Annabell Murray, Countess of Mar (1536–1603), was a Scottish landowner, courtier and royal servant, the keeper of the infant James VI and his son Prince Henry at Stirling Castle.
Annabell Murray was a daughter of Sir William Murray of Tullibardine and Katherine Campbell of Glenorchy. John Murray, 1st Earl of Tullibardine was one of her nephews. In contemporary documents her name is often spelled "Annabell" or "Annable", and less frequently "Annabella".
Lady in waiting
She was a lady in waiting to Mary of Guise, who gave her clothes. Her name in the household roll was written by the French clerk as "Anaple Morat".Marguerite Wood, Balcarres Papers, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1925), p. 314 citing NRS E34/23: See also the wardrobe account of Mary of Guise, National Records of Scotland, E34/19. In 1557, Annabell married John Erskine, Lord Erskine. In 1560 Lord Erskine opposed the establishment of the "Book of Discipline", angering John Knox. Knox later attributed this opposition to greed and the influence of his wife, who he called "a verray Jesabell". Knox may have disliked her because she was a companion of Mary of Guise, and later of Mary, Queen of Scots.David Laing, The Works of John Knox, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1848), pp. 128, 572.
In May 1566, pregnant with James, Mary made a will and bequeathed to Annabell and her daughter Mary Erskine jewels including her belt of amethysts and pearls, a belt of chrysolite with its pendant chain, bracelets with diamonds, rubies and pearls, pearl earrings, a zibellino with a gold marten's head, and yet another belt with a miniature portrait of Henri II of France. These bequests show that the Countess of Mar was the queen's valued friend.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), p. xliii, 105-8, 119.
In 1565 Mary made John Erskine Earl of Mar. They commissioned the Edinburgh goldsmith James Cockie to make silver mounts for a rock crystal jug, engraved with their conjoined coat of arms, now known as the "Erskine ewer."George Dalgleish & Stuart Maxwell, The Lovable Craft 1687-1987: An Exhibition to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Royal Charter of the Incorporation of Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh (NMS: Edinburgh, 1987), p. 17: Rosalind K. Marshall, Mary, Queen of Scots (NMS: Edinburgh, 2013), p. 104 no. 180.
Bringing up a King and a Prince at Stirling Castle
A month after giving birth to Prince James on 19 June 1566 Mary, Queen of Scots visited the Earl and Countess of Mar at Alloa Tower.John Guy, My Heart is My Own: Mary, Queen of Scots (London, 2004), p. 270. In August Lord Darnley was jealous of Annabell Murray's intimacy with the queen, along with two other close companions Agnes Keith, Countess of Moray and Jean Stewart, Countess of Argyll. Annabell was given six hanks of silver thread to embroider clothes for the prince in October 1566.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), p. 171.
In March 1567 Mary entrusted Annabell Murray with the young infant James, to be brought up at Stirling Castle.HMC 16th Report Mar & Kellie (London, 1904), p. 16: HMC Report on the Manuscripts of Earls of Mar and Kellie, vol. 2 (London, 1930), p. 20: Alan Stewart, The Cradle King: A Life of James VI and I (London, 2004), p. 33: Aysha Pollnitz, Princely Education in Early Modern Britain (Cambridge, 2015), pp. 266, 276. After the Earl of Bothwell married the queen in May 1567, he tried to get the prince from Stirling but the Earl of Mar stalled him with excuses.Thomas Thomson, Memoirs of his own Life by Sir James Melville of Halhill (Edinburgh, 1827), pp. 179-181.
Mary was captured by her enemies, and abdicated at Lochleven Castle. Her half-brother James became Regent and gave Annabell £500 Scots to give to the "rockers", women who rocked the king's cradle.Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), p. 166.
Elizabeth I wrote to Lord and Lady Mar in January 1569. She had heard that Mary, Queen of Scots had written to John Hamilton and her supporters in Scotland, alleging that Regent Moray aspired to the crown of Scotland and while in England had made "contracts and covenants" to further his ambition. Elizabeth wrote that this was not the truth. Lady Mar replied to this letter and gave thanks for the "token" which Elizabeth had sent her. This token may have been a diamond ring, the family also owned a silver ewer which was said to have been a gift from Elizabeth.Henry Paton, HMC Supplementary Report Mar & Kellie (London, 1930), pp. 28–29: HMC 16th Report Mar & Kellie (London, 1904), pp. 21–22.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 574–575, 608–609.David Erskine, Annals and Antiquities of Dryburgh, and other places on the Tweed (Kelso, 1836), p. 130.
Lady Mar was the head of a large household serving the infant king at Stirling Castle. In 1568 James Cunningham of Drumquhassle was the Master of Household, Alexander Durham was the "provisor" (in charge of buying food and supplies),Exchequer Rolls, vol. 20 (Edinburgh, 1899), p. 430. Helen Littil was the chief nurse, five ladies including Christian Stewart, granddaughter of James V, took turns to rock the royal cradle, while the four Hudson brothers played their viols, there were cooks and brewers, Margaret Balcomie washed the king's linen and she had washed the linen of Mary, Queen of Scots at Linlithgow Palace.HMC 16th Report Mar & Kellie (London, 1904), pp. 18-21.
