John Hamilton (archbishop of St Andrews)

{{Short description|Scottish prelate and politician (1512–1571)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}} {{Use British English|date=November 2018}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Archbishop | honorific_prefix = The Most Reverend | name = John Hamilton | honorific_suffix = | title = Archbishop of St Andrews<br>Primate of Scotland | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | church = Roman Catholic | archdiocese = St Andrews | province = | metropolis = | diocese = | see = | appointed = 28 November 1547 | term = 1547–1571 | quashed =  | predecessor = David Beaton | successor = Gavin Hamilton | opposed = | other_post =  | ordination = | ordained_by = | consecration = 22 August 1546 | consecrated_by = | cardinal = | created_cardinal_by = | rank =  | birth_name = | birth_date = 3 February 1512 | birth_place =  | death_date = 6 April 1571 (aged 59) | death_place = Stirling, Scotland | buried =  | resting_place_coordinates = | nationality = Scottish | religion = | residence = | parents = James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran & Mrs Boyd{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} | partner = Grizzel Sempill | children = 6 | occupation = | previous_post = Bishop of Dunkeld (1544–46) | education = | alma_mater = | motto = | signature = | signature_alt = | coat_of_arms = | coat_of_arms_alt =  | feast_day = | venerated = | saint_title = | beatified_date = | beatified_place = | beatified_by = | canonized_date = | canonized_place = | canonized_by = | attributes = | patronage = | shrine = | suppressed_date =  | module = | module2 = | other = }} '''John Hamilton''' (3 February 1512 – 6 April 1571), Scottish prelate and politician, was an illegitimate son of The 1st Earl of Arran (in the Peerage of Scotland).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07123b.htm|title=John Hamilton|encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia |access-date=18 February 2007}}</ref>

==Brother of the Regent== At a very early age Hamilton became a monk and Abbot of Paisley. After studying in Paris he returned to Scotland, where he soon rose to a position of power and influence under his half-brother, The 2nd Earl of Arran, who was serving as Regent. He was made Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland in 1543 and bishop of Dunkeld two years later; in 1546 he followed Cardinal Beaton as Archbishop of St Andrews, and about the same time he became treasurer of the kingdom.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1553 the Italian physician Gerolamo Cardano cured him of a disease that had left him speechless and was thought incurable. The diplomat Thomas Randolph recorded the "merry tales" rumoured about his methods still current in Edinburgh nine years later.{{sfn|Bain|1898|p=[https://archive.org/details/calendarstatepa00baingoog/page/n640 592]|ps=: "There is a merry tale that Cardanus the Italian took upon him to cure the Bishop of St. Andrews of a disease judged by all incurable. He practised on him divers strange inventions hung him certains hours a day by the heels ... "}} Cardano himself wrote that the Archbishop had been short of breath for ten years, and after the cure was effected by his assistant, he was paid 1,400 gold crowns.<ref>Cardanus, Gerolamo, [https://books.google.com/books?id=blA9AAAAcAAJ ''De Propria Vita Liber: His Own Life'', Amsterdam, (1654)], pp.136–7, (Latin)</ref> While the Archbishop was unwell, his brother was persuaded to give up the Regency of Scotland to Mary of Guise.<ref>Melville, James, ''Memoirs of his own life'', Brookman, (1833), 21, 73</ref>

He made vigorous efforts to stay the growth of Protestantism, but with one or two exceptions persecution was not the policy of Archbishop Hamilton, and in the interests of the Roman Catholic faith, a catechism called ''Hamilton's Catechism'' (published with an introduction by TG Law in 1884) was drawn up and printed, possibly at his instigation.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Having incurred the displeasure of the Protestants, now the dominant party in Scotland, the Archbishop was imprisoned in 1563. After his release he was an active partisan of Mary, Queen of Scots; he baptised her son, the future King James VI, and pronounced the divorce of the queen from Bothwell. He was present at the Battle of Langside.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Assassination of Regent Moray== thumb|Grave of Archbishop John Hamilton John Hamilton, with his brother James, acquired a house on the south side of Linlithgow High Street in 1550.<ref>''Protocol book of James Foulis'', SRS (1926), nos. 85, 145.</ref> In 1570 from this house, his nephew or close kinsman, James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, assassinated James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, the Regent of Scotland. During the aftermath, John Hamilton later took refuge in Dumbarton Castle.

The castle fell to a surprise night attack, led by Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill, and Archbishop Hamilton was captured. Concerned lest the English should seek to have the Archbishop spared, the leaders of the King's party had Hamilton speedily tried and convicted of art and part in the murder of the Regent Moray and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. At 6 pm on 6 April 1571, three days after his capture, he was hanged beside the Mercat Cross of Stirling.<ref>Dawson, Janes E. A., ''Scotland Reformed'', pp. 275–276.</ref>

==Children== Archbishop Hamilton had six children by his mistress, Grizzel Sempill, the daughter of Robert Sempill, 3rd Lord Sempill. Two of his children were legitimated on 22 January 1547 and 24 September 1548 respectively.

==Notes and references== {{Reflist}} * {{citation|editor-last=Bain |editor-first=Joseph |date=1898 |title=Calendar of the State Papers Relating to Scotland and Mary, Queen of Scots 1547–1603 |volume=1 |publisher=H M General Register House |publication-place=Edinburgh |url=https://archive.org/details/calendarstatepa00baingoog}} * Rainer Haas, Allerlei Protestanten – Christus-Zeugen aus der Tudor-Zeit, darin: 5. John Hamilton – war der spätere Erzbischof von St.Andrews 1527 als Student in Marburg an der Lahn?, Nordhausen, 2010 *{{EB1911|wstitle = Hamilton, John|volume=12|page=887}} *{{cite CE1913|wstitle = John Hamilton|volume=7}} *{{cite DNB|wstitle = Hamilton, John (1511?-1571)|volume=24}}

==External links== * [https://archive.today/20121223054212/http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/image/L0011715.html Horoscope of John Hamilton, by Gerolamo Cardano, ''In Cl. Ptolemaei de Astrorum Indiciis '', Basel (1554)]

{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | title=Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland | before=David Beaton | after=Lord Ruthven | years=1542–1547}} {{s-rel}} {{succession box | title=Commendator-Abbot of Paisley | before=Robert Shaw| after=Claud Hamilton| years=1525–1553}} {{succession box | title=Bishop of Dunkeld | before=George Crichton| after=Robert Crichton| years=1544/1546–1547}} {{succession box | title=Archbishop of St. Andrews | before=David Beaton| after=Gavin Hamilton| years=1547/1549–1571}} {{s-aca}} {{succession box|title=Chancellor of the University of St Andrews|years=1547–1571|before=David Beaton| after=John Douglas}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, John}} Category:Archbishops of St Andrews Category:16th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Scotland Category:University of Paris alumni Category:Executed politicians Category:Executed Roman Catholic priests Category:Members of the pre-1707 Parliament of Scotland Category:Executed Scottish people Category:Chancellors of the University of St Andrews Category:1512 births Category:1571 deaths Category:16th-century executions by Scotland Category:Treasurers of Scotland Category:People executed by the Kingdom of Scotland by hanging John Category:Bishops of Dunkeld (pre-Reformation) Category:Scottish bishops 1560–1638