Editing William Barclay (jurist)

{{Short description|Scottish jurist}}
{{no footnotes|date=May 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
[[File:William Barclay.png|thumb|right|200px|William Barclay.]]
'''William Barclay''' (1546–1608) was a [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[jurist]].

==Life==

Barclay was born in [[Aberdeenshire (historic)|Aberdeenshire]] in 1546. Educated at the [[University of Aberdeen]], he went to [[France]] by 1572, and studied law at the [[University of Bourges]], where he took his doctor's degree. [[Charles III, Duke of Lorraine]], appointed him professor of [[Civil law (common law)|civil law]] in the newly founded [[university of Pont-à-Mousson]], and also made him [[Counsellor of State]] and [[Master of Requests (France)|master of requests]]. Here, he was colleague to the French jurist [[Pierre Grégoire]], with whom he entered into a dispute with the Jesuit faction in the university. In 1603 he was obliged to leave [[France]], having incurred the enmity of the [[Jesuits]], through his opposition to their proposal to admit [[john Barclay (1582-1621)|his son John]] a member of their society.

Arriving in [[England]], Barclay was offered considerable preferment by [[James VI and I|James VI]] on condition of becoming a member of the [[Church of England]]. This offer he refused, and he returned to France in 1604, when he was appointed professor of [[Civil law (common law)|civil law]] in the [[university of Angers]]. He died at [[Angers]] in 1608.

==Works==

William Barclay’s principal work was ''De Regno et Regali Potestate'' (1600), a strenuous defence of the rights of kings, in which he refutes the doctrines of those he terms [[monarchomachs]]: [[George Buchanan (humanist)|George Buchanan]], "Junius Brutus" ([[Hubert Languet]] or [[Philippe de Mornay]]) and [[Jean Boucher (theologian)|Jean Boucher]], a leading member of the [[French Catholic League]]; he also wrote ''De potestate papae: an & quatenus in reges & principes seculares jus & imperium habeat'' (published in 1609, after his death), in opposition to the usurpation of temporal powers by the [[pope]], which called forth the celebrated reply of [[Robert Bellarmine|Cardinal Bellarmine]]; also commentaries on some of the titles of the ''[[Pandects]]''.

==References==
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Barclay, William}}
*"William Barclay, Professor of Law at Pont-a-Mousson and Angers" by Andrew F Stewart in Stair Society Miscellany V, ed H L MacQueen, Edinburgh 2006 {{ISBN|1-872517-18-8}}
*[[Andrew Pyle (philosopher)|Andrew Pyle]] (editor), ''Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers'' (2000), article pp.&nbsp;59–62.

==Further reading==
* {{Eminent Scotsmen|Barclay, William|1|157-158}}
* {{cite DNB|wstitle=Barclay, William (1547-1608)}}
* Ernest Dubois, ''Guillaume Barclay jurisconsulte écossais, professeur à Pont-à-Mousson et à Angers, 1546-1608'' (Nancy/Paris, 1872)
* Claude Collot, ''L'école doctrinale de droit public de Pont-à-Mousson (Pierre Grégoire et Guillaume Barclay) fin du XVIe siècle'' (1965)
* David Baird Smith, 'William Barclay', ''Scottish Historical Review'', 11 (1913–14): 136–63.  
* S. Nicholls, 'Catholic resistance theory: William Barclay versus Jean Boucher', ''History of European Ideas'', 44, 4 (2018): 404–418.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barclay, William}}
[[Category:1546 births]]
[[Category:1608 deaths]]
[[Category:Scottish lawyers]]
[[Category:Scottish legal professionals]]
[[Category:People from Aberdeenshire]]
[[Category:Scottish scholars and academics]]
[[Category:University of Bourges]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Aberdeen]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Angers (pre-1793)]]
[[Category:Scottish Roman Catholic writers]]