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One of the foremost objectives of medieval kingship was to produce a living, legitimate male heir. As the head of his dynasty, the king in an hereditary monarchy needed a legitimate son not only to ensure the continuation of his family’s rule but also to prevent the tribulations often caused by a female or ambiguous succession, such as that endured by Scotland following the deaths of Alexander III and Margaret the Maid. Rulers often went so far as to divorce or annul marriages to infertile women and had their children crowned before their deaths to ensure their succession. It is against this background that one must view Robert the Bruce’s marriage of his daughter, Marjory, to Walter Stewart in 1315. Although hopeful of producing male issue by his recently returned wife, Robert gave his only legitimate heir to the Stewart in order to strengthen ties with that family, reward them for their past support, and insure assistance for his brother Edward’s planned actions in Ireland, confident that in the event that the succession should go to her, the crown would remain in the hands of a family with close ties to the Bruce and his supporters. Although Robert received everything he must have sought from the union, the greatest consequence of this act was to place the succession into the hands of Robert’s grandson, Robert II, the first Stewart monarch of Scotland.
The Stewarts were an Anglo-Norman family based in southwest Scotland, much like the Bruces. Walter son of Alan had been Steward to David I and was granted the barony of Renfrew in return. The Stewarts used their position as the king’s Stewart throughout the twelfth thirteenth centuries to establish control over the Firth of Clyde region, controlling Renfrew, Bute, Cowal, and Kyle Stewart by the 1290s. They also held delegated royal authority in Lennox and Ayrshire and held castles Rothesay, Dunoon, Refrew, Ayr, Dundonald, Helingerik Delbarton, and Roxburgh.[1] Although in title only a baron, the Stewart held a position on the king’s council and was useful to the monarchs in that they extended royal lordship in the Clyde region. The power and influence of the Stewart family is evident in the early years of the Wars of Independence. The Scone Parliament’s recognition of Margaret the Maid as heir in 1284 features the names of the earls, followed immediately by Robert the Bruce and James Stewart.[2] He was chosen as one of the six guardians for Margaret in 1286 and then again as one of the twelve councilors to rule in the name of John Balliol in 1295. These appointments demonstrate the Stewart’s respected position in Scotland, as does his role in the delegation to France, in which he likely achieved more by his very presence as the steward of Scotland than by his diplomatic abilities.[3] Thus the Stewarts achieved by James’ time not only the position of a strong landed family, but respect on a local and international scale.
The Stewarts’ lands in the Clyde region made them close neighbors to the Bruce lordships of Annandale and Carrick and there is amble evidence to believe that they, unlike the Balliols in Galloway, enjoyed good relations with the Bruces. Frequently cited is the Turnberry Band, an alliance forged by a group of Scottish and Irish lords to aid the earl of Ulster and Thomas de Clare in an unclear endeavor, with all probability in Ireland. Although the Turnberry Band is by no means to be viewed as an alliance in support the Bruce claim,[4] it is evidence of cooperation and close ties between a group of southwestern lords, including: Robert Bruce, lord of Annandale, Robert of Carrick, James Stewart, John Stewart of Jedburgh, Walter Stewart of Menteith, Angus MacDonald and others.[5] After his seizure of the throne, Robert is thought to have relied on the support of his father-in-law, the earl of Ulster, for his return to Scotland in 1307 and is known to have received the assistance of the MacDonalds. Present with much of his kinsfolk at Turnberry, James Stewart’s support of the Bruce claim was not conspicuous, however, until he appeared at the court of claims following the death of Margaret the Maid. Bruce and Balliol were each given forty auditors, and James Stewart and Bishop Wishart of Glasgow stood for Bruce. When the tribunal decided in favor of the Balliol claim in 1292, both men went out of their way to state that although they accepted the verdict, they had “originally been convinced of the justice of Bruce’s claim by many arguments and much evidence.”[6] Hence while James Stewart accepted the John Balliol as king, his sympathies still lay with Bruce’s camp.
The period from the beginning of the Wars of Independence to the crowning of Robert the Bruce witnessed the shifting allegiances of many great lords, James Stewart among them. Although he appears in Edward’s allegiance in the ‘Ragman Roll’ in August, 1296 following the English king’s first march into Scotland, by 1297 he was again in conflict with the English and is implicated by the Lanercost and Guisborough Chronicles of plotting the uprising with Wallace.[7] Returning to English peace in 1304 under Comyn of Badenoch’s general submission, he received his property back from the earl of Lincoln when he succumbed to the “king’s will and pleasure.”[8] James never left the king’s peace from that time onwards.
Despite his unwillingness to risk his southern holdings, easily within reach of an English invasion, by openly supporting another rebellion, Edward sequestered James’ estates once more following Bruce’s coronation. There is certain motivation for the confiscation apart from Edward’s mistrust of James; a mistrust that sprung from the Stewarts’ known ties with the Bruces. Edward may also have been aware that a large number of James’ men were actively supporting Robert. It was only during a visit to Edward’s sick bed in which he swore allegiance by the two holiest crosses in Edwards possession, the Consecrated Host, the gospels, saints relics and any other thing of spiritual value in reach that James was returned his holdings. He kept them, together with his oath, until Edward’s death.[9] Once the “Hammer of the Scots” was gone and Robert’s position more secure, James declared for him and was present at the 1309 parliament, shortly before his death, where he joined with the declaration of Robert’s right and the denouncement of the Balliol claim; a position he had concurred with some seventeen years earlier.
