Alexander Montgomerie - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Alexander Montgomerie Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

Jacobean

Jacobean era

The Jacobean era refers to the period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of King James VI of Scotland, who also inherited the crown of England in 1603 as James I...

courtier and poet, or makar

Makar

A makar is a term from Scottish literature for a poet or bard, often thought of as royal court poet, although the term can be more generally applied. The word functions in a manner similar to the Greek term which means both maker and poet...

, born in Ayrshire

Ayrshire

Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...

. He was one of the principal members of the Castalian Band

Castalian Band

The Castalian Band was a group of Scottish Jacobean poets, or makars, which flourished between the 1580s and early 1590s in the court of James VI and was consciously modelled on the French example of the Pléiade. Its name is derived from the classical term Castalian Spring, a symbol for poetic...

, a circle of poets in the court of James VI

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

in the 1580s which included the king himself. Montgomerie was for a time in favour as one of the king's "favourites". He was a Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

in a largely Protestant court and his involvement in political controversy led to his expulsion as an outlaw in the mid 1590s.

Montgomerie's poetry, much of which examines themes of love

Love

Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...

, includes autobiographical sonnets and foreshadows the later metaphysical poets

Metaphysical poets

The metaphysical poets is a term coined by the poet and critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century, who shared an interest in metaphysical concerns and a common way of investigating them, and whose work was characterized by inventiveness of metaphor...

in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. He is sometimes, by tradition, given the epithet "Captain".

Early life

Montgomerie was a younger son of the Ayrshire laird

Laird

A Laird is a member of the gentry and is a heritable title in Scotland. In the non-peerage table of precedence, a Laird ranks below a Baron and above an Esquire.-Etymology:...

Hugh Montgomerie of Hessilheid (d. 1558) and so was related to the Earl of Eglinton

Earl of Eglinton

Earl of Eglinton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland.Some authorities spell the title: Earl of Eglintoun In 1859 the thirteenth Earl of Eglinton, Archibald Montgomerie, was also created Earl of Winton in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which gave him an automatic seat in the House of Lords,...

and a distant relation of James VI.

Nothing is known for certain about his life before about 1580, but contemporary or near-contemporary accounts suggest that he was brought up as a member of the Church of Scotland

Church of Scotland

The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....

, spent some time in Argyll

Argyll

Argyll , archaically Argyle , is a region of western Scotland corresponding with most of the part of ancient Dál Riata that was located on the island of Great Britain, and in a historical context can be used to mean the entire western coast between the Mull of Kintyre and Cape Wrath...

before leaving for the Continent, and was converted to Catholicism in Spain. He probably saw active service as a soldier for the Scottish forces in The Netherlands in the later 1570s, although there is no certain documentary evidence of this.

Montgomerie’s arrival in Edinburgh may have been linked in some way to that of the king’s Catholic, French-born kinsman Esmé Stewart, whose ascendancy at court coincides with the period of the poet’s greatest prominence (1580–86).

Works

It is likely that his earliest surviving poems are The Navigation and the related Cartel of the Thre Ventrous Knichts, which may well have been written for performance at court at Epiphany 1580. He came to prominence as "laureled" leader of the Catalian Band, a circle of court poets headed by the King after being declared victor over a rival poet, Patrick Hume of Polwarth

Patrick Hume of Polwarth

Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth and Redbraes was a Scottish courtier and makar , the eldest son of Patrick and Agnes Hume, a major Scottish Borders family with landholdings in The Merse. As eldest son, Patrick Hume succeeded to the family estates, including Redbraes Castle, on the death of his father...

, in a comically scurrilous flyting

Flyting

Flyting or fliting is a contest consisting of the exchange of insults, often conducted in verse, between two parties.-Description:Flyting is a ritual, poetic exchange of insults practiced mainly between the 5th and 16th centuries. The root is the Old English word flītan meaning quarrel...

, or poetic duel. The King, who was himself a practising member of the group, referred to Montgomerie as its ‘maister poete’.

A number of Montgomerie’s poems can be assigned to the first half of the 1580s, including sonnets, court songs, and the first, unfinished version of his longest work, the allegorical Cherrie and the Slae. Like some other pieces, it may have been written (at least in part) by autumn 1584, for the 19 year-old king included a passage from it in his literary manifesto Some Reulis and Cautelis to be observit and eschewit in Scottis poesie

Some Reulis and Cautelis to be observit and eschewit in Scottis poesie

Ane Schort Treatise conteining some Reulis and Cautelis to be observit and eschewit in Scottis poesie is the full title of a work of non-fiction prose in Scots, also called The Essayes of a Prentise in the Divine Art of Poesie, written by the 19-year old James VI of Scotland and first published...

