6 “I do whats in my pouer for them all”: Noblewomen, Kinship Networks, and Power in Seventeenth-Century Scotland

In 1670, on the occasion of her son’s first marriage, Lady Anna Mackenzie offered “motherlie and heartie advice” to the young man on how to uphold his noble duties in the tradition of his ancestors.^[1] She wrote to him about religion; king and country; friends and enemies; relationships to his wife, sisters, and children; how to inspire faithful servants; and to show generosity to the poor. On friendship, she wrote, “ther is non bot should tak good heed whom they chus for a friend and not to be hastie in trusting any as such, they ar happy who hes ther nearest relation … to ther cheifest friend.”^[2] She explained that friendship was a “medecine to lyff” because a “faithfull and trustie friendship” was one where “wee may saffely impart our mynd whos counsells may advise uss” and to “bear all their infirmities considering they most bear yours.”^[3] Finally, she advised her son to avoid spending too much time with friends in frivolity, unless such time spent was as “profitable as delytfull.”^[4] Friendship was familial, productive, and necessary to the social position that Lady Anna and her son held.

Early modern nobles were fixated on the perception of their rank and status by their peers, particularly in the seventeenth century, which is often characterized as a period of uncertainty for European nobility.^[5] In Britain, the beginning of the century saw a union of the crowns through James VI, and Scottish nobles increased their expenses to maintain positions at the newly relocated London court.^[6] Between 1603 and 1625, the king bestowed his favour among his supporters through the foundation of noble titles, which created pressure amongst the nobility to display their status through lavish spending.^[7] However, these were years of war and upheaval that proved financially disastrous to many noble families, particularly royalists like the Balcarres family, who funnelled fortunes into promoting Charles II’s cause after Oliver Cromwell’s northern invasion in the 1650s.^[8] The instability of estates after the Restoration in 1660 often required financial support to avoid ruin, and extensive networks were vital for desperate nobles seeking to keep their positions.

Letter writing, an important component of networking in aristocratic circles, has come to be associated with women.^[9] Women as letter writers kept networks of families in communication, regardless of the degree of consanguinity, and subsequently used their positions to seek or offer favours. Each aspect of a letter, including whether it was dictated or personally handwritten, conveyed meaning and emotion.^[10] In such precarity as the nobility faced, the ability to write letters and receive responses displayed at least some degree of power. Furthermore, noblewomen sometimes modified their language as a technique to influence family members to provide support in troubling circumstances. Such tactics created spaces for women to complicate power dynamics in their communication with men while still engaging with acceptable social conventions.^[11] The disadvantage of networks was that they were comprised of mortal, fallible humans and by such nature were changeable. Members might fall out of favour, lose influence amongst their peers, or meet that final stage of life. But to be a strand in that grand web, having the confidence to be heard by high-ranking members or continuously extracting support from others, was to hold power though networks.

Kinship added an extra component to the intricacies of how a network functioned. It was a preestablished alliance that was flexible in association, past the more basic nuclear family unit, and a position within networks of kinship demonstrated status to other nobles.^[12] In a Highland context, offering protection and compassion towards extended family was a key trait of kinship.^[13] This offer was especially important to a Highland woman, like Lady Anna Mackenzie, whose kin connections and the resources they shared with her might serve as a way for her to display power.^[14] Furthermore, favours between kin did not occur under the assumption of reciprocity, and social hierarchy was less important than familial relation.^[15] Surely, as Lady Anna pointed out to her son, friendship was best entrusted to kin.

