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- BIOGRAPHY
George Gordon, 4th earl of Huntly, was born in 1513, the son of John Gordon, Lord Gordon, and Lady Margaret Stewart, an illegitimate daughter of James IV, King of Scots, by Margaret Drummond. After his father's death in 1517, he became his grandfather's heir and was styled Lord Gordon until, in 1524, he succeeded his grandfather and became 4th Earl of Huntly and one of the most powerful noblemen of his time.
On 27 March 1530 he contracted to marry Lady Elizabeth Keith, daughter of Robert Keith, master of Marischal, and Lady Elizabeth Douglas. They became the parents of eight sons and three daughters.
In 1536 during the king's absence, he was appointed one of the regents of Scotland. On 29 August 1542 he defeated the English at Haddenrig. In 1542, in his will, the king made him one of the four regents of Scotland.
He was described by Sadler in a letter, dated 27 March 1543 to King Henry VIII of England, as a 'jolly young man, and of a right good wit, far more frank than the Earl of Murray.' However, four days later when writing to the Council, he calls him, 'the falsest, and wiliest young man in the world.' On 24 July 1543 George Gordon, 4th earl of Huntly, was a signatory to a bond made by Cardinal Beaton and others, the object of which was to prevent Henry VIII obtaining possession of the person of the young Mary, Queen of Scots.
He was High Chancellor of Scotland from 1546 until 1549 and again from 1561 until he died. However, he continued to waver between the two parties of the old and the new faith, which lost him the confidence of the Queen. She took the grant of the earldom of Moray from him and gave it to her illegitimate half-brother, James Stewart. This caused the revolt of lord Huntly but he was defeated by the Queen's forces, under the newly created earl of Moray, at Corrichie. Having been captured, he died there, apparently of apoplexy, on the evening of the day of the battle, 22 October 1562, having no wounds but being 'grosse, corpulent, and of short breath.'
His grisly and badly pickled corpse had to be brought to parliament for trial for treason as by Scots Law in such case you had to be tried in person. His son, Sir John Gordon, was beheaded in Mary, Queen of Scots, unwilling swooning presence for having plotted to marry her.
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