erected to his memory, which has been carefully preserved. The sword with which he is alleged to have fought is in possession of the Duke of Montrose. It is inscribed with the following lines:—
Sir John the Grame, verry vicht and wyse,
One of the chiefes relievit Scotland thryse:
Fought with this sword, and ne'er thought schame;
Commandit nane to beir it bot his name.
[Anderson's Scottish Nation, ii. 344; Lord Hailes's Annals of Scotland, i. 281, &c.; Brunton's Hist. of Wallace; Blind Harry's Wallace.]
GRAHAM, JOHN, third Earl of Montrose (1547?–1608), lord high chancellor and afterwards viceroy of Scotland, was the posthumous son, by his wife Margaret, daughter of Malcolm, lord Fleming, of Robert, master of Graham, eldest son of William, second earl of Montrose. The master was slain at the battle of Pinkie, 10 Sept. 1547. His grandfather, in order to initiate him in state matters, sent him frequently to parliament, where he sat as proxy. He was one of the procurators authorised by Queen Mary at Lochleven on 24 July 1567 to receive her renunciation of the crown in favour of her son (Calderwood, ii. 374), and was present on the side of the regent at the battle of Langside on 13 May of the following year (Hist. of James the Sext, p. 27). In 1569, the regent, being anxious to have the castle of Dumbarton in his hands, directed Graham to take measures for its capture, but ‘he came no speid’ (ib. p. 44). On the death of his grandfather, 24 May 1571, he succeeded as third Earl of Montrose. He was present with the party of the regent Lennox at Stirling when Lennox was slain, and on the election of Mar as his successor he was chosen a privy councillor. He was one of the commissioners sent by Morton to conclude with the Hamilton party the ‘pacification of Perth,’ 3 July 1572, and in terms of that arrangement was appointed one of the judges north of the Forth for the restitution of goods taken or spoiled during the ‘troubles.’ Though thus identified for many years with the chiefs of the reformed party, he attended the packed convention called by Argyll and Atholl, and held at Stirling 8 March 1578, when the king took the government into his own hands, with a council of twelve to assist him, of which Montrose was one (Reg. Privy Council Scotl. iii. 4). From this period he begins to figure as one of the most prominent of the nobles in whom the king reposed his special confidence, and who finally effected Morton's execution. When the Earl of Mar, at the instigation of Morton, resolved to assume his rights as keeper of Stirling Castle, in which the king resided, Montrose, at the instance of the new privy council, hurried from Edinburgh to Stirling; but though courteously permitted by Mar to enter the castle, his authority was ignored, and Morton again resumed the reins of government. On the assembly (15 July), in the great hall of Stirling Castle, of a parliament convened by Morton, Montrose, with Lord Lindsay and the Bishop of Orkney, appeared and protested that as it was held in an armed fortress it could not be regarded as a free parliament (Calderwood, iii. 413; Hist. of James the Sext, p. 167). At the king's command they, however, agreed to take their seats. On the 17th they were committed to ward in their lodgings in Stirling (Reg. Privy Council Scotl. iii. 8). A few days afterwards Montrose made his escape, and returning to Edinburgh issued, in conjunction with Argyll and Atholl, a proclamation in the name of the king commanding all subjects from the age of sixteen to sixty to assemble themselves at Stirling on 18 Aug. to effect the king's liberty (printed in Calderwood, iii. 419–22). To the muster Montrose himself brought a force of three hundred men. A contest between the rival parties seemed now imminent; but through the interposition of the English ambassador, Sir Robert Bowes, a compromise was effected, the Earl of Montrose being one of the persons added to the king's new council (Hist. of James the Sext, p. 173). The truce was, however, of a hollow kind, and the disappointed nobles eagerly watched for Morton's fall. When Esme Stuart, afterwards Duke of Lennox, arrived from France in the interests of Mary, Montrose joined him in his schemes for Morton's overthrow, and was doubtless privy to the plot by which Morton's arrest was effected. Along with Morton's accuser, the Earl of Arran, he proceeded on 23 May 1581 with horse and foot soldiers to Dumbarton, to convoy Morton thence for his trial at Edinburgh (Calderwood, iii. 556; Moysie, Memoirs, p. 32), and, as chancellor of the hostile assize by which he was tried, read the sentence against him. Actuated by jealousy of the influence wielded by Lennox and Arran, Montrose joined the conspiracy which resulted, in August 1582, in the capture of the king by the raid of Ruthven; but he nevertheless joined the lords who met at St. Andrews for the protection of the king on his escape from Falkland in June 1583 (Calderwood, iii. 715; Sir James Melville, Memoirs, p. 283). Shortly afterwards he was entrusted with the charge of the castle of Glasgow (Calderwood, iii. 731). His increasing favour with the king was shown in his appointment to be guardian of the young
