MELVILLE

MELVILLE, SIR JAMES, whose name is familiarly known to the readers of Scottish history, was born in the year 1535. He was the third son of Sir John Melville of Raith in Fife-shire, by his wife Helen, the eldest daughter of Sir Alexander Napier of Merchiston. At an early period the father declared his adherence to the reformed doctrines, and thus incurred the unrelenting hatred of an unholy priesthood. He was accused of heresy by Archbishop Beaton, but upon this occasion was protected by the interposition of the king. When the war with England ensued during the minority of the queen, all intercourse with that country was prohibited under heavy penalties. His eldest son having been sent thither for his education, Sir John addressed to him a letter which was intercepted, and which, although so harm-

less in its tendency, was converted by Archbishop Hamilton into the instrument of his destruction: he was arrested at the instigation of this prelate, and having been sent under a strong guard to Stirling, was convicted of high treason, and brought to the scaffold. Not satisfied with this atrocious act, the archbishop found means to obtain possession of his estate, and thus to reduce his widow and children to a state of penury. "But," as we are informed, "the Almighty ordered matters so, that all the younger children were better provided for than they could have been by their father if he had been alive, as Sir John himself had foretold his lady to comfort her."² At the period of this judicial murder, his third son had attained the age of fourteen. Jean de Monluc, bishop of Valence, had visited the Scottish court in the capacity of an ambassador; and on his return to his own country, the queen regent took that opportunity of sending young Melville to be placed in her daughter's service as a page of honour. The bishop did not however proceed directly to France: he had received instructions to visit Ireland, for the purpose of communicating with O'Neill, O'Docherty, and other disaffected chieftains, who had offered to transfer their allegiance to the French king. He embarked at Irvine in the month of January 1550, and, after a tedious and dangerous passage, at length reached Lochfoyle. O'Docherty conducted Monluc with his attendants to his own residence, a large and dark tower, where, as it was now the season of Lent, they were regaled with such cold cheer as herrings and biscuit. The bishop having discovered a too amorous partiality for the chieftain's daughter, two English friars, who were living in exile, devised a method for saving the honour of the O'Dochertys, and ministering to the wants of so exemplary a prelate.³ The damsel herself, who had shunned his addresses, viewed Melville with more favourable eyes: she sought him wherever he was to be found, and having brought a priest who could speak English, she offered to marry him, and to accompany him wherever he pleased; but he thought it expedient to decline the honour thus intended for him, on the plea that he was too young, and "had no rents." After remaining for several weeks in Ireland, they returned to Scotland, and having again embarked, they sailed from Dumbarton, and landed at a port in Bretagne. Monluc posted to Paris, and left the Scottish page to follow at a more leisurely pace. Having met with some adventures by the way, he reached his place of destination in the month of April. The bishop was soon afterwards despatched to Rome, and left him at Paris, to learn to play on the lute, and to write French; and to these acquirements he added the elements of mathematics. Before he was presented to the queen, a curious incident brought him under the notice of the great constable Montmorency, who must evidently have been much pleased with his appearance, for he instantly proposed to receive him into his own service. Having previously obtained the bishop's consent, he accordingly entered into this service in May 1553.

War was now raging between the king of France and the emperor of Germany, and Melville was speedily called to attend the constable in his campaigns in France and

Melville. Flanders. The kindness of his patron procured him a pension from the king in the year 1554. In 1557 he bore arms at the battle of St. Quentin, where the constable's army was totally defeated, and he was himself wounded and taken prisoner. Melville was wounded in the head by the stroke of a mace, and as he was unhorsed and lost his helmet, he was exposed to no small jeopardy; but his servant remounted him upon a Scottish gelding, which carried him beyond the reach of his assailants. Having proceeded to La Ferre, he there met his friend Henry Killigrew, who held his horse till he went into a barber's shop to have his wound dressed. He attended the constable during his captivity; from which he was delivered by the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, concluded in the year 1559. In the course of the same year, the king, at Montmorency's suggestion, sent him on a secret mission to Scotland, where, under the pretext of paying a visit to his relations, he was instructed to use his best endeavours for ascertaining the real views of the prior of St. Andrews and his adherents. Having travelled through England, he found the queen regent residing in the old tower of Falkland, waiting the issue of an expected engagement between her forces and those raised by the lords of the congregation. He easily ascertained that there was no reason for suspecting the prior of a design to usurp the crown. A melancholy change of affairs awaited his return to France: the constable had the singular infelicity to kill his sovereign Henry the Second in a tournament, and had been commanded to withdraw from court; so that he no longer retained the same power of rewarding or advancing his dependants. This circumstance he regretted with tears in his eyes. Melville, although received with the greatest kindness, judged it expedient to try his fortune in another country, and he now directed his views towards Germany. To the Elector Palatine, he was furnished with letters of recommendation by his patron, as well as by another nobleman. He experienced a gracious reception, and made such progress in the elector's favour, that in 1560, on the death of Francis the Second, he was charged with a message of condolence to the court of France. When he had executed this commission, the queen mother dismissed him with many thanks, and with a fair reward amounting to the value of a thousand crowns. His residence in Germany afforded him an opportunity of learning the language of that country; an acquisition which he must have found of some advantage to a diplomatist. In company with the elector's second son Casimir, he visited France during the following year; and he there made a tender of his services to Queen Mary, who was on the eve of returning to Scotland. She received him very graciously, and urged him, "when he was to retire him out of Germany, to com hame and serue hir Maieste, with friendly and favorable offers."

