George Buchanan (February, 1506 - 28 September 1582), was a
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time...
and
humanistRenaissance Humanism was a European intellectual movement that was a crucial component of the Renaissance, beginning in Florence in the latter half of the 14th century. The humanist movement developed from the rediscovery by European scholars of Latin literary and Greek literary texts. Initially,...
scholar. He was part of the Monarchomach movement.
Biography
His father, a younger son of an old family, owned the farm of Moss, in the
parishA parish is a territorial unit that was usually historically served by a local church. This administrative unit is typically found in Roman Catholic, Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Church of Sweden, United Methodist, and Presbyterian churches...
of
KillearnKillearn is a small village of approximately 1700 people in the Stirling council area of Scotland. The village is located about north of Glasgow, and away from Loch Lomond. The Glengoyne distillery is also situated just outside the village...
,
StirlingStirling is one of the 32 unitary local government council areas of Scotland, and has a population of about 85,000. It was created under the Local Government etc Act 1994 with the boundaries of the Stirling district of the former Central local government region, and it covers most of the former...
, but he died young, leaving his widow and children in poverty. George's mother, Agnes Heriot, was of the family of the Heriots of Trabroun,
East LothianEast Lothian is one of 32 unitary council areas in Scotland, UK, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....
, of which
George HeriotGeorge Heriot was a Scottish goldsmith and philanthropist. He is chiefly remembered today as founder of George Heriot's School, a large private school in Edinburgh; his name has also been given to Heriot-Watt University, as well as several streets in the same city.Heriot was the court goldsmith...
, founder of Heriot's Hospital, was also a member. Buchanan is said to have attended Killearn school, but not much is known of his early education. In 1520 he was sent by his uncle, James Heriot, to the
University of ParisThe historic University of Paris was founded in the mid 12th century, likely between 1160 and 1170 , In 1970 it was reorganized as 13 autonomous universities...
, where, according to him, he devoted himself to the writing of verses "partly by liking, partly by compulsion (that being then the one task prescribed to youth)."
In 1522 his uncle died, and Buchanan was unable to continue longer in Paris; he returned to Scotland. After recovering from a severe illness, he joined the French auxiliaries who had been brought over by John Stewart, Duke of Albany, and took part in an unsuccessful foray into
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. In the following year he entered the
University of St AndrewsThe University of St Andrews is the oldest university in Scotland and third oldest in the English-speaking world, having been founded between 1410 and 1413...
, where he graduated B.A. in 1525. He had gone there chiefly for the purpose of attending the celebrated
John MairJohn Mair or John Major was a Scottish philosopher, much admired in his day and an acknowledged influence on all the great thinkers of the time. He was a very renowned teacher and his works much collected and frequently republished across Europe...
's lectures on
logicLogic, from the Greek λογική is the art and science of reasoning. More specifically, it is defined by the Penguin Encyclopedia to be "The formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning". As a discipline, logic dates back to Aristotle, who established its...
; and when that teacher moved to Paris, Buchanan followed him in 1526. In 1527 he graduated B.A., and in 1528 M.A. at Paris. Next year he was appointed
regentA regent, from the Latin regens "reigning", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Thus, the common use is for an acting deputy governor....
, or professor, in the College of Sainte-Barbe, and taught there for over three years. In 1529 he was elected "Procurator of the German
NationA nation are regional corporations of students at university, once widespread across central and northern Europe in medieval times, they are now largely restricted to the two ancient universities of Sweden. The students, who were all born within the same region, usually spoke the same language,...
" in the University of Paris, and was re-elected four times in four successive months. He resigned his regentship in 1531, and in 1532 became tutor to
Gilbert Kennedy, 3rd Earl of CassilisGilbert Kennedy, 3rd Earl of Cassilis was a Scottish peer, the son of Gilbert Kennedy, 2nd Earl of Cassilis.He succeeded to the titles of 5th Lord Kennedy and 3rd Earl of Cassillis in August 1527. On 6 February 1540/41 he had a charter of the Fief of Cassilis...
, with whom he returned to Scotland early in 1537.
At this period Buchanan assumed the same attitude toward the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
as Erasmus. He did not repudiate its doctrines, but considered himself free to criticise its practice. Though he listened with interest to the arguments of the Reformers, he did not join their ranks until 1553. His first production in Scotland, when he was in Lord Cassilis's household in the west country, was the poem
Somnium, a satirical attack on the Franciscan friars and monastic life generally. This assault on the monks was not displeasing to
James VJames V was King of Scots from 9 September 1513 until his premature death at the age of thirty, which followed the Scottish defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss...
