William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling
Secretary of State for Scotland | |
---|---|
In office 1626–1640 Serving with Sir Archibald Acheson | |
Monarch | Charles I |
Preceded by | The Earl of Haddington |
Succeeded by | The Duke of Hamilton |
Personal details | |
Born | William Alexander 1567 Menstrie, Clackmannanshire, Scotland |
Died | 12 February 1640 London, England |
Spouse | Janet Erskine |
Parent | Alexander Alexander of Menstrie |
Occupation | Politician |
William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling PC (c. 1567 – 12 February 1640) was a Scottish courtier and poet who was involved in the Scottish colonisation of Charles Fort, later Port-Royal, Nova Scotia in 1629 and Long Island, New York. His literary works include Aurora (1604), The Monarchick Tragedies (1604) and Doomes-Day (1614, 1637).
Biography
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Early life
William Alexander was the son of Alexander of Menstrie and Marion, daughter of an Allan Couttie.[1] He was born at Menstrie Castle, near Stirling. The family was old and claimed to be descended from Somerled, Lord of the Isles, through John of Islay.[2] Because his father died in 1580, and William was entrusted to the care of his great-uncle James in Stirling, he was probably educated at Stirling grammar school.[3] There is a tradition that he was at the University of Glasgow; and, according to his friend the poet William Drummond of Hawthornden, he was a student at Leiden University.[2]
As a young man, William became tutor to the Earl of Argyll and accompanied him on his travels in France, Spain and Italy. William married, before 1604, Janet, daughter of Sir William Erskine "The Parson of Campsie", one of the Balgonie family.
He was introduced by Argyll to the court of King James VI in
William built a reputation as a poet and writer of rhymed tragedies, and assisted King James I and VI in preparing the metrical version known as "The Psalms of King David, translated by King James" and published by authority of Charles I. James knighted him in 1609 and appointed him the
Nova Scotia
In 1621, King James I granted Stirling a
Stirling was appointed as
Long Island
In 1630,
On 22 April 1636, Charles told the
Farret arrived in New Amsterdam in 1637 to present his claim of English sovereignty but was arrested and sent to prison in Holland where he escaped. English colonists attempted to settle at Cow Bay at what today is Port Washington, New York in 1640, but after an alert by Native leader Penhawitz were arrested by the Dutch and released after saying they were mistaken about the title.[13] After 1640, eastern Long Island was quickly settled by the English while the western portion remained under Dutch rule until 1674.
Death and succession
Alexander died in London on 12 February 1640. He was succeeded by his grandson William Alexander, 2nd Earl of Stirling (c. 1632 - May 1640), a child who himself died the same year. The 3rd Earl, Henry Alexander (died 1650), was the second son of William Alexander, the 1st Earl.
Literary works
Alexander was one of the most highly regarded Scottish poets in early seventeenth-century Scotland and England: he was praised by William Drummond of Hawthornden, Arthur Johnstone, Andrew Ramsey, Michael Drayton, Samuel Daniel and John Davies of Hereford.
Alexander's grandest work is an epic poem describing the end of the world, Doomes-day. It was first published in four books (Edinburgh, 1614), and later in twelve (in the collected edition of Alexander's work printed in London, 1637). The poem, which contains almost 1,400 eight-line stanzas in total, begins with a synopsis of world history in the First 'Hour', then provides long catalogues of the creatures, battle dead, pagans, monarchs, sinners, biblical characters and, finally, members of the heavenly host who will appear at the Final Judgement.[17] Alexander's method was indebted to the French Protestant poet Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas; Drummond acknowledged the kinship in the title of a manuscript poem Sur les oeuvres poetiques de Guillaume Alexandre, Sieur De Menstre.[18]
Alexander collaborated with James VI and I on a new paraphrase of the Psalms, composed a continuation to Philip Sidney's Arcadia that links the end of Book 3 in Sidney's incomplete revised version to the ending in the 1593 text, and also wrote down his thoughts on poetry in Anacrisis: Or a Censure of some Poets Ancient and Modern (c. 1635).[19] Anacrisis begins with a reflection on the pleasure of literature:
- After a great Travel both of Body and of Mind, which (since not voluntary but imposed upon me) was the more painful, by retiring for a Time where I was born [...] being curious, as the most dainty Kind of Pleasure for such as are capable of their Delicacies to recreate myself with the Muses,—I may justly say recreate, since they create new Spirits [...] I conversed with some of the Modern as well as with the Ancients, kindling my Fire at those Fires which do still burn out of the Ashes of ancient Authors.[20]
This passage testifies to the value that Alexander placed on his literary pursuits (which mostly took place at his Menstrie estate) as an activity that was separate from but complementary to his public life as a politician and coloniser. Indeed, the phrase 'recreate myself with the Muses' re-appeared in the title of the collected edition of his works, Recreations with the Muses (1637).[21]
Legacy
The Canadian Coast Guard has named the CCGS Sir William Alexander in his honour.
