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Guard and archers of Mary, Queen of Scots

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Mary, Queen of Scots, formed a guard of archers for her personal safety.

Mary, Queen of Scots established a royal guard with archers in 1562. This force travelled with her during her progresses in Scotland. The personnel were Scottish and French.

Formation

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James Savoy, a French trumpeter, and other soldiers were given wages for service before the "listing of the guard". Savoy's equipment included a red taffeta banderole.[1] The number of the guard was "complete and erect" on 1 April 1562.[2][3] The wages of the whole contingent would amount to £9,000 Scots yearly.[4]

George Buchanan claimed they were a force of foreign mercenaries, though French soldiers were in a minority.[5] The guard was funded in part from the Thirds of Benefices, money which might otherwise have funded church ministers. John Knox complained that in 1563 "the gaird and the effairis of the kytcheing wer so gryping that the mynisteris stipendis could nocht be payit".[6]

Buchanan and Knox both suggest that Mary's motivation for establishing a guard include an incident in November 1561 while at Holyrood Palace,[7][8][9] when she became frightened "as if horsemen had been in the close, and the Palace been enclosed about". Knox thought her fears of kidnap this occasion may have been caused by "hir awin womanlie fantasye" or a rumour spread by courtiers. Buchanan proposed the fictive incident or rumour was concocted by Mary with John Stewart, Commendator of Coldingham in order to forward the establishment of a palace guard.[10][11] In Buchanan's version, the rumour was that James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran planned to abduct Mary and take her to his castle (Kinneil House), fourteen miles from Edinburgh.[12]

Personnel

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Andrew Ferrier, an archer of guard, was appointed keeper of Linlithgow Palace

James Stewart of Cardonald was the overall captain and commander of the guard, supported by a lieutenant Alexander Stewart and an ensign Robert Stewart.[13] Alan Stewart was "fourrier" or quartermaster of the guard,[14] and Aulay McAulay was clerk of the watch. Robert Anstruther was captain of the garrison on the island of Inchkeith.[15][16] Andrew Ferrier, a French archer based at Linlithgow, became keeper of Linlithgow Palace.[17]

The names of 75 guards and archers were recorded in the accounts of the Thirds of Benefices.[18] Several received rewards as grants made under the privy seal. Captain Jean Belloc alias Delamis, a French archer,[19] appears in the records of the Canongate Kirk Session, for having a child with Jonet Leddell (who claimed they were to be married) and baptising the child by Catholic ceremony in the chapel of Holyroodhouse. Charles La Brosse was a witness or "gossip" at the christening, and was both an archer and an embroiderer to the Queen. Jonet Leddell said she "held house" with Belloc, suggesting he did not live in a barrack within the palace.[20]

The guard was entrusted with keeping James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran at Edinburgh Castle in 1562.[21] In that year, Mary made a progress to the north. The accounts mention the straw-filled canvas palliasses used by the soldiers. Nine archers who formed her guard at Aberdeen were paid £100 Scots.[22] Royal guards led by a son of Captain James Stewart in an attempt to blockade or besiege Findlater Castle were ambushed in the night and had to surrender their weapons to John Gordon alias Ogilvie.[23][24]

Soon after this event, and before the battle of Corrichie, the royal accounts mention the movement of a sum of money to Aberdeen, £1,213 Scots destined for paying the guard and defraying the Queen's expenses:

for thre men and ane boy and ane horse expenssis for careing and convoying owt of Murray to Abirdene in the troublous tyme immediatlie befoir the feild of Correchie, quhilk [which] wes bestowit on the garde and in our soverane ladeis house.[25]

The archers and guard were intended to maintain security at Holyrood Palace

In January 1565, several members of the Hume family fought with the guard on Edinburgh's High Street, injuring James Stewart of Cardonald. The privy council ordered Jasper, Patrick, and Alexander Hume to enter themselves in ward in Stirling Castle.[26]

Mary now had a detachment of foot soldiers. Alexander Stewart was one of Mary's "four captains of war", the other captains of the footmen were James Cullen, Robert Lauder, and Hew Lauder.[27] According to the English diplomat Thomas Randolph, Robert Lauder of the guard had raised 300 men in July 1565. Randolph wrote that Robert Lauder had struck a kirk minister and Hew Lauder had killed a man at Dunbar. Darnley was in charge of the musters.[28]

During the Chaseabout Raid, the straw mattresses were changed every time Mary and Lord Darnley changed camp or every fifteen days.[29] John Gibson of the guard obtained a licence for lead mining. Robert Stewart, an archer, was imprisoned or threatened with detention at Threave Castle in March 1566 for profiting from piracy.[30]

The role of the guard at Holyroodhouse when David Rizzio was murdered on 9 March 1566 is unclear and most contemporary reports and letters do not mention them. They were either overwhelmed,[31] or surrendered at the command of John Stewart of Traquair who was said to be complicit with the rebels. Traquair is more often said to have accompanied Arthur Erskine of Blackgrange during Mary's ride to Dunbar Castle as captain of the Guard.[32] Mary wrote that while the rebel lords held the palace, her "familiar servitors and guard" were debarred from her service.[33]

Thomas Merrilees provided Captain Stewart with a quantity of "lint" on 29 November 1566 either to be matches for guns for the footmen or in connection with fireworks at the baptism of James VI.[34] Captain Cullen was said to a follower of the Earl of Bothwell. The footmen were the "waged men of war" mentioned in the first band of the Confederate Lords made on 16 June 1567.[35]

