Gowrie Conspiracy

The Earl of Gowrie
Born	1577 Perth, Scotland
Died	5 August 1600 Perth, Scotland
Nationality	Scottish
Education	University of Edinburgh
Parent(s)	William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie Dorothea Stewart

John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie (c. 1577 – 5 August 1600) was a Scottish nobleman who succeeded his brother, James, the 2nd Earl, as Earl of Gowrie following James' death in 1586. John died in 1600 in mysterious circumstances, referred to as the "Gowrie Conspiracy."

John Ruthven was the second son of William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie and his wife Dorothea Stewart. His brother James, 2nd Earl died in 1586, therefore John succeeded his brother as the Earl of Gowrie while still a child.

Along with his vast estates, Gowrie inherited the family traditions of treason and intrigue. Like his father and grandfather before him, Gowrie attached himself to the party of the reforming preachers, who procured his election in 1592 as Provost of Perth, a post that was almost hereditary in the Ruthven family. He received an excellent education at the grammar school of Perth and the University of Edinburgh, where he was in the summer of 1593, about the time when his mother, and his sister the Countess of Atholl, aided the Earl of Bothwell in forcing himself, sword in hand, into the king's bedchamber in Holyrood Palace.

A few months later Gowrie joined with earls of Atholl and Montrose in offering to serve Queen Elizabeth I of England, then almost openly hostile to the Scottish king; and it is probable that he had also relations with the rebellious Bothwell. Gowrie had thus been already deeply engaged in treasonable conspiracy when, in August 1594, he proceeded to Italy with his tutor, William Rhynd, to study at the University of Padua. On his way home in 1599 he remained for some months at Geneva with the reformer Theodore Beza.

...
Wikipedia