Morton, James Douglas, 4th Earl of c.1516-81
Regent of Scotland

The younger son of Sir George Douglas of Pittendreich, near Edinburgh, he became Earl of Morton (1553), and although a Protestant, was made Chancellor by Mary, Queen of Scots (1563). Involved in the murders of both David Rizzio (1566) and Lord Darnley (1567), he joined the Protestant nobles who defeated the Earl of Bothwell and Mary, Queen of Scots, at Carberry Hill (1567), 'discovered' the 'Casket Letters', led the forces at Langside (1568) and, after the brief regencies of Moray, Lennox and Mar, took over himself as regent for James VI (1572). After the end of the civil war in Scotland (1573), he increased links with England, but his high-handed attempts to control ecclesiastical appointments and to bring the Church into conformity with England brought him into sharp conflict with the radical ministers, led by Andrew Melville. His regency brought a welcome restoration of law and order, especially to the Borders, but it was achieved at the cost of a monopoly of many offices by the Douglas family, which caused intense resentment. He fell briefly from power in 1578, but the arrival of the young king's cousin, Esm� Stuart, Earl of Lennox (1579) recast political expectations. His fall was engineered by Captain James Stewart, nominally for his part in Darnley's murder, and he was beheaded by the 'Maiden', a device he had himself introduced to Scotland, in Edinburgh's Grassmarket. His regency, though brief, was in many respects a turning-point, not least in the beginning of the restoration of royal power which was to be continued in James VI's personal reign.

Bibliography: George R Hewitt, Scotland Under Morton 1572-80 (1982)