William Graham, 1st Earl of Montrose

William Graham, 1st Earl of Montrose (1464 – 9 September 1513) was a Scottish Lord of Parliament, who was raised to an earldom by James IV of Scotland and who died with his monarch at the Battle of Flodden.

Montrose was the eldest son and heir of William Graham, 2nd Lord Graham by Eleanor, or Elene, the daughter of William Douglas, 2nd Earl of Angus. The Grahams were a long-established family of Norman origin, who first rose to prominence in the reign of David I.

He succeeded to the peerage as the 3rd Lord Graham, as a minor, on the death of his father in about 1471 and sat in the Parliaments of James III in 1479, 1481, 1482 and 1487. He supported James III in his struggle with his son and was present at the Battle of Sauchieburn on 11 June 1488. He was then received into the favour of James IV, as was the case for many of James III's supporters, and sat in his first two Parliaments of 6 October 1488 and 6 February 1492.

In 1503, William Graham was created 1st Earl of Montrose (from his ancestral estate at Old Montrose) and he sat, in that capacity, in the Parliament of 3 February 1506.

Montrose accompanied James IV on his invasion of England in 1513 and was killed at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513, together with his brother, George Graham of Callendar, (Calendar) and his brother-in-law, Sir William Edmonstone of Duntreath.

Not long before his elevation to an earldom, Montrose acquired the estates of Aberuthven and Inchbrakie in Perthshire. Shortly after the creation of the earldom, on 3 March 1505, his ancestral lands of Old Montrose were erected into the free barony and earldom of Montrose and were re-granted to him on his surrender of them to the King. On the same day, he had three other charters to three other new baronies: Kincardine, Aberuthven and Kynnaber, in Forfarshire.

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