Scottish Text Society publications > Old series > Poems of Alexander Montgomerie

MONTGOMERIE IN THE SCOTTISH LAW COURTS. 273
Seal Register’ states that James undertook to protect, maintain,
and safeguard his pension.1 The formal and emphatic way in which
the King’s promise is recorded in the Register, suggests of itself
that the poet had been despatched abroad on business touching
the King’s interests, and at a time when his pension was being
threatened. The licence to go abroad, which is for a period of
five years, is stated to have been given “vpoun speciall and guid
respectis moving our said souerane loird,” and the record further
informs us that Montgomerie “ depairtit of J>is realme to J>e pairtis
of Flanderis, Spane, and vjfiris beyond sey.”
The temptation is strong here to connect this journey of the
poet with the activities of the Scottish Catholics on the Continent,
to which James at this period was paying special and indulgent
attention. There was great need for such services as Montgomerie
could render as courier or spy. About this time we hear of
Robert Bruce, a well-known secret agent, being despatched to the
King of Spain by Huntly, Morton, and Lord Claud Hamilton, to
urge that the Armada attack should be made by way of Scotland.
James was not a party to the scheme, but he was acquainted with
it, and prepared without scruple to turn events to his advantage
whichever way things might happen. It is an interesting
coincidence, if nothing more, that in 1586 a licence to go
abroad for five years was given by the King to two notorious
Catholic intriguers with whom there is reason to believe Mont¬
gomerie was on friendly terms. These were Hew Barclay of Lady-
land and Sir William Stewart of Houston. Barclay was a west
country laird, and one of the most daring promoters of the Catholic
interest in Scotland.2 Two sonnets by him are found in the Drum¬
mond MS., one of which is addressed in a friendly way to Montgom¬
erie. It was he who hatched the abortive plot to land Spanish soldiers
on Ailsa Craig, for his share in which we shall see Montgomerie
was denounced as a rebel in 1597. Sir William Stewart had been
the prime mover in rescuing James from the Ruthven Raiders, and
as Captain of the King’s Guard at the time Montgomerie was
acting as one of his Majesty’s servitors, must have known the poet
well. In 1584 we find his servitor, John Young, witnessing Henrie
Gelis’s acquittance to Montgomerie for his share of the debt incurred
in connection with the ‘James Bonaventor.’3 The royal licence,
1 See Appendix D, VI. It is clear from this that some time between the date of
Erskine’s appointment and Montgomerie’s departure the King had “restored” to
the poet his pension, but obviously without the sanction of the new Archbishop.
- He was mixed up in the affair of the Spanish Blanks, and along with others
was denounced by Act of Parliament on January 5, 1593.
3 There seems a possibility that Montgomerie had at an earlier date come into
contact with Stewart in Flanders. In 1575, if not even before then, Stewart was
serving with other Scots under the Prince of Orange. Five years later, as Colonel,
he had five companies of Scots under his command. From a line in the ‘ Flyting,’
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