Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/359

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Lyon
353
Lyon

it was by no means mitigated by the action of the king in November 1588 in taking the captaincy of the guard from Glammis and giving it to Alexander Lindsay, afterwards first lord Spynie [q. v.], the Earl of Crawford's uncle. Glammis was deeply offended, and a scene took place between him and Bothwell. To prevent the quarrel proceeding further, Bothwell was commanded to ward within the palace of Linlithgow, and Glammis within the castle of Edinburgh (Moysie, Memoirs, p. 71). Shortly afterwards the captaincy of the guard was transferred to Huntly (ib.) Glammis was present with the king in the Tolbooth when the intercepted letters, revealing the treasonable communications of Huntly and others with Spain, were opened and read (Calderwood, v. 7). In April 1589 Glammis was surprised by Huntly at Meigle, and chased to his house of Kirkhill. On refusing to surrender, the house was set on fire, and he was carried captive to the north. On the appearance of the king with a force at Aberdeen, Huntly set him free on 22 April (Moysie, pp. 74-7; Calderwood, v. 54-5).

At the coronation of the queen, 17 May 1590, Glammis received the honour of knighthood. The favour in which he was held at court since the queen's accession began to arouse the jealousy of the chancellor Maitland. Maitland complained that he supped at Leith with the outlawed Earl of Bothwell in June 1591, and his hereditary enemy, Lord Spynie, was thereupon empowered to apprehend him. Spynie was unsuccessful, but Glammis was shortly afterwards committed to Blackness Castle, and then warded beyond the Dee (Moysie, p. 87).

On 6 Nov. 1591 he was deprived of the office of extraordinary lord of session, which was conferred on Montrose. Not long afterwards he was restored to royal favour, and the chancellor Maitland was compelled to retire from court. On 8 March 1593 he appointed extraordinary lord of session on the 28th he was admitted an ordinary lord and sat till 28 May. Glammis had now become an avowed opponent of Bothwell, and one of the conditions of agreement between Bothwell and the king, in August 1593 [see Hepburn, Francis Stewart, third Earl] was that Glammis as well as the chancellor should retire from court till November (ib., p. 103; Calderwood, v. 258). At a convention held at Stirling in September this agreement was renounced, and Glammis and others returned to court (Moysie, p. 104). Shortly afterwards Glammis and Maitland were reconciled (Calderwood, v. 260). In February 1595-6 the eight commissioners of the exchequer, known as Octavians, were appointed, but Glammis declined to resign the office of treasurer, and he had ultimately to be compensated by a gift of 6.000l. (Moysie, p. 125; Calderwood, v. 394). From this time he ceased to take a prominent part in public affairs. He died 18 Feb. 1608. On learning his decease, the king is said to have exclaimed 'that the boldest and hardiest man of his dominions was dead.'

He married, first, Agnes, third daughter of Patrick, fifth lord Gray, and widow of Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig, and Alexander, fifth lord Home; and secondly, Lady Euphemia Douglas, fourth daughter of William, earl of Morton. He had a daughter Mary, married to Sir Robert Semple of Beltries, and a son John Lyon of Auldbar.

[Reg. P. C. Scotl., vols. iii-viii.; Calderwood's History of the Kirk of Scotland; Moysie's Memoirs (Bannatyne Club); Hist. of James the Sext (Bannatyne Club); Crawford's Officers of State; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 564.]

T. F. H.

LYON, WILLIAM (d. 1617), bishop of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross, educated at Oxford, probably either at Oriel or St, John's College, went to Ireland about 1570. He became vicar of Naas in 1573, and in 1580 the queen gave him the additional vicarage of Bodenstown in Kildare. In 1577 he had license to enjoy the profits of his parish even when absent in England, but seems nevertheless to have generally resided in Ireland. When Lord Grey assumed the Irish government in 1580, Lyon was appointed his chaplain, and in 1582 he became the first protestant bishop of Ross. An Observant friar had been provided to that see by the pope two years before, and Rosscarbery was the wildest spot in Munster. Lyon's activity was so notable that the mayor of Cork almost immediately petitioned Walsingham to make him bishop of Cork and Cloyne. This was done temporarily in 1584, and in 1587 the three sees were united by patent, in consideration of the bishop's 'diligence in well instructing the people of his diocese, also for the hospitality which he keepeth among them' (Morris), ii. 122.) A few months before Lyon had feared supersession, but Sir Henry Wallop, who was then in Munster, strongly supported him. Soon after his final preferment the bishop was at Kinsale inquiring into the rumours which preceded the Armada, and for years afterwards he kept an eye on those who were in correspondence with Spain. In 1589 he warned the government against promoting Thomas Wetherhead,