Lady Janet Stewart

Janet Stewart, Lady Fleming (or "Jane", "Jenny", "Joan", "Jean", or "Johanna"; c.1505 – c.1563) was an illegitimate daughter of James IV of Scotland who served as governess to her niece, Mary, Queen of Scots, and was briefly a mistress to Henry II of France. Her daughter, Mary Fleming, was one of the Queen's Four Maries.

Biography

Family

James IV is known to have fathered several other royal bastards; Lady Janet Stewart was a half-sister to, among others, James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray and Alexander Stewart, Lord Chancellor of Scotland. Another half-brother was James V, her father's only legitimate child to reach adulthood.

The identity of her mother is a matter of dispute. She was either Agnes or Isobel Stewart of Buchan, who were both daughters of "Hearty James" Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan, and both mistresses to James IV. Isobel (or Isabella) was born legitimately, while Agnes, the more likely candidate, was her illegitimate half-sister. Agnes was a daughter of the Earl of Buchan's mistress, Margaret, Mrs. Murray, and became the Countess of Bothwell after marrying Adam Hepburn, 2nd Earl of Bothwell. Her son from this marriage, Patrick Hepburn, would have been Lady Janet's half-brother.

Both Agnes and Isobel Stewart were distant cousins (specifically, "half-first-cousins-once-removed") of James IV by a common ancestor, Joan Beaufort, an English noblewoman with Plantagenet bloodlines.

Marriage and Issue

Lady Janet married Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming, even though they were related within a forbidden degree of affinity. By Lord Fleming she had six children:

# James, 4th Lord Fleming. His only daughter and heiress, Jean (1554–1609), would marry John Maitland, the younger brother of William Maitland, his sister Mary's husband. His grandson by Jean was John Maitland, 1st Earl of Lauderdale.
# John, 5th Lord Fleming.
# Janet, m. 1st, John Livingston, eldest son of Alexander, 5th Lord Livingston and brother of Mary Livingston, one of the Queen's "Four Maries."
# Agnes, m. to William, 6th Lord Livingston.
# Margaret, m. 1st, to Robert Graham, Master of Montrose, by whom she had a son, John, 3rd Earl of Montrose; 2ndly, to Thomas Erskine, Master of Mar, younger brother of the 17th Earl of Mar, but had no issue; and 3rdly, John Stewart, 4th Earl of Atholl, high chancellor of Scotland, by whom she had three daughters and a son, John Stewart, 5th Earl of Atholl.
# Mary, m. 6 January, 1567, to William Maitland of Lethington.

Governess, mistress to royalty

Lord Fleming was killed at the Battle of Pinkie in 1547. The next year, probably due to her membership in the royal House of Stuart, the widowed Lady Fleming became a governess to the infant Queen Mary I of Scotland. As Queen Mary was the daughter of Lady Fleming's half-brother, Lady Fleming could be considered a "half-aunt" to the Queen. Her own daughter, Mary Fleming, also joined the Queen's court as a lady-in-waiting.

They accompanied the young queen to France in 1548, and there Lady Janet attracted the attentions of King Henry II and became his lover. She became pregnant by the king and bore him an illegitimate son. Either before or after the child's birth, she was sent back to Scotland.

Her son, Henry de Valois or d'Angoulême (1551–June, 1586), was "the chief and most highly favored natural son of the King". [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=950HAAAAQAAJ] ] He was legitimated and became "grand prieur de France, gouverneur de Provence, et Admiral des Mers du Levant".

Ancestry

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1= 1. Janet Stewart, Lady Fleming
2= 2. James IV of Scotland
3= 3. Agnes Stewart
4= 4. James III of Scotland
5= 5. Margaret of Denmark
6= 6. James Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan
7= 7. Margaret
8= 8. James II of Scotland
9= 9. Mary of Guelders
10= 10. Christian I of Denmark
11= 11. Dorothea of Brandenburg
12= 12. Sir James Stewart of Lorn
13= 13. Joan Beaufort
16= 16. James I of Scotland
17= 17. Joan Beaufort
18= 18. Arnold, Duke of Gelderland
19= 19. Catherine of Cleves
20= 20. Dietrich, Count of Oldenburg
21= 21. Helvig of Schauenburg
22= 22. John, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
23= 23. Barbara of Saxe-Wittenberg
24= 24. Sir John Stewart, Lord of Lorn
25= 25. Isabel de Ergadia
26= 26. John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset
27= 27. Margaret Holland

References

External links

* [http://www.thepeerage.com/p10832.htm#i108316 thePeerage.com]