Bridging the Continental divide: neo-Latin and its cultural role in Jacobean Scotland, as seen in the Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum (1637)

James Halkerston (c.1540-1615) holds the distinction of making the smallest contribution to the DPS - just seven short epigrams over two pages. 1 Described by the editors as a 'commander of soldiers' ('tribuni militum'), Halkerston served as a captain on the Marian side of the civil war between 1570 and 1572, and by 1573 had fled to Antwerp where he was involved in abortive negotiations for a marriage between Mary Stewart and Don John of Austria. Halkerston wrote five poems on King Henri III of France (r. 1574-1589) and on his election as King of Poland (1573-1574) which suggest that he arrived in France when this event was taking place. He may have been the 'Haultayn' fighting as a mercenary for the Dutch against the Spanish in June 1576. However, this seems unlikely as a letter by John Hamilton, written on 1 August, reveals that Halkerston was engaged around the same period in Catholic intrigues in Paris and Normandy on behalf of Hamilton's family. Halkerston's career over the next two decades saw him serve as an agent for his third cousin Henri d'Angoulême, the Grand Prieur of Provence (between c.1580 and c.1585), Patrick, master of Gray (c.1585 to c.1587), and Francis Stewart, earl of Bothwell (c.1588 to c.1595), usually but not always in relation to plots to re-establish the Catholic faith in Scotland, and also as part of Bothwell's various assaults against the king. Halkerston's final epigram in the DPS, 'On the Flooding of the Tiber', 2 suggests that he was personally present in Rome when the river burst its banks on Christmas Eve 1598. 3 The last account of him (though possibly spurious) was recorded by Thomas Dempster, who apparently found him living in abject poverty in London in 1615. In addition to the short sequence of epigrams published in the DPS, Halkerston produced Latin paraphrases of James VI's sonnet on the death of Sir Philip Sidney, printed in Academiae Cantabrigiensis Lachrymae Tumulo Nobilissimi Equitis, D. Phillipi Sidneij Sacratae. 4

Halkerston's contribution to the DPS includes the six poems outlined above and a short but lovely piece on the pleasing pain caused by love. 5 Halkerston's five epigrams on Henri III actually comprise two short cycles - three written around the time of Henri's above-noted short-lived election to the crown of Poland , 6 and two written around 1585. These poems are fascinating as insights into Halkerston's own opinions on Henri's rule, especially as he himself was a Catholic.

In the three poems relating to Henri's Polish election, Halkerston follows the lead of several other Scottish poets and attacks Catherine de Medici as a figure of hate. 7 However, whereas his Scottish counterparts attack her for her persecution of French Protestants, or Huguenots, Halkerston detests Medici for her willingness to seek compromise on matters of religion and for pursuing crowns for her children while failing to deal with issues at home. In the first poem, the Queen is the 'Etruscan (Italian) mother' being addressed, who presides over the political chaos in France and leaves the country ripe for conquering by the Turks. In the second, Halkerston sarcastically argues that Henri is as 'good' a choice of ruler for Poland as Bona Sforza, who had been Queen consort to Sigismundus I between 1518 and 1548. Sforza built a powerful faction for herself at the Polish court, and was reputed to have poisoned her daughter-in-law Barbara Radziwill, who was a member of the leading rival family to the Jagellionian dynasty. Sforza had also consistently favoured a close diplomatic alliance with France, and this example of another power-hungry Italian queen, who was herself murdered by poisoning, was no doubt meant as an unflattering comparison to Henri's mother. 8 Finally, Henri is lambasted in the third poem for providing the Polish nation with nothing while robbing them of their men and arms.

The two later poems show that Halkerston clearly shared the same deep-seated distaste for Henri, and the frustration and anger at his leniency towards Huguenots, as the other major opposition party in France that emerged in his later reign - the Catholic League. Although Henri had initially acceded to the throne with popular support, the League had been formed under the leadership of the Guise family in response to the king's policy of toleration (typified by the so-called 'Peace of Monsieur' in 1576 and the Treaty of Bergerac in 1577), his unwillingness to take rigorous action against Huguenots when they failed to comply with limits to their rights of worship, and above all his endorsement of the Protestant Henri of Navarre. 10

Henri was also the victim of a systematic and long-lived satirical campaign, which lambasted him as an effeminate and weak tyrant and has coloured his reputation ever since. 11 It is in this tradition that the final two epigrams should be located. The first criticises Henri's interest in courtly and 'bookish' pleasures, most notoriously exemplified by his creation of an 'Académie' at court where he would withdraw twice a week after lunch to hear lectures and debates on a range of intellectual matters. 12

The final poem is a contribution to a battle of wits between Henri's supporters and his detractors in the League on the completion of one of his cultural projects in 1585. Henri's official motto, 'Manet ultima caelo' ('The last [crown] remains in heaven'), reflected the fact that in addition to the crowns of France and Poland he looked forward to the third and final crown he would receive after death. Henri's restoration of the clock tower known as the Tour de L'Horloge in Paris (originally built around 1350 and completed in November 1585) featured a play on this motto, added to its side by the lead sculptor Germain Pilon: 'Qui dedit ante duas, triplicem dabit ille Coronom [sic]' (He who gave two crowns before will give a third'). A satirical corruption of this motto was quickly disseminated by members of the Catholic League who, as the chronicler Pierre de l'Estoile (1546-1611) noted, suggested that the third should be quickly procured for Henri by having his barber slit his throat: 'Qui dedit ante duas, unam abstulit, altera nutat,/ tertia tonsoris est facienda manu' ('He who gave you the first two crowns has taken one away, the second is tottering; the third will be given to you by the hand of the barber'). 16 The text of Halkerston's epigram is virtually identical to that of the one that circulated around the members of the League:

No author has ever been identified for the response produced by the League - there is thus an intriguing possibility that Halkerston may have been its creator. However, in the absence of any other data it is impossible to confirm or deny this. Regardless, what is apparent from Halkerston's short contribution to the DPS is the fact that Scots on both sides of the confessional divide took part in the polemic battles that raged among the different parties of the later Wars of Religion. More importantly, Scottish humanists clearly felt a deep personal engagement with French culture and politics in the later sixteenth century, and were motivated enough to express their feelings in verse.