James Crichton

Leading figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, born in Clunie, Perth and Kinross, E Scotland, UK. He studied at St Andrews, and earned a tremendous reputation as a scholar, poet, linguist, and swordsman on the European mainland. While in Mantua in the service of the duke, he was killed in a nocturnal brawl by the duke's son. His popular reputation rests on the fantastic account of his exploits written by Sir Thomas Urquhart in his panegyric on the Scots nation, The Discoveryie of a Most Exquisite Jewel (1652). ‘Admirable Crichton’ became synonymous with all-round talents, the ideal man; the phrase was used by J M Barrie for his play about a perfect butler, The Admirable Crichton (1902).

James Crichton, known as the Admirable Crichton, (1560 - 1582) was a Scottish polymath noted for his extraordinary accomplishments in languages, the arts, and sciences.

One of the most astoundingly gifted individuals of the 16th century, James Crichton of Clunie (Perthshire; although some sources maintain his birthplace was Dumfries), was the son of Robert Crichton, Lord Advocate of Scotland, and Elizabeth Stewart, from whose line James could claim Royal descent.

Educated at St. Andrews University from the ages of ten to fourteen, during which time he completed requirements for both his bachelor's and master's degrees, James was taught by the celebrated Scottish politician and poet George Buchanan (1506-1582).

Leaving Scotland, Crichton travelled to Paris, where he continued his education at the Collège de Navarre. It is said that throughout the course of one extremely long day, French scholars failed to stump Crichton on any question they threw at him, no matter how abstruse.

Thereafter he spent two years as a soldier in the French army before travelling to Italy in 1579, winning acclaim in Genoa, Venice and Padua by repeating his exploit of challenging Italian scholars to intellectual discourse and debate.

In Venice in 1580, Crichton befriended the printer Aldus Manutius, who introduced him to the Venetian intellectual community, where the young Scot made an enormous impression on humanist scholars.

Perhaps tiring of intellectual duels, the following year Crichton entered the service of the Duke of Mantua, and may have become tutor to the Duke's headstrong son Vincenzo Gonzaga (although some sources suggest that Crichton served only as a member of the ducal council, and did not actually teach the prince).

What is beyond dispute is that while in the Duke's employ, Vincenzo Gonzaga became hugely jealous of Crichton, probably from a combination of his father's strong regard for the young prodigy as well as Crichton replacing Vincenzo as the lover of the prince's former mistress.

On the night of July 3, 1582, after leaving this lady's dwelling, Crichton was attacked in the street by a gang of masked ruffians. Tradition holds that, on seeing Vincenzo, Crichton instantly dropped to one knee and presented his sword, hilt first, to the prince, his master's son. James Crichton of Cluny was then in his twenty-second year.

Much of Crichton's posthumous reputation comes from a romantic 1652 account of his life written by Sir Thomas Urquhart (1611-1660). James Crichton's sobriquet was later employed by fellow Scot Sir James Barrie as the title of his 1902 satirical play, "The Admirable Crichton", about a butler whose savoir-faire far exceeds that of his aristocratic employers.