John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane (1537 – 3 October 1595), of Lethington, Knight (1581), was Lord Chancellor of Scotland.
John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane (1537 – 3 October 1595), of Lethington, Knight (1581), was Lord Chancellor of Scotland.
He was the second son of Sir Richard Maitland of Thirlestane, Berwickshire, and Lethington, Haddingtonshire, who settled the lands of Thirlestane upon him, and he was sent abroad for his education.
Upon John Maitland's return, through the influence of his brother, William Maitland, he received the offer of the position of Commendator of Kelso Abbey, which he shortly afterwards exchanged with Francis Stewart, later Earl of Bothwell, for the Priory of Coldingham. This transaction was ratified by Mary, Queen of Scots on 20 April 1567.
Upon the death of his father, he was appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland, on 20 April 1567. He also supported Regent Moray and sat in his parliaments in December 1567 and August 1568. On 2 June 1568, he was created a Senator of the College of Justice as an Ordinary Lord on the spiritual side. He retained the rich endowment of Coldingham until 1570.
Following the Regent Moray's assassination, Maitland joined the Lords who met on the Queen's behalf at Linlithgow and shared in the dangers of the civil war which ensued. At the end of 1570, he was denounced a rebel by the King's party, with his brothers William and Thomas, and they were all forfeited in the parliament which met in the Canongate, the so-called 'cropped parliament'.
John Maitland was deprived of all his offices and benefices and took refuge in Edinburgh Castle. Upon its surrender on 29 May 1573 he was sent as a prisoner to Tantallon Castle in Haddingtonshire. After nine months' confinement there he was removed to Hugh, Lord Somerville's house of Cowthallie, under house arrest with bail at £10,000 Scots. In 1574/5 a Letter of Rehabilitation in his favour, as "Commendator of Coldingham", passed the Great Seal.
On 26 April 1581 he was reappointed Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland and returned to the Bench. He was shortly afterwards made a Privy Counsellor, and upon the dismissal of Robert Pitcairn, Abbot of Dunfermline, appointed Secretary of Scotland on 18 May 1584. In the parliament which met on the 22nd of that month his doom of forfeiture was reduced, and he was restored to all the honours, heritages, and offices he had formerly possessed.
On 1 May 1585 plague came to Edinburgh, and the king and councillors including Maitland went to Dirleton Castle where their host James Stewart, Earl of Arran entertained them with a sumptuous banquet and a Robin Hood play. [1]
Maitland was appointed Vice-Chancellor on 31 May 1586 and was also appointed Lord Chancellor of Scotland that year, following Earl of Arran's disgrace. The following year, 1587, saw him granted the barony of Stobo. [2]
In 1589, a powerful combination, headed by the Earls of Huntly, Errol, and Bothwell, &c., was formed against Maitland. It was intended to meet at Quarryholes, between Leith and Edinburgh, to march in a body to Holyroodhouse, make themselves master of the King's person, and put the Chancellor to death. The King and Maitland were not, however, at Holyroodhouse and the plot failed. Several other plots were formed against him shortly afterwards, but they were all defeated.
