0:00:03 > 0:00:09For hundreds of years, Clan Gordon was the dominant force in Scotland's northeast.
0:00:09 > 0:00:16Their power and arrogance earned them the title Cocks of the North, but the Crown clipped their wings
0:00:16 > 0:00:20in spectacular and gruesome fashion.
0:00:20 > 0:00:28On the 28th May 1563, the citizens of Edinburgh lined the streets to see the embalmed corpse
0:00:28 > 0:00:34of George Gordon, the dead Earl of Huntly, brought in chains to Parliament.
0:00:34 > 0:00:39There, in front of the Lords of the realm, he was tried and found guilty of treason,
0:00:39 > 0:00:43despite the fact that he'd been dead for nine months.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48'In this series, I'm going on a personal journey
0:00:48 > 0:00:52'to explore the great clan names of Scottish history,
0:00:52 > 0:00:58'and there can be few that resonate with more greatness than Gordon, the Cocks of the North.'
0:01:12 > 0:01:17'For centuries, the name Gordon has been associated with Scotland's northeast,
0:01:17 > 0:01:24'so it's a surprise to learn that the clan's route to greatness began here, in the Borders.'
0:01:24 > 0:01:27I've come to the old border county of Berwickshire,
0:01:27 > 0:01:30where the rich agricultural lands around here
0:01:30 > 0:01:33are still known as Gordon and Huntly.
0:01:33 > 0:01:38Now, holding the titles to these lands gave the Gordons the name
0:01:38 > 0:01:42we know them by today, and this is the site of their first castle.
0:01:44 > 0:01:51700 years ago, long before Greenknowe Tower was built, a medieval castle stood here.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55This was the home of the Gordon family, when they offered
0:01:55 > 0:02:01their services to Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Independence.
0:02:01 > 0:02:08As a reward for their loyalty, the Gordons received the lands of Strathbogie in the northeast.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12The family took their border names with them and the Strathbogie lands
0:02:12 > 0:02:19became Huntly lands, ruled over by a new dynasty, the Earls of Gordon.
0:02:21 > 0:02:28The Gordons thrived in their new home and by the 16th century, they had no serious rivals in the north.
0:02:28 > 0:02:35This is Huntly Castle, a dramatic display of Gordon power.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39'To find out how this palatial building reflects the status
0:02:39 > 0:02:43'of the Gordon Clan, I've come to meet castle expert, Chris Tabraham.'
0:02:43 > 0:02:47Now, Chris, this is a truly magnificent building.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51There's nothing else really like this in Scotland, is there?
0:02:51 > 0:02:53It must say a lot about the Gordon Earls.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56You're looking at the best front door anywhere in Britain,
0:02:56 > 0:02:57not just Scotland,
0:02:57 > 0:03:02and it does, it proclaims the wealth, the power and the standing
0:03:02 > 0:03:04of the person who built it.
0:03:04 > 0:03:11If you look at it from the top of the door lintel, in a rising order of importance, you have
0:03:11 > 0:03:15the Earl and his good lady, above that, the King and Queen of Scots,
0:03:15 > 0:03:19and then above that, Christ in His majesty.
0:03:19 > 0:03:25Now, all this display of power smacks of a certain degree of arrogance, perhaps.
0:03:25 > 0:03:30Is that how the Gordon Earls got the sobriquet Cocks of the North?
0:03:30 > 0:03:33Yes, that was the 4th Earl, George Gordon,
0:03:33 > 0:03:36and he was the man who got the sobriquet Cock of the North
0:03:36 > 0:03:42when he had invited Queen Marie, Mary, Queen of Scots' mother, to stay at Huntly Castle with him.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46She came, there was a guard of honour welcoming her, over 1,000 men strong.
0:03:46 > 0:03:52About three days into the stay, the food and the wine, the game, were still coming in
0:03:52 > 0:03:57from the hills and glens around, and she said, "Look, dear Earl, I'm imposing on you too much."
0:03:57 > 0:04:02He said, "Don't hear of it, Madam, I've got much more," and he took her down to the cellars
0:04:02 > 0:04:07in the palace of Huntly Castle and showed her these cellars, groaning with food and drink.
