James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran

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James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran

James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran ( 1537 - March 1609 ) was a Scottish nobleman .

Life

He was the eldest son of James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran , from his marriage to Lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of James Douglas, 3rd Earl of Morton . His maternal grandmother was an illegitimate daughter of the Scottish King James IV. His father reigned from 1543 to 1554 for the underage Scottish Queen Maria Stuart .

In 1550 he went to France and served there as an officer in the Garde Écossaise and distinguished himself in 1557 in the fighting for Saint-Quentin . He tended towards the Reformed faith and sympathized with the Huguenots . The French King Henry II tried to have him arrested in 1559, from which Hamilton fled to England via Geneva and finally returned to Scotland in September 1559.

His father negotiated at times about his possible marriage to the English Queen Elizabeth I , as well as about a marriage to the Scottish Queen Maria Stuart, but both ended unsuccessfully in 1561.

From 1561 he showed indications of a mental illness , which is why he was declared insane in 1562 and placed under house arrest at Edinburgh Castle until May 1566 . He later lost the ability to speak and from 1568 he lived under the care of his mother at Craignethan Castle . When his father died in 1575, he inherited his title as Earl of Arran . Because of his mental illness, his younger brother John , who later became the 1st Marquess of Hamilton , took over the administration of his lands.

In 1579 he and his brothers were charged with treason against the Scottish King James VI. outlawed . He and his mother were taken to Linlithgow Palace and their titles and lands confiscated from the Crown. In 1581 James Stewart of Bothwellmuir , son of the 2nd Lord Stewart of Ochiltree , was appointed as his guardian, who was then appointed as Earl of Arran himself. In 1585 his brothers were able to reconcile with the king and the ban was revoked. After James Stewart himself was ostracized for high treason in 1586, the Hamiltons also got their lands back.

He died unmarried and childless in March 1609, whereupon his nephew James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Hamilton , the son of his brother John, inherited him.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rosalind Mitchison: A history of Scotland. Methuen, London 1982, ISBN 0416330800 , p. 119.

literature

  • John Durkan: James, Third Earl of Arran, the Hidden Years. In: The Scottish Historical Review. Volume 65, Part 2, No. 180, October 1986, pp. 154-166.
  • RK Hannay: The Earl of Arran and Queen Mary. In: The Scottish Historical Review. Volume 18, MacLehose, Jackson & Co., Glasgow 1921, pp. 258-276 ( archive.org ).
  • Arran, Earls of . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 2 : Andros - Austria . London 1910, p. 642–644 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web link

predecessor Office successor
James Hamilton Earl of Arran
1575-1609 		James Hamilton
personal data
SURNAME Hamilton, James 3rd Earl of Arran
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish nobleman
DATE OF BIRTH 1537
DATE OF DEATH March 1609