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 to a position of dependence, for the estates not only of Lord Robert and his brother, but of the Earl of Arran, were forfeited in 1469, would seem to argue an earlier date. Whatever the true date may be, he was then in London lodging at the George in Lombard Street, his wife apparently with him. The date of his death is uncertain. In 1474 his widow married James, lord Hamilton, whose son was in August 1503 created Earl of Arran. Lord Robert's second son, Alexander, was restored to a portion of the Kilmarnock estates in 1492, but without the title of Lord Boyd. Alexander's eldest son, Robert, created Lord Boyd in 1536, is called third lord.

 BOYD, ROBERT, fourth (d. 1590), son of Robert the third lord, is mentioned by Herries (Hist. of the Reign of Mary Queen of Scots, 10) as defeating the Earl of Glencairn at Glasgow in 1544, thereby rendering material aid to the regent, the Earl of Arran, in quelling the insurrection of Lennox. Two years later (19 Dec. 1546) we find him present at a meeting of the privy council at St. Andrews. On the outbreak of the civil war between the lords of the congregation and the queen regent he took part with the former, being present with them at Perth in May 1559. He signed the letter addressed by the lords to Sir William Cecil (19 July) explaining their policy, and another of the same date to Elizabeth asking for support. He also took part in the negotiations with the queen regent for a compromise, which were entirely without result. Apparently at this time Boyd's zeal in the cause of the congregation was growing lukewarm, for Balnaves, accounting to Sir James Crofts for the way in which he had applied the English subsidy, writes under date 4 Nov. 1559: 'And I delivered to the Earl of Glencairn and Lord Boyd 500 crowns, which was the best bestowed money that ever I bestowed, either of that or any other; the which if I had not done our whole enterprise it hath been stayed, both in joining with the duke (Chatelherault) and coming to Edinburgh, for certain particular causes that were betwixt the said lords and the duke, which were set down by that means by me so secret that it is not known to many.'

In February 1559-60 he was one of the signatories of the treaty of Berwick, by which Elizabeth engaged 'with all convenient speed to send into Scotland a convenient aid of men of warr,' for the purpose of driving out the French, and in the following April joined the English army at Prestonpans. On the 27th of that month he signed the contract in defence of the liberty of the 'evangel of Christ,' by which the lords of the congregation sought to encourage and confirm one another in the good work. He was present, on 7 May, at the unsuccessful attempt made by the English army to carry Leith by escalade, and on the 10th signed the document by which the treaty of Berwick was confirmed. On 27 Jan. 1560-1 he subscribed the 'Book of Discipline of the Kirk,' and at Ayr, on 3 Sept. 1562, he signed a bond to 'maintain and assist the preaching of the evangel.' Shortly after the marriage of Darnley (28 July 1564) the lords, despairing of prevailing on the queen to abolish 'the idolatrous mass,' and incensed by some acts of a rather high-handed character done by her, surprised Edinburgh during her temporary absence, but hastily abandoned the city on hearing that she was returning. Upon this Boyd, with Argyle, Murray, Glencairn, and others, was summoned to appear at the next meeting of parliament, which was fixed for 3 Feb. 1565, to answer for their conduct on pain of being denounced rebels and put to the horn. Parliament, however, did not meet in February, and before its next session, which began on 14 April 1567, Boyd's political attitude had undergone a complete change. If any credit is to be given to the so-called dying declaration of Bothwell, Boyd, according to that version of it which is found in Keith's 'History of Scotland' (App. 144), was privy to the murder of Darnley. His name, however, is not mentioned in the copy, or rather abstract, preserved in the Cottonian Library (Titus, c. vii. fol. 396), nor is the fragment Cal. D. ii. fol. 519 in the same collection; the original was in all probability a forgery. Though a member of the packed jury which acquitted Bothwell of the deed (April 1567), he, after Bothwell's marriage to Mary, joined a confederacy of nobles who bound themselves to protect the young prince against the sinister designs with which Bothwell was credited. Afterwards, however, he united himself with the faction which by a solemn 'league and covenant' engaged to take part with Bothwell 'against his privy or public calumniators,' 'with their bodies, heritage, and goods.'

Boyd was now made one of the permanent members of the privy council (17 May), and