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Other documents randomly have
different content
 The Project Gutenberg eBook of Domestic
Annals of Scotland from the Reformation to
the Revolution, Volume 1 (of 2)
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Domestic Annals of Scotland from the Reformation to the

Revolution, Volume 1 (of 2)

Author: Robert Chambers

Release date: May 25, 2024 [eBook #73694]

Language: English

Original publication: Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, 1859

Credits: Susan Skinner, Mr David Mowatt and the Online

Distributed Proofreading Team at
https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
images generously made available by The Internet
Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOMESTIC

ANNALS OF SCOTLAND FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE
REVOLUTION, VOLUME 1 (OF 2) ***
 DOMESTIC
ANNALS OF SCOTLAND.

DOMESTIC
ANNALS OF SCOTLAND
From the Reformation to the Revolution.
 BY ROBERT CHAMBERS,
F.R.S.E., F.S.A.Sc., &c.

SECOND EDITION.

VOLUME I.

Bannatyne House, Strathmore.

W. & R. CHAMBERS, EDINBURGH AND LONDON.

MDCCCLIX.

Edinburgh:
Printed by W. and R. Chambers.
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
It has occurred to me that a chronicle of domestic matters in
Scotland from the Reformation downwards—the period during which
we see a progress towards the present state of things in our country
—would be an interesting and instructive book. History has in a
great measure confined itself to political transactions and
personages, and usually says little of the people, their daily
concerns, and the external accidents which immediately affect their
comfort. This I have always thought was much to be regretted, and
a general tendency to the same view has been manifested of late
years. I have therefore resolved to make an effort, in regard to my
own country, to detail her domestic annals—the series of occurrences
beneath the region of history, the effects of passion, superstition,
and ignorance in the people, the extraordinary natural events which
disturbed their tranquillity, the calamities which affected their
wellbeing, the traits of false political economy by which that
wellbeing was checked, and generally those things which enable us
to see how our forefathers thought, felt, and suffered, and how, on
the whole, ordinary life looked in their days.
Nor are these details, broken up and disjointed as they often are,
without a useful bearing on certain generalisations of importance, or
devoid of instruction for our own comparatively enlightened age. A
good end is obviously served by enumerating, for example, all the
famines and all the pestilences that have beset the country; for
when this is done, it becomes evident that famine and pestilence
have been connected in the way of cause and effect. For the
astronomer, the meteorologist, and the naturalist, many of the
accounts of comets, meteors, and extraordinary natural productions
here given, must have some value.1 To the political economist, it
may be of service to see the accounts here drawn from
contemporary records of the productiveness and failure of many
seasons, and of the varying proportions of bad seasons to good
throughout considerable spaces of time. As for the numberless
narratives and anecdotes illustrative of the mistaken zeal, the
irregular passions, the deplorable superstitions, and erroneous ideas
and ways in general, of our ancestors, they furnish beyond doubt a
rich pabulum for the student of human nature; nor may they be
without some practical utility amongst us, since many of the same
errors continue in a reduced style to exist, and it may help to
extinguish them all the sooner, that we are enabled here to look
upon them in their most exaggerated and startling form, and as
essentially the products and accompaniments of ignorance and
barbarism.
It will probably be matter of regret that this work consists of a series
of articles generally brief and but little connected with each other,
producing on the whole a desultory effect. Might not the materials
have been fused into one continuous narration? I am very sensible
how desirable this was for literary effect; but I am at the same time
assured that, in such a mode of presenting the series of
occurrences, there would have been a constant temptation to
generalise on narrow and insufficient grounds—to make singular and
exceptional incidents pass as characteristic beyond the just degree in
which they really are so—namely, as matters just possible in the
course of the national life of the period to which they refer. It
seemed to me the most honest plan, to present them detachedly
under their respective dates, thus allowing each to tell its own story,
and have its own proper weight with the reader, and no more, in
completing the general picture.
As one means of conveying ‘the body of each age, its form and
pressure,’ the language of the original contemporary narrators is
given, wherever it was sufficiently intelligible and concise. Thus each
age in a manner tells its own story. It has not been deemed
necessary, however, to retain antiquated modes of orthography,
beyond what is required to indicate the old pronunciation, nor have I
scrupled occasionally to omit useless clauses of sentences, when
that seemed conducive to making the narration more readable. This
procedure will not be quite approved of by the rigid antiquary; but it
will be for the benefit of the bulk of ordinary readers.
In general, the events of political history are presented here in only
a brief narrative, such as seemed necessary for connection. But I
have introduced a few notices of these events where there was a
contemporary narration either characteristic in its style, or involving
particulars which might be deemed illustrative of the general feeling
of the time.
Edinburgh, January 25, 1858.
 CONTENTS OF VOL I.
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY, 1
REIGN OF MARY: 1561-5, 7
REIGN OF MARY: 1565-7, 35
REGENCY OF MORAY: 1567-70, 43
REGENCIES OF LENNOX AND MAR: 1570-2, 61
REGENCY OF MORTON: 1572-8, 82
REIGN OF JAMES VI.: 1578-85, 126
REIGN OF JAMES VI.: 1585-90, 160
REIGN OF JAMES VI.: 1591-1603, 219
REIGN OF JAMES VI.: 1603-25, 379
GENERAL INDEX.
 Illustrations.
VOL. I.
Frontispiece Vignette.—BANNATYNE HOUSE, NEWTYLE—where
George Bannatyne is supposed to have written his Manuscript.
PAGE
EDINBURGH CASTLE, RESTORED AS IN 1573, XII

