John Erskine, 5th Lord Erskine (died 1552) was a Scottish nobleman who was de jure but not de facto Earl of Mar.
He succeeded to the title of 16th Earl of Mar de jure, [S., c. 1115], on 9 September 1513. On 3 August 1522, Mar was appointed keeper of the ten year old King James V of Scotland and Stirling Castle. He had strict instructions from Margaret Tudor to hold the castle keys and set a password every night for the King's guards. The instructions were given again by act of the Parliament of Scotland in 1523.[1]
In 1535 he travelled to England to collect the collar of Order of the Garter from Henry VIII of England on behalf of James V. The ceremony took place at Windsor Castle and later Erskine met Henry VIII at Thornbury Castle.[2] James V had given Lord Erskine a detailed instruction about his precedence in the Garter Chapel;
"Ye shall purchase to have the place was promised to us next to the King of France amongst kings, and failing thereof that ye take documents to fulfill for our part and leave it so."
Erskine returned to London where Cromwell's servant John Gostwyk gave him a gift of silver plate, £20 to his companion the Lyon King of Arms, David Lyndsay, and 80 crowns to the Rothesay Herald.[3]
John Erskine was also a commissioner for the marriage negotiations of James V and Mary of Bourbon.[4] After James married Madeleine of Valois, Mar took receipt of Dunbar Castle, which was formerly garrisoned by John Stewart, Duke of Albany for France.[5]
John Erskine was the son of Robert Erskine, 4th Lord Erskine and Isabel Campbell. He married Lady Margaret Campbell, daughter of Archibald Campbell, 2nd Earl of Argyll and Elizabeth Stuart. John was succeeded as Lord Erskine by his son John, who was later made Earl of Mar, de facto and de jure.
John's daughter Margaret Erskine was a mistress of King James V of Scotland and the mother of Regent Moray, she later married Sir William Douglas of Lochleven.
Lord Erskine died soon after November 1555.
Children of John Erskine, 5th Lord Erskine and Lady Margaret Campbell include;