UC-NRLF 1 B 3 332 145 1 K"^ '^■ \ \ *^. s \ \ ^ -. X > ^^ M ^^^^: V af tt)f ^TMOM or '^WA TMRZET: ¥ ITiTiti^an, y'. /^/^y^. ^/^/ ^ • • " "« ^mm ^z^ws. G)tos,\ rji^jisim w.. THE YOUNG CHEVALIER. BORN, 1720. DIED, 1778. Charles Edward Stuart (better known as the young Preten- der) was the eldest son of James III. titular king of Great Britain, and Maria Cienaentina, daughter of the famous John Sobieski. He gave early indications of spirit and talent, but an imperfect and injudicious education obstructed the developement of his charac- ter, and he acquired only the superficial accomplishments of the continental courts. A plan of invasion and insurrection in Scotland having been concerted by the French Court, his father, whose age and infirmities precluded his peisonal exertions, deputed Prince Charles, now in his twenty-fifth year, to conduct the enterprise. Charles landed in Scotland in 1745, with a few followers, and soon found himself at the head of a considerable body of zealous and courageous Highlanders. He entered Edinburgh in triumph and routed the royal forces at Preston Pans. This victory greatly augmented his resources, and increased the number and confi- dence of his adherents. The prepossessing exterior and concilia- ting manners of the Prince excited the warmest enthusiasm in his favour ; and, had his firmness and skill been adequate to his situa- tion, the Protestant succession might have been seriously endan- gered. The insurgents, five thousand strong, entered England arid advanced unopposed within a hundred miles of London ; but not meeting with the support they expected, being threatened by two superior armies and distracted by internal divisions, ihey were forced to retreat into their own country. After some partial suc- cesses, they hazarded an engagement with the Duke of Cumber- land at Culloden, and were irretrievably routed. Charles fled almost unattended from the field of battle, and for five months wandered about the Highlands exposed to the most imminent dan- ger and the severest privations. An immense reward was offered for his apprehension ; but though individuals of every rank had him in their power , there was not one base enough to betray him, and after many hair-breadth escapes he reached France in safety. He was received with great distinction on his return by the French Court, but on the conclusion of peace with England he was or- dered to quit the Trench territory. Refusing to comply, he was placed under an arrest for a short time, and on his liberation reti- red to Italy. His father died in I7G6, but the Pope refused to acknowledge him as the successor to his titles, and the court of France reduced the pension which it had allowed the exiled family, from twenty-four thousand crowns to eighteen thousand. As the Prince would not accept less than had been paid his father, this supply was withdrawn, and he was reduced to live in a very pri- vate manner on a small pension allowed him by his brother. Car- dinal York. In 1772 he married the Princess Louisa of Stolbi^r^, with whom he received a large dowry, but though he was doai- ingly fond of her, his inebriety and ill- temper obliged her to sepa- rate from him, after an union of eight years. The subsequent connection of this lady with the celebrated Alfieri is well known. Prince Charles died at Rome of an apoplexy and palsy, and was buried with royal honours at Frescati. The youth of Prince Charles had given some promise of talent and virtue, but his cha- racter appeared to fall with his fortune ^ and he became habitually drunken, and gross and brutal in his manners. Illiterate and su- perstitious, he devoted his sober hours to the study of Noslradu- mus, and from the interpre:ation of his prophecies, continued to Hatter himself with the hope of re-mounting the tlirone of his an- cestors. Previous to his marriage he kept a Mrs. Walkenshaw, a vulgar and drunken woman, with «l:om he often quarrelled and sometimes fought. Kather than part with this mistress, who was suspected to be in the pay of the British Government, and for whom he did not entertain the slightest affection, he offended and lost the services of his most faithful adherents. £nfra.raL irJLOx-fir .5®IL@SfSIL :=s'^-:it-S:2SS'IgIE. COLONEL GARDINER. BORN, 16*8. KILIED. 17^5. James Gardiner was the son of Captain Patrick Gardiner of Tor- woodhead. His father dying whilst he was very young, he was in- debted tor an excellent education to the care of h:s pious and affec- tionate mother. He entered the array at a very early age, contrary to the wishes of his family, who vainly endeavoured to check his predilection for a military life. Such indeed was his spirit, and high sense of honour, that he was engaged in three duels before he attained the age of manhood. In 1702 he obtained an ensign's commission and served in Flanders under Marlborough. At the battle of Ramilies he was severely wounded, and would have pe- rished for want of assistance, had he not been fortunately relieved by a party of French, who carried him to a convent where he was carefully nursed until his recovery. On obtaining his liberty, he was rapidly promoted in the service. He was made aid-de-camp to the Earl of Stair, and accompanied his lordship in his embassy to France. Major Gardiner was soon immersed in the gaity and dissipation of Paris, and being handsome, accomplished, and afflu- ent, distinguished himself by his success as a man of gallantry. The early sentiments of piety which he had imbibed from his careful parent, were not, however, wholly stitled ; and a singular incident which occurred at this period produced an extraordinary change in his opinions and life. One Sunday evening, while wait- ing impatiently for the hour of assignation with a married lady, he accidentally took up a religious book to pass away the lime; while reading it, he believed that a glorious vision appeared to him, ad- monishing him of the wickedness of his life; and whether this was merely a dream or the otispring of a heated imagination, it produ- ced an immediate and complete reformation. He became scru- pulously punctual in his devotions and exemplary in his conduct^ and neither the ridicule nor arguments of his fashionable friends could induce him to swerve for a moment from the course which he had adopted. In 11^6, he married the daughter of the Earl of 13uchan,by whom he had thirteen children. On the breaking out of the rebellion in 1745^ Colonel Gardiner, who now commanded a regiment of dragoons, was sent to reinforce the royal army under Sir John Cope. At the disasterous battle of Preston Pans he dis- played all the activity and valour which distinguished him in his youth. After his dragoons had shamefully dfserted him^ he threw himself at the head of a body of infantry, and, while endea- vouring to rally them, he fell covered with wounds ; on being re- moved he shewed signs of life, but expired in a few hours. With- out having had the good fortune to distinguish himself by any i.niportant or brilliant achievement. Colonel Gardiner deservedly obtained the reputation of a skilful and excellent officer. lie was remarkably kind and humane to the soldiers under his command, paying unremitting attention to their discipline, morals, and com- fort As a husband, a parent, and a master, he fulfilled all his social duties with exemplary diligence. If his piety partook too mtich of enthusiasm and superstition, it did not sour his temper or contract his mind, and he was not less remarkable for his accom- plishments as a gentleman, than for the blamelessness of his man- ners, and the active benevolence of his life. IB MQWa ROB ROY. Robert M-Gregor, of Inversnaid, was the second son of Lieu- tenant Colonel Donald M Gregor, of the family of Glengyle, by a daughter of the house of Campbell, of Glenlyon. He was born about the middle of the seventeenth century ; being descended from the unhappy house of McGregor, whose history as the clan 3Iac Eayh, or ' the Children of the Mist,' is well known to the readers of the Scottish novels. When its very name was proscribedj he assumed his maternal appellation of Campbell. Like most other highland gentlemen, he turned his attention to cattle-grazing. In this pursuit he soon became distinguished by his probity and liberality ; and the Marquis of Montrose, having entered a commercial speculation with him, advanced, for his proportion of the risk, the sum of one thousand raerks. By the absconding, however, of one Mackintosh, an inferior partner, with a large proportion of their common stock, Rob being lelt answerable to all their creditors, was compelled to ' wadset' or mortgage his lands to the marquis. It is intimated, we know not on what authority, that fraud and chicanery were used to prevent the exercise of his privilege of redemption j but, be that as it may, it is quite certain, that as soon as the forfeiture occurred, the family of Macgregor was driven from their home in his absence, and his wife was treated in a manner too horrible to be repeated. From this period, (to adopt the phrase of his cousin Nichol Jarvie,) Rob took to the hill side, and became a broken man. Deprived of a flourishing and increasing trade by the villany of one partner, and of a fair estate and the comfort of a domestic circle, by the extreme severity of another, Rob Roy adopted that course of life which has rendered his name so familiar to posterity. The principal agent of Montrose's rigor was his factor, one Graham of Killearn. Him, therefore, it was Rob's care on all occasions to annoy, and many are the adventures narrated by the inhabitants of Loch Ketterin. Notwithstanding the injuries which he had sustained, M- Gregor was too magnanimous to stain his hands in blood : he contented himself, therefore, with receiving the rents which were due to the marquis, and by that tiieans making himself some amends for the loss of the estate he had been deprived of by injustice. This course continued some time ; till at length Montrose, being wearied out, was obliged to apply for the protection of govern- ment; and a reward was set upon the head of ' the M'Gregor.' His hair-breadth escapes, and moving accidents by flood and field, in his endeavours to escape from those who sought to destroy him, vie with the traditionary and marvellous adventures of the famed Sir William Wallace. It was nothing uncommon for him to encounter, at one time, fifteen or twenty well-armed soldiers; of whom an oflicer and at least two-thirds of the privates invariably bit the ground. An incident, at length, relieved Rob Roy of his unpleasant situation. It happened that the great families of Campbell and Graham were opposed to eich other, as well in political as in private questions ; and the Duke of Argyle, the head of the former, gave him a residence in his own demesnes. With this conduct, Montrose, at the council table, reproached Argyle; who replied, that he indeed allowed Rob Roy the common privileges of wood and water ; but that his accuser had made him his factor to receive his rents, and that all Rob Roy's necessities were su[»plied from Montrose's garners. This reply, it is said, silenced the accuser, and from that period he discuntinued his oppressions. In Rob's last illness, it is said, he was visited by one whom he considered to be his enemy ; but before he would suffer him to be introduced, he caused his attendants to dress and raise him from the bed, that he might not be seen in a posture of defeat. The reception was cold and formal, and when he had retired ; '* now," said he, " lay me down again, and strike up the air of ' cha teill mi tuille' (I will never return) and continue playing until my departure." lie was punctually obeyed, and soon after quietly expired. The person of Rob Roy was by no means prepossessing ; the long red hair with which his body was covered, and his " wondrous length of arm," gave him a wild and unnatural appearance. In his politics he was a jacobite, in his religion a catholic. He died universally beloved, and regretted by his clansmen and the peasantry : — For Robin was the poor man's stay. The poor man's heart, the pour man's hand; And all oppressed, who wanlcJ slreugtb, Had Robin's at comm^ind. JAMES GRAHAM, DUKE OF MONTROSE. 1T07. James, fourth Marquis of Montrose, the nobleman designated as '•- the Duke" in Rob Roy, ^as the son of thai Marquis, ^ho was executed for t^is attachment to the royal cause in 1650, and who ,s described by Lord Clarendon as one of the most illustrious persons of the age in which he lived. He was a gentleman of very ancient extraction, and many of his ancestors had exercised tde highest charges under the kings of Scotland, and had been allied to the crown itself. In 1705, he was appointed Lord High Admiral of Scotland, and in 1706, Lord President of the Council. As leader of the squadrme volanU. a party which, in the parliament of ScoUand, affected to trim between the Court and the People, he supported the Union ; for which service he was gratified by the ministry with two hundred pounds. Beside this douceur, " m re- gard to his inviolable attachment, and zeal for the Protestant Succession, and his hearty concurrence in the union of the two kingdoms," her Majesty was pleased, in April 1707, to digmfy him with the titles of Duke of Montrose, Marquis of Graham and Buchanan, Earl of Kincardine, Viscount Dundaff, Lord Abermth- vin. Mu2;dock, and Fintray. In the'first parliament of Great Britain, (which met on the 23d of October, in the sixth year of Queen Anne,) the new Duke was chosen one of the representative Scots' peers, and he was reelected in the five succeeding parliaments. In 1709,he succeeded the Duke of Queensbury as Lord Privy Seal ; but declining to comply with the measures of the court, he was, in 1713, dismissed from this, and all his other offices. Being at his seat in the country, at the Queen's demise, he made a speedy journey from thence to Edinburgh, and assisted at the proclamation of George the First. Having been appointed one of the regency during the king's absence, he posted to London, and heartily concurred with his colleagues, in securing the public tranquillity, till the arrival of his Majesty, who immediately (1714) bestowed upon him the post of Secretary for Scotland. He was soon after appointed Lord Keeper of the Scottish Great Seal, and Chancellor of the University of Glasgow. — The Duke of Montrose was a nobleman of distinguished parts and judgment, and stood high in