AN EDINBURGH HAMMERMAN, 1555, 10

QUEEN MARY’S HARP, 31
THE BRANKS, AN INSTRUMENT OF PUNISHMENT, 47
GEORGE BANNATYNE’S ARMS AND INITIALS, 58
THE MAIDEN, 144
THE DEVIL PREACHING TO THE WITCHES, 215
BAILIE MACMORAN’S HOUSE, 263
WITCH SEATED ON THE MOON, 378
SILVER HEART IN CULROSS ABBEY, 450
HOUSE OF ROBERT GOURLAY, A RICH EDINBURGH CITIZEN
554
OF 1574,
 INDEX
TO SUCH
BOOKS AND AUTHORITIES AS, FROM THEIR MORE FREQUENT
OCCURRENCE, ARE QUOTED IN AN ABRIDGED FORM.
D. O.—Diurnal of Remarkable Occurrents in Scotland, 1513-
1575. (Maitland Club.) 4to. 1833
Cal.—History of the Kirk of Scotland. By Mr David
Calderwood. (Wodrow Society.) 8 vols. 1842
Pit.—Criminal Trials in Scotland, from 1488 to 1624, with
Historical Notes and Illustrations. By Robert Pitcairn,
Esq. 3 vols.4to. Edin. 1833
Knox.—History of the Reformation in Scotland. By John
Knox. From MS. Edited by David Laing. 2 vols. (Wodrow
Society.) Edin. 1846
C. F.—Chronicle of Fortingall [a composition of the sixteenth
century, preserved in the charter-chest of the Marquis
of Breadalbane, and printed in the same volume with
the Black Book of Taymouth, Edinburgh, 4to. 1855]
P. C. R.—Privy Council Record, MS. in General Register
House, Edinburgh. Mar.—Annales of Scotland from the
year 1513 to the year 1591. By George Marioreybanks,
burges of Edinburghe. From MS. 8vo. 1814
Bir.—Diary of Robert Birrel, burges of Edinburghe, from
1532 to 1605. Dalyell’s Fragments of Scottish History.
From MS. 4to. Edin. 1798
E. C. R.—Edinburgh Council Record, MS. in Council
Chamber, Edinburgh.
H. K. J.—Historie of King James the Sext. 4to. Edin. 1825
C. C. R.—Canongate Council Record [extracts printed in
Maitland Club Miscellany, vol. ii.]
Ban.—Journal of the Transactions in Scotland, 1570, 1571,
1572, 1573. By Richard Bannatyne, Secretary to John
Knox. From MS. 8vo. Edin. 1806
Ken.—Historical Account of the Name of Kennedy. From MS.
With Notes by Robert Pitcairn. 4to. 1830
Ja. Mel.—Autobiography and Diary of Mr James Melville,
1556-1610. From MS. Edited by Robert Pitcairn.
(Wodrow Society.) 8vo. 1842
Bal.—Annales of Scotland, 1057-1603. By Sir James Balfour.
From MS. 4 vols. 8vo. Edin. 1824
Spot.—History of the Church of Scotland. By the Right Rev.
John Spottiswoode, Archbishop of St Andrews. 3 vols.
8vo. 1847
Howes.—Chronicle of England. By Edmond Howes. Fol. 1615
H. of G.—History of the House of Douglas. By Mr David
Hume of Godscroft. 2 vols. 1748
Jo. R. B. Hist.—Historia Rerum Britannicarum, &c. Auctore
Roberto Johnstono. Fol. Amstel. 1655
R. G. K. E.—Register of the General Kirk of Edinburgh,
1574-1575. Maitland Club Miscellany, vol. i.
B. U. K.—Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland. 1839-
(Bannatyne Club.) 3 vols. 4to. Edin. 40
Chr. Aber.—Chronicle of Aberdeen, 1491-1595. (Spalding
Club Miscellany.)
Hist. Acc. Fam. Innes.—Historical Account of the Origine and
Succession of the Family of Innes, &c. From orig. MS.
Edin. 1820
M. of S.—Mem. Som.—The Memorie of the Somervilles, &c.
2 vols. 8vo. 1815
Moy.—Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland, 1577-1603. By
David Moysie. From MS. (Maitland Club.) 4to. 1830
Moy. R.—Idem, Ruddiman’s edition. 12mo. 1755
Ab. C. R.—Extracts from the Council Register of the Burgh
of Aberdeen, 1570-1625. (Spalding Club.) 1848
Row.—Row’s History of the Kirk of Scotland. (Wodrow
Society.) 1842
Pa. And.—History of Scotland. By Patrick Anderson. MS.
Advocates’ Library.
M. of G.—Memorabilia of the City of Glasgow, selected from
the Minute-books of the Burgh. Glasgow, printed for
private circulation. 1835
