James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray (c. 1531 – 23 January 1570)Spottiswoode, John, History of the Church in Scotland, vol. 2, Oliver & Boyd (1851), 120 gives date in Old Style as Saturday 23 January 1569/1570, although Saturday was 21 January in that year, see Reference calendar: Loughlin, Mark, "Stewart, James, first earl of Moray (1531/1532–1570)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 24 Jan 2011 accepts 23 January: Fraser, Antonia, Mary, Queen of Scots, p. 486 (p. 421 English edition) has 11 January 1570 as date of the assassination. Also mentioned by Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Family: The Complete Genealogy (London: The Bodley Head, 1999), p. 242. was a member of the House of Stewart as the illegitimate son of James V of Scotland. At times a supporter of his half-sister Mary, Queen of Scots, he was the regent of Scotland for his half-nephew, the infant James VI, from 1567 until his assassination in 1570. He was the first head of government to be assassinated with a firearm.
Early life Moray was born in about 1531,Maurice Lee, jnr., James Stewart, Earl of Moray: A Political Study of the Reformation in Scotland (New York, 1953), p. 17. an illegitimate child of King James V of Scotland and his mistress Lady Margaret Erskine, daughter of John Erskine, 5th Lord Erskine, and wife of Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven.
On 31 August 1536, he received a royal charter granting the lands of Tantallon and others.Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie: The Court of James V of Scotland 1528–1542 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2005), p. 42.James Balfour Paul, The Scots Peerage, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1904), p. 23. In 1538, following the death of Alexander Stewart, James was appointed Prior of St Andrews, Fife.Athol L. Murray, "The Revenues of the Bishopric of Moray in 1538", Innes Review, 4 (Spring 1968), p. 43. This position supplied his income. Clothes for "lord James of Sanctandrois" and his brothers were made by the king's tailor, Thomas Arthur.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 313.
Lord James and his half-brother James Stewart, Commendator of Kelso and Melrose were at school in St Andrews when James V died in 1542. In June 1543, the Regent Arran sent the Laird of Grange to collect them and take them to Linlithgow Palace. Instead, Robert Douglas took Lord James to Lochleven Castle.Robert Kerr Hannay, Acts of the Lords of Council in Public Affairs (Edinburgh, 1932), p. 528: Joseph Bain, Hamilton Papers, 1 (Edinburgh, 1890), p. 541
During the war between England and Scotland known as the Rough Wooing, it was suggested Lord James might be recruited as an ally to Edward VI. In October 1548, Thomas Smith wrote to the Duke of Somerset proposing sending a ring or brooch as a token. A letter was sent to him in Edward's name, arguing the French could not be good allies to Scotland. Lord James did not reply.Marcus Merriman, The Rough Wooings (Tuckwell, 2000), pp. 23, 262.
Rises in power, advises Queen Mary In May 1553, the imperial ambassador to England, Jean Scheyfve, heard that Mary of Guise planned to make him regent in place of James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault.Calendar of State Papers Spanish, vol. 9 (London, 1916), pp. 41–42. Mary of Guise was the widow of James V and the mother of his only surviving legitimate child, Mary, Queen of Scots, who was living in France at the time and had not yet reached adulthood. Guise herself became regent in 1554.
On 5 August 1557, Lord James Stewart, his half-brother Lord Robert, and Lord Home led a raiding party from Edinburgh towards Ford Castle in Northumberland.Maurice Lee, jnr., James Stewart, Earl of Moray: A Political Study of the Reformation in Scotland (New York, 1953), p. 27. They burnt houses at Fenton and in Glendale, before retreating on the approach of an English force led by Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland.Strype, John, Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. 3 part 2 (London, 1822), pp. 67–69.Pamela E. Ritchie, Mary of Guise in Scotland (Tuckwell, 2002), pp. 180-181.
In 1558, James attended the wedding in Paris of his half-sister Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Dauphin of France, who became King Francis II of France. To fund this trip, his mother obtained credit from Timothy Cagnioli, an Italian banker in Edinburgh.Annie Cameron, Scottish Correspondence of Mary of Lorraine (Edinburgh: SHS, 1927), p. 411, total £1687, 10s Scots.
James became a supporter of the Scottish Reformation. In June 1559, he plucked down the graven images in various churches at Perth.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 216. An English commentator praised James for his virtue, manhood, valour and stoutness as a leader of the Protestant Lords of the Congregation.Joseph Bain, Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 362, Randolph to Killigrew, 15 April 1560.
After the death of her first husband, King Francis of France, Mary planned to return to Scotland. James wrote to her in June 1561 about Bartholomew de Villemore, the French Comptroller of Scotland, who was ordered to repair her palaces and make provision for her household.D. Murray Rose, "Mary Queen of Scots and her brother", The Scottish Historical Review, 2 (Glasgow, 1905), pp. 150–159. Despite their religious differences, Moray became one of the chief advisers to his half-sister Mary after her return from France. Although James disturbed her priests celebrating mass at Holyroodhouse in September 1561,Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 555. she made him Earl of Moray on 30 January 1562, and Earl of Mar on 7 February 1562.Maurice Lee, jnr., James Stewart, Earl of Moray: A Political Study of the Reformation in Scotland (New York, 1953), p. 97. The Mar earldom, which appears to have been his wedding present, was soon afterwards withdrawn)Fraser, Antonia Mary, Queen of Scots, 1969 With the lucrative Moray earldom came Darnaway Castle with its medieval hall, notable even then as "verie fayer and large builded".Joseph Bain, Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 655. Moray also had a smaller house called Pitlethie near Leuchars in Fife, which his father had used.Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 2: Andrea Thomas, Princlie Majestie (John Donald, 2005), p. 52.
