BARCLAY, William Secretary to Mary Queen of Scots ¹

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  General Notes:

"William Barclay was the author of some controversial works, written in Latin, one being a treatise on regal power, in which he upholds the divine right of kings. The earliest edition of this book, published in 1599, which is seldom found complete, contains his portrait, surrounded by eight coats of arms of the families from which he claimed his descent. These coats of arms are of great genealogical value, and were without doubt appended to the birth-brief sent to the Duke of Lorraine by King James VI in 1582.
Reading the shields in the correct manner, they prove that William's father (Left I) was the son of Patrick Barclay and his wife, Elizabeth Arbuthnot (Left II), his paternal great¬ grandmothers being Guilda Leslie (Left III) and a daughter of Durham of Grange (Left IV), the mother of Elizabeth Arbuthnot.
On the right side of the portrait are the arms of William's mother (Right I), a daughter of Walter Innes of Innermarkie, and his wife, Christine Gordon of Pitlurg (Right II), his maternal great-grandmothers being a daughter of Ogilvy of Findlater (Right III) and a daughter of Meldrum of Pettindreich (Right IV), the mother of Christine Gordon.
William Barclay's other well-known work was De Regno et Regali Potestate, in which he deals with the power of the Pope so far as it is related to Kings and secular Princes.
A conflict of opinion with the Jesuits brought upon Barclay the disfavour of the Duke and he resigned his position and quitted Lorraine.
Subsequently he became a Professor of Civil Law at the University of Angers, where he died in 1608.
His portrait hangs in the Hotel de Ville at Nancy."

from Family of Barclay ¹