Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly - Disputed mother

Started by Erica Howton on Saturday, May 28, 2022
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There’s recently been a discussion mail thread about how to show the mother of Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly on Geni. He was the oldest son and heir of George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly Was his mother the 2nd wife, Annabella of Scotland an unknown mistress, or his last wife, Elizabeth Hay, Countess of Huntly ?

We may never know and there are many opinions. But l this discussion will show that it is disputed.

Quoting from a note at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annabella_of_Scotland:
a. There still has been some uncertainty regarding Alexander's mother, whether she was Annabella Stewart or Elizabeth Hay. But the fact that his father married Elizabeth Hay in or about 12 May 1476[4] and that Alexander himself was a member of parliament, as well as being one of the Lords of the Articles in 1485, makes it chronologically implausible he could have been Elizabeth Hay's son; meaning most probably his mother was Annabella Stewart.

  • 3. The Scots Peerage, Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, ed. James Balfour Paul, Vol. IV (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1907), p. 529.
  • 4. George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage; or, a History of the House of Lords and all its members from the earliest times, Vol. VI, eds. H. A. Doubleday: Howard de Walden (London: The St. Catherine Press, Ltd., 1926), p. 677.
  • .5. The Scots Peerage, Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, ed. James Balfour Paul, Vol. IV (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1907), p. 532

To counter that argument, from https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.medieval/c/uarH-xMVDbE?pli=1

“Annabella Stewart and the wives of George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly.” Nov. 12, 2010

George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly, Chancellor of Scotland (d. 8 June 1501), married Annabella, daughter of King James I, in 1459. He divorced her in 1471 and married Elizabeth Hay. The question of the identity of the mothers of his children has long vexed genealogists and will continue to do so. However, between the extremes of the one
claim, mentioned by Giovanni Ferreri (Ioannes Ferrerius), in Scotorum historiæ a prima gentis origine (Paris, 1574), cited by John Riddell,
in Tracts Legal and Historical (1835), p. 84, that Annabella’s only child was a daughter who married the Earl of Erroll, and Sir Robert
Gordon of Gordonstoun’s assertion, in his A Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland (1813; originally written in the 17th
century), and repeated in William Gordon, The History of the Ancient, Noble, and Illustrious Family of Gordon (1726-1727) that Annabella
(whom he calls Lady Jane Stuart) was the mother of four sons and six daughters, we need to accept the undoubted probability that Annabella was the mother of more than one and less than ten.

Further down that discussion, Douglas Richardson comments:

The dispensation for the marriage of George Gordon and Elizabeth Hay is dated 25 June 1466. It is Andrew MacEwen's position and mine that George and Elizabeth were married in 1466.

And M Sjostrom writes:

I want to underline that too much noise has imo been made of Alexander's eventual succession to the earldom, too much noise as proof to show that he would have been born after his parents were finally publicly legitimately married - after 1471. There is no necessity in that argument. If Alexander was birthed by Elizabeth Hay, in say 1466; then Huntly got his ecclesiastical divortium from Annabel; then Huntly married officially the same Elizabeth Hay; this all means that Alexander, son of Elizabeth Hay, at least became legitimate heir because of the Scots accepted the legitimatio per matrimonium subsequens. And one of keys is the fact that because the church granted divortium, then Annabel and Huntly had not in principle ever been married (their so-called marriage was NULL, remember that this is what catholic annulments meant) and thusly Alexander was not an adulterine child, instead he was born when his father technically was still unmarried - and afterwards his parents subsequently married one another.

In my opinion, the fact that Alexander succeeded his father as his heir to the earldom, actually weighs in favor of Alexander beng child of Elizabeth Hay. Because, after all these annulments, Hay was the sole woman with whom Huntly ever was validly married, according to the canon law. Of course the eldest son of the sole canonical wife was better situated to succeed than any son of an earlier (and annulled) wife. Had Alexander not been son of Elizabeth Hay, I would venture towards opinion that in such a case, the next boy, Adam of Aboyne, validly born of Hay, would actually had a good case to succeed to the earldom, in front of Alexander.

This describes Andrew MacEwan’s work:

https://fmg.ac/publications/journal/vol-7a/399-fnd7-08a

Douglas Richardson is the popular author of Plantagenet ancestry, Magna Carta ancestry, etc.

Leo van der Pas shows Alexander as son of Elizabeth Hay:

https://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00006132&tree=LEO

And so on.

As I said, my goal is to show the dispute, not necessarily to resolve it.

Ah, I had forgotten to post this point.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gordon,_2nd_Earl_of_Huntly

a. There has been some uncertainty regarding Alexander's mother, whether she was Annabella Stewart or Elizabeth Hay. But the fact that his father married Elizabeth Hay after 18 August 1471 [CP, vi, 677 & n. b.] and that Alexander himself was a member of parliament, as well as being one of the Lords of the Articles in 1485, makes it chronologically implausible he could have been Elizabeth Hay's son; meaning most probably his mother was Annabella Stewart. See: SP, IV, 529, 532; CP, VI, 677 n. f.

a. The Scots Peerage, Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, ed. James Balfour Paul, Vol. IV (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1907), p. 529


See the point that Alexander was legitimate and the only legitimate wife was Elizabeth Hay. Additionally, there seems to be question about what the age necessity was for being seated at Parliament.

It's a pity no one else spoke up in this thread, forcing an external pointer-message.

Wikipedia is rather casual about the oddity of Louis of Savoy and Annabella having such a very long "pre-nuptial" period - even if they *were* both only eight when the contract was signed, it was *not* usual to delay the actual bedding for another fourteen years! "Non-consummation" was used as the excuse both for why there were no children, and for annulling the marriage and packing Annabella off back to Scotland in disgrace.

It is also odd that if Charles VII of France was opposed to the marriage from the get-go, that it took him fourteen years to get it annulled - this is an exceptionally long time for such a proceeding and suggests that there was another power opposing him (Burgundy?).

Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly is my 12th cousin 9 times removed.
Annabella of Scotland is my 11th cousin 10 times removed.
George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly is my 16th cousin 6 times removed.
Elizabeth Hay, Countess of Huntly is my 12th cousin 11 times removed.

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