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The Reformation—Contrast between its course in Aberdeenshire and in Scotland
south of the Grampians—Church revenues absorbed by outside
superiors—Church-wrecking in the south—Division of opinion in
Aberdeen—Destruction of the monasteries—Attack on the
cathedral—Pronouncement of the citizens—Adam Heriot, first Protestant
minister of Aberdeen—Visitation by Knox—Attitude of the university and the
ejection of the Catholic teachers—Principal Arbuthnot — Ordinances of the
kirk-session — Ministry of John Craig and establishment of
Episcopacy—Rivalry between Huntly and Lord James Stewart — The Queen's
return from France : Mission of John Leslie—Her northern tour—The battle of
Corrichie—Death of Huntly—Execution of Sir John Gordon —Forfeiture and
restoration—The Forbes and Gordon fights at Tillyangus and Crabstane—The
Towie tragedy—Sir Adam Gordon of Auchindoun—Exactions of the Regent
Morton—Vacillation of the sixth Earl of Huntly—Proceedings of the "Popish
Lords"— Their ultimatum to Aberdeen—The battle of Glenlivet—Termination of
the struggle between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
The overthrow of the Church of Rome was effected
in the north-east of Scotland in a quiet and matter-of-fact fashion that
presents a marked contrast to the tumults that attended the progress of the
Reformers in other parts of the country. It was not until the Reformation
had become an accomplished fact to the south of the Grampians that Aberdeen
and Banff were called upon to choose with which side they were to cast in
their lot, and their acceptance of the principles of Protestantism, when
these were suddenly brought before them in 1559-60, was in a singularly
practical and unimpassioned spirit. The populace had not come under the
influence of Knox or any of the other fiery evangelists of the new creed,
but the readiness w;th which the Reformation was at last effected in the two
north-eastern counues shows that here, as elsewhere, the time was ripe for
the change. It cannot be shown that either in town or country the Roman
Church was regarded with hostility and many benefits must in fairness be set
down to its credit. No Scottish diocese could point to such an unblemished
succession of prelates, or to grander monuments of episcopal munificence.
When we remember, too, that within the memory of the generation that
accepted the tenets of Knox the Roman Church had been illustrated by the
saintly life and noble work of Bishop Elphinstone, the facility with which
the people surrendered their old religious ideals must be considered all the
more remarkable.
One of the Roman Church's
chief sources of weakness in the two counties is found in the large
possessions and patronages which had been gifted to outside religious
foundations, so that the two counties were annually drained of large
revenues, which probably were not collected without considerable pressure.
When the Reformation began to gain ground in the south, the Church vassals
in Aberdeenshire, most of whom were of the rank of barons, could not have
been indifferent to the prospect of getting rid of their ecclesiastical
superiors, while the agricultural tenant, whatever his misgivings may have
been in turning his back upon priest and altar, saw some profit in getting
rid of the irritating parochial dues which beset him at every incident in
his domestic life. It must have been such material advantages that swayed
the minds of the masses in Aberdeenskre, for they apparently had little
opportunity of grasping the doctrinal issues at stake until the Reformation
was brought upon them as an accomplished fact.
Counsels of internal
reformation were now too late. Angus and the Mearns had already embraced the
doctrines of the Reformation, and the Reformers south of the Dee were
eagerly watching for their opportunity to repeat in Aberdeen such scenes of
sacrilege, robbery, and demolition as had already been witnessed in Perth
and St Andrews, and were being repeated in other places in central and
southern Scotland. The first sign of serious alarm in Aberdeen occurs on
June 16, 1559, six weeks after the landing of John Knox at Leith, and five
weeks after the rioters of Perth had begun to sack and destroy the religious
houses. On that date the chaplains of St Nicholas appeared before the
magistrates and requested them, in view of the wrecking and looting of
churches, to provide for the safety of the silver work and ornaments of St
Nicholas, which were to this end handed over to the custody of the
magistrates on the understanding that they would be restored when the danger
had passed away. The portended storm did not yet break, however, and six
months afterwards an order was given by the council for the execution of
certain ordinary repairs in the fabric of the church. But the respite was of
brief duration. On the 29th of December Provost Menzies invited the council
to take measures for resisting a body of Mearns and Angus men who were
coming to the town " to destroy and cast down the kirks and religious places
thereof, under colour and pretence of godly reformation." The council was
divided in sentiment. By a majority it refused to take the action
recommended by the provost, who thereupon recorded his protest, to which
nine of his colleagues signified their adherence. The expected visit of the
Reformers took place immediately afterwards. To a town's meeting on January
4, 1559-60, convoked by the magistrates, but from which the provost and most
of his party were absent, it was reported that " certain strangers and some
neighbours and indwellers of the town" had attacked the monasteries of the
Dominicans, Trinity Friars, and Franciscans, and had wrecked the several
buildings, leaving only the bare walls. The Trinity Monastery was set on
fire, and a wounded monk, Friar Francis, perished in the flames. The rioters
proceeded next to the cathedral in Old Aberdeen. The plate, jewels, and
ornaments had been previously committed for safety to the care of the Earl
of Huntly. The chancel, however, was wrecked by the mob, who stripped the
roof of its lead, and carried away the bells and all the spoil they could
secure, putting it on board ship for disposal in Holland; but, says Father
Hay in his narrative, "all this ill-gotten wealth sank by the just judgment
of God not far from the Girdleness." In the end Huntly arrived upon the
scene with Leslie of Balquhain, sheriff of the county, and their authority,
aided by the eloquence of John Leslie, preserved the building from
destruction. The university seems to have escaped serious attack, although
there likewise the Principal had taken the precaution of removing books and
valuables to a place of safety. Nor does it appear that any attack was made
by the mob upon the church of St Nicholas.
The dominant party in the
town seem to have had no objection to the looting of the interiors of the
monasteries, but on the "rascal multitude" proceeding to unroof the houses,
and to take away the slates, timber, and stones, an interposition of the
head-court to stay the work of destruction took place. Now for the first
time was utterance publicly given to sentiments in favour of the new
doctrines. All but unanimously the proposal was carried that the materials
of the monasteries and the crofts of the Friars should be taken over by the
town. The silver and ornaments of St Nicholas Church had been committed to
the custody of four members of the Roman Catholic party, who were now called
upon to resign their charge in favour of the committee intrusted with the
care and disposal of the Friars' properties. The chalices, silver work, and
ornaments were sold by public roup a year afterwards, by which time the
Protestant religion had been established by law, the proceeds of the sale
being applied to the improvement of the harbour and the upkeep of the bridge
of Don and the town's artillery and defences. Some years afterwards the
altars with their " backs" were removed, the ornamental choir-stalls sawn
away, and the pipes of the organs packed into cases.
