[1584/5/7]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Our sovereign lord, with advice of his three estates convened in this present parliament, has ratified and approved and, by the tenor hereof, ratifies and approves the liberty of the preaching of the true word of God and administration of the sacraments in purity and sincerity according to the Confession of the Faith received and authorised by parliament in the first year of his majesty's reign.
[1584/5/8]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Forasmuch as sundry persons being lately called before the king's majesty and his secret council to answer upon certain points to have been enquired of them, concerning some treasonable, seditious and contemptuous speeches uttered by them in pulpit, schools and otherwise, to the disdain and reproach of his highness, his progenitors and present council, contemptuously declined the judgement of his highness and his said council in that behalf, to the evil example of others to do the like if timely remedy be not provided, therefore our sovereign lord and his three estates assembled in this present parliament ratify and approve and perpetually confirm the royal power and authority over all states, both spiritual as temporal, within this realm in the person of the king's majesty, our sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, and also statute and ordain that his highness, his said heirs and successors, by themselves and their councils, are and in time to come shall be judges competent to all persons, his highness's subjects of whatsoever estate, degree, function or condition that ever they be, spiritual or temporal, in all matters wherein they or any of them shall be apprehended, summoned or charged to answer to such things as shall be enquired of them by our said sovereign lord and his council, and that none of them who shall happen to be apprehended, called or summoned to the effect aforesaid presume or take upon hand to decline the judgement of his highness, his heirs or successors or their council in the premises, under the pain of treason.
[1584/5/9]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
The king's majesty, considering the honour and the authority of his supreme court of parliament continued past all memory of man to these days, as constituted upon the free votes of the three estates of this ancient kingdom, by whom the same under God ever has been upheld, rebellious and traitorous subjects punished, the good and faithful preserved and maintained and the laws and acts of parliament (by which all men are governed) made and established; and finding the power, dignity and authority of the said court of parliament of late years called in some doubt, at least some curiously working to have introduced some innovation thereupon, his majesty's firm will and mind always being as it is yet, that the honour, authority and dignity of the said three estates shall stand and continue in their own integrity, according to the ancient and lovable custom observed in time bygone, without any alteration or diminution; therefore it is statute and ordained by our said sovereign lord and his three estates assembled in this present parliament that none of his lieges and subjects presume or take upon hand to impugn the dignity and authority of the said three estates or to seek or procure the innovation or diminution of the power and authority of the same three estates or any of them in time coming, under the pain of treason.
[1584/5/10]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Forasmuch as in the troubling times during these 24 years past, sundry forms of judgements and jurisdictions, both in spiritual as temporal causes, are entered, in the practice and custom whereby the king's majesty's subjects are often convened and assembled together and pains, both civil and pecuniary as ecclesiastical, enjoined to them, process led and deduced, sentences and decreets given and the same put into execution, no such order as yet being allowed of and approved by his majesty and his three estates in parliament, contrary to the custom observed in any other Christian kingdom or well governed commonwealth and to the diminishing of the force and power of his highness's own laws, by the which his majesty's subjects ought to be ruled, and specially his highness and his estates considering that in the said assemblies certain of his subjects have taken upon them to justify and authorise the fact perpetrated against his highness's person and estate at Ruthven and prosecuted thereafter, until his majesty at God's pleasure recovered his liberty, having in their pretended manner made acts thereupon, kept the same in register and as yet seem to allow the said attempt, although now publicly condemned by his highness and estates as treasonable, none of the authors thereof having craved his highness's pardon thereof; for remedy whereof in time coming, so that according to the lovable act of his dearest grandfather, King James IV of worthy memory, all his highness's lieges (being under his obedience) must be ruled by his own laws and the common laws of this realm and by no other laws, our sovereign lord and his three estates assembled in this present parliament discharge all judgements and jurisdictions, spiritual or temporal, accustomed to be used and executed upon any of his highness's subjects which are not approved by his highness and his said three estates convened in parliament, and decree the same to cease in time coming, until the order thereof be first seen and considered by his† estates in parliament, and be allowed and ratified by them, certifying those that shall proceed in using and exercising of the said judgements and jurisdictions or obey the same, not being allowed nor ratified as is said, they shall be reputed, held, called, pursued and punished as usurpers and condemners of his highness's authority, in example of others. And also it is statute and ordained by our said sovereign lord and his three estates that none of his highness's subjects, of whatsoever quality, estate or function they be of, spiritual or temporal, presume or take upon hand to convocate, convene or assemble themselves together for holding of councils, conventions or assemblies, to create, consult and determine in any matter of estate, civil or ecclesiastical (except in the ordinary judgements), without his majesty's special commandment, express licence had and obtained to that effect, under the pains ordained by the laws and acts of parliament against such as unlawfully convenes the king's lieges.
