Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 5.djvu/225

 MAR. 223 XII. 142G, 1. Alexander (Stewart), Earl of Mar, or Earl op to Mah and Garioctj [SJ. by virtue of the charter of 9 Dec. 1404, above 1435. mentioned, made by his wife, the Countess Isabel, in favour of him and their common issue, was a bastard son of Robert (Stewart), Earl of Bcohan [S.], who was 4th s. of King Robert II. [S.] He was several times (14C6, 1407, and again 1416), Ambassador to England ; assisted the Duke of Burgundy in 1408 in quelling an insurrection at Liege; was in command of the Royal forces at the battle of Hawlaw, against the Lord of the Isles, 1411, and was, about 1418, Warden of the Marches. Tho' by the death s.p. of his wife, the Countess Isabel, above mentioned, and the consequent failure of any of his heirs being in succession to the Earldom he had become but a life tenant thereof, lie obtained from his Crown on his resignation (just as if such resignation had been that of a dignity to which he was absolutely untitled) a regraut thereof, and was cr., 28 May 1426, EARL OF MAR [S.] for his life, with rem. to his bastard son. Sir Thomas Stewart, and the heirs male of his body with rem. to the Crown. He ni., secondly, Marie, widow of Thierry dk Liknuen (who d. 1408), da. and h. of Willem Van Hoorn, of Duffel in Brabant, by his wife, Marie Van Randerode. The will of this lady (" Dame de Duffel ") is dat. April 1433, and she was dead before 28 June ]436( a ) The Earl d. s.p. legit. 1485, when (his bastard son, who was in rem. to the dignity, having d. s.p. and v.p.), the Earldom cr. by the charter of 1426, reverted to the Crown. [Sin Thomas Stewart, Master of Mar, bastard s. of the above, was, by the charter of 2S May 1426, in remainder to the Earldom of Mar [S.] thereby created. He Ki. about 1425, Elizabeth, widow of John (Stewart), Earl of Bdchan [S.], who d. 17 Aug 1 124. He d. s.p. and v.p. His widow, who retained the lands of Garioch in dower, m. thirdly, as his first wife, William (Sinclair), Earl ok Orkney, aftcru-ards Earl ok Caithness [S.], (who d. before 1476) and d. before 1456 ] XIII. 1435. 12. Robert (Erskine), Earl of Mar [S.], cousin and heir, ex parte matcrnil, to Isabel, smo jure Countess of Mar, being great grandson of Elyiie,!' 1 ) 1st or only( c ) da. of Earl Gratney aboveuamed, the said (•') Her nephew and heir. " Johau Van Hoorn, Sire de Perwez," speaks of her at that date as deceased. He styles her " Countcssc de Murr ct de Gar v inch. Dame de pays de Duffel ct de Okeel" [Scot. Antiquary or northern A', and Q.," vol. vii, p. 1.] The Earl is spoken of, on 13 March 1410 [Hey. May. Si;/., p. 250], as " Alcxr. Scncs- chall, Comes de Mar et de Garciach ac Dnus de Duffle in Brabancia. 1 (*>) In the retoiirs before the Court of Session in 1628 (relative to the claim of the then Earl of Mar to the alienated estates of his ancestors) this Elyue is expressly called "Great grandmother of Robert, who was grandfather of Alexauder, who was great grandfather of John [the then] Earl of Mar." (°) It seems not improbable that there wasauother (a younger) da. of Earl Gratney thro' whom it was that the Lords Lyle [S ] claimed a moiety of the Mar estates. No such da. is, however, assigned to him by Burnett (see "C as in note "b," on p. 218), nor in Wood's " Douylas " (under " Man* ") tho' she exists in the old editiou of 1764, Sir John Lyle (father of Sir Robert Lyle and grandfather of the 1st Lord Lyle [S.]), is stated by Crawford (Peerage [S.], 1716, p. 291), to have '' married a lady who was one of the coheirs of the Earldom of Mar, tho' I know not precisely who she was, but in her right the Lord Lyle in the time of King James II. laid claim to a part of that estate and from thenceforth added the coat of Mar to his paternal arms." The con- tinuator of Fordun alludes to this claim of the Lyle family, stilting, under 1438, " Obiit Alexander Stewart, Conies de Marr, et, quia bastardus crat, Rex illi successit, qnamvis jure hereditario Domini Erskine ct Lyle successisse debuissent." This agrees well with the fact that in April 143S Lord Erskine was served heir to [but] half of the Comitatus of Mar, tho' only six months later he was served heir to the other half, indicating, perhaps, that in the meanwhile the Lyle family had compromised for or given up their claim ; at all events such claim was never afterwards urged to the estates of Mar, tho' as to those of Gariuch it appears to have been continued somewhat longer. The petition of Sir Thomas Eivkine. 13 March 1390/1, stating that his wife is heir presumptive to hal/ the Earldom, favours also the idea of the Lyle family being such