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Notes on the Family of Betoun in Connection with some Royal Letters of James VI

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Henry Elliot Malden
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Extract

The following paper has for its raison d'être certain letters, three of James VI. of Scotland, and one of Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, which have never before been made public, I believe, and the originals of which I can submit to the inspection of the Society. They are of no great historical importance, but with the circumstances amid which they were written they will help to throw some light upon the state of society in Scotland during the latter part of the sixteenth century, when James VI. was endeavouring to hold his own and support the dignity of the crown among the contending religious and family parties in Scotland, and was so serving an apprenticeship in kingcraft which ill fitted him for his subsequent place at the head of a peaceful, well-ordered kingdom like England. The letters are addressed to members of the family of Betoun, James Betoun of Creich, and his third cousin, Robert Betoun of Balfour.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 7 , December 1893 , pp. 21 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1893

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References

page 22 note 1 It is recorded of the Archbishop in a MS. family history that: ‘He was a good, godly, wise, and charitable man, who promoted his brethren all to honourable estates and offices of the kingdom.’—Family MS. 1690. (This MS. was rescued when about to be applied to the singeing of chickens).

page 25 note 1 His brothers there call him son of John B. of Auchmuty; there were two brothers John in the same family. The Diet, of National Biogr., art. ‘James B.,’ is wrong in calling the Archbishop of Glasgow son to Betoun of Balfour. As the original brass reads truculentiss: tyrann: we may take the tyrant to be either the Regent or his mother, Lady Douglas of Lochleven.

page 28 note 1 Man-rent bonds were one of the worst causes of disorder in Scotland. By their means great men gathered a following by which they could defy the Government, and lesser men committed violence with impunity, secure in the protection of those to whom they could offer service in return.

page 35 note 1 No date, but after 1543.