[1584/5/11]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Our sovereign lord and his three estates assembled in this present parliament, willing that the word of God shall be preached and sacraments administered in purity and sincerity, and that the rents whereupon the ministers ought to be sustained shall not be possessed by unworthy persons neglecting to do their duties for which they accept their benefices, being otherwise polluted by the frail and enormous crimes and vices after-specified, it is therefore statute and ordained by his highness, with advice of the said three estates, that all parsons, ministers or readers, or others provided to benefices since his highness's coronation (not having vote in his highness's parliament) suspected to be culpable of heresy, papistry, false and erroneous doctrine, common blasphemy, fornication, common drunkenness, non-residence, plurality of benefices having cure, whereunto they are provided since the said coronation, simony and dilapidation of the rents of benefices, contrary to the late act of parliament, being lawfully and orderly called, tried and judged culpable in the vices and causes above-written, or one of them, by the ordinary bishop of the diocese or others, the king's majesty's commissioners to be constituted in ecclesiastical causes, shall be deprived both from their function in the ministry and from their benefices, which shall be thereby declared to be vacant, to be presented and conferred anew, as if the persons, possessors thereof, had been naturally dead; and that it shall be esteemed and judged non-residence where the person being in the function of the ministry, provided to a benefice since the king's majesty's coronation, makes non-residence at his manse, if he has any, and, failing thereof, at some other dwelling place within the parish, but remains absent from there and from his kirk and using of his office by the space of four Sundays in the whole year, without lawful cause and impediment allowed by his ordinary; and where any person is admitted to more benefices having cure since our sovereign lord's coronation, the acceptance of the last shall be sufficient cause of deprivation from the remainder, so that he be provided to two or more benefices having cure since the time of the said coronation; and nevertheless this present act shall not extend to any person provided to his benefice before the said coronation, neither shall the possession of the said office to which he was provided of before induce plurality of benefices in this case, but he shall only lose his right of the benefice to which he was provided since the said coronation only; and union of kirks to one benefice are not to be judged plurality, until further order be established and provided in that behalf; likewise also the persons being in the function of the ministry that shall happen to be lawfully and orderly convicted before our sovereign lord's justice general or others, their judges competent of criminal causes, such as treason, slaughter, mutilation, adultery, incest, theft,† perjury or falsehoods, they being likewise lawfully and orderly deprived from their function in the ministry by their ordinary or the king's commissioners in ecclesiastical causes, the benefices possessed by the said persons to be vacant by reason of the said conviction and deprivation and this to have effect and execution only for crimes, vices, faults and offences that shall happen to be committed after the date hereof.
[1584/5/12]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
The king's majesty and his three estates assembled in this present parliament, earnestly desirous that all his loving and good subjects shall be faithfully instructed in the doctrine of their salvation and that the ministers of God's word and sacraments may the better and more diligently attend upon their own charges and vocation, therefore statutes and ordains that all the said ministers shall lawfully await thereupon, to the comfort and edification of the flocks committed to them, and that none of them presently being in that function, or that shall be admitted thereto in time coming, shall in any way accept, use or administer any place of judicature in whatsoever civil or criminal causes, not to be of the college of justice, commissioners, advocates, court clerks or notaries in any matters (the making of testaments only excepted) under the pain of deprivation from their benefices, livings and function; and if they fail herein, being called, tried and judged culpable by their ordinaries or the king's majesty's commissioners in ecclesiastical causes, they shall then lose their said benefices and livings and other qualified persons shall be presented and provided thereto, as if they were naturally dead.
[1584/5/13]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
The king's majesty and his three estates assembled in this present parliament ratify and approve and, for his highness and his successors, perpetually confirm the declaration underwritten made by his highness, with advice of his said estates convened in council, on 7 September 1583,† of the which the tenor follows:
Albeit the late surprise and restraint of our most noble person, perpetrated in August now past a year, was a crime of lese-majesty, heinous in itself, of dangerous sequel and most pernicious example, meriting to be the more aggravated that the greatest part of the committers thereof, besides their allegiance and common duty of subjects, were specially bound to us by many benefits and particular obligations, deserving thereby the greater severity and more grievous punishment; yet we, being naturally inclined to mercy and according to our natural disposition always resolved by clemency to give them occasion the more willingly to return to their duty and by a loving and gentle demeanour, as it were, to deserve a more assured and voluntary obedience, and therefore have not only abstained from all rigour, but also besides the custom of a most clement prince, in private speeches, published answers to several ambassadors directed towards us by [Elizabeth I], our dearest sister, the queen of England, by our ambassadors sent to her, by diverse resolutions in council and public proclamations, uttered our clemency, promised impunity, offered pardon and full security of lives, lands and goods to such as would acknowledge their offence and return to their due obedience, fully satisfying ourselves with so moderate and slender declaration thereof as was no way to their hurt, loss or detriment, relenting the times† prefixed thereto and prorogating the same from time to time, and rather as a father seeking to recover his children than a sovereign prince in a commonwealth respecting his estate and surety, after their manifest disobedience, without any proceeding against them, permitted some of the ministers and well affected barons to deal with them, entreat them and persuade them of their duty, continuing (notwithstanding the weight of their crime and disobedience) of full intention that, by their penitence, their former offence and contempt should altogether be extinguished and buried in oblivion. And albeit our clemency and long suffering has not produced such effect, nor been so respected by them as they ought, we have thought good to assemble our nobility and estates, by their advice the more solemnly to reiterate and fully perform whatsoever we had in the word of a prince, and by advice of our council heretofore promised and by their advice to provide substantially, as well their impunity and full assurance with our honour and surety of [our]† person and estate, and also to bear record of our mercy and forbearance, whatsoever shall happen hereafter by the behaviour of the said persons to ensue. And seeing we have omitted no good means nor left anything undone that could be wished in a godly, most careful and most clement prince, we and our nobility and estates have resolved and hereby do