Spottiswoode Society > History of the affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the reformation to the year 1568 > Volume 1

80 THE HISTORY OF THE AFFAIRS [154o.
after the union betwixt the Governor and the Cardinal, was
the crowning of the young Queen at Stirling on Sunday,
the 9th of September, 1 at which solemnity it is said the
Governor carried the royal crown, and the Earl of Lennox
the sceptre. Next they proceeded to make choice of a Coun-
cil, by whom the Governor shall be directed in all the great
affairs of the realm. Of this Council the Queen Dowager
was the principal person. The rest were the Cardinal, the
Archbishop of Glasgow, the Bishops of Moray, Orkney,
Galloway, and Dunblane; the Abbots of Paisley and Coupar ;
the Earls of Angus, Huntly, Argyll, Moray, Glencairn, Len-
nox, Bothwell, and Marischal, whose counsel the Governor
was sworn to use, and to be directed by them ; but I do not
find that the Earls of Angus, Cassillis, and Glencairn, did
meet with them at Edinburgh the 18th and subsequent days
of September, as they were advertised to do, by a message
sent them by the Lord Fleming and the Abbot of Paisley.
The Earls of Angus, Glencairn, and other Lords of that
side, had likewise had letters written to them by the Cardi-
nal, the Chancellor, Bishop of Moray, Earls of Huntly and
Argyll, inviting them to witness the coronation of the young
Queen, which they also refused to comply with. On the con-
trary, these English Lords, 2 except the Lord Fleming, who
had separated himself from them some time before the rati-
fication of the treaties, when they found how things went,
and that the Governor had abandoned them, convened at
Douglas Castle upon the 25th of October, where they drew up
and signed a writing to the King of England, to be carried to
him by the Lord Somerville, 3 importing, as may be gathered
1 [The 16th of September old style, or the 26th of that month new
style, is the date assigned for the coronation of Queen Alary at Stirling,
yet historians generally fix it on the 9th. It is stated—" By a singular co-
incidence the fathers of Darnley and Bothwell, who were both present,
had each aspired to the possession of the Queen Mother's hand, and each
indulged those ambitious hopes which their sons were destined to realize.
The aspect of these intriguing rivals was inauspicious to the infant sove-
reign, and the pageant of her coronation might be regarded ' as the first
scene of the tragedy of Mary Stuart.' " — Memoirs of the Life of Mary Queen
of Scots, by Miss Benger, 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1823, vol. i. p. 38, 39. This,
however, is partly incorrect. Sir James Balfour expressly states — " But
the Earl of Lennox departed the town, and would not be present, neither
yet any that had breathed the French air." Annals, vol. i. p. 279. — E.]
2 [Scottish Peers in the pay of Henry VIII. — E.]
'■' [Hugh fifth Lord Somerville supported the match between Queen