Individual Details
Euphame "Countess of Ross" Ross
(Abt 1345 - Bef 1398)
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[[Category:Earl of Ross]]
== Biography ==Euphemia was born the oldest daughter to [[Ross-1061|William]], 5th Earl of Ross.
She married, as her first husband, [[Leslie-464|Sir Walter Leslie]] about 1363, Walter, a favourite with King David II, a noted Crusader and a leading Knight of Scotland, being chosen to marry Euphemia. Walter was made one of the most powerful nobles in the Kingdom by King David and moulded to thwart the growing power of the Stewarts.
As a result of this Walter came into conflict with William, Earl of Ross, a supporter of the House of Stewart. King David took steps to secure the Earldom of Ross as support to him and provide a strong supporter in the northern part of Scotland. At the time, the Earldom was extensive, with control over all of Ross and out to the Isles, including Skye, along with extensive holdings in Dumfries, Wigtown and Buchan.
=== Earldom of Ross ===There is much conjecture regarding the transfer of the Earldom to Sir Walter Leslie that it is worth considering the document on the public record. Indeed much myth has developed without consideration of fact and much of that has been perpetuated over the web. The public record makes the status of the Earldom and the hereditary line very clear and discussion has been included here. The transcription of that Parliament, held in Perth on 24 October 1370 is readily available.Source: [[#S-11]] K.M. Brown et al eds (St Andrews, 2007-2013), 1370/10/1 See also Antiquities of Aberdeen and Banff; vol 2, page 386. The transcription is held as a [[Space:Records_of_Parliament|Profile page]] for easy reference.
What is special about this grant is that it, one of very few, allowed the Earldom to pass hereditarily through the female. The Parliament was held in 1370 and it is clear that Euphemia and Walter had a child, Mary, by this date. Alexander thus being born after the Charter.
The Charter also removes the right to lands and titles in Aberdeen (Buchan), Dumfries and Wigtown from the title of Ross. The Earldom of Ross held half the lands of Buchan which had been inherited, by right of Margaret Comyn, daughter and heiress to the Earl of Buchan, and passed to John Ross by marriage.Robertson's Index to Lost Charters; page 2 He died without heir and William, his nephew, then inherited. These lands are removed from the Earldom.
The charter also makes it clear that William, Earl of Ross, holds the title and it would pass, in preference, to any legitimate male heir of him, but this could not have been seen as likely. This clause thus removed any right to claim by Hugh, Lord of Philorth, his brother.
Failing legitimate male children of William, the Charter makes it clear that the Earldom of Ross would pass to '''Walter Leslie and Euphemia''' and be retained by the longest living. Thus Walter Leslie would hold the title in his own right and not simply in right of his wife.
The charter then states that legitimate heirs to Walter and Euphemia will inherit. It adds the clause that if there are no male heirs, and “perchance she has more daughters” then the eldest daughter “always” shall inherit without division. If there are no heirs then the title would revert to Joanna, the younger sister to Euphemia.
William, 5th Earl of Ross, died at Delny on 9 February 1372,Balfour Paul, Ed 1904; vol 7, page 239. and it seems likely that it was very soon after, leaving no male issue, he was succeeded in his Earldom and estates by Walter Leslie and Eufamia.
[[Image:Leslie-464-2.png|150px]] When Leslie returns to Scotland in late 1372 he is about 62 years old. He does not again appear on the Parliamentary record of Scotland and does not hold the same sway with Robert II as he did with David II. Although he and his wife were now Earl and Countess of Ross they never use the title during his lifetime. In every transaction they are Lord and Lady of Ross. His seal,Laing's; No. 496. Stated to be of 1367 but includes the arms of Ross quartered and thus after being raised to Earl. appended to Charters of the day contains the eagle, possibly representative of his service with the Holy Roman Empire. This eagle is to continue after his death in the seal of his wife.
in 1375 she, and Walter, resolved the issue of the inheritance with her sister Janet (stated as Joanna in the Parliamentary Records mentioned prior) and, as Lord and Lady of Ross, they grant a charter to her brother-in-law, Sir Alexander Fraser, knight, and Janet Ross, his wife of large portions of lands in Galloway.
Walter died at Perth on 27 February 1382; they had two children: [[Leslie-644|Alexander Leslie]] and [[Leslie-169|Mary Leslie]]. There is confusion regarding the existence of another daughter, named as Mary in the Historical Record of the Family of LesliesSource: [[#S-1]] Leslie, Charles Joseph; vol 1, page 75. and “Lady Mary Leslie, (who must have been born about 1368) married to Sir David Hamilton”. That source is incorrect, as an analysis of dates will show, but has been carried forward into the public domain.