declare that whoever shall hereafter repine, continue in their disobedience and condemn our clemency and so long suffering, we, our said nobility and estates presently assembled will take such order as our honour, surety of person and estate shall require and their stubborn and proud contempt shall deserve, and shall prosecute the said crime and sequel thereof against all such that either has or shall stubbornly repine, persist in their disobedience, condemn our clemency or refuse to acknowledge their offence, and their assisters, supporters and partakers whatsoever, which we do promise in the word of a prince, and our nobility and estates have solemnly sworn to hold hand and assist to their uttermost, which we desire be enacted and registered in the books of our privy council and published at all market crosses and other places needful of our realm; and that the same may have the better authority, we and our nobility have subscribed this act at Holyroodhouse on 7 December 1583. And also it is statute [and ordained]† by our sovereign lord and his three estates in this present parliament that none who were authors or had foreknowledge of the said most treasonable deed shall presume in time coming to occupy or possess place in his highness's privy council or college of justice or in any public office of the estate of this commonwealth, or repair to his highness's court and presence, not being expressly sent for by his majesty under the pain of incurring of his highness's [high]† indignation. And because the late treasonable rebellion attempted against his highness's person and estate is the sequel of the former committed at Ruthven, it is also statute and ordained by his highness, with advice of his said three estates, that none of his highness's subjects in time coming presume or take upon hand, by word or writ, to justify and allow the said most treasonable attempt at Ruthven, or to keep in register or store any books, rhyme, act, bond or writ whatsoever tending to the allowing and approval of the same attempt at Ruthven in any sort, but those that possess the said bonds, books, acts and registers in their hands bring in and present the same to his highness and privy council between the date hereof and 1 July 1584, to be deleted and cancelled under the pain of treason, with certification to those that fail, that pains of treason shall be executed against† them without favour in example of others. Moreover, forasmuch as the late most treasonable conspiracy and rebellious attempt at the burgh of Stirling, and intended to have been further executed and prosecuted against his highness's person, authority and estate and the common quietness of the whole good subjects within this realm, was impossible to be interpreted and set forward by the few number that revealed and plainly showed themselves authors and avowers of that wicked deed, without the reset, supply, comfort, communication, and countenancing provided by others, their favourers and conspirators in the same crime, therefore, in horror of the said treasonable fact and terror to others to attempt the like, it is statute and ordained by our sovereign lord and his [three]† estates assembled in this present parliament that all persons that† have reset, supplied, communicated with the rebels or† conspirators that lately in April 1583 surprised his highness's castle and burgh of Stirling, or such as were with them and publicly assisted them in their rebellion during their abiding within the said burgh and castle, or after the coming of [John Erskine], earl of Mar and [Thomas Lyon of Baldukie], master of Glamis out of Ireland and until their fleeing and entering again within the realm of England, or has since or shall hereafter deal with them, or that after their reset has not nor shall not take and present them before his majesty and council, or who has written or received writ or word from them by any organ or instrument, direct or indirect, knowing of their habitual resorts, intermediaries or traffic and kept it secret and unrevealed with all good diligence, and all that has aided them with horses, victual, company or convoy or reset them in their houses, administering to them help the better to accomplish their aforesaid treason against his highness's person, nobility, council and crown, shall now, and in all time coming, be esteemed, held, [deemed]† and judged guilty of the treasonable deeds of the said rebels, traitors and conspirators and as committers of the crime of treason, and shall be called, pursued and punished for that with all rigour, in example of others.
[1584/5/14]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Forasmuch as it is understood by our sovereign lord and his three estates assembled in this present parliament what great harm and inconvenience has fallen in this realm, chiefly since the beginning of the civil troubles occurring in the time of his highness's minority, through the wicked and licentious public and private speeches and untrue calumnies of diverse his subjects, to the disdain, contempt and reproach of his majesty, his council and proceedings, and to the dishonour and prejudice of his highness, his parents, progenitors and estate, stirring up his highness's subjects thereby to misliking, sedition, unquietness and to cast off their due obedience to his majesty, to their evident peril, loss and destruction, his highness, continuing always in love and clemency towards all his good subjects and most willing to seek the safety and preservation of them all, which wilfully, needlessly and upon plain malice, after his highness's mercy and pardon often before granted, have not procured to themselves by their treasonable deeds to be cut off as corrupt members of this commonwealth; therefore it is statute and ordained by our sovereign lord and three estates of this present parliament that none of his subjects (of whatsoever function, degree or quality in time coming) shall presume or take upon hand, privately or publicly, in sermons, declamations or familiar conferences, to utter any false, untrue or slanderous speeches to the disdain, reproach and contempt of his majesty, his council and proceedings, or to the dishonour, hurt or prejudice of his highness, his parents and progenitors, or to meddle in the affairs of his highness and his estate, present, past and in time coming, under the pains contained in the acts of parliament against makers and tellers of lies, certifying those that shall be tried contraveners thereof, or that hears such slanderous speeches and does not report the same with diligence, the said pain shall be executed against them with all diligence,† in example of others. Moreover, because it is understood by his highness and his three estates that the books of the Chronicle and De Jure Regni apud Scotos, made by the late Master George Buchanan and printed since, contain sundry offensive matters worthy to be deleted, it is therefore statute and ordained that those that possess the said two volumes in their hands bring in and deliver the same to my lord secretary or his deputes within forty days after the publication hereof, to the effect that the said two volumes may be perused and purged of the offensive and extraordinary matters specified therein, not suitable to remain as accords of truth to posterity, under the pain of £200 of every person failing herein; and where any are not responsible to pay the said sum, to be punished in their persons at our sovereign lord's will. And to the effect that this ordinance may come to the knowledge of all our sovereign lord's lieges, publication is ordained to be made hereof at the market crosses of the head burghs of the shires and other places needful, that none pretend ignorance thereof, and the penalty contained therein to be executed with all rigour against those that possess the said books, the said space of forty days being past after the publication and proclamation of the said act in every shire as said is.
