Scottish Text Society publications > Old series > Satirical poems of the time of the reformation > Volume 2, 1893

60 NOTES TO A RHIME IN DEFENCE, ETC. (129-176).
curs in Spenser (‘The Faerie Queene,’ I. v. st. 31; I. viii. st. 4; III.
vii. st. 40; IV. Hi. st. 12); and brasten out in Uncert. Auth.,
‘Totters Miscellany,’ p. 251—
“ Eche moment so doth change his chere, not with recourse of ease,
But with sere sortes of sorrowes still he worketh as the seas;
That turning windes not calme returnde rule in vnruly wise,
As if their holdes of hilles vphurled they brasten out to rise.”
129, 130. And how he took away the Queen
By force against her will.
On the 24th of April 1567, Bothwell, attended by 800 horsemen, met
Mary on her return from Stirling at Almond Bridge, six miles from
Edinburgh, surrounded her attendants, took her horse by the bridle
and “conveyed her by force, as appeared, to the castle of Dunbar, to
the end he might enjoy her as his lawful spouse.”—Keith, ‘ Hist.,’ p.
383. “ No man doubted but this was done by her own liking and
consent.”—‘ Spottiswood,’ p. 202; see also Poem vii. 11. 50-55, and
note thereto.
132. And eke the prince to spill. “She [Mary] minds hereafter to
take the prince out of the Earl of Mar’s hands, and put him in his
hands that murdered his father.”—MS. Letter, S.P.O., Scot.-Eliz.,
Grange to Bedford, 26th April 1567, vol. xiii. No. 40; see also Both-
well’s so-called ‘Testament’ in ‘Keith,’ Appendix, pp. 144, 145.
141. Slcight= trick, artifice.
149. Traitor Ledingtone. Lethington had joined an organised
coalition for the destruction of Bothwell.—‘ Keith,’ p. 394, note (</).
157-159. Then Murray . . . did void the land. “Both Buchanan
and Knox, and after them Abp. Spottiswood, take care to inform the
world that when the Queen had invited many of the Nobility to Court,
and had desired them to sign a Bond for the Defence of herself and
her now Husband, the Earl of Murray alone had the Courage and
Generosity to decline doing it, telling for his Reason that since he had
formerly entered into friendship with Bothwell he would keep his
Promise ; but to subscribe any Bond for the Queen, this he judged to
be unnecessary, seeing he was bound to obey her as his Sovereign in
all lawful and just Things. Mr Buchanan, according to his fine Talent,
makes a noble Discourse and Panegyrick herein favour of his worthy
Patron; and yet when all this fine Story is told with all its agreeable
Circumstances, 'tis certain the Earl of Murray was not then nor had
been within this Kingdom for upwards of a Month at least before the
Queen's Keith,’p. 395. Murray left Scotland 9th April
1567, and returned between the nth and 15th of August of the same
year.—Ibid., pp. 374, 442.
161-176. The confederate Lords met Bothwell and the queen’s forces
at Carberry Hill 15th June 1567, when Mary surrendered to the Laird
of Grange on the express condition that they should return to their