Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/322

Graham papers on musical and kindred subjects to the 'Edinburgh Review' and various other periodicals, he was for some years an occasional contributor to the 'Scotsman.'

[Scotsman, 15 March 1867; Grove's Dict. i. 616, both of which give the date of birth incorrectly.]  GRAHAM, JAMES, fifth and first  (1612–1650), was born in 1612. His father was John, fourth earl; his mother before her marriage was Lady Margaret, the eldest daughter of William Ruthven, first earl of Gowrie. In 1624 he was sent to study at Glasgow. On 14 Nov. 1626 he succeeded to his father's earldom, and on 26 Jan. 1627 was admitted to the university of St. Andrews. He indulged there in hunting and hawking, in archery and golfing, without neglecting his studies. His principal guardian was his brother-in-law, the good and wise Archibald, first lord Napier, son of the inventor of logarithms. On 10 Nov. 1629, at the age of seventeen, Montrose was married to Magdalene Carnegie, daughter of Lord Carnegie, afterwards earl of Southesk, who for the three years which elapsed before the bridegroom came of age boarded the young couple. In 1633, as soon as Montrose was twenty-one, he left Scotland to travel on the continent, from which he returned in 1636 (, Memoirs of Montrose, i. 1-94).

On his return Montrose sought an interview with Charles I. He was young, high-spirited, and burning for distinction. Charles, it is said, through the arts of the Marquis of Hamilton, treated him coldly (, Life of Laud, p. 300; compare, p. 94, and , Hist. of England, 1603-42, viii. 357). In the first troubles in Scotland Montrose took no part; but before the end of 1637 he was induced by Rothes to join the national movement. That it was a national movement as well as a religious one was probably its principal charm with Montrose. He was likely to share in any feeling which existed against English interference, and as a nobleman he can have had no liking for the bishops, to whom rather than to the nobility of Scotland the king's favour was given. Charles too had treated him with contempt, and Hamilton, whom the king trusted to manage Scotland, was just the sort of man—solemn, pretentious, and unintelligent—to rouse the antipathy of Montrose. Montrose was consequently soon in the forefront of the agitation in defence of the national covenant, which was signed in February and March 1638. In the summer of that year he was placed in command of a force sent to the north to quell the separatist tendencies of Aberdeen. Arriving there on 20 July he did his best to avoid a collision, and returned after accepting what the more violent covenanters must have considered a very inadequate submission. On 30 March 1639 he re-entered Aberdeen under more serious circumstances. War was impending with Charles, and Huntly had raised an army against the covenanters. Again Montrose showed his powers of conciliation, and on 5 April an agreement was arrived at, in accordance with which Huntly promised to disperse his troops. On the 12th Montrose was guilty of the only mean action in his life. He carried Huntly with him as a prisoner to Edinburgh, in spite of the safe-conduct which he had granted. The result was a rising of the Gordons, and on 14 May the civil war opened with the skirmish known as the Trot of Turriff. On the 25th Montrose occupied Aberdeen for the third time. There was some plundering, but Montrose by his personal intervention hindered a general pillage. He left Aberdeen to put down resistance in the surrounding country. In his absence Aberdeen was occupied by Huntly's second surviving son, Viscount Aboyne; but on 18 June Aboyne was defeated by Montrose at the Bridge of Dee, and Aberdeen was reoccupied by the covenanters. The treaty of Berwick, which was signed on the day of Aboyne's defeat, put an end to the fighting.

In the negotiations which followed Montrose saw the king. Whatever may have been the effect which Charles's personal influence produced upon him, Montrose found himself, in the parliament which met at Edinburgh on 31 Aug. 1639, face to face with a new political situation. Parliament having declared for the abolition of episcopacy, proceeded to discuss a question of grave constitutional importance. It was proposed not only to leave the estate of bishops without a successor, but to reduce the other three estates, the lords, the barons or county members, and the representatives of the burghs, to an equality, by giving to each of them an equal share in the committee which was known as the Lords of the Articles, and which practically directed parliamentary business. Parliament would thus come under the control of the middle classes as long as the two latter estates remained united. That they would long remain so was exceedingly probable, first, because they were in close connection with the presbyterian clergy, and secondly, because they submitted themselves to the leadership of Argyll, who by their help made himself master of Scotland. Montrose's deepest feelings were thus touched. He saw in the political predominance of the presbyterian clergy all that he had detested in the political predominance of the