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Timeline of Scottish History

A timeline of events in Scottish History!. Scroll through a growing chronology of events and click on them for more details and links

John Leslie

John Leslie, 6th Earl of Rothes

  • Name  : Leslie, 6th Earl of Rothes
  • Born  : c.1600
  • Died  : 1641
  • Category  : Famous Historical Figures
  • Finest Moment : Drafting of the National Covenant in 1638

'One of the four noblemen who helped draft the National Covenant'

John Leslie succeeded to the earldom in 1621. He was a grandson of the 5th. Both the 4th and 5th earls had been aligned with the Protestant nobility, though exhibiting the very mixed emotions of the times the 4th had been acquitted of the murder of Cardinal Beaton and the 5th had sided with Queen Mary following her escape from Loch Leven in 1568.

John 6th Earl had stronger religious feelings however, and opposed James VI's concessions to the papacy and later Charles I's ill-advised reintroduction of the Prayer Book. John helped draft the National Covenant in 1638, and played a prominent role later that same year at the Glasgow Assembly, which the Lord High Commissioner failed to close. Bishops were banned naturally.

By 1640 the Covenanters were becoming divided with suspicion of Argyll, and it may have been that John was becoming more amenable to approaches by the King, but then he went and died the next year so we'll never know.

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