John Bellenden

John Bellenden (flourished 1533–87) was a Scottish writer whose translation of Hector Boece’s Scotorum historiae had a profound influence on Scottish national feeling.

Educated at the universities of St. Andrews (Scotland) and Paris, he was in the service of James V as clerk of accounts from the King’s earliest years and at his request translated the Historiae, which had just appeared in Paris (1526). It was published as The History and Chronicles of Scotland in 1536, prefaced by an original poem entitled A Proheme to the Cosmographe and later reprinted separately under the various titles of Vertue and Vyce and An Allegory of Virtue and Delyte. Written in a fluent and vivid style, the History is one of the earliest pieces of literary Scottish prose extant. Among other stories of interest, it made accessible the first account of Macbeth’s meeting with the witches.

Also, at the King’s request, Bellenden translated the first five books of Livy’s Roman History, prefacing them with The Proheme of the History, another original poem. It was not publicly printed until 1822.

In 1533 Bellenden had become archdeacon of Moray and a canon of Ross. Later, however, he appears to have lost the King’s favour, and his strenuous opposition to the Reformation caused him to go into exile. Some authorities say that he died in Rome in 1550, but others that he was still alive in 1587.