John Stewart, Commendator of Coldingham

John Stewart, Commendator of Coldingham (1531-1563) was a Scottish landowner.

He was a son of Elizabeth Carmichael (1514-1550) and James V of Scotland.[1]

His mother later married John Somerville of Cambusnethan.[2]

Stewart was given the estates of Coldingham Priory, and was usually called the Prior or Commendator of Coldingham, or "Lord John". His father, James V, wrote to Cardinal Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, in July 1541 that John should be Prior of Coldingham in place of Adam Blackadder, who became Abbot of Dundrennan, and his son would be able to prevent Protestant doctrine spreading from the nearby border with England.[3]

Stewart was in Paris in February 1551 and wrote to Mary of Guise, who was his step-mother. His letter concerns a property in France, the Abbey of Flavigny en Auxois, a gift to him from Henry II of France.[4]

In April 1558 he wrote to Mary of Guise from Coldingham about a dispute amongst his tenants in Glasgow who were now threatened with legal action by Robert, Lord Sempill, as Sheriff of Renfrew. Stewart wanted Guise, who was now Regent of Scotland, to intervene in favour of his tenants.[5]

In January 1560 he sighted the English fleet commanded by William Wynter off Dunbar sailing towards the Isle of May and sent a boat to investigate.[6]

John Stewart's wedding was celebrated at Crichton Castle

Mary, Queen of Scots made him keeper of Dunbar Castle when she returned to Scotland in August 1561. The English diplomat Thomas Randolph wrote that Lord John was in the queen's favour in October 1561, for his "leaping and dancing", and would marry the Earl of Bothwell's sister, Jean Hepburn.[7]

Lord John, his half-brother Lord Robert, the Marquis of Elbeuf and others performed in a tournament in December 1561 on the sands of Leith. There was "running at the ring", with two teams of six men, one team dressed as women, the other as exotic foreigners in strange masque garments. Mary, Randolph, the French ambassador Paul de Foix, and a Monsieur de Moret, envoy from the Duke of Savoy attended this entertainment. There had been a similar tournament at Amboise involving Mary's uncle Francis, the Grand Prior, dressed as a gypsy with a baby, and the Duke of Nemours as a townsman's wife with a bunch of keys, and in 1594 another event involving cross-dressing was staged at the baptism of Prince Henry at Stirling Castle.[8]

Lord Robert married Jean Kennedy, sister of the Earl of Cassilis on 13 December 1561. Soon after this Lord John was involved in a disturbance in Edinburgh that started as a kind of masque in the town.[9] He and the Earl of Bothwell and the Marquis of Elbeuf went to the house of Cuthbert Ramsay where Alison Craik, a merchant's daughter and mistress of the Earl of Arran was lodged. When they were not admitted they broke down the doors. There were complaints to the queen and she issued a reprimand. Bothwell and Lord John ignored this and the next day there was a face-off between their followers and the Hamiltons in the market place.[10]

Lord John's efforts to capture the Earl of Huntly ended in failure.

Mary sent him to arrest the Earl of Huntly at Huntly Castle in October 1562. On the day William Kirkcaldy of Grange and the Tutor of Pitcur arrived first and surrounded the house. While Kirkcaldy was talking to the porter, the castle watchman on the tower spotted Coldingham and the Master of Lindsay and their troops a mile off. He alerted the Earl, who hopped over a low wall at the back of the castle and found a horse before Pitcur could stop him. Elizabeth Keith, Countess of Huntly then welcomed the queen's men in and gave them a meal and showed them around the place.[11]

He entertained Mary at Dunbar Castle on 30 December 1562.[12]

He died at Inverness in November 1563.

John Knox told a story about his last words. Someone told Mary, Queen of Scots that Stewart's deathbed wish was that she would become a Protestant. Mary declared without hesitation that this version of Coldingham's speech was a lie invented by the treasurer John Wishart of Pitarro and her brother Moray's secretary John Wood.[13]

Marriage and children

He married Jean Hepburn, daughter of Patrick Hepburn, 3rd Earl of Bothwell. The wedding was celebrated at Crichton Castle on 3 January 1562. Mary, Queen of Scots and James Stewart, Earl of Moray (a half-brother to both Mary and John) attended. The English diplomat Thomas Randolph, who was not invited, heard there was 'much good sport and pastimes.'[14] Their children included:

  • Francis Stewart, who became Earl of Bothwell
  • Christine Stewart, who was appointed to rock the cradle of Prince James in March 1568.[15]

John Stewart also had a son Hercules Stewart by an unknown mother.

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References
  1. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Stewart, John (1531-1563)". Dictionary of National Biography. 54. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. James Somerville, Memorie of the Somervilles, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 385–9, has 'Katherine' Carmichael.
  3. Denys Hay, Letters of James V (Edinburgh, 1954), pp. 358, 426.
  4. Annie I. Cameron, Scottish Correspondence of Mary of Lorraine (Edinburgh, 1927), pp. 342-3.
  5. Annie I. Cameron, Scottish Correspondence of Mary of Lorraine (Edinburgh, 1927), pp. 414-5.
  6. Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 273, 295.
  7. Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 563.
  8. Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 576, 579: Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), p. lxxvii citing Brantôme: Michael Bath, Emblems in Scotland: Motifs and Meanings (Brill, 2018), pp. 93-6.
  9. Sarah Carpenter, 'Masking and politics: the Alison Craik incident, Edinburgh 1561', Renaissance Studies, 21:5 (November, 2007), pp. 625-636.
  10. Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 582-3.
  11. Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 657-8.
  12. Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 674.
  13. David Laing, Works of John Knox, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1848), pp. 392–3.
  14. Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1, (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 590.
  15. HMC Mar & Kellie, vol. 1 (London, 1904), p. 18.
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