Annabella of Scotland


Annabella Stewart was the youngest daughter of King James I and Joan Beaufort.

Early life

Annabella was presumably named after her father's mother, Annabella Drummond. She was the youngest of the six daughters and two sons of James I and Joan Beaufort. Her sisters were Margaret, Isabella, Eleanor, Mary and Joan, and her brothers were James II of Scotland and his twin brother Alexander, who died in infancy.

First marriage

Her first husband was Louis of Savoy, Count of Geneva, whom she married in 1447 on either 1 April or 14 December. However, in the year 1458 they separated, divorced, and the marriage was annulled upon the request of Charles VII of France.

Second marriage

Annabella returned to Scotland and married George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly. Notwithstanding this alliance, her ill father pursued her, and she was legally divorced from her second husband by a sentence pronounced in the year 1471 which proceeded on the ground of consanguinity with his first wife, Elizabeth Dunbar, 8th Countess of Murray, as the two ladies were within the third and fourth degrees of relation.

Issue

Annabella and her second husband, George Gordon, Earl of Huntly, had issue:
She was thought also to have been mother to another four of his children, however this has not been proved nor disproved.
Lord Byron claimed descent from Annabella through his mother Catherine, daughter of George Gordon, 12th Lord of Gight. Byron wrote: "By her , he left four sons: the third, Sir William Gordon, I have the honour to claim as one of my progenitors."

Ancestry