Beton Beaton, Beatonn, or Bethnne, David, a Scottish statesman and ecclesiastic, born in 1494, assassinated at St. Andrews, May 28, 1546. He was educated at St. Andrews and at Paris, and received from his uncle, James Beaton, archbishop of St. Andrews, the rectory of Campsie and the abbacy of Arbroath. He was ambassador to France 1519-'25, became a favorite of James V., and was appointed lord privy seal in 1528. In 1533 he was sent to France to conclude a treaty of marriage between James and Magdalene, daughter of Francis I., and again after her death in 1537 to bring over Mary of Guise. Francis I. made him bishop of Mirepoix, and the following year procured for him from Pope Paul III. the rank of cardinal. In 1539 he succeeded his uncle in the primacy of Scotland as archbishop of St. Andrews. He at once began a vigorous persecution of the reformers in Scotland, compelled many suspected persons to recant, and two men, Norman Gourlay and David Straiton, were burned near Edinburgh. Soon afterward Beaton was appointed by the pope legate a latere.

After the sudden death of King James (Dec. 13, 1542), leaving as his successor the infant Mary, five days old, Cardinal Beaton conceived the idea of seizing the government, and with the aid of a priest, Henry Balfour, is said to have forged a will for the king, nominating himself regent with three of the nobility as his assistants. This will was proclaimed at the cross of Edinburgh a few days after the death of the king, and the cardinal took possession of the regency. But the earl of Arran, who had prospective claims to the succession, called an assembly of noblemen, who set aside Beaton and put Arran in his place. The cardinal, however, had the support of the queen dowager and of powerful friends; and after a brief imprisonment he was released and made lord high chancellor (December, 1543), and soon succeeded in making the weak Arran his tool. The English invasion which soon followed was successfully opposed, and during the succeeding peace the regent, by the advice of Beaton, endeavored to strengthen the Scottish connection with France. Fully established in the civil as well as ecclesiastical administration of affairs, the cardinal renewed his persecution of reformers, hanging, drowning, and burning several of them.

In 1546 he burnt George Wishart, the most eminent preacher among the reformers, and sent to the stake several of his followers. His enemies, seeing no other hope of relief from these persecutions, resolved upon his death. Early in the morning of May 28, 1546, several conspirators entered the cardinal's bedchamber in the castle of St. Andrews. The assassins were Norman Leslie, Peter Carmichael, and James Melville, who charged him with his wicked life, and especially his murder of George Wishart, and struck him down with daggers and a stag sword. As he fell, he cried out, "Fie, fie! I am a priest; all's gone." Cardinal Beaton lived luxuriously, and was scandalously licentious. He is said to have written an account of his embassies, and other works. He was eminently successful in diplomacy.