HAMILTON, James (1606-49)

Described by the 2nd Viscount Conway (Edward Conway^*) as ‘not a man to be trusted further than it will be for his profit’,27 Strafforde Letters (1739) ed. W. Knowler, ii. 125. Hamilton was the heir of Scotland’s premier nobleman. Failing issue to the Stuart dynasty, his father, James Hamilton^*, 2nd marquess of Hamilton [S], stood in direct line to both the Scottish and English thrones. The latter was only 17 years old in 1606, when Hamilton was born, and was absent abroad for much of his son’s infancy. Hamilton was therefore raised by his mother, Anne Cunningham, a formidable woman of strong Calvinist convictions. Although his father returned to Scotland by the spring of 1612, he left again in the summer of 1617, this time to take up residence at court, having been invited to England by the king, James I. By then Hamilton was probably styled earl of Arran, which title his father had inherited in 1609.28 His father continued to include earl of Arran in his own list of titles as late as March 1611: NRS, GD85/91.

Marriage alliance with Buckingham, 1621-5

Shortly after he arrived in England, the marquess entered into negotiations for a marriage between Arran and Anne Chichester, the niece of Lucy Russell, countess of Bedford.29 T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Jas. I, ii. 60; Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, ii. 184. Like the Hamiltons, the Russells were an old noble family, and Lucy Russell had become the marquess’ close friend. Though the Chichesters of north Devon were not of the first rank, they were longstanding allies of the Russells. Moreover, Anne’s mother was daughter of the late 1st Lord Harington (John Harington^*). By the end of 1620 the negotiations had progressed far enough to cause the marquess to summon the 16-year-old Arran to England. The latter arrived at Westminster on 12 Dec. with his governor and a few servants, and thereafter was gradually introduced at court. On 24 Mar. 1621, for instance, he witnessed his father compete in the accession day tilt against the royal favourite, George Villiers^*, marquess (later 1st duke) of Buckingham, in which event both riders broke the other’s lance five times. He also visited the English Parliament, which assembled in January 1621.30 Oxford DNB, xxiv. 839. On the tilt, see HEHL, EL7973. However, in May 1621 the marriage negotiations were broken off. The reasons remain unclear, but the countess of Bedford’s friend, Lady Jane Cornwallis, blamed the ‘scurvy dealing’ of the bride’s father, Sir Robert Chichester.31 Pvte. Corresp. of Jane, Lady Cornwallis ed. Lord Braybrooke, 78-9.

In the immediate aftermath of this affair, Arran’s father was chosen to represent the king at the forthcoming Scottish Parliament. Arran himself remained behind, and was enrolled at Exeter College, Oxford, the alma mater of John Eliot^‡, one of Buckingham’s leading clients.32 Rubinstein, 11. However, he spent only five months at Oxford, for on 14 Dec., soon after his father returned to London, he was back at court. The brevity of this sojourn may have had a deleterious effect on his education for, as John Scally has observed, Arran’s spelling, grammar and handwriting remained poor for the rest of his life.33 For this suggestion, see Oxford DNB, xxiv. 839.

In the aftermath of the failed match with Anne Chichester, Buckingham proposed that Arran marry his niece, Mary Feilding. On the face of it, this was a far more suitable union than the earlier match, as Buckingham and Arran’s father both enjoyed the same social status. However, Hamilton was secretly horrified, as Buckingham was but a newcomer to the nobility. Moreover, in recent months his friendship with the favourite had given way to feelings of resentment, as Buckingham had reneged on a promise to make Hamilton master of the horse. Nevertheless, the king’s enthusiastic support for the proposed marriage meant that Hamilton had little choice but to agree. Consequently, on 16 June he summoned his son to Greenwich. There, after supper and in the king’s presence, Arran – then three days short of his 16th birthday - was married to Mary Feilding, a girl aged only nine. According to the Hamilton’s family doctor, George Eglisham, Arran was given no inkling of what was afoot until after he had finished eating.34 G. Eglisham, Forerunner of Revenge (1626), 12. See also HMC Mar and Kellie, ii. 122-3; Chamberlain Letters, ii. 441.

Following the revelation in February 1623 that Buckingham and the prince of Wales (Charles Stuart^*) had secretly travelled to Spain to fetch home the infanta, Arran journeyed to Madrid in the company of his father-in-law, William Feilding^*, 1st of Denbigh. Hamilton notified the favourite by letter of his son’s imminent arrival, adding that ‘if you find he will not do, I will be glad he get your blessing once a day as the greatest happiness he can hope for’.35 Harl. 1581, f. 1. It was perhaps during this trip that Arran struck up a firm friendship with Prince Charles, for in January 1624 he was admitted to the prince’s bedchamber. Arran returned home with Charles and Buckingham in October 1623, too late, perhaps, to set out on a planned journey to France with his 15-year old brother-in-law Basil Feilding^* (later 2nd earl of Denbigh).36 C. Feilding, Royalist Father and Roundhead Son, 36 (letter misdated 1625 by the author).