, who engaged Buchanan as tutor to one of his natural sons, Lord James Stewart (not the son who was afterwards regent), and encouraged him in a more daring effort.
The poems
Palinodia and
Franciscanus et Fratres, although they remained unpublished for many years, made the author the object of bitter hatred to the Franciscan order, and put his safety in jeopardy. In 1539 there was bitter persecution of the Lutherans, and Buchanan among others was arrested. He managed to effect his escape and with considerable difficulty made his way to London and thence to Paris. In Paris, however, he found his enemy, Cardinal
David BeatonDavid Beaton was Archbishop of St Andrews and the last Scottish Cardinal prior to the Reformation.He was a younger son of John Beaton of Balfour in the county of Fife, and is said to have been born in 1494. He was educated at the universities of St Andrews and Glasgow, and in his sixteenth year...
, who was there as ambassador, and on the invitation of André de Gouveia, proceeded to
Bordeauxis a port city on the Garonne River in southwest France, with one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area at a 2008 estimate. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture of the Gironde department...
. Gouveia was then principal of the newly founded
College of Guienne-History:In 1533, the Jurade of Bordeaux calls teachers from Flanders and from Paris to create the College de Guyenne.-Teachers:* Robert Balfour* André de Gouvéa* Nicolas de Grouchy* Guillaume Guérante* George Buchanan* Marc-Antoine Muret* Jean Visagier...
at Bordeaux, and by his influence Buchanan was appointed professor of
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
. During his residence here, several of his best works, the translations of
MedeaMedea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children: Mermeros and Pheres. In Euripides's play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of...
and
AlcestisAlcestis is a princess in Greek mythology, known for her love of her husband. Her story was popularised in Euripides's tragedy Alcestis. She was the daughter of Pelias, king of Iolcus, and either Anaxibia or Phylomache....
, and the two dramas,
Jephthes (sive Votum) and
Baptistes (sive Calumnia), were completed.
Michel de MontaigneMichel Eyquem de Montaigne was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. Montaigne is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre...
was Buchanan's pupil at Bordeaux and acted in his tragedies. In the essay
Of Presumption he classes Buchanan with
AuratAurat meaning "woman" in Urdu. Urdu- and some Hindi-speaking people in India refer Aurat meaning as "woman", but the actual word for Aurat in Hindi is .* Awrah : parts of body that should be covered in Islam.- Fiction :...
,
Theodore BezaTheodore Beza was a French Protestant Christian theologian and scholar who played an important role in the early Reformation...
,
Michel de l'HôpitalMichel de l'Hôpital was a French statesman.-Biography:De l'Hôpital was born near Aigueperse in Auvergne ....
,
MontdoreMontdoré is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Franche-Comté in eastern France.-References:*...
and Turnebus, as one of the foremost Latin poets of his time. Here also Buchanan formed a lasting friendship with
Julius Caesar ScaligerJulius Caesar Scaliger or Giulio Cesare della Scala , was an Italian scholar and physician spending a major part of his career in France. He employed the techniques and discoveries of Renaissance humanism to defend Aristotelianism against the new learning...
; in later life he won the admiration of Joseph Scaliger, who wrote an
epigramAn Epigram is a brief, clever, and usually memorable statement. Derived from the "to write on - inscribe", the literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
on Buchanan which contains the
coupletA couplet is a pair of lines of verse. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets with a meter of iambic pentameter are called heroic couplets....
, famous in its day: "
Imperii fuerat Romani Scotia limes; Romani eloquii Scotia limes erit?"
In 1542 or 1543 he returned to Paris, and in 1544 was appointed regent in the college of Cardinal le Moine. Among his colleagues were the renowned
MuretusMuretus is the Latinized name of Marc Antoine Muret , a French humanist who was among the revivers of a Ciceronian Latin style and is among the usual candidates for the best Latin prose stylist of the Renaissance.-Biography:He was born at Muret near Limoges...
and
Adrianus TurnebusAdrianus Turnebus was a French classical scholar.-Life:Turnebus was born at Les Andelys in Normandy. At the age of twelve he was sent to Paris to study, and attracted great notice by his remarkable abilities...
.
In 1547 Buchanan joined the band of French and
PortugueseThe Portuguese people are the ethnic group or nation native to the country of Portugal, in the far west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe...
humanists who had been invited by Gouveia to lecture in the Portuguese
University of CoimbraThe University of Coimbra is a Portuguese public university in Coimbra, Portugal. It is one of the oldest universities in continuous operation in Europe and the world, the oldest university of Portugal, and one of its largest higher education and research institutions...
