STEWART, Lord JAMES, Earl of Mar, and afterwards Earl of Moray (1531?–1570), regent of Scotland (often called by English historians the ‘Regent Murray’), was natural son of James V of Scotland by Lady Margaret Erskine—younger daughter of John Erskine, fifth earl of Mar of that name, and afterwards married to Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven [see under James V]. Queen Mary Stuart was his half-sister. He is in the peerages and other books usually stated to have been born in 1533 or 1534, but in a papal dispensation of 1534 he is stated to be in his third year (Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. p. 670). On 20 Oct. 1534 he was designated heir to his elder natural brother in the lands of Douglas, which were then conferred on his brother by the king (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1513–46, No. 1425); and on 31 Aug. 1536 he himself received a grant of the lands and famous stronghold of Tantallon, Haddingtonshire (ib. No. 1620). In 1538 he obtained the priory of St. Andrews, and he was also prior of Mâcon in France. In 1541 he entered the university of St. Andrews, and he remained at the university until 1544, but there is no evidence that he graduated. He accompanied the young Princess Mary to France in 1548 (Lindsay of Pitscottie's Chronicle, ed. 1814, p. 506; Lord Herries, Memoirs, p. 23). Chalmers (ii. 277) quotes the terms of his pass, 9 July 1548, which gave him license to go to France ‘to the sculis and to study, and to do other his lawful business.’ He had, however, returned, according to Lord Herries, ‘but newly’ (Memoirs, p. 24) by September 1549, when he collected the levies of Fife, and repelled a strong force of English raiders under Lord Clinton, driving them to their ships, with a loss of six hundred killed and wounded and one hundred prisoners (ib.) In October of the same year he sat as prior of St. Andrews in the provincial council held at Edinburgh (Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 46). On 16 Jan. 1549–50 he was contracted in marriage to Christian, countess of Buchan, infant daughter of the master of Buchan, but the contract was never fulfilled. On 6 Sept. 1550 he had a license to pass to France for ‘dressing some affairs of the queen’ (Chalmers, iii. 279), and on 7 Feb. 1550–1 he obtained from the queen of Scots letters of legitimation (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1546–80, No. 565). In 1552 he again visited France, going by way of England (Chalmers, ii. 280), and in the register of the English privy council for 1550 and 1552 are entries of sums of money paid to James Stewart, among other Scots, on four separate occasions. On this account it has been inferred that while in France he acted as a spy in the interests of England; but there is no proof that the James Stewart referred to was Lord James, nor, if there were, is it known that he was paid as a spy. But without doubt Lord James at a comparatively early period was a sympathiser with the reformed doctrines, and therefore inclined to the English alliance. He is included by Knox among the persons of rank who after Knox's return to Scotland in 1555 resorted to his teaching at the house of the laird of Dun (Works, i. 250), and his resorting thither implied previous dissatisfaction with the old doctrines. Knox afterwards returned to Geneva, but in March 1556–7 Lord James, with four others, signed a letter inviting him to return to Scotland (ib. p. 268).
Appointed, with other commissioners, by the parliament of 14 Dec. 1557 to go to France to witness the marriage of Queen Mary to the dauphin, Lord James was equally with the commissioners most careful to guard the independence of Scotland. Like most of the commissioners, he was also attacked on the way home by a sudden illness, and, although in his case life does not seem to have been seriously imperilled, he ever afterwards felt its ill effects (ib. p. 265). According to Bishop Lesley, Lord James while in France intimated to Queen Mary that he had renounced the ecclesiastical life, and craved from her the earldom of Moray, which she declined to grant him, on the ground that he ought to remain in the kind of life to which his father had consecrated him. She, however, expressed her willingness, should he return to the ecclesiastical life, to place him in a bishopric, and to grant him various other preferments in France and Scotland; but, according to Lesley, Lord James was obstinate in his determination not to accede to her desire, and, disappointed in his ambition to obtain the earldom of Moray, resolved strenuously to oppose Mary of Guise, the queen regent (History, Scottish Text Soc. ii. 286). There is just enough of truth in Lesley's accusation to render it efficacious as a calumny. It may be that originally secular ambition did induce Lord James to renounce the ecclesiastical life and embrace protestantism, though the choice was most hazardous; but in any case, from whatever motives, he had already made his choice before he visited France in 1557, and this implied opposition to the queen regent, should she endeavour to hinder the progress of the Reformation. Had she been disposed to favour the reformed doctrines, he would have given her his warm support. We must
