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Kilt pin
Plaid Brooch
Tie pin
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Sgian Dubh
Sir Roger Lyon (originally de Leonne or de Leon) was born in France around 1040, came to England with the William the Conqueror in 1066, went north into Scotland in 1098 to join Edgar, son of Malcolm III, in the fight against Edgar’s uncle, Donald Bane for the crown of Scotland. Sir Roger, for good and faithful service, received lands in Perthshire. In 1105 Sir Roger witnessed a charter of Edgar to the Abbey at Dunfermline.
ir John Lyon, the founder of Clan Lyon, an ancestor of Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon Her Majesty The Queen Mother
Born in 1340, the son of John de Lyon of Forteviot, Sir John was a remarkable man, appearing to have arrived from nowhere to become an Auditor of the Chamberlain, Secretary to King David II, Keeper of the Privy Seal and then, nine years after his arrival and one year after marrying the King's daughter, Chamberlain of Scotland to King Robert II.
In 1372 Robert II granted to Sir John Lyon the district of Glamis and established him as the Thane of Glamis, for services rendered to the Crown
In 1376 Sir John married the Princess Joanna (Jean) Stewart, daughter of Robert Stewart (Robert II of Scotland) and Elizabeth Mure (Muir) of Rowallan. The Princess was the widow of Sir John Keith and by this marriage Sir John also became Thane of Tannadyce.
Soon after the marriage in 1377 the King Robert Knighted Sir John, raised the thaneage of Glamis to a feudal barony, and appointed him Chamberlain of Scotland, then the most important office at the disposal of the Crown. Sir John served as the Chamberlain from 1377 until his death in 1382.
On August 11th 1382, Sir John Lyon was killed in a duel at Balhall (Angus) by Sir James Lindsay of Crawford, Scotland's ambassador to England. He was buried at Scone Abbey and was succeeded by his only son, Sir John Lyon of Glamis (d c1435)
With Sir John we have the mystery of why an unknown could rise so high in such a short time (as royal marriages were affairs of state and not arranged lightly), and for which we have only one clue, Sir John’s Coat-of-Arms a riband gules added to the basic coat of Argent a lion rampant Azure (left below).
Although not necessarily obvious to a casual observer today, in the 15th century (and, we must assume, earlier, for these would have been the arms of his forebears of the name of Lyon) all who saw the Lyon arms would know that they were a differenced version of the Bruce family, Lords of Skelton in England from the late eleventh century (right above).
The possibility that anyone could in the 15th century or earlier have used arms that proclaimed such a connection without just cause can be dismissed immediately. Heraldry in those years was far too important a system of communication to be abused in such a way, especially at the Scottish court itself, the centre of the nation. In those heraldry-literate times Argent a lion rampant Azure meant Bruce of Skelton, the family from which had sprung the forefathers of Robert the Bruce, father of David II, the king that John first served. And although the Bruce line in Scotland had borne the Annandale arms, they had not forgotten their blue lion. It appeared on a silver chief in the Annandale arms borne by the father and great-grandfather of Robert the Bruce, and on his tomb.
So in summary, we have a stranger becoming Secretary to the King and bearing a differenced version of that King's own family's original arms, a man with no history who goes on to marry a daughter of that King's successor and to possess one of the highest offices in the kingdom. He cannot have been a stranger, he must have had a history, and there is thus an unanswerable case for him having been a kinsman of the royal family.
Septs of the Clan: Barrie, Brebner, Christie, Coates, Coutts, Farquhar, Findlay, Findlayson, Finlay, Finlayson, Gracie, Greusach, Hardie, Hardy, Kellas, Lyon, MacCaig, MacCardney, Macartney, MacCuaig, MacEarachar, MacFarquhar, Machardie, Machardy, MacKerchar, MacKerracher, Mackindlay, Mackinlay, Paterson, Reoch, Riach, Tawse. |
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