Stuart dynasty

The Stewards of Scotland. 7
died, at the age of forty-seven, in the Castle of Edinburgh,
Feb. 22, 1370,* the male line of the Bruces became extinct,
and that of Stuart inherited the throne in the person of
Kobert the seventh Steward. His early career was brilliant
and full of interest.
When only seventeen years of age, in 1333, the youthful
Eobert Stuart led a division of Scots against the English at
Halidon Hill, and was subsequently one of the first leading
men who made a stand against Baliol, after he had, in the
following year, again invaded Scotland. The Stuart property
in Eenfrew had been confiscated, and the Steward forced to
take refuge under concealment in Bute.f Thence he escaped
to Dumbarton Castle in a boat brought to Rothesay by two
old family vassals, Gibson and Heriot. On learning this
intelligence the retainers of the Stuarts, in and around the
district, flew to arms forthwith. Kobert put himself at their
head, and, acting in conjunction, with Colin Campbell of
Lochow, stormed and took the Castle of Dunoon. Nor did
the reaction against Baliol stop there, for, continuing his
advance and gathering adherents daily, the Steward of
Scotland regained for David II. Annandale and the lower
parts of Clydesdale, while Renfrew, Carrick, and Cunningham
were freed from the enemy's occupation. %
For these services, rendered in the years 1336 and 1337,
Robert Stuart, although only twenty years of age, reaped the
high reward of becoming joint Regent over loyal Scotland
with Sir Andrew Moray. The Steward's success, however*
proved to be but temporary; for in 1337 Baliol and Edward III.
swept away all opposition, and overran most of the kingdom.
In 1338, on Sir Andrew Moray's death, the Steward
became sole Regent,§ whereupon he immediately applied to
Philip of France, the first King of the House of Valois, for
assistance, which promptly came in 1339, when five French
men-of-war, having on board a body of men-at-arms under
the command of Arnold Audineham, Marshal of France,
appeared in the Forth. A sanguinary and devastating
struggle followed, wherein the country around Perth being
absolutel}' desolated, the Steward took possession of the city
for David II., then an exile in France.
* Scott's ' Tales of a Grandfather,' edition 1880, p. 54.
f Tytler's ' History of Scotland,' edition 1841, vol. ii. p. 35.
t Ibid., p. 37.
§ Ibid., p. 55, Burton speaks as if the Steward had not previously been
co-regent. — ' History of Scotland,' vol. ii. p. 323. He gives no reference.