Clan Stewart
also Stuart
From High Stewards to the throne, the royal name of Scotland.
- Origin
- Perthshire, Scotland
- Motto
- Virescit vulnere virtus
- Famous bearer
- Robert II
- Register
- Scottish clan
Ranked of all time
The 10 Most Powerful Scottish Clans of All Time
Ranked of all time
The 15 Most Powerful English Houses of All Time
The seat of Clan Stewart
Seat vacantChief
No one leads the Clan Stewart community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.
Current mission
No shared goal set yet. Once Clan Stewart has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.
The Stewart clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.
Help rebuild the Stewart clan →Motto
Virescit vulnere virtus
“Courage grows strong at a wound”
What does the Stewart name mean?
From the office of 'High Steward' of Scotland, held hereditarily by the family from the 12th century until they themselves became kings.
The history of Clan Stewart
The Stewarts take their surname from the hereditary office of High Steward of Scotland, held by the family from the 12th century. Walter, the 6th High Steward, married Marjorie Bruce, daughter of Robert the Bruce, and their son became Robert II in 1371, founding the royal House of Stewart.
The Stewart kings ruled Scotland for over three centuries, and after 1603 the united crowns of Scotland and England, until the deposition of James VII and II in 1689. The exiled line continued through James Francis Edward (the 'Old Pretender') and Charles Edward Stuart ('Bonnie Prince Charlie') to the death of Henry, Cardinal York, in 1807.
Beyond the royal line, branches such as the Stewarts of Atholl, Appin and Bute remain among the most numerous and widespread clans in Scotland.
Champions of the Stewart name
The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has their own page, biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.
- Mary, Queen of Scots
The infant Queen of Scots who became Queen of France at sixteen, returned to rule her own realm at eighteen, and through her grandson James the Sixth and First united the crowns of Scotland and England.
- Bonnie Prince Charlie
The Stuart prince who landed in Moidart in July 1745 with seven men and within ten weeks had taken Edinburgh, beaten a government army at Prestonpans, and marched a Highland army to within a hundred and twenty-seven miles of London.
- Sir Jackie Stewart
The Milton-born Dumbartonshire racing driver whose three Formula One World Drivers' Championships in 1969, 1971 and 1973 and twenty-seven Grand Prix wins made him the dominant single F1 driver of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and whose post-career safety campaigning transformed Formula One from the most dangerous professional sport in the world to a fraction of that risk.
Historic Places, Rebuilt
Explore the streets and seats the Stewart name knew, rebuilt with AI as they stood in history.
Castles the Stewart held
Strongholds this name held for a decade or more, look one up, or rebuild it to explore.
- Doune Castle
Built c.1400 by the Regent Albany; held by the Stewarts until forfeiture in 1425.
- Rothesay Castle
Royal castle of the Stewart kings; the heir's title, Duke of Rothesay, endures.
- Stirling Castle
Chief royal seat of the Stewart dynasty; the Renaissance palace was built by James V.
- Castle Stalker
Held by the Stewarts until c. 1620; Charles Stewart of Achara bought the castle in 1908.
- Traquair House
Seat of the Stuarts of Traquair, Earls of Traquair, from James Stuart, 1st Laird, in 1491 for the next four centuries.
- Dundonald Castle
Seat of the Stewarts from the first steward's castle of the 12th century; rebuilt by Robert Stewart on his accession as Robert II in 1371.
- Huntingtower Castle
One of the castles of the Stewart Lords of Badenoch; Alexander Stewart, the Wolf of Badenoch, died there in 1394.
- Methven Castle
Seat of Henry Stewart, 1st Lord Methven, from 1528 until the third Lord died without heir in 1584.
- Crichton Castle
Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, held the castle in the late 16th century, building its Italianate north range in the 1580s.
- Darnaway Castle
Seat of the Stuart Earls of Moray, with whose descendants Darnaway remains.
- Crookston Castle
Built by the Stewarts of Darnley c. 1400; principal house of the Stewart Earls of Lennox until sold in 1703.
- Grandtully Castle
The lands and castle belonged to the Stewarts of Grandtully, later Drummond-Stewart baronets, from the 14th century.
- Kinfauns Castle
Held by the Stuart Earls of Moray, 1878–1930.
- Bishop's Palace
Held by the Stewart Earls of Orkney from 1568, when it passed to Robert Stewart, 1st Earl, until debts forced Earl Patrick to return it to Bishop James Law.
- Balvenie Castle
Granted to Sir John Stewart, later first Earl of Atholl, when the Douglas estates were divided.
- Whorlton Castle
Granted by Henry VIII to Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox; the Lennox family built a house adjoining the gatehouse.
- Lochranza Castle
Granted with its lands to Walter Stewart, Earl of Menteith, by Alexander III in 1262.
