Once more a minor became sovereign of Scotland. Not, however, as in former cases, by the early death of the preceding monarch did the throne become vacant again, but by a deed of abdication which the helpless captive Queen was compelled to sign at Lochleven. On July 29th, 1567—a few days after the close of Mary’s reign—the thirteen months old Prince of Scotland was crowned at Stirling as James VI. The Chapel at the castle on this occasion was not the scene of the function, the High or Parish Church being chosen as a suitable place for the ceremony. The child was anointed by the Protestant Bishop of Orkney, while the Earl of Atholl held the crown over the royal head. Morton and Home took the oath for the King that he would maintain the true religion, and after Knox had preached a sermon, the company returned to the castle, Mar carrying the infant monarch and Atholl bearing the crown.

For twelve years after his coronation young James resided in Stirling Castle under the care of the family of Mar. During almost the whole of that period the government of Scotland was carried on in the name of the King by four Regents in succession; and Stirling, being the sovereign’s seat, figured conspicuously in the history of the time. In September, 1569, at a council held in the castle by the Regent Moray, Maitland of Lethington was accused by Thomas Crawford of having taken part in the murder of Darnley. His trial being fixed for December 21st, Lethington was placed in confinement in the fortress, but a few days later he was carried to Edinburgh, where he managed to escape from bondage by the instrumentality of Kirkcaldy of Grange.42

Less than two years later there was thrust into Stirling Castle another prominent member of Queen Mary’s dwindling faction. This was John Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, the prelate who had taken the leading part at the Prince’s baptism not many years before. He had been seized in Dumbarton Castle on the memorable night when the King’s men scaled the rock, and had been brought without delay to his enemies’ headquarters. Like Maitland of Lethington, he was charged with having been implicated in the murder of James’s father, and his confinement in Stirling, like Lethington’s, lasted for only one or two days. The Archbishop, moreover, was held to be guilty of having encouraged Bothwellhaugh to assassinate the Regent Moray, so after a hasty trial he was hanged at the market cross in April, 1571.

Stirling, being at this time the young King’s home, was naturally the headquarters of his mother’s opponents. Edinburgh, where the castle was held for the Queen by Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange, was the principal seat of Mary’s less powerful party. A plan was accordingly devised by the Laird of Grange that nearly succeeded in changing, for a time at least, the course of Scottish history. Knowing that the leaders of the opposite faction were gathered together for a meeting of Parliament, he resolved to surprise and capture Stirling, to seize all the prominent supporters of the King, and to obtain possession, if possible, of the royal child himself. Kirkcaldy was anxious to conduct the expedition in person, but, being persuaded by his followers not to run such a risk, he appointed the Earl of Huntly, Lord Claude Hamilton, Scott of Buccleuch and Ker of Fernihirst to undertake the enterprise.

On the evening of the 3rd of September, 1571, these chiefs, accompanied by three or four hundred men, rode out of Edinburgh and took the road to Jedburgh in order to deceive their enemies as to the object of their journey. In the gathering darkness they wheeled to the right and made their way swiftly to within a mile of Stirling, where they halted and left their horses.43 One of the party, a native of the place, knowing of the existence of a secret passage, guided the raiders into the town at an early hour in the morning. There was not even the bark of a dog to give the citizens alarm; the burghers and nobles were aroused by the cries of “A Hamilton” and “God and the Queen.” Houses were instantly broken into and most of the lords were captured with ease, but at Morton’s lodging some fighting took place, resulting in the slaughter of two of the Earl’s retainers. Morton, however, eventually gave himself up to the Laird of Buccleuch, the Regent Lennox surrendered to Spens of Wormiston, and the Earls of Glencairn and Eglinton also submitted themselves to the adventurers.

