ABSTRACT
Friendship existed in both an individual and a collective sense. In an individual sense, a lord could be friends, with or without a formal alliance, with another noble or the king. This was a significant element in building and wielding influence, but the idea of a noble’s ‘friendship’ in a collective sense is an extremely important construct in understanding the power of the nobility in early modern Scotland.3 This chapter explores the friendship of George Gordon, sixth Earl of Huntly, and the fundamental role it played in keeping him at the height of political success and favour during King James’ personal reign in Scotland. What follows looks at Huntly’s career in broadly chronological terms, from his return to Scotland after education in France in 1581 until his gradual removal from the centre of power in the later 1590s. Across these two decades, Huntly’s friendship comprised four distinct blocks that operated in different, sometimes overlapping, ways. These comprised the centre (including government, covert Catholic politics, the court and the king’s bedchamber), the locality and those separate and overlapping spheres of his wife, Henrietta Stewart.
