Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland
Alexander Stewart | |
|---|---|
| 4th High Steward of Scotland | |
 Coat of arms of Stewart, High Stewards of Scotland: Or, a fess chequy argent and azure. The fess is an allusion to the chequered tablecloth used by the High Steward in the Court of Exchequer for counting money | |
| Tenure | 1246–1283 |
| Predecessor | Walter Stewart, 3rd High Steward of Scotland |
| Successor | James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland |
| Died | 1283 |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Parents | Walter Stewart, 3rd High Steward of Scotland Bethóc (Beatrix) Mac Gille Críst |
Alexander Stewart (died 1283), also known as Alexander of Dundonald, was 4th hereditary High Steward of Scotland from his father's death in 1246.
Origins[]
He was a son of Walter Stewart, 3rd High Steward of Scotland by his wife Bethóc, daughter of Gille Críst, Earl of Angus.
Career[]
He is said to have accompanied King Louis IX of France on the Seventh Crusade (1248–1254).[1] In 1255 he was one of the councillors of King Alexander III of Scotland, though under age.[2]
He was the principal commander under King Alexander III at the Battle of Largs, on 2 October 1263, when the Scots defeated the Norwegians under Haakon IV. The Scots invaded and conquered the Isle of Man the following year, which was then, together with the whole of the Western Isles, annexed to the Crown of Scotland.[3][4]
Marriage and issue[]
He married Jean, heiress of the Isles of Bute and Arran, daughter of James Mac Angus (d.1210) (who, with his father and brothers, was killed by the men of Skye), son of Aonghus, Lord of Bute & Arran (younger son of Somerled, King of the South Isles). By his wife he had the following issue:[5][6]
- James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland (c. 1260–1309), eldest son and heir; grandfather of King Robert II of Scotland, the first Stewart King of Scots, and thus direct male ancestor of all seven subsequent Scottish monarchs until Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587) - who married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (1545-1567) (a male descendant of the 5th High Steward's younger brother Sir John Stewart (d.1298), founder of the Bonkyll line (see below)) by whom she had issue King James I & VI of England and Scotland, ancestor of the post-Tudor monarchs of England and Scotland, later of Great Britain, finally of the United Kingdom.
- Sir John Stewart (d. 22 July 1298), 2nd son, who married Margaret de Bonkyll, the heiress of Bonkyll Castle in Berwickshire, by whom he had seven sons and one daughter, thus founding the line of "Stewart of Bonkyll". He was the male line ancestor of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, who by his wife Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587), the heiress of the senior royal Stewart line descended from James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland (c. 1260–1309) (see above), was the father of King James VI and I of Scotland and England. He was killed in 1298 at the Battle of Falkirk.[7][8]
Heraldic augmentation of honour (Argent, a lion rampant gules debruised by a bend raguly or) supposed to have been granted to Sir Alexander Steward "The Fierce" by King Charles VI of France[9]
- Andrew Stewart,[10] third son,[11] who married the daughter of James Bethe. His son is supposed in many sources (possibly most notably the Heraldic Visitations of Cambridgeshire[12]) to have been Sir Alexander Steward "The Fierce", whose existence has been questioned by some historians, and who is quoted in bogus ancient pedigrees as the ancestor of the English gentry family of "Steward" or "Styward", of the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire, from which family was the mother of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell,[13][14][15] who (therefore ironically) tried to bring an end to the royal house of Stuart. However "the Lord Protector himself never took it seriously, though he did once joke that his mother was a Stuart at a drinking party in Edinburgh in 1651".[16] This family, of which the most influential was Robert Steward (d. 1557) Dean of Ely, assumed the coat of arms of the Scottish Stewarts, Or, a fess chequy argent and azure, as is visible on their elaborate monuments in Ely Cathedral.[17] In addition they bore a supposed augmentation of honour (Argent, a lion rampant gules debruised by a bend raguly or) said to have been granted to Sir Alexander Steward "The Fierce" by King Charles VI of France (1380-1422).[18] However the supposed familial connection between the Stewart family of Scotland, Hereditary High Stewards and kings of Scotland, and the English "Steward" or "Styward" family of the Isle of Ely, has been definitively disproven by the renowned genealogists Horace Round (Studies in Peerage and Family History, 1907)[19][20] and Walter Rye (Two Cromwellian Myths, 1925, and The Steward Genealogy and Cromwell's "Royal Descent").[21]
- Elizabeth Stewart (d. before 1288), who married Sir William Douglas the Hardy, Governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed. She was the mother of the James Douglas, Lord of Douglas ("Good Sir James Douglas").[22]
- Hawise Stewart, who married John de Soulis (died 1310), who was the Guardian of Scotland and the brother of the Lord of Liddesdale.[23]
- Lady Beatrix Alice Stewart (Lady of Crawford) married Sir Alexander Lindsay (died 1308), Lord of Barnweill, Byres and Crawford
Sources[]
- Nisbet, Alexander, 1722. Vol.1,p. 48; and appendix, page 149.
