QUEEN MARY’S CHAMPION

Evening Star, Issue 19723, 25 November 1927, Page 9

QUEEN MARY’S CHAMPION

JGHH LESLIE, BISHOP OF ROSS The earliest champion of Mary Queen of Scots and her most steadfast friend mas 1 John Leslie, Bishop of Ross who was born four centuries ago. Leslie was a great national figure, and, as Froudo has said, “a man of infinite faithfulness, courage and adroit capability ” (writes W. I'orbes Gray, in the ‘Weekly Scotsman 5 ). Combined with some positive virtues were gifts of no moan order. Loslm wrote as meritorious a history or .Scotland as Buchanan, and excelled his famous contemporary as a vigilant and shrewd observer of men’s ways and motives, as a dexterous and resourceful man of affairs . None the less, Leslie s influence as a whole was malign. Ho was skilled in Machiavellian statecraft, which is equivalent to saying that he could be unscrupulous, untruthful, tortuous. Ho unfcignedly believed the pernicious doctrine that all means arc lawful if the end be worthy. Jt was an ago when turpitude had free scope, when self-interest was unrestrained by moral considerations; and Leslie, bishop though ho was, did not rise superior to his age. DISPUTES WITH KNOX. Born in Catholic times, the sou of the parish priest of Kingussie, Leslie lived long enough to witness the great religious upheaval, to see the vast majority of his countrymen enter the ranks of Protestantism, and eventually find solace in a Presbyterian polity. For himself, he remained unswervingly loyal to tho old religion, and became a foremost leader in Scotland of those who still owned its sway. After attending. King’s College, Aberdeen, where he graduated, Leslie, like so many scholars of that period, proceeded to Paris to study divinity and tho ancient tongues. Four years were also spent at Poitiers University, where lie probed the mysteries of canon and civil law. Returning to Scotland on the eve of the Reformaioa, lie was inducted to tiie parsonage of Oyne. Leslie first camo into notice m January, 1561, when he was one of a company of learned divines from Aberdeen which journeyed to Edinburgh to engage in a disputation with Knox and other Reformers regarding the mass. 1 In his ‘ History of the Reformation Knox represents Leslie as wedded to the policy of non-committal, and affirms that his protagonist knew nothing but “ nolumus ” ami “ volumes,” which explains the phrase in Caldenvood s ‘History of tho Kirk, 5 “Mr Johno Leslie, called Nolumus and Volumus.” The bishop’s version of what occurred naturally differs. According to him, Knox and his coadjutors had by no means the best of the argument, the Aberdeen doctors contending valiantly for ancient doctrine and practice. The disputation ended unfortunately for the wise men from the north. They were placed in bonds in the hope that the preaching of the Reformers would bring them to a right frame of mind. But Leslie and his friends remained obdurate. Ultimately they were released on promising to appear fox trial when called upon, so at least the bishop would have us believe. QUEEN MARY’S CONFIDANT. Wo next meet with Leslie as ambassador to Queen Mary in Franco. Her husband, tho French King, was recently dead, and Leslie was- sent by the Catholic nobility of the north to invite Mary to return to Scotland by way of Aberdeen, where an army of 20,1)00 Catholics would be in readiness to march to Edinburgh on her behalf. Tho interview, which took place at Yitry, in Champagne, was not a success. Mary declined the invitation, but commanded Leslie to remain near her person. This was the turning point in ids career. From that day Dll Mary’s execution 26 years lator lie was tho Queen’s most trusted counsellor. While in ’Franco Leslie exercised his talent for intrigue. He tried, though unsuccessfully, to win over to tho side of tho Scottish Catholics the Pope and tho Cardinal of Lorraine. By 1562 ho was back iii Scotland. Promotion came fast. In 156-i he was made a Lord of Session, in 1505 ho attained to the dignity of a Privy Councillor, and in 1506 he found himself Bishop of Ross. These were rewards for faithful i service to the Catholic cause. Leslie ivas in.constant attendance on tho Queen, who, lie asserts, gave him her entire confidence, and even entrusted him with her will and the inventory of her jewels. Mary certainly took no step affecting ecclesiastical policy without consulting the Bishop of Ross. Consequently Leslie played a chief part in the crucial events of the time. Ho was at Holyrood on tho night of Rizzio’s murder, and, after tho,crime had been committed, was allowed by Darnloy to “go where lie-would.” He went to Dunbar, where bo advised Mary as to the measures necessary for her defence and the avenging of Rizzio’s murder. Jt calls for a delicate discrimination to indicate precisely Leslie’s attitude towards Bothwell. Though . Randolph confided to Cecil that Leslie ingratiated himself with Bothwell through his ability to “ take a cup too many,”' it is noteworthy that he was one of those who insituted the trial of Bothwell for Darnloy’s murder. Equally puzzling is his own confession that he did his best to prevent Mary’s marriage to the man everyone regarded ns the murderer of her husband.

FOLLOWS QUEEN TO ENGLAND. In June, 1567, Leslie was received by Sir James Balfour into the Castle of Edinburgh, but when, after Carberry Hill, Ballour decided to surrender tho lortrcss to tho King’s party, Leslie and otxiers, says Caldenvood, were let out by a.postern gate. Ho wont to Dumbarton, where ho devised measures lor tho Queen’s deliverance. On escaping from Loch Leven, Mary summoned him to Hamilton, but before he reached that town there occurred tho lloyal defeat at Langsido and the Queen’s Eight into England. Thither Leslie followed his lloyal mistress. They met at Bolton, whore Mary appointed him her chief commissioner to the conference at York at which the charges against her wore investigated. Fronde points out that Leslie was empowered to yield on all tolerable points. Quo thing he did do: ho entered a protest to save the sovereign rights of Scotland, disclaiming the jurisdiction of an English court. For the nest five years Leslie was deeply involved in tho_ machinations of the Catholic minority in England. He appears to have proposed the scheme for tho Norfolk marriage. Needless to say, ho was a constant source of uneasiness to Elizabeth and 'her advisers. At last, in February, 1509, while with Queen Mary at Tutbury Castle,- he was arrested and placed in confinement in Burton-on-Treut —the first of several similar experiences. On regaining his liberty two mouths later Mary sent him on a mission to Elizabeth with the object of settling on what terms she might he restored to the Scottish throne. Leslie.was also tho chief intermediary between Mary and her Scottish supporters, and he won unenviable renown in 1569 by publishing a tractate entitled ; ‘ Defence of - the Honor of the _ P ight Highe, Mightye, and Noble Princesse Marie, Queene of Scotlaudo and Dowager of Frant'o,’ in which Mary’s right to succeed to the English throne was maintained. The work was speedily suppressed. PRISONER IN THE TOWER. Though no direct evidence was forthcoming of his implication in the Catholic rising which occurred in the North of England in 1569-70, Leslie seems to have buoyed up the rebels with the hope of foreign assistance. Such at all events was the result of his examination before the Council at Hampton Court. Sis weeks before he had been

