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GEORGE, FOURTH EARL OF HUNTLY (CONTINUED)—THE QUEEN’S
PROGRESS TO THE NORTH—GEORGE, FIFTH EARL—LANDS AND TITLES RESTORED TO HIM.
IN August, 1562, the Queen,
accompanied by Lord James and a number of the nobles, started on her
progress to the north. The Queen reached Old Aberdeen on the 27th of
August, where she was met by the Countess of Huntly. She had come to
intercede for her son, Sir John Gordon, and was informed by the Queen that
nothing could be done for him unless he surrendered and entered into ward
at Stirling Castle. The Countess promised that he would do this; and,
accordingly, Sir John submitted; but, finding that his keeper was to be
Lord Erskine, the uncle of Lord James Stewart, the enemy of his family, he
declined to entrust himself in the custody of Erskine, and retired to one
of his own castles. This conduct seems to have greatly offended the Queen
and caused her to treat Sir John severely.
The Earl and Countess of Huntly invited Queen Mary to
visit them at Strathbogie Castle, and made great preparations for her
reception; but she declined. She permitted the Earl of Argyle and the
English Ambassador, Randolph, to visit Strathbogie, and the latter wrote—"Huntly’s
house is the best furnished of any house I have seen in this country; his
cheer is marvellously great; and his mind then such, as it appeared to us,
as ought to be in any subject to his Sovereign."
On leaving Old Aberdeen, the Queen proceeded northward,
passing through the parishes of Drumblade and Forgue, and over the west
shoulder of the Foreman Hill to Rothiemay House. At Rothiemay the Queen
was again requested by Huntly to visit Strathbogie, but she refused unless
Sir John Gordon returned to his obedience. The Queen proceeded northward
through Moray, and on arriving at Darnaway Castle she held a council, and
summoned Sir John Gordon to surrender his castles of Findlater and
Auchindoun. She then invested her half-brother, Lord James, in the Earldom
of Moray. On the following day she proceeded to Inverness, but found the
gates of the castle closed against her. Next morning the gates of the
castle were opened, but Alexander Gordon, captain of the castle, and other
five of the garrison were executed. Alarming reports were spread, and the
local Crown vassals were ordered to muster to assist the Queen. When
returning to Aberdeen, the Queen was refused admittance to Findlater
Castle, which intensified her distrust of the Gordons.
When the Queen returned, and made her entry into
Aberdeen, she received a warm and hearty welcome from the citizens. She
resolved to stay forty days in the city, or till peace and order were
restored in the surrounding district.
Captain Hay, the royal messenger, appeared at the
Castle of Strathbogie, and he was treated with the utmost respect. There
was a cannon which always stood in the centre of the court of the Castle
of Strathbogie, and the Queen demanded the surrender of this cannon. The
Earl replied, that "not only the cannon, which was her own, but
also his body and goods were at her disposal. He
considered it strange that he should be so hardly treated, because he was
not a party to the offence of his son, and offered to hazard his life in
the capture of the Castles of Findlater and Auchindoun if she only
commanded him to this effect. He desired these things to be reported to
his Sovereign from her most humble and obedient subject as none more, nor
never would be than he." The Countess also desired the Royal messenger to
inform the Queen that Huntly was ever her obedient subject. These
declarations were treated with scorn; and when Huntly sent the keys of the
castles of Findlater and Auchindoun they were not received, and the bearer
was imprisoned.The Earl and
his son, Sir John, were commanded to appear before the Queen and Council
at Aberdeen. Naturally, Huntly declined to place himself in the power of
his enemies, yet he offered to surrender for trial by his peers in
Parliament. He again sent his Countess to intercede with the Queen; but
she was not permitted to see the Sovereign.
Troops were sent to attack Huntly in
his stronghold of Strathbogie; but the Earl eluded them and escaped. On
the 21st of October, Sir John Gordon attacked and defeated a company of
troops under Captain Stewart, who was attempting to take possession of
Findlater Castle. Two days later the Gordons were proclaimed rebels, and
immediate surrender of the Castle of Strathbogie was demanded, but
refused.
For his own protection and defence,
Huntly mustered an army and advanced towards Aberdeen, marching well up
along the higher ground to the Hill of Fare in Midmar; and on the 28th of
October, 1562,
he was met by the Earls of Moray and
Athole at the head of about two thousand men. An engagement ensued, in
which the Gordons were defeated, and the Earl’s sons, Sir John and Adam,
surrendered. The Earl himself fell from his horse and died of apoplexy
immediately after his capture. Two days after the battle, five gentlemen
of the Gordon clan were executed on the Castlegate of Aberdeen; and, three
days later, Huntly’s son, Sir John Gordon, was executed at the same place.
But Adam Gordon, the younger son, was spared.
Strathbogie Castle was then rifled.
Many of its rich furnishings and ornaments were taken to Edinburgh, and
others of them were carried by Moray to the Castle of Darnaway to fit up
his newly-acquired residence in this ancient Earldom. Those who assisted
Huntly were fined to the amount of
£3542
6s 8d.
Huntly’s body lay for some time in
Aberdeen, and was embalmed by Robert Henderson, a surgeon; and
subsequently it was carried to Edinburgh by sea. The body was placed in
Holyrood, and on the 29th of
May, 1563, it was brought into the Council Chamber, in a chest,
when the sentence of forfeiture was passed by Parliament. The arms were
torn and struck out of the Herald’s book. The Countess of Huntly protested
against the sentence. Huntly’s remains lay in Holyrood until the 21st of
April, 1566, when they were
conveyed to Strathbogie, and interred at Elgin.
George, Lord Gordon, the late Earl’s
oldest surviving son, married Anna Hamilton, a daughter of the Duke of
Chatelherault, by whom he had issue. In
1562, when his father and brothers were up in
arms, he was living quietly with his wife’s friends—the Hamiltons; yet he
was included in the doom of forfeiture passed against the family. The
Duke, his father-in-law, was commanded to deliver him up; and in the
afternoon of the 28th of November, 1562,
he was taken in the Duke’s lodging, in the Kirk of
Field Wynd, and imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle. On the 8th of February,
1563, he was tried and convicted of treason. A few days after, he was sent
in "free ward" to the Castle of Dunbar. In May he was ordered to attend
the Parliament, to hear the sentence of forfeiture passed upon his
father’s body; and, he was again sent to Dunbar, where he remained until
1565. On the 3rd of August it was proclaimed at the Market Cross of
Edinburgh that the horning against him was remitted; and he might go where
he pleased. He soon presented himself before the Queen and was kindly
received.
On the 8th of October, 1565, by a
Royal proclamation, Huntly was restored to all the lands held by his
father, and to all the family titles. On the 24th of February, 1566,
Huntly’s sister Jean was married to the Earl of Bothwell in the Abbey of
Holyrood, and the event was celebrated with great splendour. The contract
of marriage between the parties shows that it was consented to by Huntly
and his mother, and also by Queen Mary. The Queen took a keen interest in
this marriage, she signed the contract, "and gave the bride a wedding
dress of cloth of silver."
The Earls of Huntly and Bothwell
were in their chambers in Holyrood, on the evening of the 9th of March,
1566, when they were suddenly alarmed by the clang of arms in the
courtyard of the Palace. This was Lord Ruthven and his band of
conspirators in search of David Rizzio, the Queen’s foreign
secretary. They found their victim sitting with his cap on his head in Her
Majesty’s presence, along with a small social party in the Queen’s
supping-room. Some sharp talk passed between the Queen and Ruthven, but
more of the conspirators rushed in. Instantly the table and chairs were
overturned in the scuffle, and David Rizzio was seized and dragged to an
outer room, and there stabbed to death. A guard was placed over the Queen:
but several gentlemen escaped, and warned the citizens of Edinburgh. The
alarm-bell was rung, and the citizens rushed to the palace with torch
lights. They demanded the instant deliverance of the Queen; but she was
not permitted to speak to them. Darnley appeared and assured the people
that the Queen was quite safe, and commanded them to go home. Lord Ruthven
placed armed men to watch the gates and all the private passages; but in
spite of the utmost vigilance of the conspirators, the Earls of Huntly and
Bothwell managed to escape during the night.
Mary soon disengaged her husband
from the nobles who had murdered her favourite; and Darnley was duped by
the Queen as well as by the conspirators. He had not the ability, the
resolution, nor even the recognised rough honesty of his day, to carry him
through such a plot. He fled with the Queen to Dunbar Castle, where they
were joined by Huntly.
Huntly was appointed Lord High
Chancellor in place of the Earl of Morton, who was forced to flee for his
part in the slaughter of Rizzio.
The Earl of Huntly accompanied the
Queen on her visit to Jedburgh in October, 1566. He was also present at
the conference in Craigmillar Castle in December, when the Lords advised
the Queen to divorce Darnley, which she declined to do.
The plot to remove Darnley, which
seems to have originated with Maitland of Lethington, the Secretary of
State, was soon concocted. According to custom, a bond was drawn up by Sir
James Balfour, an experienced lawyer and a firm friend of Bothwell. This
bond declared that Darnley "was a young fool and tyrant, and unworthy to
rule over them." They therefore bound themselves to remove him by some
means or another, and each engaged to stand true to the other in this
deadly enterprise. The bond was subscribed by the Earls of Argyle,
Bothwell, and Huntly, Lethington, the Secretary of State, Sir James
Balfour, and others. Their victim had become sick, and was visited by the
Queen at Glasgow, whence he was conveyed to Edinburgh on the last day of
January, 1567. |
