Among the preachers who refused publicly to accept James’s account of the events in Gowrie’s house on August 5, Mr Bruce was the most eminent and the most obstinate.  He had, on the day after the famous riot of December 1596, written to Hamilton asking him to countenance, as a chief nobleman, “the godly barons and others who had convened themselves,” at that time, in the cause of the Kirk.  Bruce admitted that he knew Hamilton to be ambitious, but Hamilton’s ambition did not induce him to appear as captain of a new congregation.  The chief need of the ministers’ party was a leader among the great nobles.  Now, in 1593, the young Earl of Gowrie had leagued himself with the madcap Bothwell.  In April 1594, Gowrie, Bothwell, and Atholl had addressed the Kirk, asking her to favour and direct their enterprise.  Bothwell made an armed demonstration and failed; Gowrie then went abroad, to Padua and Rome, and, apparently in 1600, Mr Bruce sailed to France, “for the calling,” he says, “of the Master of Gowrie”—­he clearly means “the Earl of Gowrie.”  The Earl came, wove his plot, and perished.  Mr Bruce, therefore, was averse to accepting James’s account of the affair at Gowrie House.  After a long series of negotiations Bruce was exiled north of Tay.

UNION OF THE CROWNS.

In 1600 James imposed three bishops on the Kirk.  Early in 1601 broke out Essex’s rebellion of one day against Elizabeth, a futile attempt to imitate Scottish methods as exhibited in the many raids against James.  Essex had been intriguing with the Scottish king, but to what extent James knew of and encouraged his enterprise is unknown.  He was on ill terms with Cecil, who, in 1601, was dealing with several men that intended no good to James.  Cecil is said to have received a sufficient warning as to how James, on ascending the English throne, would treat him; and he came to terms, secretly, with Mar and Kinloss, the king’s envoys to Elizabeth.  Their correspondence is extant, and proves that Cecil, at last, was “running the Scottish course,” and making smooth the way for James’s accession. (The correspondence begins in June 1601.)

Very early on Thursday, March 24, 1603, Elizabeth went to her account, and James received the news from Sir Robert Carey, who reached Holyrood on the Saturday night, March 26.  James entered London on May 6, and England was free from the fear of many years concerning a war for the succession.  The Catholics hoped for lenient usage:  disappointment led some desperate men to engage in the Gunpowder Plot.  James was not more satisfactory to the Puritans.

Encouraged by the fulsome adulation which grew up under the Tudor dynasty, and free from dread of personal danger, James henceforth governed Scotland “with the pen,” as he said, through the Privy Council.  This method of ruling the ancient kingdom endured till the Union of 1707, and was fraught with many dangers.  The king was no longer in touch with his subjects.  His best action was the establishment of a small force of mounted constabulary which did more to put down the eternal homicides, robberies, and family feuds than all the sermons could achieve.