Douglas book > Angus memoirs

344 ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS, EIGHTH EARL OF ANGUS, ETC.
a change of government. It was not without good reason that the party of
Gowrie and the clergy dreaded the visit of the French ambassadors. The
king had never willingly consented to the rule of the Euthven Eaiders,
although he concealed his feelings until he could strike an effective blow.
In a letter from the Earl of Argyll, written a few months later to an unknown
correspondent, this is distinctly stated as the king's own mind, that he ever
had great grief for the offence done him at Euthven, and for what followed ;
that although he bore it for the time, rather to procure quietness than the
ruin of any of his subjects, yet he never consented to nor was satisfied
with his condition. 1
This statement is confirmed by other correspondence of the time, which
also shows that at or before the date when James thus consented to hold Par-
liament, he was in communication with the Duke of Lennox, now in France,
elaborating the plot for a counter-revolution. This was altogether apart from
a scheme which was then engaging the diplomatic talent of England and
France, but which James, though he amused himself with it, never meant to
carry out, namely, an association or joint-government by himself and his
mother. Queen Mary herself believed, or pretended to believe, in the possi-
bility of such a scheme, and in an interview with an envoy of Elizabeth she
stated as much, naming among the barons of Scotland only five who she
thought would oppose it. Of these Angus was one, and of him she said that
he "had never offended her, and she wished him no evil; but his surname
never had been friends to the Stewarts, and she knew the king, her son,
loved him not." 2
King James was too fond of absolute power ever really to entertain the
so-called " association," but the above statement reveals his feelings towards
1 Contemporary copy of letter from the
Earl of Argyll [address wanting], 27th July
1583. Douglas Charter-chest.
'-' MS. in State Paper Office, 17th April
1583, quoted by Tytler, vol. vi. pp. 351-
353.