1566–8, entry 2199). Shortly afterwards Fleming was sent along with Lord Herries to ask Elizabeth's assistance to restore her to her throne (Labanoff, Lettres de Marie Stuart, ii. 87). Mary also asked for Elizabeth's permission for Fleming to go on a mission to France (for the exact nature of the mission see ‘Instructions données par Marie Stuart à Lord Fleming, envoyé vers le roi de France,’ in Labanoff, ii. 86–90; and ‘Instructions données &c., vers le Cardinal de Lorrain,’ ib. 90–3), but Elizabeth declined her permission, asserting that the only object of a mission of the chatelain of Dumbarton to France must be to take measures for bringing the French into the country. Fleming sounded the Spanish ambassador as to whether it might not be possible to bribe Cecil, Pembroke, and Bedford, but de Silva gave no countenance to the proposal, and advised that for the present it would be best for the interests of Mary that she should submit to Elizabeth's wishes (Froude, Hist. England, cab. ed. viii. 362). Mary made more than one effort to obtain Elizabeth's consent to Fleming's embassy to France, but at last, finding it hopeless to break her resolution, Fleming left for the north. Reaching Mary at Carlisle on 5 July, he went thence to Scotland and joined the forces under Huntly and Argyll. Fleming was one of the commissioners appointed by Mary to represent her cause at the conference at York (Sir James Melville, Memoirs, p. 265). On his return he shut himself up in Dumbarton Castle, which he held in Queen Mary's name, thus keeping open a door of communication with France. At a parliament held at Edinburgh he and his relative, John Fleming of Boghall, were denounced, on 17 Nov. 1569, as traitors, and their arms were ‘riven’ at the cross, in presence of the regent and the lords (Calderwood, ii. 506). In his stronghold he bade defiance for a time to all proclamations and threats. It became the centre of intrigues on Mary's behalf. De Virac, the French ambassador, took up his residence in it to superintend the arrival of supplies of arms and money. According to Buchanan, Fleming had persuaded the king of France that he ‘held the fetters of Scotland in his own hands; and that, whenever the French had leisure from other wars, if they would but send him a little assistance he would easily clap them on and bring all Scotland to their assistance.’ In January 1569–70 the regent Moray went to Dumbarton in the hope that the favourable terms he proposed, and his own personal interposition, would induce Fleming to deliver it up, but returned disappointed. In fact his visit suggested to the Hamiltons and others who were in the castle the scheme for his assassination, and it was within its walls that the plot was completed and the assassin chosen (ib. iii. 570). After the assassination Hamilton, uncle of the assassin, and an indirect agent in the murder, took refuge in the castle, which was supposed to be almost impregnable to assault. In May 1570 Drury was sent to Scotland to treat with those in arms in the cause of Mary (Cal. State Papers, Scot. Ser. i. 287), and when attempting a parley with Fleming he was stated to have been treacherously shot upon (ballad of ‘The Tressoun of Dumbartune,’ printed at Edinburgh by Lekprevick, 1570). For more than a year after the death of the regent Moray, the flag of Mary waved above the battlements of Wallace's Tower. Suddenly, on the morning of 2 May, its precipices were scaled by Captain Thomas Crawford [q. v.], and the garrison overpowered with scarcely an attempt at resistance (see narrative in Richard Bannatyne's Memorials, pp. 106–7). Fleming made his way out alone by a postern gate; and, the tide being full, obtained a boat and escaped to Argyll (Herries, Memoirs, p. 132; Calderwood, History, iii. 57). He left Lady Fleming in the castle, but she was very courteously treated by the regent Lennox, and permitted to pass out freely with all her plate and baggage (Herries, p. 133). She also subsequently obtained a part of the forfeited rents of Lord Fleming for her support. Fleming proceeded to France, where he endeavoured to concert measures for foreign assistance to the friends of Mary. An expedition under his direction was wrecked on the coast of England, but although his papers were seized he himself escaped (Correspondance de Fénelon, iv. 401). Ultimately he succeeded in returning to Scotland, and obtained entrance to Edinburgh Castle, still held by the supporters of Mary. On 5 July 1572 he was mortally wounded by French soldiers discharging their pieces on their entrance into Edinburgh, some of the bullets rebounding from the pavement and striking him in the knee. After lying for some time in the castle he was removed in a litter to Biggar, where he died of his wounds on 6 Sept. By his marriage to Elizabeth, only child of Robert Master of Ross, killed at the battle of Pinkie in 1547, he had, besides three daughters, one son,
John Fleming, first Earl of Wigtown or Wigton (d. 1619). He held the office of chief ‘janitor et custos domus et cubiculi regis’ from 30 July 1587, and was granted large estates united into the lordship of Cumbernauld (18 Jan. 1588–9 and 31 Jan. 1595–6). He was created Earl of Wigtown or Wigton 19 March 1606–7, and died in April 1619.
