James Spens (diplomat)

His father formed one of the party which captured the regent Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox at Stirling in 1571, and was shot while trying to guard him from injury.

In 1594 the son James was provost of Crail in Fife, and during the rising of Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell he was called on to find security for the borough.

[2] In 1598 Spens and other Scottish gentlemen, including his stepfather, Sir James Anstruther of that ilk, entered into a project for a plantation on the Isle of Lewis.

[1] In July 1609 the Earl of Worcester heard that King James preferred to employ Spens rather than his step-brother, Robert Anstruther, to convey troops from Ireland to service in Sweden.

[2] The Treaty of Knäred ended the Kalmar War, and, with his step brother Robert Anstruther, Spens contributed to its negotiation.

[7] In 1623 Spens was again in Sweden, and was sent by Gustavus to the Scottish privy council to request permission to levy troops in Scotland to repel a threatened Polish invasion.

[8] On 24 March 1624 the council authorised his son, James Spens, to levy a body of twelve hundred men to aid the king of Sweden.

In the same year Spens was commissioned to return to Sweden and to bring Gustavus into the alliance against Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor which was projected by Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and France.

His main regiment of Scots was based in Riga in Livonia from late 1624 onwards,[9] while Spens continued with his shuttle diplomacy when required.