The Works of John Knox Volume I Part 54

[642] John fifth Lord Erskine, and afterwards sixth Earl of Mar, at this time was Governor of Edinburgh Castle.

[643] Archibald Campbell, Lord Lorne, succeeded his father, the fourth Earl of Argyle, in 1558.

[644] Lord James Stewart was the natural son of James the Fifth, by Margaret Erskine, daughter of John fifth Earl of Mar, and fourth Lord Erskine. This lady afterwards married Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven; and she appears to have enjoyed a pension from the King; as the Treasurer, in September 1539, in his "Exoneratio," has, "Item, gevin to the Lady Lochlevin, in contentatioun of her pensioun, awing to her zerelie, be ane precept,

vj^clxvj lib. xiij s. iiij d." (666, 13s. 4d.)

Her son Lord James Stewart was born in 1533, and when five years of age, in 1538, the King conferred on him the Priory of St. Andrews. In the Treasurer's Accounts, March 1539, are various entries for dresses to the Kingis Grace sonis, Lord James of Kelso, and Lord James of Sanctandrois; and in May, to "the Abbot of Kelso, and the Priour of Sanctandrois." He was also Prior of Macon, in France. As Prior of St. Andrews, he sat in the Provincial Council held at Edinburgh, in October 1549.--(Wilkins, Concilia, vol. iv. p. 46.) He was sent to France in March 1561, to invite Queen Mary to return to Scotland; by whom, on the 30th January 1561-2, he was raised to the Peerage by the t.i.tle of Earl of Murray.

[645] That is, the winter of 1555.

[646] Most of these places in Kyle, in which Knox taught or officiated, have already been noticed; being the seats of John Lockhart of Barr, Hugh Wallace of Carnell, Robert Campbell of Kingyeancleuch, Andrew Stewart Lord Ochiltree, and James Chalmers of Gadgirth.

[647] Easter fell on the 5th of April, in 1556.

[648] Finlayston in the parish of Kilmalcolm, near the Clyde, to the east of Port-Glasgow. The silver cups which were used by Knox on this occasion, are still carefully preserved; and the use of them was given at the time of dispensing the Sacrament in the Parish Church of Kilmalcolm, so long as the Glencairn family resided at Finlayston.--The t.i.tle of Earl of Glencairn has been dormant since the death of James 15th Earl in 1796.

[649] Dr. M'Crie, on the authority of this pa.s.sage, says, that most of the gentlemen of the Mearns "entered into a solemn and mutual bond, in which they renounced the Popish communion, and engaged to maintain and promote the pure preaching of the Gospel, as Providence should favour them with opportunities. This seems to have been the first of those religious Bonds or Covenants, by which the confederation of the Protestants in Scotland was so frequently ratified."--(Life of Knox, vol. i. p. 179.)--I do not think, however, that Knox's words are quite conclusive on this point: that the mutual agreement or resolution of the gentlemen of the Mearns, had a.s.sumed the form of a Band or Covenant, such as "the Common Band," signed on the 3d December 1557, (see page 273,) or those of a later date, which Knox has inserted in the Second Book of his History.

[650] William Keith, fourth Earl Marischall, succeeded his grandfather, in 1530. He accompanied James the Fifth in his visit to France, in 1536; and was nominated an Extraordinary Lord of Session in 1541. See note 339, for Sir Ralph Sadler's opinion of him. It was at his request that Knox, in the year 1556, addressed his Letter to the Queen Dowager.

He died 7th October 1581.

[651] We find that at the siege of Leith, in 1560, "young Henry Drummond" was slain.--(Lesley's Hist. p. 286; Holinshed's Chron. p.

492.)

[652] This Letter to the Queen Dowager was originally printed in a very small volume, without date, or name of the place or printer, but apparently on the Continent: It is ent.i.tled "The Copie of a Letter sent to the Ladye Mary Dowagire Regent of Scotland, by John Knox, in the yeare 1556."

[653] James Beaton was nephew of the Cardinal, and was preferred to the See of Glasgow in 1551. He has been incidentally mentioned in note 459; and in reference to this, Lesley says that the Governor, after Cardinal Beaton's death, "disponed the Archbishoprike of Sanct Androis to his owne broder, the Abbot of Paisley, and gaif ane gift of the Abbay [abbacy] of Arbroith to George Douglas, b.a.s.t.a.r.d sone to the Erle of Angus, _notwithstanding that Maister James Beatoun_, tender cousing to the Cardinall, _was lawfullie provydit thairto of befoir_; quhilk maid gret trubill in the countrey eftirwart."--(Hist. p. 193.) It may be added, that when Beaton was translated to Glasgow in 1551, the abbacy of Arbroath was conferred on Lord John Hamilton, second son of the Governor.--(Ib. p. 241.)

[654] The Letter addressed by Knox to the Queen Dowager in 1556, (as above, note 652,) was reprinted at Geneva, "_nowe augmented and explained by the Author_, in the yeare of our Lord 1558." It will be included in Volume Third.

