Assassination of James Stewart

Date: January 23, 1570 • Location: Rome, Italy

James Hamilton killed James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, in the first recorded assassination of a head of government using a firearm.

James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh and Woodhouselee was a Scottish supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots, who assassinated James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland, in January 1570. He shot Moray from the steps of his uncle Archbishop John Hamilton's house in Linlithgow.