Mary Stuart | Page 8

it
was said, she would have found the Earl of Huntly, one of the peers
who had remained loyal to the Catholic faith, and who, next to the
family of Hamilton, was, the nearest and most powerful ally of the
royal house. Seconded by him and by twenty thousand soldiers from
the north, she would then have marched upon Edinburgh, and have
re-established the Catholic faith throughout Scotland. Events were not
slow to prove that this accusation was false.
As we have stated, Mary was much attached to the Prior of St. Andrews,
a son of James V and of a noble descendant of the Earls of Mar, who
had been very handsome in her youth, and who, in spite of the
well-known love for her of James V, and the child who had resulted,
had none the less wedded Lord Douglas of Lochleven, by whom she
had had two other sons, the elder named William and the younger
George, who were thus half-brothers of the regent. Now, scarcely had
she reascended the throne than Mary had restored to the Prior of St.

Andrews the title of Earl of Mar, that of his maternal ancestors, and as
that of the Earl of Murray had lapsed since the death of the famous
Thomas Randolph, Mary, in her sisterly friendship for James Stuart,
hastened to add, this title to those which she had already bestowed
upon him.
But here difficulties and complications arose; for the new Earl of
Murray, with his character, was not a man to content himself with a
barren title, while the estates which were crown property since the
extinction of the male branch of the old earls, had been gradually
encroached upon by powerful neighbours, among whom was the
famous Earl of Huntly, whom we have already mentioned: the result
was that, as the queen judged that in this quarter her orders would
probably encounter opposition, under pretext of visiting her
possessions in the north, she placed herself at the head of a small army,
commanded by her brother, the Earl of Mar and Murray.
The Earl of Huntly was the less duped by the apparent pretext of this
expedition, in that his son, John Cordon, for some abuse of his powers,
had just been condemned to a temporary imprisonment. He,
notwithstanding, made every possible submission to the queen, sending
messengers in advance to invite-her to rest in his castle; and following
up the messengers in person, to renew his invitation viva voce.
Unfortunately, at the very moment when he was about to join the queen,
the governor of Inverness, who was entirely devoted to him, was
refusing to allow Mary to enter this castle, which was a royal one. It is
true that Murray, aware that it does not do to hesitate in the face of such
rebellions, had already had him executed for high treason.
This new act of firmness showed Huntly that the young queen was not
disposed to allow the Scottish lords a resumption of the almost
sovereign power humbled by her father; so that, in spite of the
extremely kind reception she accorded him, as he learned while in
camp that his son, having escaped from prison, had just put himself at
the head of his vassals, he was afraid that he should be thought, as
doubtless he was, a party to the rising, and he set out the same night to
assume command of his troops, his mind made up, as Mary only had

with her seven to eight thousand men, to risk a battle, giving out,
however, as Buccleuch had done in his attempt to snatch James V from
the hands of the Douglases, that it was not at the queen he was aiming,
but solely at the regent, who kept her under his tutelage and perverted
her good intentions.
Murray, who knew that often the entire peace of a reign depends on the
firmness one displays at its beginning, immediately summoned all the
northern barons whose estates bordered on his, to march against Huntly.
All obeyed, for the house of Cordon was already so powerful that each
feared it might become still more so; but, however, it was clear that if
there was hatred for the subject there was no great affection for the
queen, and that the greater number came without fixed intentions and
with the idea of being led by circumstances.
The two armies encountered near Aberdeen. Murray at once posted the
troops he had brought from Edinburgh, and of which he was sure, on
the top of rising ground, and drew up in tiers on the hill slope all his
northern allies. Huntly advanced resolutely upon them, and attacked his
neighbours the Highlanders, who after a short resistance retired in
disorder. His men immediately threw away their lances, and,