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David Beaton

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His Eminence
David Beaton
Cardinal Archbishop of St Andrews
Primate of Scotland
Cardinal David Beaton
Archdiocese St Andrews
In office 1539–1546
Predecessor James Beaton
Successor John Hamilton
Other post Cardinal-priest of S. Stefano in Monte Celio
Previous post Coadjutor Archbishop of St Andrews 1537–1539
Orders
Consecration between 26 July and 13 August 1538
Created cardinal 20 December 1538
by Pope Paul III
Rank Cardinal-priest
Personal details
Born c. 1494
(probably Balfour), Fife, Scotland
Died 29 May 1546 (aged c. 52)
St Andrews Castle, Fife, Scotland
Denomination Roman Catholic Church
Parents John Beaton and Isobel Monypenny
Children 8

David Beaton (also Beton or Bethune;[1] c. 1494 – 29 May 1546) was Archbishop of St Andrews and the last Scottish cardinal prior to the Reformation.

Early life

His family were part of Clan Bethune, the Scottish branch of the noble French House of Bethune.[2] David Beaton is said to have been born in 1494,[3][4] the fifth son of fourteen children born to John Beaton of Balfour (d. 1514) in the county of Fife, and his wife Christian Rosyth.[5]

His older brother John Beaton was heir to the barony of Balfour, and Balfour Castle lies south of Markinch.[6] David Beaton ordered an engraved plate for his parents' monument at Markinch in 1541.[7]

He was educated at the universities of St Andrews and Glasgow, and in his sixteenth year was sent to Paris and in 1519 to the university of Orléans, where he studied civil and canon law.[8]

Career

In 1520, his uncle, James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, named David Beaton Rector and Prebendary at Cambuslang. After his uncle became Archbishop of St. Andrews in 1522, he resigned the position of Commendator of Arbroath in favour of his nephew. David Beaton returned to Scotland with John Stewart, Duke of Albany in 1521, and was sent to England as a diplomat in 1522.[9] He was with Albany in 1524.[10] In 1525, Beaton returned from France and took a seat as Lord Abbot or Commendator of Arbroath Abbey in the Scottish Parliament. In 1528 the King named him Lord Privy Seal.

Between 1533 and 1542 he acted several times as King James V's ambassador to France. He took a leading part in the negotiations connected with the King's marriages, first with Madeleine of France, and afterwards with Mary of Guise.[11] While in France, Beaton obtained hawks and wild boar for James V.[12] In 1537 he was made coadjutor to his uncle at St. Andrews, with right of succession.[4]

In December 1537 Beaton was made Bishop of Mirepoix in Languedoc on the recommendation of King Francis I, and consecrated the following summer. Presumably he was ordained around that time. Francis gave him silver gilt plate made by the Parisian goldsmith Jean Hotman.[13] Also in 1538 he was appointed a Cardinal by Pope Paul III, under the title of St Stephen in the Caelian Hill. In February 1539 Cardinal Beaton succeeded his uncle as Archbishop of St. Andrews. In 1544, he was made Papal legate in Scotland.

Relations became strained between James V and his uncle, Henry VIII of England, who sought to detach the Catholic Church in Scotland from its allegiance to the Holy See and bring it into subjection to himself. Henry sent two successive embassies to Scotland to urge James to follow his example in renouncing the authority of the Pope in his dominions. King James declined to be drawn into Henry's plans and refused to leave his kingdom for a meeting with Henry. Hostilities broke out between the two kingdoms in 1542. The Cardinal was blamed by many for the war with England that led to the defeat at Solway Moss in November 1542.[4]

During Mary's reign

James V died at Falkland Palace on 14 December 1542. Beaton tried to become one of the regents for the infant sovereign Mary, Queen of Scots. He based his claim on an alleged will of the late King; but the will was generally regarded as forged, and The 2nd Earl of Arran, heir presumptive to the throne, was declared regent. A copy of the alleged will was preserved by Regent Arran. Dated 14 December 1542 in the King's bedchamber at Falkland Palace, it was witnessed by James Learmonth of Dairsie, Master Household; Henry Kemp of Thomastoun, Gentleman of the Chamber; Michael Durham, the King's doctor; John Tennent, William Kirkcaldy of Grange, Master Michael Dysart, Preceptor of St Anthony's at Leith; John Jordan, Rector of Yetham; Francis Aikman, perfumerer, and others at the bedside. However, the clerk who wrote the instrument, Henry Balfour, a canon of Dunkeld, was not a recognised notary.[14]

