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Sir Robert Aytoun or AytonOr, less often, Aiton or Aitoun, forms which he used himself, see Charles Rogers, 'Memoir and Poems of Sir Robert Aytoun', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 1 (London, 1875), p. 107. (c. 1570–1638) was a Scotland poet.
Aytoun and his elder brother John entered St Leonard's College in St Andrews in 1584.Charles Roger, Poems of Robert Ayton (Edinburgh, 1844), p. xxiv. After graduating MA from St Andrews in 1588, he studied civil law at Paris.
He appears to have been well known to his literary contemporaries in Scotland and England. He became a groom in the privy chamber of King James in succession to Laurence Marbury, was knighted and became a gentleman of the bedchamber in 1612.Charles Rogers, 'Memoir and Poems of Sir Robert Aytoun', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 1 (London, 1875), pp. 102-3. He became secretary and master of requests to Anne of Denmark in succession to another Scottish poet, William Fowler.Joseph Massey, 'The Stuart Consorts and Scotland', Aidan Norrie, Tudor and Stuart Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), p. 206: Linda Levy Peck, Court Patronage and Corruption in Early Stuart England (Routledge, London, 1993), p. 68. He was sent as ambassador to Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor in 1609. He was later secretary to Henrietta Maria.Charles Roger, Poems of Robert Ayton (Edinburgh, 1844), p. xxvi-xxxiv.
He wrote poems in Latin, Greek language, and Scottish English, and was one of the first Scots to write in standard English. His major work was Diophantus and Charidora.
Inconstancy Upbraided is perhaps the best of his short poems. He is credited with a little poem, Old Long Syne, which probably suggested Robert Burns's famous Auld Lang Syne.
Aytoun died at Whitehall Palace and is buried in the south ambulatory area of in Westminster Abbey. The monument includes a bronze bust, attributed, variously, to either Hubert Le Sueur or Francesco Fanelli.Charles Rogers, 'Memoir and Poems of Sir Robert Aytoun', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 1 (London, 1875), p. 110. Amongst his bequests, Aytoun gave a diamond hatband to William Murray and his French bed to Jane Whorwood.Charles Rogers, 'Memoir and Poems of Sir Robert Aytoun', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 1 (London, 1875), pp. 112.
The Border ballad "Little Jock Elliot" celebrates, amongst other events, the achievements of Little Jock Elliot on this occasion and has the refrain "My name is little Jock Elliot and wha daur meddle wi' me!". This latter ballad, of indeterminate date, also implicitly states that Little Jock Elliot survived the encounter with Bothwell.
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