References
- ^ Grosart, Alexander Balloch (1885). . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 01. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 275.
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911, p. 924.
- ^ Macdonald 1978, p. 173.
- ISBN 978-1-4744-6401-7
- ^ Clackmannan and the Ochils by Adam Swan 07073 0513 6
- ^ Macdonald 1978, p. 174.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 924–925.
- ^ Steve Murdoch (2010). "Conspiratorial Networks in the North? A Review of Jacobite and Hanoverian Freemasons in Scandinavia and Russia, 1688-1746". Politica Hermetica, 24 Sorbonne. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
- ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911, p. 925.
- ^ "Nova Scotia". Patrimoine canadien / Canadian Heritage. Retrieved 2 December 2008.
- ^ "NOTES AND COMMENTS - Canada and the Peerage". Volume XLV. No. 13843. The New Zealand Herald. 1 September 1908. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
- ^ The History of Long Island - Benjamin F. Thompson - Gould Banks and Company - 1843
- ^ Year book of the Holland Society of New-York By Holland Society of New York - 1922
- ^ Reid, p. 335.
- Chambers, E. K.The Elizabethan Stage. 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923; Vol. 3, pp. 208-9.
- ^ Cadman, Daniel. "'"A fit Physitian for an aguish State": Sovereignty, Republicanism, and Stoicism in William Alexander's Monarchicke Tragedies' [abstract]". academia.edu. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
- ^ Auger, Peter (2010). "Recreation and William Alexander's Doomes-day (1637)". Scottish Literary Review. 2 (2): 1–21.
- ^ "William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649)". Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-141-43938-9.
- ^ Spingarn, J. E. (1908). Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, I: 1605‒1650. Oxford. p. 181.
- ^ McGrail, Thomas (1940). Sir William Alexander, First Earl of Stirling: A Biographical Study. p. e.g. 71.
Further reading
- The Poetical Works of Sir William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, ed. by L.E. Kastner and H.B. Charlton, 2 vols (Edinburgh: Printed for the Scottish Text Society, 1921‒29)
- Atkinson, David W., 'More than One Voice; The Poetic Accomplishment of William Alexander', in Older Scots Literature, ed. by Sally Mapstone (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2005), pp. 584‒94
- Chambers, Robert; Thomson, Thomas Napier (1857). . A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen. Vol. 1. Glasgow: Blackie and Son. pp. 42–46 – via Wikisource.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Stirling, William Alexander, Earl of". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 924–925. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Macdonald, D.J. (1978). Clan Donald. Pelican Publishing. pp. 173–174. ISBN 978-1-4556-0233-9. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
- McGrail, Thomas, Sir William Alexander, First Earl of Stirling: A Biographical Study (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1940)
- Tranter, Nigel, Poetic Justice, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1996. A well-researched & lively retelling of the life of William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling.
- Harvey, D. C. (1979) [1966]. "Alexander, William, Earl of Stirling". In Brown, George Williams (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. I (1000–1700) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
- Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
- Reid, David. "Alexander, William, first earl of Stirling (1577–1640)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/335. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Sandrock, Kirsten (2022), Scottish Colonial Literature: Writing the Atlantic, 1603 - 1707, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-1-4744-6401-7