James VI and the Gowrie Mystery

(Sic subscribitur) Yowris to vtter power redy

Restalrige.

On the back ‘Sprott,’ ‘bookit’ (2).

(2) Robert Logan of Restalrig to Laird Bower

Lard Bower, – I pray yow hast yow hast to me abowt the erand I tald yow, and ve sall confer at lenth of all thingis. I hew recevit an new letter fra my Lo(rd) of Go(wrie) concerning the purpose that M.A. his Lo. brothir spak to me befoir, and I perseif I may hew avantage of Dirleton, incase his other matter tak effect, as ve hope it sall. Alvayse I beseik yow be at me the morne at evin, for I hew asswred his lo. servand, that I sall send yow over the vatter vithin thre dayis, vith an full resolucion of all my vill, anent all purposes; As I sall indeid recommend yow and yowr trustiness till his lo. as ye sall find an honest recompense for yowr panes in the end. I cair nocht for all the land I hew in this kingdome, incase I get an grip of Dirleton, for I estem it the plesantest dwelling in Scotland. For Goddis cawse, keip all thingis very secret, that my lo. my brothir get na knawlege of owr purposes, for I (wald?) rather be eirdit quik. And swa lwking for yow, I rest till meitting. Fra the Kannogait, the xviij day of July.

(Sic subscribitur) Yowris to power redy

Restalrige.

I am verie ill at eise and thairfoir speid yow hither.

On the back ‘Sprott,’ ‘Secund,’ ‘bookit.’

(3) Robert Logan of Restalrig to

Rycht honorable Sir, – All my hartly duty vith humbill servise remembred. Sen I hew takin on hand to interpryse vith my lo(rd) of Go(wrie) yowr speciall and only best belowed, as ve hew set down the plat alredy, I vill request yow that ye vill be very circumspek and vyse, that na man may get ane avantage of vs. I dowt nocht bot ye knaw the perell to be bayth lyf, land and honowr, incase the mater be nocht vyslie vsed: And for my avin part, I sall hew an speciall respek to my promise that I hew maid till his Lo. and M.A. his lo(rdschipis) brother, althocht the skafald var set vp. If I kan nocht vin to Fakland the first nycht, I sall be tymelie in St Johnestoun on the morne. Indeid I lipnit for my lo(rd) himself or ellise M.A. his lo. brother at my howse of Fast(castell) as I vret to them bayth. Alwyse I repose on yowr advertysment of the precyse day, vith credit to the berar: for howbeit he be bot ane silly ald gleyd carle, I vill answer for him that he sall be very trew. I pray yow, sir, reid and ather bwrne or send agane vith the berare; for I dar haserd my lyf and all I hew ellise in the varld on his message, I hew sik pruif of his constant trewth. Sa committis yow to Chrystis holy protectioun. Frome the Kannogait the xxvij day of July 1600.

(Sic subscribitur)

Yowris till all power vt humbill servise redyRestalrige.

I vse nocht to vryt on the bak of ony of my letteris concerning this errand.

On the back ‘Sprott,’ ‘bookit’ (3).

