Magdalen Livingstone

Magdalen Livingstone (floruit 1560-1600) was a Scottish courtier.

She was a daughter of Alexander Livingston, 5th Lord Livingston and Agnes Douglas, daughter of John Douglas, 2nd Earl of Morton.

Magdalen Livingstone had a chamber at Stirling Castle

She was a maid of honour or lady-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots. Her older sister Mary Livingston was also a servant of the queen, and one of the well-known "four Maries."

The other maids of honour in 1566 were Lucrece Beaton, who married David Beaton of Melgund, Mademoiselle de Thoré, and Barbara Sandilands.[1]

Her first husband was Arthur Erskine of Blackgrange, a son of John Erskine, 5th Lord Erskine. The queen gave her a skirt of cloth of gold and matching sleeves for her wedding in March 1562.[2] When she was pregnant, the queen assisted by Mary Livingstone made a will bequeathing her jewels to her family and courtiers. If she died, Magdalen, as the "younger Livingstone", would receive a set of 65 gold clothing points, a parure of jewelled front and back pieces for a coif with a matching belt and necklace, a chain, and a watch set with rubies and two sapphires.[3]

Erskine, who was a gentleman of the royal stables with Anthony Standen, helped the queen escape from Holyrood Palace to Seton after the murder of David Rizzio. When Mary gave linen to her household linen for Easter in 1567, Magdalen was named in the account as "Madame Dasquin."[4]

Magdalen Livingstone lived at Dudhope Castle

She was involved in the upbringing of James VI at Stirling Castle and gave the king several books, including a Latin and French dictionary, a French manuscript of the second book of the Illiad, an illustrated Book of Maccabees, and the illustrated Metamorphoses and the Devises Heroïques of Claude Paradin. He gave her an English psalm book.[5] An inventory of Stirling Castle made in 1585 mentions "Maidlane Levingstoun's" chamber or bedchamber in the castle.[6]

Paradin's emblem "Spes Alterae Vitae"

After the death of Arthur Erskine, she married Sir James Scrimgeour of Dudhope in 1577, and was known as "Lady Dudhope". Their initials were carved in several places on Dudhope Castle.[7] This marriage "infinitely" displeased Mary, Queen of Scots, who wrote to cancel a present previously ordered for "Magdelaine Levingston".[8]

She was appointed in 1589 to welcome Anne of Denmark to Scotland at the shore of Leith with the Countess of Mar, Lady Seton, Lady Boyne, and Lady Thirlestane.[9]

Scrimgeour died in 1612 at Holyrood Palace, in the lodging of Christian Lindsay, poet and baker, wife of William Murray, Master of the carriage.[10]

Dame Magdalen Livingstone is said to have hosted King James at Dudhope Castle on 21 May 1617.

The date of her death is unknown.

References
  1. Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. lvi-vii.
  2. Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), p. 69: James Balfour Paul, Scots Peerage, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1908), pp. 438-9.
  3. Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. 111, 117, 123.
  4. Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland: 1566-1574, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), p. 400.
  5. George F. Warner, Library of James VI (Edinburgh, 1893), pp. xxvi, l, liv, lviii, lxi.
  6. HMC 9th Report & Appendix: Lord Elphinstone (London, 1884), p. 192.
  7. A. H. Millar, Wedderburne Compt Buik (Edinburgh, 1898), p. xxi.
  8. James Balfour Paul, Scots Peerage, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1908), p. 439: A. Labanoff, Lettres de Marie Stuart, vol. 4, p. 389.
  9. Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 186.
  10. A. H. Millar, Wedderburne Compt Buik (Edinburgh, 1898), p. xxi: Pamela Giles, 'Lindsay, Christian', Elizabeth Ewan, Siân Reynolds, Rose Pipes, Jane Rendall, Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women (Edinburgh, 2018), p. 246.
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