James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran

The Earl of Arran.

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

Biography

He was the eldest son of James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, who was next in line for the Crown of Scotland after Mary, Queen of Scots. After the assassination of Cardinal Beaton in 1546, he was held prisoner by his father's enemies at St Andrews, before going to France where he became Commander of the Scots Guards.

In 1558, with the support of John Knox, he became a pawn in his father's aspirations when he tried to negotiate his marriage to Elizabeth I of England to seal an Anglo-Scottish alliance. Arran was at his father's French estates in Chatelherault and his father's change in allegiance made him a fugitive. He was rescued by the English agent Thomas Randolph (diplomat) alias Barnaby and fled to Scotland via Geneva and London where he had an interview with Queen Elizabeth. During this escape, masterminded by William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and the English ambassador in Paris, Sir Nicolas Throgmorton, Arran was known by the codename 'Crito', and Randolph as 'Pamphilus' in the letters of John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, and Peter Martyr.^[1] In Scotland he fought tirelessly against the French and Mary of Guise in the cause of the Scottish Reformation.^[2]

Guise died in June 1560, and following the death of Francis II of France in 1560, his father tried to arrange for his marriage to the widowed Mary Queen of Scots. All these manoeuvrings upset the balance of his mind and in 1562, after accusing the Earl of Bothwell of conspiring to abduct Queen Mary, he was judged insane and confined for the rest of his life.^[3]

In 1575 he inherited his father's estate, but because of his insanity he was placed under the care of his brother John. In 1581 his Earldom was taken by James Stewart (d. 1595), but later restored in 1585.

Ancestors

References