John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1558–1634)

John Erskine, Earl of Mar (c. 1558 – 14 December 1634)[1] was a Scottish politician, the only son of another John Erskine and Annabella Murray. He is regarded as both the 19th earl (in the 1st creation) and the 2nd earl (in the 7th).[2]

Portrait of John Erskine, Earl of Mar.

History

John Erskine was born in 1558, though the precise date is unknown. Together with King James VI of Scotland he was educated by George Buchanan. He succeeded to the earldom of Mar on the death of his father in 1572. After attaining his majority he was nominally the guardian of the young king, who was about seven years his junior, and who lived with him at Stirling; but he was in reality something of a puppet in the hands of the regent, James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton; and he lost power and position when Morton was imprisoned.[3]

He married his first wife, Anne Drummond (1555 – 1587) in October 1580. Anne was the daughter of Lord David Drummond (d. 1571) and Lilias Ruthven (d. 1579).[4] Their marriage was cut short by Anne's early death in 1587, but the marriage did produce John's son and heir, John Erskine.

Arms of Sir John Erskine, Earl of Mar, KG

He was concerned in the seizure of James VI in 1582 (a plot known as the raid of Ruthven); but when James escaped from his new custodians the earl fled into the west of Scotland. Then leaving his hiding-place the Earl of Mar seized Stirling Castle, whereupon James marched against him, and he took refuge in England. Queen Elizabeth I interceded for him, but in vain.

In October 1584 James VI gave a gift of Mar's clothes to Thomas Stewart, a brother of Alexander Stewart of Garlies. The clothes included cloaks, doublets, breeches, and other items in cloth-of-silver, figured velvet, satin and other rich fabrics. They had been seized from a ship than ran aground near Whithorn.[5] Mar made an unusual arrangement with his Edinburgh tailor John Murdo and his wife Mause Balgaskry, giving them an income in teinds of cereal crops in exchange for making his clothes with further payment.[6]

After some futile communications between the governments of England and Scotland in 1585 the Earl of Mar and his friends gathered an army, entered the presence of the king at Stirling, and were soon in supreme authority. The Earl of Mar was restored to his lands and titles. Henceforward he stood high in the royal favour, becoming governor of Edinburgh Castle and then tutor to James's son, Prince Henry.[3] His great achievement was the recovery of the Mar estates, alienated by the Crown during the long period that his family had been out of possession, including Kildrummy, the seat of the earldom.[7]

In May 1592 he met James VI at Fenton Tower in East Lothian, the new home of the Captain of the Guard Sir John Carmichael, to discuss the keepership of Edinburgh Castle following the death of Sir James Home. The office had also been offered to the Duke of Lennox but Home had requested it go to Mar.[8]

In December 1592 he married his second wife Marie Stewart, daughter of Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox at Holyroodhouse. The marriage was intended to be held at Dalkeith Palace but was delayed by Mar's illness, the match was opposed by many because Mary was a Catholic.[9] Their daughter, Lady Mary Erskine, married William Keith, 5th Earl Marischal.[10]

On 21 February 1594 Mar was appointed Keeper and Governor of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, who was to stay at Stirling Castle.[11] Mar performed in the tournament at the baptism of Prince Henry dressed as a "Christian Knight" in a team with the king and Sir Thomas Erskine.[12] His keeping of the Prince at Stirling led to disagreement with Anne of Denmark. In September 1595 she would not look at Mar when he was in the same room with her at Falkland Palace.[13]

Mar kept up a correspondence with the Earl of Essex and in December 1595 mentioned to Essex he had heard a rumour that David Foulis carried a message "to his disgrace", damaging to Mar's reputation.[14] In 1596 Queen Elizabeth, via the Earl of Essex and his secretary Anthony Bacon, sent her miniature portrait by Nicholas Hilliard to Prince Henry, and this was received by Mar at Stirling.[15]

In 1601, the earl was sent as envoy to London; here Elizabeth I assured him that James should be her successor, and his mission was conducted with tact and prudence. After the embassy the sum paid as a subsidy to James VI was increased, by the persuasion of Sir Robert Cecil.[16] Mar was involved in the "secret correspondence of James VI", an initiative to help put James on the throne of England.[17]

While Mar was away Anne of Denmark came to Stirling Castle on 7 May 1603 to take away Prince Henry. The Countess, his wife Marie, refused to allow this. Mar made his apology for the events of the day to the queen on 5 July at Windsor Castle.[18]

After the Union of the Crowns, the earl joined the English privy council. He was granted several manors in England, including Hundon and Chipley in Suffolk, for which he was given £15,000 in 1611 when they were sold to William, Lord Cavendish.[19] In November 1603 the Spanish ambassador, the Count of Villamediana, invited the Duke of Lennox and the Earl of Mar to dinner, and according to Arbella Stuart asked them "to bring the Scottish ladies, for he was desirous to see some natural beauties." These included Jean Drummond and Anne Hay, with Elizabeth Carey.[20]

The Earl of Mar was created Lord Cardross in 1610; he was a member of the Court of High Commission and was Lord High Treasurer of Scotland from 1615 to 1630.[3]

In January 1608, Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton wrote to Mar asking for the recipe that would restore his favour with Anne of Denmark.[21] In April 1608 Mar was summoned to court in London. He made a will making Marie Countess of Mar his executor, leaving her a jewel bought from William Herrick, and reserving to his eldest son by his first wife important items including a basin set with mother-of-pearl which had been a gift from Queen Elizabeth, and a jewel given to him by the King of France.[22]

In September 1612 Mar asked King James if the Laird of Findlater could be made a Baron. The King wrote that there were too many Scottish noblemen already, which caused discontent in England, and was prejudicial to the Union.[23]

In 1621 King James requested fir tree seeds for the Marquis of Buckingham to plant at Burley on the Hill.[24]

The depute-treasurer Gideon Murray died in 1621, and Mar wrote to King James in July assuring him that Murray's good management would continue, and that he himself had visited Linlithgow Palace to see the new north range being built.[25]

Mar died at Stirling on 14 December 1634.

