present, that the Quen hir self fearit the same' (ib. p. 200). Her desire therefore, according to Melville, was to escape to Dumbarton without giving battle till she had rallied sufficient forces, not merely to render victory more certain, but to protect her against the sinister designs of the Hamiltons.
At the parliament held by the regent at the close of the year Hamilton and other supporters of the queen were forfeited (Acta Parl. Scot. iii. 45-8), and it was doubtless to revenge this that he and his family furthered the plot for the assassination of the regent Moray [see under Hamilton, James, 1566-1580] (Herries, p. 121; Calderwood, ii. 511). According to Melville, Hamilton was also present at Stirling when the regent Lennox was slain (Memoirs, p. 241). Hamilton was deputed by his father to represent the family in the arrangements connected with the pacification signed at Perth 22 Feb. 1572-1573 (Reg. P. C. Scotland, ii. 194). On the death of his father, the Duke of Chatelherault, in 1575, the insanity of his elder brother, the Earl of Arran, made Lord John the recognised head of the family, and the nearest prospective heir after James VI to the Scottish crown. On 7 March of this year he and Lord Claud made public satisfaction to the Earl of Angus in the palace of Holyrood for the slaughter of his kinsman, Johnstone of Westerraw (Calderwood, iii. 346), and shortly afterwards he was married to Margaret, only daughter of the eighth Lord Glammis, widow of the Earl of Cassilis, and cousin of the regent Morton (ib. viii. 206). The reconciliation between Hamilton and the principal representatives of the Douglases was very displeasing to SirWilliam Douglas of Lochleven (d. 1606) [q. v.] on account of Hamilton's implication in the assassination of his relative the regent Moray. On a report that the murderer had been brought home by Hamilton from France, Sir William Douglas assembled a force of five hundred men and swore to have vengeance on both for the murder. On one occasion an attempt was made on Hamilton as he was coming from Arbroath, and he was compelled to take refuge in the abbey. Again, on 2 March 1576, Douglas and the Earl of Moray set out to attack him as he was on his way through Fife to Arbroath. Being hotly pursued, Hamilton baffled his enemies by separating himself from his followers, and escaped to the house of Learmont of Dairsie, who defended him against Douglas till the regent interfered and charged his relative to return home (Reg. P. C. Scotland, ii. 598 ; Hist. James the Sext, pp. 155-7 ; Calderwood, iii. 346). Hamilton and Douglas were on 22 March summoned before the council to inform the regent of 'their griefs, quarrels, and causes of complaint' (Rey. ii. 605). After the case had been fully heard, each was required to give assurance to the other, and Douglas refusing to comply was entered in ward in the castle of Edinburgh (ib. p. 612). On the renewal of the procedure against the Hamiltons in 1579 for the slaughter of the regents [see more particularly under Hamilton, Claud, Lord Paisley], Hamilton escaped to England, whence, with the connivance of Elizabeth and the aid of the French ambassador, M. de Castelnau (letter of Castelnau to the king of France, 29 July 1579, in Teulet, Relations politiques, ed. 1862, iii. 54-5), he passed over to France. At Paris he was harboured by Mary's representative the Archbishop of Glasgow (Hist. James the Sext, p. 175), and Henry intimated his intention to bestow on him a pension of four hundred livres a month (the king to Castelnau in Teulet, iii. 63). Mary's friends suspected the motives of the Hamiltons, and Hamilton was obnoxious because he remained a protestant. The king of Scots had granted the rich abbey of Arbroath, which Hamilton had held, to his new favourite, Esme Stuart, duke of Lennox, and the efforts of Castelnau to bring about an arrangement by which Stuart might be induced to resign it were entirely fruitless. The king of France also failed to fulfil his promise regarding the pension (Teulet, iii. 93). Mary wrote on 18 March to the Archbishop of Glasgow to sound Hamilton, and to assure him of her favour to his family (Labanoff, v. 134). On 23 July she wrote that his reply had much contented her (ib. p. 349). No doubt Hamilton preferred the help of France to the help of Elizabeth, if he could have secured it ; for after the death of the regent Morton, Elizabeth's influence in Scotland had sunk to zero ; but when he found that Captain James Stuart, the accuser of Morton, was not only put in possession of the baronies of Hamilton and Kinneil and other estates of his family, but was even allowed to assume the title of Earl of Arran, as the nearest legitimate heir of that title, he was unable to put further faith in the promise of restoration by the aid of the king of France. Elizabeth, on the other hand, had undoubtedly exerted herself sincerely and energetically to promote his recall, and he resolved meanwhile to trust entirely to her help. He therefore left the French court and joined his brother Lord Claud in England. Along with Lord Claud he took part in the unsuccessful attempt against Arran in 1584. In the attempt of the following year, undertaken with the co-operation of the Master of Gray, the Hamiltons were under the direction only of Lord
