THE CAM PBE LLS --(C NTINIJED).
A RCIIIBALD, fourth Earl of Argyll, had a charter of the 1-1. King's lands of Cardroas in Dumbartonshire in April, 1542, and was one of the Council designated as assistants to Beaton as Regent in the will of James V., which he produced after the King's death, and which was alleged to be forged. Argyll attached himself at first to the Cardinal's party, in opposition to Arran and the Protestants, and afterwards strongly opposed the match between Prince Edward of England and the infant Queen Mary and the English affiance generally, King ;Henry continually rousing the Isles against him as a means of keeping him engaged in that part of Scotland. After the termination of Hertford's expedition into Scotland in 1515, Argyll received a considerable share of the confiscated lands of the Earl of Lennox, the adherent of the English, as, for instance, the lands of Arrochar in Dumbar- tonshire, in October of that year. He continued to be one of the French party and of the Church of Rome, and distinguished him- self at the disastrous battle of Pinkie, September 10, 1547, and on the invasion of Scotland in 1548 he advanced in January with another army against the English to Dundee, but on receiving the sum of a thousand crowns he on the 5th of February retired from Dundee without fighting and went over to the English party ; and from this time we find him opposing Mary of Guise and the French party. Re next openly declared himself a Protestant, taking as a chaplain John Douglas, a converted Catholic priest (afterwards first Protestant Archbishop of St. Andrew's), and encouraging him to preach in his household notwithstanding the remonstrances of the Primate. He also signed the celebrated Bond or Covenant against "Popish abominations" in Decem- ber, 1557. He died in the latter half of the year 1658, exhorting his son on his death-bed to the promotion of Pro- testantism and the suppression of Popish superstitions. It is evident that the key to this sudden change of principles is still wanting, and this may when supplied in some degree modify the judgment we must pass on the receipt of the thousand crowns. Archibald, fifth Earl of Argyll, son of the fourth Earl by his first wife, a daughter of the first Earl of Arran, was educated by John Douglas in the Protestant faith. He adhered, however, along with Lord James Stewart (afterwards Earl of Moray), to the Queen Regent until she violated the treaty of Perth by admitting French troops into that town, when they left her with 300 men, and being joined by numbers as they advanced took possession of Edinburgh without opposition. Henceforth Argyll adhered to the Lords of the Congregation, and joined Queen Elizabeth in expelling the French troops from Scotland. On the return of Mary from France (1561) he was appointed a Privy Councillor, and the Queen visited him during the summer of 1563 at his country house for the amusement of deer-hunting. But in 1565 the Eng- lish Ambassador reports that the Queen. " hateth ray Lord of
Argyll," and that Moray and he did not dare to go to Court except singly, that so one might be able to succour the other if an attempt was made to seize either. Argyll opposed the match with Darnley and even entered into a plot to seize that young nobleman and carry him off to England. This was discovered, and Argyll fled, but made his peace in 1566. He lent his sanction to the murder of Rizzi°, signing one of the " covenants " entered into among its preliminaries, and he afterwards joined the con- spiracy against Darnley and signed the bond for his murder. He was one of the lords who after the murder of the King signed the paper declaring their conviction of the innocence of Bothwell, and recommending him to Mary as her husband, That this was caused by intimidation is evident from the fact that Argyll and most of the others immediately afterwards entered into a secret confederacy against Bothwell, and quietly collected their forces. After the overthrow of Bothwell and imprisonment of Mary Argyll again joined the Hamiltons in opposition to Moray's Regency, but was won over again along with these dangerous friends of Mary to desert her cause. He again joined Mary on her escape from Lochleven. He was seized with an apoplectic fit just before the battle of Langside, and made prisoner May 13, 1568, but purposely allowed to escape, and retired to his own country. But he rose in arms once more in conjunction with Huntley and the Hamiltons in July, 1568, and made considerable progress till ordered to disband by Mary at Elizabeth's instigation ; and in April, 1569, he made his terms with Moray. After the murder of Moray Argyll was one of the lords who assembled at Linlithgow 10th April, 1570, and took up arms in Mary's cause, he being appointed along with Chatelherault and Huntley her Lieutenant in Scotland. In 1571 Argyll submitted to the Regent Lennox, and appeared in the Parliament held at Stirling in the September of that year. He was a candidate for the Regency on the murder of Lennox on the 4th of that month, but Mar being preferred, Argyll was sworn a Privy Councillor. On the elevation of Morton to the Regency in November, 1572, Argyll was appointed Lord Chancellor, and in January, 1573, obtained a charter of that office for life. He died of the stone, September 12, 1575. He married first Jean Carmichael, a natural daughter of James V., who was at supper with her half-sister Queen Mary at the time of the murder of Rizzi°. He married a second time, but had no issue by either wife, and was succeeded by his half-brother Sir Colin Campbell of Boquhan. It is not easy to give any clear or consistent idea of a character which seems to have been chiefly guided by motives of self-interest and personal ambi- tion, but Earl Archibald may possibly be distinguished in some degree from the Hamiltons, the Douglases, and others of these lords of misrule, by some sort of national feeling, which led him to prefer a Scotch party to an English or French faction, provided his own interests were not required to be sacrificed.
