History Of Scotland Vol. 2 - Part 17

( Originally Published 1909 )

King James's Claim of Succession to the English Crown—Is agreeable to both Countries—And why the Prospect of a masculine Reign was acceptable—James's personal Character favorably estimated—More extensive national Views arise out of the Union of the Crowns—The Catholics of England are favorable to James—Mysterious Intercourse between James's Secretary, Balmerino, and the Pope—Claims of Spain, of France, and Lady Arabella Stewart, are postponed to those of the King of Scot-land, even by the Catholics—He maintains a Scottish Faction at the Court of Elizabeth—The Queen's Failings become more visible in age—Chivalrous Character of Essex, her Favorite—He is at the Head of the Swordsmen in her Court—Robert Cecil at the Head of an opposite Faction, consisting chiefly of Civilians —He shuns connecting himself with James, but refuses to enter into any other Interest—The Quarrel with Essex--Essex's Miscarriage in Ireland--He is disgraced—Enters into a rash Insurrection—Fails—Is made Prisoner, tried, condemned, and executed—Anecdote of Lady Nottingham—The Earl of Mar and Bruce of Kinloss sent by James to London with private Instructions to advance his Interest—The Earl of Northumberland and the Catholics propose violent Measures, which James declines—Cecil joins his Party, but with much Precaution—His Intercourse with Scotland is nearly detected—Opponents of James's Claim few and disunited—Scotland exhibits a tranquil Appearance—The Queen discovers the Fraud of the Countess of Nottingham, and falls into a mortal Malady—Dies—Carey bears the News to Scotland, which is confirmed by authentic Intelligence—James takes Leave of his ancient Subjects, and sets out for England—Meets the Funeral of Lord Seton—One Gentleman attends the King's Progress—His Reason—James is received in Berwick triumphantly; and the HISTORY OF SCOTLAND VOL. 2 concludes

A MOST critical period for Britain was now approaching, not only on account of James's personal interest but in a much more extended view. Both parts of the island, which, after so long a separation, if indeed they could ever be said to have formed the same country, were now advancing to that happy state which was destined to put the whole island under the government of a single monarch. Providence had by a singular course of events removed the objections upon either side, which, at an earlier period, bade fair to impede forever this happy consummation.

The national pride of each country found in the prospect of the union of the crowns something to soothe its vanity. The English people had now for many years preserved a degree of political ascendency in Scotland, which removed the feelings of former rivalry. No renewal of the fierce and bloody contests between the two nations had, since the battle of Pinkie, and the subsequent war, exasperated the feelings of the English against the Scots. Those wars which had taken place during the reign of Mary, or shortly after her deposition, had been waged by the cooperation of the English farces with the Scots of the king's party, and had been uniformly successful; so that the personal recollections of the existing generation were of a description flattering to the prejudices of the more powerful nation, which had been engaged rather as an auxiliary than as a principal in such contests as had taken place. Since James had been in undisputed possession of the Scottish throne the actions which had occurred were generally mere border brawls, unpremeditated on either side, and which, though evincing to England that the Scottish spirit was unbroken, and their courage the same as their own, had upon each occasion been disowned by the Scottish government; the head of which, King James, had shown that, so far from being desirous to take exceptions, he was even anxious to concede more than could have been in justice demanded. It might be reasoning too finely to say that it was even happy that in these petty affairs, such as the battle of the Reedsquair, or the Raid. of Carlisle, the advantage lying on the side of the Scots, gratified the pride of a nation peculiarly sensible to military fame, while the concessions made to England by the Scottish government argued an admission of the superior force of England. Each nation, therefore, retained a flattering sense of its own power. The Scots felt themselves in possession of the same determination and prowess which they had exercised in former days, while the English regarded with like complacency the unusual disposition of the Scots to remedy by excuses and concessions any casual breach of truce, paying thus a tribute to the national superiority of their neighbors in wealth, discipline, and numbers.

A contest, however long and inveterate, is at no period so likely to be brought to an amicable adjustment as when both parties are satisfied that they have maintained bravely their part of the quarrel, while each, at the same time, feels respect for the courage and force of their enemy.

The manner in which the mutual union was likely to be formed had also points in it agreeable to the feelings of both nations. If James, on the decease cf Elizabeth, should succeed to her vacant throne, the Scottish nation must needs entertain a feeling of triumph for having on their part given a king of their ancient royal stock to the nation who, during so many centuries, had proposed to themselves to place over them an alien and a conqueror. The feelings of the English were also of a conciliatory nature, since, if they should accept the government of the Scottish king, it could not, in common sense, be regarded but as an act of their own free choice: James was the natural heir of Henry VII., their own king, who had succeeded to the throne by the unanimous consent of parliament and people. upon the extinction of the long and illustrious race of Plantagenets. It was easily to be understood that he was to reign over them as a natural English prince, fixing his seat of government in London, henceforth to be the metropolis of Britain, governing them by the direction of an English parliament and English laws, and acting in every respect as king of the whole island, but first and especially as monarch of England.

