m ^ ?M ivW^ *SS&*y& o dg& ,o O O/ A 1 J ' i. t I I I j'i .' 3iuU I ^..'*' 1 I HIMl I I J', AM1 I w BBHHBl c A.iiz vV 1b /3- LAURISTON CASTLE LIBRARY. : l:** y C|)f ©ufce0 of aibanp AND THEIR CASTLE OF DOUNE BY WILLIAM FRASER EDINBURGH 1881 REPRINTED FROM THE RED BOOK OF MENTEITH Bv WILLIAM FRASER EDINBURGH 1880. hi Contents PAGE GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS, .... iii PREFATORY NOTE, ...... v-x SUMMARY OF THE MEMOIRS, .... xi-xiv MEMOIR OF ROBERT, FIRST DUKE OF ALBANY, 1-108 MEMOIR OF MURDACH, SECOND DUKE OF ALBANY, . 109-150 THE SUBSEQUENT DUKES OF ALBANY, . 151-152 APPENDIX TO MEMOIRS OF THE DUKES OF ALBANY, 153-158 DOUNE CASTLE, ...... 159-184 APPENDIX OF MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS AND CORRESPONDENCE, 185-24S ABSTRACT OF APPENDIX, ..... 249-262 ILL USTRA TIONS. Seal of Robert, Duke of Albany, ..... 108 Official Seal of Robert, Duke of Albany, .... between 108 and 109 Doune Castle in Menteith, ..... 184 and 185 PREFATORY NOTE. These Memoirs of the two first Dukes of Albany, who were also Earls of Menteith, and became famous as Governors of Scotland, are reprinted from " The Eed Book of Menteith," and may be acceptable to those who do not possess that larger work. Since these Memoirs were printed, there have been published two volumes of the Exchequer Eolls of Scotland, extending over the period embraced in the lives of those two royal Dukes. In his prefaces to these valuable Eolls, the learned editor has done much to elucidate many historical, genealogical, and heraldic questions, particularly in his chapter on the " Stewart Genealogy." He has, however, failed to throw light on several points connected with Menteith, as to which we hope he will be pleased to receive a supplement to his information, as the result of our more extended investigations. Eobert Stewart, the third son of King Eobert the Second, is stated to have been " Earl of Menteith by marriage, and of Fife by inheritance from the Countess Isobel." * The latter part of the statement may admit of argument, for while in the indenture between the Countess Isobel and Eobert, Earl of Menteith, in 1371, now for the first time correctly printed in the larger work from the original indenture, in terms of which he obtained the earldom of Fife, there is reference to a former entail of the lands, nothing is said of the dignity, and the presumption is that he was specially created Earl of Fife by his father. But, on the other hand, the statement that Sir Eobert Stewart was, or became Earl of Menteith " by marriage " with Lady Margaret Graham, the daughter of Sir John Graham, is erroneous, as Sir Eobert nowhere holds that dignity until after his father's accession. In 13G4, three years after his 1 Exchequer Rolls, vol. ii. p. lxxxi. THE FIFE AND MENTEITH PEERAGES. marriage, he is styled in the Exchequer Bolls simply Robert Stewart of Menteith. 1 The records of Parliament show that in 1367 2 and 1368,3 he was present in Parliament as Lord of Menteith only, and it is not until the day after his father's coronation that he pays homage as Earl. 4 From his influen- tial position it cannot be doubted that if Sir Eobert Stewart had really been entitled to the dignity of Earl of Menteith through the courtesy of his wife, it would have been accorded to him soon after his marriage. But there is evidence that he continued a commoner for several years, and until the coronation of his father as King Bobert the Second. From and after that ceremony he was Earl of Menteith, and the inference clearly is that he became so by special creation on that occasion. This fact goes entirely against the theory broached in these prefaces to the Exchequer Bolls as to female descent in peerages. The same may be said of a former Menteith marriage, on which some light is thrown from a statement by the late Mr. Biddell. Walter Comyn, who married the elder co-heiress of Maurice, third Earl of Menteith, in 1231, is after the marriage styled Earl of Menteith. It has been doubted whether he did not receive the dignity by courtesy of his wife, but Mr. Biddell quotes an old roll or 5 inventory of charters by Alexander II., as containing a charter by that monarch " Walteri Cumyng de comitatu de Menteithe," which goes far to establish the fact that the dignity was conferred upon him, as upon Sir Bobert Stewart, by a special creation. The editor of the Exchequer Bolls assumes that the husband of the lady Elene of Mar, daughter of Gratney, Earl of Mar, was the famous Sir John Menteith, the reputed betrayer of Wallace. In this he follows the late Mr. 1 4 Exchequer Rolls, vol. ii. p. 166. Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, 2 Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. i. p. 545. 3 5 vol. i. p. 501. Ibid. p. 505. Peerage and Consistorial Law. p. 1050. SIR JOHN MENTEITH AND ELENE OF MAR. vii Riddell, who states that Sir John and the husband of Lady Elene of Mar were 1 one and the same person. This view is refuted, however, by the authorities quoted both by Mr. Riddell and the editor of the Exchequer Eolls. Mr. Riddell founds on a charter of 1359, preserved in the records of Parliament,2 granted by King David the Second to Sir John Menteith, the son of Lady Elene of Mar, reconveying to him the lands of Strathgartney, which had been taken by the King from the same Sir John in 1344. These lands are in that charter stated to have been granted by King Robert the Bruce to Sir John Menteith and Lady Elene of Mar in free marriage. But a missing charter of King Robert the Bruce, referred to in the Exchequer Rolls 3 as proving the above, though the full significance of the entry has been overlooked, designs the grantee, the husband of Lady Elene of Mar, as " John Monteith, son to John Monteith." There is thus evidence that there were in succession to each other three persons who bore the name and designation of Sir John Menteith, and that Lady Elene of Mar was the wife of the second Sir John Menteith, who was not the famous Sir John, but his son. Although in the prefaces to the Exchequer Rolls it is nowhere distinctly stated that the reputed betrayer of Wallace and the husband of Lady Elene of Mar were one and the same person, it is affirmed that Joanna of Menteith, Countess of Strathern, was the daughter of Sir John Menteith and Lady Elene of Mar. 4 That Joanna of Strathern was the daughter of the first 5 Sir John Menteith is proved from authentic evidence, and has never been disputed, but it is a mistake to say that she was the daughter of Lady Elene of Mar. As we have shown, Lady Elene was not the wife of the first Sir 1 Tracts, Legal and Historical, 1835, p. 149. sou's Index, p. 23, No. 6. 4 - Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, Exchequer Bolls, vol. ii. p. ci, note. 5 vol. i. p. 524. Robertson's Index of Missing Charters, 3 Exchequer Rolls, vol. ii. p. lvi ; Robert- p. 18, Iso. 69. Vlll THE MOEAY-MENTEITH MARRIAGE. John Menteith, and even if she had been she could not have been the mother of Joanna of Strathern. For if it be the case, as stated in the Exchequer Bolls, that Joanna was the wife of Earl Malise of Strathern, the father of the Earl Malise whose wife was implicated in the Soulis conspiracy 1 in 1320 (and this statement is also made by other authorities), then she must have been married some time before that event. But from various data it may be shown that Lady Elene of Mar, even if married in 1320, could not then have had a marriageable daughter. Supposing that Gratney, Earl of Mar, married Lady Christian Bruce, the mother of Lady Elene, in 1292, 2 and allowing for the birth of their son Donald in or about 1293, it will be seen that Lady Elene in 1320 must have been at the utmost little more than twenty-five years of age. It is probable that she was even younger, and also that she was not married until after that date. The lands of Strathgartney, as is stated in the charter by King David the Second before referred to, were granted to her and her husband in free marriage, thus suggesting that these lands were her wedding-gift from her uncle, King Bobert the Bruce. But these lands were taken from Sir John Logie only about 1320, and it is probable therefore that the marriage of Lady Elene of Mar did not take place until that year at least. Another Menteith marriage which is mentioned in the preface to the last published volume of the Exchequer Bolls may also be here adverted to. The editor conjectures that Sir John Moray, the first husband of Lady Margaret Graham, styled Countess of Menteith, must have been Sir John Moray of Bothwell. 3 This conjecture is well founded, but the evidence which completes the proof desiderated has been overlooked. This is furnished by a charter of certain lands in the barony of Avach, granted by Muriella, widow of Sir William Bose of Kilravock, with consent of her overlord, 1 2 3 Exchequer Rolls, vol. ii. p. ci, note. Ibid.