Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney

Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney and Lord of Zetland (Shetland) (spring of 1533 – 4 February 1593) was a recognised illegitimate son of James V, King of Scotland, and his mistress Eupheme Elphinstone.James Balfour Paul and John Maitland Thomson, eds., The Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, A.D. 1513-1546 (Edinburgh, 1883), 360-61 (no. 1620); Original Letters of Mr John Colville, 1582-1603 (Edinburgh, 1858), 337. Robert Stewart was half-brother to Mary, Queen of Scots and uncle to James VI and I of Scotland and England.
==Biography==
In 1539 Robert Stewart was made Commendator of Holyrood Abbey, and Commendator of Charlieu Abbey in France by 1557.Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne d'Ecosse(Bannatyne Club, 1863), p. xxxviii. Clothes for "lord Robert of Halyrudhous" and his brothers were made by the king's tailor, Thomas Arthur.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 313. 
In 1550, after the conclusion of the war known the Rough Wooing, he accompanied his step-mother Mary of Guise on a visit to the French court.Pamela Ritchie, Mary of Guise: A Political Career (Tuckwell: East Linton, 2002), p. 270. During the Reformation Crisis, on 9 February 1560 he testified against the Hamiltons, the Duke of Châtellerault and Earl of Arran, and the Protestant Lords of the Congregation to James MacGill and John Bellenden of Auchnoule. They were collecting evidence for Henri Cleutin and Jacques de la Brosse, the French advisors of Mary of Guise who planned to have the Hamiltons charged with treason against his half-sister, Mary, Queen of Scots and France. Robert himself had signed some of the letters that were to be cited as evidence.Dickinson, Gladys, ed., 'Report by De La Brosse and D'Oysel,' in Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, IX (SHS: Edinburgh, 1958), pp. 98, 118–120.
Mary, Queen of Scots returned to Scotland on 19 August 1561, arriving unexpectedly at Leith at 10 o'clock in the morning with her entourage of 60 companions in two galleys. Lord Robert welcomed her at Holyrood Palace.Philip Yorke, Miscellaneous State Papers, vol. 1 (London, 1778), p. 176: Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 547 no. 1010. Robert, his half-brother Lord John, the Marquis of Elbeuf and others performed at the sands of Leith in a tournament in December 1561. There was "running at the ring" with two teams of six men, Robert's team dressed as women, the other as exotic foreigners in strange masquing garments.Peter Anderson, Robert Stewart, Earl of Orkney Lord of Shetland (Edinburgh, 1982), p. 43. Robert's team were the winners.Clare Hunter, Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power (London: Sceptre, 2022), p. 156: Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 576. The ambassador of Savoy, Monsieur de Moret, watched the tournament at Leith, and he was lodged in Lord Robert's house at Holyrood.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. (Edinburgh, 1898), p. 580 no. 1052. There was a similar tournament in costume in August 1594 at the baptism of Prince Henry at Stirling Castle. Again, in March 1565, Robert Stewart took part in running at the ring at the sands of Leith,Morgan Ring, So High A Blood: The Life of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox (Bloomsbury, 2017), p. 193.Puttick & Simpson, Catalogue of a Very Important Collection of Royal Letters (London, 1859) pp. 12–13 no. 38. and the contestants included a newcomer at court Lord Darnley.Katharine P. Frescoln, 'A Letter from Thomas Randolph to the Earl of Leicester', Huntington Library Quarterly, 37:1 (November 1973), pp. 83-88 at 87 from National Library of Scotland MS 3657. 
Robert Stewart was knighted as Sir Robert Stewart of Strathdon on 15 May 1565, as part of marriage celebrations of Mary, Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2, (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 161. In 1581 he was made Earl of Orkney by James VI, the first Earl in a second creation of the Earldom of Orkney. The new earldom replaced a short-lived Dukedom of Orkney, which had been awarded in 1567 by Mary, Queen of Scots, to her notorious third husband James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. This dukedom was forfeit later that same year after Mary was forced to abdicate and Bothwell was charged with treason. Prior to this dukedom there had existed an Earldom of Orkney that was surrendered in 1470 by William Sinclair, 3rd Earl of Orkney
==Family==
On 13 or 14 December 1561 Robert Stewart married Lady Jean Kennedy, daughter of Gilbert Kennedy, 3rd Earl of Cassilis, and Margaret Kennedy.Gordon Donaldson, Scotland's History: Approaches and Reflections (Scottish Academic Press, 1995), p. 71. The English diplomat Thomas Randolph wrote that "Lord Robert consumethe with love for Cassillis' sister". At this time Lord Robert had a house near Holyrood Palace, but the marriage took place at the house of one of her family friends.Joseph Bain, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 563 no. 1035, 580 no. 1051, 583 no. 1056. Their children included:
* Mary, who married Patrick Gray, 6th Lord Gray (b. late 1562)Anderson, Peter, The Stewart Earls of Orkney, p. 36
* Jean, who married Patrick Leslie, 1st Lord Lindores (b. 1563?)
* William of Egilsay (1564-1630)Anderson, Peter. The Stewart Earls of Orkney, p. 36.
* Henry, who became Master of Orkney (b. February 1565 - 1590)Anderson, Peter, The Stewart Earls of Orkney, p. 36.
* Patrick (1565/66 - 6 February 1615), who inherited the title Earl of Orkney and married Margaret Livingstone.Anderson, Peter, Stewart Earls of Orkney, p. 36.
* John Stewart, who became Earl of Carrick and married Elizabeth Howard
* Robert, was knighted and known as Sir Robert Stewart of Middleton.Anderson, Peter, Stewart Earls of Orkney, p. 36. Imprisoned for debt in London in 1606.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 19 (London, 1965), p. 193.
* James, was knighted and known as Sir James Stewart of Eday and Tullos, and married Margaret Lyon
* Elizabeth, who married James Sinclair of Murkle in Caithness (becoming the mother-in-law of John MacKay, Laird of Strathy in Strathnaver)
* Barbara, who married Hugh Halcro of Halcro
Robert Stewart also had a number of illegitimate children with several mistresses.Paul, James Balfour, Scots peerage Vol 6 (Edinburgh : D. Douglas. 1909), Stewart, Earl of Orkney, pp. 573–7.
==Ancestors==
==Notes==
Category:1533 births
Category:1593 deaths
Category:Earls of Orkney
Robert
Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney
Category:People associated with Shetland
Category:16th-century Scottish people
Category:Court of James V of Scotland
Category:Scottish princes
Orkney
Category:Sons of kings