Scottish Royal Ancestry through Alexander Gordon of Strathaven

As I described in a previous article on the Gordons of Birsemoir and Cluny, Alexander Gordon of Strathaven, was my 12^th great grandfather, and he was the 5^th great grandfather of John Taylor, through John’s mother Philadelphia Gordon, the daughter of Governor Patrick Gordon.

I will start this story with Alexander and show how he was the descendent of Scottish Royalty, as I have already described the intermediate ancestors.

Alexander Gordon of Strathaven¹ was the third son of Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly by his wife the Lady Jean Stewart. In a previous article, I described the life of his father, and the questions about which of his grandfather’s wives was his father’s mother.

The discussion about who was the 3rd Earl’s mother is important with respect to Alexander’s Scottish Royal Ancestry, but as I will show in a future article it has no bearing on his English Royal Ancestry.

I am going to start by reviewing this discussion, and my conclusions based on the historical record.

George Gordon, the 2^nd Earl of Huntly, had three wives. On 20^th May 1455 George Gordon was married by contract to Lady Elizabeth Dunbar, daughter of James Dunbar, 7^th Earl of Moray².

The 2^nd Earl divorced the Lady Elizabeth and married the Pricess Annabella Stewart³, the daughter of King James I of Scotland sometime before 10 March 1459/60, when George Gordon and Princess Annabella are both mentioned in a grant from her brother, King James II of Scotland, of two hundred merks of land⁴.

We therefore have a start date of about 1459 for George and Annabella’s marriage. The marriage ended sometime before 1471. Their divorce was proclaimed on 24^th July 1471 and in August of that year the banns were read for the Earl to marry Elizabth Hay, daughter of William Hay, so the marriage probably took place later that same year. So now we have an end to the marriage.

The dispute is over who was the mother of the various children of the 2^nd Earl, the Earl’s second wife, the Princess Annabella, or his third wife, the Lady Elizabeth Hay. As adultery with Elizabeth Hay appears to be one of the grounds for his divorce from the Princess Annabella, it is possible that Elizabeth was already pregnant when they were married⁵. If that is the case the earliest the eldest son could have been born, if Elizabeth was his mother is late 1471.

The evidence, that Annabella was Alexander’s mother is that Alexander was a Member of Parliament in May 1485, and if Elizabeth was his mother, he was probably not old enough at 13 to be “Master of Huntly” and a Member of Parliament. It was not unusual for the heir to the Earldom to be named “Master of Huntly” while his father was still alive, but this probably wouldn’t have happened at age 13.

Further evidence comes from Alexander’s marriage to Lady Jean Stewart. While a marriage contract is dated 14 Oct 1474, not long after his father had remarried, marriage contracts were often entered into when both bride and groom were children⁶. However they appear to have been married by 1482, when Alexander’s father resigned various lands upon Alexander Lord Gordon and Jean his spouse⁷. If Elizabeth had been his mother then Alexander would have only been 11.

So, my conclusion, after viewing all the information is that while many of the 2^nd Earl’s younger children were probably a result of his 3^rd marriage, his eldest son and heir was the result of his 2^nd marriage, and therefore Alexander’s grandfather was James I of Scotland, and makes James I of Scotland my 15x great grandfather.

References

Footnotes