John Lindsay, 5th Lord Lindsay was made an Extraordinary Senator of the College of Justice on 27 June 1532. John, an Extraordinary Lord of Session in 1541, was present at the trials of Sir John Borthwick (for heresy) and James Hamilton of Finnart (for treason). John witnessed the death of James V at Falkland Palace. In 1543, John Lindsay and seven other lords took custody of the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, and conveyed her from Linlithgow Palace to Stirling Castle. 264. John was one of the commanders at the Scottish victory against England at the battle of Ancrum in 1545. During the Scottish Reformation,
Mary, Queen of Scots in Loch Leven Castle. On 24 July 1567 she was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne, she fled southwards seeking the protection of her first cousin once removed, Queen Elizabeth I of England. Mary had once claimed Elizabeth's throne as her own, and was considered the legitimate sovereign of England by many English Catholics, including participants in a rebellion known as the Rising of the North. Perceiving her as a threat, Elizabeth had her confined in various castles and manor houses in the interior of England. After eighteen and