Buchanan: GEORGE BUCHANAN DE MARIA SCOTORUM REGINA (1571)

DE MARIA SCOTORUM REGINA, TOTAQUE EIUS CONTRA REGEM CONIURATIONE, FOEDO CUM BOTHUELIO ADULTERIO, NEFARIA IN MARITUM CRUDELITATE ET RABIE, HORRENDO INSUPER & DE EIUSDEM PARRICIDO: PLENA & TRAGICA PLANE HISTORIA

OF MARIA, QUEEN OF THE SCOTS, AND HER WHOLE CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE KING, THE FOUL ADULTERY WITH BOTHUELIO, NEFARIOUS CRUELTY AND RAGE TOWARD HER HUSBAND, AND, FURTHERMORE, THE HORRENDOUS PARRICIDE OF THE SAME: A HISTORY FULL & PLAINLY TRAGIC

1. Cum rerum domi iudicatarum foris rationem exigi, omnibus qui sui sunt iuris, novum, et ob insolentium molestum est, tum nobis profecto longe molestissimum videri oportet: quippe quibus necessitas imposita est, ut quorum vitia tegere cupiamus, eorum vitam cogamur oppugnare, nisi ipsi omnium sceleratissimi haberi velimus. Sed magnam eius molestiae partem levat tua (serenissima regina) aequitas, quae non minus moleste feras propinquam, quam nos reginam, omnium sermone traduci, quaeque non minus veri intelligendi, quam nos calumniae vitandae, studio ducaris. Igitur, quam brevissime fieri potest, rem perstingemus, ac tanto exponemus compendio ut summa rerum capita, non tam explicasse, quam percurrisse videamur, a prima reginae inconstantia exorsi.

1. When an account is demanded at home of things adjudged, and abroad, of things, of all who are sui iuris, it is new and, because of the insolent, troublesome; then, to us certainly, it ought to seem far more grievous: for necessity is imposed on those whose faults we desire to cover, that we are forced to attack the life of those very persons, unless they themselves wish to be held the most wicked of all. But a great part of that annoyance your (serenissima regina) equity removes, which you bear no less painfully in seeing a kinswoman exposed to every tongue than we do in seeing the queen exposed, and which leads you by a zeal no less for understanding the truth than for avoiding calumny as it leads us. Therefore, as briefly as may be done, we will accomplish the matter, and will set it forth with such compendiousness that we may seem to have run through the chief heads of the case rather than to have explained them, having begun from the first inconstancy of the queen.

Ut enim praeceps fuit in nuptiis faciendis eius levitas, ita repente sequuta est vel poenitentia, vel (nullis extantibus causis) alienatae voluntatis indicia. Nam cum antea non modo negligenter, sed parum honorifice rex est habitus, tandem apertius odium erumpere coepit, illa praesertim hyeme, cum Peblium, non modo tenui, sed infra privati hominis dignitatem, comitatu, non in aucupium missus est, sed procul a consilio et negotiorum publicorum conscientia, ablegatus. Neque literis committere necesse est eas res, quae ut tum omnibus erant spectaculo, ita nunc, velut recens imago, in omnium haeret pectoribus.

As her levity was headlong in making marriages, so suddenly followed either penitence or (no causes being present) indications of an alienated will. For whereas before the king had been treated not only negligently but with little honour, at last open hatred began to burst forth—especially that winter when Peblium was sent away, not merely with a slender retinue but beneath the dignity of a private man, not dispatched on a hunting errand but banished far from council and the conscience of public affairs. Nor is it necessary to commit these matters to letters, which, as they then were a spectacle to all, so now, like a recent image, cling in the breasts of everyone.

Et quanquam hoc initium erat omnium quae sequuta sunt malorum, ab initio tamen occulta erant consilia, ut non modo vulgus, sed ne familiares quidem et qui plurimis rebus gerendis interant, satis intelligere possent quod potissimum tum regina spectaret.

Et although this was the beginning of all the evils that followed, yet from the first the counsels were hidden, so that not only the vulgar, but not even her familiares and those engaged in very many affairs could sufficiently understand what the queen was above all then aiming at.

2. Tandem circiter mensem Aprilem anni 1566, cum a Dumbaro Edinburgum regina redisset atque in arcem eius oppidi concessisset, ibi usque ad puerperii tempus se continuit. A partu statim occulta cogitati scaeleris consilia sese aperire coeperunt, quorum haec summa fuit, ut, rege qualibet ratione sublato, matrimonium cum Bothuelio contraheret. Ac ne ipsa suspicione perpetrati sceleris contingeretur, spargere paulatim semina discordiarum coepit inter regem et proceres, qui tum in aula versabantur, ac, magis et magis eis inflammatis, ad capitales inimicitas rem deducere.

2. At last, about the month of April in the year 1566, when the queen had returned from Dumbarton to Edinburgh and had taken up residence in the castle of that town, she remained there until the time of childbirth. Immediately after the birth the secret designs of the plotted crime began to disclose themselves, the sum of which was this: that, the king being removed by any means, she should contract marriage with Bothwell. And lest the very suspicion of the perpetrated crime should touch her, she began gradually to sow the seeds of discord between the king and the magnates who then frequented the court, and, more and more inflaming them, to reduce the matter to mortal enmities.

Et si quando suspiciones mutuas relanguescere sentiebat, novis utrinque delationibus irarum stimulos acuebat, dum nobilitati regem, regi nobilitatem in caput eius imminere persuadere conatur. Neque quicquam ei longius videbatur quam ut res ad manus veniret: incerta enim utros vinci mallet, utriusque partis cladem in lucro sibi ponebant, quippe qui gradum ad id quod intenderat ita sibi factura videretur. Denique brevi ita omnium animos mutuis implevit suspitionibus ut nemo tum genere paulo illustrior in aula esset quem non in eam necessitudinem induxerit, ut rumores de se fictos vel turpiter agnoscere, vel cum arguentibus armis contendere, vel domum secedere cogeretur.

And whenever she felt mutual suspicions beginning to slacken, she sharpened the sting of anger with new delations on both sides, striving to persuade the nobility that the king, and the king that the nobility, threatened his head. Nothing seemed farther to her than that matters should come to blows: for she preferred it uncertain which of the two would be overcome, setting the ruin of either party as profit to herself, since she seemed to herself to have advanced a step toward what she had intended. In short, she so filled the minds of all with mutual suspicions that there was then no one a little more illustrious by birth in the court whom she had not led into that necessity, so that he was forced either shamefully to acknowledge rumors fabricated about him, or to contend with his accusers by arms, or to retire to his home.

Ac ut coetara studio ad ipsum causae caput festinandi omittam, una tamen illius temporis insignis calumnia praetereunda non est. Nam cum rex aliquando ad multam noctem cum regina colloquutus fuisset, eius fere colloquii haec summa fuit: nobilitatem prope omnem in eius exitum conspirasse, ac rationem inter se intere qua eum tollere possent. Rege dimisso, regina Moravium fratrem suum (qui prorex postea fuit) accersit: rem esse atrocem, statim eius praesentia opus esse.

And that I may omit the other matters in haste from zeal toward the very head of the cause, yet one notable calumny of that time must not be passed over. For when the king had on one occasion spoken with the queen until late at night, the sum of that conversation was almost this: that nearly all the nobility had conspired in his undoing, and had devised among themselves by what scheme they could remove him. The king having been dismissed, the queen summoned her brother Moravium (who afterwards was viceroy): the matter was atrocious, his immediate presence was required.

Ille e profundo somno excitatus trepide (veste talari super indusium lineum iniecta) ut erat seminudus ad eam advolat. Simili prope ibi oratione usa, quali ante ad regem, quem tanto eius odio flagrare ait, ac tam aegre ferre quod eum apud se gratiae locum obtineret, ut ipsum cum primum posset de medio tollere decreverit. Ita, quod in ipsa erat, nihil omisit quo minus eos committeret, et procul dubio commisisset, nisi Deus homines innoxios e tam periculosis insidiis eximere, et sceleratam illius nequitiam detegere statuisset.

He, awakened from deep sleep, tremulous (a talar garment thrown over his linen under-tunic) and as he was half-naked, rushed to her. Having there used nearly the same oration as before to the king — whom she says to burn with such hatred against him, and to bear so painfully that he held a place of favour with her, that she resolved to remove him from the midst as soon as she could — thus, in what concerned herself, she omitted nothing by which she might bring them together, and without doubt would have brought them together, were it not that God determined to free innocent men from so perilous snares and to expose her wicked nequity.

3. Cum hic ei conatus frustra fuisset, alia fraude hominem adolescentem et incautum aggreditur. Eum sollicat ut, dum uterum ferret, aliquam e magna copia adolescentulam deligeret cuius interea consuetudine uteretur. Studium suum et operam pollicetur, vaeniam facti spondet.

3. When this attempt had been in vain for him, by another fraud he assails the young and incautious man. He entreats him that, while he is to take a wife, he select some young girl from the great multitude, whom in the meantime he might use by habit. He promises his zeal and his service, and pledges pardon for the deed.