the favour of Queen Anne and her successor. He married Lady Christian Carnegie, daughter of David, Earl of Northesk, by whom he had four sons and one daughter. OiP STLJFFOXiK HENRIETTA HOWARD, LADY SUFFOLK. DIED, OCT. 27, 1767. For the memoirs of this celebrated woman, we have few other materials than the writings of Lord Orford, The anecdotes pre- served by this entertaining writer are certainly authentic, and were no doubt communicated to him by Lady Howard herself, whose neighbour he was, and wiih whom he lived in the closest intimacy. She was the daughter of Sir Henry Hobart, an ancient Bucking- hamshire baronet, and was first married to Mr. Howard, younger brother to more than one Earl of Suffolk, to which title he after- wards succeeded. She had but a slender fortune, and Mr. Howard's circumstances were the reverse of opulent. " It was the close of Queen Anne's reign ; the young couple saw no step more prudent than to resort to Hanover, and endeavour to ingratiate themselves with the future sovereigns of England. Still so narrow was their fortune, that Mr. Howard finding it expedient to give a dinner to the Hanoverian ministers, Mrs. Howard is said to have sacrificed her beautiful head of hair to pay for the expense. It must be re- collected, that, at that period, were in fashion those enormous full- bottomed wigs, which ofLen cost twenty and thirty guineas. Mrs. Howard was extremely acceptable to the intelligent princess Sophia, but did not at that time make farther impression on the Electoral prince, than, on his father's succession to the crown, to be appoint- ed one of the bedchamber-women to the new Princess of Wales. '' Here it was that the prince became acquainted with Mrs. How- ard, who soon became a favourite. '• From the steady decorum of this lady,'' says Horace Walpole, •• I should conclude that she would have preferred the advantages of her situation, to the osten- tatious eclat of it; but many obstacles stood in the way of total concealment, nor do I suppose that love had any share in the sa- critice she made of Jier virtue. She had felt poverty, and was far from disliking power. Mr. Howard was, probably, as little agree- able to her, a^ he proved worthless. The king, though very amo- rous, was certainly more attracted by a silly idea he had enter- tained of gallantry being becoming, than by a love of variety; and he added the more egregious folly of fancying that inconstancy proved he was not governed ; but so awkwardly did he manage that artifice, that it but demonstrated more clearly the iniluence of the queen. With such a disposition, secresy would by no means have answered his majesty's views j yet the publicity of the intrigue was especially owing to Mr. Howard, who, far from ceding his wife quietly, went, one night, into the quadrangle of St. James's, and vociferously demanded her to be restored to him, before the guards and other audience. Being thrust out, he sent a leKcr to her by the Archbishop of Canterbury, reclaiming her; and the archbishop, by his instructions, consigned the summons to the queen, who had the malicious pleasure of delivering the letter to lier rival. Her credit had always been extremely limited by the queen's su- perior influence, and by the devotion of the minister to her majesty. Excei>t a barony, a red riband, and a good place for her brother. Lady Suffolk could succeed but in very subordinate recommenda- tions. Her own acquisitions were so moderate, that, besides Marble Hill, which cost the king ten or twelve thousand pounds, her complaisance had not been too dearly purchased. By the death of her brother-in-law, in 1731, she became Coun- tess of Suffolk j and, in 1739, upon her marriage with the Hon. George Berkeley, whom she survived, she quitted St. James's to reside at Marble Hill. She left the court with an income so little to be envied, that, though an economist, and not expensive, by the lapse of some annuities on lives not so prolonged as her own, she found herself straitened J and, besides her villa at Twickenham, did not at most leave twenty thousand pounds to her family. Id her person. Lady Suffolk was of a just height, well made, extremely fair, with the finest light brown hair j was remarkably genteel, and always well dressed, with taste and simplicity. Her face was regular and agreeable, rather than beautiful ; and those charms she retained with little diminution to her death, at the age of sevenfy-nine. Her mental qualifications were by no means shining, her eyes and countenance showed her character, which was grave and mild. Her strict love of truth and her accurate memory were always in unison, and made her too circumstantial on trifles. She was discreet without being reserved ; and, having no bad qualities, and being constant to her connections, she pre- served uncommon respect to the end of her life. The papers of Lady Suffolk, which are said to be curious, des- cended to the Marchioness Dowager of Londonderry, who has recently transferred them to Mr. Murray for the sum of two hun- dred pounds, which she munificently bestowed upon St. Patrick's Charity School. G-MAMAM OF CiLAVEHHOUSE GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE. CREATED A PEER, 1G88. KILLED, 1669. John Graham was the eldest sod of Sir William Graham of Cla- verhouse. His family, which was wealthy, was a branch of the noble ho.se of Montrose. He served as a volunteer m the army of Louis XIV. and highly distinguished himself in the serv.ce of the Prince of Orange (afterwards William III.) ; but not meetmg with the return he e.pecied, he quitted him in disgust. On h.s return, he was employed to subdue by force ,he obsimacy of the Scottish Covenanters, under the nominal command of the Duke of Monmouth, but with full powers to act as he pleased. 1 h,s commission he executed with a Kal and cruelty, whtch caused him to live long in the remembrance of the sectaries, by the name of the "bloody Claverhouse." He watched and dispersed the devotional meetings of the persecuted whigs, with the most uncea- sing activilv, forcing thousands of them, at the point of the sword , to take an oath subversive of their principles. In one of h,s cru- sadmg expeditions, he attacked a conventicle on Loudon H.ll, m Ayrshire, but these enthusiasts made such a sturdy resistance, that hi; detachment was routed with considerable loss. This check m- censed Graham beyond measure against the whigs. II ,s march was nniformlv marked by carnage ; the refusal of his test was pumshel with inst;nt death; and for several months his troops .ndulged m .he most horrible excesses. These exploits were applauded and rewarded by the court, and in the succeeding reign he was created Vi^count Dundee. He steadily adhered to James in h,s reverses and had that weak monarch followed his counsels, the Prtnce of Orange would not have obtained the crown without a severe strug- gle. On the flight of James, Dundee retired to ScoUa,,d and by L influence among the Clans soon assembled a formtdable force of Highlanders. Left to his discretion and his resources, he ex- erted himself with such extraordinary energy and address, that h,s insurrection assumed the most formidable as(«t. W.lham, who knew the adversaries he had to contend with, despatched agatns. him five or six thousand picked troops under General M'Kaj. After a series of manoeuvres, conducted with astonishing skill and rapidity, Dundee attacked the royal army at Killiecrankie, and completely routed it. In the moment of victory, he received a musket-ball in his side : he fainted, and was carried off the field : coming to himself for a few seconds, he hastily inquired "how things went,"' and on being answered all was well, '^ then," said he, '' I am well," and expired. William , on hearing of his death, said " the war in Scotland is now ended." The military talents of Dundee were of the very first order ; active, vigilant, cool and in- trepid, uniting the fire of the hero with the prudence of the gene- ral, he possessed, in the most unlimited manner, the affections and confidence of his soldiers. The severity of his discipline was dreadful J the only punishment he inflicted was death. In his marches he shared every hardship with his men, endured every privation with good humour, walking on foot with tlie privates, conversing and jesting with them, familiarly flattering their natu- ral and clannish vanity. In society he is said to have been as much distinguished by a delicacy and softness of manners and temper, and by the most refined politeness, as iie was by his sternness and intrepidity in war. u. MARQUIS OF ARGYLE. CREATED A MARQUIS, 1641. BEHEADED, 1631. Archibald, the eighth Earl of Argyle, son of that Earl, who re- diiced to despair the "Children of the Mist," was a nobleman of considerable importance in the history of his time. He was the head of the ancient and warlike name of Campbell, and one of the most wealthy and powerful of the Scotch nobility. For several cen- turies the high office of Justiciary of Scotland had been hereditary in his family; but, in 1628, he surrendered this important dignity into the hands of the king, and, in 1633, this surrender was con- firmed by act of parliament. Up to this time he was in favour with the court, and one of the king's privy council for Scotland ; but having discovered a project for the partition of his patrimonial estates amongst his hereditary enemies, the M'Donalds, as a reward for the Earl of Antrim's invasion from Ireland, he naturally em- braced a course of politics hostile to the government, to which, it is not improbable, he was previously well-disposed. When Charles 1. visited Scotland, in 1641, it was deemed advisable to conciliate his enemies by every means in his power ; and Argyle was elevated to the dignity of a Marquis. This favour, however, thout:h de- clared to be bestowed " in respect as well of his own merit, as of the loyalty of his ancestors," was, too evidently, extorted and insin- cere; and we are not surprized to find Argyle once more warmly opposed to ministerial measures. In 1644, Montrose, his personal enemy and rival, ravaged his lands, " penetrating," says the histo- rian, '' in the depth and amid the snows of winter, through paths untrodden, unless by herdsmen in summer, and hitherto deemed inaccessible to an invading foe." On more than one occasion Ar- gyle himself was surprized, and almost intercepted by the enemy. " The Great Unknown" has interwoven so many of the incidents of this statesman's life in the " Legend of Montrose^ that it is un- necessary to say more, than that so great was the enmity of his opponent, wherever the Campbells were seated, fire and sword were employed for their extermination. Argyle was suspected of advising the king's murder ; and during the interregnum distmguished himself as leader of the more vio- lent presbylerian party. lie was accused of aspiring to the doubt- ful state of an independent chieftain, or of designing to establish in Scotland an aristocratic government, like that of Holland. If this were true, he saw his error, for he materially assisted in the resto- ration of Charles II. On the first of January, 1650, he exercised the right of crowning that monarch, who offered to marry Argyle's daughter; but this discerning nobleman, convinced that the king was estranged from him, and regarding every offer as a snare, prudently declined so brilliant an alliance, and obtained permission to retire to his estates. Here he lived, oppressed with debts and with public hatred; distrusted by the English, and detested by the Scotch ; possessing so little political influence, that until the pro- tectorate of Richard, he could not even procure his return as a commoner to parliament. On the restoration of Charles to the throne of England, Argyle was invited, as it is said, to the court ; but immediately after his arrival, he was thrown into the Tower, arraigned of high treason, and beheaded. With Ijis last breath he protected his abhorrence of the murder of Charles I., exclaiming *•' that he it was who placed tlie crown on the king's head, and that such was his reward." Though he cannot be denied the quality of courage, his talents seem to have been rather fitted for the cabinet, than for the field, llis ambition was regulated by habitual experience, and consum- mate address ; but his sagacity was not always exempt from en- thusiasm, his prudence was apt to degenerate into craft, and the apprehensions, which his subtle dexterity suggested, no doubt occasioned his destruction. Mail 7- Athc MAKQIUS OF ATilOLL. BORN,, 1635. EARL, 1670. MARQUIS, 16T6. DIED, 1703. This nobleman, T^•ho, in the Bride of Lamm.rmoor, is called the Marquis of A. vvas the eldest son of John Earl of Atholl, by Jane, the youngest daughter of Sir Duncan Campbell, of Glenorciiy. By his grandmother. Lady Dorothea Steuart, eldest daughter ol John tifih Earl of Atholl, he was the representative and heir of line of the ancient family of Steuarts, Earls of Aiholl ; but that lady having married William Murray, second Earl of Tulh- bardine, the name of Steuart has since been relinquished by this noble family, and they have continued to use their paternal sur- name of Murray. The Marquis of Atholl joined the forces raised m Scotland, on behalf of King Charles 11., at the early age of ei?hteen, and w.ih a lar-e body of Highlanders «as instrumental in keepmg the roy. alisls^ogether; acting with the interpidity and martial spint which had lon'^ distinguished his gallant ancestors. Nor did these exer- tion<= pa^ss unrewarded by Charles on his restoration : the marqu.s received numerous proofs of regard ; he waschosen a pnvy coun- cilor, was appointed hereditary sheriff and '^rd l-.tenant o he countiesof Perth, Fife, and Argyll.justice general of Scotland Jord pnvy seaUnd an extraordinary lord of session /^/^'^^^ ^^ crea ed Marquis of Atholl. At an early penod of hfe he marned Ladv Amelia Stanley, youngest daughter of James, seventh Earl of Derby, who was beheaded at Bolton in 16ol. By her mother, the celebrated Charlotte, Countess of Derby, daughter of Claude de la TremouiUe, Duke of Thouars and Prince of Talmont, she .as related in blood to almost all the crowned heads, and to many of the principal families in Europe. In 1685, the Marqu.s o atholl received the commission of justiciary and lord lieutenant of ihe county of Argyll, on the forfeiture of the Marqu.s of Argyll, and marched a body of Atholl highlanders to