C. K. Sc.—Chronicle of the Kings of Scotland. From MS.
(Maitland Club.) 1830
Jo. Hist.—Johnston’s History of Scotland. MS. Advocates’
Library.
Chron. Perth.—The Chronicle of Perth, &c., from 1210 to
1668. (Maitland Club.) 4to. Edin. 1831
G. H. S.—Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland.
By Sir Robert Gordon, Bart. Fol. Edin. 1813
Stag. State.—The Staggering State of Scots Statesmen from
1550 to 1650. By Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet. From
MS. 12mo. Edin. 1754
S. A.—Acts of Parliament made by King James I., and his
Royal Successors. 3 vols. 1682
Acts of the Parliament of Scotland. 11 vols. fol.
P. K. S. R.—Perth Kirk-Session Records. Spottiswoode Club
Miscellany.
A. K. S. R.—Aberdeen Kirk-Session Records. (Spalding Club.)
Aber. 1846
A. P. R.—Aberdeen Presbytery Records. (Spalding Club.)
Aber. 1846
M. S. P.—State Papers, &c., of Thomas Earl of Melrose.
(Abbotsford Club.) 2 vols. 4to. Edin. 1837
An. Scot.—Analecta Scotica: Collections illustrative of the
Civil, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of Scotland. 1834-
Edited by James Maidment. 2 vols. Edin. 38
R. P. L.—Selections from the Registers of the Presbytery of
Lanark, 1623-1709. 4to. Edin. 1839
Foun. Hist. Ob.—Historical Observes, &c. By Sir John Lauder
of Fountainhall. 4to. Edin. 1840
Foun. Dec.—Fountainhall’s Decisions of the Court of Session.
2 vols. fol. Edin. 1759
Fount.—Historical Notices of Scottish Affairs, from the MSS.
of Sir John Lauder of Fountainhall. 2 vols. 4to. Edin. 1848
W. A.—Analecta, or Materials for a History of Remarkable
Providences, &c. By the Rev. Robert Wodrow. 4 vols.
(Maitland Club.) Edin. 1842
Stev. Hist. C. of Scot.—History of the Church of Scotland. By
Andrew Stevenson, writer in Edinburgh. 2d ed. Edin. 1844
B. A.—Book of Adjournal. MS. Advocates’ Library.
Gillies.—Historical Collections relating to Remarkable Periods
of the Success of the Gospel, &c. By John Gillies. 2 vols.
Glas. 1754
Spal.—Memorials of the Troubles in Scotland and England, 1850
a.d. 1624-a.d. 1645. By John Spalding. 2 vols. 4to.
 (Spalding Club.) Aber.
Ab. Re.—A Little yet True Rehearsal of Several Passages of
Affairs that did occur from the year 1633 till this
present year 1655. Collected by a friend of Dr
Alexander’s at Aberdeen. Sir Lewis Stewart’s
Collections. MS. Advocates’ Library.
Pa. Gordon.—A Short Abridgment of Britanes Distemper,
from the year of God 1639 to 1649. By Patrick Gordon
of Ruthven. (Spalding Club.) 1844
Carlyle.—Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches, with
Elucidations by Thomas Carlyle. 2 vols. 1845
Lam.—Diary of Mr John Lamont of Newton, 1649-1671.
Edin. 1830
C. P. H.—Collections by a Private Hand at Edinburgh, 1650-
1661. Stevenson, Edin. 1832
Nic.—Diary of Public Transactions and other Occurrences,
chiefly in Scotland. By John Nicoll. 4to. Edin. 1836
R. C. E.—Register of the Committee of Estates. MS. General
Register House, Edinburgh.
Spreull.—Some Remarkable Passages of the Lord’s
Providence towards Mr John Spreull, Town-clerk of
Glasgow, 1635-1664. Stevenson, Edin. 1832
Law.—Memorials; or Memorable Things, &c., from 1638 to
1684. By the Rev. Robert Law. From MS. Edin. 1818
Bail.—Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie, A.M., Principal
of the University of Glasgow. From MS. 3 vols. Edin. 1841
Kir.—Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland,
from the Restoration to the year 1678. By the Rev.
James Kirkton. 4to. Edin. 1817
Pat. Walker.—Biographia Presbyteriana. [Lives of Alexander 1827
Peden, &c., by Patrick Walker.] 2 vols. Edin.

Edinburgh Castle, restored as in 1573.

DOMESTIC ANNALS OF SCOTLAND.
 INTRODUCTORY.
Our attention lights, a few years after the middle of the sixteenth
century, on a little independent kingdom in the northern part of the
British island—a tract of country now thought romantic and
beautiful, then hard-favoured and sterile, chiefly mountainous,
penetrated by deep inlets of the sea, and suffering under a climate
not so objectionable on account of cold as humidity. It contains a
scattered population of probably seven hundred thousand:—the
Scots—thought to be a very ancient nation, descended from a
daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and living under a monarchy
believed to have originated about the time that Alexander conquered
India. A very poor, rude country it is, as it well might be in that age,
and seeing that it lay so far to the north and so much out of the
highway of civilisation. No well-formed roads in it—no posts for
letters or for travelling. A printing-press in the head town,
Edinburgh, but not another anywhere. A regular localised court of
law had not yet existed in it thirty years. No stated means of
education, excepting a few grammar-schools in the principal towns,
and three small universities. Society consisted mainly of a large
agricultural class, half enslaved to the lords of the soil: above all,
obliged to follow them in war. Other industrial pursuits to be found
only in the burghs, the chief of which were Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Stirling, Perth, Dundee, and Aberdeen.
In reality, though it was not known then, the bulk of the people of
Scotland were a branch of the great Teutonic race which possesses
Germany and some other countries in the north-west of Europe.
Precisely the same people they were with the bulk of the English,
and speaking essentially the same language, though for ages they
had been almost incessantly at war with that richer and more
advanced community. As England, however, was neighboured by
Wales, with a Celtic people, so did Scotland contain in its northern
and more mountainous districts a Celtic people also, rude, poor,
proud, and of fiery temper, but brave and possessed of virtues of
their own, somewhat like the Circassians of our own day. These
Highland clansmen—whom the English of that time contemptuously
called Redshanks, with reference to their naked hirsute limbs—were
the relics of a greater nation, who once occupied all Scotland, and of
whose blood some portion was mingled with that of the Scots of the
Lowlands, producing a certain fervour of character—‘perfervidum
ingenium Scotorum’—which is not found in purely Teutonic natures.
The monarchy had originated with them early in the sixth century of
the Christian era, and had gradually absorbed the rest of Scotland,
even while its original subjects were hemmed more and more within
the hilly north. But, by the marriages of female heirs, this thorn-
encircled crown had come, in the fourteenth century, into a family of
Norman-English extraction, bearing the name of Stuart.
The present monarch was ‘our Sovereign Lady Mary,’ a young and
beautiful woman, married to Francis II. of France. She had been
carried thither in a troublous time during her childhood, and in her
absence, a regent’s sceptre was swayed by her mother, a princess of
the House of Guise. Up to that time, Scotland, like most of the rest
of Europe, was observant of the Catholic religion, and under vows of
obedience to the pope of Rome. But the reforming ideas of Luther
and Melancthon, of Zuinglius and Calvin, at length came to it, and
surprising were the effects thereof. As by some magical evolution,
the great mass of the people instantaneously threw off all regard to
the authority of the pope, with all their old habits of worship,
professing instead a reverence for the simple letter of Scripture, as
interpreted to them by the reforming preachers. Indignant at having
been so long blinded by the Catholic priesthood—whose sloth and
luxury likewise disgusted them—they attacked the churches and
monasteries, destroyed the altars and images—did not altogether
spare even the buildings, alleging that rooks were best banished by
pulling down their nests: in short, made a very complete practical
reformation through all the more important provinces. This was done
by the populace, with the countenance and help of a party of the
nobility and gentry; and the regent, Mary de Guise, who was firm in
the old faith, in vain strove to stem the torrent. Obtaining troops
from France, she did indeed maintain for a time a resistance to the
reforming lords and their adherents. But they, again, were supported
by some troops from Elizabeth of England, whose interest it was to
protestantise Scotland; and so the Reformation got the ascendency.
Mary the Regent sunk into the grave, just about the time that her
faith came to its final and decisive ruin within her daughter’s
dominions.
This change may be considered as having been completed in August
1560, when an irregular parliament, or assembly of the Estates of
the kingdom, abolished the jurisdiction of the pope, proscribed the
mass under the severest penalties, and approved of a Confession of
Faith resembling the articles which had been established in England
by Edward VI. The chief feature of the new system was, that each
parish should have its own pastor, elected by the people, or at least
a reader to read the Scriptures and common prayers. While thus
essentially presbyterian, there was a trace of episcopal
arrangements in the appointment of ten superintendents (one of
whom, however, was a layman), whose duty it should be to go about
and see that the ordinary clergy did their duty. The great bulk of the
possessions and revenues of the old church fell into the hands of the
