General Notes

James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, chosen as Regent of Scotland following the
death of James V, and declared on 13 Mar 1542/3 Heir Presumptive of the Crown.
During the subsequent religious troubles he attempted to compromise but
finally favoured the Reformers. For his services in promoting the marriage of
Queen Mary to the Dauphin of France he was created Duc de Chƒtelherault. In
1554 he resigned the Regency to Marie de Guise-Lorraine, the Queen-Mother, and
in 1565, after opposing the marriage of the widowed Queen Mary to Henry Stuart
(known to the English as Lord Darnley, but to the Scots in sequence as Master
of Lennox, Duke of Albany and King Henry), he went abroad for four years,
returning to oppose the Regency of the Earl of Moray (assassinated by James
Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh 1569/70) and then of the Earl of Lennox (killed by
the Hamiltons 1571), but submitting finally on 15 Feb 1572/3 to the 4th Earl
of Morton, ("the grimmest of that grim race from which he sprung"), the
husband of his wife's sister Elizabeth, who lost the Regency in 1578 and was
executed 1581). Much of his life was strongly influenced by his nearness in
blood to the Queen, the strength that gave to the candidature of his sons for
the r“le of Consort and the power of King, and the temptation that might arise
when only an infant was between his family "and home" (as it was once said
aloud). He m Sep 1532 Margaret, eldest dtr of James Douglas, 3rd Earl of
Morton, by Catherine, natural dtr of James IV, and d 22 Jan 1574/5 having had
issue: