doultay?s Hi11.1 THE LYON KING-OF-ARMS. 37= _.
able testimonial, signed and sealed by all the
members of that corporation. When the Civil War
broke out, though a staunch Presbyterian, Sir
James remained loyal to the king, for whose Scots
Under the Lord Lyon were the messengers-atarms,
whose duty is still to execute all summonses
before the Court of Session, to apprehend the
persons of debtors, and generally to perform the
executive parts of the law. By the twelfth Parliament
of James VI. and the second Parliament of
Charles 11. it is defined that the province of the
Lyon-who takes his name from the emblem in the
royal standard-is to adjust matters of precedence,
and marshal public processions ; also to inspect
the coats of arms of the nobility and gentry; to
punish those who assume arms to which they have
no hereditary right ; to bestow coats of arms upon
the deserving ; to grant supporters in certain cases;
and to take cognisance of, and to punish, offences
committed by messengers-at-arms in the course of
their office.
Of old, and before it degenerated into a mere
legal sinecure, the office was one of great dignity,
and the person of the holder was deemed almost
sacred. Thus, Bishop Lesly tells us in his history
that in 1515 the aged Lord Drummond was forfeited
? for striking the Lyon, and narrowly escaped
the loss of his life and dignity.?
In 1530 the office of Lord Lyon was bestowed
by James V. upon Sir David Lindesay of the
Mount, the celebrated poet, moralist, and reformer,
whom, four years after, he sent as an ambassador
to Germany, and in 1548 in a similar capacity to
Denmark. It was an office imposed upon the
Lord Lyon to receive foreign ambassadors, and
Lindesay did this honour to Sir Ralf Sadler, who
came froni England in 1539-40; and in 1568
Sir David Lindesay of Rathuleit was solemnly
crowned King-of-arms, in presence of the Regent
and nobility ; and in 1603, as Balfour tells us, ? Sir
David Lindesay of Mount, Lyone King-of-arms,?
proclaimed at the Cross the accession of James VI.
to the English throne.
On the 15th of June, 1630, Sir Jerome Lyndsay
of Annatland resigned the office in favour of Sir
James Balfour of Denmylne, who was crowned as
Lyon King by George Earl of Kinnoul, Chancellor
of Scotland, acting as royal commissioner, and
in 1633 he was created a baronet. Balfour, an
eminent antiquary and annalist, was well versed
in heraldry, to perfect the study of which, before
his appointment, he proceeded to London and
became acquainted with Sir Robert Cotton, and
Sir William Segar the Garter King, who obtained
for him from the heralds? college a highly honour-
?
?The office of Lord Lyon has of late,? says
Amot, been held as a sinecure. . . , . The
business, therefore, is entirely committed to dewties,
who manage it in such a manner that. in a
Guards he designed colours in 1649 ; but was deprived
of his office by Cromwell, after which be
retired to Fifeshire, and collected many manuscripts
on the science of heraldry and connected with
Scottish history, prior to his death in 1657, and
these are now preserved in the Advocates? Library.
A fine portrait of him is prefixed to his Annales,?
published at Edinburgh in 1824.
The installation of a Lyon King is given fully in
an account of ?The order observed at the coronation
of Sir Alexander Erskirie of Cambo, Baronet,
Lord Lyon King-of-arms, at the royal palace of
Holyrood House, on the 27th day of July, 1681,
his Royal Highness James Duke of Albany and
York being his Majesty?s High Commissioner.?
In the ceremony of installation the Lord Lyon
is duly crowned ; and Sir Alexander was the last
who was thus crowned. His father, Sir Charles
Erskine of Cambo, had previously been Lyon King,
of which office he obtained a ?ratification,? by
Parliament in 1672, with remainder to his son.
In 1703 the chief Scottish work on heraldry
was published by Alexander Nisbet of that ilk, to
whom the Scottish Parliament gave a grant of
Lz48 6s. 8d. to assist him in bringing it forth.
It is related in MacCormick?s ? Life of Principal
Carstairs,? that when the latter was a prisoner in
the Castle of Edinburgh in 1685, an engaging boy
about twelve years of age, son of Erskine of Cambo,
then constable of the fortress, used to come almost
daily to the open grating of his dungeon, and was
wont to sit there for hours, ?lamenting his unhappy
situation, and endeavouring by a thousand innocent
and childish means to divert him. Sonietimes the
boy brought him packages of fruit and provisions
(more delicate than the coarse fare of the prison),
and, what were of more importance, pens, ink, and
paper, and when the prisoner wrote letters carried
them to the post.?
Years elapsed ere the unfortunate Carstairs
could testify his gratitude ; but when the Revolution
came and the hand of misfortune fell heavily
on the Cavalier Erskines of Cambo, the Principal,
then high in favour with William III., remembered
his little friend of the bitter past in the Castle of
Edinburgh; and one of the first favours he asked
the new king was to bestow the office of Lord Lyon
upon the young heir of Cambo. The request was
granted, with the additional favour that it was made
hereditary in the family ; but it was soon after forfeited
by their joining the Earl of Mar in 1715.
