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 tivities at Edinburgh was noted and commented upon in a style that obliged him to appear at court, when he was ‘well received’ by the queen (, Cal. iv. 391). But he was ill at ease, foreseeing danger, but doubting from what quarter it would come. The madness of his son James, and his story of a plot to seize the queen's person and subvert the government, implicating himself, his father and Bothwell, still further unsettled him. Mary's conduct on this occasion (ib. iv. 592–4) went far to reassure him, but the surrender of Dumbarton Castle into her hands followed almost as a matter of course. In 1565 the restoration of his old enemy Lennox and the proposed marriage between Mary and Darnley filled him with fresh apprehensions (ib. vii. 338, 352). Animated by the attitude of Murray, he declined to obey a summons to court (Register of the Privy Council, i. 365). He was thereupon proclaimed a traitor, and shortly afterwards compelled to flee for his life across the border. Elizabeth disavowed all sympathy with him, and from Newcastle he soon made overtures for forgiveness and restoration. At first Mary indignantly declined to listen to him, declaring that nothing but his head would satisfy her (, Cal. vii. 480, 483), but on his consenting to go into banishment for five years he obtained a pardon (Hamilton MSS. p. 43). Leaving his debts unpaid, Châtelherault slipped away in February 1566 to France, where he occupied himself in vain endeavours to recover his duchy (, Cal. viii. 6, 19, 69, 91). The murder of Darnley, Mary's marriage to Bothwell, her imprisonment, and the appointment of Murray as regent materially altered Châtelherault's attitude. Darnley out of the way, Mary was no longer his enemy. He therefore repaired to the French court, protested his loyalty, and offered his sword in defence of his sovereign's cause. He desired at the same time, we are told, to add something touching his suit for the recovery of his duchy, but the king ‘cut it short,’ and turned the conversation into another channel (ib. viii. 295). He managed, however, to secure in lieu of it a pension of four thousand francs, and a cupboard of plate worth fifteen hundred crowns (ib. viii. 319). His attempt to raise a French force was frustrated by Throckmorton, and when he landed in England early in 1569 he was practically unattended. At York his progress was arrested by the Earl of Sussex, but on promising to behave in a dutiful manner he was allowed to proceed (, Cal. ix. 31). His return to Scotland, and the menacing attitude of the Hamiltons generally, disconcerted the regent Murray. He tried in vain to obtain from Châtelherault an acknowledgment of the king's supremacy, and afterwards, on pretence of a conference, inveigled him to Edinburgh, where he was arrested (, vii. 225–8). After Murray's assassination in January 1570 Châtelherault was still more closely confined, and it was not till the arrival of Verac from France that he was set at liberty on 20 April. During the civil war that followed, his castles of Hamilton, Kinneil, and Linlithgow were razed to the ground by Sir W. Drury (ib. ix. 257). But, notwithstanding his own losses and the apparent hopelessness of the struggle, he continued faithfully to support the queen's party till 23 Feb. 1573, when, acting in union with the Earl of Huntly, he consented to acknowledge the king's authority and lay down his sword. He afterwards declared to Killigrew that he would never consent to the introduction of a French force into the kingdom, but Killigrew was not without a suspicion that he was even then only temporising (ib. x. 281, 522).

Châtelherault died at Hamilton on 22 Jan. 1575. By his wife, the Lady Margaret, eldest daughter of James Douglas, third earl of Morton, he had issue: James Hamilton, third earl of Arran [q. v.]; John, first marquis of Hamilton [q. v.]; David, who died young; and Claud, lord Paisley [q. v.]; and four daughters: Barbara, who married James, fourth lord Fleming [q. v.], high chamberlain of Scotland; Margaret, who married Alexander, lord Gordon, eldest son of George, fourth earl of Huntly; Anne, who married George, fifth earl of Huntly [q. v.]; and Jane, who married Hugh Montgomery, third earl of Eglintoun (, Peerage, i. 701).

[Hamilton MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. pt. vi.); Acts of the Parliament of Scotland; Sadleir's State Papers; State Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, vol. v.; Rymer's Fœdera; Diurnal of Occurrents in Scotland (Bannatyne Club); Knox's History of the Reformation, ed. Laing; Register of the Privy Council of Scotland; Melvill's Diary; Crawfurd's Officers of State; Thorpe's Cal. of State Papers; Cal. of Hatfield MSS.; Haynes's Burghley Papers; Cal. of State Papers, For. Corresp., ed. Stevenson and Crosby, vols. i–x.; Douglas and Crawfurd's Peerages of Scotland; and the Histories of Scotland by Buchanan, Drummond, Lesley, Keith, Robertson, Spotiswood, Tytler, and Burton.] 

HAMILTON, JAMES (fl. 1566–1580), of Bothwellhaugh, assassin, was descended from a younger branch of the noble family of Hamilton. His grandfather was the fifth son of John Hamilton of Orbieston, the nephew of Sir James, first lord Hamilton [q. v.], and grandson of Sir James Hamilton of Cadzow,