0:04:07 > 0:04:12Um, and it was a little while later that her French Ambassador, who was accompanying her,
0:04:12 > 0:04:16whispered into her ear, "Your Majesty, I think you'd be well advised
0:04:16 > 0:04:19"to clip the wings of this Cock of the North."
0:04:20 > 0:04:23Huntly was described as the Cock of the North
0:04:23 > 0:04:26because of his huge territorial powers,
0:04:26 > 0:04:32and with that land came kinship alliances and bonds,
0:04:32 > 0:04:38so he had a vast army of men at his disposal as well.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41He also had huge legal and jurisdictional powers
0:04:41 > 0:04:44that were granted to him by the Crown,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47and he was enormously wealthy,
0:04:47 > 0:04:54and if it came to it, Huntly could effectively destabilise the Crown, should he choose to do so.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01Scotland at the time was at a crossroads.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05Mary of Guise was the French mother of Mary, Queen of Scots.
0:05:05 > 0:05:11As Regent and acting Queen, she was the most powerful woman in the realm.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Leading the forces of the Catholic establishment,
0:05:14 > 0:05:20Mary of Guise was locked in a deadly struggle with Protestant reformers over the destiny of Scotland.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24But instead of supporting his Catholic Queen,
0:05:24 > 0:05:30George Gordon, the most powerful Catholic noble in the north, joined the Protestant rebellion.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33A decision that incurred her undying anger.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36The fact that the 4th Earl would side with the Protestants
0:05:36 > 0:05:39reflects that the Reformation wasn't just a religious movement,
0:05:39 > 0:05:41it was also a political movement,
0:05:41 > 0:05:43and it was, if you like, an anti-French movement.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48Mary of Guise was not just running Scotland, but running it with importation
0:05:48 > 0:05:53of major French courtiers, and the nobles felt that their noses were out of joint.
0:05:55 > 0:06:01But Mary of Guise died before she was able to revenge herself on Huntly for his betrayal.
0:06:01 > 0:06:07Now her Catholic daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, was poised to return,
0:06:07 > 0:06:10just as the victorious Protestants swept to power.
0:06:10 > 0:06:16This put the succession of the young Mary, Queen of Scots into question.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20As a devout Catholic, she was therefore a potential enemy
0:06:20 > 0:06:24of the new Protestant state, so how could she become its monarch?
0:06:24 > 0:06:29The answer to this thorny religious question was provided by Mary's half-brother,
0:06:29 > 0:06:33the talented but scheming Protestant Lord James,
0:06:33 > 0:06:37a man who would become an implacable enemy of the Gordons.
0:06:41 > 0:06:46Lord James was a very, very able politician, extremely able.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50Probably the best politician of his generation in Scotland.
0:06:50 > 0:06:55But he was also seeking to make an estate for himself in the northeast,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58which would directly confront the Gordons, in particular, Huntly.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07'Lord James became the young Queen's closest advisor.
0:07:07 > 0:07:13'Before she even arrived in Scotland to take up the throne, he urged caution on matters of religion.'
0:07:13 > 0:07:19Lord James wasn't the only relative to offer advice at this crucial time.
0:07:19 > 0:07:25George Gordon, the Earl of Huntly, was Mary's second cousin, and he hoped and almost expected that
0:07:25 > 0:07:31the young Queen would turn to him for sage advice, and when he heard that Mary was about to leave France
0:07:31 > 0:07:39for Scotland, he urged her to sail north, where he promised to meet her with an army of 20,000 Catholics.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43Together, he boasted, they would sweep the Protestants into the sea
0:07:43 > 0:07:46and restore Scotland to the true faith.
0:07:48 > 0:07:56'The young Queen had a decision to make - take up Gordon's offer and overthrow the Protestant order,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00'or trust the word of Lord James, who advised a policy of neutrality.'
0:08:00 > 0:08:04There were more important, dynastic interests at stake.
0:08:04 > 0:08:09The key to Mary's actions at the time of the Scottish Reformation,
0:08:09 > 0:08:11or just after it, is the fact that
0:08:11 > 0:08:16she essentially has her sights fixed on the throne of England,
0:08:16 > 0:08:22the throne of Protestant England, and by giving her support to the Protestant Reformation in Scotland,
0:08:22 > 0:08:28she was looking to assure a safe and easy passage, eventually, she hoped, to the throne of England.
