James Livingstone, 1st Earl of Callander

James Livingston, 1st Earl of Callendar (c. 1590s – 1674), army officer who fought on the Royalist side in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

Livingston was the third son of Alexander Livingston, 1st Earl of Linlithgow and was probably born during the 1590s. Around 1616 he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Dutch army under the command of his brother, Sir Henry Livingston. By 1629 he was an experienced soldier and lieutenant-colonel of one of the three regiments of the Scottish brigade. By 1633 he was a full colonel in the Dutch army. During the same period he also served both James VI and Charles I receiving both a pension and a knighthood for his services to the Crown. During a royal visit to Scotland, Livingston was created Lord Livingston of Almond on 19 June 1633 by Charles I.

During the opening phases of the Bishops' War, Livingston at first appeared to support the King by supporting a rival to the National Covenant called the King's Covenant, but then declared that it too upheld Presbyterianism. Pleading the need to go abroad for treatment of gallstones (something he had first suffered in 1637), he avoided any further entanglement in the war. After consulting his surgeon it was decided he did not need an operation, but instead of returning to Scotland he went to Holland and took command of his regiment.

During the Second Bishops' War Livingston served as lieutenant-general of the Covenanters' army and played a leading role during the invasion of England, but he opposed the policies of the Earl of Argyll and his faction, and signed the Cumbernauld Bond along with the Earl of Montrose and others. After the Cumbernauld Bond was discovered by Argyll, the Committee of Estates considered the matter but in the end it was hushed up and Livingston retained the lieutenant-generalship.

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