Isabella, Countess of Lennox
Isabella of Lennox (died 1458) was the ruler of
Early life
Isabella was the daughter of
Murdoch and Isabella did marry, and had at least five children:
- Robert (died 1421)
- Walter (died 1425)
- Alasdair (died 1425)
- James/Seamas Mòr (died 1429; some sources say 1449)
- Isabel, who married Sir Walter Buchanan, 13th Laird of Buchanan
Trial of 1425
Disaster struck Isabella's family when her husband, father, and sons Walter and Alasdair were tried for
Death of James I
Isabella lived to see James I of Scotland assassinated in February 1437 in a failed coup by his kinsman and former ally Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl. Walter Stewart, who had been on the jury that condemned her husband to death for treason also suffered a gruesome death soon afterward. He and his co-conspirators against the King were attainted and put to death in Edinburgh by a series of tortures for regicide.
Restoration of her lands and title
Isabella was released from Tantallon in 1433. At least by 1437, the year King James was assassinated, Isabella had recovered her lands and title. In the next few years, although forced to govern her province from her castle at Inchmurrin, Loch Lomond,[1] she issued a large numbers of charters, was popular in the province, and was tolerated by King James II. At some point after she regained her liberty, Isabella brought her young grandchildren to be raised at her castle at Inchmurrin[2]
Isabella was described by Mark Napier, writing in 1835, as being:
- "reserved and lofty in her demeanor, possessing a strong mind, a calm and indomitable spirit; and no lady of ancient or modern times ever stood more in need of such attributes to sustain her under sudden and violent calamities".[3]
Death and legacy
When Isabella herself died in 1458, having outlived her enemies, the oldest continuous Gaelic mormaerdom came to an end.
None of Isabella's four sons outlived her, but her grandchildren did survive. Among them was Andrew Stewart, 1st Lord Avondale, son of Walter Stewart, born in Antrim, Ireland. He became Lord of Avondale in 1459, and Lord Chancellor of Scotland in the same year, becoming one of the leading servants of King James III of Scotland. He would hold the office of Chancellor for 25 years, dying in 1488.[4]
Bibliography
- Brown, Michael, "Earldom and Kindred: The Lennox and Its Earls, 1200–1458" in Steve Boardman and Alasdair Ross (eds.) The Exercise of Power in Medieval Scotland, c.1200–1500, (Dublin/Portland, 2003), pp. 201–224
- Napier, Mark, History of the Partition of the Lennox (1835) Retrieved November 2010
Notes
- ^ Napier, Mark (1835). History of the Partition of the Lennox. W. Blackwood and sons. p. 15. Retrieved 20 November 2020 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Morton, H. V. (1933). In Scotland Again. London: Methuen.
- ^ Napier, Mark (1835). History of the Partition of the Lennox. W. Blackwood and sons. p. 14. Retrieved 20 November 2020 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Nelker, p.19