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. The nobles intended to reform the government of Scotland and limit the influence of French and pro-Catholic policy.
Scottish coup d'etat
Ruthven Castle
In July 1582 the discontented lords made a bond to support each other in their enterprise to displace Catholic influences around the young king. Their party became known as the "Lords Enterprisers." James VI was seized while staying at the castle of Ruthven in Perthshire on 22 August. The castle's name was officially changed to Huntingtower in 1600. The King was held and controlled by the Ruthven Lords for almost a year, and was moved around a number of houses. He was first taken to Stirling Castle before the end of August.
Losers
The earl of Gowrie remained at the head of the government assisted by figures like the Master of Glamis. The king's favourite Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, the main of the politicians targetted by the coup, was sent to Dumbarton Castle, then forced into exile in France, after lingering at Rothesay Castle on the Island of Bute, and died in Paris in May 1583. Another prominent noble and politician James Stewart, earl of Arran, was imprisoned at Stirling, Ruthven (Huntingtower), then confined at Kinneil House. Among the rest of the nobility, the Ruthven regime was opposed by the Earls of Huntly, Crawford, Morton (Maxwell) and Sutherland, and the Lords Livingston, Seton, Ogilvy, Ochiltree and Doune, all of whom were reported to support Arran and Lennox.
Policy
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] The Douglas family, who were penalised at the fall of Regent Morton and exiled in England were re-instated on 28 September 1582.
The coup 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]
Queen Elizabeth was pleased with events and sent £1000 in September 1582 with Robert Bowes, a payment declared as the wages of the King's Guard.[4] In response, the opponents of the Ruthven Regime, the Earls of Huntley, Argyll, Atholl, Crawford, Montrose, Arran, Lennox and Sutherland, wrote a letter from Dunkeld (near Atholl's Blair Castle) to the town of Edinburgh describing this force, funded by England, as four hundred men-of-war raised for the purpose of conveying James VI to their "auld enemies" in England. They urged the townspeople of Edinburgh to arm themselves and seize the King, who was at Holyroodhouse, on their behalf. The people of Edinburgh did not follow up on this suggestion.[5]
International relations
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.[6] An English diplomat Robert Bowes stayed in Edinburgh and followed events. As it seemed opportune, he was instructed by Francis Walsingham to seek out the casket letters which had been used to incriminate Queen Mary in 1568, but the Earl of Gowrie refused to hand them over.
Gowrie was also courted by France, receiving in February 1583 an offer of a yearly pension of 100,000 crowns for the state, 2000 crowns personally, and a lump sum of 10,000 crowns. The French ambassadors, La Mothe and Maineville, hoped to secure French influence over James's choice of bride.[7]
Unsustainable
Gowrie's regime was ineffectually supported by Queen Elizabeth I and her Secretary 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.
Walsingham and the absolute King
As Queen Elizabeth was displeased by the fall of the Ruthven Regime, Walsingham was sent as ambassador to Scotland in September 1583. He spoke to James VI at Perth, and was convinced that Queen Mary's influence was dominant in Scotland, and working to the young king's confusion. He wrote to Elizabeth that Mary, "though she cannot live many years" would see his overthrow. James VI had not enjoyed the Ruthven government. Walsingham found the King unable to take his complaints seriously, and he laughed at Walsingham, "falling into a distemperture", telling him that he was an "absolute King" and would order his subjects as he would "best lyke himself."[8] James was 17, Mary was 41.
Settlement
In November 1585, the Ruthven party triumphed by taking the King and Stirling Castle, and Arran was removed from public affairs.
Exiles and pirates
Two of the people implicated in the Raid of Ruthven - the eldest son of the Chief of Clan Oliphant (the Master of Oliphant) and his brother-in-law Robert Douglas, Master of Morton - were exiled in 1582. The ship in which they sailed in was lost at sea. It was rumoured that they had been caught by a Dutch ship and the last report was that they were slaves on a Turkish ship in the Mediterranean. A plaque to their memory was raised in the church in Algiers.
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.
- ^ CSP Scotland, vol.6 (1910), p.185 no.186
- ^ CSP Scotland, vol.6 (1910), no.177
- ^ Boyd, William K. ed., Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 6 (1910), 410-415.
- ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 6 (1910), 300-1.
- ^ CSP Scotland, vol.6 (1910), p.603, 611
See also
External links
  | This Scottish history-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |