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CHIEF: Dr Robin Boyd, MA (Oxon); MB BS; LRCP, MRCS; DCH; AFOM, 8th Baron Kilmarnock |
www.clanboyd.info |
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Lord Robert Boyd The
Dictionary of National Biography, From Earliest Times to
1900, volume II, Edited by Sir Leslie Stephen and Sir Sydney "Robert Boyd, Scotch statesman was created a peer of parliament by King James Stewart II by the title of Lord Boyd, and took his seat on 18 July 1454. In 1460 he was appointed one of the regents during the minority of the young king, James III. In 1464 (11 April) he was joined with the Bishop of Glasgow, the Abbot of Holyrood, his brother, Sir Alexander Boyd of Duncole, and three others, in a commission to negotiate a truce with Edward IV. In 1466 he obtained the appointment of his brother, Sir Alexander, as instructor to the young king in knightly exercises, and conspired with him to obtain entire control of the affairs of the kingdom. To this end they, in defiance of the protests of Lord Kennedy, one of their co-regents, took possession of the person of the king, and carried him from Linlithgow to Edinburgh, where, in a parliament summoned (9 October), a public expression of approval of their conduct was obtained from the king, and an act was passed constituting Boyd sole governor of the realm. He now governed autocratically, but he appears by no means to have abused his power. On the contrary, some of the measures which he introduced must have been eminently salutary. Commendams were abolished, and religious foundations which had deviated from their original purposes were reformed. He also passed enactments designed to promote the interests of the mercantile and shipping community, prohibiting the freighting of ships without a charter-party by subjects of the king, whether within the realm or without it, and also fostering the importation and discouraging the expor- tation of bullion. He negotiated a marriage between the king and Margaret, only daughter of Christian, king of Norway, thereby obtaining the cession of Orkney (8 Sept. 1468) and the formal release of the annual tribute of 100 marks, which was still nominally payable to the king of Norway, in the church of St. Magnus, Kirkwall, though it had long ceased to be paid. On 25 August 1467 he obtained for himself the office of great chamberlain for life, while his eldest son, Thomas (by Mariota, daughter of Sir Robert Maxwell of Calderwood) was created Earl of Arran and Baron of Kilmarnock, and married to the king's elder sister, the Lady Mary. This last step was more than the jealousy of the Scotch nobles could endure, and they determined to strike a blow at the supremacy of the Boyds. Accordingly, in November 1469, Lord Robert and his brother were arraigned before the parliament on a charge of treason based on their conduct of three years previously in laying hands on the person of the king. They were found guilty and sentenced to death (22 Nov.). Boyd, however, anticipating the issue of the trial, fled to Alnwick in Northumber land, where he soon afterwards died. His brother was detained in Scotland by illness, and lost his head on the Castle Hill. NOTE: Use this data as a finding tool, just as you would any other secondary source. When you find the name of an ancestor listed, confirm the facts in original sources.
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Updated Information
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