David Beaton (also Beton or Bethune; 29 May 1546) was Archbishop of St Andrews and the last Scottish cardinal prior to the Reformation.

Life

David Beaton was said to be the fifth son of fourteen children born to John Beaton (Bethune) of 6th Balfour (d. 1514) in the county of Fife, and his wife Christian Rosyth. The Bethunes of Balfour were part of Clan Bethune, the Scottish branch of the noble French House of Bethune. The Cardinal is said to have been born in 1494. He was educated at the universities of St Andrews and Glasgow, and in his sixteenth year was sent to Paris, where he studied civil and canon law.

In 1520, his uncle, James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, named David Beaton Rector and Prebendary at Cambuslang. After his uncle became Archbishop of St. Andrews in 1522, he resigned the position of Commendator of Arbroath in favour of his nephew. In 1525, Beaton returned from France and took a seat as Lord Abbot of Arbroath Abbey in the Scottish Parliament. In 1528 the King named him Lord Privy Seal. While in France, Beaton obtained hawks and wild boar for James V. In 1537 he was made coadjutor to his uncle at St. Andrews, with right of succession. Also in 1538 he was appointed a Cardinal by Pope Paul III, under the title of St Stephen in the Caelian Hill. In February 1539 Cardinal Beaton succeeded his uncle as Archbishop of St. Andrews. In 1544, he was made Papal legate in Scotland.

By order of the Regent, Beaton was committed to the custody of Lord Seton,

With Beaton out of power, the Anglophile party persuaded Regent Arran to make a marriage treaty with England on behalf of the infant Queen, and to appoint a number of Protestant preachers. The treaties signed at Greenwich in July 1543 stipulated that Mary would be accompanied by an English nobleman/gentleman (and his wife) until she was ten years old and afterwards would reside in England until the time of her marriage. The union of the thrones of England and Scotland which the treaty envisaged was controversial from the start. Its Anglo-centric policy was resisted by many who preferred to continue the Auld Alliance with France. Resistance to the treaty resulted in a surge in the popularity of the French faction and the release of Beaton from prison. The Treaty of Greenwich was rejected by the Scottish Parliament on 11 December 1543, leading to eight years of Anglo-Scottish conflict known as the Rough Wooing. In 1543 Beaton regained power, having earlier drawn up the "Secret Bond" against the marriage.

In December 1545 Beaton arranged for the arrest, trial and execution of Protestant preacher George Wishart, who on 1 March 1546 was strangled and afterwards burned. Leslie and Kirkcaldy managed to obtain admission to St Andrews Castle at daybreak of 29 May 1546, killing the porter in the process. Leslie, Kirkcaldy, and Peter Carmichael of Balmadie used their daggers to stab the cardinal to death, mutilated the corpse, and hung it from a castle window.

At the time of his death, Beaton was Lord Chancellor of Scotland, Archbishop of St Andrews, and Cardinal Legate in Scotland.

Marion Ogilvy

Cardinal Beaton's mistress, Marion Ogilvy, was born in 1500, the youngest daughter of James Ogilvy, 1st Lord Ogilvy of Airlie. After the deaths of her parents, she managed the family estates in Angus. Around 1520 she met and fell in love with David Beaton. They lived together in Ethie Castle and produced eight children. According to Margaret H.B. Sanderson, their relationship, which appeared little different from marriage, deeply offended fellow Catholics who desired the Counter-Reformation. Furthermore, the double standard, under which the Cardinal prosecuted Protestants, who advocated the marriage of the clergy, for heresy, yet lived in blatant violation of his own vow of clerical celibacy, proved highly damaging in the long run to the Catholic Church in Scotland.

Cardinal Beaton's oldest surviving son, David Beaton of Melgund, converted to Protestantism, and later became master of the household to James VI and to Anne of Denmark. His daughter Margaret married David Lindsay, 10th Earl of Crawford.

See also

  • Cardinal Beaton, a play based on his life.

Notes

References

Sources

  • Extract from John Knox's account of Beaton's murder
  • 1546 – Cardinal Beaton assassinated
  • John Knox, History of the Reformation in Scotland, ed. David Laing (1846–1864)
  • ii. (1900–1902)