Agnes Anna (Keith) Keith Countess of Argyll (1540 - 1588)

Born 15 Jul 1540 in Dunnottar Castle, Kincardineshire, Scotland [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of Colin (Campbell) Campbell Sixth Earl of Argyll — married 26 Feb 1572 in Stirling, Scotland

Descendants

Died 16 Jul 1588 at age 48 in Edinburgh, Mid, Lothian, Scotland [uncertain]

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Annabel Keith was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Biography

Agness was the eldest daughter of WIlliam Keith, Earl of Marischal.^[1] and Margaret Keith.^[2]

"Annabel," as she was called, had two brothers and six younger sisters. Her father was a member of Mary, Queen of Scott's Privy Council; he had fought at the Battle of Pinkie when Agnes was a child. The family lived most of the time in Edinburgh, Scotland's royal capital. When she was 31 years old, on February 8, 1562, Lady Agnes was married to James Stewart, the illegitimate half-brother and chief adviser of Mary, Queen of Scots, who had been created Earl of Mar the previous day. It was a magnificent ceremony with Scottish Presbyterian reformer, Rev. James Knox, as the primary celebrant. The ensuing festivities were so lavish as to shock the thrifty Knox who remonstrated the Queen for such worldliness and vanity. The Countess of Mar was soon a member of the Queen's inner circle and became an astute politician. She and her royal (if illegitimate) husband had three children:

1. Elizabeth Stewart, 2nd Countess of Moray (1565 – 1591), on 23 January 1581 married James Stewart of Doune, by whom she had five children including James Stewart, 3rd Earl of Moray.
2. Lady Annabell Stewart (1568 –1570), born at Stirling Castle.
3. Lady Margaret Stewart, (b. 1570, after her father's death – d. 1586); in 1584, she married Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Errol.

The queen had secretly given her half-brother the title of Earl of Moray in January 1562; he subsequently gave up that of Earl of Mar but kept his Moray title. Lady Agnes became known as the Countess of Moray. When in 1567, just 15 months after the birth of Mary's only son, the future King James, the queen was forced to abdicate, she was able to recommend James, Earl of Moray, as Regent for the baby king.

With Queen Mary set aside and as the wife of Scotland's Regent, in charge of the safety of its baby King, Lady Agnes (Keith) Stewart was the most powerful women in the land. She also proved an able administrator of her husband's estates plus a savvy politician. These were turbulent Times in the British Isles as Queen Elizabeth I of England pressed to unite the Scottish and English monarchies; stern Presbyterian clerics and their supporters opposed the too-worldly and opulent Anglican Church; Roman Catholics still formed a sizeable minority while clan and personal rivalries remained rampant among Scotland's "Lairds" - a semi-independent and warrior-based aristocracy. Several unsuccessful rebellions against Regent Moray and his court dotted the two and a half short years of his reign. It was hardly a surprise when James Hamilton, of the powerful Hamilton clan, a supporter of Queen Mary, assassinated the Earl of Moray at Linlithgow in January 1570. Lady Anna was pregnant at the time, delivering her daughter Margaret three months later.

In late 1571 or early 1572, Lady Agnes Anna Stewart married Sir Colin Campbell, heir apparent to the powerful Earldom of Argyll as his older half-brother had no male heir. Sir Colin had lost his first wife in January 1571. Upon the death of Archibald Campbell, 5th Earl of Argyll, on 12 September 1573, Lady Agnes, as wife of Sir Colin Campbell, now Argyll's 6th earl, became the Countess of Argyll. Historian Jane E. A. Dawson of the University of Edinburgh has noted that Anna and her husband had been journeying to Darnaway Castle in Moray where they had planned to spend the winter when news reached them of the 5th earl's death. They stopped instead at Dunnottar Castle, her family home, and made alternative plans.^[3]

Sir Colin & Annas Campbell had three children together:

1. Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll, also known as "Graumach " (1575–1638). ^[4][4]
2. Sir Colin Campbell of Lundie (Lundy), Baronet (ca. 1578-1618). ^[4]
3. Jane Campbell, b. ca. 1580^[4]

The decade between 1573 and 1584 saw the Earl & Countess of Argyll embroiled in a bitter dispute with the new Regent, James Douglas, Earl of Morton. As the wife of Scotland's Regent after Queen Mary was deposed in 1567, Lady Agnes Stewart had been granted guardianship of most of the Queen's Crown Jewels, held in trust for her son, the future King James VI, who was just an infant. After her husband, the Earl of Moray, was assassinated in 1570, she had kept the gems, still held in trust, but, as she argued, also as a guarantee for eventual compensation for her family's sacrifice. The new regent, Lord Morton, wanted the jewels back and even Queen Mary asked for their return. Eventually, in 1575, Sir Colin and his wife were forced to give most of them up (some had been sold by Agnes' first husband, Regent James Stewart, to finance military operations before 1570). This caused a deep rift between Campbell and Moray and their clan allies and the Regent. Eventually, in 1579, the Earl of Morton was forced out and Sir Colin Campbell was named Scotland's Chancellor, a post he held until his death in 1584. James Douglas, the former Regent, was later convicted of treason and beheaded in Edinburgh in 1581.

Lady Agnes, Countess of Argyll, survived her husband by four years. She died in July 1588 at her home in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was buried in St. Giles Cathedral, inside the tomb of her first husband, James Stewart, Earl of Moray. The tomb is located in St. Anthony's aisle and was carved by John Roytell and Murdoch Walker. Lady Agnes' will was proven on August 9, 1591.^[5]

Research Notes

Born 14 July 1530. Dunnottar Castle, Kincardineshire, Scotland.

Died 16 Jul 1588. Midlothian, Scotland. ^[6]

• Lady Agnes Anna Keith was one of the most powerful, high-born women in 16th Century Scotland. She was born on 15 Jul 1540 at Dunnnottar Castle, north of Aberdeen, the eldest daughter of William Keith, Fourth Earl Marischal, and his wife Lady Margaret (Keith) Keith. Lady Agnes Keith was a descendant of King James I of Scotland and his consort Joan Beaufort, who was the great-granddaughter of King Edward III of England. Her family were thus of royal blood, both Scottish and English.^[7]

• ThePeerage.com

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, 1909, Vol. VI, Archive.org, p. 316
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, 1909, Vol. VI, Archive.org,William 4th Earl, p. 50
3. ↑ Dawson, Jane E. A. (2002). "The Politics of Religion in the Age of Mary, Queen of Scots: The Earl of Argyll and the Struggle for Britain and Ireland". Cambridge: The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. p. 26, cited in Lady Agnes Keith - Wikipedia
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} "Colin Campbell, 6th Earl of Argyll", Wikipedia
5. ↑ G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, "The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant," new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume I, page 201.
6. ↑ The heraldry of the Campbells : with notes on all the males of the family, descriptions of the arms, plates and pedigrees
7. ↑ Wikipedia:Agnes_Keith,_Countess_of_Moray Lady Agnes Keith

See also:

• Wikipedia: Agnes Keith, Countess of Moray

• G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, "The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant," new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume I, page 201

• "Colin Campbell, 6th Earl of Argyll", Wikipedia