Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/342

 due to the advice of others; his courage was always adequate for any demand upon it.

On 20 Feb. 1566–7 he addressed a letter to the queen begging her to call a meeting of the estates, that prompt measures might be taken for the discovery of the murderer (, ii. 525); and it was only when he found that appeals to her were vain that, on 24 March, he formally accused Bothwell of the crime and demanded that he should be brought to trial. This demand it was impossible to pass by; but matters were so arranged that Lennox was unable to appear at the trial as Bothwell's accuser. Bothwell having filled the city with his own supporters, Lennox deemed it necessary to bring with him a force adequate for his protection; but when the queen learned that he was approaching the city with three thousand followers, she sent her commands to him at Linlithgow not to enter Edinburgh with more than six in his company (Cal. State Papers, For. 1566–8, No. 1097; Diurnal, p. 108). Not daring to place himself under the protection of Bothwell and the queen, Lennox sent his servant, Robert Cunningham, ‘to pursue in his name’ (ib.), but the substitute was not accepted, and, on the ground that no accuser had appeared, Bothwell was formally acquitted of the charge of murder and declared not guilty. On 29 April Lennox, deeming a longer stay in Scotland not only useless but unsafe, set sail from the west coast for England (ib. p. 109); but after the queen's surrender at Carberry Hill and imprisonment in Lochleven, he was on 23 June nominated regent provisionally (Reg. P. C. Scotl. i. 541), and he returned to Scotland in July. On the escape of Mary from Lochleven, he joined the lords who defeated her at Langside; and at the Westminster conference in November 1568 he appeared and delivered a paper in which he accused the Queen of Scots of conspiracy against the life of his son.

After the assassination of Moray, Lennox was on 16 June 1570 appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom; and on 12 July he was on the recommendation of Elizabeth—who, however, resolved to detain the Lady Margaret in England—chosen regent. With no party in Scotland was his election popular; and it so provoked the queen's sympathisers that in a parliament held at Linlithgow on 10 Aug., they declared their intention never to acknowledge him as regent, while Kirkcaldy of Grange resolved openly to espouse the cause of the queen, and to hold the castle of Edinburgh on her behalf. Huntly also assembled his forces and marched south to Brechin, but was on 18 Aug. surprised by Lennox, who was at least a good soldier, and completely defeated. Shortly afterwards he issued a proclamation against ‘the Earl of Huntly's calumnies,’ that he ‘was a sworn Englishman’ (summarised in History, iii. 9); and, proceeding westwards, he besieged the castle of Doune, which surrendered within three days. Elizabeth now sought to interpose to bring about an arrangement between the two parties, and on 14 Jan. 1571 an abstinence for two months was agreed upon; but during its continuance the Hamiltons seized the house of Paisley from Lord Sempill's servants, and Lennox, having appointed the lieges to meet him at Glasgow, defeated Hamilton and obtained its surrender on 12 Feb. On 2 April one of his followers, Captain Thomas Crawford [q. v.], by a daring feat of climbing, succeeded in capturing the all but impregnable stronghold of Dumbarton; and thus established the authority of the regent over all the west of Scotland. On 13 April Kirkcaldy published at the market cross of Edinburgh a public cartel against Lennox, and as a counter-move Lennox, having on 11 May arrived at Leith with a large force, on the 14th fortified a space at the head of the Canongate to enable him to hold a parliament within the freedom of Edinburgh. After various decrees of forfailture had been passed, the parliament was adjourned until August at Stirling, and while the chief nobility of the regent's party were assembled there, the town early on the morning of 4 Sept. was surprised by an armed party sent by Grange from Edinburgh. Many of the nobility, including the regent, were taken prisoners; but while a portion of the raiders had dispersed in quest of plunder, a rescue was effected by Mar, and the party put to flight, although not before the regent had been stabbed in the back by Captain Calder.

Mortally wounded, Lennox rode back to the castle, and died at four o'clock in the afternoon (4 Sept. 1571) after commending the young king to the care of the assembled lords, and beseeching Mar to carry a last message of love to his wife. He was buried in the chapel royal of Stirling. George Buchanan, who had so warmly espoused the cause of the murdered son, commemorated the father in a Latin epitaph. By Lady Margaret Douglas, Lennox had four sons and four daughters; but of these only two sons survived infancy: Henry, lord Darnley [q. v.], and Charles, who, the earldom of Lennox being on the death of the regent vested in James VI, succeeded to the lord-