Robert Anstruther

Robert Anstruther (floruit 1550–1580) was a Scottish soldier in the service of Mary of Guise and Mary, Queen of Scots. Career Robert Anstruther was probably a son of John Anstruther of Anstruther in Fife and his second wife, Elizabeth Spens. James Anstruther of that Ilk was his nephew. He wrote a letter to Mary of Guise regarding the service of two soldiers and a recommended promotion. The letter is not dated, but probably was written during her Regency between 1554 and 1560. In July 1561 Mary, Queen of Scots, who was at Méru near Beauvais and north of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, gave orders that Anstruther should receive Dunbar Castle from its French keeper, Corbeyran de Cardaillac Sarlabous, with its cannon and ammunition according to an inventory made by Robert Hamilton of Briggis. He was also to take command of the fortress on the Island of Inchkeith from Captain Lussaignet. The letters were made by Secretary Raulet (d. 1574), whose wife was later Mary's servant.