Papers relating to William, first Earl of Gowrie, and Patrick Ruthven, his fifth and last surviving son

12 Observations on the Trial and Death of
The educated, and consequently the most influential portion of
the people of Scotland were very determined Protestants.
Their leading clergy, the coadjutors and successors of John
Knox, were men of great talent and unquenchable zeal. They
exercised an influence over the minds of their flocks, and by
their writings and through their church- assemblies over the
people at large, which can scarcely be appreciated in colder
and less enthusiastic times. All this influence was opposed to
Lennox, who was really a Roman Catholic, and to Arran, who
scoffed at all religion. The people saw their young King sur-
rounded by Roman Catholics, and taught to look with dislike
upon the popular faith and upon the popular leaders. They
beheld him hurried along in a course which could only lead to
a partial restoration of Roman Catholicism, and to a conse-
quent disunion of interests, and breach of friendship, with
their Protestant neighbours. There was only one way by
which such results could be avoided. The parliament of Scot-
land afforded no means for removing the royal favourites ;
the judicial institutions were entirely prostituted to their
interests ; force was the only remedy.
Arran was warned that it was intended to resort to arms.
He derided the warning, and boasted that if the Protestants
dared to stir he would chase them into mouseholes. 1 But he
miscalculated his own strength and theirs. The plan deter-
mined upon was to procure the king to visit the house of one
of the Protestant lords, and there to deliver to him a written
remonstrance against the misgovernment of his favourites, with
a request for the construction of a council more in unison with
the feelings and interests of the nation. It was strenuously
denied that it was any part of the plan to detain the king, or
to put any restraint upon his person or inclinations. That was
probably the understanding of many persons who were in the
plot ; but I can scarcely think that there were not amongst
them some men who had determined what was to be done if
the king, as it was most likly he would do, refused their re-
1 Melville's Memoirs, p. 281, ed. Bannatyne.