In January 1570, Mary, Queen of Scots, in captivity in England, sent a present of clothes to James VI at Stirling. She wanted these to be his first proper clothes, his first "doublet and long hose" provided by his mother. In her letter to the Countess of Mar, Mary said the gift did not include essential buttons, which with the rest of her jewels were kept from her, "whereto there wants such buttons as were worthy to garnish it, thanks to them who withholds from us suchlike and better." Mar obtained Mary's buttons for James three years later.William K. Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 3 (London, 1903), p. 57 no. 90
In her letters Murray described the king's well-being in formulaic terms, writing at least three times to Grey Colin Campbell, laird of Glenorchy, that "the Kingis Majestie is rycht blyth (praise to God)", a phrase which was reassuring during the years of the Marian Civil War.Jane E. A. Dawson, Clan Campbell Letters (STS, Edinburgh, 1997), pp. 168-9, 231-2. In one of his earliest letters James called Annabell "Lady Minny" and wrote to thank her for a gift of fruit, and ask for more.HMC 16th Report Mar & Kellie (London, 1904), p. 37, this letter is now held by the National Records of Scotland.Steven J. Reid, The Early Life of James VI, A Long Apprenticeship (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2023), p. 37. Elizabeth I of England sent a letter congratulating her on taking good care of the king on 7 February 1572.HMC 16th Report Mar & Kellie (London, 1904), p. 28. Among the childhood companions of James VI was her own son John, and her nephew Sir William Murray of Abercairny.
John Erskine, Earl of Mar became Regent of Scotland in 1572. This was a rise in status but the wife of a Regent had no defined political role or state duties.Amy Blakeway, Regency in Sixteenth-Century Scotland (Woodbridge, 2015), p. 149. Mar died in October 1572 (rumoured to have been poisoned). He had made a will in 1568, wishing his widow would follow the advice of his brother and others from the Erskine family, and his friends the Laird of Lochleven, John Cunningham of Drumquhassle, and Archibald Haldane, to guide her "in all things that concerns the treatment of friends and entertainment of them to the king's grace service for the honour of the house." Annabell Murray kept these men around her.J. M., 'Will of the Regent Mar', Notes & Queries, 4th series VIII (21 October 1871), pp. 321-2. She promised to repay money Mar had borrowed from the Laird of Lochleven, giving assurances as she "would not do to no other in Scotland but to you."Registrum Honoris de Morton: Original Papers of the Earls of Morton, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1853), pp. 78-9.
Annabell Murray continued to look after the king at Stirling, with Mar's younger brother Alexander Erskine of Gogar, the Master of Mar. His three sons, George, James, and Archibald joined the king in his schoolroom at Stirling.Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland: 1581–1584, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1982), p. 484 no. 2741.
Buttons and a football for a king In May 1573 the "Lang Siege" of Edinburgh Castle ended in victory for the king's party. A coffer containing the jewels of Mary, Queen of Scots was recovered from the ruins. On 28 July 1573 Regent Morton sent some of these jewels to Annabell Murray to have sewn on the king's clothes, including gold buttons enamelled in white and red, and white and black, and sets of large "horns" or "points" with enamel and engraving. Morton also had 60 new gold and silver buttons made for James VI, bought him a football, and had the king's chamber at Stirling panelled in oak, and paid the outstanding wages of James's nurse Helen Littil, his cradle-rocker Jane Oliphant, and Grissel Gray, who made the king's shirts.Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer: 1566-1574, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), pp. 353-4.
Annabell Murray received a variety of jewels over the subsequent years until 1579 when the King was declared an adult and moved to Edinburgh.Bruce Lenman, 'Jacobean Goldsmith-Jewellers as Credit-Creators: The Cases of James Mossman, James Cockie and George Heriot', Scottish Historical Review, 74:198 part (October 1995), p. 167. These included a fossil shark tooth or "serpent's tongue" mounted in gold as an amulet intended to neutralise any poisons in the king's food. On 26 September 1579, the king's clothing and jewels passed into the keeping of the new Master of the Wardrobe, James Murray, brother of the laird of Polmaise.Thomas Thomson, Collection of Inventories (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 277-284.
Royal schooldays
In August 1573 Regent Morton told the English ambassador Henry Killigrew that he intended the Master of Mar should have more responsibility for the king. However a year later, nothing seems to have been done as Killigrew heard from the king's tutors George Buchanan and Peter Young that they were still "desirous to have him from the handling of women by whome he is yet guyded and kept, saving when he goeth to his booke."Amy Blakeway, Regency in Sixteenth-Century Scotland (Woodbridge, 2015), p. 43. As a sign of maturity, James was dressed in adult clothing by May 1574, with a suit of red taffeta doublet and breeches.Maria Hayward, Stuart Style (London, 2020), p. 45.
When Killigrew visited Stirling Castle in June 1574 he met Annabell Murray on the road and passed on Queen Elizabeth's messages of good will. He saw the eight-year old king speaking French and Latin, translating from the Bible, Buchanan and Young showed him that James could do this for any passage, unrehearsed, and then they made the king dance for him.Steven J. Reid, The Early Life of James VI, A Long Apprenticeship (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2023), pp. 82–83: Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 13. An old story tells how Annabell Murray once tried to rescue the king from physical punishment by his tutor George Buchanan, who gave her a scurrilous answer.David Irving, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of George Buchanan (Edinburgh, 1807), p. 170. James had a French classmate, Jérôme Groslot de l'Isle, whose father had been killed in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572.Natasha Constantinidou, Responses to Religious Division (Leiden, 2017), p. 63.