John Ramsay, 1st Earl of Holderness

Who was John Ramsay, 1st Earl of Holderness?

John Ramsay, 1st Earl of Holderness was an important Scottish aristocrat of the Jacobean era, best known in history as the first favourite of James I when he became king of England as well as Scotland in 1603.

Ramsay had been a page at the Scottish court when the so-called Gowrie Conspiracy occurred in 1600. The actual nature of that affair is deeply disputed; the most likely account is that the young Ramsay stabbed John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie to death with his dagger, helping to frustrate a plot to either kidnap or murder the then King James VI of Scotland. Ramsay was knighted in that year, and was created Viscount of Haddington and Lord Ramsay of Barns in the Scottish peerage on 11 June 1606, and Lord Melrose in 1609, among various other offices that he acquired during his Court career. Prior to his 1608 marriage, Ramsay received from James grants of land that yielded an annual income of £1000.

In 1619, Ramsay, dismayed at missing appointment to the Earldom of Montgomery, left Britain and retired to France. In 1620 James lured back his old favourite with a gift of £7000, and created him Baron of Kingston upon Thames and Earl of Holderness in the English peerage.