Thirlstane's ‘Admonition to my Lord Mar, Regent,’ published in Ancient Scottish Poems, 1786), and subsequently was for a time one of the special friends of Queen Mary, a fact which sufficiently explains Knox's harsh comparison. On the return of Queen Mary in 1561 Erskine was appointed a member of the privy council. He received also a grant of several church lands, but his claims to the earldom of Mar were at first disregarded, and the title was bestowed on Lord James Stuart. Although Erskine favoured Elizabeth's proposal for a marriage between Queen Mary and Leicester (Randolph to Cecil, 24 Dec. 1564, in Keith, History, ii. 260), he, on becoming aware of the sentiments of Mary, cordially supported the marriage with Darnley. In this he was probably influenced by his wife, who was now frequently in Mary's company (Miscellaneous Papers relating to Mary Queen of Scots, Maitland Club, i. 125), and was no doubt anxious to obtain for her husband the earldom of Mar. Both Lord and Lady Erskine were present with the queen in the journey from Perth to Callendar, near Falkirk, when it was rumoured that Argyll and Moray lay in wait for her in Fife in order to prevent the marriage, and Erskine wrote a letter to his nephew Moray asking an explanation of his being at Lochleven, who ascribed it to illness (Randolph to Cecil, 4 July, in Keith, ii. 313–14). Although, in deference to the claims of Erskine, Mary in 1562 changed the earldom conferred on Lord James Stuart from that of Mar to that of Moray, it was not till 23 June 1565 that Erskine received a patent granting to him, his heirs and assignees the entire earldom of Mar, as possessed from ancient times by the Countess Isabel. The patent was ratified by act of parliament on 19 April 1567, which recited that it was ‘disponit’ to him on the ground that he was ‘lauchfullie discendit of the ancient heretouris of the said erledom, and had the undoubtit right thereof’ (Acts Parl. Scot. ii. 549). On account of the right of descent recognised in the patent Erskine and his successors claimed to have precedency of all other earls in Scotland as possessing the most ancient earldom in the kingdom, but in 1875 the House of Lords decided in favour of the Earl of Kellie that the old earldom of Mar had become extinct before its revival in 1565, and that the earldom then conferred on Erskine was a creation and not a restitution or recognition of well-founded claims. The justice of the decision has been much questioned by Scotch lawyers and genealogists (the case as against the Earl of Kellie is exhaustively set forth in the Earl of Crawford's ‘Earldom of Mar in Sunshine and Shade’), and has been practically reversed by the act of parliament (6 Aug. 1885). The newly recognised Earl of Mar was present at the marriage of Mary and Darnley, and he assisted in the suppression of Moray's rebellion, accompanying the king, who led the battle (Reg. Privy Council of Scot. i. 379). On 18 July 1566 he received a charter from Queen Mary and King Henry confirming his captaincy or custody of the castle of Stirling, with the parks, gardens, &c. The accouchement of the queen had taken place in the castle of Edinburgh, of which he was still keeper, and after her recovery she went for change of air, accompanied by him and the Earl of Moray, to his castle near Alloa (Holinshed, Chronicle).
Mar was absolutely free from any connection with the murder either of Rizzio or of Darnley. While lying ill at Stirling shortly before the trial of Bothwell for the latter murder, he consented that his friends should deliver up the castle of Edinburgh to Bothwell (Calderwood, ii. 348). Calderwood asserts that the castle should not have been given up without the consent of the estates, but it is clear that the presence of Mary in Scotland entirely altered the conditions on which it was held by Mar. For delivering it up he received an exoneration from the queen and privy council 19 March 1566–7, and this was confirmed by parliament on 16 April. On the 19th he was confirmed in his captainship of the castle of Stirling, the arrangement having been previously agreed to that he should be there entrusted with the guardianship of the young prince. After Bothwell had got the lords—not, however, including Mar, who was not asked—to sign the bond in favour of his marriage with the queen, Mary, on 26 April, paid a visit to the young prince at Stirling; but Mar, suspecting that she intended if possible to carry him with her to Edinburgh, would permit no one to enter the royal apartments along with her except two of her ladies (ib. ii. 356; Drury to Cecil, 27 April 1567). After the marriage Bothwell made strenuous efforts to get the prince delivered into his hands, ‘bot my lord of Mar,’ says Sir James Melville, ‘wha was a trew nobleman, wuld not delyuer him out of his custody, alleging that he culd not without consent of the thre estaitis’ (Memoirs, 179). Mar applied to Sir James Melville to assist him by his counsel or in any other way he could, who thereupon prevailed upon Sir James Balfour to retain the castle of Edinburgh in his hands and not deliver it up to Bothwell (ib. 180). To gain time Mar at last agreed to deliver up the prince, on condition that an ‘honest, responsible