(4) Robert Logan of Restalrig to the Earl of Gowrie

My Lo. – My maist humbill dewtie vith servise in maist hartly maner remembred. At the resset of yowr lo(rdchipis) letter I am so comforted, especially at your Lo: purpose communicated onto me thairin, that I kan nather vtter my joy nor find myself habill how to enconter yowr lo. vith dew thankis. Indeid my lo. at my being last in the town M.A. your lo. brother imperted somqhat of yowr lo(rdschipis) intentioun anent that matter onto me; and if I had nocht bene busyed abowt sum turnis of my avin, I thoght till hew cummit over to S. Jo. and spokin vith your lo(rdschip). Yit alvayse my lo. I beseik your lo. bayth for the saifty of yowr honowr, credit and mair nor that, yowr lyf, my lyf, and the lyfis of mony otheris qha may perhapis innocently smart for that turne eftirwartis, incase it be reveilled be ony; and lykvyse, the vtter vraking of our landis and howsis, and extirpating of owr names, lwke that ve be all alse sure as yowr lo. and I myself sall be for my avin part, and than I dowt nocht, bot vith Godis g(race) we sall bring our matter till ane fine, qhilk sall bring contentment to vs all that ever vissed for the revenge of the Maschevalent massakering of our deirest frendis. I dowt nocht bot M.A. yowr lo. brother hes informed yowr lo. qhat cowrse I laid down, to bring all your lo(rdschipis) associatis to my howse of Fast(castell) be sey, qhair I suld hew all materiallis in reddyness for thair saif recayving a land, and into my howse; making as it ver bot a maner of passing time, in ane bote on the sey, in this fair somer tyde; and nane other strangeris to hant my howse, qhill ve had concluded on the laying of owr plat, quhilk is alredy devysed be M.A. and me. And I vald viss that yowr lo. wald ather come or send M.A. to me, and thareftir I sowld meit yowr lo. in Leith, or quyetly in Restal(rig) qhair ve sowld hew prepared ane fyne hattit kit, vt succar, comfeitis, and vyn; and thereftir confer on matteris. And the soner ve broght owr purpose to pass it ver the better, before harwest. Let nocht M.W.R. yowr awld pedagog ken of your comming, bot rather vald I, if I durst be so bald, to intreit yowr lo. anis to come and se my avin howse, qhair I hew keipit my lo(rd) Bo(thwell) in his gretest extremityis, say the King and his consell qhat they vald. And incase God grant vs ane hapy swccess in this errand, I hope baith to haif yowr lo. and his lo., vith mony otheris of yowr loveries and his, at ane gude dyner, before I dy. Alvyse I hope that the K(ingis) bwk hunting at Falkland, this yeir, sall prepair sum daynty cheir for ws, agan that dinner the nixt yeir. Hoc jocose, till animat yowr lo. at this tyme; bot eftirvartis, ve sall hew better occasion to mak mery. I protest, my lo. before God, I viss nathing vith a better hart, nor to atchive to that qhilk yowr lo. vald fane atteyn onto; and my continewall prayer sall tend to that effect; and vith the large spending of my landis gudis, yea the haserd of my lyf, sall not afray me fra that, althocht the skaffold var alredy sett vp, befoir I sowld falsify my promise to yowr lo. and perswade yowr lo(rdschip) therof. I trow yowr lo. hes ane pruife of my constancy alredy or now. Bot my lo. qharas your lo. desyris in yowr letter, that I craif my lo. my brotheris mynd anent this matter, I alvterly disasent fra that that he sowld ever be ane counsalowr therto; for in gude fayth, he vill newer help his frend nor harme his fo. Yowr lo. may confyde mair in this ald man, the beirer heirof, my man La(ird) Bowr, nor in my brother; for I lippin my lyf and all I hew ells in his handis; and I trow he vald nocht spair to ryde to Hellis yet to plesour me; and he is nocht begylit of my pairt to him. Alvyse, my lo. qhen yowr lo. hes red my letter, delyver it to the berair agane, that I may se it brunt vith my awin ein; as I hew sent yowr Lo: letter to yowr Lo. agane; for so is the fassone I grant. And I pray yowr lo. rest fully perswaded of me and all that I hew promesed; for I am resolved, howbeit it ver to dy the morne. I man intreit yowr lo. to expede Bowr, and gif him strait directioun, on payn of his lyf, that he tak never ane vink sleip, qhill he se me agane; or ellise he vill vtterly vndo vs. I hew alredy sent an other letter to the gentill man yowr lo. kennis, as the berare vill informe yowr lo. of his answer and forvardness vith yowr lo.; and I sall schaw yowr lo. forder, at meting, qhen and qhair yowr lo. sall think meittest. To qhilk tyme and ever committis yowr lo. to the proteccioun of the Almychtie God. From Gwnisgrene, the twenty nynt of Julij 1600.

(Sic subscribitur) Your lo. awin sworne and bundman to obey and serve vt efauld and ever redy seruise to his vttir power till his lyfis end.

Restalrige.

Prayis yowr lo. hald me excused for my vnsemly letter, qhilk is nocht sa veil vrettin as mister var: For I durst nocht let ony of my vryteris ken of it, but tuke twa syndry ydill dayis to it my self.

I vill never foryet the gude sporte that M.A. yowr lo: brother tald me of ane nobill man of Padoa, it comiss sa oft to my memory. And indeid it is a parastevr to this purpose ve hew in hand.

On the back ‘Sprott,’ ‘bookit’ (4).