0:08:30 > 0:08:37'In 1561, Mary, Queen of Scots returned to the country of her birth to take up the throne.
0:08:37 > 0:08:41'It was important to her claim on the English throne to demonstrate
0:08:41 > 0:08:46'that she could keep powerful Catholic Earls, like Huntly, in check.'
0:08:46 > 0:08:50Guided by Lord James, Mary set about completing the job
0:08:50 > 0:08:54begun by her mother, clipping the wings of the Cock of the North.
0:08:54 > 0:08:59Her first move was to reward Lord James with the Earldom of Moray.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Now, this came like a slap in the face to George Gordon.
0:09:02 > 0:09:09He regarded these lands as his by right, and their sudden loss was like a declaration of war.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13Mary next piled on the pressure. Leading a royal army into the heart
0:09:13 > 0:09:19of Gordon country, she declared George Gordon a rebel and an outlaw.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Huntly is extremely aggrieved that Lord James is put in,
0:09:22 > 0:09:24and he takes that out on the Queen, you know,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27he sees her as responsible and this is almost the last straw.
0:09:27 > 0:09:32"You didn't come to me when you came home in 1561, and now look what you've done,
0:09:32 > 0:09:36"you've given your half-brother Moray, and I'm just not having it."
0:09:38 > 0:09:40'George Gordon had no option.'
0:09:40 > 0:09:43Honour demanded that he defend himself.
0:09:43 > 0:09:49Gordon tried to raise as many men as he could, but these were few.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53Yet just a couple of years earlier, he'd boasted to the young Mary, Queen of Scots
0:09:53 > 0:09:57that he could put together a Catholic army of 20,000.
0:09:57 > 0:10:04Now, in defence of his own honour, he could only scrape together 800 members of his clan.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12Lord James, now bearing the proud title of Earl of Moray,
0:10:12 > 0:10:17personally led the Queen's army in pursuit of the Gordon rebels.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22On the 28th of October 1562, he cornered them
0:10:22 > 0:10:25on the slopes of the Hill of Fare, at a place called Corrichie.
0:10:25 > 0:10:31Today, dense forest covers the ground where the two armies clashed,
0:10:31 > 0:10:35making it almost impossible to imagine what took place here.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38But this is where Clan Gordon bled, and where their chief,
0:10:38 > 0:10:44the 4th Earl, was finally brought down by Lord James, the new Earl of Moray.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53This monument was put up in the 1950s to commemorate
0:10:53 > 0:10:58the hundreds of men from Clan Gordon who died at the Battle of Corrichie.
0:10:58 > 0:11:05'But to see the wood for the trees, you have to leave the forest and get some distance.'
0:11:05 > 0:11:10The Gordons took up a good defensive position, up there on the Hill of Fare.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14But many of the Earl's normally loyal allies refused to join him,
0:11:14 > 0:11:18because they saw his actions as open rebellion against the Crown.
0:11:18 > 0:11:24As a result, his forces were outnumbered almost three to one by those of Lord James.
0:11:24 > 0:11:30The royal army drove the Gordons off the summit with their superior firepower.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34As soon as they left the heights, the Gordons got into boggy ground,
0:11:34 > 0:11:39where they were overwhelmed by the royal cavalry, and finally, by the royal pikemen.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41It was an utter disaster.
0:11:46 > 0:11:53His army decimated and his hopes in ruins, the aging Earl was captured on the field of battle.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56But the exertions of the fight and the stress of defeat
0:11:56 > 0:12:02proved too much - he had a seizure and fell from his horse, stone dead.
0:12:08 > 0:12:13'Death, it seems, was not enough to clip the wings of the Cock of the North.
0:12:13 > 0:12:20'On the orders of the Crown, Huntly's body was disembowelled and preserved in a barrel of salt.
0:12:20 > 0:12:26'The corpse was then shipped from Aberdeen to Edinburgh, where it was put on trial for treason.'
