the Earl of Douglas, his three brothers, and Lord Hamilton fixed a placard to the door of the house of parliament, renouncing their allegiance to the king as a traitor and murderer. They and the other confederate noblemen were thereupon forfaulted, and other peers created to take their place (Acta Parl. Scot. ii. 73). When Douglas soon afterwards made terms with the king, Hamilton gave in his submission. Shortly afterwards he was sent on a mission to London (Cal. of Documents relating to Scotland, iv. entry 1266). Of this he appears to have taken advantage to act as the agent of Douglas in his intrigues with the Yorkists. The Duke of York agreed to support Douglas against the king on condition that he took the oath of homage to the English crown. Hamilton declined, but before Douglas could return an answer as to his own intentions, he was suddenly attacked by the king, who during the same raid devastated also the lands of Hamilton. While the king was besieging the castle of Abercorn, Douglas and Hamilton gathered a great force with a view to ‘take the extreme chance of fortune’ (Pitscottie, p. 129). Hamilton is said to have been the prime adviser of Douglas in the bold attitude he had assumed, but when Douglas came in sight of the royal army his courage failed him, and he hesitated to engage it. Hamilton, disgusted at Douglas's reluctance, and having had promises from the king through Bishop Kennedy, went over the same night (ib. p. 134). Hamilton is described by Pitscottie as a ‘man of singular wisdom and courage, and in whom the army put their whole hope of victory’ (ib. p. 174). His defection caused the other followers of Douglas immediately to disperse. Hamilton was well received by the king, but until the surrender of Abercorn Castle was for the sake of precaution retained a prisoner in Roslin Castle. Afterwards, on the forfeiture of Douglas, he obtained a grant of Finnart in Renfrewshire and other lands. In 1455 he was sent along with other commissioners to York to arrange a treaty of peace with England, and on 1 July of the same year he was made sheriff of the county of Lanark. On 14 Jan. 1459–60 Hamilton granted a charter of four acres to the college of Glasgow, on condition that the master and students should daily after supper pray for the souls of Lord Hamilton and his wife Euphemia. In 1457 he entered into a bond with George Douglas, fourth earl of Angus [q. v.], to be ‘his man of special retinue and service all the days of his life.’ He also became one of the most trusted friends and counsellors of James III, and after the forfeiture of Thomas Boyd, earl of Arran, in 1469, he married Boyd's widow, the Princess Mary Stewart, daughter of James II. Buchanan states that a divorce was made during Boyd's absence in Flanders, and that the princess married Hamilton much against her will. Boyd, he adds, died not long afterwards. Another version is that Boyd was dead before the marriage was arranged. It probably took place in February or March 1473–4. On 25 April 1476 a dispensation was granted by Pope Sixtus IV to Lord James Hamilton and Mary Stewart as having married within the prohibited degrees (Theiner, Vetera Monumenta, p. 477). By this marriage with the king's sister the house of Hamilton gained a great position, and became the nearest family to the throne. ‘The head of that house was in fact either the actual heir to the monarch for the time being or the next after a royal child down to the time when in the family of James VI of Scotland and I of England there were more royal children than one’ (Hill Burton, Scotland, iii. 14). Under James III Hamilton was employed on several important missions to England. In 1474 he was commissioner extraordinary to the English court, and he was afterwards one of the commissioners appointed to meet the plenipotentiaries of England to arrange a betrothal between the Princess Cecilia, daughter of Edward IV, and Prince James, duke of Rothesay, then both in their infancy. He died on 6 Nov. 1479, and the Princess Mary about Whitsuntide 1488. By his first wife he had two daughters, Elizabeth, married to David, fourth earl of Crawford, created by James III Duke of Montrose, and Agnes, married to Sir James Hamilton of Preston. By his second wife he had a son, James, second lord Hamilton and first earl of Arran [q. v.], and a daughter, married to Matthew, second earl of Lennox. Among his natural children were Sir Patrick Hamilton of Kincavel, father of Patrick Hamilton the martyr [q. v.], and John Hamilton of Broomhill.
[Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, vol. iv.; Exchequer Rolls of Scotland; Rymer's Fœdera; Auchinleck Chronicle; Histories of Lindsay of Pitscottie, Bishop Lesley, and Buchanan; Anderson's Genealogical History of the Hamiltons; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 695–7; Hamilton Papers, in Maitland Club Miscellany, vol. iv.; Report on the Manuscripts of the Duke of Hamilton, Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. Appendix, pt. vi.]
HAMILTON, JAMES, second Lord Hamilton and first Earl of Arran (1477?–1529), only son of James, first lord Hamilton [q. v.], by his second wife, the Princess Mary Stewart, daughter of James II, was born about 1477. While an infant he succeeded to the estates and honours of the family, on
