# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carnegie, Robert

​CARNEGIE, Sir ROBERT (d. 1566), of Kinnaird, judge and diplomatist, son of John Carnegie of Kinnaird, who fell at Flodden (9 Sept. 1513), by Jane Vaus, was in 1547 nominated an ordinary lord of session by the regent (the Earl of Arran), to whose party he had attached himself. The appointment seems to have been made in anticipation of the removal of Henry Balnaves [q. v.], then under suspicion of complicity in the murder of Cardinal Beaton. In the autumn of 1548 Carnegie was despatched to England to negotiate with the protector for the ransom of the Earl of Huntly, the chancellor of Scotland, who had been taken prisoner at the battle of Pinkie Cleugh in the preceding year (10 Sept.) From London Carnegie proceeded to Blois, where, with the bishop of Ross and Gavin Hamilton (abbot of Kilwynning), he conducted the negotiations which resulted, in 1551, in the creation of the regent duke of Chatelherault, with the understanding that he should resign the regency into the hands of the queen-mother. In the summer of 1551 he returned to Scotland, travelling through England under letters of safe-conduct granted by the protector, and was employed in negotiations relative to the settlement of the borders. On the accession to the regency of Mary of Guise (1553), he became clerk to the treasurer (thesaurar-clerk) at a salary of 26l. per annum. He was appointed (9 June of the same year) commissioner to enforce the observance of the statutes relating to forestalling and regrating at the approaching fair at Brechin, and on 18 Sept. was deputed, with Sir Robert Bellenden, to represent Scotland in another negotiation for a settlement of the border, as the result of which a treaty, the terms of which will be found in the ‘Calendar of State Papers’ (Dom. Addenda, 1547–65, p. 430), was concluded on 4 Dec. In 1557 another negotiation with the same object was opened, Carnegie being again employed. The commissioners met at Carlisle in the summer, but the negotiation was abruptly terminated by the queen regent. Carnegie was employed in 1553 in another attempt to settle the perennial border question. The precise date when he received the honour of knighthood is uncertain, but it was probably about 1552–3. The last meeting of the privy council which he attended was held on 1 Dec. 1565. He died on 5 July in the following year. He is described by Knox as one of those ‘quha for faynting of the bretheris hairtis, and drawing many to the Queneis factioun against thair natyve countrey have declairit thameselfis ennemies to God and traytouris to thair commune wealth’ (Hist. Reform. i. 400, Bannatyne Club). By his devotion to the queen regent he profited largely, receiving from her several grants of lands in Forfarshire. His wife was Margaret Guthrie, of the Guthries of Lunan. He is supposed to be the author of a work on Scotch law, cited in Balfour's ‘Practicks’ (ed. 1754), p. 60, by the title of ‘Lib. Carneg.’
[Lesley's Hist. Scotl. pp. 197, 220, 258; Reg. Counc. Scotl. i. 83, 141, 146, 150; Keith's Hist. Scotl. App. 115; Cal. State Papers (Scotl. 1509–1603), pp. 100, 105, 192 (Dom. Addenda, 1547–65), p. 430; Knox's Works (Bann. Club), i. 400, iii. 410–11; Strype's Mem. iii. pt. ii. 419, ad fin.; Reg. Mag. Sig. (1513–46), gg. 1465 2730; Brunton and Haig's Senators of the College of Justice.]
J. M. R.