Janet Kennedy (abt. 1480 - 1543)

Born about 1480 in Ayrshire, Scotland

Ancestors

Wife of John (Ramsay) Ramsay First Lord Bothwell — married before 7 Nov 1505 (to before 15 Feb 1508) in Scotland

Descendants

Died Dec 1543 at about age 63 in Scotland

Biography

Janet Kennedy was a member of the aristocracy in Scotland.

Janet Kennedy was the daughter of John Kennedy, 2nd Lord Kennedy and Lady Elizabeth Gordon.^[1]

She married Sir Alexander Gordon of Kenmure and Lochinvar by contract, sometime after 17 July 1492 when her tocher of 200 merks was paid; dispensation of the 4th degree of consanguinity in May 1491. They had issue:

1. Janet Gordon d. 25 Jan 1524

She had three relationships with other men while still married to Sir Alexander Gordon:

• Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus from 1497 to 1498,

• King James IV from 1498-1505. They had issue:

1. James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray b. 1501, d. 12 Jun 1544

• Sir James Ramsay from 1505-1507. ^[2]

Sir Alexander Gordon, King James IV and Sir James Ramsay died at Flodden in Sep 1513, and Archibald Douglas 5th Earl of Angus died towards the end of October 1513 at Whithorn, Wigtownshire. She apparently took no other husbands and lived until Dec 1543. Her child by James IV, James Stewart, was created 1st Earl of Moray and he died shortly after Janet 12 Jun 1544.

Research Notes

• (She was the mistress of Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus, son of George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus and Isabel Sibbald, circa 1498 to 1499 when she became King James IV's mistress. She's often reported as being the Earl's wife, but Norman Macdougall in James IV notes specifically she was only his shortlived mistress, not his wife. This would explain the confusion she was never referred as the Countess of Angus.^[3]

• The Scots Peerage gives a similar story, with the additional detail she was never married to Sir Alexander Gordon of Kenmure and Lochinvar although her father paid her tocher of 200 marks. Between 25 Sept 1497 and 1498 she was the mistress of Archibald Douglas.^[4]

• The Peerage

• Marlyn_Lewis

Sources

1. ↑ Paul, James Balfour. The Scots Peerage : founded on Wood's ed. of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom, Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1905, Vol. II, Archive.org, p. 459
2. ↑ Paul, James Balfour. The Scots Peerage : founded on Wood's ed. of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom, Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1905, Vol. II, Archive.org, p. 134
3. ↑ Macdougall, Norman. James IV pp. 162-3
4. ↑ Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. I, p. 670.

See also:

• Barnes, Ishbel C. M. 2007. Janet Kennedy, royal mistress: marriage and divorce at the courts of James IV and V. Edinburgh: John Donald.