Comitis Moravii uxorem ostendit, non quod lectissimam foeminam maxime opportunam flagitio putaret, sed tres inimicos una opera volebat ulcisci, regem, comitem, eius uxore, et locum divortio acquirere, ut vacuum Bothuelio thalamum relinqueret. Partu liberata, etsi alios omnes satis comiter accipiebat, quoties regem visendi causa adesse nunciebatur, et ipsa et comites vultum sermonemque ita effingebant, ut nihil magis timere viderentur quam ne rex non intelligeret se eis fastidio adventum, conspectumque eius omnibus ingratum esse. Contra vero Bothuelius unus omnia poterat: unus consiliis, unus negotiis omnibus praeerat.

He displayed the wife of the Count of Moravia, not because he deemed the most select woman especially suitable for the crime, but because he wished with one deed to avenge three enemies — the king, the count, and his wife — and by divorce to acquire the place, so as to leave the nuptial bed vacant for Bothuelius. Once delivered of child, although she received all others fairly courteously, whenever it was announced that she would be present for the sake of seeing the king, both she and the companions so fashioned their countenance and speech that they seemed to fear nothing more than that the king should not understand that his coming was offensive to them, and that his sight was unwelcome to all. Against these, however, Bothuelius alone could do everything: alone in counsels, alone he presided over all affairs.

Adeoque regina sui erga illum animi propensionem ab omnibus intelligi volebat, ut si quid ab ea impetrandum foret, nemo nisi per eum impetraret. Adeo timebat, ne obscurus erga eum favor esset.

And so the queen wished her inclination of mind toward him to be understood by all, so that if anything were to be obtained from her, no one would obtain it except through him. She feared so much lest there be any obscure (hidden) favour shown to him.

4. Non adeo diu post partum, quodam die summo mane cum paucis admodum consciis ad portum (quem Novum vocant) descendit, omnibusque miriantibus quo propararet, naviculam ibi praeparatam conscendit. Apparuarant autem eam naviculam Guilielmus et Edmundus Blacateri, Leonardus Robertsonus, et Thomas Dicsonus, Bothuelii clientes et notae rapacitatis piratae. Hoc igitur cum latronum comitatu, stupentibus omnibus bonis, se mari commisit, nemine (ne ex honestioribus quidam ministris) assumpto.

4. Not so long after the birth, one day very early in the morning, with very few confidants, she descended to the port (which they call New) and, to the wonder of all at where she hurried, boarded a small ship prepared there. That little ship, however, had been manned by Guilielmus and Edmundus Blacateri, Leonardus Robertsonus, and Thomas Dicsonus, clients of Bothuelius and pirates known for rapacity. Thus, with this company of thieves, to the astonishment of all the good folk, she committed herself to the sea, no one being taken along (not even certain of her more honorable attendants).

In Aloa vero arce, quo navis appulit, aliter se gesserit malo apud se quisque cogitet quam ex me audiat. Unum illud affirmare audeo, nullam ibi (non dico regineae maiestatis, sed ne matronalis quidem modestiae) in omnibus dictis et factis habitam fuisse rationem. Rex, audito nec opinato reginae discessu, terra quantum potuit eam est consequutus, ea spe et consilio ut una esset, et mutua coniugali officiorum communicatione frueretur.

In the citadel of Aloa, however, where the ship put in, let everyone suppose that she there behaved otherwise to his detriment than as he hears from me. One thing I dare affirm: that there was there no regard observed in all words and deeds (I do not say of the queen’s majesty, but not even of matronal modesty). The king, having been informed — and not having expected — the queen’s departure, followed her by land as far as he could, with the hope and design that he might be with her and partake in the mutual sharing of conjugal duties.

Quam vero amice ab ea fuerit exceptus, et omnes qui aderant norunt, et qui de illis audierunt meminisse possunt. Vix enim paucis horis (dum ministri et equi cibo et quiete reficerentur) concessis, ne quid gravius accideret discedere est coactus. Illa vero, si non regia honorificentia, certe plus quam regia, aut certe parum regia licentia, aliquot ibi dies transegit.

How courteously he was received by her, all who were present know, and those who have heard of them can remember. For scarcely, after a few hours were granted (while the attendants and horses were being refreshed with food and rest), was he forced to depart, lest anything more serious happen. She, however, if not with royal honor, certainly with more than royal—or at least with somewhat un‑royal—license, spent several days there.

Sequutae sunt vaenationes, altera ad Magatum fluvium, alter ad Saltum, quem Glenartua vulgo vocant. Ibique quam se morose, quam arroganter et fastidiose, erga regem gesserit, quid opus est oratione? Res enim in omnium oculis gesta, et memoria consignata est.

Then followed the hunts, one to the river Magatum, the other to the Saltus, which they commonly call Glenartua. And there—how morosely, how arrogantly and disdainfully she comported herself toward the king—what need is there of speech? For the matters were done in the sight of all, and sealed in memory.

5. Ubi vero Edinburgum rediit, non in suum palatium, sed in privatam, in proximo Ioannis Balfurii, domum divertit. Illinc in alias aedes commigravit, ubi conventus anniversarius, quem Scaccarium vocant, tum habebatur. Hae enim aedes erant laxiores, et hortorum aderat amoenitas, et iuxta hortos pene solitudo.

5. When, however, he returned to Edinburgh, he did not go to his palace but to a private house nearby belonging to John Balfour. From there he moved into other dwellings, where the annual assembly, which they call the Scaccarium, was then held. For these houses were roomier, and the pleasantness of gardens attended them, and beside the gardens there was almost solitude.

Sed erat et aliud quod omnibus his magis invitaret. Habitabat in propinquo David Camerius, Bothuelii cliens, cuius posticum erat hortis adium reginae propinquum. Per id posticum Bothuelius, quoties libitum erat, commeabat.

But there was also another thing which invited him more than all these. David Camerius, a client of Bothuelius, dwelt nearby, whose back-entrance adjoined the queen’s gardens. Through that postern Bothuelius, whenever it pleased him, came and went.

Coetera quis nescit? Nam et rem ipsam regina, cum multis aliis, tum proregi et matri eius est confessa, sed culpam in Reresiam, profligatae pudicitiae muleriem, conferebat, quae inter pellices Bothuelii fuerat, ac tum in intimis reginae ministris erat. Ab hac (quae aetate inclinata a meretricio quaestu ad lenonium se contulerat) regina, ut ipsa dicebat, prodita est.

Who does not know the rest? For the matter itself, among many others, the queen confessed to the pro-regent and to her mother, but she laid the blame on Reresia, a woman of profligate chastity, who had been among Bothuelius’s pellices and was then among the intimate ministers of the queen. From this woman (who, her years leaning toward meretricious gain, had betaken herself from the trade of courtesans to keeping a brothel) the queen, as she herself said, was betrayed.

Nam Bothuelius per hortum in cubiculum reginae introductus eam invitam vi compressit. Sed quam invitam Reresia prodiderit, tempus veritatis parens ostendit. Nam post paucos dies reginam vim vi, ut reor, ulcisci cupiens, destinat Reresiam (quae et ipsa vires hominis antea erat experta) quae eum ad se captivum adduceret.

For Bothuelius, having been led through the garden into the queen’s bedchamber, overpowered her by force though she was unwilling. But how unwillingly Reresia betrayed her, time, the parent of truth, showed. For after a few days the queen, wishing, as I think, to wreak vengeance for the violence by violence, resolved on Reresia (who herself had formerly tested a man’s strength) to have him brought to her as a captive.

Regina una com Margareto Caruodia, omnium secretorum conscia, eam e zona suspensam per maceriem in hortum propinquum demittunt. Sed nunquam in re militari omnia sic provideri possunt, ut non aliquid incommodi inverveniat. Ecce zona repente frangitur.

The queen, together with Margaret Caruodia, privy to all the secrets, lowered her, hung by her girdle, through the wall into the nearby garden. But in military matters nothing can ever be so entirely provided for that some mishap does not intervene. Behold, the girdle suddenly snaps.

Reresia, mulier et aetate et corpore gravis, cum magno strepitu cadit. Sed veterana miles, nihil tenebris, nihil altitudine maceriae, nihil inexpectato casu perterrita, ad Bothuelii cubiculum penetrat: foribus reclusis, hominem e lecto, e complexu coniugis, semisomnum, seminudum adducit ad reginam. Hunc rerum gestarum ordinem non modo maxima pars eorum qui cum regina erant sunt fassi, sed et Georgius Daglesius, Bothuelii cubicularius, paulo ante quam poenas luit, denarravit, quae eius confessio in actis continetur.

Reresia, a woman weighty both in age and in body, fell with great noise. But the veteran soldier, alarmed by neither the darkness, nor the height of the wall, nor the unexpected mishap, entered Bothuelius’s chamber: the doors being opened, he led the man from the bed, from the embrace of his wife, half-asleep, half-naked, to the queen. The sequence of these events was confessed not only by the greater part of those who were with the queen, but also Georgius Daglesius, Bothuelius’s chamberlain, related it a little before he suffered punishment — that confession of his is contained in the records.

