Stuart dynasty

The Church at Bay. 89
near Musselburgh, in September of the same year. The
defeated nation, with no other resources left, rallied round
the crown represented by the child of six years, who, after a
sojourn on the island of Iuchmahorne on Lake Monteith, was
spirited off to France under convoy of a French squadron,
and landed safely at Brest, on August 30, 1548. With the
Queen of Scotland on this occasion travelled her illegitimate
half-brother Lord Jamts Stuart, son of James V. by a
daughter of Lord Erskine. Brought up with his sister, this
youth, age seventeen years, was just old enough to discuver
the anomalies of his own position ; and it is not wonderful
to read of his being hereafter, as Earl of Murray, suspected
by his enemies of a desire to wear Mary Stuart's surrendered
crown. An ambition this, represented to him as a right, for
his mother always averred that she was the lawful wife of
James V.
The character of the Queen's half-brother, best known in
history as " Murray," remains one of the enigmas most
difficult to solve in Stuart history. The stern sense of
morality inherent in the man was never known to be infringed
in practice, and in this particular he eclipses the ecclesiastical
rivals who so long had held sway in Scotland, setting
examples of profligate living in high places. Nor is it
possible to deny that Mary Stuart's brother acted with an
honest preference for Protestantism over the older faith, the
spiritual efficacy of which he had been probably led to
question when he found it allied in France with the political
wiles of the Guises.
And yet, when these facts are recorded, it is impossible to
say that in Murray's relations with his royal sister he sus-
tained the i-ame high level of rectitude which characterised
his dealings in private life, and which, combined with re-
markable sagacity in the conduct of government, was destined
to earn for him the title of " the good Regent."
Details concerning Mary Stuart's infancy are few, although
we know that within the lofty walls of Stirling did the
Lords Erskine and Livingston for the most part elect to keep
their precious charge.
When the thunder of Hertford's artillery resounded even
to the gates of Linlithgow, it was to the Stirlingshire strong-
hold that the guardians hied with their youthful sovereign ;
while, until the Priory of Inchmahome on Loch Monteith
was chosen as an island retreat, the Scots never lelt certain
as to the safety of the royal person, unless she dwelt in the