James VI and the Gowrie Mystery

James VI and the Gowrie Mystery, by Andrew Lang, is an inquiry into the Gowrie Conspiracy. The introduction recalls an old Scottish lady who used to say that it is a great comfort to think that, at the Day of Judgment, we shall know the whole truth about the Gowrie Conspiracy at last. The introduction adds that the author had supposed we do know all about the Gowrie Conspiracy, that it was a plot to capture the King and carry him to Fastcastle.

The text says that the personages tell their own stories of the same set of events, in which they were more or less intimately concerned. The text also says that all the evidence is of a suspicious nature, and the author argues that the witnesses in 1600 did not perjure themselves in the trial which followed on the slaughter of the Ruthvens. The text says that the evidence of some other persons present was also taken on oath, three months after the events, before a Parliamentary Committee, the Lords of the Articles.