Mary Stuart, queen of Scots

Part First

There are some names which, when borne by those of royal blood, seemed predestined to misfortune. In France the name of Henri is ill-omened. Henri I. was poisoned, Henri H. was killed in a tournament, Henri HI. and Henri IV. were assassinated, and God alone knows what fate has in reserve for Henri V., on whom misfortune has already laid a heavy hand.

In Scotland the name of Stuart is regarded as a synonym for sorrow and calamity. Robert I., founder of the race, died of a decline at twentyeight. Robert II., happiest of the family, spent part of his life in retirement and darkness, being afflicted with an inflammation of the eyes which kept them constantly suffused with blood. Robert

III. sank under the poignant sorrow caused by the loss of one of his sons and the captivity of the other. James I. was murdered, James II. was killed at the siege of Roxburgh by the explosion of a cannon, James III. was assassinated by an unknown person in a mill where he had taken refuge after the battle of Saucheburn. James IV., wounded by two arrows and a blow from a halberd, perished on Flodden Field. James V. died of grief over the loss of his sons and remorse at having caused the execution of Patrick Hamilton. James VI., who wore the double crown of Scotland and England, dragged out a sickly, timorous existence between the scaffolds of his unhappy mother, Mary Stuart, and of his unfortunate son, Charles I. Charles II. spent part of his life in exile, and James II. died there. The Chevalier Saint George, having been proclaimed rightful king of England, Scotland, and Ireland by Louis IV., made an effort to regain his lost kingdom, but was obliged to flee from Great Britain ere he had struck a single blow. His son Charles Edward also attempted to regain the throne, but was defeated at Culloden, and forced to flee for his life with a high price on his head; he was hunted from mountain to mountain.

from rock to rock, until at last, after many romantic adventures, he succeeded in escaping to a French vessel and reached the Continent; he finally went to Florence, where he died at the age of sixty-eight, without being recognized as a sovereign by the European powers. Lastly, Henry Benedict, brother of Charles Edward, and the last descendant of the house of Stuart, lived upon a pension of three thousand pounds sterling from the English crown and died in obscurity in 1807, bequeathing to the house of Hanover, as a tardy but complete acknowledgment of the legitimacy of the family which had supplanted his own, the crown jewels which James II. had carried to the Continent when he was expelled from the throne.

Of all this unfortunate race, Mary Stuart was the most unhappy. Brantome, who knew her at one of the saddest periods of her life, when she was leaving France, said that "those who desire to write of the illustrious Queen of Scotland have two fruitful subjects upon which to discourse — her life and her death."

On the 9th of August, 1561, after the deaths of her husband and mother, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland and Queen Dowager of France, left

4 MAI^y STUART,

Paris to return to her own rough and turbulent country. She was accompanied upon her journey to Calais by her uncles, the Cardinals of Guise and Lorraine, the Due and Duchesse de Guise, the Due d' Aumale, M. de Nemours, and a large suite, among whom were MM. d'Elboeuf, Damville,- Brantome, and Chatelard. The young Queen tarried a week at Calais, but at last, after a sorrowful parting from her family, she embarked upon the 15th of August on a galley commanded by M. de Mevillon and set sail for Scotland. Mary Stuart was then just nineteen and in the full flower of her beauty, a beauty so marvellous that few were able to resist its charms and many became its victims.

As the royal galley was leaving the harbor, the Queen heard wild shrieks and cries for aid, and rushing forward, she beheld a vessel under full sail, which, through the ignorance of its pilot, had struck upon a rock in such fashion as to be almost cut in twain, and was rapidly sinking. Pale and dumb with horror, she watched the vessel founder, while its unhappy crew made desperate efforts to save themselves by climbing up the shrouds and onto the yards, anxious to prolong their lives by even a few instants. The appalling spectacle lasted but a few moments; then hull, masts, yards, and all were engulfed in the sea's yawning maw. A black speck appeared here and there upon the surface of the sea, but one by one they vanished, and as the last man disappeared beneath the waves the Queen sank trembling and weeping into the arms of her attendants, crying : " Oh, my God ! what an omen for such a voyage !'* When she had recovered somewhat, she seated herself on deck and remained looking back at the slowly receding shores of the country she loved, weeping and murmuring : " Farewell, France ! Farewell !"

