[714] The Archbishop here alludes to his being Legatus Natus, or Pope's Legate, as well as Primate of the Scottish Church.
[715] That is, John Douglas.
[716] In a former page, mention is made of this Lady, who obtained in her days sufficient notoriety. ([See notes [333] and [334[].) Grizzel Sempill was the daughter of Robert Master of Sempill, who succeeded his father, William, as third Lord Sempill, in 1548. The death of her husband, James Hamilton of Stanehouse, is also mentioned by Knox at page 222. He had been appointed Captain of the Castle of Edinburgh, about September 1543; (Lesley's Hist. p. 174;) and five years later, when he lost his life, he also filled the office of Provost of the City. His eldest son and heir, James, who was slain at the same time, was his father's Deputy, and Director of the Chancery. Notwithstanding the ambiguity of Knox's statement at page 124, we may charitably conclude, it was only subsequent to her husband's death that she became the avowed mistress of John Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, by whom she had several children: ([see note [336].) Two of her sons are thus styled in the Register of the Great Seal: "Legitimatio Johannis Hammyltoun junioris bastardi filii naturalis Grissillidis Sempill filiæ Roberti Magistri de Sempill, et Willielmi Hammyltoun ejus fratris etiam bastardi." 9 Oct. 1551. See also note by George Crawfurd, in his Officers of State, p. 381.—It was probably in virtue of some property she may have acquired that she obtained the title of Lady Gilton; as there is no evidence of her having contracted any second marriage. On the 11th July 1550, (not 1553, as usually stated,) William third Lord Creichton of Sanquhar, was slain in the Governor's chamber by Robert Master of Sempill; who was acquitted by the Governor, on the 10th September 1550.—(Pitcairn's Crim. Trials, vol. i. p. 354*.) "He escaped punishment, (says Pitscottie,) by means of John Hamilton, Bishop of St. Andrews, brother to the Governor, who entertained the Lady Stenhouse, commonly called Lady Gilton, daughter to this Robert Lord Semple, as his concubine." From the date of the remission, it must have been her brother who had committed this murder. Buchanan and other authorities likewise attribute his acquittal to the same influence; and one compiler says of the Archbishop, in very plain terms, "Amangis many utheris his harlottis, he interteayned this harlot Semple, nather bewtifull, of good fame, or utherwayis in any sort notable, except his awin kynsman, and followed him as scho had bene his lauchfull wyffe."—(Johnston's Hist, of Scotland, MS., Advocates Library.)
[717] Archibald fourth Earl of Argyle, in 1529, married to his first wife, Lady Helen Hamilton, second daughter of James first Earl of Arran, and sister of the Duke of Chattelherault. Their son Archibald succeeded as fifth Earl of Argyle about the end of 1558. [See page 290].
[719] In MS. G, "waver from."
[720] Spotiswood says that Douglas was a Carmelite or White Friar.—(Hist. p. 94.) It is not improbable he may have been the same person whose name appears as a Determinant in St. Salvator's College in 1554. In that year another John Douglas had the same rank in St. Mary's College, where he became a Licentiate in 1555. It is, I think, quite certain that John Douglas, who was Chaplain to the Earl of Argyle in 1558, and who may have assumed the name of Grant to escape apprehension, should not be confounded with the Provost of St. Mary's College, as Keith and other writers have done. The latter was born about the year 1494, and was descended from the Douglasses of Pettendreich. He studied at St. Andrews at the same time with John Wynrame, and was a Determinant in St. Leonard's College in 1515, and a Licentiate in 1517. Whether he was the person who entered the Carmelite Order, may be left to conjecture; but on 1st October 1547, he was elected Provost of St. Mary's College. In 1551, "Magister Joannes Douglas Prepositus Novi Collegii Mariani," was elected Rector of the University; and being annually elected to this office for the unprecedented period of twenty-three successive years, (1572-3, being called "Vigesimus tertius Rectoratus Johannis Douglas,) and being a constant resident in St. Andrews, it is obvious he could not have been the obscure person who was protected by the Earl of Argyle.
[721] "How the Bishop's conscience (says Dr. MʻCrie) stood affected as to these points, we know not; but it is certain that his practice was very far from being immaculate."—(Wilkins, Concilia, vol. iv. p. 209; Life of Knox, vol. i. p. 320.)
[722] Archibald fourth Earl of Argyle, in 1525, was designed son and heir-apparent of Colin Earl of Argyle. He succeeded to the title before 1533. In 1543, he was opposed to the proposed alliance of Edward the Sixth and Mary Queen of Scots; and distinguished himself at the battle of Pinkie, in 1547, and at the siege of Haddington, in the following year. The precise time of his death is not ascertained; and his Testament is not known to be preserved. But he died towards the close of 1558, as on the 21st August that year he granted a charter to his son Archibald, then Lord Lorne; on the 2d December following, in the confirmation of the same charter, it is expressed that he was then deceased.
[723] Knox in thus alluding to the conduct of Archibald fifth Earl of Argyle, evidently points at his continued adherence to Queen Mary, at the time when the above passage was written.