Series 3 > Scottish correspondence of Mary of Lorraine

MARY OF LORRAINE
385
committaris of the said crym for the awaill1 as your grace
thinkis I suld gif for it, I sail gar answere the thesaurere 2
or comtrollare 3 of the samyn. I wes cumand to your
grace for the samyn mater and I wes sumpart crasit and
seik and mycht cum na forder nor Tulibardin. And
quhat your grace will do heirintill, till adverteis me with
my servand, to quhome pleis your grace gif credance :
and God haif your grace in keping. At Tulibardin, the
x day. of Junij
Be your grace servitour at comand
Atholl.4
CCLVII
Alexander Gordon to the Queen Regent
Inchaffray, 24th June 1554.
TO THE QUENIS GRACE.
Madame, pleis your grace sen my hamecuming 5 I have
veseit my comptis put in ordour be my servandis or thay
lyik 6 as I gaif charge at departing ; and findis me, quhow-
beit I had rady payment of the four thousand merkis
your grace obligatioun bearis, sofar superspendit be in-
teresse of schifting silver 7 to interteine meself and sending
to Rome for thir lies,8 by sum auld debtis, that I couth
1 awaill: value.
2 Gilbert, Earl of Cassillis, who succeeded Archbishop Hamilton as Treasurer
under the regency of Mary of Lorraine.
3 Bartholomew de Villemore.
4 John Stewart, third Earl of Athol. Only the signature is autograph.
5 Gordon was in Erance in May 1554, when his money affairs were again
under consideration. {B.P. ii. 217.)
6 or thay lyik: or such as these—his retainers.
7 Probably a reference to the embarrassments which arose out of the steady
debasement of the coinage and the crying up of money values. This was at the
root of much of the economic trouble in England during this period. In
Scotland it added greatly to the unpopularity of the Queen Regent and the
‘ wickit ministeris,’ her French advisers. (Knox, i. 403.)
8 Gordon was appointed Bishop of the Isles on 26th November 1553
(Bishops of Scotland, 292-3), on which date he had a gift of the temporalities
(R.S.S. xxvi. f. 27). Dowden doubts if he ‘received papal confirmation’ of
this provision : this letter shows that he at least paid an instalment of his
financial obligations at the Curia.
2 B