there are so many events in history that
nobody talks about yet they're a massive
impact it's the fifth of august and
today i want to tell you about an event
that almost stopped the united kingdom
before it started
the gowdy conspiracy hiya i'm bruce for
me
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anytime during this video in the
meantime
let me tell you a story
today i'm in the village of faultland
and fife
loved by outlander fans because it was
used as a setting for inverness in that
tv series
behind me is a fountain that jamie stood
up looking up at claire's window and
there's mrs beard's honeymoon bed and
breakfast
but today i've got a more important
story to tell you
the ruthen family were a powerful and
important family in 16th century
scottish politics
the family prestige went back to a
previous ruthland
who'd helped william wallace capture
perth from an english garrison
and he was later rewarded by robert the
bruce now
they had hereditary rights to the title
of provost of perth
that's mere of your english at the time
perth was called saint john's tune
and i want to tell you about three
generations of ruthens that brought
their prestige to an end
patrick third lord raven was near the
end himself
he was terminally ill in 1566 when he
led a group of nobles in mary queen of
scots chamber
to murder her courtier and close
confidant david rizzio
when ritzy hid behind mary's skirts
patrick ratheran
pointed his pistol at mary's pregnant
belly and threatened to kill the future
james vi
in the womb is it true that mary
predicted that our unborn child would
wreck
vengeance in the rather than family i
don't know
i do know that patrick raven's son
william was only a bit part player in
the murder of ritzio
but he played a leading role in the life
of mary and her son james later
a stone's through from falkland loch
levin castle was made his prison when
the protestant lords of the congregation
captured her at carbury hill and william
rodham
was our custodian it was here under his
supervision that mary was forced to
abdicate in favor of her son
the new james vi this was the scene of a
palace coup
and william ruthervin was at the heart
of it
now you might think that william
rothman's days as a royal jailer were
over
but no when the young james vi
was 14 he raised william rotherman to be
the heir love gowdy
was rather ungrateful no
exactly a year to the day later william
rothman earl of gowdy abducted and
imprisoned the 15 year old king here
at ruthervin castle and put himself at
the head of government
and what became known as the raid of
ruthen james was an effective hostage
for ten months
before he freed himself from the earl of
gowdy's grasp
when james reached adulthood william
rothman was beheaded for treason
in the village beyond the castle is
still called rothvin field
the castle itself is now called hunting
tower
that is because of a day in the life of
james
and the third generation of ruthens
which brings us to our story now i'm
going to summarise the story as james
himself told it
because for reasons it'll become clear
that's the only version we have
now james came here to falten for a
day's hunt
that was a regular activity for the
stewards but this day
would take a turn that was totally
unexpected and have consequences
right down to the present day the 22
year old era gowdy at the time was john
rothen
but you had a younger brother alexander
sandy if you're scottish
on the morning of the hunt young sandy
arrives here at faultland and he says to
the king
i'd like you to come over to perth to
gowdy house
why is that says james well says sandy
last night i captured a man in a field
a man in a field says james i a man in a
field work put a goal
i put a gold you see
now at the time the english were still
trying to meddle in scottish politics
queen elizabeth had paid john's dad
william rothen money
when he kidnapped james and taking over
the government the spanish were also
intriguing in scottish politics at the
time
why would somebody be going around
scotland with pots of gold
are they trying to raise money for an
army are they trying to bribe spies
can james get his hands on the money
more importantly
what's he doing in a field
i arrested them arrested him last night
and i think you should come
to my brother's house and saint john's
to perth an interrogation says aunt
sandy
oh so your brother knows about this no
my brother doesn't know anything about
it
but he's in your brother's house
yeah who is he well i don't know
well what does he look like oh i i i
don't know
but you said that you'd arrested him
yeah yeah
but he was wearing like a hooded cloak
so i didn't see his face
he was wearing a hoodie that does sound
suspicious right enough
well it was more of like a hooded cow
than a hoodie but yeah
so you arrested them but you didn't take
the hood off no
and he's in your brother's house that's
right
but you your brother he doesn't know
about this
that's right let me get this straight
last night you're out wandering the
pershore countryside
you come across a random hooded guy in a
field with a pot of gold
looking like a character in the led
zeppelin album cover
you arrest them you take them back to
gowdy house you smuggle them inside
without your brother or a staff known
you don't tell your brother the air
legally incidentally and the province of
john
st john's tune you've now left the gold
laden grim reaper in gary house with the
gold
to come here to faultland and tell me to
go and interrogate him
aye that's right sorted off me i'm going
hunting
now that might have been the end of
things but james
must have been intrigued enough by
sandy's story because he cut short as
days hunting and headed for perth
saint johnston his entourage would have
approached perth through the parkland to
the south that we call
the inch as he approached
would it have crossed his mind that his
ancestor james the first was murdered in
this town
as a provost john rutherford erla gowdy
welcomed them
did they enter his mind that james had
executed his father the first elegant
did they consider the first era gowdy's
part in the fall of james's mother
did either man stop to think that the
grandfather of james's host
had threatened james's life even before
he breathed
do you forget things like that
gowdy house was the best house in st
johnston it was demolished in 1805 but
have outlined where it stood next to
magnificent gardens by the river t
it was officially the property of the
crown it had been a temporary prison for
