The House of Stewart, is a European royal house.
Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland
during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of England,
Ireland, and Great Britain.
Their patrilineal ancestors had held the office of High Steward of Scotland since the 12th
century, after arriving by way of Norman England.
The dynasty inherited further territory by the 17th century which covered the entire
British Isles, including the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Ireland, also maintaining a
claim to the Kingdom of France.
In total, nine Stewart monarchs ruled just Scotland from 1371 until 1603.
After this there was a Union of the Crowns under James VI & I who had become the senior
genealogical claimant to The Crown holdings of the extinct House of Tudor.
Thus there were six Stewart monarchs who ruled both England and Scotland as well as Ireland.
Additionally, at the foundation of the Kingdom of Great Britain after the Acts of Union,
which officially united England and Scotland politically, the first monarch was Anne, Queen
of Great Britain.
After her death, the kingdoms passed to the House of Hanover, under the terms of the Act
of Settlement 1701 and the Act of Security 1704, which deprived the Catholic legitimist
line of the Stewarts of the right to mount the throne.
During the reign of the Stewarts, Scotland developed from a relatively poor and feudal
country into a prosperous, modern and centralised state.
They ruled during a time in European history of transition from the Middle Ages, through
the Renaissance, to the midpoint of the Early modern period.
Monarchs such as James IV were known for sponsoring exponents of the Northern Renaissance such
as the poet Robert Henryson, and others.
After the Stewarts gained control of all of Great Britain, the arts and sciences continued
to develop; many of William Shakespeare's best known plays were authored during the
Jacobean era, while institutions such as the Royal Society and Royal Mail were established
during the reign of Charles II.
Origins Etymology
The name Stewart derives from the political position of office similar to a governor,
known as a steward.
It was originally adopted as the family surname by Walter Stewart, 3rd High Steward of Scotland,
who was the third member of the family to hold the position.
Prior to this, family names were not used, but instead they had patronyms defined through
the father; for example the first two High Stewards were known as FitzAlan and FitzWalter
respectively.
During the 16th century the French spelling Stuart was adopted by Mary, Queen of Scots
when she was living in France.
She sanctioned the change to ensure the correct pronunciation of the Scots version of the
name Stewart, because retaining the letter 'w' would have made it difficult for French
speakers, who usually render "w" as "v".
The spelling Stuart was also used by her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley; he was
the father of James VI and I, so the spelling Stuart for the British royal family officially
derives from him.
Background The ancestral origins of the Stewart family
are quite obscure—what is known for certain is that they can trace their ancestry back
to Alan FitzFlaad, a Breton who came over to Great Britain not long after the Norman
conquest.
Alan had been the hereditary steward of the Bishop of Dol in the Duchy of Brittany; Alan
had a good relationship with the ruling Norman monarch Henry I of England who awarded him
with lands in Shropshire.
The FitzAlan family quickly established themselves as a prominent Anglo-Norman noble house, with
some of its members serving as High Sheriff of Shropshire.
It was the great-grandson of Alan named Walter FitzAlan who became the first hereditary High
Steward of Scotland, while his brother William's family would go on to become Earls of Arundel.
When the civil war in the Kingdom of England, known as The Anarchy, broke out between legitimist
claimant Matilda, Lady of the English and her cousin who had usurped her, King Stephen,
Walter had sided with Matilda.
Another supporter of Matilda was her uncle David I of Scotland from the House of Dunkeld.
After Matilda was pushed out of England into the County of Anjou, essentially failing in
her legitimist attempt for the throne, many of her supporters in England fled also.
It was then that Walter followed David up to the Kingdom of Scotland, where he was granted
lands in Renfrewshire and the title for life of Lord High Steward.
The next monarch of Scotland, Malcolm IV made the High Steward title a hereditary arrangement.
While High Stewards, the family were based at Dundonald, Ayrshire between the 12th and
13th centuries.
History The sixth High Steward of Scotland, Walter
Stewart, married Marjorie, daughter of Robert the Bruce, and also played an important part
in the Battle of Bannockburn gaining further favour.
Their son Robert was heir to the House of Bruce, the Lordship of Cunningham and the
Bruce lands of Bourtreehill; he eventually inherited the Scottish throne when his uncle
David II died childless in 1371.
In 1503, James IV attempted to secure peace with England by marrying King Henry VII's
daughter, Margaret Tudor.
The birth of their son, later James V, brought the House of Stewart into the line of descent
of the House of Tudor, and the English throne.
