John Maxwell, 4th Lord Herries of Terregles

John Maxwell, 4th Lord Herries of Terregles, was a Scottish border nobleman and one of the most persistent supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots. He defended her cause during the political crisis that followed the murder of Darnley and Mary’s deposition.

Herries fought for Mary after her escape from Lochleven and took part in the campaign that ended with her defeat at Langside in 1568. He remained active in attempts to restore her and spent periods under restraint or outside Scotland as the civil war continued. He later reached an accommodation with James VI’s government, illustrating the shifting loyalties forced on border nobles by the Marian conflict.

Nigel Tranter’s Marchman places Lord Herries inside the violent politics of Scotland’s West March, where his authority as a Border magnate and warden is inseparable from his loyalty to Mary, Queen of Scots. As the Reformation and Mary’s fall divide the kingdom, Maxwell’s role connects the local feuds and raids of the frontier to the larger contest between the queen’s supporters, the Protestant lords and English power across the border.