Isabel Douglas, Countess of Mar & Lady of Garioch

LADY ISABELLA DOUGLAS Countess of Mar and Garrioch

First Marriage

Lady Isabella Douglas married Sir Malcolm Drummond before July 1388. The Scots Peerage VII: 39

Second Marriage

Lady Isabella Douglas married Alexander Stewart. The Scots Peerage VII: 39

Charter Evidence

10 November 1404: Charter by which Isabella of Douglas, Countess of Mar and Garrioch, confirms that she has given to her sister Margaret of Douglas and her husband Thome son of John, a twenty merk land in the forest of Jedwort and sheriffdom of Roxburgh, which land lay adjacent to her own demesne land of Bunegedwort. The land was to be held by Thome son of John for his lifetime, and following the death of Thome and Margaret it was to pass to Countess Isabella's nephew John of Douglas. Illustrations of the Topography and Antiquities of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff. The Fourth Volume: pp. 730-31

Biographical Summary

Isabel Douglas, Countess of Mar was born circa 1360.2 She was the daughter of William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas and Margaret, Countess of Mar.1 She died between August 1408 and September 1408, without issue.1,3

She succeeded to the title of 11th Countess of Mar [S., c. 1115] before 19 October 1393, suo jure.3

She married, firstly, Sir Malcolm Drummond, son of Sir John Drummond, 11th of Lennox and Mary Montifex, before July 1388.3

She married, secondly, Alexander Stewart, 12th Earl of Mar, son of Alexander Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan and Margaret Atheyn, between 5 December 1404 and 9 December 1404.3

Biographical Summary by Wikipedia

While Sir Malcolm was away at one of his other castles, he was suddenly attacked by a large group of highlanders led by the infamous Alexander Stewart, illegitimate son of the Wolf of Badenoch. Alexander then proceeded to capture the castle and put Sir Malcolm into one of his dungeons where he soon died at the hands of his captor. Because the king was by this time sick and infirm and real power was in the hands of his younger brother the Duke of Albany, Isabel was now completely isolated and was now easy prey for her husband's murderer. In the summer of 1404, Alexander and his gang of highlanders descended on her castle of Kildrummy and captured it along with the Countess and was soon able to extort from her a signed document promising to marry Alexander and give over to him all of her lands, including the earldom of Mar and lordship of the Garioch. Under normal circumstances this incident possibly would not have been allowed to stand, but Isabel had the misfortune that these events took place during the regency of the Duke of Albany who was in fact the uncle of this Alexander Stewart. Because his relation to the Royal Family and friendhip with his uncle saved him from any actual punishment, Isabel was forced to marry the man who murdered her husband and live the last four years of her life as a captive. She died in the year 1408 without children and gained a measure of revenge over Alexander when his son and heir died without children in the lifetime of his father.

From The Scots Peerage: Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; Containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of that Kingdom, Volume 3 (Google eBook) James Balfour Paul. D. Douglas, 1906 - Nobility.  Page 154:

Isabella Douglas, some time before 1388, married Sir Malcolm Drummond, brother of Annabella Drummond, Queen of King Robert m. In 1400 she and her husband bestowed Liddesdale on her half-brother George, Earl of Angus. (Vol. i. p. 173.) Sir Malcolm was killed in 1402, and Isabella Douglas married in 1404 Alexander Stewart, eldest natural son of Alexander, Earl of Buchan. As Countess of Mar and Garioch, on 12 August of that year, she granted to him the earldom of Mar in terms of a contract betwixt them;1 and on 9 December she renewed the grant, and in a solemn ceremonial declared that she accepted him as her husband, and bestowed on him the earldom, to be held to him and their joint heirs, whom failing, to her own heirs, reserving a liferent to the spouses.' The Countess survived her second marriage little more than three years, as she died between May and October 1408.3 She appears to have been abroad so late as 28 July 1408, when she is said to have sold her lands of St. Saens in Normandy, inherited from her father. She had resided there before, and on leaving France placed a statuette or image of herself in the choir of the church of the Priory of St. Saens as a souvenir. The figure has since been lost.4 Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar, survived her until 1435, when, as he died without surviving issue, the Mar title and estates reverted to the Crown.

A seal of Isabella, Countess of 'Marre and Garviach,' much broken, is engraved in the Douglas Boofc.6

notes

"Alexander Stewart, 12th Earl of Mar also went by the nick-name of 'The Wolf of Badenoch'.3 As a result of his marriage, Alexander Stewart, 12th Earl of Mar was styled as 12th Earl of Mar [S., c. 1115] on 12 August 1404, after forcing his future wife to grant an eventual abortive charter making over to him, in supposed view of theior forthcoming marriage, the Earldom of Mar and Garioch.2,3"

Citations

1. [S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Families, page 221.
2. [S37] BP2003 volume 2, page 2603. See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S37]

Links

• http://www.thepeerage.com/p10951.htm#i109504