| Notes |
- From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (citation details below):
Menteith, Sir John [...] soldier and administrator, was the second son of Walter Menteith, fifth earl of Menteith (d. in or before 1296), and brother of Alexander, who succeeded to the title. Both John and Alexander were captured after the Scottish defeat at Dunbar in 1296, and John was sent to Nottingham Castle in May, along with, among others, Sir Edmund Comyn of Kilbride. As the price of liberation he agreed to serve Edward I on his campaign against the French in 1297 and his lands were consequently restored to him. Menteith, by now a knight, returned to Scotland in 1298, but later rejoined the patriotic side. There is no record of his activities between then and September 1303, when he and Sir Alexander Menzies approached the English lieutenant Sir Aymer de Valence (d. 1324) at Linlithgow to treat for peace, presumably on behalf of the Scottish guardian, Sir John Comyn of Badenoch. At this point Edward I and his army were advancing deep into the north-east of Scotland, and the Scots sensed that submission was the only truly viable option. Although the starving state of the Irish foot soldiers with Valence persuaded Menteith and Menzies that further resistance was worthwhile, the majority of the Scots, led by the guardian, and presumably including Menteith, submitted in February 1304.
Menteith must have somehow impressed King Edward, since in March 1304 he was granted the keeping of the castle, town, and sheriffdom of Dumbarton. The area was not yet firmly under Edward's control even in 1305, however, and Menteith was permitted to postpone the hearing of his account 'until the land of Scotland is secure'. Some headway in that direction was undoubtedly made in August of the same year, when Sir William Wallace, still resolutely refusing to submit to the English king, was captured, perhaps by treachery, within Menteith's sheriffdom of Dumbarton (supposedly at Robroyston near Glasgow). The sheriff had no choice but to hand Wallace over to Edward and was duly rewarded with lands worth £100. His action brought Menteith lasting ignominy, however ill deserved: Walter Bower, writing in the 1420s, describes the reputations of the main players in this melodrama thus:
Some ostentatiously make their name great for show, like the tyrant Edward; some scandalously make it cheap so that they are abhorred, like the said John Menteith; others virtuously make it worthy so that they are an inspiration to others, like William Wallace.
Yet Menteith's career was far from over. With the murder of Sir John Comyn of Badenoch and the seizure of the throne by Robert Bruce early in 1306, Menteith remained loyal to Edward I. Although he was probably essentially a realist, willing as such to support a de facto government, it is also possible that he identified himself with the Comyn faction, which would explain his failure to support Bruce. There may even be some truth in Bower's story that Menteith made overtures to the new king of Scots at this time in an attempt to trap him in Dumbarton Castle; the plot was revealed to Robert by a servant, Roland Carpentar, who was certainly granted the lands of Eddlewood by the grateful king.
From Wikipedia (accessed 31 May 2021):
Menteith was nominated one of the representatives of the Scots barons in the parliament of both nations which assembled at London in September 1305 and was chosen upon the Scottish council, which was appointed to assist John of Brittany, the new Guardian of Scotland, in the English interest. John received on 1 June 1306 from Edward the Earldom of Lennox, while on 15 June he received the Warden of the castle, town, and sheriffdom of Dumbarton office for life. John returned to Scotland in October.
Edward appealed to John in December 1307 to join him in resisting the revolting Robert de Brus, however John abandoned his earldom of Lennox, joining Brus's side. King Robert I of Scotland rewarded John with large grants in Knapdale and Kintyre. In March 1308, John was among the Scottish magnates who wrote to the King Philip IV of France on behalf of the nation and in 1309, he was sent with Sir Nigel Campbell to treat with Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, receiving a safe-conduct on 21 August, from King Edward II of England. John's English lands were forfeited for his treason. In 1316 he was commissioned with Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray to treat on behalf of Robert Brus for a truce with the English. John remained closely attached to the royal court, as is shown by the numerous charters he attested and was at the Arbroath parliament in April 1320, and signed the Declaration of Arbroath sent by the barons of Scotland to Pope John XXII.
John was one of the negotiators of the thirteen years' truce between Bruce and the English, signed on 30 May 1323 and was present at a Scottish council at Berwick in June.
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Nielsen Hayden genealogy
- Abt 1323
Siblings
d. Abt 1344