page_title: James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray
section_title: The Gude Regent
hierarchical_section_title: James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray / The Gude Regent
caption_attribution_description: English: James Stewart (c. 1531-1570), 1st Earl of Moray (1562), Regent of Scotland (1567-1570), 1568
context_page_description: James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, a member of the House of Stewart as the illegitimate son of King James V, was the Regent of Scotland for his half-nephew, the infant King James VI. He was the first head of government to be assassinated by a firearm.
context_section_description: Mary was forced into abdication at Loch Leven Castle on 24 July 1567, where she was imprisoned for some ten months (1567–1568). Moray returned to Edinburgh from France on 11 August 1567, escorted from Berwick-upon-Tweed by James Melville of Halhill, with a French ambassador, De Lignerolles. William Cecil, the English secretary of State had arranged his transport from Dieppe in an English ship. He was appointed Regent of Scotland on 22 August, for the minority infant King James VI (born 1566), son of Queen Mary and Lord Darnley. The appointment was confirmed by Parliament in December. To raise money Moray sent his agent Nicolas Elphinstone to London to sell Mary's jewels and pearls.
  Mary escaped from Lochleven on 2 May 1568, and the Duke of Chatelherault and other nobles rallied to her standard. Moray gathered his allies and defeated her forces at the Battle of Langside, near Glasgow on 13 May 1568. Mary was compelled to flee, and decided to go to England; she could have equally have departed for France, although this would have taken more time and resources to arrange. For this and the subsequent management of the kingdom he secured both civil and ecclesiastical peace, and earned the title of "The Gude Regent".
caption: James Stewart (c. 1531–1570), 1st Earl of Moray (1562), Regent of Scotland (1567–1570), 1568
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2461", "Image ImageLength": "3511", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2018:06:05 00:26:01", "Image ExifOffset": "232", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "382", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7254", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1752", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2500"}