Adam Blackwood (writer)
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Adam Blackwood | |
|---|---|
 An engraved portrait of Blackwood by Picart, in his official robes,[2] contained in Blackwood's complete works in Latin and French, published in Paris in 1644, with a life and eulogistic notice by Gabriel Naudé. | |
| Born | 1539 Dunfermline, Scotland |
| Died | 1613 (aged 73–74) Poitiers, France |
| Notable works | Apology for Kings |
Adam Blackwood (1539–1613) was a Scottish author and apologist for Mary, Queen of Scots.
He was born in 1539 in Dunfermline, Scotland, to William Blackwood and Helen Reid. Adam was orphaned at a young age and his education was sponsored by his great uncle, Robert Reid, Bishop of Orkney.[3][4] Blackwood went to the University of Paris studying mathematics, philosophy, and Semitic languages and then on to two years at Toulouse to study civil law, with Mary's direct patronage.[5] then in the French Court.[6] In 1567-8 he was a rector of the University of Paris, teaching philosophy.
His 1575 work on the need to extirpate heresy, De Conjunctione Religionis et Imperii, was so highly esteemed by James Beaton, archbishop of Glasgow, that he recommended Queen Mary to bestow on him the office of counsellor or judge of the parliament of Poitiers, which she did in 1579.[a] Some misunderstanding regarding the nature of this office seems to have given rise to the statement of Mackenzie and others that Blackwood was a professor of civil law at the University of Poitiers.
At Poitiers he collected an extensive library, though he also frequently visited Mary during her captivity in England[7][8] and was untiring in his efforts in her service. He died in 1613, and was buried in St. Porcharius church in Poitiers, where a marble monument was erected to his memory.
Marriage and issue
On 31 May 1576 he married Marie or Catherine Courtinier, daughter of Nicolas, procureur de roi for the Poitou. With her he had four sons and seven daughters, including Helen, who married George Crichton or Critton, a lawyer and hellenist of Scottish origin who was a professor at the Collège royal de France.[9] After Critton's death in 1611 she married François de la Mothe le Vayer, then a lawyer in the Parlement of Paris and later a skeptic philosopher, in 1622.[10][11] With her second husband she had a son, François. Another daughter of Blackwood, Catherine, married Guillaume Le Bel, lord of Bussy, and with him had two children, Paul and Honorée - the latter became a friend of Molière in the 1660s and the subject of a 'historiette' by Tallemant des Réaux.[12]
