Stirling Stirlingshire United Kingdom

Alexander, who had been named after Pope Alexander II, is the fifth son of Malcolm III by his wife Margaret of Wessex, grandniece of Edward the Confessor.

He was the younger brother of King Edgar, who is unmarried, and his brother's heir presumptive by 1104 (and perhaps earlier).

In that year he was the senior layman present at the examination of the remains of Saint Cuthbert at Durham prior to their re-interment.

He holds lands in Scotland north of the Forth and in Lothian.

He succeeds to the Scottish crown in 1107 on the death of Edgar, but in accordance with Edgar's instructions, their brother David is granted an appanage in southern Scotland.

Edgar's will grants David the lands of the former kingdom of Strathclyde or Cumbria, and this is apparently agreed in advance by Edgar, Alexander, David and their brother-in-law Henry I of England.

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…Stirling.

Prince Llywelyn accompanies John on a campaign against King William I of Scotland in the summer of 1209.

William the Lion, King of Scots, dies on December 4, 1214; he is succeeded by his son, who has spent time in England (John of England knighted him at Clerkenwell Priory in 1213) as Alexander II, being crowned at Scone on December 6.

The clans Meic Uilleim and MacHeths, inveterate enemies of the Scottish crown, break into revolt the year after Alexander’s accession; but loyalist forces speedily quell the insurrection.

Alexander in the same year joins the English barons in their struggle against John of England.

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Wallace’s irregulars engage an invading army under Scotland’s English governor John de Warenne, earl of Surrey, who ineptly commands his large and overconfident force to cross the narrow Stirling Bridge near the Abbey of Cambuskenneth, only to be obliterated by Wallace’s smaller army.

Robert Stewart, an illegitimate son of the future King Robert II of Scotland and of Elizabeth Mure of Rowallan, had been legitimated in 1349 by his parents' marriage.

Robert's grandfather was Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland and his father was the first monarch of the House of Stewart.

His great-grandfather was Robert the Bruce, legendary victor of the Battle of Bannockburn.

Robert Stewart had been raised in a large family with many siblings.

His older brother John Stewart had become Earl of Carrick in 1368, and will later be crowned King of Scotland under the name Robert III.

Stewart in 1361 had married Margaret Graham, Countess of Menteith (1334–1380), a wealthy divorcee who took Robert as her fourth husband.

His sister-in-law's claim to the Earldoms of Menteith and Fife had allowed him to assume those titles, becoming Earl of Menteith and Earl of Fife.

The couple in 1362 had a son and heir, Murdoch Stewart, who will in time inherit his father's titles and estates.

When Stewart was created Earl of Menteith, he was granted the lands on which Doune Castle now stands.

Stewart is responsible for the construction of Doune Castle, which remains largely intact today.

Building may have started any time after this, and the castle was at least partially complete in 1381, when a charter was sealed here.

Scottish politics in the late fourteenth century is unstable and bloody, and much of Albany's career is spent acquiring territory, land and titles, often by violent means.

His son Murdoch Stewart is in 1389  appointed Justiciar North of the Forth, and father and son will now work together to expand their family interest, bringing them into violent confrontation with other members of the nobility such as Donald McDonald, 2nd Lord of the Isles.

During the reign of their infirm father as King Robert II, Robert Stewart and his older brother Lord Carrick function as regents of Scotland, kings in all but name, with Albany serving as High Chamberlain of Scotland.

He has also led several military expeditions and raids into the Kingdom of England.

James takes his revenge on his Albany Stewart relatives on March 21, 1425, on the ninth day of the March Parliament.

Murdoch is arrested, along with his younger son Lord Alexander Stewart.

Immediately afterwards, twenty-six of the principal nobles and barons in Scotland share the same fate.

Albany is at first confined in the castle at St. Andrews and afterwards transferred to Caerlaverock Castle.

His wife Isabella is captured in the family's fortified castle of Doune, their favorite residence, and committed to Tantallon Castle.

The King's rage at Duke Murdoch has its roots in the past.

James's older brother David Stewart, Duke of Rothesay, had died young, in Falkland Castle, while in the care of Murdoch's father, Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany.

Though Albany had been exonerated by Parliament, the suspicion of foul play had remained.

Moreover, neither Duke Robert nor his son Murdoch had greatly exerted themselves in negotiating James's release while in English captivity.

This may well have left James with the suspicion that the Albany Stewarts have personal designs on the throne of Scotland.

At this time, Albany's other son Walter is already in prison.

Only James, Murdoch's youngest son (also known as James the Fat) is able to escape James's vengeance.

He escapes into the Lennox, where he begins to organize a revolt, leading the men of Lennox and Argyll in open rebellion against the crown.

This resort to violence by Albany's youngest son may have been what the king needed to bring a charge of treason against the Albany Stewarts.

Duke Murdoch, his sons Walter and Alexander, and Duncan, Earl of Lennox are in Stirling Castle for their trial on May 18, 1425, at a prorogued parliament in the presence of the King.

An assize of seven earls and fourteen lesser nobles hears the evidence that links the prisoners to the rebellion in the Lennox—in a trial lasting just one day, the four men are found guilty of treason.

The jury that condemns them is composed of twenty-one knights and Peers, including Albany's cousin Walter Stewart, Earl of Atholl, Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas, Alexander, Earl of Ross and Lord of the Isles, and Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar.

Walter is condemned on May 24.

Albany and his son Alexander are tried before the same jury the following day.

All the prisoners are then publicly beheaded on Heading Hill "in front of" Stirling Castle.

Albany is attainted and all of his peerage titles are forfeited.

He is buried at Blackfriars' Church, Stirling.

In the destruction of his close family, the Albany Stewarts, James I is able to secure the substantial rents from the family's three forfeited earldoms of Fife, Menteith and Lennox, a blow from which the Albany Stewarts will never recover.