Two months after the attack
on the religious houses the citizens formally resolved to support the
Congregation, and the council voted ^400 to defray the expenses of forty
armed men who were to be sent to its assistance, subject to the condition
that nothing was to be done in opposition to the queen's authority. The
secularisation of Church property was opposed by Provost Menzies and his
party, though they had remained quiescent during the riot, and the provost
put on record another protest against the action of the majority, but
nothing followed on it, and he remained for other fifteen years at the head
of the municipality. On the other hand, we find churchmen bending before the
inevitable. Thus on the eve of the inroad of Reforming zealots from the
south, John Roger, the superior of the Grey Friars, with consent and assent
of his convent, resigned to the community the hospital, buildings, and yards
of the monastery, subject to restitution in the event of a general
restoration of monastic property to its former owners.
The part of Aberdeenshire in
the Reformation was meagre indeed as compared with that of Perth, Fife, and
Ayr. None of the leaders of the movement sprang from the region between the
Dee and the Spey, which, on the other hand, was prolific in champions of the
Catholic faith, and the change did not wholly take place upon the
destruction of the religious houses and the resolution of the community to
support the Congregation. Though the Friars were dispersed the Roman ritual
was not superseded, and the cathedral still remained in the hands of the
dean and chapter. The influence and attitude of Huntly towards the
Reformation made its prospect in the town and counties very uncertain during
the first years of its legal existence. He found himself unable or unwilling
to take a decided part in the issue between the two creeds. Through his
support, however, and the quiescent spirit generally prevailing in the city,
the Bishop of Aberdeen was able to remain in his diocese when the other
members of the Scottish episcopate had to flee for their lives.
Immediately after the legal
establishment of Protestantism the Lords of the Congregation provided
Aberdeen with a zealous minister in the person of Adam Heriot, who had been,
an Augustinian monk of St Andrews, and after some wavering had finally
broken with Rome in the preceding year. It was recognised, according to
Spottiswoode, that the Roman profession still prevailed in Aberdeen, and
that Heriot, by his familiarity with scholastic divinity and his moderation,
as well as by his diligence in teaching both in schools and in the Church,
was specially suited to gain the Aberdonians to the Protestant side. This
judgment seems to have been fully borne out by his career in Aberdeen, and
we find the citizens presenting him with a suit of clerical attire " in
respect of his great and continual labour in the ministry," and agreeing to
pay him ^200 Scots until other provision were made for his support, this
being the amount which the Corporation of Edinburgh paid to John Knox. We
are told by Spottiswoode that he was greatly beloved of the citizens for his
humane and courteous conversation, and at his decease much lamented by the
poor, to whom he had been a benefactor. During Heriot's ministry Knox, at
the request of the Assembly, visited Aberdeen and the neighbouring churches
(1564), but unfortunately no record in detail of his ministrations in these
parts has come down to us. The visit of the Reformer no doubt had to do with
the work of "purging" and reorganisation. In the parts of Scotland more
strongly in sympathy with the Reformation than Aberdeenshire and Banffshire
can be said to have been there was for a time a great scarcity of ministers,
and generations were to pass before each parish was provided for. Three
years after Knox's visit nearly every parish in the two counties had its
"reader," but there were only some two dozen ministers and exhorters to the
entire diocese of Aberdeen. The university had already for a time lost its
pristine glory, though one or two men of mark were still connected with it
and formed a centre of sentiment and influence opposed to the views of the
extreme Reformers. Randolph, who was with the Court at Old Aberdeen in 1562,
reports that there were at that time only fifteen or sixteen students at the
college. Alexander Anderson, now Principal, and John Leslie, who was
Professor of Canon Law, as well as Official of the diocese, with Patrick
Myrton, the diocesan treasurer, and James Strachan, one of the canons, all
signatories of the memorial to the bishop, were summoned in January 1561 to
appear before the General Assembly in Edinburgh. By Knox and others they
were severely cross-examined as to their faith, and especially in regard to
the mass. The result was that each side claimed a dialectical victory, and
that the Assembly ordered " these clerks of Aberdeen to ward in Edinburgh a
long space thereafter," and deposed them from the office of preaching.
A commission headed by John
Erskine of Dun, " Superintendent" of Angus and Mearns, "visited" the
sheriffdom in 1569, and was joined in Aberdeen by the Regent Murray, who was
returning from the north. Principal Anderson and his colleagues were ordered
by the regent and commissioners to sign the Confession of Faith, and,
failing to give satisfaction, were summarily deprived of their functions.
A liberal infusion of
Protestant blood from the south was now introduced. Alexander Arbuthnot, a
gifted and scholarly member of the Kincardineshire family afterwards
ennobled, was appointed to the principalship. He had been a student of
Aberdeen, it is said, had graduated at St Andrews, had been named by the
first General Assembly in 1560 as one of the young men of promising talents
for the ministry, and had studied for five years at Bourges under Cujacius.
Murray, who had appointed Buchanan to the principalship of St Leonard's
College, selected Arbuthnot at the early age of thirty-one for the
corresponding office at Aberdeen. Prior to this he had been for a year
parson of the Aberdeenshire parishes of Logie-Buchan and Forvie. Two of his
colleagues were James Lawson, his friend and fellow-student, afterwards the
successor of Knox in Edinburgh, who was appointed Sub-Principal, and
Hercules Rollock, elder brother of the more celebrated regent and principal
of Edinburgh University. The Protestant historians testify that Arbuthnot's
diligent and good government revived learning in Aberdeen and gained many
over from superstition ; and Bishop Spottiswoode states that he was beloved
by all, and that his advice was sought by the chief men in the north.
