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 this was not the main motive of his frankness, for he was bound in honour to reveal to Elizabeth, who was in close alliance with the Scottish protestants, the tenor of his communications with his sister; he was bent on effecting a reconciliation between the two sovereigns; and he was ready to dare Elizabeth's displeasure by insisting that his sister should return to Scotland. It is, in truth, as clear as noonday that Lord James, so far from endeavouring to prejudice his sister in the eyes of Elizabeth, had an entirely opposite purpose in view. His main aim seems to have been to impress Elizabeth with the necessity of securing the friendship of the Queen of Scots. Thus, when Throgmorton learned that Elizabeth was proposing to intercept Mary on her voyage from France, he wrote on 26 July that he marvelled at Elizabeth's resolution, because Lord James, during his visit to France, had done what he could to persuade his sister to come home (ib. No. 337); and on 6 Aug. Lord James himself opined to Elizabeth that ‘the chief glory of both’ queens stood ‘in a peaceable reign, which is apt to conciliate a mutual love between them,’ and made this very definite proposal: ‘What if your title did remain untouched, as well for yourself as for the issue of your body? Inconvenient were it to provide that the Queen, my sovereign, her own place were reserved in the succession to the crown of England, which your majesty will pardon me if I take to be next by the law of all nations, as she is the next in lawful descent of the right line of Henry VII, and in this meantime this isle to be united in a perpetual friendship’ (ib. p. 384).

Indeed, in nothing does Lord James appear to such advantage as in his conduct to his sister in this dubious crisis; and it is simply inconceivable that his main aim was her ruin. He did his utmost to smooth her difficulties and reconcile the protestants to her rule; defended her, notwithstanding the denunciations of Knox, against the attempt to deprive her of the mass (, Works, ii. 271); and exercised all his skill to promote a close friendship between Elizabeth and her. Granted that he was striving mainly for the retention of his own authority, still it remains that he regarded his interests as compatible with his sister's sovereignty. It was naturally of prime importance to him and Maitland that they should win her confidence, but they endeavoured to win it by means not merely perfectly honourable, but highly praiseworthy: by effecting a reconciliation between the two queens, their hope being that if Elizabeth forgot the past and recognised the Queen of Scots' right of succession to the throne of England, the Queen of Scots might be led to forget even her devotion to catholicism. How far they were wrong in their calculation as regards the Queen of Scots it is difficult and unnecessary to decide; it suffices that in circumstances of great peril and difficulty they chose what was undoubtedly the path of honour, and that they are wholly free from the blame of failure, which must be shared, in whatever proportion, between the two queens. Nevertheless the conduct of Lord James was quite compatible with enlightened selfishness; for though by promoting this alliance he was extinguishing any hopes he himself might have cherished of succeeding to the Scottish throne, the success of his diplomacy would almost certainly assure him a position of exceptional power and splendour. Moreover, besides staving off immediate danger, he was creating an opportunity for rendering himself secure against the future.

No special office was assigned to Lord James beyond that of member in the new privy council chosen on 6 Sept. 1561. He was merely the friend and informal adviser of the queen, but the internal administration of the kingdom was virtually committed to him; Maitland, as secretary, being employed in all important diplomatic business. On 30 Jan. 1561–2 he had a grant under the privy seal of the earldom of Moray, and on 7 Feb. he obtained the earldom of Mar, and publicly assumed that title: apparently because it was deemed inexpedient that he should assume that of Moray, the earldom of Moray being then held informally by Huntly under the crown. On 8 Feb. he was married by Knox, in the church of St. Giles, to Agnes Keith, eldest daughter of William, earl Marischal, when, according to Knox—then much exercised about Lord James—‘the greatness of the banquet and the vanity used thereat offended many godly’ (ii. 314). But Knox's alarms were not justified. Never for a moment does Lord James seem to have contemplated the possibility of turning traitor to protestantism; rather was he bent on obtaining guarantees for his continuance in power, should his devotion to protestantism finally compel him to break with the queen. He was utilising the queen somewhat unscrupulously perhaps, but honestly, according to his lights, for the advantage of protestantism plus himself. For mere self-protection it was essential that he should either cripple his chief rivals among the nobility or attain to a special position of ascendency. His most powerful rivals were Bothwell, Châtelherault, and Huntly.