. The French mathematician Elie Vinet, and the Portuguese historian, Jerónimo Osório, were among his colleagues; Gouveia, called by Montaigne
le plus grand principal de France, was rector of the university, which had reached the summit of its prosperity under the patronage of
King John IIIJohn III , nicknamed o Piedoso , was the fifteenth King of Portugal and the Algarves....
. But the rectorship had been coveted by Diogo de Gouveia, uncle of André and formerly head of Sainte-Barbe. It is probable that before André's death at the end of 1547 Diogo had urged the
InquisitionThe term Inquisition can apply to any one of several institutions charged with trying and convicting heretics within the Catholic Church...
to attack him and his staff; up to 1906, when the records of the trial were first published in full, Buchanan's biographers generally attributed the attack to the influence of Cardinal Beaton, the
FranciscanThe term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders, also known as the Orders of Friars Minor, that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St. Francis", or a member of one of these orders. As well as Roman Catholic there are also small Old Catholic and...
s, or the Jesuits, and the whole history of Buchanan's residence in Portugal was extremely obscure.
A commission of inquiry was appointed in October 1549 and reported in June 1550. Buchanan and two Portuguese,
Diogo de TeiveDiogo de Teive was a captain and squire to the House of Infante D. Henrique during the Portuguese period of discovery.On January 1, 1451 he disembarked on the island of Terceira in the Azores from which he made his base. He realized two voyages of exploration to the West of the archipelago...
and João da Costa (who had succeeded to the rectorship), were committed for trial. Teive and Costa were found guilty of various offences against public order, and the evidence shows that there was ample reason for a judicial inquiry. Buchanan was accused of Lutheran and Judaistic practices. He defended himself with conspicuous ability, courage and frankness, admitting that some of the charges were true. About June 1551 he was sentenced to abjure his errors, and to be imprisoned in the monastery of
São BentoSão Bento is the name of several parishes:-In the Azores:*São Bento, a parish in the district of Angra do Heroísmo-In Brazil:*Pinhal de São Bento, Paraná*São Bento, Maranhão*São Bento, Paraíba...
in
LisbonLisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal. It is also the seat of the district of Lisbon and the main city of the Lisbon region...
. Here he was compelled to listen to edifying discourses from the monks, whom he found "not unkind but ignorant." In his leisure he began to translate the
PsalmsPsalms is a book of the Hebrew Bible , included in the collected works known as the "Writings" or Ketuvim.-Etymology:...
into Latin verse. After seven months he was released, on condition that he remained in
LisbonLisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal. It is also the seat of the district of Lisbon and the main city of the Lisbon region...
; and on 28 February 1552 this restriction was lifted. Buchanan at once sailed for
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, but soon made his way to Paris, where in 1553 he was appointed regent in the College of Boncourt. He remained in that post for two years, and then accepted the office of tutor to the son of the Maréchal de Brissac. It was almost certainly during this last stay in France, where
ProtestantismProtestantism is a branch within Christianity, containing many denominations with some differing practices and doctrines, that principally originated in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. It is considered to be one of the major divisions within Christianity, together with the Roman...
was being repressed with great severity by King
Francis IFrancis I , was king of France from 1515 until his death.Francis I is considered to be France's first Renaissance monarch. His reign saw France make immense cultural advances...
, that Buchanan took the side of
CalvinismCalvinism is a theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
.
In 1560 or 1561 he returned to Scotland, and by April 1562 was installed as tutor to the young Queen
Mary I of ScotlandMary I was Queen of Scots from 14 December 1542 to 24 July 1567. She was the only surviving legitimate child of King James V. She was six days old when her father died and made her Queen of Scots...
, who read
LivyTitus Livius , known as Livy in English, was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
with him daily. Buchanan now openly joined the Protestant, or
Reformed ChurchThe Covenanters formed an important movement in the religion and politics of Scotland in the 17th century. In religion the movement is most associated with the promotion and development of Presbyterianism as a form of church government favoured by the people, as opposed to Episcopacy, favoured by...
, and in 1566 was appointed by the
earl of MurrayJames Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray , a member of the House of Stewart, was Regent of Scotland from 1567 until his assassination in 1570.- Life :...
principal of
St Leonard's CollegeSt Leonard's College of the University of St Andrews was founded in 1511 by Alexander Stewart, Archbishop of St Andrews and John Hepburn, Prior of St Andrews , on the site of St Leonard's Hospital and Church...
,
St AndrewsSt Andrews is a town and former royal burgh on the east coast of Fife in Scotland. The town is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle. St Andrews has a population of 16,596 making this the fifth largest settlement in Fife....
