p. 574). They were for some time detained in Edinburgh, so that they might listen to the preaching of the reformers, and, according to another account by Leslie, were even kept in prison, and were not set free till they gave sureties that they would appear for trial when called upon (History, Bannatyne Club ed. p. 293).
On the death of Queen Mary's husband, Francis II, Leslie was commissioned by Huntly and other catholic nobles in the north to visit her in France, and to invite her in their name to return to Scotland by way of Aberdeen, where a force of twenty thousand catholics would be at her disposal to enable her to mount the throne as a catholic sovereign (Leslie, De Origine, p. 575; Hist. Bannatyne Club ed. p. 294). On 15 April he had an interview with Mary at Vitry in Champagne, and, although she declined to adopt his suggestions, she commanded him to remain near her person. While in France Leslie unsuccessfully endeavoured to enlist the sympathies of the pope, the Cardinal of Lorraine, and others in behalf of the Scottish catholics. In 1562 he was named professor of canon law in King's College and university of Aberdeen, and on 19 Jan. 1564–5 he was made an ordinary judge of the court of session. In 1565 he was chosen a member of the privy council, making his first appearance at the council meeting on 18 Oct. (Reg. P. C. Scotl. i. 380). According to Knox, it was on the advice of Leslie and others that the queen evaded the proposal of the reformed party that, previous to her marriage to Darnley, she should hold a convention at Perth to ‘take a final order for religion’ (Works, ii. 481). In February following Leslie obtained the abbacy of Lindores after receiving a dispensation to hold it from the pope on the 24th (Laing in Appendix to Knox, ii. 601). On the death of Henry Sinclair, bishop of Ross, he was promoted to that see, and the appointment was confirmed in April 1566.
On the night of Rizzio's murder the bishop was in attendance on the queen in Holyrood, but immediately afterwards obtained leave from Darnley to ‘go where he would’ (Cal. Hatfield MSS. i. 334). On the queen's flight to Dunbar he met her there to consult as to the steps which should be taken for her defence and the avenging of the murder (Knox, ii. 525). From the time of the Darnley marriage Leslie had been the queen's chief adviser in her ecclesiastical policy, and he now, according to rumour, won also the goodwill of Bothwell by his ability to ‘take a cup too many’ (Randolph to Cecil, 20 June 1566, on the authority of the parson of Fliske, Sir James Balfour; Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1566–8, entry 508). It was chiefly through Leslie's advice that in this year the queen appointed a commission to revive and publish the laws of Scotland, the result being the publication in the same year of the ‘Actis and Constitutiounis of the Realme of Scotland from the Reigne of James I.’ The bishop states that when the time of the birth of her child drew near Mary sent for him, and gave him her entire confidence, entrusting to him her will and the inventory of her jewels (Leslie's ‘Narrative of the Progress of Events in Scotland,’ in Forbes-Leith, Narrative of Scottish Catholics, p. 113).
The bishop was one of the members of the privy council who on 20 May 1567 gave instructions for the trial of Bothwell for Darnley's murder. Buchanan credits him with suggesting the seizure of the queen by Bothwell (Hist. Scotl. bk. xviii.) After the seizure he joined Mary and Bothwell in Dunbar (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1566–8, entry 1161), and he was present at the meetings of the privy council on her return with Bothwell to Edinburgh (Reg. P. C. Scotl. i. 510 et seq.). He, however, affirms that he entirely disapproved of Mary's marriage to Bothwell, and used his utmost persuasions to prevent it (‘Narrative’ in Forbes-Leith, p. 123). He also states that after the marriage Mary came to him in great distress, and expressed sincere repentance and regret (ib.) Leslie continued faithful to her cause. On 12 June he was received by Sir James Balfour into the castle of Edinburgh (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1566–8, entry 1289); but when Balfour, after Carberry Hill, arranged to deliver it to the king's party, he and others were let out by a postern gate (Calderwood, ii. 362). He joined those who, on 29 June, met at Dumbarton to plan measures for the queen's deliverance; but afterwards, ‘all being full of tumult,’ he withdrew to his diocese (Discourse, p. 9). There he remained engrossed in his ecclesiastical duties till Mary, on her escape from Lochleven, summoned him to meet her at Hamilton. He hastened to obey her, but before his arrival her cause had been lost at Langside, and she had fled to England. When Elizabeth agreed to a conference at York with the Scottish commissioners in reference to the charges against their queen, Leslie was summoned by Mary to Bolton to consult about the steps to be taken in her defence. He arrived on 18 Sept., and was appointed her principal commissioner at the conference. His difficult duties were discharged with consummate ability and to the queen's entire satisfaction. The scheme for the Norfolk marriage [see Howard, Thomas, III, fourth Duke of Nor-
