Knox, John, approximately 1514-1572; Reformation -- Scotland
As to the terms of truce with the Regent, Knox gives no document, but
says that no Perth people should be troubled for their recent destruction
of idolatry "and for down casting the places of the same; that she would
suffer the religion begun to go forward, and leave the town at her
departing free from the garrisons of French soldiers." The "Historie"
mentions no terms except that "she should leave no men of war behind
her."
Thus, as it seems, the brethren by their Band were to go on wrecking the
homes of the Regent's religion, while she was not to enjoy her religious
privileges in the desecrated churches of Perth, for to do that was to
prevent "the religion begun" from "going forward." On the Regent's entry
her men "discharged their volley of hackbuts," probably to clear their
pieces, a method of unloading which prevailed as late as Waterloo. But
some aimed, says Knox, at the house of Patrick Murray and hit a son of
his, a boy of ten or twelve, "who, being slain, was had to the Queen's
presence." She mocked, and wished it had been his father, "but seeing
that it so chanced, we cannot be against fortune." It is not very
probable that Mary of Guise was "merry," in Knox's manner of mirth, over
the death of a child (to Mrs. Locke Knox says "children"), who, for all
we know, may have been the victim of accident, like the Jacobite lady who
was wounded at a window as Prince Charles's men discharged their pieces
when entering Edinburgh after the victory of Prestonpans. (This brave
lady said that it was fortunate she was not a Whig, or the accident would
have been ascribed to design.) This event at Perth was called a breach
of terms, so was the attendance at Mass, celebrated on any chance table,
as "the altars were not so easy to be repaired again." The soldiers were
billeted on citizens, whose houses were "oppressed by" the Frenchmen, and
the provost, Ruthven (who had anew deserted to the Congregation), and the
bailies, were deposed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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