. Two years before he had received from the queen the valuable gift of the revenues of
Crossraguel AbbeyThe Abbey of Saint Mary of Crossraguel is a ruin of a former abbey near the town of Maybole, South Ayrshire, Scotland.-Foundation:Founded in 1244 by Donnchadh, Earl of Carrick, following an earlier donation of 1225, to the monks of Paisley Abbey for that purpose. They reputedly built nothing more...
. He was thus in good circumstances, and his fame was steadily increasing. So great, indeed, was his reputation for learning and administrative capacity that, though a
laymanA "layman" is a person who is a non-expert in a given field of knowledge. The term originated from "laity", but over the centuries, shifted in definition....
, he was made
Moderator of the General AssemblyThe Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is an honorary role, held for 12 months.Meetings of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, held in May each year, are chaired by the Moderator...
of the
Church of ScotlandThe Church of Scotland , known informally by its Scots language name, The Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....
in 1567. He had sat in the assemblies from 1563. He was the last lay person to be elected Moderator until
Alison ElliotAlison Elliot OBE is the Associate Director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2004 she became the first woman ever to be elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland...
in 2004, the first female Moderator.
Buchanan accompanied the regent Murray into England, and his
Detectio (published in 1572) was produced to the commissioners at
WestminsterThe Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament, is the seat of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
. In 1570, after the
assassinationAn Assassination is the targeted killing of a public figure.Assassinations may be prompted by ideological, political, or military reasons. Additionally, assassins may be motivated by financial gain, revenge, personal public recognition, or mental illness....
of Murray, he was appointed one of the
preceptorA Preceptor is a teacher responsible to uphold a certain law or tradition, a precept.-Christian Military Orders:A Preceptor was historically in charge of a Preceptory, the headquarters of certain orders of monastic Knights, such as the Knights Hospitaller and Knights Templar, within a given...
s of the young king, and it was through his
tuitionTuition means "instruction" or "teaching." In American English, the term "tuition" is often used to refer to a fee charged for educational instruction; especially at a formal institution of learning or by a private tutor usually in the form of one-to-one tuition...
that James VI acquired his
scholarshipA scholarship is an award of access to an institution, or a financial aid award for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
. While discharging the functions of royal tutor he also held other important offices. He was for a short time director of chancery, and then became
Keeper of the Privy Seal of ScotlandThe office of Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland, one of the Great Officers of State, first appears in the reign of David II. After the Act of Union 1707 its holder was normally a peer, like the Keeper of the Great Seal...
, a post which entitled him to a seat in the
parliamentThe Parliament of Scotland, officially the Estates of Parliament, was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland. The unicameral parliament of Scotland is first found on record during the early thirteenth century, and the first meeting for which reliable evidence survives The Parliament of...
. He appears to have continued in this office for some years, at least till 1579.
His last years had been occupied with completion and publication of two of his most important works,
De Jure Regni apud Scotos (1579) and
Rerum Scoticarum Historia (1582). He died in
EdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland. It is the second largest Scottish city, after Glasgow, and the seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas....
in 1582 and is buried in
Greyfriars KirkyardGreyfriars Kirkyard is the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is in the hands of a separate trust from the church. For many people, the graveyard is associated primarily with Greyfriars Bobby, the loyal dog who guarded his master's grave...
(rather ironically, considering that his old foes had been the
greyfriarsGreyfriars may refer to:* the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor* Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, a church* Greyfriars Bobby, a renowned dog in Edinburgh* Greyfriars Kirkyard, a graveyard in Edinburgh...
).
Works
For mastery of the
Latin languageLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
, Buchanan has seldom been surpassed by any modern writer. His style is not rigidly modelled on that of any classical author, but has a freshness and elasticity of its own. Hugh Trevor-Roper called him "by universal consent, the greatest Latin writer, whether in prose or in verse, in sixteenth century Europe." He wrote Latin as if it were his mother tongue. Buchanan also had a rich vein of poetical feeling, and much originality of thought. His translations of the
Psalms and of the Greek plays are more than mere versions; his two tragedies,
Baptistes and
Jephthes, enjoyed a
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an reputation for academic excellence.
In addition to these works, Buchanan wrote in prose
ChamaeleonChamaeleon is a small constellation in the southern sky. It is named after the chameleon, a form of lizard. It was first defined in the sixteenth century...
, a
satireSatire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods,...
in
ScotsScots or Lowland Scots is the variety of Germanic language traditionally spoken in lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster. It is not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language varieties traditionally spoken in the Highlands and Hebrides....
against Maitland of Lethington, first printed in 1711; a Latin translation of
LinacreThomas Linacre was an English humanist and physician, after whom Linacre College, Oxford is named....
