Agnes Keith, Countess of Moray ( – ) 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.
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"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. or "Annas". Historians prefer to use the name Annas Keith, reflecting a contemporary spelling,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. and her usual neat italic signature throughout her lifetime "Annas Keyth".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.Cosmo Innes, Registrum Honoris de Morton, 1 (Edinburgh, 1853), pp. 52, 58
Family
Lady Agnes Keith was born in Dunnottar Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland in about 1540, the eldest daughter of William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal, and Margaret Keith. Agnes's father was a member of Queen Mary's Privy Council; he had fought at the Battle of Pinkie in 1548. He died in 1581.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, pages 159 and 183. Her paternal grandparents were Robert Keith, Master of Marischal, and Lady Elizabeth Douglas, and her maternal grandparents were Sir William Keith and Janet Gray. Agnes was a descendant of King James I of Scotland and his consort Joan Beaufort, who was in her turn the great-granddaughter of King Edward III of England.
She had two brothers, William Keith, Master of Marischal (died 1580), and Robert Keith, 1st Lord Altrie (died 1596); and six younger sisters. These were Elizabeth, wife of Sir Alexander Irvine of Drum; Alison, wife of Alexander Abernethy, 6th Lord Saltoun; Mary, wife of Sir John Campbell of Calder; Beatrice, wife of John Allardice of Allardice; Janet, wife of James Crichton of Frendraught; and Margaret, wife of Sir John Kennedy of Balquhan.Thomas Finlayson Henderson, 'Keith, William (died 1581)', Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, vol. 30. Her aunt was Elizabeth Keith, wife of George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly who would lead an unsuccessful rebellion against Mary, Queen of Scots in 1562. Her first cousin was Lady Jean Gordon, the first wife of James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, who became the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots.
First marriage
At St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh or at Holyrood on 8 February 1561/2,G. E. Cokayne et al., The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, vol. 1 (Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), p. 183. 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.Mary Byatt, 'Agnes (Annas) Keith', Women of Moray (Edinburgh: Luath Press, 2012), p. 33. The ceremony was magnificent, attended by many of the nobility. John Knox preached the sermon.Jane E. A Dawson, 'Regent Moray and John Knox', Steven J. Reid, Rethinking the Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland (Boydell, 2014), 163, 168. Portraits were made of the couple, and these are now kept at Darnaway Castle.Duncan Macmillan, Scottish Art, 1460–1990 (Mainstream, 1990), p. 40.
Agnes' portrait shows that her hair was auborn coloured.Mary Byatt, 'Agnes (Annas) Keith', Women of Moray (Edinburgh: Luath Press, 2012), pp. 33–34. Her jewels include a brooch at her neck with two diamonds, a ruby, and a pendant pearl. A similar jewel appears in another portrait by Eworth, said be of Anne Askew. Between her hands a round or oval object may be case for a miniature portrait. The effect of the jewels and dark costume has been described as a "costly austerity".Kate Anderson, "Jewels in Sixteenth-Century Scottish Portraits", Anna Groundwater, Decoding the Jewels: Renaissance Jewellery in Scotland (Sidestone, 2024), p. 132.
The lavish wedding was followed by three days of festivities and banqueting at Holyrood Palace. There were fireworks and a tournament.Thomas Thomson, Diurnal of Occurrents (Edinburgh, 1833), p. 70. According to the chronicle of Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie the feasts included wild venison, poultry, and "all other kind of delicate wild beasts" which impressed Queen Mary's uncle, the Marquis of Elbeuf.Aeneas James George Mackay, Chroniclis of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1899), p. 173 footnote The Queen's tailor provided red and white taffeta for masque costumes at this time, probably for the wedding celebrations,James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 11 (Edinburgh, 1916), pp. xxx–xxxi, 103. and it was said the festivities were the beginning of "masking" in Scotland.Thomas Thomson, History of the Kirk of Scotland by David Calderwood, 2 (Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1842), p. 174. The last event was a supper in Cardinal Beaton's palace at the corner of the Cowgate and Blackfriar's Wynd, and afterwards the young men of the town came in procession, in "convoy" to greet her, some in masque costume in "merschance", a Scottish form of Mummery.Thomas Thomson, A diurnal of remarkable occurrents that have passed within Scotland (Edinburgh, 1833), p. 70-1 The frivolity was subsequently denounced by Knox with the words: "the vanity used thereat offended many godly".Fraser, p.215
The wedding seems to have provided an opportunity to discuss the possibility of Mary, Queen of Scots, travelling to England to meet Elizabeth I. Although the English diplomats Nicholas Throckmorton and Thomas Randolph promoted the scheme, the meeting never took place.Simon Adams, Ian Archer, George W. Bernard, 'A Journall of Matters of State', Religion, Politics, and Society in Sixteenth-Century England (Cambridge: Camden Society, 2003), pp. 97, 109.
