Châtellerault in the Peerage of France. During Regent Arran's tenure at Brodick he continued to enlarge and expand the castle. In the summer of 1550 Andrew Hamilton and Dean John Slater worked on the building. In March 1552 live partridges and hares were sent to Brodick for the Regent's table and a special boring tool called a "wombill" was bought to make holes at the rabbit warren. In June a carpenter Peter Moffett made new doors. Some timber spars for the new building were supplied by the Laird of Luss on Loch Lomond. In May 1579 the Earl of Argyll took Brodick for James VI and Ninian Stewart was installed as keeper for the crown. In 1602 Paul Hamilton, captain of Brodick for Marquess of Hamilton, with his companions all armed with pistols attacked a farmer Marrarat MacMillan at North Sannox and took his horse and cattle, and wool and plaids and imprisoned Duncan MacElloway at Brodick. Dukes of Hamilton Brodick Castle did not escape the religious paroxysms that affected seventeenth century life (see the Wars of the Three Kingdoms). In 1639, Scotland was divided between the Presbyterianism of the Lords of the Congregation, and the Episcopalianism favoured by King Charles I. James Hamilton, 3rd marquess of Hamilton, the King's advisor on all things Scottish, was sent north to enforce the King's will, he had previously dissolved the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland when they had abolished the Episcopacy. Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, was the de facto ruler of Scotland and leader of the presbyterian faction. Argyll seized Hamilton's castle of Brodick. Hamilton was made a Duke in 1643 and recovered his castle the following year at the outbreak of the Scottish Civil War. It was lost again to the Campbells in 1646, as the Royalists fortunes foundered. The Duke was captured after the disastrous Battle of Preston, and faced the block in March 1649. He was succeeded by his brother William, Earl of Lanark, but the second Duke died of wounds received at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The Duchy of Hamilton and Earldom of Arran passed to the first Duke's only surviving child, Anne. She had been unwittingly sent to Brodick for safety. In 1650, Oliver Cromwell's Roundheads had taken control of the castle and had extended it by building an Artillery battery to defend the Firth at this strategic position. Duchess Anne