Minstrel and vile Jester that she sate by her Husband who had not yet fully recovered his Health that at the Banquet of her Domestical Parasite she had not played the dancing Skit A matter surely worthy of Excuse But what should she else do She must needs go as soon as she saw Paris for so it was agreed and somewhat must needs be pretended How happened it that the other Nights before when she went away earlier she made no Excuse at all and now her Departure about Midnight must needs have an Excuse alledged But be it so Could she remember no better Excuse than Sebastians Wedding No no I say to the contrary that if she had left the Wedding of her own natural Body or her Sister to visit her Husband though but a little crazed she had had a just Excuse before all Men so to do What if she had done the same Kindness for the King being not her Husband or for any other of the Nobility Is Sebastian's Wedding of such a Value that a Masking Dance thereat is to be preferred before a Wife's Duty and Love But surely in this curious excusing and pretended Sorrow of neglected Duty somewhat lieth hidden and yet not so hidden but that it appeareth through the Closure This over-much Preciseness of Diligence excusing where no need is hath some Suspicion of some secret Mischief that you are loath to have disclosed and the Slightness of the Excuse encreaseth the Suspicion especially when there were other Matters enough that she might better have alleged I but let us admit the Excuse since the Queen her self hath thought it reasonable Whither then goeth she Straight into her Chamber What doth she next Wearied with the Days Travel and the Nights watching goeth she to Bed No but she falleth to talking with Bothwel first almost alone and afterward alone altogether What Talk the had the Matter it self declareth For Bothwel after that he had put off his Cloths as if he would have gone to Bed by and by putteth on other Apparel going to do the Deed he would not be known I like well the Man's Policy But his Way was to go through the Watch. Here I marvel at his Madness But Men's Wits beset with Guiltiness of Mischiefs do commonly bewray themselves by their own Inconstancy and blind to all other things do see only that which they have bent their Mind unto What he did the King's Death his own running away the Confession of the guilty Persons and other things that followed the Murder do declare After the great Uproar in the Town about it he as one utterly ignorant of all returneth through the same Watch to Bed. When Noise of the Ruine had filled all Men's Ears and the Crack of it had shaken all the Houses only the Queen intentive to Expectation of the Chance and broad awake heareth nothing at all and Bothwel heareth nothing O marvellous Deafness All other throughout the Town as many as were awake were afraid and as many as slep'd were awaked At the last Bothwel riseth again and in the self same Enterlude by suddenly shifting from the Poet becometh a Messenger he runneth to the Queen and thither resorteth many others also that lodged in the Palace To some the Matter seemed true to some feigned to some marvellous What doth the Queen the whilst What should she do She temperately brooded good Luck she resteth sweetly till the next Day at Noon Yet the Day following to observe Decorum and comely Convenience in her Part without marring the Play she counterfeiteth a Mourning which yet neither her Joyfulness dwelling withall in Heart suffereth long to be feigned nor Shame permitteth to be wholly neglected These things thus lying open before your Eyes thus palpable with Hands thus fast imprinted in Men's Ears and Knowledge stand we yet enquiring for the Author of the Murder as though it were doubtful But ye say the Queen denieth it What denieth she Forsooth that she did the Murder As though there were so great a difference if one should be the Author or the Executioner yet he commands it and commits it She gave her Council her Furtherance her Power and Authority to the doing of it Neither is the Cause unknown why she did it even that the same filthy Marriage with Bothwel might be accomplished Though all with Arguments and so many Witnesses of them that were privy to it failed yet by her own Testimony by her own Letters it must needs be confessed And though all other things wanted these things that followed the Murder do plainly declare the Doer namely that at the slaughter of her Husband she sorrowed not but quietly rested as after a gay Enterprize well atchieved that she mourned not but in manner openly joyed that she could abide not only to look upon his dead Body but also greedily beheld it that she secretly in the night buried him without funeral Pomp or rather hid him like a Thief for that same so inconstant Counterfeiting or Mourning did