Jane Kennedy (courtier)
{{Short description|Scottish courtier}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
File:Execution-of-Mary-Queen-of-Scots.jpg, (Valenciennes, musée des Beaux-Arts)]]
Jane, Janet, or Jean Kennedy (died 1589) was a companion of Mary, Queen of Scots, during her captivity in England.'Janet Kennedy Melville', Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney, eds, Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen (Routledge, 2017), p. 494.
Jane was perhaps a daughter of Gilbert Kennedy, 3rd Earl of Cassilis.
Servant of the captive queen
After the battle of Carberry Hill, Jane waited on Mary at Lochleven Castle where Mary was confined and signed abdication papers. Different accounts suggest that she either jumped from a wall while practicing for the Queen's escape, or leaped from a window to join the Queen as she fled the island, later helping row the boat to Kinross. Stories of Kennedy's role at Lochleven were publicized by Nicolas Caussin in La Cour Sainte (Paris, 1664).
In England, Jane was listed as a "maid" in Queen Mary's household at Tutbury Castle in October 1569, her name recorded by a French scribe as "Gin Cannate".Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 696. At Sheffield Castle, in 1571, she was listed as a "maid of the chamber".Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1903), pp. 565, 691. The Earl of Shrewsbury wrote to William Cecil about a suspected servant called Martin, mentioning he seemed to be forming a relationship with "Jane Kenyte, the Scottish queen's woman". Shrewsbury made him swear on the Bible to have no further dealings with her.William Boyd, Calendar of State Papers Scotland: 1574-1581, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 541. Mary made a will at Sheffield Manor, bequeathing 1000 Francs to "Jeanne Kenedy" in recompense for her service.Alexandre Labanoff, Lettres de Marie Stuart, 4 (London: Dolman, 1844), p. 358.
In 1586, at Chartley Manor, Jane, described a Gentlewoman of the Queen's chamber, was responsible for Mary's jewels. An inventory of the jewels and silver in Jane's keeping was made when Mary was taken to Tixall for a fortnight and her possessions searched. Jane was also in charge of linen and laundry. At Fotheringhay Castle, Jane Kennedy and Elizabeth Curle helped Mary onto the scaffold and Jane tied her blindfold.Marguerite A. Tassi, "Martyrdom and Memory: Elizabeth Curle's Portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots", Debra Barret-Graves, The Emblematic Queen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), pp. 102, 108.Jade Scott, Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots (London: Michael O'Mara Books, 2024), p. 240: Alexandre Labanoff, Lettres de Marie Stuart, vol. 7 (London, 1842), pp. 242-249, 265: John Morris, Letter Book of Amias Paulet (London, 1874) pp. 298, 367. Jane and Elizabeth had been chosen for this duty by Mary herself.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 9 (Edinburgh, 1915), pp. 272-3.
The two ladies are featured and named in the Blairs Memorial Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots; Jane holds a white cloth. Another version of the picture is in the Royal Collection.Rosalind K. Marshall, Mary Queen of Scots (National Museums of Scotland, 2013), pp. 2-3. One narrative of the execution describes the cloth as "a handkerchief of cambric all wrought over with gold needlework",William K. Boyd, Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland and Mary, Queen of Scots, vol. 9 (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1915), no. 267. another, as a "Corpus Christi cloth".William Joseph Walter, Mary, Queen of Scots. A journal of her twenty years' captivity, 2 (Philadelphia, 1840), p. 353. A "Corpus Christi cloth" is used during the Catholic Mass to cover the consecrated host.Marguerite A. Tassi, "Martyrdom and Memory: Elizabeth Curle's Portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots", Debra Barret-Graves, The Emblematic Queen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), p. 108.
After Mary
File:Mary Queen of Scots in captivity.jpg
At the funeral of Queen Mary at Peterborough Cathedral on 1 August 1587, her ladies joined the procession in this order; Barbara Moubray, Christine Hog (the wife of Bastian Pagez), Renée du Raullay, Marie Pagez, Jane Kennedy, and Susannah Kirkcaldy.La Morte de la Royne D'Escosse (1589), quoted in Memoirs of John Napier (Edinburgh, 1834), p. 144: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 9 (Edinburgh, 1915), p. 462, these six ladies are described as "eight Scottish women" who were penultimate in the funeral procession, followed by 166 black clad yeoman.
Jane Kennedy collected two beds from Mary's belongings, one for the Duchess of Guise, the other for Madame de Châlons. She told the Spanish ambassador Bernardino de Mendoza that she had blindfolded Mary at the execution, as she had precedence of birth before Elizabeth Curle. Mendoza was considering if she should have a pension from Spain. He wrote that her ship was driven back to Portsmouth by a storm.Martin Hume, [https://archive.org/details/adw2692.0004.001.umich.edu/page/176/mode/2up Calendar State Papers Simancas, vol. 4 (London, 1892), p. 177]
Jane Kennedy returned to Scotland from France in January 1588. She talked to James VI for two hours about Mary's last days and told his courtiers about the execution.Clare Jackson, Devil-Land: England Under Siege, 1588–1688 (Penguin, 2022), p. 43. King James was sad and pensive and had no supper that day.Robert S. Rait & Annie Cameron, King James's Secret: Negotiations between Elizabeth and James VI relating to the Execution of Mary Queen of Scots, from the Warrender Papers (London, 1927), p. 205.
