Robert Pitcairn (commendator)

[1] Pitcairn was summoned on 19 July 1565 to a meeting of the Privy Council as an extraordinary member, to consider a declaration of the Earl of Moray on a conspiracy against his life, at Perth.

After the surrender of Mary Queen of Scots at Carberry Hill on 15 June 1567, he was chosen a lord of the articles; and on 29 July he was present at the coronation of the young king James VI of Scotland, in the kirk of Stirling.

[1] At the Perth convention, in July 1569, Pitcairn voted against the queen's divorce from James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell; and in September he was sent to London to acquaint Elizabeth I of England with the various negotiations connected with Mary's proposed marriage to Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk.

Along with Morton, he was also sent, in November 1571, to treat with Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon and other English commissioners at Berwick-on-Tweed for an offensive and defensive league with England, the chief purpose being to obtain aid from Elizabeth against the party of Queen Mary in Edinburgh Castle.

[1] Pitcairn now had the confidence of Morton, and he was entrusted by him with negotiations with the English ambassador Henry Killigrew, on the proposal for delivering Mary to the Scottish government for her execution.

[1] Although an opponent of Morton, Pitcairn's views were of the Protestant party, and he had a major part in setting up the raid of Ruthven— the kidnapping of King James VI— on 23 August 1582, thwarting Lennox and Arran.

[1] The effect of the Ruthven raid was reversed at St Andrews Castle, on 27 June 1583 after King James escaped prison, against Pitcairn's wishes, but remained at court.

Attempts to bolster his position by bribery led to his being sent into ward in Lochleven Castle; but on 23 September he was set at liberty on caution to remain in or near Dunfermline.