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Rh the king's ear.’ He was perhaps already planning the re-establishment of episcopacy (Lauderdale Papers, i. 29), although, to maintain his influence in Scotland, he kept the design very secret. A sharp contest for power in Scottish affairs now ensued between the old cavalier, ‘malignant’ party, of whom John Middleton, first earl of Middleton [q. v.], William Cunningham, ninth earl of Glencairn [q. v.], and Sir Archibald Primrose [q. v.] were the chiefs, and that section of the nobles who, while bending to the presbyterian domination, had brought about the ‘Engagement.’ The three above named became high commissioner, chancellor, and clerk register respectively; but Lord Rothes became president of the council, and John Lindsay, seventeenth earl of Crawford [q. v.], another devoted friend of Lauderdale, and a staunch presbyterian, was made treasurer. The great fight was regarding the secretaryship, upon which, as giving him constant access to the king's ear, Lauderdale had fixed his ambition. Opposed though he was by the whole influence of Monck, Clarendon, and the bishops, who favoured the claims of Newburgh, and who wished to make Lauderdale chancellor to keep him away from London, he won the day. When Clarendon urged his presbyterianism, he pointed to his services and his long imprisonment, and Charles's personal pleasure in his society doubtless had much to do with the choice.

For maintaining his hold upon the king, and for overcoming the many difficulties which the jealousy of his rivals in Scotland, the antagonism of Clarendon, and his own poverty brought upon him, Lauderdale was well fitted by a character which had hitherto had no fair play. To great knowledge of affairs and of character he joined fertility of resource, a strong will, coolness and courage, extreme selfishness, readiness to strike at the right moment, keen discernment in choosing his tools, and utter unscrupulousness. Without gratitude or integrity, he succeeded in retaining the willing services of high-minded men, while, in his own phrase, he knew ‘how to make use of a knave as well as another.’ He was a bold and unabashed liar, hating ‘damned insipid lies.’ Deeply read in divinity and foreign languages, he soon proved himself as well the rival in debauchery, so far as embarrassed means would allow, of the most licentious of Charles's courtiers. His face and figure were unattractive; his wit was coarse but, like the whole nature of the man, robust. By dexterity and industry he soon made himself indispensable to Charles. It was noticed that he was ‘never from the king's ear,’ and was ‘a very cunning fellow’ (, 2 March 1664; Quarterly Review, April 1884, p. 415). He was lodged in Whitehall, on the northern side of the stone gallery south of the Privy Gardens (English Illustr. Magazine, i. 79).

Lauderdale's principal object was to keep Scottish affairs in Scottish hands. He strongly opposed Clarendon's arrangement, which placed Englishmen on the Scottish privy council, and as soon as he became supreme overthrew it. He induced Charles to permit the committee of estates to meet, and to order the English garrisons to be removed from Ayr, Leith, Inverness, and Perth, securing for himself in May 1662 a grant of the ground upon which the Leith fortifications stood. This he afterwards sold to the council of Edinburgh for 5,000l. (, Memoirs, p. 24). He had already received charters of the lordship and regality of Musselburgh, the barony of Cranschawis, the barony and regality of Thirlestane, the lands of Rodgerslaw, &c., on 15 May 1661, and to these was added the forest of Lauder, 13 Oct. 1664. Both to the Rescinding Act of Middleton's ‘drunken administration’ and to the grant of an annual subsidy of 40,000l. he offered the strongest opposition (, Memoirs, p. 31). At the trial of Archibald Campbell, Marquis of Argyll [q. v.], he appears first to have tried to save him, for which purpose he obtained an order from Charles giving indemnity for all acts committed before 1651; but afterwards, under pressure from Rothes, to have yielded to his old enmity for him, and to have withdrawn his aid (ib. p. 38).

There is no reason to think that Lauderdale aided in the restoration of episcopacy; indeed, Burnet says that he privately opposed it, and Mackenzie adds that he urged Charles to submit the question to a general assembly or to the provincial assemblies (ib. p. 54). From all open opposition, however, he carefully forbore. Meanwhile he was at pains to acquire support in Scotland. Rothes secured for him powerful influence; his brother, Charles Maitland, gained over William Bellenden, lord Bellenden [q. v.]; his private agent, William Sharp, brother of James Sharp, now primate of Scotland, was indefatigable. The ablest of his opponents, Primrose, was won over in 1662–3; and by espousing the interest of the Marquis of Argyll's son [see, ninth ] he secured a useful friend. To gain popularity, and to lessen Middleton's control of the purse, he induced Charles, 23 Jan. 1663, to remit half the fines levied upon those who were excepted from the Act of Indemnity;