The murder of David Beaton lies like a great shadow over the Scottish Reformation and this is the first modern account of this great prince of the church.
But who was this man who inspired such awe and hatred amongst his contempories? Politician, diplomat, landed magnate and dynast, Beaton was every inch the exemplar of the great Renaissance lord. His powerful personality and driving energy easily dominated the irresolute Arran during the minority of Mary, Queen of Scots.
As the ferment of Reformation grew, Beaton came to be seen as the main obstacle to change, a view confirmed with his execution of George Wishart. His murder represents the inorexable culmination not simply of the movement for reform but of two irreconcilable views of Scotland’s role. For Beaton was the last Scottish statesman to see Scotland in the heart of Europe and to bestride that European stage with confidence. He held on to the alliance with France in the face of enormous pressure from England, and his murder opened the floodgates of change in Scotland. Truly did a later historian describe him as ’of the Wolsey and Mazarin class’.
Margaret Sanderson is the author of numerous books on 16th and 17th century Scotland. She is an expert on the Reformation and is currently editing a new edition of John Knox’s History of the Reformation in Scotland. She previously worked for the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh. On its first appearance, Cardinal of Scotland was awarded a Scottish Arts Council Book Award.
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