court, on 11 Dec. 1666, to John Hay, lord Yester [q. v.], afterwards marquis of Tweeddale (Douglas, Peerage of Scotland). According to Burnet (i. 546) his first wife was an imperious and ill-tempered woman, and she appears to have been neglected and ill-treated. On 17 Feb. 1672 he married his second wife, Elizabeth (d. 1698), eldest daughter of William Murray [q. v.], whipping-boy to Charles I, created Earl of Dysart. She was widow of Sir Lionel Tollemache, and after her father's death took the title of Countess of Dysart. For many years the connection between her and Lauderdale had been very close, and had embittered his relations with his first countess (Burnet, i. 449). Under this new influence he seems rapidly to have deteriorated, and to have thrown over all the friends, Robert Moray, Tweeddale, and, later, Kincardine, whose help and advice had been of the utmost service to him.
Lauderdale was now at the height of insolence and power. His influence over Charles was complete. Scotland was at his feet; all places were filled by himself and his friends; Rothes had been compelled to give up even the presidency of the council; and there was absolutely no opposition to his will. He was more like the vizier of an oriental sovereign than the servant of a constitutional king. In private life he was the type of all that was worst in Charles's court. Before 1672 he received a letter from Richard Baxter, reproving him in the most outspoken way for profligacy of the worst kind.
Lauderdale is spoken of as one of the ‘cabal’ of 1667, along with Lords Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, and Ashley; but he was not so in the sense in which the English ministers were. He was the intime of Charles, with little care for or participation in English politics; irresponsible to the English parliament, but ready to support the king in any course he might choose to take. Thus in 1676, when Charles made a money treaty with Louis XIV, with which Danby refused to be associated, Lauderdale alone was trusted by the king (Dalrymple, p. 103). On 2 May 1672 he was made Duke of Lauderdale and Marquis of March (as descended from the Dunbars, Earls of March) in the Scottish peerage, by patent to him and his heirs male, and on 3 June knight of the Garter. In May he again came to Scotland. The ‘cabal’ was then in the thick of its work. The Declaration of Indulgence had been issued, and it is significant that, along with instructions to put an end to the conventicle difficulty either by indulgence or severity, he was to see that the militia was ready to march, and to purge it of all discontented men.
The Test Act of 1673 dispersed the cabal, and, upon James's resignation of his post of lord high admiral, Lauderdale was placed upon the commission for the admiralty. His position was not otherwise affected, except that, as the act put an end to indulgence in England, it left him without any interest in indulgence in Scotland. In October 1673 he went north to raise money for the Dutch war, and to persecute the conventiclers, to embody more troops, quarter garrisons upon disaffected persons, and to impose bonds by which landlords and tenants became mutual pledges for each other's good behaviour (Lauderdale Papers, ii. 234). He now met with opposition for the first time. Shaftesbury in England was active in aiding it, and the fall of the cabal created the belief that his own influence was waning. The opposition—the ‘party,’ as it was called—was led by William Douglas, third duke of Hamilton [q. v.]; but it was disconcerted by the dismissal of Shaftesbury, and by the steady support which Lauderdale received from Charles and James. On 13 Jan. 1674 the first attack was made upon him in the House of Commons. The two great grievances were that he had suggested the Militia Act of 1669, and that he had declared in council that ‘the king's edicts were equal with the laws.’ It was unanimously voted that an address should be presented praying for his removal from all his employments and from the king's presence and councils. The sudden prorogation of 24 Feb., however, put an end to the matter (Parl. Hist. iv. 625–66). It illustrates Lauderdale's position that he pointed out to Charles that he was simply his private servant, in no way amenable to the English parliament; while his deputy, Alexander Bruce, second earl of Kincardine [q. v.], refused to answer questions from a committee of the house (Lauderdale Papers, iii. 26, 32). From both Charles and James he received letters of 13 and 14 Jan., promising him that whatever happened their favour was secure (ib.) Meanwhile Lauderdale had gone to Scotland. Charles would not yield to his suggestion that the leaders of the ‘party’ should be ostracised; but the deputation which had gone to complain of him had to return defeated, and General Drummond was imprisoned at his instance upon a baseless charge. His violence now alienated the Earl of Kincardine, one of the ablest as well as the most moderate of his supporters.
The Scottish parliament was then also prorogued. On 25 June 1674 Lauderdale received further honours. He was made a peer