By order of the Regent Arran, Beaton was arrested on 27 January 1543.[15] He was imprisoned at Dalkeith Palace and then committed to the custody of Lord Seton at Seton Palace. He was transferred to Blackness Castle in March 1543 and in April was taken to his own St Andrews Castle.[16]

A papal interdict followed the arrest of David Beaton, according to which all churches of the country should be closed and administering the sacraments should be suspended.[17]

With Beaton out of power, the Anglophile party persuaded Regent Arran to make a marriage treaty with England on behalf of the infant Queen, and to appoint a number of Protestant preachers. The treaties signed at Greenwich in July 1543 stipulated that Mary would marry the English Prince Edward. The union of the thrones of England and Scotland which the treaty envisaged was controversial from the start. Its Anglo-centric policy was resisted by many who preferred to continue the Auld Alliance with France. Resistance to the treaty resulted in a surge in the popularity of the French faction.[18]

In July 1543, Beaton's supporters made a "Secret Bond" against the marriage. Mary, Queen of Scots, and her mother moved from Linlithgow Palace to Stirling Castle. The French party in Scotland and Beaton gained significant power. In December 1543, Arran annulled the Treaty of Greenwich. Henry VIII began the war now known as the Rough Wooing.[19][20]

Beaton was in Edinburgh on 3 May 1544 when an English fleet arrived to burn and loot in the city. John Knox wrote that Beaton dismissed the threat at first. The English troops marched from their landing point near Granton towards Leith. Arran and Beaton made a brief stand against them before leaving. Beaton made his way to Stirling.[21]

In December 1545 Beaton arranged for the arrest, trial and execution of Protestant preacher George Wishart, who on 1 March 1546 was strangled and afterwards burned.[17] Wishart had many sympathisers, and this led to the assassination of the Cardinal soon afterwards.

Death

Plots against Cardinal Beaton had begun circulating as early as 1544. The conspirators were led by Norman Leslie, master of Rothes, and William Kirkcaldy of Grange. The Leslies had suffered from the expansion of Beaton's interest in Fife; while Kirkcaldy's uncle, James Kirkcaldy of Grange, held Protestant sympathies and had been removed in 1543 as treasurer of the realm, through Beaton's influence. They were joined by John Leslie of Parkhill, one of the Fife lairds angered at the murder of Wishart.[22] Leslie and Kirkcaldy managed to obtain admission to St Andrews Castle at daybreak of 29 May 1546, killing the porter in the process. Leslie, Kirkcaldy, and Peter Carmichael of Balmadie used their daggers to stab the cardinal to death, mutilated the corpse, and hung it from a castle window.[23]

At the time of his death, Beaton was Lord Chancellor of Scotland, Archbishop of St Andrews, and Cardinal Legate in Scotland.[24]

Marion Ogilvy

Cardinal Beaton's mistress, Marion Ogilvy, was born in 1500, the youngest daughter of James Ogilvy, 1st Lord Ogilvy of Airlie. After the deaths of her parents, she managed the family estates in Angus. Around 1520 she met and fell in love with David Beaton. They lived together in Ethie Castle and produced eight children. According to Margaret H.B. Sanderson, their relationship, which appeared little different from marriage, deeply offended fellow Catholics who desired the Counter-Reformation. Furthermore, the double standard, under which the Cardinal prosecuted Protestants, who advocated the marriage of the clergy, for heresy, yet lived in blatant violation of his own vow of clerical celibacy, proved highly damaging in the long run to the Catholic Church in Scotland.[25]

Cardinal Beaton's oldest surviving son, David Beaton of Melgund, converted to Protestantism, and later became master of the household to James VI and to Anne of Denmark. His daughter Margaret married David Lindsay, 10th Earl of Crawford.[26]

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

David Beaton — (Or Bethune)

