Relating to the

HISTORY

OF

MARY

QUEEN

OF

SCOTLAND.

VOL. III.

EDINBURGH:

Printed by Mr. THOMAS RUDDIMAN. MDCCXXVII.

THE

EDITO

TOR's

PREFACE

I'

то

The Third VOLUME.

contains the Negociations of John Lesley Bishop of

Rofs as Ambafador and Commissioner of Mary Queen

of Scots in England, wherein is an Account of that Queen's Affairs from her Efcape out of the Caftle of Lochlevin in Scotland in the beginning of May 1568 till the faid Bishops Releafement out of Prison in England, and his going over to France in the beginning of the Year 1574. THIS Treatife is mention'd and much followed by the Learned Cambden in his Annals of Queen Elizabeth but hitherto has not appear'd in Print, tho there are feveral Copies of it in Manufcript.

THE Copy from which this is taken appears to have been writ in the Author's Time and by feveral Writings done by his Direction, feems to be the Hand or very like to that of one of his Secretaries which is ftill extant.

Ir is reckoned a good Copy and was prefented to the Honourable Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh by the late Right Reverend Prelate and very learned Dr. William Nicholfon fometime Lord Bishop of Carlisle in England, afterwards of Londonderry in Ireland, and tranflated from thence to the Archbishoprick of Cathel in that Kingdom, who among others his learned Labours, has obliged the three Kingdoms with Hiftorial Libraries of each Nation; and I must ever own a grateful and dutiful Regard to his Lordship's Memory for his obliging Favours to my Country, and his friendly Correspondence with my felf

THIS Copy has a Preface and Dedication to Queen Mary by the Author, which is not in some others, where he tells in what Manner he wrote this Treatise, when deprived of the use of Paper and Ink, with a lead Pencil betwixt the Lines of printed Books.

It is not continued so far down as another Copy in the Cotton Library, in a more modern Hand, which I compared with this Copy, and from it have added what is more than in the Copy in the Advocates Library, as a continuation to render it more compleat.

to the THIRD VOLUME.

THE Language of that Book is better than what we find in the Writings of most Englishmen at that Time, and much different from the other Writings of the Author in his own Hand; but as is mentioned in the Preface to his Defence of the Honour of Queen Mary, he was both in that and in this Difcourfe affifted in the Language, by his learned Friend Dr. Good an eminent English Physician; nor do I in the leaft mention this to the prejudice of the Learned Bishop, who by his Latin Treatifes feems to have been a great Mafter in Writing, but only to prevent Mistakes, left by the Language it might be thought not to be his, but fomething trumped up in his Name.

THERE is in thefe Negotiations a more full Account of Jome Matters, than I have found in any other of the Hiftorians of that Time, and particularly in Relation to an Invafion of England and Scotland to have been made from abroad; and an Infurrection at Home, to procure Queen Mary her Liberty, and to place her on the Throne of England, by fetting afide Queen Elizabeth, and by that Means to overturn the Proteftant Religion in both thefe Kingdoms.

AND it will easily appear from the fame Negociations, what great Share that Prelate had in all the Tranfactions concerning Queen Mary, while he refided in England; but how far the Account he gives of his Examinations concerning the Rebellion, in the North of England in 1569 agrees

with

V