To the loss of their monarch, as a resident among them, the Scots might reconcile themselves, especially those who had some claim to James's favor, by the natural expectation that their prince's power of bestowing benefits upon his servants and countrymen would be more widely extended; and that, when he was himself promoted to a far more opulent and important dominion, they might naturally hope to benefit by the kind recollections which he must be supposed to entertain toward his native land, and the friends to whom he had been attached during his earlier and more limited sway. To this disposition of conciliation on both sides were added, on the part of the English, many hopes and expectations which the character of James, seen from a distance, were not ill qualified to inspire, although it might be that some of them were balanced by defects which were not obvious without closer scrutiny. The advantages possessed by James stood forth in broad light : his defects were thrown into shadow, or, to speak without a simile, he had only had an opportunity of displaying them in a very limited sphere.

The points in favor of the king of Scots, personally, we shall shortly notice.

In succeeding to a long female reign, the accession of a king was in itself desirable. While exhibiting the most brilliant success which could be recorded in history, the reign of Elizabeth was still that of a woman, and was marked in her domestic management with traits of unreasonable severity and arrogance of command, which men endure with more difficulty at the hand of a female, and which they are disposed to think would not be so apt to take place under a masculine ruler. But, in addition to this preference of the male sex in government, there appeared to be in James's personal character many advantageous circumstances upon which his future subjects might reckon with advantage.

He had shown himself in his government of Scotland a merciful and mild prince, ready to forgive injuries, and willing to remember benefits and services. In his personal contest with the Ruthvens he had displayed flashes of courage becoming his high descent ; and upon other occasions, if he had not conducted armies, he had at least marched at their head; and though he might add little to it by his personal efforts, success had usually crowned his endeavors. The fidgeting and paltry instances of irresolution arising from the infirmity of his nerves were little seen, save by those who approached closely to his person; and during the reign of the Chancellor Maitland, and of Home, who succeeded him in favor, the steadiness of the ministers had supported what vacillation might be visible in the character of the prince. The spirit of profusion arising from good nature and indolence to which James was liable was a fault not likely to be discovered while the sovereign, having little revenue and no credit, possessed, in fact, nothing of which to be ostentatiously profuse. His spirit of favoritism, the principal blot of his character, was little seen in his Scottish reign after the fall of Arran; and his relaxing the reigns to that profligate and arrogant minister might, therefore, be well considered as a failing of youth. His learning, though it would in the present day have been qualified as pedantry, approached too near the taste of the times to receive so harsh a denomination. He had composed a work upon the education of his son, termed the Basilicon Doron; in which he argues with considerable ability upon the principles of government, and describes the duties by which a young prince ought to guide his reign. It was read in England with avidity; and the public in general received from the perusal of that work the same favorable sentiments with which Walsingham had been impressed by the conversation of James while yet a youth.

The religion of James was known to be steadily Protestant; and he had even drawn his pen in defence of the reformed religion, with the purpose of proving from the Book of Revelation that the Roman pontiff was the antichrist whose arrival is there denounced.

These various reasons were sufficient to gain the king of Scots a strong interest in England, certain to operate in his favor so soon as the throne should become vacant by the death of Elizabeth.

Enlightened men, and those gifted with powers of reflection, looked far more to the ultimate advantage which Britain must attain by the consolidation of its separate divisions than to the character of the existing king. It was enough on the latter point to know that he was no tyrant, was clement in his nature, inclined to peace and rational government, and likely to prove a good if not a heroic monarch.

But they considered with more interest the immense ad-vantages likely to accrue to the island of Britain from the union of the two countries : they looked to the extensive and fertile countries on either side the border, long existing as a seat of constant war, and inhabited only by clans whose habits approached to those of banditti, and saw the probability of its being converted from a seat of eternal strife and rapine into the centre of a, single kingdom, the habitation of peace and honorable industry. In the chronicles of ancient times they might read, that if England had been often the oppressor and the scourge of her northern neighbors, the vindictive retaliation of Scotland had been not less frequently or deeply felt. They might learn, that if France had been successful in many of her wars with England, it was generally owing to her being-able to interest Scotland in her quarrel, and keep her frontiers open as a gate which the English must either guard at great expense, or expect sudden and dangerous invasion. They might remember, that of the numerous and bloody battles gained over their northern neighbors not one had been followed by a permanent result of conquest and humiliation. They might, therefore, from the most patriotic reasons, hail an event which promised, by a safe and easy remedy, to accomplish the cure of an ulcer which had for so many hundred, nay, thousand years, gnawed into the very vitals of the island.

The persons who may thus be supposed to take more general and enlightened views of the state of the country would not fail to remember the crisis in which Britain stood in the memorable year 1588. If Scotland had then, from a difference in religion or policy, or from national prejudice, favored the efforts of the ambitious Spaniard, he might, without hazarding his invincible armada, have wafted his troops from the Netherlands to the coast of Scotland by a short and easy passage, and laid England under the perilous necessity of contending for English liberty upon English ground. All these reflections could not fail, in the minds of reflecting persons, to give the utmost weight to the title of James, in his claim upon the English succession.

