James (Fleming) Fleming Fourth Lord Fleming (aft. 1425 - 1558)

Born after 12 Nov 1425 in Boghall castle, Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 15 Dec 1558 before age 133 in Paris, Ile-de-France, France

Biography

James (Fleming) Fleming Fourth Lord Fleming is a member of Clan Fleming.

James Fleming was born son and heir to Malcolm Fleming]], 3rd Lord Fleming and his wife Janet Stewart, natural daughter of King James IV. by Isabel Stewart, Countess of Bothwell, daughter of James, third Earl of Buchan.^[1] He was served heir to his father in 1549, two years after his death, suggesting he had just come of age and was born 1525/1527.

In 1543 he a hostage for the release of his father after Battle of Solway Moss.

He was served heir to his father in the lands of Castlerankine on 20 May 1549, and in the lands of Glenquotho and Quarter Chapel on 7 May 1555.^[2]

He accompanied the Queen to France in 1548. It seems likely he was captured by the English on his return for he appears as an English prisoner by May 1549. He was released by exchange with the English prisoner James Wilford. In 1550, he accompanied the queen dowager Mary of Guise into France and then into England in 1551.^[3]

In 1552, Robert, Commendator of Holyrood, conferred on him the lands of Plewlands and Saughton, and mill lands and multures in Midlothian, on account of several sums of money which he had advanced for the repair of that monastery, when it had been laid in ruins by the English.^[4]

In 1553, 12 November, he was constituted Lord Chamberlain of Scotland for life by letters patent. He achieved this primarily due to his support of Mary of Guise, who had managed to engage sufficient support to gain the Regency of Scotland in the absence of Queen Mary in France.

In 1556, 10 October, He was made guardian of the East and Middle Marches (borders with England), with power of justiciary within the limits of his jurisdiction.^[5]

In 1557, 14 December, he was one of the eight commissioners elected by Parliament to represent the Scottish nation at the marriage of Queen Mary and Francis, the Dauphin in Paris on 24 April 1558. ^[6]

On the 3d of February 1558, just before he set out to France, he infeft his brother John in all his lands, reserving only a life interest, and receiving a letter of reversion to himself and his heirs. By this act James seems to indicate that he considered the expedition would be dangerous and his life threatened.^[7]

As might be expected the marriage, between the Queen of Scotland and the Dauphin, in France was political. The Scots feared that the marriage wuld be used by France to gain possession of Scotland. The Commissioners, before leaving Scotland, had been carefully instructed to give no sanction to the marriage unless they obtained the most ample guarantees that the independence of the country would be maintained, and its laws and liberty secured. Before their arrival, Henry, King of France, had obtained the signature of Queen Mary to a document, conferring on him and his heirs the crown of Scotland, and her right to that of England in case of her decease without lineal succession; and to another, transferring to him the revenues of her kingdom in payment of one million of gold crowns, or any greater sum that might be expended on her board and education in France or in defence of her kingdom.

The Commissioners readily agreed that the arms of France and Scotland should be borne by the Queen and her husband, on separate shields, surmounted by the French crown (noticed on Wikipedia:Francis_II_of_France; that their eldest son should be sovereign of both realms; and that, in the event of their having only daughters, the eldest, who would be prevented by the Salic law from being sovereign of France, should, on her mother's death, succeed to the throne of Scotland; but, on being summoned before the French Council after the celebration of the marriage, and required to swear fealty to the Dauphin, and confer on him the emblems of royalty, they peremptorily refused, and asserted that they would not go a step beyond the instructions which they had received from their own Parliament.

The refusal of the eight commissioners to use their influence to have the Scottish Regalia sent to France that the Dauphin might be crowned gave considerable offence to the French Court. Henry, after detaining them for a period, allowed them to leave for Scotland. At Dieppe, prior to departure, Reid, Bishop of Orkney died suddenly on 28 November 1558; and in a day or two afterwards, the Earl of Rothes and Earl of Cassillis, and several other members of the embassy, also died. James Fleming, Lord Fleming, drew up his Last Will and Testament, extracts noted by the historian, William Hunter.^[8]

Having executed his will, and dreading infection, he hastened back to Paris; but he succumbed to the same condition and died on 18 December 1558. All were believed, by the people of Scotland, to have been poisoned. The events are noted in Balfour Paul^[9] and William Hunter.^[10] Both, likely sourcing Hunter, suggests he was 24 when he died but this seems unlikely as he must have been of age in 1549 and he certainly appears in his father's will, of 1547, as an adult, and could be assumed to have meant 34.

