William Scheves

His parentage is obscure, but he was probably the illegitimate son of a royal clerk, John Scheves.{{Cite book |last=Macdougall |first=Norman |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1314609130 |title=James III |date=2009 |publisher=Birlinn, Limited |isbn=978-1-78885-242-5 |publication-place=Edinburgh |oclc=1314609130 |pages=146–7}} Sixteenth-century accounts claim he spent several years abroad and studied at the University of Louvain. He spent several years at the University of St Andrews as an administrator. In his earlier ecclesiastical career, he had been clericus regiae (royal cleric) and master of the hospital of Brechin. In 1474 he was provided unsuccessfully to the Archdeaconry of Dunblane, but by the beginning of 1477 he was Archdeacon of St Andrews and coadjutor (successor) and vicar-general of the archdiocese. After the deposition of Archbishop Patrick Graham in 1478, he succeeded to the archbishopric, apparently receiving the papal pall while in the presence of King James III and many of the nobility at Holyrood. The titles of legatus natus and primate of all Scotland were bestowed upon him in 1487.{{Cite book |last=Patrick |first=David |title=Statutes of the Scottish Church 1225-1559 |year=1907 |location=Edinburgh |pages=Introduction CVII}}

His rapid rise from junior clergyman to archbishop of St Andrews with a powerful role at court appears to have generated resentment from both ecclesiastical and lay rivals. As a result, he has been associated with the so-called "low-born favourites" or "familiars" who sixteenth-century chroniclers alleged surrounded James III in the years before 1482. Yet Scheves was not especially 'low-born', and was probably the illegitimate son of a former clerk register, John Scheves. There is little doubt, nevertheless, that he had an unusual level of influence with the King until the Lauder coup of 1482.Macdougall 2009, pp.146-7 In a highly unusual practice, he is found countersigning royal letters regularly in the later 1470s. After the coup, he was briefly disgraced, and although he was restored to favour after the king regained power in 1483, his influence was not what it had been.Macdougall 2009, pp.268-70

George Buchanan, writing approximately a century later, claimed that Scheves studied medicine and astronomy at Louvain University; he certainly practised as a physician, and was acting as court physician for the king by 1471. He had an extensive library of medical texts and also had a keen interest in astrology.Macdougall 2009, pp.263-7 He was "one of the earliest book collectors on the grand scale in Scotland."Bushnell, George H.(1960)."Portrait of a Bibliophile: William Schevez Archbishop of St.Andrews, D. 1497." The Book Collector 9 no.1 (Spring):19-29.

The archbishop was given connections to the Christian areas of the Mediterranean under Ottoman control. He was styled "Bishop of Delphi", and his subordinate, James Lindsay, was appointed "Bishop of Dionysias" as a suffragan of the Archbishop of St. Andrews. William's name is even noted in one Greek chronicle.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}{{Original research inline|date=July 2022}}

In the Arbuthnott Missal there is a striking full-page miniature painting of St Ternan, patron saint of the church of Arbuthnott, which is modelled on William Scheves, and can claim to be one of the earliest Scottish portraits.{{Cite web |url=http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/ilwwcm/publishing.nsf/Content/els-cg-arbuthnott-manuscript |title=Renfrewshire Community Website – Arbuthnott Manuscripts |access-date=12 October 2007 |archive-date=21 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070921071036/http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/ilwwcm/publishing.nsf/Content/els-cg-arbuthnott-manuscript |url-status=dead }}

The Italian merchant Jerome Frescobaldi was the factor for his foreign debts, and received payments from the merchant and Conservator of Scottish Privileges Andrew Halyburton.Cosmo Innes, [https://archive.org/details/ledgerandrewhal00goog/page/n126/mode/2up Ledger of Andrew Halyburton, 1492-1503 (Edinburgh, 1867), p. 6]{{Original research inline|date=July 2022}}

Scheves died on 28 January 1497.{{Cite book |last=Watt |first=D. E. R. |title=Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638 |publisher=Scottish Record Society |year=1969 |edition=2nd Draft |location=Edinburgh |pages=295}}

• Dowden, John, The Bishops of Scotland, ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912).
• {{Cite book |last=Macdougall |first=Norman |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10949157 |title=James III, a political study |date=1982 |publisher=J. Donald Publishers |isbn=0-85976-078-2 |location=Edinburgh |oclc=10949157}}
• {{Cite book |last=Macdougall |first=Norman |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1314609130 |title=James III |date=2009 |publisher=Birlinn, Limited |isbn=978-1-78885-242-5 |publication-place=Edinburgh |oclc=1314609130 |pages=146–7}}

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{{succession box | title=Archbishop of St Andrews |

before=Patrick Graham|

after=James Stewart| years=1478–1497}}

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{{succession box|title=Chancellor of the University of St Andrews|years=1478–1497|before=Patrick Graham
Archbishop of St Andrews|

after=James, Duke of Ross
Archbishop of St Andrews}}

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{{Bishops of St Andrews}}

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Category:15th-century births

Category:1497 deaths

Category:Archbishops of St Andrews

Category:15th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Scotland

Category:Chancellors of the University of St Andrews

Category:Bibliophiles

Category:Year of birth unknown