Sir Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie (c.1475-c.1550), also known as Greysteil, was a Scottish

Kingdom of Scotland

The Kingdom of Scotland was a Sovereign state in North-West Europe that existed from 843 until 1707. It occupied the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shared a land border to the south with the Kingdom of England...

 nobleman and courtier, who served as Treasurer of Scotland

Treasurer of Scotland

The Treasurer was a senior post in the pre-Union government of Scotland, the Privy Council of Scotland.The full title of the post was Lord High Treasurer, Comptroller, Collector-General and Treasurer of the New Augmentation, formed as it was from the amalgamation of four earlier offices...

, and Provost of Edinburgh.

Rise

Kilspindie was the fourth son of Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus

Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus

Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus , was a late medieval Scottish magnate. He became known as "Bell the Cat"...

, and his second wife, Elizabeth Boyd, herself a daughter of Robert Boyd, 1st Lord Boyd

Robert Boyd, 1st Lord Boyd

Robert Boyd, 1st Lord Boyd Lord Boyd, was a Scottish statesman.-Biography:Robert Boyd was knighted, and was created a Peer of Parliament by James II of Scotland at some date between 1451 and 18 July 1454 . In 1460 he was one of the Regents during the minority of James III...

.

In 1513, Kilspindie's two older brothers were killed at the Battle of Flodden, along with King James IV

James IV of Scotland

James IV was King of Scots from 11 June 1488 to his death. He is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs of Scotland, but his reign ended with the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field, where he became the last monarch from not only Scotland, but also from all...

. His nephew, Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus

Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus

Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus was a Scottish nobleman active during the reigns of James V and Mary, Queen of Scots...

 married the King's widow, Margaret Tudor

Margaret Tudor

Margaret Tudor was the elder of the two surviving daughters of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and the elder sister of Henry VIII. In 1503, she married James IV, King of Scots. James died in 1513, and their son became King James V. She married secondly Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of...

, and was regent for the young King James V

James V of Scotland

James V was King of Scots from 9 September 1513 until his death, which followed the Scottish defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss...

, during this time Kilspindie became very popular with the boy-king, who knew him as Greysteil

Greysteil

Greysteil was a medieval poem popular in 16th century Scotland, set to music and performed for James IV of Scotland and James V of Scotland. The poem was also called Syr Egeir and Syr Gryme, Eger and Grime, the names of the two knights who fight Greysteil and whose contrasted virtues are the poem's...

, the name of the subject of a popular ballad of the time.

While the Douglas family were in power, Kilspindie became Lord High Treasurer of Scotland. He was Provost of Edinburgh in 1526, when the King granted him and his wife, Isobel Hopper, a tenement on the north (or south) of Edinburgh's Netherbow

Royal Mile

The Royal Mile is a succession of streets which form the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland.As the name suggests, the Royal Mile is approximately one Scots mile long, and runs between two foci of history in Scotland, from Edinburgh Castle at the top of the Castle...

. Adam Otterburn

Adam Otterburn

Adam Otterburn of Auldhame and Reidhall was a Scottish lawyer and diplomat. He was king's advocate to James V of Scotland and secretary to Mary of Guise and Regent Arran.-Servant to James V:...

 picked up the deeds of the house which had belonged to the late Philip Forrester and lay within Andrew Moubray's property.

Fall

The King escaped from Angus's control in May 1528. According to the chronicle history by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie

Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie

Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie was a Scottish chronicler, author of The Historie and Chronicles of Scotland, 1436–1565, the first history of Scotland to be composed in Scots rather than Latin....

, James V escaped from the Douglas family at Falkland Palace

Falkland Palace

Falkland Palace in Falkland, Fife, Scotland, is a former royal palace of the Scottish Kings. Today it is in the care of the National Trust for Scotland, and serves as a tourist attraction.-Early years:...

, riding to Stirling Castle

Stirling Castle

Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep...

 while Kilspindie was visiting his mistress at Dundee. Finding the King had fled, he rode to Stirling with his nephew George Douglas of Pittendreich

George Douglas of Pittendreich

George Douglas of Pittendreich was a member of the powerful Douglas family who struggled for control of the young James V of Scotland in 1528. His second son became James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton and Regent of Scotland. Initially, George Douglas promoted the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots and...

 but the King's herald was in place on the bridge to demand they desist from approaching the King.

Kilspindie and the Douglas family were condemned for treason and their lands forfeited at the September 1528 Parliament of Scotland

Parliament of Scotland

The Parliament of Scotland, officially the Estates of Parliament, was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland. The unicameral parliament of Scotland is first found on record during the early 13th century, with the first meeting for which a primary source survives at...

. The King gave Kilspindie's tenement in Edinburgh to the new Treasurer, Robert Cairncross

Robert Cairncross

Robert Cairncross was a Scottish bishop.At various times he was provost of Corstorphine, abbot of Holyrood. He was appointed bishop of Ross in 1539, holding in commendam the abbacy of Fern...

. Lands in Cunninghame

Cunninghame

Cunninghame is a former comital district of Scotland and also a district of the Strathclyde Region from 1975–1996.-Historic Cunninghame:The historic district of Cunninghame was bordered by the districts of Renfrew and Clydesdale to the north and east respectively, by the district of Kyle to the...

 went to Robert, Lord Maxwell, and Reidside near Tantallon Castle

Tantallon Castle

Tantallon Castle is a mid-14th-century fortress, located east of North Berwick, in East Lothian, Scotland. It sits atop a promontory opposite the Bass Rock, looking out onto the Firth of Forth...

 was given to Hugh Johnson, the King's cook. The Douglases were already on the Scottish borders or in exile in England, and James laid siege to their castle at Tantallon

Tantallon Castle

Tantallon Castle is a mid-14th-century fortress, located east of North Berwick, in East Lothian, Scotland. It sits atop a promontory opposite the Bass Rock, looking out onto the Firth of Forth...

.

A later history of the family by David Hume of Godscroft

David Hume of Godscroft

David Hume was a Scottish historian and political theorist, poet and controversialist, a major intellectual figure in Jacobean Scotland. He also spent a decade as pastor of a Protestant congregation in France.-Life:...

 has Kilspindie returning to Scotland 10 years later. He approached the King at the Royal Park of Stirling in 1538. The King recognised him but ignored him and rode up the hill to the Castle. Kilspindie, though wearing concealed chain-mail, followed on foot and arrived exhausted at the same time , but no-one would give him a drink since James had showed him no favour. He then went to France on the King's orders and died around the year 1540.

Sources

Fraser, Sir William

William Fraser (historian)

Sir William Fraser, KCB, was a solicitor and notable expert in ancient Scottish history, palaeography, and genealogy....

, The Douglas Book IV vols, Edinburgh 1885