Family

He married, contract 22 December 1553, Barbara Hamilton, eldest daughter of James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, Duke of Chatelherault, Governor of Scotland, and widow of Alexander Gordon, Lord Gordon.^[11] She had a charter from her husband of part of the barony of Lenzie, 14 December 1553. She was still alive in November 1569 when Master David Borthwick protested that the forfeiture, of John Fleming, 5th Lord Fleming, in no way hurt or prejudice Barbara Hamilton, lady Fleming, widow of the late James Fleming, lord Fleming.^[12]

They had one child:

• Jane Fleming, whose ward and marriage was granted to John Maxwell, 8th Lord Maxwell. She had a provision of 4000 merks for her marriage promised by her uncle John Fleming, fifth Lord, to James, fourth Lord, her father, which he having failed to pay, she complained to the Privy Council on 4 August 1579, and had a sixth part of the revenues from the lordship of Fleming assigned to her on 24 September 1579. She was married, firstly, contract 16 January 1583, to John Maitland, Lord Thirlestane, Lord Chancellor, who died 3 October 1595, and had childre. They had a charter of the lands of Thankerton and Biggar on her resignation as grand-daughter and heir of Malcolm, Lord Fleming, 30 October 1583. She was married, secondly, contract 4 November 1597, to John Kennedy, fifth Earl of Cassillis, but had no children; he was known to have assaulted her on occasion as he appears in Blackness castle for punishment. On 2 March 1609 she, being heavily diseased and under medicine, was granted a licence by the Privy Council to eat meat during the forbidden time of Lent. She died on 23 June 1609, aged fifty-five, and was buried at Haddington.

Balfour Paul suggests, although not mentioned by William Hunter, that James Fleming also had an illegitimate son, Thomas Fleming, who was the father of William Fleming, a bailie and commissioner in Parliament for the city of Perth in 1567. ^[13] No attempt has been made to reconcile these dates, however William Fleming must have been of age and thus born c. 1545 at the latest. With James Fleming born 1525 there would not appear to have been sufficient time for the events to occur.

Research Notes

• His parents married 26 Feb 1524/25 and assuming he was legitimate and allowng for the shorter end of a normal pregnancy, he would have been born after 12 Nov 1425. He married on 22 Dec 1553 placing his birth before 22 Dec 1539 but he had accompanied the Dowager Queen on her visit to France in 1550 and one would expect that he was of full age at that time, which would place his birth before 1429.

• The Peerage: James Fleming, 4th Lord Fleming.

• Geni

• FamilySearch: James Fleming.

• A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great ..., Volume 2. By Sir Bernard Burke. [1]

• A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and ..., Volume 42, Part 1. [2]

Sources

1. ↑ Paul, James Balfour. The Scots Peerage : founded on Wood's ed. of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom, Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1911, Vol. VIII, Archive.org, p. 541
2. ↑ Paul, James Balfour. The Scots Peerage : founded on Wood's ed. of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom, Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1911, Vol. VIII, Archive.org, p. 542
3. ↑ Paul, James Balfour. The Scots Peerage : founded on Wood's ed. of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom, Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1911, Vol. VIII, Archive.org, p. 542
4. ↑ Hunter, William, Biggar and the House of Fleming, An Account of the Biggar District, Archaeological, Historical, and Biographical, Edinburgh: William Paterson, 1867, Ed. 2, Archive.org, p. 526
5. ↑ Paul, James Balfour. The Scots Peerage : founded on Wood's ed. of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom, Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1911, Vol. VIII, Archive.org, p. 542
6. ↑ The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, K.M. Brown et al eds (St Andrews, 2007-2015), 1558/11/6
7. ↑ Hunter, William, Biggar and the House of Fleming, An Account of the Biggar District, Archaeological, Historical, and Biographical, Edinburgh: William Paterson, 1867, Ed. 2, Archive.org, p. 526
8. ↑ Hunter, William, Biggar and the House of Fleming, An Account of the Biggar District, Archaeological, Historical, and Biographical, Edinburgh: William Paterson, 1867, Ed. 2, Archive.org, p. 527
9. ↑ Paul, James Balfour. The Scots Peerage : founded on Wood's ed. of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom, Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1911, Vol. VIII, Archive.org, p. 542
10. ↑ Hunter, William, Biggar and the House of Fleming, An Account of the Biggar District, Archaeological, Historical, and Biographical, Edinburgh: William Paterson, 1867, Ed. 2, Archive.org, p. 527
11. ↑ Paul, James Balfour. The Scots Peerage : founded on Wood's ed. of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom, Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1911, Vol. VIII, Archive.org, p. 542
12. ↑ The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, K.M. Brown et al eds (St Andrews, 2007-2015), 1569/11/5.
13. ↑ Paul, James Balfour. The Scots Peerage : founded on Wood's ed. of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom, Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1911, Vol. VIII, Archive.org, p. 543

See also:

• Wikipedia:Le_Fleming_baronets

• The Le Fleming family of Rydal Hall.