Walter Leslie never used the title to the Earldom during his life and neither did his wife although he was called that by others, in particular Charles V of France during the Charter of pension. The reasons for this are unknown. After his death, '''and only after her divorce''' to Sir Alexander Stewart, Euphemia will use the title as Countess once, and that in a Charter of 1394.Balfour Paul, Ed 1904; vol 7, page 240. See also Rose of Kilravock, page 123.
Margaret, in the Historical Record of the Leslies, but really Mary or Mariota, was the eldest daughter and, under the Charter of 1370, important should the line of her brother fail – which it did. She married Donald MacDonald, Lord of the Isles but the date of this marriage is, in itself, subject of some conjecture. Mackenzie in his work on the Clan DonaldHistory of Macdonalds and Lords of the Isles; Mackenzie, page 72. suggests there was a dispensation provided for the marriage between the two families that was dated 1367. In the work by Skene “The Highlanders of Scotland”, Ed 2, page 219, he states, in relating to events after the death of John, Lord of the Isles, in 1386, that Donald “the eldest son of the second marriage of John, lord of the Isles, [a marriage] with Mary, sister of Alexander, earl of Ross.”
This lady could not have been born before 1362 but was known to be alive in October 1370 although young. Mackenzie, mentioned above, informs us that a dispensation for marriage was sought in 1367 when Mary must have been about 5. This arrangement must therefore have been made as part of the deal around the Papal dispensation to continue the marriage, of Walter Leslie and Euphemia Ross, in 1367. Skene advises that the marriage occurred in 1386, after the death of John, Lord of the Isles and father to Donald. This seems improbable as Euphemia was forced to marry [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Stewart,_Earl_of_Buchan Alexander Stewart, Lord of Lochaber] in June 1382 and he was looking for a marriage for his illegitimate son, John, and would have married them quickly if he could have. Thus it seems most probable that Mary and Donald married in the period after Leslie's death in February 1382 and Euphemia's forced marriage to Alexander Stewart in June 1382.
===Second Marriage - Alexander Stewart===
After his death she married [[Stewart-1007| Alexander Stewart]], known as ''The Wolf of Badenoch'' in July 24 or 25, 1382. Euphemia possessed the Barony of Kingedward in Aberdeenshire and thus, only days after the marriage, Kingedward, a large part of the former Earldom of Buchan, allowed King Robert II to give [[Stewart-1007| Alexander Stewart]] the title of Earl of Buchan. This was simply a marriage of convenience forced on her by the House of Stewart. Alexander Stewart was already "hand-fasted" to Mariota (Mairead inghean Eachann)Called by this name on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mairead_inghean_Eachann wikipedia], and with whom he had a number of children (seven is reported).
This marriage was a scam and held only to gain the titles of Ross. Alexander Stewart was infamous in his treatment of her and her people. The marriage, doomed to fail under went a number of church involvements. Bain[[#S-1]] Robert Bain; page 75 provides that the church ordered "that Lady Euphemia, Countess of Ross, must be restored to Lord Alexander, Seneschal, Earl of Buchan, and Lord of Ross, as her husband and spouse, together with her possessions" and although Stewart was ordered to leave his handfast wife he did not. Further, on 2 Nov 1398, Alexander was ordered to pay restitution and while he did the marriage was dissolved before the year end. There were no children born of this second marriage.
It is believed that Euphemia resigned her titles in favour of her son around 1394 suggesting a birth year of 1370. The birth must have occurred after 1370, as he does not appear on the Parliamentary Record associated with the Earldom of Ross but before 1372. She is then said to have spent her last years as Abbess at Elcho nunnery in the village of Pitmiddle, Perthshire, but this does not appear on the record of the Nunnery. It seems more probable that she remained at Dingwall or in Perth. Bain provides that she became Abbess at Elcho in 1394 but died the same year and buried at Fortrose (on the Black Isle, Highlands) , thus possibly accounting for the lack of record. However also provides that Alexander Stewart, "also dying the same year was buried at Dunkeld". Stewart did not died until June 1405, possibly suggesting 1405 as the date of her resignation and then death. Balfour PaulBalfour Paul, Ed 1904; vol 7, page 241. mentions, in his notes, that "It has been asserted (Hist, of the Priory of Beauly, 197) that the Earl of Buchan being dead in 1394, the Countess took the veil and became Prioress of Elcho, and afterwards built the chapel aisle in Ross Cathedral. But the Earl did not die in that year (and they were no longer married), and the Countess was alive on 8 August 1394, when as Countess she granted a charter to her brother, Sir George Leslie of Rothes; Family of Rose of Kilravock, 122. Besides, the alleged nunship is founded on a mistake, a seal of Euphemia Leslie, Abbess of Elcho, about 1532 and later, being misinterpreted to be that of the Countess and dated in 1394. See the fallacy exposed in Scottish Armorial Seals by W. Rae Macdonald, No. 1620 ; cf. Laing's Seals, ii. No. 1141, where an engraving is given, showing a very different seal from that of the Countess; Scottish Armorial Seals, No. 2333."