[1584/5/15]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Forasmuch as for the better trial of the last† most treasonable conspiracy and rebellion attempted against our said sovereign lord, his person and estate by Archibald [Douglas], earl of Angus, John [Erskine], earl of Mar, Master Thomas Lyon of Baldukie, master of Glamis, and their accomplices, and repressing of their insolence after their taking of his majesty's burgh of Stirling, his highness, by advice of his council and officers of his estate resident with him for the time, directed sundry proclamations, letters, charges and commissions for convening of his subjects in arms for recovering and taking of houses, apprehending of persons guilty and suspect, and sundry other things most necessary for the advancement of his highness's service for the time, until, at God's pleasure, the pretence of his disloyal subjects was disappointed by the execution of justice upon some to the death, according to their just deservings, the remainder escaping and fleeing out of the realm or as yet remaining covered within the same; wherefore, the king's majesty and his three estates assembled in this present parliament, find and declare the proceedings of his majesty, his council, and of officers used and made in the trial, prosecution and punishment of the said late rebellion attempted against his highness and his authority as said is to be duly, worthily and sufficiently done and performed, and that his said council, officers and other good subjects assisting them in the premises have done to his highness good, true and thankful service in that behalf.
[1584/5/16]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Forasmuch as albeit the most odious and treasonable crimes of the restraint and captivity of the king's majesty's most noble person, committed at Ruthven on 23 August 1582, and prosecuted at diverse other places thereafter, until his highness, by God's providence, relieved himself of that thraldom on 26 June 1583, have been graciously pardoned and forgiven by his highness to the authors and committers thereof, nevertheless, the principals of them conspiring anew in the months of November, December, January, February, March and April last, most treasonably consulted, communicated, devised and concluded upon the surprising and taking of his highness's person, to have him anew in their hands and power, to be used against his own mind and good liking at their will and appetite, and upon the slaughter and destruction of diverse noblemen and others, his highness's councillors and faithful subjects, to the great peril of his person and subversion of his estate and authority; and after sundry secret conspiracies, giving and receiving of letters, messages, and intelligences for advancement of their most wicked and treasonable conspiracy, at last assembled themselves and their accomplices in arms at the burgh of Stirling in April 1584, seized and surprised the same, took and made prisoners of the bailies and magistrates thereof, fortified the steeple, bridge, ports and diverse other places of the said burgh, and fortified and furnished the same with men of war, besieged his highness's castle of Stirling, constraining the few number of persons being therein unprovided to render the same, threatening them with danger of present death, and taking, using and keeping of them as prisoners, stopped and impeded his highness's heralds and other officers of arms directed to have proclaimed and executed his highness's letters at the market cross of Stirling to use the same letters and robbed and took them from the said officers, making seditious proclamations of their own at the said market cross, full of untruths and calumnies, and for taking up of bands of men of war to serve them in their seditious and most treasonable rebellion, and in the end, fleeing out of the realm, left the said castle of Stirling fortified and garnished with men, ammunition and victual against his highness and his authority, manifesting by their actions their enduring, obstinate and malicious continuance in their former most treasonable attempt of the surprise, restraint and keeping captive of his highness's most noble person, condemning and disdaining his grace's pardon and favour shown to them; wherefore our sovereign lord, with advice of his three estates in this present parliament, decrees and declares that all alienations, resignations, demissions and other dispositions whatsoever made or to be made by any person or persons convicted or that hereafter shall happen in any way to be convicted or forfeited for art and part of the treasonable withholding and taking of his majesty's town and burgh of Stirling and castle thereof against his highness and his authority, of whatsoever lands, heritage, offices, rooms, benefices, tacks set or to be set to them or their wives, bairns, brothers, sisters or any other persons whatsoever, by coloured means and titles, in defraud of our sovereign lord's escheat, since the time of the said treasonable surprise, restraint and captivity of his highness's most noble person attempted at Ruthven on 23 August 1582, with all confirmations, infeftments or other gifts made and granted by his highness or any other superiors thereupon, between that day and his majesty's relief aforesaid on 26 June 1583 aforesaid, are and shall be of themselves null, and of no effect, strength, force nor value in time coming, with all that has followed or that shall happen to follow thereupon. Likewise his majesty, with advice of his three estates, decrees and declares all gifts, provisions and dispositions of prelacies, abbacies, priories and nunneries, made and granted by his highness to whatsoever persons, his highness's subjects, upon the resignations or demissions of the present possessor of the same prelacies, abbacies, priories and nunneries, with reservation of their own liferents during the time of his highness's restraint and captivity aforesaid committed on 23 August 1582, until his majesty, at God's pleasure, acquired his own liberty on 26 June 1583, to be likewise null and of no value, strength, force nor effect with all that has followed or may happen to follow thereupon.
