Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/271

 Thomas, belonging to Sir Richard Whittington [q. v.] and other merchants of London (ib. No. 789).

In 1410 Mar was summoned by the regent Albany to concert measures for resisting Donald Macdonald, second lord of the Isles [q. v.], who had invaded Ross to make good his title to that earldom. In 1411 he was placed in command of the royal forces, and on 24 July at Harlaw, in ‘one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles ever fought on Scottish soil,’ he defeated Donald. His services were amply rewarded; he received a pension of 200l. secured on the customs of Aberdeen, and other sums from those of Dundee, Montrose, and Edinburgh. In the following year he was employed in reconstructing the castle of Inverness, to act as a check on the turbulence of the highlands. In April 1416 he again received a safe-conduct to go to England, and in the same year he furnished ships for service against the islanders. In March 1424 he was appointed conservator of the seven years' truce with England, and was also made warden of the marches. On 16 Nov. 1420 he entered into a curious agreement with the regent Albany [see ], becoming his ‘man of speciall feale and reteneu,’ while Albany bestowed on him half the profits of the office of justiciary of the north, and empowered him to ‘infeft’ his natural son Thomas in the earldom of Mar. His life rent in the earldom of Mar was thus converted into a fee, defrauding the rightful heir, Robert, lord Erskine, a cousin of the Countess Isabella. This arrangement was confirmed by royal charter in May 1426.

Unlike most of Albany's adherents, Mar remained in favour with James I when in 1424 he left England to take upon himself the government of his kingdom. He died in 1435, when, his only son Thomas having predeceased him, the earldom of Mar reverted to the crown.

[Authorities cited; Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, 1221–1435; Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, 1379–1406 and 1406–36, ed. Burnett, esp. pref. pp. lxxii–vi; Reg. Magni Sigilli Scotiæ, 1424–1513, passim; Rotuli Scotiæ Record, passim; Rymer's Fœdera. viii. 437, 451, &c.; Harl. MS. 4694, f. 22; Wyntoun's Chron.; Bower's Book of Pluscardine; Stewart's Metrical Version of Hector Boece (Rolls Ser.), iii. 496, 548–51; Antiquities of Aberdeen and Banff (Spalding Club), iv. 181; Pinkerton's and Tytler's Histories of Scotland; Wylie's Hist. of England under Henry IV; Wood's Douglas, i. 201–3; Burke's Extinct Peerage, p. 514; G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage, v. 223.]

 STEWART, ALEXANDER, (1454?–1485), born about 1454, was the second son of James II of Scotland [q. v.] and Mary of Gueldres [q. v.] He was created by his father Earl of March and Lord of Annandale in 1455, and payments for his clothes and to his nurse appear in the exchequer rolls between that year and 1457. In the parliament of 1456 his marriage, as well as those of his two brothers, Prince James (afterwards James III), John Stewart, earl of Mar [q. v.], and his sister Mary, was already under consideration. Before 1458 he must have been created Duke of Albany, for in that year he is so styled in the entry of an allowance for horses when he was brought from Stirling to Edinburgh. He had also received a grant of the lordship of the Isle of Man. Such titles in childhood left little for the ambition of youth except the crown. Four years after his father's death at Roxburgh in 1464, he was sent by his mother, on the advice of Bishop James Kennedy [q. v.], to Guelderland, but, in spite of the recently concluded truce and a safe-conduct granted on 20 April 1463, was captured on the voyage by an English vessel [see .]. The remonstrances of the Scottish government procured his release, and he appears to have lived in St. Andrews under the care of Bishop Kennedy until the bishop's death on 10 May 1465. Preparations were made for his reception at Berwick between 25 June 1465 and 25 June 1466, so he probably came thither about that time. When only a boy of thirteen, according to the usual date assigned to his birth, he is mentioned as holding a court at Dunbar, no doubt for his vassals in the earldom, where his state as a feudal baron is shown by his having his own justiciar and treasurer, granting fiefs, and collecting customs. For ten years we get only occasional glimpses of Albany, but they show him taking an active part in the defence and government of the kingdom. He was created high admiral of Scotland. As warden of the marches and Earl of March he held Dunbar, and as Lord of Annandale the castle of Lochmaben. While still under age he sat in the parliament of 1471. In 1472 he was appointed governor of Berwick and lieutenant of the kingdom. In April 1474, in expectation of an English raid headed by the Duke of Gloucester (afterwards Richard III) on the west and middle marches, Albany summoned a muster of the lieges at Lauder; but the raid was not made. Privateering had, however, commenced at sea, and Edward IV had to send his almoner, Dr. Alexander Legh [q. v.], as an envoy to Scotland to make reparation