Clearly she was alive in Aug 1394 but had died prior to Nov 1398 when her son appears in the role.
=== Sources ===
* [http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/SCOTTISH%20NOBILITY%20LATER.htm#EuphemeRossdied1394 Euphemia de Ross, ''Foundation for Medieval Genealogy'']
* The Scots Peerage, Sir James Balfour Paul, Ed., 1910 Vol. 7, p. 239-41. http://www.archive.org/stream/scotspeeragefoun07paul#page/238/mode/2up
* Source S-1}
=== Web Resources ===
: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemia_I,_Countess_of_Ross Euphemia I, Countess of Ross, ''Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia'']
=== Footnotes ===
== Acknowledgements ==
This WikiTree profile was created through merging one or more profiles either through imported GedComs or manual entry. Additionally, open profiles of historically significant people are subject to edits from many WikiTree managers.
Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions. If you want to review changes and contributors from pre-merged profiles, you need to access the Changes tab for each of the pre-merged profiles.
-- MERGED NOTE ------------
[[Category:Declaration of Arbroath, Ross Family Worklist]]
[[Category:Earls of Ross]]
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== Biography ==
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Euphemia was born the oldest daughter to [[Ross-1061|William]], 5th Earl of Ross.
She married, as her first husband, [[Leslie-464|Sir Walter Leslie]] about 1363, Walter, a favourite with King David II, a noted Crusader and a leading Knight of Scotland, being chosen to marry Euphemia. Walter was made one of the most powerful nobles in the Kingdom by King David and moulded to thwart the growing power of the Stewarts.
As a result of this Walter came into conflict with William, Earl of Ross, a supporter of the House of Stewart. King David took steps to secure the Earldom of Ross as support to him and provide a strong supporter in the northern part of Scotland. At the time, the Earldom was extensive, with control over all of Ross and out to the Isles, including Skye, along with extensive holdings in Dumfries, Wigtown and Buchan.
=== Earldom of Ross ===There is much conjecture regarding the transfer of the Earldom to Sir Walter Leslie that it is worth considering the document on the public record. Indeed much myth has developed without consideration of fact and much of that has been perpetuated over the web. The public record makes the status of the Earldom and the hereditary line very clear and discussion has been included here. The transcription of that Parliament, held in Perth on 24 October 1370 is readily available.Source: [[#S-11]] K.M. Brown et al eds (St Andrews, 2007-2013), 1370/10/1 See also Antiquities of Aberdeen and Banff; vol 2, page 386. The transcription is held as a [[Space:Records_of_Parliament|Profile page]] for easy reference.
What is special about this grant is that it, one of very few, allowed the Earldom to pass hereditarily through the female. The Parliament was held in 1370 and it is clear that Euphemia and Walter had a child, Mary, by this date. Alexander thus being born after the Charter.
The Charter also removes the right to lands and titles in Aberdeen (Buchan), Dumfries and Wigtown from the title of Ross. The Earldom of Ross held half the lands of Buchan which had been inherited, by right of Margaret Comyn, daughter and heiress to the Earl of Buchan, and passed to John Ross by marriage.Robertson's Index to Lost Charters; page 2 He died without heir and William, his nephew, then inherited. These lands are removed from the Earldom.
The charter also makes it clear that William, Earl of Ross, holds the title and it would pass, in preference, to any legitimate male heir of him, but this could not have been seen as likely. This clause thus removed any right to claim by Hugh, Lord of Philorth, his brother.
Failing legitimate male children of William, the Charter makes it clear that the Earldom of Ross would pass to '''Walter Leslie and Euphemia''' and be retained by the longest living. Thus Walter Leslie would hold the title in his own right and not simply in right of his wife.
The charter then states that legitimate heirs to Walter and Euphemia will inherit. It adds the clause that if there are no male heirs, and “perchance she has more daughters” then the eldest daughter “always” shall inherit without division. If there are no heirs then the title would revert to Joanna, the younger sister to Euphemia.
William, 5th Earl of Ross, died at Delny on 9 February 1372,Balfour Paul, Ed 1904; vol 7, page 239. and it seems likely that it was very soon after, leaving no male issue, he was succeeded in his Earldom and estates by Walter Leslie and Eufamia.
[[Image:Leslie-464-2.png|150px]] When Leslie returns to Scotland in late 1372 he is about 62 years old. He does not again appear on the Parliamentary record of Scotland and does not hold the same sway with Robert II as he did with David II. Although he and his wife were now Earl and Countess of Ross they never use the title during his lifetime. In every transaction they are Lord and Lady of Ross. His seal,Laing's; No. 496. Stated to be of 1367 but includes the arms of Ross quartered and thus after being raised to Earl. appended to Charters of the day contains the eagle, possibly representative of his service with the Holy Roman Empire. This eagle is to continue after his death in the seal of his wife.
in 1375 she, and Walter, resolved the issue of the inheritance with her sister Janet (stated as Joanna in the Parliamentary Records mentioned prior) and, as Lord and Lady of Ross, they grant a charter to her brother-in-law, Sir Alexander Fraser, knight, and Janet Ross, his wife of large portions of lands in Galloway.
