Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/319

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Stewart
312
Stewart

the other Scots refused to lay down their arms.

The earl was not present at the battle of Crevant, where the Scots were defeated, as he had returned to Scotland for reinforcements. He induced Archibald Douglas, fourth earl of Douglas [q. v.], his father-in-law, to engage in the French service, and a force of ten thousand well-equipped Scots landed in France in the beginning of 1424. Their warlike career, however, was brief, as on 17 Aug. of that year the Scots and French under the two earls were defeated with great slaughter by the English near the town of Verneuil [see John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford]. Buchan commanded the centre, chiefly composed of Scots, and when at a critical moment they were deprived of their supports, they fought so bravely and stubbornly, refusing all quarter, that nearly nine thousand were left dead on the field. Among these was Buchan, who fell covered with wounds, and was buried at Tours on 24 Aug. in the same tomb with the Earl of Douglas.

The earl married, about 1413, Elizabeth, daughter of Archibald, fourth earl of Douglas, by whom he had a daughter Margaret, who became the wife of George, lord Seton. Elizabeth Douglas afterwards became the wife successively of Thomas Stewart, master of Mar, and William Sinclair, third earl of Orkney [q. v.]

A portrait is given in Pinkerton's ‘Iconographia Scotica,’ 1797. The original is said to be at Chambord in France. Another bearing his name is shown at Amondell, Linlithgowshire, the seat of the present Earl of Buchan. Their authenticity, however, cannot be positively asserted.

[Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, vol. iv.; The Scots Guards in France, 2 vols., by William Forbes-Leith, S. J.; Fordun's Scotichronicon, ed. Goodall, ii. 459–64; Michel's Les Écossais en France, vol. i.]

J. A-n.

STEWART, Sir JOHN (1365?-1429), of Darnley, first Seigneur of Aubigny. [See Stuart.]

STEWART, JOHN, Earl of Mar (1457?–1479?), third and youngest son of James II of Scotland, by Mary of Gueldres, was born after October 1456, his name not occurring in the list of the king's sons in the comptroller's account of that date. James III [q. v.] and Alexander Stewart, duke of Albany [q. v.], were his elder brothers. Between 21 June 1458 and 23 June 1459 he was created Earl of Mar and Garioch (Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, vi. 516). He sat in the parliament of March 1478–9 (Acta Parl. Scot. ii. 120), but between that date and October 1479—for he was not present at the parliament which met in the latter month (ib. p. 124)—was arrested by James III at the instance of Cochrane, the king's favourite. The traditional story is that he was accused by Cochrane of using magical arts against the king; but the probability is that Cochrane and the king dreaded a combination against them. Mar was confined in Craigmillar Castle, and, according to one story, an incision being made in one of his veins, he was allowed to bleed to death; while those who desired to absolve the king of blame asserted that his death was the result of misadventure while he was being bled by a physician for fever. ‘The Earl of Mar,’ says Lindsay of Pitscottie, ‘was ane fair lustie man, of ane great and weill proportioned stature, weill faced and comelie in all his behaviours who knew nothing but nobilitie. He used meikle hunting and hawking, with other gentlemanlie exercise, and delighted also in interteaming of great and stout hors and meares, that thair of spring micht florisch, so that he might be served thairwith in tyme of warres’ (Chronicle, p. 178). He was unmarried, and his honours became extinct.

[Exchequer Rolls of Scotland; Acta Parl. Scot.; Histories of Lesley and Buchanan; Lindsay of Pitscottie's Chronicle.]

T. F. H.

STEWART or STUART, Sir JOHN, Lord Darnley and first (or ninth) Earl of Lennox (d. 1495) of the Stewart line, was eldest son of Sir Alan Stewart, second son of Sir John Stuart of Darnley, first seigneur of Aubigny [q. v.] Sir Alan was treacherously slain by Sir Thomas Boyd at Linlithgow in 1439. His mother was Catherine Seton, probably a daughter of Sir William Seton, killed at Verneuil in 1424. On 16 May 1450 he granted to his brother, Alexander Stewart, a charter of the lands of Dreghorn, Ayrshire (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1424–1513, No. 350), and on 17 July 1460 he had a charter of the lands of Tarbolton, Ayrshire, to be held in a free barony (Douglas, ii. 94). On the death in 1460 of Isabel, duchess of Albany [see Stewart, Murdac, second Duke of Albany], and daughter of Duncan, earl of Lennox (d. 1425), Sir John Stewart, by virtue of his descent from Duncan's daughter, Elizabeth Lennox, wife of Sir John Stewart, seigneur of Aubigny, laid claim to a share in the earldom of Lennox (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. p. 389). To prove his claim he relied on a charter, dated 8 Nov. 1392, of which there exists a notarial transcript, dated 21 Jan. 1460, granted by King Robert III ‘to Duncan, earl of Lennox, of the whole earldom of