Buchanan, George
A famous classical scholar, the most distinguished in the annals of Scottish classical philology. He was born of humble parentage at Killearn, in February, 1506. At the age of fourteen, his uncle sent him to the University of Paris, where he acquired a local reputation for his facility in writing Latin verse. In 1522, he returned to Scotland, and, after serving in a military expedition against the English, matriculated at the University of St. Andrews, from which at the end of one year he received the Bachelor's degree (1525). In 1526, he returned to France, where he soon took the Master's degree at the Scottish College of Paris, and after two years of great destitution succeeded in winning a professorship at the College of Sainte Barbe. In 1535, he once more visited Scotland, having been made tutor to the son of the Earl of Cassilis. Soon after he undertook the education of an illegitimate son of the king (James V.). Having written two satires against the Franciscan clergy (entitled Somnium and Franciscanus), he was imprisoned at the instigation of Cardinal Beaton, but escaping fled to France (1539), and was appointed to a professorship in the College of Bordeaux, by Andr de Gouva, its head. At the end of three years, an outbreak of the plague forced him to leave Bordeaux, whence he went to Paris, receiving a professorship in the college of the Cardinal le Moyne. By the influence of De Gouva he was called to the newly founded University of Coimbra in Portugal (1547). Here his heretical opinions led to his enforced seclusion in a monastery, where he began his celebrated version of the Psalms in Latin verse. Upon his release he visited England, subsequently returning to France to become tutor to the son of the Marchal de Brissac (1555). In 1560, he returned to Scotland, which he now made his permanent home. In the struggles between Queen Mary and the Scottish peers, Buchanan bore a prominent part. He had been the classical tutor of the queen, to whom he dedicated his version of the Psalms, but after the death of Darnley, took sides with the faction of the nobles, joining at the same time the Reformed Church. In 1566, the regent, Murray, appointed him Principal of St. Leonard's College in the University of St. Andrews, and soon after Mary's imprisonment in Lochleven, Buchanan was made Moderator of the General Assembly. In 1568, he accompanied Murray to the famous Conference of York. While Lennox was regent, Buchanan assumed charge of the education of the young king, James VI., afterwards James I. of England, who in after-years always spoke of his learned tutor with respect and pride. From 1570 to 1578, Buchanan was Keeper of the Privy Seal, resigning it to devote his time to the preparation of a history of Scotland, which was published a month before his death. This event took place on September 28th, 1582, and was followed by his burial in the Greyfriars' Churchyard, Edinburgh.
As a classicist, Buchanan was best known for his skill in Latin verse, in which he easily ranked first among his contemporaries; and he is generally regarded as the most brilliant of all the British humanists of the sixteenth century. His range of subjects was wide, from versions of the Psalms, theological topics, and political pasquinades, to erotic verses whose indecency may be regarded as purely conventional, though grotesque enough as the production of a professed reformer of religion.
As a man, Buchanan was stern, strong-willed, and domineering, making many enemies, whom he attacked with a violence of invective that belonged to the customs of the age in which he lived. Besides the works mentioned above, he wrote a violent diatribe against the queen, Detectio Mariae Reginae, and a bold political tract De Iure Regni, in which he states the doctrine that kings exist only by the will of the people and for the people's good.
His writings were edited in the last century by the elder Burmann. See Irving, Life of George Buchanan (1817).