Documents relating to Scotland, iv. 1239), and in subsequent years he was sent to England on various other important embassies. He died about 1470. By his wife Margaret, second daughter of Sir Thomas Boyd of Kilmarnock, father of the first Lord Boyd, he had three, or possibly four sons and three daughters: Alexander, master of Montgomerie, who died in 1452, leaving by his wife Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir Adam Hepburn of Hales a son, Alexander, second lord Montgomerie, father of Hugh, first earl of Eglinton [q. v.]; George, ancestor of the Montgomeries of Skelmorlie; Thomas, parson of Eaglesham, and rector of the university of Glasgow; John of Giffen (doubtful); Margaret, married to Sir John Stewart of Darnley, who was created Lord Darnley, and for a time was titular Earl of Lennox; Elizabeth, to John, lord Kennedy, seventh earl of Cassillis; and Agnes, to William Cunningham of Glengarnock.
[Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, vol. iv.; Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, vol. ii.; Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. vol. i.; Sir William Fraser's Earls of Eglinton; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 495-6.]
MONTGOMERIE, ALEXANDER (1556?–1610?), Scottish poet, second son of Hugh Montgomerie of Hessilhead Castle, Ayrshire (Timothy Pont, Topography of Cunningham, Maitland Club, p. 19), was, according to one of his poems, born 'on Bister day at morne,' probably in 1556. His father was a kinsman of the Eglinton family (G. S. Montgomery, Hist. of Montgomery of Ballyleek, p. 115). His mother was a daughter of Houston of Houston. A sister Elizabeth became the wife of Sir William Mure of Rowallan, father of Sir William Mure [q. v.] The eldest brother John succeeded to Hessilhead. A younger brother, Robert (d. 1609), is separately noticed.
Montgomerie's poems show that he received a scholarly training in youth. If one can trust a statement by Sir Patrick Hume [q. v.] of Polwarth, his antagonist in the 'Flyting,' he must have been sent to Argyleshire for a part of his education (Flyting, 11. 183, 184). The circumstance may account for his being called by Dempster Eques Montanus, an expression probably equivalent to 'highland trooper.' Montgomerie was never knighted. On his return from Argyleshire he appears to have resided for a time at Compston Castle, a little way above Kirkcudbright, near the junction of the Dee and the Tarff. Andrew Symson, in his 'Large Description of Galloway' (MS. Adv. Lib.}, drawn up in 1684 and enlarged in 1692, mentions a report current in his day to the effect that Montgomerie's fancy had been quickened by the romantic scenery of the Dee when he composed 'The Cherrie and the Slae.' Symson's statement is supported by Robert Sempill, Montgomerie's contemporary, who, in 'The Legend of the Bischop of St. Androis Lyfe,' calls him Captain Kirkburne, in obvious allusion to his residence in the stewartry.
Montgomerie soon obtained an introduction to the Scottish court. In 1577 he was in the suite of the Regent Morton, on whose compulsory resignation in the following year he was retained in the king's service. His official duties apparently entitled him to the style of captain, and he also became the laureate of the court. The king, in his 'Revlis and Cavtelis of Scottis Poesie,' recognised his abilities by quoting passages from his poems as examples of different kinds of verse. But he somehow fell into disgrace, although his services were rewarded with a pension of five hundred marks, payable from certain rents of the archbishopric of Glasgow. The date of this grant is not known, but it was confirmed in 1583, when payment was to be computed from the previous year.
In 1586 he obtained a royal license to leave the kingdom for five years, and to visit France, Flanders, Spain, and other countries. During his travels he was confined in a foreign prison, and his pension was withheld, an act which led to a protracted lawsuit in the court of session. Eventually the grant was renewed and confirmed by a writ of privy seal dated at Holyrood House 21 March 1588-9. Dempster says he died in 1591, bewailed by his sovereign, who was charmed with the effusions of his mirthful muse. But at least two pieces by Montgomerie refer to events that took place in 1592, and we have no reason to doubt that he was alive in 1605, when his 'Mindes Melodie' was printed by Robert Charteris. His death occurred, however, before 1615, as on the title-page of the edition of 'The Cherrie and the Slae,' printed by Andro Hart in that year, the poem is said to have undergone careful revision by the author not long before his death. He married and had issue Alexander and Margaret. The latter in March 1622 was tried for witchcraft (Montgomery, p. 117).
Montgomerie occupies a conspicuous place in the poetical literature of Scotland during a period almost barren of poetic genius. 'The Cherrie and the Slae,' which has long been popular with his countrymen, is written in a fourteen-line stanza, of which, if Montgomerie was not the inventor, he is certainly the greatest master. It is wanting in design, and bears unmistakable traces of having been written at considerable intervals. The first
