George Buchanan was born in February, at The Moss, Killearn, the old house was replaced in the 18th century with another that has the same name.
No definitive date has been given so I have plumped for the first simply because it is very quiet today.
Educated at Killearn, St. Andrews and Paris, he became a fluent linguist speaking Latin and Greek, in addition to French and his native Scots and Gaelic. He was a fluent translator of Hebrew and Spanish.
In 1529 he was appointed a Professor at the College of Sainte-Barbe in Paris, a post he held for three years until being appointed tutor to Gilbert Kennedy, 3rd Earl of Cassilis, in 1532. On returning to Scotland in 1537, Buchanan was briefly employed in the household of James V, but in 1539 found himself in danger of arrest during a period of persecution of Lutheran Protestants. He fled to France, though in Paris encountered Cardinal Beaton, who had been behind his persecution in Scotland. Buchanan instead went to Bordeaux, where he was appointed Professor of Latin at the College of Guienne. It was while he was at Bordeaux that he produced some of his best known writing, including translations of Greek mythology and two dramas.
After another spell in Paris, in 1547 Buchanan took up a post as a lecturer at the Portuguese University of Coimbra. Here his Reforming Protestant views (and possibly the long reach of Cardinal Beaton) led to his arrest by the inquisition. After a period of imprisonment, Buchanan was released in early 1552 and made his way back to Paris via England. In 1560 he returned to a post Reformation Scotland. In 1566 was appointed Principal of St Leonard’s College, St Andrews. In 1567 he served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Buchanan later served as tutor to the young James VI of Scotland, and was also appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland. Late in life he published two of his most influential works, The Powers of the Crown in Scotland and A History of Scottish Matters.
Buchanan died in Edinburgh in 1582 and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard. He is remembered in the 31m high Buchanan Monument which sits in a railed enclosure in the centre of Killearn. The monument was erected by public subscription in 1789 and was designed by the Edinburgh architect James Craig, who gave his services free to the project.