- Scalloway Castle
Built in 1600 by Patrick Stewart, 2nd Earl of Orkney; after the lairds' complaints of his misrule, Bishop James Law held court at the castle by 1612.
- Hailes Castle
Passed to the Stewarts after the Hepburns' era.
- Kilcoy Castle
Began building the castle as early as 1580; the present Menking owners are relations of the original Stewart builders.
- Château des Stuarts
Ancestral seat of the Stewarts of Darnley, Seigneurs d'Aubigny, from its acquisition by Sir John Stewart of Darnley, 1st Seigneur d'Aubigny.
- Castle Stuart
Built by the Stuart Earls of Moray on land granted to the 1st Earl by Mary, Queen of Scots in 1561, and completed by the 3rd Earl in 1625.
- Earl's Palace
Built by Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney, from the 1570s; after his death in 1593 the later earls of Orkney used the palace only occasionally.
- Château de la Verrerie
Held by the Stewart Seigneurs d'Aubigny from the 1423 grant to Sir John Stewart of Darnley until the male line failed in 1672.
- Strathaven Castle
Granted in 1457 to Sir Andrew Stewart, later Lord Avondale, who rebuilt the castle.
- Blackhall Manor
Held by the Stewart, later Shaw-Stewart, family until donated to the Burgh of Paisley in 1940.
- Renfrew Castle
Built by Walter fitz Alan, first hereditary Steward of Scotland, in the 12th century; his Stewart descendants held Renfrew until it became a royal residence under Robert II in 1371.
- Innerwick Castle
Innerwick was a stronghold of the Stewarts.
- Bonkyll Castle
Seat of the Stewarts of Bonkyl, Earls of Angus from 1329, until the death of Margaret Stewart in 1417.
- Rosyth Castle
Built around 1450 by Sir David Stewart, granted the Barony of Rosyth in 1428; a Stewart residence until the late seventeenth century.
Landmarks the Stewart held
Palaces, houses and great buildings tied to this name, look one up, or rebuild it to explore.
- St James's Palace
A residence of the Stuart monarchs; became the monarch's principal London residence in 1698 after Whitehall Palace burned.
- Kensington Palace
Bought and enlarged by William III and Mary II in 1689; a principal residence of the later Stuart monarchs, and Queen Anne died there in 1714.
- Banqueting House
Built for James I as the ceremonial hall of Whitehall Palace, the Stuart monarchs' principal residence; Charles I was executed outside its windows in 1649.
- Dark Hedges
Planted around 1775 by the Stuart family as the beech-lined approach to their house at Gracehill; the avenue still frames the old estate road.
Castles that share the Stewart name
The same name on the map, look one up, see what it looked like in its prime, and recreate it to explore.
All castles in Scotland → · Strongest castles in Scotland → · Castles of Europe
Play As Your Clan
Pick any year from 500 to 1945 and any place on earth, the Stewart country, or a shore no Stewart ever reached. The chronicler sets the scene; the deeds are yours.
Notable bearers of the Stewart name
- Robert II
- Mary, Queen of Scots
- Bonnie Prince Charlie
Stories of Clan Stewart
The Young Pretender
1745–1746Charles Edward Stuart was born in Rome in 1720, grandson of the deposed James VII and II, and grew up at the exiled court of his father in the Palazzo Muti. He landed at Eriskay on 23 July 1745 with seven companions and a hundred broadswords, and within five months had taken Edinburgh and pushed an army deep into England. By 4 December 1745 his men were at Derby, one hundred and twenty-four miles from a London in panic. The council of war the next morning was the highest point of the rising and the moment it was lost. Charles wanted to march on. His commanders did not. The retreat began the next day.
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Mary at Fotheringhay
1587On the morning of the eighth of February 1587, in the great hall of Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, Mary, Queen of Scots, formerly Queen of France, claimant to the throne of England by descent from Henry VII, twice married, twice widowed, mother of James VI of Scotland (the future James I of England), in her forty-fourth year, in the nineteenth year of imprisonment in England, was beheaded by Bull, the executioner, on a black-draped scaffold raised in the hall, in the presence of three earls, the sheriff of Northamptonshire, and a small party of her own household. She had been condemned at the Star Chamber in October 1586 for involvement in the Babington Plot to assassinate Elizabeth and place herself on the English throne. Elizabeth had signed the warrant on the first of February 1587 and tried, in the days afterward, to disavow having intended its execution. The execution went forward on the morning of the eighth, the warrant carried by Robert Beale, by the Privy Council's authority. The first stroke of the axe failed to sever the neck. The second sufficed. The third was needed to sever the last sinew. As the head was lifted, the wig that Mary had been wearing came off in Bull's hand, revealing the queen's grey hair. Beneath the skirts of the gown her terrier, by the tradition of the eyewitnesses, was found alive and would not leave her body, and had to be carried out by force.
Read the story →