According to the Book of Articles, John Stewart of Traquair as a senior captain of the guard attended Mary's bedchamber at Holyroodhouse on the night of the murder of Lord Darnley.[36] Mary bought James Savoy a new banner in April 1567 and he served as a trumpeter at the coronation of James VI.[37]

Robert Lauder fought for Mary at the battle of Langside. Afterwards, he carried letters for Mary between England and Scotland. Regent Moray's secretary John Wood wrote that Lauder was, apart from his support for the deposed Queen, in his "other qualities a very reasonable gentleman".[38]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Accounts of the Treasurer, 11 (Edinburgh, 1913), p. 245: Miscellany of the Maitland Club, 1 (Edinburgh, 1831), p. 31.
  2. ^ Gordon Donaldson, Accounts of the Collectors of Thirds of Benefices, 1561-1572 (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1949), p. 118.
  3. ^ David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1897), p. 271.
  4. ^ Robert Kerr Hannay, "The Earl of Arran and Queen Mary", The Scottish Historical Review, 18:72 (July 1921), p. 259.
  5. ^ Julian Goodare, State and Society in Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 1999), pp. 145–146.
  6. ^ Gordon Donaldson, Accounts of the Collectors of Thirds of Benefices, 1561-1572 (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1949), p. xxv.
  7. ^ Retha M. Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), p. 78.
  8. ^ John Parker Lawson, History of Scotland by Robert Keith, 2 (Edinburgh: Spottiswoode Society, 1845), p. 115.
  9. ^ Marguerite Wood, "The Imprisonment of the Earl of Arran", The Scottish Historical Review, 24:94 (January 1927), p. 120.
  10. ^ John J. McGavin, Theatricality and Narrative in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland (Ashgate, 2007), pp. 26–28.
  11. ^ David Laing, Works of John Knox, 2, pp. 293–294.
  12. ^ James Aikman, History of Scotland by George Buchanan, 2 (Glasgow, 1827), pp. 422–423.
  13. ^ Gordon Donaldson, Accounts of the Collectors of Thirds of Benefices, 1561-1572 (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1949), p. 118: Accounts of the Treasurer, 11 (Edinburgh, 1913), p. 393.
  14. ^ Charles Rogers, Rental Book of the Cistercian Abbey of Cupar-Angus, 2 (London: Grampian Club, 1880), p. 279.
  15. ^ Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1547-1563, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 544: James Beveridge & Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal: 1556-1567, 5:1 (Edinburgh, 1957), p. 196 no. 826.
  16. ^ Gordon Donaldson, Accounts of the Collectors of Thirds of Benefices, 1561-1572 (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1949), pp. 185, 191.
  17. ^ Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, vol. 5:2 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1957), p. 254 no. 3182: vol. 5:1, p. 696 no. 2421.
  18. ^ Miscellany of the Maitland Club, 1, pp. 30–31.
  19. ^ Register of the Privy Seal, 5:2 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1957), p. 54 no. 2655.
  20. ^ Alma Calderwood, Buik of the Kirk of the Canagait (SRS: Edinburgh, 1961), pp. 11–12, 28.
  21. ^ Thomas Thomson, History of the Kirk of Scotland by David Calderwood, 2 (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1842), p. 177.
  22. ^ Miscellany of the Maitland Club, 1 (Edinburgh, 1831), p. 31.
  23. ^ Jennifer Morag Henderson, Daughters of the North: Jean Gordon and Mary, Queen of Scots (Whittles, 2025), p. 41.
  24. ^ Anne L. Forbes, Trials and triumphs : the Gordons of Huntly in sixteenth-century Scotland (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2012), p. 28.
  25. ^ Gordon Donaldson, Thirds of Benefices (Edinburgh: SHS, Edinburgh, 1949), p. 104.
  26. ^ John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council, 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. 318–319.
  27. ^ David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1897), pp. 498–499: Charles Thorpe McInness, Accounts of the Treasurer, 12 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1970), pp. 11, 395, 398.
  28. ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland, 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 183 no. 214.
  29. ^ Miscellany of the Maitland Club, 1 (Edinburgh, 1831), pp. 35–36.
  30. ^ John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council, 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. 435, 438–439.
  31. ^ Jade Scott, Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots (London: Michael O'Mara Books, 2024), p. 64.
  32. ^ A. Francis Steuart, Life of Seigneur Davie (London, 1922), p. 85: John Parker Lawson, History of Scotland by Robert Keith, 2, pp. 420, 518.
  33. ^ John Parker Lawson, History of Scotland by Robert Keith, 2 (Edinburgh: Spottiswoode Society, 1845), p. 418.
  34. ^ Charles Thorpe McInness, Accounts of the Treasurer, 12 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1970), p. 397.
  35. ^ John Parker Lawson, History of Scotland by Robert Keith, 2 (Edinburgh: Spottiswoode Society, 1845), pp. 534, 648.
  36. ^ John Hosack, Mary Queen of Scots and her accusers, 1 (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1869), p. 536.
  37. ^ Charles Thorpe McInness, Accounts of the Treasurer, 12 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1970), pp. 50, 67.
  38. ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland, 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 512 no. 825.
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