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Robert Melville, 1st Lord Melville
Robert Melville, 1st Lord Melville (c. 1527–1621) was a Scottish diplomat, administrator, jurist, and intriguer, and uncle of the poet Elizabeth Melville. Family Known as Sir Robert Melville of Murdocairnie or Murdochcairnie, Robert was the second son of John Melville of Raith, Sir John Melville of Raith, Fife, Raith in Fife and Helen Napier of Merchiston. His younger brother Sir James Melville of Halhill wrote a famous political memoir. Another brother, Andrew Melville of Garvock, joined the household of Mary, Queen of Scots in Scotland. Robert married firstly; Katherine Adamson; secondly Mary Leslie, daughter of Andrew Leslie, 5th Earl of Rothes, Andrew Leslie, Earl of Rothes; thirdly, Jean Stewart, daughter of Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney, Robert Stewart, Earl of Orkney. He had a daughter Christiane and his son and heir with Katherine Adamson, Robert Melville, 2nd Lord Melville. Career During the Scottish Reformation, Robert Melville sided with the Protestant Lords of ...
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Elizabeth Melville
Elizabeth Melville, Lady Culross (c.1578–c.1640) was a Scottish people, Scottish poet. In 1603 she became the earliest known Scottish woman writer to see her work in print, when the Edinburgh publisher Robert Charteris issued the first edition of ''Ane Godlie Dreame'', a Calvinist Dream vision, dream-vision poem. An inscribed flagstone commemorating Melville as one of Scotland's great writers was unveiled by Germaine Greer on 21 June 2014 in Makars' Court, Edinburgh. The inscription is a quotation from her ''Dreame'' – "Though tyrants threat, though Lyons rage and rore/ Defy them all, and feare not to win out" (edition of 1606). Overview A large body of Elizabeth Melville's manuscript verse was discovered in 2002, and her extant poetry runs to some 4,500 lines, written in many different verse-forms. There are also twelve letters, eleven of them holographs. Melville was an active member of the Presbyterian resistance to the ecclesiastical policies of both James VI and Charle ...
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Henry, Lord Darnley
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (1546 – 10 February 1567) was King of Scotland as the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, from 29 July 1565 until his murder in 1567. Lord Darnley had one child with Mary, the future James VI of Scotland and I of England. Through his parents, he had claims to both the Scottish and English thrones.Elaine Finnie Greig, 'Stewart, Henry, duke of Albany ord Darnley(1545/6–1567)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 200accessed 4 March 2012/ref> Less than a year after the birth of his son, Darnley was murdered at Kirk o' Field in 1567. Many contemporary narratives describing his life and death refer to him as simply ''Lord Darnley'', his title as heir apparent to the Earldom of Lennox. Origins He was the second but eldest surviving son of Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, by his wife Lady Margaret Douglas, which supported his claim to the English succession. Darnley's maternal grandparents we ...
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Sir Valentine Browne
Sir Valentine Browne (died 1589), of Croft, Lincolnshire, was auditor, treasurer and victualler of Berwick-upon-Tweed. He acquired large estates in Ireland during the Plantation of Munster, in particular the seignory of Molahiffe. He lived at Ross Castle near Killarney, County Kerry. He was MP in three English and one Irish parliaments. Birth and origins Valentine was probably born in the late 1510s or early 1520s in Croft, Lincolnshire, eldest son of Sir Valentine Browne, knight, of Croft, who died in 1568. His father's family had been established in Totteridge, Hertfordshire, and in Hoxton, Middlesex (now in London), before moving to Lincolnshire. Nothing seems to be known about his mother. Early life From 1550 to 1553 Browne was auditor at Berwick Castle. From 1553 to 1560 he was Auditor-General of Ireland. He was appointed Surveyor General of Ireland in 1559 by Queen Elizabeth I of England, later being appointed Auditor of the Exchequer. First ...
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Regent Moray
James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray (c. 1531 – 23 January 1570) was a member of the House of Stewart as the illegitimate son of King James V of Scotland. At times a supporter of his half-sister Mary, Queen of Scots, he was the regent of Scotland for his half-nephew, the infant King James VI, from 1567 until his assassination in 1570. He was the first head of government to be assassinated with a firearm. Early life Moray was born in about 1531, an illegitimate child of King James V of Scotland and his mistress Lady Margaret Erskine, daughter of John Erskine, 5th Lord Erskine, and wife of Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven. On 31 August 1536, he received a royal charter granting the lands of Tantallon and others. James was appointed Prior of St Andrews, Fife, in 1538.Sir James Balfour Paul, ''The Scots Peerage'', vol. 1 (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1904), p. 23. This position supplied his income. Clothes for "lord James of Sanctandrois" and his brothers were made by the king's ...
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Nicolas Throckmorton
Sir Nicholas Throckmorton (or Throgmorton; c. 1515/151612 February 1571) was an English diplomat and politician, who was an ambassador to France and later Scotland, and played a key role in the relationship between Elizabeth I of England and Mary, Queen of Scots. Early years Nicholas Throckmorton was the fourth of eight sons of Sir George Throckmorton of Coughton Court, near Alcester in Warwickshire and Katherine, daughter of Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden and Elizabeth FitzHugh, the former Lady Parr. Nicholas was an uncle of the conspirator Francis Throckmorton.Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham. ''Magna Carta ancestry: a study in colonial and medieval families'', p. 639. He was a member of the household of Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, and was brought up in the households of members of the Parr family, including that of his cousin Katherine Parr, the last queen consort of Henry VIII. He became acquainted with young Lady Elizabeth w ...