In February 1624 Arran’s father became lord steward of the king’s household. The latter initially proved unenthusiastic after Charles and Buckingham, now a duke, declared their opposition to the Spanish Match, but during the Parliament of 1624, in his capacity as 1st earl of Cambridge, he threw his weight behind the so-called patriot coalition. Arran, too, seems evidently supported the anti-Spanish cause, for when, in early March, Buckingham demanded to know whether a large vote of subsidies would persuade James to break with Spain, he asked Arran to convey the king’s reply.37 Misc. State Pprs. 1501-1726 (1778) ed. P. Hardwicke, i. 466.

During the late summer of 1624, Arran was instructed by his father to leave for France ‘with as much haste as you can’. He was told to spend the rest of the summer there, and not to wait for his personal servants, who would be sent to him in due course.38 NRS, GD406/1/14. This undated document has been incorrectly assigned by its cataloguer to 1603. No explanation was given, but it is clear from the urgency of the instruction that Hamilton was not merely concerned that Arran should undertake the journey that had been planned for him the previous year. It seems likely that the real reason Arran was ordered abroad stemmed from the fact that Mary Feilding had now reached puberty. While Mary had remained incapable of bearing children, Hamilton had been able to cling to the hope of annulling his son’s marriage. However, once the union was consummated this hope would all but vanish.39 Eglisham, 12-13. According to George Eglisham, Buckingham was so angry on discovering that Hamilton had no intention of allowing Arran to consummate his marriage that he persuaded James to appoint Arran a gentleman of the king’s bedchamber in order to prevent him from leaving the country. However, this story has little basis in fact. Although Buckingham was probably enraged by Hamilton’s behaviour, Arran did not become a member of the king’s bedchamber before Charles’s accession. Nor is it the case that Arran was prevented from going overseas, as one observer later recalled that he ‘returned from his travels’ in March 1625.40 Rubinstein, 15.

Arran cut short his stay abroad on learning that his father was dying. Inexplicably, he returned to England via Scotland. At Chesterford, the seat of Theophilus Howard^*, Lord Howard de Walden (later 2nd earl of Suffolk), he himself fell gravely ill, and it was only with great pain and discomfort that he reached the capital, arriving the night before his father died.41 HMC Mar and Kellie, ii. 222. One newsletter writer claimed that he fell ill at Moor Park, in Hertfordshire, and that he failed to reach his father before the latter’s death: T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Jas. I, ii. 503. The later story, circulated by Eglisham, that Arran was not unwell, and was prevented from seeing his father by Buckingham and Denbigh, seems to be entirely without foundation.

The parliaments of 1625 and 1626, and disillusionment with Buckingham

Though he was now 19 years of age, Arran was still technically a minor when he inherited his father’s lands and titles. However, in April 1625 the new king, Charles I, granted him his full inheritance.42 Reg. PC Scot. 1625-7, pp. 16-17. He also appointed Hamilton (as he had now become) a gentleman of the bedchamber and granted him the pension of £2,500 p.a. enjoyed by his late father.43 CSP Ven. 1625-6, p. 21; NLW, 9060E/1336; CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 12. Hamilton was subsequently included in the list of those who were to accompany Buckingham to Paris to fetch the king’s new wife, Henrietta Maria, but in the event the duke took with him to France only a handful of followers.44 Misc. State Pprs. i. 572; T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, i. 22. Hamilton was nevertheless among those who greeted the queen when she landed at Dover in May.45 Chamberlain Letters, ii. 620.

As earl of Cambridge, Hamilton sat in Parliament when it met in June 1625, but made little recorded impact on its proceedings. He failed to attend the formal opening on 18 June, and did not take his seat until the afternoon of the 20th. He was again absent on the 22nd, but took the oath of allegiance on the 23rd.46 Procs. 1625, p. 46. Thereafter he continued to sit until the afternoon of the 28th, when he again failed to appear. He attended once more, on the 30th, but did not do so again before the adjournment on 11 July. When Parliament reassembled at Oxford the following month, Hamilton’s appearances were no less fleeting. Indeed, he was recorded as present on only three occasions. Fear of the plague may have been responsible. Throughout the entire session, Hamilton is never recorded as having spoken, and was appointed to no committees.

In the immediate aftermath of the 1625 Parliament, Hamilton preferred to accompany the king to Plymouth to see off the fleet that had now been assembled to attack Spain rather than travel to Scotland to attend his father’s funeral.47 Anderson, 411-12. However, he himself intended to play no part in the forthcoming conflict, for in mid October he obtained from the king leave of absence for three years in order to resume his travels abroad.48 Letters and Memorials of State ed. A. Collins, ii. 364. He subsequently journeyed to The Hague in company with Buckingham, whose mission it was to sign an alliance with Denmark and the Dutch.49 HMC Mar and Kellie, ii. 235; Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, i. 62.