(5) Robert Logan of Restalrig to

Rycht honorabill Sir, – My hartly dewty remembred. Ye knaw I tald yow at owr last meitting in the Cannogat that M.A.R. my lo. of Go(wries) brother had spokin vith me, anent the matter of owr conclusion; and for my awin part I sall nocht be hindmest; and sensyne I gat ane letter from his lo. selff, for that same purpose; and apon the resset tharof, onderstanding his lo. frankness and fordvardness in it, God kennis if my hart vas nocht liftit ten stagess! I postit this same berare till his lo. to qhome ye may concredit all yowr hart in that asveill as I; for and it var my very sowl, I durst mak him messinger therof, I hew sic experiense of his treuth in mony other thingis: He is ane silly ald gleyd carle, bot vonder honest: And as he hes reportit to me his lo. awin answer, I think all matteris sall be concluded at my howse of Fa(stcastell); for I and M.A.R. conclude that ye sowld come vith him and his lo. and only ane other man vith yow, being bot only fowr in company, intill ane of the gret fisching botis, be sey to my howse, qher ye sall land as saifly as on Leyth schoir; and the howse agane his lo. comming to be quyet: And qhen ye ar abowt half a myll fra schoir, as it ver passing by the howse, to gar set forth ane vaf. Bot for Godis sek, let nether ony knawlege come to my lo. my brotheris eiris, nor yit to M.W.R. my lo. ald pedagog; for my brother is kittill to scho behind, and dar nocht interpryse, for feir; and the other vill disswade vs fra owr purpose vith ressonis of religion, qhilk I can newer abyd. I think thar is nane of a nobill hart, or caryis ane stomak vorth an pini, bot they vald be glad to se ane contented revenge of Gray Steillis deid: And the soner the better, or ellse ve may be marrit and frustrat; and therfor, pray his lo(rdschip) be qwik and bid M.A. remember on the sport he tald me of Padoa; for I think vith my self that the cogitacion on that sowld stimulat his lo(rdschip). And for Godis cawse vse all yowr cowrses cum discrecione. Fell nocht, sir, to send bak agan this letter; for M.A. leirit me that fasson, that I may se it distroyed my self. Sa till your comming, and ever, committis yow hartely to Chrystis holy protection. From Gwnisgrene, the last of July 1600.

On the back ‘xiij Aprilis 1608 producit be Ninian Chirnesyde (8).’

Also ‘Sprott,’ ‘Fyft. bookit.’

1

Longmans, Green, & Co., 1871.

2

See The Mystery of Mary Stuart. Longmans, 1901.

3

Extracted from the Treasurer’s Accounts, July, August, 1600. MS.

4

The King’s Narrative, Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials of Scotland, ii. 210.

5

The King’s Narrative, ut supra. Treasurer’s Accounts, MS.

6

Lennox in Pitcairn, ii. 171–174.

7

The description is taken from diagrams in Pitcairn, derived from a local volume of Antiquarian Proceedings. See, too, The Muses’ Threnodie, by H. Adamson, 1638, with notes by James Cant (Perth, 1774), pp. 163, 164.

8

Pitcairn, ii. 199.

9

The evidence of these witnesses is in Pitcairn, ii. 171–191.

10

Cranstoun’s deposition in Pitcairn, ii. 156, 157. At Falkland August 6.

11

The adversaries of the King say that these men ran up, and were wounded, later, in another encounter. As to this we have no evidence, but we have evidence of their issuing, wounded, from the dark staircase at the moment when Cranstoun fled thence.

12

Quoted by Pitcairn, ii. 209. The Falkland letter, as we show later, was probably written by David Moysie, but must have been, more or less, ‘official.’ Cf. p. 100, infra.

13

Many of these may be read in Narratives of Scottish Catholics, by Father Forbes-Leith, S.J.

14

Carey to Cecil. Berwick, Border Calendar, vol. ii. p. 677, August 11, 1600.

15

Deposition of Craigengelt, a steward of Gowrie’s, Falkland, August 16, 1600. Pitcairn, ii. 157.

16

Pitcairn, ii. p. 185.

17

Pitcairn, ii. p. 179.

18

Barbé, p. 91.

19

State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 50.

20

Mr. S. R. Gardiner alone remarks on this point, in a note to the first edition of his great History. See note to p. 54, infra.

21

Apparently not Sir Thomas Hamilton, the King’s Advocate.

22

State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 51.

23

Pitcairn, vol. ii. p. 249.

24

Mr. Scott suggested that a piece of string was found by Balgonie. The words of Balgonie are ‘ane gartane’ – a garter. He never mentions string.

25

Pitcairn, ii. 197.

26

The Tragedy of Gowrie House, by Louis Barbé, 1887, p. 91.

27

Mr. Barbé, as we saw, thinks that Robertson perjured himself, when he swore to having seen Henderson steal out of the dark staircase and step over Ruthven’s body. On the other hand, Mr. Bisset thought that Robertson spoke truth on this occasion, but concealed the truth in his examination later, because his evidence implied that Henderson left the dark staircase, not when Ramsay attacked Ruthven, but later, when Ruthven had already been slain. Mr. Bisset’s theory was that Henderson had never been in the turret during the crisis, but had entered the dark staircase from a door of the dining-hall on the first floor. Such a door existed, according to Lord Hailes, but when he wrote (1757) no traces of this arrangement were extant. If such a door there was, Henderson may have slunk into the hall, out of the dark staircase, and slipped forth again, at the moment when Robertson, in his first deposition, swore to having seen him. But Murray of Arbany cannot well have been there at that moment, as he was with the party of Lennox and Mar, battering at the door of the gallery chamber. – Bisset, Essays in Historical Truth, pp. 228–237. Hailes, Annals. Third Edition, vol. iii. p. 369. Note (1819).

