Patrick Ruthven

Artist Info

Patrick RuthvenDirleton, 1520 - 1566, Newcastle

LC name authority rec. nr96023824

LC Heading: Ruthven, Patrick Ruthven, Lord, -1566

found: His A relation of the death of David Rizzi, chief favorite to Mary Stuart Queen of Scotland; who was killed in the apartment of the said Queen on the 9th of March 1565, 1699: t.p. (Lord Ruthen, one of the principal persons concerned in that action)

Biography:

Ruthven, Patrick, third Lord Ruthven (c.1520–1566), magnate, was the eldest son of William Ruthven, second Lord Ruthven (b. before 1513, d. 1552), and Janet, eldest daughter and coheir of Patrick, Lord Haliburton of Dirleton. The belief that he was educated at the University of St Andrews is an old one, but no documentary evidence of his attendance there seems to exist. He makes his first appearance in the public records in March 1541, sitting in parliament as master of Ruthven. An anonymous note of April 1544 among the Hamilton papers notes that the English ships entering the Firth of Forth at that time might do well to receive him and take him on board for his advice. Whether he advised the English then it is impossible to say, but it is certain that he was in Perth the following June, when Cardinal David Beaton and the third earl of Arran, governor of Scotland, attempted to intervene in the affairs of the town by capitalizing on a feud between the Ruthven and Gray families. Possibly as a result of his decisive action in routing the Gray faction and preserving his family's dominance within the burgh, Patrick Ruthven was entered burgess and guild brother of Perth in October 1544, having been chosen provost of the town at Michaelmas.

Re-elected to that office in 1547, Ruthven entered into negotiations with the English for the delivery of Perth into English hands. Matters moved slowly while his loyalty to the English cause was tested, and by September 1548 it was clear that his dependability was questionable. Meanwhile, during the spring of 1548, he was briefly deprived of his provostship of Perth by the earl of Erroll and others, and he only succeeded in regaining his position with the help of his father. This threat to his family's authority in Perth may have weakened Ruthven's commitment to the English, for the following July he was granted a respite for his dealings with them, and he later received a precept of remission for the same.

Ruthven may have showed Anglophile leanings through his first marriage, before August 1546, to Janet Douglas, illegitimate daughter of the eighteenth earl of Angus and Margaret Stewart; Angus was for several years a leader of the pro-English faction. Janet was the mother of all Ruthven's recorded children, six sons and two daughters. She died after 1554, and in 1557 Ruthven contracted to marry Janet Stewart, daughter of John Stewart, earl of Atholl, and widow of Henry Stewart, Lord Methven; they had no children.

Ruthven was in Paris in March 1551. He became third Lord Ruthven on 6 October 1552 when he was entered as heir to his father. At the end of the year he was named as a leader of footsoldiers in a force which it was proposed to send to France. At Michaelmas 1553 he was once more chosen provost of Perth, and before his term ended the town authorities enacted that he should be provost for seven years to come, though the formality of an election was to be continued yearly. In return Ruthven promised a faithful administration, and he remained provost until his death in 1566. He kept his undertaking, for between 1555 and 1557 the burgh of Perth and its provost engaged in a lengthy series of confrontations over the act of parliament Against Craftsmen in Burghs. Ruthven played a critical role in upholding the interests of Perth's craftsmen burgesses and in negotiating a compromise with the queen regent, Mary of Guise, which protected at least some of the craft privileges. His actions appear to have won him crucial support in the burgh, especially among the craftsmen burgesses, support which persisted into 1559 and the conversion of Perth to the Reformation.

Patrick Ruthven's protestant sympathies seem to have stemmed from his Anglophile associations of the 1540s. His letters from this period contain a number of quotations from the vernacular Bible, suggesting an attachment to one of the key elements in the evangelical cause. His associates among local lairds in the 1550s became committed protestants, while some of his most ardent supporters in Perth had clearly documented ties to ‘crypto-protestants’ in the town. All this probably accounts for his confident refusal to the queen regent's request of April 1559 that he suppress the new religious practices there and compel orthodox Catholic devotions at Easter time. According to Knox, Ruthven told the regent that it was quite useless for him to try to change the minds of the townspeople in the matter of religion, though he could command their physical subjugation. Knox subsequently preached his famous sermon ‘vehement against idolatry’ (History of the Reformation, 4.162) in the parish kirk in Perth and on 10 May 1559 the destruction of the religious houses in and around Perth ensued. That all this was countenanced by the provost and magistrates is shown by the fact of Mary of Guise's feeling compelled to re-establish her personal control over the town. To this end she entered Perth with French troops and dismissed Lord Ruthven and his allies, replacing them with men of her own persuasion. Lord Ruthven had joined the regent before she entered the town, but he quickly left her camp and returned to supporting the activities of the lords of the congregation against her. The occupation of Perth ended on 24 June 1559, with Ruthven taking part in the attack and subsequent negotiations and recovering his position as provost.

In the months that followed Ruthven mediated between the regent and the lords of the congregation. When English aid to the congregation was obtained in February 1560, Ruthven accompanied Lord James Stewart to Berwick and took part in the negotiations with the duke of Norfolk. Ruthven signed the bond of 27 April 1560 and attended the Reformation Parliament in August 1560. He supported the marriage proposal between Arran and Queen Elizabeth, but thereafter absented himself from Edinburgh until the following January.

