Janet Kennedy, royal mistress - Ishbel C. M Barnes

"Janet Kennedy" is the biography of a Scottish woman at court in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Janet Kennedy was the partner of at least four men, which was completely typical at the time. However, she was not typical in that she was married to the Chancellor, Archibald, Earl of Angus, and then became the mistress of James IV. Three of her partners were killed at Flodden, as were her brother and brother-in-law. The medieval concept of marriage is different to what marriage means today, and Janet Kennedy's life enables a fascinating discussion of this concept, along with an analysis of secondary themes including religion, litigation, landholding, material possessions and the complicated inter-relationships of the members of James IV's court. Although all the primary sources from this era are written by men, this book aims to describe how women really spent their lives. Ishbel Barnes looks at medieval Scotland from a contemporary woman's perspective in order to write about the fifty percent of the population that is largely ignored or under-discussed in histories of this period.

Dr Ishbel Barnes was Managing Director of the Scottish Archive Network prior to her retirement. She lives in Forfar.