[1584/5/17]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
The king's majesty, remembering the many rebellious and treasonable deeds perpetrated against his majesty and their† most noble progenitors, with the greater audacity and contempt, for that they have found the forfeitures led against some persons, authors of the like treasons of before, reduced and taken away in the minorities of his highness and of [Mary], the queen, his dearest mother, upon the pretence of some alleged nullities found in the processes, the principal causes and crimes, for which the said persons were forfeited, not being purged; for remedy of the which abuse, and that all men may rather eschew to incur the fearful spot of treason to themselves, their houses, and posterity in time coming, it is statute and ordained by our sovereign lord and his three estates in this present parliament that no process of forfeiture for treason committed against the king and his estate already standing in force, or that shall happen to be deduced against any persons for crimes of lese-majesty in time coming, shall at any time hereafter be reduced for any pretended cause of nullity that may be alleged to be in the process, until first the cause and crime for the which the forfeiture was led be freely remitted to him by our sovereign lord, or that he be purged effectually and the party tried and found acquitted thereof; but in case it shall please his highness or his successors at any time hereafter to restore any forfeited persons or their posterity, that shall only be granted to them by way of grace, and that no advocates, writers or others, his highness's lieges, presume or take upon hand to travail, solicit or give counsel in contradiction to the order appointed in this present act, without special warrant of his highness and his three estates in parliament, under the pain of being reputed as favourers and partakers with traitors and to underlie the pain and punishment due thereof.
[1584/5/18]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
The king's majesty, considering that slaughters, fire-raising and other odious crimes have been so commonly committed through all the parts of this realm, and a great part of the occasion thereof supposed to be the ready granting of his highness's respites and remissions to the committers thereof, upon inopportune suits made to his majesty; therefore his highness, remembering how grievous such slaughters, fire-raising and other odious crimes are in God's sight and how offensive to the estate of the commonwealth of this realm, following the good and most lovable example of his [most noble]† progenitors in the like case, at the instant request of his three estates assembled in this present parliament, and for the better eschewing of trespasses and enormities, the safety of his lieges and common profit of his realm, of his special grace and favour, has granted and in the word of a king promised to close his hands and cease from granting any respites or remissions for any manner of slaughters, fire-raising and other odious crimes that shall happen to be committed for the space of three years coming after the date hereof, that in the meantime his realm may be put in peace and rule, and his lieges live in surety; and if any remissions be given or granted for old actions, that it shall be expressed and provided in the same that the trespass was committed before this present parliament, and that his highness and [his]†treasurer have seen where the party is compensated, and if the contrary be found, the remission or respite is to be of no value.
[1584/5/19]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
The king's majesty, with advice of the three estates of this present parliament, having considered how necessary it is to have a reasonable number of gentlemen to attend continually upon his highness's person as his guard, has thought the number of forty persons suitable to be elected and maintained for that effect, able, honest and well horsed and having some reasonable livings of their own, who, being sworn and admitted in his highness's service, shall be unremovable from there during their lifetimes, unless upon worthy and great causes they shall be justly deprived, every one of which 40 persons shall have £200 [yearly]† for their subsistence thankfully paid to them at two terms in the year, Whitsunday [May/June] and Martinmas [11 November] in winter, by equal portions, beginning the first term's payment at the feast of Martinmas 1584; and for sure payment of their said wages and subsistence, that they shall [not]† in default thereof be compelled to neglect or leave his highness's service, or his majesty to be frustrated and destitute of the same, his highness, in no way willing to lay the burden of their said subsistence upon his people by any taxation or imposition to be raised upon them, whereof he is most willing to ease and relieve them, but to provide the said subsistence otherwise; therefore, with advice of his said three estates, decrees, declares, statutes and ordains that of all the prelacies and other inferior benefices within this realm (lawful patronages excepted) now vacated or that hereafter shall happen to become vacant, his majesty and his successors shall have the first year's fruits after the decease, forfeiture or deprivation of the last possessor, according as the said benefice shall be valued in his highness's exchequer by the auditors thereof, to whom, or any five of them, his highness gives and grants full power, commission and authority to make and set the stent and value of all the benefices, small and great, within this realm in money, according to the which the said first year's fruits shall be paid, and that the whole year after the vacancy be expired or then the first year's fruits instantly paid before any gift, provision or presentation of the benefice be granted; and also decrees, declares, statutes and ordains that of every benefice valued to £1,000 in the year now vacant, or that shall happen to become vacant hereafter, his majesty and his successors shall have freely paid to them yearly £200, beside the ordinary third, at the terms of Whitsunday and Martinmas, by equal portions, and so proportionally of every benefice, as well above as beneath the value of £1,000; and before any person nominated to whatsoever benefice hereafter shall have his presentation expedited and passed the register or seals, he shall find good surety for payment, both of the first year's fruits and of the sum due to be paid by him yearly to his highness and his treasurer in his majesty's name, to his use and effect specified; and during the whole space of the vacancy of the said benefices, the said treasurer to intromit with and take up the whole rents, fruits profits and duties thereof. But because the said first year's fruits of the benefices presently vacated and sums appointed to be paid out of the same yearly will not serve nor extend presently to the payment of the wages of his highness's guard, his majesty and estates, considering the next best help and provision and understanding that the convents of the abbeys, priories and nunneries which of old were ordained and accustomed to be sustained upon the rents and fruits thereof, are for the most part, departed this life, since the year of God 1560, none or few other presented by his majesty being entered in their places, but their portions by their deaths accrediting to the priories, abbots, commendators or possessors of the said abbeys, priories and nunneries by no law nor constitution yet established by his highness and his said estates, it is therefore found, declared, statute and ordained by his highness and his said three estates that, as the presentations, gifts and dispositions of his said prelacies pertain to his highness by the right and privilege of his crown, so has he good right and interest to crave, receive, intromit and take up all the portions of the persons of the convents of the said abbeys, priories and nunneries that have deceased since the said year of God 1560, or that shall happen to decease hereafter, until the same abbeys, priories and nunneries shall become vacant and come [fully]† in his highness's hands and disposition by decease, forfeiture or lawful deprivation of the present possessors thereof; and that his majesty, and his treasurer in his name, has, and shall have, good action by law to crave, receive, intromit and take up the portions of the persons of the said convents already deceased as said is, of the crop and year of God 1583 last and in time coming, until the said benefices shall happen to become vacant, just as the said persons might have done themselves during life; and that the lords of council and session or exchequer direct such letters at the instance of the said lord treasurer for answering and obeying to him of the portions of the said persons deceased as is granted for payment of the surplus of the thirds of benefices.
