Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar

Alexander first married to Isabel Douglas, Countess of Mar (d. 1408). Alexander remarried with Marie van Hoorn, daughter of Willem, Lord of Duffel, in 1410. He died without having a legitimate male heir, and the Earldom of Mar passed to the crown. He had two illegitimate children, Thomas who died childless and Margaret who married Lachlan Maclean of Duart.

biographical notes

His "career had been a strange one. A natural son of the 'Wolf of Badenach,' and a leadeer of freebooters like his father, he was universally believed to have been the instigator of a murderous attack made on the brother of the Queen and husband of the Countess of Mar, in his own castle; after which he stormed the widowed Countess in her fortress of Kildrummy, and compelled her to marry him. This marriage suddenly raised him from a captain of robbers to be one of the greates men in Scogtglalnd. The Countess conferred on him a liferent right to her earldom which Rober III. confirmed in breach of an engagement under shich he had come at a time when Isabel was the wife of his own brother-in-lse, Sir Malcolm rummond, to recognise no resignation made by the Countess Isabel to the prejudice of her heir-presumptive, the wife of Thomas Erskine. Alexander Stewart's character changing with his altered cirumstances, he became--outwardly at least--a supporter of law and order. That a bond for mutual support existed between him and the Regent, we know by an allusion to t in an indenture between him and Duke Murdach. In 1406 he distinguished himself in England by a passage of arms with Edmund (Holland) Earl of Kent; and Wyntoun's concluding chapter represnts him as heading a body of auxiliaries to the Duke of Burgundy, who in 1408 quelled a rebellion in Lliege, and setttle the Bishop-elect in his See. Becoming the same year a widower, he took for second wife a noble lady of the Low Countries." [18, 19]

notes

Alexander Stewart, 12th Earl of Mar also went by the nick-name of 'The Wolf of Badenoch'.3 As a result of his marriage, Alexander Stewart, 12th Earl of Mar was styled as 12th Earl of Mar [S., c. 1115] on 12 August 1404, after forcing his future wife to grant an eventual abortive charter making over to him, in supposed view of theior forthcoming marriage, the Earldom of Mar and Garioch.2,3 On 9 December 1404 she granted by charter the Earldom of Mar to her husband and heirs of their marriage, whom failing to her heirs.3 He fought in the Battle of Harlaw in 1411, where he defeated the Lord of the Isles.3 He held the office of Admiral of the Scottish Kingdom in 1419/20.3 He held the office of Admiral of the Scottish Kingdom in 1423.3 In 1426 he illegally got the Earldom of Mar granted to himself and his bastard Thomas.3

Citations

1. [S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 220. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Families.
2. [S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Families, page 221.
3. [S37] BP2003 volume 2, page 2603. See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S37]
4. [S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 377. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
5. [S1924] #189 The Scots Peerage: Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, Containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of that Kingdom, with Armorial Illustrations (1904-1914), Paul , Sir James Balfour, (9 volumes. Edinburgh: D. Douglas, 1904-1914), FHL book 941 D22p; FHL microfilms104,157-104,161., vol. 5 p. 587.
6. [S1888] The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, Editor: George Burnett, (H.M. General Register House Edinburgh), Film: 994052., vol. 4 p. lxxiii, lxxiv .

Sources

1. The Scots Peerage: Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; Containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of that Kingdom, Volume 3 (Google eBook) James Balfour Paul. D. Douglas, 1906 - Nobility.  Page 154

Links

• http://www.thepeerage.com/p10803.htm#i108022
• https://histfam.familysearch.org//getperson.php?personID=I1797&tree...