Agnes Keith, Countess of Moray

Lady Agnes Keith
Countess of Mar
Countess of Moray
Countess of Argyll
Agnes Keith, 1562
Bornc.1540
Dunnottar Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Died16 July 1588
Edinburgh, Scotland
BuriedSt. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, Scotland
Noble familyKeith
Spouse(s)
(m. 1562⁠–⁠1570)
(m. 1572⁠–⁠1584)
IssueElizabeth Stewart, 2nd Countess of Moray
Annabel Stewart
Lady Margaret Stewart
Hon. Colin Campbell of Lundie
Lady Jane Campbell
Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll
FatherWilliam Keith, 4th Earl Marischal
MotherMargaret Keith
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Agnes Keith, Countess of Moray (c. 1540 – 16 July 1588) was a Scottish noblewoman. She was the wife of James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland and the illegitimate half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots, making her a sister-in-law of the Scottish queen. As the wife of the regent, Agnes was the most powerful woman in Scotland from 1567 until her husband's assassination in 1570.[1]

She was married secondly to Sir Colin Campbell, heir presumptive to the earldom of Argyll. When he succeeded his brother as the 6th earl in 1573, Agnes was henceforth styled Countess of Argyll. During her second marriage, Agnes became embroiled in a litigation over Queen Mary's jewels which had earlier fallen into her keeping. It was her refusal to hand the jewels over to the Scottish Government that sparked a feud between the Earl of Argyll and the Regent Morton.

Agnes was also known as "Annabel"[2] or "Annas".[3] Historians prefer to use the name Annas Keith, reflecting a contemporary spelling,[4] and her usual neat italic signature throughout her lifetime "Annas Keyth".[5][6]

  1. ^ Brown, Keith M. (2003). Noble Society in Scotland: Wealth, Family and Culture from the Reformation to Revolution. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-7486-1299-4.
  2. ^ G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, Complete Peerage, vol. 1 (Alan Sutton Publishing, Gloucester, 2000), page 201.
  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" (PDF). Cambridge: The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. p. 26. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
  4. ^ Cosmo Innes, A Genealogical Deduction of the Family of Rose of Kilravock (Edinburgh, 1848), p. 80: Linda G. Dunbar, Reforming the Scottish Church (Routledge, 2002), pp. 168-9.
  5. ^ Rosalind K. Marshall, Queen Mary's Women: Female Relatives, Servants, Friends and Enemies of Mary Queen of Scots (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2006), p. 165: Margaret H. B. Sanderson, A Kindly Place? Living in Sixteenth-Century Scotland (East Linton: Tuckwell, 2002), p. 150: Cosmo Innes, The Book of the Thanes of Cawdor (Edinburgh, 1869), p. 186.
  6. ^ Cosmo Innes, Registrum Honoris de Morton, 1 (Edinburgh, 1853), pp. 52, 58