James Elphinstone, 1st Lord Balmerino

James Elphinstone, 1st Lord Balmerino (1553? – 1612) was a Scottish nobleman and politician, disgraced in 1609.

He was the third son of Robert Elphinstone, 3rd Lord Elphinstone, by Margaret, daughter of Sir John Drummond of Innerpeffray, and was born about 1553. He was appointed a lord of session 4 March 1586, and in 1595 was one of the commissioners of the treasury known as the Octavians. In 1598 he became secretary of state, and for the next five years was a member of commissions of the privy council.

He was a great favourite with James VI, whom in 1603 he accompanied to London. On 20 February 1604 he was created a peer, with the title of Lord Balmerino, the estates of the Cistercian Abbey of Balmerino in Fife being converted into a lordship. In the same year he was nominated one of the Scottish commissioners to treat about the union with England. In March 1605 he was made president of the court of session, and while holding that office successfully opposed George Home, 1st Earl of Dunbar.

It was believed that James intended to appoint Balmerino secretary of state in England, but an end was put to his further promotion by his disgrace. In 1599 a letter signed by James had been sent to Pope Clement VIII, requesting him to give a cardinal's hat to William Chisholm, bishop of Vaison (a kinsman of Balmerino), and expressing high regard for the Pope and the Catholic faith. Patrick Gray, the Master of Gray, sent a copy of this letter to Elizabeth I, who asked James for an explanation. He asserted that the letter must be a forgery, and Balmerino, as secretary of state, also repudiated its authorship.

When in 1607 James published his Triplici nodo triplex cuneus in the allegiance oath controversy, Cardinal Bellarmine quoted at length the letter written in 1599 as a proof of James's former favour to Catholicism. James sent for Balmerino. The account he then gave was that he had written the letter, and had surreptitiously passed it in among papers awaiting the king's signature. He was accordingly put on his trial, when he refused to plead, but he acquitted the king of any knowledge of the letter written to the Pope, which he said had been sent by himself as a matter of policy.

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