to meet the coming storm; and, in place of deraitting the regency, as he had
been required to do by the queen, he determined on repelling force by force.
Having mustered an army of three thousand men, he encountered the forces of
the queen, which consisted of double that number, at Langsicte, and totally
routed them; his cool, calculating judgment, calm intrepidity, and high military talents, being more than a match for their numerical superiority. This
victory the regent instantly followed up by the most decisive measures. He attacked and destroyed all the castles and strongholds of the nobles and gentlemen who had joined the queen; and infused a yet stronger, and more determined spirit into the administration of the laws: and thus he eventually established his authority on a firmer basis than that on which it had rested before.
After the queen's flight to England, the regent, with some others, was summoned to York, by Elizabeth, to bear witness against her, in a trial which had been instituted by the latter, to ascertain Mary's guilt or innocence of the crime of Darnley's murder. The regent obeyed the summons, and did not hesitate to give the most unqualified testimony against his unhappy sister. Having performed this ungenerous part, he left the unfortunate queen in the hands of her enemies, and returned to the administration of the affairs of that kingdom, of which he was now uncontrolled master. The proud career, however, of this wily, but able politician, this stern, but just ruler, was now soon to be darkly and suddenly closed. While passing on horseback through the streets of Linlithgow, on the 23rd of January, 1570, he was fired at, from, a window, by James Hamilton, of Bothwelhaugh, nephew to the archbishop of St Andrews. The ball passed through his body, but did not instantly prove fatal. Having recovered from the first shock of the wound, he walked to his lodgings, but expired a little before midnight, being at the period of his death in the thirty-eighth year of his age. Hamilton's hostility to the regent, proceeded from some severities with which the latter had visited him, for having fought under the queen at Langside. The assassin escaped to France, where he died a few years afterwards, deeply regretting the crime he had committed.
STUART, John, third earl of Bute, and prime minister of Great Britain, was the eldest son of the second earl of Bute, by lady Anne Campbell, daughter of Archibald, first duke of Argyle. He was born in the Parliament Square, Edinburgh, May 25, 1713, and succeeded to the title, on the death of his father, in January, 1723. In April, 1737, on a vacancy occurring in the representation of the Scottish peerage, the earl of Bute was chosen to fill it: he was re-chosen at the general elections of 1761, 1768, and 1774. His lordship married, August 24, 1736, Mary, only daughter of the celebrated lady Mary Wortley Montagu, by whom he had a numerous family. On his first introduction to court life, lord Bute had the good fortune to ingratiate himself with the princess of Wales, mother of George III., who admitted him to that close superintendence of the education of her son, which was the foundation of all his historical importance. In 1750, he was appointed one of the lords of the bed-chamber to Frederick, prince of Wales; and on the settlement of the household of the heir apparent, in 1756, the earl of Bute was appointed his groom of the stole. His lordship acquired the full confidence and friendship of the young prince; and is believed to have been chiefly instrumental in training and informing his mind. Before the prince's accession to the throne in 1760, Lord Bute was continued in his situation as groom of the stole; and in March, next year, on the dismissal of the Whig ministry, was appointed one of the principal secretaries of state. His lordship was in the same year appointed keener and ranger of Richmond park, on the resignation of the princess Amelia; and invested with the order of the garter, an honour, as is well