Walter died at Perth on 27 February 1382; they had two children: [[Leslie-644|Alexander Leslie]] and [[Leslie-169|Mary Leslie]]. There is confusion regarding the existence of another daughter, named as Mary in the Historical Record of the Family of LesliesSource: [[#S-1]] Leslie, Charles Joseph; vol 1, page 75. and “Lady Mary Leslie, (who must have been born about 1368) married to Sir David Hamilton”. That source is incorrect, as an analysis of dates will show, but has been carried forward into the public domain.
Walter Leslie never used the title to the Earldom during his life and neither did his wife although he was called that by others, in particular Charles V of France during the Charter of pension. The reasons for this are unknown. After his death, '''and only after her divorce''' to Sir Alexander Stewart, Euphemia will use the title as Countess once, and that in a Charter of 1394.Balfour Paul, Ed 1904; vol 7, page 240. See also Rose of Kilravock, page 123.
Margaret, in the Historical Record of the Leslies, but really Mary or Mariota, was the eldest daughter and, under the Charter of 1370, important should the line of her brother fail – which it did. She married Donald MacDonald, Lord of the Isles but the date of this marriage is, in itself, subject of some conjecture. Mackenzie in his work on the Clan DonaldHistory of Macdonalds and Lords of the Isles; Mackenzie, page 72. suggests there was a dispensation provided for the marriage between the two families that was dated 1367. In the work by Skene “The Highlanders of Scotland”, Ed 2, page 219, he states, in relating to events after the death of John, Lord of the Isles, in 1386, that Donald “the eldest son of the second marriage of John, lord of the Isles, [a marriage] with Mary, sister of Alexander, earl of Ross.”
This lady could not have been born before 1362 but was known to be alive in October 1370 although young. Mackenzie, mentioned above, informs us that a dispensation for marriage was sought in 1367 when Mary must have been about 5. This arrangement must therefore have been made as part of the deal around the Papal dispensation to continue the marriage, of Walter Leslie and Euphemia Ross, in 1367. Skene advises that the marriage occurred in 1386, after the death of John, Lord of the Isles and father to Donald. This seems improbable as Euphemia was forced to marry [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Stewart,_Earl_of_Buchan Alexander Stewart, Lord of Lochaber] in June 1382 and he was looking for a marriage for his illegitimate son, John, and would have married them quickly if he could have. Thus it seems most probable that Mary and Donald married in the period after Leslie's death in February 1382 and Euphemia's forced marriage to Alexander Stewart in June 1382.
===Second Marriage - Alexander Stewart===
After his death she married [[Stewart-1007| Alexander Stewart]], known as ''The Wolf of Badenoch'' in July 24 or 25, 1382. Euphemia possessed the Barony of Kingedward in Aberdeenshire and thus, only days after the marriage, Kingedward, a large part of the former Earldom of Buchan, allowed King Robert II to give [[Stewart-1007| Alexander Stewart]] the title of Earl of Buchan. This was simply a marriage of convenience forced on her by the House of Stewart. Alexander Stewart was already "hand-fasted" to Mariota (Mairead inghean Eachann)Called by this name on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mairead_inghean_Eachann wikipedia], and with whom he had a number of children (seven is reported).
This marriage was a scam and held only to gain the titles of Ross. Alexander Stewart was infamous in his treatment of her and her people. The marriage, doomed to fail under went a number of church involvements. Bain[[#S-1]] Robert Bain; page 75 provides that the church ordered "that Lady Euphemia, Countess of Ross, must be restored to Lord Alexander, Seneschal, Earl of Buchan, and Lord of Ross, as her husband and spouse, together with her possessions" and although Stewart was ordered to leave his handfast wife he did not. Further, on 2 Nov 1398, Alexander was ordered to pay restitution and while he did the marriage was dissolved before the year end. There were no children born of this second marriage.
