James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle

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James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle (c. 1590 – March 1636), was the son of Sir James Hay of Kingask (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 favor by James VI of Scotland, brought into England in 1603, treated as a "prime favorite" and made a gentleman of the bedchamber. In 1604 he was sent on a mission to France and pleaded for the Huguenots, which annoyed Henri IV and caused a substantial reduction of the present made to the English envoy. On June 21, 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, later Earl of Norwich. Their marriage was celebrated by Lord Hay's Masque, staged on Jan. 6, 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 Aug 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.

In 1618 he resigned the mastership of the wardrobe for a large sum in compensation. He was created Viscount Doncaster, and in February 1619 was despatched on a mission to Germany, where he identified himself with the cause of the Elector Palatine and urged James to make war in his support. In 1621 and 1622 he was sent to France to obtain peace for the Huguenots from Louis XIII, in which he was unsuccessful, and in September 1622 was created Earl of Carlisle.

Next year he went to Paris on the occasion of Prince Charles's journey to Madrid, and again in 1624 to join Henry Rich, afterwards Lord Holland, in negotiating the prince's marriage with Henrietta Maria, when he advised James without success to resist Richelieu's demands on the subject of religious toleration. On July 2, 1627 Lord Carlisle obtained from the king a grant of all the Caribbean Islands, including Barbados, this being a confirmation of a former concession given by James I. He was also a patentee and councillor of the plantation of New England, and showed great zeal and interest in the colonies.

He became gentleman of the bedchamber to King Charles I after his accession. In 1628, after the failure of the expedition to Rhe, he was sent to make a diversion against Cardinal Richelieu in Lorraine and Piedmont; he counselled peace with Spain and the vigorous prosecution of the war with France, but on his return home found his advice neglected. He took no further part in public life, and died in March 1636.

Carlisle was a man of good sense and of accommodating temper, with some diplomatic ability. His extravagance and lavish expenditure, his double suppers and costly entertainments, were the theme of satirists and wonder of society, and his debts were said at his death to amount to more than £80,000. He left behind him, says Clarendon, a reputation of a very fine gentleman and a most accomplished courtier, and after having spent, in a very jovial life, above £400,000, which upon a strict computation he received from the crown, he left not a house or acre of land to be remembered by.

His second wife, Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle, was involved in many conspiracies, or allegations thereof, during the English Civil War.

The first earl was succeeded by James, his only surviving son by his first wife. James married Margaret Russell, third daughter of Francis Russell the Earl of Bedford, but James died without issue on 30 Oct 1660. At his death, the peerage became extinct in the Hay family.

Peerage of England
Preceded by (new creation)	Earl of Carlisle 1632–1636	Succeeded by James Hay