had renounced popery (Knox, Works, ii. 88). After the celebration of the queen's first mass in Scotland the priests were committed to the protection of Lord John Stewart and his brother, Lord Robert, who, Knox states, ‘were both protestants, and had communicated at the table of the Lord’ (Works, ii. 271). Shortly afterwards the stronghold of Dunbar was committed to his custody (Randolph to Throgmorton, 26 Aug. 1561; Cal. State Papers, For. 1561–2, No. 455). Writing to Cecil, 24 Aug. 1561, Randolph remarks that ‘Lord John of Coldingham hath not least favour’ at court ‘by his leaping and dancing,’ and that he was ‘like to marry the Earl of Bothwell's sister’ (Keith, History of Scotland, ii. 94; Cal. State Papers, For. 1561–2, p. 377). The marriage took place in the following January at Seton, ‘with good sport and many pastimes’ (Randolph to Cecil, 15 Jan. 1561–2, ib. No. 802). Indeed it is very evident that Lord John, though he had ‘communicated at the table of the Lord,’ was a protestant of a very different complexion from his brother, Lord James. Thus in December 1561 he, along with his brother-in-law Bothwell, headed an unseemly riot, which ‘highly commoved all godly hearts,’ when an attempt was made to get hold of one Alison Craik, who, it was supposed, was the mistress of the Earl of Arran (Knox, Works, ii. 315). On 30 Dec. 1562 Randolph also reports to Cecil that ‘this day’ the queen had gone ‘to Dunbar to be merry with the Lord John’ (Cal. State Papers, For. 1562, No. 1375). While holding justice courts in the north of Scotland, he died at Inverness, probably in December 1563. Throgmorton stated (letter to Cecil, 9 Dec. 1563, in Cal. State Papers, For. 1563, No. 1470) he was to have been made captain of a thousand Scots men of arms, which the cardinal of Guise was raising, had he not died. According to Knox it was affirmed that he ‘asked God mercy that he had so far borne with’ the queen ‘in her impiety, and maintained her in her wickedness against God and his servants.’ Knox further expressed the opinion that he had good cause to lament his wickedness, the more especially as he was reputed to have expressed the desirability of sticking Knox in his pulpit, rather than that he should trouble the queen as he was doing’ (Works, ii. 392). By his wife, Lady Jane Hepburn, daughter of Patrick, third earl of Bothwell, he had two sons: Francis Stewart Hepburn, fifth earl of Bothwell [q. v.]; and Hercules.
[Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1546–80; Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep.; Knox's Works; Cal. State Papers, Foreign, reign of Elizabeth.]
STEWART, JOHN, fourth Earl of Atholl (d. 1579), eldest son of John, third earl of Atholl [see under Stewart, John, first Earl], by Grizel, daughter of Sir John Rattray of that ilk, succeeded his father in 1542. He was one of those nobles who in 1554 supported the queen dowager in her claims to the regency (Keith, History, i. 140). In the following year he was sent to the north of Scotland to chastise a Highland chief, called by Bishop Lesley John Mudyard, and succeeded in capturing him (Lesley, History, Scottish Text Society, ii. 360; Calderwood, History, i. 318). He supported the queen regent in her contest with the lords of the congregation in 1559, and although referred to on 8 June as an enemy of Huntly, and as expected to join the lords (Cal. State Papers, For. 1560–1, No. 172), he was one of the three lords of the temporal estate who at the parliament of 17 July voted against the confession of faith and affirmed that they would believe as their forefathers believed (Calderwood, ii. 37). Nevertheless, on 8 Sept. Randolph reported to Cecil that Atholl had met with Argyll and Lord James at a tryst to bridle Huntly (Cal. State Papers, For. 1560–1, No. 501), and on 23 Sept. that he had joined with them in a perpetual league against Huntly (ib. No. 550). His support of the protestant party was further shown in his adherence to the movement in favour of Queen Elizabeth's marriage to Arran (Keith, ii. 8); but, according to Knox, while Lord James Stewart was in France, on a mission to Mary Queen of Scots, Atholl joined with Huntly and others in a scheme for the capture of Edinburgh in the interests of the papists, which was unsuccessful (Works, ii. 156).
After the return of Queen Mary to Scotland in 1561, Atholl was appointed one of her new privy council of twelve (Reg. P. C. Scotl. i. 157), and for a time worked in perfect harmony with Lord James Stewart (afterwards the regent Moray), whom he accompanied in 1562 in the expedition to the north against Huntly (Cal. State Papers, For. 1562, Nos. 718 and 919). But he was always on more intimate terms with Maitland of Lethington than with Moray. According to Knox, Maitland even ‘set forward’ Atholl as Moray's rival in the court, and thus it was that Moray began to ‘be defaced’ (Works, ii. 391). The true explanation is, however, that Atholl was a favourite at court not because of Maitland, but because he was a catholic, and that Moray was ‘defaced’ because he was a protestant, while Maitland, who was probably neither catholic nor protestant, wished to avoid being defaced along with Moray. The ‘setting forward’ of Atholl