Hamilton quickly abandoned his travel plans. Conflict on the Continent was now widespread, and Buckingham may have exerted pressure on him to return home. Besides, it was rumoured that, as part of an impending reshuffle at court, he would shortly become master of the horse, which office Buckingham had previously promised his father.50 Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, i. 59. Hamilton was therefore present at Charles’s coronation on 2 Feb. 1626, at which he carried the sword of state.51 SP16/20/8. Four days later, he attended the opening of the second Caroline Parliament. Thereafter he missed only 14 of the 80 sittings of the upper House. Despite this impressive attendance rate, Hamilton once again left only the faintest impression on the Lords’ records. He was appointed to just one committee, on 19 Apr., when he was one of four peers sent to the king to discover when the House would be permitted to present to Charles its petition for the release of Thomas Howard^*, 21st (or 14th) earl of Arundel, and made only one recorded speech, on 15 May, during debate on the words spoken by Sir Dudley Digges at the presentation of the Commons’ charges of impeachment against Buckingham. The duke complained that Digges had impugned the king’s honour, whereupon Hamilton declared that he had heard nothing that could be thus interpreted. However, he also admitted that he had actually ‘heard little’. He subsequently took the protestation to this effect.52 Procs. 1626, i. 287, 289, 477, 483.

On 22 June, one week after the dissolution of Parliament, Buckingham licensed Hamilton to take up six horses to enable him and his followers to ride to Edinburgh and back.53 Add. 37816, f. 124v. The purpose of the intended trip is uncertain, but in July the king summoned to Edinburgh a great convention of estates, which met in August.54 J. Row, Hist. of the Kirk of Scotland, 1558-1637, p. 342; Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, i. 141. However, Hamilton seems did not remain in Scotland long enough to attend this assembly, for on being made a freeman of Edinburgh on 7 July, it was noted that he was about to return to court.55 Extracts from the Recs. of the Burgh of Edinburgh 1626-41, p. 6. The reason for this was that he had offered to accompany Buckingham, who intended to lead a second attack on Spain in person. He remained determined to sail with the fleet even after mid July, when Buckingham relinquished command on the advice of his doctors. However, in late August, while at Portsmouth, he changed his mind, presumably after hearing rumours that Buckingham now intended to resign the mastership of the horse to another.56 CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 412; William Whiteway of Dorchester: His Diary 1618-35 (Dorset Rec. Soc. xii), 84; Diary of Walter Yonge ed. G. Roberts (Cam. Soc. xli), 95.

Over the next two months, Hamilton’s relationship with Buckingham deteriorated sharply. One reason, aside from the duke’s lack of good faith, seems to have been that his annual pension of £2,500 was stopped because he had still not consummated his marriage. However, Hamilton had also become aware of the existence of George Eglisham’s inflammatory pamphlet, Forerunner of Revenge, which had been published in the spring. In this document, Eglisham claimed that Buckingham had poisoned Hamilton’s father, as well as the late King James and the 2nd duke of Lennox (Ludovic Stuart^*, duke of Richmond). The allegation was absurd, as all three men had died of natural causes, but it caused uproar among the Scots, who demanded an investigation.57 Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, i. 98, 132, 161, 166; HMC Skrine, 91.

At the same time as his relationship with Buckingham worsened, Hamilton found himself increasingly ill disposed towards the king. This was because, in October 1625, Charles, in attempting to improve the maintenance afforded to the clergy, had revoked all grants of crown lands in Scotland made since 1540. This policy put much of Hamilton’s estate at risk. Charles had subsequently tried to soften the blow by promising to compensate those landowners affected by this act of revocation, among them Hamilton.58 R. Cust, Chas. I, 213-14, 216. However, the marquess remained unimpressed.

By mid October 1626, Hamilton had had enough. He asked Charles for permission to return to Scotland, ostensibly to put his affairs in order, his father having died in considerable debt. Charles affected to believe this excuse, and outwardly blamed Hamilton’s mother and sisters for calling his young kinsman away. However, he was not taken in, for in mid November he issued an order requiring that payment of Hamilton’s pension be resumed.59 Burnet, 3-4; SO3/8, unfol. (14 Nov. 1626). On his father’s debts, see Oxford DNB, xxiv. 840. Armed with the king’s licence to leave, a disgusted Hamilton therefore abandoned his wife and quit the court on 20 October.60 CSP Ven. 1625-6, p. 594; Birch, i. 159-60. From Ware, in Hertfordshire, he reportedly wrote ‘a letter of defiance’ to the duke, and on reaching Scotland he petitioned the king for justice for his late father, whose death ‘he lays upon one man’.61 Holles Letters ed. P.R. Seddon (Thoroton Soc. xxxv), 339; Procs. 1626, iv. 349. See also William Whiteway of Dorchester: His Diary, 85.

Following Hamilton’s departure, the king tried to reassure his young kinsman. In December 1626, he informed him by letter that he would not suffer any loss as a result of the policy of revocation.62 Earl of Stirling’s Reg. of Royal Letters, 1615-35 ed. C. Rogers, i. 110. Two months later, Charles laid aside his threat to enforce revocation by legal action and instead appointed a commission of surrenders and teinds [tithes], to which Hamilton himself was named. However, Hamilton declined to play much part in the commission’s affairs, and resisted surrendering those lands, such as the abbey of Arbroath, which his family had acquired from the crown. Over the spring and summer of 1627, concerted efforts were made by Charles to placate Hamilton. In March, he not only appointed the marquess to the Scottish Privy Council but also sent Denbigh to Scotland to try to lure him back to court.63 Reg. PC Scot. 1625-7, p. 568; CSP Ven. 1626-8, p. 161. This approach failed, and therefore in May (and again in August), he ordered that Hamilton be paid £2,000 by way of a free gift,64 E403/2564, ff. 57v, 95. presumably as a contribution towards payment of the marquess’ debts or as compensation for lands to be surrendered.

These actions suggest that Charles was worried that Hamilton would become the focus of the now widespread opposition to the act of revocation if he remained in Scotland. They also hint at a deeper concern, as Hamilton was heir apparent to the Scottish throne, and Charles himself had not yet been crowned king of Scotland.65 The Venetian ambassador made precisely this observation as early as Dec. 1626: CSP Ven. 1625-6, p. 594. These fears may help to explain some otherwise puzzling comments in a letter sent to Hamilton by the courtier William Murray in February 1628. After explaining that ‘it is not so much laziness as fear [that] hinders my writing’, Murray observed ‘how late and ill closed your letters come to your friends’.66 NRS, GD406/1/90/1. Reading between the lines, it would seem that Murray suspected that correspondence between Hamilton and his allies at court was being secretly intercepted.

On 11 Feb. 1628 Charles wrote to Hamilton urging him to be one of the first to sign the submission to the act of revocation so as to set an example to others, who might otherwise complain.67 NRS, GD406/1/93. However, that same day Hamilton retired to the Isle of Arran, off the west coast of Scotland, where he spent the next seven months. There he occupied himself in hunting and fishing.68 Oxford DNB, xxiv. 840. As a result of this self-imposed exile, Hamilton played no part in the 1628 session of Parliament, which assembled on 22 March. Indeed, he did not even bother to appoint a proxy.69 Lords Procs. 1628, p. 87. Instead, in May, he was granted permission to equip up to five privateers for use against Spanish and French shipping.70 Reg. PC Scotland, 1627-8, pp. 324-5. He seems to have remained an object of suspicion, however, for in early July, soon after Parliament was prorogued, the king announced that he intended to travel to Scotland shortly to be crowned. On the other hand, it was Hamilton who was entrusted with the task of making the necessary arrangements.71 Earl of Stirling’s Reg. of Royal Letters, 1615-35, i. 292.

Hamilton might have remained in Scotland indefinitely had it not been for the assassination of Buckingham in August 1628. Shortly after the duke’s murder, he was again invited to return to England by Charles, who dispatched Denbigh with the message that, if he finally consummated his marriage, he would be appointed master of the horse.72 Burnet, 4; Beaumont Pprs. ed. W.D. Macray, 62. Finding this offer too good to resist, Hamilton returned to court in October.73 Orig. Letters Illustrative of Brit. Hist. ed. H. Ellis (1st ser.), iii. 271. After such a long and tiring journey, he naturally expected to be allowed to sleep and change his clothes before enjoying his wife. However, Charles, insisting that the matter would not wait, had the royal barber attend him with shirt, waistcoat and nightcap, and would not be satisfied until he had personally seen Hamilton and his young wife in bed together.74 Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, i. 419. Once the deed was done, Charles acted quickly to honour his promise. On 7 Nov. Hamilton was appointed master of the horse.

The expedition to Germany, 1630-2

Hamilton attended Parliament when it reassembled on 20 Jan. 1629, but made no recorded contribution to the session, missing several sittings, including those held between 14 and 21 February inclusive. By now England’s war with Spain had all but ended. Hamilton was disappointed that the chief objective of the war – the restoration of the king’s daughter, Elizabeth of Bohemia, and her husband, Frederick V, to their hereditary lands on the Rhine – had not been achieved. Although he seems never to have met Elizabeth, Hamilton was passionate about her cause. Indeed, in 1632 Elizabeth would remark to her husband that Hamilton ‘always shows the greatest affection in everything that concerns us’.75 Corresp. of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, II: 1632-42 ed. N. Akkerman, 132. The most promising chance of recovering the Rhenish Palatinate seemed to lie with supporting the Protestant king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, who was planning to invade Germany, much of which had been overrun by the forces of Spain and the Holy Roman emperor. Sometime over the autumn of 1629, therefore, Hamilton approached the Swedish ambassador with an offer to lead a force of 6,000 Scottish volunteers at his own expense.76 HMC Hamilton, i. 69. Gustavus was delighted, and in May 1630 he responded with the promise of a commission, and 6,000 troops of his own.77 Burnet, 8-10.

Hamilton evidently spent the first half of 1630 in Scotland, arranging marriages for his three sisters.78 Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, ii. 48, 49; HMC Hamilton, i. 55; CP, iii. 520; v. 22; x. 692. However, he had returned to England by June, when he attended the christening at Whitehall of Prince Charles, at which ceremony he acted as proxy for the king of Bohemia.79 Ceremonies of Chas. I, 88. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed keeper of Hampton Court Palace for life. Although the queen of Bohemia’s chief adviser, Sir Thomas Roe^‡, thought Hamilton’s plan to serve Sweden’s king over ambitious,80 SP81/36, f. 216r-v. Charles I warmly approved of it. In September he instructed the Exchequer to pay Hamilton £11,000 and authorized the levy of 6,000 troops in Scotland. The following month he also admitted Hamilton to the order of the Garter, England’s elite order of knighthood.81 C115/105/8127; SO3/10, unfol. (Sept. 1630); Reg. PC Scot. 1630-2, p. 193; CSP Ven. 1629-32, pp. 129-30. In February 1631 Charles instructed the Scottish Exchequer to grant Hamilton the customs on wine for 16 years, which were reportedly worth £10,000 (sterling) p.a.82 Earl of Stirling’s Reg. of Royal Letters, 1615-35, i. 499-500.

