Robert Blackadder - Education and Early Career

Education and Early Career

Robert was the younger brother of Patrick Blackadder of Tulliallan, a middling Fife laird. Robert studied at the University of St Andrews (where his name is listed among the students in either 1461 or 1462), and in 1464 he was received as a bachelor in the University of Paris. The following year, 1465, he graduated as licentiate. In 1471 King James III of Scotland sent him as a messenger to Pope Paul II. It was probably while at Rome that Robert secured from the pope the abbacy of Melrose. This was the first time a non-Cistercian had become abbot at Melrose, and moreover the pope granted Blackadder leave to take the abbacy without becoming a monk. This did not go down well with the monks at Melrose. One monk, Richard Lamb, challenged this decision at the papal court. Lamb had the support of the bishop of Glasgow, John Laing, and of the monks at Melrose. Several years of litigation followed, and after being offered a substantial pension, Blackadder resigned the abbacy in 1476. In 1477 Blackadder's name is recorded in a letter of Pope Sixtus IV, where it is said that the pope had received a petition from "Robert Blakidir", a rector of the church of Lasswade in the diocese of St Andrews, requesting permission to build a hospital near the church. Permission and funds were granted, and so came into being the Hospital of St Mary of Consolation. A year later, the pope granted Blackadder permission to convert the church of Lasswade into a prebend of the church of St Salvador in St Andrews, specifying that the holder must have a licentiate or doctorate.

He was elected as bishop of Aberdeen in sometime in 1480. The exact date of Robert's election to Aberdeen is uncertain, but at a meeting of the Lords of Council which took place between June 12 and June 23, he is named "Robert, bishop of Aberdeen". He does not seem to have been consecrated to the Aberdeen see before March 19, 1483, when he was translated to the then vacant bishopric of Glasgow. Blackadder travelled to Rome to receive consecration at the hands of Pope Sixtus IV. The consecration happened sometime in either May or June. By November 20 he is back in Scotland witnessing a royal charter at Edinburgh. Blackadder's trip to Italy had cost him a lot of money, and he fell heavily into debt. On March 31, 1487, a papal Bull was issued by Pope Innocent VIII granting Blackadder half of the diocese's benefices and ordering Blackadder's subordinates to pay a "benevolence", i.e. a tax, to pay back the debt.