commissioners, sent to Paris to endeavour to secure that the interests of Scotland would be respected in the proposed treaty between England and France, but the mission was unsuccessful. On 17 Feb. 1303–4 he had a safe-conduct to go to England to treat of peace; and having submitted himself absolutely to the king's will in November 1305 (ib. No. 1713), he on 23 Oct. 1306 subscribed an oath of submission and fealty (ib. No. 1843). Nevertheless he was one of the Scots barons who on 16 March 1309 wrote to Philip, king of France, recognising Bruce's right to the Scottish throne. He died on 16 July 1309, and was buried at Paisley. By his wife Cecilia, daughter of Patrick, earl of Dunbar, he had three sons and a daughter: Walter (see below); Sir John, killed at the battle of Dundalk with Edward Bruce, earl of Carrick, in 1318; Sir James of Durisdeer; and Egidia, married to Alexander de Menyers or Menzies.
Walter Stewart (1293–1326), the eldest son, who succeeded his father as high steward, distinguished himself under Bruce in the English wars. At the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, though then, according to Barbour, ‘but a beardless hyne,’ he, with Sir James Douglas, commanded the left wing. In the following year Robert Bruce gave him his daughter Marjory in marriage, along with the barony of Bathgate, Linlithgowshire, and other lands; and in 1316, during the absence of Bruce in Ireland, he was, with Sir James Douglas, entrusted with the government of the kingdom. On the capture of Berwick from the English, Bruce entrusted the defence of the town and castle to Stewart, who, after repelling all the efforts of Edward to take them by assault, until the defeat of the English at Mitton, eventually compelled Edward to raise the siege. He signed the letter to the pope on 6 April 1320 asserting the independence of Scotland (Acta Parl. Scotl. i. 474). In 1322 he was engaged with Douglas and Randolph in the attempt to surprise Edward at Byland Abbey near Malton, Yorkshire, and after the escape of Edward pursued him with five hundred horse to the gates of York. He died on 9 April 1326, and was buried at Paisley. By his wife, Marjory Bruce, who died in 1316, he had a son Robert, who succeeded to the Scottish throne as Robert II [q. v.] After her death he married Isabel, daughter of Sir John Graham of Abercorn, by whom he had two sons, Sir John of Ralston and Sir Andrew. He is also stated to have married as his first wife Alice, daughter of Sir John Erskine, and to have had by her an only child Jean, the first wife of Hugh, earl of Ross; but this must be regarded as doubtful.
[Documents illustrative of the History of Scotland, ed. Stevenson, vol. i.; Cal. Documents relating to the History of Scotland, 1272–1307 and 1307–1357; Acta Parl. Scot. vol. i.; Barbour's Bruce; Chronicles of Fordun and Wyntoun; Andrew Stuart's Genealogical History of the Stewarts; Douglas's Scottish Peerage, ed. Wood, i. 44–7.]
STEWART, JAMES, Duke of Ross (1476?–1504), archbishop of St. Andrews and lord high chancellor of Scotland, son of James III, by Margaret, daughter of Christian III of Denmark, was born about 1476, and at his baptism was created Marquis of Ormond. On 23 Jan. 1480–1 he obtained a grant of the earldom of Ross, with the castle of Dingwall (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1424–1513, No. 1457), and on 5 April 1481 of the lands of Brechin and Navar (ib. No. 1470). On 23 Jan. 1488 he was created Duke of Ross, Marquis of Ormond, Earl of Edirdale, and lord of Brechin and Navar (Acta Parl. Scot. ii. 181). A plot was formed in April 1491 by Sir John Ramsay, earl of Bothwell [q. v.], for the deliverance of the Duke of Ross and his brother, James IV, into the hands of Henry VII, but it came to nothing. In 1498 the duke was appointed to the see of St. Andrews, and went to Rome to be confirmed by the pope. There his appearance attracted the admiration of Ariosto, who in ‘Orlando Furioso’ (canto x.), while describing him as peerless in personal beauty and grace, refers in terms of almost equal but formal eulogy to his dauntless mind. In 1502 he was appointed lord high chancellor of Scotland, and had a grant of the abbacy of Dunfermline. He died in 1504, and was interred in the chancel of the cathedral church of St. Andrews. The title of Duke of Ross was next bestowed on Alexander, posthumous son of James IV, who was born on 30 April 1514, and died on 18 Dec. 1515.
[Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1424–1513; Acta Parl. Scot. vol. ii.; Keith's Scottish Bishops; Crawfurd's Officers of State.]
STEWART, JAMES, Earl of Moray (1499?–1544), natural son of James IV of Scotland, by Janet, daughter of John, lord Kennedy, was born about 1499, being referred to in a letter of Dacre to Wolsey of 19 Oct. 1519 as ‘a springeolde of 20 years of age’ (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, ed. Brewer, ii. No. 1480). On 12 June 1501 he was created by his father Earl of Moray, Lord Abernethy and Strathearn, and received a grant of the earldom of Moray (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1424–1513, No. 2586); and on