's
Grammar (Paris, 1533);
Libellus de Prosodia (Edinburgh, 1640); and
Vita ab ipso scripta biennio ante mortem (1608), edited by R. Sibbald (1702). His other poems are
Fratres Fraterrimi,
Elegiae,
Silvae, two sets of verses entitled
Hendecasyllabon Liber and
Iambon Liber; three books of
EpigramAn Epigram is a brief, clever, and usually memorable statement. Derived from the "to write on - inscribe", the literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
mata; a book of miscellaneous
versePoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
;
De Sphaera (in five books), suggested by the poem
De sphaera mundiDe sphaera mundi is a medieval introduction to the basic elements of astronomy written by Johannes de Sacrobosco c. 1230...
of Joannes de Sacrobosco, and intended as a defence of the
PtolemaicClaudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Greek ancestry. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer and a poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under the Roman Empire, and is believed to have been born in the town of...
theory against the new
CopernicanNicolaus Copernicus was the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe...
view.
There are two early editions of Buchanan's works: (a)
Georgii Buchanani Scoti, Poetarum sui seculi facile principis, Opera Omnia, in two vols. fol. edited by
Thomas RuddimanThomas Ruddiman was a Scottish classical scholar.He was born at Raggal, Banffshire, where his father was a farmer, and educated at the University of Aberdeen. Through the influence of Dr Archibald Pitcairne he became an assistant in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh...
(Edinburgh, Freebairn, folio, 1715): (b) edited by
BurmanBurman may refer to:People:*Abhay Burman ,*Barry Burman , English figurative artist*Ben Lucien Burman , American author and journalist*Bob Burman , American racecar driver...
, quarto 1725.
The Vernacular Writings.
The first of his important late works was the treatise
De Jure Regni apud Scotos, published in 1579. In this famous work, composed in the form of a
dialogueA dialogue is a conversation between two or more people. It is also a literary form in which two or more parties engage in a discussion.-Literary and philosophical genre:...
, and evidently intended to instil sound political principles into the mind of his pupil, Buchanan lays down the doctrine that the source of all political power is the people, that the king is bound by those conditions under which the supreme power was first committed to his hands, and that it is lawful to resist, even to punish,
tyrantIn classical politics, a tyrant is one who has taken power by their own means as opposed to hereditary or constitutional power. This mode of rule is referred to as tyranny....
s. The importance of the work is proved by the persistent efforts of the
legislatureA legislature is a type of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law...
to suppress it during the century following its publication. It was condemned by
act of parliamentAn act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament....
in 1584, and again in 1664; and in 1683 it was burned by the
University of OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
.
The second of his larger works is the
History of ScotlandThe history of Scotland begins around 14,000 years ago, when humans first began to inhabit what is now Scotland after the end of the Devensian glaciation, the last ice age...
,
Rerum Scoticarum Historia, completed shortly before his death (1579), and published in 1582. It is of great value for the period personally known to the author, which occupies the greater portion of the book. The earlier part is based, to a considerable extent, on the legendary history of
BoeceBoëcé is a commune in the Orne department in north-western France.-Changes in population:-See also:*Communes of the Orne department
*...
. Buchanan's purpose was to "purge" the national history
"of sum Inglis lyis and Scottis vanite" (Letter to Randolph). He said that it would "content few and displease many".
Modern publications and influence
Polygon Books have published the poet
Robert CrawfordRobert Crawford was a footballer who played for Liverpool Football Club during the early part of the 20th century.-Life and playing career:...
's selection of Buchanan's verse in
Apollos of the North: Selected Poems of George Buchanan and Arthur Johnston (ISBN 1-904598-81-1) in 2006, the 500th anniversary of Buchanan's birth.
In the lead-up to the anniversary Professor Roger Mason of the
University of St AndrewsThe University of St Andrews is the oldest university in Scotland and third oldest in the English-speaking world, having been founded between 1410 and 1413...
has published
A Dialogue on the Law of Kingship among the Scots, a critical edition and translation of George Buchanan's 'De Iure Regni apud Scotos Dialogus (ISBN 1-85928-408-6).
The
Stirling Smith Museum and Art Galleryis an institution based in Stirling, Central Scotland, dedicated to the promotion of cultural and historical heritage and the arts, from a local scale to nationally and beyond. It is also known locally by its original name of The Smith Institute...
is hosting an exhibition and event programme over winter 2006-7 to commemorate the anniversary, including performances of musical settings of Buchanan's psalms, due to be published in 2007.
External links