External links
- . Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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| National | |
George Gordon | |
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| 5th Earl of Huntly | |
| Tenure | 1565–1576 |
| Predecessor | George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly |
| Successor | George Gordon, 6th Earl of Huntly |
| Died | 19 October 1576 Strathbogie |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Offices | Sheriff of Inverness Lord Chancellor of Scotland |
| Spouse(s) | Anne Hamilton |
| Issue | Lady Jean Gordon George Gordon, 6th Earl of Huntly Alexander Gordon William Gordon |
| Parents | George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly Elizabeth Keith |
George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly (died 19 October 1576), was Lord Chancellor of Scotland and major conspirator of his time.
The second son of the 4th Earl, George Gordon was the Sheriff of Inverness from 1556. As Captain of Badenoch, he was in charge of carrying letters sent from Edinburgh to Mary of Guise in Inverness from Dunkeld throughout the summer of 1556. [1] Mary, Queen of Scots came north to reduce the power of the Gordons and take Inverness Castle in 1562. The 4th Earl was captured at Corrichie with two of his sons, John and Adam Gordon, and died of apoplexy after his capture. John, the elder, was executed three days later. George (called Lord Gordon) was imprisoned at Kinneil House. [2] He was attainted and sentenced to death for treason in 1563. He was then imprisoned at Dunbar castle until the marriage of Queen Mary to Darnley in 1565. [3] During the rebellion against Mary called the Chaseabout Raid, his titles were restored to ensure his loyalty to the queen. [4] [5]
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 Regent Moray he conspired for her deliverance from Lochleven 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. [6]
After this temporary submission, continuing the Marian civil war, he gained possession of Edinburgh Castle, held a parliament, and captured Regent Lennox at Stirling. His brother Adam Gordon of Auchindoun was his lieutenant in the north, and fought for Queen Mary in Aberdeenshire and the Mearns. Huntly also lent money to William Kirkcaldy of Grange who led the garrison at Edinburgh Castle. In return for his loans Kirkcaldy gave Huntly pieces of the jewelry of Mary Queen of Scots. One piece, a gold garnishing for the queen's hair set with rubies, diamonds and pearls was returned to Regent Morton by Huntly's servant Alexander Drummond of Midhope in August 1573. [7] [8]
In 1572 the Earl came to terms with the Regent Morton. He spent a few days with Morton at Dalkeith Palace in June 1574. [9]
He died at Strathbogie, four years later. An eyewitness description of his death, compiled by Richard Bannatyne, describes how he suffered a stroke, or a collapse caused by food-poisoning, while playing football. After the Earl died, a number of alleged supernatural events occurred, beginning with the sudden collapse of one of the servants. Three companions also collapsed and, when revived, complained of feeling cold. After the Earl's body was embalmed and taken to the chapel, his brother sat in the hall and heard unexplained sounds from the earl's chamber. [10]
He married Anne, daughter of James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault. Their children included:
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James Hepburn, 1st Duke of Orkney and 4th Earl of Bothwell, better known simply as Lord Bothwell, was a prominent Scottish nobleman. He was known for his marriage to Mary, Queen of Scots, as her third and final husband. He was accused of the murder of Mary's second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, a charge of which he was acquitted. His marriage to Mary was controversial and divided the country; when he fled the growing rebellion to Norway, he was arrested and lived the rest of his life imprisoned in Denmark.
James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton was a Scottish nobleman. He played a leading role in the murders of Queen Mary's confidant, David Rizzio, and king Henry Darnley. He was one of the last of the four regents of Scotland during the minority of James VI and I. He was in some ways the most successful of the four, since he won the civil war that had been dragging on with the supporters of the exiled Mary, Queen of Scots. However, he came to an unfortunate end, executed by means of the Maiden, a predecessor of the guillotine.
James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray was a member of the House of Stewart as the illegitimate son of King James V of Scotland. At times a supporter of his half-sister Mary, Queen of Scots, he was the regent of Scotland for his half-nephew, the infant King James VI, from 1567 until his assassination in 1570. He was the first head of government to be assassinated with a firearm.
John Stewart, 4th Earl of Atholl, called the Fair, was a Scottish nobleman and courtier. He was favoured by Mary, Queen of Scots, but later turned against her.
John Erskine, 1st Earl of Mar was a Scottish aristocrat and politician. He was the custodian of the infant James VI of Scotland and Regent of Scotland.