In January 1631 it became clear that Gustavus, who was by now campaigning in Germany, would be unable to provide Hamilton with the promised 6,000 troops. Instead, the marquess was asked to raise additional forces himself. Despite this setback, Hamilton entered into a formal agreement with the Swedish king at the beginning of March. A few weeks later, the English Privy Council issued instructions to allow Hamilton to raise 6,000 troops in England.83 APC, 1630-1, p. 264. That May, Hamilton rode to Scotland to oversee the raising of troops there in person.84 CSP Dom. Addenda, 1625-49, p. 409; HMC 2nd Rep. 178.

During Hamilton’s absence, James Stewart, 1st Lord Ochiltree [S] informed the king that Hamilton was planning to use his army to seize the throne of Scotland. He also warned that Hamilton, on his return, intended to murder Charles in his bedchamber. However, the king’s earlier suspicion of Hamilton had now vanished. Indeed, a few months later he told the marquess that ‘my trust in you is so well grounded that it lies not in the power of anybody to alter me from being your loving friend and cousin’. Consequently, on Hamilton’s return to Whitehall on 22 May, Charles instructed his young kinsman to sleep in the royal bedchamber.85 HMC Mar and Kellie, i. 182-3, 185-6; Burnet, 15-16. At the end of June, having carried out an inquiry in person, he publicly exonerated both Hamilton and several other Scottish peers, who also stood accused.86 Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, ii. 126; Reg. PC Scot. 1630-2, p. 263. He thereupon arrested Ochiltree, who remained a prisoner for the next 20 years.

Hamilton had returned to England largely empty-handed. He had expected to find in Scotland around 6,000 troops, but, despite the best efforts of the Scottish Privy Council, only 400 had been raised, as many Scots were already fighting on the Continent.87 Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, ii. 148. Fortunately for him, however, it had proved easier to raise recruits in England. Even so, many men proved reluctant to enlist, remembering the ill treatment received by those who had served under Count Mansfeld six years earlier.88 CSP Ven. 1629-32, p. 523. Consequently, instead of leading an army of 12,000 men, as he had hoped, Hamilton set sail in mid July with only about half that number.

Hamilton landed on the 27th at Elsinore, where he was greeted by the king’s uncle, Christian IV of Denmark, who provided a feast in his honour. One week later he arrived at Wolgast, on the Pomeranian coast, where his troops disembarked.89 Burnet, 20; CSP Dom. 1631-3, p. 139; Add. 29974, pt. i, f. 160. Gustavus Adolphus, who had expected Hamilton to land on the Weser,90 M. Roberts, Gustavus Adolphus, ii. 535, 608. was delighted to hear of his safe arrival, and instructed him to lead his small army down the Oder into Silesia, where he would be met by 5,000 troops under the Scottish general, Alexander Leslie.91 HMC Hamilton, i. 73. Somewhat less pleased was the imperialist commander, the count of Tilly. In order to counter the threat posed by Hamilton, and garrison some vital towns, he was forced to reduce his field army by 6,000 or 7,000 men. It was thus a weakened imperialist army which encountered Gustavus four weeks later near the Saxon village of Breitenfeld.92 Rubinstein, 32. In the ensuing battle, Tilly was completely routed.

Without firing a shot, Hamilton had contributed to the first significant Protestant victory of the Thirty Years’ War, albeit indirectly. Following this triumph, Hamilton urged Charles I to ally openly with Gustavus. Were he to do so, he claimed, the emperor would have little choice but to accept Charles’s terms, which included the restoration of the Palatinate to the king and queen of Bohemia.93 HMC Hamilton, i. 77. This argument proved to be so persuasive that Charles subsequently dispatched Sir Henry Vane^‡ as ambassador to the king of Sweden to negotiate entering into just such an alliance.

Although his arrival had helped to change the course of the conflict in Germany, and although he himself inflicted a minor defeat upon the enemy at Crossen-an-der-Oder, Hamilton soon began to feel frustrated. By the middle of September his small army had been reduced by one third due to the outbreak of disease, and instead of the 5,000 reinforcements he had been promised by Gustavus he received only 600.94 Ibid. 74, 76, 77. To make matters worse, most of his troops disliked serving under a Scottish commander, particularly one who insisted that they march to a Scottish beat.95 CSP Ven. 1629-32, p. 523; Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, ii. 148. Nevertheless, in accordance with Gustavus’ instructions, he marched his depleted force to Magdeburg, on the Elbe, which city had been sacked by the imperialists the previous spring. There he commenced a siege, and in mid December offered generous terms to his opposite number, whose forces he barely outnumbered. However, in January 1632 the negotiations were broken off after the enemy commander learned that a relief force was en route. The garrison sallied out, and as a result Hamilton’s forces were obliged to regroup two miles from the city.96 HMC Hamilton, i. 75, 78, 79.

