[MR] Wikipedia: The Gowrie Plot against King James

Garth Groff and Sally Sanford mallardlodge1000 at gmail.com
Sun Aug 5 03:05:34 PDT 2018


Noble Friends, Especially Fellow Scots,

On this date in 1600, John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie, and his younger
brother Alexander Ruthven died in a bizarre attempt to kill or kidnap King
of Scots James VI. The incident is known to historians as the Gowrie Plot:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ruthven,_3rd_Earl_of_Gowrie .

This was not the first time the Ruthvens had made an attempt to seize the
King. In 1582, William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, led the "Raid of
Ruthven" in which the 15 year-old James was kidnapped. Ruthven led a brief
puppet government until the king somehow escaped. Ruthven continued to plot
against James, and was finally beheaded for treason in 1584:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_of_Ruthven .

These, and other plots to kidnap or kill the young king, made him very
fearful of his earls. The same month as the Gowrie Plot, my distant and
many times removed cousin Archibald Napier was murdered outside the gate of
Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh (daggered multiple times, of course). He was
killed by a hit squad sent by powerful border lord Walter Scott, 5th of
Buccleuch. Buccleuch was the same man who in 1596 had famously broken the
border reiver "Kinnamont Willie" Armstrong out of Carlisle prison in a
carefully planned commando raid (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Scott,_1st_Lord_Scott_of_Buccleuch ).
To avoid a blood feud, James ordered both sides to stand down. Scott was
fined several hundred pounds Scots, and the actual assassins were sentenced
to six months Sunday penance in their local church. One can only suspect,
that James treated them so lightly because he feared making another enemy
of the very dangerous Scott family. The Napiers were outraged, especially
as the fine that was supposed to go to them somehow got stuck in the King's
purse, but what could they do?

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆


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