Walter Kennedy (poet)

For other people named Walter Kennedy, see Walter Kennedy (disambiguation).

"Thow tynt cultur, I have cultur and pleuch..." Walter Kennedy (against William Dunbar) in The Flyting, l.366

Walter Kennedy (ca. 1455 – c.1508) was a Scottish poet.

Kennedy was born into the Scottish Clan Kennedy, a principal aristocratic family in Dunure, South Ayrshire. This was part of the Galloway Gàidhealtachd, a strong Gaelic-speaking area of the Scottish Lowlands. He was almost certain to have been a native speaker of the language.[1] Educated at the University of Glasgow, he graduated in 1476, then obtained an MA in 1478.[1]

His older brother was John Kennedy, 2nd Lord Kennedy of Dunure, Clan Kennedy. He was parson of Douglas who acquired Glentig in 1504 from John Wallace, and married Christian Hynd.[2]

As great-grandson of Robert III[3] and nephew of James Kennedy, bishop of St Andrews,[1] Kennedy would have been very well-connected in the royal court. He possessed estates in both Carrick and Galloway and is known to have held ecclesiastical posts such as rector of Douglas and canon of Glasgow Cathedral although records show that his right to hold at least one of his posts was contested by the Holy See in Rome.[4]

  1. ^ a b c Meier 2008, p. xv
  2. ^ Rogers, Charles (1889). The Book of Wallace. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: Grampian Club. p. 154.
  3. ^ Tasioulas, Jacqueline (1999). The Makars: The Poems of Henryson, Dunbar, and Douglas. Edinburgh: Canongate Books. p. 789. ISBN 978-0862418205.
  4. ^ Meier 2008, p. xvii.