James Stewart, Earl of Arran
Encyclopedia
Captain James Stewart, Earl of Arran (died 1596) was created Earl of Arran
Earl of Arran
Earl of Arran is a title in both the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of Ireland. The two titles refer to different places, the Isle of Arran in Scotland, and the Aran Islands in Ireland...

 by the young King James VI
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

, who wrested the title from James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran
James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran
James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran was a Scottish nobleman and soldier who fought against French troops during the Scottish Reformation....

. He rose to become Lord Chancellor of Scotland
Lord Chancellor of Scotland
The Lord Chancellor of Scotland was a Great Officer of State in pre-Union Scotland.Holders of the office are known from 1123 onwards, but its duties were occasionally performed by an official of lower status with the title of Keeper of the Great Seal...

 and was eventually murdered in 1596.

Rise to power

Captain James Stewart of Bothwellmuir was the second son of Andrew Stewart
Andrew Stewart, 2nd Lord Ochiltree
Andrew Stewart, 2nd Lord Ochiltree fought for the Scottish Reformation. His daughter married John Knox and he played a part in the defeat of Mary, Queen of Scots at the battle of Langside....

 (c.1521-1591) 'The Good' 2nd Lord Ochiltree
Lord Ochiltree
Lord Ochiltree of Lord Stuart of Ochiltree was a title in the Peerage of Scotland. In 1542 Andrew Stewart, 2nd Lord Avondale exchanged the lordship of Avondale with Sir James Hamilton for the lordship of Ochiltrie and by Act of Parliament was ordained to be styled Lord Stuart of Ochiltrie...

, by his wife Agnes, daughter John Cunningham, 5th of Capringtoun, Ayrshire
Ayrshire
Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...

. Stewart's sister, Margaret
Margaret Knox
Margaret Knox née Stewart , was a Scottish noblewoman and the second wife of Scottish reformer John Knox, whom she married when she was 17 years old and he 54...

, was married to John Knox
John Knox
John Knox was a Scottish clergyman and a leader of the Protestant Reformation who brought reformation to the church in Scotland. He was educated at the University of St Andrews or possibly the University of Glasgow and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1536...

.

In April 1573, James was sent as a 'pledge' or hostage to England for the security of the English army and artillery sent to the 'Lang Siege' of Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...

. (The Castle was held by supporters of Mary Queen of Scots). Regent Morton gave him £55 for his expenses in England.

Stewart's professional life started as a mercenary
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...

 in the service of France and Sweden. As a Captain in the King's Guard he was introduced to King James VI, and quickly became a firm royal favourite. It was at Stewart's instigation that James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton
James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton
James Douglas, jure uxoris 4th Earl of Morton was the last of the four regents of Scotland during the minority of King James VI. He was in some ways the most successful of the four, since he did manage to win the civil war which had been dragging on with the supporters of the exiled Mary, Queen of...

 was arrested for complicity in the murder of the King's father, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
Henry Stewart or Stuart, 1st Duke of Albany , styled Lord Darnley before 1565, was king consort of Scotland and murdered at Kirk o'Field...

.

Whilst still a Captain in the King's Guard, the ambitious James Stewart took over the management of the lands of the insane James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran
James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran
James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran was a Scottish nobleman and soldier who fought against French troops during the Scottish Reformation....

, and contrived to have himself elected a Privy Counsellor. Not content to stop there, in 1581 he persuaded the King, with a dubious genealogical argument, to grant him Hamilton's title of 'Earl of Arran'. Stewart held the title until it was restored to Hamilton in 1585.

He married a woman as daring and ambitious as himself, Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of John Stewart, 4th Earl of Atholl
John Stewart, 4th Earl of Atholl
-Biography:He was the son of John Stewart, 3rd Earl of Atholl and Grizel Rattray. He supported the government of the queen dowager, and in 1560 was one of the three nobles who voted in Parliament against the Reformation and the confession of faith, and declared their adherence to Roman Catholicism...

. Her first husband was Hugh Fraser, 5th Lord Lovat
Lord Lovat
Lord Lovat is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1458 for Hugh Fraser. The title descended in a direct line for nine sequential generations until the death of the ninth Lord in 1696. He was succeeded by his great-uncle, the tenth Lord...

. A year after he died she married the elderly Earl of Lennox, but on meeting James Stewart she quickly divorced him on the grounds of his impotence and, three months pregnant, married James Stewart in 1581.

Stewart had formed a powerful alliance with Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox
Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox
Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, 1st Earl of Lennox was the son of John Stewart, 5th Lord of Aubigny who was the younger brother of Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox...

, the King's first cousin, but he had also created many enemies during his rise to power.
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