The cardinal of Lorraine had projected a marriage between Mary and the archduke Charles of Austria, the youngest son of the emperor Ferdinand. In 1562 Melville received a letter from secretary Maitland, instructing him, by the queen's command, to procure and transmit particular information respecting the person, character, religion, and revenues of this prince. The kindness of his master the elector speedily enabled him to execute his commission. With the emperor's eldest son Maximilian, then king of the Romans, he had various interviews; and was at no loss to discover that he had no inclination to promote his brother's elevation to a throne. The king offered to retain him in his own service; but he had now formed the resolution of returning to his native country, after he had extended his travels to Italy. He accordingly proceeded to Venice and Rome, and, after an interval of about two months, returned through Switzerland to Heidelberg. The elector soon afterwards employed him in a diplomatic mission to Paris; where he found the constable again frequenting the court, but without having recovered the influence which he once

possessed. It is another proof of Melville's courtier-like address, that the queen mother offered to make him a gentleman of the king's chamber, "proudyt with an honorable pension, and to be aduancit till offices and honours as geue he wer a Frencheman born; and that sche wald employ him not only in Germany, bot also in England and Flanders." But about this crisis he received communications from Moray and Maitland, requiring him, in the name of their royal mistress, to return home for the purpose of being employed in some affairs of consequence. Having once more repaired to Heidelberg, he took leave of the Elector Palatine; who finally entrusted him with a commission to the queen of England, partly relating to an alliance with the protestant princes of Germany, and partly to a scheme of offering her the hand of prince Casimir. He now proceeded to London, and, after having paid his respects to Elizabeth, directed his steps towards his native country. On the 5th of May 1564 he presented himself to Mary at Perth, and had every reason to be satisfied with the mode of his reception; but the general aspect of affairs in Scotland was less promising than he had been led to anticipate. He was however induced to engage in her service, and he received a pension of a thousand marks. She likewise offered to bestow upon him the demesne of Auchtermuchty; but as it was so contiguous to the royal palace of Falkland, he expressed his unwillingness to avail himself of her liberality, when another individual who was not so scrupulous, made a successful application for the valuable gift which he had declined.

After an interval of a few months, Melville was entrusted with an embassy to the queen of England. Of his proceedings on this occasion, he has given a circumstantial and characteristic account, in which the vanity, coquetry, and insincerity of Elizabeth are very prominently displayed. On my return to Edinburgh, he states, "after that hir Maieste had vnderstand at gret lenth all my handling and procedingis in England, sche inquyrir whither I thocht that quen menit trewly towards hir asweill inwarly in hir hart, as sche apperit to do outwardly be hir speach. I said, in my iugement, that ther was nather plain dealing nor vrycht meanyng, bot gret dissimulation, emulation, and fear that hir princely qualites suld ouer schone, chaise hir out, and displace hir from the kingdome; as having alrely hendrit hir mariage with the Archeuduc Charles of Austria, and now offering vnto hir my L. of Leycester, whom sche wald be laith as then to want." He continued his attendance at court after the queen's marriage with Darnley, and must sometimes have had a difficult and delicate part to perform. On the birth of a prince, 19 June 1566, he was instantly despatched to convey the intelligence to Elizabeth. He found her at Greenwich; "wher hir Maieste was in gret merines, and dancing after supper, but sa schone as the secretary Cicill roundit the newes in hir ear of the prince birth, all merines was layed asyd for that nycht; eucry ane that wer present marueing what mycht moue sa sodane a chengement; for the quen sat down with hir hand vpon hir haffet, and bousing out to some of hir ladies, how that the quen of Scotlandis was leichter of a faire sonne, and that sche was bot a barren stok." During the following year, when Mary was intercepted by the earl of Bothwell, he was among her other attendants, and along with her was conducted to Dunbar castle, but was only detained for a single day. He was seized by Captain Blackader, who "allegit that it was with the quenis awen consent." From this period he did not so regularly attend the court, but he happened to be present at her scandalous nuptials with the murderer of her former husband. During the civil commotions which succeeded, he did not remain entirely inactive: he appears to have pursued a prudent and cautious tenor of conduct, and to have abstained from involving himself too deeply with either of the adverse factions. He