nobles, or remained with nominal bishops, abbots, and other
dignitaries, who continued formally to occupy their ancient places in
parliament, while the presbyterian clergy were insufficient in number,
and in general very poorly supported.
‘Lo here,’ then, ‘a nation born in one day; yea, moulded into one
congregation, and sealed as a fountain with a solemn oath and
covenant!’ So exclaims a clerical writer a hundred years later; and
we, who live two hundred years still further onward, may well echo
the words. But a little while ago, there were priests, with vestments
of ancient and gorgeous form, saying mass in churches, which were
the only elegant structures in the country. The name of the pope
was a word to bow at. Confession was one of the duties of life.
Barefooted friars wandered about in the enjoyment of universal
reverence. Any gentleman going out with his sovereign on a military
expedition, would have been thought liable to every evil under the
sun, and altogether a scandalous person, if he did not beforehand
obtain pardon for his sins from the Grayfriars, and leave in their
hands his most valuable possessions, including the very titles of his
estate, which he might hope to get back if he survived; but
otherwise, he well knew all would go to the enriching of these same
friars, who were under vows to live in perpetual poverty.2 The king
himself sought for his highest religious comfort in pilgrimising to St
Duthac’s shrine in Ross-shire, or to the chapel of our Lady of Loretto,
at Musselburgh. The bishop of Aberdeen felt a solacement in the
hour of death, in the trust that his bowels would be buried, as he
requested, in the Blackfriars Monastery in Edinburgh.3 So lately as
1547, the Scotch, fighting with the English at Pinkie, called out
reproachful names to them, on the score of their having deserted
the ancient faith. But here is now Scotland also converted, and that
as it were in a day, from all those old reverences and observances,
and taken possession of by a totally new set of ideas. The Bible in
the vulgar tongue has been suddenly laid open to them. Their
minds, earnest and reflecting, though unenlightened, have been
impressed beyond description by the tale of miraculous history which
it unfolds, and the deeply touching scheme for effecting the
salvation of man which the theologian constructs from it. They feel
as if they had got hold of something of priceless value, and in
comparison with which all the forms and rites of medieval
Christianity are as dust and rubbish. The Evangel, the True Religion,
as they earnestly called it, is henceforth all in all with this poor and
homely, but resolute people. Nothing inconsistent therewith can be
listened to for a moment. Scarcely can a dissentient be permitted to
live in the country. The state, too, must maintain this system, and
this system alone, or it is no state for them. Above all, the errors of
Popery must be unsparingly put down. The mass is idolatry: God, in
his Book, says that idolatry is a sin to be visited with the severest
judgments; therefore, if you wish to avoid judgments, you must
extinguish the mass. Even modified forms and rituals which have
been preserved by English Protestantism, as calculated to raise or
favour a spirit of devotion, and maintain a decency in worship, are
here regarded as but the rags of Rome, and spurned with nearly the
same vehemence as the mass itself. Scotland will have nothing but a
preacher to expound, and say a prayer. That, with the Bible in the
hands of the people, is enough for her. No hierarchy does she
require to maintain order in the church. Let the ministers meet in
local courts and in General Assembly, and settle everything by equal
votes. Bishops and archbishops are a popish breed, who must, if
possible, be kept at a distance.
Even one who may now take more charitable and lenient views can
scarcely fail to sympathise with, yea, admire, this little out-of-the-
way nation, in seeing it dictate and do thus against the might of an
ancient institution of such imposing dimensions as the Romish
Church. And to do it, too, in the teeth of their own ruling power,
such as it was. And all so effectually, that from that hour to this,
Rome, in all her back-surgings upon the ground she lost in the
sixteenth century, was never able to put Scottish Protestantism once
in the slightest danger. Undoubtedly, if there be merit in a faithful
contending for what is felt to be all-important truth, it was a worthy
thing, and one that shewed there was some good metal in the
constitution of the Scottish mind. It could not surprise one that a
people who acted thus, should also prove to be a valiant and
constant people under physical difficulties; that they should make
wonderful results out of a poor soil and climate; that they should do
some considerable things in the science of thinking and in letters;
and, above all, stand well to their own opinions and ways, and to the
maintenance of their political liberties and national independence,
frown, threaten, and drive at them who might.
It was so—and yet—for every picture of noble humanity has its
reverse—it is forced upon us that the Scots were, at this very time, a
fearfully rude and ignorant people. As usual, they were so without
having the least consciousness of it: their greatest author of that
age, George Buchanan, speaks in perfect earnest of the refinement
of his own time, in comparison with the barbarism of former days.4
But, whatever the age might be relatively to past ages, it was rude
in itself. The Scotland of that day was ruder than the England of that
day, ruder than many other European states. Few persons could
read or write. Few knew aught beyond their daily calling. Men
