LIVINGSTON, George, 3rd earl of Linlithgow [S] (1616-90), of Linlithgow Palace.

The Livingstons of Callendar had a long tradition of loyalty to the Stuart dynasty. The 7th Lord Livingston was a close adviser of James VI, and in the last years of the sixteenth century received a number of honours: the hereditary keepership of the royal palace of Linlithgow in 1597-9; and the earldom of Linlithgow was granted to him in 1600, as a reward for his service as guardian of Princess Elizabeth (the future queen of Bohemia). Royal favour allowed the 1st earl of Linlithgow to secure prestigious marriages for his sons, and his daughter, the countess of Eglinton, was lady of the bedchamber to Anne of Denmark. The 2nd earl, who succeeded in 1621, acted as lord high admiral of Scotland in the 1620s, and was a staunch royalist after 1638. His son and heir, George Lord Livingston, was brought up within this tradition, but also separated from it. His mother’s death soon after his birth, and his father’s remarriage, meant that Livingston was brought up in the household of his grandfather, the marquess of Huntly. Any stability provided by this arrangement was destroyed in 1626, when Charles I intervened, fearing the influence of the Catholic Gordons over the young heir, and instructing his father to accommodate him elsewhere. In the early 1630s Livingston was again uprooted and sent abroad, to fight in the Scottish regiment under the king of France, and by the winter of 1640 he was in The Hague, where he was given a commission in the Dutch army through the influence of the queen of Bohemia and his uncle the covenanting Lord Almond, future earl of Callendar.10Livingstons of Callendar, 1, 3, 5, 107-12, 114-5.

Distanced from his father, Livingston’s relationship with Callendar seems to have been of crucial importance in the next few years. Returning to Scotland in 1643, Livingston became, through Callendar’s influence, colonel of the Stirlingshire regiment in the Covenanter army led into England by Alexander Leslie, 1st earl of Leven, in the following year. Livingston commanded his regiment at the storming of Newcastle in October 1644, and it remained quartered in the city during the winter of 1644-5.11Livingstons of Callendar, 116; NLS, MS 9639, f. 26. As relations between the Scottish commanders and Parliament worsened, Livingston was among those involved in secret negotiations with Charles I at the beginning of the siege of Hereford. These approaches were revealed in the royalist correspondence captured in the king’s cabinet and George Lord Digby’s* cabinet in 1645, but were suppressed by the English Independents, who were not yet ready to make a move against their former allies. The reaction of the Scottish government was defensive. On 4 November 1645 the committee of estates asked Leven to send Livingston and others back to Scotland ‘to remove the jealousies conceived upon this occasion by the Parliament of England’, and on 13 December the commissioners in London put pressure on Leven to send them home, as the matter was ‘very much to the credit of our army’. An investigation by the committee exonerated Livingston in January 1646, and the matter was closed.12Corresp. of the Scottish Commrs. in London ed. H.W. Meikle (Edinburgh, 1917), 135, 145, 193; HMC Eglinton, 37. By May, when Charles I escaped from Oxford and took refuge with the Scottish army, Livingston’s activities had become more acceptable. It is doubtful whether Livingston’s father had any part in this conspiracy, but other members of the family were clearly involved. His co-defendant, Lord Montgomery, was his first cousin, and the earl of Callendar was uncle to them both. Montgomery and Callendar would later stand surety for Livingston when borrowing money.13NLS, CH.8526. Callendar was revising his own opinions at this time, and was on friendly terms with the refugee king in 1646 – and it is likely that he was also acting behind the scenes in the tentative negotiations of the previous year.14CP; Livingstons of Callendar, 110.

The 2nd earl of Linlithgow died in the summer or autumn of 1648, and Livingston succeeded as 3rd earl. The new earl was by now a strong supporter of the Engagement, and backed James Hamilton, 1st duke of Hamilton’s expedition into England. Callendar, who was Hamilton’s lieutenant-general in the Preston campaign, may have influenced him. On the defeat of the Engagers, Callendar fled to Holland, but Linlithgow merely retreated to his Scottish estates, and was fined £30 by the Scottish Parliament.15Livingstons of Callendar, 116. He was able to return to some influence during 1650, and with the defeat at Dunbar he resumed his seat in the Scottish Parliament. When Charles Stuart arrived in Scotland, Linlithgow came to the fore, sitting on the committee to manage the army and the committee of estates, and being commissioned as colonel of the Perthshire regiment.16Livingstons of Callendar, 116-7; Government of Scotland under the Covenanters ed. D. Stevenson (Edinburgh, 1982), 168.

