Agnes Keith, Countess of Moray - First Marriage

First Marriage

At St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh or at Holyrood on 8 February 1561/2, 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. The ceremony was magnificent, attended by many of the nobility, with John Knox having preached the sermon. The lavish wedding was followed by three days of festivities and banqueting at Holyrood Palace, the frivolity of which was subsequently denounced by Knox with the words: "the vanity used thereat offended many godly". Queen Mary made much of the new Lady Mar and regarded her as a close member of her family. Having been well-educated, Agnes was described by author Antonia Fraser as having had "genuine intelligence and spirit". Keith M. Brown, Professor of Scottish History at the University of St. Andrews, called her "clever, acquisitive and steely".

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, by whom she had five children including James Stewart, 3rd Earl of Moray.
• Lady Annabell Stewart (1568/69 – 1570), according to the Diurnal of Occurents, Annabell was born at Stirling around 22 May 1568.
• 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.

The queen had secretly given her half-brother the title of Earl of Moray 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.

The Earl of Moray and his half-sister became enemies following Mary's marriage to Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley in 1565, a man to whom Moray was fiercely opposed. It does not appear, however, that his wife shared the same hostility towards the queen. Due to her advanced stage of pregnancy, Agnes was unable to join her husband, who was in exile in England. This was in consequence of Moray having been declared an outlaw following his rebellion, known as the "Chaseabout Raid", against his sister in August that same year. Agnes remained behind at their home at St. Andrew's Priory; 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.

It was recorded that in August 1566 following the birth of Prince James, the future King James VI of Scotland, Agnes was one of the ladies with whom the queen kept the most company. In early February 1567, Agnes suffered a miscarriage, which provided her husband with an excuse to hastily depart from Edinburgh; thus he was away when Lord Darnley was murdered at Kirk o'Field.