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

166 THE HISTORY OF THE AFFAIRS [1557.
and to transact what might be proper for them on that occa-
sion. In compliance with which, I perceive by the Eecords,
a commission to have been given the same day to the fol-
lowing persons, to go over into France for that effect, namely,
James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow ; David Panter, 1
Bishop of Ross, Principal Secretary of State ; Robert Reid,
Bishop of Orkney, President of the Session ; George Leslie,
Earl of Rothes, a Privy Counsellor ; Gilbert Kennedy, Earl
of Cassillis, Lord High Treasurer; James Lord Fleming,
High Chamberlain ; George Lord Seton ; James Stewart,
Prior of St Andrews, natural brother to the Queen ; and
John Erskine of Dun. 2 I see also in the Records of Parlia-
ment a commission by our Queen, dated at Fountainbleau,
16th March 1557, 3 to the very same persons, and to Antonia
de Bourbon, Duchess of Guise, to be her Majesty's Procura-
tors at the treaty of her marriage ; and likewise a Procura-
tory, dated at Risleburgh* the 4th February 1557, from our
Queen- Regent, to the same Duchess Dowager of Guise her
1 This Prelate went not on this commission. It would appear by this
time he had turned sickly, for he died first October next year at Stirling.
He was a man of excellent learning, and notably skilled in the Latin
tongue, as well appears by the Letters of State penned by him while he was
Secretary to King James V. and the Governor the Earl of Arran, pub-
lished lately under the title of Epist. Reg. Scot. &c. vol. ii. He was at first
Prior of St Mary Isle in Galloway, and was elected Bishop of Ross in the
year 1545 ; but before his consecration he was sent ambassador to the
Emperor Charles V., Mary Queen of Hungary, Governess of Flanders, &c.
and to the Court of France, where he resided in that quality until his re-
turn home in the year 1552, when he was solemnly consecrated in the
presence of a great number of the Nobility at Jedburgh.
2 It is a mistake of Mr Buchanan to say, that only three of these com-
missioners were of the Nobility, and two of the order of gentlemen, viz.
George Seton and John Erskine ; for it is certain that George Seton not
only was of the same rank with James Fleming, i. e. they were both Lord
Barons, but I am informed that Seton was the eldest Lord Baron in Scot-
land at the time. — [James fourth Lord Fleming and George fifth Lord
Seton.— E.]
3 Whether this and the next Instrument do not both belong to the year
1557-8, as that of the 4th February certainly doth, I can't say ; but the
reader may depend upon these dates being exact.
4 Or IAshhurgh, as I also see it written ; but what place it is I know not.
— [L'Islebwrg is the proper reading. Bishop Keith was not aware, when
he wrote this part of his History, that Edinburgh was very commonly de-
signated L'Islebwrg by the French, but he afterwards discovered it, as
appears from a note in the tenth chapter of his Second Book. It is likely
that the name originated from the surrounding lakes, particularly the North
Loch on the north, now Prince's Street Gardens, and the Borough Loch