After the defeat at Worcester in September 1651, Linlithgow worked with the marquess of Argyll (Archibald Campbell*) in an attempt to negotiate peace with the Cromwellian invaders, and from this time he seems to have submitted to the new regime with equanimity, if not enthusiasm.17Scot. and Commonwealth ed. Firth, 19. He refused to become involved in the rebellion led by the earl of Glencairn in 1653-4, and as a result, received favour from Colonel Robert Lilburne*, who wrote to Oliver Cromwell* in February 1654 recommending the earl, as ‘the enemy hath lately fired and burnt down the corn, outhouses and tenants’ houses’ on his Perthshire estates.18Scot. and Protectorate ed. Firth, 36, 41. Linlithgow was one of the first beneficiaries of the government’s decision to abate the assessments of those who had suffered at Glencairn’s hands.19Dow, Cromwellian Scot. 111. Unusually for an active supporter of Charles Stuart in 1651, Linlithgow was not listed as an ‘excepted’ person under the ordinance of pardon and grace passed by the protectoral council in April 1654.20Dow, Cromwellian Scot. 152-3. A further mark of Linlithgow’s willingness to cooperate, and the government’s willingness to allow him to do so, came in August 1654, when he was elected as MP for Perthshire.21C219/44, unfol. In a letter to Cromwell of 19 September, General George Monck* said ‘that he hath presumed to give that testimony concerning [Linlithgow], that since the taking of Dundee he hath behaved himself very peaceably, and some months since suffered much by the enemy… for his refusal to conform to their orders’; a pass for the earl to travel to London was issued by the general the next day.22Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVI, unfol.: 19 and 20 Sept. 1654. The earl had taken his seat by the end of October, but was named to only two committees: for bringing in a bill confirming the abolition of the court of wards (31 Oct.) and to consider the petition of William Craven, 1st Baron Craven (3 Nov.)23CJ vii. 380a, 381a.

It has been suggested that Linlithgow sought a seat at Westminster in 1654 in ‘the hope that he might secure some reparation for [the] losses’ he had suffered during Glencairn’s rebellion.24Dow, Cromwellian Scot. 153. In fact, he was much more ambitious: seeking benefits not only for himself but also for a number of friends and relatives, many of whom were imprisoned, and their lands forfeited. Linlithgow had started his lobbying immediately after his inclusion in the ordinance of pardon and grace in April 1654, gaining protection for Huntly Castle and persuading Monck to write to Cromwell on behalf of his step-son, the earl of Kinghorne, who had been fined.25Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLV, unfol.: 3 and 20 May 1654. The latter was part of a scheme by Linlithgow and other ‘curators’ of Kinghorne’s estate, to free the earl from a mounting debts.26NAS, GD45/14/106; GD45/14/107. While at Westminster, Linlithgow also tackled the thorny problem of the rehabilitation of his uncle, the earl of Callendar. On 28 April 1655 Monck told Cromwell that he had ‘received a letter from your highness by the earl of Linlithgow concerning the earl of Callendar’, and had consulted the judge-advocate about the charges against him.27Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS L, f. 107v. He also gave his blessing for Callendar to come to London ‘to attend his highness’ in person – again at Linlithgow’s behest.28Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVI, unfol.: 21 Apr. 1655. Callendar was eventually discharged from sequestration by order of the Scottish council in December 1655; but with Linlithgow absent from the second protectorate Parliament, the pursuit of a pardon was led by another of Callendar’s nephews, the earl of Tweeddale (James Hay*).29NLS, MS 7032, f. 97.

Linlithgow was not returned to the second protectorate Parliament, but he continued to work with the government in Perthshire, serving as assessment commissioner from 1655 and JP from 1656.30Acts Parl. Scot. vi, pt. 2, 841; A. and O.; Scot. and Protectorate ed. Firth, 314. In the elections for the third protectorate Parliament, Linlithgow again returned, this time as MP for Kincardine and Forfarshire. He went to Westminster on 25 January 1659 with Monck’s endorsement. Writing to Secretary John Thurloe*, the general emphasised that the earl ‘told me that he had not taken this journey unless it had been to do his highness service, and therefore I shall desire your lordship to afford him all the lawful favour you may in any of his concernments’.31Bodl. Rawl. A.63, f. 54. Linlithgow repaid the government’s trust on 23 March when he acted as teller in favour of one of the most important motions of the Parliament: the vote to allow Irish MPs to continue sitting in the House. Linlithgow and Thurloe were opposed by John Lambert and Arthur Annesley, but managed to carry the division by 156 votes to 106.32CJ vii. 619a. Linlithgow’s involvement might seem curious, given his lack of Irish interests, but the employment of a Scottish earl in partnership with Secretary Thurloe may have been intended as a symbol of the strength of the Cromwellian union. He was an obvious choice for the committee of Scottish affairs appointed on 1 April.33CJ vii. 623b.

Linlithgow’s collusion with the Covenanters and collaboration with the Cromwellians was conveniently forgotten at the Restoration. During the 1660s and 1670s he resumed his military career, commanding first the Scots Guards and then the Scottish army, in campaigns against the Covenanters in the west. For a contemporary (and presumably royalist) poet he was now ‘Brave George, the surest Atlas of the crown’.34Livingstons of Callendar, 119-21. In 1682 Linlithgow became president of the Scottish council, and two years later, lord justice-general of Scotland. He made no secret of his hostility to William III, and lost both posts as a result in 1689. In reaction, he became involved in a Jacobite plot led by his relative, Sir James Montgomery, in 1689-90, but died before the conspiracy was betrayed; he was buried in the family mausoleum in St Michael’s Church, Linlithgow.35Livingstons of Callendar, 121. By his testament and bond of taikie, Linlithgow made his wife the sole executrix, with the responsibility to settle his debts and control of his personal estate, including ‘watches, clocks and other movables’. He stipulated that the estate would pass to his own heirs, or failing that, to the heirs of his brother, Alexander Livingston, who had succeeded their uncle as earl of Callendar in 1674.36NLS, MS 9638, f. 116; NRS, CC8/8/80, ff. 133v-7. By his timely death Linlithgow avoided attainder, but his grandson and heir, the 5th earl of Linlithgow and 4th earl of Callendar, was less fortunate. Carrying on the family’s tradition of loyalty to the Stuarts, he was involved in the 1715 rising, and was attainted in 1716.37CP.