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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
This extract is written in a contemporary clerkly hand. The original letter from which it was taken is missing. There is a portion of a letter among the Hatfield MSS. (cf. Cal. Hatfield MSS. iii, p. 282) of the same date from Richard Douglas at Falkland to Archibald Douglas of which this extract may originally have formed a part. At all events Richard Douglas was no doubt the writer of it. He was at that time acting as a sort of intermediary between his uncle Archibald and the King of Scotland. Archibald himself was living in London. He occupied no official position and was nominally in disfavor with the Scottish king because of his double dealing against the king's mother when her fate hung in the balance in the autumn of 1586. Nevertheless it is apparent from this extract and from other letters of Richard Douglas of the same time that James was really disposed to overlook Archibald's offences and in some semi-official manner to make use of his services at the English Court.
page 100 note 1 Doubless this should be Justice Clerk. Sir Lewis Bellenden had been made-Justice Clerk in Scotland in 1578 and he held the office until his death in 1591. He belonged to the faction which favoured the interests of England in Scotland, and in 1585 played a prominent part in destroying the power of the Earl of Arran and in securing the return of Angus, Mar and the other nobles of the English, party who had been forced to take refuge in England after the execution of their leader, the Earl of Gowrie, in 1583.
page 100 note 2 Sir Robert Melville was an old and a staunch friend of Mary Stuart. He-had been one of those who had made a last stand for her cause in Edinburgh Castle, had been taken prisoner when the castle was captured in 1573 and would have been executed had Elizabeth not intervened to save his life. James made-him Privy Councillor in 1585 and sent him as ambassador to England in the autumn of 1586 to intercede with Elizabeth for Mary's life. After working hard, to save Mary he returned to Scotland again.