BURNT AT STAKE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 88, 11 October 1937, Page 4

BURNT AT STAKE

ANCESTRESS OF QUEEN

DEATH OF LADY GLAMIS

CHARGE OF TREASON

July 17 was the 400 th anniversary of the execution of Lady Glamis, who was burnt at the stake on the Castle Hill in Edinburgh. Walter Bell, the antiquary,- discussed in an article in the "Daily Telegraph" the evidence regarding the crime for which she suffered. , . . . Far down in the long line of ancestry of our present Queen Elizabeth, herself the daughter of an illustrious Scottish house whose seat is Glamis Castle, you find the name of Janet Lady Glamis, writes Mr. Bell, She died at the stake just four centuries ago, and some of our careless histories still say that she was burnt as a witch, That was not so. In the Tudor age in England, and the reign of King* James V of Scotland, the common guilt of witches, so it was believed, was that of compassing the death of some person. "The witch's potion," when over it incantations had been cast, was supposed to be the deadliest of poisons. Lady Glamis was accused of treason in conspiring the death of James V by poison. Witchcraft was not chsrged against her, but she was executed an the same circumstances as a witch. Hence, perhaps, the confusion. She was a Douglas, and that meant much; a daughter of that house whose power and. turbulence, fill so large a place in contemporary Scottish history. Its head was her brother, the once dominant Earl of Angus, who had been custodian of the young: King's person* and till the divorce by Rome husband of the King's mother, Margaret of England. While still a girl, the ill-fated Janet Douglas had married, about 1520, John. Lyon, sixth Lord Glamis. His death in 1528 made the young wife a widow; James V, who had come to the throne mv infant, was approaching manhood, and was soon to shake himself free. BANISHED AS REBELS. The Douglases at that time had been banished from Scotland as rebels and traitors; their estates were confiscated,, and they were hunted high and low, Angus and the rough night-riders of the Border ravaged the country from the English side, while our King Henry VIII kept a blind eye upon their actions. . Lady Glamis was widowed, only a few months when she was cited to appear before charged with abetting her" three outlawed brothers;' later she was accused of having poisoned her husband. The vindictiveness of both accusations seems established by the fact that she went free. During the misfortunes which had befallen her line she lived in retirement, but was arrested in 1537 for conspiring the death of the Scottish King. i ' ' '■ ' She had married as her second husband Archibald Campbell of Skipnish, a younger son of the Duke of Argyll. Campbell was seized and brought with her to Edinburgh Castle, together with her two sons, the youthful Lord Glamis and his brother, George Lyon, and one John Lyon, a relative, and an aged priest.. All were jointly accused of -the same heinous crime. In the background of the horror there moves darkly an informer, William Lyon— again the family name. • The truth, is not easily found. William Lyon is said to have gained admittance to James V and worked upon his mind by reciting the many misdeeds of the Douglases before unfolding his information of the plot. Some have represented him as a rejected suitor of the widowed Lady Glamis, actuated by revenge. Finally, aghast at the ruin in which he had involved a. noble family, he recanted his story to the King, but James refused to stay the punishment ordained. To the Castle Hill in Edinburgh on lulv 17 "1937, Lady Glamis was brought Jutto suffer at the stake-alone. She net her fate with the hereditary £&£ of her house, greatly Pitied by the' spectators. . King James had brutally ordered that her husband Sid be a witness of his wife* agony. A to* weeks later Campbell, .the widower, himself perished -bx<m atlempt to escape from Edinburgh . Castle. He had concealed a rope, but ,t proved too.short for descent from toe great height, and he was dashed m the rocks. His lifeless body was Eound at dawn. , The-' fate of Lady Glamis becomes the more moving because she N was jurnt 6n the evidence—such as « "was -of her 15-year-old son, the new Lord 3lamis. He ~ confessed torture :hat he had known of the plot hatched lg ainst the King'slife and.bad :ealed that knowledge—itself the grav»st treason. He was condemned with lis mother, but was kept in prison. King James V of Scotland died five rears after the trial, whereupon Lord jlamis was released from .Edinburgh Castle and received back his confiscated estates. He declared that his :onfession was false, made in extreme irouth under promise that he shouldDe spared, when in fear of his life and laving the rack before his eyes. The documents of the trial . are nutllated and imperfect, and there is nuch that must remain in doubt. If statement? extorted under torture, or fear of it, can be allowed any value, ;here would appear to have been mison, TRIAL OP JOHN LYON. It was not till August 22, five weeks ifter Lady Glamis had suffered execu,ion, that John Lyon faced his accusers. Se was charged v/ith possession of Doison with which he was plotting the Sing's death. On the same day, Alexander Makke, who was said to lave sold the poison to Lyon, was srought to trial. Lyon was beheaded, md Makke had both his ears cut off ind was banished from all Scotland save—by some curious and unexplain:d distinction—the county of Aberleen. Now the centuries have receded and >ld passions that stirred Scotland have seen, stilled, the terrible fate of Lady jlamis can be viewed impartially, Cerainly there was nothing against her m the poisoning charge that would be istened to by a judicial tribunal of mr day. The Judges of 1537 were • measy: some would have referred the ady to the King's clemency, but their lecision was to send the case to a iury, and in the Edinburgh Tolbooth he jury convicted. A secondary allegation of treason, in laving assisted the Earl of Angus and sir George Douglas, who were traitors ind rebels, was'possibly substantiated, tt was natural for a sister to succour ier brothers when hunted to death, rhat offence, standing alone, might by aanishment or imprisonment, have Deen expiated. The hurrying of Lady Glamis to the stake and the flames on Edinburgh's Castle Hill ponders some ather influence. Was it James V's implacable hatred sf the house of Douglas? Many of L,ady Glamis's contemporaries believed ;hat she suffered for the misdoings of ;he banished Angus rather than for die specific crime alleged against her. There was one witness whoso mind was undisturbed by the passions which seethed around him, Sir Thomas Clifford, the English representative at the "ourt-of St. James Vof Scotlan4 - j