The Raid of Ruthven, the kidnapping of King James VI of Scotland, was a political conspiracy in Scotland which took place on 23 August 1582."Ruthven, William", by T. F. Henderson, in Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 50 (Smith, Elder, & Co., 1897)Steven J. Reid, The Early Life of James VI, A Long Apprenticeship (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2023), p. 187. It was composed of several Presbyterian nobles, led by William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, who abducted the king. The nobles intended to reform the government of Scotland and limit the influence of French and pro-Catholic policy, and to prevent or manage the return of Mary, Queen of Scots from England to rule with her son in an "association". Their short-lived rule of around 10 months is known as the "Ruthven" or "Gowrie Regime".Steven J. Reid, 'Of bairns and bearded men: James VI and the Ruthven Raid', Miles Kerr-Peterson & Steven J. Reid, James VI and Noble Power in Scotland 1578-1603 (Routledge, 2017), pp. 32-44.
Scottish coup d'état
Ruthven Castle In July 1582 the discontented lords made a bond to one another in their enterprise to displace Catholic influences around the young king. Their party became known as the "Lords Enterprisers", and their opponents were the King's favourite, the Frenchman Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, and James Stewart, Earl of Arran, who shared control of the government. James VI was seized while he was hunting near the castle of Ruthven in Perthshire on 22 (or 23) August.Alexander Courtney, James VI, Britannic Prince: King of Scots and Elizabeth's Heir, 1566–1603 (Routledge, 2024), pp. 60–64. Some sources, including the letters of Robert Bowes, an English diplomat sent to Scotland after the event, state the King was captured at Ruthven Castle on 23 August. The Ruthven lords presented the King with a lengthy "supplication" to explain the motives of their surprise action, dated 23 August.Calderwood, David, History of the Kirk, vol. 3 (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1843), p. 637.
The 17th-century historian David Calderwood named the Ruthven Raiders as the Earls of Mar and Gowrie, the Master of Glamis, the Laird of Easter-Wemyss, Lewis Bellenden, Lord Boyd, Lord Lindsay, the Abbot of Dunfermline, David Erskine, Commendator of Dryburgh, the Abbot of Paisley, the Prior of Pittenween and the Constable of Dundee.Steven J. Reid, 'Of bairns and bearded men: James VI and the Ruthven Raid', Miles Kerr-Peterson & Steven J. Reid, James VI and Noble Power in Scotland 1578-1603 (Routledge, 2017), p. 34.
It was said that James VI started to cry.David Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland, vol. 3, p. 643. The Master of Glamis is reported to have said, "Better bairns greet than bearded men".Steven J. Reid, 'Of bairns and bearded men: James VI and the Ruthven Raid', p. 32. ("Greet" is a Scots word meaning "weep, mourn."David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1881), p. xiv.)
To prevent a rescue attempt by the Duke of Lennox's soldiers, the Earl of Mar stationed an armed force at Kinross to break their march northward. The Earl of Arran's brother, William Stewart, reached Ruthven, fought the raiders, lost two fingers and was captured. Arran himself arrived and was captured.Steven J. Reid, The Early Life of James VI, A Long Apprenticeship (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2023), p. 189.
The king was held and controlled by the Ruthven Lords for ten months, until managing to escape on 27 June 1583. He was moved around a number of houses. He was taken to Perth the next day, where the Earl of Gowrie had a large townhouse, as provost of the town.Steven Veerapen, The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I (Birlinn, 2023), p. 66. David Moysie wrote that the lords had given him their "supplication" at Perth, and James then was taken to Stirling Castle at the end of August. At Stirling, the Ruthven party was swelled by Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell; the Earl of Glencairn; and Laurence, Master of Oliphant, and their retainers had now grown to 400.David Moysie, Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland, vol. 1 (1830), p. 38. The English diplomats Robert Bowes and George Carey came to Stirling on 14 September and Mary's supporter George Douglas was interrogated about secret French correspondence.Conyers Read, Mr Secretary Walsingham and the policy of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 2 (Archon, 1967), p. 376: William K. Boyd, Calendar of Scottish Papers, 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), pp. 166–167 no. 167. In October 1582, James was at Holyrood Palace, in Edinburgh.Steven J. Reid, 'Of bairns and bearded men: James VI and the Ruthven Raid', James VI and Noble Power in Scotland 1578-1603 (Routledge, 2017), p. 34.
Ruthven Castle's name was officially changed to Huntingtower in 1600, after the Gowrie House conspiracy. The castle is maintained and opened to the public by Historic Environment Scotland.
