James Stewart, 1st Lord Doune (1529–1590) was a Scottish landowner.
Career James Stewart was the son of Sir James Stewart of Beith (d. 1547), Constable of Doune Castle, who was the third son of Andrew Stewart, 1st Lord Avondale, and Margaret Lindsay, who was a daughter of John Lindsay, 3rd Lord Lindsay of the Byres, widow of Richard Stewart, Lord Innermeath. His sister Margaret Stewart was a maid of honour in the household of Mary of Guise and married James Ogilvie of Balfour in 1554.Marguerite Wood, Balcarres Papers, 2 (Edinburgh: SHS, 1925), p. 314.James Balfour Paul, Scots Peearage, 3 (Edinburgh, 1904), p. 187.
His father was killed at Dunblane in 1547 by Edmondstone of Duntreath and his followers, in a quarrel over the office of Steward of Menteith. Mary of Guise wrote from Stirling Castle to his mother Lady Innermeath, counselling patience and offering support.HMC 6th Report: Earl of Moray (London, 1877), p. 671.
Stewart was Constable of Doune Castle, and Commendator of Inchcolm Abbey. He was often called "St Colme" in contemporary letters. When Lord Darnley was made Lord of Ardmanoch and Earl of Ross at Stirling Castle on 15 May 1565, Stewart was one of 15 men who were made knights.Julian Goodare, 'Queen Mary's Catholic Interlude', in Mary Stewart Queen in Three Kingdoms: Innes Review, vol. 37 (1987), p. 158: Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 161 no. 181. He was created Lord Doune on 24 November 1581.
In 1560 he was one of Lords of the Articles at the Scottish Reformation Parliament. In August 1561 he was in France, and wrote to Lord James, the queen's half-brother, that Mary, Queen of Scots was determined to come back to Scotland. She told him to make it known she would not take offers from Scottish lords for their loyalty.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 543. He brought Mary's letters to Queen Elizabeth at Heveningham in Suffolk on 16 August, where he gave her excuses for not ratifying the Treaty of Edinburgh and confirmed that Mary was returning to Scotland. He returned to Scotland 4 days after Mary's arrival with her safe-conduct document from Elizabeth.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 545, 547.
In November 1561, Stewart was sent to France, and travelled down the Great North Road to London in six days. While he was in London he took ferry boats over the Thames several times, costing 6 shillings and 4 pence. He then went to Dover to get a boat for France.HMC 6th Report: Earl of Moray (London, 1877), p. 636: David Potter, A Knight of Malta at the Court of Elizabeth I: The Correspondence of Michel de Seure (Cambridge, 2014), pp. 105, 107. On his return to England in January 1562, Elizabeth gave him a letter for Mary Queen of Scots, in which she apologised for not sending her portrait because the artist was unwell. Mary, Queen of Scots mentioned to the ambassador Thomas Randolph that she would send Elizabeth a ring with a diamond made like a heart by the envoy who brought the portrait.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 588 no. 1063, 603 no. 1077, 632 no. 116. Stewart was sent to England again in May 1562 in connection with plans for the interview of the two queens.Joseph Steven, Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, 1562 (London, 1867), p. 31 no. 49.
Wedding and masque at Castle Campbell He married Margaret Campbell (d. 1592), sister of Archibald Campbell, 5th Earl of Argyll at Castle Campbell on 10 January 1563. There was a masque involving courtiers and musicians playing lutes dressed in white taffeta as shepherds.Michael Pearce, "Maskerye Claythis for James VI and Anna of Denmark", Medieval English Theatre, 43 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), pp. 110-111: Marilyn Brown, Scotland's Lost Gardens (Edinburgh: RCAHMS, 2015), p. 122. However, both Mary, Queen of Scots and her half brother James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray became ill during their stay at Castle Campbell.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 678-9, 681.
The costumes for the wedding masque used fabrics from the royal wardrobe, some recycled from other garments. The record is in French:Plus, une aulne et demie de damas blanc pour faire six gibesieres de bergers pour des masques au nopces de Monsieur de Sainct ColmePlus, j'ay delivre a Jacques le tailleur deux manteaux de masque faictz de taffeta blanc pour faire d'aultre sorte d'habillmentz a ceux qui jouoient du lut pour lesdicts masquesIl a este rompu trois habillementz de taffetas blanc borde de rouge lesquelz servirent a abiller des jouers aux nopces de Monsieur de Sainct Colme.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. lxxxii, 136, 138.More, for an ell and a half of white damask to make six satchels for shepherds for the masques at the wedding of the Master of InchcolmMore, I delivered to Jacques the tailor two masque cloaks of white taffeta to make another sort of costume for the lute players for the said masques.