There was in England an oppressed yet powerful faction, to whom many of the reasons influencing other classes in England must rather have operated as disadvantageous in their eyes to the claims of the king of Scots. These were the Catholics of England, energetic in their zeal for religion, and, though sorely oppressed by the laws, still a body that was to be respected and feared. These, however, had their own hopes and expectations, separate, and in some points diametrically opposite, to those of the Protestants. King James, it was true, was a Protestant monarch; but it seemed evident that the bulk of the English nation had united to recognize his claim to the crown, and would unquestionably be still more unanimous in his favor against any Catholic candidate who could be proposed to them. The ambitious Philip had, by his vain pretensions of de-scent from the House of .Lancaster, provoked the anger of the English nation, who bore him little goodwill for his conduct during the short time that he reigned over them by his marriage with Mary. His threats had roused general hatred, his defeat had occasioned that hatred to be changed into contempt. These angry feelings had extended to those of his own persuasion, for a body of Catholics were in arms to resist the armada.

Lastly, the claim of James seemed far preferable to any which could be stated in opposition. The king of France had made some vague pretence to the English crown, and in private had spoken of giving them a second conqueror from Normandy; but his pretensions were not of a kind to be acceptable by the English people. The Lady Arabella Stewart's, hereditary claims were not superior to those of James, and her power of making them good was incalculably less.

James, on the other hand, was likely to unite all votes in his favor, nor did policy recommend to the Catholics to make any general stand against his interest. On the contrary, his claim had, in their eyes, much to recommend it. He was son of that Mary whom, living, they acknowledged as the just heir of England, whose memory, when dead, they reverenced as that of a martyr in the Catholic cause. In consistence, therefore, with their general feelings, they were called upon to avow the right of King James, as lineal successor to the claims of his mother. Although of a different persuasion, strong hopes were entertained among them that he was at heart favorable to the Catholic religion. His con-duct toward the Lords of Huntley, Angus, and Errol, who had embraced the Catholic faith and disturbed his kingdom with civil war, had been remarkably forbearing and merciful; that as his lenity had inflamed against him the resentment of the violent Protestants to a degree certainly unmerited, so in the like proportion it excited unfounded hopes in the minds of the Catholic party both in England and Scotland. That James would have adopted the religion in its present depressed state they did not and could not hope; but that he might and would considerably mitigate the heavy penalties under which they labored, was a point generally expected by the Roman Catholics of both kingdoms.

A singular incident which took place about this time, and which is not, perhaps, fully explained, confirmed the Catholics in their most extravagant hopes of receiving favor at James's hand. A dark story reached Queen Elizabeth, transmitted, as it was believed, by the banished Master of Gray, then residing in Italy, that her kinsman and ally, James, had been in actual correspondence of a friendly character with that pope of Rome whom he himself had endeavored to identify with antichrist. This produced an anxious and irritated remonstrance on the part of Elizabeth, to which James replied by an explicit denial of the fact. Gray, however, had been true in his report, although James was, apparently, no less sincere in his denial. The cause had arisen out of a voluntary but unauthorized measure which Elphinstone, Lord Balmerino, secretary of state to James, had taken in his master's name, but without his authority.

It afterward appeared, by Elphinstone's confession, that he had drawn up a letter from James to Pope Clement VIII., containing various expressions of regard for his holiness, and declaring his intention to treat the Roman Catholics with indulgence. The letter even went so far as to entreat a cardinal's cap for a Scotsman named Drummond, the bishop of Vaizon, in order to facilitate future communications between King James and the Holy See. This paper Elphinstone declared that he had shuffled in among other deeds to be signed, so that King James subscribed it in total ignorance of its contents. The secretary stated himself to have committed this unwarrantable action merely out of zeal for the king's welfare, and in order to secure to him an advantageous interest with the pope and the Catholics, by a mode which he knew his master would not have taken unless he had been deceived into it. This fraud was attended with evil con-sequences both to the king and to the secretary : the latter was tried for high treason and found guilty, but obtained a pardon. The former was accused of having induced Elphinstone to take upon himself the guilt of a measure in which he himself had been participant; and the confession of Elphinstone was looked upon only as an honorable artifice to save the character of the king. Some light might be gathered on the subject, if Drummond's relation to Elphinstone were known. His promotion is warmly recommended; and the Scottish men of that age were wont to go extraordinary lengths in behalf of those whom they called kith, kin, and ally.

Whether accessory to the device of his secretary or not James unquestionably courted the Catholics, and obtained the suffrage of the pope, and of many of the great English families of that persuasion.

Elizabeth, in the meantime, rendered by old age and discontent more irritable than she had yet been, watched the intrigues of James with the most jealous observation; al-though arrived at a period when neither health, spirits, nor the prospect of a much longer continuance in power, or in life, gave her the means of counteracting them.

The case, indeed, was strangely altered between Elizabeth and James. During his earlier reign, the English queen had been the chief means of supporting him upon the throne, and at a later period had alternately contributed to his comfort by increasing his revenue, or to his plague by stirring up intrigues in his court, and protecting the rebels who escaped to her frontiers. But she was now in the wane of human existence, and was doomed to feel those evils of foreign intrigue which she had formerly carried into the councils of Scotland now retaliated upon her own. They were, indeed, carried on by the Scottish monarch with a degree of moderation suited to his views and to his character. He had no purpose whatever of a violent nature, tending to disturb the queen's immediate government, or to shorten the period of a reign which was almost exhausted in the course of nature. His efforts were limited to the very natural object of establishing such an interest in the bosom of the people of England as might induce all parties to be disposed to recognize his right of succession, whenever that right should open by nature. For this purpose he took occasion (using the phrase of the poet) to pro-cure golden opinions from all sorts of men, and the state of the fluctuating parties of the English court were highly favorable to him in acquiring them. Events, which tended to overwhelm with clouds of despondency the setting beams of Queen Elizabeth's illustrious-reign, served to prepare the way for the rise of her successor. These must be shortly noticed.