6. Interea rex propemodum relegatus, iniuriis et miseriis ablegatus, Sterolini se cum paucis ministris continebat. Quid enim aliud faceret, ut qui apud reginam nullum gratiae locum obtineret, sed nec unde pauculos ministros et equos aleret sumptus quotidianos haberet, denique qui iurgiis (ob levissimas nugas) ortis et quaesitis criminandi causis abigeretur? Animus tamen eius in amando obstinatus prohiberi non poterat quo minus Edinburgum rediret, ut omni observantiae genere aditum aliquem in pristinum locum gratiae et vitae coniugalis societatem impetraret.

6. Meanwhile the king, practically relegated, driven away by insults and miseries, kept himself at Sterolin with a few attendants. For what else could he do, he who held no place of grace with the queen, and who had not from where to sustain a few ministers and horses with daily expenses, finally who was driven off by quarrels (about the most trivial nugas) arising and by fabricated causes for accusation? His spirit, however, obstinate in loving, could not be prevented from returning to Edinburgh, that by every kind of observance he might obtain some access to his former place of grace and to the society of conjugal life.

Qui iterum, per summam contumeliam exclusus, iterum unde venerat revertitur, ut ibi (velut in solitudine) suas deploraret miserias. Non adeo multis post id diebus, cum regina statuisset Iedburgum proficisci ad conventus iuridicos habendos circiter initium Octobris, Bothuelius expeditionem in Liddiam adornat. Ibi cum neque pro loco quem obtinebat, neque pro familia expectatione se gereret, a latrone moribundo vulneratus, in arcem Heremitagium, incerta etiamnum vitae spe, defertur.

Who, again, shut out by the utmost contumely, returns once more to the place from which he came, there (as in solitude) to bewail his miseries. Not many days after that, when the queen had resolved that Iedburgum should set out to hold juridical assemblies about the beginning of October, Bothuelius readies an expedition into Liddia. There, since he comported himself neither for the post he held nor in expectation of his family, being wounded by a robber at the point of death, he is carried to the citadel Heremitagium, his life still uncertain in hope.

Id ubi Borthuicum ad reginam delatum est magnis itineribus, aspera iam tum hyeme, primum Melrosiam, inde Iedburgium velut insana pervolat. Eo etsi certi de eius vita rumores perferebantur, tamen impatiens morae animus sibi temperare non poterat quin et flagitiosam libidinem proderet et alieno anni tempore, spretis viarum difficultatibus et latronum insidiis, se in iter coniiceret cum eo comitatu cui nemo paulo honestior suam vitam aut fortunas committere auderet. Inde Iedburgum iterum reversa, summo studio et diligentia ad Bothuelium eo transferendum omnia confert et comparat.

When that was reported to the queen at Borthuicum by great journeys — in a winter already severe — he first sped to Melrosia, then to Iedburgum as if insane. Although certain rumours concerning his life were brought there, yet a spirit impatient of delay could not restrain itself from revealing also a shameful lust, and in an alien season of the year, scorning the difficulties of the roads and the ambushes of robbers, to cast itself upon a journey with that retinue to whom no one a little more honest would dare to entrust his life or fortunes. Thence, having returned to Iedburgum again, with the greatest zeal and diligence she collects and prepares all things for conveying Bothuelius thither.

Eoque illuc traducto, eorum convictus et consuetudo parum ex utriusque dignitate fuit. Ibi, sive ob nocturnos diurnosque labores, ipsis parum decoros, vulgo infames, sive occulta aliqua Numinis providentia, regina in morbum adeo saevum et exitiabilem incidit ut nulla prope spes de eius vita cuiquam superesset.

And being brought thither, their convictus (intimacy) and consuetudo (habitual intercourse) were scarcely in keeping with the dignity of either. There, whether from nocturnal and diurnal labors, little decorous in themselves and commonly infamous, or by some hidden providence of the Numen, the queen fell into a sickness so fierce and deadly that there was almost no hope to anyone concerning her life.

7. Id rex ubi rescivit, maximis itineribus Iedburgum contendit ut reginam inviseret, languentem solaretur, et quibus posset officiis suum animum et studium ei gratificandi testaretur. Advenienti vero tantum abest ut hospitium victusque (quod mediocribus etiam hominibus fieri solet) apparatus sit, ut ne ullum quidem amici animi indicium senserit. Illud vero barbarae inhumanitatis fuit, quod nobilibus omnibusque qui aderant aulae ministris interdictum est ne quis advenienti assurgeret, hospitio cederet, vel ad se in unam saltem noctem reciperet.

7. When the king learned this, he hurried with the greatest speed to Iedburg to visit the queen, to comfort her in her languishing, and by whatever offices he could to show his mind and zeal for gratifying her. Yet upon his arrival there was so far from any provision for lodging and victuals (which even for mean men is wont to be made) that he did not perceive even a single sign of a friendly spirit. Indeed that was barbarous inhumanity, that to all the nobles and to all the attendants of the court it was forbidden that anyone should rise to the newcomer, yield hospitality, or take him in for even one night.

Cum vero Moravii (qui postea prorex fuit) reginae suspecta esset humanitas, agit cum uxore eius ut propere domum redeat, morbumque simulet, ac statim decumbat, ut saltem hoc praetextu rex excluderetur per occasionem adversae valetudinis. Ibi cum omnibus humanitatis officiis destitueretur, postridie in antiquam solitudinem cum summo animi moerore revertitur. Interim dum rex in illa omnium et rerum et amicorum inopia vix precarium invenit gurgustium, Bothuelius ex aedibus ubi antea diversabatur, velut de rege triumphans, per ora vulgi inhospitium reginae transfertur in coenaculum inferius, sub eo in quo regina decumbebat.

But when the humanity of Moravius (who afterwards was prorex) was suspected by the queen, he schemes with his wife that she quickly return home, feign illness, and at once lie down, so that at least by this pretext the king might be excluded on the occasion of ill health. There, when he was deprived of all offices of kindness, he returned the next day to his former solitude with the deepest sorrow of mind. Meanwhile, while the king in that lack of all things and of friends scarcely found a precarious morsel, Bothuelius, from the house where he had formerly stayed, as if triumphing over the king, was carried by the mouths of the crowd — the queen’s inhospitableness — into the lower chamber beneath the one in which the queen lay.

Ibi cum adhuc laborarent, illa e morbo, ille ex vulnere, regina in summa corporis infirmitate tamen eum quotidie invisebat. Et cum uterque paululum convaluissent, nondum satis firmis viribus, ad consuetam redierunt palastram, idque adeo aperte ut nihil magis timere viderentur, quam ne ignota esset sua nequitia.

There, while they yet labored — she from disease, he from a wound — the queen, in the greatest frailty of body, nevertheless visited him daily. And when each had grown a little stronger, though not yet with sufficiently firm strength, they returned to the accustomed palestra, and so openly that they seemed to fear nothing more than that their wickedness should remain unknown.

8. Circa Nonas Novembris, cum Iedburgo in vicum nomine Calco transisset, ibi literas a rege accepit. Quas cum legisset coram prorege, comite Huntleio, et secretario, vultu tristi, miserabiliter se crucians ac si in pristinum esset recasura morbum, plane ac diserte pronunciavit, nisi aliqua ratione a rege liberaretur, vitam sibi nullo modo fore vitalem. Ac si alia ratione non posset, potius quam in illis molestiis viveret, sese sibi manum illaturam.

8. About the Nones of November, when he had crossed with Iedburgo into a village named Calco, there he received letters from the king. When he had read them before the prorex, Count Huntleio, and the secretary, with a sad countenance and miserably torturing himself as if the disease were about to return, he plainly and clearly declared that, unless for some reason he were released by the king, life would in no way be livable for him. And if by no other means he could not be freed, rather than live in those torments he would lay his hand upon himself.

Proximus deinde diebus, dum per Merciam rediens apud Coldingamiam commoratur, Reresia, dum per excubias transit, agnita ac dimissa est. Quos autem habuerit comites, aut quo id noctis iret, reginae non est ignotum. Inde, cum circa finem Novembris venisset ad Cragmillarium (ea arx ad duo passuum milia distat ab Edinburgo), ibi praesentibus comitibus Moraviae (qui postea prorex, nunc et ipse occisus est), Huntleiae, et Argatheliae, et secretario, in superioris temporis incidit orationem, ac rationem etiam qua id fieret, ut sibi videbatur, commodissimam subiecit, ut videlikcet litem de divortio adversus regem intenderet.

Next, in the following days, while returning through Mercia he sojourned at Coldingham, Reresia was recognised and dismissed while on patrol. But which companions she had, or to what place of the night she was going, was not unknown to the queen. Thence, when about the end of November he had come to Cragmillar (that fortress stands two miles from Edinburgh), there, with the counts of Moray present (who afterwards became viceroy, and is now himself slain), of Huntly, and Argaty, and the secretary, he fell into a discourse of an earlier time, and even proposed the reasoning by which, as it seemed to him, it would be most commodious that she should bring an action for divorce against the king.

Neque dubitabat quin id facile fieri posset, cum eo sanguinitatis essent gradu qui iure pontificio vetitus esset matrimonium contrahentibus, literis (quod facile erat) de medio sublatis quibus ea lege solverentur. Hic cum quidam scrupulum iniecisset, id si ita transigeretur, eorum filium spurium fore, quippe qui extra matrimonium natus esset, praesertim cum neuter parentum causas quae irrita facerent matrimonia ignoraret. Id responsum, cum paulum in animo secum versasset ac sciret verum dici, et consilium de filio tollendo aperire non auderet, propositum de divortio abiecit.

