Notes and Queries, Number 07, December 15, 1849

Various

Various

Notes and Queries, Number 07, December 15, 1849

"When Found, make a note of."—Captain Cuttle.

MARRIAGE CONTRACT OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS AND THE EARL OF BOTHWELL

[Among the curious documents which have been produced from time to time before the House of Lords in support of peerage claims, there have been few of greater historical interest than the one which we now reprint from the Fourth Part of the Evidence taken before the Committee of Privileges on the Claim of W. Constable Maxwell, Esquire, to the title of Lord Herries of Terregles. It is a copy of the Contract of Marriage between Queen Mary and the Earl of Bothwell, which, although it is said to have been printed by Carmichael, in his Various Tracts relating to the Peerage of Scotland, extracted from the Public Records, has not been referred to by Robertson, or other historians of Scotland, not even by the most recent of them, Mr. Tytler.

Mr. Tytler tells us that on the 12th of May, 1567, Bothwell was created Duke of Orkney, "the Queen with her own hands placing the coronet on his head," and that the marriage took place on the 15th of May, at four o'clock in the morning in the presence-chamber at Holyrood; and that on the following morning a paper, with this ominous verse, was fixed on the palace gate:—

"Mense malas Maio nubere vulgus ait."

The Contract, which is dated on the fourteenth of May, is preserved in the Register of Deeds in the Court of Session (Vol. IX. p. 86.), and as the copy produced before the House is authenticated—and consequently it may be presumed a more strictly accurate one than that which Carmichael has given—it seems well deserving of being transferred to our columns, and so made more available to the purposes of the historian, than it has been found to be in Carmichael's Tract, or is likely to be when buried in a Parliamentary Blue Book.]

"Decimo quarto Maij anno domini ts. lxvij, "Sederunt dni sessionis clericus regri.

"In pns of ye lordis of counsale comperit personale ane ry't excellent ry't heicht and michte princes Marie be ye grace of God queene of Scottis douieier of France on that ane pairt and ane ry't noble and potent prince James duk of Orkney erl Bothule lord Hales crychtoun and Liddisdeall great admiral of the realm of Scotland on y't vy'r p't and gaif in yis contract and appointnament following subscriuit w't y'r handis and desyrit ye samen to be insert in ye bukis of counsale to haif ye strenth force and effect of y'r act and decreit thereupoun the q'lk desyre ye saidis lordis thocht reasonable and y'rfor hes decernit and decernis ye said contract and appointnament to be insert and registret in ye said bukis to haif ye strenth force and effect of y'r act and decreit in tyme to cum et ad perpetuam rei memoriam and hes interponit and interponis y'r autoritie y'rto and ordenis y'r autentik extract of the samen to be deliuerit to the foirsaid partiis and the principale to remane apud registrum Off ye q'lk contract ye tennor followis At Edinburgh ye xiiii. day of May the year of God I'mv'c thrie score sevin yeris it is appointit aggreit contractit and finale concordit betwix ye r't excellent ry't heich and mychte princess Marie be ye grace of God queen of Scottis douarrier of France on that ane pairt and ye ry't noble and potent prince James duke of Orkney erle Bothul lord Hales creychtoun and Liddisdeall great admiral of yis realm of Scotland on y't vy'r p't in manner forme and effect as efter follow is that is to say fforsamekle as her majestie considering w't herself how almyete God hes not onlie placit and constitut hir hienes to reigne over this realme and during hir liftyme to governe ye peple and inhabitants y'r of hir native subjects bot als that of hir royall persoun succession my't be producit to enioy and possess yis kingdome and dominionis y'r of quhen God sall call hir hienes to his mercie out of yis mortale life and how grecousle it hes plesit him alredy to respect her hienes and yis hir realm in geving vnto hir maistie of her mest deir