Countess of Huntly Elizabeth Keith

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• Reference Number: 36997

Notes:

Elizabeth Keith, Countess of Huntly, was a Scottish noblewoman and the wife of George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, Scotland's leading Catholic magnate during the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1562, Elizabeth encouraged her husband to raise forces against Queen Mary which led to his being outlawed, and after his death, his titles forfeited to the Crown.[1] Elizabeth's son Sir John Gordon was executed for having taken part in his father's rebellion.
She succeeded to the title of Countess of Huntly on 27 March 1530. Her daughter, Lady Jean Gordon, Countess of Bothwell was the first wife of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Family

Elizabeth was born on an unknown date in Dunnottar Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the eldest daughter of Robert Keith, Master of Marischal and Lady Elizabeth Douglas. Her paternal grandparents were William Keith, 3rd Earl Marischal and Elizabeth Gordon, and her maternal grandparents were John Douglas, 2nd Earl of Morton and Janet Crichton. Her brother was William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal (died 7 October 1581).

Portrait of Lady Jean Gordon, Countess of Bothwell, daughter of Elizabeth Keith. She was the first wife of James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell
[edit]Marriage and issue

On 27 March 1530, she married George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, the wealthiest and most powerful landowner in the Scottish Highlands, whose estates approached those of an independent monarch.[2] He was also the leading Catholic magnate in Scotland. Her brother promised to give Elizabeth five thousands merks as a tocher.[3] Upon her marriage, Elizabeth became the Countess of Huntly. The Huntlys' chief residence was Strathbogie Castle in the Scottish Highlands. The Earl became Lord Chancellor of Scotland in 1546 following the death of David Beaton, Archbishop of St. Andrews. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Pinkie on 10 September 1547 and Elizabeth came with him to Berwick-upon-Tweed, returning to Scotland at the end of the month.[4]
He and Elizabeth together had a total of twelve children:[5][6]
Thomas Gordon, married Jean Gordon, daughter of John Gordon, 11th Earl of Sutherland and Lady Elizabeth Stewart.
George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (died 19 October 1576), on 12 March 1558 married Lady Anne Hamilton, daughter of James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault and Lady Margaret Douglas, by whom he had issue.
Lady Margaret Gordon, married John Forbes, 8th Lord Forbes, by whom she had issue.
Lady Jean Gordon (1546- 14 May 1629), married firstly on 24 February 1566, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, whom she divorced on 3 May 1567; secondly on 13 December 1573, Alexander Gordon, 12th Earl of Sutherland, by whom she had issue; and thirdly in December 1599 Alexander Ogilvy of Boyne.
Lady Elizabeth Gordon, married John Stewart, 4th Earl of Atholl, by whom she had two daughters.
Alexander, Lord Gordon (died 18 September 1552/11 August 1553), married Barbara Hamilton, daughter of Regent Arran, the marriage was childless.
Sir John Gordon, , (executed 2 November 1562), married the widow of the Laird of Findlater.
William Gordon (died in Paris, France)
James Gordon (died 1620 in Paris)
Sir Adam Gordon (b. 1546 died 1580)
Sir Patrick Gordon (killed in 1594 at Glenlivet)
Robert Gordon
[edit]Huntly's rebellion