It is believed that Euphemia resigned her titles in favour of her son around 1394 suggesting a birth year of 1370. The birth must have occurred after 1370, as he does not appear on the Parliamentary Record associated with the Earldom of Ross but before 1372. She is then said to have spent her last years as Abbess at Elcho nunnery in the village of Pitmiddle, Perthshire, but this does not appear on the record of the Nunnery. It seems more probable that she remained at Dingwall or in Perth. Bain provides that she became Abbess at Elcho in 1394 but died the same year and buried at Fortrose (on the Black Isle, Highlands) , thus possibly accounting for the lack of record. However also provides that Alexander Stewart, "also dying the same year was buried at Dunkeld". Stewart did not died until June 1405, possibly suggesting 1405 as the date of her resignation and then death. Balfour PaulBalfour Paul, Ed 1904; vol 7, page 241. mentions, in his notes, that "It has been asserted (Hist, of the Priory of Beauly, 197) that the Earl of Buchan being dead in 1394, the Countess took the veil and became Prioress of Elcho, and afterwards built the chapel aisle in Ross Cathedral. But the Earl did not die in that year (and they were no longer married), and the Countess was alive on 8 August 1394, when as Countess she granted a charter to her brother, Sir George Leslie of Rothes; Family of Rose of Kilravock, 122. Besides, the alleged nunship is founded on a mistake, a seal of Euphemia Leslie, Abbess of Elcho, about 1532 and later, being misinterpreted to be that of the Countess and dated in 1394. See the fallacy exposed in Scottish Armorial Seals by W. Rae Macdonald, No. 1620 ; cf. Laing's Seals, ii. No. 1141, where an engraving is given, showing a very different seal from that of the Countess; Scottish Armorial Seals, No. 2333."
Clearly she was alive in Aug 1394 but had died prior to Nov 1398 when her son appears in the role.
=== Sources ===
* The Scots Peerage, Sir James Balfour Paul, Ed., 1910 Vol. 7, p. 239-41. http://www.archive.org/stream/scotspeeragefoun07paul#page/238/mode/2up
* Source S-1}
=== Web Resources ===
: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemia_I,_Countess_of_Ross Euphemia I, Countess of Ross, ''Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia'']
== Acknowledgements ==
This WikiTree profile was created through merging one or more profiles either through imported GedComs or manual entry. Additionally, open profiles of historically significant people are subject to edits from many WikiTree managers.
Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions. If you want to review changes and contributors from pre-merged profiles, you need to access the Changes tab for each of the pre-merged profiles.
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[[Category:Earl of Ross]]
== Biography ==Euphemia was born the oldest daughter to [[Ross-1061|William]], 5th Earl of Ross.
She married, as her first husband, [[Leslie-464|Sir Walter Leslie]] about 1363, Walter, a favourite with King David II, a noted Crusader and a leading Knight of Scotland, being chosen to marry Euphemia. Walter was made one of the most powerful nobles in the Kingdom by King David and moulded to thwart the growing power of the Stewarts.
As a result of this Walter came into conflict with William, Earl of Ross, a supporter of the House of Stewart. King David took steps to secure the Earldom of Ross as support to him and provide a strong supporter in the northern part of Scotland. At the time, the Earldom was extensive, with control over all of Ross and out to the Isles, including Skye, along with extensive holdings in Dumfries, Wigtown and Buchan.
=== Earldom of Ross ===There is much conjecture regarding the transfer of the Earldom to Sir Walter Leslie that it is worth considering the document on the public record. Indeed much myth has developed without consideration of fact and much of that has been perpetuated over the web. The public record makes the status of the Earldom and the hereditary line very clear and discussion has been included here. The transcription of that Parliament, held in Perth on 24 October 1370 is readily available.Source: [[#S-11]] K.M. Brown et al eds (St Andrews, 2007-2013), 1370/10/1 See also Antiquities of Aberdeen and Banff; vol 2, page 386. The transcription is held as a [[Space:Records_of_Parliament|Profile page]] for easy reference.
What is special about this grant is that it, one of very few, allowed the Earldom to pass hereditarily through the female. The Parliament was held in 1370 and it is clear that Euphemia and Walter had a child, Mary, by this date. Alexander thus being born after the Charter.
The Charter also removes the right to lands and titles in Aberdeen (Buchan), Dumfries and Wigtown from the title of Ross. The Earldom of Ross held half the lands of Buchan which had been inherited, by right of Margaret Comyn, daughter and heiress to the Earl of Buchan, and passed to John Ross by marriage.Robertson's Index to Lost Charters; page 2 He died without heir and William, his nephew, then inherited. These lands are removed from the Earldom.
The charter also makes it clear that William, Earl of Ross, holds the title and it would pass, in preference, to any legitimate male heir of him, but this could not have been seen as likely. This clause thus removed any right to claim by Hugh, Lord of Philorth, his brother.
Failing legitimate male children of William, the Charter makes it clear that the Earldom of Ross would pass to '''Walter Leslie and Euphemia''' and be retained by the longest living. Thus Walter Leslie would hold the title in his own right and not simply in right of his wife.
The charter then states that legitimate heirs to Walter and Euphemia will inherit. It adds the clause that if there are no male heirs, and “perchance she has more daughters” then the eldest daughter “always” shall inherit without division. If there are no heirs then the title would revert to Joanna, the younger sister to Euphemia.
