George Seton, 7th Lord Seton (1531–1586) was a Scottish Lord of Parliament, Master of the Household of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Provost of Edinburgh. He was the eldest son of George Seton, 6th Lord Seton, and Elizabeth Hay, a daughter of John Hay, 3rd Lord Hay of Yester. His childhood and schooling were in France.
Political career
Edinburgh and the Reformation George Seton was Provost of Edinburgh in 1557, and from time to time would send his carpenter, Robert Fendour or Fender, to the Burgh Council as his representative. In February 1558, George Seton was one of eight commissioners sent to Henry II of France to negotiate the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Dauphin.Ritchie, Pamela, Mary of Guise (Tuckwell: East Linton, 2002), pp. 190-1. On 29 November 1558, the Parliament of Scotland acknowledged that Seton and the others had fulfilled their commission. In February 1559, the town council gave him funds to prepare a banquet for Mary of Guise on their behalf.Extracts from the records of the Burgh of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1875), 3 Feb. 1559, 22 April 1559.
However, Seton and the burgh council began to encounter difficulties, due only in part to the Scottish Reformation. After rioting in Perth, Edinburgh was occupied by the Protestant Lords of the Congregation in June 1559. Seton tried unsuccessfully to protect the Blackfriars and Greyfriars monasteries. The Protestant Lords left Edinburgh in July, but made an agreement with Guise permitting freedom of conscience in religion. Seton, the Earl of Huntly and Châtellerault were asked to meet the people of Edinburgh to discuss the restoration of Mass in St Giles. According to John Knox, they met with refusal and the people would not allow the Mass in any other church.Knox, John, The History of the Reformation, bk. 2: Laing, David, ed., 'John Knox's 'History of the Reformation', Books 1 & 2,' The Works of John Knox, vol. 1 (Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, 1846), pp. 362-3, 389-391. By the time the Lords of the Congregation occupied Edinburgh for the second time in October 1559, another rival council had already formed, led by Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie. The Protestant lords retreated and Seton's council was re-instated. When the English army mobilised by the Treaty of Berwick arrived in April 1560, Kilspindie's council was back in power.Lynch, Michael, Edinburgh and the Reformation (John Donald, Edinburgh, 1981), pp. 75-81, Lynch argues that the council's problems were largely unrelated to Reformation pressures.
During the Siege of Leith in 1560, Seton fought for Mary of Guise against the Scottish Protestants and the English army. On 24 April he attacked the English camp at Restalrig. He was seized by an English cavalryman who broke his sword and staff, but was rescued by French musketeers.Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 377, no. 748. After the treaty of Edinburgh concluded the fighting, Seton sailed to France with the evacuees aboard the Mynyon.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, p. 1898), 455.
Mary's portrait In Paris in October 1560, he secretly met the English ambassador, Nicholas Throckmorton, asking him for a passport to return to Scotland through England. He managed to convince Throckmorton that he regretted his service to Mary of Guise and French causes. Seton had gained a French pension as a gentleman of the King's Chamber. He intended to take a portrait of Queen Mary and her letter to Elizabeth I, but Mary said the picture was not ready. After a delay of a few days, Seton left France in November 1560 (presumably with the finished portrait),Philip Yorke, Miscellaneous State Papers, vol. 1 (London, 1778), pp. 151-2, 160-1 accompanied by an archer of the Scottish Guard called Alexander Clark, whose loyalty Throckmorton thought he had bought.Calendar State Papers Foreign, Elizabeth: 1560-1561, vol. 3 (London, 1865), p. 368 no. 665, para. 5; pp. 409-10 no. 737; p. 411 no. 740.
Mary in Scotland During the personal reign of Mary in Scotland George had a loyal inscription set in large carved letters and gilded above the entrance to Seton Palace;"UN DIEU, UN FOY, UN ROY, UN LOY"One God for all time: One loyalty to the monarch.Maitland, (1829), 57-8. Lord Seton had dies made by the Edinburgh goldsmith Michael Gilbert to strike gold and silver medals with the same motto, and a monogram with his initials and those of his wife, Isobel Hamilton, "GS-IH," with another motto "Nemo Potest Duobus Dominus Servire," from Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters."John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. 227-8: Seton Medal, British Museum
Mary was unsuccessful in proposing Seton as Provost of Edinburgh again in October 1561. Next year she made a better choice by backing Archibald Douglas (II) of Kilspindie, now associated with the success of the Reformation.Lynch, Michael, Edinburgh and the Reformation (John Donald, Edinburgh, 1981), pp. 98, 103.
In March 1565, Seton fought a duel with Francis Douglas who was badly injured. The Earl of Morton and the Laird of Lethington tried to take legal action so Seton went to France.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 136 no. 157. Thomas Randolph, the English diplomat, heard that Mary and Lord Darnley went to Seton Palace and were "bedded" after their marriage at Holyroodhouse.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 181 no. 208. Seton returned to Scotland in October 1565, during the Chaseabout Raid. He carried arms from France for Queen Mary. An English ship, the Aid tried to blockade Leith to prevent him docking, but was repulsed. Seton's cargo included three great horses for Darnley.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 214, 220-1, 247.
