James Maxwell

James Maxwell (c.1581 – in or after 1635) was a Scottish scholar, known as an author on mythology and prophecy. Most of his works are lost. He advocated for the view that the House of Stuart would found the Last World Empire of prophetic tradition. Life He was the only son of William Maxwell of Little Airds, and grandson of William Maxwell of Kirkconnell, Kirkcudbrightshire, man-at-arms to James V of Scotland, and also in the service of his queen, Mary of Guise, and of his daughter, Mary Queen of Scots. He was educated at Edinburgh University, where he graduated M.A. 29 July 1600. In his Edinburgh time he was a follower of John Napier. He then went abroad. Maxwell lived in London for a period, and renounced Calvinism in 1607, adopting a conservative religious viewpoint. He spent time in the Tower of London from the middle of 1620 to February 1621, after publishing a pamphlet against the claim of the Elector Palatine to Bohemia. This slant towards the House of Habsburg, at the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, put paid to Maxwell's hopes of advancement in England, and in particular of a post he coveted, historian in Chelsea College. He then returned to the continent of Europe. Around 1630 Maxwell had been working as genealogist to Philip IV of Spain. On 30 April 1631 he wrote from Brussels to Archbishop William Laud, complaining of threats of assassination because he would not forsake Protestantism. Emperor Ferdinand II had, he declared, commanded his presence at court, and offered him spiritual preferment, with the office of imperial antiquary and genealogist, and a pension of a thousand crowns after the death of Sebastian Tegnangel. (Tegnangel in fact died in 1636.) In recompense for his books written in defence of the Church of England against the Puritans, and towards finishing one on the king's genealogy, he asked for a lay prebend. Gilbert Blackhall commented on Scots of this period who had spurned offers from the Spanish king, and their lack of Habsburg prospects (and may have had Maxwell in mind). Court patronage generally dried up in Brussels after 1633.