james the young hostage during the raid
of ruthen
it was a town house of his current host
john ruthen the provost in erla gowdy at
the time
and it would have been the prime spot in
the river for the most prestigious house
in saint johnston gowdy house
has been replaced now by the courthouse
in a busy car park
so i've come across the river to rodney
gardens it's a much better place to tell
the story
so king james arrives at gowdy house but
it seems like john rather in the early
gaurie wasn't expecting him
not only did he have no dinner or
welcome prepared he himself had already
eaten earlier in the day
it was as if the invitation had never
been given
there was certainly no food fit for a
king now people start running around in
panic
i've heard tell there was a wedding in
perth that day so the provost
sends round to requisition the wedding
feast to feed the king
can you imagine being a bride oh
it's yourself come and join us
the king is fed with grouse pen a
shoulder of mutton and some strawberries
the bride and groom i don't know they
say that music's a food of love
so maybe they had a sing song right
after his meal he says to sandy rodvin
what about this mysterious hooded
stranger oh i
see sandy and leads them upstairs to the
turret room
now while sandy and the king have
disappeared upstairs
elder brother john takes the king's
courtiers out to the gardens to admire
the orchard
and as they admire the orchard somebody
says
where's the king somebody else is always
headed off back to edinburgh
what he'll never survive through fife
himself
james was notoriously feeble and wimpy
guy
john rutherford goes off looking for his
horse the next thing
james is screaming at the upper floor
window murder treason
help his courtiers run up the stairs to
rescue the king
when they get there they slap the throat
of sandy ruthen
now by this time the horse search and
john raven downstairs realizes
something's up
he runs up the stairs to see what's
going on a sword fighting shoes in the
landing and john rothman's killed as
well
well clearly this whole thing has caused
a commotion in
st johnston which was incidentally much
smaller than the current perth remember
but word has got out the kings come to
town caused a commotion
stolen a wedding feast and murdered the
provost and his brother
a mob gathers and surrounds the building
now
somebody in the mob arranges for
gunpowder to be brought
the house and the lower floors are
packed with gunpowder to blow up james
vi
and his courtiers in retaliation a
wedding cake's gone missing and
somebody's gonna pay
now just as the blue touch paper is
being lit one of the king's courtiers
takes command of the situation he
manages to calm the mob
and the king is spirited out of the
house and back
to edinburgh the next day james ordered
that his full account of these events
should be announced from the pulpit of
every church
now we don't have time for the full
story that james recounted if you're
really interested
it's in this book called the blood of
kings i'll leave a link
below suffice to say that the tale
of a feeble king overpowering and
disarming a sturdy young man
who's threatened to kill him in revenge
for his father's execution
an armored man in the turret room who
stood by and said nothing
managed to get down the stairs passed
arriving king's quarters without being
noticed and then disappeared never to be
found
and an invisible disappearing hooded man
with a pot of gold
was so ludicrous and filled with holes
many church ministers refused to read
james's account
in any event the two dead rather than
brothers were pickled and brandy
and taken to edinburgh to stand trial
for such reason
now when they had nothing to say in
their defense there was only james's
story
and they were found guilty here's the
thing
if they died without trial then their
titles and estates would have passed to
their ears
but as convicted traitors their assets
passed
to the king oh did i forget to mention
that james had been in debt to the
rivens
well no more debt and property to be
divided up amongst his cronies
that's why rotherham castle is now
called huntingtow
castle it passed to the hands of the
murrays who supported
james was james's story true
was he punishing the sons for the sins
of the father and grandfather
was it a cynical scam to relieve himself
of death and acquire the rutherford
lands
if so why didn't he come up with
something better than the ludicrous
story
that he concocted for whatever the
reasons the day started and however it
ended there was one point during the
gowdy conspiracy
of the 5th of august 1600 when james was
trapped in a building with explosives
primed and ready to blow him and his
courtiers sky high
nowadays every year on the 5th of
november we set off fireworks to
commemorate
james's deliverance from gunpowder plot
that never got anywhere near
that close
why is it that we know about one yet
most folk have never heard of the other
could it be
that three years after the gauri plot
james became king of england
and the gunpowder plot of 1605 was
against the english king
now here's the point of this video if
james had died across the water there on
the 5th of august 1600
who would have been the english king on
the 5th of november 1605
james was chosen from the list of
possible candidates
because he was an adult male he had
chewed her blood
was protestant and had ears if any of
these four didn't apply
do you think the job would have gone to
somebody else
if james had died in 1600 then three
years later when elizabeth of england
died
would they have asked his nine-year-old
son henry to be king of england
i doubt it without james
what differences might there have been
in the world
with no union in the crowns would there
really have been a united kingdom
without james there's no 1609 statutes
of iona to suppress the gaelic language
in celtic culture in scotland
neither would there have been the
plantation of protestants in the north
of ireland for the same
ends how different our islands would
have been
it's not just our islands without the
plantation of low on scots and ireland
there are no scotch iris traveling from
the north of ireland to the americas
the settling of appalachian mountains
bluegrass music
at john witherspoon princeton university
and all these things
without james my american cousins there
would be no jamestown
i'm just saying that this is a story
that people should know on both sides of
the atlantic
and they will if you share it
how many dog is going to be a llama like
cheating drastic
you