The French ambassador, Jean, Count de Brienne, arrived in Edinburgh on 2 November 1566 and was lodged in Henry Kinloch's house in the Canongate near Holyrood Palace. He went to Stirling Castle for the baptism of Prince James on 12 December, escorted by Lord Seton.A Diurnal of Remarkable Occurrents in Scotland (Bannatyne Club, 1833), pp. 102-3.
Days after the death of Lord Darnley, on 17 February 1567, Mary had a blue costume for her fool called George Steven delivered to her at Seton Palace, in April she was there with her council.Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), pp. 42, 52, 398. With other supporters of Mary's marriage to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell Seton signed the Ainslie Tavern Bond on 19 April 1567.
Mary's marriage to Bothwell and continued rule in Scotland was opposed by the Confederate Lords. She stayed at Seton Palace before her capture nearby at the battle of Carberry Hill. She was then imprisoned at Lochleven Castle. She escaped to Seton's castle at Niddry but her supporters were defeated again at the battle of Langside. Seton was taken prisoner and early reports thought him killed. The son of Lord Ochiltree, John Knox's brother-in-law, would have killed him in revenge for his father's injury, but he yielded and was saved by James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 405-7 nos. 653-655.
Queen Mary went into England, where her companion, Seton's half-sister Mary Seton joined her. With the other Marian lords Seton was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle where Mary was worried that he was at risk from plague.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 515, 525. Seton was finally allowed to go into exile in France. Elizabeth I of England sent him a passport on 1 June 1569.Maitland, The History of the House of Seytoun (1829), p. 56: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 650 no. 1068.
Supporter of the exiled queen
Three Scottish supporters of Mary, the Duke of Châtellerault, the Earl of Huntly and Earl of Argyll gave Seton a commission to treat with the Duke of Alba, Viceroy of Lower Germany, as Mary's ambassador in August 1570. Seton was to ask for Spanish help to re-instate Mary in Scotland and expel her son's supporters who depended on English power. Alba would send money to Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange to continue holding Edinburgh Castle for Mary.Annie Cameron, The Warrender Papers, vol. 1 (SHS, 1931), pp. 98-9: CSP Scotland, vol. 3, no. 408. In September 1570, Lord Morley met him in the household of Anne Percy, Countess of Northumberland at Bruges. Seton told Morley that he had come to escort the Countess, who had previously sought refuge in Scotland, into France.HMC Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury at Hatfield House, vol. 1 (London, 1883), p. 483 nos. 1517-1518. The author of the Historie and Life of James the Sext, recorded what must have been a popular account of the mission to the Duke of Alba. Seton tried to convince Alba to provide an army of 10,000 men by persuading the Scottish soldiers fighting against Spain to change sides. The soldiers were unresponsive until Seton himself was captured and tortured on the rack. The soldiers then mutinied only till he was released. There was an offer of money, but Alba could not spare the men, and Seton's mission was unsuccessful.Historie and Life of James the Sext, Bannatyne Club (1825), 61-63: See also HMC Salisbury, vol. 1 (1883), 324 no. 1070, a Flemish receipt to Seton for the exchange of 10,000 crowns each of 40 stuivers, of uncertain date, calendared as (?1565). Meanwhile in Scotland, the goods of his French stepmother, Marie Pieris, and half-brother Robert Seton were seized by Regent Moray's officers.Accounts of the Lord Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 12 (1970), 216.
In January 1572, Seton was in the Spanish Netherlands with the Duke of Alba and still in contact with the Countess of Northumberland. Seton's return to Scotland through England prompted thorough searches of Scottish shipping in English waters.HMC Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury at Hatfield, vol. 2 (London, 1888), xlviii, 4 no. 8, 7 no. 16, 39 no. 103. In April 1572, the Marshall of Berwick upon Tweed, Sir William Drury, plotted with Mr Archibald Douglas to kidnap Seton on his return from the shore at Leith at night and take him to England, but the plan did not take effect after Douglas was arrested by Regent Mar.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 297.
An Italian called Battista di Trento wrote a long letter to Elizabeth I of England in 1577, which alleged to reveal a plot some years earlier involving Seton and his sons, including Alexander, then a student in Rome. As part of the Ridolfi Plot, Mary would have married the Duke of Norfolk and be restored to the Scottish throne. Seton would pay to secure Edinburgh Castle on her behalf. Elizabeth would marry the Earl of Leicester. Battista laid out five schemes for the plot and the 19th century editor of William Cecil's papers believed his circumstantial details to show some "sub-stratum of truth" in his statements.HMC, Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury at Hatfield, vol. 2 (1888), v-vi, 165-170 no. 491, (p. 168-9) Italian.
In May 1579, during the suppression of the Hamilton family, Lord Seton and three of his sons were ordered to enter ward at Brechin Castle. Seton pleaded with the King's keepers at Stirling Castle to mitigate their charge of treason. His son John Seton of Barnes, known as the 'Cavalier de Bucca' from his post at the Spanish court, had returned to Scotland and was suspected to have brought messages from the exiled Queen Mary.HMC, Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury at Hatfield, vol. 2 (1888), pp. 256-7 no. 732, Occurrents out of Scotland, 14 May 1579. On 2 June 1581, Seton and two of his sons watched the execution of Regent Morton from a forestair on the Royal Mile of Edinburgh.Hewitt, George, Scotland under Morton( John Donald, Edinburgh, 1982), p. 202.
Ambassador in France, 1583