The Queen’s party seemed to have triumphed completely, but their easily-won victory led to their defeat. The Borderers, unable to resist the temptation of plunder, rushed in all directions in search of booty, so that when the Earl of Mar sallied forth from the castle with a band of musketeers, a panic at once ensued. The citizens armed themselves and turned on their despoilers, while the castle soldiers kept up a fire from behind the walls of Mar’s unfinished house. The raiders were demoralised and quickly took to flight, but rather than allow the Regent Lennox to be rescued, a man named Calder fired his pistol at the Earl. By throwing himself in front of his distinguished prisoner, Spens of Wormiston was shot, and the bullet passing through his body, mortally wounded Lennox. The dying Regent was conveyed to the castle, where in the evening he passed away. His death was deplored not only by his friends but by his foe, Kirkcaldy of Grange, who had desired the Raid of Stirling to be, if possible, a bloodless triumph.44

Little more than a year had elapsed when another Regent died in Stirling Castle. This was the King’s hereditary keeper, John, Earl of Mar, who had been elected to govern the realm in the room of James’s grandfather, Lennox.45 The cares of state and the worries of the civil war seem to have been responsible for the Regent’s premature decease, although the usual report of poisoning was given circulation at the time. Mar left the charge of the King and the castle to his brother, Alexander, Master of Erskine, for his son, the new Earl, a companion of James, was a boy not much older than the King.

The next governor, the Regent Morton, was in favour of the young sovereign’s continuing his residence at Stirling. His education was meanwhile receiving attention from George Buchanan and Peter Young, the former a brilliant scholar and a strict disciplinarian, the latter too full of respect for the Lord’s Anointed to oppose his pupil’s wayward will. “My Lady Mar was wise and sharp,” wrote Sir James Melville, “and held the King in great awe; and so did Mr. George Buchanan. Mr. Peter Young was gentler and was loath to offend the King at any time, and used himself warily, as a man that had mind of his own weal, by keeping of His Majesty’s favour; but Mr. George was a Stoic philosopher, and looked not far before the hand.”

In June, 1574, Killigrew, the English ambassador, visited Stirling Castle, and heard James translate into French a chapter, chosen at random, of a Latin version of the Bible; while to show that his accomplishments were not confined to intellectual pursuits, the King delighted the English envoy by an exhibition of dancing.46 Weldon, in his oft-quoted description of James, writes: “His legs were very weak ... that he was not able to stand at seven years of age.”47 Weldon’s unflattering portrait of the King is held by some to be a faithful representation; but the statement regarding James’s physical weakness seems to be untrue, for if he could not stand at seven, he would surely be unable to give a display of dancing when exactly eight years of age. Later in the same year the two famous Melvilles—Andrew and his nephew James—were presented to their sovereign at Stirling. The younger man notes in his Diary that the boy monarch, on account of his strange and extraordinary gifts, was the sweetest sight in Europe that day. The writer goes on to say: “I heard him discourse, walking up and doun in the auld Lady Mar’s hand, of knowledge and ignorance, to my great marvel and astonishment.”48

James had companions at work and play in those schooldays at the castle. The young Earl of Mar, Lord Invertyle and others learnt their lessons with their King at Stirling. That Buchanan showed no favouritism in his dealings with his pupils will be seen by the following story, originally told by Invertyle: The Earl of Mar possessed a tame sparrow which the King was anxious to obtain. On the young nobleman’s refusing to hand over the bird to his sovereign, a struggle between the two playmates ensued, ending in the death of the sparrow. Mar burst into tears at the loss of his pet, and Buchanan, being informed of the cause of the weeping, gave the King a box on the ear, and told him he was a true bird of the bloody nest of which he was come.49

That the stern preceptor was not devoid of humour the following anecdote will show. The young King’s readiness to grant requests thoughtlessly was noted by Buchanan with distress. Determined to teach the boy a lesson, he requested him to sign two documents, the purport of one being to transfer the regal power to Buchanan for fifteen days. After asking one or two random questions, the sovereign willingly signed the papers without taking trouble to read their contents; and that same day the tutor acted the part of King to the astonishment of the courtiers and the utter amazement of James. At length Buchanan informed his pupil that he had temporarily resigned his crown, and as the King continued to appear bewildered, the document was produced. Before James had time to recover from his discomfiture, the tutor followed up his practical lesson by a discourse on the evils that are likely to accrue from the rashness and carelessness of kings.50

