James Graham, first Marquess of Montrose, was born in 1612 and died on 21 May 1650. He occupies an unusual place in British literary and political history: a Scottish aristocrat whose short life contained religious revolution, civil war, spectacular military success, exile, defeat, and execution; a Royalist commander remembered as “the Great Montrose”; and a poet whose surviving verses, though few, have remained memo…
“I am come hither to die as a good Christian and a loyal subject, in the faith of Christ and the service of my king.”
Neighbourhood:
Cavalier Poets, Love Poets, Scottish Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Fear
In the twilight of the Elizabethan era and the dawn of the Jacobean age, when England’s cultural landscape shimmered with the brilliance of Shakespeare, Dowland, and Campion, there moved a quieter, yet no less gifted, musical poet: Robert Jones. Though his name today may not echo as loudly in concert halls or academic symposia as those of his more celebrated contemporaries, Jones’s contribution to the English lute so…
Neighbourhood:
Elizabethan Poets, Love Poets, Lute-Song Composers, Renaissance Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Longing, Irony