[1584/5/20]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Our sovereign lord, with advice and consent of the three estates of this present parliament, has ratified and approved and, by the tenor hereof, ratifies and approves the act and statute underwritten, and decrees the same to have strength, force and effect of an act of parliament, of which the tenor follows:
At Edinburgh, 29 May 1583, the which day, in presence of the king's majesty sitting in judgement and lords of his highness's council and session, compeared Master David MacGill of Nisbet [and Cranstoun-Riddel], advocate to his majesty, and in name of his highness's most faithful, humble and obedient subjects, stated and declared how in the parliament held at Edinburgh on 20 June 1555, by his majesty's late dearest grandmother, Mary [of Guise], queen dowager and regent of this realm for the time, an ordinance and act of parliament was made concerning the slaughter of parties in pursuit and defence of their actions, which act, albeit in itself most profitable and necessary to have been a perpetual law in all time coming, for repressing of proud and undaunted braggers, boasters and oppressors of their parties, yet was the same only temporal for the space of three years after the making thereof, which act the said advocate, in name and for the causes aforesaid, desired to be renewed and established in a perpetual law in all time coming, with the augmentations following; upon which desire our sovereign lord, willing to follow the good example and intention of his predecessors for the reverence and increase of justice and assurance of parties in pursuit and defence of their actions and executions of the same, has, with advice of the said lords of his council and session, ordained, decreed and declared that from this day forth, in all times coming, if it shall happen either the defender or pursuer to slay or wound to the effusion of blood, or otherwise to invade one of them another in any sort, whereupon they may be criminally accused after the raising of summons or precepts and lawful execution thereof, or in any time before the complete execution of the decreet to be given thereupon, the committer of the slaughter, blood or invasion aforesaid, or being art, part, adviser or counsel thereof, if it be the defender, shall be condemned at the instance of the pursuer, or, in case of his decease, of the nearest of the kin of him that is slain, wounded to the effusion of his blood or invaded, having right thereto, without any probation of the libel pursued, excepting summary cognition to be taken of the slaughter, bloodshed or invasion before the justice or other criminal judge competent thereto, by conviction or being fugitive and put to the horn; and if the decreet be given, the same is to be unreducible for ever; and if the pursuer slay, wound to the effusion of blood or invade the defender as it is above-written, or by art, part, advice or counsel thereof, cognition being taken as said is, in that case the defender, or in case of his decease the nearest of his kin able to succeed in that right, shall have absolution from the libel of the pursuer simply, against which the pursuer nor any other by his right shall ever be heard by way of reduction or restitution entirely in any time thereafter, regardless of the age, condition or quality that the slayer, drawer of the blood or invader aforesaid be of, the process of transferring in the causes above-written respectively to be on fifteen days' warning, without diet, table or continuation of other summons; and if the slayer, shedder of blood or invader as said is has lands and liferents and be denounced rebel and put to the horn for not finding of surety or non-compearance to underlie the law for the said slaughter, bloodshed or invasion, in that case the slayer, shedder of blood or invader immediately after the denunciation shall lose the liferent of his lands, benefice, office and other rents and commodities whatsoever for his lifetime, without any further delay of a year and a day as in other causes of loss of liferents through being a year and a day at the horn. Moreover, our sovereign lord, by the faith and duty of a Christian prince, promises to give no respite nor remission to the offenders in such causes; and if his majesty or his successors do in the contrary (as is not believed), the using of the said respite or remission by any of the said parties, pursuer or defender, shall be the like cause and of the same effect as their conviction for the cause above-specified; and this act and ordinance to endure for the space of seven years immediately thereafter, and to be confirmed in his highness's next parliament, to have the strength and effect of an act thereof and to be observed as a perpetual law in time coming.