At evening the sorrowful Queen was still lamenting and striving to pierce the gathering gloom, but little by little all objects became obscure;' and she finally yielded to the solicitations of her ladies and went down to supper; as she reached the companionway she turned and said: " Now, beloved France, I do indeed lose thee, for cruel night heaps mourning on mourning and blinds me with a black veil. Farewell, dear land ! Alas, I shall never see thee again !" She then observed that she was the opposite of Dido, who,

6 MA/^Y STUART,

after ^Eneas' departure, did naught but gaze on the sea, whereas she could not take her eyes from the land.

During supper her ladies and gentlemen did their utmost to console her and distract her thoughts, but it was all in vain ; the poor Queen could not forget her grief nor banish a presentiment of coming trouble. Tears blinded and sobs choked her, and, unable to respond to her companions' friendly endeavors, she soon left the table; after ordering a bed prepared for her in the after-cabin, she summoned the helmsman and commanded him to waken her at daybreak if the coast of France was still visible. Fortune favored her, for the wind died away and at dawn the ship was still in sight of France. Faithful to his orders, the helmsman awakened the Queen, and from the open port-hole she once more looked upon the land of her affection ; but toward five o'clock the wind freshened, the ship gathered headway, and the last faint headlands disapppeared below the horizon. Then Mary, pale as death, fell back upon her pillow, crying again : " Farewell, France ! Farewell, land of my happy days. I have looked upon thee for the last time."

It was in truth in the country which it so grieved her to leave that Mary Stuart spent the only happy years of her life. Born near the bedside of her dying father, in a gloomy and critical time for royalty in Scotland, the shadow which fell upon her cradle darkened her entire life, and the years she passed in France were her only bright ones. From birth she was calumniated, for it was current that she was deformed and could not live. Angry at this malicious report and determined to crush it, Mary de Guise one day undressed the infant princess and showed her naked to the English ambassador, who had asked her hand on behalf of King Henry VIII. for the Prince of Wales, who was himself but five years old. Crowned at the age of nine months by Cardinal Beaton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, she was immediately afterwards secluded in Sterling Castle, where she was carefully guarded by her mother, who feared treachery on the part of the English king. Two years later, not thinking Sterling a secure retreat, the regent removed the royal child to an island in Lake Menteith, where an isolated monastery sheltered her and four little girls who were born in the same year as herself, and like her bore the sweet name of Mary, which in French (Marie) forms the anagram of the verb to love {aimer). These maidens were known as the " Queen's Marys," and were destined to be her companions through good and evil fortune. They were Mary Beaton, Mary Seaton, Mary Fleming, and Mary Livingston. In this secluded and lonely spot the little Queen resided, until, the Scottish Parliament having approved her marriage with the Dauphin, she was taken to Dumbarton Castle to await a propitious moment for her journey to France, and it was there that she was confided to the care of M. de Breze, who had been sent by Henri II. to escort her to Paris.

The ship which bore the little Queen and her maids to France bore also three of James V.'s natural sons, and among them the Prior of St. Andrews, James Stuart, who was destined to abjure the faith of his race, and under the titles of Earl of Murray and Regent of Scotland to bring misery and death upon his sister and rightful sovereign. Although hotly pursued by the English fleet, the vessel which carried the royal bride succeeded in reaching Brest on the 15th of August, 1548. From Brest Mary went to St. Germain-en-