The last thirty years has seen incredible growth in the study of gender and women in medieval and early modern Scotland.^[16] Research has tended to focus on subjects of family and marriage, but there have also been some attempts to uncover more about women’s economic and legal experiences with more attention being given to the oft-neglected seventeenth century.^[17] This essay incorporates some of these themes together, along with a growing literature on widowhood and stepfamilies in Europe, to demonstrate the central role of networks throughout a noblewoman’s life and to offer a deeper insight into the productive qualities of power.^[18]

The life of Lady Anna Mackenzie, Countess of Balcarres and later Argyll, provides a fascinating case study on the depth of noblewomen’s kinship networks in the seventeenth century.^[19] A majority of the correspondence used in this essay was written by the subject herself at different stages of her life, highlighting her various approaches to letter-writing over time. Lady Anna was born in 1621, the second daughter to Colin Mackenzie, Earl of Seaforth and Margaret Seton, daughter to the Earl of Dunfermline. She witnessed, and indeed often played part in, the turbulent events of seventeenth-century Britain. Her first marriage to Alexander Lindsay, Earl of Balcarres, was a period of uncertainty for her family. While the couple shared a close bond, they were nearly bankrupted and forced to live abroad due to their political affiliations. After Balcarres died in exile, upon the Restoration of Charles II, Lady Anna began an attempt at her own family’s restoration and made use of her close friendship to her cousin and Secretary of State for Scotland John Maitland, second Earl of Lauderdale. Her second marriage to Archibald Campbell, ninth Earl of Argyll began peacefully, but ended with her husband’s execution as a traitor. A widow once again, albeit under more volatile circumstances and at a more advanced age, Lady Anna turned to distant relatives for advice and support. From birth, Lady Anna was part of a powerful kinship network that spread throughout the Scottish nobility and, owing to her ingenuity and self-awareness, Lady Anna was able to adopt various strategies of self-representation to leverage this extensive network for the survival of her family.

Lady Anna Mackenzie and Alexander Lindsay, later the first Earl of Balcarres, married in early 1640. The young couple was well connected to high-ranking Scottish nobles through familial ties, and these alliances became increasingly important after 1650.^[20] After Charles I was executed in 1649, his son Charles II was named King of Scotland. Lady Anna, her husband, and their friends were strong supporters of the royalist cause, and Balcarres enjoyed a close relationship with the crown. He wrote to the king on 31 May 1650 where he expressed his intention of faithful service to Charles II by offering “humble advice as the best evidence of my … affection,” and was created Earl of Balcarres in 1651 because of his loyal commitment.^[21] His friendship was clearly valued by Charles II, as indicated by his appointment to various positions to represent the king through proxy. In 1654, some years after Charles II was exiled, he gave Balcarres instructions to travel to France and speak to the French king with the hope of receiving support for potential invasions back into Britain.^[22] Charles II certainly held Balcarres in high regard if he trusted him to act as a diplomat. As a result, Balcarres sunk a significant amount of his estate’s fortune into supporting the king’s cause, and Lady Anna likewise provided financial backing for her husband by selling her moveable goods.^[23] In a makeshift testament, Balcarres acknowledged his wife’s support through “her affection … and for satisfying my urgent debts quit and sold her jewels and womanlie furniature belonging to her selfe allanerly.”^[24] One of the jewels in question may have been a diamond ring used as surety in a loan of six hundred merks borrowed from an Edinburgh merchant named Thomas Crauford.^[25] As repayment to his wife for her sacrifices, Balcarres allocated to her his collection of books, which, according to him, was worth six thousand merks, along with household furniture.^[26] Lady Anna’s willingness to part with her personal property and her husband’s subsequent recognition of her involvement in the financial affairs of the estate point towards an intimate, perhaps loving, relationship.^[27] However, the couple’s support for the king came at a great price to the Balcarres estate and family when they were forced into exile in 1653.^[28]

