James VI made a personal progress to Strathbogie Castle in 1600 as part of a northern justice ayre that was also a display of royal power to the newly restored Huntly. By visiting Strathbogie — the Gordon heartland — James VI demonstrated that royal authority now extended to the most powerful noble family in the northeast. Huntly received the king with elaborate ceremony. The visit was a signal that the Catholic earls crisis was definitively over and that Huntly's restoration as Marquess was conditional on demonstrated loyalty. The progress combined the symbolism of a royal visit with the substance of a judicial circuit.
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