28

Privy Council Register, vi. 149, 150.

29

Pitcairn, ii. 250.

30

Mr. Panton, who, in 1812, published at Perth, and with Longmans, a defence of the Ruthvens, is very strong on the improbability that Henderson was at Falkland. Why were not the people to whose house in Falkland he went, called as witnesses? Indeed we do not know. But as Mr. Panton looked on the King’s witnesses as a gang of murderous perjurers, it is odd that he did not ask himself why they, and the King, did not perjure themselves on this point. (A Dissertation on the Gowry Conspiracy, pp. 127–131.)

31

Pitcairn, ii. 222, 223.

32

Hudson to Cecil, Oct. 19,1600, Edinburgh. State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 78.

33

James Hudson to Sir Robert Cecil.

34

Pitcairn, ii. 218.

35

Privy Council Register, vi. 671.

36

State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 107.

37

Cranstoun mentioned his long absence in France to prove that he was not another Mr. Thomas Cranstoun, a kinsman of his, who at this time was an outlawed rebel, an adherent of Bothwell (p. 155, infra).

38

State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 107.

39

The Captain was ‘a landless gentleman.’ His wife owned Ranfurdie, and the Captain, involved in a quarrel with Menteith of Kers, had been accused of – witchcraft! The Captain’s legal affairs may be traced in the Privy Council Register.

40

The proceedings of the English Privy Council at this point are lost, unluckily. The Scottish records are in Privy Council Register, 1608–1611, s.v. Oliphant, Robert, in the Index.

41

See the Rev. Mr. Scott’s Life of John, Earl of Gowrie. Mr. Scott, at a very advanced age, published this work in 1818. He relied much on tradition and on anonymous MSS. of the eighteenth century.

42

State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 52. For the document see Appendix B.

43

James himself, being largely in Abercromby’s debt, in 1594 gave him ‘twelve monks’ portions’ of the Abbacy of Cupar. —Act. Parl. Scot. iv. 83, 84.

44

Mr. Henderson, in his account of William, Earl of Gowrie, in the Dictionary of National Biography, mentions ‘The Vindication of the Ruthvens’ in his list of authorities. He does not cite the source, as in MS. or in print; and I know not whether he refers to ‘The Verie Manner &c.,’ State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 52. The theory of Mr. Scott (1818) is much akin to that of ‘The Verie Manner,’ which he had never seen.

45

Barbé, p. 124.

46

State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 64.

47

State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 64.

48

Calderwood, vi. 84.

49

Pitcairn, ii. 248 et seq.

50

Calderwood, vi. 98.

51

Ibid. vi. 130.

52

Calderwood, vi. 147.

53

Ibid. vi. 156.

54

Mr. Bruce appears to have gone to France in 1599–1600, to call Gowrie home. In a brief account of his own life, dictated by himself at about the age of seventy (1624), he says, ‘I was in France for the calling of the Master’ (he clearly means Earl) ‘of Gowrie’ (Wodrow’s ‘Life of the Rev. Robert Bruce,’ p. 10, 1843). Calderwood possessed, and Wodrow (circ. 1715) acquired, two ‘Meditations’ by Mr. Bruce of August 3, 4, 1600. Wodrow promises to print them, but does not, and when his book was edited in 1843, they could not be found. He says that ‘Mr. Bruce appears to have been prepared, in Providence,’ for his Gowrie troubles, judging (apparently) by these ‘Meditations.’ But Mr. Henry Paton has searched for and found the lost ‘Meditations’ in MS., which are mere spiritual outpourings. Wodrow’s meaning is therefore obscure. Mr. Bruce had great celebrity as a prophet, but where Wodrow found prophecy in the ‘Meditations’ of August 3, 4, 1600, is not apparent (Wodrow’s ‘Bruce,’ pp. 83, 84. Wodrow MSS., Advocates’ Library, vol. xliv. No. 35).

55

Calderwood, vi. 49, 66–76.

56

Pitcairn, ii. 196.

57

Bain, Calendar, ii. 350; Nau, p. 59.

58

Form of certain Devices, &c. See Papers relating to William, Earl of Gowrie, London, 1867, pp. 25–29.

59

Form of examination and death of William, Earl of Gowrie. British Museum, Caligula, c. viii. fol. 23.

60

Thorpe, Calendar, ii. 650

61

De Natione Anglica et Scota Juristarum Universitatis Patavinae Io. Aloys. Andrich. Patavii, 1892, pp. 172, 173.

62

Ottavio Baldi to the King, June 22, 1609. Record Office. Venice, No. 14, 1608–1610. See infra, Appendix A, ‘Gowrie’s Arms and Ambitions.’

63

Gowrie’s letters of 1595 are in Pitcairn.

64

State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxiii. No. 85.

65

Simancas, iv. pp. 653, 654, 677, 680, 715.

66

Compare note, p. 110, supra.

67

Winwood Memorials, pp. 1, 156. Hudson to Cecil. State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 19.

68

Border Calendar, vol. ii. May 29, 1600. Carey to Cecil.

69

The whole proceedings are printed in Arnot’s Criminal Trials.

70

Nicholson to Cecil, June 22, June 29, 1600. Tytler, vol. ix. pp. 325, 326, 1843.

71

This date I infer from Cranstoun’s statement. On August 5 he had scarcely seen the Ruthvens, to speak to, for a fortnight.

72

Border Calendar, vol. ii. p. 698, Oct. 21, 1600. Carey to Cecil.

73

Calderwood, vi. 71.

74

A defender of Gowrie, Mr. Barbé, has the following ‘observes’ upon this point. It has been asserted by Calderwood that, ‘while the Earl was in Strathbraan, fifteen days before the fact’ (say July 20), ‘the King wrote sundry letters to the Earl, desiring him to come and hunt with him in the wood of Falkland, which letters were found in my lord’s pocket, as is reported, but were destroyed.’ Mr. Barbé then proves that letters were sent to Gowrie and Atholl in the last days of July. It is certain that a letter was sent to Gowrie about July 20, possibly a sporting invitation, not that there was any harm in an invitation to join a hunting party. James is next accused of ‘trying to stifle the rumour’ about this ‘letter,’ by a direct denial. This means that Craigengelt, Gowrie’s caterer, was asked whether he knew of any man or boy who came to Gowrie from Court, and said that he did not, a negative reply supposed to have been elicited by the torture to which Craigengelt was certainly subjected. We only know that at the end of July letters were sent to Gowrie, to Inchaffray, to Atholl, and to Ruthven. Whether his reached Gowrie or not, and what it contained, we cannot know.

75

Privy Council Register, vi. 194.

76

Cf. p. 110, note.

77

Border Calendar, i. 491.

78

Tragedy of Gowrie House, pp. 29, 31.

79

As to Bothwell’s whereabouts, in 1600, he left Brussels in March, nominally to go to Spain, but, in June, the agent of the English Government in the Low Countries was still anxious to hear that he had arrived in Spain. When he actually arrived there is uncertain. Compare Simancas, iv. p. 667, with State Papers, Domestic (Elizabeth) (1598–1600), p. 245, No. 88, p. 413 (March 24, April 3, 1600), p. 434, May 30, June 9, p. 509. Cecil meant to intrigue with Bothwell, through Henry Locke, his old agent with Bothwell’s party, Atholl, and Gowrie October 1593). Compare infra, p. 160.

80

Privy Council Register, ii. 217, 218.

81

Privy Council Register, ii. 622, 699.

82

Privy Council Register, vi. 73, 74.

83

State Papers, Scotland (Elizabeth), vol. lxvi. No. 13, No. 21.

84

Hatfield Calendar, viii. 147, 399.

85

For these letters of Logan’s, see Hatfield Calendar, vols. iii. iv. under ‘Restalrig,’ in the Index.

86

Privy Council Register, vol. v., s. v. ‘Logan’ in the Index.

87

Border Calendar, vol. ii. Willoughby to Cecil, January 1, 1599.

88

Pitcairn, ii. 405–407.

89

See Thorpe’s Calendar, vol. ii., s. v. ‘Mowbray, Francis’ in the Index.

90

He had sold Nether Gogar in 1596.

91

Some of the papers are in the General Register House, Edinburgh.

92

The evidence for all that occurred to Sprot, between April and July 1608, is that of a manuscript History of the Kirk of Scotland, now in the Advocates’ Library. It is written in an early seventeenth-century hand. Calderwood follows it almost textually up to a certain point where the author of the MS. history says that Sprot, on the scaffold, declared that he had no promise of benefit to his family. But Calderwood declares, or says that others declare, that Sprot was really condemned as a forger (which is untrue), but confessed to the Gowrie conspiracy in return for boons to his wife and children.