Buchanan’s interest in education during the Stirling period of his life was not confined to the training and instruction of the monarch and his companions. He was appointed president of the commission which met in Stirling Castle to consider the question of a standard Latin grammar, as teachers had been complaining of the confusion arising from the various manuals in use throughout the country. The result of the proceedings was that Buchanan and two commissioners, Andrew Simson and James Carmichael, schoolmasters, undertook to produce a new book which was to supersede all the others. In due time the joint work of these eminent scholars appeared, but it never became established as the one and only grammar.51

The room still exists in the Keep of the castle where George Buchanan and Peter Young are believed to have discharged their pedagogic duties, and a terrace below is called the Prince’s Walk, where James, it is said, was wont to take the air before returning to his studies. Doubtless the young King and his comrades romped on this narrow playground, but it owes its name more likely to James’s son, Prince Henry, for the father was a crowned monarch before his education began, and the terrace is known not as the King’s but as the Prince’s Walk.

The regency of Morton was, on the whole, a time of peace, but his enemies were all the time planning his overthrow. The greater part of the nobility was hostile to the Regent; thus when the King, at the instigation of Argyll, and with the approval of Buchanan and Alexander Erskine, summoned a convention of peers to Stirling Castle in March, 1578, Morton felt compelled to send in his resignation. The clever Earl, however, soon found an opportunity of placing himself again in power. On the morning of the 26th of April, the young Earl of Mar, possibly acting on Morton’s advice, called for the keys of the castle as though he intended to ride forth to hunt. Although the hour was about six o’clock the Master of Erskine was already astir, and meeting his nephew’s followers at the gate, he called his servants to his assistance. After a scuffle, in which the Master’s eldest son was so severely crushed that he died next day, the parties withdrew to the hall to discuss the situation. The proceedings resulted in the young Earl of Mar’s being allowed to take over the charge of the King and the keeping of Stirling Castle.52 It was also decreed that James was to remain in the castle, that no earl was to be received within the gates with more than two servants, no lord with more than one attendant, and no gentleman with any retainer at all.53 The stirring events of that morning made such an impression on the youthful King, that for several nights his sleep was disturbed by visions of the fray.

Morton was not long in breaking through the decrees. Riding secretly by night from Edinburgh to Stirling, towards the end of May, he persuaded Mar to admit him and his followers into the royal castle. Once within the same building as the King, the Earl was now as powerful as before. He managed to arrange the formation of a new Council, with himself in the principal place, and he persuaded the King to order the Parliament, which had been summoned to meet at Edinburgh, to assemble in the hall of Stirling Castle. The opponents of Morton, naturally objecting to the Estates being convened within the walls of a fortress, were determined not to appear without a protest, so they sent the Earl of Montrose and Lord Lindsay of the Byres to lay their remonstrances before the King. James opened the Parliament in person, and before any business was transacted, Lord Lindsay protested against its proceedings. Morton interrupted him and ordered him to sit down, but Lindsay disobeyed the command until it was repeated by the King. Later in the day the intrepid lord again arose to make objections, and this time also he was silenced by James, who, at Morton’s prompting, declared that the Parliament was free and that those who loved him would think as he thought.54

Morton’s recovery of power rendered civil war imminent. Argyll and Atholl raised the town of Edinburgh and were joined by the Borderers of Teviotdale and the Merse. Angus, on the other side, was preparing his forces at Stirling. The armies came within sight of each other near the town of Falkirk, and some skirmishing took place, but through the intervention of two leading ministers of the church and of Bowes, the English ambassador, an agreement was arrived at without any fighting taking place. The settlement left things much as they were, with the power in Morton’s hands, but the Earl of Montrose and Lord Lindsay of the Byres were admitted into the Council.

