Another Witch Finder Murder
She was a noblewoman of Scottish ancestry, Lady Janet Douglas. A lady of Glamis Castle, located in Angus Scotland. She met and married the Earl Of Strathmore and 6th Lord Of Glamis Castle, John Lyon in 1527; in the days of the witch finders. Little did she know that, fate’s injustice would end her life.
Paranoia is never pretty, it consumes the human mind, like a ravaged beast from the backwoods; hate consumes even more. James V was paranoid, too paranoid about witches, and he hated Clan Douglas; feuding with them got out of hand and his stepfather, happened to be a Douglas. James’s greatest desire was not to kill his stepfather, oh no, that would be too kind; no, he would get dish up his hatred in a more sinister way.
When John Lyon died of unspecified causes in 1528, a mournful Lady Janet, left quite vulnerable, became James’s
arrow, by which to, destroy the good name, of the house of Douglas. By this time, his hatred had turned to seething rage.
James had Lady Janet arrested and imprisoned for witchcraft, accusing her of poisoning her husband. He coveted Glamis Castle for his own, he also made accusations towards her son, John.
Though Lady Janet was widely loved and respected, which gave James a bit of difficulty in trying to make his accusations stick, he did manage to so by torturing servants and family members. Many people were placed on the rack, presenting them with enough agony that they pleaded and finally agreed to testify against Lady Janet. Her son was made to watch these abuses before he endured the rack. Her trial was reminiscent of Joan Of Arc’s; she was proclaimed guilty before it even began. In the end, it was false testimony that doomed she and John.
Nearly blinded from her long imprisonment in the dungeons of Edinburgh Castle, Lady Janet Douglas was led to her own execution scaffold on July 17, 1537 and burned to death. A 16-year-old John, was forced to watch. It was said of a witness to her funeral pyre, “She suffered with great commiseration.”
Not too long after her execution, her ghost began returning to Glamis, her beloved home. She’s often seen, kneeling in prayer at the altar of the Castle Chapel. Janet is most commonly known as, The Grey Lady Of Glamis.
Knocking sounds are heard there, said to be the pounding of hammers upon her scaffold boards, as it was being erected. The Queen Mother, I’ve read, has heard the sound of the pounding builders. Folks often say they’ve felt a great sadness overtake them as they entered the chapel.
In the turret, above the Castle’s clock tower, some claim to have had a vision of her, tied to the stake and burning in the fiery flames. This immense and unfounded in justice, perpetrated by King James V, stands as a testament to the corruption of which, leaders are capable.
To this very day, a seat in the Glamis Chapel, is reserved for Lady Janet Douglas’s prayer time; no one else is allowed to sit upon it. Her son, the 7th Lord of Glamis, after years in his dark, dank cell was, released and Parliament restored Glamis to his ownership. It’s been said that King James confessed remorse about the situation upon his death bed; much too late for Janet.
Given what she endured, it’s no wonder Lady Janet Douglas is a ghost, perhaps she’ll continue to haunt her beloved castle for, many more centuries.
I first learned of Lady Janet, when my Mother was researching her family tree. I wondered if there were any royalty or nobility in my ancestry, so I set out on my own search. Sometimes when one researches their ancestry, they find good things and bad. There are many good things in my family tree but, I wanted to tell Lady Janet’s story. Her life and death stand as a testament to humankind’s inhumanity to humankind.
Copyright, 2019, M.L. Kiser
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