Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline (1555 – 16 June 1622) was a Scottish lawyer, judge and politician. He served as Lord President of the Court of Session from 1598 to 1604, Lord Chancellor of Scotland from 1604 to 1622 and as a Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland.
Early life
Born at Seton Palace, East Lothian, he was the son of George Seton, 7th Lord Seton, and Isobell Hamilton. The Setons remained a Roman Catholic family after the Scottish Reformation of 1560, and continued to support Mary, Queen of Scots, after her abdication and exile in England.Maurice Lee jr., 'King James's Popish Chancellor', Ian B. Cowan & Duncan Shaw, Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1983), pp. 172-3.
Mary, Queen of Scots appointed him Prior of Pluscarden in 1565, a gift made to him to provide an income.Maurice Lee jnr, "King James's Popish Chancellor", Ian B. Cowan & Duncan Shaw, Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland (Scottish Academic Press, 1983), p. 170: Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, 5:1 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1957), p. 664 no. 2315. Alexander Seton was educated at the German and Roman College in Rome from June 1571 to December 1578.Dilworth, Mark,Innes Review, 'Scottish Students at Collegium Germanicum', vol. 19, no. 1 (1968), 20. Alexander was noted learning Italian and science (philosophy) in Rome by Baptista da Trento in 1577 in a letter describing plots to marry Elizabeth I of England to the Earl of Leicester and re-instate Mary in Scotland.HMC Salisbury Manuscripts at Hatfield, vol. 2 (London, 1888), pp. v-vi, 168, Baptista di Trento to Elizabeth. The family historian Viscount Kingston heard that he was skilled in mathematics, heraldry and architecture, and might have been made a Cardinal if he had stayed at Rome.The history of the house of Seytoun to the year 1559 (1829), p. 63. A Venetian diplomat, Giovanni Carlo Scaramelli, heard that Pope Gregory XIII had subsidised Seton's study in Rome, and that Seton had a doctorate from the University of Bologna.Horatio Brown, Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603-1607, vol. 10 (London, 1900), p. 106 no. 147.
Career In 1583, Alexander Seton joined his father's embassy to France. William Schaw, the Master of Work to the Crown of Scotland was his companion. They left from Leith in Andrew Lamb's ship.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), pp. 645, 649 According to the Jesuit Robert Parsons, Lord Seton considered sending the youthful Alexander back to Scotland as his representative at one point.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1913), 235.
Alexander became a Privy Councillor in 1585 and was appointed a Lord of Session as Lord Urquhart in 1586. He rose to be Lord President of the Court of Session and was created Lord Fyvie on 4 March 1598.Maurice Lee jnr, "King James's Popish Chancellor", Ian B. Cowan & Duncan Shaw, Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland (Scottish Academic Press, 1983), p. 170–182. In a ciphered letter of April 1586 to Mary, Queen of Scots, Albert Fontenay mentioned Alexander Seton, "Monsieur le prieur de Seton", and his brother John Seton, "le chevalier maistre d'hostel du roy", among her Catholic allies in Scotland.Sheila R. Richards, Secret Writing in the Public Records (London: HMSO, 1974), p. 34.
From July 1593, Seton led a council convened to manage the estates of Anne of Denmark,Annie I. Cameron, Calendar of State Papers: 1593-1595, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 696. and she made him "bailie and justiciary of the regality of Dunfermline on both sides of Forth" on 15 February 1596.George Seton, Memoir of Alexander Seton (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1882), p. 102. In December 1596, Richard Douglas wrote that Seton's mother was a great favourite of Anne of Denmark, and that she "rules the king her husband" as an explanation for his promotions.HMC Calendar of the papers of the Marquis of Salisbury at Hatfield, vol. 6 (London, 1895), p. 540.
Around this time, King James had difficult financing the two royal households, and years later, he wrote that Seton had joked that his "house could not be kept upon epigrams", meaning that fine words alone would not raise money.George Akrigg, Letters of King James VI & I (University of California, 1984), p. 360.
Meanwhile, Jesuits like William Crichton saw Seton and Lord Home as an important Catholic courtiers and a route to the king and queen, as they explored the idea of James VI as future king of England. Crichton introduced an English Catholic, Nicholas Williamson, to a student at Douai, David Law. Crichton intended that Law would introduce Williamson to Seton, but they were both captured in March 1595 near Keswick and imprisoned in London.Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1595-1597 (London, 1869), pp. 46, 64-5.
At the end of August 1596 according to James Melville, the King arranged a Convention of the Estates at Falkland Palace which included the allies of the forfeited earls. Alexander Seton made a speech like those of Coriolanus or Themistocles calling for the re-instatement of these earls to strengthen the country. The reference to Themistocles, who spoke about naval power to the Athenians, perhaps refers to the forfeited Lord High Admiral of Scotland, Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell.Mr James Melvill's Diary, (Bannatyne Club, 1829), pp. 243–4.
On 7 November 1598 he was made burgess, Guild-brother and Provost of Edinburgh. In March 1598 he took delivery of Spanish and Bordeaux wine, probably for the banquet for Ulrik, the younger brother of Anne of Denmark at Riddle's Court. Other notes in the town's records include a dozen torches supplied by a waxmaker for the baptism of Princess Margaret in April 1599, and another dozen for the baptism of Prince Charles.George Seton,Memoir of Alexander Seton (Blackwood, Edinburgh 1882), pp. 84, 86-7.