He did not doubt that it could be done easily, since they were of such a degree of blood relationship that, by pontifical law, marriage was forbidden to those contracting it, letters (which was easy) being removed from the way whereby they would be dissolved under that law. But when someone raised a scruple — that if it were so transacted their son would be spurious, since he would have been born outside marriage, especially as neither parent knew the causes that would render marriages null — that answer, after he turned it over for a short while in his mind and knew it to be true, and since he did not dare to reveal the plan of dispossessing the son, he cast aside the proposal of divorce.

Nec tamen unquam ab eo die regis perimendi consilium omisit, uti ex hiiis quae sunt sequuta facile intelligi potest.

Nor yet did she ever abandon, from that day, the design for the king’s destruction, as can easily be understood from these things which followed.

9. Rex Sterelino ad Cragmilarium reversus, cum existimaret eam placabiliorem erga se fore, iracundia paulum spatio temporis mitigata, adeo nullam animi mutati sensit indicium, ut nihil ei in quotidianos vitae usus, nisi Sterelini maneret, erogaretur. Quae res vehementer auxit pronam sua sponte vulgo suspitionem de quotidiana reginae cum Bothuelio consuetudine. Sub initium fere Decembris, cum legati venissent e Gallia et Anglia ad baptismum eius, qui nunc rex est, celebrandum, hic ut Bothuelius inter proceres conspicuus esset, ipsa, partim ei ad vestimenta coemenda pecuniam erogabat, partim de mercatoribus emebat, omnibusque conficiundis tanta diligentia praeerat quasi, non dico uxor, sed ne ancilla quidem foret.

9. King Sterelinus, having returned to Cragmilarium, since he thought she would be more placable toward him with his anger somewhat mitigated by the passage of time, perceived no sign at all of a changed mind, so that nothing of the daily usages of life was furnished to her except what pertained to Sterelinus. This circumstance greatly increased the vulgar suspicion, ready of its own accord, about the queen’s daily intimacy with Bothuelius. About the beginning of December, when envoys had come from Gaul and England to celebrate the baptism of him who is now king, in order that Bothuelius be conspicuous among the nobles she herself, partly giving him money to purchase clothing, partly buying from merchants, and presiding over all matters of outfitting with such diligence as if she were, not to say wife, but not even a handmaid to him.

Interea legitimus eius maritus in filii baptismo non modo subsidio eius ad sumptus faciendos destitutus, sed in conspectum legatorum prodire vetitus, ministri quotidiani ei detracti, nobilitas tota sequi, observare, ac propemode agnoscere prohibiti, legati exteri moniti ne cum eo colloquerentur, cum interea maiorem diei partem omnes in eadem arce diversarentur. Homo adolescens ita contemptim et inhumaniter habitus sic animum despondit ut, Sterilino relicto, Glascuam ad patrem proficisceretur, discentem regina solito prosequitur odio. Vasa argentea, quibus a nuptiis ad eum usque diem usus erat, aufert universa, ac stannea supponit.

Meanwhile his lawful husband at the baptism of his son was not only deprived of his allowance for meeting expenses, but forbidden to appear before the legates; his quotidian ministers were withdrawn, the whole nobility forbidden to follow him, to observe him, or even to acknowledge him, and foreign envoys warned not to converse with him, while meanwhile for the greater part of the day all kept apart within the same citadel. The young man was treated so contemptuously and inhumanly that, his spirit thus cast down, he, Sterelinus having been abandoned, set out for Glascua to his father, the queen pursuing him with her customary hatred as he departed. She removed all the silver vessels which he had used from his wedding-day to this day, and substituted pewter ones.

Sed hoc ad contemptum pertinuerit. Quae secuta sunt inhumanae feritatis et implacabilis odii manifesta sunt argumenta. Antequam mille passus Sterilino abesset, tam vehemens dolor simul omnes corporis partes afflixit, ut facile appareret non a vi alicuius morbi, sed ab humana fraude id profectum.

But this pertained to contempt. What followed are manifest proofs of inhuman ferity and implacable hatred. Before Sterilino was a thousand paces away, so vehement a pain at once afflicted all the parts of his body that it readily appeared this proceeded not from the force of any disease, but from human fraud.

Cuius fraudis indices liventes pulstulae, cum Glascuam venisset, toto corpore eruperunt, tanto cum dolore et omnium partium vexatione, ut exigua vitae spe duceret spiritum, cum interim regina ne medicum quidem eum adire sit passa.

The signs of that fraud—livid pustules—when they had come upon Glascuam, burst forth over his whole body with such pain and vexation of every part that he drew his breath with but a small hope of life, while meanwhile the queen did not permit him even to go to a physician.

10. Ceremoniis baptismi peractis, egit cum fratre Moravio ut quando comitem Bedfordiae, reginae Anglorum legatum, ad fanum Andreae deducturus esset, a Bothuelio peteret ut is quoque una proficisceretur. Qui liberaliter quidem promisit, etsi et ipse et regina, illius commenti author, nihil minus cogitaret, quod et eventus facile ostendit. Nam simul atque rex Glascuam, alii fanum Andreae versus profecti sunt, ipsa cum Bothuelio suo ad Drumenum abiit, inde Tilebarnium.

10. When the ceremonies of baptism had been completed, he arranged with his brother Moravus that, when he should conduct the Count of Bedford, the queen of the English’ envoy, to the shrine of St. Andrew, he would ask Bothuel that he too set out with them. He indeed promised liberally, although both he himself and the queen, the author of that contrivance, thought nothing less—what the event easily showed. For as soon as the king reached Glasgow, others set forth toward the shrine of St. Andrew; she herself with her Bothuel went to Drumen, thence to Tilebarn.

Quibus in domibus circiter octo dies transegerunt ita in cunctis coenaculis et familiari accessu ut omnes (praeter ipsos tam proiecti pudoris) contemptus et neglectae famae vilitas vehementer offenderet, cum iam ne velum quidem suae nequitiae eos obtendere viderent.

In whose houses they passed about eight days, so in every dining-room and by familiar access that the scorn and vileness of their neglected reputation grievously offended all (except those themselves of so cast-off modesty), since now they saw that not even a veil of their wickedness could be spread over them.

11. Cum sub initium Ianuarii Sterilinum rediissent, regina coepit causari aedes in quibus filius educabatur, incommodas quod in locis frigidis et humidis puero a pituita esset periculum. Sed facile apparabit alio animo id fieri, cum et omnia quae causabatur vitia ab illius aedibus abessent, et in eis quo puer ducebatur adessent, utpote in loco humili et etiam palustri sitis. Puer igitur vix septimum ingressus mensem, aspera hyeme, Edinburgum ducitur.

11. When they had returned to Sterilinum at the beginning of January, the queen began to complain that the house in which the son was being reared was inconvenient, because in cold and damp places there was danger to the boy from phlegm. But it will easily appear that this was done with another motive, since all the defects she alleged were absent from those houses, and were present in the ones to which the boy was being led, namely because it stood in a low and even marshy site. Therefore the boy, scarcely having entered his seventh month, was led to Edinburgh in the harsh winter.

Ibi, quoniam primus conatus parum successerat et veneni vis naturali corporis firmitate victa erat, ut aliquando pareret quod tam diu parturierat, nova de coede regis init consilia. Ipsa Glascuam proficiscitur: causa itineris praetenditur ut regem vivum inviseret, cuius toto mense superiore mortem expectaverit. Quae autem vera fuerit illius profectionis causa, facile ex literis eius ad Bothuelium quivis intelligat.

There, since the first attempt had little succeeded and the force of the poison had been overcome by the natural firmness of the body, so that at last it might yield what it had long been bringing forth, new counsels concerning the king’s assassination took shape. She herself set out for Glascua: the pretended cause of the journey was to visit the king alive, whose death she had awaited during the whole preceding month. But what the true cause of that departure was, anyone can easily understand from her letters to Bothuelius.

Iam secura de filio, quem in potestate habebat, tota in mariti exitium imminens, it Glascuam, comitata Hamiltoniis ac aliis paternis regis inimicis. Bothuelius, ut convenerat, quae ad scelus perpetrandum visa sunt commoda apparat. Imprimis aedes neque commodas aegroto, neque regi decoras (erant enim lacerae ac ruinosae), ut in quibus nemo aliquot annis habitaverat, loco infrequenti inter duorum tempolorum ruinas, circum pauca pauperum mendicabula.

Now secure about the son whom she held in her power, and wholly intent upon her husband's destruction, she goes to Glasgow, accompanied by the Hamiltons and other of the king's paternal enemies. Bothwell, as had been agreed, prepares those conveniences which seemed fitting to perpetrate the crime. First, lodgings neither commodious for the sick man nor decorous for a king (for they were tattered and ruinous), as places in which no one had lived for several years, in an unfrequented spot among the ruins of two temples, about a few huts of poor beggars.

