James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray
James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray (c. 1531 – 23 January 1570) a member of the House of Stewart as the illegitimate son of King James V, was Regent of Scotland for his half-nephew, the infant King James VI of Scotland, from 1567 until his assassination in 1570.
Life and career
Moray was born in about 1531, the most notable of the many illegitimate children of King James V of Scotland. His mother was the King's favourite mistress, Lady Margaret Erskine, daughter of John Erskine, 5th Lord Erskine, and wife of Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven. On 31 August 1536 he had a charter of the lands of Tantallon and others. James was appointed Prior of St Andrews, Fife, in his youth in 1538. This position supplied his income. As early as May 1553, the imperial ambassador to England, Jean Scheyfve, heard that Mary of Guise planned to make him Regent of Scotland in place of James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault.
On 5 August 1557, Moray, his half-brother Lord Robert, and Lord Home led a raiding party from Edinburgh towards Ford Castle in Northumbria and burnt houses at Fenton before retreating on the approach of an English force led by Henry Percy. James attended the wedding of his legitimate half-sister, Mary, Queen of Scots, in Paris. To fund this trip his mother obtained credit from Timothy Cagnioli, an Italian banker in Edinburgh.