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James VI Of Scotland
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death in 1625. Although he long tried to get both countries to adopt a closer political union, the kingdoms of Scotland and England remained sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciaries, and laws, ruled by James in personal union. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and a great-great-grandson of Henry VII, King of England and Lord of Ireland, and thus a potential successor to all three thrones. He acceded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months, after his mother was forced to abdicate in his favour. Although his mother was a Catholic, James was brought up as a Protestant. Four regents governed during his minority, which ended officially in 1578, though he did not gain full control of his government ...
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Lochleven Castle
Lochleven Castle is a ruined castle on an island in Loch Leven, in the Perth and Kinross local authority area of Scotland. Possibly built around 1300, the castle was the site of military action during the Wars of Scottish Independence (1296–1357). In the latter part of the 14th century, the castle was granted to William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas, by his uncle. It remained in the Douglases' hands for the next 300 years. Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned there in 1567–68, and forced to abdicate as queen, before escaping with the help of her gaoler's family. In 1588, the queen's gaoler inherited the title of Earl of Morton, and moved away from the castle. In 1675, Sir William Bruce, an architect, bought the castle and used it as a focal point for his garden; it was never again used as a residence. The remains of the castle are protected as a scheduled monument in the care of Historic Environment Scotland. Lochleven Castle is open to the public in summer, and access is av ...
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Battle Of Carberry Hill
The Battle of Carberry Hill took place on 15 June 1567, near Musselburgh, East Lothian, a few miles east of Edinburgh, Scotland. A number of Scottish lords objected to the rule of Mary, Queen of Scots, after she had married the Earl of Bothwell, who was widely believed to have murdered her previous husband Lord Darnley. The Lords were intent to avenge Darnley's death. However, Bothwell escaped from the stand-off at Carberry while Queen Mary surrendered. Mary abdicated, escaped from prison, and was defeated at the battle of Langside. She went to exile in England while her supporters continued a civil war in Scotland. Conflict In May 1567 Queen Mary of Scotland married James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. Many of the Queen's allies who previously supported her, including Maitland, Morton, Balfour, and Murray of Tullibardine, disapproved of this and chose to oppose her. Many of the same Lords who claimed disapproval in June had signed the Ainslie Tavern Bond only two months e ...
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James Hepburn, 4th Earl Of Bothwell
James Hepburn, 1st Duke of Orkney and 4th Earl of Bothwell ( – 14 April 1578), better known simply as Lord Bothwell, was the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. He was accused of the murder of Mary's second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, a charge of which he was acquitted. His marriage to Mary was controversial and divided the country; when he fled the growing rebellion to Norway, he was arrested and lived the rest of his life imprisoned in Denmark. Early life James Hepburn was the son of Patrick Hepburn, 3rd Earl of Bothwell, and Agnes Sinclair (d. 1572), daughter of Henry, Lord Sinclair, and was styled ''the Master of Bothwell'' from birth. He succeeded his father as Earl of Bothwell and Lord Hailes in 1556. Marriages As Lord High Admiral of Scotland, Lord Bothwell visited Copenhagen around 1559. He fell in love with Anna Tronds, known in English as Anna Throndsen or Anna Rustung. She was a Norwegian noblewoman whose father, Kristoffer Trondson, a famous ...
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David Rizzio
David Rizzio ( ; ; – 9 March 1566) or Riccio ( , ) was an Italian courtier, born in Pancalieri close to Turin, a descendant of an ancient and noble family still living in Piedmont, the Riccio Counts di San Paolo e Solbrito, who rose to become the private secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary's husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, Lord Darnley, is said to have been jealous of their friendship because of rumours that Rizzio had impregnated Mary, and he joined in a conspiracy of Protestant nobles to murder him, led by Patrick Ruthven, 3rd Lord Ruthven. Mary was having dinner with Rizzio and a few ladies-in-waiting when Darnley joined them, accused his wife of adultery and then had a group murder Rizzio, who was hiding behind Mary. Mary was held at gunpoint and Rizzio was stabbed numerous times. His body took 57 dagger wounds. The murder was the catalyst of the downfall of Darnley, and had serious consequences for Mary's subsequent reign. Career Rizzio (whose name appears in ...
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William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 15204 August 1598), was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (England), Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from 1572. In his description in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition, Albert Pollard, A.F. Pollard wrote, "From 1558 for forty years the biography of Cecil is almost indistinguishable from that of Elizabeth and from the history of England." Cecil set as the main goal of English policy the creation of a united and Protestant British Isles. His methods were to complete the control of Ireland, and to forge an alliance with Scotland. Protection from invasion required a powerful Royal Navy. While he was not fully successful, his successors agreed with his goals. In 1587, Cecil persuaded the Queen to order the Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, executio ...
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Thomas Randolph (diplomat)
Thomas Randolph (1523–1590) was an English ambassador serving Elizabeth I of England. Most of his professional life he spent in Scotland at the courts of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her son James VI. While in Scotland, he was embroiled in marriage projects and several upheavals. In 1568-1569 he was sent on a special embassy to Russia, visiting the court of Ivan the Terrible. Randolph was also a Member of Parliament: for New Romney in 1558, Maidstone 1584, 1586 and 1589, Grantham 1559 and St Ives 1558 and 1572. Exile in France Thomas Randolph was born in 1523, the son of Avery Randolph of Badlesmere, Kent and Anne Gainsford (NOT the lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn). He entered Christ Church, Oxford at the time of its foundation, and graduated B.A. in October 1545, and B.C.L. in 1548. Shortly afterwards he became a public notary; and in 1549 he was made principal of Broadgates Hall (now Pembroke College), Oxford. He continued there until 1553, when the Protestant persecutions u ...
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