Illegitimate son of James V. of Scotland, and so half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots; was from 1556 the leader of the Reformation party, and on Mary's arrival in her kingdom in 1561 became her chief adviser; on her marriage with Darnley he made an unsuccessful attempt to raise a Protestant rebellion, and had to escape to England 1565, and after a visit to Edinburgh, when he connived at Rizzio's murder, to France in 1567; he was almost immediately recalled by the nobles, who had imprisoned Mary in Lochleven, and appointed regent; next year he defeated at Langside the forces which, on her escape, had rallied round her, and in the subsequent management of the kingdom secured both civil and ecclesiastical peace, and earned the title of "the Good Regent"; he was shot by a partisan of the queen's, James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, when riding through Linlithgow (1531-1570).