William, 5th Earl of Ross, died at Delny on 9 February 1372,Balfour Paul, Ed 1904; vol 7, page 239. and it seems likely that it was very soon after, leaving no male issue, he was succeeded in his Earldom and estates by Walter Leslie and Eufamia.
[[Image:Leslie-464-2.png|150px]] When Leslie returns to Scotland in late 1372 he is about 62 years old. He does not again appear on the Parliamentary record of Scotland and does not hold the same sway with Robert II as he did with David II. Although he and his wife were now Earl and Countess of Ross they never use the title during his lifetime. In every transaction they are Lord and Lady of Ross. His seal,Laing's; No. 496. Stated to be of 1367 but includes the arms of Ross quartered and thus after being raised to Earl. appended to Charters of the day contains the eagle, possibly representative of his service with the Holy Roman Empire. This eagle is to continue after his death in the seal of his wife.
in 1375 she, and Walter, resolved the issue of the inheritance with her sister Janet (stated as Joanna in the Parliamentary Records mentioned prior) and, as Lord and Lady of Ross, they grant a charter to her brother-in-law, Sir Alexander Fraser, knight, and Janet Ross, his wife of large portions of lands in Galloway.
Walter died at Perth on 27 February 1382; they had two children: [[Leslie-644|Alexander Leslie]] and [[Leslie-169|Mary Leslie]]. There is confusion regarding the existence of another daughter, named as Mary in the Historical Record of the Family of LesliesSource: [[#S-1]] Leslie, Charles Joseph; vol 1, page 75. and “Lady Mary Leslie, (who must have been born about 1368) married to Sir David Hamilton”. That source is incorrect, as an analysis of dates will show, but has been carried forward into the public domain.
Walter Leslie never used the title to the Earldom during his life and neither did his wife although he was called that by others, in particular Charles V of France during the Charter of pension. The reasons for this are unknown. After his death, '''and only after her divorce''' to Sir Alexander Stewart, Euphemia will use the title as Countess once, and that in a Charter of 1394.Balfour Paul, Ed 1904; vol 7, page 240. See also Rose of Kilravock, page 123.
Margaret, in the Historical Record of the Leslies, but really Mary or Mariota, was the eldest daughter and, under the Charter of 1370, important should the line of her brother fail – which it did. She married Donald MacDonald, Lord of the Isles but the date of this marriage is, in itself, subject of some conjecture. Mackenzie in his work on the Clan DonaldHistory of Macdonalds and Lords of the Isles; Mackenzie, page 72. suggests there was a dispensation provided for the marriage between the two families that was dated 1367. In the work by Skene “The Highlanders of Scotland”, Ed 2, page 219, he states, in relating to events after the death of John, Lord of the Isles, in 1386, that Donald “the eldest son of the second marriage of John, lord of the Isles, [a marriage] with Mary, sister of Alexander, earl of Ross.”
This lady could not have been born before 1362 but was known to be alive in October 1370 although young. Mackenzie, mentioned above, informs us that a dispensation for marriage was sought in 1367 when Mary must have been about 5. This arrangement must therefore have been made as part of the deal around the Papal dispensation to continue the marriage, of Walter Leslie and Euphemia Ross, in 1367. Skene advises that the marriage occurred in 1386, after the death of John, Lord of the Isles and father to Donald. This seems improbable as Euphemia was forced to marry [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Stewart,_Earl_of_Buchan Alexander Stewart, Lord of Lochaber] in June 1382 and he was looking for a marriage for his illegitimate son, John, and would have married them quickly if he could have. Thus it seems most probable that Mary and Donald married in the period after Leslie's death in February 1382 and Euphemia's forced marriage to Alexander Stewart in June 1382.
===Second Marriage - Alexander Stewart===
After his death she married [[Stewart-1007| Alexander Stewart]], known as ''The Wolf of Badenoch'' in July 24 or 25, 1382. Euphemia possessed the Barony of Kingedward in Aberdeenshire and thus, only days after the marriage, Kingedward, a large part of the former Earldom of Buchan, allowed King Robert II to give [[Stewart-1007| Alexander Stewart]] the title of Earl of Buchan. This was simply a marriage of convenience forced on her by the House of Stewart. Alexander Stewart was already "hand-fasted" to Mariota (Mairead inghean Eachann)Called by this name on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mairead_inghean_Eachann wikipedia], and with whom he had a number of children (seven is reported).
This marriage was a scam and held only to gain the titles of Ross. Alexander Stewart was infamous in his treatment of her and her people. The marriage, doomed to fail under went a number of church involvements. Bain[[#S-1]] Robert Bain; page 75 provides that the church ordered "that Lady Euphemia, Countess of Ross, must be restored to Lord Alexander, Seneschal, Earl of Buchan, and Lord of Ross, as her husband and spouse, together with her possessions" and although Stewart was ordered to leave his handfast wife he did not. Further, on 2 Nov 1398, Alexander was ordered to pay restitution and while he did the marriage was dissolved before the year end. There were no children born of this second marriage.
