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Campbell
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Campbell


conspiring for her rescue from Lochleven, was dread of the revelations made on the scaffold by the subordinate agents in the murder of Darnley. Something must moreover be attributed to the influence of his relations the Hamiltons, who knew how to work both on his hopes and fears. Subsequently he also asserted that in his efforts in behalf of Mary he had been secretly encouraged by Elizabeth (Randolph to Cecil, 21 Feb. 1573), and his appeals to her to support the cause of Mary after her escape would seem to favour the supposition. He signed the bond, 8 May 1568, to effect the queen's deliverance from Lochleven, and on her escape joined her at Hamilton, and was appointed lieutenant of the forces who mustered to her support. To his incapacity, owing to irresolution or his disablement by a fainting fit, is generally attributed the fatal hesitancy at the crisis of the battle of Langside on 13 May, which resulted in the rout of the queen's forces and the ruin of her cause. After the flight of the queen to England, Argyll retired to Dunoon, and, refusing to submit to the regent, appeared twice in Glasgow to concert measures with the Hamiltons for her restoration; but, as Elizabeth only supported the movement by promises never put in execution, he at last made an amicable arrangement with the opposite party, and gave in his submission to Moray at St. Andrews on 14 April 1569. After the murder of the regent, Argyll and Boyd sent a letter to Morton on 17 Feb. 1570 avowing ignorance of the perpetrators of the deed. It is perhaps only charitable to suppose that Argyll was not aware of the conspiracy against the life of one who so long had been his most confidential friend, and afterwards had dealt with him so leniently, but he continued for a time to act as formerly with the Hamiltons. Subsequently, finding the cause of Mary hopeless, he made terms with the faction of the king, and, after the death of Lennox on 4 Sept. 1571, was a candidate, with the Earl of Mar, for the regency. The choice fell on Mar, but Argyll was chosen a privy councillor. On Morton obtaining the regency in November 1572, Argyll was made lord high chancellor, and on 17 Jan. 1573 obtained a charter for that office for life. Chiefly through his agency a reconciliation was brought about between the two rival parties, on the secret understanding—of considerable importance to himself—that no further inquiry should be made into the murder of the late king. He died of stone on 12 Sept. 1573 (not 1575 as sometimes stated), aged about 43. After the death of his first wife, the half-sister of Mary, queen of Scotland, he married Johanneta Cunningham, second daughter of Alexander, fifth earl of Glencairn, but by neither marriage had he any issue, and the estates and title passed to his brother, Colin Campbell of Boquhan, sixth earl [q. v.]

Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vols. i. and ii.; Calendar of State Papers (Scottish Series), vol. i.; ib. (Irish Series) for 1509–1573; ib. (Foreign Series) from 1559 to 1573; Knox's Works (Bannatyne Club), vols. i. ii. iii. and vi.; Calderwood's History of the Kirk of Scotland (Wodrow Society), vols. i. ii. and iii.; Bishop Keith's History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland (1835), vols. i. ii. and iii.; Donald Gregory's History of the Western Highlands; Letters to the Argyll Family from various Sovereigns (Maitland Club); Historie of King James the Sext (Bannatyne Club); Crawford's Officers of State, i. 116–32; Douglas's Scotch Peerage, i. 91–3; the Histories of Tytler, Burton, and Froude.]

T. F. H.

CAMPBELL, ARCHIBALD, seventh Earl of Argyll (1576?–1638), eldest son of Colin, sixth earl of Argyll [q. v.], by his second wife, Agnes, eldest daughter of William, fourth earl Marischal, widow of the regent Moray, was born about 1576. Being only eight years of age on the death of his father, he was commended by his will to the protection of the king, and placed under the care of his mother, with the advice and assistance of six persons of the clan Campbell. Quarrels arose between his guardians, and Archibald Campbell of Lochnell, the nearest heir to the earldom, entered into a conspiracy with the Earl of Huntly to effect the murder of Campbell of Calder, of the Earl of Moray, and also of the young Earl of Argyll. Moray was murdered in February 1592 by a party of Gordons, under the command of the Earl of Huntly; Calder was shot by a hackbut; and Argyll, soon after his marriage, in 1592, to Lady Anne Douglas, fifth daughter of William, first earl of Morton, of the house of Lochleven, was attacked at Stirling by a serious illness, the result, it was supposed, of attempts to poison him by some of his household, bribed by Campbell of Lochnell. On 22 June 1594 Campbell of Ardkinglass, one of the conspirators, signed a document, in which he made a full confession of all that he knew of the plots against Calder and the Earls of Moray and Argyll. For some reason or other the confession was not immediately revealed to Argyll, and when, in the autumn of the same year, he was appointed king's lieutenant against the Earls of Huntly and Erroll, Campbell of Lochnell had command of one of the divisions of the army. With an army of six thousand men Argyll marched towards Strathbogie, and at Glenlivat fell in with Huntly and Erroll, in command of fif-