Three white taffeta costumes with red borders were broken up which served to dress players at the wedding of the Master of Inchcolm.Michael Pearce, "Maskerye Claythis for James VI and Anna of Denmark", Medieval English Theatre, 43 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), p. 110.
Building the Queen's Hunt Hall In August 1563, James Stewart built a new Hunt Hall for Mary, Queen of Scots at Glen Artney in Perthshire, near Comrie, following directions from the Comptroller of Scotland, John Wishart of Pitarrow. He spent 200 merks on the project, but did not receive £32 in complete payment until 1580.Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, 21 (Edinburgh, 1921), p. 549. A ruined building near Dalclathick Farm may represent the site, although it seems rather small.John M. Gilbert, Elite Hunting Culture and Mary, Queen of Scots (Boydell, 2024), pp. 144–146, 177.
Later life His sister Elizabeth married Robert Crichton of Cluny. In 1568 Mary Queen of Scots wrote to St Colme from Bolton Castle asking him to write more often, in cipher, and send Crichton to her.Agnes Strickland, Life of Mary Queen of Scots, vol. 2 (London, 1873), p. 468. His brother Archibald Stewart married Helen Acheson, whose family owned Acheson's Haven near Prestongrange.Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1963), p. 246 no. 754.
In January 1581 his eldest son James Stewart married Elizabeth Stuart, 2nd Countess of Moray, who was the elder daughter and successor of Regent Moray. The wedding was celebrated on 31 January in Fife with a tournament of "running at the ring" and James VI of Scotland took part. the King's masque costume was of white satin with silken ribbons.Steven J. Reid, The Early Life of James VI, A Long Apprenticeship (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2023), p. 174. Two days after the party came to Leith, where a water pageant culminated with a theatrical assault on a Papal Castel Sant'Angelo, built on boats on the water of Leith. Some of her relatives and father's friends thought the Lord Doune's son was not of sufficient status to marry her.Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1574-1581, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 611.
In June 1581 James VI rewarded Sir James Stewart of Doune for his expenses keeping the former Regent Morton a prisoner, with the unpaid rents and duties of the lands of Aberdour.Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal: 1581-1584, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1982), p. 53 no. 323.
In April 1583 the English diplomat Robert Bowes thought James VI had employed Lord Doune to hasten his departure from Scotland. Lord Doune was trying to get the Jesuit William Holt released from Edinburgh Castle so he could go to France.Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1581-1583, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), pp. 405-5. In May 1583 Esmé Stewart, Duke of Lennox wrote to him from Paris, asking him to take care of his son Ludovic and help him recover his former possessions in Scotland for his benefit.HMC 6th Report: Earl of Moray (London, 1877), p. 637, (Letter dated Paris NS, 4 June 1583).
When Sir James Balfour appeared to forgiven for any involvement in the murder of Lord Darnley in February 1584, Doune protested and said to James VI, "God forbid that the King shall so little regard his father's murder." James VI answered that Doune had forgiven his father's murder.William Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1913), p. 27 no. 26.
In 1587 he seized the houses of Carnock and Bannockburn, and a townhouse in Stirling belonging to Robert Drummond of Carnock, which were forfeit due to a failed property transaction.David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland: 1585-1592, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1881), p. 229.
He died in 1590.
It was said that his widow, Margaret Campbell, Lady Doune, died in April 1592, from grief at not being allowed to bury her son, the murdered Earl of Moray, in Edinburgh. She left a note requesting the king take action against his murderers.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 679 no. 687.
Family The children of James Stewart and Margaret Campbell included: James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray (d. 1592), he married Elizabeth Stuart, 2nd Countess of Moray,Amy Blakeway, "James VI and James Douglas, Earl of Morton", Miles Kerr-Peterson & Steven J. Reid, James VI and Noble Power in Scotland (Routledge, 2017), p. 24. and became the subject of a popular ballad, The Bonnie Earl of Moray. Henry or Harry Stewart, later Lord St Colm, and Tutor of James Stewart, 3rd Earl of Moray. Archibald Stewart John Stewart, (d. Dec 1609) Alexander Stewart Mary Stewart, married Sir John Wemyss of Wemyss (d. 1622) in 1581.William Fraser, Memorials of the family of Wemyss of Wemyss, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1888), p. 191. Their eldest son was John Wemyss, 1st Earl of Wemyss. Margaret Stewart, who was betrothed to John Stewart, Master of Orkney, but died c. 1599. Jean Stewart (d. 1 Jul 1622), a lady in waiting to Anne of Denmark who married in 1596 Simon Fraser, 6th Lord Lovat.Michael Pearce, 'Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019), p. 148. He was the son of Hugh Fraser, 5th Lord Lovat and Elizabeth Stewart, later Countess of Arran.
References