David Lyndsay

Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount (c. 1490 – c. 1555; ''alias'' Lindsay) was a Scottish herald who gained the highest heraldic office of Lyon King of Arms. He remains a well regarded poet whose works reflect the spirit of the Renaissance, specifically as a makar.

Biography

He was the son of David Lyndsay, second of the Mount (Fife), and of Garmylton, (Haddingtonshire) (d.''circa.'' 1503). His place of birth and early education are unknown, but he may have attended the University of St Andrews, on the books of which appears an entry "Da Lindesay" for the session 1508–1509. He was engaged as a courtier in the Royal Household; first as an equerry, then as an usher (assistant to a head-tutor) to the future King James V of Scotland. His poems mention that he was involved in the education of James V and some contain advice for the young king.

In 1522 he married Janet Douglas, a court seamstress. His first heraldic appointment was as Snowdon Herald and in 1529 he was appointed Lord Lyon King of Arms, and knighted. He was engaged in diplomatic business (twice on embassies abroad—to the Netherlands and France), and was, in virtue of his heraldic office, a general master of ceremonies. He was involved in organising the ceremonies and celebrations welcoming the French brides of James V, Madeleine of Valois in 1537, and Mary of Guise in 1539.

Lyndsay signed the only surviving letter from this time, "Dauid Lyndsay." His handwriting shows no trace of the italic forms used by those Scots who had finished their education abroad.

After the death of James V, in 1542, Lyndsay continued to sit in Parliament of Scotland as commissioner for Cupar, Fife. In 1548 he was member of a mission to Denmark which obtained certain privileges for Scottish merchants. There is reason to believe that he died in or about 1555.

Heraldic works

In 1542 he produced a Scottish roll of arms known today as the ''Lindsay of the Mount Roll''. It contains 400 Scottish coats of arms, some of which were added later in the 16th century, and forms the basis of the official Scots heraldic registry in use today. A facsimile comprising accurate redrawing of his own drawings was published in Edinburgh in 1878.

Literary works

Most of Lyndsay's literary work, by which he secured great reputation in his own day and by which he still lives, was written during the period of prosperity at court. In this respect he is different from Gavin Douglas, who abandoned literature to become a politician. The difference is due partly to the fact that Lyndsay's muse was more occasional and satirical, and that the time was suitable to the exercise of his special gifts. It is more difficult to explain how he enjoyed such unparalleled freedom of speech. He chastised all classes, from his royal master to the most simple. There is no evidence that he abjured Catholicism; yet his leading purpose was the exposure of its errors and abuses. His aid was readily accepted by the reforming party, and by their use of his work he shared with their leaders throughout many generations a reputation which is almost exclusively political and ecclesiastical.

Lyndsay's longer poems represent, with reasonable completeness, the range of Lyndsay's literary talent. No single poem can give him a chief place, though here and there, especially in the last, he gives hints of the highest competence. Yet the corporate effect of these pieces is to secure for him the allowance of more than mere intellectual vigour and common sense. There is in his craftsmanship, in his readiness to apply the traditional methods to contemporary requirements, something of that accomplishment which makes even the second-rate man of letters interesting.

Lyndsay, the Makar, is not behind his fellow-poets in acknowledgment to Geoffrey Chaucer. As piously as they, he reproduces the master's forms; but in him the sentiment and outlook have suffered change. His nearest approach to Chaucer is in '' The Historie and Testament of Squyer Meldrum'', which recalls the sketch of the ''"young squire"''; but the reminiscence is verbal rather than spiritual. Elsewhere his memory serves him less happily, as when he describes the array of the lamented Queen Magdalene in the words which Chaucer had applied to the eyes of his wanton Friar. So too, in the '' Dreme'', the allegorical tradition survives only in the form. ''"Remembrance"'' conducts the poet over the old-world itinerary, but only to lead him to speculation on Scotland's woes and to an "Exhortatioun to the Kingis Grace" to bring relief. The tenor is well expressed in the motto from the Vulgate--"''Prophetias nolite spernere. Omnia autem probate: quod bonum est tenete''."

This didactic habit is freely exercised in the long poem (sometimes called the ''Monarchie''), a universal history of the medieval type, in which the falls of princes by corruption supply an object lesson to the unreformed church of his day. '' Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis'' is more direct in its attack on ecclesiastical