Lyon was the younger son of John Lyon, 7th Lord Glamis, by his wife Janet Keith, daughter of Robert, Lord Keith, and sister of the fourth Marischal. He was one of the youths who attended King James in Stirling during his minority. His original style was Sir Thomas of Auldbar and Balduckie.
On the death of his elder brother, John Lyon, 8th Lord Glamis, in 1578, he became tutor to his nephew, Patrick, ninth lord, and, being after Patrick the nearest presumptive heir to the title, was known as Master of Glamis. He married Agnes Gray, widow of Alexander Home, 5th Lord Home, who died in 1575; and his right to the keeping of Hume Castle in opposition to Andrew Kerr, commendator of Jedburgh, was confirmed by the privy council on 8 November 1578.[2] On 17 December 1579 he gave security in £5,000 not to make trouble for the widow of John, lord Glamis, or his daughter, in their lands.' On 12 December he was relieved by the privy council of the keepership of Hume Castle.[3]
Raid of Ruthven, the Gowrie Regime, and exile
The Master of Glamis was one of the principal supporters of William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie against the ascendency of Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, and James Stewart, Earl of Arran, and a main contriver of the raid of Ruthven. The precise form which the conspiracy should take had not been determined when the plotters received intelligence that Lennox was aware of their design, and conspiring against them. Advantage was therefore at once taken of the king's visit to Ruthven Castle, a seat of the Earl of Gowrie, near Perth, to gain possession of his person.
On the morning of 23 August 1582 the castle was surrounded by an armed force of a thousand men, under Gowrie, Glamis, and John Erskine, Earl of Mar, so as to prevent the access of Lennox and his supporters to the king. Glamis and his friends placed before James a loyal supplication, with special reference to the wrongs committed against them by Lennox and Arran,[4] Next day they escorted the king to Perth, and on the 30th they went on to Stirling. On arriving at Stirling the king expressed his intention to proceed to Edinburgh; but this, they informed him, was not expedient; and at last they plainly told him that either 'the duke or they should leave Scotland.' On the king moving towards the door, the Master of Glamis rudely 'laid his leg before him.'[5] The indignity caused the king to burst into tears, whereupon Glamis made the unsympathetic comment, "Better bairns greet than bearded men".
After the king's escape from the Ruthven raiders at St Andrews in August 1583, Glamis was ordered to enter into ward in Dumbarton Castle within three days,[6] but made his escape to Ireland.[7] On 31 January 1583-84, he was charged to leave Scotland, England, and Ireland under pain of treason and on 29 March his adherents and those of the other banished lords were commanded to leave Edinburgh within twenty-four hours.[8] By this time probably Glamis and his associates had arrived in Scotland, for on 17 April they captured Stirling Castle ('The Raid of Stirling'). But Gowrie was arrested two days later at Dundee; and on learning that the king was setting forth against them from Edinburgh with a force of twelve thousand men, they abandoned Stirling and fled to England, ultimately taking up their residence in a lodging in Westminster. There they entered into secret communications with Elizabeth.[9]
At the parliament held in Scotland in the following August sentence of forfeiture was passed against the raiders, but the attempt to induce Elizabeth to deliver them up was unsuccessful. They returned, with the connivance of Elizabeth, to Scotland in October 1585. Arran's overthrow followed, and on 4 November Glamis was pardoned along with other lords and received into favour. On 7 November he was admitted a member of the privy council, and appointed captain and commander of the king's guard.[10] In the new ministry he was also appointed Lord High Treasurer for life, with a salary of £1,000 Scots. At the parliament at Linlithgow in December an act was also passed restoring him to his estates. On 9 February 1586 he became an extraordinary lord of session.[1]
Later political career and the Lindsay–Lyon feud
The hope of the presbyterian clergy that the return of the banished lords would effect a change in the ecclesiastical policy of the king was not fulfilled. The Master of Glamis advised that it was not expedient to sound out the king, who favoured episcopacy, on reform of the kirk.
