THE STUARTS TO THE DEATH OF JAMES 111. 15
age was exercised to devise more novel and exquisite tortures to satisfy the indignation of
the people. The sderings of the Earl of Athol were prolonged through three days ; on
the second of which he was elevated on a pillar at the cross, to the gaze of the people, and
with a hot iron coronet, crowned in derision as the King of Traitors. On the third day,
he was dragged on a hurdle through the High Street to the place of public execution,
where, after further indignities, he was at length beheaded, and his head exposed on a pole
at the cross-the body being quartered and sent to the four chief towns of the kingdom.
With the like barbarous indignities, Robert Graham, the most active of the regicides,
suffered at the same time and place.
Bneas Sylvius, who afterwards filled the papal chair as Pope Pius 11.) was at this time
resident in Edinburgh, as the Pope’s nuncio for Scotland, and witnessed, as Abercromby
says, ‘‘ with some horror, but more admiration,” The remark of the
Italian ecclesiastic, ‘( that he was at a loss to determine whether the crime of the regicides,
or the punishment inacted on them by the justice of the nation, was the greatest ”-would
not seem to imply any censure on the bloody revenge with which the Scottish Capital thus
expressed her indignation on the murderers of her King.
King James 11. was not above seven years old, when the officers of state called a
Parliament in his name, which accordingly met at Edinburgh on the 20th of March 1438.
Their fist act was the condemnation, already recorded, of the regicides ; and thereafter, the
youthful Sovereign was brought from the Castle, where he had been lodged since shortly
after his birth, attended by the three estates of the kingdom ; and being conducted in state
to Holyrood Abbey, was there crowned with great magnificence-the first of the Scottish
Kings that is thus united, in birth and royal honours, with the capital of the kingdom.
During the two succeeding years, he continued to reside entirely in the Castle, under
custody of the Chancellor Crichton, greatly to the displeasure of the Queen and her party,
who thus found him placed entirely beyond their control. She accordingly visited Edinburgh,
professing great friendship for the Chancellor, and a longing desire to see her son; by which
means she completely won the goodwill of the old statesman, and obtained ready access,
with her retinue, to visit the Prince in the Castle, and take up her abode there. At length
having lulled all suspicion, she gave out that she had made a vow to pass in pilgrimage to
the White Kirk of Brechin, for the health of her son ;’ and bidding adieu to the Chancellor
over night, with many earnest recommendations of the young King to his fidelity and care,
she retired to her devotions, having to depart at early dawn on the ensuing morrow. Immediately
on being left at liberty, the King was cautiously pinned up among the linen and
furniture of his mother, and so conveyed in a chest to Leith, and from thence by water to
Stirling, into the hands of Sir Archibald Livingstone. h e d i a t e l y thereafter, the latter
raised an army and laid siege to the Chancellor in the Castle of Edinburgh ; but the wary
statesman, having lost the control of the King, wisely effected a compromise with his
opponent, and delivering the keys into the King’s own hands, they both supped with him
the same night in the Castle, and, on the following day, he confirmed the one in his oEce
of Chancellor, and the other in that of guardian of his person. This state of af€airs did
not continue long, however, for Sir Archibald Livingstone having quarrelled with the
Queen, the King was shortly afterwards again carried off and restored to the guardianship
these executions.
Martial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 310. ’ Lindsay of Pitscottie, vol. i. p. 7.
16 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
‘of the Chancellor, in the Castle of Edinburgh. His increasing years, however, seem to
have led to his enjoying greater liberty of person, as well as deference to his opinion.
Under the guidance of the Bishops of Aberdeen and Moray, then residing in Edinburgh,
a conference was held in the church of St Giles, between him and his rival guardians,
which, from their mutual hatred to the Earl of Douglas, again led to an amicable arrangement,
the King making choice of Edinburgh Castle as the place where he should continue
to reside.
No sooner were the rival statesmen reconciled, than they consulted together to aecure
the overthrow of the Douglas, whose exorbitant power was employed for the most oppressive
and tyrannical objects. To have openly proceeded against him as a criminal, while at
the head of his numerous forces, would only have proved the sequel for a civil war. He
was accordingly invited to Edinburgh, with the most flattering assurances of friendship.
On the way, the Chancellor met him at Crichton Castle, about twelve miles &E. of
Edinburgh, where he was entertained with every mark of hospitality, insomuch so as to
have excited the jealous fears of his friends. He rode thereafter to the Castle of Edinburgh,
accompanied by his brother and Sir Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld : they were received
with every show of welcome, and admitted to the same table with the King ; but, towards
t.he close of the entertainment, a bull’s head, the well-known symbol of destruction, was
set before them. They recognised the fatal signal, and sprang from the board, but being
immediately surrounded by armed men, they were led forth, in defiance of the tears and
entreaties of the young King, and immediately beheaded 66 in the back court of the Castle
that lyeth to the west ; ” or, according to Balfour, in the great hall of the Castle.’ In the
year 1753, some workmen digging for a foundation to a new storehouse within the Castle,
found the golden handles and plates of a coffin, which are supposed to have belonged to
that in which the Earl of Douglas was interred8
From a protest afterwards taken by the son of Sir Malcolm Fleming, against the
sentence of his father, as being unwarrantable and illegal, as well as from the fact of no
attempt being made to bring the Chancellor to trial for the deed when the Douglas faction
prevailed, there would seem to have been some form of trial, and a sentence of condemnation
pronounced, with the assumed authority of the King.+ The popular estimation of the
deed may be inferred from the rude rhymes quoted by Hume of Godscroft :-
“ Edinburgh Castle, towne and tower,
God grant thou sinke for sinne ;
An’ that even for the black dinner
Earle Douglm gat therein.”
The Chancellor continued to maintain possession of the Castle, even when the Douglas
party succeeded in obtaining the guardianship of the young King, and used the royal
authority for demanding its surrender. Here he held out during a siege of nine months,
till he succeeded in securing satisfactory terms for himself; while of his less fortunate
coadjutors some only redeemed their lives with their estates, and the others, including
three members of the Livingstone family, were all tried and beheaded within its walls.
History of the Douglasses, 1643, p. 165.
Arnot, p. 11.
* Balfour’s Aunals, vol. i. p. 169. ‘ Nartial Achievements, vol. ii. p. 330.