Et ne ulla scaeleris patrandi commoditas abesset, posticum in muro urbis aedibus coniuncto aperitur, ut in agros etiam essent perviae. In loco eligendo salubritatis rationem habitam videri volebat, id quoque ne finxisse videretur, ipsa biduo eo, quod caedis diem praecesserat, in caenaculo inferiore sub regis cubiculo pernoctavit, ac velut sedulo suspiciones ab se amoliebatur, ita caedis ministerium aliis libenter delegari volebat.

And that no convenience for perpetrating the wickedness might be lacking, a postern in the city wall, joined to the houses, was opened, so that ways would be passable even into the fields. In choosing the place she wished to seem to have taken account of salubrity, and moreover so that she would not appear to have feigned it; she herself for two days — because the day of the slaughter had gone before — lodged in the lower chamber beneath the king’s bedchamber, and as if diligently removing suspicions from herself, so she was glad to delegate the ministering of the slaughter to others.

12. Triduo fere priusquam rex interiit, Robertum fratrem suum cum eo committere tentavit, uter eorum periisset pro locro habitura. Pro semine discordiarum, regina sermonis quem rex secum de fratre habuisset mentionem iniecit. Et quum uterque ita differeret, ut alterum videretur arguere mendacii, tandem a verbis pene ad ferrum deventum est.

12. About three days before the king died, he tried to test which of his brothers, Robert, to entrust with him, which of them, if one perished, would hold the place. For the seed of discord, the queen injected mention of the conversation which the king had had with his brother. And when each so deferred, that one seemed to accuse the other of lying, at last from words it almost came to the sword.

Sed cum uterque iam manum capulo admoveret, regina, velut metuens ne fieret quod expetebat, Moravium alterum fratrem advocat, ut illi quoque vel praesentia exitium vel in posterum crimen strueret. Cum illac res non succederet ex sententia, aliam derivandi criminis rationem commenta est. Moravius cum abesset ab aula libenter, cum etiam iustam absentiae excusationem haberet, quod uxor partui vicina gravi praeterea morbo laborabat, interea, cum a duce Sabaudiae legatus adesset, is color visus est reginae idoneus ut fratrem accerseret.

But when each was already laying a hand upon the hilt, the queen, as if fearing that what she desired might come to pass, summoned the other brother Moravius, that to him also she might contrive either a present ruin or a future crime. And when that course did not succeed according to her design, she devised another pretext for diverting the accusation. Moravius, since he was willingly absent from the palace, and indeed had a just excuse for his absence—his wife being near childbirth and moreover stricken with a grave illness—meanwhile, with an envoy of the Duke of Savoy present, that color seemed to the queen fit to summon her brother.

Vera autem revocandi eius causa erat quod in eum et Mortonii comitem caedem regis transferre volebat. Et eadem opera homines populares et tyrannidem molienti adversarios tolli volebat. Sed Moravio divina clementia, quae saepe antea plurimis inimicorum eum insidiis liberaverat, tum quoque manifeste affuit.

But the true reason for recalling him was that he wished to transfer the king’s murder upon him and upon Count Morton. And by the same means he wished the popular men and the adversaries plotting tyranny to be removed. But to Moravius divine clemency, which had often before freed him from very many snares of enemies, was plainly present even then.

Nam die dominico, qui nonus erat Februarii, cum in templum ad concionem iret, literae ad eum afferuntur, uxorem abortum fecisse ac in exigua spe vitae animam ducere. Hoc nuncio repentino perculsus, cum a regina commeatum peteret, ea respondit, si res ita se habeat, supervacuum fore laborem itineris, ut qui nihil aegrotae profuturus esset. Sed cum ille vehementius urgeret, illa contra petiit ab eo, ut ea tantum nocte maneret, postridie ad uxorem abiret.

For on the Lord’s day, which was the ninth of February, when he was going into the temple to the concio, letters were brought to him reporting that his wife had miscarried and was drawing out her life in slender hope of recovery. Struck by this sudden message, when he asked leave from the queen, she answered that, if matters were so, the journey would be a superfluous labor, since he would be of no use to the sick woman. But when he pressed more vehemently, she in turn requested of him that he remain but that one night, and depart the next day to his wife.

Sed divina (ut saepe alias) clementia hominem innocentem et praesenti periculo subtraxit et calumniarum in posterum semina sustulit. Quanquam, ne sic quidem, etsi suspicionum causae aberant, calumnia caruit. Nam Huntleius et Bothuelius, cum vere non possent, sparsis libellis famosis maculam foedissimi sceleris ei aspergere conati sunt, et cum coedes post mediam noctem esset perpetrata, antequam illucesceret, per idoneos homines, rumores per Angliam disseminarunt qui caedis authores Moravium et Mortonium perferrent.

But divine clemency (as often at other times) withdrew the innocent man and from present peril and removed the seeds of calumny for the future. Yet even so, though grounds for suspicion were lacking, calumny was not absent. For Huntleius and Bothuelius, though in truth they could not, with infamous libels scattered tried to besmear him with the stain of the most foul crime; and when the slaughter had been perpetrated after midnight, before it was light, by means of suitable men they disseminated through England rumours that would attribute the authors of the murder to Moravium and Mortonium.

Sed is rumor, luce veritatis oborta, ut falsa fere solent, confestim evanuit.

But that rumor, the light of truth having arisen, as false things commonly are wont, immediately vanished.

13. Omnibus rebus ad crudele facinus apparatis, occasionibus autem derivandi criminis praecisis, veriti popularis coniurationis ne mora aut impedimentum afferret, aut occulta consilia nudaret, properandum statuunt. Regina igitur postquam coenavisset de more, ad regis diversorium conscendit. Ibi cum nihil omittere statuisset quod reconciliati amoris indicium fore videretur, aliquot horas cum eo transegit, vultu et sermone magis familiari quam superioribus sex aut septem mensibus consueverat.

13. With all things prepared for the cruel deed, and the opportunities for diverting the crime cut off, they, fearing that a popular conspiracy might bring delay or hindrance, or might lay bare their secret counsels, resolved that haste must be made. Therefore the queen, after she had dined according to custom, ascended to the king’s retiring-chamber. There, having determined to omit nothing that might seem a sign of reconciled love, she spent several hours with him, in countenance and speech more familiar than she had been accustomed in the preceding six or seven months.

Adventu Paridis, colloquium dirimit ac reditum adornat. Erat autem Paris iuvenis natione Gallus, qui in familiis Bothuelii, Setoni, ac deinde reginae aliquot annis vixisset. Is, cum coeterae diversorii claves penes regios ministrios essent, confictis causis, neque satis iustis nec idoneis, claves anterioris ianuae et posticae a Bothuelio retentas custodiebat.

At Paris’s arrival he breaks off the colloquy and readies his return. Paris was a young man by nation a Gaul, who had lived for several years in the households of Bothuelius, Seton, and then of the queen. He, since the other diversorium keys were in the hands of the king’s ministrants, with contrived causes — neither sufficiently just nor fit — kept custody of the keys of the front and back doors, retained by Bothuelius.

Huic summa erat secretorum inter Bothuelium et reginam fides. Eius adventus indicium (ut convenerat) erat omnia ad facinus apparata. Eo igitur conspecto, regina statim assurgit, atque aliam abeundi causam simulans, "Ego," inquit, "in Sebastianum vehementer deliqui, quae in nuptiis eius hodie personata non affuerim." Erat is Sebastianus Avernus genere homo, et ob psallendi peritiam et sales, reginae admodum gratus, et eo ipso die uxorem duxerat.

Between Bothuelius and the queen there was the utmost fidelity of secrets toward him. His coming was the signal (as had been agreed) that all things were prepared for the crime. Therefore, on his being seen, the queen immediately rose, and, feigning another cause for departure, said, "I am greatly offended with Sebastianus, that I was not present at his nuptials celebrated today." This Sebastianus Avernus was a man by birth, and because of his skill in psalmody and his wit was exceedingly pleasing to the queen, and on that very day he had taken a wife.

Rege propemodum solo in solitudine illa relicto, regina discedit, comitibus Argathaeliae, Huntleiae, et Cassilissae eam deducentibus. Reversa in cubiculum, post mediam noctem satis longo sermone cum Bothuelio collocuta, cum vir nemo, praeter custodum corporis praefectum, adesset. Hoc quoque secedente, Bothuelius sine arbitris relictus paulo post in suum cubiculum recedit, vestim, ne ab obviis agnosceretur, commutat, penulam laxiorem, qualis Germanorum equitum est, superinduit, et ad destinatum scelus per excubias progreditur.

With the king left almost alone in that solitude, the queen departs, Argathaelia, Huntleia, and Cassilissa conducting her. Having returned to the bedchamber, after midnight and having conversed at considerable length with Bothuelius, no man was present except the prefect of the body-guards. That man likewise withdrawing, Bothuelius, left without witnesses, a little after retires to his own chamber, changes his clothing so that he may not be recognized by passersby, puts on a looser penula, such as of the German horsemen, and advances through the watch-posts to the destined crime.

Quae autem fuerit facinoris conficiendi tota ratio ex eorum confessionibus, qui eo nomine poenas luerunt, facile intelligi potest.

But the whole scheme for accomplishing the crime can easily be understood from the confessions of those who, on that charge, have paid the penalties.

