The House of Stewart and its Realm

The House of Stewart began its career as the royal house of Scotland in 1371 with the accession of Robert II, namesake, grandson and dismal contrast to the great Robert Bruce. Its second representative, Robert III, is best remembered by his self-assessment 'the worst of kings and most miserable of men'. It wended its way down the line of 'the mournful procession of the five Jameses’; even the most attractive, James IV, stares vacantly out from his portrait in testimony to that characterisation. A misty aura of tedious romance hangs over it in the person of Mary Queen of Scots, although it derived heightened political interest from James VI who became James I of England, and Charles I whose head the English cut off. Only Charles II, whose interest in Scotland was minimal, was any fun; James VII and II, and his sad daughters Mary and Anne, rounded off this uninspiring collection of rulers, so different, so lacking in colour compared with the great names of English and European kingship: Henry V, Henry VIII, Elizabeth, the Emperor Charles V, Philip II, Francois I, Henri IV, Louis XIV.