There is a lady, who is described as the half-sister of Earl Archibald, and is called by the Irish annalists "the Countess of Argyll," who figures in the political intrigues and family feuds of the chieftains in the north of Ireland, and was much courted by the English Government. She married the Callogh O'Donnell, chief of that clan, and was carried off from her husband (a willing captive) by the celebrated Shan O'Neil, with whom she lived for some time as his paramour. Her name does not, how- ever, appear in the lists in the peerages of the children of the fourth Earl of Argyll. The conduct of the fifth Earl in this matter was as discreditable to him as it was characteristic of the times. The unhappy lady had soon found reason to regret her folly. "Shan O'Neil," writes the Ambassador Randolph to Cecil, " possesseth O'Donnell's wife, and by him she is with child. She is all day chained by the arm to a little boy, and at bed and board .when he is present she is at liberty." And yet a few years afterwards we find Argyll on terms of close friendship with Shan, and a proposal made, which was said to be "the Earl's practice," that "the Countess" should be sent away, "and that Shan should marry the widow of James M'Connell, whom he had killed, who was another half-sister of Argyll, and whose daughter he had married already and divorced !" Sir Colin, who succeeded as sixth Earl of Argyll, had a charter of the lands of Easter ' Leckie, or Shirgartan, in Stirlingshire, July 21, 1548. He had taken for his second wife the Lady Agues Keith, widow of the Regent Moray, and through her got possession of some of the richest of Queen Mary's jewels, which the latter had delivered to Moray, and on which it was alleged the Regent had advanced money to the State. The Regent Morton insisted on their restoration, in accordance with an order he had obtained from the Parliament; but Argyll and his lady refused obe- dience until threatened with arrast. This, however, com- pletely alienated Argyll from Morton, with whom he had been up to that time hand in glove. He was then engaged in a feud with the Earl of Atholl, and both had gathered their forces to settle the matter by trial of battle when an order of Morton's compelled them to disband their followers. The Regent also, they learnt, intended to prosecute them for treason, and in self-defence they united in a confederacy against him, and slighted his summons to appear before a court of justice. This new alliance had been cemented by the exertions of Alexander Erskine, Governor of the young King, and commander of Stirling Castle, who having reason to believe that Morton intended to seize the castle and the person of the King, made a secret expedition down to Argyll and Atholl. and induced them to combine against the Regent. A superficial reconciliation was effected between the opposing parties through the exertions of Elizabeth's Ambassador, Bowes, despatched for that pur- pose, but on the 4th March, 1578, Argyll rode with his usual retinue to Stirling, was admitted by Erskine to an interview with James, com- plained loudly of the oppressions of the Earl of Morton, and implored the King to call a convention to examine into these grievances, and if they were found to be real, to supersede Morton and take the government on himself. Buchanan, the King's famous tutor, backed these arguments, which were supported by several noblemen present, and by Atholl, who speedily joined them. A letter from the Regent to the King arrived at this moment, in which he complained bitterly of the manner in which the two. Northern Earls had defied the authority of the Crown, and said he would resign his office of Regent if their proceedings were still overlooked. The conspirators immediately suggested to the King to avail himself of this offer (which had been meant for nothing but a threat), and James summoning a convention of nobles by writs,. which Argyll and Atholl took care should only reach their own friends, Morton was deprived of his Regency, and a deputation sent to him to demand his resignation in the King's name. Mor- ton affected