[1584/5/21]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Our sovereign [lord],† with advice and consent of his highness's three estates of this present parliament, has ratified and approved and, by the tenor hereof, ratifies and approves the act and statute underwritten, and decrees and declares the same to have strength, force and effect of an act of parliament, of which the tenor follows:
At Edinburgh, on 23 March 1582 [1583], which day, in presence of the king's majesty sitting in judgement and lords of his highness's council and session, compeared Master David MacGill of Nisbet [and Cranstoun-Riddel], and in his own name, as advocate to his highness, and in name of his majesty's most faithful, humble and obedient subjects of his realm, stated and declared how it was heavily meant by his majesty's said subjects that after the tedious, chargeable and long pursuit in obtaining of their decreets, the malice of persons had daily so increased by making of simulated and false assignations of their moveable goods, fraudulent and private alienations of their possessions, lands and heritage that the execution of the decreets given by whatsoever judges within this, his highness's realm, although obtained by most long process, were altogether frustrated, at least so delayed that parties were in no better case after the obtaining of their said decreets, than if the same had not been given, the said manifest frauds and daily invented collusions being the stay of justice, whereof the principal part stands in execution; for remedy of the same, consideration being taken by his majesty, with advice of the lords of his highness's council and session, to whom by his majesty's most noble progenitor, King James V of good memory, founder of the college of justice, with consent of parliament, the concluding upon rules, statutes and ordinances for expedition of justice was committed, therefore, his highness, with advice and consent aforesaid, has statute and ordained that for execution of all decreets, both given by the said lords in any time bygone as to be given in time coming, and likewise of decreets given or to be given by whatsoever judges within this his majesty's realm whereunto the authority of the said lords of session has been or shall happen to be interposed, that letters both of horning and poinding, the one not prejudicial to the other, shall be directed at the will and pleasure of the party obtainer of the decreet, whether the same be given upon liquidated sums, or that the execution thereof otherwise consist in facto, and that no suspension be granted upon the execution of the said decreets without real offer being first made to the party in whose favour the executions of the said decreets is directed, and the party's refusal sufficiently verified to the said lords, consignation always being made as use is; and that according to their late statute and ordinance, which his majesty, with all other their statutes and ordinances made for expedition and execution of justice, ratified and approved, providing always that consideration be had upon the space and days of the charges, and that according to the distance of the defenders' dwelling places and the quantity of the sums contained in the said decreets.
[1584/5/22]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Our sovereign lord, with advice of his three estates convened in this present parliament, ratifies, approves and, for his highness and his successors, confirms his highness's nomination and constitution of his right trusty cousin and councillor James [Stewart], earl of Arran, lord Aven and Hamilton, to use and exercise the office of chancellor of this realm, as well in parliaments, privy council as session, during the absence and non-residence of Colin [Campbell], earl of Argyll, lord Campbell and Lorne, his highness's chancellor, and likewise ratifies, approves and confirms the gift and commission given and granted by his majesty to his right trusty cousin and councillor John [Graham], earl of Montrose, lord Graham, of the office of treasurer of this realm, and to Sir Robert Melville of Murdocairnie, knight, of the office of depute and clerkship in the said office of treasurer, and of the gift and commission of the office of secretary made by his majesty to his trusty and well beloved councillor Sir John Maitland of Thirlestane, knight, and wills and ordains them to use and exercise the said offices, every one in his own place, faithfully and diligently, enduring their lifetimes, according to the gifts made to them, as they will answer to God and his majesty thereupon; and decrees and declares that they shall not be removable from their said offices in time coming, except for just and worthy causes tried by his highness and his estates in parliament.
[1584/5/23]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Our sovereign lord and his three estates assembled in this present parliament ratify and approve and, for his highness and his successors, perpetually confirm the act made by King James II of worthy memory, entitled 'That no man come to courts except in sober manner', as also the other act made in the rule of his dearest grandmother Mary [of Guise], queen dowager and regent of this realm, concerning the coming to the bar in† pursuit and defence in criminal causes, and ordain the said acts to be inviolably kept and to be put to execution in time coming, with this addition: that none of his highness's subjects repair to courts, and in special to his highness's justice court, or other justices whatsoever, for criminal causes, except by such number and company as the said acts provide, under pain of incurring of the crime of convocation of our sovereign lord's lieges, to be executed as well upon the persons who shall happen to make the said convocation or who shall be convened, with all rigour; and further, for reformation of the troubles and tumults which have fallen out and continually grow by the assembling of our sovereign lord's lieges, to fortify and assist the pursuit and defence of criminal causes moved before our sovereign lord's justice, whereupon great inconveniences have followed, to the contempt of justice, hindering of the course of the common law and punishment of offences, it is statute and ordained in all time coming, when any letters shall happen to be directed for any crime or offence to a particular diet, that the party, raisers and purchasers thereof, at the finding of their caution, report the letters duly executed and endorsed at the day appointed, shall also find caution to the justice clerk and his deputes acted in the books of adjournal, that they shall not enter in the tolbooth or place where the said justice court shall be held, except accompanied with the number of persons specified in the former act of parliament made thereupon, accounting therein their prolocutors, who only shall remain with them until their departing out of the place of justice, under the like pain which they would and should have incurred in case the said letters had not been reported duly at the day duly executed and endorsed; and likewise that the said letters to be raised to particular diets for causes criminal bear this clause, commanding the officer to charge the persons dilated and complained upon to find such surety to the said officer, executor, within six days next after they be charged that they shall compear the day and place contained in the said letters, accompanied in sober manner with their domestic and household servants, and that in the town of the resort of the said justice they shall behave themselves in quiet manner, only accompanied as said is, and enter in the tolbooth or place where justice shall be held accompanied only with the† persons specified in the former act of parliament, accounting therein their prolocutors, who shall only remain with them in the said tolbooth or place where justice shall be held until the court be ended, which surety shall be taken under this condition: that if the party, defender, otherwise compear or present himself in the place of justice and be found with any greater number than is before specified, their sureties shall be confiscated as if they had not compeared, and the parties, defenders, who have found the said surety shall be judged fugitive from the law and put to the horn, and their escheats brought in by reason of the excess of the said number in the same manner as if they had not compeared; and likewise whatsoever persons shall be found in the said tolbooth or place where justice shall be held, the justice and his deputes for the time shall make record in the books of adjournal of their presence in company with any of the parties more than the said number appointed, and immediately thereafter shall direct his precept to denounce the said persons rebels and put them to the horn and ordain their moveable goods to be escheat and brought in to our sovereign lord's use for their contempt; and also it is statute and ordained that in all the premises the denunciations are to be made at the market cross of the head burgh of the shire where the said justice court shall be held only, and the process of horning registered in the books of adjournal shall be as sufficient as if the said denunciation were made at the market cross of the head burgh and as if the said process of horning were registered in the sheriff books of the shire where the persons denounced dwell, notwithstanding the act made of before concerning the registration of horning in the parliament held at Edinburgh on 24 October 1579.