Through his instrumentality considerable endowments from the ecclesiastical
revenues were obtained for the university, but its continued weakness is
soon reflected in schemes of reform. Closely associated with Andrew Melville
since their schooldays at Montrose, Arbuthnot acted with him in
ecclesiastical and academic affairs, and when Episcopalianism asserted
itself under the patronage of King James they lost the royal favour together
by their strenuous upholding of the Presbyterian order. The General Assembly
wished to remove Arbuthnot to St Andrews, but the king and Council charged
him to remain in Aberdeen "under pain of horning," an interposition of the
civil power that was made a subject of formal complaint by the Assembly but
defended by the Government as having " good grounds and reason in the
general state of the north country." Arbuthnot's sensitive nature chafed
under this check, to which his early death has been partly attributed. But
for the wasting of his powers on contentions for which men of stronger nerve
were better fitted he might have attained to one of the highest places in
Scottish literature. His ' Miseries of a Poor Scholar,' and other pieces,
show him to be possessed of the spirit of true poetry as well as of the
faculty of elegant versification.
Early in Heriot's incumbency
the newly - formed kirk-session passed a series of ordinances for
reformation of manners, which exhibit in a clear light several features in
the state of society at this period of rapid change. One of these rules
prohibits "disputation of the Scriptures" at dinner, supper, or open table,
"through which arises much contention and debate." The Aberdonians, as we
have seen, acquiesced in the Reformation, rather than warmly embraced it,
and at a time when ecclesiastical and theological systems were in the
melting-pot these casual disputations would tend to exasperate feeling and
hinder the Protestant reconstruction. Punishment, " according to the order
of other reformed towns," was to be meted out to Roman Catholics slandering
members of the Congregation, and to persons scoffing at the preaching or
office-bearers of the reformed Church, or persuading " the simple and
ignorant" to absent themselves from preaching or prayers. The records of the
kirk-session show that these regulations were not permitted to remain
inoperative. Transgressors against " the religion" by not attending church
were to be first dealt with gently, and then, if necessary, proceeded
against for contumacy; but presently one of the city magistrates and two
elders of the church were appointed to go through the town and take note of
absentees from sermon. Priests or friars who remained in the town were
required to conform, and occasionally pressure was brought to bear on
persons of importance, as Gilbert Menzies, the younger, who was ordered by
the session to attend communion. But it does not appear that the laws were
administered with severity.
Before the Reformation there
had been a revulsion of sentiment against the plays and revels for a time so
much in vogue, and the general statutes against them were to a certain
extent enforced by the magistrates. The old use of the burgh was pleaded in
vain as an excuse in 1562 by some of the citizens called to account for
passing to the wood to bring in summer on the first Sunday of May, contrary
to the Acts and statutes of the queen and Council, and the transgressors
were called upon to do penance in church on the following Sunday. Some years
afterwards five of the citizens—one of them being Matthew Gu'ld, armourer,
father of Dr William Guild who was to play a prominent part in the history
of the city and university in the following century — were imprisoned and
deprived of their freedom to exercise their crafts for passing along the
Gallowgate on Sunday with a minstrel band playing before them. Playing and
singing or even abstention from ordinary work on Christmas Day were
repressed, but it is evident that many of the public were reluctant to give
up their old Yule-tide customs.
These various regulations and
proceedings on the part of the local authorities are in general accordance
with the act.on taken by other Scottish communities. So it is also with
respect to repression of Sunday marketing, Sunday fishing, and playing on
the Links on the first day of the week. There were general statutes on the
subject, yet we find the Convention of Burghs in 1578 representing that the
burghs suffer injury through " the holding of open markets at landward kirks
upon the Sunday" in defiance of the law, and imposing a money penalty on any
burgh permitting Sunday markets. Aberdeen was to collect and account for
penalties incurred north of the Dee—Dundee, Cupar-Fife, and Edinburgh being
similarly charged to look after breaches of this law elsewhere in Scotland.
Immediately after the
Reformation there were in Aberdeen, according to the kirk-session records, a
number of suspected persons, of evil report, from other towns and places,
having no occupation, craft, or handling of merchandise as a source of
income, yet spending a great deal of money and going about at night playing
cards and dice. These persons were to be banished from the town, and branded
on the cheek should they return. At the same period many persons in
Aberdeen, in the words of the record, were " handfast as they call it,"
which is explained to mean that they had been living together under promise
of marriage, it might be for six or seven years, or even longer. These
irregular relations had received a certain sanction of usage and even of the
Church; but they were to be no longer countenanced, and all handfasted
persons were to incur Church censure and discipline if the marriage were not
completed forthwith.
The Church appointed some of
its best men to the incumbency of Aberdeen, and on the retirement of Heriot
by reason of ill-health in 1573 it sent John Craig to take his place. Craig,
who was educated at St Andrews, may have been descended of the family of
Craigfintry or Craigston in Aberdeenshire, and so have been a partial
exception to the rule that these counties contributed no eminent men to the
ranks of the Reformers. He had been a Dominican monk, had become acquainted
with Calvin's writings at a monastery in Bologna, and had narrowly escaped
being committed to the flames for heresy. Returning to Scotland in 1560, he
became one of the first ministers of the Protestant Church. Though a zealous
Reformer, who had a chief hand in drawing up the National Covenant, Craig
was a man of prudence, and would not go to extremes. During his six years'
ministry in Aberdeen he was commissioned to " visit" the churches of Lower
and Middle Deeside, Garioch, and Banff, and was for a second time Moderator
of the General Assembly. On the establishment of Episcopacy, he was with
Andrew Strachan, minister of Dun, collator of David Cunningham to the see of
Aberdeen. Craig left Aberdeen to be chaplain to the king, between whom and
the extreme Presbyterians he interposed from time to time as mediator.
During the initial stages of
the popular revolt, Huntly had been quietly watching the current of events
as if uncertain what his course might be. More than once he had interposed
in the interests of peace between the queen-regent and the Lords of the
Congregation, but he disliked her policy, and resented the presence in
Scotland of the French troops by which it was supported. On the plea of
illness he was absent from the Parliament which established Protestantism,
but when after the death of the queen-regent the party which had been
exercising authority at Edinburgh deputed Lord James Stewart (afterwards
Regent Murray) to visit the young queen, his half-sister, on the eve of her
return from France, Huntly and the party of the old Church sent John Leslie
to invite her to land at Aberdeen, with the assurance that an army of 20,000
of her faithful subjects would meet her there and conduct her to Edinburgh
in independence of the Congregation. Leslie was the first to obtain an
audience, but the queen judged it the more prudent course to go direct to
Edinburgh. This mission of Leslie marks the development of the breach
between Huntly and the southern Lords which had manifested itself at the
overthrow of Roman- Catholicism by the Parliament, when Lord James Stewart,
Argyll, and Athole entered into a secret league to " bridle him if he intend
any mischief." Huntly paid his respects to the queen as soon as possible
after her unexpected arrival at Leith, and during the performance of a
mystery-play before the queen and Court in Edinburgh he peremptorily
suppressed a ribald burlesque of the mass. The mass had been declared
illegal, but Huntly assured the Queen that if she sanctioned the step he
would restore its celebration in the north-eastern counties.
