Queen & Country
Page 29
John Ballard
Jesuit priest ‘Black Fortescue’. Instigator of the Babington plot. Executed September 1586
Robert Beale
Diplomat. Deputy to Sir Francis Walsingham
Binning family
Edinburgh painters active from c.1538–1633
William Cecil, first baron Burghley
Lord Treasurer of England
Arnold or Arthur Bronckhorst
Court painter to King James VI c.1580–1583. Identified as gold prospector in Scotland c.1579 by Stephen Atkinson [gold miner, 1616]. Living in London by 1583. May be identified as ‘Aart’ detained for questioning by Lord Cobham at Dover in September 1586
Burton Brewer
Supplied ale to Chartley Manor. Smuggled letters to and from Mary, queen of Scots in beer barrels, at the instigation of Sir Francis Walsingham
Tom Cassie
Servant of Thomas Phelippes
William Brooke, tenth baron Cobham
Lord warden of the Cinque Ports and constable of Dover Castle. Close friend and political ally of William Cecil
John Colville
Scottish Presbyterian minister and supporter of the Ruthven raid. Spied for Sir Francis Walsingham
Gilbert Gifford
Acted as courier for letters to and from Mary, queen of Scots, at the instigation of Sir Francis Walsingham
William Ruthven, earl of Gowrie
Former Lord High Treasurer of Scotland and chief instigator of the Ruthven Raid, the detention of King James VI in 1582. Executed for treason in 1584
George Heriot
Edinburgh goldsmith; later goldsmith to Queen Anne of Denmark, wife of James VI. Founder of George Heriot’s school
John Maitland, first Lord Maitland of Thirlestane
Lord Chancellor of Scotland
Andrew Melville
Scottish reformer and principal of St Mary’s College, St Andrews
Francis Mylles
Secretary and agent of Sir Francis Walsingham
Claude Nau
French secretary to Mary, queen of Scots. Accused by some of a part in her downfall. Sought to marry Bessie Pierrepoint, the granddaughter of the Countess of Shrewsbury
Sir Amias Paulet
Keeper of Mary, queen of Scots from April 1585 until her death in February 1587. Close friend of Thomas Phelippes
Thomas Phelippes
Principal cryptographer for Sir Francis Walsingham. Deciphered letters sent by and to Mary, queen of Scots. Son of William Phillips, cloth merchant and customer of wool for the port of London. Married Mary, in or before 1586; no surviving children. Identified with Thomas Phillips, MP for Hastings, 1584 and 1586. Served Sir Amias Paulet and Henry Brooke, brother of Lord Cobham, in embassy to France
John Savage
Conspirator against Queen Elizabeth. Executed September 1586
George Talbot, sixth earl of Shrewsbury
Keeper of Mary, queen of Scots from 1569 to September 1584. Patron of the baths; built Buxton Hall
Laurence Tomson
Secretary to Sir Frances Walsingham. Puritan author and scholar. Married to Jane
Adrian Vanson
Official court portrait painter to King James VI from 1584. Married to Susanna of Colone. Made burgess of Edinburgh, on condition he take on apprentices
Sir Francis Walsingham
Principal Secretary and spymaster to Queen Elizabeth
Sir Andrew Wood of Largo
Crownar and sheriff of Fife. Comptroller until July 1587
Workman family
Painter burgesses of Edinburgh c.1554–1664
Glossary
Aquavite whisky
Argent vive quicksilver
Bailie [Scotland] a town magistrate
Bangster a bully
Baxter a baker
Billie a close friend or comrade [Scots. cf English Bully]
Black Acts laws passed by the Scottish Parliament in 1584 condemning presbyteries, endorsing the rights of the bishops and asserting the supreme power of the king over the reformed Scots Kirk
Black Stane stone, on which students sat to take public examinations in the ancient Scottish universities; the examination itself
Blaw to blow
Broadcloth a kind of fine wool cloth
Bully in early modern English, a term of endearment towards a good friend
Bumbaize to confound
Butts mounts for holding targets for archery practice
Cadger a carrier of goods
Caich the game of real tennis, played with racquet or hand
Campvere Veere, in Zeeland, the Scots staple in the Netherlands
Canny cautious or prudent
Chap to knock