Elizabeth was described as having made all the decisions for her husband, and often "turned to the aid of her familiars and witches when inspiration from any other source was lacking".[7] She was better educated and her writing was superior to that of the Earl.[8] She also was surrounded by a large and splendid train of personal attendants.[9] On 23 August 1550, she ordered the execution of William MacIntosh, 15th Laird MacIntosh for having committed treason against Huntly who was accompanying the Scottish Regent Marie of Guise to her native France.[10]
In 1562, after her husband's title of Earl of Moray was taken from him and granted to Lord James Stewart, the illegitimate half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots and husband of Elizabeth's niece Lady Agnes Keith the Earl of Huntly rebelled and raised a force of his own retainers against Queen Mary. Elizabeth encouraged her husband in his rebellion, and persuaded him to attack the queen's troops at Aberdeen and there apprehend Queen Mary.[11] with the purpose of forcing her into marriage with their son, Sir John.[12] On 22 October, at the Battle of Corrichie, Huntly and his men were defeated by Queen Mary's army led by James Stewart, Earl of Moray. Huntly died of apoplexy on the battlefield, while Elizabeth's sons John and Adam, themselves having actively participated in the rebellion and battle, were captured and shortly afterwards on 2 November, Sir John was executed by the orders of Queen Mary for treason. The life of seventeen-year old Adam was spared as was that of George, Lord Gordon who had denied the queen entrance to the castle of Inverness where he held the post of sheriff; George, although pardoned, was nonetheless ordered to Dunbar Castle where he remained in custody until 1565 when his dignities were nominally restored to him. In 1563, the year following the Battle of Corrichie, Huntly's title and possessions were forfeited to the crown at a macabre session of Parliament with Queen Mary in attendance, in which his embalmed corpse was set up for all to see, and was pronounced guilty of treason and the sentence of forfeiture passed upon it.[13] Strathbogie Castle was duly stripped of its furnishings and these were sent to the queen's palace of Holyrood and to the Earl of Moray's new castle of Darnaway.[14] Among the Huntlys' confiscated belongings were elaborate tapestries, velvet-covered beds, hung with fringes of gold and silverwork, figures of animals, and vessels of gilded and coloured glass.[15]
Later, as a token of the queen's clemency towards the Huntlys, Elizabeth and her second eldest daughter, Jean were given positions at the royal court.
On 24 February 1566, Jean became the first wife of James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell who, following his divorce from Jean in 1567, would marry as her third husband, Mary, Queen of Scots.
In March 1566, Elizabeth, who had by that time become a loyal adherent of Queen Mary, spent the night tending the queen, who was in her sixth month of pregnancy, at Holyrood Palace following the murder of David Rizzio. She devised various plans for Mary's escape which the latter rejected as having been impracticable. She finally managed to smuggle a letter to her son George, who also had become Mary's partisan, ordering him to stand by at Seton with a party of nobles to aid the queen on her journey to Dunbar Castle after she successfully escaped from the palace.[16]
Elizabeth Keith died on an unknown date.

Birth:
Dunnottar Castle

Elizabeth — George Gordon. George (son of John Gordon and Margaret Stewart) was born 1514, Scotland; died 28 Oct 1562. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 37001

Notes:

Lady Jean Gordon was born at Huntly Castle, sometimes called Strathbogie, in Aberdeenshire, the second eldest daughter of George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, the wealthiest and most powerful landowner in the Scottish Highlands,[1] and Elizabeth Keith. Her paternal grandparents were John Gordon, Lord Gordon and Margaret Stewart, illegitimate daughter of King James IV by his mistress Margaret Drummond, and her maternal grandparents were Robert Keith, Master of Marischal and Lady Elizabeth Douglas.
Jean had nine brothers and two sisters, and the family were brought up at Huntly Castle which was modernised during the 1550s.[2] Her father's Highlands estates were so numerous that they approached those of an independent monarch.[3] He became Lord Chancellor of Scotland in 1546, the year of her birth. However, the Earl was captured at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in September 1547, and spent some time in England. The earl then followed a complicated political career balancing his and Scotland's international and religious interests. In the Autumn of 1562, Mary, Queen of Scots came to the north to punish the family on the basis of allegations against Jean's brother, Sir John Gordon. At Darnaway Castle, Mary gave Huntly's title of Earl of Moray to her own illegitimate half-brother Lord James, who was the husband of Jean's first cousin, Lady Agnes Keith. Jean's father slipped away from Huntly Castle, evading the queen's soldier William Kirkcaldy of Grange, but was defeated by Lord James at the Battle of Corrichie in 1562. At the end of the fight the Earl collapsed and died of apoplexy on the battlefield. Jean's father was posthumously tried for treason in Edinburgh, where his embalmed body was brought to face parliament, and his title and lands were thereby forfeited to the crown.[4]
Jean's eldest surviving brother, Lord Gordon, was spared execution and eventually allowed to succeed the rebel Earl, however, Jean's brother, Sir John Gordon, was executed. As a token of the queen's clemency towards the Huntlys, Jean, her mother, and Lord Gordon were given positions at the royal court.[5] In 1565, Jean's brother, George, was allow to succeed to his father's titles as the 5th Earl of Huntly, and his lands were restored in 1567.
[edit]Marriages and issue