Inverary, where his depute held a court and condemned eighteen gentlemen of tlie name of Campbell, on whom sentence of execution was passed and carried into effect. Atholl committed other cruelties, desolated the estate of Argyll, and, but for the intervention of the privy council, would, it is said, have beheaded Argyll's son at the cas- lle-gale On the revival of the ancient and noble order of the Thistle, in 1687, the marquis was nominated one of the knights companions. The near relationship of the marchioness to the Prince of Orange and his own personal animosity to Perth the chancellor, induced the Marquis of AthoU to promote the revolution; but being disappointed in his hopes of preferment, he soon retired from public life, and dying at Dunkeld, in ITOi, was buried in the chapter house of the catiicdral there, where a handsome monu- ment was erected to his memory. SnoToxedAn Bi-Cbirpa: MiAm^ '©iciLiiif:© MARY OF SCOTLAND. BORN, 1542. BEHEADED, 15S7. Mary ^as the daughter and sole heiress of James V. by Mary of Lorrain. She was only eight days old when she succeeded to the throne. At the age of six she was sent to France for education and .ecurity. She was married in her sixteenth year to the Dau- phin, afterwards Francis II., who died in less than two years after their nuptials. His death obliged her to leave her beloved France, and return to her own semi-barbarous country, which was the prey of civil and religious dissentions. In 1565, she took for her second husband Henry Darnley, a young nobleman of great per- sonal beauty and accomplishments, but weak, tickle, and arrogant. They «oon separated in mutual disgust, and Darnley suspecting Riz^io, a musician, of possessing too large a share of the Queens confidence, had him assassinated in her presence. He was him- self soon after barbarously murdered, and the Earl of Bothwell, who was generally suspected as his destroyer, was screened from justice bv the influence of Mary. This ambitious and unprinci- pled man intercepted the Queen on a journey, forcibly carried her off, and was rewarded with her hand, after divorcing his own wife for that purpose. Her turbulent subjects, whose religious zeal she had already provoked by her attempts to restore popery, rose in arms against the successful traitor.-Bothwell was defeated and obliged to fly the country. Mary's infant son by Darnley was declared king, and her natural brother the Earl of Murray was appointed Regent. The Queen, after suffering numberless indig- nities, was committed a close prisoner to Lochlevin Castle, where she was subject to the insults and severity of the Regent's mother, her father's mistress. After a confinement of eleven months, she escaped from Lochlevin, by the assistance of her jailor's son, Geor-e Douglas, who was unable to resist the fascination of the royafcaptive. Marv was soon at the head of a considerable army, .hich however was completely routed in the first action with the Regent. Her party was now almost annihilated, and Mary, mher distress, rashly determined to take refuge in England, and trust to the justice and generosity of Elizabeth. On her arrival, she was received with seeming respect, but treated as a prisoner, and Elizabeth, on various pretexts, would never admit her to an inter- view. The accusations of her enemies were studiously encouraged , and her remonstrances against the illegal detention to which she was subject, were trifled with or evaded, till every hope of liberty was extinguished. As the ostensible head of the popish party, Mary had many powerful partizans in England, but their machi- nations, as well as the interference of foreign powers, only served to increase the rigour of her captivity. After a confinement of nearly nineteen years, she was tried and found guilty of conspiring with Babington and others against the government and life of her rival ; and after delaying and finessing for some time, in order to throw the odium of this outrage against the laws of nations and common justice on those around her, Elizabeth signed the war- rant for the execution of her unfortunate cousin. She died, pro- fessing her unshaken attachment to the Catholic failh ; and the firmness, mildness, and resignation which she displayed in the last ecen^ of her life, almost triumphed over the calumnies and preju- dices of her enemies. The character of Mary has been a subject of infinite contention among historians, nor is it yet entirely divest- ed of mystery. The heaviest charge against her, a participation in the murder of Darnley, is extremely problematical : the gentle- ness of her character and the general lenity of her reign are strongly in her favour, and her marriage with the supposed murderer is rendered less strange and revolting, by its being made at the re- quest of a majority of the Scottish nobles. In her person, Mary was tall and elegantly formed ; her hair black ; her eyes dark grey ; her hands and arms remarkably delicate, both in shape and co- lour; her complexion exquisitely fine; her features regular and full of expression. She danced, walked, and rode, with equal grace, and sang and played on the lute with extraordinary skill and taste, iler beauty, her fascinating manners, and the variety of her ac- complishments, were the theme of universal and unqualified admi- ration among her contemporaries, and continue to excite the enthusiasm of posterity, who are compelled to forget the errors and weaknesses of the queen in the charrns and misfortunes of the woman. ,a:ez. ow EARL OF MORTON. REGENT OF SCOTLAND, 1572. BEHEADED, l58I. James Douglas was the second son of Sir George Douglas, of Pinky. The early part of his life was spent in obscurity, his father being in exile, and his family persecuted by the reigning king- James V. To escape observation, he lived several years with a gentleman as his steward, under a fictitious name. The death of James enabled him to resume his proper character, and he soon after married the daughter of the Earl of Morton, whom he suc- ceeded in his title and estates. He was one of the first peers who exerted themselves in support of the reformed religion and the liberties of the country, during the regency of the Queen-mother. After the expulsion of the French party, he was sent by the parlia- ment as ambassador to Queen Elizabeth, whose confidence and support he acquired, and whose interests he espoused with a zeal which subsequently contributed to his ruin. On the return of the young Queen from France, he was appointed one of the privy- council, and afterwards Lord High Chancellor. The active part which he took in the murder of Rizzio, obliged him to take refuge in England. He was recalled by the influence of Bothwell, who divulged to him his design on the life of Darnley. but Morton re- fused to join in this horrible conspiracy, and subsequently exerted himself to bring the murderers to justice. On the marriage of Mary with Bothwell, he entered into a league with others of the nobility to protect the person and rights of her son against that usurper, and on the Queen's deposition assumed the principal management of the state. On the death of the Earl of Mar, he succeeded him in the regency, and by the prudence and vigour of his administration, commanded the obedience and respect of the nation. He restored peace at home, improved the revenues, con- tracted a strict alliance with England, and seemed to have finally crushed and extirpated his enemies. But his power and popula- rity were speedily ruined by his immoderate eagerness in amassing wealth, which led him into many acts of oppression and extortion, particularly towards tiie clergy, and rendered that powerful body Ills active and inveterate opponents. Finding himself universally unpopular, and unable to contend with the hostility of the young King and the intrigues of his favourites, he thought proper to resign the regency in 1578. This voluntary degradation did not satisfy his enemies, who urged on his destruction with unrelenting activity. In 1581, he was brought to trial, on the accusation of one of the King's minions, and found guilty of being art and part in the murder of Darnley. Morton confessed that Bothwell had revealed his design to him, but pleaded his utter inability to pre- vent it, as the imbecile Darnley would have immediately betrayed his informant, and the Queen was in the power, and believed to be a participator in the projects, of Botliwell. There is every reason to believe Morton's statement; at least there is no evidence to con- tradict it; the tribunal by which he was tried was determined to find him guilty, and (he proofsadduced against him were presump- tive and inconclusive. lie conducted himself in the last scene of his life with intrepidity and dignity, unruffled by the ingratitude of his friends and the insults of his enemies. He was beheaded the day after the trial, his head fixed on the (op of the Tolbooth, and his body left for several hours covered only with an old cloak, and without a single attendant to prelect it. He who a few years before had been obeyed and reverenced as a king, surrounded by wealth, honours and friends, was now abandoned and disowned by all. Morton^ though low in stature, was of a graceful person and demeanor : his great courage and military skill were eminently conspicuous in the civil wars: he was a profound politician, cool, subtle, and unscrupulous. His greatest failing was avarice, to which his early necessities had contributed, and which frequently batrayed him into measures equally unjust and impolitic. ^P^H -•' ^^^s ■ W- ^l r* ^^^H r M^^ \^^ ^^^^H %>\w[k ^Kh^^^^S i n^^l B HH ^1jk|bT'W)i ^K hRH ^U^m ^^^H^H ^''^^^^^HH S^^^^B ^^^^K^^^^m B^^H HBI^^H Tatntfd bvMarc Oarrard ^jurra vaihJiChi'pa: lL®miS) MOTM gIE)®W, LORD HUNSDON. BORN, 1524. CREATED A PEER, 1559. DIED, 1596, Henry Carey was nephew to Anne Boleyn, by the mother's side, and cousin to Queen Elizabeth. He expended several thousand pounds of his own patrimony in the relief and service of Elizabeth during her imprisonment, and on her accession to the throne he was requited with the title of Baron Hunsdon, and a grant of the royal residence of that name. Though his blunt and boisterous manners accorded ill with the punctilio of the Maiden Court, he retained the friendship and confidence of the Queen to the end of his life, and his frank and unambitious character, as well as his royal kindred, secured him from the jealousy and ill offices of her favourites. He had some claim to the earldom of Wiltshire, and " when he lay on his death-bed (says Fuller), the Queen gave him a gracious visit, causing his patent for the said earldom to be drawn, his robes to be made, and both to be laid down upon his bed; but, said this lord, (who could dissemble neither well nor sick.) ^ Madam, seeing you counted me not worthy of this honour whilst I was living, 1 count myself unworthy of it now I am dying.' " — (Fuller's Worthies.) " He was a fast man to his prince, and firm in his friends and servants, and though he might speak big, and therein would be borne out, yet was he not the more dreadfull, but lesse harmfull, and farre from the practice of my Lord of Leicester's instruc- tions, for he was downright, and I have heard those that both knew him well, and had interest in him, say merrily of him, that his Latine and his dissimulation were both alike, and that his custome of swearing and obscenity in speaking, made him seeme a worse Christian than he was, and a better knight of the carpet than he should be. As he lived in a ruffling time, so he loved sword and buckler men, and such as our fathers were wont to call men of their hands; of which sort, he had many brave gen- tlemen that followed him ; yet not taken for a popular and dan- gerous person, and this is one that stood amongst the Torjali; of an honest stout heart, and such a one as, upon occasion^ would have fought for his prince and his country^ for he had the charge of the Queen's person, both in the courtj and in the camp of Tilbury." (Xaunlon's Fragmenla Rer/aHaJ -RunbaCiyJ^efy ttyraredhvR. Oxrpa: IDTCIEIS ®F M®S?M®1B/T]SI„ DUKE OF MONMOUTH. BORN, \G4d. CREATED A DUKE, 1G63. BEHEADED.. 1685. James Fitzroy was the son of Charles II. by Lucy Walters. lie was born at Rotterdam, and was educated at Paris^ under the eye of the Queen-mother. After the restoration he was brought over to England, and loaded with honours and riches by his indulgent father. His personal beauty and accomplishments made him the idol of a licentious court, and the terror of husbands and lovers. The King bestowed on him the hand of the heiress of Buccleugh, witli the titles and large possessions of that noble house, in addi- tion to the dukedom of Monmouth. The Duke was entrusted with the command of the army in Scotland, and defeated the Co- venanters at Bothwell Bridge, but he displayed in this command more courage than military skill, and more humanity than policy. The popularity of Monmouth, and his pliant and confiding dispo- sition, soon engaged him in opposition to the court, apparently as the head of the anti-popish party, but in reality as a puppet in the hands of Shaftesbury and other veterans in intrigue. It was boldly asserted by their faction, that Charles had been married to the Duke's mother, and though the King, in full council, declared the illegitimacy of Monmouth, a large portion of the people persisted in believing what they so ardently wished. The influence of the Duke of York obliged Monmouth to leave the kingdom, but he soon returned without leave, and made a sort of triumphal proces- sion through many parts of the country. On the discovery of the Rye-house plot he absconded, and though received again into fa- vour by the king, was afterwards banished, on being found less penitent and manageable than was expected. On the accession of James, the Duke, persecuted in his place of exile by his unfor- giving rival, and goaded on by the impatience of his rash advisers, landed in Devonshire with a few followers, to assert his claim to the crown, and, such was his popularity among the lower orders, that he soon found himself at the head of a considerable force. But Monmouth possessed neither the talents nor ihe energy requi- site for such a mighty enterprise : after an interval of inaction and indecision, he attacked the royal forces at Sedgemoor, and waa totally routed^ in spite of the desperate valour of his undisciplined troops. The Duke was found by his pursuers concealed in a ditch, exhausted by hunger and fatigue, and overpowered by mental an- guish. He had the weakness to solicit James for mercy, and the latter admitted him to his presence in the hope of extorting a dis- covery of his accomplices, but Monmouth would not purchase life on such terms. He was however induced by some equivocal show of pardon to acknowledge his illegitimacy, and the cold-hearted tyrant then told him that his offence precluded any hope of mercy. Findint' his doom inevitable, the Duke resumed the courage which seemed for a time to have forsaken him, and met his fate with the firmness and dignity becoming his rank and character. In his person, Monmouth was almost a model of manly beauty; his fea- tures were regular, expressive, and delicate, but without any taint of effeminacy j his manners were engaging and dignified, and he excelled in every graceful and manly exercise. Though not defi- cient in sense or personal courage, he possessed too little discrimi- nation or firmness to think and act for himself. He was rash in his undertakings, and irresolute in their execution : vain and ver- satile in his prosperity, and almost abject in his misfortunes. He was however naturally humane and benevolent, just to his word, and constant in his friendships. He left several children by his Duchess, but their marriage does not appear to have been a happy one ; the Duke was avowedly and passionately attached to Lady Harriet Wentworth, whom, with his dying breath, he declared, he considered his only wife in the sight of God. The amiable Mon- mouth, and his wily associate, Shaftesbury, are the heroes of Dryden's Absalom and Achilophe/. 