Series 5 > Miscellany [of the Scottish History Society] XIII

TWEEDDALE’S RELATIONE', 1683
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moneth befor in much better terms with the Duke of Lawderdale then
ever he had been since theire breach of friendship he was perswaded
by him befor he had seen the King to goe & salute the Duke of
Lawderdale and kiss the Kings hands by his address, and so much the
rather that at that time there being ane change made in the Kings
Councell in England, and the Duke of Monmouth in great favour,
Lawderdale began to apprehend himself in some hazard of being
layed aside,1 which advance of the Earle of Tweeddales took so much
with the Duke of Lawderdale as he invited him to come to his house
at Ham & caressed the Lord Yester dayly more & more. But the Duke
of Hamilton & the Earle of Kingkardin coming up in the beginning of
May, and making ane strick friendship with the Duke of Monmouth
and the Marquis of Atholl2 privie seall prevailed with the King to give
them ane hearing in theire grievances & maladministration of the
government of Scotland by my Lord Lawderdale and those that was
imployed by him, especially in the last great instance therof of raising
ane Highland Host which with the standing forces and the Militia of
some shires makeing up an Army of [ ]3 foot & horse with ane train
of artillery,4 & marching into the west country which was at that time
quiet & peacable & had offered all securitie for theire peacable
cariage in time coming, nevertheless that design of quartering
amongst them these forces, was caried on to vindicat the Duke of
Lawderdale of anie accession to that treatie which his Dutchess had
for ane fiirder indulgence with the gentrie of these Countries, and to
chastise them for their not complying with her demand of 10000 lib
sterling] to procure them the s[ai]d indulgence.5 And in order to this
1 Charles reshuffled his English privy council in Apr. 1679, in part as a consequence
of the Whig victory in the parliamentary election the previous Feb. Shaftesbury and
the other leaders of the opposition were included. Hence Lauderdale’s concern: he
and the fallen Lord Treasurer Danby had been political allies. There were rumours
that Monmouth might replace Lauderdale as commissioner; at least, the duchess of
Lauderdale thought so. NLS, MS 14403, fo. 273.
2 John Murray, 1 st marquis of Atholl.
3 Blank in MS.
4 The size of the army was about 8,000. See J.R. Elder, The Highland Host
(Aberdeen, 1914), 45-6.
5 There is no way of knowing how much truth there is to this story, though it was
believable enough for Tweeddale to hope to use it against the duchess in the
lawsuits that followed Lauderdale’s death. NLS, MS 14549, fos. 206, 288-9.
Mackenzie, Memoirs, 322, says that the story was ‘industriously spread, both at
London and Edinburgh, of great sums of money promised to [the] duchess by the
fanaticks’. There was also a report that some supporters of the policy of indulgence
offered Lauderdale £15,000 sterling if one were granted and secured by act of