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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    ordinaire Justice has acquite him, and for the quhilk he hes off'erit to do his Devoire be the Law of Armes in manner above rehersit; we and every ane of us be our selffes, our Kyn, Friendis, Assistaris, Partakeris, and all that will doe for us, sail tak trew effauld [honest] plane, and upricht Pairt with him, to the defence and mantenance of his Quarrell with our Bodies, Heretage and Quids, againis his privie or publick Calumnyatoris bypart or to come, or onie utheris pre- sumeand onie Thing in word or deid to his Reproach, Dishonour or Infamie. Then follows the approval of the marriage of Bothwell with Mary. Yet within a few weeks of the signature of the Ainslie’s Supper Band, we find at Kircaldy’s suggestion five of these men—Morton, Argyll*, Glencairn, Cassilis and Caithness, who had signed that band, entering into a new band to destroy Bothwell as the “ horribill and cruel 1 murtherer,” and to deliver the Queen and Infant Prince from him. This new band ends with imprecations if the signatories do not maintain its conditions, imprecations similar to those which accompanied the Bothwell band. Gif we failzie in ony point we are content to sustein the spott of perjurie, infamie and perpetuall untrewth, and to be comptit culpabill of the above namit crymes [i.e. murdering Darnley, ravishing the Queen, and endeavouring to kill her son], and enemeis and betrayeris of oure native cuntrie for evirt. Yet again this is the same Morton who could present The Booh of Articles at the Conferences accusing Bothwell of “vngodlie and filthye vsaig.” What concep¬ tions could he possibly hold of the “Honor and Treuth of a Nobillman” and of “Answer to God”? It is strangely characteristic of Morton’s nature that when as Regent he felt his power tottering, he turned round to look for somebody with whom to form an alliance, and he pitched on—Mary, Queen of Scots 1 Lord Ogilvy had a conversation with him in April, 1577, and in a letter to Archbishop Beatoun he writes of Morton: “He spak very reverently and with gryt honour of the Queen, protesting befor his God he wald not do her evil nor consent thairto for all the geir of the world... ” [he had in 1572 asserted to Killigrew that the Queen’s death would be “as a sufferayn salue for all their sores” and stated that if Elizabeth would send a sufficient convoy, Mary should be put to death within three hours of her arrival in Scotland: Killigrew to Burleigh, see Hosach, Vol, n. p. 569]. What trust can we place in the truth of what such men as Moray J, Morton, Maitland, Macgill and Buchanan stated with regard to Queen Mary at York or Westminster? One and all were in Elizabeth’s pay, and having rid themselves of Bothwell, were now seeking to rid themselves of Mary by charging her with organising the murder of Darnley. * The Campbell is said to have informed the Queen next day of this new band! t Keith, Vol. ii. p. 651. J Moray, who undoubtedly knew all the circumstances of Darnley’s murder, and who afterwards accused his sister of being “ the perswader and commandar ” of the said murder, made a will when he left on April 3, 1567, for France—in order to be out of the way while Bothwell twisted enough rope to hang himself—and nominated this murderess “overswoman to see all things be handled and ruled for the well-being of my daughter.” A few weeks previously he had given a dinner to Elizabeth’s repre¬ sentative, Killigrew, and asked Huntly, Argyll, Maitland and Bothwell, all concerned in the Darnley murder, to meet him!