cheerful acquiescence. A council of twelve was appointed, at the head of which was Argyll, and all Royal letters were to be signed by the King and four of this number. But Morton, although pretending to be immersed in rural amuse- ments, had secretly undermined his opponents. He managed to gain over the young Earl of Mar, whose sister, Morton's heir, the Earl of Angus, had married, by persuading him that he was kept in tutelage, and unjustly deprived of his hereditary office of Governor of Stirling Castle by his uncle, Alexander Erskine.. While Angus and Morton quickly gathered the feudal array of the Douglases, and two abbots, also uncles of Mar, joined the con- spiracy, on the 26th of April, at five in the morning, Mar, under pretence of a hunting party, collected his forces and demanded the keys of the castle. Erskine, who endeavoured to. oppose him, was overpowered, and his son crushed to death in the tumult. Mar seized the keys and made himself master of the castle, and James awoke in great terror to find himself in the midst of a scene of the greatest confusion. Argyll, also awakened, affected to regard it as a family quarrel among the Erskines, and he was induced to sign a report to Edinburgh to that effect, adding that the quarrel had been adjusted. But when the Council rode in a body to Stirling the next day from Edinburgh, they were refused admission to the King's presence by Mar except singly. They assembled instead in the town, issued a proclamation, and summoned forces, but the Douglases were beforehand with them, and a composition was entered into by which Mar was to be Governor of Stirling Castle and Erskine of Edinburgh Castle. A meeting was held at Craigmiller between Morton, who had re- appeared on the scene, and Argyll and Atholl, in which it was agreed (on the 8th of May) that they should repair together the- next day to Stirling, and adjust their differences in the King's presence. But the next morning they found that Morton had anticipated them, and had reached Stirling and resumed his con- trol of both Mar and the King. Argyll and his friends assembled at Edinburgh, raised forces, and refused to recognize a Parliament summoned by Morton in Stirling Castle. A new Council was appointed by the latter body, at the head of which was Morton. Argyll and Atholl raised seven thousand men, and marched from Edinburgh to Falkirk, where they were met by Angus and five thousand of the retainers of the Douglases. Skirmishing had actually begun, when through the interposition of Bowes, the English Ambassador, a compromise was effected. Argyll and Lindsay were to enter the new Council, and both parties were to disband their forces. But the King's person and the real power remained in the hands of Morton and his friends.
In 1579 Atholl—who had been confirmed in the office of Chan- cellor—died, with grave suspicions of his having been poisonpfl by the agents of Morton, and he was succeeded in his office by /(rgyll„ who affected to be quite reconciled to the Ex-Regent. But on the rise of Duni Stewart, nephew of the Regent Lennox, and after- wards created by the King Duke of Lennox, and of Captain Stewart (created Earl of Arran), the Royal favourites, .Argyll began to pay court to them, and it was whispered that some French gold had found its way to Lady Argyll as a means of inducing her hus- band to act with the French faction. He did so for some time, co-operating in the fall of Morton and sitting as one of the jury on his trial in June, 1581; but soon afterwards he began to waver again, confessed to the Kirk ministers he had gone too far with the French, and promised if the Protestant faith was threatened to desert his friends. He accordingly joined in the bond against Lennox, in which Earl Gowrie had the chief part, and which led to the raid of Ruthven. But we find him soon after joining Huntley and others in their successful efforts to rescue the King from the hands of Gowrie and the English party. He was, however, disabled from taking an active part in affairs after this by illness, which terminated in his death in October, 1584.
