Albany was named one of the proxies for James in a procuratory dated 29 Jan. 1535, and being unable to attend the signature of the contract through ill-health, the notaries went to his house and read it to him, where he added his signature on 29 March 1536. It was his last public act, for he died on 2 June of that year. Among the unpublished documents in the French archives there is a significant commission to Jean Doutet to verify the debts of the late Duke of Albany, and a decree against him for a small debt has also been preserved. There is some evidence that James V claimed his succession, but no proof that he recovered any estate. He had always been lavish in expenditure, and not improbably died bankrupt. He left no legitimate issue, and contracted no second marriage, acting on his saying that one wife was enough. An illegitimate daughter by Jean Abernethy, his mistress in Scotland, perhaps married Jean de l'Hospital, comte de Choisy, in 1547.
The character of Albany, notwithstanding the different views taken of it both by contemporaries and by historians, does not seem difficult to understand. He was no general, but he was an able negotiator, succeeding in almost all he undertook—the treaty of Rouen, the divorce of Margaret, the protection of the Scots both in France and at Rome, the institution of the court of session, and the marriage of James to a French princess, though after his death Madeline of France was substituted by James's personal choice for Marie de Bourbon. His services were valued equally by James V and Francis I, with whom he was so great a favourite as to have the entry to the royal bedchamber, a privilege not so common as it afterwards became. The miscarriage of his Scottish regency was due to the inherent difficulties of the situation, but his dislike of a life in Scotland, and strong bias in favour of France contributed to it. The history of his relations with Queen Margaret and her son, when fairly examined, refutes the calumnies of Wolsey and Henry VIII. His straightforward manner contrasts favourably with the duplicity of the English ministers and diplomatists, and with the plotting of the Scottish nobles. He was a Frenchman in Scotland, but retained a good deal of the Scot when abroad, and this explains much of his conduct. It is probable that he was passionate; according to Dacre, when displeased he threw hat after hat into the fire. He was certainly superstitious, carrying a relic in an ornament suspended to his neck, and his habit was to swear by it as his favourite oath. There are many signs that he was extravagant, but his conduct to Queen Margaret and to his French followers shows that he was generous, though not particular whether the money he expended was his own or drawn from the French or Scottish revenues; it is probable he spent more than he received.
There is a good portrait of his broad face, dark beard, and handsome features in the enigmatical group now in Lord Bute's collection at Cardiff, in which he is represented as receiving a paper from Margaret, to whom he is making a payment, probably of her dowry, in 1522, as recorded in the exchequer rolls, with the figure of a herald pointing to a butterfly floating in the air between them, which perhaps represents this payment. The picture has been attributed to Holbein, but must have been painted before he came to England, and there is no likelihood that the painter ever saw Albany.
[Acts of Parliament of Scotland, ii., Exchequer Rolls, vol. xiv., where an attempt is made by the present writer to explain the Cardiff picture; State Papers of Henry VIII; Cal. State Papers, Spanish, 1531–5; Teulet's Relations Politiques de la France et de l'Espagne avec l'Ecosse, 1862, tome i.; Contemporary Histories of Buchanan, Leslie, and Lindsay of Pitscottie; Michel's Les Écossais en France, les Français en Écosse gives many minute details as to Albany, and a print of his coat of arms. Of modern historians, Pinkerton and Tytler are the best; Burton is meagre. Brewer, in his History of Henry VIII, has much information, but views Albany too much with the eyes of Wolsey.]
STEWART, Lord JOHN (1531–1563), prior of Coldingham, was a natural son of James V of Scotland by Elizabeth, daughter of John, lord Carmichael, and half-brother of Lord James Stewart [q. v.], ‘the regent Moray,’ and of Lord Robert Stewart, earl of Orkney [q. v.] In a dispensation of Clement VII to James V, dated in 1534, dispensing with ‘the defects of birth’ of the king's three natural sons, on the king's desire that they should ‘be enlisted in the spiritual army,’ John Stewart is stated to be in his third year (Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. p. 670). On 6 Dec. 1546 the queen regent bestowed on him and his convent the lands of Greigston (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1546–80, No. 41). He received letters of legitimation from Queen Mary at the same time as his brother, Lord James Stewart, 7 Feb. 1551–2 (ib. No. 565). In the answer of Maitland to the English privy council, 10 Dec. 1559, he is mentioned as one of the neutrals (Cal. State Papers, For. 1559–60, No. 392), but Knox includes him among those who before the meeting of parliament in August 1560
