ROBERT STEWART II b 1316 King of Scotland
Robert II (2 March 1316 – 19 April 1390) reigned as King of Scotland from 1371 to his death in 1390 as the first monarch of the House of Stewart. He was the son of Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland and of Marjorie Bruce, daughter of the Scottish king Robert the Bruce by his first wife Isabella of Mar.
Robert II (2 March 1316 – 19 April 1390) reigned as King of Scotland from 1371 to his death in 1390 as the first monarch of the House of Stewart. He was the son of Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland and of Marjorie Bruce, daughter of the Scottish king Robert the Bruce by his first wife Isabella of Mar.
Edward Bruce, younger brother of Robert the Bruce, was named heir presumptive but died without heirs on 3 December 1318. Marjorie had died probably in 1317 in a riding accident and parliament decreed her infant son, Robert Stewart, as heir presumptive, but this lapsed on 5 March 1324 on the birth of a son, David, to King Robert and his second wife, Elizabeth de Burgh. Robert Stewart became High Steward of Scotland on his father’s death on 9 April 1326, and in the same year parliament confirmed the young Steward as heir should Prince David die without a successor. In 1329 King Robert I died and the six-year-old David succeeded to the throne under the guardianship of Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray.
Edward Balliol, son of King John Balliol—assisted by the English and those Scottish nobles who had been disinherited by Robert I—invaded Scotland inflicting heavy defeats on the Bruce party on 11 August 1332 at Dupplin Moor and Halidon Hill on 19 July 1333. Robert, who had fought at Halidon joined his uncle, King David in refuge in Dumbarton Castle. David escaped to France in 1334 and parliament, still functioning, appointed Robert and John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray as joint Guardians of the kingdom. Randolph was captured by the English in July 1335 and in the same year Robert submitted to Balliol bringing about the removal of his guardianship. The office was reinstated in 1338 and Robert held it until David’s return from France in June 1341. Hostilities continued and Robert was with David at the Neville’s Cross on 17 October 1346 and either escaped or fled the field but David was captured and remained a prisoner until he was ransomed in October 1357.
Robert married Elizabeth Mure around 1348, legitimising his four sons and five daughters. His subsequent marriage to Euphemia de Ross in 1355 produced two sons and two surviving daughters. Robert rebelled against the King in 1363 but submitted to him following a threat to his right of succession. David died in 1371 and Robert succeeded him at the age of fifty-five. The border magnates continued to attack English-held zones in southern Scotland and by 1384, the Scots had re-taken most of the occupied lands. Robert ensured that Scotland was included in the Anglo-French truce of 1384 and that was a factor in the coup in November when he lost control of the country first to his eldest son, John, and then from 1388 to John’s younger brother, Robert. King Robert died in Dundonald Castle in 1390 and was buried at Scone Abbey.
Marriages and issue
In 1336, he first married Elizabeth Mure (died 1355), daughter of Sir Adam Mure of Rowallan. The marriage was criticized for being uncanonical, so he remarried her in 1349 after receiving a papal dispensation in 1347.[84]
From this union, ten children reached adulthood:[85]
- John (died 1406), who became King of Scotland as Robert III, married Anabella Drummond.
- Walter (died in 1363), husband of Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Fife.
- Robert, Earl of Fife and from 1398 Duke of Albany (died 1420), married in 1361 Margaret Graham, Countess of Menteith, and his second wife in 1381 Muriella Keith (died in 1449).
- Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan (died 1405), nicknamed “The Wolf of Badenoch”, married in 1382 to Euphemia of Ross.
- Margaret, married John of Islay, Lord of the Isles.
- Marjorie, married John Dunbar, Earl of Moray, then Sir Alexander Keith.
- Elizabeth married Thomas de la Hay, Lord High Constable of Scotland.
- Isabella (died 1410), married James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas (died in 1388), followed in 1389 by John Edmonstone of that Ilk.
- Johanna (Jean), married Sir John Keith (died 1375), then John Lyon, Lord of Glamis (died 1383) and finally Sir James Sandilands.
- Katherine, married Sir Robert Logan of Grugar and Restalrig, Lord High Admiral of Scotland.
In 1355, Robert married his second wife Euphemia de Ross (died 1387), daughter of Hugh, Earl of Ross. They had four children:[85]
- David Stewart, Earl of Strathearn, born about 1356 and died in 1389.
- Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl, born about 1360, beheaded at Edinburgh in 1437 for being involved in the assassination of King James I.
- Elizabeth, who married in 1380 David Lindsay, 1st Earl of Crawford.
- Egidia, who married in 1387 William Douglas of Nithsdale.
King Robert II has also many illegitimate children with several mistresses, including four sons with his favorite Mariota de Cardeny, daughter of Sir John Cardeny, and widow of Alexander Mac Naugthon:
- Alexander Stewart, of Inverlunan
- Sir John Stewart, of Cardeny
- James Stewart, of Abernethy and Kinfauna
- Walter Stewart
By Moira Leitch (according to tradition):
- Sir John Stewart, Sheriff of Bute (1360 – d.1445/9), ancestor of the Marquesses of Bute[86][87]
Other issue born by unknown women.
- John Stewart, Lord of Burley (killed 1425)
- Alexander Stewart, canon of Glasgow
- Sir Alexander Stewart of Inverlunan
- Thomas Stewart, Archdeacon of St Andrews, Dean of Dunkeld
- James Stewart of Kinfauns
- Walter Stewart
- Maria or Mary Stewart, wife of Sir John de Danielstoun and mother of Sir Robert de Danielstoun of that Ilk (ancestor of Cunningham of Kilmaurs, and Maxwell of Calderwood)[8