Laye, where Henri II., who had just ascended the throne, welcomed her affectionately, showered gifts and caresses upon her, and then sent her to a convent where daughters of the noblest houses of France received their education. There Mary's mind developed rapidly; born with a woman's heart and a man's intellect, she acquired with marvellous ease not only the accomplishments which then constituted the principal education of a princess, but also the exact sciences which supposedly fell only within the province of learned doctors. At the age of fourteen she delivered a Latin discourse of her own composition before Henri II., Catherine de Medicis, and the assembled court, in which she maintained that women should receive a liberal education in the sciences and literature, and that it was unjust and tyrannical to restrict them to elementary studies and accomplishments. One can readily understand that a future queen who upheld such advanced opinions was enthusiastically received by the most literary and pedantic court of Europe. Between the literature of Rabelais and Marot, which was on the wane, and that of Ronsard and Montaigne, which had almost reached its apogee, Mary became the queen of poetry, and she would have been quite content to wear no other crown than that of flowers, which Ronsard, Debellay, Maison-Fleur, and Brantome daily placed upon her fair young head; but alas, fate willed otherwise, and in the midst of the fetes whose object was the resuscitation of chivalry came that fatal joust at Les Tournelles. Henri II., wounded in the eye by a lance, was prematurely laid beside his ancestors, and Mary Stuart ascended the throne of France. A year later she mourned her mother, and ere her tears were dry she was called upon to lament the loss of her royal spouse.

" She was then," says Brantome, "most beautiful to behold ; the pure white of her skin struggled for supremacy with the whiteness of her veil, and the latter, being man's handiwork, was forced to yield the palm to the snowy pallor of her cheeks. I never saw her otherwise than pale," he continues, " during all the time that I had the honor to make one of her suite, first in France and later in Scotland, whither she was forced to go to pacify her kingdom, which was torn by religious strife. Poor lady, she had no desire to go thither, and I often heard her say that she dreaded the journey like death itself ; she would far have preferred remain-

QUEEN OF SCOTS. il

ing in France as a simple queen dowager with Touraine and Poitou for her dowry, but Messieurs her uncles advised her going to rule over her savage country and even urged her to do so. Alas ! afterward they bitterly repented their inconsistency."

As we have seen, Mary followed her uncles' advice, and her voyage began under such melancholy auspices that when she lost sight of France she thought to die of grief, and it was then that these well-known lines were penned:

This part of herself which she left in France was the body of the young king, who carried all her happiness with him to the tomb.

Mary's last hope was that her little squadron might sight the English fleet and be compelled to return, but a fog of extraordinary density for the season enveloped the Channel from early Sunday morning until eight o'clock on Monday, and enabled the little fleet to elude the English cruisers. When the fog lifted, Captain de Mevillon, who had steered blindly, discovered that he was in the midst of such a wilderness of reefs that one or more of his vessels must have perished had the fog endured a few moments longer; recognizing that portion of the Scottish coast of which he was abreast, he steered his vessels through the reefs with great ability and piloted his ships safely into the port of Leith. No preparations had been made for the Queen's reception, but on learning of her arrival the dignitaries of the town hastened to welcome and pay her homage and to make arrangement for the continuance of her journey to Edinburgh. When the Queen saw the miserable beast with its shabby saddle which was to be her mount, the half-starved donkeys which were to bear her suite, and the rough men who formed the escort, she could not restrain her tears; visions of the beautiful palfreys with splendid housings, the richly garbed cavaliers mounted on superb steeds, and the well-equipped escorts of France passed before her swimming eyes. On the day she landed the poverty of her kingdom was revealed, and on the following she beheld its ferocity.

After a sleepless night at Holyrood, during which, Brantome tells us, five or six hundred of Edinburgh's roughest inhabitants surrounded the castle and serenaded the Queen with an orchestra of wretched violins and rebecs, Mary desired to hear mass and repaired to the royal chapel. Unfortunately, the majority of the city's population was of the reformed religion, and, enraged that the Queen should inaugurate her reign by this proof of loyalty to Catholicism, they forced their way into the church, armed with knives, stones, and clubs, and avowed their intentions of murdering the poor priest who was her chaplain. A scene of indescribable tumult ensued; the frightened priest fled from the altar and took refuge behind her Majesty, around whom the four Marys gathered in fear and trembling, while the Queen's brother, the Prior of St. Andrews, who, like many ecclesiastics of the time, was a better soldier than priest, seized a sword and, placing himself between Mary and the mob, swore that he would kill the first man who advanced another

14 MAI^Y STUART,

step. The Prior's courage and firmness combined with the Queen's dignified and dauntless demeanor cooled the Reformers' zeal, and they gradually retreated.

