Parentage Family Tree[]
| George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly | Elizabeth Keith | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thomas Gordon | George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly | Margaret Gordon | Lady Jean Gordon | Lady Elizabeth Gordon | Alexander Gordon, Lord Gordon | Sir John Gordon of Ogilvy | Sir Adam Gordon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Offspring Family Tree[]
| George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly | and Lady Anne Hamilton | ||||||||||||
| Lady Jean Gordon | George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly | ||||||||||||
History[]
d. 19 Oct 1576
George, fifth earl of Huntly, the eldest surviving son, had, with other charters, one of the office of sheriff of the county of Inverness and keeper of the castle thereof, on his father’s resignation, 7th August 1556. He had married Lady Anne Hamilton, third daughter of the second earl of Arran, duke of Chatelherault, the sister of his brother’s widow, Lady Gordon, and after the defeat at Corrichie, he fled for protection to his father-in-law, at Hamilton; but the queen requiring him to be delivered up, he was, on assurance of his life made to the duke, sent to Edinburgh, whence he was committed prisoner to the castle of Dunbar. Being convicted of treason, February 8, 1563, he was sentenced to be executed, but was remitted back to Dunbar till the queen’s pleasure should be known. An order for his execution, surreptitiously obtained from the queen, was sent to the governor of Dunbar castle, who communicated it to Huntly. He received it with calmness, but declared that he had every confidence in the assurance made by her majesty that his life would be saved, if his enemies, resolved upon his destruction, had not prevailed with her against him. The governor rode immediately to Holyrood, and requesting an audience of the queen, informed her that her “commands had been complied with.” “What commands?” asked her majesty in surprise. “The execution of the Earl of Huntly,” replied the governor. “I gave no such commands,” exclaimed her majesty, “and did not intend that his life should be taken.” The governor then informed her majesty that, relying on her assurance of his life, he had not fulfilled the order sent to him. Huntly was immediately set at liberty, and restored to the queen’s favor. He was in the palace of Holyrood at the time of Rizzio’s murder, 10th March 1565, and with the earl of Bothwell he contrived to escape from it, when in possession of the conspirators. When Mary fled from the palace with Darnley, Huntly with other nobles joined her at Dunbar; and on the 20th of the same Month (March 1565), on the forfeiture of the earl of Morton, he was appointed high-chancellor of Scotland, although his forfeiture was not then reversed. He was one of the lords who proposed to the queen to obtain a divorce from Darnley, and when she retracted her consent, he, with Argyle, Lethington, and Sir James Balfour, signed the band or agreement for his murder. On the perpetration of that crime in February 1567, he joined Bothwell in his bedchamber in the palace, whither he had immediately retreated, and these two noblemen, with others belonging to the court, were the first to acquaint the queen with the dreadful fate of her husband. Soon after, Huntly was among the nobles of the court who accompanied the queen to the seat of Lord Seton near Dunbar. At this time he fully shared the confidence of the unhappy Mary. Tytler, quoting a manuscript letter in the State Paper office, says that scarce two weeks after her husband’s death, the court at Seton was occupied in gay amusements. Mary and Bothwell would shoot at the butts against Huntly and Seton, and on one occasion, after winning the match, they forced these lords to pay the forfeit in the shape of a dinner at Tranent. In the parliament following the acquittal of Bothwell, Huntly’s attainder was reversed, and his estates and honors restored, April 19th, 1567.