Cardinal, Archbishop of St. Andrews, b. 1494; d. 29 May, 1546. He was of an honourable Scottish family on both sides, being a younger son of John Beaton of Balfour Fife, by Isabel, daughter of David Monypenny of Pitmilly, also in Fife. Educated first at St. Andrews, he went in his seventeenth year to Glasgow, where his uncle, James Beaton, was then archbishop, and where his name appears in the list of students of the university, in 1511. He completed his education in Paris, and in 1519 was appointed by James V Scottish resident at the French court. His first ecclesiastical preferment was to the rectories of Campsie and Cambushing, to which he was presented by his uncle, the Archbishop of Glasgow, and when the latter was translated to the primatial see in 1522, he resigned to his nephew the commendatory Abbacy of Arbroath, obtaining for him from Pope Adrian IV a dispensation from wearing the monastic habit. Beaton returned from France in 1525, took his seat in Parliament as Abbot of Arbroath, and was soon created by the young king Lord Privy Seal, in succession to Bishop Crichton of Dunkeld. James dispatched him to Paris in 1533, with Sir Thomas Erskine, in order to renew the Scottish alliance with Francis I, and to negotiate for the marriage of James with Magdalen, only daughter of the French king. Beaton was present at the marriage of the royal pair at Notre-Dame on 1 January, 1537, and returned with them to Scotland in May; but the young queen died of consumption two months later. We next find Beaton on a mission in England, negotiating about certain difficulties which had arisen on the Border. The Queen-Mother (Margaret) wrote specially commending the Abbot of Arbroath to her brother, Henry VIII, mentioning that he was "gret wyth the Kyng" (of Scots). A few months later he was again in Paris, arranging for the marriage of his widowed king with Mary of Guise. After the ceremony (by proxy) in the French capital, Beaton conducted the bride to Scotland, assisted at the solemnization of the marriage in St. Andrews Cathedral, and was afterwards sponsor (together with the Archbishop of Glasgow) to the first child that was born of the union. His elevation to the episcopate took place during this second embassy to the French court. King Francis nominated him to the Bishopric of Mirepoix (a suffragan see of Toulouse, with an annual revenue of 10,000 livres), and he received the papal confirmation on 5 December, 1537. Two months later he assisted at the coronation of James and Mary at Holyrood, himself crowning the queen. In 1538 the Kings of France and Scotland showed their appreciation of Beaton's services by petitioning Pope Paul III to advance him to the cardinalate. James in making this request (15 August, 1538) protested his own firm attachment to the Holy See, and urged the necessity of some ecclesiastic being invested with a dignity which would enable him to represent the majesty of the Church in Scotland, and better withstand the "insane errors" of the time. The king repeated his request a month later, and on 20 December, 1538, Beaton was created Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Stephen on the Cœlian Hill. This had been the title of Cardinal John de Salerno, who had presided at the meeting of Scottish bishops at Perth in the reign of William the Lion; but the only Scottish cardinal before Beaton had been William Wardlaw, Bishop of Glasgow, who died in 1387. Early in 1539 Archbishop James Beaton of St. Andrews died, and his nephew the cardinal (who had six months before been appointed his coadjutor with right of succession) was promoted to the primacy of Scotland. A year later, at his request, William Gibson, Titular Bishop of Libaria, was nominated his coadjutor, with an annual income of £200, paid out of the revenues of the archiepiscopal see.

Beaton, whose commanding ability had now raised him to the highest position attainble in Scotland by a subject, was to have that ability fully tested in the growing unrest of the times, and in the relations, becoming rapidly more and more strained, between James V and his uncle, Henry VIII of England. The latter, in his designs to detach Scotland from its allegiance to the Holy See and bring it into subjection to himself, was supported by the Douglases and other powerful nobles, and by the sympathy of his sister, the Queen- Mother Margaret. James, on the other hand, was backed by the zeal, wealth, influence, and talent of the whole clergy of the realm, and by many loyal Scottish lords; he had the sympathy of France and of the Emperor of Germany, the strong support of the Holy See, and the warm adherence of the great mass of his subjects. Henry in vain tried to shake his nephew's confidence in Beaton by sending two successive embassies to Scotland, in order to urge James to follow his example in usurping the supremacy of the Church in his dominions. The King of Scots refused to be drawn into Henry's net, mantained his unshaken trust in Beaton's statesmanship and patriotism, and declined to leave his kingdom for a personal interview with his uncle. His intrigues being baffled, Henry had recourse to force; and hostilities broke out between the two kingdoms in 1542. The Scotch, successful in the first engagement, were hopelessly defeated by the English forces on Solway Moss, and James died broken-hearted at Falkland soon afterwards, leaving a daughter (Mary) a week old, to inherit the crown. Beaton produced a document in which he, with three nobles, was appointed regent by the late monarch's will; but the nobles assembled in Edinburgh refused to act on this, declared the Earl of Arran (heir- presumptive to the throne) regent during the queen's minority, and imprisoned the cardinal on a false charge of conspiring with the Duke of Guise against Arran's authority. Henry now commenced negotiations with the Scottish regent and Parliament with the object of arranging a marriage between the infant queen and his own heir (afterwards Edward VI), of getting the Scottish fortresses and the government of the country committed into his hands, and the person of Mary entrusted to his custody. Arran and the Parliament agreed to the project of marriage, but were resolute against the rest of Henry's schemes. Meanwhile the unjust imprisonment of the cardinal-primate had been followed by the proclamation of an interdict throughout the kingdom; and so deep was the feeling aroused among the still Catholic people by the closing of the churches and the suspension of the sacraments that it was thought prudent at once to release Beaton. The undaunted primate instantly summoned the bishops and clergy to St. Andrews; and the assembly, fully alive to that imminent danger (menacing both Church and State) of Henry's insolent demands, spontaneously voted a large sum, taxed on their own benefices, in defence of the national rights. Beaton by his patriotic ardour awakened similar sentiments in the people at large; the person of the baby queen was safeguarded, and a number of the nobles, including the regent himself (who about this time abjured the new doctrines and submitted to the Catholic Church), abandoned their unnatural alliance with the enemies of Scotland, and ranged themselves on the cardinal's side.

