Tweeddale was a royalist Scottish peer who was also sympathetic to the Covenanting cause. As a result, his periods in office as a Scottish privy councillor, President of the Council and Commissioner of the Treasury, were interrupted by interludes when he was out of favour, and he was once imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle. He became Lord Chancellor of Scotland in 1692 but was dismissed for his support of the Darien Scheme (an attempt to establish a colony on the small strip of land between North and South America). He supported the Glorious Revolution in 1699 and six years later was created Marquess of Tweeddale by William III.