BUCHANAN, GEORGE (1506-82). A Scot tish historian and poet, noted as tutor of James I. Ile was born of poor parents in Killearn, Stirling, February, 1506. He was sent to time University of Paris by his uncle, who died two years afterwards, leaving Buchanan without the means of prosecuting his studies. lle returned home and, at the expense of his health, fought against the English, being present at the siege of \\erk, October, 1523. Ile entered Saint Andrews University as a pauper student in 1524, in the following year taking his degree of B..1. In 1526 he went to Paris, was admitted B.A. at the Scots College on October 10, 1527. and attained his M.A. degree in March, 1528. lie subse quently obtained a professorship in the College of Saint Barbe, but returned to Scotland about 1537. During his residence on the Continent Buchanan adopted the Reformed faith. A satire entitled Romani/a, arraigning the Franciscans, aroused their indignation, and he resolved upon seeking safety in his old college in Paris, when King James V. took him under his protection and intrusted him with the education of one of his illegitimate sons. At the request of the King, Buchanan wrote another satire against the monks, entitled Franciscan us (1564), increas ing their natural resentment and bringing upon himself the powerful displeasure of Cardinal Beaton, who had him arrested and imprisoned for his diatribe. Though the publication of the satire was due to James, he did not protect the poet, who escaped to Paris. After spending some years in Bordeaux and Paris in tuition, lie accom panied the learned Portuguese Govea to the Uni versity of Coimbra, in Portugal. After the death of Govea Buchanan was arrested as a heretic. and was for some time detained in a monastery, where lie began his splendid Latin metrical ver sion of the Psalms. Restored to liberty in 1551, he went to England, hut soon afterwards again sought Paris. About 1560 he returned to Scot land, and made confession of Protestantism. His reputation as a scholar gained him a good re ception at the Court of Mary, whose classical tutor he heeame. But his religious and political principles attached him to the party of the Re gent Moray, by whose influence he was appointed principal of Saint Leonard's College, in Saint An drews University, in 1566, the compliinentary inscription on the register reading. "lInjus sweuli poetarum facile prineeps." In the following year he was chosen :Moderator of the General Assembly —a rare honor for a layman. Siding as lie did
with the Reform party, Buchanan arrayed himself against Mary, and he accompanied Moray to England. to give evidence before the eommission ers appointed by Elizabeth to inquire into her guilt. His Detertio Vuriar lerflimr, laid before these functionaries, was industriously circulated by the English Court. it, however, contains gross exaggerations, which have been condemned by partisan as well as non-partisan historians. In 1570 Buchanan was appointed tutor to James VI. (afterwards James 1.). who owed to him the erudition of which in later life he was so pe dantically vain. No considerations of the future position of his pupil were allowed to interfere with Buchanan's treatment of him, which was strict, if not even stern. In dedicating his De lure Regni spud Scotus to the young monarch in 1579, he warned him against favorites with re markable freedom, and his dictum that 'Kings existed by the will of the people' was of special import in the succeeding •enturz.. In 1570 Bu chanan was appointed Director of Chancery and Keeper of the Privy Seal. He resigned office in 1578 and devoted fhe rest of his life to the com position of his History of Scotland (published in 1582). He died 30 days after its publication, on September 28, 1582. and received public burial in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh. As a scholar, Buchanan was unrivaled in his age, and he wrote Latin poetry with the purity and ele gance of an ancient Roman.' He was alike humorous, sarcastic, and pro found. His History, written in Latin. is re markable for the richness, force, and perspicuity of its style, though its narration of contemporary events shows partiality. Two years after the author's death, it. as well as De lure Regni, etc., was condemned by the Scottish Parliament. and every person possessed of the copies was ordered to surrender them within 40 days. in order that they might be purged of 'the offensive and ex traordinary matters' they contained. The latter work was again condemned in 1664, and in 1683 was burned by the loyalist scholars of Oxford. Two collected editions of Buchanan's works have been published—one by Ruddiman (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1715) and another by Burmann (2 vols., Leyden. 1725). Translations that have appeared do little justice to the original. Con sult Dr. Irving, Memoirs of the Life and Writ inaR of George Buchanan (2d ed. Edinburgh, 1817).