Living at the court of Charles II in exile, Lady Anna became acquainted with several members of the royal family. These connections were highly important to the countess while navigating the financial precarity of exile, considering she had already parted with her moveable goods to satisfy some of her husband’s debts. Furthermore, the Earl of Balcarres had lost the king’s favour after an argument. Charles II wrote to his mother about his displeasure with the earl’s “duble dealing and dishonesty,” although the specific cause for the disagreement was not named.^[29] In an attempt to remain connected to the royal family, Lady Anna became friendly with the royal women. For instance, Anne, Duchess of York’s letter, which thanked the countess for her kind sympathy towards her husband after a bout of illness, illustrated Lady Anna’s dedication to establishing royal connections as part of her network while she and her husband lived in exile.^[30] More significant was her relationship with Princess Mary, whose friendship Lady Anna used to seek assistance for her family. The correspondence is sparse and incomplete, but the contents of the letters indicate there had been previous communication between the two women. Princess Mary acknowledged a proposition made by the countess and offered her assurance that she would stand as guarantor for any loans the countess managed to secure.^[31] Princess Mary expressed her wish to help the young family but she found herself in “want of ready mony.”^[32] The Princess Royal signed off in two letters as Lady Anna’s “most affectionate friend,” the addition of “most” differing from other letters that Lady Anna received from royalty and perhaps indicating a particular closeness between the two women.^[33] Whether Lady Anna secured an immediate source of funding is not apparent from these letters, but she had nevertheless managed to extract a promise of financial support from royalty.

Balcarres died in Breda in August 1659. Henrietta Maria wrote to the countess in October 1660 to express her daughter’s “good intentions” for Lady Anna.^[34] Charles II also offered his sympathies for the passing of his once-close advisor and told Lady Anna he wished for her to “see the care I intend to haue of you and your children.”^[35] The king’s reference to Lady Anna’s children reflected language she used in her correspondence during her time as a widow. It was a direct way to strike sympathy into the hearts of her friends and to persuade influential contacts to at least offer favours, itself a powerful feat. Lady Anna and her husband were a well-connected couple, whose networks were vast and primarily composed of close family relations like first cousins, uncles, and in-laws. Their financial status did not remove them from the network; in fact, it provided a use for these connections outside of political ambitions. Their situation became more dire as they were forced to live in exile. Their connections, and Lady Anna’s ability to create new friendships beyond blood relations, proved a meaningful source of assurance for the family. However, as a widow with young children and a number of estate debts, networks and the way in which Lady Anna communicated with them became pivotal to the survival of her family.^[36]

After Charles II’s restoration to the throne, Lady Anna lived in England until 1662.^[37] Her goal upon returning to the British Isles was to keep the Balcarres estate from falling further into ruin, and deal with the debts left by her late husband. At this stage of her life, a widow with several young children to raise and care for, Lady Anna’s relationship with her cousin, the Earl of Lauderdale, gave her a channel through which she sought assistance and was recruited to seek favours. Lauderdale was the Secretary of State for Scotland under Charles II.^[38] The position gave him close access to the king and made him a highly desirable contact. While she did not feel the need to impress upon Lauderdale reminders of their familial relation past a greeting of “dear cousin,” she continued to appeal to his sympathy for her young helpless children. Lady Anna’s immediate family had many tragedies befall them in a short period of time. After the death of the family patriarch, the countess’s oldest daughter, Lady Anne Lindsay, converted to Catholicism and joined a convent. Shortly after Lady Anna returned from exile, her son Charles Lindsay, second Earl of Balcarres, died suddenly at the age of twelve.^[39] Lady Anna wrote to Lauderdale describing Charles’ death and its impact on her. She told her cousin about her “litill sant … heu distressed” and “sarwful hes he left me with an afflickted familie.”^[40] She identified herself as “so unfortunat a person.”^[41] While her grief was palpable, Lady Anna also wrote, “your Lord knows so uill for whom it is I doe it, that I uill mak no apoligie for what I dayly trubell you,” indicating that she had no reservations when it came to using connections for the sake of her children.^[42]

Lady Anna set herself up as a person of worthy pity and sympathy by the way she wrote about herself and her children. In another letter to Lauderdale, she spoke of her “manie circumstances of … ill forton, I could perseue nothing in it of any good, bot that it lets me sie the constancie of your kyndness to me.”^[43] The only benefit to her sadness, she wrote, was the friendship he showed to her through his assistance in her affairs. She prayed that “the Lord of heauen and earth” reward Lauderdale for his attention to “me and my pour children who ar griter objects of pitie than the world knows of.”^[44] Her persistence must have paid off at some point, as she later wrote to thank Lauderdale for his “soen the sied in plentie” for receiving her pension from the king.^[45] The two cousins clearly maintained a close relationship, within which Lady Anna was able to exert some amount of influence over Lauderdale.

