who held the high and almost vice-regal office of Chancellor of Scotland. By the recommendation of this nobleman, aided by his own excellent qualifications, he was created by Charles I., Lord Lion King at Arms, a dignified legal office in Scotland, in which resides the management of all matters connected with armorial honours, as also all public ceremonials. Sir Jerome Lyndsay having previously resigned the office, Balfour was crowned and installed at Holyroodhouse, June 15, 1630, having in the preceding month been invested with the necessary honour of knighthood by the king. On this occasion, Lord Dupplin officiated as Royal Commissioner.
Sir James Balfour now settled in Scotland, in the enjoyment of his office. On the 21st of October, he was married to Anna Aiton, daughter of Sir John Aiton of that Ilk, and in January, 1631, he obtained, in favour of himself and his spouse, a grant of the lands and barony of Kinnaird in Fife. In December, 1633, he was created a baronet by Charles I., probably in consequence of the able manner in which he marshalled the processions and managed the other ceremonials of the royal visit that year. At this period of peace and prosperity, a number of learned and ingenious men were beginning to exert themselves in Scotland. It was a peaceful interval between the desolating civil wars of the minority of King James, and the equally unhappy contest which was soon after incited by religious and political dissentions. Like soldiers enjoying themselves during a truce, the people were beginning to seek for and cultivate various sources of amusement in the more elegant arts. This was the era of Jamieson, the painter—of Drummond, the poet—of the geographer Pont—and the historians Spottiswood, Calderwood, Johnston, and Hume.[1] Sir James Balfour, inspired with the common spirit of these men, commenced the writing of history, with as much zeal as could be expected in an age, when, the printing of a written work being a comparatively rare occurrence, literature might be said to want the greater part of its temptations.
Sir James, as already mentioned, had been bred a strict Presbyterian. In this profession he continued to the last, notwithstanding that, in politics, he was an equally firm royalist. In a letter to a young nobleman, [Correspondence, Advocates' Library,] he is found advising a perusal of "Calvine, Beza, Parens, and Whittaker," as "orthodox writers." When the introduction of the liturgy imposed by Charles I. roused Scotland from one end to the other in a fit of righteous indignation, Sir James Balfour, notwithstanding his connection with the government, joined cordially with his countrymen, and wrote an account of the tumult of the 23rd of July, under the burlesque title of "Stoneyfield Day."[2]
- ↑ David Hume of Godscroft, author of the History of the House of Douglas.
- ↑ In a letter written on the 27th of July, to his friend Lord Elcho, he thus expresses himself regarding that extraordinary exertion of popular force:—
My Lord,—I know your suddain departure from this citey on Saturday was to see how they brought your light from darkness. Naiher will I accuse you as privy to that Osanna our grate-heided bishope had this bypast Saboth, from the tumultuous concors in welcom-
lordship. The King, in 1626, had commanded, by a letter to his Privy Council, that the Archbishop of St Andrews should have precedence of the Chancellor. To this his lordship would never submit. "I remember," says Sir James, "that K. Charles sent me to the Lord Chancellor on the day of his coronation, in the morning, to show him that it was his will and pleasure, bot onlie for that day, that he wold ceed and give way to the archbishop; but he returned by me to his Majestie a wery bruske answer, which was that he was ready in all humility to lay his office doune at his Majestie's feet; bot since it was his royal will he should enjoy it with the knowen privileges of the same, never a priest in Scotland should sett a foot before him, so long as his blood was hote. Quhen I had related his answer to the kinge, he said, 'Weel, Lyone, letts goe to business: I will not medle farther with that olde cankered gootish man, at quhose hand ther is nothing to be gained bot soure words.'" What makes this anecdote the more expressively illustrative of the rancour with which the secular officers and nobility beheld the newly dignified clergy is, that the Lord Chancellor had just on the preceding afternoon been raised to the rank of Earl of Kinnoul.
