The Buke of the Order of Knyghthood

The Literature of Scotland, during the Fifteenth Century, is entitled to a much greater share of attention than it has hitherto received; more especially, as it is a period in which the contemporary Literature of England is comparatively so devoid of interest. Among the persons who then flourished, and to whom but a scanty share of justice has been awarded, we may reckon Sir GILBERT HAY, KNIGHT. Dunbar the Scotish Poet,[1] who adorned the reign of James the Fourth, in his "Lament for the Death of the Makars" or Poets, includes the name of Hay; so likewise does Sir David Lyndesay, in the reign of James the Fifth; but no other writer seems to have been aware that such an author had ever existed, until we reach the year 1722, when there appeared the Third Volume of "The Lives and Characters of the most Eminent Writers of the Scots Nation, &c. By GEORGE MACKENZIE, M. D."[2]

This volume, the last which the author lived to publish,[3] commences with "The Life of SIR GILBERT HAY, Chamberlain to Charles VI. King of France." It extends to eight folio pages, and furnishes a suitable specimen of Mackenzie's mode of constructing biography. It commences with the following paragraphs:--

"The HAYES are said to have their first rise from a very noble and heroick action, about the year of our Lord 980, in the reign of Kenneth III., as we have shown in the Life of that Prince, in the second volume of this Work, pag. 60. But whatever truth be in this, it is certain that this is one of the most noble and ancient Families in Scotland, and that ever since the reign of King Robert Bruce, they have been Lord High Constables of Scotland: That Prince, for the faithful service and loyalty of Robert Lord Hay, declar'd them heritable Constables of Scotland, about the year 1310.

"From this noble and Ancient Family our author was descended, of whom I have no other account to give, but that he was born in the North of Scotland, brought up at the University of Aberdeen, where, after he had finished the course of his studies in Philosophy, he commenced Master of Arts, went over to France, where he studied the Laws, and was Batchelor of the Canon Law, and for his great merit, obtained the honour of Knighthood, and was made Chamberlain to Charles VI. King of France; upon whose death he returned to Scotland, and was in great favour and esteem with William Earl of Orkney, and Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, at whose desire he translated, from the French into Scots, Dr Bonnet's Book of Battles in the Year of our Lord 1456.

"As for our Author, 'tis probable that he died towards the latter end of the 14th century; and from his performance it appears that he was well seen in the Civil, Canon, and Military Laws; and had he not been a person of singular merit and worth, he had not raised himself to the dignities that he attain'd to."