16th of June

Saints Ferreolus, or Fargeau, and Ferrutius, martyrs, 211 or 212. Saints Quiricus, or Cyr, and Julitta, martyrs, 304. St Aurelian Archbishop of Arles, confessor, 552. St John Francis Regis, confessor, 1640.

Born. – Louis, Duc de Saint-Simon, author of Memoirs of the Court of France, 1675, Paris
Died. – Hugo the Great, father of Hugh Capet, head of the third series of French kings, 956; Sir Tristram Beresford, 1701; Jean Baptiste Gresset, French comic poet, 1777, Amiens.

SIR JOHN SUCKLING.

When Charles [I.] marched against the Scottish Covenanters in 1639, Suckling raised 100 horsemen for the royal service, so very splendidly equipped (the troop cost him the large sum of £12,000), that Charles, not wisely undervaluing his sturdy northern subjects, said that if anything would make the Scotch fight well, it would be the prospect of plunder exhibited by the rich dresses of Suckling’s men. This ill-judged expedition produced little result, save a crowd of satirists to ridicule its fruitless display; and, in the only skirmish that occurred, near Dunse, the English cavalry, including Suckling’s troop, galloped off the field, pursued by a smaller body of the enemy. A satirical ballad was composed on this affair and Suckling’s part in it, to a well-known and very lively old English tune, called John Dory, which became exceedingly popular, and was sung and printed with many variations. From its peculiar style and manner, we suspect that the ballad was composed by Suckling as a piece of good-humoured banter against himself, and that subsequently the more spiteful variations were added by others. A few verses of the original are worth reprinting:

‘Sir John he got him an ambling nag,
     To Scotland for to ride-a,
 With a hundred horse more, all his own he swore,
     To guard him on every side-a.
 No errant knight e’er went to fight
     With half so gay a bravada,
 Had you seen but his look, you’d have sworn on a book,
     He’d have conquered a whole armada…’

On this Day in Other Sources.

This year, also, the 3rd of May [1410], dies [anti]pope Alexander [V.] at Bologna. After his death was elected Baldassarre Cossa, Cardinal of St. Eustachius at Bologna, the 16th of June, and was named John XXI., by some the XXIII.

– Historical Works, pp.144-152.

The Pope sends [De Burgo] his Legate to Scotland, this year, who arrived at Edinburgh the 16th of June [1533]. His legacy was to exhort the King’s majesty not to follow the footsteps of his uncle, King Henry VIII., who, as he averred, had made defection from the Roman church. The King so answered the Legate, that he departed well satisfied.

– Historical Works, pp.238-275.

The wild blood of the Macgregors may have broken out in some new enormity too great for pardon and too clear for trial. On the 16th of June 1552, says the Curate of Fortirgall, Duncan Macgregor and his sons Gregor and Malcolm Roy were beheaded by Colin Campbell of Glenurchy, Campbell of Glenlyon, and Menzies of Rannoch.1

– Sketches, pp.341-394.

1  Before the end of 1552 we meet with a gift to Glenurchy of the escheat of moveables and immoveables of umquhile [deceased] – McGregor alias Ladassach, and Gregor, his son… convict of certain crimes… and justyfeit to the death.

In the morning of the 16th of June [1567], the first display, which the Queen’s weary eyes beheld, from the windows of her prison, was the same banner that afflicted her with so many feelings. It was the lower orders, who thus found a pleasure in offering insult to her dignity. The craftsmen, and citizens, who had been deluded, by the pretences of perfidy, of a design to relieve the Queen from thraldom, felt indignant, at her imprisonment. They were preparing to rescue her, from insult, and to free her from imprisonment: But, they were again deluded, by the falsehood, and fraud, of the insurgent nobles, who promised to restore her to freedom, and her state: The insurgent nobles, accordingly removed her in the evening, from the city to Holyrood-house, which pacified the citizens, though she was not restored to her freedom, and state.  

While the Queen was confined, in the city, and subject to insult, she clearly perceived, that the associated nobles had no intention to perform their engagements. She sent her unworthy secretary of state, the cause of all her woes, to request of those, who had usurped her government, to convene the estates of the realm; as she was willing to submit to their determination, she being present, and heard. But, this reasonable desire was rejected, by nobles, whose object, from the origin of the insurrection, had merely been, to betray, and dethrone her.

– Life of Mary, pp.155-184.

