Stuart dynasty

MA11Y QUEEN OF SCOTS. 161
uncle, to have you always in his holy and worthy
keeping.
" Your very humble and very obedient nephew,
" Henry R." *
The King wrote this letter during a brief return
of that domestic happiness which had been originally
so shortlived, and in the first blush of parental joy
probably intended to repent of his shortcomings and
amend his conduct.
But Darnley, unfortunately, had made enemies
of nearly all the influential men in Scotland, and
he now accentuated this disability by demanding
Secretary Lethington's dismissal in favour of Leslie,
Bishop of Ross, so that, had the King Consort had
his own way, the wisest statesman at Court would
have received a rebuff when Mary most desired his
assistance.'!" Indeed, Lethington abandoned the Court
for some time and lived with Athole in Perthshire.
Whatever may have been the relations between
Darnley and the Queen at this precise part of the
year 1566, a deadlock in the progress of public
affairs appeared imminent if Darnley, dissolute, irre-
sponsible, and headstrong, were to retain his com-
manding position unchecked and to gather a party
around him. We know from Melville's 'Memoirs'
how Darnley was so conspicuously neglected by his
* ' Letters of Mary Queen of Soots, and Documents connected with
her Personal History.' Edited by Miss Strickland, edition 1842, vol. i,
p. 21.
t Skelton's 'Maitland of Lethington,' vol. ii. p. 185.
H