David Lyndsay
Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount (c. 1486 – c. 1555; surname sometimes transcribed as Lindsay)
Biography
He was the son of David Lyndsay -- second of
The Treasurer's Accounts are missing from September 1518 to June 1522. When they recommence, they record a “Jenet Dowglas, spous to David Lindsay maister Ischare to the King” who was a seamstress at court. Thus, it may be inferred that Lyndsay married, in or around 1522, Janet Douglas, a court seamstress.[5]
His first heraldic appointment was as
Lyndsay signed the only surviving letter from this time, "Dauid Lyndsay". His handwriting shows no trace of the italic forms used by those Scots who had finished their education abroad.[7]
After the death of James V, in 1542, Lyndsay continued to sit in
Heraldic works
In 1542, he produced a Scottish roll of arms known today as the Lindsay of the Mount Roll. It contains 400 Scottish coats of arms, some of which were added later in the 16th century, and forms the basis of the official Scots heraldic registry in use today. A facsimile comprising accurate redrawing of his own drawings was published in Edinburgh in 1878.[9]
Literary works
Most of Lyndsay's literary work, by which he secured great reputation in his own day and by which he still lives, was written during the period of prosperity at court. In this respect he is different from Gavin Douglas, who abandoned literature to become a politician. The difference is due partly to the fact that Lyndsay's muse was more occasional and satirical, and that the time was suitable to the exercise of his special gifts. It is more difficult to explain how he enjoyed such unparalleled freedom of speech. He chastised all classes, from his royal master to the most simple. There is no evidence that he abjured Catholicism; yet his leading purpose was the exposure of its errors and abuses. His aid was readily accepted by the reforming party, and by their use of his work he shared with their leaders throughout many generations.[10]
Lyndsay,
This didactic habit is freely exercised in the long poem Ane Dialog betwixt Experience and ane Courteor (sometimes called the Monarchie), a
The Testament of the Papyngo (parrot), drawn in the familiar medieval manner, is another tract for the time, full of admonition to court and clergy. Of his shorter pieces, The Complaynt and Publict Confessions of the Kingis Auld Hound, callit Bagsche, directit to Bawtie, the Kingis best belovit Dog, and his companyconis, and the Answer to the Kingis Flyting have a like pulpit resonance. The former is interesting as a forerunner of Burns's device in the "Twa Dogs".[13]
The Deploratioun of the Death of Queen Magdalene is in the extravagant style of commemoration illustrated in Dunbar's Elegy on the Lord Aubigny. The Justing betwix James Watsoun and Jhone Barbour is a contribution to the popular taste for boisterous fun, in spirit, if not in form, akin to the Christis Kirk on the Grene series; and indirectly, with Dunbar's Turnament and Of ane Blak-Moir, a burlesque of the courtly tourney. Lyndsay approaches Dunbar in his satire The Supplicatioun in contemptioun of syde taillis ("wide" trains of the ladies), which recalls the older poet's realistic lines on the filthy condition of the city streets. In Lyndsay's Descriptioun of Pedder Coffeis (pedlars) we have an early example of the studies in vulgar life which are so plentiful in later Scottish literature. In Kitteis Confessioun he returns, but in more sprightly mood, to his attack on the church.[14]
Critical literature
A complete edition of Lyndsay's poetical works was published by
A professional work prepared by Lyndsay in the
Diplomatic duties
Mission of June 1531
As Snowdon Herald, Lyndsay was sent to the Emperor Charles V at the end of June 1531. He was to conclude their Treaty of Perpetual Peace for a duration of 100 years. This would succeed a treaty made 100 years previously. Other business included the long-standing issue of Robert Barton of Over Barnton's ship the Black Bark, seized by Spanish pirates off England in 1519.
In his Latin letters to Charles V, James V refers to Lyndsay as "chief herald" or "first of our order."
Mission of March 1532
Lyndsay was set to go to France as a herald accompanying Thomas Erskine of Haltoun and the Bishop of Ross in January 1532. This Scottish embassy was delayed till March 1532.[18] The ambassadors were to contract with Francis I of France the marriage of James V to Madeleine of Valois.[19]
England 1535
Lyndsay as Lion King of Arms accompanied Lord Erskine with Robert Hart, Rothesay Herald, to Windsor Castle, where they acted as proxy for the installation of James V as a Knight of the Order of the Garter. After travelling to meet Henry VIII at Thornbury Castle, they returned to London, where a servant of Thomas Cromwell gave Lindsay £20.[20]
Edinburgh 1540
Lyndsay conducted the visit of the English ambassador
England 1543
After the death of James V, Lyndsay was sent by
Longer poems
- The Dreme (1134 lines)
- The Testament and Complaynt of the Papyngo (1190 lines)
- The Historie and Testament of Squyer Meldrum (1848 lines)
- Ane Dialog betwix Experience and ane Courteour of the Miserabyll Estait of the World (6333 lines)
- Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis(over 4000 lines).
