[3] Hist. MSS. Com.; Various Collections, ii. 394.
[4] Diary, Oct. 18th and Nov. 18th, 1664, and March 10th, 1665.
CRAWFORD, EARLS OF. The house of Lindsay, of which the earl of Crawford is the head, traces its descent back to the barons of Crawford who flourished in the 12th century, and has included a number of men who have played leading parts in the history of Scotland. It is said that “though other families in Scotland may have been of more historic, none can in genealogical importance equal that of Lindsay,” and the Lindsays claim that “the predecessors of the 1st earl of Crawford were barons at the period of the earliest parliamentary records, and that, in fact, they were never enrolled in the modern sense of the term, but were among the pares, of which kings are primi, from the commencement of recorded history.” Again we are told, “the earldom of Crawford, therefore, like those of Douglas, of Moray, Ross, March and others of the earlier times of feudalism, formed a petty principality, an imperium in imperio.” Moreover, the earls “had also a concilium, or petty parliament, consisting of the great vassals of the earldom, with whose advice they acted on great and important occasions.”
Sir James Lindsay (d. 1396), 9th lord of Crawford in Lanarkshire, was the only son of Sir James Lindsay, the 8th lord (d. c. 1357), and was related to King Robert II.; he was descended from Sir Alexander Lindsay of Luffness (d. 1309), who obtained Crawford and other estates in 1297 and who was high chamberlain of Scotland. The 9th lord fought at Otterburn, and Froissart tells of his wanderings after the fight. He was succeeded by his cousin, Sir David Lindsay (c. 1360-1407), son of Sir Alexander Lindsay of Glenesk (d. 1382), and in 1398 Sir David, who married a daughter of Robert II., was made earl of Crawford.
The most important of the early earls of Crawford are the 4th and the 5th earls. Alexander Lindsay, the 4th earl (d. 1454), called the “tiger earl,” was, like his father David the 3rd earl, who was killed in 1446, one of the most powerful of the Scottish nobles; for some time he was in arms against King James II., but he submitted in 1452. His son David, the 5th earl (c. 1440-1495), was lord high admiral and lord chamberlain; he went frequently as an ambassador to England and was created duke of Montrose in 1488, but the title did not descend to his son. Montrose fought for James III. at the battle of Sauchieburn, and his son John, the 6th earl (d. 1513), was slain at Flodden.
David Lindsay, 8th earl of Crawford (d. 1542), son of Alexander, the 7th earl (d. 1517), had a son Alexander, master of Crawford (d. 1542), called the “wicked master,” who quarrelled with his father and tried to kill him. Consequently he was sentenced to death, and the 8th earl conveyed the earldom to his kinsman, David Lindsay of Edzell (d. 1558), a descendant of the 3rd earl of Crawford, thus excluding Alexander and his descendants, and in 1542 David became 9th earl of Crawford. But the 9th earl, although he had at least two sons, named the wicked master’s son David as his heir, and consequently in 1558 the earldom came back to the elder line of the Lindsays, the 9th earl being called the “interpolated earl.”
David Lindsay, 10th earl of Crawford (d. 1574), was a supporter of Mary Queen of Scots; he was succeeded by his son David (c. 1547-1607) as 11th earl. This David, a grandson of Cardinal Beaton, was concerned in some of the risings under James VI.; he was converted to Roman Catholicism and was in communication with the Spaniards about an invasion of England. After his death the earldom passed to his son David (d. 1621), a lawless ruffian, and then to his brother, Sir Henry Lindsay or Charteris (d. 1623), who became 13th earl of Crawford. Sir Henry’s three sons became in turn earls of Crawford, the youngest, Ludovic, succeeding in 1639.
Ludovic Lindsay, 16th earl of Crawford (1600-1652), took part in the strange plot of 1641 called the “incident.” Having joined Charles I. at Nottingham in 1642, he fought at Edgehill, at Newbury and elsewhere during the Civil War; in 1644, just after Marston Moor, the Scottish parliament declared he had forfeited his earldom, and, following the lines laid down when this was regranted in 1642, it was given to John Lindsay, 1st earl of Lindsay. Ludovic was taken prisoner at Newcastle in 1644 and was condemned to death, but the sentence was not carried out, and in 1645 he was released by Montrose, under whom he served until the surrender of the king at Newark. Later he was in Ireland and in Spain and he died probably in France in 1652. He left no issue.
The earl of Lindsay, who thus supplanted his kinsman, belonged to the family of Lindsay of the Byres, a branch of the Lindsays descended from Sir David Lindsay of Crawford (d. c. 1355), the grandfather of the 1st earl of Crawford. Sir David’s descendant, Sir John Lindsay of the Byres (d. 1482), was created a lord of parliament as Lord Lindsay of the Byres in 1445, and his son David, the 2nd lord (d. 1490), fought for James III. at the battle of Sauchieburn. The most prominent member of this line was Patrick, 6th Lord Lindsay of the Byres (d. 1589), a son of John the 5th lord (d. 1563), who was a temperate member of the reforming party. Patrick was one of the first of the Scottish nobles to join the reformers, and he was also one of the most violent. He fought against the regent, Mary of Lorraine, and the French; then during a temporary reconciliation he assisted Mary, queen of Scots, to crush the northern rebels at Corrichie in 1562, but again among the enemies of the queen he took part in the murder of David Rizzio and signed the bond against Bothwell, whom he wished to meet in single combat after the affair at Carberry Hill in 1565. Lindsay, who was a brother-in-law and ally of the regent Murray, carried Mary to Lochleven castle and obtained her signature to the deed of abdication; he fought against her at Langside, and after Murray’s murder he was one of the chiefs of the party which supported the throne of James VI. In 1578, however, he was among those who tried to drive Morton from power, and in 1582 he helped to seize the person of the king in the plot called the “raid of Ruthven,” afterwards escaping to England. Lindsay had returned to Scotland when he died on the 11th of December 1589. His successor was his son, James the 7th lord (d. 1601).