On 14 December 1586, Glamis, as the representative of his house, and David Lindsay, 11th Earl of Crawford, by one of whose followers the eighth Lord Glamis had been slain, gave mutual assurances to each other;[11] and on 15 May 1587 they walked arm in arm before the king to and from the banquet of reconciliation at the Market Cross of Edinburgh.[12] The feud between the two families remained, however, very much as it was before; and the king in November 1588 took the captaincy of the guard from Glamis and giving it to Alexander Lindsay, the Earl of Crawford's uncle. Glamis was offended, and a scene took place between him and Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell. To prevent the quarrel proceeding further, Bothwell was commanded to ward within in Linlithgow Palace, and Glamis within Edinburgh Castle, for arming his followers in the city.[13] Shortly afterwards the captaincy of the guard was transferred to George Gordon, 6th Earl of Huntly.[14]
Glamis was present with the king in the Tolbooth when the intercepted letters, revealing the treasonable communications of the Earl of Huntly and others with Spain, were opened and read.[15] In April 1589 Glamis was surprised by Huntly at Meigle, and chased to his house of Kirkhill. On refusing to surrender, the house was set on fire on 10 April, and he was carried captive to the north, via Glamis Castle. The "indignity" done to the Master of Glamis greatly angered the king. Huntly considered shipping him to the Duke of Parms in the Spanish Netherlands as a heretic against the Catholic faith and favourer of the English.[16] On the appearance of the king with a force at Aberdeen, Huntly set him free on 22 April. This rebellion is generally known as the Riad of the Bridge of Dee.[17][1]
At the coronation of the queenAnne of Denmark, 17 May 1590, Glamis received the honour of knighthood.[18] The favour in which he was held at court since the queen's accession began to arouse the jealousy of the chancellor John Maitland of Thirlestane. Maitland complained that he supped at Leith with the outlawed Earl of Bothwell in June 1591, and his hereditary enemy, Lord Spynie, was thereupon empowered to apprehend him. Spynie was unsuccessful, but Glamis was shortly afterwards committed to Blackness Castle, and then warded beyond the River Dee.[19][1]
On 6 November 1591 he was deprived of the office of extraordinary lord of session, which was conferred on John Graham, 3rd Earl of Montrose. In August 1592 he was invited by his mother-in-law, Agnes Leslie, Countess of Morton, to Dalkeith Palace where he was restored to royal favour.[20] Soon after, the chancellor Maitland was compelled to retire from court. In February 1593 he joined in the pursuit of the Earl of Bothwell at Penicuik. The Master fell from his horse breaking three ribs.[21]
On 8 March 1593 he was appointed extraordinary lord of session, and on the 28 March he was admitted an ordinary lord and sat till 28 May. One of the conditions of agreement between Bothwell and the king, in August 1593 was that Glamis as well as the chancellor should retire from court till November.[22] At a convention held at Stirling in September this agreement was renounced, and Glamis and others returned to court.[23] Shortly afterwards Glamis and Maitland were reconciled.[24] In February 1595-6 the eight commissioners of the exchequer, known as Octavians, were appointed, but Glamis declined to resign his office of treasurer, and he had ultimately to be compensated by a gift of £6000.[25] From this time Thomas ceased to take a prominent part in public affairs.
In August 1598 James VI was angry that the Master of Glamis and Lord Home and the Laird of Cessford had joined together for some purpose, and it was noted that he had frequent meetings with Anne of Denmark, and his wife, Euphemia Douglas was in favour with the queen.[26] James VI instructed his lawyer Thomas Hamilton to deprive the Master of Glamis of his place as a Lord of Session in May 1599 for reasons of non-residence and also because he was "declared at the horn" for debts in several places.[27]
He died 18 February 1608. On learning of his decease, the king is said to have exclaimed, 'that the boldest and hardiest man of his dominions was dead.'[1]
Euphemia Douglas wrote to the Laird of Balthayock in 1594, asking him to come with Glamis with his followers, armed and ready to follow the king to the north.[28] The English diplomat George Nicholson noted that she was a favourite of Anne of Denmark in August 1598.[29]
Related Research Articles
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.
The Raid of Ruthven, the kidnapping of King James VI of Scotland, was a political conspiracy in Scotland which took place on 23 August 1582. It was composed of several Presbyterian nobles, led by William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, who abducted the king. 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".
Alexander Home, 1st Earl of Home and 6th Lord Home, was a Scottish nobleman and Lord Warden-general of all the March. He succeeded as the 6th Lord Home, a Lord of Parliament in the Peerage of Scotland, in 1575, and he was created Earl of Home in the Peerage of Scotland in 1605.
The Battle of Carberry Hill took place on 15 June 1567, near Musselburgh, East Lothian, a few miles east of Edinburgh, Scotland. A number of Scottish lords objected to the rule of Mary, Queen of Scots, after she had married the Earl of Bothwell, who was widely believed to have murdered her previous husband Lord Darnley. The Lords were intent to avenge Darnley's death. However, Bothwell escaped from the stand-off at Carberry while Queen Mary surrendered. Mary abdicated, escaped from prison, and was defeated at the battle of Langside. She went to exile in England while her supporters continued a civil war in Scotland.
Captain James Stewart, Earl of Arran 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.
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 his first cousin, King James VI, all of which ultimately failed, and he died in poverty in Italy after being banished from Scotland. Francis's maternal uncle, the 4th Earl of Bothwell, was the chief suspect in the murder of James VI's father, Lord Darnley.
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.
Patrick Lindsay, 6th Lord Lindsay of the Byres, (1521–1589), Scottish courtier and Confederate lord.
Sir James Sandilands was a courtier to King James VI and I and captain of Blackness Castle
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.
William Stewart of Monkton and Carstairs was a Scottish landowner and courtier.
Margaret Lyon was a Scottish aristocrat and landowner.
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. Bothwell subsequently staged a raid at Falkland Palace, and in July 1593 made another attempt at Holyrood.
Dorothea Stewart, Countess of Gowrie was a Scottish aristocrat. The dates of the birth and death of Dorothea Stewart are unknown.
John Graham, Lord Hallyards (c.1530–1593) was a Scottish lawyer and Senator of the College of Justice who sat in judgement in two famous trials in Scottish history. He was murdered in a feud.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Lyon, Thomas". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. The entry cites:
