1563.—28th May. The Sentence on the Earl's Body.
Rutland MSS. at Belvoir, quoted in the Marquess of Huntly's Annals of Aboyne, pp. 467-468.
The coffin was set upright, as if the Earl stood upon his feet, and upon it a piece of good black cloth with his arms fast pinned. His accusation being read, his proctor answering for him, as if himself had been alive, the inquest was empanelled. The verdict was given that he was found guilty, and judgment given thereupon as by the law is accustomed. Immediately hereupon the good black cloth that hung over the coffin was taken away, and in its place a worse hanged on, the arms torn in pieces in sight of the people, and likewise struck out of the herald's book.
GENTLE ENTREATMENT OF A STRANGER
1563.—22nd February. The Death of Châtelar.
Laing's Knox, vol. ii. pp. 367-369.
[Châtelar, a musician and poet, had been in the suite of d'Amville, who accompanied Mary to Scotland. He addressed poems to the Queen, who received them graciously, and replied to them. He went home with his master, but returned to Scotland in 1562, and became one of the Queen's favourite attendants.]
Amongst the minions of the court there was one named Monsieur Chatelar, a Frenchman, that at that time passed all others in credit with the Queen. In dancing of the Purpose (so term they that dance, in the which man and woman talk secretly ...) in this dance, the Queen chose Chatelar, and Chatelar took the Queen. Chatelar had the best dress. All this winter, Chatelar was so familiar in the Queen's cabinet, early and late, that scarcely could any of the nobility have access unto her. The Queen would lie upon Chatelar's shoulder, and sometimes privily she would steal a kiss of his neck. And all this was honest enough; for it was the gentle entreatment of a stranger. But the familiarity was so great, that upon a night, he privily did convoy himself under the Queen's bed; but being espied, he was commanded away. The bruit {report} arising, the Queen called the Earl of Murray, and bursting into a womanly affection, charged him, that, as he loved her, he should slay Chatelar, and let him never speak a word. The other at first made promise so to do ... but returned and fell upon his knees before the Queen and said: Madam, I beseech your Grace cause not me to take the blood of this man upon me; your Grace has entreated him so familiarly before, that you have offended all your nobility; and now, if he shall be secretly slain at your own commandment, what shall the world judge of it? I shall bring him to the presence of justice, and let him suffer by law according to his deserving. "Oh," said the Queen, "you will never let him speak." I shall do (said he), madam, what in me lieth to save your honour.
THE REWARD OF DANCING
Poor Chatelar was brought back from Kinghorn to St. Andrews, examined, put to an assize, and so beheaded, the 22nd day of February, 1563. He begged license to write to France the cause of his death, which, said he, in his tongue was, Pour estre trouve en lieu trop suspect; that is, Because I was found in a place too much suspected. At the place of execution, when he saw that there was no remedy but death, he made a godly confession, and granted that his declining from the truth of God, and following of vanity and impiety, was justly recompensed upon him. But in the end he concluded, looking unto the heavens, with these words, O cruel dame! that is, cruel mistress! What that complaint imported, lovers may divine. And so received Chatelar the reward of his dancing, for he lost his head, that his tongue should not utter the secrets of our Queen. Deliver us, O Lord, from the rage of such inordinate rulers.
The Famine of 1563.
Laing's Knox, vol. ii. pp. 369-70.
The year of God 1563, there was an universal dearth in Scotland. But in the northland, where, the harvest before, the Queen had travelled, there was an extreme famine, in the which many died in that country. The dearth was great over all, but the famine was principally there. The boll of wheat gave six pounds; the boll of bere, six merks and a half; the boll of meal, four merks; the boll of oats, fifty shillings; an ox to draw in the plough, twenty merks; a wether, thirty shillings. And so all things appertaining to the sustentation of man, in triple and more exceeded their accustomed prices. And so did God, according to the threatening of his law, punish the idolatry of our wicked Queen, and our ingratitude, that suffered her to defile the land with that abomination again, that God so potently had purged, by the power of his word. For the riotous feasting, and excessive banqueting, used in Court and country, wheresoever that wicked woman repaired, provoked God to strike the staff of bread, and to give his malediction upon the fruits of the earth. But, O alas! who looked, or yet looks to this very cause of all our calamities.
STINKING PRIDE OF WOMEN
1563.—The Meeting of Parliament.
Laing's Knox, vol. ii. p. 381.
Such stinking pride of women, as was seen at that Parliament, was never seen before in Scotland. Three sundry days, the Queen rode to the Tolbooth; the first day, she made a painted oration, and there might have been heard amongst her flatterers, "Vox Dianæ, the Voice of a Goddess (for it could not be Dei) and not of a woman. God save that sweet face. Was there ever Orator spake so properly and so sweetly?"
All things misliking the Preacher, they spake boldly against the targetting of their taillies {i.e. the adornment of their robes with tassels}, and against the rest of their vanity, which they affirmed should provoke God's vengeance, not only against these foolish women, but against the whole realm.... Articles were presented, for orders to be taken for apparel, and for reformation of other enormities; but all was winked at.