Following James’ death, the Stewart succession fell to his younger son, Walter. Andrew, the eldest son, had been given to Bishop Lamberton by 1306 but was handed over to Bruce, at which point he disappeared from record. It is surmised he perished at or following the battle of Methven.[10] Walter’s location at this time is unknown, but his brother’s and possibly his own hardships with Robert would have solidified him to the new king’s cause. At any rate, he certainly learned where his family’s true sympathies lay.
The return of Robert’s daughter from his first marriage, Marjorie, enabled him to marry her off in the common manner, i.e. to further some familial objective. Marjorie had been seized with the other women fleeing north following the rout at Methven in 1306 and had been confined in a Yorkshire Gilbertine nunnery at Watton by the English.[11] She returned to Scotland with Robert’s wife and sister, the earl of Mar, and Bishop Wishart in late September, 1314. Robert achieved an exchange for such important persons by capturing the earl of Hereford, taken at Bothwell Castle following Bannockburn, because he was married to Edward II’s sister as the Chronicle of Lanercost points out. The swap was one of the greatest royal gains from the battle since it gave Bruce both two female relations to marry and his queen to produce an heir with, to say nothing of the pleasure of reunion with his family. Victory also quelled the English threat for the time being, facilitating Robert with the peace and firmer position in which to contemplate the distribution of lands and brides, as well as to deal with the matter of succession to the throne.
Although Robert I typically attempted reconciliation with the Scottish nobles by recognizing their possessions in return for fealty, a good many lords did forfeit their lands to him. Randolph received Moray, Annandale and the Isle of Man, Douglas acquired Lauderdale, Jedburgh and Selkirk. Because kingship was by no means absolute in medieval Scotland – a lord depended upon the support, military and otherwise, of his vassals – Robert needed to reward the men who had so valiantly supported him. Not only was it what a good king did, but it was also necessary to Robert’s hold on the throne: ill rewarded vassals would not remain loyal. The return of Robert’s family permitted him to compensate them in a new way: with a royal marriage. Mary Bruce, sister to the king, was wed to Sir Neil Campbell sometime before or after her time in England with Marjory.[12] Upon Campbell’s death in 1316, Mary was given to Alexander Fraser, another of the king’s close supporters. At other times Robert was also able to marry his sisters Matilda and Christian to Hugh Ross and Andrew Moray, respectively. Together with enfeoffments, Bruce used these marriages to secure his position and reward his followers.
It was against this background that Robert married his daughter to Walter Stewart. The first source from the period pertaining to the marriage is the First Tailzie, issued in April, 1315. It declares that Robert’s male heirs were first in line in the succession, but that if no males survived him the crown would go to Edward Bruce and his male children. Only in the event that Edward died with no male offspring as well would the succession fall to Marjorie and her children. Marjorie was beforehand Robert’s prime heir and the alteration was done with her stated consent. This was likely done not only at Edward’s request, but also in an attempt to prevent a female succession and the problems that came with it, still fresh in memory from the experience with Margaret of Norway. The First Tailzie assured Robert’s subjects that should he die without an heir, Edward would become king, an “energetic man abundantly experienced in deeds of war for the defence of the right and liberty of the realm of Scotland.”[13] It was not, however, in Scotland that Edward was devoting his energy in spring of 1315. He was instead planning his expedition into Ireland one month hence to claim the throne offered him by the king of Tyrone and others. The Scottish nobility did not welcome the thought that the Scottish kingship could fall into the hands of a king of Ireland, Barrow suggests.[14] The tailzie also went against Alexander III’s succession policy, but Robert was nevertheless successful in the alteration.
Around a month later Marjorie was married to Walter Stewart, a short enough period of time to assume that the wedding was planned before the First Tailzie. There is no evidence of an arrangement between Robert I and James Stewart before his death that their children would be married, but such an agreement is entirely possible. Walter was very young in 1315, but a “beardless lad” the year before.[15] There are, of course, plenty of reasons why Robert would not have needed such an agreement compelling him towards such a union in 1315. First off, he was anxious to marry his newly returned daughter off. The Stewarts were a loyal family whose vassals had supported Bruce and independence even when their lords had not, and Robert would have wanted to reward them and augment those ties. The most convincing argument, however, on the evidence available on why Marjorie was married to a Stewart specifically at this time has to do with their position in the southwest. Edward Bruce was planning his incursion into Ireland at this time, and the Bruces were undoubtedly looking for support in that region. The Stewarts possessed a considerable force of galleys based on the Clyde region that could be of much use to Edward. The partnership paid off, the Stewarts providing a great deal of military support from 1315 to 1318.[16] Together with the need to reward the Stewarts like his other supporters after Bannockburn, it is altogether possible that Robert could have been fulfilling his immediate needs by marrying his daughter to Walter Stewart.
