the youths who attended King James in Stirling during his minority. His original style was Sir Thomas of Auldbar and Balduckie. On the death of his elder brother, John, eighth lord Glammis [q. v.], in 1578, he became tutor to his nephew, Patrick, ninth lord, and, being after Patrick the nearest presumptive heir to the title, was known as Master of Glammis. He married Agnes Gray, widow of Alexander, seventh lord Home, who died in 1575; and his right to the keeping of Hume Castle in opposition to Andrew Kerr, commendator of Jedburgh, was confirmed by the privy council on 8 Nov. 1578 (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iii. 50). On 17 Dec. 1579 he gave security in 5,000l. not to 'make trouble' for the widow of John, lord Glammis, or his daughter in 'the bruiking and possessing of their lands ' (ib. p. 249). On 12 Dec.he was relieved by the privy council of the keepership of Hume Castle (ib. p. 250).
The Master of Glammis was one of the principal supporters of the Earl of Gowrie against the ascendency of Lennox and Arran, and a main contriver of the raid of Ruthven. The precise form which the conspiracy should take had not been determined when the plotters received intelligence that Lennox was aware of their design, and conspiring against them. Advantage was therefore at once taken of the king's visit to Ruthven Castle, a seat of the Earl of Gowrie, near Perth, to gain possession of his person. On the morning of 23 Aug. 1682 the castle was surrounded by an armed force of a thousand men, under Gowrie, Glammis, and Mar, so as to prevent the access of Lennox and his supporters to the king. Glammis and his friends placed before James a loyal supplication, with special reference to the wrongs committed against them by Lennox and Arran (printed in Calderwood, iii. 637-640). Next day they escorted the king to Perth, whence on the 30th they proceeded to Stirling. On arriving at Stirling the king expressed his intention to proceed to Edinburgh; but this, they informed him, 'was not expedient,' and at last they plainly told him that either 'the duke or they should leave Scotland.' On the king moving towards the door, the Master of Glammis rudely 'laid his leg before him' (ib. iii. 643). The indignity caused the king to burst into tears, whereupon Glammis made the unsympathetic comment, 'Better bairns greet than bearded men.' After the king's escape from the Ruthven raiders to St. Andrews in August 1683, Glammis was ordered to enter into ward in Dumbarton Castle within three days (ib. iii. 724; Reg. P. C. Scotl. iii. 595), but made his escape to Ireland (Hist. of James the Sext, p. 199). On 31 Jan. 1583-4 he was charged to leave Scotland, England, and Ireland under pain of treason (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iii. 626), and on 29 March his adherents and those of the other banished lords were commanded to leave Edinburgh within twenty-four hours (ib. p. 644). By this time probably Glammis and his associates had arrived Scotland, for on 17 April they captured the castle of Stirling. The achievement was, however, rendered futile by the arrest of Gowrie two days afterwards at Dundee; and on learning that the king was setting forth against them from Edinburgh with a force of twelve thousand men, they abandoned Stirling and fled to England, ultimately taking up their residence 'in a lodging in Westminster,' where they entered into secret communications with Elizabeth (Calderwood, iv. 340). At the parliament held in Scotland in the following August sentence of forfeiture was passed against them, but the attempt to induce Elizabeth to deliver them up was unsuccessful. They returned, with the connivance of Elizabeth, to Scotland in October 1585. Arran's overthrow followed, and Glammis on 4 Nov. was along with other lords pardoned and received into favour (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iv. 31). On 7 Nov. he was admitted a member of the privy council, and appointed captain and commander of the king's guard (ib. p. 33). In the new ministry he was also appointed lord high treasurer for life, with a salary of 1,000l. Scots. At the parliament at Linlithgow in December an act was also passed restoring him to his estates. On 9 Feb. 1585-6 he became an extraordinary lord of session.
The hope of the presbyterian clergy that the return of the banished lords would effect a change in the ecclesiastical policy of the king was not fulfilled. The Master of Glammis, 'upon whose wit they [the nobles] depended,' advised that 'it was not expedient to draw out of the king, so addicted to bishops, any reformation of the kirk for the present, but to procure it by time with his consent and liking' (Calderwood, iv. 449); consequently the nobles declined to come to the help of the kirk. On 14 Dec. 1586, Glammis, as the represent alive of his house, and David, earl of Crawford, by one of whose followers the eighth Lord Glammis had been slain, gave mutual assurances to each other (Reg. P. C. Scotl., iv. 128); and on 15 May 1587 they walked arm in arm before the king to and from the banquet of reconciliation at the Market Cross of Edinburgh (Calderwood, iv. 614; Hist. of James the Sext, p.229). The feud between the two families remained, however, very much as it was before; and
