John Ramsay, 1st Earl of Holderness

The actual nature of that affair is deeply disputed; the most likely account is that the young Ramsay stabbed the 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.

Later, Haddington was supplanted as James's favourite, first by Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, and then by George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.

In November 1607, the courtier George Chaworth wrote that their wedding plans had disappointed one of Anne of Denmark's maids of honour, who was moved to "wear willow, and keep her Christmas in the country".

The masque was performed by the Earls of Arundel, Pembroke, Montgomery, Theophilus Howard, and Robert Rich, and seven Scottish courtiers, the Duke of Lennox, Lord D'Aubigny, Hay, the Master of Mar, young Erskine, Sanquhar, and Kennedy.

In 1620 James lured back his old favourite with a gift of £7,000, and created him Baron Kingston upon Thames and Earl of Holderness in the English peerage (22 January 1621).