Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Erroll

Who was Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Erroll?

Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Erroll, Scottish nobleman, was the son of Andrew, 8th Earl of Erroll, and of Lady Jean Hay, daughter of William, 6th earl. The date of his birth is unrecorded, but he succeeded to the earldom in 1585, was early converted to Roman Catholicism, and as the associate of Huntly joined in the Spanish conspiracies against the throne of Elizabeth I of England.

A letter written by him, declaring his allegiance to the king of Spain, having been intercepted and sent by Elizabeth to James VI in February 1589, he was declared a rebel by the council. He engaged with Huntly and Crawford in a rebellion in the north of Scotland, but their forces surrendered at Aberdeen on the arrival of the king in April; and in July Erroll gave himself up to James, who leniently refrained from exacting any penalty. In September of the same year he entered into a personal bond with Huntly for mutual assistance; and in 1590 displeased the king by marrying, in spite of his prohibition, Lady Elizabeth Douglas, daughter of the 6th Earl of Morton.

He was imprisoned on suspicion of complicity in the attempt made by James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell and Patrick Gray, 6th Lord Gray to surprise the king at Falkland in June 1592; and though he obtained his release, he was again proclaimed a rebel on account of the discovery of his signature to two of the Spanish Blanks, unwritten sheets subscribed with the names of the chief conspirators in a plot for a Spanish invasion of Scotland, to be filled up later with the terms of the projected treaty. After a failure to apprehend him in March 1593, Erroll and his companions were sentenced to abjure Roman Catholicism or leave the kingdom; and on their non-compliance were in 1594 declared traitors.