Queen Mary made much of the new Lady Moray and regarded her as a close member of her family.Fraser, p.306 Agnes was well-educated, with "genuine intelligence and spirit",Fraser, p. 168 and was "clever, acquisitive and steely".Brown, p. 180 Mary rode from Falkland Palace to St Andrews for the wedding of one of Agnes' ladies in waiting in April 1564 and planned to be with Agnes when her child was born. The child was a son who died soon after birth.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 59-60, 64-5.
Agnes and her husband together had three daughters: Elizabeth Stewart, 2nd Countess of Moray (late 1565 – 18 November 1591), on 23 January 1581 married James Stewart of Doune,Amy Blakeway, "James VI and James Douglas, Earl of Morton", Miles Kerr-Peterson & Steven J. Reid, James VI and Noble Power in Scotland (Routledge, 2017), p. 24. by whom she had five children including James Stewart, 3rd Earl of Moray. Lady Annabell Stewart (1568/69 – 1570), according to the Diurnal of Occurrents, Annabell was born at Stirling around 22 May 1568.Thomson, Thomas ed., A diurnal of remarkable occurrents that have passed within Scotland since the death of king James IV till 1575 (Bannatyne Club, 1833), p. 132 Lady Margaret Stewart, (born posthumously late January/18 April 1570 – before 3 August 1586), in 1584 married Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Errol. The marriage was childless.Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 1336.
The queen had secretly given her half-brother the title of Earl of Mar in January 1562. This title belonged to George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, himself married to Agnes' aunt, Elizabeth. James later agreed to give up the title of Earl of Mar, it being an Erskine family perquisite, but retained the earldom of Moray. This provoked the Earl of Huntly to lead a rebellion in the Scottish Highlands against the queen. The rebellion was encouraged by Agnes's aunt. Huntly and his rebels were soundly defeated by James's troops at the Battle of Corrichie on 22 October 1562. Some of Huntly's forfeited belongings were sent to furnish the Morays' new castle of Darnaway.Fraser, p.231
Chaseabout Raid The Earl of Moray and his half-sister became enemies following Mary's marriage to Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley in July 1565, a man to whom Moray was fiercely opposed. It does not appear, however, that his wife shared the same hostility towards the queen.Fraser, pp. 306, 312 Elizabeth I sent a diplomat John Tamworth with money to fuel the quarrel, which was delivered to Agnes Keith at St Andrews.William Fraser, The Melvilles, Earls of Melville, and the Leslies, Earls of Leven, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1890), pp. 3-5: Leven and Melville Papers', Maitland Miscellany, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1843), pp. 179-183 Moray was declared an outlaw following his rebellion, known as the "Chaseabout Raid", against his sister in August, and went into exile in England. It was planned that Agnes Keith, who was pregnant,Alexandre Teulet, Relations Politiques, 2 (Paris, 1862), p. 228 would join him in September, sailing in a ship belonging to Charles Wilson. She waited on the coast of Fife for eight days for Wilson, in vain, after his ship was captured by an English sailor Anthony Jenkinson, commander of the Aid.Alexandre Teulet, Papiers d'état, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1851), p. 90 Agnes rode back and forth staying in a different place each night.Linda J. Dunbar, Reforming the Scottish Church: John Winmram and the example of Fife (Ashgate, 2002), p. 168: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 284: Edward Delmar Morgan, Charles Henry Coote, Early voyages and travels to Russia and Persia, by Anthony Jenkinson and other Englishmen (London, 1886), pp. 169-70, 174-5
Due to her advanced stage of pregnancy,Alexandre Teulet, Papiers d'état, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1851), p. 77 Agnes was unable to join her husband in England. She remained behind at their home at St. Andrew's Priory in Fife,Jane Dawson, "A Fife 'Murder Mystery'", Gender in Scotland, 1200–1800, Place, Faith and Politics (Edinburgh University Press, 2024), p. 22. and on an unknown date late in 1565, she gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth. Upon recovery from her confinement, she resumed the successful management of the Moray estates. Her husband returned to Scotland following the murder of Queen Mary's secretary David Rizzio in March 1566 and was pardoned by the queen. There was still some uneasiness, as Mary discovered that Elizabeth had sent 3,000 or 4,000 gold crowns to Agnes in August 1565 during the rebellion.John Parker Lawson, History of Scotland by Robert Keith, 2 (Edinburgh, 1845), p. 442.David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland: Addenda, 14 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 248.