The New Student's Reference Work/Stuart

Stu′art or Stew′art, the name of a royal family of Scotland and England. The name is derived from the office of steward of Scotland, which was given to one of the family by David I, king of Scotland, and became hereditary in the family. The family is of Norman origin, the first ancestor in England receiving lands from Henry I. The marriage of Walter, the sixth steward of Scotland, in 1315 to Marjory, daughter of Robert Bruce, brought the crown of Scotland to the Stuarts. “It came with ane lass,” said James V. Robert II, the son of Walter Stewart and Marjory Bruce, came to the throne in 1317 as the first of the Stuart kings. Between 1371 and 1714 14 Stuarts sat upon the Scottish, and six of these also on the English, throne. The last Stuart sovereign was Queen Anne. The house of Hanover, to which the present ruling family of England belongs, is connected with the Stuart family through Sophia, Electress of Hanover, who was the granddaughter of James I. See The Royal House of Stuart by Gibb and Skelton.