John Fleming, 5th Lord Fleming
John, Fifth Lord Fleming | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1529 |
| Died | 6 September 1572 |
| Nationality | Scottish |
John Fleming, 5th Lord Fleming (1529–6 September 1572), was a Scottish nobleman and a supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Life
He was the son of Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming, lord high chamberlain, by his wife Johanna or Jonet Stewart, natural daughter of James IV. He succeeded his brother James Fleming, 4th Lord Fleming.
He was Governor of Dumbarton Castle in 1565 and was made the Principal Master Usher of the Queen's Chamber.[1] He supported Mary, Queen of Scots, fighting for her at the Battles of Carberry Hill and Langside. He accompanied her on her flight to England in 1568 and returned to Scotland in 1569. He held Dumbarton Castle for the Queen until 1571, when he escaped to France.[2] In 1572 he returned again to Scotland, landing at Blackness Castle with money to pay Marian troops. Shortly after joining the garrison still holding Edinburgh Castle for Mary, he was wounded in the knee by a musket ball which had ricocheted after being fired by a French soldier. When the wound became infected, he was carried in a litter to Boghall Castle in Biggar, where he died two months later.[3][4]
Family
He married on 10 May 1562, Elizabeth Ross (died after 14 April 1578), only child of Robert, Master of Ross, son of Ninian, Lord Ross, by his wife Agnes Scott. Elizabeth was a lady in waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots and she paid for the wedding banquet.[5] The celebrations were held in Holyrood park at the side of the loch and there were "great triumphs", shows and masques involving a staged sea-battle or naumachia.[6] The ambassador from Sweden attended.[7]
They had the following children:
- John Fleming, later 6th Lord Fleming later 1st Earl of Wigtown
- Margaret Fleming, married after 19 April 1588, Sir James Forrester of Carden
- Elizabeth Fleming (died after 24 September 1579)
- Jane Fleming (died October 1630), married after 1582/3 William Bruce of Airth
- Mary Fleming, married after 9 December 1581, Sir James Douglas, 8th of Drumlanrig, and had issue.
Lord Fleming also had a daughter with an unknown mother, Lucrece Fleming, who married firstly, John Stewart of Rosland, a royal valet, and secondly, Robert Graham of the Fauld, an English borderer who died in 1600.[8]
While John was defending Dumbarton Castle against the supporters of James VI in 1570 in the cause of Mary, Queen of Scots, his young family was harassed at his houses at Biggar and Cumbernauld Castle by Regent Lennox's men. It was reported:
"they wald noct suffir his wyf within na boundes (expelled from her home), thre infantis with hir, the eldest of thame nocht thre yeir auld, schaiking thame furct of ther claythes and bedding most schamefullie ... and ther is twa of thame can noct speik."
As well as the farm livestock, the King's men took his deer and wild white cattle for Lennox's table in Edinburgh.[9]
Notes
- ^ Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, vol. 5 part 1 (1957); p. 648 no. 2150, p. 634 no. 2208.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 March 2012. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Potter, Harry (2003), Edinburgh Under Siege 1571 - 1573 (Tempus, 2003), p.103
- ^ Fleming, Alexander & Mason, Roger, Scotland and the Flemish People (Birlinn, 2019), p. 167
- ^ Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 622.
- ^ Pesala Bandara, 'Mary Queen of Scot's Aquatic Entertainments for the Wedding of John Fleming to Elizabeth Ross', Margaret Shewring, Waterborne Pageants and Festivities in the Renaissance: Essays in Honour of J. R. Mulryne (Ashgate, 2013).
- ^ Robert Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1858), p. 28.
- ^ Joseph Bain, Calendar of Border Papers, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1894), p. 663
- ^ Boyd, William K., ed., Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1903), p. 455.
External links