Cinnabar red pigment
Clengar a cleanser of infected places
Comptroller Crown officer in charge of personal expenditure, who checks the Treasurer’s accounts
Confitures confectionary
Cots cottages
Court of Dustifute [Scotland] court appointed to deal with disputes during a fair
Coventry thread blue thread made in Coventry in the 16th century, famous for the permanence of its colour; proverbial origin of ‘true blue’
Crownar [Scotland] a coroner or king’s officer in charge of protecting the interests of the Crown in a particular district, often combined with the office of sheriff
Cunyng a rabbit
Dead kist a coffin
Dow a dove
Dummel one who cannot speak
Dummy a dumb person
Dustifute a pedlar
Embarquement placing under embargo
Exagitated stirred up, excited
Fash to worry, trouble
Feu a feudal tenure of land
Flyting a contest, between poets, of mutual abuse; here, a playful exchange of insults
Forestall to buy up merchandise before it comes to market
Friar-fly an idler, someone up to no good
Futless footless, useless
Gang to go
Gild [Scotland] a merchant guild or brotherhood
Gingerline a red-brown colour
Goif stok, goifs a pillory
Gossip chair a curved wooden armchair with wide wooden seat; a caquetoire
Graduand a student on the point of graduation; a final year student
Grandgore the great pox, or syphilis
Haar a sea-mist on the east coast of Scotland
Hammermen metal-workers
Hansell a good-luck gift given at New Year
Hurkling colliding violently
Impassible incapable of suffering
Incontinent immediately, at once
Jougs an iron collar fastened round the neck, fixed to a post, used as a kind of pillory
Juglar a conjuror
Ken to know
Kersey a kind of coarse woollen cloth
Kippil a pair or brace (of poultry or game)
Kirk a church; the reformed Church of Scotland
Kirtle a woman’s close frock, worn under a gown; a simple smock
Kist a chest
Kittil sensitive or skittish
Krames shops or stalls, in particular those on the High Street of Edinburgh, next to the Kirk of St Giles
Laureation graduation
Leman a lover or sweetheart
Lepron a young rabbit
Lettroun a lockable writing desk
Limmar a villain or rogue
Loun a ruffian
Luckenbuiths shops which are fixed and lockable, particularly those by the High Kirk of St Giles on Edinburgh High Street
Lugs ears
Lusty cheerful or agreeable
Manchet the finest white bread
Marchpane marzipan; a confection of almond paste, rolled onto wafers and baked, glazed and decorated, sometimes with gold leaf
Maun must
Mauna must not
Memento mori an object symbolising mortality. Lit. ‘remember to die’
Mercer a small trader or dealer
Miching thieving
Minnie child’s name for mother
the Morn tomorrow
Mow the mouth
Muckle large
Noisome harmful, noxious
Orpiment a gold or yellow pigment
Outreiking fitting out or equipping
Pasque Easter
Peregrine a pilgrim; a foreigner
Peste any virulent epidemic disease; here, possibly, typhus rather than bubonic plague
Pie-powder court a court established for the duration of a fair; cf court of dustifute; from French, pieds poudrés
Points holes in clothes through which laces were threaded to fasten them
Poticar an apothecary
Prick-louse disparaging term for a tailor
Proplexity anxiety
Regent a university teacher
Renegats deserters
Restanding owing, not yet paid
Rousie wild, easily aroused
Rusty bully disparaging term for a Englishman; rusty = morally corrupt, but playing also on the English fondness for roast beef
Sclaunder slander
Sculduddery lewd behaviour
Senzie fair fair held in the cloisters of St Andrews Cathedral, at Easter time
Sic such
Sin since
Skrimmar a swordsman, fighter
Slops wide, baggy breeches fashionable in the late 16th century
Snaw snow
Speir to ask
Surquidous arrogant
Swingeour a scoundrel
Thrawn twisted, distorted; thrown out or down
Thriftless worthless
Thrissel a thistle
Tocher a marriage dowry
Tolbuith town hall
Trumperous stupid or worthless
Uncanny malicious, threatening
Unco = uncouth
Uncouth strange, uncanny, unfamiliar; also an intensifier
Wammill to feel queasy; wammilling = heaving