Sir Thomas Lyon, Master of Glamis (died 1608) was a Scottish nobleman and official, Lord High Treasurer of Scotland.
On the morning of 23 August 1582 the castle was surrounded by an armed force of a thousand men, under Gowrie, Glamis, and John Erskine, Earl of Mar, so as to prevent the access of Lennox and his supporters to the king.
Glamis and his friends placed before James a loyal supplication, with special reference to the wrongs committed against them by Lennox and Arran,[4] Next day they escorted the king to Perth, and on the 30th they went on to Stirling.
On arriving at Stirling the king expressed his intention to proceed to Edinburgh; but this, they informed him, was not expedient; and at last they plainly told him that either 'the duke or they should leave Scotland.'
'[5] The indignity caused the king to burst into tears, whereupon Glamis made the unsympathetic comment, "Better bairns greet than bearded men".
But Gowrie was arrested two days later at Dundee; and on learning that the king was setting forth against them from Edinburgh with a force of twelve thousand men, they abandoned Stirling and fled to England, ultimately taking up their residence in a lodging in Westminster.
[9] At the parliament held in Scotland in the following August sentence of forfeiture was passed against the raiders, but the attempt to induce Elizabeth to deliver them up was unsuccessful.
[12] The feud between the two families remained, however, very much as it was before; and the king in November 1588 took the captaincy of the guard from Glamis and giving it to Alexander Lindsay, the Earl of Crawford's uncle.
To prevent the quarrel proceeding further, Bothwell was commanded to ward within Linlithgow Palace, and Glamis within Edinburgh Castle, for arming his followers in the city.
[14] Glamis was present with the king in the Tolbooth when the intercepted letters, revealing the treasonable communications of the Earl of Huntly and others with Spain, were opened and read.
Maitland complained that he supped at Leith with the outlawed Earl of Bothwell in June 1591, and his hereditary enemy, Lord Spynie, was thereupon empowered to apprehend him.
[24] In February 1595-6 the eight commissioners of the exchequer, known as Octavians, were appointed, but Glamis declined to resign his office of treasurer, and he had ultimately to be compensated by a gift of £6000.
In August 1598 James VI was angry that the Master of Glamis and Lord Home and the Laird of Cessford had joined together for some purpose, and it was noted that he had frequent meetings with Anne of Denmark, and his wife, Euphemia Douglas was in favour with the queen.