STEWART or STUART, LOUISA, Countess of Albany (1758–1834), wife of the Young Pretender. [See Albany.]
STEWART, LUDOVICK, second Duke of Lennox and Duke of Richmond (1574–1624). [See Stuart.]
STEWART or STUART, MARIA CLEMENTINA (1702–1735), wife of the Old Pretender. [See under James Francis Edward.]
STEWART or STUART, MARY (1542–1587), queen of Scots. [See Mary.]
STEWART, MATTHEW, fourth or twelfth Earl of Lennox (1516–1571), regent of Scotland, son of John, third earl of Lennox [q. v.], by Anne, eighth daughter of John Stewart, first earl of Atholl [q. v.], was born in Dumbarton Castle 21 Sept. 1516 (Fraser, Lennox, i. 364). He succeeded his father in 1526, and on 13 Feb. 1530–1 came to an agreement with Sir James Hamilton of Finnart on behalf of James Hamilton, second earl of Arran [q. v.], whereby ‘for the removal of suspicion and hatred’ conceived by him against ‘the said James, earl of Arran, for the slaughter of the deceased John, earl of Lennox, committed beside Linlithgow,’ Sir James Hamilton became bound to fee six chaplains to ‘do suffrage for the soul of the said deceased earl for seven years; three of them to sing continually in the college kirk of Hamilton, and the other three to sing continually in the Blackfriars, Glasgow’ (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. iii. 393). On 21 April 1531 he had letters under the privy seal appointing him and his heirs keepers of the castle of Dumbarton (ib.) He was present as a peer in parliament on 26 April 1531 and 17 May 1532; but shortly after the latter date he went to France, and obtaining a command of Scots men-at-arms, accompanied his uncle Robert, seigneur of Aubigny, in the campaign in Provence in 1536 [see under Stewart, John, first (or ninth) Earl of Lennox]. In January 1537 he was naturalised as a French subject.
After the death of James V in 1542 Lennox was induced by Cardinal Beaton and the French party to return to Scotland to assist in the overthrow of Arran. On the ground of Arran's illegitimacy (Hamilton Papers, i. 409–10) Lennox was put forward as next heir to the throne after the Princess Mary, and therefore entitled to act as governor in place of Arran; and the hope was also held out to him of a marriage with the queen dowager, Mary of Guise [q. v.] (Privy Council to Angus and his brother, 10 Feb. 1542–3, ib.) Escaping the English vessels which had instructions for his capture, he landed at Dumbarton, 3 March 1543, with only two ships and a small company (ib. p. 510), but according to repute, ‘with much French gold’ (ib. p. 511), with which he is said to have boasted he would fill the Scottish purses (ib.), although, according to Sadler, it amounted to no more than five thousand crowns (ib. p. 519). In April he had an interview with Arran, to whom he delivered a flattering message from the French king, with the offer of troops and money to maintain him against an English invasion (Sadler, State Papers, i. 162–3). Later he was reputed to have expressed his willingness ‘to remain a prisoner’ if the ‘French king did not accomplish such things as he offered’ (ib. p. 173). Finding, however, that the governor had no mind to accept his offers, he refused to subscribe the act acknowledging his authority (ib. p. 185), and thereupon was required to deliver up the castle of Dumbarton on pain of treason (ib. p. 197). He excused himself for declining to do so on the ground that Stirling of Glorat, the captain, refused to deliver it up (ib. p. 201); and after promising to submit himself to Arran and ‘confess him to be governor and second person of the realm,’ he, on Arran's approach with a strong force, fled to the highlands (ib. p. 202). A little later, however, he secretly returned to Lennox, and, having gathered a body of followers, on 21 July joined with other lords in an attempt to rescue the queen dowager and the infant princess from the power of Arran. With a force of ten thousand men they marched towards Edinburgh, and compelled the governor to deliver up his charge, whereupon Lennox escorted the queen dowager and the infant princess back to Stirling (Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 28). Thereafter, according to David Lindsay, the ‘Cardinal’ (Beaton), who had now persuaded Arran—in dread of his rival, Lennox—to come to terms with him, caused the queen dowager ‘to entertain him very tenderly and put him in hope of marriage,’ that she ‘might pacify him by her