This connection to Lauderdale provided Lady Anna with leverage and likewise made her a desirable contact for others who sought favours. While the surviving correspondence shows Lady Anna asking for favours more often than granting them, there were two examples where Lady Anna received letters from men concerning issues that required the attention of Lauderdale and where they asked for her intercession with him. On 26 April 1661, James Innes wrote to Lady Anna about the position of Commissioner of Caithness, which according to the sender had been given to him as a gift by the king.^[46] Innes explicitly asked Lady Anna for “furtheranc in solliciting my Lord Secretarie” about the affair and impressed upon her that he sought “the preservation of [his] credit and reputation … mor then anie point of gaine.”^[47] On the margins of the letter, Lady Anna wrote, “my Lord forgiue this trubell I giue you I assur you it is no grit plesaur to you,” indicating that she sent the letter to a third party.^[48] In another example from around the same time, Lady Anna’s nephew George Sinclair, Earl of Caithness, wrote to his aunt about the sheriffdom of Caithness. He asked for her advice and to “intreat your lady’s fauor to deal with my Lord Latherdail.”^[49] Further digging in archives might reveal more letters like these where others indicated an awareness of Lady Anna and Lauderdale’s relationship and sought to gain access to him through her. Lady Anna’s relationship with her cousin meant that she had some power beyond the household, or at the very least held influence upon some of the issues that were brought to the Lord Secretary beyond simple domestic matters.

Lady Anna’s main concern, like for many early modern noblewomen, was the longevity of her noble family, but the dire finances of the Balcarres estate put more pressure on the countess. A friend of the family even took it upon himself to illustrate the extent of the trouble she faced. David Forret wrote to Lauderdale in detail about the “great straits my lady is in, the difficulty she hath to provide for her family” and the “inevitable ruin of the estate if the Lord in mercy do not prevent it.”^[50] Forret stressed that in “a few weeks she shall be reduced to as great extremity,” and nearly begged Lauderdale to speak with Lord Crawford about an imminent supply of money for the countess and intercession from the king to save the estate, which was “in a most desperate condition.”^[51] It is difficult not to assume some degree of embellishment from Forret, but Lady Anna did eventually sell back the gift of hereditary keeper of Edinburgh Castle for a pension of £1000 per year.^[52] It was later confirmed by the third Earl of Balcarres that his mother “willingly gave up the gift” as a result of his father “having ruined his estate in the kings servise.”^[53] The family’s situation was, evidently, one to be pitied, even in a time where noble debt was rampant.

Lady Anna used this despairing language in many of her letters outwith correspondence to Lauderdale. In a letter to Charles II, Lady Anna went to great lengths to describe her unfortunate circumstances while still appearing humble and at the mercy of the monarch. She praised “such a king uho hes a heart as grit as his birth” and his “pitie to a pour unfortunat widow, and fatherles children, and to a pour sinking femilye,” echoing an earlier letter she sent to Lauderdale.^[54] She then directed the king to her cousin to discuss her “desolat and afflicted condision.”^[55] In fact, Lady Anna often directed her correspondents’ attention to Lauderdale. To Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, Lord High Chancellor of England, Lady Anna was much more straightforward than in her letters to her cousin, or even to the king. There was very little preamble in the letter and she firmly stated: “I rely confedently upon the assuranc I gathered from your fauourabell expresions conserning my disayrs and his majesties grasious promeses, and ernestly beg your Lordship may be pleased to interpos your credit with him agen to mek them effectuall.”^[56] She perceived this “nobell fauour,” which had not yet taken place, “to be an eminant testemonie of your compasionat car of my poor children.”^[57] It is likely she was not well acquainted with Clarendon and so sent her cousin to relay her message by way of introduction, and perhaps as a show of power to demonstrate her position through her network.^[58]

