.
The King was highly pleased with the discussion, and after supper he
summoned the Principal and Regents. The fears of the Professors as to
the future of their seat of learning were dispelled at this evening
interview, for James graciously offered himself as Patron of their
institution, giving it the name of King James’s College, and granting
permission for the placing of his coat-of-arms on the gate of the
humble building.
[Illustration: STIRLING CASTLE.
From Engraving by Robert Sayer, 1753.]
James’s two brief sojourns at Stirling gave the inhabitants a taste of
the glory that had formerly belonged to their town, while his residence
in the castle after an absence of fourteen years must have brought
again to his own mind a throng of gay and gloomy memories. The Park
recalled the summer hours spent in his favourite pastime of hunting;
the Keep reminded him of weary tasks and the rigid discipline of George
Buchanan; the Chapel, where he listened to the Edinburgh Regents,
had been the scene of his eldest child’s baptism--that promising
son who did not live to see again the place of his birth and early
training. Young Mar’s revolution and the second Raid of Stirling were
events of too stirring a kind to be forgotten, and the King doubtless
felt as he recalled his early reign that although his responsibilities
had increased with his accession to the English throne, his life and
liberty were less at his subjects’ mercy than in the days when he
reigned over Scotland alone.