Historical sources Copies of relevant papers, such as the Lords' "supplication" of 23 August 1582 and Lennox's protest, "D'Obany's petition", were given by John Colville to Robert Bowes and sent to England, where they remain in the Public Record Office.David Laing, Original letters of Mr John Colville, 1582-1603, and his Palinode, 1600 (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1858), pp. 8-9: A copy of a declaration in French by Lennox, against the "calumnies of Gowrie and his confederates", Dumbarton, 22 September 1582, is preserved in Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms Fr. 3308, Register of Mr Pinard, item 122
Opponents of Regime The Earl of Gowrie remained at the head of the government and was assisted by figures like the Master of Glamis. The king's favourite, Esmé Stewart, Duke of Lennox, the main politician who was targeted by the coup, was sent to Dumbarton Castle and was forced into exile in France after he had lingered at Rothesay Castle on the Island of Bute, and died in Paris in May 1583. Another prominent politician, the recently ennobled James Stewart, Earl of Arran, was imprisoned at Dupplin, Stirling, Ruthven (Huntingtower) and then confined at his own 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'.Book of the Universal Kirk, vol. 2, 594. It was approved by influential ministers of the Kirk of Scotland from the pulpit. These churchmen were called "Melvillians" after their spokesman, Andrew Melville.Michael Lynch, Scotland: A New History (Pimlico, 1992), pp. 228, 232. The noble leaders of the regime also included those who were "discomfited" by the fall of James Douglas, Regent Morton in 1581, and the Douglas family, which had been 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 its extravagance, the Earl of Gowrie as Lord High Treasurer of Scotland was owed £48,000.Steven J. Reid, 'Of bairns and bearded men: James VI and the Ruthven Raid', Miles Kerr-Peterson & Steven J. Reid, James VI and Noble Power in Scotland 1578-1603 (Routledge, 2017), p. 35. The debt was never repaid.Julian Goodare, 'Debts of James VI', in Economic History Review, 64: 4 (November 2009), pp. 934-936: William K. Boyd, Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), 240. A number of cost-saving measures for the royal household were proposed by Gowrie and his exchequer colleagues.Steven J. Reid, 'Of bairns and bearded men: James VI and the Ruthven Raid', Miles Kerr-Peterson & Steven J. Reid, James VI and Noble Power in Scotland 1578-1603 (Routledge, 2017), pp. 41-2. They 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 of your majesties present rents", a reference to the alleged thriftiness of James V.National Archives of Scotland, E34/36 Scheme for ordering the household November 1582: See Amy Juhala, The Court and Household of James VI, University of Edinburgh PhD (2000), 39-47, Edinburgh Research Archive
Lennox seems to have made himself particularly unpopular by using his office of Chamberlain to profit from merchant trade in the Scottish towns and burghs. The Ruthven Regime ordered him to leave Scotland. Lennox delayed his exile unto 22 December, when he sailed for France and never returned.Steven J. Reid, 'Of bairns and bearded men: James VI and the Ruthven Raid', Miles Kerr-Peterson & Steven J. Reid, James VI and Noble Power in Scotland 1578-1603 (Routledge, 2017), pp. 38, 40.
Response in England
Queen Elizabeth I was pleased with events and sent £1000 in September 1582 to Robert Bowes, a payment declared as the wages of the King's Guard.CSP Scotland, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), p. 185 no. 186 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 and described this force, funded by England, as 400 men-of-est raised to convey James VI to their "auld enemies" in England. They urged the townspeople of Edinburgh to arm themselves and to seize James, who was at Holyroodhouse, on their behalf. The people of Edinburgh did not follow up on the suggestion.CSP Scotland, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), no. 177
The reaction of Francis Walsingham was more circumspect. He wrote to the Earl of Shrewsbury, the keeper of Mary, Queen of Scots, with news of progress in Scotland on 26 September 1582. Walsingham thought that "thinges stand not yet in so good termes as were to be wished". He found James's own letters, and his speech in favour of the Duke of Lennox made at Stirling on 14 September, to demonstrate 'of what rare towardliness that yonge prince is, and howe dangerous an enemye therefore he would prove unto England yf he should happen to runne to any other coorse".Dynfnallt Owen, ed., HMC 58, Manuscripts Marquess of Bath, vol. 5 (London, HMSO, 1980), p. 39: W. K. Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), pp. 169-170, no. 169.
In September, Mary sent Jean Champhuon, sieur du Ruisseau, a brother-in-law of her secretary, Claude Nau, to the Duke of Guise to discuss possible plans. They included taking James VI to France and invading Scotland with 600 musketeers, possibly with papal funding. Mary envisaged a landing at Dumbarton Castle and the capture of Blackness Castle and Stirling Castle.William Barclay Turnbull, Letters of Mary Stuart (London, 1845), pp. 307-311.
French reaction and English diplomacy Catherine de' Medici, the French queen mother, wrote to the French ambassador in London, Michel de Castelnau, with her concerns over the capture of James and the exile of Lennox.Les Mémoires de messire Michel de Castelnau, seigneur de Mauvissière, vol. 1 (Paris, 1731), pp. 699-700 Elizabeth I was told that Castelnau had secretly conveyed letters to Mary, Queen of Scots, and to her supporters in Scotland. Walsingham asked the ambassador in France, Henry Cobham, to advise King Henry III of France and Catherine de' Medici of the situation and that Castelnau should be more circumspect in the handling of Mary's letters. Elizabeth had no wish to foment further disquiet in Scotland after the recent disturbances.Arthur John Butler, Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, 1582, vol. 16 (London, 1909), no. 357.
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