Arthur Erskine of Blackgrange

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Arthur Erskine of Blackgrange (died 1571) was a Scottish courtier.

He was a son of John Erskine, 5th Lord Erskine and Margaret Campbell.

He became an equerry or master of the stable to Mary, Queen of Scots. John Knox noted that he accompanied her during her formal Entry to Edinburgh in September 1561. Knox says the queen was given a Bible during the pageant, and quickly passed it to Erskine, who was a Catholic.[1]

In 1562 he married Magdalen Livingstone, a lady in waiting to Queen Mary, and daughter of Alexander Livingston, 5th Lord Livingston and Agnes Douglas.[2] Mary bought him a horse for £40 in April 1562.[3]

After the murder of David Rizzio on 9 March 1566, Mary escaped from Holyrood Palace the next day at midnight and rode behind Arthur Erskine to Seton Palace and then to safety at Dunbar Castle.[4][5][6] The description of the murder of Rizzio made by the Earl of Bedford and Thomas Randolph says that Lord Robert Stewart and Arthur Erskine tried to resist the murderers when they entered the queen's chamber.[7]

Arthur Erskine and Magdalen Livingstone stayed at Dryburgh on the 9 and 10 of October 1566 with his kinsman David Erskine, Commendator of Dryburgh before riding to Jedburgh to join Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary then rode from Jedburgh to Hermitage Castle to see the Earl of Bothwell.[8]

As one the masters of the queen's stable, Erskine kept an account with Robert Abercromby, an Edinburgh craftsman who made saddles and reins.[9]

He died in 1571.

After his death, Magdalen Livingstone married James Scrimgeour of Dudhope in 1577.

References[]

  1. ^ David Laing, Works of John Knox, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1848), p. 288.
  2. ^ Rosalind Marshall, Queen Mary's Women: Female Relatives, Servants, Friends and Enemies of Mary, Queen of Scots (John Donald: Edinburgh, 2006), p. 138.
  3. ^ James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), p. 159.
  4. ^ Henry Ellis, Original Letters Illustrative of English History, 1st series vol. 2 (London, 1824), p. 214.
  5. ^ Joseph Stevenson, The History of Mary Stewart: From the Murder of Riccio Until Her Flight Into England by Claude Nau (Edinburgh, 1883), pp. ciii, 11, 16, 227.
  6. ^ John Maxwell, Lord Herries, Historical memoirs of the reign of Mary Queen of Scots: and a portion of the reign of King James the Sixth (Abbotsford Club, 1836), p. 78.
  7. ^ HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 1 (London, 1883), pp. 334-5.
  8. ^ Registrum Cartarum de Dryburgh (Edinburgh, 1847), p. 399.
  9. ^ Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), p. 60.
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