It is believed that Euphemia resigned her titles in favour of her son around 1394 suggesting a birth year of 1370. The birth must have occurred after 1370, as he does not appear on the Parliamentary Record associated with the Earldom of Ross but before 1372. She is then said to have spent her last years as Abbess at Elcho nunnery in the village of Pitmiddle, Perthshire, but this does not appear on the record of the Nunnery. It seems more probable that she remained at Dingwall or in Perth. Bain provides that she became Abbess at Elcho in 1394 but died the same year and buried at Fortrose (on the Black Isle, Highlands) , thus possibly accounting for the lack of record. However also provides that Alexander Stewart, "also dying the same year was buried at Dunkeld". Stewart did not died until June 1405, possibly suggesting 1405 as the date of her resignation and then death. Balfour PaulBalfour Paul, Ed 1904; vol 7, page 241. mentions, in his notes, that "It has been asserted (Hist, of the Priory of Beauly, 197) that the Earl of Buchan being dead in 1394, the Countess took the veil and became Prioress of Elcho, and afterwards built the chapel aisle in Ross Cathedral. But the Earl did not die in that year (and they were no longer married), and the Countess was alive on 8 August 1394, when as Countess she granted a charter to her brother, Sir George Leslie of Rothes; Family of Rose of Kilravock, 122. Besides, the alleged nunship is founded on a mistake, a seal of Euphemia Leslie, Abbess of Elcho, about 1532 and later, being misinterpreted to be that of the Countess and dated in 1394. See the fallacy exposed in Scottish Armorial Seals by W. Rae Macdonald, No. 1620 ; cf. Laing's Seals, ii. No. 1141, where an engraving is given, showing a very different seal from that of the Countess; Scottish Armorial Seals, No. 2333."
Clearly she was alive in Aug 1394 but had died prior to Nov 1398 when her son appears in the role.
=== Sources ===
* [http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/SCOTTISH%20NOBILITY%20LATER.htm#EuphemeRossdied1394 Euphemia de Ross, ''Foundation for Medieval Genealogy'']
* The Scots Peerage, Sir James Balfour Paul, Ed., 1910 Vol. 7, p. 239-41. http://www.archive.org/stream/scotspeeragefoun07paul#page/238/mode/2up
* Source S-1}
=== Web Resources ===
: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemia_I,_Countess_of_Ross Euphemia I, Countess of Ross, ''Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia'']
=== Footnotes ===
== Acknowledgements ==
This WikiTree profile was created through merging one or more profiles either through imported GedComs or manual entry. Additionally, open profiles of historically significant people are subject to edits from many WikiTree managers.
Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions. If you want to review changes and contributors from pre-merged profiles, you need to access the Changes tab for each of the pre-merged profiles.
-- MERGED NOTE ------------
[[Category:Declaration of Arbroath, Ross Family Worklist]]
[[Category:Earls of Ross]]
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== Biography ==
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Euphemia was born the oldest daughter to [[Ross-1061|William]], 5th Earl of Ross.
She married, as her first husband, [[Leslie-464|Sir Walter Leslie]] about 1363, Walter, a favourite with King David II, a noted Crusader and a leading Knight of Scotland, being chosen to marry Euphemia. Walter was made one of the most powerful nobles in the Kingdom by King David and moulded to thwart the growing power of the Stewarts.
As a result of this Walter came into conflict with William, Earl of Ross, a supporter of the House of Stewart. King David took steps to secure the Earldom of Ross as support to him and provide a strong supporter in the northern part of Scotland. At the time, the Earldom was extensive, with control over all of Ross and out to the Isles, including Skye, along with extensive holdings in Dumfries, Wigtown and Buchan.
=== Earldom of Ross ===There is much conjecture regarding the transfer of the Earldom to Sir Walter Leslie that it is worth considering the document on the public record. Indeed much myth has developed without consideration of fact and much of that has been perpetuated over the web. The public record makes the status of the Earldom and the hereditary line very clear and discussion has been included here. The transcription of that Parliament, held in Perth on 24 October 1370 is readily available.Source: [[#S-11]] K.M. Brown et al eds (St Andrews, 2007-2013), 1370/10/1 See also Antiquities of Aberdeen and Banff; vol 2, page 386. The transcription is held as a [[Space:Records_of_Parliament|Profile page]] for easy reference.
What is special about this grant is that it, one of very few, allowed the Earldom to pass hereditarily through the female. The Parliament was held in 1370 and it is clear that Euphemia and Walter had a child, Mary, by this date. Alexander thus being born after the Charter.
