According to the French ambassador, de la Boderie, Henry spent less time in study than in out-of-door exercise and games. “None of his pleasures,” says the Ambassador, writing when the boy was little more than twelve, “savour the least of a child. He is a particular lover of horses and what belongs to them; but is not fond of hunting; and when he goes to it, it is rather for the pleasure of galloping, than that which the dogs give him. He plays willingly enough at Tennis, and at another Scots diversion [golf] very like mall; but this always with persons elder than himself, as if he despised those of his own age. He studies two hours a day, and employs the rest of his time in tossing the pike, or leaping, or shooting with the bow, or throwing the bar, or vaulting or some other exercise of that kind; and he is never idle. He shows himself likewise very good natured to his dependants, and supports their interests against any persons whatever; and pushes what he undertakes for them or others, with such zeal, as gives success to it.”[67]
The Frenchman was probably wrong in supposing that the Prince played golf with persons older than himself because he despised those of his own age. The likelihood is that, as golf was introduced into England by Scotsmen who went south with James, only amongst his father’s northern courtiers would Henry be able to find opponents and partners for his game. An anecdote of the Prince regarding golf is told by Strutt in The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England. “At another time playing at goff, a play not unlike to pale-maille, whilst his schoolmaster stood talking with another, and marked not his highness warning him to stand farther off, the prince thinking he had gone aside, lifted up his goff-club to strike the ball; mean tyme one standing by said to him, ‘beware that you hit not master Newton’: wherewith he drawing back his hand, said, ‘Had I done so, I had but paid my debts.’” Henry’s remark seems to infer that good Master Newton had not spared the rod in the course of his tutorial duties, just as George Buchanan, a generation earlier, did not shrink from chastising the Prince’s father in the schoolroom at Stirling Castle.
The departure of Prince Henry for the south, after his father had come to his new inheritance, marks the end of the history of Stirling Castle as a regular dwelling-place of royalty. The ancient seat of monarchy was seldom occupied by princes after James had made his progress to London; but from time to time distinguished persons were lodged in the forsaken pile, albeit their stay within the fortress was not of their own seeking. In November, 1604, John, fifth Earl of Cassillis, was brought as a prisoner to Stirling from Blackness, his offence being that in the course of a dispute with his wife he attacked her in the presence of the Privy Council and dragged her out of the chamber. As the nobleman soon repented of his deed and sent a letter expressing his contrition to the Council, he was released from the castle at the end of the year, but was forbidden to pass further east than Linlithgow.[68]
In the following year Stirling Castle received as prisoners men of lowlier rank but of loftier spirit than Cassillis. These were several Presbyterian ministers, who, with others that were warded in Blackness, had attended the Assembly at Aberdeen in 1605, although the Privy Council, at James’s instigation had forbidden all persons to appear at such a meeting. For about one year the disobedient clergymen were detained in the castle by the King.[69]
James at this time was inclined for little toleration towards either Presbyterians or Roman Catholics. In 1608, George, first Marquis of Huntly, was warded in Stirling Castle for refusing to abjure the Romish religion, and for alleged disloyalty, while for the same reasons the Popish Earl of Erroll was placed in confinement in Edinburgh.[70] After enduring imprisonment for many months, Huntly and Erroll wrote to their sovereign vainly beseeching him to grant them liberty, “for the King (as the treuth was) thought that he could not preserue the publicke peace better, then be keiping thesse birdes of prey so caidget wpe.”[71] In the beginning of 1610, however, the Marquis was released on the understanding that henceforward he should embrace the Protestant faith.
Just about the time of Huntly’s discharge the Earl of Mar, in his capacity of Sheriff of Stirlingshire, placed in the Palace at Stirling Castle a man named John Murray, who was charged with murder or manslaughter. The delinquent should have been lodged in the Tolbooth of the town, but the magistrates, “being movid with some foolishe consait,” as Mar complained to the Privy Council, refused to concern themselves with the Sheriff’s prisoners, and so he was obliged to turn the King’s Palace into a common gaol. However, the Lords of Council listened to the Earl’s petition and ordered the Stirling magistrates to receive in future such persons as he should apprehend.[72]
THE CHAPEL ROYAL.
James was once again to reside in the home of his early days. Before leaving Scotland he had promised his people that he would return to his native land every three years; but only once in the course of his English reign did he pass within the borders of his northern kingdom. The summer of 1617 was the season chosen for the visit. Edinburgh, Dundee, St. Andrews and Glasgow were honoured by the presence of the King, and the inhabitants of Stirling had twice an opportunity of according welcome to their sovereign. The early days of July were spent by James in the familiar castle, and again towards the end of the month he came to reside in the Palace.
It was at the time of this, his last, visit to the castle that he heard the Regents of Edinburgh College discourse on the various branches of philosophy. A rumour had gone abroad that James intended to suppress the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, leaving the more ancient St. Andrews and Glasgow to be the Oxford and Cambridge of Scotland.[73] The Regents had desired to address the King at Edinburgh, but as no opportunity was given to them in the capital they made the journey to Stirling, hoping, doubtless, to impress him with their erudition and to justify the existence of their college. The scene of the disputation was the Chapel of the castle, where, on the evening of the 19th of July, a number of Scottish and English lords assembled with the King. Speeches were delivered in Latin and Greek, the pronunciations of the ancient tongues being after the Scottish mode, so that James took occasion to call the Englishmen’s attention to the superior grace which the languages acquired when spoken in the manner prevalent north of the Tweed.