Mar and the King's Jewels

From time to time James would lodge jewels with Mar for safety and as pledges for loans. In December 1601 Mar returned several pieces including a cross set seven diamonds and two rubies, a hat string with 89 diamonds, a "feather" jewel to wear in a hat in the shape of a capital letter "A" for Anne of Denmark made with 110 diamonds, and other pieces.[26]

Gardens of Stirling Castle

King Charles sent a warrant in June 1625 for Mar and Archibald Napier, treasurer-depute, to appoint a "skillfull and well experimented gardener in England" to reside at Stirling Castle and repair the orchards. William Watts was appointed. In 1629 fruit trees for the gardens at Stirling were shipped from London in the Unicorn of Kirkcaldy to Alloa and delivered to Mar's gardener there, David Erskine.[27]

Marriages and family

John Erskine and Anne Drummond had a son:

• John (c. 1585–1654), who succeeded to his earldom.

John Erskine and his second wife, Marie Stewart, had five sons, among them being James (died 1640), earl of Buchan; Henry, Master of Cardross and Commendator of Dryburgh (died 1628), whose son David succeeded to the barony of Cardross; and Charles, the ancestor of the earls of Rosslyn.

One of Mar's sons was baptised at Stirling on 20 July 1595 with James VI as a godparent.[28]

In November 1614 Viscount Fenton discussed the marriage of Mar's daughter Anna Erskine to a son of the Earl of Rothes, later John Leslie, 6th Earl of Rothes. Although Rothes was an ancient and noble house, Fenton would not have advised that Mar's eldest son's should marry a daughter of Katherine Drummond, the "last Lady Rothes that was".[29]

References

1. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online (ODNB), "John Erskine, eighteenth or second earl of Mar," by Julian Goodare.
2. Some sources deem him the 18th Earl, still others as the 7th Earl. (cf. Earl of Mar#Notes)
3.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mar, John Erskine, 2nd or 7th Earl of". Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 666.
4. ODNB, "James Drummond, first Lord Maderty," by Michael Wasser; Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland, and Mary, Queen of Scots...1574-1581, (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 447, 449.
5. Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal: 1581-1584, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1982), p. 431 no. 2462.
6. Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal: 1581-84, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1982), p. 284 no. 1710, 31 December 1583.
7.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Round, John Horace (1911). "Mar, Earldom of". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 665–666.
8. Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1589-1593, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 671, 673-4.
9. Calendar of State Papers Scotland vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 778, 780.
10. "Lady Mary Erskine at". Thepeerage.com. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
11. Annie Cameron, Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 280 no. 222.
12. Michael Bath, Emblems in Scotland: Motifs and Meanings (Brill, Leiden, 2018), pp. 97-101.
13. Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1952), p. 18.
14. Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth vol. 1 (London, 1754), p. 343.
15. Elizabeth Goldring, Nicholas Hilliard: Life of an Artist (London, 2019), p. 216.
16. Alexander Courtney, 'The Secret Correspondence of James VI, 1601-3', in Susan Doran and Paulina Kewes, Doubtful and dangerous: The question of the succession in late Elizabethan England (Manchester, 2014), pp. 138-9: Julian Goodare (2000), pp. 113, 166.
17. Alexander Courtney, 'The Secret Correspondence of James VI, 1601-3', Susan Doran & Paulina Kewes, Doubtful and dangerous: The question of the succession in late Elizabethan England (Manchester, 2014), p. 139.
18. Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1894), pp. 577-8.
19. Frederick Madden, Issues of the Exchequer: James I (London, 1836), p. 139.
20. Sara Jayne Steen, Letters of Lady Arbella Stuart (Oxford, 1994), p. 192.
21. Historical Manuscript Commission: Report on the Manuscripts of the Earl of Mar and Kellie (London, 1904), p. 58.
22. HMC Mar & Kellie, vol. 1 (London, 1904), p. 59.
23. HMC Mar & Kellie, vol. 1 (London, 1904), p. 68.
24. HMC Mar & Kellie, vol. 1 (London, 1904), p. 103: HMC Mar & Kellie, vol. 2 (London, 1904), pp. 109, 116.
25. HMC Mar & Kellie, vol. 1 (London, 1904), pp. 95-6.
26. Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1894), p. 328.
27. HMC Report on the Manuscripts of the Earl of Mar and Kellie (London, 1904), p. 131: John Imrie & John Dunbar, Accounts of the Masters of Works, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1982), p. xcii: National Records of Scotland, E34/17/34.
28. Annie I. Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 645-6.
29. HMC Mar & Kellie, vol. 2 (London, 1930), p. 57.