When any lord married his only daughter off, he certainly contemplated that fact that she might inherit the family’s holdings. Even though Robert took the aforementioned steps to prevent Marjorie’s inheritance, he knew that it was a possibility. With this in mind, Robert may be seen as making a wise decision by marrying her to a very close ally. Should the crown fall into Stewart hands, Scotland would receive a monarch with nearly all the same allies. All the same, Robert still had high hopes of producing a male heir by his returned wife.
The situation had changed by 1318. The new marriage produced a son in 1316, with Marjorie dying shortly thereafter. Robert’s brother Edward was the next to die, falling at Dundalk in Ireland in October, 1318. This prompted Robert to call a parliament to address the issue again. The decision, recorded in the Second Tailzie, states that the inheritance should go to the king’s son first, but failing him it would go to Robert Stewart. The lords swore to obey Robert’s heirs, and that if they should be minors, Thomas Randolph then James Douglas would be regents. The tailzie also states that succession would not be determined by the custom of inferior fiefs and inheritances, but that “the succession should go to the heir male of the right line, whom failing the nearest female of that line, whom failing to the nearest male of the collateral line which had the right of blood.”[17] This may have been a bold statement by Robert, since it would likely have given Balliol the kingdom in 1292 and undermines Bruce’s claim that it was his family, not Balliol’s, that were the rightful heirs to Alexander III.[18] The increasing likelihood that Robert Stewart would be Robert I’s heir prompted him to grant Robert more lands. He was given Cunningham and Kintyre in 1318, increasing his grasp of the Firth of Clyde region, and also the baronies of Methven and Kellie following the Soules Conspiracy in 1320.[19] Robert was first in line until the birth of Bruce’s son David II in 1326, at which time Robert was confirmed as second in line. Although Robert the Bruce was no doubt relieved at the birth of his son, it may have been much better had Robert II inherited the kingdom in 1329 instead of the infant David. Robert was coming of age as a man by that time and was even made guardian in 1334 with John Randolph, earl of Moray. Not only would the nation have been spared a regency in the 1330s had Robert inherited the throne, but he eventually became king in 1371 when he outlived the heirless David. The ultimate consequence of Robert’s marriage of Marjorie to Walter Stewart was therefore to unwittingly, or at least unintentionally, found the Stewart dynasty in Scotland.
The Stewarts are an exceptional example of how a family could make large gains through loyal service to one’s lord, although too successful to represent the norm. By receiving many rewards for their service as the kings’ stewards, including not only lands and titles but royal marriages, the Stewarts progressed from a small, French family to the monarchs of Scotland. A marriage alliance with the immediate goal of strengthening Bruce lordship at home and extending it to Ireland therefore lead to the establishment of a new family’s rule in Scotland. Although Robert the Bruce is not remembered for that creation, the Stewarts were indeed part of his legacy.
Barrow, Geoffrey W.S. Robert Bruce
& the Community of the Realm of Scotland.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999.
Barrow, Geoffrey and Ann Royan. “James Fifth Stewart of Scotland.” ed. K.J. Stinger,
Essays on the Nobility of Medieval Scotland. Edinburgh: John Donald Pub. Ltd.
1985, pp. 166-187.
Boardman, Stephen I., The Early Stewart Kings: Robert II and Robert III. East Linton:
Tuckwell Press, 1996.
Duncan, Archibald A.M. The Acts of Robert I King of Scots 1306-1329. Edinburgh,
Edinburgh University Press, 1988.
Grant, Alexander. Independence and Nationhood: Scotland 1306-1469. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1996.
[1] Barrow, Geoffrey and Ann Royan. “James Fifth Stewart of Scotland.” pp. 168-169.
[2] Ibid, p. 169.
[3] Ibid, p. 181.
[4] The document states the alliance between the parties, “saving their loyalty to the lord king of England and saving the loyalty to him who acquires and obtains the kingdom of Scotland by reason of their luckily remembered kinship to the lord Alexander king of Scots.” Although the omission of Margaret is probably due to cautious wording in uncertain circumstances, the document is nevertheless the product of a group of friendly lords meeting in the castle of Robert Bruce and thus the possibility that one of the leading claimants is solidifying relations with allies in anticipation of future circumstances should not be overlooked.
[5] Barrow and Royan, p. 172.
[6] Ibid, p. 174.
[7] Ibid., p. 177.
[8] Ibid., p. 180.
[9] It is probably that James would have remained unwilling to support Robert outright from his submission in October 1306 through Edward’s death some nine months later.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Barrow, Geoffrey W.S. Robert Bruce & the Community of the Realm of Scotland. p. 162.
[12] Duncan, Archibald A.M. The Acts of Robert I King of Scots 1306-1329. p. 64.
[13] The First Tailzie.
[14] Barrow, p. 293.
[15] Ibid, p. 282.
[16] Boardman, Stephen. The Early Stewart Kings: Robert II and Robert III 1371-1406. p. 3.
[17] Duncan, p. 63.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Boardman, p. 3.