0:12:28 > 0:12:32'This is the old Parliament Hall, which stands on the site of the court
0:12:32 > 0:12:36'where, nine months after the Battle of Corrichie,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39'the unfortunate Earl of Huntly's body was judged by his peers.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43'I've come here to meet Kirsty McAlister,
0:12:43 > 0:12:47'to find out more about this unlikely and gruesome trial.'
0:12:47 > 0:12:50Kirsty, it seems a really bizarre and macabre thing to do,
0:12:50 > 0:12:54to put a corpse on trial. Must be very unusual, surely?
0:12:54 > 0:12:56Unusual, yes, but not unique.
0:12:56 > 0:13:02And remember, it was highly ritualistic, highly symbolic, and it allowed judgement to be passed
0:13:02 > 0:13:10on a person's status and character and reputation, and death was no escape from that enduring disgrace.
0:13:10 > 0:13:16So they wanted to make this appear to be a very objective and independent trial?
0:13:16 > 0:13:20Absolutely, and it was about the due process of the law.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24It was necessary that Mary showed that she was using the proper channels
0:13:24 > 0:13:26to establish Huntly's forfeiture,
0:13:26 > 0:13:32and that she wasn't just arbitrarily declaring him a traitor to the realm.
0:13:32 > 0:13:37Now, despite Mary's great show of being independent and objective over Huntly's trial and saying
0:13:37 > 0:13:41Moray's got nothing to do with this, but her half-brother is in the background, is he not?
0:13:41 > 0:13:43Absolutely, very prominently so.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46He's her chief counsel and he has recently been gifted
0:13:46 > 0:13:50that Earldom of Moray, which used to be administered by Huntly.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53So there's a game of power politics going on in the northeast.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57This whole affair must have really poisoned relations
0:13:57 > 0:13:59between the Earls of Moray and the Earls of Huntly.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02Well, as you can understand, there was a great deal of antipathy
0:14:02 > 0:14:07between the two families, a blood feud, if you like, that would go on for generations.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14The bad blood that now flowed between Lord James and the Gordons
0:14:14 > 0:14:17was passed from father to son and grandson.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21The feud reached a violent climax 30 years later,
0:14:21 > 0:14:25with another George Gordon, the 6th Earl of Huntly.
0:14:25 > 0:14:32He was a devoted friend of the new King, James VI, but also the King's most troublesome subject.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37James VI saw Huntly as an epitome of what it was to be a Scottish noble,
0:14:37 > 0:14:41the idea of a strong man, a refined man, an educated man.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45The interesting thing about this Earl of Huntly's career
0:14:45 > 0:14:49is that he gets forgiven for almost everything.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52The 6th Earl should be remembered for a man who got away with it.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54He is the man who got away with murder.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00'The Catholic 6th Earl of Huntly made his appearance in history
0:15:00 > 0:15:07'when the Protestant countries of northern Europe lived in fear of a Catholic Reformation.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12'So why did the Protestant King James become the friend and protector
0:15:12 > 0:15:16'of the dangerously Catholic Gordon Earl?
0:15:16 > 0:15:22'The answer is partly explained by Huntly's role in rescuing King James from kidnap.'
0:15:22 > 0:15:27Unlike his Catholic mother, James is brought up a Protestant.
0:15:27 > 0:15:33His faith not only qualified him to be Elizabeth of England's chosen heir and successor,
0:15:33 > 0:15:36but also the first monarch of a United Kingdom.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39But there were some very powerful interests in Scotland,
0:15:39 > 0:15:42who thought that James was not Protestant enough.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50'In 1582, in a bizarre episode known as the Ruthven Raids,
0:15:50 > 0:15:58'a group of hardline Protestants kidnapped the King and held him at Huntingtower Castle, near Perth.'
0:15:58 > 0:16:01The type of Protestantism that was going to settle in Scotland
0:16:01 > 0:16:06was as yet undecided, and there was a power struggle, if you like,
0:16:06 > 0:16:09between the more moderate and the more radical Protestants,
0:16:09 > 0:16:13and this was about who could sway James and who could have
0:16:13 > 0:16:17their own form of the new religion put into place.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20If you've got hold of the King, then you can control him.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23You can tell him what's what. And so, having the King's person
0:16:23 > 0:16:27is very important, and that's what the Ruthven Raids is all about,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30actually physically getting hold of the King and taking him away
0:16:30 > 0:16:34from all these bad influences and getting him back on the straight and narrow.