Another more detailed example of Lady Anna’s tactic of adjusting language to suit her audience is in her correspondence to Madam Henderson.^[59] This letter was far longer than anything she had written to Lauderdale, perhaps because the recipient was also a widowed woman with children and might therefore empathize with Lady Anna. There was also an added religious element in this particular letter, most significantly her reference to suffering. Her attempt to console Madam Henderson after her husband’s death was by telling her friend that God “his forswarned us that we ar throw[n] many tribolesions to enter heuean” and these experiences were “giuen to us not only to beliue bot also to suffer.”^[60] Lady Anna also wrote, “I strive to incorag my self in God who is the God of the widow and fatherless,” a reference to Psalm 68:5.^[61] The language of necessary suffering, trials, and trusting the will of God reflected contemporary ideals of widowhood to govern her conduct as a single woman.^[62] This language might also have been used as a way to comfort the recipient and possibly deepen the connection between the two women by bonding over a shared experience, particularly because psalms tended to evoke emotion.^[63] There was no great attempt in this letter to extract financial support from Madam Henderson. Lady Anna did, however, ask her correspondent for a picture of her and her husband, and to present “kynd respects” to Madam Henderson’s extended family.^[64] She used the opportunity to maintain her network through kind words and gestures, and perhaps to set the stage for further communication.

After her first husband’s death, Lady Anna remained well-connected to high-ranking nobility, primarily through her close relationship to her cousin, Lauderdale. She was quick to use their friendship to her advantage when faced with financial difficulties, and often used his support as leverage when interacting with other politically noteworthy people. Lady Anna presented herself in specific ways to gain support from her correspondent and adapted how she wrote depending on the recipient. To her cousin, she was forthcoming about her problems and outrightly assumed she had his support. She similarly wrote to Madam Henderson, but with stronger religious zeal. In more official circumstances, she toned down the fervour with which she wrote but still demonstrated her influence by referring to her ties to Lauderdale. The thread that connected her correspondence together was the appeal to her children and family, with descriptions meant to evoke sympathy for a severely indebted widow. From 1659, Lady Anna was vulnerable, but her connection to one of the most important men in Scotland kept her in a place of power. She was in no such a position after the death of her second husband, the ill-fated ninth Earl of Argyll.

The marriage of Lady Anna Mackenzie and Archibald Campbell, ninth Earl of Argyll, was controversial. Lauderdale was displeased with the arrangement, purportedly because he was concerned about the influence it might have on Lady Anna’s children (although, in the same year, Balcarres was married to Mauritia du Nassau, whose £16,000 dowry was immensely helpful to the struggling estate).^[65] Specific details of Lady Anna and Argyll’s marriage are not yet clear, though the countess took her role quite seriously, as indicated in records of estate management at Inveraray.^[66] While it is always challenging to comment on the nature of relationships in the past, the integration of the two families indicated at least some mutual respect between the newlywed couple. For instance, Argyll invited Lady Henrietta Lindsay, his stepdaughter, to Inveraray after the birth of her son so that the baby could spend time with his grandmother.^[67] Lady Sophia Lindsay even had her own room in the couple’s house at Stirling.^[68] Lady Anna was noted by her daughter as having “loved [the earl] so dearly.”^[69] In many respects, the marriage had been successful, if slightly unusual.