She married Andrew Melville of Garvock. Garvock is near to Dunfermline. Andrew was a brother of the diplomats James Melville of Halhill and Robert Melville. In 1568 he had brought a gold chain to Mary when she was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle, which she had left with the goldsmith James Mosman to make into a necklace.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 616. He became the master of Mary's household in England. Andrew and Jane were placed in joint custody of Mary's remaining jewels and silver plate.Letter Book of Amias Paulet (London, 1874), p. 367: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 9 (Edinburgh, 1915), p. 304. Mary had asked Andrew to take some of her belongings back to Scotland and her son King James VI after her execution, including portraits of her ancestors and a piece of unicorn horn.Labanoff, A., ed., Lettres de Marie Stuart, vol. 7 (London, 1842), p. 254. Andrew Melville was detained in England for a time after Mary's execution, and James VI asked his ambassador Archibald Douglas to secure his release. Douglas found that Melville was already free.HMC Laing Manuscripts at the University of Edinburgh, vol. 1 (London, 1914), pp. 67-8.
=Loss of the ferry boat=
Jane and her servant Susannah Kirkcaldy were drowned on the 7 or 8 September 1589 crossing the river Forth between Burntisland, where the Melvilles held Rossend Castle, and Leith. The ferry boat was "midway under sail, and the tempest growing great carried the boat with such force upon a ship which was under sail as the boat sank presently." Jane had been summoned by James VI to await the arrival of Anne of Denmark, who was then expected to arrive at Leith.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 165-6, letters of William Ashby to Walsingham and William Cecil.
The ferry boat sank after colliding with another vessel during the storm, and the sailors of the other boat, William Downie, Robert Linkhop, and John Watson of Leith were put on trial for the deaths of sixty passengers in January 1590. The outcome of the trial is not recorded.Robert Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials (Edinburgh, 1833), pp. 185-186.
The loss of the ferry boat in stormy weather with all but two of the passengers was subsequently blamed on witchcraft.Thomson, Thomas, ed., Memoirs of his own life by James Melville (Edinburgh, 1827), pp. 369-70.[https://www.irss.uoguelph.ca/index.php/irss/article/view/5801 Liv Helene Willumsen, 'Witchcraft against Royal Danish Ships in 1589 and the Transnational Transfer of Ideas', IRSS, 45 (2020), pp. 54-99 at pp. 62-3] In the following year people from North Berwick were made to confess to raising the storms and incriminate Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell. According to the account of the witch trials in the tract Newes from Scotland, Agnes Sampson confessed to causing the storm by sinking a dead cat into the sea near Leith.Newes from Scotland (Roxburghe Club: London, 1816), sig. B3.
In later years the disaster came to be blamed on an error of the sailors, said to be drunk in calm weather by a writer in 1636, who added that £10,000 of goods and jewels were lost.William Fraser, Melvilles, Earls of Melville, and the Leslies, Earls of Leven (Edinburgh, 1890), p. 167: HMC 9th Report: Traquair House, (London, 1884), p. 252.
=Andrew Melville of Garvock=
Andrew Melville continued to serve as a Master of the Royal Household. He was given £200 to buy clothes to attend the coronation of Anne of Denmark.James Thomson Gibson-Craig, Papers Relative to the Marriage of King James the Sixth of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1836), Appendix p. 17. In 1591 he was on hand to protect the King at Holyroodhouse when he was surprised by Francis, Earl of Bothwell. Andrew, who lived on the north side of Holyrood close, armed himself and entered the palace through the Abbey using a secret passage.Thomson, Thomas, ed., [https://books.google.com/books?id=u-8HAAAAQAAJ Memoirs of his own life by James Melville (Edinburgh, 1827)], pp. 398-9 In July 1594 he and his brothers entertained the Danish and German ambassadors who had arrived for the baptism of Prince Henry.Thomas Thomson, Memoirs of his own life by Sir James Melville of Halhill (Edinburgh, 1827), pp. 410-413.
He remarried to Elizabeth Hamilton and James VI gave a ring to his wife at the christening of their child in 1594.Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, 'James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts, 1588-1596', Scottish History Society Miscellany XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), p. 82. In 1600 they had a daughter, Janet, and a son Andrew in 1603, and John in 1604.Henry Paton, Parish Registers of Dumfermline (Edinburgh, 1911), pp. 107, 115, 118. He died in 1617. In January 1624 his daughter Anna married Sir James Murray of Tippermuir, known as the compiler of a miscellany of verse.Henry Paton, Parish Registers of Dumfermline (Edinburgh, 1911), p. 201: Sebastiaan Verweij, The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 2016), p. 211. His son George married the widow of the king's servant David Drummond.HMC Mar & Kellie (London, 1904), p. 128.
In fiction
In Friedrich Schiller's play Maria Stuart, Jane, as "Hanna Kennedy" is portrayed as Mary's nurse, and Andrew is "Melvil."Strickland, Agnes, Lives of the Queens of Scotland, vol. 7 (London, 1858) pp. 507-8.