Balfour, Sir James definition of Balfour, Sir James in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Balfour, Sir James, d. 1583, Scottish judge and politician. Captured (1547) at St. Andrews after the murder of Cardinal Beaton, he served a sentence in the French galleys and on his release (1549) abjured Protestantism. He became an adviser to Mary Queen of Scots Mary Queen of Scots (Mary Stuart), 1542–87, only child of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise . Through her grandmother Margaret Tudor , Mary had the strongest claim to the throne of England after the children of Henry VIII.
..... Click the link for more information. and was involved in the murder of Lord Darnley. He was made governor of Edinburgh Castle, but when the Scottish lords rose against the queen, he surrendered it to them. Balfour repeatedly changed his political allegiance in succeeding conflicts. Eventually he withdrew to France, but he returned to Scotland (1580) to help secure the conviction of the earl of Morton for Darnley's murder. He was long a jurist, but, despite its name, the early law text, Balfour's Practicks of Scots Law, is only partially of his authorship.