Captain James Stewart, Earl of Arran (died 1595) was created Earl of Arran by the young King James VI, who wrested the title from James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran. He rose to become Lord Chancellor of Scotland and was eventually murdered in 1595.
Captain James Stewart, Earl of Arran (died 1595) was created Earl of Arran by the young King James VI, who wrested the title from James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran. He rose to become Lord Chancellor of Scotland and was eventually murdered in 1595.
He was the second son of Andrew Stewart, 2nd Lord Ochiltree, by his wife Agnes, the daughter of John Cunningham, 5th of Capringtoun, Ayrshire. Stewart's sister, Margaret, was married to the reformer John Knox.
In April 1573, James was sent as a "pledge" or hostage to England for the security of the English army and artillery sent to the "Lang Siege" of Edinburgh Castle, which was held by supporters of Mary Queen of Scots. Regent Morton gave him £55 for his expenses in England. [1] He was Captain of the Royal Guard of James VI, served with the Dutch forces in the Netherlands against the Spanish, and returned to Scotland in 1579. [2]
James quickly became a favourite of the young king, and in 1580 was made Gentleman of the Bedchamber. He was a follower of Esmé Stewart, and in January 1580 he accused the former Regent Morton, still the effective power in Scotland, of participation in the murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Stewart was rewarded as Tutor of Arran, with powers over the earldom of the mentally-ill James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran, then made Earl of Arran on 22 April 1581. He also claimed the position of second person in the land through being nearest to the king by descent, other than the now-insane third earl. [2] The new Earl often resided at the Hamilton's Kinneil House until after his own fall in the autumn of 1585, when he remained at Kinneil under house-arrest, and for a time Kinneil was called Arran House. [3]
In July 1581 he married Elizabeth Stewart, the divorced former wife of the King's great-uncle, Robert Stewart, once Earl of Lennox and now Earl of March. Elizabeth, the Countess of Arran, was the daughter of John Stewart, 4th Earl of Atholl.
Esmé Stewart was made Earl, then Duke, of Lennox, and he and Arran became partners in government, and rivals for the supremacy. [2] Their government of Scotland, and their correspondence with France and Spain, made them unpopular in England and with the "ultra-Protestant" sector at home, although the young King greatly admired Lennox and enjoyed his company. Lennox and Arran disagreed over several issues, including the rehabilitation of Thomas Kerr of Ferniehirst in June 1581. [4]
In August 1582 Lennox and Arran held the Privy Council at Perth, and then returned to Dalkeith Palace near Edinburgh. James VI was invited to stay hunting in Perthshire, and he was taken at Huntingtower Castle by the Earl of Gowrie and his political faction on 22 August 1582, a kidnap known as the Ruthven Raid. The next day they gave the King their supplication or mandate, which stated;
We have suffered now about the space of two years such false accusations, calumnies, oppressions and persecutions, by the means of the Duke of Lennox and him who is called the Earl of Arran, that the like of their insolencies and enormities were never heretofore born with in Scotland.
Arran went to Huntingtower and was arrested by the raiders. [5] Lennox was sent in exile to France and died. Gowrie ran Scotland for ten months, after issuing an indictment against Lennox and Arran that included the detail that the Countess of Arran was "a vile and impudent woman, over famous for her monstrous doings, not without suspicion of the devilish magical art." Arran was permitted to attend some council meetings to bolster support for the new regime. [6]
Arran had obtained a quantity of jewels belonging to James VI, or to his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots. On 28 May 1583 his wife Elizabeth Stewart, returned sets of pearl, ruby, and diamond buttons, to the Master of Gray, who was master of the king's wardrobe. Later, in 1585, they returned more royal jewels, including the "Great H of Scotland". [7]
Arran assembled a force of 12,000 men and regained power in July 1583, [2] an ascendancy that would last for two years, and the Ruthven Raiders and their followers were banished to Newcastle upon Tyne. Francis Walsingham came as ambassador from England. James VI intended to give Walsingham a valuable diamond ring as a parting gift, but Arran, who Walsingham had ignored, substituted a ring of crystal. [8]
Gowrie was executed in May 1584. After May 1584, Arran was always recorded first in the lists of those attending the Scottish Privy Council. He became provost of Edinburgh, and lieutenant-general of the royal army. He acted against the Presbyterian wing of the Scottish church, and the banished lords of the Ruthven Raid, who had returned to assault Stirling Castle. The role of his wife in the administration also attracted the censure of Edinburgh Kirk ministers.
Arran was made keeper and governor of Edinburgh Castle and in November 1584 he was ordered to survey the state of repair and faults in its fortifications, and prospect for a new well, according to "his experience and judgement in the art militaire." [9] As part of his strategy to maintain good relations with England, Arran sent copies of the king's poetry book, The Essayes of a Prentise in the Divine Art of Poesie, printed in Edinburgh by Thomas Vautrollier and bound in orange vellum, to Cecil and Lord Hunsdon on 28 December 1584. [10]
Arran's rule was undermined in part by the machinations of his own diplomat in London, the young Master of Gray. By February 1585, Elizabeth opened two lines of communication in Scotland, one with Arran and another with the Master. [11]
James VI granted Dirleton Castle to Arran, who entertained the King there for twelve days in May 1585, while there was plague in Edinburgh. The entertainment included a sumptuous banquet and a Robin Hood play. [12]
Arran fell from power after a border incident when the Englishman Francis Russell, son of the second Earl of Bedford, was killed with a "shot from a dag" on 27 July 1585. Arran was accused of involvement by the English ambassador, Nicholas Wotton and James VI on first hearing the news offered to send Arran as a prisoner to England. [13] Instead Arran was imprisoned at St Andrews Castle and then placed in house arrest at his own Kinneil House. One account says he went from Kinneil to Ayr and embarked on a boat with the royal jewels including the Great H of Scotland or 'Kingis Eitche', but was forced to give the jewels to George Home. [14]
He was unable to prevent the Banished Lords of the Ruthven Raid returning from England, seizing Stirling Castle on 4 November 1586, and declaring him a traitor. [2]
Avoiding plans for his banishment, and despite being ordered to leave the country, he spent the rest of his life in retirement in Ayrshire. [15] He did however remain in communication with James, and may have carried out some secret missions for him. [2]
In December 1592 Stewart came to Holyroodhouse and met the king by the kennels. He then entered the presence chamber where some called him 'Lord Chancellor' and then met Anne of Denmark and kissed her hand. However, James let it be proclaimed in churches that he would not employ Stewart again. The English ambassador Robert Bowes heard that his supporters included the Duke of Lennox, Sir George Home, James Sandilands, Colonel William Stewart, Thomas Erskine, and the Laird of Dunipace, who plotted his rehabilitation and the wreck and overthrow of the Chancellor John Maitland and the Hamilton family. [16]
He was murdered by Sir James Douglas of Parkhead, nephew of Regent Morton, on 5 December 1595. [17] [18]
Archibald Douglas, 8th Earl of Angus and 5th Earl of Morton was a Scottish aristocrat.