In 1681, predicting the succession of a Catholic monarch, the crown introduced a Test Act to Scotland.^[70] Argyll refused to take the oath, which he believed to be religiously inconsistent and contradictory, and was subsequently arrested for treason.^[71] Argyll escaped from Edinburgh Castle but returned to Scotland in 1685 as part of a rebellion against the newly crowned James VII. The rising was quickly stopped and Argyll was executed for treason on 30 June 1685.^[72] Following the forfeiture of Argyll’s estates to the crown in 1682, Lady Anna petitioned Charles II for provision, though she only received a small portion of the money she had been promised.^[73] She was later called before the Privy Council in 1683 to answer questions about a letter containing cipher, the Council being worried that she had dealings in the Rye House Plot, though this accusation was later found to be false.^[74] When Argyll arrived in Scotland in 1685, Lady Anna and her youngest daughter Lady Sophia were apprehended and imprisoned until the earl’s execution.^[75]

Lady Anna’s troubles did not end after the execution of Argyll. Her son Colin Lindsay, third Earl of Balcarres, was arrested in 1688 for supporting the ousted James VII after the Revolution of 1688–89 and was held in Edinburgh Castle until 1690. After his release, Balcarres travelled throughout Europe until he returned to Scotland in 1700 with William III’s permission.^[76] Lady Anna was once again left to supervise the Balcarres estate, albeit in much different circumstances than before. By 1690, Lady Anna had outlived many of her noble connections from the previous fifty years, including Lauderdale who died in 1682. She faced creditors determined to seek payment from loans and a contentious relationship with the tenth Earl of Argyll, her stepson. It was therefore prudent for her to establish new relationships and mix previously established self-representations with new approaches, such as emphasizing her Highland heritage, in order to justify her seeking assistance.

John Mackenzie was Lady Anna’s distant cousin, Clerk of the Session in the Scottish parliament, and Advocate. He most likely had a great fortune, which he used to purchase the barony of King’s Cramond in 1697 and the estate of Delvine in 1705.^[77] It is not yet clear how the two cousins became acquainted, but the thoroughly detailed correspondence suggests that he was willing to help Lady Anna, if only to offer advice on legal issues. The correspondence only represents half a conversation on the part of Lady Anna; John Mackenzie’s responses are not included in the collection of Lady Anna’s letters held at the National Library of Scotland. However, Mackenzie’s position in the Faculty of Advocates encouraged Lady Anna to share many details of the issues that she faced as a widow caring for her son’s estate. Furthermore, the content of Lady Anna’s letters to Mackenzie show that she used much of the same language as the correspondence from her first widowhood, but added new elements to her communication strategy through appeals to her age and reminders of their shared link to a prominent Highland family.

Lady Anna used persuasive language throughout the correspondence to convince her cousin to assist her. She consistently reminded Mackenzie that she was old, alone, and desperate to help her family, but she could do no more than hope that “God almightie may giue me or myn a opertunitie [to] giue you a return.”^[78] In short, there was no promise of reciprocation. When Lady Anna fell ill in 1695, she vividly described her illness and brush with death. She told Mackenzie “heu dengerously” she had been since their last visit.^[79] She lamented that she was “neu old and so death may justly” take her away, and asked Mackenzie to take “care of my dear dear Colen … that he wil be a reperer of our breches.”^[80] She finally signed off, “from my bed,” to further the portrayal of her dire illness.

Pointedly, she stressed the importance of kinship and the bond they shared because of their familial relation. Lady Anna’s first letter to Mackenzie on 24 October 1690 established their connection and the reason for her correspondence. Her son was absent and “hath left all that conserns him” to her care.^[81] She worried about him and the estate, and told Mackenzie that he “wold apier a kynd kinsman” by helping her “all [he] can.”^[82] She asked him to write to “Apelcros” about a discharge; this favour was confirmed in a subsequent letter on 15 December 1690.^[83] Lady Anna thanked Mackenzie for this “new and veri great instance of your … kyndneses … that you have been at the pains to wret to Apelcros … for which I verie heartily thank you.”^[84] She often made references to Lord Tarbet, a high-ranking member of the Mackenzie clan, by whom she had apparently been called “the gretest clan woman he know[s].”^[85] Lady Anna expressed her wish for her own children to be accepted by the Mackenzies, especially her son, because “good mackenies should loue him that bears my fathers neam.”^[86] Surely this move was meant to entrench her son into her paternal kinship network and to serve as a reminder to her cousin that she was the daughter of the late Mackenzie chief.