There appear to have been many previous considerations, concerning the main point. When the Queen was sent to prison, on the 16th of June [1567], Morton, and his five complotters had no charge against her; as we know from the inanity of their warrant of commitment. At the hour, when she was to be called upon, with threatening tone, and a loud voice, to sign the instruments of her resignation, they had obtained, after more than five weeks inquiry, as we learn, from Throckmorton, documents, to prove the following charges: (1) of tyranny, while Murray, acted as her minion, and Maitland, as her secretary: (2) Of incontinency, with Bothwell, the conspirator with him, and others, of which they had sufficient proof, said they: (3) Of the murder of her husband, whereof, said they, they had apparent proof, as well of her hand writing, as sufficient witnesses. Thus, prepared were they, to criminate the Queen, at the epoch of her resignation.

– Life of Mary, pp.184-206.

The only other statute of that Parliament, in which the Queen was, particularly concerned, was the act of indemnity, granted to Douglas of Lochleven, for detaining the King’s mother. It recites the order of commitment, by Morton, and five other nobles, on the 16th of June [1567], to take the Queen into his safe keeping, till further enquiry were made, into the King’s murder.

– Life of Mary, pp.184-206.

Loch-Leven derives its chief historical interest from the fact of its castle having been the prison of Queen Mary, after her surrender to the confederated Lords at Carberryhill. In the reign of Robert III., a branch of the family of Douglas had obtained a grant of the castle of Loch-Leven, with lands on the shore of the lake. Sir Robert Douglas of Loch-Leven, the near kinsman of the famous James Earl of Morton, and step-father to the equally well-known James Earl of Murray, natural brother to the Queen, was, in consequence of his connection with the leaders of her disaffected subjects, selected as the jailer of the unfortunate Mary, who was imprisoned here on the 16th June, 1567.

– Scotland Illustrated, pp.15-17.

In that unmistrusting reliance on force for religious objects which marked the age, it was enacted in parliament, that each householder worth three hundred merks of yearly rent, and all substantious yeomen and burgesses esteemed as worth five hundred pounds in land and goods, should have a Bible and psalm-book in the vulgar tongue, under the penalty of ten pounds. A few months later (June 16, 1580), one John Williamson was commissioned under the privy seal to visit and search every house in the realm, ‘and to require the sicht of their Bible and psalm-buke, gif they ony have, to be marked with their awn name, for eschewing of fraudful dealing in that behalf.’ – Maitland Club Miscellany.

– Domestic Annals, pp.81-98.

About this same time, [John] the Laird of Carmichael, who was Warden of the Borders, was murdered [on] the 16th of June [1599], by the Armstrongs and Carlisles.

– Historical Works, pp.340-416.

By the royal command, a fast was held throughout Scotland, in consequence of the heavy rains which had prevailed since the middle of May, threatening the destruction of the fruits of the earth. It was a time of calamity. The marriage of the king to the Princess Henrietta Maria of France (June 16th [1625]), had of course brought the mass into London, and ‘no sooner was the queen’s mass, the plague of the soul, received, than a raging pestilence broke out in the city of London and parts adjoining, which in a short time cut off above 40,000 persons.’ – Stevenson’s Hist. C. Scot.

– Domestic Annals, pp.228-256.

When, in the following year, a drummer fell to be appointed, the magistrates, having in view the making of the clothes, preferred a tailor to the office, and it was made a condition of his appointment that he should undertake “to learne Jon. Jeimesoune, his collig, the tailzeour craft swa long as ye counsall sall appoint, becaus they are onlie thame twa to be drummers.1

– Old Glasgow, pp.215-237. 

1  16th June, 1627.

Next day (Sunday [16th of June, 1633]) the king made a procession in his coach to the castle, where he was magnificently banqueted, ‘served with his awn officiars and with his awn provision, vessels, and plate.’ Thence he returned next day, conducted by his nobility in state, in his royal robes, to the Abbey Kirk of Holyrood, and there was solemnly crowned by the Bishop of Brechin. 

– Domestic Annals, pp.228-256.

At the foot of the New Vennel was a bleaching green, so large that it came to be used for pasturing horses and cattle. But to this abuse the magistrates put a stop, ordaining that “all hors or kyne that beis fund theron be poyndit.”1

Old Glasgow, pp.124-131. 

1  16th June, 1677.

2517. Order of Service with Prayers to be used in Glasgow Cathedral on the 16th of June, 1887, in celebration of the Jubilee of the reign of Queen Victoria. 1887.

– Memorial Catalogue, Gallery 1.

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