Melville had adhered to the queen till she was committed to Lochleven castle; but he undertook to be the bearer of a message from the lords who entertained the design of crowning the infant prince, to the chief supporters of the mother's cause, who were then convened at Hamilton; and, about the same crisis, when the earl of Moray returned from France to assume the office of regent, he was delegated by the same party to meet him at Berwick. To the next regent, the earl of Lennox, he of his own accord presented himself at the same place; and, under his administration, as well as that of his successors Mar and Morton, he had some concern in public affairs. After the king received the reins of government into his own hands, he was appointed a gentleman of the bedchamber, and a member of the privy council. In 1582 he was nominated, along with Lord Newbattle, David Macgill, and John Sharp, to hold in Edinburgh justice eyres for the county of Linlithgow. The enterprise commonly described as the Raid of Ruthven speedily followed. While the king still continued under restraint, he sent a message to Melville, requiring his attendance at Falkland. This summons he immediately obeyed, and, according to his own narrative, he had a principal share in effecting his Majesty's liberation. He was not however acceptable to James's unworthy favourite the earl of Arran, through whose influence his name was in 1584 expunged from the list of privy councillors. He did not entirely lose the king's favour, but was soon afterwards consulted on various occasions. When the ambassadors arrived from Denmark in 1585, he was appointed to "entertain them, and bear them company." With some part of the treatment which they experienced at the Scottish court, these ambassadors had no great reason to be satisfied; and it required all Melville's talents and address to prevent them from returning to their own country in a very vindictive mood. When the king afterwards proposed to send him as one of his ambassadors to Denmark, he thought it advisable to decline this honour. On the establishment of the queen's household in the year 1590, James placed him there as a councillor, and in that capacity he continued for several years; "keeping sometimes the conseil dayes, and sometimes assisting vpon the chekker, when ther Maiesties wer together, but when they wer sindrie, he awated only vpon the quen." At the baptism of prince Henry, he was called to assist in the splendid ceremonial; he was stationed behind the queen, and aided her in receiving the presents offered by the ambassadors of different states.

When the king succeeded to the crown of England, as we are informed by Melville's grandson, he "would gladly have taken him along with him thither, offering him considerable advancements there; but being now stricken in years, and desirous to retreat from the troubles of the world, to spend the remainder of his days in contemplation, [he] begged his Majesties permission thereto. However, after the king's going for London, he found himself in duty engag'd once to wait upon his Majesty in that kingdom, and accordingly went thither, and was graciously received; and having attended there some weeks, humbly giving his Majesty his best advice, no court allurements (whereof he had great store) could prevail with him to alter his former resolutions of privacy." He died on the 13th of November 1617,¹ at the mature age of eighty-two. By his wife, Christian, the daughter of David Boswell of Balmuto, he left several children. The estate of Hallhill in Fifeshire descended to his son James. His daughter Elizabeth was married to John Lord Colville of Culross; and she is well known as the pious and ingenious author of a poem commonly described as Lady Culross's Dream. Margaret, another daughter, became the second wife of Sir John Scott of

Scotstarvet. From the eldest brother of Sir James Melville is descended the noble family of Leven and Melville.

Melville employed some portion of his declining age in writing Memoirs of his public life; and the work was published by his grandson, George Scott of Pitlochie, sixty-six years after the death of the author. "The Memoires of Sir James Melvil of Hallhill; containing an impartial Account of the most remarkable Affairs of State during the last Age, not mention'd by other historians, more particularly relating to the Kingdoms of England and Scotland, under the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, and King James; in all which transactions the author was personally and publickly concern'd. Now published from the original manuscript, by George Scott, Gent." London, 1683, fol. Edinburgh, 1735, 8vo. Glasgow, 1751, 12mo. A French translation, in 2 vols. 8vo., appeared at the Hague in 1694, was reprinted at Lyon in 1695, and at Amsterdam in 1704. A new version, or the same remodelled, was published in 1745 in 3 vols. 8vo., bearing the imprint, "à Edimbourg, chez Barrows et Young." "The work," as Mr. Thomson states, "was evidently printed abroad. The additions, which fill the third volume, consist of letters, written chiefly by Queen Mary, selected from various printed works." These various editions of the Memoirs afford sufficient evidence that the book had excited no small degree of interest on the continent, as well as in our own country. Bishop Burnet, to whom it had been communicated in manuscript, described it as "one of the best and perfectest pieces of that nature that he had seen." It was originally published in that unfaithful and injudicious manner, in which the editors of a former age were too apt to suppose themselves entitled to exercise their functions: so violent an attempt was made to reduce the phraseology to the English standard, and so many interpolations were admitted, that in not a few instances it is extremely difficult to recognize the general texture of Melville's own narrative. The fidelity of the editor was therefore liable to strong suspicion, which was naturally augmented by the consideration that no early copy of the Memoirs could be traced in any public or private library. But a manuscript, apparently in the handwriting of the author, was at length discovered in the collection bequeathed to Mr. Rose by the Earl of Marchmont, and since inherited by Sir George H. Rose. From this manuscript the work has recently been printed for the Bannatyne Club, under the able superintendence of Thomas Thomson, Esq. "Memoirs of his own Life by Sir James Melville of Hallhill. M.D.XLIX.—M.D.XCIII. From the original manuscript." Edinb. 1827, 4to. Melville's Memoirs, in this authentic form, are a most valuable accession to the stock of original materials for Scottish history.