Note 487 — Chapter VI · SUMMARY. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Burnet asserts the contrary; but, his errors being systematic, he and truth are seldom on the same side. The species of claim insinuated by the Ruthvens is thus expressed by one of their partisans, in the seventeenth century, quoted in Scott’s History of the Gowries:
“King James slew Gowrie without fear or shame, His brothers closely keepit in the Tower; And while they lived ne’er slept a quiet hour. Queen Margaret’s grandson nigher in degree, “Was Gowrie’s ruin, and King James’s plea.”
They were not descended from Margaret Tudor in any degree, either near or far, but only from Jeane Douglas, the daughter of her divorced husband Angus, by Lady Janet Stuart, his concealed wife; that lady being aunt to the unfortunate Lord Darnley, gave a nearness in blood to James VI., which he acknowledged to his own infinite trouble. Those historians who can find no motives for the attacks of the Ruthvens on Mary, Queen of Scots, and her son, will do well (if their object is indeed truth) to examine closely their mysterious alliances with the royal family. For if Darnley and his race were destroyed, and Queen Margaret’s divorce acted upon, Ruthven’s wife and children had claims on the great personal wealth of Archibald, Earl of Angus, to say nothing of his earldom, which was a disputed point.