English nervousness over the ascension of the Queen
Regent’s daughter to Queen Consort of France seems to have suggested a plan to
cow the mother and for English allies within the Scottish nobility to take
control of Leith in order to prevent a city in which the French might disembark
and take control in the name of the young Queen (now of both France and
Scotland). Matters could only seem that much more more urgent as plans were
seen, in France, to sail in force to its new vassal state.
The Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, mother of Mary, Queen of
Scots, seems at that moment to have been quite up to the situation. She has imperiously
ordered all of the miscreants to disburse and to return to their houses.
England would win the resulting conflict with France and
Scotland, nevertheless. Mary and her husband Francis II would desist of their
plans yet would refuse to sign the Treaty of Edinburgh drafted by Sir William
Cecil of the English Court as a condition of peace. The harsh treaty would have
required Mary — great granddaughter to the English King Henry VII — to renounce
all claim to the English throne thus leaving Elizabeth no Catholic competitor
to fear from that direction.
Copy of a Letter from the Lords, &c. of the Congregation
in Scotland to the Queen Regent, the 9th October 1559.
YT wyll please your Grace come to your Remembrans, howe at
our laste Convention in Hamilton we requered your Hieghnis in most humble maner
to desyste from the Fortifienge of this Towne of Leyth, then interprysed and be
gone, which appered to us, and yet dothe, a manyfeste Entrie to a Conqueste,
and Overthrow to our Liberties, and altogetheer agaynste the Lawes and Custumes
of this Realme, seing yt was begone [= begun], and yet contynuethe withowte
anye Advice or Consent of ye Nobilite and Councell therof. Wherfore accordinge
to our Deutie we owe to our commen Weele, now, as oft before, we most humbly
requere you[r] Grace to cawse your Strangers and Souldiars whatsomever, withowte
delaye departe owte of the said Towne of Lyth; the Strengethe of the which not
only dystroyethe that, but feareth as well the Inhabytans as other Schottysshe
Men our Souvereyn Ladeis lyege Subjects, of whatsomever Estate thei be, may resorte
therunto in maner accustomed to have their lefull [=lawful] Trafique. Assuringe
your Heighenes that yf ye in refusinge the same declare therby your evle [=
evil] Mynde towards the commen Weele of this Realme or Nation, and libertie of
the same, we wyll withowte delay mean, as of before, the Cawse unto the whole
Nobilite and Communaltie theirof. Requeringe most humbly your Grace Answer in
hast with thys Berrer, bycawse the Facte procydes daylie to the Conqueis [=
conquest], as apperethe to all Men. And so after our humble Commendations of
our Service unto your Heighenes, we commende
your Grace to the eternall Protection of God.
From the Original.
At Edenbourge the 19th of October 1559.
Your Graces
humble and obedient Serviteurs.
The Answer to the same.
A F T E R Commendations, we have receaved your Lettre of
Edenbourge the 19th of this Instant, which apperethe to us rather to
have come from a Prince to his Subjectes, then from Subjects to them that
berythe Autorite. For Answer wherof we have presently sent unto you this Berrer
Lion Heraulde Kynge of Armes, sufficiently instructed with our Mynde, to whom
ye shall gyve Credence.
At Leythe the 21th of Ottobre 1559.
Note by Thomas Randall:
MARIA R.
The Coppie of the Credyt is not yet to be had. Theffecte
therof was, that, for as myche as dyvers Wayes thai had offended, and now in especiall
beinge in Armes, she charged them upon their Obedience to departe everry Man to
his Howse. She burdyned [= charged] them also with Practyses owte of Englande,
namynge Balvanes, Kyrcaldie, Whytlawe to be Doers in the same: She knowethe also
of Barnabie being in this Countrie, wherunto Answer was made as I wrot in my last
Lettres.
Source: Haynes, State Papers, 211-12.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- Gossip as History: The Murder of Amy Robsart. February 17, 2020. "The first sudden death Leicester was rumored to have caused was that of his wife, Amy Robsart, in 1560. In that year, it was still not clear whether the Queen would marry. But certainly not her beloved Leicester if he were married."
- Who Saved Southampton from the Ax? September 2, 2019. “One of the popular mysteries of the final years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I is why the Queen executed her favorite, the Earl of Essex, for treason, and left his accomplice, the Earl of Southampton, to languish as a prisoner in The Tower until King James I ascended the throne.”
- Lady Southwell on the Final Days of Queen Elizabeth I. March 24, 2019. “her majesty told [Lady Scrope] (commanding her to conceal the same ) that she saw, one night, in her bed, her body exceeding lean, and fearful in a light of fire.”
- , that cam yn with King Henry the vii., the Castelle of Hengham was yn much ruine,…”
- Shakespeare on Gravity. August 26, 2018. “So carelessly does Shakespeare throw out such an extraordinary divination. His achievement in thus, as it were, rivalling Newton may seem in a certain sense even more extraordinary than Goethe's botanical and osteological discoveries;…”
- Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the English Renaissance Letter Index for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
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