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Robert Stewart
and Murdoch Stewart - Dukes of Albany and Governers of Scotland
Robert and Murdoch
Stewart, father and son, descended of royal blood, and traitors
to the crown of Scotland.
Robert Stewart
was born in 1339 at Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. He was the second
son of Robert II King of Scotland and Elizabeth Mure of Rowallan.
In 1361 - at
age 21 - Robert married Margaret Graham, daughter of Sir John
Graham of Abercorn and Mary Mentieth, Countess of Mentieth.
Through the marriage he became became Earl of Menteth - in right
of his wife. In 1362 his eldest son Murdoch was born, and in 1371
he became the Earl of Fife following the resignation of his sister-in-law
Elizabeth - wife of Walter who died in 1362.
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Late in
his reign Robert II started handing over some of his power
to his son John - who was still Earl of Carrick at the time.
In 1388 John was seriously injured in a riding accident and
King Robert II, his elderly father, had Robert - then Earl
of Fife - appointed 'Guardian of the Realm'. King
Robert II died in Dundonald Castle on April 13, 1390, and
in August 1390, Fife's crippled brother, John - who had changed
his name to at the request of his lords - ascended the throne
as Robert III.
Robert
(John) III was a weak sovereign and as one contemporary observed:
"In those days there was no law in Scotland, but he who was
the stronger oppressed him who was weaker, and the whole kingdom
was a den of thieves." Robert
(John) recognised his weakenesses, and due to his frailty
and poor health, allowed his brother - Robert, Earl of Fife
- to maintain the
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Dundonald
- Stewart Ancestoral Home |
authority of the
kingdom by appointing him guardian or Governor of Scotland. Robert
was an ambitious man and more concerned with his own advancement than
the rule of the Kingdom.
In 1391 Robert's
son Murdoch, now the Earl of Mentieth, married Isabel de Levernax,
daughter of Duncan Earl of Lennox, further consolidating
his fathers power base.
In March 1398,
with his nephew David, Robert - Earl of Fife - had an interview
with John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancasterm and other English commissioners.
As a result both the Earl of Fife and his nephew became the first
Dukes ever created in Scotland. The Earl of Fife became Duke of
Albany and his nephew Duke of Rothesay. Albany was a territorial
term representing the eastern part of the Scottish highlands, roughly
the former Kingdom of the Picts.
In 1399 Robert
(John) II - recognising his brothers ambition - he passed control
of the Kingdom to his eldest son - then 21 year old - David, Duke
of Rothesay.
David proved
to be irresponsible and wild, and in 1401, after two short years
of acting as Governor and running the country, Robert III asked
him to step down. He refused, thus forcing the King - at his brothers
prompting - to have his own son arrested. David was placed in the
custody of his uncle, Robert, the Duke of Albany and imprisoned
at Falkland Castle. Within months of this the Queen - Anabella Drummond
- died, and the King's health began to seriously fail.
Doune Castle
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Robert
- now Duke of Albany and Fife - again assumed the role of
Governor of Scotland. In March 1402 - within a year of his
imprisonment under his uncle's care - the heir to the throne,
David, Duke of Rothesday died. Although there were no external
marks on the young man, it appeared as though he died of starvation.
Many suspected that Robert, Duke of Albany held great ambitions
to the throne, and that he had caused the death of the young
Duke. Robert (John) III called a judicial inquiry, but by
now, the power of the Duke was great, and he was very quickly
exonerated of the charge when parliament found that the death
had been caused by "Divine providence and not otherwise"
David's
death in 1402 had left his brother James - now eight - as
heir to the throne. In the August of 1402
Robert - Duke of Albany and Fife - had his plans thrown into
disarray, when his eldest son Murdoch was captured by the
English at the Battle of Homildon.
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In early 1406,
Robert's brother Alexander died, and he succeeded him to the Earldom
of Buchan, adding to both his holdings and his power base, so very
early in 1406 Robert (John) III - wary of his brothers growing power
- decided to send the 11 year old James to France for his own protection.
Young James
Stewart was loaded on to a ship of Danzig named the Maryenknycht.
The ship never made it to France, as it was captured by English
'pirates' and young James was sent to the court of Henry IV of England.
Apparently, this was too much for James father, as he died on the
4th of April 1406, just after recieving news of his son's kidnapping
would have reached him.
The Scottish
Parliament immediately pronounced young James Stewart as King of
Scotland. But since the King was in the captivity of the English,
his Uncle Robert was made Regent of Scotland. Robert moved the seat
to Doune Castle
During Albany's
rule the struggle with England went on, and the Scotlands 'Auld
Alliance' with France was continued. At home he allowed the nobles
much power but put down (1411) a rebellion of Donald MacDonald,
Lord of the Isles. It should be said that in the years of his reign
as Governor, several of Albany's opponents met with sudden, mysterious
deaths.
In 1416 Albany
ransomed his son and Murdoch Stewart was released from the Tower
of London and returned to Scotland to help his father govern, but
the young King James I of Scotland, remained in captivity in England,
serving time in the tower, the English court and at other English
strongholds for his 'safety'. Many Scots nobles felt that this was
an obvious grab for power, and were betrayed that he had made no
attempt to ransom the young King James. It
is important to note that at that stage England had a strict policy
which kept James I captive, so no ransom would have seen him released.
