James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle

James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle (c. 1580 – March 1636) was a British noble.

A Scot, he was the son of Sir James Hay of Fingask (a member of a younger branch of the Erroll family), and of Margaret Murray, cousin of George Hay, afterwards 1st Earl of Kinnoull.

He was knighted and taken into favour by James VI of Scotland, brought into England in 1603, treated as a "prime favourite" and made a gentleman of the bedchamber. In 1604, he was sent on a mission to France and pleaded for the Huguenots, which annoyed Henry IV of France and caused a substantial reduction of the present made to the English envoy. On 21 June 1606, he was created by patent a baron for life with precedence next to the barons, but without a place or voice in Parliament, no doubt to render his advancement less unpalatable to the English lords.

The king bestowed on him numerous grants, paid his debts, and secured for him a rich bride in the person of Honoria, only daughter and heir of Edward, Lord Denny. Their marriage was celebrated by Lord Hay's Masque, staged on 6 January 1607. In 1610 he was made a knight of the Order of the Bath, and in 1613 master of the wardrobe, while in 1615 he was created Lord Hay of Sawley, and took his seat in the House of Lords. At this time, his first wife Honora was buried 16 August 1614 at Waltham Abbey. He was sent to France next year to negotiate the marriage of Princess Christina with Prince Charles, and on his return, being now a widower, he was made a Privy Councillor, and in 1617 married Lady Lucy Percy (1599–1660), daughter of Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (the famous "Wizard Earl"), by his wife Dorothy Devereux.

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