Although not holding the title of regent, the Earl of Morton was now as powerful as ever he had been. His opponents felt themselves incapable of compelling him to deliver up their sovereign, and so secure did Morton consider his position and the King’s to be, that on the 12th of June, 1579, James was allowed to leave the castle by the nether bailey gate at five o’clock in the morning, with his own domestics, and was permitted to remain in the Park until seven o’clock at night. This was the first occasion on which the King passed beyond the castle walls without the protection of an armed guard.55

Morton’s day of triumph, however, was beginning to draw to a close. There arrived in Scotland a man from France, who quickly won the favour of King James, and who set himself to restore Queen Mary to the throne, to overthrow the Protestant religion in Scotland and to ruin the Earl of Morton. He was successful in only the last of these three enterprises. This remarkable person was EsmÉ Stewart, Lord of Aubigny in France, and nephew of the Regent Lennox. “He was a man of comely proportion, civil behaviour, red-bearded, honest in conversation.”56 Recommended to James by the Guises, whose special agent he was, he arrived at Stirling in September, 1579, and was presented to the King in the hall of the castle. The artful schemer was not long in winning James’s favour. Soon he received the wealthy Abbey of Arbroath, which had been in the possession of the Hamilton family, and about the same time he was made a privy-councillor and was given the Earldom of Lennox.

EsmÉ Stewart had not been many months at Court before a rumour was reported to the Earl of Mar to the effect that the half-foreign favourite and his partisans intended to remove the King to Dumbarton, and afterwards to convey him secretly to France. The night of the 10th of April, 1580, was believed to be the time arranged by the conspirators for carrying out their plan. The rumour, whether well-founded or not, gave rise to intense excitement in the castle. When the dreaded evening came round, Mar placed soldiers both within and without the King’s apartment, and ordered them on no account to allow anyone to enter the room. Lennox, armed and supported by a guard of friends, prepared to defend himself in his own chamber, for he heard the threatening shouts in the courtyard and knew that his life was in danger.

The night passed away, however, without an attack being made upon Stirling, although in the morning the Earls of Argyll, Glencairn and Sutherland—friends of EsmÉ Stewart, Lord Lennox—endeavoured without success to gain admittance to the castle.57

Lennox and another rising favourite, James Stewart, together worked for the hated Morton’s fall, and as the King was completely in their hands and bore no love to the stern ex-regent, the Earl was condemned to death in 1581, for being “art and part” in the murder of Darnley. Yet not much more than a year after Morton’s death, Lennox’s ascendency came to an end. A number of nobles—Mar, Gowrie, Lindsay and others—seized the King at Ruthven Castle, near Perth, and virtually held him a prisoner, while Lennox was ordered to leave the country—a step which at last he reluctantly took. James was brought back to Stirling, and, although chafing at the restraint, was compelled to announce that he was a free King and that he desired to reside in the castle. But the Ruthven Raiders were unable to keep their sovereign for more than ten months in their hands. In June, 1583, a plot for the recovery of his freedom was formed, and he escaped from Falkland Palace to St. Andrews, where he threw himself into the castle.

Their inability to hold the King in their power was disastrous to the leaders of the Raid of Ruthven; consequently they lost little time in arranging a scheme to place themselves again in command. The Earl of Mar and the Master of Glamis had retired to the north of Ireland, but in the spring of 1584 they stealthily crossed the Channel, and on the 17th of April, with five hundred horse, they seized the Castle of Stirling. James at once raised an army in Edinburgh and marched to attack the rebels. No fighting of any sort took place, however, for the insurgent lords, taken aback by the King’s swift action and disappointed in the support of their friends, fled towards the Border before the royal army appeared. The small garrison which they left to guard the fortress surrendered at once to the King. The constable and three of the men were hanged as a sign of the royal displeasure.58 On the failure of the conspiracy, the Earl of Gowrie, who had come to be regarded with distrust by both parties, was tried at Stirling and executed almost beneath the walls of the castle.