In October, 1543, Marco Grimani, Patriarch of Aquileia, came from Rome as nuncio to the Scottish court; and it was during his sojourn in Scotland that the high dignity of legate a latere was (in January, 1544) bestowed on Beaton by the pope. About the same time the cardinal was invested with the office of chancellor of the kingdom; the Parliament annulled the treaty of marriage between the queen and Prince Edward, on the ground of the duplicity and bad faith of Henry VIII; vigorous measures were taken against the "English party" among the Scottish nobles; and the bishops were desired to take equally stern measures for the suppression of heretical doctrines. Furious at the frustration of his schemes, Henry now connived at, and indeed openly encouraged, a plot for the removal from his path of the able and patriotic man who had been the chief instrument in foiling his ambitious plans. George Wishart (whose identity, long disputed, with the Wishart afterwards put to death as a heretic has been conclusively proved by the published State Papers of the time) was employed to negotiate between Crichton of Brunston and Beaton's English enemies, on the subject of the assassination of the cardinal. Nearly three years were devoted to the intrigues and correspondence connected with this dark scheme; and, meanwhile, the primate never relaxed his zeal and diligence in the performance of his high functions. He summoned another convention of the clergy in Edinburgh in January, 1546, when further large sums were voted in support of the defence of the realm against the invading armies of England; and two months later he convoked a provincial council at St. Andrews. The great general council was already sitting at Trent, but no Scottish prelate was able to attend it, the cardinal himself seeking dispensation from Pope Paul III, on the ground of the overwhelming nature of his duties in Scotland. The council at St. Andrews was interrupted by the apprehension and trial, for preaching heretical doctrines, of George Wishart. The trial took place in St. Andrews Cathedral, in presence of the two archbishops and other prelates; the articles of accusation were read and duly proved; and Wishart, remaining obdurate in his errors, was condemned to death, and suffered (being first strangled and afterwards burned) at St. Andrews on 28 March, 1546.

The profound impression caused throughout Scotland by Wishart's execution induced Beaton's enemies to hurry on their murderous designs; and two months later a pretext was found for the consummation of the long-cherished plot in a dispute which had arisen on a question of property, between the cardinal and Norman Leslie, Master of Rothes. The latter, with his uncle John Leslie, Kirkaldy of Grange, and James Melville, undertook the work of butchery; and at daybreak on 29 May, 1546, they obtained admission into the castle of St. Andrews, and dispatched the cardinal with repeated blows of their swords. Thus perished, in the forty-fifth year of his age, one to whom (as his most recent, and far from partial, biographer, Professor Herkless, declares) "historic truth must give a place among Scotland's greatest statesmen and patriots". No student of his life and of the history of his times can deny the justice of this tribute; and it may fairly be added that he proved himself not less vigilant in the discharge of the spiritual functions of his office, in watching over the interests of the Scottish Church, and protecting her by every means at his command from the inroads of heresy and schism. As to the charge of persecution brought against him, account must be taken of the age in which he lived, and the prevailing sentiments of the time. Seven persons in all are said to have suffered death under him; and Hosack, comparing this number with the hundreds of lives sacrificed under some of his contemporaries, concludes that Beaton deserves rather to be commended for his moderation than denounced for his barbarity. With regard to his moral character, it has been violently attacked by his enemies, and no less warmly defended by his friends. The charges of immorality against him, never raised until after his death, are in many cases absurd and contradictory; and Leslie, Winzet, and the others who strenuously denied them, are fully as worthy of credit as those who maintained them. The evidence from contemporary history is indeed insufficient to decide the truth or falsity of these charges; and Lyon, the historian of St. Andrews, prudently concludes that the accusations and the denials may be considered as neutralizing one another.

There are two well-known portraits of Beaton, one (formerly in the Scots College at Rome, now at Blairs College, Aberdeenshire), depicting him in his doctor's cap, with slightly silvered brown hair, clear-cut features, and a noble and commanding air. In the other portrait, which hangs in Holyrood Palace, he is represented in a black dress, with white bands, and wearing the red skull-cap of a cardinal.