Following this reverse, Hamilton’s men retired to winter quarters. Hamilton himself was forced to pay their wages out of his own pocket, for the money he had been provided with had all gone and Gustavus, assured by Vane that the marquess had been given sufficient funds by Charles I, furnished him with none himself. By early February it was clear to Hamilton that he would need additional troops if he were to resume campaigning in the spring.97 Ibid. 79. Few of his men had survived, and those that remained were sufficient to field only a single regiment. Gustavus therefore offered Hamilton a fresh command, consisting of 8,000 men.98 C115/105/8192. However, by now Hamilton had grown to distrust Gustavus, whom he described in a letter to Charles as a king of ‘excessive ambition and intolerable pride’.99 HMC Hamilton, i. 78. It is not hard to see why. Gustavus was now master of much of the Rhenish Palatinate and might have restored to power the king and queen of Bohemia had he wished. However, he chose not to do so, because the negotiations with Vane had broken down. He also declined to allow Hamilton to operate in the Palatinate until Charles declared war on the emperor.100 Ibid. 80.

By May 1632 Hamilton was uncertain whether to remain in Swedish service. On the one hand, as he frankly admitted to Charles, ‘I am not very ambitious of further employment here’, but on the other he recognized that if England openly committed herself to the Swedish cause, ‘not only the Palatinate will be restored, but all Germany’.101 Ibid. 81. However, Charles advised him to return to England.102 Burnet, 29. Consequently, in late August, after recovering from a serious bout of illness, Hamilton obtained leave of absence from the Swedish king, who granted him authority to raise a fresh army of 10,000 or 12,000 men.103 HMC Hamilton, i. 80-1; HMC 3rd Rep. 191. He left a month later, when he was warmly embraced by Gustavus, who promised to send him money.104 Corresp. of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, II: 1632-42, p. 125. His departure came not a moment too soon, as Charles had now decided that Hamilton had ‘been long enough at school under a cursed schoolmaster’.105 HMC Var. iii. 257; Burnet, 31.

Life at court, and the outbreak of the Scottish rebellion,1632-8

Hamilton reached England in October 1632, and immediately went to Newmarket to see the king, who made much of him, though others blamed him for the almost complete destruction of his force. Though undoubtedly relieved to be home, Hamilton announced that he intended to return to Germany in the following spring.106 Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, ii. 181, 184; CSP Dom. 1631-3, p. 437; CSP Ven. 1632-6, p. 19. However, following the death of Gustavus at Lützen in November 1632, he abandoned this plan. He nevertheless remained one of the few leading courtiers who continued to support the Palatine cause. (Elizabeth of Bohemia was well aware of this, and on sending her son, Charles Louis, to England in 1635, she instructed Hamilton to take him under his wing and ‘chide him when he doth not well’).107 CSP Ven. 1632-6, p. 565; Corresp. of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, II: 1632-42, p. 355. Hamilton also retained his ties with Sweden, which enabled him to serve as an intermediary between the Swedes and Charles I. In 1633 Chancellor Axel Oxienstierna contacted him in the hope of persuading Charles to permit Sweden to levy 3,000 Scots, and in 1635 Charles offered the Swedes a military alliance through Hamilton. Although this latter overture failed to bear fruit, the Swedish Parliament, or Riksråd, bestowed upon Hamilton six brass cannons, which the marquess later offered to Charles during the First Bishops’ War. In the spring of 1637, just as it appeared likely that England would finally declare war on the emperor, Oxenstierna again approached Hamilton in order to obtain permission to recruit Scottish troops.108 A.N.L. Grosjean, ‘Scots and the Swedish Military State: Diplomacy, Military Service and Ennoblement, 1611-60’ (Aberdeen Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1998), 87, 89, 154.

As reward for his service in Germany, Hamilton was appointed to the English Privy Council in March 1633. In order to enable him to recover his losses, he was also granted permission to sell, for £20,000, the mastership of the horse.109 CSP Ven. 1632-6, pp. 86-7. However, Hamilton proved understandably reluctant to part with such a prestigious office. As master of the horse, he accompanied Charles to Scotland in May 1633, and in the following month he took part in the processional entry to Edinburgh, in which he rode immediately behind Charles, who was formally crowned king of Scotland.110 Manner of the Coronation of King Chas. I ed. C. Wordsworth (Henry Bradshaw Soc. ii), 96.

It was perhaps because he was reluctant to surrender his court office that, over the summer, the Scottish Parliament appointed Hamilton as collector of taxes and granted him £40,000 sterling, as his fee.111 Historical Works of Sir Jas. Balfour, ii. 197, 200. The king certainly remained anxious that Hamilton should not suffer financially for his service under the Swedes, for in June 1634 he instructed Scotland’s chief law officer to draft certain legal documents accordingly.112 Earl of Stirling’s Reg. of Royal Letters, 1615-35, ii. 768. Nevertheless, Charles was equally determined that the marquess should finally comply with his wishes in respect of lands conveyed to his family by the crown. Chief among these was the abbey of Arbroath, which his father had obtained from James I. In 1635 Hamilton was at last persuaded to surrender this property.113 Ibid. 860; Works of Abp. Laud ed. Bliss, vi. 435. At around the same time, he was also induced to surrender his lease of the Scottish wine farm, which he had been granted in 1631. In return it was ordered that he receive a cash payment of £40,000 sterling.114 Reg. PC Scot. 1633-5, p. 314.