, published around September of that year.

Courtier

As early as 27 July 1583 Montgomerie was granted a pension by the king, drawn from the revenues of Glasgow Cathedral

Glasgow Cathedral

The church commonly known as Glasgow Cathedral is the Church of Scotland High Kirk of Glasgow otherwise known as St. Mungo's Cathedral.The other cathedrals in Glasgow are:* The Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew...

. His career had evidently survived the temporary imprisonment of James by a militant Protestant faction led by the Earl of Gowrie

Earl of Gowrie

Earl of Gowrie is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of Scotland and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, both times for members of the Ruthven family. It takes its name from Gowrie, a historical region and ancient province of Scotland. On 23 August 1581 William Ruthven,...

, and the exile and death of Esmé Stewart, whom James had made Duke of Lennox

Duke of Lennox

The title Duke of Lennox has been created several times in the Peerage of Scotland, for Clan Stewart of Darnley. The Dukedom, named for the district of Lennox in Stirling, was first created in 1581, and had formerly been the Earldom of Lennox. The second Duke was made Duke of Richmond; at his...

. But there seems to have been a fundamental change in the culture of the court towards the end of 1585, when the king took personal control of the government, and in the summer of 1586 Montgomerie joined an enlarged Scottish contingent fighting for the Dutch Republic

Dutch Republic

The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...

against the Spanish.

He stayed there for more than two years, serving at Zutphen at the same time as the unfortunate Sir Philip Sidney, and eventually experiencing severe financial difficulties as a result of non-payment by the Dutch authorities. He eventually struck a deal with the States of Holland in February 1588, and was back in Scotland by the end of the year.

Life at court was now very different from what it had been before Montgomerie’s departure, not least because of (justified) allegations of intrigue between leading Catholic aristocrats and the Spanish. On a more personal level, the poet’s pension had been claimed by someone else during his absence, and a long legal struggle ended in defeat for Montgomerie in July 1593. This battle produced some of his most remarkable poetry, increasingly embittered sonnets encouraging, cajoling, and eventually attacking the judges and lawyers involved, and even the king himself. At the same time, he continued to write formal poems about life at court, while some of the undated songs and other verses may well also come from this period.

Expulsion and death

Mongomerie largely disappears from view after the collapse of his legal case, until he became involved, in late 1596 or early 1597, in a Catholic plot to seize the rocky outcrop of Ailsa Craig

Ailsa Craig

Ailsa Craig is an island of 219.69 acres in the outer Firth of Clyde, Scotland where blue hone granite was quarried to make curling stones. "Ailsa" is pronounced "ale-sa", with the first syllable stressed...

, in the lower Firth of Clyde

Firth of Clyde

The Firth of Clyde forms a large area of coastal water, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran.At...

, as support for a Spanish intervention in the Earl of Tyrone

Earl of Tyrone

The Earl of Tyrone is a title created three times in the Peerage of Ireland.It was first created as part of the Tudor attempt to establish a uniform social structure in Ireland by converting the Gaelic kings and chiefs into hereditary nobles of the Kingdom of Ireland...

’s rebellion in Ireland. Led by Montgomerie’s friend and fellow-poet Hugh Barclay of Ladyland, this enterprise soon collapsed, Barclay being killed in the process, and on 14 July 1597 Montgomerie was declared an outlaw.

He may have planned to leave the country, perhaps to go to the Scottish Benedictine monastery in Würzburg

Würzburg

Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....

, but he was still in Scotland at the time of his death in August 1598. His death proved as controversial as much of his life, for the authorities of the Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh refused to allow him to be buried in the churchyard on the grounds of his Catholicism, only an intervention by the king himself forcing them to change their minds. Montgomerie’s exact place of burial is unknown, but it must have been in the church or grounds of Holyrood Abbey

Holyrood Abbey

Holyrood Abbey is a ruined abbey of the Canons Regular in Edinburgh, Scotland. The abbey was founded in 1128 by King David I of Scotland. During the 15th century, the abbey guesthouse was developed into a royal residence, and after the Scottish Reformation the Palace of Holyroodhouse was expanded...

, which was then used by the Canongate congregation.

Literary assessment

Montgomerie’s poetic output of over 100 pieces is mostly known from just one witness, the Ker manuscript, presented to Edinburgh University Library

Edinburgh University Library

Edinburgh University Library is one of the most important libraries of Scotland. It is located in Edinburgh. The University Library was moved in 1827 to William Playfair's Upper Library in the college building...

by the poet William Drummond of Hawthornden

William Drummond of Hawthornden

William Drummond , called "of Hawthornden", was a Scottish poet.-Life:Drummond was born at Hawthornden Castle, Midlothian. His father, John Drummond, was the first laird of Hawthornden; and his mother was Susannah Fowler, sister of William Fowler, poet and courtier...

