Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 1.djvu/71

 ALBANY. Pukes (•) ever made in Scotland), lie being tin 28 April 1898 eft DUKE Of ALBANY fS.] at :i solemn Council held at .Senile. For })i.s complicity in the arrest (« J;2--> said nephew, David, then Duke of Rothesay [S.J, (who t/. ;i prisoner in his Castle of Falkland, 27 March 1 ittl) lie received a remission from l*arl.( b ) After Ids nephew's deatli the Duke assumed tile then vacant oiliee of " KrSO'S Lieutenant " [S.] : and by charter, 2 Sep. 1403, waa rr. Eaiii, (W Athou; [S.J during the life of the reigning King, with rem. (should he die hefore tlie said King/ to liis -ml a. John. At the council held June HOG, after the death of his br. Robert III [.S.] he wis made REGENT [S.] (Githcniutw Scotia), the King fhis nephew James I), being then a prisoner in England, which King- dom accordingly he again invaded in 1437. He m. firstly (dispensation 0 Sep. 1061), Margaret sun jure CoUNTBSS OY MbNTEITH |S.J, (who had previously been the wife of John of HoRAY of liothwell, Thomas, F.AUI, of Mar [S.J, and John of DrQUUQSD), and who was da. of John Graham jure uxurit EaBI. of Mkntkith [S.] by .Mary, mio j&rp Countess OF Mkntkith [S.]. He >«. secondly Muriella, 1st da. of Sir William KEITH, Mareschal of Scotland, by Mary, da. of Sir John Fhaskk of Dun-is. He <l. at Stirling Cattle 3 Sep. 1420, aged above SO and was Sttr. in Dumfermline Abbey. His widow (/. shortly before Whitsunday, 1449. If. 1120. Murdoch (.Stewart), Duke of Albany, E.utr. of Fifk and Eaeii. or Mkntkith [S.J, s. and h. by 1st wife. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Homildon in 1402 and was retained in England till 1415 when lie was c-xclianged for the Karl of Northumberland. He sue. his father as REGENT [S.J in 1 420 j and, having accomplished the release of his cousin James I [S.J in 1424, attended him at his eorouatiun at Scone. The King however " was not slow in com- mencing the work of vengeance on the race by whom lie had been long supplanted, "( c ) and, having obtained their conviction, at a Pari, held at Perth 25 March 1425, caused the Duke himself, his two elder surv. sons (Walter and Alexander i. as also his father-in-law the Kari. of Lennox [S.J to be beheaded on the Castle Hill of Stirling whence lie could sec " his rich and romantic territory of Meuteith and the hills of Lennox to which his Doetteaa was heir, -and even descry the stately Castle of Doune which had been his own Vice-Regal Pa!acei"( c ) He m. (settlement "l 7 Feb. 1301-2) Isabel, 1st da. and coheir of Duncan, K.uti. of Lennox [S,J She teas heir presumptive to the EarldOm of Lenflox [S.J, her father having resigned it (to Robert II [S.]), and obtained a new grant thereof to himself and the heirs male of his body with rem. to her, her husband and their heirs. The. Duke d. (as above-named) 24 May 1425 and was bur. in the Blaekfriars Church, Stirling, when having been attainted, all his honour! were forfeited. His widow (ai«j jure) COUNTESS of Lennox [S.] d. s.p.s. at Inchnmrrin Castle, Loch Lomond, either in 1458 or M59.(a) ( a ) " It is probablo that the superior title of John of Gaunt [as Duke of Lancaster] led to some claim of precedence or respect not relished by the Scottish Princes. The heir an. to the throne was cr. Duke of Hothsay, a miserable hamlet in the Isle of Bute, while the whole island would not have afforded a territorial title to a Baron ; and the Ear] of Fife had the real style of the hen- ap. in the title of Duke of Albany or of all Scotland North of the Firths of Clyde and Forth."— See Pinkerton's " Scotland," vol. i, p. 52. ( b ) The Pari, declared that the Prince had d. from natural causes ; but whether his death was from dysentery or from, actual starvation seems doubtful. Sir Walter Scott, though, as a historian, inclining to the (popular) belief of Albany's guilt, expresses his entire, disbelief to the sensational particulars taken from Bocce, which he used with such thrilling effect in his "Fair Maid of Perth."— See Lardner's "Cabinet Cyclo- pcedia," vol. i, p. 13G. See also some remarks iu the Preface to vol. iii of the Exchequer Rolls [S. ]. p. xe, &c. ; and see Preface to vol. iv, p. xlvii, &c, as to Albany's character and acts as Regent. ( c ) _See Sir Bernard Burke's " Vicissitudes of Families," (London, 1S50) 1st Series (p. 05, &c), where it is mentioned that Sir Robert Graham " the companion of these most unhappy Princes was released and lived to consummate his long-planned ven- geance on the King in 1437. He it was, who when James cried for mercy in his extremity replied — 'Thou cruel tyrant, thou never hadst any mercy on Lords born of thy blood, therefore no mercy shalt thou have here." (™) James Stewart, the only s. who had escaped from the vengeance of the King, d. "•p. legit, some time before 18 May 1451, leaving (by an Irish lady, named Mactlonald) ■i sou James, ancestor of the Stewarts of Ardvorlich.