14. Peracto cuius causa profectus erat facinore, Bothuelius redit, ac tanquam omnium quae gesta erant ignarus, it cubitum. Regina interea exitus expectatione suspensa, mirum quam (ut ipsi videbatur) venuste suas partes egit. Nam nec ad fragorem ruentium aedium, qui totam urbem concusserat, quicquam commota, nec ad vulgae, quae secuuta est, trepidationem dissonosque clamores (nihil enim opinor ei novum acciderat), donec Bothuelius iterum e lecto, trepidum se simulans, assurgit, et ad eam una cum comitibus Argathaeliae, Huntleiae, et Atholiae, item cum uxoribus comitum Atholiae et Marriae et secretario adierunt.

14. When the deed for which he had set out was accomplished, Bothuelius returned, and, as if ignorant of all that had been done, went to bed. The queen meanwhile, her expectation of an exit suspended, played her part astonishingly well—how charmingly, as it seemed to her. For she was moved neither by the crash of the collapsing house, which had shaken the whole city, nor by the panic of the crowd that followed, nor by the discordant shouts (for, I think, nothing new had happened to her), until Bothuelius again rose from the bed, feigning alarm, and approached her together with the companions of Argathaelia, Huntleia, and Atholia, likewise with the wives of the companions of Atholia and Marria and the secretary.

Ibi dum prodigiosum facinus narratur, dum pro se quisque factum miratur, regis diversorium ab imis usque fundamentis in aera sublatum, regem ipsum mortuum. In illo maximo stupore et trepidatione omnium ordinum, animus ille heroicus reginae adeo non humiles lamentationes et indecoras regio nomini, sanguini, ordini lachrymas se proiecit, ut priorum temporum omnem constantiae fidem vel aequarit vel superarit. Illud quoque ab eadem animi magnitudine profectum, quod maiorem eorum qui aderant partem exploratum rei gestae ordinem mittit, stationes militum sequi iubet.

There, while the prodigious deed was related, while each marvelled at the act for himself, the king’s inn was lifted from its lowest foundations into the air, and the king himself was dead. In that great astonishment and perturbation of all ranks, that heroic spirit of the queen cast forth such not-humble lamentations and unbecoming tears for the royal name, the blood, and the order, that it equals or even surpasses the whole faith of constancy of former times. That same greatness of mind likewise produced this: that she dispatched a larger share of those present to reconnoitre the state of the deed, and ordered the military stations to be followed.

Ipsa deinde se ad quietem componit, vultu adeo tranquillo atque animo imperturbato, ut ad meridiem usque diei insequentis placide conquieverit. Sed ne omnis humanitatis expers in mariti morte videretur, paulisper tandem clauditur, luctus brevi finiendus indicitur. Vulgus, incertum lugeat an rideat, in diversas cogitationes distrahitur, cum iuxta periculosum esset, simulationem aulicam vel agnoscendo palam contemnere, vele male simulando videri agnoscere.

She then composed herself to rest, with a countenance so calm and a spirit untroubled that she slept peacefully until the midday of the following day. But lest she appear altogether devoid of humanity in her husband's death, she is at last shut up for a little while, a mourning to be brought to a short end being prescribed. The populace, uncertain whether to mourn or to laugh, is torn into diverse thoughts, since it was perilous nearby either to openly disdain the courtly simulation by acknowledging it, or, by badly feigning, to be seen to acknowledge it.

Cum alius aliorum sermo pro cuiusque captu et ingenio esset, de quaestione interim decernenda nulla fit mentio. Tandem, postridie paulo post meridiem, cum et pudor et timor eos cogeret, princeps author facinoris Bothuelius cum aliquot consciis conveniunt ad comitem Argatheliae, quod is rerum capitalium perpetuus quaestor esset. Primum, tanquam omnium quae gesta erant ignari, rem novam, antea inauditam, incredibilem mirantur.

Since each man’s talk was fashioned to his own capacity and genius, meanwhile no mention is made of the question to be decided. At last, the next day a little after midday, when both modesty and fear constrained them, the chief author of the crime, Bothuelius, with some accomplices, meet with the count of Argathelia, since he was the perpetual quaestor of capital affairs. At first, as if ignorant of all that had been done, they marvel at the new, hitherto unheard, incredible matter.

Deinde quaestioni paulum vacare incipiunt, pauperuclas aliquot e vicina mulierculas convocant. Quae, incertae utrum expedieret magis loqui an tacere, etsi sermonem temperarent, tamen cum plus effutivissent quam expectabant iudices, tanquam temere loquutae dimittuntur. Earum enim testimonia, etsi quosdam urebant, facile erat contemnere.

They then begin to devote a little attention to the inquiry, and summon a few poor little neighboring women. These, uncertain whether it would be more expedient to speak or to remain silent, and although they tempered their speech, yet since they had babbled more than the judges expected, they are dismissed as if having spoken rashly. For their testimonies, although they accused some, were easy to despise.

Accersuntur domestici regis quos ea calamitas non absumpserat, negant claves in sua potestate fuisse. Quis igitur eas habebat? Aiebant reginam.

The king’s domestics who that calamity had not consumed are summoned; they deny that the keys were in their power. Who then had them? They said the queen.

Differtur quaestio in speciem, re vera supprimitur, ne si longius progrederentur aulae secreta in vulgus prodirent.

The question is postponed in appearance; in truth it is suppressed, lest, if they advanced any farther, the palace’s secrets should come forth into the public.

15. Ne tamen res neglecta videretur, proponitur edictum, praemia decernuntur iudicibus. Sed quis auderet reginam aut (quod pene periculosius erat) Bothuelium arguere tam nefandi facinoris, praesertim cum ipse idem author, iudex, quaesitor, poenae exactor esset futurus? Hic tamen metus, qui singulorum ora comprimebat, universos continere non poterat.

15. Yet lest the matter seem neglected, an edict is set forth, rewards are decreed for the judges. But who would dare to arraign the queen or (which was almost more perilous) Bothuelius for so nefarious a crime, especially when he himself would be the same author, judge, investigator, and enforcer of the punishment? This fear, however, which kept shut the mouths of individuals, could not restrain everyone.

Nam et libellis propositis, et picturis, et nocturnis per tenebras clamoribus effectum est ut facinoris authores facile intelligerent arcana sua ila in vulgus prodiisse. Et cum nemo dubitaret qui scelus designassent, qui operas contulissent, quanto magis ipsi sua nomina supprimere conabantur, tanto magis vulgi dolor inhibitus erumpebat. Haec etsi se contemnere simulabant, tamen interdum eos adeo ad vivum rumores stimulabant ut suum dolorem dissimulare nequirent.

For with pamphlets posted, and pictures, and nocturnal shouts through the darkness, it came about that the authors of the crime easily understood that their arcana had been brought out into the vulgus. And since no one doubted who had marked the crime, who had contributed the operations, all the more, the more they themselves strove to suppress their own names, the more the crowd’s restrained dolor burst forth. Although they pretended to despise these things, nevertheless at times rumors so urged them to the quick that they could not disguise their grief.

Itaque, antiquata de morte regis questione, subit altera, multo acrior, adversus libellorum authores et Bothuelii (ut ipsi dicebant) calumniatores. Quae adeo severe exercebantur ut neque pecuniae, nec hominum, nec equorum labori parceretur. Pictores omnes convocantur.

And so, the old question about the king’s death having been set aside, another arose, much fiercer, against the authors of the libels and the calumniators of Bothuelius (as they themselves called him). These matters were prosecuted so severely that neither money, nor men, nor horses were spared from the labour. All painters are summoned.

Qui scirpturam facerent ad unum accersuntur uti de picturis et libellis propositis iudicarent. Ac nisi pictor quidam se eum esse de cuius opere contenderetur professus fuisset ultro, alter innocens, levi suspitione attactus, poenas daturus erat. Additur quaestioni conveniens edictum, quo, non proponere modo, sed propositum ab alio legisse capitale erat.

All those who had made the writing were summoned together that they might judge concerning the paintings and libels put forward. And unless a certain painter had of his own accord declared himself to be the one whose work was being contested, another, innocent and touched by a slight suspicion, would have been about to suffer punishment. An edict appropriate to the inquiry was added, by which not merely to put forth, but to have read aloud what had been put forth by another was a capital offense.

Sed nec isti, qui capitalis poenae comminatione sermones vulgi compescere studebant, saevissima regis morte satiati, odium erga mortuum remittebant. Bona defuncti, arma, equos, vestes, reliquamque suppellectilem regina aut eius interfectoribus aut paternis inimicis (non secus ac si in fiscum relata fuissent) divisit, paternosque eius subditos, velut praedae accessionem, pene ad extremam redegit inopiam.

But neither those who, by the threat of capital punishment, strove to curb the common talk, having been satisfied by the most savage death of the king, relaxed their hatred toward the dead. The goods of the deceased — arms, horses, garments, and the remaining furniture — the queen distributed either to his murderers or to his paternal enemies (no otherwise than if they had been carried into the fiscus), and she drove his paternal subordinates, as an accession to the spoil, almost to utter destitution.

16. Illud vero crudelitatis novum et inauditum fuit exemplum, quod velut animum supplicio, ita oculos spectaculo trucidati corporis pascere voluit. Spectavit enim non modo secura sed etiam avide corpus omnium huius aetatis pulcherrimum. Deinde reptente, sine ullo funeris honore, nocte per baiulo, vili feretro, prope Davidem Rizium sepeliendum curavit.

