History of the family of Seton during eight centuries > Volume 2

DUKE OF YORK AT LEICESTER 641
In the first edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, it is
stated that 'upon the birth of Prince Henry in 1593, President Seton was
intrusted with his tuition till he went to England, anno 1603.' The Prince
is usually represented to have been committed to the care of the Earl of
Mar, while Seton undoubtedly had the charge of his younger brother,
afterwards Charles 1.
After the King took up his abode in the English metropolis, Lord
Fyvie's communications became very frequent, and almost invariably refer
to matters of interest and importance. Probably one of the earliest of
these is the letter which he addressed from Edinburgh to Sir Robert Cecil,
' Principall Secretair to his Ma tie in the estate of Ingland,' on the 5th of
April 1603 — the very day on which the King left Edinburgh, and twelve
days after the death of Queen Elizabeth. 1
Early in 1604 Seton was appointed Vice-Chancellor, and also a Com-
missioner for the incorporate Union then projected between England and
Scotland ; and in August of the same year he spent a couple of nights at
Leicester, on his way to London, with his juvenile charge, then known as
the Duke of York. As the required sleeping accommodation amounted to
twelve beds, and the beer to seven hogsheads, the young Prince must have
been attended by a considerable retinue. From the records of the Corpora-
tion of Leicester we gather several curious particulars of the royal visit ;
and it is humiliating to acknowledge that, in return for the hospitality
experienced by them, some of the ' banquetting dishes ' were broken, and
some ' pewter and linen ' carried away by certain unworthy followers of the
infant Prince, who had not quite completed his fourth year.
In his Continuation of the History of the House of Seytoun, Lord
Kingston states that, on the departure of the King and Queen to England,
in 1 603, they committed the custody of Prince Charles to President Seton
— adding that ' he keeped him in his house three years, and carried him
into England himselfe, by land, to the King and Queen's Majesties, well
and in health ; for which faithfull service the King's Majestie was thankfull
to him.' From a minute by Cecil, dated 12th May 1605 ( to be afterwards
referred to), it would appear that Lord Kingston's statement as to the
period during which the Prince was under the President's care cannot be
correct. Possibly he may have been intrusted to Seton's custody, when a
mere infant, in 1601 ; in which case the journey of 1604 was probably
the occasion on which the President surrendered his royal charge. 2
Shortly after Seton's appointment to the office of President, several
important Acts of Sederunt were passed relative to the ' presentation and
admission ' of the Ordinary Lords of Session and other judicial matters.
Under the date of nth June 1594 an interesting Latin entry appears in
1 This and other letters, from the valuable Charles's health,
collection of mss. at Hatfield and other sources, 2 See Memoirs of Robert Carey, Earl of Mon-
have already been printed in my Memoir of mouth, published in 1759, of which a subsequent
Chancellor Seton. Some of them contain edition appeared in 1808, under the editorship
special reference to the state of the young Prince of Sir Walter Scott.
4 M