LESLEY, Hist. of Scotland (Bannatyne Club, 1830), 149, 155, 158; State Papers, Henry VIII (Foreign and Domestic), V, VI; THEINER, Monumenta, 609, 611, 613; LYON, Hist. of St. Andrews, Ancient and Modern (Edinburgh, 1838); HERKLESS, Cardinal Beaton, Priest and Politician (Edinburgh, 1891); Diurnal of Occurrents in Scotland to the year 1575; KEITH, Catalogue of the Bishops of Scotland (1755), 23, 24; LYNSAYE, Tragedy of David Cardinall and archbishoppe of Saint Andrewes (London, 1546); Epistolæ Reg. Scot., I, 339-341; HAY, Ad Cardinalem D. Beaton Gratulatorius Panegyricus.

D.O. HUNTER-BLAIR

References

  1. Back to citation There have been alternate spellings given for the Cardinal and his family, most commonly Bethune, Beton, or Beatoun. Biographia Britannica. Bathurst. 1780. p. 37. Retrieved 29 September 2017. The cardinal spelt his own name Betovn (Betoun). Eighth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. 1881. p. 304. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  2. Back to citation Anderson, William (1867). The Scottish Nation: Or the Surnames, Families, Literature, Honours, and Biographical History of the People of Scotland. Fullarton. p. 288. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  3. Back to citation Margaret Sanderson, Cardinal of Scotland: David Beaton (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1986), p. 8.
  4. Back to citation occurrence 4.0 Back to citation occurrence 4.1 Back to citation occurrence 4.2 Hunter-Blair, David Oswald (1907). "David Beaton". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  5. Back to citation Red Book of Scotland Volume 1 A-Bos - page 696. Edinburgh.
  6. Back to citation Margaret Sanderson, Cardinal of Scotland: David Beaton (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1986), pp. 8–9.
  7. Back to citation Michael Pearce, "A French Furniture Maker and the 'Courtly Style' in Sixteenth-Century Scotland", Regional Furniture, 32 (2018), p. 129.
  8. Back to citation Margaret Sanderson, Cardinal of Scotland: David Beaton (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1986), pp. 11–12.
  9. Back to citation Margaret Sanderson, Cardinal of Scotland: David Beaton (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1986), p. 15.
  10. Back to citation Henry Ellis, Original Letters, Series 1 vol. 1 (London, 1824), p. 243.
  11. Back to citation Perin Westerhof Nyman, "Mourning Madeleine and Margaret: Dress and Meaning in the Memorials for Two Scottish Queens, 1537 and 1541", Scottish Historical Review, 100:3 (December 2021), p. 369. doi:10.3366/shr.2021.0535
  12. Back to citation Andrew Lang, "Letters of Cardinal Beaton 1537–1541", The Scottish Historical Review, 6:22 (January 1909), p. 157.
  13. Back to citation Léon, Marquis de Laborde, Les comptes des bâtiments du roi, 2 (Paris, 1877), pp. 246, 387.
  14. Back to citation HMC 11th Report, part VI, Manuscripts of the Duke of Hamilton (London, 1887), pp. 205, 219–220.
  15. Back to citation Margaret Sanderson, Cardinal of Scotland: David Beaton (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1986), p. 158.
  16. Back to citation Margaret Sanderson, Cardinal of Scotland: David Beaton (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1986), pp. 162–163.
  17. Back to citation occurrence 17.0 Back to citation occurrence 17.1 "Miranda, Salvador. "Beaton, David (1494–1546)", The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church". Archived from the original on 5 January 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  18. Back to citation David Loades, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, 1504–53. Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-19-820193-1
  19. Back to citation Margaret Sanderson, Cardinal of Scotland: David Beaton (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1986), pp. 167–170, 175–176.
  20. Back to citation Letters and Papers Henry VIII, 18:1 (London, 1901), no. 945: Joseph Bain, Hamilton Papers, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1890), p. 630 no. 446.
  21. Back to citation Margaret Sanderson, Cardinal of Scotland: David Beaton (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1986), pp. 182–183.
  22. Back to citation Merriman, Marcus. "Castilians in St Andrews (act. 1546–1547)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 15 Nov 2013
  23. Back to citation "Lamont, Stewart. "Murder comes to the Archbishop", Christian History and Biography, 1 July 2008". Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
  24. Back to citation Herkless, John. Cardinal Beaton, Priest and Politician, William Blackwood & sons, Edinburgh, 1891
  25. Back to citation Sanderson, Margaret H. B., "Ogilvy, Marion (d. 1575)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2005 accessed 15 Nov 2013
  26. Back to citation Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume III, page 516.

Bibliography

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