LAUDERDALE, JOHN MAITLAND, DUKE OF (1616– 1682), eldest surviving son of John Maitland, 2nd Lord Maitland of Thirlestane (d. 1645), who was created earl of Lauderdale in 1624, and of Lady Isabel Seton, daughter of Alexander, earl of Dunfermline, and great-grandson of Sir Richard Maitland (q.v.), the poet, was born on May 24, 1616, at Lethington. He began public life as a zealous adherent of the Presbyterian cause, took the covenant, sat as an elder in the assembly at St. Andrews in July 1643, and was sent to England as a commissioner for the covenant in August, and to attend the Westminster assembly in November. In Feb. 1644 he was a member of the committee of both kingdoms, and was one of the commissioners appointed to treat with the king at Uxbridge, when he tried to persuade Charles to agree to the establishment of Presbyterianism. In 1645 he advised Charles to reject the proposals of the Inde pendents, and in 1647 approved of the king's surrender to the Scots.
At this period Lauderdale veered round completely to the king's cause, offering the aid of the Scots, on the condition of Charles's consent to the establishment of Presbyterianism, and on Dec. 26.
he obtained from Charles at Carisbrooke "the engagement" with the Scots on these lines. Returning to Scotland, in the spring of 1648, Lauderdale joined the party of Hamilton in alliance with the English royalists. Their defeat at Preston postponed the arrival of the prince of Wales ; but Lauderdale had an interview with the prince in the Downs in August, and he persuaded him later to accept the invitation to Scotland from the Argyll faction, accompanied him thither in 165o and in the expedition into Eng land. He was taken prisoner at Worcester in 1651, remaining in confinement till March 166o. He joined Charles in May 166o at Breda. On his accession Charles made him secretary of State. He was lodged at Whitehall and was "never from the king's ear nor council." He abandoned Argyll to his fate, permitted, if he did not assist in, the restoration of episcopacy in Scotland, and after triumphing over all his opponents in Scotland drew into his own hands the whole administration of that kingdom ; he imposed on Scotland the absolute supremacy of the Crown in Church and State, and took severe measures against the Covenanters.
Lauderdale was a member of the cabal ministry, but took little part in English affairs. In 1672 he was created duke of Lauderdale and earl of March, and knight of the garter. In 1673, on the res ignation of James in consequence of the Test Act, he was ap pointed a commissioner for the admiralty. In October he visited Scotland to suppress the dissenters and obtain money for the Dutch war. In 1674 he was created earl of Guilford and Baron Petersham in the peerage of England. His ferocious measures hav ing failed to suppress the conventicles in Scotland, he summoned to his aid in 1677 a band of Highlanders, who were sent into the western country. He held his place in spite of all efforts to dis lodge him. On June 22, 1679 the last attempt of the unfortunate Covenanters was suppressed at Bothwell Brig. In 1680, however, failing health obliged Lauderdale to resign; in 1682 he was stripped of all his offices, and he died in August. Lauderdale left no male issue, consequently his dukedom and his English titles became extinct, but he was succeeded in the earldom by his brother Charles (d. 1691).
See Lauderdale Papers Add. mss. in Brit. Mus., 3o vols., a small selec tion of which, entitled The Lauderdale Papers, were edited by Osmond Airy for the Camden Society in 1884-85 ; Hamilton Papers published by the same society ; "Lauderdale Correspondence with Archbishop Sharp," Scottish Hist. Soc. Publications, vol. 15 (1893) ; Burnet's Lives of the Hamiltons and History of his Own Time; R. Baillie's Letters; S. R. Gardiner's Hist. of the Civil War and of the Commonwealth; Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion; and the Quarterly Review, clvii. 407. Several speeches of Lauderdale are extant.