Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

506 SCOT
1569-1575. Kirkaldy of Grange, who held the castle of Edinburgh,
and while there “the chameleon,” as Buchanan named
Maitland in his famous invective, contrary to the nature
of that animal, gained over those in the castle, including
Kirkaldy. Moray was afraid to proceed with the charge
on the day of trial, and Kirkaldy and Maitland became
partisans of the queen. The castle was the stronghold
of the queen’s party,—being isolated from the town and
able to hold out against the regent who governed in the
name of her son. This defection was mourned over by
the Reformers. Knox, with the self-confidence which
marked his character, sent from his deathbed to Kirkaldy
a message of warning that “ neither the craggy rock in
which he confided, nor the carnal wisdom of the man
[Maitland] whom he esteemed a demi-god, nor the assist¬
ance of strangers, should preserve him from being disgrace¬
fully dragged to ignominious punishment.” It has been
suspected that Maitland and Kirkaldy were cognizant of
the design of Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh to murder Moray,
for he had been with them in the castle. This has been
ascribed to private vengeance for the ill-treatment of his
wife; but the feud of the Hamiltons with the regent is
the most reasonable explanation. As he rode through
Linlithgow Moray was shot (23d January 1570) from a
window by Hamilton, who had made careful preparation
for the murder and his own escape. Moray was buried in
the south aisle of St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, amid gen¬
eral mourning. Knox preached the sermon and Buchanan
furnished the epitaph, both unstinted panegyrics. His
real character is as difficult to penetrate as that of Mary.
It is easy for the historian to condemn the one and praise
the other according to his own religious or political creed.
It is nearer truth to recognize in both the graces and
talents of the Stuart race, which won devoted followers,
but to acknowledge that times in which Christian divines
approved of the murder of their enemies were not
likely to produce a stainless heroine or faultless hero,
indeed necessitated a participation in deeds which
would be crimes unless they can be palliated as acts of
civil war. Let us absolve, if we can, Moray and Mary of
Darnley’s blood. It remains indisputable that Mary ap¬
proved of Moray’s assassination and that Moray would have
sanctioned Mary’s death.
Regen- Moray was succeeded in the regency by Lennox, Darnley’s
cies of father, the male nearest of kin to the future sovereign, but
ancUVlar. rea^y ^ie nominee of Elizabeth. His brief term of office
’ was marked by the renewal of the English war under Sussex
and other generals, which made the queen’s cause again the
more popular. Lennox, another victim of violence, was
slain (3d September 1571) in a hasty attack by one of the
Hamiltons on Stirling, from which Morton, the real head
of the Protestant party, who at first had been taken and
threatened with the same fate, barely escaped. Mar, who
had all along held the custody of the young king, was now
chosen regent and held the post for a year, when he died
(28th October 1572). During his regency the civil war
between the queen’s and the king’s party continued.
An English intrigue was carried on with great mystery,
and never brought to a point, by Randolph and Killigrew
to deliver Mary to the regent that she might be tried
within her own dominions. On the death of Mar, Morton,
who had been the most powerful noble during the last
regency, at length reached the object of his ambition by
being elected regent. On the day of Morton’s election
Knox’s Knox died. He was “one,” said Morton, “who never
work- feared the face of man.” If we condemn his violent
language and bitter spirit, it is just to remember that he
lived during the red heat of the struggle between Rome
and the Reformation, and died before the triumph of the
latter in Scotland was secure. He had felt the thongs of
LAND [HISTORY.
the galleys and narrowly escaped the stake. The massacre
of St Bartholomew spread consternation throughout Pro¬
testant Europe just before his last illness. Mary and
Philip of Spain were still plotting for the destruction of
all he held vital. His scheme for the reformation of the
church and application of its revenues was in advance not
of his own time only. He contemplated free education
for children of the poor who really required such aid,—
a graduated system of parish schools, burgh schools, and
universities, which would have forestalled the most recent
educational reform. While he introduced Presbyterian
government by kirk-sessions, presbyteries, synods, and
general assembly and opposed even a modified Episcopacy,
he saw the advantage of the superintendence of districts
by the more learned and able clergy. While he insisted
on the preaching of the Word and the administration of
the sacraments in the vulgar tongue, his liturgy shows his
favour for forms of public prayer. Knox’s first wife was
English, and two of his sons took orders in the Church of
England. Scottish Presbyterianism had not yet been
hardened by persecution into a hatred of prelacy as bitter
as that of Popery. It meant separation from Rome, but
inclined to union with England, and the question of the
form of church government was still open.
Morton, like his predecessor, favoured the Episcopal Regency
order, and, acting upon a compromise agreed to at Leith, of
a modified Episcopacy was restored. The bishops appointed Morto11-
were declared subject to the king in temporal and to the
church and general assembly in spiritual matters, and were
to have the same jurisdiction as the superintendents. The
assembly of Perth protested against the use of certain
ecclesiastical titles, but passed over that of bishop. Most
of the clergy sanctioned, though with reluctance, the ap¬
pointment of bishops in the hope of retaining their re¬
venues. The people called them “ tulchan ” bishops, from
the straw counterfeit used to rob the calf of its mother’s
milk. Almost the whole church property remained in the
hands of the landed proprietors, Moray in the first instance
and afterwards Morton receiving a lion’s share. Avarice
was Morton’s besetting sin. In other respects he was an
energetic and capable ruler. He effected at Perth, with
the aid of Elizabeth’s envoy, a pacification with Huntly,
Chastelherault, and the Catholic nobles who supported
Mary. Only the castle of Edinburgh held out, and this,
aided by English artillery, he succeeded in taking after a
brave resistance by Kirkaldy and Lethington. Kirkaldy
and his brother were executed at the cross of Edinburgh.
Lethington escaped their fate in what Melville calls “ the
Roman manner,”—at his own hands, perhaps by poison.
The death of the bravest and the ablest Scotsman of that
age put an end to the last chance of Mary’s restoration
by native support. Morton, now without a rival, restored
order in the borders, and when an encounter occurred
between the English and Scottish borderers called the Raid
of the Redswyre his prudence prevented it becoming a
national conflict. He appointed a commission for the
reform of the law,—a far-sighted scheme, often at¬
tempted but always stopping short of success, to codify
the law, which several Continental states, notably Denmark,
about this period engaged in. The time was not ripe for
a change which, now that it is, remains unaccomplished.
But, while all seemed to favour Morton, there were under¬
currents which combined to procure his fall. The Presby¬
terian clergy were alienated by his leaning to Episcopacy,
and all parties in the divided church by his seizure of
its estates. Andrew Melville, who had succeeded to
the leadership of Knox, was more decided than Knox
against any departure from the Presbyterian model, and
refused to be won by a place in his household. His
expensive buildings at Dalkeith, which got the name of