In November, 1585, another Raid of Stirling occurred. The exiled lords who had forsaken the castle in the previous year, collected their forces in the south of Scotland, where they were joined by a number of the Border lairds. Proclaiming that they sought to save the King and the country from the evil rule of James Stewart, Earl of Arran, they advanced northwards with some nine hundred men and camped at St. Ninians on November 1st. Next morning at daybreak they crept into the town, like Buccleuch and Fernihirst fourteen years before, while Arran and Montrose, who had kept watch on the walls, immediately took to flight, the former seeking safety beyond the Bridge of Forth, the latter finding refuge in the castle with the King. Having captured the town with comparative ease, the lords proceeded to invest the fortress which they knew to be ill prepared for a siege. After sending messengers to treat with the invaders, James agreed to surrender, for his attempt to escape by bribing William Maxwell of Newark, who had charge of one of the postern doors, was discovered by the besiegers. The nobles entered the castle on the 4th of November, assuring their sovereign that they had acted from motives of loyalty, while he replied that words were unnecessary, as their weapons had spoken quite loudly enough. Differences were settled for the time, and James professed to be pleased with the change; Arran was banished for ever from the Court, and to Mar, who had forfeited his hereditary privilege, the custody of Stirling Castle was restored.

Too often in Scottish history the conduct of the barons towards the sovereign was insolent and disloyal; but there were occasions in which their coercive action was fraught with good to the country. The nobles who captured James VI. at Ruthven Castle and who besieged him in his own stronghold of Stirling, were actuated to some extent by selfish motives, but at the same time they realised that their measures were such as would confer real benefit upon the land. Yet although the weakness of the King in placing his trust in unpopular favourites justified the daring steps taken by the nobles, it is not a matter for wonder that in his later life the shout of “Treason” escaped from James’s lips whenever an unexpected incident occurred.

James VI. married Anne, second daughter of Frederick II. of Denmark, in 1589, and Stirling Castle was chosen to be the birthplace of their eldest son, who was born in February, 1594. For the Prince’s baptism great preparations were made, including the hasty reconstruction of the Chapel, for James was always anxious to impress his visitors with the dignity of the Scottish Court. The foreign representatives arrived at Stirling before the end of August, and on the 30th of that month the christening service was held.59 The Prince was carried to the Chapel by Elizabeth’s representative, the Earl of Sussex, who walked under a canopy supported by the Lairds of Cessford, Buccleuch, Dudhope and Traquair; and in the procession Lord Hume carried the ducal crown, Lord Seton bore the basin and Lord Livingstone the towel. The chief officiating clergyman was David Cunningham, Bishop of Aberdeen, who at the King’s command named the royal infant Frederick Henry, and thereafter addressed the congregation in Latin. At the conclusion of the service the company retired to the Prince’s chamber, where James created his child a knight and bestowed on him the usual titles belonging to the eldest son of the King. After a number of less important knights had been made, supper was served in the great hall of the castle, at which, for the entertainment of the guests, a decorated chariot and ship were drawn in, containing viands for the later courses of the banquet.60 No ill-timed jest spoilt the pleasure of the party, as on the occasion of the festivities in celebration of James’s baptism; but this time, owing to the religious change in Scotland, no French representatives were present at Stirling.

A few months before he departed from Scotland to take possession of the English crown, James looked down from Stirling Castle upon a strange and striking spectacle. On December 21st, 1602, a band of riders, consisting mainly of women, was observed advancing from the west. It was seen that the principal members of the party were bearing bloodstained garments and were displaying them to view with the object of attracting attention. The procession wound its way up the castle hill, and at the King’s command was admitted within the gates. Alexander Colquhoun of Luss was the leader of the company, and from him the King learned that a party of Macgregors had raided the lands of Glenfinlas in the Lennox, had plundered the farms of the Colquhoun tenants, and had killed and wounded a number of men, and that these women bearing the bloody shirts were the relatives of the clansmen who had innocently suffered.

