by Albert Girard. See Steichen, Vie et travaux de Simon Stevin (Brussels, 1846); M. Cantor, Geschichte der Mathematik.
(M. Ca.)
STEWART, Stuart or Steuart, the surname of a family
which inherited the Scottish and ultimately the English crown.
Their descent is traced to a Breton immigrant, Alan the son of
Flaald, which Flaald was a brother of Alan, steward (or seneschal)
of Dol in Brittany. This elder Alan, whose name occurs
in Breton documents before 1080, went on crusade in 1097,
and was apparently succeeded by his brother Flaald, whose
son, the younger Alan, enjoyed the favour of Henry I., who
bestowed on him Mileham and its barony in Norfolk, where he
founded Sporle Priory. By the daughter of Ernulf de Hesdin
(in Picardy), a Domesday baron, he was father of at least three
sons: Jordan, who succeeded to the family office of steward of
Dol; William, who inherited Mileham and other estates in England,
and who founded the great baronial house of Fitz Alan
(afterwards earls of Arundel); and Walter, who was made by
David I. steward (dapifer) or seneschal of Scotland. The
Scottish king conferred on Walter various lands in Renfrewshire,
including Paisley, where he founded the abbey in 1163. Walter,
his grandson, third steward, was appointed by Alexander II.
justiciary of Scotland, and, dying in 1246, left four sons and three
daughters. The third son, Walter, obtained by marriage the
earldom of Menteith, which ultimately came by marriage to
Robert, duke of Albany, son of Robert II. Alexander, fourth
steward, the eldest son of Walter, third steward, inherited by
his marriage with Jean, granddaughter of Somerled, the islands
of Bute and Arran, and on the 2nd of October 1263 led the Scots
against Haakon IV., king of Norway, at Largs. He had two
sons, James and John. The latter, who commanded the men
of Bute at the battle of Falkirk in 1298, had seven sons: (1)
Sir Alexander, whose grandson George became in 1389 earl of
Angus, the title afterwards passing in the female line to the
Douglases, and in 1761 to the duke of Hamilton; (2) Sir Alan of
Dreghorn, ancestor of the earls and dukes of Lennox, from whom
Lord Darnley, husband of Queen Mary, and also Lady Arabella
Stuart, were descended; (3) Sir Walter, who obtained the barony
of Garlies, Wigtownshire, from his uncle John Randolph, earl
of Moray, and was the ancestor of the earls of Galloway, younger
branches of the family being the Stewarts of Tonderghie, Wigtownshire,
and also those of Physgill and Glenturk in the same
county; (4) Sir James, who fell at Dupplin in 1332, ancestor of
the lords of Lorn, on whose descendants were conferred at different
periods the earldoms of Athole, Buchan and Traquair, and
who were also the progenitors of the Stewarts of Appin, Argyllshire,
and of Grandtully, Perthshire; (5) Sir John, killed at
Halidon Hill in 1333; (6) Sir Hugh, who fought under Edward
Bruce in Ireland; and (7) Sir Robert of Daldowie, ancestor of
the Stewarts of Allanton and of Coltness. James Stewart,
the elder son of Alexander, fourth steward, succeeded his father
in 1283, and, after distinguishing himself in the wars of Wallace
and of Bruce, died in 1309. His son Walter, sixth steward, who
had joint command with Sir James Douglas of the left wing
at the battle of Bannockburn, married Marjory, daughter of
Robert the Bruce, and during the latter's absence in Ireland
was entrusted with the government of the kingdom. He died
in 1326, leaving an only son, who as Robert II. ascended the
throne of Scotland in 1371. Sir Alexander Stewart, earl of
Buchan, fourth son of Robert II., who earned by his ferocity
the title of the “Wolf of Badenoch,” inherited by his wife the
earldom of Ross, but died without legitimate issue, although
from his illegitimate offspring were descended the Stewarts of
Belladrum, of Athole, of Garth, of Urrard and of St Fort. On
the death of the “Wolf of Badenoch” the earldom of Buchan
passed to his brother Robert, duke of Albany, also earl of Fife
and earl of Menteith, but these earldoms were forfeited on
the execution of his son Murdoch in 1425, the earldom of Buchan
again, however, coming to the house of Stewart in the person
of James, second son of Sir James Stewart, the black knight
of Lorn, by Joan or Joanna, widow of King James I. From