Huntingtower Castle, once known as Ruthven Castle or the Place of Ruthven, is located near the village of Huntingtower beside the A85 and near the A9, about 5 km NW of the centre of Perth, Perth and Kinross, in central Scotland, on the main road to Crieff. This castle is the subject for several local ghostlore stories.
Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox and 1st Duke of Richmond, lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was a Scottish nobleman who through their paternal lines was a second cousin of King James VI of Scotland and I of England. He was involved in the Plantation of Ulster in Ireland and the colonization of Maine in New England. Richmond's Island and Cape Richmond as well as Richmond, Maine, are named after him. His magnificent monument with effigies survives in Westminster Abbey.
Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, 1st Earl of Lennox, 6th Seigneur d'Aubigny of the Château d'Aubigny at Aubigny-sur-Nère in the ancient province of Berry, France, was a Catholic French nobleman of Scottish ancestry who on his move to Scotland at the age of 37 became a favourite of the 13-year-old King James VI of Scotland, of whose father, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, he was a first cousin. Despite his conversion to Calvinism he was never trusted by the Scots and returned to France where he ended his days. Sir James Melville described him as "of nature upright, just and gentle". He was the first to popularise the firstname Esmé in the British Isles.
William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, 4th Lord of Ruthven was a Scottish peer known for devising the Raid of Ruthven.
The Raid of Ruthven was a political conspiracy in Scotland which took place on 22 or 23 August 1582. It was composed of several Presbyterian nobles, led by William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, who abducted King James VI of Scotland. The nobles intended to reform the government of Scotland and limit the influence of French and pro-Catholic policy, and to prevent or manage the return of Mary, Queen of Scots from England to rule with her son in an "association". Their short-lived rule of around 10 months is known as the "Ruthven" or "Gowrie Regime".
Dirleton Castle is a medieval fortress in the village of Dirleton, East Lothian, Scotland. It lies around 2 miles (3.2 km) west of North Berwick, and around 19 miles (31 km) east of Edinburgh. The oldest parts of the castle date to the 13th century, and it was abandoned by the end of the 17th century.
Sir Lewis Bellenden of Auchnole and Broughton was a Scottish lawyer, who succeeded his father as Lord Justice Clerk on 15 March 1577.
Sir William Stewart of Houston was a Scottish soldier, politician and diplomat.
Patrick Gray, 6th Lord Gray, known most of his life as Patrick, Master of Gray, was a Scottish nobleman and politician during the reigns of Mary, Queen of Scots and James VI of Scotland.
Kinneil House is a historic house to the west of Bo'ness in east-central Scotland. It was once the principal seat of the Hamilton family in the east of Scotland. The house was saved from demolition in 1936 when 16th-century mural paintings were discovered, and it is now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland. The house now consists of a symmetrical mansion built in 1677 on the remains of an earlier 16th- or 15th-century tower house, with two rows of gunloops for early cannon still visible. A smaller east wing, of the mid 16th century, contains the two painted rooms. The house is protected as a Category A listed building.
Sir Thomas Lyon, Master of Glamis was a Scottish nobleman and official, Lord High Treasurer of Scotland.
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The Cunninghams of Drumquhassle were a family of the landed gentry in Scotland from the early 16th century to the mid-17th. They are linked to the Cunninghams of Kilmaurs in Ayrshire, being descended through junior lines via the Cunninghams of Polmaise. At their greatest extent, their lands included Mugdock-Mitchell and the house at Killermont, covering the part of parishes of Strathblane and New Kilpatrick. John Cunningham, the third laird held several positions of responsibility within the Scottish court, including Master of the Royal Household for James VI and a Collector General of tax during the regency of the Earl of Lennox, but his involvement in the power struggles between the Scottish nobility and the court of Elizabeth I of England also led to his demise and he was executed for treason in 1585. Over the next century, the family lost its land and power – in the mid-17th century, the Cunninghams sold their country house in Drumquhassle in rural Stirlingshire and it passed to the Govane family.
John Seton, Lord Barns was a Scottish diplomat, courtier and judge.
Elizabeth Stewart, Countess of Arran was a Scottish aristocrat and political intriguer. Several accounts of her actions and ambition were written by her political enemies.
William Stewart of Monkton and Carstairs was a Scottish landowner and courtier.
Thomas Kerr of Ferniehirst was a Scottish landowner, Roman Catholic and supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots. He and Jean Scott ended the feud between the Scott family and the Kerrs. Thomas and Jean were both involved with supporting Mary, Queen of Scots.
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