Anne Murray, Countess of Kinghorne (1579 – 27 February 1618), was a Scottish courtier said to be the mistress of James VI of Scotland.Steven Veerapen, The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I (Birlinn, 2023), p. 192: Kate Williams, The Royal Palaces: Secrets and Scandals (Quarto, 2024), p. 140: Helena Minnie Shire, Song, Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland Under King James VI (Cambridge, 1969), p. 110.Gareth Russell, Queen James: The Lives and Loves of Britain's First King (London: William Collins, 2025), pp. 172, 377.
Background Anne Murray was a daughter of John Murray, 1st Earl of Tullibardine, Master of the King's Household and Catherine Drummond, daughter of David, 2nd Lord Drummond.James Balfour Paul, Scot's Peerage, vol. 8 (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1911), p. 294
Her name was sometimes written "Agnes", in correspondence and in anonymous verses in her praise which include anagrams such as the acrostic sonnet "AMAGEMURNSAYAM", and a sonnet with the anagram "AGE MURNES AYE".Henry W. Meikle, Works of William Fowler, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1914), pp. 352, 353.Helen Mennie Shire, Song, Dance and Poetry at the Court of Scotland under King James VI (Cambridge, 1969), p. 193. The anagam may perhaps represent her own authorship.Sarah Prescott, Marie-Louise Coolahan, Sarah Dunnigan, Wes Hamrick, Kate Louise Mathis, Cathryn A. Charnell-White, Women's Poetry from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, 1400–1800: An Anthology (Cambridge, 2026), pp. 101–102.
Her sister Lilias Murray married John Grant of Freuchie in June 1591. James VI and John Wemyss of Logie attended the wedding at Tullibardine Castle, and performed in a masque.Michael Pearce, "Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland", The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019), p. 149. On the same day the Earl of Bothwell escaped from Edinburgh Castle.W. Boyd & H. Meikle, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 533-5.
Household of Anne of Denmark A Dutch ambassador to Scotland in August 1594, Walraven III van Brederode, who attended the baptism of Prince Henry, mentioned that she or her sister was a lady in waiting to Anne of Denmark.James Ferguson, Papers illustrating the history of the Scots brigade, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1899), p. 170. One of her brothers was killed at battle of Glenlivet on 3 October 1594.Annie Cameron, Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 458. Anne of Denmark paid for updates to her wardrobe in October 1594, giving her a new bodice and sleeves of blue satin, and silver "cordons" to embroider an existing gown.Gareth Russell, Queen James: The Lives and Loves of Britain's First King (London: William Collins, 2025), p. 173: National Records of Scotland, E35/14 f.34r. The materials were delivered to Søren Johnson, the Danish master of the queen's wardrobe. The record suggests that Anne Murray was then a member of the queen's household.Michael Pearce, "Maskerye Claythis for James VI and Anna of Denmark", Medieval English Theatre 43, 2021 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), p. 119.
Fair Mistress Anne Murray Anne Murray was said to be the mistress of King James VI.Miles Kerr-Peterson, James VI and I: Collected Essays by Jenny Wormald (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2021), p. 471. This identification comes from the letters of Roger Aston and John Carey and two poems written by the king, or composed in a similar manner to his verse,Sarah M. Dunnigan, Eros and Poetry in the Courts of Mary Queen of Scots and James VI (Palgrave, 2002), p. 80. given the titles (in some manuscripts) "A Dreame on his Mistris My Ladie Glammis" and "A Complaint on his Mistres absence from Court". Her husband's aristocratic title was "Lord Glamis".Allan Westcott, New poems by James I of England: from a hitherto unpublished manuscript (Columbia University Press, 1911), pp. 12, 78-80: Neill Rhodes, Jennifer Richards, Joseph Marshall, King James VI and I: Selected Writings (Ashgate Publishing, 2004), pp. 129, 131-8. : Sarah M. Dunnigan, Eros and Poetry in the Courts of Mary Queen of Scots and James VI (Palgrave, 2002), pp. 80, 91: Helena Mennie Shire, Song, Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland (Cambridge, 1969), pp. 193-4: Curtis Perry, "Royal authorship and problems of manuscript attribution in the poems of King James VI and I", Notes and Queries, 46:2 (June 1999), pp. 243-246.Morna R. Fleming, "The Amatoria of James VI", Daniel Fischlin & Mark Fortier, Royal Subjects: Essays on the Writings of James VI and I (Detroit: Wayne State, 2002), pp. 134–140.Sarah Prescott, Marie-Louise Coolahan, Sarah Dunnigan, Wes Hamrick, Kate Louise Mathis, Cathryn A. Charnell-White, Women's Poetry from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, 1400–1800: An Anthology (Cambridge, 2026), p. 101.
The "Complaint" poem (first line: Whill as a statelie fleeting castell faire) compares her absence from court to a garland missing its flower, and a button or a jewel, a "chatton" missing its gemstone (lines 50-51);The court as garland lacks the cheefest floureThe court a chatton toome that lacks her stone(modernised)The court is a garland missing her chiefest flowerThe court is an empty button that lacks her gemstone.Sarah M. Dunnigan, Eros and Poetry in the Courts of Mary Queen of Scots and James VI (Palgrave, 2002), p. 80: Allan Westcott, New poems by James I of England: from a hitherto unpublished manuscript (Columbia University Press, 1911), p. 12.