carried weapons, and were apt to use them on light occasion. The
lords, and the rich generally, exercised enormous oppression upon
the poor. The government was a faction of nobles, as against all the
rest. When a man had a suit at law, he felt he had no chance
without using ‘influence.’ Was he to be tried for an offence?—his
friends considered themselves bound to muster in arms round the
court to see that he got fair-play; that is, to get him off unharmed if
they could. Men were accustomed to violence in all forms, as to their
daily bread. The house of a man of consideration was a kind of
castle: at the least, it was a tall narrow tower, with a grated door
and a wall of defence. No one in those days had any general
conceptions regarding the processes of nature. They saw the grass
grow and their bullocks feed, and thought no more of it. Any
extraordinary natural event, as an eclipse of the sun or an
earthquake, still more a comet, affected them as an immediate
expression of a frowning Providence. The great diseases, such as
pestilence, which arose in consequence of their uncleanly habits and
the wide-spread famines from which they often suffered, appeared
to them as divine chastisements; not perhaps for the sins of those
who suffered—which would have been comparatively reasonable—
but probably for the sins of a ruler who did not suffer at all. The
ruling class knew no more of a just public economy than the poor.
Through absurd attempts to raise the value of coin by statute, the
Scotch pound had fallen to a fraction of its original worth. By
ridiculous endeavours to control markets, and adjust exportation and
importation, mercantile freedom was paralysed, and penury and
scarcity among the poor greatly increased. The good plant of
Knowledge not being yet cultivated, its weed-precursor, Superstition,
largely prevailed. Bearded men believed that a few muttered words
could take away and give back the milk of their cattle. An archbishop
expected to be cured of a deadly ailment by a charm pronounced by
an ignorant countrywoman. The forty-six men who met as the first
General Assembly, and drew from the Scriptures the Confession of
Faith which they handed down as stereotyped truth to after-
generations, were every one of them not more fully persuaded of
the soundness of any of the doctrines of that Confession, than they
were of the reality of sorcery, and felt themselves not more truly
called upon by the Bible to repress idolatry than to punish witches.
They were good men, earnest, and meaning well to God and man;
but they were men of the sixteenth century, ignorant, and rough in
many of their ways.
While, then, we shall see great occasion to admire the hardy valour
with which this people achieved their deliverance from bondage, we
must also be prepared for finding them full of vehement intolerance
towards all challenge of their own dogmas and all adherence to alien
forms of faith. We shall find them utterly incapable of imagining a
conscientious dissent, much less of allowing for and respecting it.
We must be prepared to see them—while repudiating one set of
superstitious incrustations upon the original simple gospel—working
it out on their own part in creeds, plats, covenants, and church
institutions generally, full of mere human logic and device, but yet
assumed to be as true as if a divine voice had spoken and framed
them, breathing war and persecution towards all other systems, and
practically operating as a tyranny only somewhat less formidable
than that which had been put away.
 REIGN OF MARY: 1561-1565.
The regent, Mary de Guise, having died in June 1560, while her
daughter Mary, the nominally reigning queen, was still in France, the
management of affairs fell into the hands of the body of nobles,
styled Lords of the Congregation, who had struggled for the
establishment of the Protestant faith. The chief of these was Lord
James Stuart, an illegitimate son of James V., and brother of the
queen—the man of by far the greatest sagacity and energy of his
age and country, and a most earnest votary of the new religion.
Becoming a widow in December 1560, by the death of her husband,
Francis II., Mary no longer had any tie binding her to France, and
consequently she resolved on returning to her own dominions. When
she arrived in Edinburgh, in August 1561, she found the Protestant
religion so firmly established, and so universally accepted by the
people—there being only some secluded districts where Catholicism
still prevailed—that, so far from having a chance of restoring her
kingdom to Rome, as she, ‘an unpersuaded princess,’ might have
wished to do, it was with the greatest difficulty that she could be
allowed to have the mass performed in a private room in her palace.
The people regarded her beautiful face with affection; and, as she
allowed her brother, Lord James, and other Protestant nobles to act
for her, her government was far from unpopular.
Mary’s conduct towards the Protestant cause appeared as that of
one who submits to what cannot be resisted. Before she had been
fifteen months in the country, she accompanied her brother (whom
she created Earl of Moray) on an expedition to the north, where she
broke the power of the Gordon family, who boasted they could
restore the Catholic faith in three counties. What is still more
remarkable, she dealt with the patrimony of the church, accepting
part of the spoils for the use of the state. It is believed,
nevertheless, that she designed ultimately to act in concert with the
Catholic powers of the continent for the restoration of the old
religion in Scotland. One obvious motive for keeping on fair terms
with Protestantism for the present, lay in her hopes of succeeding to
the English crown, in the event of the death of Elizabeth, whose next
heir she was.