During the second half of the 1630s, Hamilton began collecting Italian paintings, relying upon his brother-in-law, Basil Feilding, now Viscount Feilding and ambassador to Venice, to act as his buyer. In 1637 Hamilton gave Feilding carte blanche: provided the pictures concerned were of the finest quality and original, money was no object. However, Hamilton also acted as agent for the king, who built up an impressive collection of pictures. Charles’s chief competitor was the earl of Arundel, whose passion for collecting was unrivalled. In July 1637 Hamilton learned that Arundel was seeking to buy up an important collection in northern Italy. Determined that Charles should not be denied these pictures by Arundel, Hamilton told Feilding that ‘whatsoever they cost, I will not want them’.115 HMC 4th Rep. 257, 258.

It may have been partly because of the costs involved in art collecting that Hamilton exploited his close relationship with the king to increase his income. In July 1636 he obtained, for 31 years, the right of pre-emption over lead ore in the Peak district.116 CSP Dom. 1636-7, p. 66; 1637-8, p. 98. Twelve months later he was granted the right to license hackney coachmen throughout England and Wales, 50 of them in the capital. In the autumn of 1637 the king assigned him half the proceeds arising from fines levied on all concealments, encroachments and wastes within 20 miles of London, while in 1638 Charles gave him £4,000 arising from a fine payable every year by the Vintners’ Company for breaching the terms of their charter.117 Coventry Docquets, 46, 278; Rubinstein, 46. Hamilton’s grants were not restricted to England, as he also acquired an interest in the Irish iron industry, and in March 1637 was given permission to drain some fenland and improve the fishing on a stretch of coastland in County Down owned by the crown.118 Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, ii. 279; CSP Ire. 1633-47, p. 152. Perhaps the most eye-catching of all Hamilton’s grants was that of Newfoundland and its fisheries, which he and a small consortium of fellow courtiers obtained in the autumn of 1637.119 HMC 9th Rep. I, 271. How much these licences and patents were worth annually is impossible to say. However, Hamilton clung on to them with great tenacity. When his control of the Irish iron patent was challenged in 1637, one observer remarked that the marquess ‘is not easily taken off, especially where there is a glimmering of good profit in it’.120 Strafforde Letters, ii. 72.

Although Hamilton lived mostly at court, he occasionally returned to his native Scotland. In June 1634 he was dispatched to Edinburgh after the Scottish Privy Council imprisoned several peers for opposing the Five Articles of Perth.121 Ibid. i. 266. These articles, introduced by James I in 1617 and ratified (at the insistence of Hamilton’s father) by the Scottish Parliament in 1621, required the Scottish church to adopt some of the ceremonies observed in England. Hamilton again returned to Scotland two years later, this time to make up the accounts of the subsidies voted by the Scottish Parliament in 1633.122 Corresp. of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, II: 1632-42, p. 473. However, he became a more regular visitor from the spring of 1638, after many of his fellow countrymen refused to accept the English Prayer Book and signed the National Covenant, which required all innovations in matters of religion to be referred to the Scottish Parliament and the general assembly of the Scottish church.

Hamilton was appointed the king’s representative for negotiating with the Covenanters on 8 May 1638. However, though his instructions were signed on the 16th, he was obliged to delay his departure for Scotland until the 26th.123 Reg. PC Scot. 1638-43, p. 19; Burnet, 62; Works of Abp. Laud, iii. 230. This was due to the illness of his wife, who died from tuberculosis on the 10th at Wallingford House, which property he had been renting from the dowager duchess of Buckingham for the last few years.124 CSP Dom. 1637-8, p. 431; C115/109/8818; CSP Ven. 1636-9, p. 416. Hamilton was grief-stricken at Mary’s death, for despite his earlier refusal to consummate their union, his marriage had been a happy one.125 HMC 6th Rep. 284.

Hamilton was granted a modicum of discretion in dealing with the Covenanters, being instructed to choose which of two versions of the same proclamation to issue. In both versions, the king promised to enforce the Prayer Book in such a ‘fair and legal way’ that none would be able to accuse him of introducing innovation in matters of religion. However, in the first version Charles offered a pardon to those whose zeal for religion had led them to adopt seditious courses, in return for their renouncing of the Covenant. In the second version he threatened to use force against them.126 Burnet, 56-7; Hamilton Pprs. ed. S.R. Gardiner (Cam. Soc. n.s. xxvii), 2; P. Donald, An Uncounselled King, 72-4.

On his arrival in Scotland in early June, Hamilton was shocked by what he found. En route to Holyroodhouse he was mobbed by a crowd of about 60,000, some of whom threatened to stop his horse and force him to listen to their demands. Almost everyone, he discovered, was alienated from the king, even many members of the Scottish Privy Council. Moreover they had combined themselves ‘in a more rebellious manner than I can express, to resist and trample under foot ... royal authority’. Indeed, an ‘infinite armed multitude’ now controlled Edinburgh. The Covenanters claimed that the National Covenant was legal, which Hamilton described as ‘a tenet so dangerous to monarchy as I cannot see how they can well stand together’. They also maintained that their actions in banding together would all be given legal authority by a general assembly of the church or a Parliament. In the short term, Hamilton did what he could to cause the rebels to disperse, remonstrating with their leaders that the king had acted within his rights in imposing the English form of worship on the Scots. However, he lacked the means to enforce his will. He therefore urged the king to come in person at the head of an army.127 Hamilton Pprs. 3-10.

It was under these circumstances that, on 4 July, Hamilton decided to issue the first, gentler version of the proclamation which he had been given before leaving England. This document, though it suspended the execution of the new liturgy, immediately excited protest because of its requirement that the Covenant be renounced.128 Burnet, 81; Donald, 86; P. Heylyn, Cyprianus Anglicus (1671), 351. Hamilton subsequently returned to London bearing the Covenanters’ demand that Charles summon a general assembly and a Parliament. Even before his arrival, Charles expressed complete satisfaction with his conduct, but he had no intention of complying with the Covenanters’ key wish, for as he explained to Hamilton, were he to accept the Covenant he would have no more power in Scotland than a duke of Venice.129 Burnet, 76; CSP Ven. 1636-9, p. 439. He nevertheless listened to Hamilton, who advised him to offer to replace the Covenant with an alternative, authorized document based upon a statement made by Scotland’s early reformers in 1567, and to summon a general assembly of the kirk. However, Hamilton’s second mission to Scotland, in August, ended in failure, as the marquess decided not to risk summoning a general assembly without a stronger party of his own supporters for fear that it would lead to the abolition of episcopacy.130 Donald, 89, 92.

Throughout these negotiations it was clear that Hamilton was trying to steer a middle course between Charles and the Covenanters. This was not entirely surprising, for although there is little reason to doubt the sincerity of Hamilton’s professed abhorrence of the Covenanter cause, the rebels ranged against him included his own mother.131 CSP Ven. 1636-9, p. 489. Of course, there was never any real possibility that Hamilton might throw in his lot with the king’s Scottish opponents. Nevertheless, the king made sure that his kinsman was richly rewarded for his loyalty. In June he granted him the manor of Chelsea, and in October he awarded him an annual pension of £8,000.132 CSP Dom. 1637-8, pp. 526-7; Coventry Docquets, 279.

Hamilton returned to Scotland for a third time in mid November 1638,133 Strafforde Letters, ii. 237. by which time Charles had reluctantly agreed to allow a general assembly of the kirk to meet at Glasgow. However, as Hamilton feared, this body not only swept away the English Prayer Book but also declared the Five Articles of Perth to be invalid and episcopacy incompatible with the traditions of the Scottish church. Hamilton was horrified. On 27 Nov. he wrote to Charles apologizing for having failed to create ‘so considerable a party as will curb the insolency of this rebellious nation’, and for having been ‘so useless a servant to him to whom I owe so much’. In his despair he suspected not only that the leaders of the Covenanters ‘have somewhat else in their thoughts than religion’; he also feared for his life. It was now clear to him that only force would bring his fellow countrymen to their senses. Since the Covenanters’ chief strength lay in trade, he advised imposing an immediate naval blockade of the Firth of Forth.134 Misc. State Pprs. ed. Hardwicke, ii. 113.

Final years, 1638-49

In 1639 Hamilton himself led a royal fleet to blockade the approaches to Edinburgh. Following the Pacification of Berwick he tried, without success, to avoid a second war with his fellow Scots. This conflict ended in humiliating defeat for the king, and Hamilton, fearing that he would be punished after the Long Parliament assembled, sought to preserve himself by throwing in his lot with the king’s enemies at Westminster, led by Francis Russell^*, 4th earl of Bedford. Under these circumstances Charles came to suspect him of double-dealing, and in the autumn of 1641 Hamilton was forced to flee Edinburgh to avoid arrest or even assassination. He nevertheless rejoined the king in November 1641.

During the First English Civil War, Hamilton acted as the chief royalist agent in Scotland, for which service he was created duke of Hamilton in April 1643. However, he not only proved unable to persuade the Scots to intervene on the royalist side but also failed to prevent the Scots from siding with the king’s enemies. In the autumn of 1643, Hamilton fled to Oxford, where, at the behest of James Graham, marquess of Montrose [S], he was arrested and charged with treason. Stripped of his court offices, he spent the next 28 months as a prisoner in Pendennis Castle, Cornwall. He was finally released by parliamentary forces in April 1646.

Despite his long period of captivity, Hamilton rebuilt his relationship with Charles over the next few years. In December 1647 he even signed the Engagement, whereby Scotland agreed to intervene in England on the side of the king. However, the ensuing campaign, in which Hamilton himself played a leading role, was a disaster. In August 1648 Hamilton was forced to surrender to the parliamentary general, John Lambert^‡. Found guilty of treason on 6 Mar. 1649, he was beheaded three days later. His remains were subsequently transported to Scotland, and interred, on 1 May, in his family’s vault at Hamilton.135 Rubinstein, 230, 238. Having suffered the loss of all three of his sons as children, he was succeeded as duke of Hamilton and earl of Cambridge by his brother, William Hamilton^†.