John Lyon, eighth Lord Glamis, rose to prominence in the regency of his distant kinsman James Douglas, fourth earl of Morton (regent 1572-1578). Glamis was made chancellor in October 1573, and had a leading role in attempting to find a settlement between the regency government and the nascent presbyterian faction over a polity for the kirk (in this capacity, he famously wrote to Theodore Beza in 1576 asking for advice). Glamis was murdered in a street brawl with David Lindsay, eleventh earl of Crawford, in Stirling on 17 March 1578. Respected as a moderate man by all sides, his death was regarded by many contemporaries (including Rollock) as the loss of someone who could have successfully negotiated a measure of peace in crown-church affairs. See G. R. Hewitt, 'Lyon, John, eighth Lord Glamis (c.1544-1578)', ODNB. Metre: elegiac couplets.
Epitaphium Domini Glainusii (c.1578)
[p384]
Epitaphium Domini Glainusii
Foedera dum vellent confundere pacis Erynneis
inque suum Scotis bella novare genus,
indignatae unum cœptis obstare sequestrem:
sospite quo accendi non potuere faces.
Consiliis hunc ergo premunt communibus unum,
sulphureoque petunt eminus orbe caput.
Cum ratione tamen Furias mirare furentes,
dum caput orbe premunt, quod caput orbis erat.
[p384]
The epitaph of Lord Glamis
When the Furies wished to confound the peace treaties, and to renew war for the Scots against their own people, since they had begun to put a single trustee in the way of an aggrieved woman, a , their torches b were not able to be kindled with him still alive. Therefore they bear down upon this individual in a common assault, and they demand his head with them in their sulphurous circle. Yet marvel with reason at the ravening furies, as they bear down upon his head with their circle, c because he was the head of their circle!
Notes:
Translation
a: Mary Queen of Scots. Glamis rose to power shortly after Morton (the 'single caretaker') was appointed as regent in November 1572, and one of Morton's first acts was to conclude the Marian Civil War with the Pacification of Perth (February 1573).
b: Of war.
c: The sulphurous one alluded to two lines above, so the forces of hell.