James wrote to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England, in January 1562.HMC Laing Manuscripts at the University of Edinburgh, vol. 1 (London, 1914), pp. 18–19. In October 1562, Moray defeated a rebellion by George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, at the Battle of Corrichie near Aberdeen. The very powerful and wealthy Huntly, who controlled large areas of northeastern Scotland, died immediately after this battle. In 1562, Alistair Gunn son-in-law of John Gordon, 11th Earl of Sutherland, led Gordon's retinue and encountered James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, and his followers on the High Street of Aberdeen. The Earl of Moray was the bastard half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots, as well as the son-in-law of William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal, chief of Clan Keith. It was the custom at the time to yield thoroughfares to the personage of greater rank, and in refusing to yield the middle of the street to Stewart and his train, Gunn insulted the Earl publicly. Stewart soon afterward had him pursued to a place called Delvines, near Nairn. There he was captured by Andrew Munro of Milntown and taken to Inverness, and following a mock trial, he was executed.
Moray went to Castle Campbell for the wedding of James Stewart, 1st Lord Doune, and Margaret Campbell (d. 1572), sister of the Earl of Argyll, on 10 January 1563. There was a masque involving courtiers and musicians dressed in white taffeta as shepherds.Michael Pearce, "Maskerye Claythis for James VI and Anna of Denmark", Medieval English Theatre, 43 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), p. 110. However, Moray became ill and withdrew to Stirling Castle. Mary, Queen of Scots, was also ill for a week.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 678–679, 681: Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. lxxxii, 136, 138.
Chaseabout Raid
Moray opposed the marriage of his half-sister Mary, to Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, in July 1565, and he embarked upon the unsuccessful Chaseabout Raid, a revolt precipitated by the marriage, together with the Earl of Argyll and Clan Hamilton.Jane E. A. Dawson, "Mary Queen of Scots, Lord Darnley, and Anglo-Scottish Relations in 1565", International History Review, 8:1 (February 1986), pp. 12–13. He was subsequently declared an outlaw and took refuge in England, where he had an audience with Elizabeth I in the presence of the French ambassadors Paul de Foix and Michel de Castelnau. She disapproved of his action against a lawful monarch.Conyers Read, Mr Secretary Cecil and Queen Elizabeth (London: Jonathan Cape, 1955), pp. 344–345.
It was said that David Rizzio was involved in brokering pardons at Holyrood for Moray and the rebels, which aroused the jealousy of Lord Darnley.Thomas Finlayson Henderson, Mary, Queen of Scots: Her Environment and Tragedy, 2 (New York, 1905), p. 654David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1897), p. 382 citing the Memoir of William Douglas of Lochleven. Moray returned to Scotland after the murder of Rizzio, pardoned by the Queen, and once more became one of her key advisers. On 31 August 1566, Moray wrote from Stirling Castle to the treasurer Robert Richardson to ensure Nichola Wardlaw, one of the queen's gentlewomen, received a velvet gown for her wedding day.John Charles Gibson, The Wardlaws in Scotland: A History of the Wardlaws of Wilton and Torrie (Edinburgh, 1912), pp. 70–72. He contrived nonetheless to be away at the time of Darnley's assassination in 1567. He avoided the entanglements of Mary's disastrous marriage to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, which followed the Darnley murder by mere weeks, by removing himself to France.
The Gude Regent
Mary was forced to abdicate at Lochleven Castle on 24 July 1567. Moray returned to Edinburgh from France on 11 August 1567 by way of Berwick-upon-Tweed. William Cecil, the English Secretary of State, had arranged his transport from Dieppe in an English ship.Joseph Stevenson, Selections from Unpublished Manuscripts (Glasgow: Maitland Club, 1837), pp. 200–221, 269–271: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (London, 1900), pp. 380–381 no. 595 He was appointed regent on 22 August for the infant King James VI. There was a public ceremony or inauguration in Edinburgh, Moray took an oath before the Justice Clerk John Bellenden at the Tolbooth and was proclaimed by heralds at the Mercat Cross.Amy Blakeway, Regency in Sixteenth-Century Scotland (Boydell, 2015), p. 62: Allan James Crosby, Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, 1566–1568 (London, 1871), p. 325 no. 1620: Joseph Stevenson, Selections from Unpublished Manuscripts (Glasgow: Maitland Club, 1837), p. 289.
The appointment was confirmed by Parliament in December. To raise money, Moray sent his agent Nicolas Elphinstone to London to sell Mary's jewels and pearls.Historical Manuscripts Commission 6th Report: Earl of Moray (London, 1877), p. 643. Moray bought clothes for his lackeys and an African servant called Nageir the Moor in February 1568.Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), p. 97.
Mary escaped from Loch Leven on 2 May 1568, and the Duke of Châtellerault and other nobles rallied to her standard. Moray gathered his allies and defeated her forces at the Battle of Langside, near Glasgow, on 13 May 1568. Mary was compelled to flee and decided to seek refuge in England. She could have departed for France if she had liked, where she retained the status of queen dowager; however, this would have taken more time and resources to arrange.