Through the whole of her reign Queen Elizabeth, preeminent as a sovereign, had never been able to forbear the exertion of her claims as a wit and a beauty. When verging to the extremity of life her mirror presented her with hair too gray and features too withered to reflect even in her own opinion the features of that Fairy Queen, of immortal youth and beauty, in which she had been painted by one of the most beautiful poets of that poetic age. She avenged herself by discontinuing the consultation of her looking-glass, which no longer flattered her principal failing of personal vanity, and exchanged that monitor of the toilet, which cannot flatter, for the more false, favorable, and pleasing, though less accurate, reports of the ladies who attended her. This indulgence of vanity brought, as usual, its own punishment. The young females who waited on the queen turned her pretensions into ridicule; and if the report of the times is true, ventured even to personal ridicule, by misplacing the cosmetics which she used for the repair of her faded charms. In a report, or copy, by Sir Robert Sibbald, of the famous interview between Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden, the former is stated to have mentioned the fact of Queen Elizabeth renouncing the use of the looking-glass; and adds, that the tire-women, confident in their mistress's prejudice against a looking-glass, sometimes ventured to lay upon the royal nose the carmine which ought to have embellished the cheeks.

Yet in this state of old age Elizabeth's attention was still bent on attracting youthful admiration; and by a singular chance the person whom she fixed upon as the male favorite of the period held, in a remarkable degree, in spirit and action, the real character of a hero of chivalry, to which Leicester and Hatton, her former minions, had no other pretence than that of personal beauty, or accomplishment in the most trifling exercises. The former noble, even if we do not incline to credit the reports of enemies, who loaded him with the foulest crimes, was certainly a man of ambition, which he scrupled not to gratify by the most indirect means. Hatton raised himself to be keeper of the great seal principally by his grace in dancing; and neither the one nor the other had qualities, independently of a graceful form and presence, which ought to have attracted the favor of so wise a princess as Elizabeth.

But the Earl of Essex, who filled in her latter days the dubious situation of her favorite, was altogether of a different character. Brave as the bravest paladin of romance, he sought glory wherever it was to be found, and generous as brave, he was beloved by his followers for his frankness, liberality, and benevolence. The men of the sword, as they were then termed, those who had distinguished themselves by their feats in arms, were all strongly attached to his interest, and to his party.

Essex, from a love of justice, mingled, perhaps, with a regard to his own interest, in case of Elizabeth's death, early entered into communication with the king of Scotland, and, with his natural frankness, pledged himself to support James's claim as rightful heir of the English throne, when death should remove from it its benefactress, Elizabeth. But in all her attachments of this nature, however she might show the frailties of a woman, Queen Elizabeth maintained the wisdom of a queen; and while she on one hand lavished benefits, and conferred high power, upon those whom she thus favored, she failed not, upon the other, to maintain an intimate communication with those statesmen whose advice had led to the distinguished glories of her reign. Most of those were now, indeed, deceased; but the wisdom and experience of the celebrated Burleigh still survived in his son Robert Cecil, who headed in the court a party consisting of those who had risen to eminence by their wise conduct in civil affairs, and were, in the phrase of the times, termed gownsmen, in contradistinction to the men of the sword.

Cecil was in person ungraceful, and even deformed; but nature had implanted within a misshaped form a mind of the most profound capacity. It cannot be doubted that he had been deeply imbued with all the knowledge of state affairs which the experience of his father, Lord Burleigh, could teach a mind so peculiarly adapted to receive them. Cecil shunned any connection with the king of Scots, perhaps because he reserved himself to watch an opportunity in which he might charge such intercourse with James against Essex as a crime. which, of all others, Elizabeth would be less likely to pardon. Cecil was followed and looked up to by the numerous party which, bred in the court, expected to rise by talents for civil business; and as the frequent starts of Essex's hasty and ill-governed temper brought him into a transient disgrace with the queen, Cecil, who governed every thought and expression so as best to suit her pleasure, was able to gain a steady and increasing advantage over his less cautious rival. It is also to be remembered that Cecil had not, like Essex, to support the difficult character of the respectful and devoted admirer of a capricious old woman, a character which the generous and open disposition of Essex often rendered it difficult for him to sustain. Thus, without pretending to any share in Elizabeth's affections, Cecil retained possession of a high share of her esteem, as a servant devoted to her interests; and without whom she could not hope to support that character for political sagacity which had raised her government so high in the general estimation of Europe.

