Douglas book > Angus memoirs

HIS THREE COUNTESSES. 365
Archibald, eighth Earl of Angus, was three times married. His first wife
was Mary Erskine, a daughter of John, Earl of Mar, Regent of Scotland. He
married her, as already stated, on 13th June 1573, some months after her
father's death, in the High Kirk of Stirling, when he was about eighteen years
old. He had no issue by her, and she died within two years after their
marriage, on 3d May 1575. According to a contemporary chronicler she was
buried in the royal tomb at Holyrood. 1 The earl's second wife, by whom also
he had no issue, was Lady Margaret Leslie, daughter of Andrew, Earl of
Rothes, whom he married some time between 1575 and 1581. Reference
has been made to certain " luif letters " between this lady and the Earl of
Montrose. These were afterwards asserted or found to be forgeries, 2 but the
Countess was divorced from Angus, about the beginning of 1587. 3 In July of
that year the Earl married, thirdly, Jean Lyon, daughter of John, tenth Lord
Glamis, and widow of Robert Douglas, younger of Lochleven, who was
drowned in 15 S3. 4 By his third Countess the Earl of Angus had a daughter,
Margaret, born after his death, who probably inherited her father's delicacy
of constitution, as she is said to have died unmwried at the age of fifteen. 5
Jean Lyon, Countess of Angus, survived her husband the Earl for many
years, and as there is a spice of romance in her later history, it may be briefly
told. After the Earl's death, when the estates and earldom of Angus were
in dispute between King James the Sixth and William Douglas of Glenbervie,
1 Diurnal of Occurrents, pp. 334, 34S. dated at Edinburgh, 29th July 15S7. [Ex-
Mary Erskine is described as a "daughter tract in Douglas Charter-chest.]
natural " of the Regent's. s Godscroft, edition 1644, p. 360. Lady
2 Moysie's Memoirs, Bannatyne Club edi- Margaret Douglas was, on 13th July 1590,
tion, p. 30. retoured nearest and lawful heir of line to her
3 Cf. a letter from her, dated 23d Decern- father, Archibald, Earl of Angus; her kinsman,
ber 15S6, referring to the proceedings against William, ninth Earl of Angus, having, in the
her, vol. iv. of this work, p. 23S. previous April, been retoured as her nearest
4 The marriage coutract between Archi- agnate and tutor. [Retours in Douglas Char-
bald, Earl of Angus, and Mrs. Jean Lyon, is ter-chest.]