322^ (2iiIE®IL2Sg-:i CAROLINE, QUEEN OF GEORGE II. BORN, 1682. MARRIED, 1705. QUEEN CONSORT^ 1727. DIED, 1737. Caroline Wilhelmina Dorothea was the daughter of the Marquis of Brandeoburgh-Anspach. Losing her father, when very young, she was left under the guardianship of the King of Prussia, and spent a considerable part of her early life at the Court of Berlin. Charles III. of Spain was a suitor for her hand, but the zealous attachment of the Princess to the Protestant religion caused her to reject him. This circumstance principally induced the Elector of Hanover. (afterwards George I.) to choose her as a wife for his son, the Electoral Prince, whom she married in her twenty-third year. By the accession of the House of Hanover to the throne of England, she became Princess of Wales in 1714. In the subsequent dissentions which divided the royal family, she conducted herself with great prudence and circumspection, and retained the confidence and esteem of the King, in spite of his alienation from the Prince. When her husband succeeded to the crown, she attained a large share of political importance, as the King was almost entirely guided by her advice, though he per- suaded himself, and endeavoured to persuade the world, that she had no influence with him. During the King's absence on the Continent, she was appointed Regent, and acquitted herself in this important trust with wisdom and firmness. She died after a reign of ten years, equally regretted by the king and the nation. Queen Caroline possessed a strong and cultivated understanding, and a keen discrimination of character, combined with much political skill, which however sometimes degenerated into intrigue and artifice. Her ruling passion was to govern the King, and to effect this object, she submitted to every sacrifice of her own comfort, and subdued the pride and feelings of a wife and a queen. The King, although he had the highest love for his Queen, and thought her the handsomest woman in the world, kept several mistresses, as he deemed it unbecoming a prince to be constant to his wife. The Queen not only overlooked his infidelities, but kept on very good terms with the ladies whom he had distinguished by his favour. Satisfied with possessing, she never affected (o display the authority which her superior talents had acquired, and exerted herself incessantly, but secretly, to promote the interests and conceal the failings of the King. Queen Caroline is said to have been very handsome in youth : her countenance, though slightly marked by the small-pos, which attacked her soon after her marriage, was extremely pleasing., and equally expressive of sweetness or majesty ; her eyes remarkably penetrating; her voice finely modulated, and her hands beautifully small and delicate. -Enfrarad fyJL Ccffpa: ;ii3iiL ®iF iLiigncsusimm. EARL OF LEICESTER. BORN, 1532, CREATED AN EARL, 1564. DIED. 1588. Robert Dudley was the tifih son of the ambitious Duke of Nor- thumberland, uho placed him about the person of Edward VI,, with whom he became a great favourite. He was involved in the fall and attainder of his father, but was pardoned by xMary, and even obtained a considerable share of her favour and confidence. On the accession of Elizabeth, he was appointed her Master of the Horse; immense grants of lands were bestowed on him, and his influence with the Queen became so boundless, that his rivals were successively disgraced or forced to truckle to his authority. Such was the splendour of his establishment, and the number of his re- tainers, that he was styled by the people,'^' the Heart of the Court," His own presumption and the public voice marked him out as the successful candidate for the hand of Elizabeth, who, as if to shew that she deemed him worthy of a royal wife, proposed him as a husband for Mary of Scotland, by whom she knew he would be rejected. Dudley was at this time a widower; it was generally believed, that he had made away with his first wife, Amy, the daughter of Sir John Robsart, of Norfolk, whom he had married in his eighteenth year, as she died, very opportunely for his pro- jects, and in a very mysterious manner, but the favourite was too potent to be called to account. Lady Sheffield, whom he after- wards deceived by a private marriage, was obliged by him to renounce all claim to his hand, afier narrowly escaping death by poison, according to her deposition after Leicester's decease. The intrigues and personal influence of Leicester, though successful in oi)posing the foreign and domestic suitors of the Queen, could not prevail with her to accept him for a husband. Enraged at a refusal which he had experienced from her, he instantly married the Countess of Esses, with whom he had been criminately inti- mate, and whose husband he was suspected, with some appearance of reason, of having removed by poison. Elizabeth was for some time kept in ignorance of this event, and when informed of it, her rage knew no bounds. The Earl was immediately placed in con- finement, but after the first violence of the royal indignation had subsided, was set at liberty, and speedily recovered his former influence. In 1585, he commaiidetJ the forces sent to ihe relief ui the Dutch, and was received with such honours by them, as gave great umbrage to the jealous Elizabeth, but her anger, as usual, •was easily pacified by the submission of her favourite. His pride and incapacity soon rendered hira so odious to the Dutch, that his recall was rendered indispensable, but the blind partiality of the Queen shielded him from the charges which were preferred against him. The command of the army assembled at Tilbury, to oppose the Spanish invasion, was subsequently bestowed on him, and he appeared to be rising higher than ever in the favour and confi- dence of Elizabeth. The most important commands, civil and military, were engrossed by his relations and dej>endent.s, and his still increasing power almost threatened to supersede the royal au- thority. Luckily for the Queen and the nation, his ambitious pro- jects were cut short by death ; he died suddenly at Cornbury, on his way to Kenilworth, after having enjoyed and abused an almost uninterrupted favouritism for thirty years. The suf)erficial recom- mendations of a fine person and graceful manners appear to have been Leicester's only claims to distinction. His abilities as a states- man and a general were equally moderate, and even his personal courage has been called in question. His public conduct was vio- lent, treacherous, and unprincipled: his private life irregular and licentious. In his latter years, he became extremely uxorious. He had the credit of introducing a new and subtle method of poisoning. and many persons, who were obnoxious to him, died at such critical conjunctures, and with such suspicious circumstances, as to give some appearance of probability to the charge. He was undoubtedly'guilty of manyde'i'stable acts of extortion and oppres- sion, and was invetera'e in his revenge against all who withheld the servile homage which he exacted. He was however capable of acts of real generosity, and was a munificent patron to literary men. Flagitious as was his character, he yet affected a great zeal for religion, and was looked up to by the Puritans as their patron and leader. The ascendancy which this worthless favorite acqui- red, and retained undiminished till his death, over the discerning and self-willed Elizabeth, presents a strange exceplion to the general wisdom of her goverLment^ and her sagacity in the choice of her ministers. ]®T31EJ1 ©IF ILAWIO)ISlEIE)AlLlgc DUKE OF LAUDERDALE. SORN, 16i6. CREATED A DUKE, 16T2. DIED, 1682. John Maitland was of the ancient Scottish family of that name. His father, Lord Maitland, of Thirlestaoe, \ras created Earl of Lauderdale by James I. Youn? Maitland was a zealous presbyte- rian, and on the breaking out of the civil war, took an active part against the King. He was one of the Parliament's commissioners at the treaty of Usbridire, and by his rudeness, obstinacy, and in- temperance, made every thing more difficult than before. In 1648, he was sent with propositions from the Committee of Estates in Scotland,, to invite the exiled Prince to put himself at the head of the Scottish forces. He afterwards attended Charles in his inva- sion of England, was taken prisoner at the battle of Worcester, and committed to the Tower, where he remained in confinement for nine years. At the Restoration he ingratiated himself so eflfectu- ally with the King, that the goverDmenl of Scotland was conBded almost entirely to his management. The commencement of his administration, which was mild and judicious, gained him a tem- porary popularity among his countrymen, but he soon threw aside the mask, and assumed his true character of a brutal and unprin- cipled oppressor. From a zealous covenanter he became per- fectly indifferent to the interests of religion, and alternately courted or persecuted the presbyterians and episcopalians as it happened to suit his schemes, which all tended to the establishment of arbi- trary power in Scotland. The laws were perverted or violated in the most shameless manner, to gratify his rapacity or his enmities, aud his administration, equally cruel and inefficient, was one con- tinued scene of oppression, dissension, and revolt. His unbounded devotion to the King was rewarded with a profusion of honours and emoluments, and he was created an English peer, and Duke of Lauderdale. He was admitted into the English Privy Council, and formed one of the celebrated Cabal. At length his interest at court declined, the Cabal was broken up, and in 1682 he was dis- missed from all his offices, and stripped of his pensions. This disgrace was supposed to have hastened his death, which took place the same year. The character of Lauderdale does not present a single redeem- ing trait, either as a man or a statesman. He was naturally haughty and overbearing in the extreme, but abject to those to whom his fear or his interest compelled him to stoop. His vio- lence of temper almost bordered on madness, and when mistaken in opinion, any endeavour to convince, only made him more furi- ously and obstinately positive in his error. He was a cold friend, and an inveterate enemy. His long imprisonment impressed him with strong religious feelings, which were totally effaced by the enjoyment of power; yet he never got rid of his old presbyterian prejudices and feelings. In the latter part of his life, he gave him- self up to luxury and sensuality, and his rapacity kept pace with his extravagance. His talents were no way adequate to the station which he held, and he was aptly described by the Duke of Buck- ingham, as a man of '^ a blundering understanding." He possess- ed, however, an extraordinary memory, and was a fluentj though an ungraceful speaker. In his person, Lauderdale was large and ungainly; his tongue was too large for his mouth, \Ahich made him bedew all whom he talked with, and his whole demeanor was rough and boisterous, wholly devoid of the polish of a courtier, or the dignity of a nobleman. >>»,'. 1», ^'urrAAtS-PvH CrcT!' (S-:ssrisi£u-jc Sjail^sjliLo GENERAL DALZELL. COMMANDER OF THE FORCES IN SCOTLAND, 1685. DIED, 16S5. Thomas Dalzell, of Binns, in Linlithgowshire, -^ras taken pri- soner, fighting for Charles II., at the battle of Worcester, and committed to the Tower. He made his escape, and entered into the Russian service, was made a General by the Czar, and commanded against the Polanders and Tartars. After the restoration of Charles II. he was recalled by the English government, and made Commander-in-Chief of the royal forces in Scotland. For this station he was peculiarly qualified by the native sternness of his disposition, and the savage warfare to which he had been inured in Muscovy. The zeal and ferocity with which he executed the san- guinary orders of the Scotch administration, gave ample satisfac- tion to his employers, and inspired the persecuted whigs with terror and detestation. After the defeat of Claverhouse, at Loudon Hill , the Duke of Monmouth was sent to Scotland to assume the direc- tion of the war. Dalzell refused to serve under the Duke, and after being superseded in his command for a fortnight, he received a renewal of his commission. He reached the army the day after the batde of Bolhwell Bridge, and learning with what humanity the Duke had conducted the war, he told him publicly, that he had betrayed the King, and that he heartily wished his commission had come a day sooner ; for then, said he, ' these rogues should never have troubled his majesty or the kingdom any more.' He retained the command of the army till his death, which took place a few years before the revolution. Dalzell was a fit instrument in the hands of a despotic court : he was valiant and skilful in war, rigid in discipline, and as much a stranger to mercy as to fear. His manners were harsh, and even brutal. He accustomed himself from his youth to the greatest hardihood, both in diet and clo- thing. He never wore boots, nor above one coat, which sat close to his body, with close sleeves. He never shaved after the execu- tion of Charles I., cherishing his beard, which was white and bushy, as a mark of mourning for the untimely fate of that sove- reign. Though his head, for many years before his death, was entirely bald, he could never be persuaded to wear a peruKe, but covered it with a beaver hat, with a brim of formidable dimen- sions. He usually went to London once or twice a year to kiss the King's hand, who had a great regard for his valour and loyal- ty. His uncouth dress and figure never failed to attract round his abode a crowd of boys, who followed him whenever he went to or from the court. The grim commandant, who was not destitute of humour, would always thank them for their attentions, when he left them at the door to go in to the King, and would let them know exactly at what hour he intended to come out again, and return to his lodgings. ^Tumvai IryJi. Coirper WiEiEK lEa^SSABIBTIEo QUEEN ELIZABETH. CORN, 1533. SUCCEEDED TO THE THRONEj 1558. DIED, 1603. Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII. by Ai^ne Boleyn. She was educated in the principles of the Protestant religion, and was early distinguished for her attainments in classical literature. During the reign of the bigoted Mary, she was confined in the Tower, and afterwards at Woodstock, until il was deenaed unsafe to keep her any longer in restraint, so much had her religion and sufferings endeared her to the people. On the death of her sister, she ascended the throne amidst universal rejoicing and congratu- lations. Her first care was to reverse the iniquitous decrees of her predecessor, and to re-establish the Protestant religion, but without loo sudden or too violent a re-action. The threatened invasion of Spain called forth all the energies of the nation and its sovereign. The magnanimity of the Queen, the wisdom of her ministers, the skill of her commanders, and the valour and loyalty of the people, were equally conspicuous at (his eventful crisis. The vaunted Armada was defeated, and almost annihilated, and the aggression successfully retaliated on the ports and colonies of Spain. A predominant feeling of attachment to the welfare of her people, or a love of undivided authority determined Elizabeth to remain unmarried; and the numerous suitors, both foreign and domestic, who aspired to her hand, were successively discarded after experiencing various degress of coquetry and encourage- ment. After trifling with love, and shewing herself superior to its power for the greater part of her life, this extraordinary woman fell a victim to her passions, at a period when they might have been expected to be least violent. The execution of her favourite Essex, for treasonable practices, inflicted a cureless wound on her peace, and the discovery that the pledge, which would have saved his life, had been withheld from her by intrigue, was fatal. Aban- doning herself to despair, she remained for ten days and nights extended on the floor, refusing to be moved to bed, and repulsing the advice and consolations of her attendants. Worn out with grief and anxiety, she expired, in tlie seventieth year of her age, and the forty-fifth of her reign. In vigour, constancy, magnani- mity, penetration, vigilance, and address, Elizabeth rivalled the most highly-gifted of the oiher sex : her heroism was exempt from temerity, her frugality from avarice, her active temper from rest- lessness, and her nationality from ambition and the spirit of aggrandizement. Under her vigorous government, the Protestant religion was firmly established, faction restrained, foreign aggres- sion withstood and revenged, her oppressed neighbours effectu- ally supported, a navy created, commerce rendered flourishing, and the national glory extended throughout the civilized world. Her government was essentially arbitrary, and no ruler could be more tenacious of power and prerogative ; but she exercised her authority so obviously and constantly for the good of her sub- jects, that she was far more absolute over their affections, than their fears. The glories of the Queen were not without alloy from the littleness of the woman. No flattery of her personal or intel- lectual beauties could be too gross for her undistinguishing appe- tite, and even when bending with the v\eight of years and infirmi- ties, she exacted the most extravagant and fulsome homage to her charms. To her numerous lovers, she displayed neither candour nor delicacy, and in her gusts of passion frequently forgot the de- corum of her sex, and the dignity of her station. Her greatest foible was a childish love of admiration, which could not tolerate a rival in accomplishments which she affected to despise. The deepest and most indelible stigma on her reign, the detention and execution of her unfortunate cousin, the Queen of Scots, had its origin more in a personal pique of ^Mary's superior attractions, than in any motive of apprehension or political expediency, and the hypocrisy with which she affected to lament and resent her death adds to the odium of the crime. Her personal predilections not unfrequently blinded her discernment ; but if her favourites ever presumed too much on their influence, they soon found that the feelings of the woman were subordinate to the spirit of the Queen. She was substantially learned, having studied all the best authors, and could speak Latin with great propriety and facility. " She was, of personage tall, of hair and complexion fair, and therewith well-favoured, but hi;^h nosed; of limbs and features neat; and, which added to the lustre of those exterior graces, of stately and majestic comportment,"' — (Naunlon's Fragnienla Regalia.) i ' J ' J » J 3 > > ' ' » o^iliizsie;. LORD BURLEIGH. BORN. 1520. KMGHTED, 1551. CREATED A PEER. 1571, DIED, 1598. William Cecil was descended from the ancient and honourable family of Sitsilt, (or Cecil.) of AJterennes in Herefordshire. He distinguished himself at College by the regularity of his life, and an immoderate application to his studies. His father placed him in Gray's Inn, with a view to the profession of the law, but the ability which he displayed in a dispute wiih two Irish priests re- specting the Pope's supremacy having attracted the notice and patronage of Henry VIII., the attention and views of Cecil were diverted to politics. In the reign of Edward V'l. he was advanced to the high ofGce of Secretary of State, through the friendship of the Duke of Somerset, and was involved in the subsequent fall of his unfortunate patron. Cecil was, however, quickly re-instated, and though displaced during the sanguinary reign of Mary, con- ducted himself with so much prudence, as well as firmness, that he evaded the persecution to which as an eminent and zealous Protestant he was peculiarly obnoxious, widiout compromising his religious or political principles. The accession of Elizabeth, whose confidence he had previously possessed, restored him to office and political importance, which he relinquished only with his life. The details of his administration would comprise the history of that memorable reign which owed so large a share of its pros- perity and glory to the abilities and policy of Burleigh. Though he occasionally suffered a temporary disgrace or rebuff from the violent temper of his royal mistress, she was too well convinced of his fidelity and judgment to withdraw her confidence and protec- tion, and the intrigues of Leicester, or any other personal favou- rite, could never shake the influence of her veteran statesman. Lord Burleish died in his seventy-eighth year, worn out with age, and forty years of uninterrupted labours in the state. The queen was deeply affected by his death, shed many tears, and separated herself for a time from all company. The conduct of Burleigh, particularly the part which he acted in the condemnation of the unfortunate Queen of Scots, has not escaped severe animadver- sion ; but the general mildness, integrity, and wisdom of his admi- nistration is indisputable. His temper was remarkably serene and cheerful, and neither business nor opposition could disturb the equanimity of his mind. lie was a kind and judicious parent, having all his children and descendants constantly at his table. To his friends he was affable and obliging, but without letting any one of them obtain an undue influence over him to the prejudice of his impartiality, or the divulging of the most trivial secrets of the state. To his enemies he was forbearing and placable, meet- ing aspersions and injuries with calmness and fortitude, and never availing himself of an opportunity of revenge. He was so fiee from any taint of avarice, that he made less of his great employ- ments during forty years, than many statesmen would have made in seven ; and in his house-keeping he was munificent, but without prodigality or ostentation. Idleness was his aversion, and every brief interval of lime, which could be spared from the service of the state, was devoted to reading, writing, or meditation. lie wrote in pure and elegant Latin, both prose and verse, understood Greek as well as most scholars of that age, and was deeply learned in di- vinity. He had a perfect knowledge of foreign courts, and tho- roughly understood the genius and character of every Prince in Europe, as well as the intrigues of his counsellors and favourites. He was equally conversant with the heraldry and judicature of the country, knew the power and practiceof every court of law in the kingdom, and the descent of every noble family, its connections and possessions. As a public speaker he was distinguished by facility, perspicuity, and fulness of diction^ and displayed a perfect mastery over every subject which he discussed. In his person. Lord Burleigh was dignified and pleasing, and he became more and more so as he grew in years, preserving a fine and florid complexion, and rendered venerable by the perfect whiteness of liis beard and hair. He was twice married : first to the sister of Sir John Cheke, and afterwards to the daughter of Sir Anthony Cook. His son by his second wife, Robert, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, succeeded him in his honours and employments. Foi^Uid by Zitccliero. JSn/7ra.-'Cei tr\ .\.Lecpe. ZTSl F]lJvJ?'(SlS "^AasiST^MASfi. SIR FRANCIS WALSINGHAM. BORN, 1536. KNIGHTED, 1573. DIED, 1590. Francis Walsingham was of an ancient family in Norfolk. An intimate acquaintance with the languages and characters of other nations, which he acquired in his travels, as well as his personal accomplishments, obtained for him the notice and confidence of Lord Burleigh, under whose auspices he came to be employed in the most important affairs of state. He was successively sent as ambassador to France, Holland, and Scotland, and displayed the greatest versatility of talent in these missions, quoting Xenophon, Plutarch, and Tacitus to the pedantic James, tickling Henri with the conceits of Rabelais, or discoursing on mechanics with their High Mightinesses, with equal facility and address. In 1573, he was appointed one of the principal secretaries of state, and sworn a privy-councellor, and continued to retain the undiminished con- fidence of his discerning sovereign to the end of his life. When the vast preparations of Spain, for the equipment of the Invincible Armada, kept the whole of Europe in a state of alarm and sus- pense from the uncertainty which prevailed respecting its destina- tion, Walsingham was the first who developed the intentions of Philip. Through his agents at Madrid, he ascertained that the King had written a letter with his own hand to the Pope, acquaint- ing him with the particulars of his project : of this letter, Wal- signham procured a copy from the Pope's cabinet, by means of a gentleman-in-waiting, who stole the keys out of the Pope's pocket while he was asleep ; and by getting the Spanish bills, which were to furnish the money for the expedition, protested at Genoa, de- layed the threatened invasion a whole year. Notwithstanding the high offices which he had held, Walsingham died so poor that his friends were obliged to bury him in St. Paul's late at night, in the most private manner. In his religious opinions he was a puritan, but the national church had in him an active and able supporter. He is universally allowed to have been one of the most refined and clear-sighted statesmen that any age has produced. He made use of the court-factions, as the Queen did, neither advanc- ing the one nor depressing the other. In his conversation he was insinuating yet reserved, and he made himself master of the secrets and sestiments of those around him, without in any way exposing his own to their scrutiny. He maintained fifty- three agents and eighteen spies in foreign courts, and for two pistoles could com- mand any private paper in Europe. No correspondence was secure from his inspection, and letters were opened and decyphered with systematic dexterity, without defacing the seals or delaying their delivery. He would frequently allow a plot to exist and ripen for years, but without letting any of the parties finally elude or baffle his vigilance. His character was well-expressed in his common saying, VIDEO ET TACEO. iBsm Was^Ae ISLAjLmz'S. IE: \ • 1 gum WAiL^niE lEAJLisce-M r ■H(yi-7wmsmiK. EARL OF SUSSEX. BORN, 1526. EARL, J5o6. DIED, 1 583. Thomas Radclyffe was ihe eldest son of Henry, second Earl of Sussex. He was bred a statesman, and early in life distinguished himself as an able and successful diplomatist. He was sent as am- bassador on several important missions by Mary and Elizabeth, and in 1561 was appointed Governor General of Ireland, where he displayed great vigour and prudence, in restraining the rebellious spirit of the natives. In 1651 he was appointed President of the North, a trust, at that time, of peculiar difficulty, on account of the singular state of affairs in Scotland. He commenced his mili- tary career while in this employ, and acquitted himself with great skill and bravery in the Border warfare, and in the suppression of the rebellion of the Northern Earls. An infirm state of health obliged him