But although Cecil did not acknowledge King James's title, he took especial heed not to involve himself with any other pretender to the crown. The king of France caused him to be sounded by an ambassador of great experience, who kindly pointed out to him the troubles to which he might be exposed, if King James's pretensions to the English throne should ever be realized. He represented that all the offences imputed to Lord Burleigh in the matter of Queen Mary were likely to be then remembered upon Sir Robert Cecil as his son, and that his condition could not in that case be either honorable or safe. In such an event he offered the protection of his master. Cecil lent a cold ear to this, replying that he was determined to do his duty in the service of his sovereign, whatever might be the event in a future reign, though, if he saw himself in peril of life, he might flee to another city, and take the advantage of the king of France's protection. The Frenchman answered, with great address, that he entirely agreed with Cecil's principles, and that his master did not intend to interfere with the king of Scotland's interest. Cecil so far waived his scruples as to send James notice of this dialogue, acquainting him, at the same time, that though he did not choose to engage his reputation and his fortune before the fitting time, yet in due season James should command his active services.

Thus stood the contending parties in the court of Elizabeth; herself, probably, little displeased with their disunion, which left her the mediator and arbitress between both. Of all the military men the only eminent person who adhered to Cecil was the celebrated Sir Walter Raleigh. He shone distinguished as a soldier, a statesman, and a man of literature. But moving with too hasty steps toward advancement he had already more than once incurred the displeasure of the queen, to whom his admirable qualities had highly recommended him. He was in a bitter degree the enemy of Essex, both from private and public reasons; of which, perhaps, not the least was that he himself, by Elizabeth's encouragement, made pretension to the kind of favor which Essex enjoyed. They were rivals, therefore, in power, though certainly not in love.

While the parties were thus balanced in the court of England, the ill fate of Essex engaged him in irremediable misfortune. The Irish war had been the plague of Elizabeth's reign; occasioning a perpetual drain of men and money, by the expenditure of which no adequate benefit had been attained. Confident in his own courage and conduct, Essex rashly undertook to terminate that lingering warfare, and obtained from his mistress the almost absolute command of the army engaged against Tyrone, the principal rebel, as he was termed, in that country. His success did not correspond with the hopes he had held out ; and he patched up a convention with the rebel general, whom he was sent to sub-due. To add to the jealousy of a princess so sensitive as Queen Elizabeth where her authority was concerned, Essex, during the celebrated expedition, made knights, and exercised other privileges of royalty, with which the queen was highly offended. The rest of his story is well known : he re-turned hastily to throw himself at the queen's feet, but was coldly received, and commanded for a time to retire to his own house. Commissioners were appointed to try him; and he was suspended from all his offices. Moderation and temper would have in time softened Elizabeth's displeasure; but Essex, having only violent men around him, listened to their rash counsels. He endeavored to spur the king of Scots to an invasion of England, which he promised should be seconded by the Irish army : he then advised him to insist upon a declaration of his right of succession, and assured him of his full support.

The pacific and prudent disposition of James resisted these temptations : he saw that the fruit which he aimed at, when come to maturity, must fall in his lap, and he declined the perilous enterprise of hastening the possession by shaking the tree. Essex, impelled by fate and bad counsellors, rushed into a wild species of rebellion, and was taken prisoner in a frantic attempt to raise an insurrection in the city of London. The queen of England hovered between her deep feelings of resentment as a jealous sovereign, and those of a softer character, which, as a woman, tempted her to spare the favorite, perhaps we may say the beloved, object of her affection. It is well known how a trifle turned the scale between these contending sensations. In the days of Essex's favor Elizabeth had bestowed upon the earl a ring, and desired him, upon any occasion of extremity, to forward it to her as a pledge under which he claimed her protection. The ring claiming her promise never appeared; and the queen regarded this circumstance as a prof of the inflexible and ungrateful obstinacy of her late favorite, who would not claim safety itself at the price of humbling him-self to ask it at his mistress's hands. She was mistaken: the ring had been sent, with a submissive letter, but, by mischance, it was delivered to the Countess of Nottingham, who suppressed both the letter and token. Elizabeth, therefore, gave way, late and reluctantly, to the execution of the sentence, which had been too justly pronounced upon the unfortunate earl. From this time a deep and profound melancholy sunk more fatally upon Elizabeth's constitution, and invaded the springs of life.

It had been part of Essex's plan to assert the right of succession in James's person. The king of Scots was grateful: he despatched two ambassadors, men of sagacity and talent, the Earl of Mar, and Bruce, abbot of Kinloss, to intercede in behalf of the unfortunate criminal. Ere they could reach London, Essex had suffered his doom, so that, with no hopes left of acting in his favor, the ambassadors confined themselves to a general compliment, addressed to the queen, on the suppression of Essex's sudden rebellion. The queen received the Scottish ambassadors well; and was glad to have it in her power to contradict, upon their authority, the rumors, industriously spread, that Essex had been condemned less on account of his rebellion than that he was supposed to be a favorer of the Scottish title of succession, which it was the object of Queen Elizabeth to cut off and destroy. She even listened to them upon a subject which, though often stated in the course of James's negotiations, had not as yet met with any attention on the part of Elizabeth. This respected the succession of James to the English estates of his grandmother Margaret, countess of Lennox, niece of Henry VIII., and mother of the unfortunate Darnley. Even now Elizabeth could not bring her mind to yield to the king of Scots the possession of lands in England, even as private property, but she consented to add two thousand pounds a year to the pension of her god-son, in lieu of his grandmother's estates.

