[Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot.; Reg. P. C. Scotl. vols. v–x.; Hist. of James the Sext (Bannatyne Club); Histories of Scotland by Calderwood and Spotiswood; Pitcairn's Criminal Trials; Douglas's Scottish Peerage, ed. Wood, i. 216.]
STEWART, ROBERT, first Duke of Albany (1340?–1420), regent of Scotland, born about 1340, was third son of Robert, earl of Strathearn (afterwards Robert II) [q. v.], by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Robert Mure of Rowallan. His parents' marriage took place some seven years after his birth. Robert III [q. v.] and Alexander Stewart, earl of Buchan [q. v.], were his brothers. In 1360 he was sent to England as hostage for David II. After his marriage, by papal license (Theiner, Vet. Mon. p. 317), 9 Sept. 1361, to Margaret, countess of Menteith, daughter of the Countess Mary and Sir John Graham, he was known as Lord of Menteith, and he was present, as a baron, at parliaments held at Scone in 1367, 1368, and 1369. On 28 Feb. 1371, the day after his father's coronation, he swore fealty as Earl of Menteith (Acta Parl. Scot. i. 545). On 30 March following an indenture was made between him and Isabel, countess of Fife, widow of his brother Walter, who died in 1360, by which the countess agreed to acknowledge him as her heir-apparent (Harl. MS. 4694, f. 8, part published in Sir Robert Sibbald's History of Fife, and printed in Sir William Fraser's Red Book of Menteith, ii. 251–4). Henceforth, therefore, he held the style and designation of Earl of Fife and Menteith, the earldom of Fife being the older creation.
In 1371 and 1372 the Earl of Fife and Menteith was, along with his elder brother, John, earl of Carrick (afterwards Robert III), engaged in presiding in the courts of redress on the borders (WYNTOUN, Chronicle, bk. ix. chap. i. line 31). On 7 Feb. 1373 he had a charter from the king making him and his heirs male hereditary governors of the castle of Stirling, with the power to appoint and dismiss the constables and janitors of the castle; and during his term of office he did much to improve and strengthen its defences. At a meeting of the parliament held at Scone on 4 April of the same year it was declared that, failing the king's eldest son and his heirs, the succession should devolve on the Earl of Fife and Menteith and his heirs (Acta Parl. Scot. i. 549).
On the death of Sir John Lyon of Glammis, high chamberlain of Scotland (4 Nov. 1382), the Earl of Fife and Menteith was chosen to succeed him, and he held this office until 1407, when he resigned it in favour of his son John Stewart, earl of Buchan [q. v.] The Earl of Fife was one of the leaders of the expedition into England in 1385 in concert with the French admiral, John de Vienne, when after a reconnaissance of Roxburgh Castle, then held by the English, but deemed too strong to be carried by assault, the joint Scots and French force proceeded to Berwick, and crossing into Northumberland captured Wark Castle, and ravaged the country to the gates of Newcastle. Information then reaching them of the approach of a large force under the Duke of Lancaster, they fell back on Berwick, and, while permitting the English army to march by Liddesdale and Teviotdale to Edinburgh, they again entered England by the western marches and devastated Cumberland (Wyntoun, bk. ix. chap. vi. lines 54 &c.); Fordun, ed. Goodall, ii. 401; Froissart, ed. Bochon, ix. 144–55). After the departure of the French, whose assistance the Scots deemed too dearly purchased by the expense incurred in supporting them, the Earl of Fife and Menteith accompanied the Douglases on another great plundering raid; entering England by the Solway Sands, they ravaged the fruitful western borders as far as Cockermouth, whence they returned with great store of booty (Wyntoun, bk. ix. chap. vii. lines 31 &c.; Fordun, ii. 462–3). By these successful raids the earl had won such renown among the Scots that, when in 1388 the council decided on an expedition into England under his leadership, no less than twelve hundred men at arms and forty thousand infantry assembled under his standard on the day of tryst at Yetholm. Having so large a force at his disposal, and obtaining information that the English wardens had determined to invade Scotland as soon as they learned in what direction the Scots intended to advance, the earl determined to baffle them by forming his army into two separate divisions, and himself with the larger division, comprising two-thirds of the troops, entered the western marches by Liddesdale and Carlisle, while the Earl of Douglas with the remainder proceeded to ravage Northumberland and Durham. Of the doings of the western raiders there is no definite information, their achievements being overshadowed by the glorious feat of the other division, which, though at the cost of the Earl of Douglas's life, won the great historic victory of Otterburn (Wyntoun, bk. ix. chap. viii.; Fordun, ii. 404).
The earl had now attained a position of commanding importance in Scotland, and his father being old and infirm, while his elder brother John, earl of Carrick, had been