in 1572 to retire from severer duties, to the office of Lord Chamberlain of the Household, which he retained till his death. His last public service was the negociation with the French Commissioners, on the projected marriage of the Queen with the Duke of Anjou. Of the many illustrious characters that graced the Court of Elizabeth, no one, probably, possessed a larger share of her esteem and confidence, and no one, certainly, was more worthy of it. He was one of the few on whom she bestowed sub- stantial proofs of her gratitude, rewarding his personal devotion and his tried talents as a soldier and a statesman, with unwonted liberality. The high reputation, the noble descent, the large pos- sessions, and independent character of the Earl, rendered him a formidable rival to the haughty Leicester, and made the enemies of the favorite look up to Sussex as their patron and leader. Sussex, though neither ambitious nor envious, entertained the most inveterate hostility to Leicester; he naturally felt indignant at seeing his royal kinswoman the dupe of such a dangerous and unworthy minion, whose character and upstart family he despised. The enmity of Sussex was, like his character, open and honour- able, while Dudley's was wary and insiduous, and though the latter was far inferior to his adversary as a soldier and a statesman, he greatly excelled him in court intrigue and personal accomplisb- menis. To such a height had their dissentions arrived, that the Court was divided into two angry factions, at open war with each other; and the Earls, when they stirred abroad, were usually attended by a numerous band of retainers, armed with swords and spiked bucklers. The Queen, who prided herself on her skill in balancing the pretensions of adverse parties, vainly endeavoured to reconcile the incensed rivals, and her authority could scarcely restrain them from open violence. Yet, when the Queen, in a paroxysm of jealous rage, on the discovery of Leicester's mar- riage, would have committed the offending favourite to the Tower, Sussex, with the generosity and love of justice which always mark- ed his conduct, dissuaded her from such an imprudent and arbi- trary measure. The death of this virtuous and high-spirited nobleman was believed by the people to have been accelerated by the practices of Leicester, who had the credit of having introduced new and subtle methods of poisoning, and Sussex himself, proba- bly entertained some such suspicion. " I am now passing into another world," he observed to the friends who surrounded his death-bed, ''and must leave you to your fortunes, and to the Queen's grace and goodness j but beware of the Gypsey, (as he called Leicester) for he will be too hard for you all ; you know not the beast so well as I do.*" I'timt^d. h\ ViTzdvcJ-:.. \u7n2. vtui hvA . C^ep « MAm@W2§ ®ir MexT-aPmogHo MARQUIS OF MONTROSE. BORN. 1612. EARL, 1626. MARQUIS, 1643. EXECUTED, 1650. James Graha?i was ihe only son of John, fourth Earl of Mon- trose. He embraced the profession of arms early in life, and passed several years in the French service. Returning to England in 1637, he was received with great coolness by Charles I. and retired from the Court in disgust. He attached himself to the Scottish malcontents, became a zealous covenanter, and was the first who crossed the Tweed in arms against his sovereign. The character and designs of the party he had embraced were, how- ever, so uncongenial with his own. that Montrose soon determined to abandon them, and entered into a correspondence with the King, which being discovered, he was arrested, but afterwards set at li- berty without being brought to trial. He received from the King, at Oxford, a commission to raise an array in Scotland, and was gratified with tlie title of Marquis. Dismissing his followers at the Borders, in order to conceal his route and objects, he traversed Scotland on foot with only two companions. In the character of their servant, he proceeded safely through the midst of his ene- mies, and reached the Highlands undiscovered. He was soon at the head of an undisciplined army of Iiish and Highlanders, with which he overran a great part of Scotland, and defeated four ar- mies which were successively sent against him. A fifth army, ten thousand strong, was routed by Montrose at Kilsyth, with little more than half that number, and he entered Edinburgh in triumph. The defection of the Highlanders and his own improvidence termi- nated this career of victory ; he was taken by surprise at Philip- hangh.by David Leslie, and completely routed. Undismayed and indefatigable, he speedily collected another army, which, however, the King's negociation with the Parliament obliged him to dis- band. Montrose retired to the Continent, where he actively, but unsuccessfully, intrigued in behalf of his royal master. Soon after the execution of Charles, he landed in Scotland with a small body of men ; but, being disappointed of the support he expected, he was speedily defeated and taken prisoner. He was conducted in the most ignominious manner to Edinburgh, and condemned lo be hanged^ and afterwards to be beheaded and quartered. Every indignity which bigotry or malice could suggest, was emplojed (o aggravate this vindictive sentence j but the cowardly insults of his enemies could not humble the spirit of Montrose. His dignity and self possession never forsook him for a moment, and he died as heroically as lie had lived, professing to the last his unalterable devotion to the cause for which he suffered. The splendid ex- ploits, the chivalrous spirit, and the tragical death of Montrose, have imparted a romantic interest to his character, which gilds even his defects. In triumph or in exile, a victorious general or an outlawed fugitive, his genius appeared an over-match for for- tune, and never shone with greater lustre than in defeat and adver- sity. More fitted, however, to overbear or circumvent than to conciliate, his talents were unequal to the nice adjustment of civil affairs, and his restless and ambitious spirit was better fitted to embroil than to defend his country. Conscious of an innate supe- riority, and of being destined to high exploits, he was impatient of his superiors and equals, but was courteous and affable to his infe- riors. His great qualities were not without an alloy of the most opposite defects : he was magnanimous, yet suspicious and vin- dictive ; frank, yet capable of the deepest dissimulation ; generous yet devoid of humanity ; and unscrupulous of the means to accom- plish his designs. No provocation could justify the wanton and horrible ravages which marked the course of his armies, and the proposition which he made to the King to murder Hamilton and Argyle, is a blot on his character which his subsequent heroic deeds cannot obliterate. In his person, Montrose was rather above the middle size, finely proportioned, and endued with extra- ordinary strength and agility; his features were fine; his com- plexion sanguine; his hair a dark brown; and his eyes, which were grey, peculiarly quick and piercing. J:Turra.Ye^ bvJLCotpa" ZT'lSJIEIl ®IF Am©'^!LIE DUKE OF ARGYLE. BORN, 1678. DUKE, 1703. DIED, 1743. JoH.\ Campbell ^vas the only son of John, first Duke of Arg\le. He entered the army very early in life, and served in several cam- paigns under Marlborough. He particularly distinguished him- self by his valour and skill at the hard-fought battle of Malplaquet. In 1705 he was appointed her Majesty's High Commissioner to the Scotch Parliament, for the purpose of proposing the Union Bill, and by his exertions and personal influence contributed essen- tially to the success of that measure. He was afterwards appointed ambassador to Spain, and commander of the English forces there; but the war in that quarter was already hopeless, and Argyle had no opportunity of distinguishing himself. The Duke was too inde- pendent in his principles and conduct to continue long in favour at Court, and in 1714 he was deprived of all his appointments. On the accession of George I., Argyle, who had been an active and powerful supporter of the Hanoverian succession, was re- stored to more than his former influence, and was appointed gene- ral of the royal forces in Scotland. He commanded during the Earl of Mar's rebellion in 1715, and fought the insurgents at She- riflfmuir, where his military skill was almost overmatched by the desperate valour of the Highlanders, and he gained a bloody and undecisive victory. Though ill supported by the government, the prudence and activity of the Duke soon extinguished the rebellion ; but after being received with high honours at Court, he was, to the general surprise of the nation, suddenly dismissed from his commands, and treated with public indignity. In 1719 he was restored to the King's favour, and created Duke of Greenwich. A bill being introduced in Parliament to deprive the City of Edin- burgh of several of its privileges, on account of the Porteous riot, the Duke opposed the measure with great zeal and eloquence, and succeeded in expunging the most oppressive clauses of the bill. His opposition on this occasion, and still more on the discussion of the Convention with Spain, greatly incensed Sir R. Walpole, and the Duke was again dismissed from all his employments. On the forced abdication of ihat minister, Argyle, who had contri- buted essentially to his expulsion from the government, was re- warded with a profusion of honours and emoluments; but being soon disgusted with the conduct of his colleagues in otTice, he resigned his places, and passed the rest of his life in privacy. He died in his sixty-fifih year, and was succeeded in the title by his brother, the Earl of Islay. The Duke was twice married, and left four daughters by his second wife. Few individuals, of superior talents and exalted rank, have passed through life with so unsuU lied a reputation as Argyle. He has been accused of parsimony ; but, though the impoverished slate of his family might have fami- liarised him in youth with an economy scarcely befiiling his rank, his public life sufficiently evinces the disinterestedness of his mind, lie never made use of his great influence in the state to aggran- dize himself or his family, or shrunk from the avowal of his senti- ments, however destructive of his personal interests. Throughout the whole of his political career he continued the zealous and enlightened advocate of civil and religious liberty, and the fearless enemy of injustice and oppression. As a general and a senator, he justified the eulogium of the pott : " Argyle, the state's whole thunder born to wield, And shake alike the senate and the field." In private life he was the exemplary husband and father, the kind master, and the accomplished gentleman j cautious in the choice of friends, and constant in his friendships. .IL ®3F S©WTMAMST®^o EARL OF S0UTHA:\IPT0X. BORN, 1^73. EARL; 15?1. DIED, 1624. Henry Wriothesley was ihe second son of Henry, second Earl of Souibarapton,and a descendant of the illustrious family of Fiiz- walter. Before he had completed his eighih year, he had the mis- fortune to lose his father, but his education was not neglected. He was matriculated at Cambridge when only twelve years old, and after passing tive years at that University, removed to com- plele his course of study at Gray's Inn. He became passionately attached lo dramatic entertainments ; patronised plays, and play- writers ; and was the earliest and most munificent patron of SiiAKSPEARE. In 1596, he accompanied the Earl of Esses in his attack on Cadiz, and afterwards acied as Vice-Admiral in the ex- p-edition against the Azores. He was knighted on the field of battle by Esses, and the warmest friendship commenced between these gallant and accomplished noblemen. On his return to En- gland,he espoused Elizabeth Vernon, the cousin of Esses, without the consent or knowledge of the Queen, who was greatly averse to her courtiers marrying. Elizabeth was highly incensed at this step, and committed Southampton and his lady to confinement for a short time. On his release, he accompanied Esses to Ireland, and was appointed his General of the Horse, contrary to the di- rection of the Queen, who immediately deprived him of his com- mission. Southampton's friendship for Esses remained unshaken in ds-race and danger, and he was deeply implicated in the insai.e revolt of the unfortunate favourite. He was tried for high-treason and found guilty, but his honourable character and apparent contrition procured him a remission of his sentence. He was, however, kept a close prisoner in the Tower until the death of the Queen. His disloyalty to Elizabeth was an unfailing recommen- dation to her successor, and on the accession of James, he was not only released but loaded with honours and preferments. The resdess'spirit of Southampton, however, frequently embroiled him with the royal favourites, and occasioned his temporary disgrace. The engagements of the court were insuSicient to occupy his en- terprising mind; and being refused the employment in the state which he expected, he entered deeply into speculations of trade and colonization ; and was an active parlaker in the coarse diver- sions of the Town, and the broils which usually accompanied ihem. He was subsequently very zealous in the discharge of his parliamentary duties ; and rendered himself highly skilful in the business and forms of the House. These avocations he quitted to resume the profession of arms, and in 1624, accepted a colo- nelcy in the troops which went out to assist the Dutch, ilis eldest son, Lord Wriothesley, died, while on this expedition, of a fever, and the Earl, who had scarcely recovered from the same com- plaint, returning home with his son's body, fell ill by the way and died at Bergen-op-Zoom. The bright and estimable character of Southampton was partially obscured by important defects. IJis personal courage and his honour were unquestionable, and his friendships ardent and lasting ; but his mind was fickle and unsteady, he was a stranger to prudence, and a violent temper betrayed him into frequent quarrels, and engaged him in enmities injurious to his best interests. His understanding was lively and acute, and to a competent erudition and a correct taste, he united the most polished and dignified manners. As an enlightened ad- mirer and a generous rewarder of literary merit, he deserves more unqualified applause, and, when liis merits