plainly bewray it self For what meant that removing to Seton's Why shunned she the Towns Resort and Peoples Eyes Was it because she was ashamed to Mourn openly or because she could not well cloak her Joy or secretly to give her self all to Sorrow No for at Seton's she threw away all her disguised personage of Mourning she went daily into the Fields amongst Russians and not only resorted to her former Customs but also affected to exercise manly pastimes and that among Men and openly So lightly she despised the Opinion and Speech of her Country But I beshrew that same Killegree and that same Monsieur de Croc that came upon her so unseasonably and shewed to others her counterfeited Person unvizor'd for had not they been many things that were done might have been denied many things might have been handsomely feigned and much the matter might have been helped by forged Rumours But they will say There was a solemn Enquiry for the Murder forsooth by Bothwel himself principally and by some other that then laboured and yet at this day do labour to deliver the Persons guilty thereof from punishment of Law and do now plainly shew what they then secretly meant But with what diligence with what security was that Enquiry handled A few poor Souls the next dwelling-Neighbours to the King's Lodging being call'd neither durst tell what they had seen and heard and if they touched any thing near the matter either they were with fear put to silence or despised as of no Credit The wiser sort of them durst not offend Bothwel that sate among the Judges One or two of the King's Servants that escaped the mischance were examined which way the Murderers came in Forsooth say they we had not the Keys Who then had them It was answered that the Queen had them So began the Secrets of the Court to break out then was that Enquiry adjourned and never recontinued What can be more severe and upright than this Enquiry And yet they prevailed
seek to make an end of my Tale I have omitted and many things for haste I have but lightly touched and nothing have I according to the heinousness of the Offence fully expressed An Oration with a Declaration of the Evidence against MARY the Scottish Queen wherein is by necessary Arguments plainly proved That she was guilty and privy of the said Murder SEeing these things are by Writings and Witnesses so probable and stick so fast imprinted in the knowledge of all the People that such as would have them most hidden cannot deny them What place is here left for cunning or what need can be of diligence to prove or reprove a thing so plain and evident For all things are so clear so manifest and so mutually knit together each part to strengthen other that there is named of foreign Probations and all things so fully witnessed that there is no necessity of other Arguments For if any will ask me as in other matters is used to be asked the Causes of so foul a fact I might also likewise ask of him sith the Time the Place the Deed and the Author is sufficiently known to what purpose is it to stand upon searching the Causes or to enquire by what Means it was atchieved Again when there be extent so many Causes of Hatred and so many Tokens thereof which do offer themselves to knowledge as may well be able to bring even things uncertain to be believed surely so far-fetch'd an explication of the Act committed may right well seem superfluous Nevertheless forasmuch as so great is the Impudence of the vile Offenders in denying and so confident the Boldness of impudent Persons in lying let us assay to see with what Weapons Truth is able to defend Innocency against those wicked Monsters If then they demand the cause of so heinous a Deed I answer It was unappeasable Hatred I demand of them again If they can deny that such Hatred was or that the same Hatred was so great as without Blood could not be satisfied If they deny that such Hatred was then let them answer me Why she a young Woman Rich Noble and finally a Queen thrust away from her in a manner the young Gentleman into exile he being beautiful near of her kin of the Blood Royal and that which is greatest entirely loving her in the deep of sharp Winter into places neither fruitful of things necessary nor replenished with Inhabitants and commonly perillous being haunted with Thieves Why sent she him away into desart and craggy Mountains without provision into open perils and in a manner without any Company What could she more have done if she had most deadly hated him and covenanted to have him dispatched But I trow she feared no such thing but that voidness of Fear I construe to be a note of most obstinate Hatred especially sith she both knew the places and was not ignorant of the dangers That Husband therefore to whom she was but lately married against the Liking of