Union of the Crowns Seton was regarded as one of the finest legal minds of the time, and he became an advisor to James VI and guardian and tutor to Prince Charles at Dunfermline Palace.Maureen Meikle, 'A meddlesome princess: Anna of Denmark and Scottish court politics, 1589-1603', Julian Goodare & Michael Lynch, The Reign of James VI (East Linton: Tuckwell, 2000), p. 140.
After the death of Queen Elizabeth, Anne of Denmark went to Stirling Castle hoping to collect her son Prince Henry. Alexander Seton's sister Lady Paisley was of her companions that day.William Fraser, Memorials of the Earls of Haddington, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1889), p. 211 During heated discussions at the castle, Anne of Denmark had a miscarriage.Nadine Akkerman, Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts (Oxford, 2021), pp. 26-7, 417 fn.54.Lesley Lawson, Out of the Shadows: The Life of Lucy, Countess, Countess of Bedford (London: Hambledon, 2007), p. 49. As a member of the Privy Council, Seton went with others to Stirling in May 1603 to discuss and investigate the controversy.Melros Papers (Edinburgh, 1837), pp. 3-4. Seton wrote to King James in London advising him to treat the queen with care, writing,Sarah Fraser, The prince who would be king: the life and death of Henry Stuart (William Collins, 2017), p. 42. "physic and medicine requireth a greater place with Her Majesty at present than lectures on economics and politics."Steven Veerapen, The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I (Birlinn, 2023), p. 227: Rosalind K. Marshall, Scottish Queens: 1034-1714 (John Donald: Edinburgh, 2007), p. 149.Gareth Russell, Queen James: The Lives and Loves of Britain's First King (London: William Collins, 2025), p. 227.
After the Union of the Crowns when the Scottish royal family relocated to London, Seton remained on the committee supervising Anne's Scottish incomes, while James VI went to England, and the infant Charles remained with Seton and his wife Grizel Leslie at Dunfermline Palace.David Masson, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, 1599-1604, vol. 6 (Edinburgh 1884), pp. 556-7: Richard Augustin Hay, Genealogie of the Hayes of Tweeddale (Edinburgh, 1835), p. 27.
On 14 March 1604, Seton wrote to Robert Cecil on the subject of the union and opinion in Scotland;This Union is the most at this time of all men's hearts and speeches. I find none of any account here but glad in heart to embrace the same in general: some suspect the particular conditions may engender greater difficulties. I hope the wisdom of the Prince who is both the ground and the cornerstone of this happy Union, with your and other wise men's assistance shall set by all such difficulties: as also I think there can be no particular condition desired for the weal (commonwealth) of one of the nations, but it must be profitable to the other, nor nothing prejudicial to one, but must be hurtful to the other, albeit only by the distracting of their due concord which wise men will think of greater consequence, nor any particular may be subtly cozened (brought) in. This is all I can write even of our thoughts here-away: I doubt not there are divers apprehensions there also".M. S. Giuseppi, HMC Calendar of the Cecil Papers at Hatfield House, vol. 16 (London, 1933), pp. 39–40.
In 1604, he was appointed Lord Chancellor of Scotland, and in 1605 was created Earl of Dunfermline. Alexander Seton brought Prince Charles, Duke of Albany, to England in August 1604.Seton, Walter W., 'The Early Years of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Charles, Duke of Albany, 1593-1605', Scottish Historical Review, 13:52 (July 1916), pp. 366-379. There was a large entourage, and John Crane wrote from Worksop Manor to the Mayor of Leicester asking him to make ready a lodging with 12 beds, a kitchen, and 7 hogsheads of beer. They lodged in William Skipwith's Leicester townhouse. Next they went to Dingley, the home of Thomas Griffin.Walter Seton, 'Early Years of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Charles, Duke of Albany', Scottish Historical Review, 13:52 (July 1916), pp. 373-374.
Seton stayed in London till January 1605, co-inciding with the visit of the Ulrik, Duke of Holstein, and had a tour of armouries of the Tower of London. At Whitehall, Viscount Cranborne arranged for him to read the original Treaty of Greenwich, which had led to the war of the Rough Wooing in 1543, and other documents. Seton returned the historical papers to Cecil on 3 November.George Seton, Memoir of Alexander Seton (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1882), pp. 64-65: M. S. Giuseppi, HMC Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, vol. 16 (London, 1933), p. 345.
Alexander Seton returned to Scotland with a pension of £200 to reward his keeping of Prince Charles, made Duke of York on Twelfth Night, and his expenses for his 'pains in the Union' amounting to £200 a year.Edmund Sawyer, Memorials of the affairs of State under Queen Elizabeth and James I, vol. 2 (London, 1725), p. 46, Chamberlain to Winwood, 26 January 1605. He had made friends with the Venetian ambassador in London, Zorzi Giustinian, who sent him pamphlets about Venetian politics.Horatio Brown, Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603-1607, vol. 10 (London, 1900), p. 416 no. 599, p. 453 no. 659.
Seton corresponded with the Chancellor of England, Lord Ellesmere. His letter of 30 October 1606 mentions the plague in Scotland which had been continuous in Edinburgh for four years, and although the outbreak was not vehement at this time, it interfered with the sitting of law courts. The plague was worse in Ayr and Stirling and 2,000 people had died in the last two months.John Payne Collier, Egerton Papers (Camden Society: London, 1840), pp. 406-407.
After the death of George Home, 1st Earl of Dunbar, Seton was made Keeper of Holyrood Palace and the park and gardens, with power to appoint gardeners to the north and south yards, and the small garden.HMC 6th Report: Gordon (London, 1876), p. 644.