A custom, dating far back in Catholic times,

prevailed in Edinburgh in unchecked luxuriance 1561.
down almost to the time of the Reformation. It
consisted in a set of unruly dramatic games, called Robin Hood, the
Abbot of Unreason, and the Queen of May, which were enacted
every year in the floral month just mentioned. The interest felt by
the populace in these whimsical merry-makings was intense. At the
approach of May, they assembled and chose some respectable
individuals of their number, very grave and reverend citizens
perhaps, to act the parts of Robin Hood and Little John, of the Lord
of Inobedience, or the Abbot of Unreason, and ‘make sports and
jocosities’5 for them. If the chosen actors felt it inconsistent with
their tastes, gravity, or engagements, to don a fantastic dress, caper
and dance, and incite their neighbours to do the like, they could only
be excused on paying a fine. On the appointed day, always a Sunday
or holiday, the people assembled in their best attire and in military
array, and marched in blithe procession to some neighbouring field,
where the fitting preparations had been made for their amusement.
Robin Hood and Little John robbed bishops, fought with pinners, and
contended in archery among themselves, as they had done in reality
two centuries before.6 The Abbot of Unreason kicked up his heels
and played antics like a modern pantaloon. The popular relish for all
this was such as can scarcely now be credited. ‘A learned prelate
[Latimer] preaching before Edward VI., observes, that he once came
to a town upon a holiday, and gave information on the evening
before of his design to preach. But next day when he came to the
church, he found the door locked. He tarried half an hour ere the
key could be found, and instead of a willing audience, some one told
him: “This is a busy day with us; we cannot hear you. It is Robin
Hood’s day. The parish are gone abroad to gather for Robin Hood. I
pray you let [hinder] them not.” I was fain (says the bishop) to give
place to Robin Hood. I thought my rochet should have been
regarded, though I were not; but it would not serve. It was fain to
give place to Robin Hood’s men.’7
Such were the Robin Hood plays of Catholic and
unthinking times. By and by, when the Reformation 1561.
approached, they were found to be disorderly and
discreditable, and an act of parliament was passed against them.8
Still, while the upper and more serious classes frowned, the common
sort of people loved the sport too much to resign it without a
struggle. It came to be one of the first difficulties of the men who
had carried through the Reformation, how to wrestle the people out
of their love of the May-games.
In April 1561, one George Durie was chosen in Edinburgh as Robin
Hood and Lord of Inobedience, and on Sunday the 12th of May, he
and a great number of other persons came riotously into the city,
with an ensign and arms in their hands, in disregard of both the act
of parliament and an act of the town-council. Notwithstanding an
effort of the magistrates to turn them back, they passed to the
Castle Hill, and thence returned at their own pleasure. For this
offence a cordiner’s servant, named James Gillon, was condemned
to be hanged on the 21st of July.