Since 1599, at least, the king of Scotland had maintained James Sempill of Belltrees as a private agent for his affairs in London; in which, though his friends could be but scanty, it appears he did not neglect to distribute secret service money among his partisans. But he must have gained more by future promises than by immediate gifts. Agents of higher rank were now to enter the field.

Mar and Bruce, highly trusted by James, had a species of general commission (guarded by conditions which exacted the strictest prudence), to extend, as widely as possible, and to secure, by every means in their power, his majesty's interest among all the leaders of parties in England, and through the people in general. The tone to be adopted in such negotiations was in general that of the most sincere gratitude and respect, on the part of James, toward Elizabeth; they were to disclaim, on the part of King James, the slightest idea of interfering with or disturbing the government of the queen during her life, while, at the same time, they were to represent him as desirous to secure to himself, on her demise, the fulfilment of hopes which naturally arose out of his lawful right of succession. They were commissioned to say that those who might now contribute toward paving the way for his peaceful succession to the throne of England, upon the death of its present occupant, and those also who might throw obstacles in the way of his just pre-tensions, might reckon securely upon their good or evil will toward him being rewarded accordingly, should he ever reign in that country.

The Scottish ambassadors conducted this delicate negotiation with every attention to secrecy, and with the most consummate dexterity. They opened communications with various parties, each hating the other, and detested in their turn, and united the principal factions among them in the resolution to support the king of Scotland's title. These parties we shall briefly notice.

That of the late unhappy Essex, now without a leader, and thrown back from all hopes of preferment, were naturally soothed and consoled by the assurances which the ambassadors of King James transmitted to them, of the regret he had felt for the death of their chief, and the sense he expressed that the fatal catastrophe had taken place in a hasty attempt to be of service to his claims. The party likely to be affected by these protestations was formidable in its character, including Lord Mountjoy, the principal officers of the Irish army, and most of the distinguished military men in England. It is but justice to say that James kept his promise toward this class of men; and was observed, during his whole reign, to show friendship to the friends of Essex, and a prejudice, to say the least, against the marked enemies of that gallant nobleman.

After these we must mention the Catholics of England, still a numerous and respectable party, though oppressed by penal laws and disqualifications. We have already mentioned that James was recommended to them by birth and character, and by their inclination to hope, upon his accession to the throne, considerable relaxation in the penal code, under which they now suffered. Their hopes on this subject were so high that their disappointments in the succeeding reign are supposed to have given rise to the gunpowder treason. At the period we treat of, these hopes were in full blossom; and the Earl of Northumberland, regarded as chief of the Catholics, a nobleman of a high spirit and romantic character, not only avowed himself a determined asserter of King James's succession, but exhorted him to claim, as a right, the instant acknowledgment of the title of succession even during Elizabeth's life, and boasted, should it be necessary, to bring him in by the sword. James, in his answer to these violent proposals, calmly explained his determination to wait till the road should open through natural means to the English throne. In the meanwhile, he was assured of the whole party of Catholics, so soon as he should desire their aid.

But a far more important accession to James's partisans was that of Cecil himself. This sagacious statesman witnessed with anxious eyes the decay of Queen Elizabeth's health, the extreme probability of James's succession, and the policy of acquiring the favor of the new monarch, and thus sheltering himself from the hatred which, like every prime minister, he was conscious he must have acquired while conducting the administration of his predecessor. He therefore, the master-key of Queen Elizabeth's cabinet, and who possessed the knowledge of its most secret recesses, en-gaged in intimate and secret correspondence with Mar and Bruce, in which he assured them of his devoted attachment to the rights of their master. At the same time, conscious of the delicate ground on which he stood, and that the least circumstance which would lead to discovery might cost him both his offices and his life, he endeavored to impress upon James and upon his ambassadors the absolute necessity of the strictest secrecy to he observed in their communication. The advice, which no one knew so well as Cecil how to give —the opportunities of assistance, which no one could use with such dexterity as this crafty politician could only, he stated, be afforded under the strictest condition of secrecy. Like what is said of favors conferred by the fairy tribe, the disclosure of the source from whence they come would, he was careful to affirm, render those which were received of no value, and totally intercept the means of obtaining others. Lord Henry Howard, a person who had made himself distinguished by a book against pretended prophecies, was much employed by Cecil in the correspondence with the Scottish agents. The letters of this nobleman, and of Cecil himself (notwithstanding the importunity of the writers that they should be destroyed), still exist, and throw a curious light on these intrigues, imperfect, however, in particulars, owing to the enigmatical style in which they are written.