The course of affairs was
governed in a great degree by personal causes. Lord James Stewart became a
rival of Huntly in Huntly's own country. Early in 1562, when he married
Marischal's daughter, the queen raised him to the earldom of Mar, having
previously granted him the lands of Strathdee, Braemar, and Cromar. The
earldom of Moray was shortly afterwards conferred on him, with gift of the
tack and assedation of the Moray possessions forfeited by Huntly. The
queen—so at least it appeared to Huntly—was entirely in the hands of Murray,
as he must now be called, who had thus practically served himself heir to
some of the most important of the Huntly honours and possessions. Such a
combination of interests in the north was ominous as well as provocative to
the great earl whose rule only a few jears before had been unquestioned from
sea to sea. Murray for his part knew well that a trial of strength was
before him, and resolved that the power of Huntly should be broken.
A visit of the queen to the
northern parts of her dominions had been arranged by Murray to take place at
the time of his marriage, but was temporarily postponed, and when it took
place Huntly, who regarded it as a move inimical to himself, retired to
Strathbogie on a plea of ill-health. Meanwhile a new complication arose.
Ogilvie of Findlater disinherited his son in favour of his relative, Sir
John Cordon, a son of 'Huntly, and young Ogilvie and Gordon having met in
Edinburgh they quarrelled and fought, Ogilvie being wounded. Gordon was
committed to prison by order of Murray, but soon escaped to the north. The
queen's journey followed almost immediately. She reached Aberdeen towards
the end of August, attended by Murray, Morton, Maitland, and other prominent
men, with an escort or guard of honour; and a loyal welcome was accorded her
by the citizens, on whose behalf Provost Menzies handed her a gift of 2000
merks. Among those who paid their respects to her at Old Aberdeen, where she
was the guest of the Bishop, was the Countess of Huntly. Randolph, who
accompanied the royal party, reported to the English Government that Huntly
was not in the queen's favour, and that she would not say that she would
visit his house though she was to be pass ing within three miles, and it
"the fairest in the country."
A dutiful invitation was
courteously pressed by the Countess, but Mary, always governed as would seem
by Murray, made the fact of a member of the family being a fugitive from
justice a reason for refusing, and demanded that Sir John Gordon should go
back to prison. The idea of his doing so was at first entertained, but when
he found that Lord Erskine, the uncle of Murray, was to be his keeper, he
refused to surrender.
From Old Aberdeen the queen
and her train passed on to Balquhain Castle, the residence of Sir William
Leslie, Sheriff of Aberdeenshire, who had taken part in saving the cathedral
in 1560, and was soon to receive from Bishop Gordon the reward of his
steadfastness in a feu-charter of the barony of Fetternear with the bishop's
palace and lands. Here the queen attended mass — an indication that the
change of religion had not yet taken place in Aberdeenshire. From Balquhain
the royal party passed on to Rothiemay and Darnaway, where Murray was
formally invested with his earldom, and a council was held from which an
order was issued commanding Sir John Gordon to surrender the castles of
Findlater and Auchindoun, which he had acquired through the Ogilvie
connection. On the return journey, by way of Cullen and Banff, admittance
was refused at the Castle of Findlater and again at Auchindoun, and a
company of soldiers sent against Findlater was disarmed by Sir John. Huntly,
who meanwhile had caused the keys of both castles to be sent to the queen,
was summoned to attend with his son before the Privy Council at Aberdeen
within six days, and on the summons being disregarded they were denounced as
rebels. An armed force was sent to attack Strathbogie Castle, but Huntly had
left before it arrived, and was on his way towards Aberdeen at the head of a
body of his followers.
Murray summoned military
assistance from the south, and in the name of the queen called upon the
Aberdeenshire landed gentry to come to her aid. A Privy Council, held in
Aberdeen on October 26, was attended by five earls of the Protestant
party—Murray, Morton, Marischal, Erroll, and Athole —and by Lord Erskine;
and it issued orders to a number of the Gordon lairds commanding them to
remain at Edinburgh, Haddington, and St Andrews. Obedience to these orders
deprived Huntly of support essential to him in the struggle which he now had
to face. After advancing by way of the Garioch towards the city of which he
had once been Provost, he diverged towards the west, where we find him
encamped at the Loch of Skene. On the royal forces going out from Aberdeen
to give him battle Huntly retired to a vantage-ground at Corrichie, on the
eastern slope of the Hill of Fare, whither Murray at once followed him. In
respect of numbers the two sides were unequally matched. It is probably a
liberal computation that credits Murray with having two thousand warriors;
Huntly's followers were not half that number. At first the onslaught of the
Gordons drove back the vanguard of their assailants, but the Lothian
spearmen standing firm the weight of numbers soon prevailed. The earl
himself, with his two sons, Sir John Gordon, the ostensible cause of the
conflict, and Adam Gordon, who was to play a great part in north - eastern
affairs in future years, were taken prisoners. It has been alleged that
Huntly was crushed to death, that he was strangled by Murray's orders, and
that he was slain by a Kincardineshire laird, but there is little reason to
doubt that he died of apoplexy in the excitement attending his overthrow and
capture. Randolph states that he "suddenly fell from his horse stark dead,"
and another contemporary authority, the ' Diurnal of Occurrents,' gives in
rather more detail a similar account of his death.