As has already been stated, Mary Stuart returned to her kingdom when the religious controversy between the Church of Rome and the Calvinists was at its height. A zealous Catholic, like all her mother's family, her presence in Scotland caused great anxiety to the Protestants, and a rumor spread that instead of disembarking at Leith, as she had been obliged to do because of the fog, she was to have landed at Aberdeen and to have met the Earl of Huntley — one of the peers who had remained faithful to the Catholic Church, and who, after the Hamiltons, was the most powerful ally of the house of Stuart. It was said that, backed by the Earl and twenty thousand men from the Highlands, the Queen intended to march upon Edinburgh and forcibly establish a Catholic faith throughout Scotland; events, however, soon demonstrated the falsity of this report.

Mary was exceedingly fond of James Stuart, Prior of St. Andrews, who was the natural son of her father, James V., by a descendant of the house of Mar. This lady, despite her well-known liaison with the King and the son which she had borne him, had married Lord Douglas of Lochleven, by whom she had two other sons, William and George Douglas, who were, therefore, the Prior's halfbrothers. Mary was scarcely seated upon the throne of Scotland before she bestowed upon the Prior the Earldoms of Mar and Murray, the former title being that of his maternal ancestors and the latter having been extinct since the death of the famous Thomas Randolph.

Unluckily, James Stuart was not a man to rest content with barren honors. Having the titles, he coveted the lands pertaining to them, which had reverted to the crown when the male succession of the ancient earls became extinct, and which had, little by little, been appropriated by the powerful nobles upon whose estates they bordered. The Earl of Huntley had seized upon much of this crown property, and Mary, realizing that he would opppose the bestowal of it upon her brother, determined to see the Earl herself. Under pretext of visiting her possessions in the north, she journeyed thither escorted by a small army commanded by the newly created Earl of Mar and l6 MAEY STUART,

Murray. The Earl of Huntley was not deceived by the apparent reason for this expedition, as his son, John Gordon, had just been sentenced to a term of imprisonment for some trivial abuse of authority; nevertheless, he showed all respect to the Queen, sending messengers to invite her to rest at his castle and hastening in person to meet her and place his house at her disposition. Unhappily, Mary reached Inverness before the Earl, and the governor, who was one of his retainers, refused her entrance to the castle, although it was a royal residence. Murray, convinced that it was useless to temporize with such rebellious subjects, ordered the governor's execution, and he was beheaded for high treason on the day previous to Huntley's arrival.

This display of firmness convinced the Earl that the young Queen did not intend her nobles to exercise the almost sovereign rights which her father had permitted them to arrogate, and, learning that his son had escaped from prison and placed himself at the head of his vassals, he feared that he would be suspected of being privy to the act — as doubtless he was — and despite the kindly reception which Mary accorded him he secretly departed from Inverness and hastened to the command of his soldiers, determined, as her Majesty's escort numbered only six or seven thousand men, to risk a battle. He claimed, however, as Buccleuch did when he attempted to wrest James V. from the hands of the Douglas, that he did not war against the Queen but against the Regent, who influenced her unduly and frustrated all her good intentions.

Murray, knowing that a peaceful reign depends greatly upon the firmness displayed at its inception, immediately convoked all the neighboring nobles to take the field against the insurgents, and as the house of Gordon was already too powerful all responded to his summons. It soon became apparent, however, that although the lesser nobles hated and feared Huntley, they entertained no great affection for the Queen, that they had not come to her assistance through loyalty, and that their future attitude would depend solely upon circumstances.

