George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal (died 1623) was a Scottish

Kingdom of Scotland

The Kingdom of Scotland was a Sovereign state in North-West Europe that existed from 843 until 1707. It occupied the northern third of the island of Great Britain and shared a land border to the south with the Kingdom of England...

 nobleman and Earl Marischal

Earl Marischal

The title of Earl Marischal was created in the peerage of Scotland for William Keith, the Great Marischal of Scotland.The office of "Marischal of Scotland" had been held heritably by the senior member of the Keith family since Hervey de Keith, who held the office of Marischal under Malcolm IV and...

. He succeeded as earl on 7 October 1581, upon the death of his grandfather, William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal

William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal

William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal was a Scottish nobleman and politician.-Family background and career:Keith was born on 24 July 1506, the son of Robert Keith, Master of Marischal and Lady Elizabeth Douglas....

.

Described as one of the most important and powerful men of his day in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, he was sent as ambassador

Ambassador

An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

 to Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 in 1589 to negotiate the marriage of King James VI of Scotland

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

 to Anne of Denmark

Anne of Denmark

Anne of Denmark was queen consort of Scotland, England, and Ireland as the wife of King James VI and I.The second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark, Anne married James in 1589 at the age of fourteen and bore him three children who survived infancy, including the future Charles I...

. He founded the Marischal College

Marischal College

Marischal College is a building and former university in the centre of the city of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland. The building is owned by the University of Aberdeen and used for ceremonial events...

 in Aberdeen

Aberdeen

Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....

 in 1593 and was Royal commissioner

Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland

The Lord High Commissioners to the Parliament of Scotland, sometimes referred to as the fifth estate of the Estates of Scotland, were the Scottish Sovereign's personal representative to the Parliament of Scotland following James VI of Scotland's accession to the throne of England and his becoming,...

 to the Parliament of Scotland

Parliament of Scotland

The Parliament of Scotland, officially the Estates of Parliament, was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland. The unicameral parliament of Scotland is first found on record during the early 13th century, with the first meeting for which a primary source survives at...

 in 1609. He rebuilt his family seat

Family seat

A seat or family seat is the principal residence of a family. The residence usually denotes the social, economic, political, or historic connection of the family within a given area. Some families took their dynasty name from their family seat , or named their family seat after their own dynasty...

 of Keith Marischal

Keith Marischal

Keith Marischal is a Scottish Baronial Country house lying in the parish of Humbie, East Lothian, Scotland. The original building was an "L-shaped" Tower house, built long before 1589 when it was extended into a "U-shaped" courtyard house. In the nineteenth century the courtyard was filled in...

 in 1589.

He married firstly Margaret, the daughter of Alexander Home, 5th Lord Home

Alexander Home, 5th Lord Home

Alexander Home, 5th Lord Home was the son of George Home, 4th Lord Home and Mariotta Haliburton. He became Lord Home on the death of his father who was injured in a skirmish with the English two days before the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh.-Marriages:...

, by whom he had:

• William, 6th Earl Marischal
  William Keith, 6th Earl Marischal
  William Keith, 6th Earl Marischal was a Scottish lord, Earl Marischal and naval official.-Life:He was the eldest son of George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal and his wife, Margaret , daughter of Alexander Home, 5th Lord Home. He left for the continent in 1601, travelling for his education to Paris,...
  
  .
• Anne who married William Douglas, 7th Earl of Morton
  William Douglas, 7th Earl of Morton
  William Douglas, 7th Earl of Morton was a grandson of the 6th Earl of Morton. He was Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, and a zealous Royalist, who, on the outbreak of the Great Rebellion in 1642, provided £100,000 for the cause by selling his Dalkeith estates to the Earl of Buccleuch...
  
  .
• Margaret who married (as his 1st wife) Sir Robert Arbuthnott, of that ilk but had no issue.

He married secondly, Margaret daughter of James, 6th Lord Ogilvy of Airlie

Earl of Airlie

Earl of Airlie is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created on 2 April 1639 for James Ogilvy, 7th Lord Ogilvy of Airlie, along with the title Lord Ogilvy of Alith and Lintrathen...

, by whom he had:

• James Keith of Benholm who had no male issue.
• John Keith who had no issue.