[1584/5/24]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
The king's majesty and his three estates of parliament, upon great and weighty considerations moving them tending to the repressing of treasonable attempts and punishment of the committers of treason, and upon consideration how rigorously the same have been punished, as clearly appears by diverse acts and constitutions made in his own time and in the days of his highness's most noble predecessors, especially in the days of King James II of most noble memory, not only by loss of life, lands, goods, honour and dignity in the persons of the committers thereof, but also of the posterity begotten of them, that their bairns, either natural or lawful, should in no way be able to claim any lands, rooms nor possessions within this realm, nor be in any way able to succeed to any person in their lands or heritage, as in the act made in the time of the said King James II in his parliament held and begun at Edinburgh on 9 June 1455 and of his reign the 19th year, and in the act made by our sovereign lord and his three estates in the parliament begun at Edinburgh on 20 October 1579, ratified and approved in his last parliament held and begun at Edinburgh on 24 October 1581, with certain additions specified therein at more length is contained; which acts and constitutions his majesty, with advice of his said three estates, has ratified and approved and, by the tenor hereof, ratifies and approves in all clauses, points and articles of the same concerning the persons standing under the sentences of forfeiture specified in the said acts† to have full execution and force against the bairns whatsoever, natural or lawful, engendered and begotten of William, sometime earl of Gowrie, who was lately convicted for certain crimes of treason and lese-majesty committed by him, as in the said process and doom of forfeiture, ratified and approved in this present parliament, at more length is contained, that they nor none of them shall be able in any time coming to possess, enjoy or claim any lands, heritage, benefices, rooms and possessions, honours, dignities or offices within this realm, howsoever and whensoever the same was conquest and provided to them before the date hereof, and that they are and shall be unlawful† to succeed to any other in any lands, heritage or possessions in whatsoever manner of way, and that all and sundry lands, heritage, benefices, rooms and possessions whatsoever to which the bairns of the said posterity presently have or may pretend right, or to which they or any of them may succeed hereafter, appertains and shall appertain to our said sovereign lord† by full right, and that his highness may freely convey thereupon in the same manner and by all things as if the said late William, sometime earl of Gowrie, the time he was convicted of the said crimes of treason, had himself been in title thereof, and that the benefices, if any be possessed by the bairns of the said posterity, are presently vacated in his highness's hands by their inability, and that his highness has full right and power to convey thereupon by the same manner and condition in all respects as if the persons of the said posterity, present possessors thereof, were naturally dead.
[1584/5/25]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Item, our sovereign lord, with advice of the three estates of this present parliament, ratifies and approves all and sundry [acts and]†statutes made by his highness and his predecessors concerning the measure of salmon, herring and white fish, gauging, burning and measuring thereof, and to the effect the said acts may be the better kept, and for eschewing of defraud of the said measures and of false and unjust packing of salmon, herring and white fish, which is much used by unfree men, fishers and other slayers of the said fish, to the great hurt of unfree men,† burgesses and merchants and the whole commonwealth of this realm, therefore it is statute and ordained that there be a just measure and standard for the salmon made by the burghs, according to the old acts of parliament, and the same to remain at the burgh of Aberdeen, and likewise that there be a just standard and measure for herring and white fish, which shall be branded and remain in the keeping of the provost and bailies of Edinburgh, and that all salmon barrels, herring barrels and white fish barrels universally through the realm shall be of the measure and gauge aforesaid, and that each burgh shall receive a pattern of the gauge and measure aforesaid and shall cause their coopers within their bounds to make their barrels according to the said measure, and the same to be branded by the town iron and coopers' iron on both the ends and upon the stop beside the bung; and in case any salmon, herring or white fish be packed in other barrels than of the just gauge aforesaid, branded and marked as said is, the same shall be escheated to our sovereign lord; and ordains the principal staple of salmon from Dee north to be at the burghs of Aberdeen and Elgin, and the principal staple of herring and white fish slain by the inhabitants within the water of Forth to be in Leith, within the privilege and freedom of the burgh of Edinburgh, and within the port and harbour of Crail, and the staple of salmon, herring and white fish slain north of Fife Ness to the water of Dee to be at Dundee or Perth, and that the said provost and bailies of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Crail, Elgin, Perth and Dundee shall appoint a discreet man to be visitor, wraker,† gauger and brander of the said barrels, and appoint to him a reasonable duty for† each last thereof for his labours, that all unfree men, fishers and slayers of herring and white fish dwelling within†the water of Forth on both the sides to the water mouth of Tay bring their herring and white fish to be slain by them in time coming to the ports of Leith or Crail, and at the west side to Ayr and Dumbarton, dividing the bounds between there and the Cloch Stone, there to be gauged, marked and sold to the free burgesses of this realm, and that no fishers or other unfree men sell their said herring or white fish to any strangers or unfree men, or carry the same out of this realm to any other countries to be sold by themselves, under the pain of escheating of all their moveable goods, the one half to our sovereign lord's use and the other half to the burghs who shall convict them by virtue of their commissions.