16. That indeed was a new and unheard-of example of cruelty: as if to feed the mind with punishment, so he wished to feed his eyes with the spectacle of the slain body. For he gazed not only without restraint but even greedily at the body most beautiful of all that age. Then, it being dragged along, without any funeral honor, by night on a porter’s shoulders, in a cheap bier, he caused it to be buried near David Rizius.

Haec cum omnibus nota essent, et minas poenarum populi indignatio, dolendi libertas metum vicisset, paulatim domi vultum fingere, et simulatione luctus, populi offensi animum placare conatur. Nam cum in more esset a priscis usque temporibus ut reginae post maritorum obitum quadriginta dies non modo caetu hominum, sed lucis etiam abstinerent aspectu, simulatum quidem luctum est aggressa, sed animi superante laetitia, foribus quidem clausis, fenestras aperit, et, abiecta lugubri veste, intra quartum diem solem coelumque aspicere sustinuit. Illud incommode prorsus evenit, quod cum Henricus Kilgreius ab Anglorum regina ad eam consolandam (ut mos est) venisset, tota simulationis scaena ab homine peregrino detecta est.

When all this had become known, and the people's indignation at the threats of punishments, and the liberty of grieving had overcome fear, she gradually at home began to feign an expression, and by a simulation of mourning strove to placate the offended spirit of the people. For since it was the custom from ancient times that queens, after the deaths of their husbands, should abstain for forty days not only from the company of men but even from the sight of daylight, she undertook a feigned grief; yet with joy prevailing in her mind, though the doors were closed she opened the windows, and, having cast off the mournful robe, by the fourth day endured to look upon the sun and the heavens. It came about most awkwardly, namely that when Henricus Kilgreius had come from the queen of the English to console her (as is the custom), the whole scene of simulation was detected by this foreign man.

Nam cum reginae iussu in palatium venisset, quanque homo diu in aulis principum versatus, ac minime praeceps nihil properanter ageret, tamen adeo inopportune, theatro non dum ornato, intervenit, ut fenestras apertas, lumina vix dum accensa, coeterum histrionicum apparatum desiectum apprehenderit. E quadraginta vero diebus, qui legitimi sunt luctui, duodecim aegre ac non plene transactis, cum nec simulatio procederet et affectus veros tam cito prodere puderet, tandem, confirmato animo, contemptis huiusmodi nugis, ad se redit ac veros mores profitetur. Ad Setonum cum paucis, nec iis adeo maestis comitibus, advolat.

For when, by the queen’s order, he had entered the palace — and although the man had long moved in the halls of princes, and was by no means headstrong nor acting precipitately — yet he intervened so inopportunely, the theatre not yet adorned, that he found the windows open, the lights scarcely kindled, and the rest of the histrionic apparatus thrown into disorder. Of the 40 days which are legitimate for mourning, 12 having been scarcely and not fully completed, since neither did the simulation go forward and it would have shamed to betray true feelings so soon, at last, with spirit confirmed and such trifles despised, she returns to herself and professes genuine manners. To Seton he hastens with a few, and not even those very sorrowful companions, he flies to him.

Ibi Bothuelius, quanquam summa qua tum erat in aula gratia et maiorum gratias et honores postulare viderentur ut spendidissime secundum reginam acciperetur, tamen proximum culinae cubiculum ei datur, neque tamen omnino incommodum ad luctus minuendos: erat enim reginae cubiculo subiectum, et si quid repentini doloris accidisset, scalae erant angustae quidem illae, sed quae aditum tamen Bothuelio ad eam consolandam praeberent.

There Bothuelius, although the highest favor then in the court and the greater thanks and honors seemed to demand that he be received most splendidly in accordance with the queen, was nevertheless assigned the chamber next to the kitchen, nor yet wholly inconvenient for assuaging grief: for it was adjoining the queen’s bedchamber, and if any sudden pang of sorrow occurred, the stairs were narrow indeed, but such as still afforded Bothuelius access to her to console her.

17. Interea, rumore in Galliam perlato, Crocus (qui saepe antea in Soctia legationibus erat perfunctus) intervenit, quanquam omnino incommode. Eius suasu, ex illo etiam in Gallia infami latibulo, Edinburgum reditur. Sed apud Setonum tot commoditates habebat ut vel cum famae dispendio eo redeundum esset, ibi consilia magnis regni de rebus aguntur.

17. Meanwhile, with the rumour carried into Gaul, Crocus (who had often before discharged embassies in Scotia) intervened, albeit most inconveniently. At his urging, from that infamous refuge in Gaul he was returned to Edinburgh. But with the Setons he had so many conveniences that, even if it were necessary to go back there at the loss of reputation, there the counsels of great matters of the kingdom are deliberated.

Omnis autem consultationis illud caput erat, ut Bothuelius coedus reus ageretur, ac per coactos ad id iudices pergaretur. Leviores iudicum gratia et pollicitationibus, graviores, quos ad speciem addi oportebat, metu ad eum absolvendum posse adduci. Nam praeter libellos passim sparsos, et regis pater, Leniniae comes, eum palam coedis authorem deferebat.

But the whole head of that consultation was that Bothuelius be treated as a co-perpetrator of the murder, and that by coerced men the judges should be moved to that end. The lighter sort could be won over by favour and promises; the weightier, who were to be added for appearance’s sake, could be brought by fear to acquit him. For besides the pamphlets scattered everywhere, the king’s father, the Count of Leninia, openly charged him as the author of the murder.

Sed instabat ordinum conventus ad 13. Aprilis, ante quem diem iudicium peragi volebant. Ea festinatio in causa fuit ut nihil iure, nihil ordine, nihil more maiorem in eo iudicio fieret. Accusatores de more citari debebant, proximi, uxor, pater, filius, ut vel ipsi adessent vel procuratores mittterent, legitimi erant quadraginta dies; pater adesse ante 13. diem iussus, idque sine amicorum advocatione, cum sua tantum familia, quae in summa eius inopia ad paucissimos erat redacta, cum interea Bothuelius cum magnis agminibus tota urbe volitaret.

But the convocation of the orders pressed for 13 April, before which day they wished the trial to be carried out. That haste in the cause was such that nothing according to law, nothing according to procedure, nothing according to customary seniority was done in that trial. Accusers, according to custom, ought to be summoned—the nearest relations, the wife, the father, the son—so that either they themselves might be present or might send procurators; forty days were lawful. The father was ordered to be present before the 13th day, and that without the advocacy of friends, with only his own household, which by reason of his extreme poverty had been reduced to very few, while meanwhile Bothuelius, with great bands, was roaming the whole town.

Et quia neminem, tam certo periculo proposito, putabat accusationi subscripturum (tanta erat apud eum negligentia, tantus legum et iudiciorum contemptus) ut constitueretur iudicium de caede, quae nono die facta diceretur, cum decimo Februarii rex fuisset interemptus. In iudicum lectione et reiectione eadem fuit severitas: a sicariis ipsis iudices lecti, cum nemo esset qui reiiceret.

And because he thought that no one would subscribe to the accusation, so certain was the danger proposed (so great was his negligence, so great the contempt of laws and judgments), it was decreed that a trial be held concerning the slaughter, which was to be said to have been committed on the ninth day, when the king had been slain on the tenth of February. In the selection and rejection of judges the same severity prevailed: judges were chosen from the assassins themselves, since there was no one to reject them.

18. Comes Cassilissae, cum mulctam de more solvere mallet quam iudex legi, neque reginae roganti, minanti, et annulum ad fidem faciendam et precum et minarum mittendi, pareret, metu tandem relegationis et poenae coactus de sententia discessit. Sedent iudices non lecti ad decernendum, sed selecti ad absolvendum, agitur causa sine adversario, iudicium capitis, in quo nemo accusat nisi a reo suppositus, ut non in foro causam, sed in theatro fabulam agi putares. In tanta rerum securitate (videte quaeso quantum valeat in utramque partem conscientiae testimonium) prodiit de repente, ex inopinato, iuvenis e familia comitis Leniniae, apud quem officii ratio vicit metum periculi.

18. The Count of Cassilis, preferring to pay a mulct according to custom rather than be judged, and not yielding to the queen asking, threatening, and sending both a ring to make a pledge and prayers and threats, at last, compelled by fear of banishment and punishment, withdrew from the sentence. The judges sit not chosen to adjudge, but selected to absolve; the cause is heard without an adversary, a capital trial in which no one accuses except a person planted by the accused, so that one would think not a cause tried in a forum but a play acted in a theater. In so great a security of affairs (see, I pray you, how much the testimony of conscience avails in either direction) suddenly, unexpectedly, a young man from the household of Count Leninius emerged, in whom a sense of duty overcame fear of danger.

Is protestatur eum consessum iudicum non esse, quippe in quo nihil iure, nihil ordine ageretur. Ad hanc vocem tantus metus est iniectus iudicibus uti omnes uno ore protestarentur, ne sibi aliquando fraudi esset, quod reum absolverent, cuius nemo esset accusator, item quod caedis eum absolvissent quae facta diceretur nono Februarii, cum rex decimo die esset occisus. Hoc est illud nobile iudicium quo Bothuelius, non crimine liberatus, sed velut atramento sutorio lotus, nuptias reginae honestius ambire volebat, turpior maritus futurus quam antea fuerat maechus.