The prisoners were taken to
Aberdeen, where five of the Gordons were hanged two days afterwards. Sir
John Gordon was sentenced to be beheaded. Queen Mary, who had been a
spectator of the fight at Corrichie, beheld his execution from a window of
the Earl Marischal's house on the south side of the Castlegate. Romance,
rather than history, has invested the scene with additional elements of
pathos turning on alleged-love passages between Gordon and Mary, and on the
bad performance of his task by the executioner. The queen, who was virtually
a captive in the hands of Murray, may be supposed to have been an
involuntary witness of the spectacle. Strathbogie Castle was forthwith
rifled of its valuable contents, among which were the treasures of the
Cathedral of Aberdeen, vainly imagined to have been deposited in the place
of greatest safety in all the north. Plate and jewellery and the richest and
most gorgeous of the textile fabrics and apparel were removed to the Palace
of Holyrood, part of them soon to decorate the hall of Kirk-o'-Field wrhere
Darnley met his doom. The remains of the earl himself were removed to
Edinburgh, and six months after his decease the sentence of forfeiture was
pronounced over them with every token of contumely. Lord Gordon, the heir to
the earldom, wrho had been convicted of treason, was sent in " free ward "
to the Castle of Dunbar, and kept a prisoner till the queen's marriage to
Darnley led to his release in August 1565, and to his restoration to the
lands and titles of his father in the following October; and on Murray, who
opposed the marriage, being proclaimed a rebel, the fifth Earl of Huntly at
once became a foremost power in the State. His restoration to freedom was
joyfully welcomed in the north, and when shortly afterwards he summoned his
vassals and hereditary allies to his own and the royal standard 6000
fighting men responded to the call.
Huntly commanded the
rearguard of the army that drove Murray and the confederate lords across the
English frontier, and on the flight of Morton, after the death of Rjzz: j,
he was appointed to the office of Chancellor. The part which he played in
the political struggles belongs only to a minor extent to the history of
these counties, though he held the office of Lieutenant of the North so long
exercised by his predecessors. For a time the government of the realm was
virtually in his hands and those of the Earl of Bothwell, namely during part
of the brief period of fourteen months that elapsed between the marriage of
his sister, Lady Jean Gordon, to Bothwell, and its dissolution in order that
Both-well might marry the queen. When Mary was mprisoned at Lochleven Huntly
identified himself with her cause; he was one of the nobles who entered into
a bond to seek her release, and after her escape he acted with her party in
military and political enterprises.
The renewed predominance of
Murray after the battle of Langside brought many disturbing influences into
play. His territories on the Spey and beyond it offered peculiar temptations
to the turbulent Highlanders of the Gordon connection, for whom Huntly was
held responsible. According to an annalist of the time, Huntly "with his
accomplices daily and hourly wasted the goods and gear of all them that
assisted the king's authority, and took their houses and places in the
queen's name as her lieutenant " ; and an agent of the English Government
reports that " the Earl of Huntly in the north parts plays the king, holding
justice courts, beheading and hanging all who will not obey him as
lieutenant under the queen's authority." The earl himself being a frequent
absentee, his more forceful brother, Adam Gordon of Auchindoun, acted as
chief of the Gordons, and it can be believed that bad reports of Auchindoun
would go south from the Forbeses and others of the Protestant party. Murray
was preparing an expedition to the regions north of the Dee when Huntly had
a conference with him at St Andrews, which resulted in an agreement whereby
Huntly undertook to support the authority of Murray as regent during the
king's minority, to repress any further resistance on the part of his
followers and bring them to justice, to deliver up the cannon in the north,
and to give hostages for the fulfilment of these terms. On the other hand,
the regent granted remission to Huntly and his vassals for all past
offences, subject to fines as arranged, or " reasonable compositions " upon
each man's individual suit. Immediately after the conclusion of this
agreement the regent proceeded to Aberdeen at the head of a military force,
and held a court in the tolbooth, to which all persons who had taken part
with the Earl of Huntly were summoned to answer for such offences as they
had committed ; " and because they could not underlie the law they
compounded with his grace for great sums of money." The imposition of fines
as a substitute for sterner modes of punishment was a novelty in northern
jurisprudence, marking an advance of civilisation and wealth ; but the
obligations were more easily undertaken than met, for we learn that "never
in this realm" had "such mean gentlemen paid such great sums of money."
The north-east was affected
by the assassination of the regent in common with the rest of Scotland. In
the struggle which ensued Huntly took up arms in the queen's interest, and
on receiving her commission as Lieutenant-Governor of the kingdom he
proceeded to raise an army in the north, issuing at Aberdeen (June 13, 1570)
a call to arms against the rebellious faction which with English aid had
nvested the Earl of Lennox with the regency. His levies were (dispersed at
Brechin by the Earl of Morton, who had been sent north by the regent. Huntly
himself met in Aberdeen the emissaries of the Duke of Alva, the
representative in the Netherlands of the Spanish power, the most formidable
influence of the time opposed to the Reformation. As a result of the
conference between Huntly and these emissaries, Lord Seton was sent to Alva
with a letter from Huntly and Argyll informing him of the state of affairs,
and desiring his assistance against the English, who held the queen in
captivity and were invading the country. From Dunkeld, where a meeting of
the queen's party was held, Huntly swept through Angus at the head of 800
men and then agreed to a truce of two months on the pretence of Elizabeth
that the treaty between her and the Queen of Scots was being negotiated.
The struggle in the south now
engaged Huntly's attention, one of its incidents being the surprise and
death of Lennox at Stirling, followed by the appointment to the regency of
the Earl of Mar — John, Lord Erskine, to whom the earldom, temporarily held
by his relative Murray, had been restored in 1565, and with it the lands of
Strathdon and Braemar, and the lordship and lands of the Garioch. In the
north the feud between the Forbeses and Gordons was complicated and
intensified by new issues. Some prospect of its termination existed for a
time on the marriage of the Master of Forbes to a sister of Huntly, but the
marriage proved an unhappy one, and the repudiation of his wife by the
Master was resented as an affront by all the Gordon connection. A convention
of the Forbeses was summoned by " Black Arthur," brother of Lord Forbes and
uncle of the Master, for the purpose of composing differences and concerting
common action. Hearing of the intended meeting, Sir Adam Gordon assembled a
body of his followers, with whom he swooped down on the Forbes community. A
sharp encounter took place at Tillyangus, on the slope of the Coreen hills
(October 9, 1571), with the result that the Forbeses were put to flight,
leaving " Black Arthur" and several of their principal men dead, their
losses altogether numbering 120.
