REGISTER of the PRIVY COUNCIL of SCOTLAND. Volume XIV. ADDENDA (1545 - 1625), edited by David Masson. Page 111, dated September 3, 1571: Editorial footnote number 2:

"The very day after this small decreet of Regent Lennox and his council at Stirling, i.e. on the 4th of September 1571, there was an end to the Regency of Lennox by his unexpected death. It happened thus:

"He and his Councillors were distributed in their various lodgings through Stirling after the bustle of the late Parliament, dreaming of no danger, when there burst in upon the town a body of some hundreds of men, sent by Kirkcaldy of Grange all the way from Edinburgh, and led by Lord Claud Hamilton, the Earl of Huntly, Scott of Buccleuch, and Spence of Wormiston, with a certain Captain George Bell, a native of Stirling and famliar with all the inlets and outlets of the town.

"As Spotswood (p. 256) and Callderwood (iii. pp. 139 - 141)tell the story between them, they had left Edinburgh on the preceding evening, spreading a false rumour of their intended destination; and so, 'marching with a wonderful confidence (for by the way all their discourse was whom they would kill and whom they would save), they came about the dawning of the day to the town,and found all things so quiet as not a dog was heard to open his mouth and bark.'

"Entering with cries 'God and the queen', 'Hamilton, a Hamilton', 'Remember the Bishop of St. Andrews', the leaders first 'planted the soldiers in the most commodious parts of the town and enjoined them to suffer no person to come into the street,' and then went themselves to the lodgings of the nobelmen severally, and found little or no resistance.

" 'The Earl of Morton,' says Spotswood, 'defended the lodging wherein he was some little time; but, fire being put to the house, he rendered to the Laird of Buccleuch. The Regent was taken with less ado, his servants making no defence. In like sort were the Earls of Glencairn and Eglintoun made prisoners, with divers others.'

"In fact all the chiefs of the King's party had been taken, and for the moment it seemed as if by one splendid stroke that party was annihilated, and SCOTLAND won for Queen Mary. But there was a rally and a rescue. 'The Earl of Mar, hearing the noise', continues Spotswood, 'issued forth of the castle with sixteen persons only, and entering the back of his new lodging, which was not then finished, played with muskets upon the street, so as he forced them to quit the same. The townsmen and others, upon this taking courage, gathered together and put the enemy to flight, pursuing them so hotly as they were constrained to quit their prisoners, and some to render themselves to those they were leading captive. The Regent, who was Wormiston's prisoner (for to him he had rendered), being carried a little without the port, when they saw the rescue coming, was shot by Captain Calder, and with the same bullet Wormiston (who did what he could to save the Regent) was stricken dead.' The Regent, though mortally wounded, Spotswood adds, did not dismount from this horse till he came to the castle; and it was in the castle that he died."

N.B.: This Matthew Stewart (b. 1516 - d. 1571) was the former Earl of Lennox, Lord Darnely, and overlord of Galston chapel as Lord of Galston. At his death on September 4, 1571, he had been Regent of SCOTLAND since July 12, 1570 for his grandson James, who later would become King James VI of SCOTLAND.

This account says that all of the chiefs of the King's party were taken...It is known that one John Lockhart of Bar had been with Matthew Stewart when he had been made Regent in 1570. Is there any proof that this John Lockhart is to be identified as John Lockhart, the Lord of Bar, who would have been at least 70 years old in 1570? After all, that Lord of Bar -- who was murdered in 1531 -- did leave TWO sons, each known as "John Lockhart of Bar"! The mother of John Lockhart, the younger son, was an unidentified Stewart. The older son (whose second wife was Janet Campbell), died in 1575 probably of old age, had become Lord of Bar upon his father's death -- but what happened to the younger John Lockhart of Bar, the one born about 1530 to the Stewart wife? Was this younger son a close relative of Matthew Stewart, the Regent? Did he suffer the same fate as the Regent?--Walter Farwell of Iowa

In the above posting, I say that John Lockhart of Bar was present when Matthew Stewart was made Regent of Scotland. THAT IS NOT WHAT I SHOULD HAVE SAID. They were together one day before the Regent was murdered. The footnote I quoted was explaining this paragraph:

This day, "Ancient Gerat, Englischeman, being exhibeit and presentit befoir my Lord Regentis Grace and Lordis of Secreit Counsall, and being inquirit upoune the wrang and spuilzie allegeit committit be him, in presens of Jhonne Lokhart of Bar, and Jhonne Chalmer, brother of James Chamlmer of Gaitgirthe, quhilkis compeirit upoune the behalf of George Lokhert, Jhonne Kennedie, and Adame Cuninghame," and parties having been herd the Regent, with advice of the Council, grants liberty to the said Ancient Gerat to return to Ireland, on his faithful promise to come again to Scotland at the feast of St. Andrew in November next to answer before the Lord Admiral or other competent judge to the complaint of the said George Lokhart and his partners. The Regent also discharges John Peblis, William Blair, and Hew Scott, burgesses of Irvine, cautioners for Gerat, so that he "may depairt at his pleasour" without prejudice.