In one epistle (to give a specimen of this important correspondence) Lord Henry Howard boasts, on the part of Cecil, that he has saved the life of Southampton, and the reputation and credit of Lord Mouttjoy (both adherents of Essex), on account of their professed affection to King James : "but this was not done," it is added, "without risk to himself for the queen hath passions against which whoever strives above the measure and proportion of state (i.e., who exceeds in his remonstrances the limited bounds of a subject) shall be reputed a participant" (viz., in the offence of those for whom he pleads). A following sentence strongly expresses his desire that his services in such cases may be strictly kept silent, especially from the adherents of Essex. "Your majesty's rare virtue, wisdom, secrecy, and constancy, first warranted by those whom he (Cecil) durst credit, and after tasted from yourself, have moved him to give into adventures which neither this world nor any other world than eternity can make him do. So long as he is covered from these whose states, though safe, yet not fully satisfied, may press upon advantage by necessity, his plow shall walk as well to sow corn as to pluck up weeds; but from the time that either of these shall be able, out of knowledge, to conclude him to be your friend, he shall forever afterward prove a dumb oracle. It may be that either one or both may, before it be long, for the sounding of this passage, crave your letter, for their satisfaction in some degree; but whether the demand be great or small, avoid the motive as Charybdis; for one leak, upon the like occasion, might hazard as fair a vessel under sail as ever the winds blew upon." Sir Robert Cecil, in conducting this delicate correspondence, seems to have been principally afraid of some imprudence at the Scottish court, betraying the secret to one Nicolson, an agent whom Elizabeth had sent to reside there, and one of those characters whom she selected for such offices, prying, bustling, and intermeddling, all eyes, all ears, and to whom the discovery of a state secret, like that of Cecil's correspondence with James, would have appeared the foundation of a fortune. The secret, however, was carefully kept, although at one moment it was upon the verge of transpiring.

Queen Elizabeth was taking the air in a carriage where Cecil occupied a seat, when one of the royal posts passed them. "From whence?" the queen demanded; and the answer was, "From Scotland." "Give me your packet," said the queen. It was delivered accordingly.—" Open it," said she to Cecil, "and show me the contents." As the packet contained some part of Cecil's correspondence with the king of Scots, the command placed the crafty statesman within view of ruin and of the scaffold. To have attempted to sup-press or subtract any of the papers which the packet contained would have been a hazardous experiment in the presence of the most sharp-sighted and jealous of sovereigns. Cecil's presence of mind found an expedient. "This packet," said he, as he pulled his knife out to cut the strings with which it was secured, "has an uncommon odor, and must have been in some filthy budgets." The queen was alarmed. She had been all her life delicate in the sense of smelling, and was apprehensive of poison, which the age believed could be communicated by that organ. "Take it," she said to Cecil, "and let it be aired before the contents are presented to us." The wily secretary obeyed her commands, and obtained the desired opportunity to withdraw such papers as he deemed it important to conceal.

We have, lastly, to mention those at Elizabeth's court and kingdom who were decided opponents to the accession of James. They were neither numerous nor powerful; for they could not easily form themselves into an ostensible party or agree upon a principle of union. The chief among them, a person of the highest ability, deep learning, fame in war, and renown in peace, was Sir Walter Raleigh, already mentioned. But his connection with the military men, with whom he ought naturally to have had most in fluence, was broken off by his deadly quarrel with Essex, the darling of the army. He had done all in his power to aid the prosecution of that earl to the death, and was said to have disgusted the people in general by witnessing the execution of his generous rival, and smoking tobacco (which herb he had introduced into England) during the time of the melancholy solemnity. Cecil, to whom Raleigh had attached himself, did not think it fit to intrust him with his own secret designs in favor of James; and Sir Walter, left to his own devices, employed his speculative imagination of an English commonwealth, with the exclusion of the Scottish king, or, failing that, upon some agreement with James which should place the regal authority upon a footing less absolute than it had been exercised by the race of Tudor. These were plans too vague and imaginative to suit the views of Cecil; nor had the wily statesman any intention to introduce into the king's good graces a rival who might prove an obstruction to his views of holding the same supreme authority under James which he had enjoyed under Elizabeth.

Excepting, therefore, Raleigh, and individuals like him, who might have their own separate political views, the par-ties in England, like rivers running to unite in the same channels, were all bending their course toward a joint object —the succession of King James to the throne of Britain. All this was afterward remembered to the advancement of Cecil, who became Earl of Salisbury, and prime minister under James's reign, and to the prejudice of Sir Walter Raleigh. In the meantime, the prospect that King James would soon be called to an increase of wealth and power had its usual effect in strengthening his sovereignty at home. He was yet under the management of statesmen of sagacity and experience, nor liad he received into favor any of those beardless boys, to please whose perverse and peevish humors he was in the latter part of his reign too apt to sacrifice his dignity as a sovereign. The halcyon period of tranquillity in Scotland was usefully employed. The Catholic lords, so long restive under the authority of James, were compelled to submit to such terms of reconciliation with the Church as insured their remaining quiet subjects in future. Angus, who alone declined compliance with the conditions exacted, retired to Paris, to enjoy his religion in security, and there died. James's disputes with the clergy were also amicably terminated. The ministers of Edinburgh, who had been banished, were restored to their pulpits and congregations, and an unusual degree of union seemed to subsist between them and the crown.

While Scotland was enjoying an unwonted interval of tranquillity, England was in expectation of a great change. The life of Elizabeth was fast drawing to a close : the heavy melancholy which clogged the current of Elizabeth's blood, ever since the death of Essex, had assumed a deeper and darker hue. She ceased to smile, to talk cheerfully, to enjoy any species of diversion, or make use of any of her usual exercises or amusements.