Other literature
Lyndsay of the Mount appears as the sympathetic major character in
Lyndsay's description of the Tower of Babel in his Dialog ("The shadow of that hyddeous strength [the Tower of Babel], sax myle and more it is of length") is used as the motto of the novel That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis, and the book's name is also derived from it.
Lyndsay appears as a character in Sir Walter Scott's epic poem Marmion. He is depicted amongst the sixteen Scottish writers and poets on the lower section of the Scott Monument on Princes Street in Edinburgh. He is shown on the left side of the southern face.
Lyndsay of the Mount is a major character in John Arden's play Armstrong's Last Goodnight set in 16th-century Scotland.
Arms
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See also
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lyndsay, Sir David". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 170–171. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Profile, heraldry-scotland.co.uk. Accessed 6 January 2023.
- ^ Williams, Janet Hadley, Sir David Lyndsay (Glasgow, 2000), p. vii.
- ^ Antony Hasler, Court Poetry in Late Medieval England and Scotland (Cambridge, 2011), p. 171.
- ISBN 9781554883479. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
- ^ Williams, Janet Hadley, Sir David Lyndsay (Glasgow, 2000), p. viii.
- ^ Williams, Janet Hadley, Sir David Lyndsay (Glasgow, 2000), pp. ix-x.
- ^ Williams, Janet Hadley, Sir David Lyndsay (Glasgow, 2000), p. vii, citing British Library MS Cotton Caligula B.I fol.313
- ^ Biography, Encyclopedia.com. Accessed 19 January 2023.
- ^ "Period Rolls of Arms and Armorials (And how to find them)". Retrieved 19 January 2023.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lyndsay, Sir David". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 170–171.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lyndsay, Sir David". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 170–171.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lyndsay, Sir David". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 170–171.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lyndsay, Sir David". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 170–171.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lyndsay, Sir David". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 170–171.
- ^ Stevenson, Joseph, ed., Selections from unpublished manuscripts in the College of Arms and the British Museum illustrating the reign of Mary Queen of Scotland, (1837), 92
- ^ Hay, Denys, ed., Letters of James V, HMSO (1954), 193–194.
- ^ Letters & Papers Henry VIII, vol. 5 (1880), no. 324, 23 August 1531, Lyndsay to the Secretary (Thomas Erskine of Haltoun).
- ^ Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 6, Edinburgh (1905), 44, 46–47, (the second set of payments for two months allowance was paid)
- ^ Hay, Denys, ed., The Letters of James V, HMSO (1954), 212.
- ^ Letters & Papers Henry VIII, vol. 9, (1886), no. 165.
- ^ Letters & Papers Henry VIII, vol. 15 (1896), no. 248, Sadler to Henry VIII: Sadler State Papers, vol. 1 (1809), no. 17.
- ^ Letters & Papers of Henry VIII, vol. 18 part 1 (1901), no. 307, 21 March 1543, no.591, 24 May 1543: James V's copy of the Garter Statutes is now in the National Library of Scotland, MS 7143.
External links and editions
- Works of David Lindsay, Edinburgh (1776)
- Pinkerton, John, Scottish Poems: Lindsay's Eight interludes from the Bannatyne Manuscript, vol.2, London (1792)
- Chalmers, George, ed., The poetical works of Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount: Lion king at arms, under James V, vol.1, London (1806)
- Chalmers, George, ed., The poetical works of Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount: Lion king at arms, under James V, vol.2, London (1806)
- Chalmers, George, ed., The poetical works of Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount: Lion king at arms, under James V, vol.3, London (1806)
- Laing, David, ed., Poetical Works of David Lyndsay, vol.1, Edinburgh (1879)
- Laing, David, ed., Poetical Works of David Lyndsay, vol.2, Edinburgh (1879)
- Laing, David, ed., Poetical Works of David Lyndsay, vol.3, Edinburgh (1879)
- Full text of The Dreme in Scottish Poetry of the Sixteenth Century at archive.org