Buchanan, George

Buchanan, George, 1506–82, Scottish humanist. Educated at St. Andrews and Paris, he became (1536) tutor to James V's illegitimate son James Stuart (later earl of Murray). He was imprisoned (1539) for satirizing the Franciscans but escaped to the Continent. He taught at Bordeaux, where Montaigne was among his pupils, and at Coimbra and became highly regarded as a Latin poet. Returning to Scotland in 1560, Buchanan declared himself a Protestant. He became an opponent of Mary Queen of Scots after the murder (1567) of Lord Darnley and in 1571 published the Detectio Mariae Reginae, a bitter attack on the queen. From 1570 to 1578 he was tutor of the young king James VI (later James I of England). Buchanan's Rerum Scoticarum historia (1582) is a useful source for his time, but his most influential work was the De jure regni apud Scotos (1579), which argued that the king rules by popular will and for the general good.

Bibliography

See I. D. McFarlane, Buchanan (1981); P. J. Ford, George Buchanan: Prince of Poets (1982).

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Buchanan, George

(born February 1506, Killearn, Stirlingshire, Scot.—died Sept. 29, 1582, Edinburgh) Scottish humanist, scholar, and educator. As a teacher of Latin in Paris, Buchanan wrote bitter attacks on the Franciscans that landed him in jail for heresy. He escaped and became a teacher in Bordeaux, where Michel de Montaigne was one of his pupils. There he translated two of Euripides' plays into Latin and wrote original dramas. His paraphrase of the Psalms was long used for Latin instruction. At first a supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots, he later helped prepare the case that led to her execution. In De jure regni apud Scotos (1579), he argued for limited monarchy; Rerum Scotiacarum historia (1582) traces Scotland's history.