The imputed cause is a remarkable one. The reader cannot have forgotten that the Countess of Nottingham had intercepted the delivery of a letter and ring sent to Elizabeth by Essex in extremity; and that the queen was chiefly induced to permit his execution under the idea that he was too obstinate to appeal to her favor. The truth was now to be discovered. The Countess of Nottingham, on her death-bed, felt herself no longer able to support the burden of the guilty secret, and confessed to Elizabeth in person her having retained the fatal token. The queen, in great agitation, replied, "God may forgive you, but I never will." The countess died a few days after she had made the fatal confession, and from that time the hand of death was on the queen, whose melancholy was changed into despair. She tasted no food; she took no medicines; she refused to go to bed, but remained upon a pile of cushions, with her eyes fixed on the ground. This could not last long. Her strength visibly declined, from lack of nourishment and total exhaustion. Her godson, Sir Robert Carey, who watched her dying moments with the purpose of being the first to carry the news to. King James, describes her, in this state of stupor, as being only able to wring his hand, and repeat his name with a heavy sigh.

She is said to have replied to those statesmen who demanded her will concerning the succession, "That she would be succeeded by none but a king; and that the king of Scots, her cousin, should enjoy her throne." She died on the 24th of March, 1603, in the seventieth year of her age, and the forty-fourth year of her reign. On the third day after her death, Sir Robert Carey, travelling on horseback, with speed which was then accounted most extraordinary, arrived at Holyrood; obtained admission to the king's bed-chamber, and, kneeling by his bedside, hailed him King of England and Ireland, as well as Scotland. Sir Robert brought a token from a lady of quality, one of James's correspondents, in the form of a ring, which was to attest the truth of his message. As the information, however, was of a private nature, the subject of Carey's news was not made public till the arrival of Sir Charles Percy, brother of the Earl of Northumberland, and Thomas Somerset, son to the Earl of Worcester, with letters from the English privy council, acknowledging his right in its fullest extent, and acquainting him of their having caused his accession to be instantly proclaimed, and that the news had been received with the unanimous applause of the people.

James was now arrived at the-pinnacle of his hopes, and seems to have enjoyed them with a good natured complacency, which overflowed to all around him. He attended service in St. Giles's Church, and heard a sermon by Mr. Hall, upon the great mercy of Heaven in having thus accomplished his peaceable accession to a kingdom so long hostile to his own, without the stroke of sword or shedding of a drop of blood. He exhorted the sovereign to show his gratitude by his attention to the cause of religion, and his care for the people committed to his charge. After the exhortation, which the king took in very gracious part, he himself addressed the people, of whom he was now to take leave, in a warm and affectionate strain. He bid them adieu with much tenderness, promised to have them in his view and recollections during his absence, and often to visit them and communicate to them marks of his bounty when in foreign parts, as ample as any which he had been used to be-stow when present with them. A mixture of approbation and weeping followed this speech; and the good-natured king wept plentifully himself at taking leave of his native subjects.

Wednesday, the 4th of April, 1603, James set forward to occupy the new kingdom, which after so many years of expectation had, like ripe fruit, dropped thus quietly into his lap. His train, from taste as well as policy, was rather gay and splendid than numerous and imposing. Two circumstances occurred on the morning of his departure, either of which would have seemed ominous to an ancient Roman.

As the king and his train approached the house of Seton the solemn funeral of a man of high rank, adorned with all the gloomy emblems of mortality, interrupted his pas-sage: it was that of Lord Seton, who had been one of the best, most disinterested, and most faithful adherents among those who held up the banner of James's mother. The de-ceased lord had sustained a full share in Mary's misfortunes, being obliged to retire to Flanders, where he was reduced to subsist himself by driving a wagon, in which character and occupation he had himself painted on his restoration to his rank and fortune. The king halted his retinue and sat down upon a stone, long afterward shown, while the funeral of this faithful adherent of his family moved past. The sight was strikingly well qualified to impress upon James, in the moment that he was taking possession of such a high addition to his power, the recollection of the mutability of human affairs.

The other is a Jacobite tradition, but has been generally received as a real one. It is said that as the gentry and freeholders of the country came to wait upon the king on his departure toward England, and escort him a few miles upon his way, there was one aged gentleman, who, very different from the gay array and festival habits of those around him, appeared attired in the deepest mourning. Being asked the meaning of so unbecoming a dress on so happy an occasion : "I have known this road," he said, "to England; and have travelled it in my former days, as we now do, under the royal banner : I was then as well mounted and armed as became my fortune and quality; but we were then bent upon honorable war with our national enemies : at present, when we come to transfer our king to the English, and yield up to a people who could never conquer us in war the power of lording it over us as a province, 1 come in sorrow for my country's lost independence in a dress becoming one who waits upon the funeral of a mother."

The speech was certainly rash and prejudiced, yet it was not the less, in some sort, true; for many were the evils which attended the first junction of the kingdoms into one, and scarcely fewer those which attended the incorporating union which followed at the interval of a century. These disadvantages, indeed, were finally incalculably overbalanced by the subsequent benefits of these important events; but the consideration would lead us much further than the limits of this work permit. We shall, therefore, only say, that King James entered the town of Berwick amid the thunder of the cannon planted to defend that town against his ancestors, and was received in the principal church by the bishop of Durham, who performed a thanksgiving service upon the occasion; and with the sovereigns occupation of a more wide dominion over a wealthier people, naturally closes the HISTORY OF SCOTLAND VOL. 2 as a free and independent State.