GORDON, George 2nd Earl of Huntly, High Chancellor of Scotland, Sir ^{2 4}

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  General Notes:

"George (Gordon), second Earl of Huntly, succeeded on or about 15 July 1470. He appears on record first as George of Seton, son of Alexander Seton and Elizabeth his wife, in the Crown charter of 1441. On 20 May 1455, in his contract with Elizabeth Dunbar, Countess of Moray ... he is styled Master of Huntly, and was then a knight, while in a royal precept of 7 March 1456-57 he is named Sir George Seton, Knight/ In the following year he had finally assumed the surname of Gordon, as appears from a Crown charter of 15 March 1457-58.5 After that he is styled George, Lord Gordon. He held the office of Keeper of the Castles of Kildrummy, Kindrochat, and Inverness, and drew pay for his services. On the forfeiture of the Boyds in 1469 King James in. conferred on Lord Gordon some of their lands in Berwickshire, by a charter dated 7 February 1469-70.7 By an agreement with his half-brother he obtained the lands of Kilsaurle and the forests of Boyne and Enzie, while he granted to his brother in turn the lands of Gordon, Huntly, Fogo, and others in Berwickshire."

from Scots Peerage (vol 4) ²

  Research Notes:

ANNULMENT AND DIVORCE

European secular law and canon or church law in the medieval period were closely aligned, so there was effectively no way to break a marriage partnership, no secular divorce.

Marriage was considered indissoluble, if it had been conducted in a valid way. For a couple to be released from their marriage vows there had to be proof that the marriage, for some specific reason connected with church rules on marriage, had not been a valid marriage. If this was successfully proven, then the marriage was 'annulled' or dissolved as if it had never taken place.

The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 made annulments more difficult by establishing 'consanguinity', being closely related by birth, to the fourth degree. The rules surrounding a couple's ability to proof this were also made more stringent. Not every judgment had to be made by the Pope; he could appoint one of his bishops, or someone else, who would be charged with gathering evidence, and judging whether the necessary conditions had been fulfilled.

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Marriage Contract: with Elizabeth Dunbar, 20 May 1455, Moray, Scotland. ²

2. Annulment (commonly referred to as 'divorce'): Elizabeth Dunbar, by 10 March 1459(1460). ^{2 3}

3. Marriage: to Annabella Stewart, by 10 March 1459(1460). ³

4. Annulment (commonly referred to as 'divorce'): Annabella Stewart, 24 July 1471, Aberdeen, Scotland. ^{2 3}

5. Marriage: to Elizabeth Hay, After 18 August 1471. ²

George married Elizabeth DUNBAR co-heiress of Moray, daughter of James DUNBAR 4th Earl of Moray and Margaret SETON, 20 May 1455(contract).^{1 2 3} The marriage ended in annulled before 1459. (Elizabeth DUNBAR co-heiress of Moray was born about 1427 and died before March 1494 ².)

  Marriage Notes:

"After the death of Archibald Earl of Murray, his relict, Elizabeth Dunbar, married George Lord Gordon, afterwards second Earl of Huntly. She lost no time in arranging this second matrimonial alliance, as the contract for the marriage between her and Lord Gordon is dated at Forres, 20th May 1455, only nineteen days after the death of her first husband." (page 47)

"Motives of family aggrandizement led, it may be supposed, to this marriage of the heir of the House of Huntly with the heiress of the earldom of Murray, the House of Huntly having always coveted the pdssession of that earldom. The Master of Huntly, however, afterwards obtained a divorce from her, not necessarily because she had been guilty of any violation of the marriage vow....She and the Master of
Huntly, it would seem, were within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity, which rendered a papal dispensation necessary, in order to the legality of this marriage ; and this dispensation, from neglect or otherwise, not having been obtained, as was agreed to in the marriage-contract, a ready pretext could be found at any time for its dissolution.
The fact of her having been deprived, by the forfeiture of her late husband, of the earldom of Murray, it is not improbable, may have been the main reason why Elizabeth Dunbar was repudiated by Lord Gordon." (pages 48 and 49)

The Chiefs of Colquhoun



"The marriages of this Earl of Huntly have always been somewhat of a puzzle to genealogists, and even in the light of later research there is much that is obscure. His first marriage-contract was with Elizabeth Dunbar, Countess of Moray, the younger daughter of the deceased James Dunbar, Earl of Moray, and widow of Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray, who was killed at Arkinholme on 1 May 1455. On the 20th of the same month, Alexander, Earl of Huntly, Elizabeth Crichton his Countess, and George, Master of Huntly, Knight, their son, contracted with the
widowed Countess, who must have been a good deal older than her intended husband, that she should marry the Master of Huntly. She had no relatives to support her, those who were on her behalf being 'her men,' the captain of her Castle of Darnaway and others, including Sir Richard Holland, Precentor of Moray, apparently the family chaplain, who in the poem of The Houlat records for all time
his admiration of the 'Douglas, tender and true,' and who was specially attached to the 'Dow of Dunbar,' for whom no doubt he did his best to make conditions. She was to retain Darnaway till the marriage was completed, and then it was to be delivered to her and her spouse. The Countess and her men were to use their influence that Lochindorb should be delivered to the Earl of Huntly. Dispensation
was to be sought for any canonical impediments, and the lady was not to be constrained except by her own will, to an immediate union.