Lady Anna often expressed concern for her son and the longevity of the estate, which was once again at risk. In 1698, advocating for her son, Lady Anna wrote about the tenants’ land at Balcarres being compromised by someone called Wastshils, to whom her son owed a large sum of money.^[87] Her son was difficult to locate and she expressed frustration for the disruption of the tenants while simultaneously lamenting how “cruell” creditors were “to use rigour to thes they sie in insupportabell trubles,” even if her son fairly owed this man money.^[88] On another occasion, Lady Anna told Mackenzie about a loan on which she had acted as surety for her son and for which the creditor had taken out a decree against her to seek repayment.^[89] Mackenzie’s friendship and conduct in their interactions were what led her to ask for his continued assistance. In this case, his experience was paramount because she was worried about being “declared a rebell, or to be in denger of caption.”^[90] She concluded that “it is the uill of God to exersis me with many and verieties of trubels, my generous trew friends I hop uill [be] compasionat [to] my condision.”^[91]

The financial issues were beginning to affect her grandson’s education and she sought Mackenzie’s assistance to pay for the child’s schooling.^[92] She had also made reference to borrowing money from a bank but was having a difficult time with repayment and asked Mackenzie to temporarily loan her enough money to make payments.^[93] She regularly acknowledged how Mackenzie’s help was a source of comfort and ease, usually in a tone that suggested humility on the part of the sender.^[94] She frequently apologized for disturbing Mackenzie because she knew he was a busy man.^[95] Sometimes she appealed to his sympathy as a Christian, such as when she told Mackenzie that she “too oft” troubled her cousin, “bot estim you so good a Christian and so good a friend that I beliue … it will ease me so much to make knowen to you what trubels me.”^[96] Similar to her letter to Madam Henderson, she presented her troubles as “the will of God.”^[97]

Lady Anna’s attention was not solely placed on her son. She sought a favour from John Hay, Marquess of Tweeddale, in 1694 for her daughter Lady Henrietta.^[98] The letter was full of sad depictions of her family and herself, whom she wished “to be forgot,” but she did “whats in my pouer for them all,” though she admitted to being “ashemed to send such a leter.”^[99] Echoing letters from her first widowhood with religious tones, Lady Anna insisted that Tweeddale offer his assistance as evidence of his “Christian simpethie,” and while she was not able to offer a favour in kind, she hoped the earl would be “rewarded by the almightie who can doe it best.”^[100] In contrast to her letter to Madam Henderson, the religious language and references were not meant for the spiritual comfort of the recipient. Instead, they served primarily to highlight the representation of herself as a struggling devout mother both to justify her seeking assistance and to encourage support from her network.

A seemingly never-ending array of money problems made Lady Anna vulnerable to creditors. A majority of the correspondence contains either requests for money or details of loans taken by her son or deceased husbands that she was not able to pay back.^[101] In 1695, Lady Anna was contacted by the relative of a merchant named Mongo Woode who claimed that the late Earl of Argyll had purchased a “tippet,” an item of clothing, from the merchant after they were married.^[102] Receipts show that Lady Anna had been a patron to Woode from 1662–1668, but she claimed that she had fully repaid Woode for his services and entered into marriage with Argyll without debt to Woode.^[103] Woode’s son-in-law claimed that the tipet had not been paid for, but Lady Anna was suspicious that the family waited twenty-five years before it was brought to her attention.^[104] She said they were looking to “vex” her, but nevertheless asked Mackenzie for his advice.^[105] She followed up with another letter, again expressing her concern that Woode’s family was seeking financial gain at her expense and asked for Mackenzie’s intervention in hopes that they might be “persuaded to desist.”^[106] The resolution of this issue, and the extent of Lady Anna’s truthfulness in the matter, are not clear, but Lady Anna had been concerned about the implications that the disagreement might have had on her credit, which, for her as a single woman, was especially important to keep well-regarded.^[107] Furthermore, her request to Mackenzie to intervene with Woode’s family on her behalf may have been an attempt to display the power she held through her network.

