DUNBAR, Elizabeth co-heiress of Moray ^{1 2}

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Elizabeth married Archibald DOUGLAS 6th Earl of Moray, jure uxoris, son of James DOUGLAS of Balvenie, 7th Earl of Douglas and Beatrice SINCLAIR, before 26 April 1442.¹ (Archibald DOUGLAS 6th Earl of Moray, jure uxoris was born about 1427 and died on 1 May 1455 in Battle of Arkinholme, Langholm, Dumfriesshire, Scotland ^{1 2}.)

  Marriage Notes:

"Elizabeth, called Mary by some writers and also Agnes, married, before 26 April 1442, to Archibald Douglas, who was created Earl of Moray." (page 306)

"She (Elizabeth Dunbar) was alive in 1472, but died some time before 17 February 1485-86, when James Douglas acknowledges himself to be the heir of his mother Elizabeth, Countess of Moray. He also was probably dead before 18 March 1493-94, when Janet Dunbar was served heir to her sister in certain lands in Caithness. The Earl and Countess had issue two children. James, already named, styled son and heir in the agreement with Lord Gordon after his father's death, and Janet, also named in same writ. Of her nothing further is known." (page 310)

from Scots Peerage (vol 6) ¹

Elizabeth next married Sir George GORDON 2nd Earl of Huntly, High Chancellor of Scotland, son of Sir Alexander SETON, THEN GORDON Earl of Huntly and Elizabeth CRICHTON, 20 May 1455(contract).^{1 2 3} The marriage ended in annulled before 1459. (Sir George GORDON 2nd Earl of Huntly, High Chancellor of Scotland was born about 1439 and died about 8 June 1500(1501) in Stirling Castle, Scotland 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}

Elizabeth next married Sir John COLQUHOUN 9th of Colquhoun and 11th of Luss before 26 July 1463.^{1 2 3} (Sir John COLQUHOUN 9th of Colquhoun and 11th of Luss was born about 1427 and died by 1478 ³.)

  Marriage Notes:

"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 (Elizabeth Dunbar) was married, before 1463, as his second wife, to Sir John Colquhoun of Luss."

from Scots Peerage (vol 6) ¹