The Execution of John, Master of Forbes

In the turbulent world of sixteenth-century Scotland, where clan alliances could shift from blood-bound loyalty to bitter betrayal, the tragic fate of John, Master of Forbes, stands as a stark reminder of how swiftly honor could be undone by vengeance. Once part of a powerful triad with the Gordons and Setons, the Forbes family found itself cast out and hunted after a retaliatory killing in Aberdeen shattered decades of kinship. At the center of the storm was young John—brave, impulsive, and fiercely protective of his wounded brother—whose act of vengeance would ignite a feud that spiraled into political treachery, royal suspicion, and ultimately, a scaffold at Edinburgh’s Mercat Cross.

Throughout most of the fifteenth century, the Forbeses were allies and comrades-in-arms with the Setons and Gordons. James, 2nd Lord Forbes, fought under Huntly at the Battle of Brechin in 1452, on the Royalist side that included Clan Gordon and Clan Ogilvy. James’s deportment in battle so impressed Huntly that “he made choyse of him for his son-in-law.” (Tayler, Alistair and Henrietta. 1937. House of Forbes. Edinburgh: Third Spalding Club.)  Lord Forbes wed the Earl's daughter Dame Christian Gordon, “by which honourable match the family of Forbes did first contract Allyance with the Earle of Huntly and the illustrious sirname of Gordone.” (Ibid.)

The collapse of this long-standing alliance was part of the fallout from the feud with the Leslies in the battle of Aberdeen in 1525. Fifteen-year-old John, Master of Forbes, resolved to avenge the wounding of his twelve-year-old brother, William. John and his sixteen-year-old cousin, John Strachan of Lenturk (grandson of William Forbes of Kildrummy), killed Alexander Seton, 4th laird of Meldrum; John Leslie in Kinawty; and Malcolm Leslie in Garioch while they were visiting Aberdeen Provost Gilbert Menzies of Findon and Pitfodels. Seton was the son of William Seton, 3rd laird of Meldrum, and Lady Elizabeth Leslie. He was also the great-great-grandson of Sir Alexander de Seton, Lord of Gordon, and Elizabeth de Gordon, heiress of the Gordon estates. He was therefore kin to George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly.

Huntly defended his family by arresting the Master of Forbes. John, 6^th Lord Forbes, secured a royal pardon for his son by paying a fine of five hundred pounds, equivalent to well over £220,000 today.

The troubles did not stop there. Over ten years later in 1636, the two cousins quarreled. Strachan was described as “fit for any atrocity” and was “with all his flagitious actions, either as accomplice, or instigator, who, not thinking himself sufficiently rewarded.” (Buchanan, George. 1827. Rerum Scoticarum Historia, or The History of Scotland, translated from Latin by James Aikman, Volume II. Glasgow: Blackie, Fullerton & Co.) Strachan asked a favor of John, Master of Forbes, which John refused. Enraged, Strachan immediately went to his kin, the Earl of Hunty, and “either lodged, or, as was suspected, invented along with him a criminal information against Forbes, for conspiring the king's death some years before.” (Ibid.)

Strachan claimed that the Master of Forbes had, three years earlier, plotted to kill King James V with a handgun and assisted the English against the king’s army. As a result, in 1536, both Lord Forbes and his son John were arrested and accused of treason and imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle. Lord Forbes was released in March of 1537.

The Master of Forbes was brought to trial in July 1537. No record remains of the trial itself. Since the charges originated with the Earl of Huntly and his faction, they most likely provided the witnesses who gave testimony. As a result, a majority of the judges found him guilty of attempting “the King's death by shot of culverin [long-barrel cannon]” and “conspiring with England.” (Clifford, Sir Thomas. 1537. Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. London: Longmans, H.M.S.O.)

John, Master of Forbes, was “that day beheaded and quartered in Edinburgh.” (Ibid.) On the scaffold, Forbes proclaimed his innocence of treason against the Crown but acknowledged that he deserved death for the killing of Seton ten years earlier.

The trial scandalized Scottish lords. Sir Thomas Clifford, governor of Berwick, wrote to Henry VIII of England in 1537: “This was one of the blackest forgeries that Hell could plot—to take away his life, so that all our Writters unanimously agree that he fell a deplorable victim to the malice of a subtle and formidable enemy.” (Ibid.) He continued, “This was so well known that immediately after his death the King, discovering the Knavery, was exceeding sorrowful for the tragical end of this young nobleman.” (Ibid.)

The Master of Forbes was pardoned posthumously, while the Earl of Huntly was disgraced and lost the lands he had gained from Forbes. With his elder brother dead, Lord Forbes’s second son, William, became the new Master of Forbes.

James V appointed William, later seventh Lord Forbes, a “gentleman of his bedchamber.” In addition, the King, “as if to compensate for this severity, took one brother of Forbes into his own family, and having procured him a noble marriage, restored him the forfeited estate.” (Buchanan, George. 1562 reprinted 1827. Rerum Scoticarum Historia: The History of Scotland, translated from Latin by James Aikman. Glasgow: Blackie, Fullarton & Co.)

In 1538, James V arranged William’s marriage to fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Keith of Inverugie and granted him a charter of the barony of Fiddes. The king’s belated remorse for the death of John ushered in an era of uneasy reconciliation between the Forbeses, the Crown, and their longtime rivals.

The execution of the Master of Forbes was not merely a personal tragedy—it was a political scandal that exposed the fragility of justice in a kingdom ruled by factional intrigue. Though the charges were later revealed to be false, and the king himself mourned the loss, the damage was done: a promising young nobleman was silenced, and the Forbes legacy forever marked by betrayal. Yet from this darkness emerged a cautious reconciliation, as James V sought to restore the family’s honor through land, marriage, and royal favor. The story of John, Master of Forbes, endures not only as a cautionary tale of ambition and revenge, but as a testament to the enduring struggle between loyalty and power in Scotland’s storied past.