Archbishop of Saint Andrews. The last Cardinal before the Scottish Reformation. His uncle was James Beaton, the Archbishop of Glasgow who gave him an ecclesiastical appointment as Abbot of Arbroath Abbey. He helped arrange the marriage of King James V and the daughter of King Francois I of France, Madeleine, and again with James and his second wife Mary de Guise, the adopted sister of Madeleine. Beaton also was among a select few appointed as Regents for six day old Mary Queen of Scots after the death of her father, King James V. He was known to have achieved much of his success through his uncle, and as a result was not widely respected. He came under very close scrutiny for fathering several children with many mistresses, and for pursuing protestant heretics. John Rogers, a Friar, was the first and was accused of preaching a doctrine in Angus that Beaton considered to be heretical. Rogers was imprisoned at Saint Andrews Castle who was claimed to have "died while trying to escape." George Wishart, a Reformer, was also accused of being a heretic. Beaton had him burned alive at the stake in front of Saint Andrews Castle. Revenge was attained by the Protestants who had Beaton removed from his bedchamber at Saint Andrews Castle and stabbed him to death. They next mutilated his body and then hung it outside the window. Beaton's body was said to have been pickled in a barrel of brine. Several months after, his body was finally removed. It was recorded in the 'Book of Martyrs,' John Foxe 1803 and other books "And so like a butcher he lived, and by a butcher he died, and lay seven months or more unburied, and at last like a carrion buried in a dunghill, anno 1546." He has been featured in books and documentaries.