He appears to have been well known to his literary contemporaries in Scotland and England. He became a groom in the privy chamber of King James in succession to Laurence Marbury, was knighted and became a gentleman of the bedchamber in 1612.[6] He became secretary and master of requests to Anne of Denmark in succession to another Scottish poet, William Fowler.[7] He was sent as ambassador to Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor in 1609. He was later secretary to Henrietta Maria.[8]
He wrote poems in Latin, Greek, and English, and was one of the first Scots to write in standard English. His major work was Diophantus and Charidora.[5]
Inconstancy Upbraided is perhaps the best of his short poems. He is credited with a little poem, Old Long Syne, which probably suggested Robert Burns's famous Auld Lang Syne.[5]
He is also the author of a ballad called "Bothwell" about the battle fought by James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell with the border reiver, John Elliot of Park, also known as Little Jock Elliot or Little Jock of the Park. The ballad recounts how Bothwell, in attempting to arrest Little Jock Elliot, suffers life-threatening wounds, though he ends by slaying his foe. Ayton was eight years old at the time Bothwell perished in a dungeon in Denmark, and hence must have heard about the attempted arrest of Elliot by people familiar with the story, particularly as Bothwell was a figure of national renown.[citation needed]
The Border ballad "Little Jock Elliot" celebrates, amongst other events, the achievements of Little Jock Elliot on this occasion and has the refrain "My name is little Jock Elliot and wha daur meddle wi' me!". This latter ballad, of indeterminate date, also implicitly states that Little Jock Elliot survived the encounter with Bothwell.[citation needed]
Notes
^Or, less often, Aiton or Aitoun, forms which he used himself, see Charles Rogers, 'Memoir and Poems of Sir Robert Aytoun', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 1 (London, 1875), p. 107.
^Charles Roger, Poems of Robert Ayton (Edinburgh, 1844), p. xxiii: Charles Rogers, 'Memoir and Poems of Sir Robert Aytoun', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 1 (London, 1875), p. 101.
^Charles Roger, Poems of Robert Ayton (Edinburgh, 1844), p. xxiv.
^Charles Rogers, 'Memoir and Poems of Sir Robert Aytoun', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 1 (London, 1875), pp. 102-3.
^Joseph Massey, 'The Stuart Consorts and Scotland', Aidan Norrie, Tudor and Stuart Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), p. 206: Linda Levy Peck, Court Patronage and Corruption in Early Stuart England (Routledge, London, 1993), p. 68.
^Charles Roger, Poems of Robert Ayton (Edinburgh, 1844), p. xxvi-xxxiv.
^Charles Rogers, 'Memoir and Poems of Sir Robert Aytoun', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 1 (London, 1875), p. 110.
^"Robert Ayton". Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
^Charles Rogers, 'Memoir and Poems of Sir Robert Aytoun', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 1 (London, 1875), pp. 112.
Smith, Sydney Goodsir (1961), review of Helena Mennie Shire (ed.), Poems and Songs of Sir Robert Ayton, in Gordon, Giles and Scott-Moncrieff, Michael (eds.), New Saltire: Summer 1961, The Saltire Society, Edinburgh, pp. 83 & 84.