0:16:37 > 0:16:42'After ten months of captivity, James was finally able to escape,
0:16:42 > 0:16:47'thanks to the intervention of the young and very dashing Earl of Huntly.'
0:16:50 > 0:16:54The relationship that developed between the young Protestant King
0:16:54 > 0:16:59and the dashing Gordon chief was unusually deep and powerful.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03At times the friendship seemed to stretch the limits of forgiveness,
0:17:03 > 0:17:07especially when the King repeatedly absolved his favourite
0:17:07 > 0:17:12for crimes which, for other mortals, would have incurred the death penalty.
0:17:12 > 0:17:19'The first example of the King's extraordinary leniency towards Huntly occurred in 1589,
0:17:19 > 0:17:27'when Huntly was implicated in a plot to land 60,000 Spanish troops in Scotland.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30'At a time when fears of a Catholic counter-reformation
0:17:30 > 0:17:33'were at their height, this amounted to high treason.'
0:17:33 > 0:17:39Elizabeth of England certainly thought so, and expected King James,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43as her nominated successor, to punish his friend, the Earl.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48Incredibly, the King let Huntly off with just the minimum reprimand.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53Admittedly, the Gordon Earl had to spend a short time as a prisoner here, in Edinburgh Castle,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56where the King came to visit his recalcitrant friend
0:17:56 > 0:17:59and tried to persuade him to become a better citizen.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02He even went as far as spending the night with him.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05I wonder if he got the point.
0:18:07 > 0:18:09'All this raises the obvious question -
0:18:09 > 0:18:12'was their relationship a gay one?
0:18:12 > 0:18:17'Could this explain why the King was so quick to act as Huntly's protector?'
0:18:18 > 0:18:23James would caress his favourites in public
0:18:23 > 0:18:26and he would heap honours and titles and favours on them.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30One of those favourites was the Duke of Lennox,
0:18:30 > 0:18:37and one, of course, was Huntly, and rumours of homosexuality were regularly cast at James.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40I think that James would appear
0:18:40 > 0:18:44to have been somebody who was bisexual,
0:18:44 > 0:18:48and the older he got, the more he became dependent
0:18:48 > 0:18:51on good-looking young men as companions and associates.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54He became increasingly estranged from his wife, Queen Anna,
0:18:54 > 0:18:57and indeed, sometimes she only got an audience with him
0:18:57 > 0:19:00when she could procure good-looking young men at the court.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03It's easy to leap to the conclusion that he was gay.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06I actually think it was more complicated than that,
0:19:06 > 0:19:10and the relationship between men is something that happens throughout history,
0:19:10 > 0:19:16in very male environments, including the military environment, where you're relying on these people,
0:19:16 > 0:19:19you're with these people and they mean a huge amount to you,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22and women, maybe in this context, don't mean so much at all.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29'The depth of the King's feelings for Huntly allowed for his restoration
0:19:29 > 0:19:35'to royal favour, despite his treacherous role in the Spanish plot.'
0:19:35 > 0:19:40Huntly kept a low profile for a while, but then came a cry for help from the King.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44For some months, the King had been subjected to a bullying assault
0:19:44 > 0:19:47from the psychopathic Protestant Earl of Bothwell,
0:19:47 > 0:19:50who tried to instigate a palace coup.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53Now, the King was so terrified of Bothwell, that in self defence,
0:19:53 > 0:19:58he'd been forced to barricade himself into his own royal apartments.
0:19:58 > 0:20:03Obviously, something had to be done about Bothwell, and the King thought the man
0:20:03 > 0:20:08to deal with him was his favourite, George Gordon, the Earl of Huntly.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15'But instead of going after Bothwell, Huntly chose to go after Bothwell supporter,
0:20:15 > 0:20:18'the Protestant Earl of Moray.
0:20:18 > 0:20:25'What happened next reignited the age-old blood feud between the Earls of Moray and the Gordons.'
