Crichton, James (1560–1582)

Scottish scholar. He was known as ‘the Admirable Crichton’ because of his extraordinary gifts as a poet, scholar, and linguist; he was also an athlete and fencer. According to one account he was killed in Mantua, Italy, in a street brawl by his pupil, a son of the Duke of Mantua, who resented Crichton's popularity.

Crichton was born at Eliock, Dumfriesshire, and educated at St Andrews, where the young King James VI was a fellow pupil. He went to Paris in 1577, and at the university there is said to have issued a challenge to all men on all things, to be held in 12 different languages; he vanquished all his opponents.