Ayrshire > Volume 2

58 HISTORY OF AYRSHIRE
sufferings, were of any avail in securing for him the
gratitude of the monarch. James had by that time
fallen under the influence of the Earl of Lennox, and
Captain James Stewart of Ochiltree, whom he had
created Earl of Arran. This ascendancy was so
dangerous for Scotland that a number of powerful
nobles, Eglinton, Glencairn, Mar, and Gowrie among
them, resolved to rescue the Sovereign from the hands
of his favourites, even if necessary by force ; and this
they did by means of the Raid of Ruthven. Of the.
remaining three years of the Earl's life little is recorded.
He died in the summer of 1585.
The Earl was twice married. His first wife was a
•daughter of the Earl of Arran. Their union, arranged
by their parents according to the custom of the period,
was an unhappy one ; and it suited the Earl apparently
to remember that he stood towards his wife in the fourth
degree of consanguinity. On this ground he made
application for a divorce. The lady retaliated on other
grounds. But though they were both applying for
divorce, neither would give the other any facilities for
obtaining it. The Countess went to reside with her
father at Hamilton and sought to avoid the execution
of the summons, and the Earl, with a like intent, fled to
France. The union, however, was dissolved by John
Knox and other members of the Church, in Edinburgh,
in 1562. The lady, who before her first marriage had
been betrothed to Gilbert, Master of Cassillis, wedded
David Dundas of Priestisinche, and the Earl took to
wife Agnes, daughter of Sir John Drummond of Inch-
peffrey, and widow of Sir Hugh Campbell of Loudoun.
Again the bridegroom and the bride were within the
prohibited degree, but this time absolution was obtained
from the Archbishop of St. Andrews. By the second
marriage there were four children, two son? and two
daughters. Lady Margaret, the elder of the two
daughters, married Robert, first Earl of Wintoun, Lord
Seton, and their third son succeeded to the Earldom of
Eglinton on the death of the fifth Earl. Margaret's