The armies met near Aberdeen. Murray stationed the troops which he had brought from Edinburgh, upon whose loyalty he could depend, on the summit of a hill, and disposed his northern allies en echelon along its slope. Huntley advanced l8 MARY STUART, -

resolutely and attacked his neighbors, who, after a brief resistance, retreated in disorder, whereupon the Earl's followers threw away their lances and crying, "A Gordon! A Gordon!" pursued the fugitives up the hill. Suddenly they came upon Murray's troops, who stood their charge like an iron wall, and who, armed with long lances, had a terrible advantage over the clansmen whose only weapon was the claymore. Huntley's men were forced to retreat, seeing which the nobles rallied their clans and reinforced the Queen's troops ; this movement decided the victory; the clans rushed down the hillside like a furious torrent, carrying everything before them, and Murray, seeing that the decisive moment had come, gave the order to charge, and, sweeping down the hill with all his cavalry, turned defeat into' rout. The Earl of Huntley, who was very stout and clad in heavy armor, fell from his charger and was trampled to death by the Queen's horsemen. John Gordon was taken prisoner and three days later was beheaded at Aberdeen, and the Earl's youngest son, who was a mere lad, was cast into a prison, which he left upon his sixteenth birthday, only to go to the scaffold.

Mary had accompanied her troops and witnessed the battle, and her calm and courageous demeanor made a deep impression upon her savage defenders, who, during the march, heard her say repeatedly that she wished she were a man to pass her days in the saddle, her nights under a tent, and wear a coat of mail and a sword at her side.

She re-entered Edinburgh amidst general rejoicing, her expedition against the Earl of Huntley having met with popular favor ; the motives which had actuated the Queen were but little understood, but the mass of the population were Calvinists and the Earl was a Catholic. His death, therefore, meant an enemy the less, and that sufficed to render the Queen the idol of the hour. In their enthusiasm her subjects expressed the wish that the Queen, who had no child by Francois H., should marry again. Mary consented, and, yielding to the prudent council of those who surrounded her, resolved to consult Elizabeth regarding the choice of a husband; for, being Henry VH.'s granddaughter, she was next in succession to the English throne if Elizabeth died without issue. Unfortunately, she had not always been so circumspect, for on the death of Mary Tudor she had claimed the English throne, basing her rights upon Elizabeth's illegitimacy, and she and the Dauphin had assumed the titles of King and Queen of Scotland, England, and Ireland, had had money bearing these titles coined, and the armorial bearings of those countries engraved upon their plate. Elizabeth was at this period in her twenty-eighth year — just nine years Mary's senior — so that they were not only rivals as queens but as women. Elizabeth was the superior in point of education and possessed a perspicacity and strength of purpose which the Scottish Queen lacked, but she had neither Mary's beauty and wit nor her gracious and captivating manner. Elizabeth was majestic in her bearing and agreeable to look upon; her eyes were keen and bright, and her complexion dazzling, but her hair was coarse and of a fiery red, and she had large hands and feet.* Mary, on the other hand, possessed an exquisitely fair skin, beautiful chestnut hair, and a noble forehead ; her

* Elizabeth presented a pair of her shoes to the University of Oxford; their size would indicate that they were made for a man of medium height.

Many historians have asserted that Mary Stuart's hair was black, but Brantome, who was of her suite in France and accompanied her to Scotland, and must therefore often have seen it, says that it was chestnut.

eyebrows were so perfectly arched that she was sometimes accused of pencilling them, and a glance of her eyes was the most potent of love-philters ; her nose was moulded upon the purest Greek model ; her mouth was so rosy and smiling that it seemed formed only to murmur words of love, as a flower blooms only to emit its perfume. Her neck was white and graceful, her hands and feet perfectly formed, and her figure that of a goddess ; in short she was an almost perfect specimen of feminine loveliness, with which the most critical could find little fault. Mary's beauty was her greatest crime; had there been a single blemish in her face or form she would never have perished on the scaffold.

The cousins had never met, so Elizabeth could only judge by hearsay of Mary's loveliness and accomplishments, but the stories she heard caused her great uneasiness and gave birth to an intense jealousy, which she could not dissemble and which she continually displayed in peevish questions and testy remarks. One day, while talking informally with James Melvil concerning the object of his mission to her court, namely, the selection of a consort for the Queen of Scots^ she showed him the portrait of the Earl of Leicester, and, as that nobleman was the suitor whom she favored, Melvil asked for the picture that he might show it to his royal mistress. Elizabeth refused, saying it was the only one she possessed, and then showed the ambassador a portrait of Mary Stuart herself, asking if it was a good likeness, and expressed warm friendship for her and a great desire to see her.