The Casket letters were eight letters and some sonnets said to have been written by Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Earl of Bothwell, between January and April 1567. They were produced as evidence against Queen Mary by the Scottish lords who opposed her rule. In particular, the text of the letters was taken to imply that Queen Mary colluded with Bothwell in the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley. Mary's contemporary supporters, including Adam Blackwood, dismissed them as complete forgeries or letters written by the Queen's servant Mary Beaton. The authenticity of the letters, now known only by copies, continues to be debated. Some historians argue that they were forgeries concocted in order to discredit Queen Mary and ensure that Queen Elizabeth I supported the kingship of the infant James VI of Scotland, rather than his mother. The historian John Hungerford Pollen, in 1901, by comparing two genuine letters drafted by Mary, presented a subtle argument that the various surviving copies and translations of the casket letters could not be used as evidence of their original authorship by Mary.
Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange was a Scottish politician and soldier who fought for the Scottish Reformation. He ended his career holding Edinburgh castle on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots and was hanged at the conclusion of a long siege.
The murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, took place on 10 February 1567 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Darnley's lodgings were destroyed by gunpowder; his body and that of his servant were found nearby, apparently having been strangled rather than killed in the explosion. Suspicion was placed upon Queen Mary and the Earl of Bothwell, whom Mary went on to marry three months after Darnley's murder. Bothwell was indicted for treason and acquitted, but six of his servants and acquaintances were subsequently arrested, tried, and executed for the crime.
The Battle of Corrichie was fought on the slopes of the Hill of Fare in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on 28 October 1562. It was fought between the forces of George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, chief of Clan Gordon, and the forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, under James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray.
The Battle of Carberry Hill took place on 15 June 1567, near Musselburgh, East Lothian, a few miles east of Edinburgh, Scotland. A number of Scottish lords objected to the rule of Mary, Queen of Scots, after she had married the Earl of Bothwell, who was widely believed to have murdered her previous husband Lord Darnley. The Lords were intent to avenge Darnley's death. However, Bothwell escaped from the stand-off at Carberry while Queen Mary surrendered. Mary abdicated, escaped from prison, and was defeated at the battle of Langside. She went to exile in England while her supporters continued a civil war in Scotland.
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. Elizabeth's son Sir John Gordon was executed for having taken part in his father's rebellion.
Anne Hamilton, Countess of Huntly, was a Scottish noblewoman and a member of the powerful Hamilton family which had a strong claim to the Scottish crown. Her father James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault, 2nd Earl of Arran was heir presumptive to the throne of Scotland after Mary, Queen of Scots prior to the birth of the latter's son Prince James in 1566. Anne was the wife of George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly, Lord Chancellor of Scotland and a chief conspirator during the reign of Queen Mary.
Jean Hepburn, Lady Darnley, Mistress of Caithness, Lady Morham was a Scottish noblewoman and a member of the Border clan of Hepburn. Her brother was James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. Jean's first husband was John Stewart, 1st Lord Darnley, an illegitimate half-brother of Queen Mary, which made Jean a double sister-in-law of the queen. Jean married three times. She was also Lady of Morham, having received in 1573 the barony of Morham and lands which had belonged to her mother, Lady Agnes Sinclair and was forfeited to the Crown subsequent to her brother, the Earl of Bothwell's attainder for treason.
Whittingehame Tower, or Whittingehame Castle, is a fifteenth-century tower house about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of East Linton, on the west bank of Whittinghame Water in East Lothian, Scotland.
The Ainslie Tavern Bond was a document signed on about 20 April 1567 by a number of Scottish bishops and nobles. The bond approved the Earl of Bothwell's acquittal on 12 April of implication in the murder of Lord Darnley, recommended him as an appropriate husband for Mary, Queen of Scots, and pledged to assist in defending such a marriage.
The Marian civil war in Scotland (1568–1573) was a period of conflict which followed the abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her escape from Lochleven Castle in May 1568. Those who ruled in the name of her infant son James VI fought against the supporters of the Queen, who was exiled in England. Edinburgh Castle, which was garrisoned in her name, became the focus of the conflict and surrendered only after an English intervention in May 1573. The conflict in 1570 was called an "intestine war in the bowels of this commonwealth", and the period was called soon after an "intestine war driven by questions against authority."
Patrick Lindsay, 6th Lord Lindsay of the Byres, (1521–1589), Scottish courtier and Confederate lord.
John Lyon, 8th Lord Glamis was a Scottish nobleman, judge and Lord High Chancellor of Scotland.
Margaret Beaton, Lady Reres was a Scottish courtier and companion of Mary of Guise and Mary, Queen of Scots. She was blamed by the enemies of Mary, Queen of Scots, for her involvement in alleged immorality at court.
John Stewart, Commendator of Coldingham (1531–1563) was a Scottish landowner.
