Background
George Buchanan was born in 1506 in Killearn, Stirlingshire, Scotland. His father owned the farm of Moss, in the parish of Killearn, Stirlingshire, but he died young, leaving his widow, five sons, and three daughters in poverty. George's mother, Agnes Heriot, was of the family of the Heriots of Trabroun.
Education
George Buchanan attended Killearn school, but not much is known of his early education. In 1520 he was sent by his uncle, James Heriot, to the University of Paris, where he first came in contact with the two great influences of the age, the Renaissance and the Reformation. In the following year he entered the University of St Andrews, where he graduated B. A. in 1525. In 1528 Buchanan graduated M. A. at the Scots College in Paris.
Career
George Buchanan was a tutor to the natural son of James V, professor at Bordeaux (where Montaigne was among his pupils), prisoner of the Inquisition (1549-1551), satirist and bitter critic of the Franciscans and Mary, Queen of Scots. His best works were written in Latin, but he also composed several political pamphlets in English. Buchanan has been termed the Scottish Ascham in style, although he is certainly more pedantic. Headstrong and naive, he was an active reformer with a passion for education and a strange mixture of personal traits. His chief Latin works are the Detectio Mariae Reginae (1571), De sphaera, and Rerum Scoticarum historia (1582). He is also the author of an elegy describing the privations of a student in Paris.
Religion
Although had stayed Catholic throughout his support of the new learning and his strident criticism of the vices of the clergy, he openly joined the Protestants Reformed Church.