He was one of those who accompanied James VI on his matrimonial voyage to Norway and Denmark. Maitland was involved in financing and accounting for this journey. According to an English observer, Thomas Fowler, he paid for fitting out of one ship of 126 tons and half the cost of another. Lavish provisions and banqueting stuff betrayed the king's secret intention to sail to meet Anne of Denmark. [3] Accounts of Maitland's expenses include the preparation of a ship, the James Royall of Ayr, hired from Robert Jameson, which was equipped with cannon by John Chisholm, painted, and supplied with new banners and red taffeta was stitched on the sails. Carpenters made new storage spaces for the food mentioned by Fowler. There were barrels of English beer and wine from the cellars at Holyrood Palace. A boatman James Lun spent eight days loading the ship and then put the king and his company aboard. [4]
In Oslo, on 27 November, some of the ladies in waiting to Anne of Denmark asked him to join with Jens Nilssøn, Bishop of Oslo to intercede with James VI for the pardon of David Cunningham of Robertland. He had been welcomed at the Danish court after fleeing Scotland in the aftermath of the murder of the Earl of Eglinton in 1586. Maitland and the Danish ladies in waiting had an audience with the king in the Old Bishop's Palace and the laird of Robertland was pardoned. [5]
On 15 December, James VI asked him to give the Danish counsellor Steno Brahe, brother of the astronomer Tycho Brahe, and the young king's lieutenant "Apill Gudlingstarre" or Axel Gyldenstierne gifts of silver plate from his cupboard, and Maitland was to keep the rest. [6] The silver had been a gift to James VI from Queen Elizabeth, supplied by the London goldsmith Richard Martin. [7] James VI ordered Maitland to give jewels to Christian IV and his mother Sophie of Mecklenburg and other royals. These gifts included four great table diamonds and two great rubies set in gold rings which the master of the royal wardrobe William Keith of Delny had brought to Denmark. [8]
Shortly after his return to Scotland, on 18 May 1590, Maitland was made a Lord of Parliament with the title Lord Maitland of Thirlestane. Anne of Denmark's mother Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow had asked him to set up her daughter's household in Scotland and advise on matters of "honour and benefit." He consulted with Anne at Dunfermline Palace in July 1590 to ask her to appoint a household of ladies and gentlewomen to be about her. [9]
James VI came to Thirlestane Castle on 15 February 1591 to celebrate the marriage of his niece to the laird of Lugton. [10] Sir Robert Ker of Cessford had married his niece Margaret Maitland, and he was able to help Maitland into the favour of Anne of Denmark. [11] Sophie of Mecklenburg sent Maitland a letter of thanks in June 1591, after hearing good reports from Wilhelm von der Wense. [12] James had asked him to resolve issues over pay in the royal households in April 1591 after kitchen staff deserted their posts, and discussed the subject of paying two departing members of the queen's household with either money or livery clothes, [13] and he reminded Maitland of promises he had made to Sophie, writing "Suppose we be not wealthy, let us be proud poor bodies". [14] [15]
A cousin of James VI, Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, was implicated in the North Berwick Witch Trials on 15 April 1591 by the confession of Richie Graham. [16] Anne of Denmark disapproved of the pursuit of the rebel Earl, and blamed Maitland for seeking the "wrack of the king's blood". [17]
Another quarrel grew over her dowry lands. Anne of Denmark believed she was the rightful owner of Musselburgh and Inveresk, lands belonging to Maitland, which were properties of Abbey of Dunfermline south of the River Forth. [18] These lands were transferred to her after a Danish ambassador Dr Paulus Knibbius made representations to Maitland in 1592. [19] She came to resent Maitland's powers and in January 1593 appealed for help against him and his wife, Jean Fleming, who she believed had slandered her and accused her of being complicit with the Earl of Bothwell. [20] In 1594 James VI appealed to her brother Christian IV of Denmark to ask her to take Maitland into her favour again. [21]
In February 1595 his relationship with the queen seems to have improved, and the courtier Roger Aston reported that he had made friends with the queen's council of advisors, men who had previously been his "unfriends". The queen's council included Alexander Seton, Walter Stewart of Blantyre, James Elphinstone and Thomas Hamilton. [22]
In July 1595 Maitland wrote to the Earl of Essex, about their future "diligent intercourse of intelligence" involving the Scottish diplomat Richard Cockburn of Clerkington and Essex's secretary Anthony Bacon. Essex replied that he wrote only with the queen's knowledge, and they would be happy to receive letters from Maitland or Cockburn. [23]
John Maitland died on 3 October 1595 at Thirlestane Castle, after a month's illness attended by the physician Dr Martin Schöner and the minister Robert Bruce. [24] He was buried in a side chapel on the north side of St. Mary's, Haddington, where a splendid monument, with an epitaph, composed by King James VI, was erected to his memory.
Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, writing in the seventeenth century, had this to say of the 1st Lord Maitland:
"Mr John Maitland, second brother to Secretary Maitland, after he had studied the laws in France, was preferred to be a Lord of Session by the said Earl of Arran's means, and thereafter became Chancellor. He was one of the Octavians [a name given to eight persons who managed affairs under king James VI], and was created Lord Thirlestane, and was an excellent Latin poet, as his verses inserted in Deliciae poetarum scotorum testify; and King James had such a respect to him, that he made the epitaph engraven on his tomb. Yet the conquest he made of the barony of Liddington [Lethington] from his brother's son, James Maitland, was not thought lawful nor conscientious." [25]
A portrait of John Maitland by Adrian Vanson at Ham House was valued at £2 in 1683. [26] Examination by Caroline Rae in 2016 showed that it was painted over an image of Mary, Queen of Scots. [27]
John Maitland married Jean Fleming, daughter of James, 4th Lord Fleming and Barbara Hamilton in January 1583. Their children included:
Brother of William Maitland of Lethington, Scottish Secretary of State, [28] and Mary Maitland, considered a scribe of the Maitland Folio and Quarto. [29]
Robert Ker, 1st Earl of Roxburghe was a Scottish nobleman.
Lennoxlove House is a historic house set in woodlands half a mile south of Haddington in East Lothian, Scotland. The house comprises a 15th-century tower, originally known as Lethington Castle, and has been extended several times, principally in the 17th, 19th and 20th centuries. The house is protected as a category A listed building, and is described by Historic Scotland as "one of Scotland's most ancient and notable houses." The wooded estate is included on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national listing of significant gardens.
Thirlestane Castle is a castle set in extensive parklands near Lauder in the Borders of Scotland. The site is aptly named Castle Hill, as it stands upon raised ground. However, the raised land is within Lauderdale, the valley of the Leader Water. The land has been in the ownership of the Maitland family since 1587, and Thirlestane served as the seat of the Earls of Lauderdale. The castle was substantially extended in the 1670s by the first and only Duke of Lauderdale. Further additions were made in the 19th century. The castle is now cared for by a charitable trust, and is open to the public.
George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal (c. 1553–1623) was a Scottish nobleman and Earl Marischal. He succeeded as earl on 7 October 1581, upon the death of his grandfather, William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal.
Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell was Commendator of Kelso Abbey and Coldingham Priory, a Privy Counsellor and Lord High Admiral of Scotland. He was a notorious conspirator, who led several uprisings against King James VI and died in poverty, in Italy, after being banished from Scotland. Francis was the first cousin of King James VI of Scotland. Francis's maternal uncle James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell was the chief suspect in the murder of James VI's father Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.
Sir William Stewart of Houston was a Scottish soldier, politician and diplomat.
Anne Lyon, Countess of Kinghorne, was a Scottish courtier said to be the mistress of James VI of Scotland.
Adrian Vanson was court portrait painter to James VI of Scotland.
Sir Richard Cockburn of Clerkington, Lord Clerkintoun (1565–1627) was a senior government official in Scotland serving as Lord Privy Seal of Scotland during the reign of James VI.
Thomas Fowler was an English lawyer, diplomat, courtier, spy, servant of the Countess of Lennox, broker of the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley, steward of the Earl of Leicester, advisor to James VI of Scotland and the Scottish ambassador in London, Archibald Douglas.
Sir Roger Aston of Cranford, Middlesex, was an English courtier and favourite of James VI of Scotland.
Robert Melville, 1st Lord Melville was a Scottish diplomat, administrator, jurist, and intriguer, and uncle of the poet Elizabeth Melville.
Jean Fleming, Countess of Cassilis (1553/4–1609) was a Scottish noblewoman and courtier at the court of James VI of Scotland, and a survivor of domestic violence.
Andrew Keith, Lord Dingwall was a Scottish landowner, soldier, and diplomat.
Sir William Keith of Delny was a Scottish courtier and Master of the Royal Wardrobe. He also served as ambassador for James VI to various countries. He was an important intermediary between George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal and the king, the king and courtiers, and the king and foreign governments.
Patrick Lyon, 1st Earl of Kinghorne was a Scottish landowner.
Margaret Douglas, Countess of Bothwell was a Scottish aristocrat and courtier.
George Douglas of Longniddry was a Scottish landowner and courtier.
Queen Elizabeth I of England paid a subsidy to King James VI of Scotland from 1586 to 1602.
The Raid of Holyrood was an attack on Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh on 27 December 1591 by Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell in order to gain the favour of King James VI of Scotland.
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