Mary Stewart, Countess of Buchan (1434 or 1435 – 20 March 1465) was the fifth daughter of

James I of Scotland James I (late July 139421 February 1437) was King of Scots from 1406 until his assassination in 1437. The youngest of three sons, he was born in Dunfermline Abbey to King Robert III and Annabella Drummond. His older brother David, Duke of ...

and Lady Joan Beaufort. She married Wolfert VI of Borselen, a

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

er nobleman and lived in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

until her death in 1465. She had two children who died young.

Family

Mary had five sisters and twin brothers, one of whom died in infancy. Her surviving brother became James II of Scotland. Her sisters married into various European royal dynasties. Her sister Margaret became the dauphine of France, but died childless at age 20, apparently of fever. Her sister Isabella became the duchess of Brittany and had two daughters. Another sister,

Eleanor Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. The name was introd ...

, married a Habsburg archduke and lived in Austria, but died without offspring. Her sister Joan, a

deaf-mute Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was either deaf and used sign language or both deaf and could not speak. The term continues to be used to refer to deaf people who cannot speak an oral language or have som ...

, stayed in Scotland and married a Scottish earl, leaving four children, and her youngest sister, Annabella, was twice married and twice divorced and had children with her second husband, a Scottish earl.

Marriage

In 1444, Princess Mary married

Wolfert VI van Borselen Wolfert VI of Borselen (c. 1430 – 29 April 1486, Saint-Omer) was stadholder of Holland, Friesland, and Zeeland, Admiral of the Netherlands outside Flanders, and Lord of Veere. Family Wolfert VI van Borselen was the son of Henry II ...

Veere Veere (; zea, label= Zeelandic, Ter Veere) is a municipality with a population of 22,000 and a town with a population of 1,500 in the southwestern Netherlands, in the region of Walcheren in the province of Zeeland. History The name ''Veere ...

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

. He was the son of Hendrick van Borselen, Count of Grandpré and Jean van Halewyn. The marriage stimulated commercial relations between Scotland and the Low Countries. The Scottish king granted Mary's husband the title of

earl of Buchan The Mormaer () or Earl of Buchan () was originally the provincial ruler of the medieval province of Buchan. Buchan was the first Mormaerdom in the High Medieval Kingdom of the Scots to pass into the hands of a non-Scottish family in the male li ...

, and so Mary became the

Countess of Buchan Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

.McGladdery, Christine, James II (Edinburgh, 2015 revised edn), p. 73 In 1464, her husband was a

Marshal of France Marshal of France (french: Maréchal de France, plural ') is a French military distinction, rather than a military rank, that is awarded to generals for exceptional achievements. The title has been awarded since 1185, though briefly abolished ( ...

, and he was later created Wolfart VI, Lord of Veere and Count of Grandpre. Mary died on 20 March 1465, 30 to 40 years old, without surviving issue (Their son Charles had died in 1451). She was buried in Sandenburg, ter

, Zeeland. After her death, her husband married Charlotte de Bourbon, daughter of

Louis I, Count of Montpensier Louis de Bourbon (1405 – May 1486) was the third son of John I, Duke of Bourbon and Marie, Duchess of Auvergne. He was Count of Montpensier, Clermont-en-Auvergne and Sancerre and Dauphin of Auvergne and was a younger brother of Charles I ...

. Their daughter Anna married a grandson of Philip the Good. Wolfart died 1487. The title of Buchan was eventually conferred, in 1469, on her half-brother James Stewart (her mother's son by her second marriage), who was called the 1st Earl of Buchan.

Ancestry

References

thePeerage.com
15th-century births 1465 deaths

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

Scottish countesses Mary Stewart, Countess of Buchan Medieval Dutch nobility 15th-century Scottish people 15th-century Scottish women Medieval Dutch women 15th-century women of the Holy Roman Empire Daughters of kings {{Scotland-earl-stub