[edit]Countess of Bothwell
On 24 February 1566, Jean, who was a Catholic, married James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell in a Protestant-rites ceremony apparently celebrated with considerable pomp. Queen Mary, who strongly approved of the match, supplied the eleven ells of cloth of silver for Jean's wedding gown, although she had wanted the marriage to have taken place in the Chapel Royal during a mass. Bothwell, however refused to attend mass on Candlemas day.[6] Her uncle, Alexander Gordon, Bishop of Galloway, preached at the ceremony at the court at Holyroodhouse.[7]
Jean was pale-skinned, and had a firm nose, bulbous eyes, and a long clever face which lacked beauty and softness.[8] She was said to have had a "cool, detached character warmed by a masculine intelligence, and a great understanding above the capacity of her sex".[9] She was provided with a large dowry by her brother George, and she had an excellent appreciation of the value of her properties. Later she managed to retain her lands, despite the Earl of Bothwell's attainder.[8]
At the end of February 1567, Jean became seriously ill, and hovered on the brink of death. In point of fact, one ambassador announced that she had actually died.[10]
That same year, after much persuasion from her brother, who was Bothwell's ally, Jean agreed to begin divorce proceedings against her husband. On 3 May 1567, she was given judgement against Bothwell in the Protestant commissary court on the grounds of his alleged adultery with her maid and seamstress, Bessie Crawford.[11][12] Bessie was described by Jean's witness as a bonny little woman, 20 years old, black-haired and pale, often wearing a black gown. She had been a servant of Jean's mother and her father was a blacksmith. The adultery occurred at Haddington Abbey and Crichton Castle.[13] The marriage was formally annulled on 7 May by the Consistorial Court of St. Andrews presided over by the Catholic Archbishop Hamilton. The annulment was due to Bothwell and Jean not having received a dispensation for their marriage, although they were within the fourth degree of consanguinity. In point of fact, a dispensation had been given prior to their marriage by Archbishop Hamilton himself.[14] Eight days later, on 15 May Bothwell married, as her third husband, the widowed Mary, Queen of Scots, whose late husband Lord Darnley had been murdered at Kirk o'Field, Edinburgh in mysterious circumstances which implicated Bothwell as having been the chief culprit behind the crime.[15] Jean remained at Bothwell's Crichton Castle, its mortgage having been redeemed by her own dowry.[16] Following Bothwell and Queen Mary's's defeat at Carberry Hill, Jean abandoned Crichton, and returned to her mother at Strathbogie Castle. In December, Bothwell's titles and estates, including Crichton Castle were forfeited by an Act of Parliament for treason.
Jean married secondly at Huntly Castle, on 13 December 1573, Alexander Gordon, 12th Earl of Sutherland, thus becoming the Countess of Sutherland. Alexander was previously married to Barbara Sinclair, daughter of his guardian, George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness; but this relationship had been sour, and ended in divorce when the young Earl of Sutherland came of age, apparently without children.[17] Jean and Alexander together had seven (or possibly eight) children:[18]
Jane Gordon (born 1 November 1574), in December 1589 married Hugh Mackay of Farr, son of Lord Reay.
John Gordon, 13th Earl of Sutherland (20 July 1575- 11 September 1615), on 5 February 1600 married Agnes Elphinstone, by whom he had five children, including John Gordon, 14th Earl of Sutherland.
Alexander Gordon, elder, died in infancy.
Adam Gordon, died in infancy.
Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun, 1st Baronet (14 May 1580- March 1654), on 16 February 1613 married Louisa Gordon, by whom he had issue.
Mary Gordon (14 August 1582), on 21 February 1598 married David Ross of Balnowgowan, she died in 1605
Sir Alexander Gordon of Navisdale (born 5 March 1585)
Possibly another daughter whose name is unknown. She was the first wife of an Alexander Gordon of Aikenhead, believed to be of the Lesmoir family, who later became known as Alexander Gordon of Salterhill. Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun mentioned above had first purchased Salterhill from the Innes family in 1636.[19] As it is assumed Alexander Gordon of Salterhill acquired that estate through his first wife, she would appear to have been a sister or otherwise near relative of Sir Robert Gordon. This couple is named as the progenitor of many Irish Gordon families such as Ballinteggart and Sheepbridge, as well as their American descendants.[20]
Within two years of Jean's second marriage, due to the earl's increasing ill health, Jean ran the vast Sutherland estates from their base at Dunrobin Castle.[21] The earl died on 6 December 1594. Five years later, on 10 December 1599, Jean married her third and last husband, Alexander Ogilvy of Boyne, the widower of Mary Beaton, one of Queen Mary's celebrated quartet of ladies-in-waiting who had died in 1598. He was the only man Jean had ever, truly loved,[8] as her two previous marriages had been made for political reasons.
Lady Jean Gordon died on 14 May 1629 at Dunrobin Castle at the age of eighty-three. She was buried in Dornoch. Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun wrote her into the history of the House of Gordon;
"a vertuous and comelie lady, judicious, of excellent memorie, and great understanding above the capacitie of her sex; in this much to be commended that ... schoe alwise managed her effaris with so great prudence and foresight that the enemeis of the familie could never prevail against her, ... Further shoe hath by her great care and diligence brought to a prosperous end many hard and difficult business, of great consequence appertyning to the house of Sutherland ... Shoe wes dureing her dayes a great ornament to that familie, ..."[22]
[edit]In art, fiction, and film

