Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton

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Duchess Anne- Sir Godfrey Kneller, Hamilton Collection, Lennoxlove
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Duchess Anne- Sir Godfrey Kneller, Hamilton Collection, Lennoxlove

Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton (6 January 1631 – 17 October 1716) was a Scottish noblewoman.

The daughter of Sir James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton and 3rd Marquess of Hamilton , Scottish General and premier peer of the realm, and Lady Mary Feilding, daughter of William Feilding, 1st Earl of Denbigh and Lady Susan Villiers, a sister of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.

She was born at the Palace of Whitehall in London, where her mother was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Henrietta-Maria, Queen-consort of Charles I.

Contents

[edit] Accession

Following the 1st Duke's execution for his part in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in 1649, his brother, William, Earl of Lanark, inherited the titles and lands. William died from wounds received at the Battle of Worcester in 1651, whilst leading his regiment into some of the thickest of the fighting. In his will made at the Hague in 1650, he stipulated that the Lady Anne was his heir, over and above his own children, (all daughters, his only son having died in childhood).

Lady Anne became the Duchess of Hamilton, with the subsidiary titles Marchioness of Clydesdale and Lady Aven, Innerdale, Machanshire and Polmont.[1]

Through paternal descent, Anne had a claim to the throne of Scotland, although this was dependent upon the failure of the House of Stewart. She was descended from James II through the marriage of the 1st Lord Hamilton to the Princess Mary of Scotland. Her great great grandfather, the 2nd Earl of Arran, had been heir apparent from the death of Regent Albany until the birth of James VI, and had served as Regent of Scotland during Queen Mary's childhood and absence in France.

[edit] Marriage and issue

She was wed in 1656, at the kirk of Corstorphine near Edinburgh, to William Douglas, 1st Earl of Selkirk, a younger son of William, 1st Marquess of Douglas. William was created Duke of Hamilton, and given the rest of his wife's subsidiary titles, for his lifetime, and in 1660 assumed the surname Douglas-Hamilton. Between 1657 and 1671, the couple would produce 13 children.

[edit] Building works

After her marriage Duchess Anne and her husband set about laying the foundations for what would be, under later Dukes, the largest private residence in the western hemisphere, Hamilton Palace.

This was constructed on the site of what was commonly called either the 'Palace' or 'The Orchard', a courtyard style building in the "Low Parks of Hamilton". The Hamiltons had lived in the "Low parks" the more formal area of their estate, in the Clyde valley, since the 14th century.

In 1684 she commissioned the architect, James Smith to remodel the existing buildings, removing the southern part of the previous courtyard building on the site and increasing the scale of the edifice to form a U-shaped mansion house.

Today, the Palace is no more, and the "Low Parks" now form part of Strathclyde Park, having been given to the nation in lieu of death duties upon the passing of the 14th Duke of Hamilton in 1973.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Her uncle's other earldoms of Lanark and Cambridge became extinct with his death. The Dukedom of Châtellerault had been confiscated in 1559, although the Hamiltons continued to claim the title.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Marshall, Dr. Rosalind K. [1973] (2000). The Days of Duchess Anne-Life in the Household of the Duchess of Hamilton 1656-1716. Edinburgh: Tuckwell press. ISBN 1-86232-111-6

[edit] External links

Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by:
William Hamilton		 Duke/Duchess of Hamilton
1651–1698		 Succeeded by:
James Douglas
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