Lady Anna not only faced trouble in supporting her own children; she was also in opposition to her stepson, the tenth Earl of Argyll. It was common for widows to be pressured by family to give up their right to their jointure, land that was meant to be a source of income for widows as agreed upon in a marriage contract.^[108] An aging widow might be considered an added burden to struggling estates.^[109] In 1699, an almost eighty-year-old Lady Anna wrote to her cousin many times about her dispute with Argyll over some property in Stirling, most likely the house called Argyll’s Lodging.^[110] She asked Mackenzie to find Argyll “when hes at your sessions” to reiterate her messages to him, “as a new and great testemence of your friendship and car and simpethie with me in my sufferings.”^[111] She asked for Mackenzie’s advice and felt she had “don so much for that femelly.”^[112] She showed awareness in this long, rambling letter of her legal rights, and again decided to employ her cousin as a demonstration to others that she still had influential contacts, but nevertheless felt pressure from her stepfamily. While these types of familial arrangements might encourage bonds of loyalty and friendship, such as between the ninth earl and his stepdaughters, there was also the possibility for animosity and distrust, and the relationship here offers insight into the pitfalls of widowhood resulting from a blended family. A stepson was certainly less likely to be compassionate towards his father’s elderly widow than his birth mother.

Lady Anna included representations of herself in letters to her Mackenzie cousin that she had used in her first widowhood, but by 1690 this language was being used in a remarkably different context. At this point, kinship, with frequent reminders of such bonds, took precedence over social standing when it came to establishing friendships and seeking out favours. She showed awareness of the strength and influence she had in her relationship with her cousin, which she used to her advantage when she felt financially vulnerable in the absence of her son and late husbands. Perhaps as a nod to Mackenzie’s frequent assistance in financial matters, Lady Anna quipped that if she “war the queen you should be my Lord Tresourer.”^[113]

Lady Anna’s son returned from exile in 1700 and was pardoned by Queen Anne in 1702.^[114] Her correspondence with Mackenzie ceased upon the return of her son and she died in the spring of 1707 at the age of eighty-six.^[115] In each stage of her life, Lady Anna’s power was derived from the ways in which she engaged with her network comprised of kin, both close and distant in blood relation. It was while she was a widow, however, that her networks proved to be of most use to her because of the vulnerability that she faced, which was often exacerbated by the estate’s precarious finances. She used language in her correspondence that presented herself as a struggling, God-fearing mother, whose suffering, fatherless children were in need of rescue. As time, age, and the general chaos of life ate away at Lady Anna’s network, she adjusted certain aspects of her language to reinforce her connections. Specifically, Lady Anna used her position as the daughter of a Highland lord to take advantage of her membership in her paternal clan to forge new bonds at a particularly challenging and advanced period of her life. Regardless of her frequent precarity, Lady Anna was undoubtedly a respected member of the nobility, whose friendship was desirable because of her extensive network. While her situation was greatly altered after 1685, she had learned to use vulnerability to her advantage when composing letters to her family. Any influence she held she used for the benefit of the Balcarres estate and to support her children, the future of the Lindsay line.

It is tempting to see Lady Anna as a favour-asker rather than a favour-granter and question the extent of her power. This may simply be due to drawbacks with the existing primary source material, since there was not always an uninterrupted flow of correspondence to draw from, but many of the letters suggest continued communication between sender and recipient. Certainly there were limitations to what she might accomplish, but power can be found in Lady Anna’s persistence and her ability to extract support from a fluctuating network throughout her life. It is clear that women were integral to the maintenance of relationships through correspondence, a task that was not always simple or straightforward in a period characterized by uncertainty. Regardless of the banality of conversation, letter-writing was a powerful activity for noblewomen in the seventeenth century. Lady Anna Mackenzie is only one example of an unapologetically resourceful aristocrat who consistently used an impressive array of connections for the survival of her noble family.