A dark episode of this
warfare is the theme of one of the most pathetic of Scottish ballads. After
the fight at Tillyangus the Gordons presented themselves at the house or
castle of Towie, belonging to one of the Forbeses, and demanded its
surrender. Forbes was from home, and his wife refusing to open the door to
his enemies, they set the house on fire, and all the inmates perished in the
flames. The annalists differ regarding the scene of the tragedy and its
position in the order of events. Matthew Lumsden, the very inaccurate
genealogist of the Forbeses, writing a few years after the occurrence, makes
it take place at the Castle of Corgarff; but all testimony is at one in
identifying the heroine as the wife of Forbes of Towie. The besieging party
was led by Captain Thomas Ker or Keir, son of a Borderer who had aided the
fourth earl in his escape from England. A soldier by profession, Thomas Ker
was a trusty servitor of the fourth and fifth earls, and was frequently
employed in the dangerous office of passing between Scotland and England
with confidential letters. But if Ker was leader of the party that burned
the house of Towie, it is the knight of Auchindoun, as commander-in-chief,
that is held up to obloquy for this dark act of an age of violence.
The local conflict was
recognised by all parties as involving national issues. After the defeat of
Tillyangus the Master of Forbes rode to Stirling to enlist the co-operation
of the Regent Mar, who responded by sending north five companies of foot and
some horse, and by a proclamation setting forth that Huntly had been
oppressing the lieges, and had stirred up his brother to rebellion. The men
of the Mearns were summoned to meet the Master of Forbes at the Kirk of
Fordoun and advance against Sir Adam Gordon, who, reinforced by forty
skilled warriors sent north by Huntly, occupied Aberdeen with a body of the
Huntly retainers and allies, including some bowmen furnished by the Earl of
Sutherland. The southrons crossed the Dee by the bridge (November 20, 1571),
and were making their way towards the city when they found their passage
blocked by the Gordons at the Crabstane. Ker, who had been lying in wait
with a company of musketeers at Union Glen, opened fire upon the rear of the
Forbeses and their southern contingent, while the Sutherland bowmen poured
upon them a deadly shower of arrows. " Cruelly fochten for the space of an
hour " the battle is said to have been ; and threescore of the Forbeses fell
in it, misread into 300 by some of the Aberdeen historians. When victory was
declaring itself in his favour Sir Adam Gordon humanely ordered his men to
capture and not to kill their antagonists. The Master of Forbes and a number
of his followers were taken prisoners, but met with humane treatment.
Aberdeen now became the base of operations against the opponents of Mary
south of the Grampians, where Gordon occupied Brechin and Montrose and
menaced Dundee. At Brechin, after thanksgiving in the church, he called
before him nearly 200 Lindsays and Ogilvies, whom he had vanquished and
captured, and discharged them on their parole to be faithful subjects of the
queen. It may be that the incident at Towie led him to impose a stringent
rule of moderation ; at all events, the Angus men showed their appreciation
of his chivalrous conduct by refusing to proceed against him, " by reason of
their bond and the great gentleness of the said Adam."
But a great change was at
hand. The isolation of the queen at Fotheringay gradually discouraged her
party, and one after another fell away. Huntly wavered. He had applied in
vain to the King of France for assistance, and with renewed forfeiture
staring him in the face he took occasion soon after Morton became regent to
make his peace with the Government (February 1573). The Master of Forbes was
liberated from his confinement at Spynie, and was soon in Aberdeen, with
Forbeses, Frasers, and Mackintoshes, concerting warlike measures. Sir Adam
Gordon, indignant at his brother's surrender, was at once in evidence, but
as the earl was coming north he retired to France, where he narrowly escaped
assassination by a party of Forbeses. Huntly died suddenly while playing
football at Strathbogie in the autumn of 1576.
Aberdeen had difficulty in
adjusting itself to the vicissitudes of the times. In March 1572 the town
council resolved to send the town's title-deeds for safety to the stronghold
of the Earl Marischal at Dunnottar — an indication that the Protestant party
was in power, and that the head of the Keiths had succeeded to the position
in relation to Aberdeen formerly held by the chief of the Gordons. Later in
the year the sum of 600 merks was granted to Huntly " specially to remove
his soldiers and men of war out of this burgh and the bounds thereof." It
had been represented by the Forbes partisans that the citizens took part
with the Gordons at the Crabstane, and Morton, following the example set by
Murray, made this a pretext for exacting a heavy fine from the city. The
regent and Privy Council were in Aberdeen at the justice-air of 1574, and
the magistrates represented to them that it had been through "sinister and
wrong informal on" that the proceedings against the town had been raised.
The regent, however, exacted 4000 merks as the price of ts discharge, and to
this the community agreed lest worse evil should befall them. By an
obligation entered into at this time, and approved by an Act of the Privy
Council, the community became bound, under a heavy penalty, to elect none as
office-bearers or town councillors but "such persons as are known zealous
professors of the true and Christian religion now publicly preached and by
law established within the realm." With Morton's favour for Protestantism
was united a spirit of rapacity which he exercised on other revenues besides
those of the Church. In a charter of the lands of Balgownie and Murcar to
his. relative George Auchinleck of Balmanno, an eminent lawyer and judge, he
granted the salmon - fishings of the Lower Don, which the town had received
from King Robert Bruce, and had enjoyed without challenge for two centuries
and a half. The rights of the town were absolutely clear, and the fishings
were restored to it by the Privy Council soon after the termination of
Morton's regency.
Tranquillity continued to
prevail in the two counties during the first three years of the sixth Earl
of Huntly, who, being a minor, was sent to France for education, his able
and experienced uncle, Sir Adam Gordon, administering the affairs of the
earldom. In 1579, however, the Forbes-Gordon feud was resumed, partly in
consequence of a quarrel between George Gordon of Gight and Alexander Forbes
younger of Towie, resulting in bloodshed and Gordon's death, and partly of a
dispute about the lands of Keig and Monymusk which Cardinal Beaton had
granted to the fourth earl. The church of St Andrews had held the
superiority of these lands since the days of Malcolm Canmore, but Huntly,
who had stood by the cardinal when Arran imprisoned him, received as his
reward these outlying possessions of the metropolitan see. Several members
of the Forbes family had become tenants of the lands, and Church tenants in
these Reformation days had a practical grievance when the Church's rights
were made over to a landlord strong enough to enforce them. The dispute was
referred by Parliament to four commissioners, presided over by the king, and
in 1582 they awarded ^4000 Scots as compensation to the wife and family of
Gordon of Gight, securing the Forbeses in their rights to parts of the lands
of Keig and Monymusk, and allowing Huntly and his kindred to enter on the
remainder without restriction.
