INTRODUCTION 

1. In 1571 the London printer John Day simultaneously produced Latin and Scots-English versions the same set of texts. These volumes contained, first, the text of a diatribe against Mary Queen of Scots by the great Scots Humanist George Buchanan [1506 - 1582], second, a lengthy indictment (Actio ) of her alleged crimes, and third, the texts of the so-called Casket Letters. All this material was designed to document that Mary had been conducting an adulterous affair with the Earl of Bothwell prior to the murder of her consort, Lord Darnley; that Darnley’s murder was encompassed by Bothwell with Mary’s foreknowledge, in order to pave the way for their marriage; and that Scots justice was seriously perverted so that Bothwell would not be held accountable for his crime of regicide. These documents were all prepared for the October 1568 conference at York, at which representatives of the Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland, and other Scottish Protestant lords met with English commissioners to justify Mary’s forced abdication. Their subsequent publication doubtless was intended to mold public opinion in both Scotland and England, and also, in their Latin version, to provide a justification for Mary’s dethronement and imprisonment suitable for European consumption. As such, the present pair of volumes are an interesting example of the early use of the printing press for the dissemination of political propaganda, not entirely unlike the “white papers” put out by James’ government to justify the trial and execution of Father Henry Garnet and the Gunpowder Plotters, one specimen of which is included in the Philological Museum.
2. Nowadays it is often thought that Buchanan was responsible for no more than the first item in the volume. He was one of the Scots representatives at the York conference, and according to William Camden in his Annales Rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum Regnante Elizabetha for the year 1568:

[“But whereas there were stirres and commotions raised in Scotland by the friends of the expulsed Queene, and Murray’s presence was needfull there, he framed an accusation before the Queene, and before Bacon Lord Keeper, the Duke of Norfolke, the Earles of Arundell, Sussex, Leicester, Clinton Lord Admirall, Sir William Cecyl, Sir Ralph Sadleir, who by a new Patent were made Commissioners to heare and examine the matter; and before them he produced conjecturall Articles, the testimonies of some, and the Decrees made in an Assembly of the Estates, and especially certain Love-letters and verses written (as he affirmed) with the Queens owne hand, and all to prove her guilty of her husbands death; and Buchanan’s booke, intituled The Detection, he delivered to them to reade, which found small credit with the greatest part of the Commissioners, as a man parciall on that side, and of mercenary credit.”]

Here Camden is probably thinking of the entire set of documents. But it would appear that Buchanan’s own contribution was not written to be read by the English delegates; rather, from its final sentence one gathers that it is the text of a speech he delivered to them. Since they are Elizabeth’s representatives, in his introduction he indulges in the fiction that he is speaking in the presence of the Queen herself; probably this reflects the confidence that his words would soon be transmitted to her.
3. According to Camden (writing on the year 1567):

[“What George Buchanan hath written hereof both in History, and also in a little booke intituled The Detection, there is no man but knoweth by the bookes themselves imprinted. But forasmuch as hee, being transported with partiall affection, and with Murray’s bounty, wrote in such sort that his said bookes have beene condemned of falsehood by the Estates of the Realme of Scotland, to whose credit more is to be attributed; and hee himselfe sighing and sorrowing, sundry times blamed himselfe (as I have heard) before the King, to whom he was Schole-master, for that he had employed so virulent a pen against that well-deserving Queene, and upon his death-bed wished that hee might live so long, till by recalling the truth, hee might even with his blood wipe away those aspersions which he had by his bad tongue falsly laid upon her; but that (as he said) it would now be in vaine, when he might seeme to dote for age.”]

It is obviously the case that in his scathing denunciation of Mary, Buchanan has gone to great lengths to collect and assemble malicious contemporary gossip. Likewise, he bends the historical facts to suit his purpose: his estimation of Darnley is absurdly favorable; there is no mention of the murder of David Riccio or of Darnley’s unlovely personality traits; nor is he candid about the fact that the genuinely objectionable feature of Mary is her Catholicism. But it is doubtful that his motive was that suggested by Camden (which has been uncritically repeated by many subsequent writers), a shabby desire to gratify his patron. In his De iure regni apud Scotos he advanced the doctrine that political power ultimately resides in the sovereign people, not the monarch, and his Rerum Scoticorum Historia was written to provide concrete historical illustrations of this theory. NOTE 1 It is likely that his outspoken detestation of Mary was grounded in these political beliefs, as well of course as his Protestantism. His allegation that the way Mary and Bothwell rode roughshod over Scots law, trampling underfoot the ancient rights of the Scottish people, was tyrannical is likely to have been meant seriously, and so he may well have been impelled by genuine and deeply felt indignation, and rationalized his highly tendentious account of the facts with the thought that, in the struggle against tyranny, no fairness doctrine need be observed.
4. The Latin text is based on the original publication (Short Title Catalogue 3978, Early English Books reel 181), a digitized photographic reproduction of which is available here. The 1571 Scottish version (Short Title Catalogue 3981, Early English Books reel 275) may or may not be by Buchanan himself, but in any event captures his “voice” as only a contemporary translation could. Readers who prefer to read Buchanan’s speech in a modern translation will find an annotated one at Gatherer, pp. 165 - 80.

 

Notes

NOTE 1 For Buchanan’s political thought see the Introduction to W. A. Gatherer, The Tyrannous Reign of Mary Stewart (Edinburgh, 1958), and Duncan H. MacNeill, The Historical Background to Buchanan’s De Jure Regni Apud Scotos, available here.