The same year, he was one of the nobles who signed the bond recommending Bothwell, though married to his sister, as a husband to the queen. He was in the royal cavalcade, when surprised by Bothwell at Almond bridge, six miles from Edinburgh, and carried to Dunbar castle. On Lethington joining the confederacy against Bothwell, Huntly and the latter resolved upon his death, when Mary threw herself between them, and declared that if a hair of his head perished, it should be at the peril of their life and lands. He now began to correspond with the queen’s enemies, and when the party against Bothwell became too strong to be withstood, he signed the bond to support the authority of the young king, James VI. He carried the sceptre at the first parliament of the regent Moray, 5th December, 1567, in which he was chosen one of the committee of the lords of the articles. At this time he was courted by the regent, who held out a prospect to him of giving his daughter to his son in marriage. In the following May, on the escape of Queen Mary from Lochleven, he joined the association in her favor at Hamilton, and went north to raise forces for her service. After the defeat at Langside he lost his office of chancellor. He and Argyle and the Hamiltons held a convention at Largs on July 28th, when they resolved to let loose the borderers upon England. They also wrote to the duke of Alva, requesting his assistance. Huntly and Argyle kept the field at the head of a large force, and having completely reduced the northern and western parts of the kingdom, they were upon the point of marching southward when they received letters from Queen Mary, then a captive in England, commanding them to disband their forces, as Queen Elizabeth would compel the regent to desist from hostilities against them. Soon after she issued a commission appointing the duke of Chatelherault and the earls of Argyle and Huntly her lieutenants, but in May 1569, they submitted to the regent Moray. After the murder of that nobleman in 1570, Mary invested Huntly with the office of lieutenant-general, and for some time he remained at Aberdeen, concentrating the strength of the north. He and the leaders of the queen’s party were proclaimed traitors by the new regent Lennox. At page 29 of ‘Bannatyne’s Journal’ will be found a letter from Huntly to the duke of Chatelherault, dated Aberdeen, 7th August 1570, relative to some enterprise concerted between the queen’s friends, which Bannatyne thinks could be nothing else than the apprehension and destruction of the king’s person, but which was more likely to have been intended against Lennox himself. Having commenced his march southward with all his forces, he was attacked at Brechin by Lennox, and defeated, the regent having stormed Brechin castle, and hung up 23 of the garrison.
At a parliament held at Stirling in 1571, an act of forfeiture was passed against Huntly and his brother, Sir Adam Gordon, one of Queen Mary’s most determined adherents, the Hamiltons, Kirkaldy of Grange, and various others. He was one of the leaders of the force sent by Kirkaldy against the regent at Stirling on 2d September of that year, when Lennox was slain. Captain Calder, who committed the deed, declared, previous to his execution, that before reaching Stirling, he had received orders both from Huntly and Lord Claud Hamilton, to shoot both the regent and the earl of Morton in revenge for the death of the archbishop of St. Andrews. On being elected regent, Morton set on foot a treaty of peace with Chatelherault, Huntly, and other leaders of the queen’s party, and an agreement was signed at Perth, 23d February 1573, whereby the king’s authority was recognized by them, and the regent bound himself to get the act of attainder against them repealed and their lands restored. In a parliament which met soon after, this was accordingly done. Huntly retired to the north, and died at Strathbogie in May 1576. A detail of the circumstances attending his death, which was very sudden, is appended to ‘Bannatyne’s Journal,’ page 483, ed. 1806, edited by Sir John Graham Dalzell. It appears from this that he was never in better health and spirits than on the morning of his death. After hunting for some time, and killing “thrie haris and ane tod,” (three hares and a fox,) he returned home to dinner, and in the afternoon, while playing at football, he fell down in a severe attack of sickness, and being carried to his bed, died about seven o’clock in the same evening, his last words being “Look, look, look!” The account concludes with viewing the earl’s death, under the circumstances in which it took place, as a judgment from God for his participation in the murder of Darnley, and the slaughter of the regent Lennox at Stirling and “also,” adds the writer, “of the first regentis murther, whairof experience teiches me some part.” Referring to the five who were in the conspiracy against the king, he says, “Four is past with small provisione, to wit, the secretare, Argyle, Bothuill, and last of all Huntlie. I hoip in god the fyft sall die mair perfitelie;” meaning Morton, who was afterwards beheaded for being “art and part” in the murder of the king. By his countess, a daughter of the duke of Hamilton, the earl of Huntly had a son, George, sixth earl, and a daughter, Lady Jean, countess of Caithness.