James Fleming, 4th Lord Fleming (approx 1534–18 December 1558) was
Lord Chamberlain of Scotland. His death in France after making arrangements for the marriage of
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.
The only surviving legit ...
was regarded as suspicious by contemporaries.
Life
He was the eldest son of
Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming, Lord High Chamberlain, and
Johanna or Jonet Stewart, natural daughter of
James IV. He died in Paris on 15 December 1558 in the twenty-fourth year of his age. From this, his birth year was ca 1534.
Malcolm Fleming, who had been taken prisoner at the
battle of Solway Moss in 1542, and had been tried and acquitted of treason in 1545 for his connection with the English party, was slain at the
battle of Pinkie
The Battle of Pinkie, also known as the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh (), took place on 10 September 1547 on the banks of the River Esk near Musselburgh, Scotland. The last pitched battle between Scotland and England before the Union of the Crowns, ...
10 September 1547.
In August 1548, the young new Lord Fleming, along with
Lord Erskine, accompanied
Queen Mary to France, and his mother was appointed her governess. James Fleming was an English prisoner by May 1549, and was released by exchange with the English prisoner
James Wilford. In 1550 James accompanied the queen dowager
Mary of Guise
Mary of Guise (; 22 November 1515 – 11 June 1560), also called Mary of Lorraine, was List of Scottish royal consorts, Queen of Scotland from 1538 until 1542, as the second wife of King James V. She was a French people, French noblewoman of the ...
into France .
On 21 December 1553, James was confirmed as Great Chamberlain of Scotland for life. About the same time, he was appointed guardian of the East and Middle Marches, and invested with power of justiciary within his jurisdictions.
James Fleming was one of the eight commissioners elected by parliament 8 December 1557, to represent the Scottish nation at the nuptials of Queen Mary with
Francis, dauphin of France, on 24 April 1558. Though the commissioners agreed to swear fealty to the King-Dauphin as the husband of the queen, they affirmed that their instructions did not permit them to agree that he should receive the Scottish ensigns of royalty.
They were thereupon requested to support this proposal in the Scottish parliament, but when they left for Scotland, the French court appears to have been doubtful of the intentions of certain members of the commission. In such circumstances, the death of James and three of the other commissioners on the way home awakened grave suspicions that they had been designedly poisoned. The Earls of
Rothes and
Cassilis and
Bishop Reid of Orkney succumbed sooner to the attack than Fleming, who, in the hope of recovery, returned to Paris, but died there on 18 December 1558, at age 24.
Family
By his marriage to Lady
Barbara Hamilton, eldest daughter of
James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault, Fleming had one daughter,
Jean Fleming. She was married firstly to
John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane, who died 3 October 1595, by whom she had a son and a daughter; and secondly to
John Kennedy, 5th Earl of Cassilis, by whom she had no issue.
Notes
References
*; Endnotes:
**Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 634
**Crawfurd's Officers of State, pages 327–8
**Keith's History of Scotland
**Hunter's Biggar and the House of Fleming, pages 525–8.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, James, Fourth Lord Fleming
1530s births
1558 deaths
16th-century Scottish people
James
Lord high chamberlains of Scotland
Lords of Parliament (pre-1707)