Note 439 — Chapter XVII · ON THE CONSTITUTION OF SCOTLAND—INTRODUCTION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM

I have read a good deal on this celebrated controversy; but, where so much is disputed, it is not easy to form an opinion on every point. But, upon the whole, I think there are only two hypotheses that can be advanced with any colour of reason. The first is, that the murder of Darnley was projected by Bothwell, Maitland, and some others, without the queen's express knowledge, but with a reliance on her passion for the former, which would lead her both to shelter him from punishment, and to raise him to her bed; and that, in both respects, this expectation was fully realised by a criminal connivance at the escape of one whom she must believe to have been concerned in her husband's death, and by a still more infamous marriage with him. This, it appears to me, is a conclusion that may be drawn by reasoning on admitted facts, according to the common rules of presumptive evidence. The second supposition is, that she had given a previous consent to the assassination. This is rendered probable by several circumstances, and especially by the famous letters and sonnets, the genuineness of which has been so warmly disputed. I must confess that they seem to me authentic, and that Mr. Laing's dissertation on the murder of Darnley has rendered Mary's innocence, even as to participation in that crime, an untenable proposition. No one of any weight, I believe, has asserted it since his time except Dr. Lingard, who manages the evidence with his usual adroitness, but by admitting the general authenticity of the letters, qualified by a mere conjecture of interpolations, has given up what his predecessors deemed the very key of the citadel.

I shall dismiss a subject so foreign to my purpose, with remarking a fallacy which affects almost the whole argument of Mary's most strenuous advocates. They seem to fancy that, if the Earls of Murray and Morton, and Secretary Maitland of Lethington, can be proved to have been concerned in Darnley's murder, the queen herself is at once absolved. But it is generally agreed that Maitland was one of those who conspired with Bothwell for this purpose; and Morton, if he were not absolutely consenting, was by his own acknowledgment at his execution apprised of the conspiracy. With respect to Murray indeed there is not a shadow of evidence, nor had he any probable motive to second Bothwell's schemes; but, even if his participation were presumed, it would not alter in the slightest degree the proofs as to the queen.