Note 948 — PREFATIO. (continued 3)

The charge of the royal family became a kind of hereditary employment for the Erskines of Mar. John, fourth Lord Erskine, had the keeping of James the Fifth in his youth; and was appointed Governor of Stirling Castle. In May 1525, he had a charter constituting him and his heirs Captain and Constable of the Castle of Stirling. He was likewise one of two noblemen to whom the charge of Queen Mary, in her infancy, was entrusted. He was afterwards made Keeper of Edinburgh Castle, and died in 1552. He was succeeded by his third son, John fifth Lord Erskine, (as already noticed at page 213,) both in his title and heritable offices. When the Duke of Chatelherault resigned the Regency to the Queen Dowager, the Castle of Edinburgh was put in the hands of Lord Erskine. In 1559, as Governor of this important fortress, he maintained a strict neutrality between the two contending parties, as Knox mentions at the beginning of Book Third of his History. And James the Sixth, while yet an infant, was entrusted to his care.