Douglas book > Angus memoirs

SEIZURE OF STIRLING CASTLE, 1584. 349
Glands, and their friends, that they should seize Stirling Castle, which was
devoted to Mar, and from there make an appeal to the king and the country.
Gowrie also was included in the plot, as his influence was very powerful both
territorially and through his alliances. He was, however, on account of his
ready submission to the king at St. Andrews, suspected by his friends, and
Angus despatched Hume of Godscroft to Perth to meet Gowrie and learn his
views. Hume found the Earl in much perplexity, but was satisfied of his
sincerity, and so reported to Angus, who had now left Morayshire, and was
staying at Brechin. 1
The conspirators, however, could not lay their plans so secretly, or bind
their friends so closely that their purposes did not come to the knowledge of
the Court. Angus himself at an early stage of the proceedings, was treacher-
ously accused by one of his servants. Gowrie was seized at Dundee,
not without suspicion of his own collusion, just as the plot was fully ripe.
Proclamations had been directed against the chief conspirators, but on 17th
April Mar and Glamis succeeded in obtaining possession of Stirling Castle,
and Angus at once set out from Brechin to join them, sending to Douglas-
dale for his vassals. On the way to Stirling the Earl endeavoured to gather
some of Gowrie's friends and others to the cause, but found them unwilling
or overawed by his capture. 2
At Stirling, the confederate lords issued a proclamation, studiously
1 Godscroft, ed. 1644, p. 377. On 6th how Ad gus wrote to Robert Douglas of Loch-
April 1584, a royal warrant was issued per- leven, whose mother intercepted the letter,
mittiDg Angus to leave his ward north of the and refused to allow her son to join the enter-
South Esk and pass to Dundee, and thence prise, which she denounced as foolish. Angus
out of the kingdom. [Vol. iv. of this work, replied in a temperate manner, but with
p. 27-] words of warning, which it is said were justi-
- Godscroft, ed. 1644, pp. 379-382 ; Calder- tied by the event, as young Douglas, of whose
wood, vol. iv. pp. 20-25. Cf. also p. 46, where life his mother was so careful, soon after
a story is told (related by both historians) perished at sea.