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Homes Were Not Always Pro-English

Sir Alec Douglas-Hotne, of course, is not the first Scottish peer to become Prime Minister, as in 1894 the Earl of Rosebery was appointed Prime Minister by Queen Victoria. Both Lord Home and Lord Rosebery sat in the House of Lords by virtue of also holding peerages of the United Kingdom, for Scottish peens do not ait in the Upper Chamber unless elected as representative peers for Scotland. Lord Home has been sitting as Baron Douglas and the Earl of Rosebery sat as Baron Rosebery. The family of Home held the lands and castle of Home 700 years or more ago, and they acquired the Scottish feudal barony of Dunglass (from which since the creation of the earldom the eldest sons have drawn their title of Lord Dunglass) from the marriage of Sir John Home with the heiress to the estates in the fourteenth century. The father of the first Lord Home, Sir Alexander Home, was an adherent of the fourth Earl of Douglas, who took a Scottish army over to France to help the French against the English and was killed at the Battle of Vemeuil in 1424. From this it will be seen that the Homes were not always good friends of England. First Lord Home Sir Alexander Home’s son, who was at one time Scottish Ambassador to England, was created a Scottish Lord of Parliament in 1473. He was succeeded by his grandson, Alexander, who held a number of important offices, including that of Great Chamberlain, and was at one time virtually the equivalent of Prime Minister. He fought at the Battle of Sauchieburn in 1488 which resulted in the rout of King James IV’s army and the murder of the King shortly afterwards. He was also amongst those Scotsmen who supported the claim of Perkin Warbeck to the Throne of England. Perkin claimed to be the younger of the two princes who were murdered in the Tower of London, and had himself proclaimed King of England with the help of the Scots and the French. Home backed the wrong man here, however, as Perkin was a proved imposter, and was eventually caught by the English and hanged at Tyburn in 1499. Leader at Hodden

The third Lord Home was also Great Chamberlain of Scotland and a very powerful Scottish nobleman. He led the van of the Scottish army with Lord Huntly against the English at the Battle of Flodden, in which King James IV and most of his supporters were killed. Later he came over to the English side in opposition to the Duke of Albany, who acted as Regent during the minority of the young King James V. Albany captured Home Castle, ravaged the Home lands, and had Lord Home arrested, tried' for treason and executed. The family title was forfeited as a punishment, but six years later restored to the dead peer’s brother, since he had left no son. The new peer was a strong adherent of Mary Queen of Scots and was severely wounded in a skirmish at Fauside two days before the Battle of Pinkie which his son, the fifth Lord Home, was taken prisoner. In order to secure the latter’s release his mother had to surrender Home Castle to the English. He supported the Queen’s party even after her abdication and defended Edinburgh Castle against the King's forces. Title Forfeited When the castle surrendered in 1573 he was taken prisoner, convicted of treason and forfeited his title. He died whilst a prisoner and in 1578 the peerage was restored to his son. who was in great

favour with James VI and followed him to England when he succeeded Queen Elizabeth I on the Throne as King James I of England. The King created him Earl of Home and Lord Dunglass in the peerage of Scotland as a reward for his loyalty. The third' Earl was a supporter of the Parliamentary forces in the Civil War at first, but later adhered to King Charles H and fought against Cromwell in the Battle of Preston in 1648. In consequence of this. Cromwell deprived him of his estates, but on the Restoration of the King they were restored to him. The seventh Earl of Home on rather slender evidence was suspected of supporting the Jacobite Rebellion in 1715 and in consequence imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle for a time. His son, William, entered the English army and fought in the Government forces against Bonnie Prince Charlie at the Battle of Prestonpans in 1745. He rose to be a lieutenant-general and w-as Governor of Gibraltar from 1757 until his death in 1761. At Foreign Office Cospatrick, the eleventh Earl of Home, served for many years in the Foreign Office, in which he rose to be an under-secretary, and was Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. He was created Baron Douglas in the peerage of the United Kingdom, thus ensuring for himself and his descendants a seat in the House of Lords. The twelfth Earl of Home added the name of Douglas to that of Home when his mother died in 1877 as she had been the co-heiress of a Lord Douglas (of a former creation). He was the first of the Homes to be made a Knight of the Thistle, an honour which both his son and his grandson were to receive. Royal Blood The history of the Home family in the male line could be added to by pursuing their ancestry through the various families with whom they intermarried, but it must suffice to say that the Royal blood which one would expect to find in such a family in the case of the Home® stems from Charles 11. Lord Home's great-great grandfather married a daughter of the third Duke of Buccleugh, and since the first Duke of this line was James, Duke of Monmouth and

Buccleuch, the eldest of Charles's many illegitimate children, the new Prime Minister is a descendant of the Merry Monarch.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19631115.2.51

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30289, 15 November 1963, Page 7

Word Count
996

Homes Were Not Always Pro-English Press, Volume CII, Issue 30289, 15 November 1963, Page 7

Homes Were Not Always Pro-English Press, Volume CII, Issue 30289, 15 November 1963, Page 7