Raid of Ruthven
The Raid of Ruthven was a political conspiracy in Scotland which took place on 22 August 1582. It was composed of several Presbyterian nobles, led by William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, who abducted King James VI of Scotland. He was seized while staying at the castle of Ruthven (today known as Huntingtower Castle in Perthshire), and kept under restraint for almost a year. The earl of Gowrie remained at the head of the government. The king's favourite Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox was forced into exile in France and died in May 1583. Another prominent noble James Stewart, earl of Arran, was confined at Kinneil House.
The resultant Gowrie regime favoured what has been described as an ultra-Protestant regime and was approved by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland as the 'late act of the Scottish reformation'.[1] It was also prompted by an urge to curb excessive spending at court. Because of Lennox's extravagance, the Earl of Gowrie, Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, was owed £33,000 Scots.[2] A number of cost saving measures for the royal household were proposed by Gowrie and his exchequer colleagues. These were described as "havand respect to the order of the hous of your hieness goudsire King James the fifth of worthie memorie and to the possibilitie of your majesties present rents," a reference to the thriftiness of James V.[3] Colonel William Stewart was sent as ambassador to England in April 1583 to ask for £10,000 and yearly £5000 as an income from the English lands of Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, and for the ratification and renewal of the 1560 Treaty of Edinburgh. The Colonel was to enquire discreetly after the succession to the English throne.[4]
The regime was ineffectually supported by Queen Elizabeth I and her minister Francis Walsingham. After ten months, the king gained his freedom at St Andrews in July 1583. James Stewart, earl of Arran gained a brief ascendancy over Scottish affairs. The earl of Gowrie was pardoned in 1583, but kept plotting and was later beheaded for high treason.
References
- ^ Book of the Universal Kirk, vol. 2, 594.
- ^ Boyd, William K. ed., Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 6 (1910), 240.
- ^ National Archives of Scotland: E34/36 Scheme for ordering the household November 1582: See Amy Juhala, "The Court and Household of James VI"., Edinburgh University PhD (2000), 39-47, Edinburgh Research Archive.
- ^ Boyd, William K. ed., Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 6 (1910), 410-415.
See also
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