. It is possible that this was assembled from Montgomerie’s papers soon after his death; it must, in any case, have been written soon afterwards.

The range of his work is extensive, from elegant court songs including Lyk as the dum Solsequium

Sunflower

Sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence . The sunflower got its name from its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and image is often used to depict the sun. The sunflower has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads...

and Melancholie, grit deput of Dispair to the bitter, sometimes contorted word-play of the sonnets associated with the dispute over his pension, from witty pieces addressed to the king to the profound religious sensibility of A godly prayer and the extraordinary Come, my childrene dere. Montgomerie is one of the finest of Middle Scots

Middle Scots

Middle Scots was the Anglic language of Lowland Scotland in the period from 1450 to 1700. By the end of the 13th century its phonology, orthography, accidence, syntax and vocabulary had diverged markedly from Early Scots, which was virtually indistinguishable from early Northumbrian Middle English...

poets, and perhaps the greatest Scottish exponent of the sonnet

Sonnet

A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...

form (although the twentieth-century poets Robert Garioch

Robert Garioch

Robert Garioch Sutherland, , was a Scottish poet and translator. His poetry was written almost exclusively in the Scots language, he was a key member in the literary revival of the language in the mid-20th century...

and Edwin Morgan were also fine sonnetteers).

The Cherrie and the Slae, which he probably revised and completed shortly before his death, is an ambitious religious allegory

Allegory

Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...

, employing a demanding, lyrical stanza form which suggests that it was intended for singing, despite its considerable length. His poetry reaches back to the earlier makar

Makar

s, Henryson

Robert Henryson

Robert Henryson was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots makars, he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in the Northern Renaissance at a time when the culture was on a cusp between medieval and renaissance sensibilities...

, Dunbar

William Dunbar

William Dunbar was a Scottish poet. He was probably a native of East Lothian, as assumed from a satirical reference in the Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie , where, too, it is hinted that he was a member of the noble house of Dunbar....

and Doouglas

Gavin Douglas

Gavin Douglas was a Scottish bishop, makar and translator. Although he had an important political career, it is for his poetry that he is now chiefly remembered. His principal pioneering achievement was the Eneados, a full and faithful vernacular translation of the Aeneid of Virgil and the first...

, but he also translates from Clément Marot

Clément Marot

Clément Marot was a French poet of the Renaissance period.-Youth:Marot was born at Cahors, the capital of the province of Quercy, some time during the winter of 1496-1497. His father, Jean Marot , whose more correct name appears to have been des Mares, Marais or Marets, was a Norman from the Caen...

and from Ronsard, and some of his work invites comparison with Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

writers such as Marino

Marino

Marino, Mariño or Maryino may refer to:In places:* Marino, Lazio, a town in the province of Rome, Italy* Marino, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide* Marino, County Down in Northern Ireland...

, Góngora

Gongora

Gongora, abbreviated Gga in horticultural trade, is a member of the Orchid family . It consists of 65 species known from Central America, Trinidad, and tropical South America, with most species found in Colombia...

, Donne and Herbert

Herbert

Herbert may refer to:*a Germanic name, see Herbert *a surname, see Herbert Places* Herbert, California* Herbert, California, former name of Knowles Junction, California* Herbert, New Zealand* Herbert, Saskatchewan...

Selected early imprints

The text of the frontispieces of three early imprints of works by Montgomerie run as follows:

The Cherrie and the Slae. Composed into Scottis Meeter, be Alexander Mongomerie. Prented according to a Copie corrected be the Author himselfe. Edinburgh. Prented be Robert Waldegrave, prenter to the Kings Majestie. Anno 1597. Cum Privilegio Regio.

The Mindes Melodie. Contayning certayne Psalmes of the Kinglie Propheete David, applyed to a new pleasant tune, verie comfortable to everie one that is rightlie acquainted therewith. Edinburgh. Printed be Robert Charteris, printer to the King's most Excellent Maiestie. 1605. Cum Priuilegio Regali.

The Flyting betwixt Montgomery and Polwart. Edinburgh. Printed by the Heires of Andro Hart, 1629.

Discography

Thus spak Apollo myne: The songs of Alexander Montgomerie. Paul Rendall (tenor) and Rob MacKillop (lute). Gaudeamus CD GAU 249