LIFE

OF

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE CHRISTENING OF JAMES VI.

On the 11th of December, 1566, Mary proceeded to Stirling, to make the necessary arrangements for the baptism of her son, which she determined to celebrate with the pomp and magnificence his future prospects justified. Darnley, who had been with the Queen a week at Craigmillar Castle, and afterwards came into Edinburgh with her, had gone to Stirling two days before.* Ambassadors had arrived from England, France, Piedmont, and Savoy, to be present at the ceremony. The Pope also had proposed sending a nuncio into Scotland; but Mary had good sense enough to know, that her bigoted subjects would be greatly offended, were she to

CHALMERS, vol. ii. p. 173; KEITH, Preface, p. vii. VOL. II.

A

receive any such servant of Antichrist. It may have occurred to her, besides, that his presence might facilitate the negotiations for the divorce proposed by her nobility, but which she was determined should not take place. She, therefore, wrote to the great spiritual Head of her Church, expressing all that respect for his authority which a good Catholic was bound to feel; but, at the same time, she contrived to prevent his nuncio, Cardinal Laurea, from coming farther north than Paris.*

The splendour of Mary's preparations for the approaching ceremony, astonished not a little the sober minds of the Presbyterians. "The excessive expenses and superfluous apparel," says Knox, "which were prepared at that time, exceeded far all the preparations that ever had been devised or set forth before in this country." Elizabeth, as if participating in Mary's maternal feelings, ordered the Earl of Bedford, her ambas

*The above transaction, in which there is so little mystery, has been converted by Robertson into "a negotiation, secretly carried on by Mary, for subverting the Reformed Church." He cannot, it is true, very easily reconcile the "negotiation" with the fact, that," at the very time, she did not scruple publicly to employ her authority towards obtaining for the ministers of that Church a more certain and comfortable subsistence." "During this year," he tells us," she issued several proclamations and Acts of Council for that purpose, and readily approved of every scheme which was proposed for the more effectual payment of their stipends. The historian might have inquired a little more closely into the real nature of her correspondence with the Court of Rome, before charging Mary with " falsehood and deceit," and availing himself of the subject to point a moral.

sador, to appear at Stirling with a very gorgeous train ; and sent by him, as a present for Mary, a font of gold, valued at upwards of £1000. In her instructions to Bedford, she desired him to say jocularly, that it had been made as soon as she heard of the Prince's birth, and that it was large enough then; but that, as he had now, she supposed, outgrown it, it might be kept for the next child. The season was too far advanced to admit of Elizabeth's sending any of the ladies of her own realm into Scotland; she, therefore, fixed on the Countess of Argyle to represent her as godmother, preferring that lady, because she understood her to be much esteemed by Mary. To meet the extraordinary expenditure occasioned by entertaining so many ambassadors, the Queen levied an assessment of £12,000. It may appear strange, how a taxation of this kind could be imposed without the consent of Parliament but it was managed thus:-The Privy Council called a meeting both of the Lords Temporal and Spiritual, and of the representatives of the boroughs, and informed them that some of the greatest princes in Christendom had requested permission to witness, through their ambassadors, the baptism of the Prince. It was, therefore, moved, and unanimously carried, that their Majesties should be allowed to levy a tax for "the honourable expenses requisite." The tax was proportioned in this way:-six thousand pounds from the spiritual estate; four thousand from the barons and freeholders; and two thousand from the boroughs.*

* KEITH, p. 359.

;

Till the ceremony of baptism took place, the Queen gave splendid banquets every day to the ambassadors and their suites. At one of these a slight disturbance occurred, which, as it serves to illustrate amusingly the manners of the times, is worth describing. There seems to have been some little jealousy between the English and French envoys upon matters of precedence; and Mary, on the whole, was inclined to favour the English, being now more connected with England than with France. It happened, that at the banquet in question, a kind of mummery was got up, under the superintendence of one of Mary's French servants, called Sebastian, who was a fellow of a clever wit. He contrived a piece of workmanship, in the shape of a great table; and its machinery was so ingeniously arranged, that, upon the doors of the great hall in which the feast was to be held being thrown open, it moved in, apparently of its own accord, covered with delicacies of all sorts. A band of musicians, clothed like maidens, singing and accompanying themselves on various instruments, surrounded the pageant. It was preceded—and this was the cause of the offence-by a number of men dressed like satyrs, with long tails, and carrying whips in their hands. These satyrs were not content to ride round the table, but they put their hands behind them to their tails, wagging them in the faces of the Englishmen, who took it into their heads that the whole was done in derision of them, "daftly apprehending that which they should not seem to have understood." Several of the suite of the Earl of Bedford, perceiving themselves thus mocked, as they

thought, and the satyrs "wagging their tails, or rumples," were so exasperated, that one of them told Sir James Melville, if it were not in the Queen's presence, "he would put a dagger to the heart of the French knave Sebastian, whom he alleged did it for despite that the Queen made. more of them than of the Frenchmen." The Queen and Bedford, who knew that the whole was a mere jest, had some trouble in allaying the wrath of the hot-headed Southrons.

In the midst of these festivities Mary had various cares to perplex her, and various difficulties to encounter. When she first came to Stirling, she found that Darnley had not chosen to go, as usual, to the Castle, but was residing in a private house. He left it, however, upon the Queen's arrival, and took up his residence in the Castle with her, —a fact of some consequence, and one which Murray has himself supplied. * But Darnley's sentiments towards Mary's ministers continued unchanged; and it was impossible to prevail upon him to treat them with any degree of courtesy, even in presence of the ambassadors. Mary was extremely anxious to prevent her husband from exposing his weakness and waywardness to foreigners; but he was as stubborn as ever; and though he had given up thoughts of going abroad, it was only because he hoped to put into execution some new plot at home. Surrounded by gaieties, he continued sullen and discontented, shutting himself up in his own. apartment, and associating with no one, except his wife and the French envoy, Le Croc, for

* ANDERSON, vol. ii. p. 271.