her Subjects against the Will of their Friends on both sides without whom she could not endure whom she scarcely durst suffer out of her sight him I say she thrusteth forth to uncertain death and most certain perils Will ye ask of me the Causes of the change of her Affection What if I say I knew them not It sufficeth for my purpose to prove that she hated him What if I ask again why she so extreamly loved the young Man whom she never saw before why she so hastily married him and so unmeasurable honoured him Such are the natures of some Women especially such as cannot brook the Greatness of their own good Fortune They have vehement Affections both ways they love with excess and hate without measure and to what side soever they bend they are not governed by advised Reason but carried by violent Motion I could out of the Monuments of Antiquity rehearse innumerable Examples but of her self I had rather believe her self Call to mind that part of her Letters to Bothwel wherein she maketh her self Medea that is a Woman that neither in love nor hatred can keep any mean. I could also alledge other Causes of her hatred although indeed not reasonable Causes yet such as are able to shove forward and to push headlong an outrageous Heart which is not able to govern it self But herein I will forbear And if her self will suffer me howsover she hath deserved of her Subjects yet so much as the common Cause will permit I will spare her Honour yea I will spare it more than the Cause will allow me Therefore I omit her other Causes of Hatred and return to this that she hated and not meanly hated him Will you see also another Proof of her Hatred The tender Wife forsooth so loving and fond of him when she could not do him the Duty of a Wife offereth to do him the Service of a Bawd She made choice of her own Brother's Wife to put to him in her place What shall we think to be the Cause of this so suddain Change She that of late gapingly sought for every small Breath of Suspicion against her Husband and where true Causes were not to be found she invented such as were manifestly false And this she curiously did not when she loved him but when she had begun to hate him And while she was fishing for Occasions to be divorced from him even she I say of her own accord offereth him a Lover declareth her own Contentation therewith and promiseth her Furtherance What can we imagine to be the Cause hereof Was it to please her Husband No for she hated him And although she loved him yet such manner of doing in a Woman is uncredible Was it that he knowing himself likewise guilty of Adultery on his part might the more willingly bear with a Partner in use of his Wife No for he bare with all per-force against his Will. Was it to find Cause of Divorce and so to drive him to leave his Bed empty for Bothwel Yea that was it indeed that she sought for but yet not that alone for in this Woman you must imagine no single Mischief She hated the Earl Murray's Wife even with such Hatred as all unhonest Persons hate the honest The differences of their two Fames much vexed her and therewithal also she coveted to set the good Lady's Husband and the King together by the Ears and so rid her self of two Troubles at once Thus you see how many and how great things she practised to dispatch with one Labour Her Paramour's Enemy the Bridler of her Licentiousness and her own hated Husband she hopeth to rid all at once while by such sundry sorts of wicked Doings she maketh haste to her most wicked Wedding To what end tended that fearful hasty Calling for the Earl Murray at Mid-night Could she not tarry till Day-light What was the Occasion of so suddain Fear The good Woman God wot careful for the Concord of the Nobility dearly loving
a Conspiracy when both the force of Laws whereof themselves were Governours was utterly extinguished and the Minds of the most part of Men were either snared with partnership of the mischievous Fact or carried with Hope or Forestalled with Rewards or discouraged and bridled with Fear of so great a Power on the other part But how soever this be yet it will be good to see throughly both the order of the doing the unadvisedness inconstancy and end of their Devices For thereby shall ye perceive that there wanted not desire to hide the Fact but that the fury of a distracted Mind overthrew all the Order of their Counsels while sometime as desirous to beguile publick Fame they endeavoured to keep close their intended Mischief yet they dealt therein so openly as careless of their Estimation they seemed to make small account how Men judged of their Doings For at his preparing to go to Glascow the Poison was given him secretly and they thought they had sufficiently well provided that he should in his absence from them be consumed with pining sickness But the rest of their Dealings toward him were so cruelly handled that though his Disease should have happened to be natural yet it would have been suspected for poisoning For he her Husband the Father of her only and first-born Child the Father I say of that Son whose Christening was solemnized with that great Pomp and Glory being escaped away in a manner naked out of his House flaming in fire tormented by the way with grievous pain when he lay at Glascow of a dangerous sickness likely to die What did his excellent good Wife the while What did she At the first news of it did she haste to him in post Doth she with her Presence with her friendly familiar Speech or with her loving Countenance comfort him in sickness When she cannot stay him in Life cometh she to receive his last Breath Closeth she his Eyes at his dying Doth she the other kind Duties of honest Matrons No But she that had now let him escape to go and die and hoped that he could not linger out his unhappy Life much longer she goeth a quite contrary way into another Country in progress and with her fair Adonis she visiteth Noble-men's Houses and staineth the Houses that harboured them with the Spots of their Unchastities and just about the time of her Husband's Death as she guessed by the strength and working of the Poison she returns to Sterline When the Matter wrought not so fast as she expected for the Strength of his Youth had wrestled with the Soreness of his Pain lest she should seem to have altogether forsaken her Duty she daily prepares to go to Glascow but never goeth At the last disappointed of the Hope that she had conceived in her Heart she taketh her self to other Devices She cometh to Edinburgh and there calleth to Counsel her Adulterer and a few other privy of those Secrets There they decree that in any wise the King must be slain yet were they not fully advised with what kind of Death he should be murthered which may easily be gathered by her Letter wherein she partly compareth her self to Medea a bloody Woman and a poisoning Witch Also by another of her Letters wherein she asketh Advice about the Poisoning of him The King who had already tasted of her lovely Cup doubting whether he were better any more to believe her flattering Speeches or to fear the shrewdness of her Nature though sometimes he despaired not of her Reconciliation yet was evermore fearful and suspicious but when he saw that neither his Life nor his Death were in his Power he was constrained to purse up his passed Injuries to dissemble his present Fear and to feign himself some Hopes for time to come So was he led out not as a Husband but carried out as a Coarse or rather drawn as it were to the Shambles The Queen gloriously shewing her self in pompous manner goeth before in Triumph over the young Gentleman vexed with all kind of Miseries tormented with Poison entrapped with Treasons and drawn to Execution There follows after the triumphant Carr the ancient Enemies to his Father's House brought thither on purpose that they also might feed their Eyes with that woful Spectacle and whose Death at hand they looked for they might in the mean time take pleasure of the Sorrow of his Heart And that no Ceremony of solemn Sacrifices might be wanting Iohn Hamilton Archbishop of St. Andrews was present as their Priest a Man before defiled with all kind of Wickedâ—ess pamper'd with the Spoils and Murthers of his Country-men an old Conqueror of many murthering Victories The People all along the Way looking pitiously shewed a Fore-telling of no good Luck to come The Queen's Companions could neither tell their Sadness nor hide their Gladness when the heinous Outrage of the vile Fact intended held their unmeasurable Joy in suspence upon expectation of the Success Thus led they him to Edinburgh not into the Queen's Palace Why so Lest the Infection of the pestilent Disease forsooth might hurt her young Son As though they that be poison'd were also to be shunn'd for fear of Infection But the truer Cause was this lest his Presence should trouble them in interrupting their free enjoying their Pleasures and their Consultations about his Murther Whither then is he led Into the most desolate part of the Town some time inhabited while the Popish Priests Kingdom lasted but for certain Years past without any Dweller in such an House as of it self would have fallen down if it had not been botched up for the time to serve the turn of this Night's Sacrifice Why was this place chiefly chosen They pretended the wholsomness of the Air. O good God! Going about to murther her Husband seeketh she for a wholsom Air To what use Not to preserve his Life but to reserve his Body to Torment Here to tend her wisely diligent Attendance and her last Care of her Husband's Life she feareth lest he should by Preventing Death be delivered from pain she would fain have him feel himself die But let us see what manner of wholsomness of Air it is Is it among dead Men's Graves to seek the preserving of Life For hard by there were the Ruins of two Churches on the East side a Monastery of Dominick Friars on the West a Church of our Lady which for the desolateness of the place is called The Church in the Field on the South-side the Town-Wall and in the same for commodious passage every way is a Postern door on the North side are a few Beggars Cottages ready to fall which some time served for Stews for certain Priests and Monks the name of which place doth plainly disclose the form and nature thereof for it is commonly called Thieves Lane. There is never another House near but the Hamilton's House which is about a Stone 's cast distant and that also stood void Thither removeth the Archbishop of St.
things avail in other persons to raise hatred to bring punishment and to make examples to posterity But in this case let us bear much with her youth much with her Nobility much with the name of a Princess As for mine own part I am not one that thinks it alwaies good to use extream strictness of law no not in private mean and common persons But in a most heinous misdeed to dissolve all force of law and where is no measure of ill doing there to descend beneath all measure in punishing were the way to the undoing of all laws and the overthrow of all humane society But in this one horrible Act is such a hotchpotch of all abominable doings such an eagerness of all outragious cruelties such a forgetfulness of all natural affection as nothing more can be feigned or imagined I omit all former matters I will not curiously enquire upon Princes doings I will not weigh them by the common beam I will not restrain them to common degrees of duties If there be any thing that without great offence may be passed over I will gladly leave it unspoken of If there be any thing that may receive excuse either by respect of age or of woman-kind yea or of unadvisedness I will not urge it And to pass over all the rest two heinous offences there be that neither according to their greatness be fully expressed nor according to their outrage be sufficiently punished I mean the violating of Matrimony and of Royal Majesty For Matrimony as the Apostle saith doth truely contain a great mystery For as being observed it compriseth within it all inferiour kinds of duties so being broken it overthroweth them all Whoso hath misused his father seemeth to have cast out of his heart all natural reverence but for the husbands sake one shall leave both Father and Mother Of all other duties the degrees or like observances either are not at all in brute creatures or not so plain to be discerned but of matrimonial love there is almost no living creature that hath not some feeling This mystery therefore whoso not only violateth but also despiseth he doth not onely overthrow all the foundations of humane fellowship but as much as in him lyeth dissolveth and confoundeth all order of nature Whosoever I do not say hurteth the KING that is the true Image of God in earth but slayeth him with strange and unwonted sort of cruelty so as the untemperate and uncredible outragiousness is not contented with simple torment seemeth he not as much as in him lyeth to have a desire to pull God out of Heaven What refuge have they then left themselves to mercy that in satisfying their lust of unjust hatred have exceeded not onely all measure of cruelty but also all likelihood that it can be credible But they will say we ought to bear with and spare her Nobility Dignity and age Be it so if she have spared him in whom all these respects were greater or at least equal let the majesty of Royal name avail her How much it ought to avail to her preserving her self hath shewed the example May we commit our safety to her who a Sister hath butcherly slaughtered her Brother a Wife her Husband a Queen her King May we commit our safety to her whom never shame restrained from unchastity woman-kind from cruelty nor religion from impiety Shall we bear with her age sex and unadvisedness that without all just causes of hatred despised all these things in her Kinsman her King her Husband She that hath sought such execution of her wrongful wrath what shall we think she will do being provoked by reproaches to men not knit to her by kindred subject to her pleasure not matched with her in equal fellowship of life but yeilded to her governance and enthralled to her tormenting cruelty when rage for interrupting her pleasure and out-rage of nature strengthened with armour of licentious Power shall ragingly triumph upon the Goods and Bloud of poor Subjects What is then the fault wherof we are accused