Buchanan, GEORGE, the most distinguished scholar from Scotland has produced, and one of the most brilliant representatives of the intellectual and religious movements of his age, was born of parents poor, but of good descent, at
Killearn, in the county of Stirling, in February 1506. Buchanan received the rudiments of his education in Scotland; but at the age of fourteen was sent by an uncle to the university of Paris, where his chief study was the composition of Latin verse. The death of this uncle who had supported him, as well as the state of his own health, forced Buchanan at the end of two years to return to Scotland. After nearly a year's illness, he enlisted in a force led by the Duke of Albany against England; and from the hardships of this campaign his health again suffered severely. In 1524 he matriculated as a pauper student at St Andrews, and the next year took the degree of B.A. In 1526 he returned to France, took the degree of M.A. at the Scottish College of Paris, and after two years' great privations, was appointed professor in the college of Ste Barbe. About this time, also, he was engaged as tutor to the son of the Earl of Cassilis; and on his pupil's return to Scotland, probably about 1535, Buchanan accompanied him. On the termination of this engagement, he was intrusted by James V. with the education of one of his illegitimate sons. To this period belong Buchanan's two satires against the Franciscans, the Somnium and Franciscanus, the latter prompted by the king himself, who, nevertheless, was either unable or unwilling to shield Buchanan from the anger of the monks. At the instance of Cardinal Beaton, Buchanan was imprisoned in the castle of St Andrews; but, having made his escape, he fled to England, whence, after a short stay, he proceeded to Paris (1539). Finding Beaton here, he hastened to Bordeaux on the invitation of André de Gouvêa, the head of the college in that city, and in that college acted as one of the professors for the next three years. During his stay here, Buchanan wrote and translated several plays, mainly with the object of weaning the tastes of the students from the allegorical representations so popular at that time. After leaving Bordeaux in 1542 on account of the plague, he seems for some years to have held the position of professor in the college of Cardinal le Moine, at Paris. In 1547, again through Gouvêa, he was appointed professor in the newly-founded university of Coimbra, in Portugal. Gouvêa, however, dying shortly afterwards, the authority of the Romish Church subjected Buchanan to the most annoying persecution on account of his supposed heretical opinions; and it was during his enforced stay in a monastery here that he began his celebrated Latin paraphrase of the Psalms. On his release he shortly afterwards proceeded to England, and thence again returned to France towards the end of 1552. In 1555 he was appointed tutor to the son of the famous Maréchal de Brissac, an engagement which he held for five years. Shortly afterwards Buchanan returned to Scotland, and never again left it for a lengthened period. The notices we have of him during this last period of his life show that he played an important part in public affairs. Immediately on his arrival in Scotland, he became classical tutor to Queen Mary, and to her he dedicated his completed version of the Psalms. In 1566 Murray appointed him principal of St Leonard's College, St Andrews; and during three successive years he was chosen one of the four electors of the rector. On his return to Scotland Buchanan had joined the Reformed Church, and in the struggles between Mary and her lords, especially after the murder of Darnley, he vehemently took the side of the latter. Ten days after Mary's imprisonment in Lochleven, Buchanan was chosen moderator of the General Assembly that met in Edinburgh, June 25, 1567; and the next year he accompanied Murray to the celebrated Conference of York, where the question of Mary's part in Darnley's murder was brought before the commissioners of Elizabeth. Previous to this meeting he had written the Detectio Mariæ Regine, in which he stated with undue violence the ease of the insurgent lords against Mary. During the regency of Lennox, Buchanan was appointed tutor to the young king, James VI. In after-years James spoke with pride of his great teacher, though his feeling towards him had more in it of respect than affection. In 1570 Buchanan was made keeper of the Privy Seal, an office that entitled him to a seat in parliament. He resigned this post in 1578, and devoted his remaining years to the completion of his History of Scotland, which was published just thirty days before his death. He died on the 28th of September 1582, and was buried in Greyfriars' Churchyard, Edinburgh, at the expense of the city.
In his own day, Buchanan had a European reputation, which rested mainly on his skill in Latin poetry. This was an exercise in which all his learned contemporaries vied with each other; and by their unanimous admission, Buchanan was on this ground without a rival. The publication of his History of Scotland was looked forward to as an event in the history of letters. The only part of this history which still retains a certain importance is that which deals with the events of his own time. Of these, indeed, his account is that of a strong partisan; but it is also the account of a practical statesman and a far-seeing observer. Buchanan's influence subsequent to his death was chiefly through his tract De Jure Regni. In this tract, written in the form of a dialogue between himself and a brother of Maitland of Lethington, he states with the utmost boldness the doctrine that kings exist by the will, and for the good, of the people. Buchanan's teaching on this point had a most powerful influence on many statesmen who took a leading part in the great political movements of the 17th century. For continental scholars and men of letters of his own age, Buchanan was the most distinguished person then living in Britain. He may, indeed, be fairly regarded as the most brilliant British humanist of the 16th century. As in the case of Erasmus, the reformer and the humanist were in Buchanan pretty well mixed. Up till his final return to Scotland, the humanist distinctly predominated. All through his life, indeed, he wrote against the monks; but it was not so much their false doctrine that offended him, as their ignorance and brutality. Moreover, much of his verse written during this period reveals a view of life far more suggestive of the irony of the humanist than the zeal of a religious reformer. It has been matter of dispute whether the subjects of his erotic verses were real persons or not; but some lines in one of his later poems seem clearly to prove that they were imaginary. On his return to Scotland, politics and religion gradually occupied more and more of his thoughts; yet it is a mistake to suppose that he ever became a politician or a reformer of the type of Knox or Andrew Melville. Our information regarding Buchanan is insufficient to enable us to form a distinct idea of the minute shades of his character; but we can have no doubt that his personality was of the most commanding order. He had the reverence and affection of men themselves eminent for genius and virtue; while, by those opposed to him in politics and religion, he was spoken of as a monster of vice and ingratitude. See lives by Irving (1817) and the present writer (1890).