- Burke, Messrs., John and John Bernard, The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales, and Their Descendants &c., volume 2, London, 1851, p. xlii.
- Anderson, William, "The Scottish Nation", Edinburgh, 1867, vol.vii, p. 200.
- Mackenzie, A. M., MA., D.Litt., The Rise of the Stewarts, London, 1935, pp. 13–14.
- The Marquis de Ruvigny & Raineval, The Jacobite Peerage &c., London & Edinburgh (1904), 1974 reprint, p. 8n.</ref> Agnatic ancestor of British kings.
References[]
- ^ Simpson, David, The Genealogical and Chronological History of the Stuarts, Edinburgh, 1713.
- ^ Anderson, William, The Scottish Nation, Edinburgh, 1867, vol.ix, p.512
- ^ Burke, Messrs., John and John Bernard, The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales, with Their Descendants &c., volume 2, London, 1851, p. xli-xlii.
- ^ Anderson (1867) vil.ix, p.512
- ^ Sir James Balfour Paul. The Scots Peerage: founded on Wood's edition of Sir Robert Douglas's, The Peerage of Scotland, (Edinburgh, Scotland: David Douglas, 1904), vol. 1, p. 13.
- ^ Mosley, Charles, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th ed., 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books, Ltd., 2003), vol. 1, p. 449.
- ^ Paul, James Balfour (1904). The Scottish Peerage. p. 169.
- ^ "Bunkle Castle". Historic Environment Scotland.
- ^ Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, 1777, pp.183-5[1]
- ^ International Genealogical Index Source Batch No. 6020347, Sheet 65, Source Call No. 1621525
- ^ Visitations of Cambridgeshire, 1575 & 1619
- ^ Clay, J. W., ed. (1897). The Visitation of Cambridge made in Anno 1575, continued and enlarged with the Visitation of the same county made by Henery St George, Richmond Herald, marshall and deputy to Willm. Camden, Clarenceulx, in Anno 1619, with many other descents added thereto. Harleian Society, 1st ser. 41. London, pp.7-11, pedigree of "Stuart" [2]
- ^ Noble, Mark, Memoirs of the Protectoral House of Cromwell, London, 1757, vol.2, p.204
- ^ Foster, John, The Statesmen of the Commonwealth of England, London, 1830, vol.4, p.305
- ^ Lauder-Frost, 2004, p.152.
- ^ History Today, Volume 49, Issue 4 April 1999[3]
- ^ See monument of Mark Steward (1524-1604), MPFile:Tomb of Sir Mark Steward - geograph.org.uk - 1771165.jpg (STEWARD, Mark (1524-1604), of Heckfield, Hants; later of Stuntney, Cambs. Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981 [4]
- ^ Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, 1777, pp.183-5[5]
- ^ Round, J. Horace, Studies in Peerage and Family History, London, 1907, pp.115-146
- ^ "The pedigree (i.e. of "Steward" or "Styward" of the Isle of Ely) was declared bogus by "that redoubtable genealogist" Dr Horace Round, who "had great pleasure in refuting ... (and) proved beyond doubt that these Stewards were originally pig keepers in Norfolk (hence ("sty ward"), probably of illegitimate descent and nothing to do with the King's family" (The Escutcheon, Volume 25, No. 3, Michaelmas Term, 2021 , pp.64-5[6])
- ^ Rye, Walter, Two Cromwellian Myths, Norwich, 1925. 3-74; also Rye, Walter, The Steward Genealogy and Cromwell's "Royal Descent"[7]
- ^ Maxwell, Sir Herbert, Bt., A History of the House of Douglas, London, 1902, vol.1, p.28.
- ^ Cokayne; Gibbs; Doubleday; Howard de Walden (1932) p. 206.
Bibliography[]
- Cokayne, GE; Gibbs, V; Doubleday, HA; Howard de Walden, eds. (1932). The Complete Peerage. Vol. Vol. 8. London: The St Catherine Press.
{{cite book}}:|volume=has extra text (help) - Lauder-Frost, Gregory, F.S.A.Scot., "East Anglian Stewarts" in The Scottish Genealogist, Dec.2004, vol.LI, no.4., pps:151-161. ISSN 0330-337X
- MacEwen, ABW (2011). "The Wives of Sir James the Steward (d.1309)". Foundations. 3 (5): 391–398.
- Sellar, WDH (2000). "Hebridean Sea Kings: The Successors of Somerled, 1164–1316". In Cowan, EJ; McDonald, RA (eds.). Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Middle Ages. East Linton: Tuckwell Press. pp. 187–218. ISBN 1-86232-151-5.
External links[]
Categories:
- 1283 deaths
- House of Stuart
- Christians of the Seventh Crusade
- High Stewards of Scotland