before the last day of February 1581, when he subscribed at the Canongate, Edinburgh, a renewal of the band in reference to the non-molestation of the tutor of Glammis (ib. p. 457). On 26 July 1582 he obtained a commission of justiciary (ib. p. 501).
Crawford was one of those who, in 1582, assembled at St. Andrews in support of the king after his escape from Ruthven. Shortly afterwards he was chosen master stabler to the king, and, in opposition to the wishes of the inhabitants of Dundee, was made provost of that town (Bowes, Correspondence, Surtees Society, p. 585; Calderwood, iii. 731). On Arran's return to power in August of this year he became one of his principal supporters, and at the parliament held on the 22nd, he carried the sword (ib. iv. 197). He was one of those who, on 14 Nov., convoyed the young Duke of Lennox from Leith—where he had landed from France—to the king at Kinneil (ib. viii. 255). He took part in the trial of the Earl of Gowrie in May 1584, and after the earl's forfeiture, received from the king the barony and regality of Scone and the church lands of Abernethy. With the king and Arran he was seized in the castle of Stirling by the banished lords on 1 Nov., and for a short time was committed to the charge of Lord Hamilton at Kinneil (Hamilton Papers, p. 65). He was at the reconciliation banquet at Holyrood House in May 1587, and in the procession on the following day walked arm in arm with his hereditary enemy, the Master of Glammis (Moysie, Memoirs, p. 63; Calderwood, iv. 614), but these ceremonies were without practical effect either on the private feuds or political intrigues of the nobles who took part in them. Having been converted to the catholic faith by the jesuit William Crichton [q. v.] (Letter of Robert Birrel to the Duke of Parma, 25 Jan. 1589, in Calderwood, v. 25), he was concerned along with Lord Claud Hamilton [q. v.] and the Earls of Huntly and Errol in a correspondence with Spain in reference to a Spanish invasion of England, and he was also closely associated with other schemes of the catholic nobles. In the spring of 1589 he and Huntly appeared in arms at Perth, and shortly afterwards waylaid the treasurer Glammis, whom for some time they kept in captivity in the north. From Perth they proceeded northwards to the bridge of Dee (ib. v. 55), but on the appearance of the king with a greatly inferior force, they disbanded their troops. Crawford delivered himself up at Edinburgh on 20 May, asserting that Huntly had beguiled him into the belief that he had a commission from the king for gathering his forces (ib.) He was on the 21st convicted of treason (ib. p. 57; Moysie, p. 77), and sentenced to be confined in the castle of St. Andrews during the king's pleasure, but received his release in the following September. Afterwards, according to Douglas (Peerage of Scotland), he received a safe-conduct to pass through England into France; and Lord Lindsay (Lives of the Lindsays) supposes him to have been absent from Scotland till 1601, but if he ever went to France, he had returned to Scotland by 3 Feb. 1590–1, when he was present at a meeting of the privy council (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iv. 572). His attendance at the council continued during subsequent years, and notices of his feuds with Lord Glammis frequently appear in the ‘Register.’ He died before 15 Oct. 1607—his son in a council minute of that date is referred to as now Earl of Crawford—at Cupar, Fifeshire, and was buried at Dundee.
He was married first to Lilias, one of ‘seven bonnie sisters,’ daughters of David, lord Drummond, and secondly to Griselda, daughter of John, fourth earl of Atholl. A manuscript genealogy states that he had by his first wife a son who died young, and according to the old ballad of ‘Earl Crawford,’ he separated from her on account of a light jest of hers in reference to the paternity of the child. The ballad goes on to recount that she died of grief at the separation, and that the earl died the same night from grief at her loss, but the earl's second marriage disposes of the latter statement. By his second wife he had three children: David, James, and Claude.
In David Lindsay, twelfth Earl of Crawford (d. 1621), the prodigality and lawlessness, which had more or less characterised the descendants of the ‘wicked master,’ reached their climax. On 25 Oct. 1605 he slew, ‘under trust,’ his kinsman, Sir Walter Lindsay of Balgavie [q. v.] On this account he was ‘placed at the horn’ (Reg. P. C. Scotl. vii. 143), but succeeded in eluding capture, owing, it would appear, to the remissness of the privy council, who were on 10 Oct. rebuked by the king (ib. p. 541). In revenge of the murder Crawford was, on 5 July 1607, while accompanied by Lord Spynie, attacked by the relatives of Sir Walter, lord Spynie [see Lindsay, Alexander, first Lord Spynie], being slain in the brawl and Crawford wounded. On 10 May 1607–8, Crawford appeared before the council and took the oath of allegiance (ib. viii. 59), but was subsequently, on many occasions, proceeded against for his lawless proceedings. Ultimately his relatives, to prevent further alienations of the estates, placed him under surveillance in the castle of Edinburgh, where he died in February 1621. He had by his wife, Lady Jane Ker, a daughter Jean,
