Clunie Castle (12 of 12)
Lord Advocate Robert Crichton of Elliok was the father of the much more famous Admirable Crichton, who spent much of his childhood here.  The Admirable Crichton was not as you might suppose, a dyslexic naval officer, he was polymath, noted for his extraordinary accomplishments in languages, the arts, and sciences.  One of the most gifted individuals of the 16th century, James Crichton was educated at St Andrews University between the ages of ten and fourteen, during which time he completed requirements for both his bachelor's and master's degrees. 

By the age of twenty, he was not only fluent in, but could discourse, in both prose and verse, in no fewer than twelve languages.  In addition he was an accomplished horseman, fencer, singer, musician, orator, and debater and was noted for his good looks as well as his refined social graces!

Leaving Scotland, Crichton travelled to Paris, where he continued his education at the Collège de Navarre. It was while in Paris that he first came to prominence by challenging French professors to ask him any question on any science or liberal arts subject in Arabic, Dutch, English, French, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Slavonic, Spanish, or Syriac.  It is said that throughout the course of one extremely long day, French scholars failed to stump Crichton on any question they threw at him, no matter how abstruse.

Thereafter he spent two years as a soldier in the French army before travelling to Italy in 1579, winning acclaim in Genoa, Venice, and Padua by repeating his exploit of challenging Italian scholars to intellectual discourse and debate.  In Padua in 1581, he clashed with a number of scholars over their interpretation of Aristotle, while demonstrating that their mathematics was flawed.

The following year Crichton entered the service of the Duke of Mantua, and is believed to have become tutor to the Duke's headstrong son Vincenzo Gonzaga.  Vincenzo became hugely jealous of Crichton, probably due to a combination of his father's strong regard for the young prodigy as well as Crichton replacing Vincenzo as the lover of the prince's former mistress.

On the night of 3 July 1582, after leaving this lady's dwelling in Mantua, Crichton was attacked in the street by a gang of masked ruffians.  He bested all but one with his sword, whereupon the last man removed his mask to reveal the group's ringleader, Vincenzo Gonzaga himself. Tradition holds that, on seeing Vincenzo, Crichton instantly dropped to one knee and presented his sword, hilt first, to the prince, his master's son.  Vincenzo took the blade and with it stabbed Crichton cruelly through the heart, killing him instantly. James Crichton of Cluny was then in his twenty-second year.

Vincenzo Gonzaga, as the son of the Duke of Mantua and the Archduchess of Austria, was an untouchable and went on to succeed his father as Duke of Mantua!
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