" It is a simple matter for you to see my mistress, madam," said Sir James; "you have only to feign illness, order your chamber closely guarded, and leave incognito for Scotland, as James V. did for France, when he wished to see Madeline de Valois."

" I should like to do so," answered Elizabeth, "but the thing is not so simple as you think. Tell your Queen, however, that I love her tenderly, and that I hope we shall be better friends in the future." Then, broaching the subject which lay nearest her heart, she said : " Come, Melvil, tell me frankly, is my sister of Scotland as beautiful as they say?"

" She is considered very handsome," responded Melvil, "but I can give your Majesty no idea of her beauty, having no point of comparison,"

" I will give you one," exclaimed Elizabeth ; " is she more beautiful than I ?"

"Madam," returned Melvil, "you are the most beautiful woman in England, and my queen the loveliest in Scotland."

"Which of us is the taller?" persisted Elizabeth, dissatisfied with the ambassador's diplomatic reply.

" I am forced to admit, madam," he answered, " that it is my mistress."

" Then she is too tall," exclaimed Elizabeth pettishly, " for I am as tall as any woman ought to be ! What are her favorite amusements ?" she continued.

" Her Majesty is fond of hunting, riding, and playing the lute and harpsichord."

" Does she play the latter well ?" asked Elizabeth.

" Yes, your Highness, very well — for a queen."

The conversation stopped there, but, as Elizabeth was a fine musician, she instructed Lord Hudson to bring Melvil into her apartments when she was at her harpsichord, that he might hear her play without mistrusting that the performance was for his benefit. Lord Hudson accordingly escorted the

Scotch ambassador into a gallery which was separated from the queen's private apartments only by tapestry hangings, and, having drawn them aside, Melvil listened at his leisure to her brilliant performance. On rising from the instrument Elizabeth was apparently greatly surprised to find she had an auditor in Melvil, and feigning great anger she berated Lord Hudson roundly, even threatening to strike him ; but her indignation gradually yielded to the Scotchman's neatly turned compliments, and was completely appeased when he admitted that she played far better than the Queen of Scotland.

Not satisfied with this triumph, Elizabeth desired that Lord Melvil should see her dance and have an opportunity of comparing her grace of carriage with his queen's; she therefore delayed the signing of her dispatches for two days in order that the ambassador should be present at a magnificent ball that she gave. These dispatches which Melvil bore to Scotland set forth Elizabeth's desire for Mary Stuart's union with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Such a proposition could not seriously be considered, for the Earl's attainments were but mediocre, and his birth too humble to render him a suitable husband for the house of Stuart. Mary therefore responded that such an alliance was unfitting the Queen of Scotland.

Out of the English Queen's attempt to belittle her cousin by leading her into an unsuitable marriage there grew a strange and tragic story. Among the nobles who had followed Mary Stuart to Scotland was a young gentleman named Chastelard, who was a perfect type of the nobility of the day. Of gentle birth, for he was a nephew of Chevalier Bayard, accustomed to the best society of Europe by virtue of his lineage and his position in the household of Marechal Damville ; handsome in person, cultivated in mind, a poet and knight errant,' he possessed every attribute for the winning of a woman's heart. Thanks to his position with the Marechal, Chastelard had ample opportunity to pay court to Mary Stuart during her residence in France, and he soon lost his heart to the beautiful, amiable princess, who, on her side, saw nothing more in his gallant speeches and the passionate verses he addressed to her than the poetic and sentimental declarations commonly addressed to ladies at that epoch. It so chanced that at the moment when Chastelard's infatuation for the

26 MAJ^V STUART,

Queen was at its height she was obliged to go to Scotland, and that Marechal Damville, who had been encouraged by Mary's gracious demeanor to enter the lists as a candidate for the succession to Francois II., and who was unaware of Chastelard's passion, determined to follow the unhappy lady into exile, and took the poet with him to Edinburgh. Little thinking that Chastelard too loved the Queen, he made him his confidant, and when obliged to return to France left the young man at Holyrood to watch over his interests.