The skull and portraits of Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, and their bearing on the tragedy of Mary, Queen of Scots / by Karl Pearson, F.R.S.; with frontispiece, forty-five plates, four figures in the text and six tissues of cranial contours.

  • Pearson, Karl, 1857-1936.
Date:
[1928]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The skull and portraits of Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, and their bearing on the tragedy of Mary, Queen of Scots / by Karl Pearson, F.R.S.; with frontispiece, forty-five plates, four figures in the text and six tissues of cranial contours. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    two who were her privy councillors] scho went doune to the Watersyde at ane Place callit the Newheuin, and quhill all merwellit quhider scho went in sic Haist, scho suddanely enterit into ane Schip thair prepairit for hir; quhilk Schip was prouydit be Williame Blacater, Edmond Blacater, Leonard Robertson, and Thomas Dicson, Bothwellis Servandis, and famous Robberis and Pyrates. With this Trayne of Theifis, all honest Men wondering at it, scho betuik hirself to Sey, taking not ane uther with hir, na not of hir Gentilmen, nor necessarie Attendants for commoun Honestie. In Aloe Castell, quhair the Schip arryuit, how scho behauit herself, I had rather euerie Man suld with himself imagine it, than heir me declair it. This ane Thing I dar affirme, that in all hir Wordis and Doingis, scho neuer keipit any Regard, I will not say of Quenelike Majestie, bot not of Matronelike Modestie. (Ane Detectioun of the Doingis of Marie Quene of Scottis, 1572, p. 6.) Henderson (Vol. n. pp. 401—3) repeats all this, and although there is absolutely no reason, except Buchanan’s envenomed words, for supposing the journey either sudden or secret, he says, “ of course such a sudden and secret journey to Alloa was bound to give rise to some perplexed comment.” In passage after passage he vaguely tries to find excuses for the “ too vituperative Buchanan,” instead of placing the whole of his narrative on one side as entirely untrustworthy. Hay Fleming in his text (loc. cit. p. 135) quotes without comment the words of Buchanan in the Detectioun (p. 7) as to her conduct at Alloa: “As for hirself, scho pastymit thair certaine Dayis, gif not in princely Magnificence, zit in mair than princely, or rather un- princely Licentiousness.” And this presumably in the presence of Moray and of her host Mar! Buchanan’s account of the Jedburgh assizes and the visit to Hermitage to visit the wounded Bothwell is, perhaps, too well-known to be recited here. I will content myself with a few lines: Quhen Newis heirof was brocht to Jedburgh [? Borthwich] to the Quene, scho flingis away in Haist lyke ane mad Woman, be greit Jornayis in Poist in the schaip Tyme of Wynter [October 8], first to Metros and than to Jedburgh, thair, thocht scho hard sure Newis of the Lyfe, zit hir Affectioun, impatient of Delay, culd not temper it self, but scho must neidis bewray hir outragious Lust [she arrived in Jedburgh on Oct. 10*, held assize and went to Hermitage on Oct. 16] and in ane unconvenient Tyme of the Zeir [October], despysing all Discommodities of the Way and Wedder, and all Dangeris of Theifis, scho betuke hirself heidlang to hir Jornay [after six days], with ane Company [including her brother, Moray!], as na man of ony honest Degre wald have adventurit his Life and his Gudes amang thame (p. 10). The last sentence at least has an element of truth in it! Is it necessary to go further than to state that with such stuff as Buchanan’s narrative the godly of Scotland have been fed for more than three centuries? Nay, are still fed. Thus Henderson (Vol. II. p. 404) writes: For the actual fact of the first admission of Bothwell into the house by Lady Rires, with¬ out the Queen’s knowledge, Buchanan’s authority is her confession to her brother Moray f and to his mother, the lady of Lochleven ; and though we have no corroboration of Buchanan’s story, it is at least possible that the confession was made, when, as Nau relates, Mary at the Castle of Lochleven gave birth to stillborn twins. * On August 3rd Bedford had already informed Cecil: “Queen Mary meaneth shortly to.keep Justice-Court at Jedburgh!” “Abstract of Letters to Cecil in his own handwriting,” printed by Keith: History, Yol. hi. p. 349. f Moray was dead when Buchanan published the Detectioun, and so Buchanan could not be contra¬ dicted even had Moray desired to do so.