Sir James Balfour of Pittendreich & Monquhany, Laird of Pitendrech and Burleigh

Wikipedia Biographical Summary

"James Balfour, Lord Pittendreich (c.1525 - 1583) was a Scottish judge and politician...

...The son of Sir Michael Balfour of Montquhanny, he was educated for the legal branch of the Church of Scotland. In June 1547, together with John Knox and others captured at St Andrews, Fife, following the capture of the castle by pro-Catholic French forces he was condemned to become a galley-slave rowing French galleys, but was released in 1549. He denounced Protestantism and entered the service of Mary of Guise, and was rewarded with important legal appointments...

...He subsequently joined the Lords of the Congregation, a group of Protestant nobles who were against the marriage of the young, Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Dauphin of France (later to become Francois II of France), but betrayed their plans...

...After Mary's arrival in Scotland he became one of her secretaries, in 1565 being reported as her greatest favourite after Rizzio. He obtained the parsonage of Flisk in Fife in 1561, was nominated an Extraordinary Lord of Session, and in 1563 one of the commissaries of the court which now took the place of the former ecclesiastical tribunal; in 1565 he was made a privy councillor, and in 1566 Lord Clerk Register, and was knighted."

SOURCE: Wikipedia contributors, 'James Balfour, Lord Pittendreich', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 17 February 2012, 01:20 UTC, <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Balfour,_Lord_Pitte...> [accessed 17 August 2012]

"Sir James Balfour, in full Sir James Balfour of Pittendreich, (born c. 1525—died 1583), Scottish judge who, by frequently shifting his political allegiances, influenced the course of events in the early years of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland.

"Educated for the priesthood, Balfour became a follower of the Reformation and in May 1546 was involved in the assassination of Cardinal David Beaton at St. Andrews Castle, Fife. When the castle surrendered to the French in June 1547, Balfour was made a galley slave, but he won his freedom by renouncing Protestantism two years later. He then supported the Roman Catholic regent, Mary of Guise, mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, in her struggle against the Protestant nobles. In 1559 Balfour rejoined the Protestants as a spy for Mary of Guise.

"After the Roman Catholic Queen Mary began her personal rule in Scotland (1561), Balfour became a judge and a leading royal adviser. He probably helped Mary’s favourite, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, arrange the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley (Feb. 9/10, 1567). When the Protestant lords rebelled against Mary and Bothwell—by then her husband—in June 1567, Balfour again changed sides and revealed the queen’s military plans to her enemies. Mary was deposed in July, and in December Balfour became lord president of the Court of Session. His testimony led to the conviction and execution in 1581 of James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, for complicity in the murder of Darnley. Despite his political treachery, Balfour displayed competence as a judge and juridical writer."

SOURCE: Britannia.com, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Sir James Balfour". Encyclopedia Britannica, Accessed 18 April 2023.

Sources

• Wikipedia Entry
• An Historical Account of the Senators of the College of Justice: From Its Institution in MDXXXII; by George Brunton, David Haig; 1832; Page 110
• 635. Birth Brieve of Mr. David Nairne, 1687 in The Scottish Antiquary, Vol. IX(1895), 119-24. Calls him James Lord Burlay, son to James Balfour of Mountquhanny'.
• en.Wikisource: Dictionary of National Biography 1885-1900, Vol. 3 – RE James Balfour.
• en.Wikisource: A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen/Balfour, (Sir) James, lawyer, Edited by Robert Chambers and Thomas Napier Thomson