George Buchananb Moss near Killearn, Stirlingshire February 1506 at ; d Edinburgh 29 September 1582. |
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Buchanan, friend and teacher of Mary Queen of Scots and Michel de Montaigne, came from a family of five sons and three daughters who were brought up on slender means by their widowed mother Agnes
Heriot. Buchanan received a
grammar school education, and at the age of 14 was sent by his uncle James Heriot
to study at the University of Paris. In 1523 Buchanan returned to Scotland and served as a soldier. In 1525 he continued his studies at St. Andrews University under John Major, then went with him to Paris in 1526, teaching there until 1537, when he returned to Scotland as tutor to one of the sons of James V. However, a satire Buchanan wrote against Cardinal
Beaton, "Franciscantis" (published 1567) caused him to be denounced as a heretic. He escaped to England and
then to Bordeaux, where he taught until
1547. He then went to teach at
the University of Coimbra in Portugal, was condemned by the Inquisition, and while in prison translated the
Psalms into Latin. He was released in 1553, and was in France and Italy until 1561, when he returned to Scotland and became tutor to Mary, Queen of Scots. He joined the newly-formed General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and in 1566 he was appointed Principal
of St Leonard's College in St Andrews, but the murder of Lord Darnley in the following year brought his friendship with Mary to an end. He became an active opponent of the Queen, and produced pamphlets against her.
In 1567 he became Moderator of the General Assembly, and he was made tutor to the young James VI. His accusations against Mary were published as "De Maria Scotorum Regina" (1571), translated as "Ane Detectioun of the Duings of Mary Quene". Buchanan remained active in politics and the church until his death ten years later. He is buried in Greyfriars' Churchyard in Edinburgh, and is remembered as one of the greatest Latinists of his age. His output, nearly all in Latin, includes several plays and a 20-volume history of Scotland.
AC
Rudimenta grammatices (1533); Medea (1544); Alcestis (1556); Jepthes sive Votum (1557); De caleto (1558); Psalmorum Dauidis (1566); Anent the Reformation of the University of St Andrews (1567); Elegiae, sylvae endecasyllabi (1567); Franciscanus (1567); Tragodiae selectae (1567); An Admonitioun Direct to the Trewe Lordis (1570); The Chamaeleon (1570); De Maria Scotorum Regina (1571); Baptistes sive Calumnia (1578); De juri regni apud Scotos (1579); Rerum scoticarum historia, 20 vols. (1582); De sphaera (1586); Selectorum carminum ex doctiis (1590); De prosodia libelles (1595).
I. D. Macfarlane:
"Buchanan" (London, 1981); ©1988 |
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