Charles I at that time, to use an expression current even in England, had formed a Junta to deliberate on the affairs of Scotland. It consisted of Arundel, Cottington, the Secretaries Coke and Vane, and a few Scots of high rank, the Duke of Lennox, the Earl of Morton and the Marquess of Hamilton. Archbishop Laud was only now and then admitted to take part in it, for the embarrassment of affairs in Scotland had already entered on a stage in which principles at once episcopal and monarchical were no longer a safe guide. Even in this Junta the views of the Scottish statesmen asserted themselves: one of their number, the [A.D. 1638.] Marquess of Hamilton, was selected, and undertook to go to Scotland as Lord High Commissioner representing the King, and to make an attempt to compose the disturbances on the basis of concessions to be made by the King in accordance with the views of the Scottish Privy Council. Hamilton had lived at the English court from his youth. Early in life he had married a niece of Buckingham, and, supported by this connexion, in consequence of which his wife filled an important office at court, had been brought into the closest relations with the royal family. The King bestowed on him his unreserved confidence. He had once been warned against Hamilton, who had an hereditary claim to the crown of Scotland: the effect of this warning was that, the very next time he saw him, he invited him to share the same sleeping apartment with himself on the following night. Hamilton had given no special attention to study, but he possessed natural gifts; a keen and solid understanding, sound judgment, and imperturbable calmness in discussion: his counsels had the greatest influence upon the King. In his political and even in his personal attitude, he as well as the King was dependent upon the change of circumstances. His mind had a natural tendency to conciliation and compromise, in consequence of which he had supported John Dury, who travelled about promoting with unwearied zeal the union of the Protestant confessions. Devoted to the King, popular with the Scots, averse from all extremes, he appeared to be the man best fitted to stem the further progress of the quarrel that was every day becoming more dangerous[104].