In 1566, the Earl of Bothwell commissioned an artist, whose name is not recorded, to paint miniature portraits of Jean and himself. These were done in oil on copper.
Jean appears as a character in Elizabeth Byrd's historical romance, Immortal Queen which is a fictionalised story of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Irish actress Maria Aitken played the part of Jean Gordon, Countess of Bothwell in Mary, Queen of Scots, the 1971 film which starred Vanessa Redgrave in the title role.

Birth:
Huntly Castle

Died:
Dunrobin Castle

Jean — James Hepburn. James (son of Patrick Hepburn and Agnes Sinclair) was born Abt 1534; died 14 Apr 1578. [Group Sheet]

Jean married Alexander Gordon 13 Dec 1573. Alexander died 6 Dec 1594. [Group Sheet]

Jean married Alexander Ogilvy 10 Dec 1599. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 37005

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 36990

Notes:

Second son of the 4th Earl, he was Sheriff of Inverness from 1556. As Captain of Badenoch, he was in charge of carrying letters send from Edinburgh to Mary of Guise in Inverness from Dunkeld throughout the summer of 1556.[1] However, he was attainted and sentenced to death for treason in 1563. He was imprisoned at Dunbar castle until the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, to Darnley in 1565, when his lands and dignities were nominally restored. [2]
He allied himself with James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was married to his sister Jean, and joined Queen Mary at Dunbar after Rizzio's murder in 1566. He became Lord Chancellor of Scotland in 1567, and joined Bothwell in the plot to murder the Regent Moray at Jedburgh. He signed the bond at Craigmillar Castle for Darnley's murder, and accompanied Bothwell and Mary on the visit to Darnley before his murder.
His estates were fully restored after Bothwell's acquittal in 1567. Bothwell's divorce from his sister was facilitated by his influence over her, and he witnessed the marriage contract between Mary and Bothwell. He connived at the capture of the Queen, and accompanied her to Edinburgh, escaping to the north after her flight. He joined the partisans at Dumbarton Castle, and after a temporary agreement with Moray he conspired for her deliverance from Loch Leven castle in 1567. After the Queen's escape to England in 1568, he held all the north in alliance with Argyll, but received Mary's order to disperse.
Huntly made an agreement with Regent Moray at St Andrews on 14 May 1569. Huntly was to make up his quarrel with the Earl of Morton, repress rebellion amongst his former allies, and surrender a royal cannon kept at Huntly Castle. In return, Regent Moray would give the Earl and his followers a remission for all their crimes against the King since 11 June 1567, and promised an Act of Parliament to forgive his role as 'pretended Lieutenant to the Queen's Grace' between August 1568 and March 1569.[3]
After this temporary submission he gained possession of Edinburgh Castle, held a parliament, captured the Regent Lennox at Stirling and, in 1572, came to terms with the Regent Morton.