The head of the house of
Gordon was never able for long to hold himself aloof from national affairs,
and the sixth earl, who afterwards became first marquis, and whose active
participation in public business extended over a period of more than half a
century, is found almost immediately on his accession to power in 1583
acting with the nobles opposed to the Ruthvens. For a time he wavered
between Catholicism and Protestantism. The Presbyterian ministers so pressed
and importuned him that he told the king that he could endure them no
longer; yet on the king's advice he made his submission to the Kirk,
publicly confessed his "errors," and promised to defend the Protestant
religion. This was in November 1588—twenty-one months after the death of
Queen Mary, and less than four months after the further blow which Catholic
hopes received in the destruction of the Spanish Armada. At the instance of
Queen Elizabeth a charge was brought against him of corresponding with
Parma, the Spanish proconsul in the Netherlands, when the Armada was being
organised ; and though he gave himself into ward and demanded trial, the
flight of Erroll strengthened suspicion against him. In a short time he was
set at liberty, and hearing of a plot, in which Morton and Athole were
concerned, to entrap him at Perth as he went north, for which purpose a
force was being assembled by the Master of Glamis, he suddenly left
Edinburgh, took the plotters by surprise, and seizing Glamis carried him
captive to Strathbogie. Thereupon the Protestant Lords persuaded James to
summon an armed muster to proceed to Aberdeen, where Huntly and Erroll,
afterwards joined by Angus, assembled a large force to contest the passage
of the Bridge of Dee. On the approach of James with the southern army,
however, the three earls disbanded their men—Huntly protesting that he had a
commission to gather the lieges, but that nothing was further from his
thoughts than to fight against the king. In Aberdeen James received formal
declaration of allegiance from crowds of the northern lairds. Huntly sent
the Master of Glamis to the city in charge of Captain Thomas Ker; but as the
earl did not come himself, James resolved to proceed to Strathbogie—Erroll's
castle of Slains having already been captured in the king's name. The
journey was made in bleak April weather, and as the distance was too great
to be covered in a single day the party had to camp out at night, and " the
whole countryside being void both of victual and other goods—all carried
into the hills"—the entertainment for royalty was of the poorest. On the
night of James's arrival at Strathbogie, the earl, while repairing thither
to submit, was captured by his late prisoner the Master of Glamis and lodged
in the tower of Tirriesoul, whence he was sent off next day to Aberdeen in
charge of a strong guard of horsemen. The king visited the northern
Highlands, and on his return to Aberdeen received the submission of the Earl
of Erroll, Sir Patrick Gordon of Auchindoun, Gordon of Cluny, and others.
When he reached Edinburgh he set free the Earl of Huntly, who had been
warded at Borthwick Castle.
From imprisonment to the
highest positions in the State was found by successive heads of the house of
Gordon to be but a short journey. The sixth earl had not long recovered his
freedom when he received a commission of " fire and sword " against the
Earls of Bothwell and Moray, who had incurred the displeasure of the
Government, and in pursuance of this commission he presented himself at
Donibristle, the residence of Moray on the Fifeshire shore of the Firth of
Forth, and destroyed it by fire. Moray himself and Patrick Dunbar, Sheriff
of Elgin, in attempting to escape by a subterranean passage, were slain by
some of Huntly's followers, and the occurrence, resembling in a more
conspicuous sphere that which had taken place in Upper Donside not many
years before, is similarly commemorated in Scottish ballad literature. Much
resentment was awakened by it among the Presbyterian party writh which Moray
was associated, and the king was suspected of complicity in the affair, and
was alleged to have hated Moray "for the good regent's sake" and as a
favourer of Bothwell. Demands were raised that measures should be taken
against Huntly, who wrent into voluntary ward, but was soon liberated again
by James's order. Then came the incident of the " Spanish blanks "—the
arrest of a member of the Ker family, as he was starting on a foreign
journey, having in his possession eight sheets of paper left blank except
that they bore the closing formula of a letter to royalty and were
subscribed with the signatures of Huntly, Erroll, Angus, and Patrick Gordon
of Auchindoun. Ker was cross-examined under torture of " the boot," and on
the testimony thus wrung from him, and afterwards repudiated, it was
concluded that the blanks were to be filled up by two Jesuit " traffickers"
connected with Aberdeenshire, Fathers James Crichton and James Tyrie, and
that they had reference to a plot for landmg Spanish troops on the Solway or
Clyde to co-operate in re-establishing Roman Catholicism in Scotland and
invading the territory of the Protestant Queen of England. Other intercepted
letters, spurious or real, suggested the existence of active plotting in the
north and much intercourse with the Duke of Parma. A Catholic reaction was
manifesting itself. The Earls of Erroll and Crawford had lately been
recovered to the Roman fold, and it was not doubted that Huntly's sympathies
were on the same side, while his uncle, James Gordon, was one of the busiest
of the many Jesuit agents in the north. The lords whose names were on the
blanks were outlawed, and James, though he had little favour for the extreme
Protestant party, revisited Aberdeen with a force, imposed afresh upon the
magistrates and community an obligation to uphold the doctrines now
established, and placed a garrison in Huntly Castle—the earl having retired
to the far north. In the meantime the Mackintoshes were stirred up to clear
off old scores against the Gordons, and as vassals of the Earl of Moray to
avenge the affair of Donibristle. This they did by taking possession of
Huntly's castle-lands of Inverness, and by a Clanchattan raid upon the
Gordon possessions in Strathdee and Glenmuick. Huntly, released from his
outlawry, made an expedition of vengeance against the Mackintoshes in the
Inverness district. In his absence the Badenoch and Moray men of the same
connection made a spoliatory incursion into Strathbogie, but Sir Patrick
Gordon of Auchindoun, who started in pursuit, at the head of three dozen
horsemen, recovered much of the booty. The earl himself led a second
expedition against the Mackintoshes and Grants, and in the enthusiastic
words of the family historian " wasted, burnt, and spoiled all the rebels'
lands, killed divers of them, and then returned home with great booty,
having fully subdued his enemies."