He protests that it is not a consessum of judges, since in it nothing is conducted rightly, nothing with order. At this speech so great a fear was cast into the judges that they all with one voice protested, lest they should ever be guilty of fraud by acquitting a defendant of whom there was no accuser, and likewise by absolving him of the slayings said to have been done on the ninth of February, when the king was slain on the tenth day. This is that noble judgment by which Bothuelius, not freed by crime but as if washed with a cobbler’s ink, wished to seek the queen’s marriage more honorably; he would become a husband more shameful than he had been before, an adulterer.

Ad cumulum huius obsolutionis, propositus est libellus in celeberrimo fori loco, Bothuelium, etsi legitimo iudicio a caede, cuius falso arguebatur, legitime purgatus esset, tamen, quo sua innocentia omnibus foret manifestior, ferro decernere paratum, si quis integra fama et honesto loco natus eum regiae caedis insimularet. Nec defuit qui postridie per libellum publice propositum acciperet conditionem, modo locus certamini decerneretur in quo sine metu nomen auderet profiteri.

To add to this acquittal, a libel was posted in the most celebrated place of the forum, proposing Bothuelius, who, although by legal judgment he had been lawfully cleared of the slaughter of which he was falsely accused, nevertheless, so that his innocence might be made more manifest to all, was ready to be judged by the sword, if any man of unblemished fame and born in an honester station would impute to him the royal murder. Nor was there lacking one who on the next day, by the libel publicly posted, would accept the condition, provided only that a place be assigned for the contest in which, without fear, he would dare to declare the name.

19. In hoc motu animorum, conventus oridinum habetur. Ibi, cum per octo fere dies de tollendo iudicio, quo pater Huntleii maiestatis erat damnatus, ac filio restituendo in bona et honores paternos actum esset, nonnulla item blandimenta plaebi concessa, ac inprimis ecclesiae, ut leges aliquot papisticae tyrannidis de poenis eorum qui contra decreta Romanae sedis mutire auderent tollerentur. Haec etsi in vulgus grata erant, unum tamen superarat quod non minus reginam angeret quam populum offenderet, consuetudo videlicet illa cum Bothuelio, nec tam palam quam regina cupiebat, ec tam occulta ut populum falleret, praesertim omnium oculis in eos coniectis.

19. In this stir of minds, an assembly of the orders is held. There, when for about eight days it was debated about annulling the judgment by which the father of Huntleius had been condemned for majesty, and about restoring to the son his paternal goods and honors, some also blandishments were granted to the plebs, and above all to the church, namely that certain laws of papistic tyranny concerning the punishments of those who would dare to mutter against the decrees of the Roman See should be removed. These things, although pleasing to the crowd, yet one thing remained which distressed the queen no less than it offended the people, namely that custom with Bothuelius — not so open as the queen desired, nor so secret that it could deceive the people, especially with all eyes cast upon them.

Nam cum Bothuelius uxorem haberet, et divortium expectare longum esset, et interea regina nec palam habere, nec clam potiri, nec omnino eo carere posset, velamentum, si non honestum, saltem aliquod quaeritur. Et cum nihil aliud succurreret, inprimis lepidum commentum visum est ut Bothuelius reginam per vim raperet, et ita eius pudori consuleret. Igitur paucis post diebus dum Sterlino redit regina, a Bothuelo capta Dumbarum ducitur, volensne an invita ex literis ad eum ex itinere scriptis facile quivis intelliget.

For since Bothuelius had a wife, and to await a divorce would be long, and meanwhile the queen could neither hold him openly, nor obtain him in secret, nor wholly be without him, some veil, if not honorable, at least some pretext was sought. And when nothing else offered succour, above all a clever contrivance seemed fitting, that Bothuelius should seize the queen by force, and thus consult for her pudor. Therefore, a few days later, while the queen returned to Sterlino, having been taken by Bothuelo she is led to Dumbarum; whether willingly or unwillingly anyone can easily understand from letters written to him on the journey.

Sed, ut ut res erat, uti raptus iniuria nuptiis honestis aboleretur, Bothuelii uxor cogitur in duplici foro de divortio litem intendere.

But, as the matter stood — that the injury of the abduction should be blotted out from honorable nuptials — Bothuelius’s wife is compelled to pursue a suit in both forums concerning divorce.

20. Apud iudices authoritate regia delegatos ad ius dicendum in hoc genere causarum accusat uxor maritum de adulterio, quae una iusta apud eos erat divortii causa. Apud iudices papisticos ordinum quidem decreto vetitos, tamen ab archipiscopo Sancti Andreae ad hanc causam cognoscendam datos accusatur, quod ante matrimonium cum propinqua uxoris stupri consuetudinem habuisset, caelato interim pontificis Romani diplomate quo venia eius culpae facta erat. Nulla divortio, nec in testibus, nec in iudicibus, mora.

20. Before judges delegated by royal authority to pronounce law in this kind of causes a wife accuses her husband of adultery, which alone among them was a just cause for divorce. He is accused before papal judges—indeed forbidden by decree of the orders, yet by the Archbishop of Saint Andrew assigned to cognize this cause—that before the marriage he had kept a custom of illicit intercourse with a kinswoman of the wife, his fault meanwhile covered by an engraved diploma of the Roman pontiff by which pardon for his culpa had been granted. No delay in the divorce, neither among the witnesses nor among the judges.

Intra enim decimum diem lis suscepta, incepta, contestata, disceptata, diiudicata est, apud utrosque iudices. Relata ad Dumbarum divortii sententia, Bothuelius omnes amicos et clientes undique convocat, ut reginam, quae captiva videri volebat, Edinburgum reducerent. Hii cum armati plarique convenissent, in itinere dum reginam reducunt, metus multorum animos perculit ne aliquando accusari possent quod reginam captivam tenerent.

For within ten days the suit having been taken up — begun, alleged, disputed, and decided — was heard before both judges. The sentence of divorce being brought to Dumbarton, Bothuelius summoned all his friends and clients from every quarter, that they might bring the queen, who wished to appear a captive, back to Edinburgh. These men, having met armed and for the most part numerous, while on the road as they escorted the queen, a fear struck the minds of many that they might at some time be accused of holding the queen captive.

Ut coetera desint, hoc unum satis argumenti esse, quod armati circa eam in rebus ac temporibus alioqui pacatis esset. Hoc scrupulo iniecto, abiiciunt omnes in medio itinere lanceas, et pacatiore, salte in specie comitatu, eam in arcem Edinburgensem ducunt. Quae et ipsa in Bothueliii potestate erat.

To leave the rest aside, this one thing is sufficient evidence: that armed men about her would have been, in matters and times otherwise peaceful. With this scruple put forward, they all cast away their lances in the middle of the journey, and, more peaceable, at least in the outward guise of an escort, they lead her to the Edinburgh castle. Which was itself also in Bothuelii’s power.

Ibi cum Bothuelio commorata, dum Bannae quas vocant denunciarentur, tum demum ex arce in oppidum descendit, et ad consilium publicum iudicum accessit: pronunciant se liberam ac sui iuris. Ac ita demum innuptas illas nuptias intra diem octavum confecit (omnibus bonis eas adeo execrantibus, aut certe abominantibus) ut Crocus regis Francorum legatus, homo reginae studiosissimus et Gusianae etiam factionis, et in propinquo habitans, licet multum rogatus non existimaret e sua dignitate ad coenam adesse. Haec ad 15. Maii anno 1567 acta sunt.

There, having sojourned with Bothwell, while the Banns, as they call them, were being proclaimed, then at last she descended from the castle into the town, and approached the public council of judges: they pronounce her free and sui iuris. And thus at last she completed those nuptials while unmarried within the eighth day (all the good men so execrating them, or at least abhorring them) so that Crocus, legate of the King of the French, a man most devoted to the queen and also of the Guise faction, and dwelling nearby, although much entreated, did not deem it fitting, from his dignity, to be present at the supper. These things were done on 15 May in the year 1567.

Decimo quinto vero proximi Iunii, Bothuelio, vel conscientia sceleris perterrito, vel ab regina ablegato, ipsa ad proceres, qui parricidam publicam ad supplicium deposcebant venit.

On the 15th of the following June, Bothwell—either terrified by the conscience of his crime or sent away by the queen—and she herself went to the proceres, who were demanding that the public parricide be put to punishment.

21. Quae ab eo die gesta sunt, non admodum ad praesentem causam pertinent. Et quanquam longior fortasse vestra opinione mea fuit oratio, tamen facile sentio, dum exitum aliquem narrationis quaero, multa me praeteriise, plurima festinandi studio leviter percurrisse, nihil fere pro sceleris atrocitate explicasse.

21. The things that were done from that day do not very much pertain to the present case. And although perhaps my speech was longer than your opinion, yet I easily perceive that, while I seek some outcome of the narration, I have passed over many things, have skimmed very many in a zeal for hastening, and have explained almost nothing as to the atrocity of the crime.

FINIS

END