0:20:25 > 0:20:28The key reason why Huntly went after the 2nd Earl of Moray
0:20:28 > 0:20:31is simply because of the fact that they were major rivals
0:20:31 > 0:20:36in the north of Scotland, and when the opportunity came along,
0:20:36 > 0:20:38Huntly certainly grabbed it with both hands.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44Moray, nicknamed The Bonny Earl on account of his good looks,
0:20:44 > 0:20:49was staying at Donibristle Castle, overlooking the Firth of Forth.
0:20:50 > 0:20:56One night, Huntly and a band of 40 Gordon clansmen landed here and then made their way
0:20:56 > 0:21:01through the grounds of Donibristle, which is now occupied by this housing development.
0:21:05 > 0:21:11This 18th century coach house now stands on the site of the original Donibristle Castle.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14'On the night that Huntly and his men arrived,
0:21:14 > 0:21:19'they surrounded the building, sealed the exits and set it alight.'
0:21:19 > 0:21:23Moray managed to escape the burning building, but tragically,
0:21:23 > 0:21:27a spark set fire to his hat, and he was spotted as he fled
0:21:27 > 0:21:36to the water's edge, where he was quickly overtaken by his pursuers, who brutally hacked him to pieces.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41# Ye Hielands and ye Lowlands
0:21:41 > 0:21:47# Oh, whaur hae ye been?
0:21:47 > 0:21:51# They hae slain the Earl o' Moray
0:21:51 > 0:21:53# And laid him on the green... #
0:21:53 > 0:21:56'The bloody murder of the Earl of Moray is immortalised
0:21:56 > 0:21:59'in one of the oldest ballads of the folk repertoire.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02'Its hauntingly beautiful melody and simple lyrics
0:22:02 > 0:22:10'echo down the centuries, telling of a great injustice, a wrong that had to be righted.'
0:22:10 > 0:22:13# And he played at the bar... #
0:22:13 > 0:22:15James Stewart, the Bonny Earl of Moray,
0:22:15 > 0:22:19was quite an important figure. He was quite well liked.
0:22:19 > 0:22:24He was popular at the time, and I suppose the ballad was composed
0:22:24 > 0:22:27to show the ordinary folks' anger at what happened,
0:22:27 > 0:22:33and also to keep that anger alive, and that's why it's still sung to this day.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36# He was a braw gallant... #
0:22:36 > 0:22:41It's quite romanticised, I suppose, I mean, the Bonny Earl of Moray,
0:22:41 > 0:22:45by all means, he was quite a looker,
0:22:45 > 0:22:47but he was also a drinker and a gambler,
0:22:47 > 0:22:52so I suppose that's overlooked in this and they want to keep the memory of him alive.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55# Ere she see the Earl o'Moray
0:22:55 > 0:23:01# Come a-soundin' through the toun. #
0:23:01 > 0:23:04AUDIENCE APPLAUDING
0:23:04 > 0:23:09'The ballad is obviously a poetic interpretation of what took place.
0:23:09 > 0:23:16The bloody reality of the murder presented James VI with a major crisis.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20For those inclined to think that way, the murder of a Protestant Earl
0:23:20 > 0:23:22was, you know, evidence of papists under the bed,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25counter-reformation, things going terribly wrong.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29A whispering campaign now implicated the King in Moray's murder.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33When public anger reached boiling point,
0:23:33 > 0:23:37James was forced to move his court out of the capital.
0:23:37 > 0:23:43In an attempt to calm the situation, Huntly gave himself up to royal mercy.
0:23:43 > 0:23:49The Gordon Earl voluntarily warded himself here, at Blackness Castle.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52Now, he didn't face a harsh prison regime.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56He was given an apartment suitable to his lordly position in life,
0:23:56 > 0:24:00allowed wine and contact with his friends in the outside world.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03In any case, his confinement didn't last long.
0:24:03 > 0:24:10After just ten days, his great friend and protector, the King, released him without charge.
0:24:10 > 0:24:17'But the mother of the murdered Earl of Moray demanded justice and gathered all the evidence she could.
