Alexander, Earl of Menteith

Alexander of Menteith (d. 1297 x 1304), son of Mary I, Countess of Menteith and Walter Bailloch Stewart, her husband, was a Mormaer or Earl of Menteith for most of the 1290s. He is first noted with his brother John de Menteith in a compact between Bruce and the Stewarts on 20 September 1286, at Turnberry, Carrick.^[1] In another writ, of uncertain date, granted by their father to Kilwinning Abbey, he and his brother are styled Alexander and John de Menteith.^[2] They had therefore dropped the name Stewart for the name Menteith.

Alexander joined with his father in a charter granting the church of Kippen to the Cambuskenneth Abbey to secure themselves a place of burial. This writ is said to be dated in 1286.^[3] He was at Norham in 1291, and swore fealty to Edward I, while he also appears in other matters before his succession, the date of which is uncertain, but was probably between 1292 and 1295. In any case he was the Earl of Menteith who with the Earls of Atholl, Ross, and others gathered a force and invaded England in revenge for Edward's savage attack on Berwick. Their army was defeated at the Battle of Dunbar on 27 April 1296, and on that or the following day Menteith and others who had fled to Dunbar Castle were taken captive, and he was committed to the Tower.

He was not, however, detained long as a prisoner, but was liberated either before or shortly after a promise of service made by him to the English King, and dated at Elgin 27 July 1296. He repeated this promise, and swore fealty at Berwick a month later, on 28 August.^[4] He then left two of his sons in the King's hands as hostages.^[5] Perhaps this fact influenced his future movements, for, excepting some transactions dealing with the estates of Alexander de Abernethy, and also of Alexander of Argyll and his son, of which he was appointed guardian by Edward,^[6] he seems to have taken no part in public affairs. At least nothing is recorded about him, except a letter to him from the English King on 26 September 1297,^[7] and the date of his death is not known.

He married a lady named Matilda,^[8] whose surname has not been discovered, and had the following children:

• Alan, Earl of Menteith, who succeeded as Earl.
• Peter, who in 1296 was a hostage in England with his brother Alan. He accompanied King Edward to Flanders, and took part in the French campaign of 1297,^[9] where he may have been killed, as nothing further is known of him. In any case he seems to have predeceased his older brother.
• Muireadhach, who became Earl of Menteith.
• Alexander
• Margaret de Menteith, wife of Sir Alexander de Abernethy.

Notes

References

This article incorporates text from The Scots Peerage (1904-1914) , a publication now in the public domain.

• Brown, Michael, The Wars of Scotland, 1214-1371, (Edinburgh, 2004)
• Paul, James Balfour, The Scots Peerage, Vol. VI, (Edinburgh, 1909)
• J. Ravilious, The Earls of Menteith: Alexander, Earl of Menteith and Sir Alexander de Abernethy, The Scottish Genealogist (September 2010), Vol. LVII, No. 3, pp. 130-139.