On the 3rd of
September 1420, the Robert Stewart - Regent and Governor of Scotland,
Duke of Albany, Earl of Menteith, Earl of Atholl, Earl of Buchan.
Earl of Fife - died at Stirling Castle. Despite never wearing a
crown, he had ruled Scotland well for over 20 years through a combination
of cunning, negotiation and ruthlessness. He is buried at Dunfermline
Abbey.
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He left
the title of Earl of Buchan to his son John, while his son
Murdoch Stewart became the new Duke of Albany and assumed
the role as Regent and Governor of Scotland. Murdoch Stewart
may have inherited power from his father but he had not a
fraction of the intelligence or political skills of Robert
Stewart. Both the economy and administration of the Kingdom
suffered under his rule. His sons were said to be lawless
and violent.
Meanwhile
many of the nobles of Scotland started to actively pursue
the return of the rightful King James, who had married Joan
Beaufort in 1423 - at which time he had been in captivity
for seventeen years. And England struggling in it 100 year
war with France agreed to release the King for the fee of
60,000 merks - tactfully labeled as the Kings 'expenses' during
his stay - and the agreement that no more Scots would fight
against them in France.
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Arms of
Murdoch Stewart |
In the spring
of 1424 - after eighteen years in captivity - James I, King of Scotland
returned to his home with his new wife. He wasted no time wresting
control of the country from the hand of his own family, and resolved
to punish the Albany branch of his own kindred.
On the 13th
of May, 1424, Sir Walter Stewart, eldest son of the Duke of Albany;
Malcolm Fleming, brother-in-law of Albany; and Thomas Boyd, a member
of the Kilmarnock family, were arrested and imprisoned; and towards
the end of this year, the Earl of Lennox, father-in-law of Albany,
and Sir Robert Graham, were seized and imprisoned.
This was the
prelude to a desperate move and tragedy meditated by the King. He
summoned a Parliament, which met at Perth on the 12th of March,
1425. On the ninth day of the Parliament, the Duke of Albany and
his son, Sir Alexander Stewart ; the Earls of Douglas, March, and
Angus ; William Hay of Erroll ; Sir Alexander Seton of Gordon ;
Sir Alexander Irvine of Drum ; David Stewart, the Earl of Strathern
and son of Robert II and Euphemia of Ross; James Stewart, Master
of Atholl and son of Walter Stuart, Earl of Atholl ; and others—in
all thirty barons and knights—were arrested. At the same time the
King seized the castles of Falkland and Doune, and imprisoned Albany’s
wife in the castle of Tantallon.
These proceedings
astonished the Scottish barons and knights; but the move was specially
directed against the Duke of Albany and his family, so the many
of the lords barons were released after a very short imprisonment.
In May, Parliament
reassembled at Stirling, and prepared to settle the doom of Albany
and his family. A court was held in Stirling Castle on, the 26th
of May, 1426. David and James Stewart to imprisonment in England
while Walter Stewart, the eldest son of Albany, was tried before
the King and a jury of twenty-one barons; he was found guilty, condemned,
and immediately beheaded.
The following
day, the King’s own cousin, the Duke of Albany, and his son, Alexander,
and the aged Earl of Lennox, were tried, convicted, and sentenced
to death, and all lands and titles forfeited. They were all executed
before the Castle of Stirling. and buried in the Church of the Black
Friars, Stirling. Their heads were transported to the 'Red' Douglas
stronghold of Tantallon castle where they were thrown into the dungeon
beside the captive Duchess of Albany in an effort to drive her insane.
Albany and his
sons were men of stalwart and commanding presence, and their hard
fate at the hands of the King excited much sympathy amongst the
people, and in retaliation Murdoch's surviving son James "the
Gross" Stewart, accompanied by a band of Lennox rebels attacked
Dumbarton, burning it and killing the governor of the castle - John
"the Red" Stewart, illegitimate son of Robert II.
James "the
Gross" then fled to Ireland - taking with him the widow and
children of his brother Walter - where he called himself King of
Scots and began to mass a huge army to invade the west coast of
Scotland. But he died before the English and the MacDonalds Lords
of the Isles could help him seize the Scots throne from James I.
He was ancestor to the Stewarts of Ardvorlich.
Walter's sons
Andrew, Arthur and Walter, had letters of legitimisation under the
Great Seal on 17th April 1479. Andrew, under the designation of
Andrew Stewart of Albany, was a member of James II's council in
1440, and later, created Lord Avondale, became Chancellor of Scotland.
His title passed to his nephew Andrew - son of Walter - upon his
death in 1488.
After her release
the Duchess of Albany, daughter and heiress of the Earl of Lennox
had taken refuge in a fastness of her island castle of Inchmurrin
in Loch Lomond, the after the death of James I, in 1437, the Duchess
of Albany regained her Lennox inheritance. Her granddaughter Matilda
From Murdochs
legitimate son Walter are descended the Lords of Avondale and Ochiltree,
ancestors of Margaret Stuart wife of John
Knox, their daughter Elizabeth Knox wife of John
Welsh and Isobella Todd my GGGG
grandmother
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