[655] Elizabeth Bowes, mother-in-law of the Reformer, sent before him to Dieppe. She was the daughter and co-heiress of Sir Roger Aske of Aske in Yorks.h.i.+re, and by her husband, Richard Bowes, youngest son of Sir Ralph Bowes of Streathan, had two sons and ten daughters. See Pedigree of the family, in M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 407. Knox's first letter addressed "to his mother in law, Mistres Bowis," is dated from London, 23d June 1553.

[656] This very zealous and disinterested friend of the Reformer, as stated in note 345, was a cadet of the ancient family of Campbell of Loudon.

[657] Archibald Campbell, "the old" Earl of Argyle, was fourth Earl, and died in the year 1558.

[658] Castle Campbell, now in ruins, is situated in the Ochil hills, immediately above the village of Dollar. It was burned and destroyed by Montrose, during the Civil Wars, in 1645.

[659] Sir Colin Campbell of Glenurchy, the ancestor of the Breadalbane family. He was a younger son, but by the death of two elder brothers, he succeeded to the family estates in 1551. He became a stedfast friend to the Reformed religion; and survived till the year 1584.

[660] This date should evidently be 1556. Knox having remained in Scotland till after Spring, he arrived at Dieppe, in the month of July 1556.

[661] Knox's Appellation against the sentence of the Bishops, in 1556, was first printed in the year 1558.

[662] There seems to be a confusion in the dates of the events recorded in this paragraph. Knox, as stated above, had left Scotland in July 1556, and returned in May 1559; yet the Comet he mentions was evidently that which made its appearance in September 1558.--(Hevelii Cometographia, p. 853. See also next note.) Christian the Third, King of Denmark, died at the Castle of Coldinghuus, 1st January 1559, aged 56.

The Commissioners for a treaty with England met at Dunse, in July 1556; and afterwards at Carlisle, for settling matters in the Borders. This treaty was concluded in July 1557. Yet the Queen Regent, before November 1557, at the instigation of France, was prevailed upon to declare war with England. But the n.o.bility and Barons would not consent to the proposed invasion.

[663] Bishop Lesley, at the close of 1558, among other "portenta,"

describes this "flammivomus et barbatus Cometa."--(De Rebus, &c. p.

540.) Sir James Balfour also says, "A fearfull Comett appeired this zeire [1558,] which not only, as the sequell proved, protendit change in Government, but in Religione lykwayes."--(Annals, vol. i. p. 312.) In those days Comets were regarded as the harbingers of disastrous events.

Thus Shakespeare, in the First Part of his Henry VI.,--

"Comets importing change of times and states;"

and again,--

"Now s.h.i.+ne it like a Comet of revenge, A prophet to the fall of all our foes;"

and Milton, in Paradise Lost,--

"and like a Comet burn'd, That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In th' Artick sky, and from his horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war."

[664] Newbattle, in the parish of that name in Mid-Lothian, was the site of an Abbey founded by David the First, in the year 1140.

[665] Wark Castle: see note 4, page 122.

[666] Maxwell-heugh, is a village on a height to the south of the Tweed, nearly opposite the eastern part of the town of Kelso.

[667] Hume Castle: see note 2, page 210.

[668] In MS. G, "pavilion."

[669] This was in November 1557.

[670] MS. G, instead of "breath," subst.i.tutes very oddly, "This put an affray in Monsieur D'Oysell's breaches."

[671] Of these preachers, Harlaw has been noticed at page 245: Douglas and Methven will afterwards be mentioned.

[672] John Willock returned to Scotland from Embden in Friesland, (see note 2, page 244,) in October 1558. He continued to preach in different parts of the country, and to officiate publicly in Edinburgh, in the year 1559, when it was unsafe for Knox to remain.--(Wodrow Miscellany, vol. i. p. 213.)

[673] George, sixth Lord Seatoun.

[674] Sanct Geill, or St. Giles, was the tutelar Saint of the Metropolis, whose name is still retained in connexion with the collegiate Church in the Old Town of Edinburgh.

[675] The North Loch formed a kind of boundary of the City towards the north, in the hollow ground, between Princes Street and the Old Town, and extended nearly from St. Cuthbert's Church to the Trinity College Church, in former times.

[676] In Pitcairn's Criminal Trials will be found some interesting details, respecting four of the preachers mentioned by Knox, who were denounced "as rebels for usurping the authority of the Church," 10th May 1559, viz., John Christison and William Harlaw, at Perth; John Willock, at Ayr; and Paul Methven, at Dundee; along with the names of the persons who became cautioners for their appearance, (vol. i. p. 406*, &c.)

[677] Andrew Durie: see subsequent note to page 261.

[678] James, son of Robert Chalmer of Gadgirth, by Margaret, daughter of Sir Hugh Campbell of Loudoun. He had several charters under the Great Seal in 1548, of parts of his estate in the s.h.i.+res of Ayr and Wigtoun.

He married Annabella, daughter of John Cunninghame of Caprintoun, in Ayrs.h.i.+re. (Nisbet's Heraldry, App. *20, vol. i. p. 4.)

[679] This use of "Me," instead of "I," or "We," occurs in all the copies.

[680] This Appellation, according to some payments made by authority of the Town Council, was not later than February 1557-8.

[681] St. Giles's day was the 1st of September. In the Appendix, No.