John de Ralston was a 15th-century Scottish bishop and administrator. He was regarded as illegitimate, although today his parents are not known. Ralston appears in the records for the first time in 1426, where he is

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

and secretary to

Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas (c. 1391 – 26 June 1439) was a Scottish nobleman and general during the Hundred Years' War. Life Douglas was the son of Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas and Margaret Stewart, eldest daughter o ...

.Borthwick, "Ralston, John (d. 1451/2)". He retained this position on the death of Douglas in 1439. Between 1429 and 1443 he served as the fourth provost of Bothwell Collegiate Church, the home church of the Douglas earls. On 26 November 1445 he became dean of the

diocese of Dunkeld The Diocese of Dunkeld was one of the 13 historical dioceses of Scotland preceding the abolition of Episcopacy in 1689. History It is thought that the diocese was constituted as far back as the middle of the ninth century. The first occupant ...

. From 1442, John was a member of the court of King

James II of Scotland James II (16 October 1430 – 3 August 1460) was King of Scots from 1437 until his death in 1460. The eldest surviving son of James I of Scotland, he succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of six, following the assassination of his father. ...

, and from the following year he is the King's personal secretary. At some stage he attended the University of St Andrews and obtained a Licentiate in decrees. In 1445 he was Prebendary (officially,

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

) of

Cambuslang Cambuslang ( sco, Cammuslang, from gd, Camas Lang) is a town on the south-eastern outskirts of Greater Glasgow, Scotland. With approximately 30,000 residents, it is the 27th largest town in Scotland by population, although, never having had a ...

. He was in the process of obtaining a doctorate in canon law when, after the translation of Bishop William Turnbull to the

bishopric of Glasgow The Archdiocese of Glasgow was one of the thirteen (after 1633 fourteen) dioceses of the Scottish church. It was the second largest diocese in the Kingdom of Scotland, including Clydesdale, Teviotdale, parts of Tweeddale, Liddesdale, Ann ...

on 27 October 1447, Ralston was elected Bishop of Dunkeld. He was consecrated by the end of April 1448, after making a payment of 450

gold florins The Florentine florin was a gold coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains (3.499 grams, 0.113 troy ounce) of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a purcha ...

. On 20 April 1448 he is recorded as secretary to King James II and keeper of the

Privy Seal A privy seal refers to the personal seal of a reigning monarch, used for the purpose of authenticating official documents of a much more personal nature. This is in contrast with that of a great seal, which is used for documents of greater impor ...

. In this year John and two other officials were sent to France as

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

s in a mission to, among other things, find a suitable bride for King James; the mission went first to the

King of France France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the Kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I () as the first ...

and then to the Duke of Burgundy. The bride chosen was Mary of Gueldres, a relative of the Duke and the daughter of Arnold, Duke of Guelders. On his return to Scotland, Ralston became the King's treasurer. However, the autumn of 1449 brought the collapse of the dominance of the Livingston family at the Scottish court, and Ralston lost his position as a result of his association with this family. Ralston is recorded alive for the last time on 5 July 1451. He appears to have died before 28 April 1452 when Ralston's successor

Thomas Lauder Thomas Lauder (or Thomas de Lawedre) (1395 – 4 November 1481) was a 15th-century Scottish churchman. A graduate of the University of Paris, he served the Scottish king at the Council of Basel in the 1430s. Before he rose to the position of Bis ...

was recorded as being bishop-elect of Dunkeld.Borthwick, "Ralston, John (d. 1451/2)"; Watt, ''Fasti Ecclesiae'', p. 98; Dowden, ''Bishops of Scotland'', p. 75. He was buried in Dunkeld Cathedral.

Notes

References

* Borthwick, Alan R. "Ralston, John (d. 1451/2)", in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 200
, retrieved 17 Feb 2007
* Dowden, John, ''The Bishops of Scotland'', ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912) * Watt, D.E.R., ''Fasti Ecclesiae Scotinanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638'', 2nd Draft, (St Andrews, 1969) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ralston, John De 1452 deaths Alumni of the University of St Andrews Bishops of Dunkeld (pre-Reformation) Scottish diplomats Cambuslang Burials at Dunkeld Cathedral Members of the Privy Council of Scotland 15th-century Scottish Roman Catholic bishops Year of birth unknown