The sorrowing deputation and the accompanying tale of woe so greatly shocked King James that he granted a commission to Alexander Colquhoun, giving him licence to repress such crimes and to lay hold of any malefactors. The knowledge that their enemies possessed this commission so enraged the Macgregors that they rose in great force to oppose the Colquhouns, and inflicted upon them a heavy defeat at the memorable conflict of Glenfruin.61 Their triumph, however, although sweet for the moment, brought long and bitter sorrow to the victors, as they came to be regarded as the most lawless of the Highland clans, and were pursued with fire and sword at the instance of the Government. To assist in crushing the indomitable race, the Earl of Mar, in 1611, sent two pieces of ordnance from Stirling Castle, to be used in the guerrilla warfare against the hunted Clan Gregor.62 James VI.’s son, Henry, was the last Prince of Scotland to be brought up in Stirling Castle. He spent nine years—exactly half of his life—in his royal birthplace on the rock. The King’s former companion, the Earl of Mar, was appointed guardian of the boy, and Annabella, the Countess-Dowager, was authorised to assist her son in his charge. James had perfect confidence in the friend of his youth, but the Queen, partly, perhaps, from political motives and partly from a natural desire to be with her child, endeavoured in 1595 to remove the Prince from the custody of Mar. This intrigue becoming known to the sovereign led to a quarrel between him and his Consort, the result being that the Earl received a written statement from the King granting him full charge of the boy until he should reach the age of eighteen years:—“1595, July 24. Stirling.—Milorde of Mar. Because in the suretie of my sonne consistis my suretie and that I have concreditid unto you the chairge of his keiping upon the trust I have of youre honestie, this present thairfore sall be ane warrande unto you not to delyver him out of youre handis except I commande you with my awin mouth, and being in sikke cumpanie as I my self sall best lyke of, otheruayes not to delyver him for any chairge or message that can cum from me. And in kayce God call me at any tyme that nather for Quene nor Estaitis pleasure ye delyver him quhill he be auchtein yeiris of age and that he commande you himself. At Stirling the xxiiij of Julie, 1595. James R.”63

The Queen succeeded in a later attempt to gain possession of her son. After James had set out for England to occupy Elizabeth’s throne, she made her way to Stirling in April, 1603, in order to seize the person of the Prince. The family of Mar, refusing to deliver their charge, even when a band of nobles appeared in support of the Queen, Anne, in her disappointment, fell dangerously ill, whereupon the King dispatched the Duke of Lennox with instructions to the Earl of Mar to deliver the Prince to the Duke.64 In order to appease the Queen, Lennox and the Council handed the boy to his mother, who at once began her journey with her son, reaching Windsor at the end of June, after a progress of more than four weeks.

On his father’s accession to the English throne, the Prince of Scotland at once became Duke of Cornwall, and almost immediately after his arrival in England he was invested with the Order of the Garter. Not until 1610 was young Henry created Prince of Wales, a title which he was destined to enjoy for little more than two years. In October, 1612, he began to suffer from headaches and languor, but always making light of bodily ailments, he continued to lead an active life and to play his favourite games. Fever, however, most probably typhoid, compelled him to take to his bed. The best physicians were in attendance during his illness, but from the first there was little hope of recovery, and on the 6th of November he lost his speech and peacefully passed away.

