Everything about James Melville Of Halhill totally explained
Sir
James Melville (
1535 –
1617), was a
Scottish diplomat and
memoir writer.
Melville was the third son of Sir John Melville, laird of Raith in the county of Fife, who was executed for treason in
1548. One of his brothers was Robert, 1st Baron Melville of Monimail (
1527-
1621). James Melville in
1549 went to
France to become page to
Mary Queen of Scots. Serving on the French side at the battle of
St Quentin in i55~ Melville was wounded and taken prisoner. He subsequently carried out a number of diplomatic missions for
Henry II of France. On Marys return to Scotland in
1561 she gave Melville a pension and an appointment in her household, and she employed him as special emissary to reconcile
Queen Elizabeth to her marriage with Darnley. After the murder of Darnley in February
1567, Melville joined Lord Herries in boldly warning Mary of the danger and disgrace of her projected marriage with Bothwell, and was only saved from the latters veilgeance in consequence by the courageous resolution of the queen. During the troubled times following Marys imprisonment and abdication Melville conducted several diplomatic missions of importance, and won the confidence of
James VI when the king took the government into his own hands. Having been adopted as his heir by the reformer Henry Balnaves, he inherited from him, at his death in
1579, the estate of Halhill in Fife; and he retired there in
1603, refusing the request of James to accompany him to
London on his accession to the English throne. At Halhill, Melville wrote the Memoirs of my own Life, a valuable authority for the history of the period, first published by his grandson, George Scott, in
1683. Sir James Melville died at Halhill on the
13 November 1617. By his wife, Christina Boswell, he'd one son and two daughters; the elder of these,
Elizabeth, who married John Colville, de jure 3rd Baron Colville of Culross, has been identified with the authoress of a poem published in
1603, entitled
Ane Godlie Dreame.
See the Memoirs mentioned above, of which the most modern edition is that prepared by T. Thompson for the Bannatyne Club (Edinburgh, 1827).
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