What cruelty have we shewed That a woman raging without measure and modesty and abusing to all her Subjects destruction the force of her Power that she had received for their safety we have kept under governance of her kinsmen and well-willing friends and whom by right we might for her heinous deeds have executed her we have touched with no other punishment but onely restrained her from doing more mischief For we deprived her not of Liberty but of unbridled licentiousness of evil doing Wherein we more fear among all good men the blame of too much lenity than among evil men the slander of cruelty These were the causes that moved the Queen to this matter Bothwel also had his reasons which not a little troubled his mind For when that same infamous acquital rather encreased than abated the suspition and the matter could not be alway kept close he fleeth to his last refuge to obtain of the Queen a pardon of all his offences But when by the law of the land in such Charters of pardon the greatest offence must be expreslly mentioned and the rest it sufficed to include in general words and expresly to confess the murder of the King seemed to stand neither with his honour nor with his safety he was driven of necessity either to invent or commit some other crime either more grievous or at the least as heinous under which the slaughter of the King might lurk in shadow of general words unexpressed They could devise none other but the same counterfeit ravishment of the Queen whereby both the Queen provided for enjoying her pleasure and Bothwel for his safety MEmorandum that in the Castle of Edenburgh there was left by the Earl Bothwel before his fleeing away and was sent for by one George Daglish his servant who was taken by the Earl Moreton one small gilt Coffer not fully a foot long being garnished in sundry places with the Roman letter F. under a Kings Crown wherein where certain Letters and writings well known and by oaths to be affirmed to have been written with the Queen of Scots own hand to the Earl Bothwel Beside those Writings there was also extant a Writing written in Roman hand in French to be avowed to be written by the said Queen of Scots her self being a promise of Marriage to the said Bothwel which writing being without date and though some words therein seem to the contrary yet is upon credible grounds supposed to have been made and written by her before the death of her Husband The tenor whereof thus beginneth Nous Marie par le grace de Dieu c. We Mary by the Grace of God c. There is also another writing in Scotish avowed to be wholly written by the Earl Huntley dated the fifth of April 1567. containing a form of Contract of Marriage betwixt the said Queen and Earl Bothwel subscribed Mary which is to be avowed to be the proper hand of the said
Queen and underneath it Iames Earl Bothwel which also is to be avowed to be the proper hand of the said Earl Bothwel at which time he was commonly defamed of the King's slaughter and not cleansed or acquit thereof before the thirteenth of April following The tenor of which contract here ensueth AT Seyton the fifth of April in the year of God. 1567. The right Excellent right High and Mighty Princess Mary by the grace of God Queen of Scots considering the place and estate wherein Almighty God hath constituted her Highness and how by the decease of the King her Husband her Majesty is now destitute of a husband living solitary in the state of Widowhood in the which kind of life her Majesty most willingly would continue if the will of her Realm and Subjects would permit it But on the other part considering the inconveniencies may follow and the necessity which the Realm hath that her Majesty be coupled with an Husband her Highness hath inclination to Marry And seeing what incommodity may come to this Realm in case her Majesty should joyn in Marriage with any Foreign Prince of a strange Nation her Highness has thought rather better to yield unto one of her own Subjects Amongst whom her Majesty finds none more able nor endued with better qualities than the right Noble and her dear Cousin Iames Earl Bothwel c. Of whose thankful and true service her Highness in all times by-past has had large proof and infallible experience And seeing not only the same good mind constantly persevering in him but with that an inward affection and hearty love towards her Majesty her Highness amongst the rest hath made her choice of him And therefore in the presence of the Eternal God faithfully and in the word of a Prince by these presents takes the said Iames Earl Bothwel as her lawful Husband And promises and obliges her Highness that as soon as the Process of divorse intended betwixt the said Earl Bothwel and Dame Iane Gordon now his pretended Spouse be ended by the order of the Laws