died at six or seven the same evening (the manner of the Earl of Huntly's death in Bannatyne, Memorials, pp. 333-8). By his wife, the daughter of the Duke of Chatelherault, he left one son, George, sixth earl of Huntly [q. v.], and a daughter Lady Jean, countess of Caithness.
[Crawfurd's Officers of State, pp. 89-94; William Gordon's House of Gordon, i. 242-380; Sir Robert Gordon's Earldom of Sutherland, pp. 141-71; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 649-50; Gordon Papers in Spalding Club Miscellany, vol. iv.; Reg. Privy Council Scotl. vols. i. ii.; Acta Parl. Scott. vols. ii. iii.; Cal. State Papers, Scott. Ser.; Cal. State Papers, For. Ser., during the reign of Elizabeth; Herries's Memoirs of the Reign of Mary (Abbotsford Club); History of James the Sext (Bannatyne Club); Bannatyne's Memorials (Bannatyne Club); Sir James Melville's Memoirs (Bannatyne Club); Diurnal of Occurrents (Bannatyne Club); Histories of Knox, Buchanan, Calderwood, Spotiswood, Keith, Tytler, Burton, and Froude]
GORDON, GEORGE, sixth Earl and first Marquis of Huntly (1562–1636), only son of George, fifth earl [q. v.], by his wife, Lady Anne, daughter of James Hamilton, earl of Arran, duke of Chatelherault, was born in 1562. On the death of his father in May 1576 he was placed under the care of his uncle, Sir Adam Gordon, who sent him for his education to France. As a catholic Huntly was closely associated in the schemes of the Duke of Lennox against Morton, and at the first parliament after Morton's execution, held in October 1581, he bore the sceptre (Calderwood, iii. 592). He was one of the chief leaders of the counter-revolution by which, 27 June 1583, the king, after his withdrawal from Falkland to St. Andrews, was delivered from the custody of the nobles who had overthrown the power of the Duke of Lennox by the raid of Ruthven (Bowes to Walsingham, 3 July 1583, in Bowes, Correspondence, pp. 477-83; Sir James Melville, Memoirs, p. 283; Calderwood, iii. 715). After the banishment of the Master of Gray in May 1587, the abbacy of Dunfermline, which the master had held, was bestowed on Huntly (Melville, p. 361; Calderwood, iv. 613), a proceeding which led the assembly of the kirk to express to the king their ‘greefe that sindrie papists of great calling are promoted to offices and benefices’ (ib. p. 632). From this time Huntly, who throughout his life was secretly regarded by the catholics as their chief political leader, was exposed to a constant persecution by the kirk, from the results of which he was only saved by the interposition of the king, and by frequent subscriptions of the confession of faith, which were violated almost as soon as made.
On 21 July 1588 Huntly was married within the chapel of Holyrood by the Bishop of St. Andrews to Lady Henrietta Stuart, eldest daughter of Esme, duke of Lennox, five thousand marks having been voted him by the council to bring her from France (Reg. Priv. Counc. Scotl. iv. 103). For celebrating the marriage before Huntly had subscribed the confession, the bishop was summoned before the presbytery of Edinburgh (Calderwood. iv. 686). Shortly afterwards Huntly signed the confession, but, as he ingenuously explained to the Duke of Parma, he did so ‘entirely against his wish’ (Letter, Cal. State Papers, Scott. Ser. i. 554), and was all the while carrying on correspondence with the Spaniards for an invasion of Scotland on behalf of the catholic cause [see under Hamilton, Claud, Lord Paisley]. On 28 Nov. 1588 Huntly succeeded Lord Glamis as captain of the guard, after which he stayed all the winter with the king in Holyrood Abbey (Calderwood, iv. 696). While there a letter of his to the king of Spain and other incriminating communications were discovered (ib. v. 14-36), and having been brought before the council he was warded in the castle. The king showed his confidence in Huntly by dining with him in the castle, and on 7 March 1589 he was set at liberty (Asheby to Walsingham, Cal. State Papers, Scott. Ser. i. 555). Driven from Edinburgh by the hostile attitude of the citizens, he went to the north, and along with the Earls of Erroll and Crawford raised the standard of rebellion. He gave out that he had a commission from the king to levy forces, but the king marched northwards against him, and threatened to demolish his castle unless he gave himself up (Calderwood, v. 55). Having submitted unconditionally to the king, he was not put to an assize, and after some months' captivity in Borthwick Castle he secured his liberty. He now retired for a time to the north, where he erected a castle at Ruthven in Badenoch, in the neighbourhood of his hunting forests. This the Mackintoshes resented as dangerous to their independence, and when Huntly became involved in a dispute with the Grants, and captured the house of Grant of Ballindalloch for alleged outrages committed by him, the two clans united against him, and called to their aid the Earls of Atholl and Moray. Huntly, having received intelligence of their designs, advanced against them while they were holding a consultation at Forres, and compelled the principal leaders to take refuge in Tarnaway Castle. The castle was too strongly fortified
