Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/531

Rh REFORMATION.] SCOTLAND 507 the Lion's Den, roused the jealousy of the nobles. The arrogance of his favourites exceeded his own. The com- mons were disgusted by a depreciation of the coinage. The powerful earl of Argyll, incensed by the recovery from his wife, the widow of Moray, of some of the crown jewels, and Athole, a Stuart and Roman Catholic, united with Alexander Erskine, governor of Stirling, who now had the custody of the young king, in a league which received so much support that Morton bent before the storm and offered to resign. The king, whose education had been forced by Buchanan, now barely twelve years of age, nominally assumed the government, but was directed by a council of nobles headed by Athole as chancellor. Morton surrendered the castle of Edinburgh, the palace of Holyrood, and the royal treasures, retiring to Loch Leven, where he busied himself in laying out gardens. But his ambition could not deny itself another stroke for power. Aided by the young earl of Mar, he got possession of Stirling castle and the person of the king. Civil war was avoided only by the influence of Bowes, the English ambassador. A nominal reconciliation was effected, and a parliament at Stirling introduced a new government. Morton, who secured an indemnity, was president of the council, but Athole remained a privy councillor in an en- larged council with representatives of both parties. Shortly afterwards Athole died, of poison it was said, and suspicion pointed to Morton. His return to power was brief, and the only important event was the prosecution of the two Hamiltons, the abbots of Arbroath and Paisley, who still supported Mary and saved their lives by flight to England. The struggle with the Presbyterian clergy continued. The Second Book of Discipline had been presented to the king before he assumed office, and, although the general assembly in 1580 condemned Episcopacy absolutely, parliament did not sanction the condemnation. The final fall of Morton came from an opposite quarter. In September 1579 Esme Stuart, Lord D'Aubigny, the king's cousin, came to Scot- land from France, gained the favour of James by his courtly manners, and received the lands and earldom of Lennox, the custody of Dumbarton castle, and the office of chamberlain. One of his dependants, Captain James Stuart, son of Lord Ochiltree and brother-in-law of Knox, had the daring to accuse Morton at a meeting of the council in Holyrood of complicity in the murder of Darnley, and he was at once committed to custody. Some months later Morton was condemned by an assize for having taken part in that crime, and the verdict was justified by his con- fession that Bothwell had revealed to him the design, although he denied participation in its execution. He was executed by the Maiden a guillotine he had himself brought from England on 2d June 1581. Lennox From December 1580 to August 1582 the government was in the hands of Lennox and Stuart, now captain of SttuTt t ^ ie S uar d, a sma ll force which the estates had reluctantly regents, allowed the king to protect his person. Their jealousy threatened but never reached an open rupture. Stuart was rewarded by the gift first of the tutory, then of the earldom of Arran in April 1581. Lennox was created duke, a title seldom granted in Scotland. Their aim, carefully concealed by nominal adherence to the Protestant faith, appears to have been the association of Mary with her son in the government, a breach with England, the renewal of the league with France, and the restoration of the Roman Church. The nobles, bribed by office or the spoils of the church, were men of too feeble character to resist, but the Presbyterian ministers were made of stronger metal. . Illegal banishment of the contumacious clergy and arbitrary orders of council were followed by a rising against Epis- copacy. The proclamation of an extraordinary chamberlain air an itinerant court of justice to be held by Lennox at Edinburgh on 27th August precipitated the coup (Petat of 1575-1585 the Raid of Ruthven, which took the usual form of Scottish revolutions, the seizure of the king and the transfer of power to his captors. When on a visit (22d August 1582) to the earl of Gowrie, son of his mother's foe Lord Ruthven, Raid of at his castle of Hunting Tower near Perth, the earl his host, Ruthven. Mar, the master of Glamis, and others, taking advantage of the absence of Lennox and Arran, surrounded the castle with armed men and made James a prisoner, though still ostensibly treating him as king. Arran, returning to Perth with only two followers, was seized and put in prison. Lennox, after taking refuge in the castle of Dumbarton, fled to France, where he died in disgrace with the Catholics, because he had conformed to the Protestant doctrine. The government was for ten months in the hands of a new council, of which Gowrie as treasurer was the head. There was no parliament, but a convention at Holyrood ratified the consequences of the Raid of Ruthven. A declaration was extorted from the king condoning his capture; but James, no longer a boy, chafed under the tutelage of the Protestant nobles and the admonitions of the Protestant ministers. In June of the following year he escaped from Falkland to St Andrews, which was held by Colonel Stewart. Arran was recalled, the Raid of Reaction Ruthven declared treason, Gowrie executed, and the chief iu fav ur Protestant lords banished. Melville and other ministers J " found it necessary to fly to England. A parliament con- firmed the supremacy of Arran, who was created chan- cellor, and the forfeiture of the chief persons implicated in the Ruthven Raid. The king's power was declared to extend over all estates and subjects within the realm ; all jurisdictions not approved by parliament and all assemblies and conventions without the king's licence were discharged. A commission was granted to Patrick Adamson, archbishop of St Andrews, and other bishops for trying ecclesiastical causes, and a form of judgment was established for depriv- ing ministers of their benefices for worthy causes. A declaration was required to be subscribed by all beneficed men ministers, readers, masters of colleges and schools acknowledging their submission to the king and obedience to their ordinary bishop or superintendent appointed by him, under pain of forfeiture. A few subscribed uncondi- tionally, others with the qualification, "according to the Word of God " ; but a large number declined, and suffered the penalty. Early in 1585 Adamson issued a paper de- claring the king's supremacy in matters ecclesiastical, defending the restoration of bishops, and announcing the king's intention that the bishops should hold synods twice a year, that general assemblies should be allowed provided they had his sanction, but that no jurisdiction was to be exercised by presbyteries. This document, which cut at the root of the Presbyterian system and was a formal declaration in favour of the royal supremacy and Episco- pacy, was met with vehement protests by Melville and the exiled ministers. Meantime a series of intrigues went on between the James English and Scottish courts. Elizabeth, while osten- au d sibly favouring the exiles, disliked their political principles. James and Arran, instead of leaning on the papacy as Mary did, had shown signs of accepting a solution of the problem of church government more like that of England than of Geneva. There was here ground for a compromise of the religious controversy which political reasons made so desirable. Accordingly Lord Hunsdon, a favourite courtier of Elizabeth, met Arran near Berwick in the autumn, when it was arranged that the master of Gray, then a follower of Arran and personal favourite of James, should go to London in October. At his instance Elizabeth removed the banished Scottish lords and ministers from Newcastle to London. But Gray was playing his own a "