Alexander Stewart, Earl Of Mar

Alexander Stewart (c. 13751435) was a Scottish nobleman and warlord. An illegitimate grandson of Robert II of Scotland, he was originally the Earl of Moray, becoming the Earl of Mar from 1405. He acquired the earldom through marriage to the hereditary countess, and successfully ruled the northern part of Scotland.

Biography

He was an illegitimate son of Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, known as the Wolf of Badenoch, and probably Mairead inghean Eachainn.

Alexander held the Earldom of Mar and the Lordship of the Garioch jure uxoris, from 1404 in right of his first wife Isabel Douglas, Countess of Mar (died 1408). According to many sources, Alexander acquired the title by murder of Isabel's husband, Sir Malcolm Drummand Alexander's marriage to Isabel followed his capture of Kildrummy Castle, and Isabel with it, in 1404 after having attacked her husband, Sir Malcolm Drummond, brother-in-law of King Robert III, holding Sir Malcolm captive where he died. Thus, Isabel was forced to marry the man who murdered her husband and live the last four years of her life as a captive. Alexander forced her to execute a charter (12 August) settling the reversion to the earldom on himself and his heirs. This act she is believed to have revoked in September, but on marrying him, on 9 December 1404, she granted him the earldom for life, the king confirming this on 21 June 1405. These events shocked the kingdom and Alexander only escaped punishment because he was a close relation to the Royal Family. His possession of the Earldom was later regularized in 1424 by grant of his cousin, King James I.

He was a strong supporter of his uncle, Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, who was then ruler of the kingdom as regent for his brother Robert III. Robert had been badly injured when he was kicked by his horse. Alexander led the Lowland army against Donald, Lord of the Isles, at the bloody Battle of Harlaw in 1411, which Donald fought to gain his inheritance to the Earldom of Ross, by right of his wife, Mariota of Ross.

Unlike his father, the Wolf of Badenoch, who had disturbed the peace in the fractious north-east, Alexander, Walter Bower says, "ruled with acceptance nearly all of the north of the country beyond the Mounth".Grant, p. 157. He achieved this not by using different methods from his father but by his ability to keep his cateran forces in check and to use them to protect his extensive lands when needed; the result was that the areas of Aberdeenshire and Moray were under his control.

Marriages and children

Alexander's first marriage was to Isabel Douglas, Countess of Mar (died 1408). Mar had seized his title by forced marriage to the countess following the murder of her husband and Alexander's capture of Kildrummy Castle in Aberdeenshire in 1404. These events shocked the kingdom and Alexander only escaped punishment because he was a close relation to the Royal Family. His possession of the Earldom was later regularized in 1424 by grant of his cousin, King James I.

Alexander later married Marie van Hoorn, daughter of Willem, Lord of Duffel, in 1410. He died without a legitimate male heir and so the Earldom of Mar reverted to the crown.

He had two illegitimate children:
*Thomas, who married Elizabeth, the widow of John Stewart, 2nd Earl of Buchan, who was daughter of Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas and Margaret Stewart, Lady of Galloway
*Margaret, who married Lachlan Maclean, chief of the Macleans of Duart.

Notes

References

*Boardman, Stephen I.,''The Early Stewart Kings: Robert II and Robert III'' Edinburgh, Reprint 2007.
* Grant, Alexander, "The Wolf of Badenoch" in W.D.H. Sellar (ed.), ''Moray: Province and People.'' Scottish Society for Northern Studies, Edinburgh, 1993.
* Nigel Tranter, '' The Stewart Trilogy'', Dunton Green, Sevenoaks, Kent: Coronet Books, 1986. . ''Lords of Misrule, 1388–1396. A Folly of Princes, 1396–1402. The Captive Crown, 1402–1411''.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mar, Alexander Stewart, Earl of
1370s births
1435 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
14th-century Scottish nobility
15th-century Scottish peers
15th-century Scottish military personnel
Children of peers and peeresses
Earls or mormaers of Mar
Alexander
Illegitimate branches of the House of Stuart
Peers jure uxoris
Scottish generals
Lords of Badenoch