‘When the time of the poor man’s hanging
approachit, and that the [hangman] was coming to 1561. July 21.
the gibbet with the ladder, upon which the said
cordiner should have been hangit, the craftsmen’s childer9 and
servants past to armour; and first they housit Alexander Guthrie and
the provost and bailies in the said Alexander’s writing booth, and
syne came down again to the Cross, and dang down the gibbet, and
brake it in pieces, and thereafter passed to the Tolbooth, whilk was
then steekit [shut]; and when they could not apprehend the keys
thereof, they brought fore-hammers and dang up the same Tolbooth
door perforce, the provost, bailies, and others looking thereupon;
and when the said door was broken up, ane part of them past in the
same, and not allenarly [only] brought the same condemnit cordiner
forth of the said Tolbooth, but also all the remanent persons being
thereintill; and this done they past down the Hie Gait [High Street],
to have past forth at the Nether Bow, whilk was then steekit, and
because they could not get furth thereat, they past up the Hie Gait
again; and in the meantime the provost, bailies, and their assisters
being in the writing-booth of Alexander Guthrie, past to the
Tolbooth; and in their passing up the said gait, they being in the
Tolbooth, as said is, shot forth at the said servants ane dag, and hurt
ane servant of the craftsmen’s. That being done, there was naething
but tak and slay; that is, the ane part shooting forth and casting
stanes, the other part shooting hagbuts in again; and sae the
craftsmen’s servants held them [conducted themselves] continually
fra three hours afternoon while [till] aucht at even, and never ane
man of the town steirit to defend their provost and bailies. And then
they sent to the masters of the craftsmen to cause them, gif they
might, to stay the said servants; wha purposed to stay the same, but
they could not come to pass, but the servants said they wald have
ane revenge for the man whilk was hurt. And thereafter the provost
sent ane messenger to the constable of the Castle to come to stay
the matter, wha came; and he with the masters of the craftsmen
treated on this manner, that the provost and bailies should discharge
all manner of actions whilk they had against the said craftschilder in
ony time bygane, and charged all their masters to receive them in
service as they did of before, and promittit never to pursue them in
time to come for the same. And this being done and proclaimit, they
skaled [disbanded], and the provost and bailies came furth of the
Tolbooth.’—D. O.
 An Edinburgh Hammerman, 1555.10
This was altogether an unprotestant movement,
1561.
though springing only from a thoughtless love of
sport. We may see in the attack on the Tolbooth a foreshadow of the
doings of the Porteous mob in a later age. It appears that the
magistrates, though reformers, were unpopular; hence the neutrality
of the citizens, who, when solicited to interfere for the defence of
the city-rulers, went to their four hours penny,11 and returned for
answer: ‘They will be magistrates alone; let them rule the multitude
alone.’—Cal. Thirteen persons were afterwards ‘fylit’ by an assize for
refusing to help the magistrates.—Pit.