Ayrshire > Volume 2

THE EARLDOM OF GLENCAIRN 305
and bore himself with great bravery in the short three-
quarters of an hour struggle that finally settled the claim
of the unfortunate Mary to be Queen of Scotland.
After Langside the Earl was appointed a Lieutenant
of the West of Scotland, Lord Semple being the other.
He was in Stirling in 1571 when Lennox was shot, and
was taken prisoner, but in a sally organised by Captain
Thomas Crawford, a son of Lawrence Crawford of
Kilbirnie and his wife, Helen, daughter of Sir Hugh
Campbell of Loudoun, he escaped. On Knox's death
the same year, he was nominated along with Morton for
the Regency, but the latter had a considerable majority
of votes.
Throughout his life Glencairn was a fast friend of
John Knox. He was present in support of the Reformer
at one of the famous interviews that he had with the
Queen, 1563. Mary at an earlier interview had been
" gart greet " by Knox, and she was determined, if
possible, by the aid of the Privy Council, to have him
placed within her power and at her disposal. Knox,
who was accused of unlawfully convocating the lieges,
defended himself with great courage, and he recalled
to Lethington, the Secretary, and the ablest of his
opponents, how serviceable he had been in like manner
aforetime. " Before this," he said, " no man laid it to
my charge as a crime." " Then was then, and now is
now," retorted Lethington. It was at this interview,
which resulted in the discharge of the reformer, that
Knox made his famous declaration in reply to the taunt
of one of the Lords, that " he was not now in the pulpit "
— " I am in the place where I am demanded of conscience
to speak the truth, and therefore the truth I speak,
impugn it who list." Glencairn voted for his acquittal.
When Knox was on his deathbed the Earl was one of
his most frequent visitors.
The Earl died November 23, 1574. By his first wife,
Lady Johanna Hamilton, youngest daughter of James,
first Earl of Arran, he had two sons : William, who
succeeded him in the peerage, and James, who became