To strengthen himself, Lennox was reconciled to the Kirk; to help the
Hamiltons, Elizabeth sent Bowes to intrigue against Lennox, who was
conspiring in Mary's interest, or in that of the Guises, or in his own.
When Lennox succeeded in getting Dumbarton Castle, an open door for
France, into his power, Bowes was urged by Elizabeth to join with Morton
and "lay violent hands" on Lennox (August 31, 1580), but in a month
Elizabeth cancelled her orders.

Bowes was recalled; Morton, to whom English aid had been promised, was
left to take his chances. Morton had warning from Lord Robert Stewart,
Mary's half-brother, to fly the country, for Sir James Balfour, with his
information, had landed. On December 31, 1580, Captain Stewart accused
Morton, in presence of the Council, of complicity in Darnley's murder. He
was put in ward; Elizabeth threatened war; the preachers stormed against
Lennox; a plot to murder him (a Douglas plot) and to seize James was
discovered; Randolph, who now represented Elizabeth, was fired at, and
fled to Berwick; James Stewart was created Earl of Arran. In March 1581
the king and Lennox tried to propitiate the preachers by signing a
negative Covenant against Rome, later made into a precedent for the
famous Covenant of 1638. On June 1 Morton was tried for guilty
foreknowledge of Darnley's death. He was executed deservedly, and his
head was stuck on a spike of the Tolbooth. The death of this avaricious,
licentious, and resolute though unamiable Protestant was a heavy blow to
the preachers and their party, and a crook in the lot of Elizabeth.



THE WAR OF KIRK AND KING.