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Rh to his charge; there was talk of superseding him at once; the king was for Lord Ruthven and the kirk for Lord Lothian (ib. p. 472). In November, when the Scottish parliament, presided over by Charles II in person, met at Perth, Leven, assuming full responsibility, petitioned them ‘to take exact tryall of all his cariages in there severall services, and especiallie concerning the late vnhappie bussienes at Dunbar.’ The king and the estates in reply exonerated him from all censure ‘in relation to all his former imploymentis and service, with ample approbatione for his fidelitie thairin’ (Acts of Parliaments of Scotland, vol. vi. pt. ii. pp. 609, 618, 624). At the next meeting of the parliament, in March 1651, Leven made one more effort to be relieved of his command, but, as of old, the parliament declined his request (ib. vol. vi. pt. ii. p. 651).

In 1650 Leven purchased the estate of Inchmartine in the parish of Errol and Carse of Gowrie, and changed its name to Inchleslie. There in June 1651, while Leven was with the army, his wife died; she was buried at Balgonie (, Diary, p. 31). In August 1651 Leven was with the Scottish committee of estates, and was concerting with them measures for raising a new army to relieve Dundee, which Monck was besieging. On Thursday 28 Aug. the committee met at Elliot in Angus, when Colonel Alured, with his regiment of horse and three troops of dragoons, fell upon them unexpectedly, and made most of them prisoners. Leven was carried to Dundee, and thence by sea to London, where he was placed in the Tower. On 1 Oct. his son-in-law, Ralph Delavall of Seaton Delavall, obtained permission to supply him with some necessaries, while two days later Cromwell himself moved in the English council that the liberty of the Tower should be granted him, and his servant be allowed to wait on him. Delavall shortly afterwards was permitted to carry the earl to his own residence in Northumberland, on furnishing securities in his own person and two relatives for the sum of 20,000l. that the earl would confine himself there and twelve miles around, and otherwise carry himself as a true prisoner of parliament (State Papers, Dom. 1651 pp. 431, 458, 465, 1651–2 pp. 12, 16, 17). He paid a visit to London in 1652, in order to recover his estates, which had been sequestrated, and he seems on this visit to have been again temporarily incarcerated by mistake in the Tower. Queen Christina of Sweden and her successor, King Charles X, both wrote to Cromwell praying for his freedom. In 1654 he recovered full liberty, his lands were restored, and he was exempted from the fine which had been imposed on the other Scottish nobles. He returned to Balgonie, his Fifeshire seat, on 25 May 1654 (, Diary, p. 72), and spent his remaining years in settling his affairs. He died at Balgonie 4 April 1661, and was buried on the 19th in the church at Markinch.

As a general, Leven's unrivalled experience inspired confidence in his soldiers. But his manner was so unassuming that his superiors felt that they could trust him with almost dictatorial power without fearing that he would abuse it. In person he was little and crooked; but his wise exercise of authority won universal respect. The nobles of Scotland, in spite of their jealousies and haughty temper, ‘with ane incredible submission, from the beginning to the end [of the wars in Scotland], gave over themselves to be guided by him as if he had been great Solyman. … Yet that was the man's understanding of our Scotts humours that he gave out, not onlie to the nobles, but to verie mean gentlemen, his directions in a verie homelie and simple forme, as if they had been bot the advyces of their neighbour and companion’ (, Letters, i. 213, 214). Although in Scotland Leven declined to accept any joint command, he proved himself, at the siege of York and Marston Moor, well able to act in harmonious co-operation with the parliamentary generals Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester. They courteously allowed him to sign their joint despatches first, and designated him ‘His Excellency,’ a title which he had brought with him from Germany. His influence, even with the English generals, seems to have been similar to that wielded by him among the Scottish nobles. When jealousies sprang up later among the English parliamentary generals on points of precedency, the joint committee bade the rivals take ‘as an example the fair and amicable agreement that was between the three generals at Marston Moor and the taking of York, where in all that time they were together there never grew any dispute nor differences about command’ (State Papers, Dom. 1644, passim).

By his wife, Agnes Renton, he had two sons and five daughters. The daughters were (1) Barbara, who married General Sir John Ruthven of Dinglas; (2) Christian, who married Walter Dundas of Dundas; (3) Anne, who married, first, Hugh, master of Lovat, and secondly, Sir Ralph Delavall of Seaton Delavall; (4) Margaret, who married James Crichton, first viscount of Frendraught [q. v.]; and (5) Mary, who married William, third lord Cranstoun. His two sons both predeceased him, the elder, Gustavus, when young, and the second, Alexander, lord Balgonie, who