The renewed activity of the
powerful northern earl stimulated the Protestant party to take fresh
measures against him, and at a Parliament specially summoned for the purpose
at Edinburgh at the end of May 1594, the "Popish earls"— Huntly, Erroll, and
Angus—were attainted. No active proceedings to give effect to this decree
had been taken when James Gordon, Huntly's Jesuit uncle, and three strangers
" suspect to be Papists and traffickers," who had landed from a French ship,
were arrested and imprisoned by the magistrates of Aberdeen. Intimation was
to be sent to the Government, but first there came a demand from Angus and
Erroll for the release of the prisoners, and after the lapse of three days
an ultimatum from Huntly, subscribed also by these earls and by Sir Patrick
Gordon, declaring that unless the strangers were forthwith set at liberty
the signatories of the ultimatum would instantly attack the town with fire
and sword. This missive had the desired effect of procuring the release of
the strangers.
Disliking the pressure put
upon him by the more extreme men of the party in power in the south, the
king was in no haste to give effect to the sentence against the earls, but
at last he so far yielded as to issue a commission to the Earl of Argyll,
Lord Forbes, and other Protestant chiefs to invade their territories and
overthrow their power. Argyll, though young and inexperienced, was reluctant
to accept the commission, but the prospect of acquiring the Gordon estates
induced him to enter on what was manifestly a perilous enterprise. His own
undisciplined warriors, as he proceeded into Inverness - shire and down
Strathspey, were reinforced by Mackintoshes and Grants and by a motley crowd
of caterans armed with claymores and carrying sacks to hold the spoils of
Strathbogie. Huntly's new castle of Ruthven in Badenoch was held by the
MacPhersons, and the armed horde, said to have numbered seven or even ten
thousand, finding that it offered resistance not likely to be soon overcome,
hastened on towards richer lands. After quitting the Spey to ascend
Glenlivet on the way to Aberdeenshire, the Highlanders were met (October 4,
1594) on the Allt-a-Coileac'nan burn by Huntly and Erroll at the head of
2000 men, many of them on horseback. The Forbeses, Frasers, Irvines,
Leslies, Dunbars, and Ogilvies were preparing to unite their forces with
those of Argyll, but Huntly, resolved if possible to prevent the junction of
the Highlanders with his Lowland enemies, hastened westward to the Braes of
Glenlivet. The Gordons had the advantages of discipline and superior arms,
including six field - pieces which were nearly as paralysing if not as
deadly to the Highlanders as the modern Maxim gun is to a militant African
tribe. The composition of the force under Huntly and Erroll was similar to
that of the army which the Earl of Mar commanded at Harlaw nearly two
centuries before; the Highland host under Argyll was to a large extent of
the same character as the Celtic multitude that accompanied Donald of the
Isles; and the parallel is completed by the nature and results of the two
battles. Argyll charged the Lowland force in repeated onsets, but was unable
to break its compact array. From eleven till two o'clock the battle went on
intermittently, and after an hour's interval it was renewed till nightfall,
when, under cover of the darkness, the Highlanders took their departure, as
their predecessors had done at Harlaw. In point of number Huntly's losses
were insignificant, and the only notable man who fell on his side was Sir
Patrick Gordon of Auchindoun. Argyll lost MacLean of Mull, MacNeill of Barra,
two of his Campbell cousins, and 500 rank and file.
Complete as was the victory
of the " Popish earls" at Glenlivet, they were unable to follow it up, and
when the king returned to the north they offered no resistance. Apart from
pressure exercised through their immediate vassals they had little or no
popular support. Huntly, who had owed not a little to the favour of the
king, now lost credit by an incautious remark reported to his majesty, to
the effect that the royal expedition against him was only a "gowk's storm,"
which would soon blow over, in which expectation he retired again to
Caithness. The Duke of Lennox, who was Huntly's brother-in-law, was put in
charge of the government of the north, and the result of a meeting which
Huntly and Erroll had with him was that they agreed to leave the country for
a time. Shortly afterwards Lennox handed over the management of the Huntly
estates to his sister the countess. In the meantime the king had gone at the
head of an armed force to Strathbogie, and had consented to the looting of
the castle and then to the destruction of the great building itself. Other
strongholds of the Roman Catholic notables were destroyed at the same time,
including the houses of Slains, Abergeldie, and Newton.
So ended the last struggle in
the north between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. The two earls who
identified themselves with the ancient Church had gained a signal yet barren
victory. The people of the two counties were no longer attached to the old
faith : they had, in the main, joined the Protestants, or were indifferent.
There were few among the greater lairds who had not participated in the
spoils of the Church or had not followed the fashion by taking the side of
the Reformation. The Roman Catholic Church, indeed, had completely lost its
hold upon all except a comparatively small minority.
On their return to Scotland
in 1596 the two earls tried to make their peace with the Kirk, but their
proposals met with the bitter opposition of the Melville party, and were at
first rejected. By this time, however, James was bent on curbing the extreme
Presbyterians: the pretensions of the Presbytery of Edinburgh were declared
unlawful by the king and Council, and in May 1597 the General Assembly of
Dundee, in which the extreme party were in a m nority, decided on the
removal of the sentence of excommunication. The reception of Huntly and
Erroll into the Protestant Church took place in St Nicholas' Church,
Aberdeen, in the following month, and was attended with a degree of ceremony
befitting the acquisition of adherents so iMHant. After a sermon by the
bishop—for the episcopal system was in partial operation—the two earls made
open confession of their defection and apostasy, affirmed the religion
established in Scotland to be the only true religion, and "for ever
renounced all Papistry." Huntly, moreover, confessed his offence to God, the
king, the Kirk, and the country in the slaughter of the Earl of Moray,
whereupon he was absolved from the sentence of excommunication. Thus the two
earls became Protestants; they were received by the whole ministry present,
as also by the commissioner for the king, and the proceedings of the day
closed with a convivial gathering.
In 1599 the Earl of Huntly
was promoted by the king to the higher rank of marquis, and on James
succeeding to the English throne he honoured the marquis with the duty of
conveying the queen to London in his "comeHest manner."
The marquis and marchioness
still hankering after the Church of Rome, Mr George Gladstanes, minister of
St Andrews, was deputed to live with them so that they "might be informed in
the word of truth." But the Reformation struggle was over, and the
ecclesiastical conflicts were henceforth to be between different orders of
Protestants. |
