Moray, James Stuart, Earl of

Moray, James Stuart, Earl of, by Protestants called the 'Good Regent,' was the natural son of James V. of Scotland, by Margaret, daughter of John, fourth Lord Erskine, whom James in 1536 thought seriously of marrying, even though she had already wedded Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven. Born in the year 1531, in 1538 he was made prior in commendam of St Andrews, in 1556 joined the Reformers, and almost immediately became the head of the Protestant party in Scotland. In 1561 he was despatched to France to invite his half-sister, Queen Mary, to return to her kingdom; and on her arrival he acted as her prime-minister and chief adviser. In 1562 she created him Earl of Mar; but that earldom being claimed by Lord Erskine, the title of Earl of Moray was in 1564 conferred instead on Lord James, who had meanwhile put down the Border banditti, and defeated Huntly at Corrichie. Strongly opposed to the marriage of Mary to Darnley (1565), he is falsely alleged before it to have endeavoured to seize the pair near Lochleven; and after it he openly appealed to arms, but was easily put to flight by the queen, and forced to take refuge in England. He did not return to Edinburgh till 10th March 1566, the day after Rizzio's murder, to which he was certainly privy. In April 1567 he withdrew to France, but in the following August was recalled by the nobles in arms against Mary, and found her a prisoner at Lochleven, and himself appointed regent of the kingdom. In his famous interview with the queen on the 15th he 'behaved himself rather like a ghostly father unto her than like a counsellor.' On Mary's escape, he defeated her forces at Langside, near Glasgow (13th May 1568), and afterwards was one of the commissioners sent to England to conduct the negotiations against her. He then, as always, acted with extreme wariness; and after his return to Scotland by his vigour and prudence he succeeded in securing the peace of the realm, and settling the affairs of the church. But on 20th January 1570 he was shot at Linlithgow by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, who was instigated thereto by Mary's adherents, and prompted also, it may be, by personal enmity. He was buried in St Giles's, Edinburgh. Of his ambition there can hardly be question; still, the most different estimates have been formed of his character, according to men's estimates of Mary. See MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, and works there cited.