Her absence, perhaps due to the forthcoming marriage, will transform the court to Hades, a kind of hell; "Since by thy absence heaven in hell is changed: And we as Divells in Plutoes court are ranged" (lines 41-2).Sarah M. Dunnigan, Eros and Poetry in the Courts of Mary Queen of Scots and James VI (Palgrave, 2002), pp. 80-1.
The "Dream" poem (first line: Whill as the silent shaddie night) includes the imagery of gifts of an empty gold locket (a "tablet") and an amethyst.Allan F. Westcott, New Poems of James I of England (New York: Columbia University Press, 1911), pp. 10-19.Morna R. Fleming, 'The Amatoria of James VI', in Daniel Fischlin & Mark Fortier, Royal Subjects: Essays on the Writings of James VI and I (Detroit, 2002), pp. 124-148 at pp. 134-140: Sarah Dunnigan, Eros and Poetry at the Courts of Mary Queen of Scots and James VI (Basingstoke, 2002), pp. 91, 95-6.James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, Poetical Miscellanies from a Manuscript Collection of the Time of James I (London: Percy Society, 1845), pp. 20–29 (without full titles).Anna Groundwater, 'Tracing royal Stewart jewels in the archives', Decoding the Jewels: Renaissance Jewellery in Scotland (Sidestone Press: NMS, 2024), pp. 175–76. In the dream, the amethyst with its traditional healing powers will encourage the king's unswerving devotion. The locket is the "chasteness", the chastity of the king's mistress, and her wandering thoughts are like the trails of decorative enamel on the case – in the Scots language "traling scores of amelinge blaks".Helen Wyld, 'The Mystery of the Fettercairn Jewel', Anna Groundwater, Decoding the Jewels: Renaissance Jewellery in Scotland (Sidestone Press: NMS, 2024), p. 71. On one leaf of the case there is a picture of a naked man sheltered from the sun in a green forest. This image represents the pleasure his mistress's singing voice brings the court. The other leaf shows the sun amidst the stars, as his mistress is the first among the ladies of the court. Inside the locket there is an image of cupid with his bow, but as yet, no picture of the king's mistress. By these two dream tokens the king imagines their love is knit together until cut by the fate "Atrope", Atropos.Allan Westcott, New poems by James I of England: from a hitherto unpublished manuscript (Columbia University Press, 1911), pp. 12-19
A letter from John Carey, son of Henry Carey, governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed to Cecil, 10 May 1595, discussing her marriage calls her "fayre Mistris Ann Murray the Kinges Mistris".Steven Veerapen, The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2023), p. 192: John Stewart-Murray, Duke of Atholl, Chronicles of the Atholl and Tullibardine families, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1908), p. 19: Joseph Bain, Calendar of letters and papers relating to the affairs of the borders of England and Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1894), pp. 30-1, 44. In the same month, Roger Aston also called her the king's mistress in a letter to James Hudson.Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1, p. 248.
The letters show that Anne Murray was known as the king's mistress in London, and perhaps the poem "A Dreame on his Mistres" had circulated in manuscript at the English court. It has been suggested that James VI let it be known that Anne Murray was his mistress in 1595 when he argued with his wife, Anne of Denmark, about the custody of their son Prince Henry at Stirling Castle.Alexander Courtney, James VI, Britannic Prince: King of Scots and Elizabeth's Heir, 1566–1603 (Routledge, 2024), p. 160. It is possible that the idea of "Lady Glamis" as the king's mistress was only later attached to the poems by titles added in a manuscript. In such readings, the king's mistress of the Dream poem, first among the women of the court, can be understood as his wife, Anne of Denmark.Anna Groundwater, Decoding the Jewels (Sidestone Press: NMS, 2024), pp. 71–72, 175–176
Marriage In May 1595, Anne Murray married Patrick Lyon, 9th Lord Glamis who would later become the Earl of Kinghorne, at Stirling. In early modern Scotland married women did not usually adopt their husband's surnames, and she would not have been known as "Anne Lyon".Jenny Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community (London, 1981), p. 30.History Workshop, What's in a Surname? Rebecca Mason Lyon was the son of John Lyon, 8th Lord Glamis and Elizabeth Abernethy. His estates and affairs were managed by his uncle, Thomas Lyon, Master of Glamis.George R. Hewitt, 'Lyon, John, eighth Lord Glamis (c.1544–1578), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 22 March 2011
James VI bought Anne Murray, his rumoured mistress, a trousseau of clothes, including a three-tailed gown of cloth of silver which she probably wore on her wedding day, and two other gowns.Michael Pearce, 'Maskerye Claythis for James VI and Anna of Denmark', Medieval English Theatre 43 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), pp. 119-20, citing NLS E35/13 (6) pp. 3–4. The gift was made to "Mistress Anna Morraye now Ladye Glamis for the tyme of hir mariage". This gift of clothes was among the most expensive of similar presents made by King James to brides including; Marie Young; Jean Stewart, Lady Lovat; Margaret Stewart, Lady Traquair, Jean Stewart, Lady Bargany; and Marie Stewart, Countess of Mar.Michael Pearce, 'Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019), p. 148.
John Carey thought the wedding would be held at Linlithgow, writing "shortly the great marriage shall be solemnized at Lythquo between young Lord Glaymes and the King's mistress".Joseph Bain, Border Papers, 2 (Edinburgh, 1894), p. 34 no. 72. Some sources following Carey's letter state the wedding took place in June at Linlithgow.Scots Peerage (Edinburgh, 1911), p. 294. The venue chosen however was Stirling Castle. Anne of Denmark set out from Linlithgow to Stirling on 30 May for the wedding banquet but fell ill after her horse was unruly.Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), p. 258.