Some have doubted if the contract ever took effect, but it seems certain that the marriage took place, as is expressly stated in the divorce of 1471, though if, as is highly probable, the object of it was to gain control over the rich province of Moray, it failed in its purpose. But the subsequent divorce of the spouses, under the sentence of the Church, is not to be assigned to that reason, but to the fact that Janet Dunbar, the eldest sister of the Countess, had been the wife of James, Lord Crichton, who was the Master of Huntly's uncle, thus rendering the union canonically illegal. It was dissolved some time before March 1459-60, apparently without issue, and Elizabeth Dunbar, before July 1463, became the second wife of Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, whom she survived, dying before March 1494."

from Scots Peerage (vol 4)



"She survived her husband, was contracted to marry George, Lord Gordon but was divorced on the plea of consanguinity before 1459."

from Scots Peerage (vol 6)



^{1 3}

George next married Annabella STEWART, daughter of James I STEWART King of Scots and Joan DE BEAUFORT, by 10 March 1459(1460).^{2 3 4} The marriage ended in annulled 24 july 1471. (Annabella STEWART was born about 1433.)

  Marriage Notes:

"The divorce of Elizabeth Dunbar from Lord Gordon, Master of Huntly, must have taken place before the 10th of March 1459, when Annabella, daughter of King James the First, appears in a charter as his wife. That Princess also was solemnly divorced from him on the 24th of July 1471; and it is from her divorce that we learn the fact that he had obtained a divorce from Elizabeth of Dunbar. Annabella was divorced from him, not because of any misconduct on her part, but merely because she and the Master of Huntly were held to be related to each other in the third and
fourth degrees of consanguinity, in consequence of Annabella's having been related in the like third and fourth degrees of consanguinity to Elizabeth Dunbar, the Master of Huntly's former wife, from whom, as the deed states, he 'had been lawfully divorced and separated by the judgment of the church.' On this ground the marriage of the Princess with the Master of Huntly was pronounced to be illegal."

from The Chiefs of Colquhoun




"Annabella, married first, 14 December 1447, at Stirling, to Louis, Count of Geneva, son of Louis, Duke of Savoy. From him she was divorced owing to the intrigues of the King of France, and sent home with a solatium of 25,000 crowns in 1458. Before 10 March 1459 she was married, secondly, to George Gordon, second Earl of Huntly, from whom she was divorced 24 July 1471. No reference to any issue is made in the divorce. Her later history is very obscure."

from Scots Peerage (vol 1)




"The Master's second wife was the Princess Annabella Stewart, youngest daughter of King James I., whom he married before 10 March 1459-60, when he and she had a grant from her brother, King James II., of two hundred merks of land of the lordship of Aboyne, resigned by the Earl of Huntly. The Princess appears to have had no male issue, and six years after the marriage the Master
was again a-wooing......"

"He then seems to have instituted a process of divorce, on the ground that he had married Elizabeth Dunbar, from whom he was lawfully divorced, and that she was related in the third and fourth degrees of consanguinity to the Lady Annabella, to whom he himself was related in the same degrees of affinity. On this ground and the evidence adduced a divorce was solemnly pronounced at Aberdeen on 24 July
1471"

from Scots Peerage (vol 4) ^{2 3 4}

George next married Elizabeth HAY, daughter of William HAY Earl of Erroll, Constable of Scotland and Beatrice DOUGLAS, after 18 August 1471.² (Elizabeth HAY was born about 1449 and died after 27 June 1509 ².)

  Marriage Notes:

"Elizabeth, who was contracted in marriage on 31 May 1457, with Sir Andrew Gray, afterwards second Lord Gray, which marriage was not completed, as she was contracted to George, Lord Gordon, afterwards Earl of Huntly, as appears from an obligation by him to her brother Earl Nicholas on 12 May 1466, but their banns were not proclaimed at Fyvie till 4 August 1471."

from Scots Peerage (vol 2)



"The Princess (Annabella Stewart) appears to have had no male issue, and six years after the marriage the Master was again a-wooing. His affections were directed towards Elizabeth Hay, sister of Nicholas, Earl of Erroll, his brother-in-law, and on 12 May 1466 he swore on the Gospels that he would have no 'actual delen' with the lady until he could have her to wife lawfully ¹. He then seems to have instituted a process of divorce, on the ground that he had married Elizabeth Dunbar, from whom he was lawfully divorced, and that she was related in the third and fourth degrees of consanguinity to the Lady Annabella, to whom he himself was related in the same degrees of affinity. On this ground and the evidence adduced a divorce was solemnly pronounced at Aberdeen on 24 July 1471, and on 4, 11, and 18 August same year the banns of marriage between the Earl and Elizabeth Hay were published at the church of Fyvie. It is usually said the marriage did not take place till after 12 May 1476, but this is founded on the erroneous date noted above, and the marriage probably followed closely on the final proclamation of banns on 18 August 1471."

"¹ Mr. Riddell inadvertently quotes the date of this writ as 12 May 1476, but the original in the Erroll Charter-chest is clearly dated in 1466. Instrument (4 July1492) narrating the divorce and the publication of banns ; Laing Charters, No. 212; cf. also Hutton Collections. Mr. Riddell's mistake, above referred to, has caused much confusion, as it postponed the Earl's marriage with Elizabeth Hay to the year 1476 or later, and Ferrerius' statement, now seen to be correct, that she was the mother of the Earl's sons, appeared chronologically impossible."

from Scots Peerage (vol 4) ²

George had a relationship with One or more Unknown PARTNER. (One or more Unknown PARTNER was born on an unknown date.)