He was succeeded by his eldest son, Archibald, seventh Earl of Argyll, who was then considerably under age. He began life as a leader of the Protestant or " Kirk " party, in opposition both to Maitland the Chancellor and the Catholic lords headed by Huntley. The murder of the "bonny Earl of Moray" (of ballad renown),* on the 7th of February, 1592, it was afterwards discovered, was pert of a plot entered into between the Chancellor Maitland, the Earl of Huntley, Archibald Camp- bell of Lochnell (descended from the second son of the third Earl of Argyll, and next in succession to the Earldom after the seventh Earl, and his only brother), Duncan Campbell of Glenurchy, Sir James Campbell of Ardinglass, and others, who had signed a regular bond, called "the Great Contract," for the murder of Moray, Argyll, Colin Campbell of Lundie, (Argyll's brother,) and John Campbell of Calder. Moray—James Stewart of Dona (descended from a brother of Lord Methven, the last husband of Queen Margaret), who had married the eldest daughter of the Regent Moray, and assumed thereupon the title of Earl of Moray, was the most accomplished nobleman of the age, and a great favourite of the Kirk. He was also viewed, it is said, with favour by James's Queen, who had let fall some words of admira- tion of him in the King's presence. Huntley, a Catholic, was burning to revenge the death of the Earl of Huntley, who was executed by the Regent Moray. The mother of the Earl of Moray ivas a daughter of the fourth Earl of Argyll, and consequently the Earls of Moray and Argyll were first cousins. It was agreed that Campbell of Lochnell should succeed as Earl of Argyll, and that he should surrender a considerable portion of the Campbell estates to Maitland. Huntley, who pleaded the direct orders of the King, having accomplished his deed of blood against Moray, the next victim was to have been the Earl of Argyll. In 1594 he was entrusted with the command of a Highland force in the King's name to crush the Catholic lords. Although he had neither cavalry nor artillery, young Argyll, then only eighteen, was so con- fident of success that he sent a message to Huntley that within three days he meant to sleep at his house of Stratlabogie. Huntley (who knew he had the aid of treason within the clan Campbell itself) replied that Argyll should be welcome, he would himself be his porter, and open all the gates of his palace to his young friend, but he must not take it amiss if he rubbed his cloak against Argyll's plaid ere they parted. The armies encountered at Glen- livat, October 3, 1594, and after a severe contest the Highlanders fled, and Argyll was forced off the field by his friends, weeping with indignation at the pusillanimity, as he then supposed it to be, but as he afterwards discovered, the treachery, of some of the clansmen. His defeat was followed by the assassination of Campbell of Calder, but before the infamous bond could be further carried out Campbell of Ardinglass (for whom Argyll had not long before intervened with an armed force when he was brought to trial for a murder) was seized with remorse and dis- closed the plot; Argyll got possession of the original "bond," dis- covered thus the extent of the plot, armed all his retainers in fury, and began a war of extermination against Huntley, the Gordons, and the false Campbells, while Huntley raised forces and re- taliated. The King, driven to extremities by the scenes of horror and confusion which• ensued, intervened at length, and threw Argyll into Edinburgh Castle and the other parties to the struggle into other prisons, and compelled Huntley to fly to Denmark. After his release from prison Argyll did good service to Elizabeth
* " He was a brew gallant, And he rode at the rlug, And the bonny Earl of Moray, ' 0 he might ha' been a King! "He was a braw gallant, And he played et the gluve, And the bonny Earl of Morey, 0 he was the Queen's lure
by breaking up the expedition of the Islemen to Ireland in 1595 in aid of the Earl of Tyrone, then in arms against her. He con- tinued to be considered one of the Protestant party during the life of his first wife, a Douglas, daughter of William, first Earl of Morton, of the Lochleven House. In 1602, just before the accession of James to the throne of England, that King effected a reconciliation between Argyll and Huntley, the eldest son of the latter being betrothed to Argyll's daughter, Lady Anne Campbell. In 1608 Huntley and he commanded jointly in an expedition against the Macgregors, in which that clan was almost totally extirpated. In 1615 the Macdonalds of Kentire having revolted, Argyll marched against them, and re- duced and expelled them, their possessions; and the whole county of Kentire was granted him as a reward by the King in 1617, the grant being ratified by a special Act of Parliament the same year. On the death of his first wife the Earl married again at St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, London, in 1610, Anne, daughter of Sir William Cornwallis, of Brome (ancestor of Earl Cornwallis), and this lady, who was a Catholic, gradually won over the once zealous champion of the Kirk to the Catholic faith. In 1618 he left Scotland and entered the service of the King of Spain and distinguished himself in the war against Holland. He did not return to England till 1638, and died at London in the same year. By his first wife he left a son Archibald, who succeeded him as eighth Earl of Argyll, and was destined to raise the House of Campbell to the height of political greatness ; and by his second wife a son James, who became Earl of Irvine.
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