James Earl Hamilton Marsden

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James Earl Hamilton Marsden 1st Earl of Arran and
2nd Lord Hamilton
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BIOGRAPHY
He was the only son of James Hamilton, 1st Lord
Hamilton, and his wife, Mary Stewart, Countess of
Arran. Mary was a daughter of King James II of
Scotland and his Queen consort Mary of Guelders,
and was a sister of King James III of Scotland.
Hamilton succeeded to his fathers lordship and
inherited his lands when his father died in
1479.In 1489 his first cousin King James IV made
him Sheriff of Lanark, a position his father had
previously had, and a Scottish Privy
Counsellor.2 By 28 April 1490 he was married to
Elizabeth Home, daughter of Alexander Home, 2nd
Lord Home. Between April and August 1502, he
commanded a naval fleet sent to help King Hans of
Denmark, James IVs uncle, defeat a Swedish
rebellion. He negotiated Jamess marriage
to Margaret Tudor and was present at the wedding
on 8 August 1503. On the same day Lord Hamilton
was created Earl of Arran, with the formal grant
three days later, for his nearness of blood and
his services at the time of the marriage. He was
appointed Lieutenant General of Scotland and in
May 1504 commanded a naval expedition to suppress
an uprising in the Western Isles. In September
1507, James IV sent Hamilton as his ambassador on
a diplomatic mission to the court of Louis XII of
France. When returning in early 1508, he was
briefly detained in the Kingdom of
England by Henry VII, who was suspicious of a
renewal of the Auld Alliance between Scotland and
France.
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When Henry VIII of England joined the War of the
League of Cambrai by invading France in 1513,
Scotland came under pressure to support France
against England. Hamilton was given command of
the Scottish naval fleet. He first sailed
to Ulster and attacked Carrickfergus, the main
English stronghold there. The fleet then sailed
to France, arriving there in September 1513, too
late to be much help as the Scottish army had
been defeated at the Battle of Flodden Field in
England on 9 September, with James IV being
killed in battle. During the minority of King
James V he opposed Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of
Angus and the English party. He plotted against
the Regent John Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany. He
was president of the council of regency during
Albanys absence in France from 1517 to 1520. He
was defeated in an attempt to overpower Angus in
the streets of Edinburgh in 1520, a riot known as
Cleanse the Causeway. He was again a member of
the council of regency in 1522 and Lieutenant of
the South. He joined the Queen Dowager Margaret
Tudor in ousting Albany and proclaiming James V
in 1524. Hamilton was compelled by Henry VIII of
England to readmit Angus to the council. He
supported Angus against John Stewart, 3rd Earl of
Lennox in 1526 at the Battle of Linlithgow
Bridge, but on the escape of James V from
the Douglases, Hamilton received Bothwell from
Anguss forfeited estates.
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HAMILTON MARSDEN
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MARRIAGE AND CHILDREN
Hamilton was married firstly, c.1490, to
Elizabeth Home, daughter of Alexander Home, 2nd
Lord Home. The marriage was dissolved in 1506,
when it was found that her first husband Thomas
Hay, a son of John Hay, 1st Lord Hay of Yester,
was still alive at the time of the wedding. In
November 1516 Hamilton married Janet Bethune of
Easter Wemyss, daughter of Sir David Bethune of
Creich, and widow of Sir Robert Livingstone of
Easter Wemyss, who had been killed in the Battle
of Flodden Field. In November 1504 Hamilton had
been granted a divorce from Elizabeth Home on the
grounds that she had previously been married to
Thomas Hay. Hay had apparently left the country
and was thought to be dead when Hamilton married
Home in or before 1490, but in fact he did not
die until 1491 or later. This award of divorce
was repeated in 1510, suggesting that Hamilton
had continued living with her after 1504, and was
held by some to undermine the dissolution of the
first marriage as invalid. It is likely that the
real motive for divorcing Elizabeth was that she
had not born any children and that Hamilton
wanted a legitimate heir he already had several
illegitimate children, his eldest illegitimate
son being James Hamilton of Finnart. The
complicated legal issues of the second marriage
would continue to trouble his heir, whose
legitimacy was questioned by his rivals in 1543.
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ANCESTORS
James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arrans ancestors in
three generations James Hamilton, 1st Earl of
Arran FatherJames Hamilton, 1st Lord
Hamilton Paternal GrandfatherJames Hamilton of
Cadzow Paternal Great-Grandfatherpossibly John
Hamilton of Cadzow Paternal Great-grandmotherJa
net, daughter of Sir James Douglas, 1st Lord
Dalkeith Paternal GrandmotherJanet Livingston
of Callander Paternal Great-GrandfatherSir
Alexander Livingston of Callander
Paternal Great-Grandmother MotherMary
Stewart, Princess of Scotland Maternal
GrandfatherJames II of Scotland Maternal
Great-GrandfatherJames I of Scotland Maternal
Great-GrandmotherJoan Beaufort, Queen of
Scots Maternal GrandmotherMary of
Guelders Maternal Great-grandfatherArnold,
Duke of Gelderland Maternal Great-GrandmotherCa
therine of Cleves (14171479)
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REFERENCES

•  a b c d e f g h i Greig, Elaine Finnie
  (2004). Hamilton, James, first earl of Arran
  (1475?1529). Oxford Dictionary of
  NationalBiography. Oxford University
  Press. DOI10.1093/refodnb/12079. Retrieved 7
  March 2009.
•  Earls of Arran. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th
  ed.). 1911. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
•  Alison Weir, Britains Royal Family A Complete
  Genealogy (London, U.K. The Bodley Head, 1999),
  page 234.
•  HMC 11th report, part 6, Duke of Hamilton,
  (1887), 4-5, 49-52.
•  Dickinson, Gladys, ed., Two Missions of de la
  Brosse, Scottish History Society (1942), 7-8,
  19 Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol, 1
  (1898), 691-694.
•  HMC, 11th report, part 6, Duke of Hamilton,
  (1897), 5.
•  Sanderson, Margaret HB., Cardinal of Scotland,
  John Donald, (1986), 166.
•  G.E. Cokayne with Vicary Gibbs, H.A.
  Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and
  Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete
  Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great
  Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct
  or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959
  reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K. Alan
  Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume I, page 222.

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