her Majesty shall God willing thereafter shortly Marry and take the said Earl to her Husband and compleat the band of Matrimony with him in the face of Holy Church And shall never Marry any other Husband but him only during his life time And as her Majesty of her gracious humanity and proper motive without deserving of the said Earl hath thus inclined her favour and affection towards him he humbly and reverently acknowledging the same according to his bounden duty and being as free and able to make promise of Marriage in respect of the said Process of divorce intended for divers reasonable causes and that his said pretended Spouse hath thereunto consented he presently takes her Majesty as his Lawful Spouse in the presence of God. And promises and obligeth him as he will answer to God and upon his fidelity and Honour that in all diligence possible he shall prosecute and set forward the said Process of divorce already begun and intended betwixt him and the said Dame Iane Gordon his pretended Spouse unto the final end of a Decree and Declaration therein And incontinent thereafter at her Majesties good will and pleasure and when her Highness thinks convenient shall compleat and Solemnize in face of Holy Church the said band of Matrimony with her Majesty and love Honor and serve her Highness according to the place and Honor that it hath pleased her Majesty to accept him unto and never to have any other to his Wife during her Majesties life time In faith and witnessing whereof her Highness and the said Earl have subscribed this present faithful promise with their hands as followeth Day Year and place aforsaid before these witnesses George Earl Huntly and Master Thomas Hepburn Parson of Old-Hanstock c. Sic subscribetur MARY R. Iames Earl Bothwel Here note that this Contract was made the fifth of April within eight weeks after the Murther of the King which was slain the tenth of February before Also it was made seven days before that Bothwel was acquitted by corrupt judgment of the said Murder Also it appeareth by the words of the Contract if self that it was made before sentence of Divorce between Bothwel and his former Wife And also in very truth was made before any suit of Divorce intended or begun between him and his former Wife though some words in this Contract seem to say otherwise Which is thus proved For this Contract is dated the fifth of April and it plainly appeareth by the judicial acts before the two several Ecclesiastical ordinary Judges wherein is contained the whole Process of the Divorce between the said Earl and Dame Iane Gordon his Wife that one of the same Processes was intended and begun the 26 day of April and the other the 27 day Also there are extent the Records of the Justices Court holden at Edenburgh the said 12 day of April some copies whereof have been exemplified and signed with the hand of Iohn Bellenden Clerk of the Court among which is the Endictment of Bothwel The tenour of which Records with the Assise and verdict do here follow CUria Iusticiariae S. D. N. Reginae tenta inchoata in praetoris de Edinburgh duodecimo die mensis Aprilis Anno 1567. per nobilem potentem Dominum Archibaldum Comitem Ergadiae Dominum Campbel Lorne Iustitiarium generalem ejusdem S. D. N. Reginae totius Regni sui ubilibet constitutum Sen. vocatum curia legitime affirmata IN the which Court appeared personally in Judgment Mr. Iohn Spens of Condie and Robert Creycghton of Chock Advocates to our Sovereign Lady in her name and there the said Mr. Iohn Spens produced our Sovereign Ladies Letter execute and indorsed together with the Endictment of the which Letters indorsing thereof and Endictment the Tenors hereafter follow that is to say MARY by the Grace of God Queen of Scots to our trusty and well beloved William Purwes Mr. Lawson and Gawine Ramsey Messengers our Sheriffs in that part conjunctly and severally specially constituted Greeting Forasmuch as it is humbly meant and shewed unto us by our trusty and beloved Clerks and Counsellors Mr. John Spens of Condie and Robert Creycghton of Chock our Advocates that whereas they are informed that our trusty Cousin and Counsellour Matthew Earl of Lenox Father to the King our dearest Spouse hath delated James Earl Bothwel Lord Halis and Creycghton c. and certain others of the Treasonable cruel odious and abominable slaughter and Murder of his Grace committed upon the ninth day of February last past under silence of the night within his lodging for the time within our Bower of Edenburgh near the Church in the Field upon provision set purpose and fore-thought Fellony And hath declared unto us the suspicion had of the said Earl and others as committers of the said odious cruel and abominable deed Whereto we being most earnestly bent minded and willing to have