Murdoch, duke of Albany, were descended the Stewarts of Ardvoirlich and other families of the name in Perthshire, and also the Stuarts of Inchbreck and Laithers, Aberdeenshire. From a natural son of Robert II. were descended the Steuarts of Dalguise, Perthshire, and from a natural son of Robert III. the Shaw Stewarts of Blackhall and Greenock. The direct male line of the royal family terminated with the death of James V. in 1542, whose daughter Mary was the first to adopt the spelling “Stuart.” Mary was succeeded in her lifetime in 1567 by her only son
James VI., who through his father Lord Darnley was also head
of the second branch, there being no surviving male issue of
the family from progenitors later than Robert II. In James V.,
son of James IV. by Margaret, daughter of Henry VII., the
claims of Margaret's descendants became merged in the Scottish
line, and on the death of Queen Elizabeth of England, the
last surviving descendant of Henry VIII. , James VI. of Scotland,
lineally the nearest heir, was proclaimed king of England, in
accordance with the arrangements made by Lord Burghley
and Elizabeth's other advisers. The accession of James, was,
however, contrary to the will of Henry VIII., which favoured
the heirs of his younger sister Mary, wife of Charles Brandon,
duke of Suffolk, whose succession would probably have marvellously
altered the complexion of both Scottish and English
history. As it was, the only result of that will was a tragedy
initiated by Elizabeth and consummated by James. In the
Scottish line the nearest heir after James VI., both to the Scottish
and English crowns, was Arabella Stuart, only child of Charles,
earl of Lennox, younger brother of Lord Darnley—Lady
Margaret Douglas, the mother of Darnley and his brother,
having been the daughter of Archibald, sixth earl of Angus, by
Margaret of England, queen dowager of James IV. James VI.
(I. of England) was thus nearest heir by a double descent,
Arabella Stuart being next heir by a single descent. On account
of the descent from Henry VII., the jealousy of Elizabeth had
already caused her to imprison Arabella's mother Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir William Cavendish, on learning that she had
presumed to marry Lennox. The daughter's marriage she was
determined by every possible means to prevent. She objected
when King James proposed to marry her to Lord Esme Stuart,
whom he had created duke of Lennox, but when the appalling
news reached her that Arabella had actually found a lover in
Edward Seymour, grandson of Catherine Grey, heiress of the
Suffolks, she was so deeply alarmed and indignant that' she
immediately ordered her imprisonment. This happened immediately
before Elizabeth's death, after which she obtained her
release. Soon after the accession of James a conspiracy, of
which she was altogether ignorant, was entered into to advance
her to the throne, but this caused no alteration in her treatment
by James, who allowed her a maintenance of £800 a year. In February 16 10 it was discovered that she was engaged to Seymour, and, although she then promised never to marry him without the king's consent, the marriage took place secretly in July following. In consequence of this her husband was sent to the Tower and she was placed in private confinement. Though separated, both succeeded in escaping simultaneously on the 3rd of June 1611; but, less fortunate than her husband, who got safe to the Continent, she was captured in the straits of Dover and shut up in the Tower of London. Her hopeless captivity deprived her of her reason before her sorrows were ended by death, on the 27th of September 1615.
By the usurpation of Cromwell the Stuarts were excluded from the throne from the defeat of Charles I. at Naseby in 1645 until the restoration of his son Charles II. in 1660. Carlyle refers to the opinion of genealogists that Cromwell “was indubitably either the ninth or the tenth or some other fractional part of half a cousin of Charles Stuart,” but this has been completely exploded by Walter Rye in the Genealogist (“The Steward Genealogy and Cromwell's Royal Descent,” new series, vol. ii. pp. 34-42). On the death of Charles II. without issue in 1685, his brother James, duke of York, ascended the throne as James II. but he so alienated the sympathies of the nation by his unconstitutional efforts to further the Roman Catholic religion that an invitation was sent to the prince of Orange to come “to the rescue of the laws and religion of England.”