as a soldier, a cour- tier, and a statesman, are forgotten, the name of Wriothesley will descend with honour to remotest posterity as the friend and PATROX OF SllAKSPEARE. ARCHBISHOP SHARP. BORN, 1618. ABI'. OF ST. ANDREW'S, 1G60. MURDERED, IGTg'. James Sharp ;\a3 the son of William Sharp, sheriff-clerk of Banff- shire. His quickness of apprehension and tenacious memory in- duced jjis father to bring him up for the ministry. He was edu- cated at the University of Aberdeen, and obtained the degree of a Master of Arts. Through the friendship of the Earl of Rothes, he was chosen one of the Professors of Philosophy in St. Leo- nard's College, St. Andrew's, and was afterwards appointed minis- ter of the town of Craile. The Scottish Presbyterians being divided into two violent parties, called Resohdioners and Protestors, Sharp was sent by the former to carry their complaints to Crom- well ; a commission which he executed with dexterity and success. At the time of the Restoration, he was deputed by the Scottish Clergy to represent the interests of the Kirk with Charles II., for the purpose of obtaining the establishment of Presbytery in Scot- land, as settled by the law of the land, and as the King himself had formerly sworn to maintain it. For some time, Sharp appeared to advocate their cause with zeal, and continued to amuse his party with favourable representations. He at length threw off the mask, and openly and actively seconded the Court in its project of intro- ducing Episcopacy into Scotland. His subservience was rewarded with a mitre; he was made Archbishop of St. Andrew's and assu- med the whole of the ecclesiastical and an important share of the secular government of his country. His subsequent conduct only served to exasperate the deep and general hatred which this trea- chery excited among his countrymen. Implicated in the worst and most arbitrary measures of an execrable administration, he went beyond his colleagues in violence and severity, and, with the cus- tomary malice of an apostate, persecuted and proscribed the party to which he had so lately belonged. The unfortunate enthusiasts who were driven into acts of contumacy and rebellion, were plun- dered, tortured, and massacred, without mercy or discrimination. In 1668 an unsuccessful attempt was made on hislife by Mitchel, a fanatical preacher, who escaped undiscovered at the timej but. being apprehended six years after, was entrapped into confession by a promise of pardon. This promise was infamously violated, and after a confinement of six years, Mitchell was brought to trial and executed; the Archbishop and the Lords of the Council com- mitting the most shameless perjury to procure his condemnation. Not long after, Sharp himself fell a victim to the vengeance which he had provoked. Nine desperate fugitives, (among whom was Balfour of Burley,) returning from an unsuccessful pursuit of one of their inferior persecutors, chanced to fall in, on Magus Muir, with the Primate, who was travelling with his daughter and a few domestics. These fanatics immediately resolved to immolate the arch-enemy of their church, who was thus unexpectedly delivered into their hands; and, dragging him from his coach, despatched him with repeated wounds, in spite of his promises and entreaties, and the shrieks and struggles of his agonized daughter. This un- fortunate prelate possessed considerable natural and acquired abi- lities, as well as extraordinary diligence in business; but he was vindictive and treacherous, vain and haughty, yet servile, rapaci- ous, and cruel. An unrelenting persecutor of the party which he had abandoned, he uniformly consulted and gratified his private revenge under the semblance of religious zeal. His private life was decent, if not correct. In his person he was of a middle sta- ture, strong and well-proportioned; his eyes, though somewhat sunk into his head, were full of expression, and his address was graceful and insinuating. » . >>, •>. ,''', ,',, i ,'* '>,'^v'', ? ''J ',,*'', ^Tiffra raCi^-ZJLSai M,E(CJHrAIR,ID), 2, RICHARD I. BORN. 1157. SUCCEEDED TO THE TIIRON d. 1 189. DIED, 1199. RiCHARDj surnamed C(Eur de Lion, or the lion-hearted was the third son of Henry the second. His mother Eleanor, daughter of the Duke of Guienne, was of a noble Provencal family. By the intrigues of this woman, he was, while yet a child, involved in the rebellions of his elder brother. In 1182, after a reconciliation with his father, he became, by the younger Henry's death, heir- apparent, and seven years after, on the demise of the crown, king of England. No sooner had he assumed the sceptre, than he commenced preparations for a crusade to the Holy Land. For this purpose he omitted no means of raising money : he would have sold, he declared, even London, could he have found a purchaser. In 1190, he set sail for Palestine, where, afier a variety of adven- tures, he arrived to assist a» the siege of Acre. Here his achieve- ments attracted universal admiration, and excited the jealously of the king of France. Certain it is that a coldness existed between the two monarchs ; and upon some offence tal;en, Philip, under pretence of sickness, returned to Europe. His departure, though it increased the unanimity, reduced the forces of the Christian army ; and after gaining some important conquests, and even ad- vancing within sight of Jerusalem itself, Richard was compelled, partly by the opposition of the Duke of Burgundy, and pardy by the intelligence which he received of his brother's treason, to con- clude a truce with Saladin for three years. Having made this arrangement, he sailed for England j but being wrecked near Aquilea, he was arrested by the Duke of Austria, by whom he was sold to the Emperor for sixty tliousand pounds, and removed to a dungeon in the heart of Germany. Here he was subject to every insult. He was even compelled to stand a mock trial before the Diet at Worms ; where, however, his eloquence made such an impression upon the nobles, that they compelled the em|>eror to accept a ransom of ] 50,000 marks, instead of listening to tlje offers of Philip and Prince John, uho were desirous that he should end his days in prison. The joy of (he English on his return was excessive j and it was not diminished when he resoh-ed to resume the lavish grants, which had been made in his absence. The property of John and his adherents was confiscated; but when Eleanor interceded for the pardon of her son, " I forgive him," said the King, " and 1 wish I may as easily forget his offences, as he will my pardon." He hastened next to avenge himself upon the king of France, against whom he declared war without delay ; but their mutual exhaustion soon compelled thera to accede to a peace. Nolhino- worthy of record occurred during the remainder of his life, which was terminated in 119G, by a wound from an arrow, in the siege of the castle of Chains. The most shining part of this sovereign's character, was his courage, and his military talents. No personage, indeed, in mo- dern history^, so nearly approximates to the Homeric portrait of Achilles. Impitjer, iracundus, inexorabi/is, acer— his disposition is summed up in these four words. He was proud, cruel, and revengeful ; brave and generous. His person was tall, str- g, and well proportioned. His eyes were blue and expressive, his hair yellowish, his countenance comely, and his mien majestic. Coat armour is supposed to have been invented during the cru- sades, 'f Richard the first," says an old author, " did beare for his armes upon his pavis or shield, one lyon rampant, and this is the first armes that ever I could see any authority for."— [Ca/a/o- gue of Nobility, by Ralph Brook, Lancaster Herald.] Sitar-crc^ hrJLCcs'^ eS<&Si(SIE 23 SIRS©! GEORGE HERIOT. BORN. 1563. DIED, IG24. It is not a Utile remarkable, iliat the most splendid instances of mercantile munificence that England perhaps ever witnessed, were nearly contemporary. Sir Thomas Gresham, who was " Queen Elizabeth's merchant," built the Royal Exchange; Sir Hugh Mid- dleton, by bringing up the New River from Ware to London, en- sured a plentiful supply of water to the metropolis; Thomas Sut- ton endowed the Chartreuse, or Charter House; and the subject of the present memoir, who, a Scotchman by birth, accumulated his vast fortune in England as the kings jeweller, was perhaps in- spired by the bright example of his contemporaries, to devote that fortune to the erection of an hospital. Many other names, almost equally entitled to the gratitude of posterity, might be selected from the list of merchants of that period ; but the above ''• may suffice the studious reader for a taste.*' George lleriot was born in June, 1563: he was descended of the house of Heriot of Trabroun,a family of some note in the shire of Mid r_x)lhian ; his father was a goldsmith of some celebrity, and served often as a commissioner in the convention of the estates in the parliam.er.ts of ScoUand. His name occurs in the records of the latter assembly very frequently between the years 1585 and 1 607. George Heriot the younger commenced business in Edin- burgh in the year 1586, and, on the 14th of January in the same year, married Christian Majoribanks, a daughter of Simon Majo- ribanks, merchant of Edinburgh, with whom he received a portion of one thousand and seventy-five merks; this, added to one thou- sand more which his father gave him, is calculated to have been rather more than ^200. " a considerable sum in those days," and in so poor a country as Scotland. In 1588. he was admitted a member of the incorporation of goldsmiths, and by a writ of privy seal, dated at Dumfermlire, the 27th of July 1597, was appointed goldsmith to the queen. This last event, as appears by the dairy of Robert Birrel. burgess of Edinburgh, "was intimated at the crosse by open proclamation and sound of trumpet." Soon after ibis, he obtained ibc situation of goldsmith to the king ; and, in September 1599, an entry is made in the treasurer's books of ^4160 (Scots) '•' payit at his majestie's special command, with the advice of the lordis of the secret counsel, to George Heriolt, younger, goldsmith, for a copburd, propinit to Monsieur Vetonu, Frenche ambassador, and for graving 28 almessis (coats of arms) upon the said copburd £\i" This is the only mention of He- riot's name in these accounts, before the king's departure for En- gland. About this time, having lost his first wife, he formed an honourable alliance with Alison Primrose, the eldest daughter of James Primrose, clerk of the privy-council, and grandfatlicr to the first Earl of Rostberry, by Miss Sibilla Milner. This lady's portion was no less than five thousand merks. Soon after the union of the two crowns, Heriot followed the court to London, where, by his skill, frugality, and attention to business, he soon acquired a very considerable fortune. A part of this he invested in several valuable purchases at Roehampton, in Surrey, and at St. Martin's in the Fields, in Middlesex, which he afterwards devised to two illegitimate daughters. He died on the 12th of February, 1624, and was interred in St. Martin's in the Fields, as appears by the follow ing extract from the register; '' 20 die Fcbruarii 1624. Georgius Heriott, Armiger, 1™° Jacobo Regi Yoman. sepultus fuit." His fortune has been calculated to have amounted to the enormous sum of £50,000^ which, after giving several considerable legacies to his friends and relations, he be- queathed to the provost and municipal officers of Edinburgh, to build a hospital for the maintenance and education of poor father- less boys, the sons of freemen of Edinburgh. The pious intention was strictly fulfilled; and in the statutes of the foundation, which have recently been published, there appears a striking resemblance to the regulations of that most admirable institution of our sixth Edward, Christ's Hospital. Such are the few particulars which we have been able to col- lect of the life of this respectable and charitable man. Reader, go thou and do likewise. Pai-ntid iy C Ja.nstn. Btfrttyfi hyR/^cpir 2DFKE C'F JBTiJCIKEM^iaAM, VILLIERS, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. BORN, 1592. DDKE, 1623. ASSASSINATED, 1628. This miaioD of forwne was descended from an ancient and re- spectable, rather than an iUustrious family. He was educated at BiUesden, in Lincolnshire, where he was noticed for proflciencj in dancing, fencing, and other ornamental accomplishments. When about one and twenty years of age, he was seen at Ablhorp by the king who took a liking to his person, and in 1613, conferred up- on him the office of cup-bearer. An entrance being once opened, favours, observes one of hU biographers, came thick upon l,.m, like main showers than sprinkling drops, or dews. In 161=, he was knighted and made a GenUeman of the bed-chamber, wlh a pension of ^1000 per annum. He was next appointed Master o the horse, and successively created Knight of the Garter, Baron of Whaddon, Viscount Villiers, first Earl, then Marquis of Bucking- ham Lord High Admiral of England, Chief Justice in Eyre of the parks and forests south of the Trent, Master of the King's Bench Office, Stewart of Westminster, and Constable of Windsor CasUe. It was at Buckingham's suggestion, that Prince Charles under- took his romantic voyage to Spaio. The Marqu.s, « seems, was In^ry that the marriage uegociauon should be conduced sole^ by *e Earl of BrUtol. When first proposed, James easdy agreed .0 it ; but coming afterwards to reflect, he saw the rashness of the adve ture, and implored them to absolve him from h,s prom,se To this, however, they would by no means consent, and VU.ers who, says, Lord Clarendon, knew what kind of -S;"^""; /"^ ^' '^el: with h-tm, rudely told him that " nobody could beheve L thing he said, when he retracted so soon the promise he had so solemnly made." Thus pressed, the poor king was obhged to yield, and it was arranged that the Prince and Duke should travel LognUi, accompanied only by Sir Francis Cottington and Endy- mion Porter as their servants. The result of this extravagant ex- pedition is sufficienUy well known. New obstacles were raised to Charles's union with the Infanta, and the marriage treaty at length finally broken off. U is certain, that alU.ough during h,s absence he was creatal Earl of Coventry and Duke of Buckingham, and on his return appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque ports and Steward of the Manor