OF

REMARKABLE CONSPIRACIES

CONNECTED WITH

EUROPEAN HISTORY,

DURING

THE FIFTEENTH, SIXTEENTH, AND
SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.

BY

JOHN PARKER LAWSON, M. A.

AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ARCHBISHOP LAUD."

PRINTED FOR CONSTABIE AND CO.

AND HURST, CHANCE, AND CO, LONDON,

PRINTED BY J. HUTCHISON,

FOR THE HEIRS OF D. WILLISON.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

Page

I. THE ASSASSINATION OF JAMES 1. OF SCOTLAND, A. D.

1437, IN THE BLACKFRIARS' MONASTERY, PERTH.

II.—THE DEATH OF JAMES III. OF SCOTLAND, A. D. 1488.

III. THE CONSPIRACY OF JOHN LEWIS FIESCO, COUNT

OF LAVAGNA, AGAINST GENOA, A. D. 1547.

Introductory Notice,

IV. THE DEATH OF DON CARLOS SON OF PHILIP II. OF

SPAIN, A. D. 1588.

The Death of Don Carlos,

V. THE GOWRIE CONSPIRACY, a. d. 1600; incLUDING

THE RAID OF RUTHVEN, 1582.

Chapter II.-2. The Gowrie Conspiracy,

Chapter III.

209

223

269

290

PREFACE.

IN laying this Work before the Public, my object has been to give as luminous a view as my limits would permit, of the causes of the various enterprises narrated in these volumes.

It is necessary to observe, that in the account of the Assassination of James I., I have followed the document inserted in the first volume of Pinkerton's History, which that historian has himself used. The death of James III. cannot be well understood, without giving a brief sketch of his eventful reign; and although I have perhaps dwelt longer on it than was absolutely necessary, as it is a very important period of our national history, it could not be avoided, without making any account of the lamentable end of that monarch imperfect. It has no other pretensions than that of being a compilation of facts; yet history, after all, must of necessity be a compilation.