| No. 7.] | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1849. | [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d. |
[Among the curious documents which have beenproduced from time to time before the House of Lordsin support of peerage claims, there have been few ofgreater historical interest than the one which we nowreprint from the Fourth Part of the Evidence takenbefore the Committee of Privileges on the Claim ofW. Constable Maxwell, Esquire, to the title of LordHerries of Terregles. It is a copy of the Contract ofMarriage between Queen Mary and the Earl of Bothwell,which, although it is said to have been printedby Carmichael, in his Various Tracts relating to thePeerage of Scotland, extracted from the Public Records,has not been referred to by Robertson, or other historiansof Scotland, not even by the most recent ofthem, Mr. Tytler.
Mr. Tytler tells us that on the 12th of May, 1567,Bothwell was created Duke of Orkney, "the Queenwith her own hands placing the coronet on his head,"and that the marr