Died:
Strathbogie (the old name of Huntly in Scotland)

George — Anne Hamilton. (daughter of James Hamilton) [Group Sheet]

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• Reference Number: 36999

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• Reference Number: 37000

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• Reference Number: 37002

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• Reference Number: 37003

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• Reference Number: 37004

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Died:
Executed

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• Reference Number: 37009

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• Reference Number: 37010

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• Reference Number: 37012

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• Reference Number: 37013

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• Reference Number: 37014

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• Reference Number: 37015

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• Reference Number: 37016

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• Reference Number: 36965

Notes:

The son of George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly, and of Anne, daughter of James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran and Duke of Châtellerault,[1] he was educated in France as a Roman Catholic. He took part in the plot which led to the execution of James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton in 1581 and in the conspiracy which saved King James VI from the Ruthven raiders in 1583. In 1588 he signed the Presbyterian confession of faith, but continued to engage in plots for the Spanish invasion of Scotland. On 28 November he was appointed captain of the guard, and while carrying out his duties at Holyrood his treasonable correspondence was discovered. King James, however, finding the Roman Catholic lords useful as a foil to the tyranny of the Kirk, was at this time seeking Spanish aid in case Queen Elizabeth I tried to challenge his right to the English throne; Huntly, always one of his favourites, was pardoned.
Subsequently in April 1589, Huntly raised a rebellion in the north, but was obliged to surrender, and after a short imprisonment in Borthwick Castle was again freed. He then involved himself in a private war with the Grants and the Mackintoshes, who were assisted by the Earls of Atholl and Moray; and on 8 February 1592 he set fire to Moray's castle of Donibristle in Fife, and stabbed the earl to death with his own hand. This outrage, which originated the ballad The Bonnie Earl of Moray, brought retribution on Huntly; his enemies ravaged his lands.
In December the "Spanish Blanks" were intercepted (see Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Erroll), two of which bore Huntly's signature, and a charge of treason was again brought against him, while on 25 September 1593 he was excommunicated. James treated him and the other rebel lords with great leniency. On 26 November they were freed from the charge of treason, being ordered at the same time, however, to renounce their Catholic faith or leave the kingdom. On their refusal to comply they were attainted. Huntly then joined Erroll and Francis Stewart-Hepburn, 5th Earl of Bothwell, in a conspiracy to imprison the king, and they defeated the royal forces under Argyll in the Battle of Glenlivet on 3 October 1594, Huntly especially distinguishing himself. His victory gained no real advantage; his castle of Strathbogie was blown up by James, and Huntly left Scotland in about March 1595. He returned secretly soon afterwards, and his presence in Scotland was at first tolerated by James; but owing to the hostile feeling aroused, and the "No Popery" riot in Edinburgh, the king demanded that he should abjure Romanism or go into permanent banishment. He submitted to the Kirk in June 1597, and was restored to his estates in December.
On 7 April 1599, he was created a marquess, and on 9 July, together with Lennox, appointed lieutenant of the north. He was treated with great favour by the king and was reconciled with Murray and Argyll. The Kirk still doubted the genuineness of his abjuration and, on 10 December 1606, he was confined to Aberdeen; on 19 March 1607 he was summoned before the privy council. Huntly thereupon went to England and appealed to James in person. He was excommunicated in 1608, and imprisoned in Stirling Castle till 10 December 1610, when he signed again the confession of faith.
Accused of Romanist intrigues in 1616, he was ordered once more to subscribe the confession, which this time he refused to do; imprisoned at Edinburgh, he was set free by James's order on 18 June, and having joined the court in London was absolved from excommunication by Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury; this absolution, after a further subscription to the confession by Huntly, was confirmed by the Kirk.
At the accession of Charles I Huntly lost much of his influence at court. He was deprived in 1630 of his heritable sheriffships of Aberdeen and Inverness. The same year a feud broke out between the Crichtons and Gordons, in the course of which Huntly's second son, Lord Melgum, was burnt to death either by treachery or by accident, while being entertained in the house of James Crichton of Frendraught. For the ravaging of the lands of the Crichtons Huntly was held responsible, and having been summoned before the privy council in 1635 he was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle from December till June 1636. He left his confinement with shattered health, and died at Dundee while on his journey to Strathbogie on 13 June 1636, after declaring himself a Roman Catholic.

George — . Unknown [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 36993

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 36964

Mary married William Douglas 1632. William (son of William Douglas and Elizabeth of Oliphant) was born 1589; died 19 Feb 1660, Douglas, Lanarkshire, Scotland; was buried , Douglas, Lanarkshire, Scotland. [Group Sheet]