0:24:17 > 0:24:23'This included an extraordinary and unique piece of visual forensics,
0:24:23 > 0:24:29'that still hangs on the walls of his descendent, John Doune, the son of the present Earl of Moray.'
0:24:29 > 0:24:31It's about six foot four, I think.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35- That's amazing. This picture tells the story, really.- It does.
0:24:35 > 0:24:40It does. It's the death portrait of the 2nd Earl of Moray,
0:24:40 > 0:24:45Bonny Earl of Moray, as he lay in the days after he was murdered.
0:24:45 > 0:24:52In a bid to get justice from the King, the Bonny Earl's mother took his body to Edinburgh.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Now, this painting, which she commissioned, is extraordinary in many ways.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00I've never seen anything like this, but to me it looks like,
0:25:00 > 0:25:03almost like a scene of crime picture.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05It shows very accurately the fire at Donibristle.
0:25:05 > 0:25:13The Bonny Earl's body lying down by the shore, and there's really kind of forensic detail, almost.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17Yes, I think it's... I think it is absolutely accurate.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21It's thought to have been painted by a herald painter from the court,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25called John Workman, and his mother would have instructed him
0:25:25 > 0:25:31to depict every single blow and every cut and every bullet hole
0:25:31 > 0:25:39that was on his body, so it is really evidence that you could show in court.
0:25:41 > 0:25:46'Among the 16 wounds on the body is a deep slash across the leg,
0:25:46 > 0:25:47'that prevented escape.
0:25:47 > 0:25:53'The other cuts are proof of a protracted and agonising death.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57'The slashes across the face were inflicted by Huntly himself.
0:25:57 > 0:26:05'According the story, Moray's dying words were, "You have spoiled a better face than your own, Huntly."
0:26:05 > 0:26:12'Despite the efforts of the Bonny Earl's mother, justice was never done.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16'King James protected his friend and Huntly was never brought to trial.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19'He literally got away with murder.'
0:26:19 > 0:26:22But the King got little thanks.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26Over the next few years, Huntly continued to plot against the Crown.
0:26:26 > 0:26:32Unbelievably, the King continued to reward and forgive his troublesome friend.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37King James, it seems, never gave up on his friend.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42Years later in London, after he'd become the first sovereign of a United Kingdom,
0:26:42 > 0:26:46he introduced Huntly to his son, the future Charles I.
0:26:46 > 0:26:52"This man," he said, "is the most faithful servant that ever served a prince."
0:26:54 > 0:27:00'James now demanded an end to the blood feud between the Gordons and the Earls of Moray.
0:27:00 > 0:27:06'The deal brokered by the King involved a marriage between the two rival families.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11'Huntly's daughter now became the wife of the new Earl of Moray.'
0:27:11 > 0:27:16Peace may have broken out between the Gordons and the Earls of Moray,
0:27:16 > 0:27:20but this didn't mean that Huntly would stop his rebellious ways.
0:27:20 > 0:27:27In 1634, he was again denounced as a rebel and imprisoned here, in Edinburgh Castle.
0:27:27 > 0:27:34Once again, he was released after just a few short months, but this time he was stalked by ill health
0:27:34 > 0:27:40and not even the intervention of his friend the King could stay the hand of the Grim Reaper.
0:27:44 > 0:27:49George Gordon, the 6th Earl of Huntly and the Chief of Clan Gordon,
0:27:49 > 0:27:56died a few days after his release from the castle, on the 13th June, 1636.
0:27:56 > 0:28:04George Gordon was finally laid to rest amongst the bones of his ancestors, here at Elgin Cathedral.
0:28:04 > 0:28:09His openly Catholic funeral was no doubt a provocation to the Protestant state,
0:28:09 > 0:28:16but the ceremony symbolised the end of the bloody feud between the Gordons and the Earls of Moray,
0:28:16 > 0:28:23because amongst the pall-bearers was the Earl's son-in-law, James Stewart, the 3rd Earl of Moray,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26the son of the man he'd murdered.
0:28:26 > 0:28:32In helping to lay Huntly to rest, this new Earl of Moray was also helping to lay to rest
0:28:32 > 0:28:37one of the last great feuds of Scottish history.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:29:00 > 0:29:03E-mail - subtitling@bbc.co.uk