Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 1.djvu/128

 78 COMPLETE PEERAGE Albany Robert III) infirm, he was made, by Pari., Guardian (Custos) of THE Realm [S.], and, as such, agreed to a treaty with the English in 1389 ; but on 27 Jan. 1398/9, he was superseded, by the appointment of David, the h. ap. of the throne, as " King's Lieutenant, " with as ample powers as his (David's) uncle (the said Duke) had as " Guardi- an." On the death, s.p. legit., of his br. Alexander (Stewart), Earl OF Buchan [S.], he appears to have been considered to have sue. to that Earldom, (recognized to the said Alexander, 25 July 1382) which he resigned 20 Sep. 1406. (") In Mar. 1398 he, with his said nephew David, had an interview at Haudenstank with John, Duke of Lancas- ter, and other English Commissioners, and shortly afterwards he and his said nephew were each advanced to a Dukedom (the first Dukes C") ever made in Scotland), he being, on 28 Apr. 1398, cr. DUKE OF ALBANY [S.], in a solemn Council held at Scone. For his complicity in the arrest of his said nephew, David, then Duke of Rothesay [S.], (who d. a prisoner in Albany's Castle of Falkland, 27 Mar. 1402) he received a remission from Pari. (") After his nephew's death, the Duke assumed the then vacant office of" King's Lieutenant " [S.] ; and by Charter, 2 Sep. 1403, was cr. Earl OF Atholl [S.] during the life of the reigning King, with rem. (should he die before the said King) to his 2nd s. John. By the death of the said King, 4 Apr. 1406, this Earldom consequently became extinct. At the council held June 1406, after the death of his br. Robert III, he was made Regent [S.] ( Gubernator Scotia), the King (his nephew James I), being then a prisoner in England, which Kingdom accordingly he again invaded in 141 7, but on this occasion without success. He m., istly, (disp. 9 Sep. 136 1 ), Margaret, suo jure Countess of Menteith [S.], (who had previously been the wife of Sir John Moray of Bothwell {d. s.p. 1352), of Thomas (Erskine), Earl of Mar [S.], and of Sir John Drummond of Concraig) C), da. of John Gkahau, jure uxoris Earl of Menteith [S.], by Mary, suo jure Countess of Menteith [S.]. She d. about 1380, between 21 July 1372 and 4 May 1380. He m. 2ndly, (Papal disp. 4 May (") See under that title. C") "It is probable that the superior title of John of Gaunt [as Z)«^^ of Lancaster] led to some claim of precedence or respect not relished by the Scottish Princes. The h. ap. to the throne was cr. Duke of Rothsay, a miserable hamlet in the Isle of Bute, while the whole island would not have afforded a territorial title to a Baron ; and the Earl of Fife had the real style of the heir ap. in the title of Duke of Albany or of all Scotland North of the Firths of Clyde and Forth." (Pinkerton's Scotland, vol. i, p. 52.) C^) 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 in Albany's guilt, expresses his entire disbelief in the sensational particulars taken from Bofice, which he used with such thrilling effect in his Fair Maid of Terth. — See Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopcedia, vol. i, p. 136. See also some remarks in vol. iii of the Exchequer Rolls [S.], Preface, p. xc. ^"c. ; and vol. iv, Preface, p. xlvii, ^ifc, as to Albany's character and acts as Regent. C) See a note by " Sigma," suggesting that it was not she, but her mother, who m. Sir John Drummond, in N. bf. Q., 7th Series, vol. x, pp. 163-4.