On 16 November 1560 Ruthven was at Scone, receiving a feu charter to former abbey lands from the commendator, Patrick Hepburn, bishop of Moray. However, his long absence from the centre of power and his associations with some of Queen Mary's supporters brought his loyalty to the congregation under suspicion. Although Ruthven returned to Edinburgh and sat with the council throughout the spring and summer of 1561, the English ambassador Thomas Randolph noted that he was not trusted by all of his peers. His unpopularity increased over the years, and by 1563 he was only serving on the council because of the influence of William Maitland of Leithington. Randolph reported that both the queen and the earl of Moray disliked him, yet he continued a staunch defender of protestantism and John Knox. His influence remained equally strong in and around Perth and he was confirmed as sheriff-clerk of Perth in May 1564.

In 1565 Ruthven supported the proposed marriage of Queen Mary to Lord Darnley, and consequently became more prominent on the queen's council. A convention of estates was summoned to Perth in June that year and the queen and her party spent time in the burgh as well as at Ruthven's castle just outside the town. Ruthven sat on the council for a few months after the marriage of the queen, but his deteriorating health seems to have kept him away from court throughout December and January 1565–6. He claimed to have been bedridden for three months that winter suffering from ‘an inflammation of the liver and a consumption of the kidneys’ (Keith, 3.260).

In February 1566, despite the fact that he ‘was scarcely able to walk twice the length of his chamber’ (ibid.), Ruthven was recruited by George Douglas (his first wife's half-brother) to take part in the removal of the queen's secretary David Riccio from her household and her confidence. Ruthven and the earl of Morton entered into a bond with Lord Darnley whereby the latter promised that in return for their complicity in the matter, he would protect them should it be necessary to commit a crime in the removal of Riccio. Subsequently on the evening of 9 March 1566 Ruthven made a dramatic appearance in the queen's chamber in Holyroodhouse while Mary was at supper with her friends. Ash-white from his illness, visibly wearing full armour under his nightgown, he demanded, ‘Let it please your majesty that yonder man David come forth of your privy chamber where he hath been overlong’ (Fraser, 252), before giving a barely coherent recitation of the secretary's misdeeds. His accomplices then dragged Riccio out of the room and stabbed him to death, after which Ruthven returned to the queen's presence and asked for wine.

Ruthven remained on guard with his men at the palace for two days, assuring the queen's attendants and the burgesses of Edinburgh that no harm was intended to the queen. Furthermore, he reassured those who questioned what was happening by telling them that he was acting at the instance of Lord Darnley. Mary soon escaped, however, and regained the upper hand, and Darnley equally quickly denied any part in or knowledge of the affair. Consequently Ruthven and his accomplices were forced to flee to England, after which they were tried in absentia and subjected to forfeiture for treason and non-compearance.

While he was in exile Ruthven wrote an account of Riccio's murder entitled Ruthven's Relation. The narrative was intended to justify his recent actions, and claimed that he was upholding the honour of Lord Darnley who had been cuckolded by his wife. It was directed to Queen Elizabeth, whose favour Ruthven required if he was to remain in exile in England. The memoir claims an important role in the affair for its author, while glossing over the criminal and treasonable nature of the act itself. Ruthven's exile was not long. He died at Newcastle about 16 May 1566, aged forty-six. He had suffered from a debilitating disease for some time and this probably caused his death. On 24 December following a posthumous precept of remission was granted for his part in the death of Riccio.

Patrick Ruthven was succeeded by his second son, William Ruthven, who became fourth Lord Ruthven, his elder brother having died before November 1560.

Mary Black Verschuur

Sources burgh records: court books, guild court book, convenor court book, Perth · protocol books of Sir Henry Elder, NA Scot. · J. Scott, A history of the life and death of John, earl of Gowrie (1818) · R. Keith, History of church and state in Scotland (1844), appx XI, 3.260–78 [Ruthven's relation] · J. M. Thomson and others, eds., Registrum magni sigilli regum Scotorum / The register of the great seal of Scotland, 11 vols. (1882–1914), vols. 3–4 · Reg. PCS, 1st ser. · CSP Scot., 1547–63, 1 · J. Bain, ed., The Hamilton papers: letters and papers illustrating the political relations of England and Scotland in the XVIth century, 1, Scottish RO, 12 (1890) · CSP for., 1563–8 · LP Henry VIII, vols. 4, 16, 18 · John Knox's History of the Reformation in Scotland, ed. W. C. Dickinson, 2 vols. (1949) · The Scottish correspondence of Mary of Lorraine, ed. A. I. Cameron, Scottish History Society, 3rd ser., 10 (1927) · Scots peerage, 4.289–62 · GEC, Peerage, new edn, 11.247–9 · A. Fraser, Mary, queen of Scots (1969) · private information (2004) [N. Reid]

Archives BL, ‘A discourse of the late troubles happend in Scotland between the Queen's Matie and the king her husband and certain of the nobility’, Add. MS 33256, fols. 134–49 · BL, papers and corresp. concerning internal affairs and relations with England, Add. MS 33256, fols. 2–103 :: BL, corresp. of English officers and others concerning the siege of Haddington and affairs of the border, 1548, Add. MS 32657, fols. 104–33

Mary Black Verschuur, ‘Ruthven, Patrick, third Lord Ruthven (c.1520–1566)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://proxy.bostonathenaeum.org:2055/view/article/24372, accessed 4 Nov 2015]