Agnes Randolph

Agnes Randolph, Countess of Dunbar and March, was a fourteenth-century Scottish noblewoman remembered as ‘Black Agnes’. During the Second War of Scottish Independence, she directed the defence of Dunbar Castle against an English siege in 1338.

Her determined resistance made her one of medieval Scotland’s best-known female defenders. Accounts of the siege emphasise her confidence, political authority and ability to sustain a garrison under prolonged pressure.

In Nigel Tranter’s Courting Favour, John Cospatrick Dunbar, a younger son of the ninth Earl of Dunbar and March and of the formidable Agnes Randolph—Black Agnes—expects neither an earldom nor high office.