and repeated by later writers, though there is sufficient evidence to the contrary. Thus, on 3 May 1398, he was ordered by his brother, Robert III, to deliver up the castle of Spynie to William, bishop of Moray (Registrum Moraviense, p. 208); and in 1402 the king wrote to him as crown bailie over the earldom of Athole (Memorials of the Family of Wemyss, &c., ed. Fraser, ii. 44). Other evidence, and specially that of the exchequer rolls of Scotland (iii. 600, 634), points to the date of the earl's death as the end of 1404 or beginning of 1405, probably February 1405. The earl had no issue by his wife, but he had several natural children, Alexander (who became Earl of Mar) [q. v.], Duncan, Sir Andrew of Sandhauch, Walter and James; also a daughter Margaret, who married Robert, earl of Sutherland. The earl's tomb is still to be seen in the church of Dunkeld, though much defaced, having, it is said, been destroyed by the Cameronian regiment stationed in Dunkeld in 1689. His earldom of Buchan fell into the hands of the crown, and was conferred in 1406 on his nephew, John Stewart (1381?–1424) [q. v.]
[The popular view of the ‘Wolf of Badenoch’ is portrayed in the novel of that name, by Sir Thomas Dick-Lauder; see also authorities quoted under Stewart, Alexander, Earl of Mar.]
STEWART, ALEXANDER, Earl of Mar (1375?–1435), born about 1375, was natural son of Alexander Stewart, earl of Buchan [q. v.], the ‘Wolf of Badenoch,’ who himself was natural son of Robert II [q. v.] of Scotland. He was brought up to his father's trade as a leader of freebooters, but in 1404, by one of the most daring acts of that lawless age, ‘he raised himself from a captain of robbers to be one of the greatest men in Scotland’ (Exchequer Rolls, 1406–1436, pref. p. lxxiii). This deed was the seizure and marriage of Isabel (1360?–1408), countess of Mar in her own right. She was only daughter and heir of Margaret, countess of Mar, in her own right, by her first husband, William Douglas, first earl of Douglas [q. v.] (her second husband was Sir John Swinton [q. v.]). By the death of her only brother James, second earl of Douglas, in 1388, Isabel had come into the Douglas estates, and in 1390 she succeeded to her mother's earldom of Mar. She had married Sir Malcolm Drummond, the brother of Robert III's wife, Annabella.
Alexander Stewart determined to obtain this lady's hand, fortune, and title. His first step was to instigate the murder of Drummond, which was accomplished in May 1403. In August of the following year, at the head of a body of marauders, he laid siege to the castle of Kildrummy, where the widowed countess resided, and on the 12th he compelled her to make a charter settling on him and his heirs, in default of her own issue, the earldom of Mar. This charter he resigned on 19 Sept. following, when the countess chose him ‘in free marriage’ for her husband, and settled on him and their issue the earldom of Mar, castle of Kildrummy, and other estates. The marriage took place on 14 Dec. 1404, and the arrangement subsequently received the necessary royal confirmation. From this date Stewart became known as the Earl of Mar. His wife died before 10 Feb. 1407–8, leaving no issue.
This change in his fortunes rendered Stewart in appearance at least a supporter of law and order, and in 1406 he was one of the ambassadors sent to England to treat for peace. On 6 April 1407 he received a safe-conduct until Michaelmas to go to England and tilt with Edmund Holland, fourth earl of Kent [see under Holland, Thomas, second Earl], and he is said to have distinguished himself in the encounter (Cal. Doc. relating to Scotland, 1221–1435, No. 730; Wyntoun, c. 27). In the following year he led a body of auxiliaries to help William of Bavaria, Count of Holland and Hainault, in restoring his brother John to the bishopric of Liège, from which he had been expelled by a revolt of the citizens. On the way Mar visited Paris, where by his courtesy he endeavoured to secure the favour of the French (Michel, Les Ecossais en France, i. 109–10). He took part in the storming of Liège on 23 Sept. (Juvenal des Ursins, Hist. de Charles VI, ed. Godefroy, p. 417; Wyntoun, ii. 421–40; Mémoires de Pierre de Fenin, pp. 8–14; Monstrelet, Chroniques, i. 351, ii. 17; Monk of St. Denis, ii. 684), and his exploits are recorded in a ballad printed in ‘Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de France et de Bourgogne,’ 1729, i. 373. While in Flanders he married his second wife, Marie, daughter and heir of Willelm van Hoorn of Duffel in Brabant, and widow of Thierry de Lienden (d. 1408), and as a result of this visit he is said to have first introduced Hungarian horses into Scotland (Stewart, Metrical Version of Hector Boece, iii. 550). On 4 Oct. 1408 he received a safe-conduct to visit England, probably on his way back, in order to confer with the young king, James I (Cal. Doc. relating to Scotland, 1221–1435, No. 772). In 1409 he captured at sea a ship called the