of Hampton Courts the king never heartily forgave liim. Some of his " unfriends," particularly the Earl of Middlesex, whose fortunes he had himself patronized, taking advantage of his absence, and the king's displeasure, endeavoured to raise them- selves on the ruins of his greatness. The attempt, however, proved the ruin of them all. The Prince and Duke united to impeach Middlesex, and when James urged them to abandon the prosecu- tion absolutely refused. " By God, Stenny," said the king, " you are a fool, and will shortly repent this folly, and will find, that in this fit of popularity, you are making a rod, with which you will be scourged yourself." The event, as we shall see, proved the truth of the prediction. The death of James produced no change in the Duke's fortunes. He held a place equally high in the favour of his successor. " A. rare felicity," says the noble historian, " seldom known, and in which the expectation of very many was exceedingly disappointed." In May, 1625, he was sent as ambassador to conduct from France the new queen, Henrietta Maria. In the February following, he officiated as High Constable at the King's coronation, and was afterwards elected Chancellor of Cambridge, and sent ambassador to Holland. In the two first parliaments of the new reign inquiries were in- stituted into the conduct of the Duke. Every action of his life was ripped up, and surveyed, and malicious glosses were made on all he had said, and all that he had done. The king, however, in both cases dissolved the parliament, and such as had given offence were imprisoned and disgraced. A third parliament having assembled, he was once more impeached ; but during a prorogation, he fell br the dagger of an assassin, while preparing to embark for the relief of Rochelle. He was an adroit and accomplished courtier, and by long practice had obtained a quick conception of business, and a habit of speaking gracefully and pertinently. His kindness to his friends, and his animosity to his enemies, were equally vehe- ment, and too often equally groundless. He was in his own na- ture just and candid, liberal, generous, and bountiful; nor was he ever known, from the temptation of money, to be guilty of an illiberal or an unjust action. -^ i^'— — opa-rrcT^^ J-^-ca^ce f7~mt tvTai'j. ^MssMm a JAMES I. BORN, 1566. KING OF SCOTLAND, 1567. OF ENGLAND, 1003. DIEDj 1625. James Stdart, the sixth king of Scotland, and the first of Eng- land, xvho bore that name, ^vas the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, by Lord Henry Darnley. Upon the forced resignation of his mother, James, at the early age of thirteen months and ten days, was crowned at Stirling. The government vras of necessity administered by a regency ; and the history of Scotland at this period has litUe relation to James's private biography. The young monarch early discovered that attachment to favourites, which so strongly marked the more mature periods of his life. The first of them whom we find mentioned is Esrae Steward, afterwards created Duke of Lennox. He arrived from France about the latter end of the year 1579 ; and his handsome person, elegant and tasteful apparel, and courtly behaviour, made a strong impression upon James's mind. This man soon engaged the king in measures wholly inconsistent with the constitution of Scotland. The consequence was, that the Earls of Mar and Glencairn, Lord Rulhven, the tutor of Glamis, and many other persons of distinction, determined to rescue him from such dangerous hands. For this purpose, he received an invitation to Ruthven Castle, which, suspecting nothing, he cheerfully accepted. On his arrival, however, he was surprised at the multitude of new faces which he saw, and resolved in the morning to make his escape ; but, just as he was departing, the nobles entered in a body, and presented a memorial against the oppressions of his favourites. James received it with complacence : but impatient to be gone, he approached the door : when Glamis rudely stopped him, saying, in reply to his remonstrances and tears, 'f that it was better that bairns should weep than bearded men." He was detained in this confinement ten months, and compelled to issue a proclamation, commanding Lennox to leave Scotland before the 20th of September. Upon learning the condemnation of his mother, James behaved with more spirit than could have been expected from him. He wrote a letter to Elizabeth with his own hand, threatening to renounce her friendship, and to revenge his mother's wrongs, and despatched the master of Gray and Sir Robert Melville, to enforce his representation. The latter executed his commission with fidelity and zeal, but his colleague secretly urged Elizabeth to destroy her rival, reminding her of the proverb that the ' dead cannot bite/ and undertaking to pacify the king. James desisted, however, from any open hostilities with the English Government J convinced that he could place little dependence, either upon his own subjects, or upon foreign allies, the interests of most of them being opposite to his own. The situation of Europe in 1588, gave James a considerable importance. His alliance was courted by Elizabeth and by Phillip. Fortunately for both countries he understood his own interest and adhered to England. He offered an army to Eliza- beth, and told her ambassador, that the only favour which he expected from the king of Spain, was that which Polyphemus granted to Ulysses; having devoured all his companions, to make of him the last mouthful. In 1589, he made overtures of marriage to the Princess Ann of Denmark, which, after many obstacles, were finally accepted. The young queen set sail for Scotland ; but a violent tempest drove her back to Norway. He felt his disappointment with unusual sensibility ; and without communicating his design to any of his council, sailed in person, with a train of about three hundred people, and safely arrived at Upslo, where the princess resided, and where the marriage was soon after solemnized. On the 24th of March, 1603, died Elizabeth, Queen of England. By her decease, James obtained an unquestionable title to the English throne, which was proclaimed and acknowledged in both kingdoms. He received the intelligence with decent composure, and as Carey, who conveyed it, was but a private messenger, kept his chamber without publishing the news, until the arrival of an official communication from the English government. From this period his memoirs must be sought in the public histories of England. He died on the 27th of March, 1625, at the age of fifty-nine years, having reigned thirty-six years in Scotland and twenty-two in England. When informed by the Lord Keeper, that his days would be but few in this world, '' I am satisfied," said he, *•' but pray you assist to make me ready for the next world, to go away hence for Christ, whose mercies I hope to tind.*' i:n,7raved by ?.^ ::oapt,r. siSAmaEs, iPiEss?©3s ©if^^jliis. CHARLES, PRINCE OF WALES. BORN, 1600. ASCENDED THE THRONE, 1625. BEHEADED, 1649. The unfortunate subject of this notice was the second son of king James the First. He was born at Dumfermling. in Scotland, on the 19th of November, 1600. His health was at this time so extremely delicate, that according to Perinchief, " his baptism was hastened, without the usual ceremonies wherewith such royal infants are usually admitted into the church.'' At four years old he was, with much splendour, invested with the order of the Bath, and created Duke of York; and, on the death of his eldest brother Henry, in 1612, succeeded to the Dukedom of Cornwall, and shortly after to the Principality of Wales. At the suggestion, and in the company of Villiers, Duke of Buck- ingham, Charles undertook his romantic expedition to Spain ; to see, and to gain the hand and heart of the Infanta. Here his demeanour was such as to render him extremely popular with the Spaniards. " He would sit,"' says Howell, " watching an hour together in a close coach in the open street, to see the Princess go abroad ; and on one occasion understanding that she was used to go some mornings to the casa da campo, a summer-house of the king's, on the side of the river, to gather maydew, he rose early, and, accompanied by one gentleman, went thither, and was let into the house and garden; but the Infanta was in the orchards, and there being a high partition-wall between, and the door double-bolted, the Prince got on the top of the wall, and sprung down a great height, and so made towards her; but she, spying him first, gave a shriek, and ran back. The old marquis that was then her guardian came towards the Prince, and fell on his knees, conjuring his Royal Highness to retire, in regard that he hazarded his head, if he admitted any to her company : so the door was opened, and he came out under that wall over which he had got in." Incidents such as these, together with " the bravery of his journey, and his discreet comportment, made the people to be much taken witli him, and say that never Princess was courted with more gallantry."' (EpistolcB Ho-EliancB.) This match, apparently so promising, was, as is well known, put an end to by Villiers' jealousy of the Earl of Bristol. Shortly before James's decease, Lords Kensington (afterwards Earl of Holland) and Carlisle were sent into France, to negociate the marriage, which subsequently took place, between the Prince and Henrietta Maria, sister of the French King, and daughter of the great and good Henry. This lady is described as a paragon of beauty. " My amazement was extraordinary," writes one of the ambassadors, « to find her, as I protest before God I did, the sweetest creature in France. Her growth is very little short of her age, and her wisdom infinitely beyond it. I heard her discourse with her mother and the ladies about her with extraordinary discretion and quickness. She dances, which I am witness of, as well as I ever saw any creature. They say she sings most sweeUy ; I am sure she looks so." On the 27th of March, 1625, Charles ascended the throne of England. To pursue his memoir further wuuld be impertinent. The annals of his interesting and eventful reign are well known to every reader of English history. It was his misfortune to fall, if we may apply the language of Milton, upon evil days, and evil tongues; and we may be permitted to observe of him, that he has been scarcely less injured by the exaggerated encomiums of his friends, than by Uie less excusable, and perhaps equally exaggerated reproaches of his inveterate enemies. Irvm t/ic /iiiziT-i aJ,Jfjlyr. Engru vedlr i^-^fier n^ma ©3= gfiiffiESAT: JAMES STEWART. PRIOR OF ST. ANDREWS, 1539. EARL OF MURRAY, 1562. REGENT, 1567. ASSASSINATED, 1570. This celebrated character was an illegitimate son of James the Fifth, King of ScoUand, by Margaret, daughter of Lord Erskine of Lochleven, the ancestor of the present Earl of Morton. Being, like all James's natural sons, educated for the church, he was, while yet a child, presented to the priory of St. Andrews, and Dr. Milne, Abbot of Cambus Kenneth, was appointed adminis- trator of the affairs of the benefice, as well spiritual as temporal. Notwithstanding his oflice in the catholic church, he is said to have been amongst the earliest promoters of the protestant faith ; and the Queen Regent having peremptorily refused to concur by her authority in reforming religion, and having besides violated some articles of pacification, for which he stood guarantee, ^Nith the noblemen of that persuasion, he betook himself to the party of the lords of the congregation ; protesting that he had no other view or design in what he did, than the advancement of the true reformed religion, and preservation of the endangered liberty of his country. When his sister Mary, Queen of Scots, became a widow by the death of Francis the second, the prior was despatched by the protestant nobility to invite the Queen to return to Scotland, and, on her arrival, was appointed cne of the members of her privy council. Not long after, he was sent with a commission of lieutenancy to the borders, to suppress an insurrection that was threatened in those parts ; and there behaved himself with such courage and fidelity, that upon his return he was rewarded with the Earldom of Mar, which he subsequently exchanged for the Earldom of Murray. From this period he continued uninterruptedly to enjoy the Queen's favour till the year 1565; when her majesty having declared her resolution of marrying the Earl of Darnley, Murray and many others opposed the match as equally dangerous to the church and state. Finding, however, that arguments prevailed not, they made, says Sir James Melville, an essay to take the Lord Darnley in the Queen's companj' at the Raid of Baith, and, as they alleged, to have sent him into England ; but failing in that enterprise, they were so closely pursued by the Queen's troops, that they thought it the safest course for them to flee to England, where they met with a cold reception. After the Queen's marriage with Darnley, he was summoned before the parliament, and would undoubtedly have been forefaulted on a charge of treason, had not the murder of David Rizzio thrown the country into confu- sion. Being innocent of this offence, Mary was easily prevailed upon to pardon and restore to him her grace and confidence. Finding the country becoming more and more agitated, he ob- tained license to travel, first, in England, and afterwards in France, whence he was invited, on Mary's resignation, to the regency of the kingdom, under James the Sixth ; and after having, in about two years, restored the country from confusion to order, he was shot at Linlithgord, in revenge for a private injury, on the 23d of January, 1570. " His death," says Bishop Spottiswood, " was greatly lamented; especially by the commons. A man truly good ; and worthy to be ranked among the best governors that this king- dom hath enjoyed ; and therefore, to this day, he is honoured with the title of the Good Regent." UNIVERSITY OF CALIFOKXIA LIBRAE Y BERKELEY THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW Books not returned on time are subject to a fine of 50c per volume after the third day overdue, increasing to $1.00 per volume after the sixth day. Books not in demand may be renewed if application is made before expiration of loan period. M^P 27 1919 SEP 22 Wr DEC 29 193§ 30Jul5lVW 50m-7,'16 /yz' i^JU^^^Cl m U13 Np'*?' X V "■- 4*^ % \ V V. -^ i A \ ^ ^