Henri, Duke de Rohan, on King James VI and I
A Huguenot nobleman describes King James VI three years before he also inherits the throne of England as King James I.
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Henri, Duc de Rohan
From Early Travellers in Scotland by Peter Hume Brown, 1891.
Henri, Duc de Rohan, came to Scotland in 1600 in the course of a protracted tour through Italy, Germany, the Low Countries, and England. Born in 1579, of one of the most illustrious families of France, he had already distinguished himself in the wars of the League, and had gained the admiration and affection of Henry IV. By the Peace of Vervins (1598), he himself tells us, his career as a soldier was for the time closed; and his youth precluded him from other employments in the state. Not to waste his time in inactivity, therefore, he set out on his travels, which appear to have been prolonged to twenty months. Of Huguenot birth and upbringing, he was received with the greatest cordiality both in England and Scotland. Elizabeth called him son chevalier, and James made him godfather to Prince Charles. By his subsequent conduct as champion of the Huguenots, Rohan achieved one of the most brilliant careers in the history of France. It should be said that in his Travels he does not shine as a writer, and that he often gives us reason to wish that he would forget himself, and tell us plainly what he saw and heard.
Voyage du Duc de Rohan, Faict en L’An, 1600 (p. 205)
If the affection one naturally bears to a country, together with the obligations one has received not from one individual merely, but from the people in general, should induce one to say pleasant things, I ought to make Scotland excel not only all the other countries I have seen, but should make her the equal of France herself if we consider carefully the Scottish king's (James VI.) mode of life, both public and private, his manners, his actions, the excellence of his spirit, his learning and his eloquence, we shall judge him worthy to govern his own kingdom, and much more.
He seems to have been sent at a remarkable crisis; for God is wont to bring forth great men in a country, when He wishes to change a kingdom from one hand to another, or to ruin or elevate the nation. At the present moment, England is in such a crisis, and what leads me to think that it is the Scottish king and no other whom God wishes to be the instrument of his purposes is the validity of that king's claim, his rare virtues, and the advantage he has by his residence in it of appropriating the whole island.
It is not to ruin the kingdom that God has sent so great a king; since in that case he would have sent a scourge of his church and not its restorer. Neither has he been sent to raise the state, for there is no need to raise that which is not fallen. He must have been sent, therefore (and God grant I may be a true prophet!), that the whole of this kingdom might be placed under one head, that the whole of this beautiful island of Great Britain (which has never chanced before) might be brought under the same God, the same faith, the same law, the same king.
I shall not be at the trouble to give a particular description of the towns I saw in Scotland (which, indeed, are few in number), since they possess neither splendid buildings, nor remarkable antiquities, nor things worthy of special mention. Moreover, the origins of such things as it does possess are related in such conflicting fashion by the historians of the country, that no profit could be drawn from any account of them. Accordingly, what I shall say will be prompted by my desire not to show myself ungrateful to places where I was so hospitably entertained, and to recall the memory of the courtesies I received at the hands of strangers.
To come to the town of Edinburgh, which is the capital of Scotland and the ordinary residence of the king, and was the first town I saw in the country. It is situated on the river Forth, at rather less than half a league from the sea, and is built upon two mountains. On one of these, and on the western side, is a strong castle surnamed The Maidens (Les Pucelles), and so inaccessible on every side, that its natural position renders it more impregnable than if strengthened by all the arts of modern engineers, from which (be it said) it has profited nothing. As to the size of the town, it may be a mile long and about half a mile wide. It has no beauty except that of its great street, which stretches from one end of the town to the other, and is both wide and straight as well as of great length. As regards its buildings they are by no means sumptuous, since almost all are constructed of wood. In compensation, however, they are so stocked with inmates that there can hardly be another town so populous for its size.
It is by far the busiest commercial town in the country. Indeed, it would be against all reason, were not this the case. For, in the first place, it is situated in the most fertile district of Scotland, as is proved by the fact that more than a hundred country-seats are to be found within a radius of two leagues of the town it being the ordinary residence of the court. The second and better reason is that one of the best harbours in all Scotland is within less than half a league. This harbour, with the village beside it, is called Lits, or as we say in ordinary speech Petit Lict.
In this village I may remark in conclusion that the French sustained a siege, highly honourable to our nation, and exceedingly profitable to the Scots, inasmuch as they not only with unsurpassable courage restrained the fury of the English before this unfortunate spot, but were also the means of saving the whole kingdom. This incident will serve to testify how the two nations, the French and the Scots, have stood by each other since the treaty made between Scotland and Charlemagne a period of eight hundred and seventy-two years, during which it has ever held firm, never has been violated, and never even altered.
Several reasons lead me to speak of certain places that did not commend themselves to me either by their beauty or antiquity, and I am induced to do so only by certain trifling considerations, which make me desirous of preserving some memory of them. Among these places I reckon three little towns, namely, Lescow, Sterlin, and Domfarmelin (I name them in order of importance), and feel constrained to mention them here, if not on account of their history and their beauties, at least by reason of the notable sights I saw in each of them.
In the first I saw the daughter of the King of Scotland, who is being brought up there, and who is both well grown and pretty. In the second I saw his son, who gives such promise of being the heir at once of the virtues and the kingdom of his father, that this spot where he has been reared will always have a place in men's memories. In the last I saw the Queen of Scotland, a princess in whom beauty and virtue meet in such wise that for excellence the one cannot well yield to the other. This last place also deserves mention for the fact that the birth of the princes and princesses of Scotland have usually taken place there.
These, then, are the most remarkable spectacles I saw in the places above named, which certainly are as worthy of commemoration as the most beautiful palaces in the world. I shall conclude, therefore, not by describing the origins of these three towns and castles, but by praising with judgment what I saw in them, which, indeed, are things more rare and exquisite than the most beautiful antiquities, which men remark in other places as much more worthy I say, as the reality transcends the copy. For the ancient statues we see are only esteemed for what they represent (which are usually kings, princes, or personages, who, by their singular virtue, were equals of the greatest), or for the merit of the artists who made them.
Now, finding in these children (if it be permitted to me to compare bodies with souls to bodies without them), the occasions which lead us to observe and prize these antiquities, equally for the lineage and beauty of themselves and the queen their mother, and for the rare virtue of the latter, I should deem it an unpardonable fault, if having curiously sought out such antiquities as are only representations and lifeless models, I were to pass over those originals which by the hope certain of them inspire me with of their future actions, and the knowledge I have of what the others are already accomplishing, will be, as I believe, among the most remarkable witnesses our century will bequeath to posterity.
This, then, is all I have remarked in the kingdom of Scotland, which if I found niggard in producing what is necessary to human life, I also found truly generous in the production of virtuous persons. For, besides the nobility whom I found full of civility and courtesy, the country possesses a multitude of learned men, and a people of such courage and fidelity, that our kings of France chose from among them the soldiers who formed the special guard of their persons.
Brown, Peter Hume. Early Travellers in Scotland. David Douglas, 1891.
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