Alexander Home, 5th Lord Home

Alexander Home, 5th Lord Home (died 1575) was the son of George Home, 4th Lord Home and Mariotta Haliburton. He became Lord Home on the death of his father who was injured in a skirmish with the English two days before the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh.

Marriages

In 1537 Alexander was contracted to marry a natural daughter of James V of Scotland and Elizabeth Beaton. However, he first married Margaret Ker of Cessford. They had a daughter. He subsequently married Agnes Gray, daughter of Patrick, Lord Gray, and widow of Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig. Their son was Alexander Home, 6th Lord Home.

Rough Wooing

Alexander was captured by the English riding on Falside Bray on 9 September 1547 the day before the battle of Pinkie.^[1] Both William Patten and Jean de Beaugué related how his mother Mariotta Haliburton was then compelled to negotiate the surrender of Hume Castle to the English. Alexander was then taken hostage to England, but returned in 1548 and was quickly able to organise the recapture of Home Castle, with his brother Andrew Home.

In June 1562, Alexander sent Mary, Queen of Scots a letter saying that Elizabeth I of England was preparing a large fleet to send to aid the Protestants in France. She showed this to the English resident at her court, Thomas Randolph who laughed at it. Randolph recorded her reply which hints both at Elizabeth's meanness and Home's motive;

"Well, you knowe that my lord Hume hathe a castle to keape - I wyll not be verie hastie to beleeve, nor I dowbt no suche daynger as he meanethe, and I trust that for the matters of France that there wilbe accordethe, so that your mestres shall not neade to be at anye suche charge."^[2]

Imprisonment

At first Alexander supported Regent Moray against Mary, Queen of Scots in the Scottish civil war (1568–1573) and Moray gave him the Commendatorship of Arbroath. Then Alexander changed sides and joined the garrison loyal to Mary in Edinburgh Castle. He was imprisoned when the castle fell and died two years later.^[3] His widow Agnes then married the Master of Glamis.

References

1. Patten, William, The Expedition into Scotland in 1547, Richard Grafton, London (1548), reprinted in; Tudor Tracts, London (1903) 100
2. Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (1898), 633, no. 1116
3. HMC (1891), 80-81.

• Historical Manuscripts Commission, 12th Report and Appendix; Duke of Athole and Earl of Home, London (1891)