arrested us a suspected person and confined within the house of tho Bishop of London, to which he was sent back after his trial. On being set free in 1570 he retaliated by nailing to tho Bishop of London’s door the Papal Bull deposing Elizabeth. Leslie busied himself as much as ever in Alary’s interest. Ho tried to obtain tho services of a Spanish army with, which to overthrow Elizabeth’s Government, but the plot was discovered and Leslie found himself a prisoner once more, When brought before the coxinr cil ho protested his innocence, but bis record was not such as to inspire confidence, and he was placed in the custody of the Bishop of Ely. . . Later, ho was under the supervision of tho. Lord Mayor of London, and finally became an inmate of “the prison called the Bloody-touro . within the Toure of London,” from which he issued his “Discourse contenyingc a perfect accompt given to tho most virtuous and excellento Princesso Marie Queen of Scots and her Nobility, by John Leslie, Bishop of Rosse, Ambassador, for her Highness toward the Queene ol England; of his whole Charge,and Proceedings during tho time of his Ambassago, from his entrie in Engiando in Septembre, 1508, to the 20th March, 1672.” A NORMAN BISHOP. From tho Tower Leslie wrote to Alary informing her that ho had made a full disclosure of the plot, On the same day, in an interview, ho disparaged Alary’s character, doubtless with a view of obtaining his freedom. Froudo and others, however, have regarded Ins-cen-sure. of the Queen as genuine evidence against her. But duplicity did not make Leslie a free man; lie remained a prisoner for three years despite frantic efforts to obtain his liberty. In 15 ho persuaded the King of France to take an interest in his case, and Elizabeth compromised to tho extent or removing him from the Tower to Earnham Castle, the seat of the Bishop of Winchester. But a transfer from one. prison to another was not what Leslie wanted. Bo in 1573 the wily bishop flattered the English Queen by pleading for his freedom in a Latin oration. The blandish* mont softened tho heart of Elizabeth, and Leslie was loosed from Ins bonds on condition that lie left England. Ha went to Paris, and was as indefatigable as over in tho cause of the Scottish Queen, making personal representations at the courts or France, of Spain, and of tho Empire. Further, he was behind the scheme for capturing the young king, James AH., and conveying him to a Catholic country to be educated. I Leslie, too, was tho main spirit - of the plot which led ultimately to tha execution of Alorton. In 1578, while papal nuncio to the Emperor Maximilian, Leslie was captured on the borders of Lorraine by a Protestant noble, who believed him to bo the Archbishop of Rossano, a Papal legate, and was kept a prisoner for fullv three weeks. The closing years of Leslie’s life were spent in Franco, Paris and the other at Douay, While the Civil War was raging he encouraged the citizens of Rouen (of winch diocese he had become vicar-general) to hold out against tho besiegers with such success that the Pope presented him to the bishopric of Coutanoe, in Normandy. Leslie never, however, entered upon his episcopate, but retired to a monastery near Brussels, where ho died in 1596. WRITES HISTORY FOR QUEEN MARY.. Leslie found time to become a voluminous author. During his-confinement “ iu tho Bishope of London’s house in the Cite of London,” he completed a history of Scotland, written m clear, vigorous, and racy Scots. Tho work, which was intended for tho perusal of Alary, to whom it was presented m 1571, was originally meant to supplemeu Boece’s History, the narrative of which closes with the reign of James 1., the poet-king. Leslie brought down the story to his own time, and therefore included accounts of several events iu which he himself had taken part. This' Scots version remained unpublished till 1830, when it was printed by the Bauuntyne Chib. At Rome ho published in 1573 a rewritten version in Latin, considerably expanded-,- and prefixed a description of the counties and islands of Scotland which is largely first-hand. This edition was -accompanied with a map of Scotland, which is said to bo the earliest printed map of the country. The first seven books are largely abstracted from Booce and Alajor. Leslie is as much addicted to the fabulous as his predecessors. His narrative abounds in queer legends, as, for example, the story of the alchemist,ic Abbot of Tmigland whom Dunbar made the subject of a satire in which lie declared that this abbot, who “ tuik in hand to tiie with wingis ” and came to grief in an experiment at Stirling, was; none other than the devil in disguise. Leslie also gravely recounts the career and achievements of King Fergus, who nourished in the third century before Christ. The later portion of tho history is, however, of considerable value, as Leslie tells (from a Catholic standpoint) of persons and events from, personal knowledge. AmL be it said to his credit, lie makes no attempt to .minimise the ecclesiastical abuses of the reign of James IV. Comparing Leslie’s history with that of Boece, written half a. century earlier, Professor Hume Brown characterises' the former as “a more serious performance,” suggesting “ a more educated public opinion and a graver intention on tho part of its author.” The Latin version of Leslie’s history was translated into Scots in 1596 by Father James Dalrymple, a monk of the monastery or St. James, at Ra.tisbon, a-id -the translation was edited tor the Scottish Text Society iu 1885-SB.