Agnes Douglas, Countess of Argyll (1574 – 3 May 1607) was a Scottish noblewoman and the first wife of Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll. She was the mother of three of his children, including his heir, Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, the de facto head of the government in Scotland throughout most of the conflict known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Lady Agnes was considered so beautiful that she was described as a "pearl of Lochleven."
Contents
Family
Lady Agnes Douglas was born at Lochleven Castle, Scotland, in 1574, one of the eleven children of Sir William Douglas, 6th Earl of Morton, and Agnes Leslie. She had four brothers and six sisters. Lady Agnes and her sisters were so famed for their beauty throughout Scotland that they were known as the "pearls of Lochleven".
Her paternal grandparents were Sir Robert Douglas and Margaret Erskine, a former mistress of King James V of Scotland, and her maternal grandparents were George Leslie, 4th Earl of Rothes, and Margaret Crichton, an illegitimate daughter of Princess Margaret, the youngest sister of King James III. Her half-uncle was James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland, and the illegitimate son of her grandmother, Margaret, from the latter's liaison with King James V. He was assassinated in 1570.
Before Agnes's birth, from June 1567 until her escape in May 1568, Mary, Queen of Scots, was a prisoner at Lochleven Castle, where her father served as custodian and her mother was the queen's closest female companion. The queen escaped from Lochleven with the aid of George Douglas, Agnes's uncle, and Willy Douglas, a cousin who was resident at the castle.