So much beloved was the Prince by the people, and such a sensation did his early death create, that nearly all the eminent authors of the day, and many undistinguished mourners, wrote verses extolling his virtues and lamenting his demise. Donne, Heywood and Drummond of Hawthornden, were among the poets whose elegies were called forth by the national bereavement. Henry was a young man of great force of character, who held strong opinions on the topics of the day, and who did not fear to speak out his mind concerning some of his father’s actions. He was naturally of a religious disposition, being strict in his attendance at the services of the Church, and his own deliberations on the different forms of faith led him to become a stronger Protestant than James. Kind-heartedness was one of Henry’s characteristics. His pedagogue in the early Stirling days had been Adam Newton, a man whom the Prince always held in the highest esteem. Newton continued to discharge the duties of tutor after the Royal Family had migrated to England, but, like William Dunbar at the Court of James IV., he longed to be presented to an ecclesiastical benefice. In January, 1606, His Royal Highness sent a letter to the King, reminding him of his promise to give preferment to the tutor, and stating that for two years past Master Newton had been looking for the Deanery of Durham. James complied with his son’s request, and in September the faithful tutor was rewarded with the coveted position.65

Steadfast attachment to his early friends was a feature of Henry’s character. When an infant in Stirling Castle, he had been lovingly cared for by David Murray the attendant who slept in his chamber. The trusty Scot followed his young master to England and the friendship between them grew closer as the Prince advanced in years, till at last, when the fatal fever had rendered him almost speechless, he called out repeatedly for David. When Murray approached the bed the dying youth recognised his life-long companion, but sighed as he muttered again and again “I would say somewhat but I cannot utter it.”66

According to the French ambassador, de la Boderie, Henry spent less time in study than in out-of-door exercise and games. “None of his pleasures,” says the Ambassador, writing when the boy was little more than twelve, “savour the least of a child. He is a particular lover of horses and what belongs to them; but is not fond of hunting; and when he goes to it, it is rather for the pleasure of galloping, than that which the dogs give him. He plays willingly enough at Tennis, and at another Scots diversion [golf] very like mall; but this always with persons elder than himself, as if he despised those of his own age. He studies two hours a day, and employs the rest of his time in tossing the pike, or leaping, or shooting with the bow, or throwing the bar, or vaulting or some other exercise of that kind; and he is never idle. He shows himself likewise very good natured to his dependants, and supports their interests against any persons whatever; and pushes what he undertakes for them or others, with such zeal, as gives success to it.”67

The Frenchman was probably wrong in supposing that the Prince played golf with persons older than himself because he despised those of his own age. The likelihood is that, as golf was introduced into England by Scotsmen who went south with James, only amongst his father’s northern courtiers would Henry be able to find opponents and partners for his game. An anecdote of the Prince regarding golf is told by Strutt in The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England. “At another time playing at goff, a play not unlike to pale-maille, whilst his schoolmaster stood talking with another, and marked not his highness warning him to stand farther off, the prince thinking he had gone aside, lifted up his goff-club to strike the ball; mean tyme one standing by said to him, ‘beware that you hit not master Newton’: wherewith he drawing back his hand, said, ‘Had I done so, I had but paid my debts.’” Henry’s remark seems to infer that good Master Newton had not spared the rod in the course of his tutorial duties, just as George Buchanan, a generation earlier, did not shrink from chastising the Prince’s father in the schoolroom at Stirling Castle.

The departure of Prince Henry for the south, after his father had come to his new inheritance, marks the end of the history of Stirling Castle as a regular dwelling-place of royalty. The ancient seat of monarchy was seldom occupied by princes after James had made his progress to London; but from time to time distinguished persons were lodged in the forsaken pile, albeit their stay within the fortress was not of their own seeking. In November, 1604, John, fifth Earl of Cassillis, was brought as a prisoner to Stirling from Blackness, his offence being that in the course of a dispute with his wife he attacked her in the presence of the Privy Council and dragged her out of the chamber. As the nobleman soon repented of his deed and sent a letter expressing his contrition to the Council, he was released from the castle at the end of the year, but was forbidden to pass further east than Linlithgow.68