Margaret Tudor later married Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, and their daughter, Margaret
Douglas, was the mother of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.
In 1565, Darnley married his half-cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, the daughter of James V. Darnley's
father was Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, a member of the Stewart of Darnley branch
of the House.
Lennox was a descendant of Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland, also descended
from James II, being Mary's heir presumptive.
Thus Darnley was also related to Mary on his father's side and because of this connection,
Mary's heirs remained part of the House of Stewart.
Following John Stewart of Darnley's ennoblement for his part at the Battle of Baugé in 1421,
and the grant of lands to him at Aubigny and Concressault, the Darnley Stewarts' surname
was gallicised to Stuart.
Both Mary, Queen of Scots, and Lord Darnley had strong claims on the English throne, through
their mutual grandmother, Margaret Tudor.
This eventually led to the accession of the couple's only child James as King of Scotland,
England, and Ireland in 1603.
However, this was a Personal Union, as the three Kingdoms shared a monarch, but had separate
governments, churches, and institutions.
Indeed the personal union did not prevent an armed conflict, known as the Bishops' Wars,
breaking out between England and Scotland in 1639.
This was to become part of the cycle of political and military conflict that marked the reign
of Charles I of England, Scotland & Ireland, culminating in a series of conflicts known
as the War of the Three Kingdoms.
The trial and execution of Charles I by the English Parliament in 1649 began 11 years
of republican government known as the English Interregnum.
Scotland initially recognised the late King's son, also called Charles, as their monarch,
before being subjugated and forced to enter Cromwell's Commonwealth by General Monck's
occupying army.
During this period, the principal members of the House of Stuart lived in exile in mainland
Europe.
The younger Charles returned to Britain to assume his three thrones in 1660 as "Charles
II of England, Scotland & Ireland", but would date his reign from his father's death eleven
years before.
In feudal and dynastic terms, the Scottish reliance on French support was revived during
the reign of Charles II, whose own mother was French.
His sister Henrietta married into the French Royal family.
Charles II left no legitimate children, but his numerous illegitimate descendants included
the Dukes of Buccleuch, the Dukes of Grafton, the Dukes of Saint Albans and the Dukes of
Richmond.
These French and Roman Catholic connections proved unpopular and resulted in the downfall
of the Stuarts, whose mutual enemies identified with Protestantism and because James VII & II
offended the Anglican establishment by proposing tolerance not only for Catholics but for Protestant
Dissenters.
The Glorious Revolution caused the overthrow of King James in favour of his son-in-law
and his daughter, William and Mary.
James continued to claim the thrones of England and Scotland to which he had been crowned,
and encouraged revolts in his name, and his grandson Charles led an ultimately unsuccessful
rising in 1745, ironically becoming symbols of conservative rebellion and Romanticism.
Some blame the identification of the Roman Catholic Church with the Stuarts for the extremely
lengthy delay in the passage of Catholic Emancipation until Jacobitism was extinguished; however
it was as likely to be caused by entrenched anti-Catholic prejudice among the Anglican
establishment of England.
Despite the Whig intentions of tolerance to be extended to Irish subjects, this was not
the preference of Georgian Tories and their failure at compromise played a subsequent
role in the present division of Ireland.
Present-day The Royal House of Stuart became extinct with
the death of Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart, brother of Charles Edward Stuart, in 1807.
Duke Francis of Bavaria is the current senior heir.
However, Charles II had a number of illegitimate sons whose surviving descendants in the male
line include Charles Gordon-Lennox, 10th Duke of Richmond, Murray Beauclerk, 14th Duke of
St Albans, Henry FitzRoy, 12th Duke of Grafton and Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch.
List of monarchs Monarchs of Scotland
Monarchs of Great Britain and Ireland These monarchs used the title "King/Queen
of Great Britain", although that title had no basis in law until the Acts of Union 1707
came into effect on 1 May 1707.
Legally, they each simultaneously occupied two thrones, as "King/Queen of England" and
"King/Queen of Scotland".
See also Jacobitism, for more on the House of Stuart
and its decline John Barbour, the first Stewart court poet
and genealogist The family trees of the Stuarts: Scottish
branch – England and Scotland united List of Scottish monarchs
List of British monarchs Clan Stewart
Barony and Castle of Corsehill Stewarton in Ayrshire and the Stuart connection.
Notes
References
Sources
Further reading
External links Stewart Scotland on the official website of
the British monarchy Stuart Britain on the official website of
the British monarchy Jacobites on the official website of the British
monarchy Official website of the Stewarts of Argyll