In the following year Stirling Castle received as prisoners men of lowlier rank but of loftier spirit than Cassillis. These were several Presbyterian ministers, who, with others that were warded in Blackness, had attended the Assembly at Aberdeen in 1605, although the Privy Council, at James’s instigation had forbidden all persons to appear at such a meeting. For about one year the disobedient clergymen were detained in the castle by the King.69

James at this time was inclined for little toleration towards either Presbyterians or Roman Catholics. In 1608, George, first Marquis of Huntly, was warded in Stirling Castle for refusing to abjure the Romish religion, and for alleged disloyalty, while for the same reasons the Popish Earl of Erroll was placed in confinement in Edinburgh.70 After enduring imprisonment for many months, Huntly and Erroll wrote to their sovereign vainly beseeching him to grant them liberty, “for the King (as the treuth was) thought that he could not preserue the publicke peace better, then be keiping thesse birdes of prey so caidget wpe.”71 In the beginning of 1610, however, the Marquis was released on the understanding that henceforward he should embrace the Protestant faith.

Just about the time of Huntly’s discharge the Earl of Mar, in his capacity of Sheriff of Stirlingshire, placed in the Palace at Stirling Castle a man named John Murray, who was charged with murder or manslaughter. The delinquent should have been lodged in the Tolbooth of the town, but the magistrates, “being movid with some foolishe consait,” as Mar complained to the Privy Council, refused to concern themselves with the Sheriff’s prisoners, and so he was obliged to turn the King’s Palace into a common gaol. However, the Lords of Council listened to the Earl’s petition and ordered the Stirling magistrates to receive in future such persons as he should apprehend.72

James was once again to reside in the home of his early days. Before leaving Scotland he had promised his people that he would return to his native land every three years; but only once in the course of his English reign did he pass within the borders of his northern kingdom. The summer of 1617 was the season chosen for the visit. Edinburgh, Dundee, St. Andrews and Glasgow were honoured by the presence of the King, and the inhabitants of Stirling had twice an opportunity of according welcome to their sovereign. The early days of July were spent by James in the familiar castle, and again towards the end of the month he came to reside in the Palace.

It was at the time of this, his last, visit to the castle that he heard the Regents of Edinburgh College discourse on the various branches of philosophy. A rumour had gone abroad that James intended to suppress the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, leaving the more ancient St. Andrews and Glasgow to be the Oxford and Cambridge of Scotland.73 The Regents had desired to address the King at Edinburgh, but as no opportunity was given to them in the capital they made the journey to Stirling, hoping, doubtless, to impress him with their erudition and to justify the existence of their college. The scene of the disputation was the Chapel of the castle, where, on the evening of the 19th of July, a number of Scottish and English lords assembled with the King. Speeches were delivered in Latin and Greek, the pronunciations of the ancient tongues being after the Scottish mode, so that James took occasion to call the Englishmen’s attention to the superior grace which the languages acquired when spoken in the manner prevalent north of the Tweed.

The King was highly pleased with the discussion, and after supper he summoned the Principal and Regents. The fears of the Professors as to the future of their seat of learning were dispelled at this evening interview, for James graciously offered himself as Patron of their institution, giving it the name of King James’s College, and granting permission for the placing of his coat-of-arms on the gate of the humble building.

James’s two brief sojourns at Stirling gave the inhabitants a taste of the glory that had formerly belonged to their town, while his residence in the castle after an absence of fourteen years must have brought again to his own mind a throng of gay and gloomy memories. The Park recalled the summer hours spent in his favourite pastime of hunting; the Keep reminded him of weary tasks and the rigid discipline of George Buchanan; the Chapel, where he listened to the Edinburgh Regents, had been the scene of his eldest child’s baptism—that promising son who did not live to see again the place of his birth and early training. Young Mar’s revolution and the second Raid of Stirling were events of too stirring a kind to be forgotten, and the King doubtless felt as he recalled his early reign that although his responsibilities had increased with his accession to the English throne, his life and liberty were less at his subjects’ mercy than in the days when he reigned over Scotland alone.