The Charter also removes the right to lands and titles in Aberdeen (Buchan), Dumfries and Wigtown from the title of Ross. The Earldom of Ross held half the lands of Buchan which had been inherited, by right of Margaret Comyn, daughter and heiress to the Earl of Buchan, and passed to John Ross by marriage.Robertson's Index to Lost Charters; page 2 He died without heir and William, his nephew, then inherited. These lands are removed from the Earldom.
The charter also makes it clear that William, Earl of Ross, holds the title and it would pass, in preference, to any legitimate male heir of him, but this could not have been seen as likely. This clause thus removed any right to claim by Hugh, Lord of Philorth, his brother.
Failing legitimate male children of William, the Charter makes it clear that the Earldom of Ross would pass to '''Walter Leslie and Euphemia''' and be retained by the longest living. Thus Walter Leslie would hold the title in his own right and not simply in right of his wife.
The charter then states that legitimate heirs to Walter and Euphemia will inherit. It adds the clause that if there are no male heirs, and “perchance she has more daughters” then the eldest daughter “always” shall inherit without division. If there are no heirs then the title would revert to Joanna, the younger sister to Euphemia.
William, 5th Earl of Ross, died at Delny on 9 February 1372,Balfour Paul, Ed 1904; vol 7, page 239. and it seems likely that it was very soon after, leaving no male issue, he was succeeded in his Earldom and estates by Walter Leslie and Eufamia.
[[Image:Leslie-464-2.png|150px]] When Leslie returns to Scotland in late 1372 he is about 62 years old. He does not again appear on the Parliamentary record of Scotland and does not hold the same sway with Robert II as he did with David II. Although he and his wife were now Earl and Countess of Ross they never use the title during his lifetime. In every transaction they are Lord and Lady of Ross. His seal,Laing's; No. 496. Stated to be of 1367 but includes the arms of Ross quartered and thus after being raised to Earl. appended to Charters of the day contains the eagle, possibly representative of his service with the Holy Roman Empire. This eagle is to continue after his death in the seal of his wife.
in 1375 she, and Walter, resolved the issue of the inheritance with her sister Janet (stated as Joanna in the Parliamentary Records mentioned prior) and, as Lord and Lady of Ross, they grant a charter to her brother-in-law, Sir Alexander Fraser, knight, and Janet Ross, his wife of large portions of lands in Galloway.
Walter died at Perth on 27 February 1382; they had two children: [[Leslie-644|Alexander Leslie]] and [[Leslie-169|Mary Leslie]]. There is confusion regarding the existence of another daughter, named as Mary in the Historical Record of the Family of LesliesSource: [[#S-1]] Leslie, Charles Joseph; vol 1, page 75. and “Lady Mary Leslie, (who must have been born about 1368) married to Sir David Hamilton”. That source is incorrect, as an analysis of dates will show, but has been carried forward into the public domain.
Walter Leslie never used the title to the Earldom during his life and neither did his wife although he was called that by others, in particular Charles V of France during the Charter of pension. The reasons for this are unknown. After his death, '''and only after her divorce''' to Sir Alexander Stewart, Euphemia will use the title as Countess once, and that in a Charter of 1394.Balfour Paul, Ed 1904; vol 7, page 240. See also Rose of Kilravock, page 123.
Margaret, in the Historical Record of the Leslies, but really Mary or Mariota, was the eldest daughter and, under the Charter of 1370, important should the line of her brother fail – which it did. She married Donald MacDonald, Lord of the Isles but the date of this marriage is, in itself, subject of some conjecture. Mackenzie in his work on the Clan DonaldHistory of Macdonalds and Lords of the Isles; Mackenzie, page 72. suggests there was a dispensation provided for the marriage between the two families that was dated 1367. In the work by Skene “The Highlanders of Scotland”, Ed 2, page 219, he states, in relating to events after the death of John, Lord of the Isles, in 1386, that Donald “the eldest son of the second marriage of John, lord of the Isles, [a marriage] with Mary, sister of Alexander, earl of Ross.”
This lady could not have been born before 1362 but was known to be alive in October 1370 although young. Mackenzie, mentioned above, informs us that a dispensation for marriage was sought in 1367 when Mary must have been about 5. This arrangement must therefore have been made as part of the deal around the Papal dispensation to continue the marriage, of Walter Leslie and Euphemia Ross, in 1367. Skene advises that the marriage occurred in 1386, after the death of John, Lord of the Isles and father to Donald. This seems improbable as Euphemia was forced to marry [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Stewart,_Earl_of_Buchan Alexander Stewart, Lord of Lochaber] in June 1382 and he was looking for a marriage for his illegitimate son, John, and would have married them quickly if he could have. Thus it seems most probable that Mary and Donald married in the period after Leslie's death in February 1382 and Euphemia's forced marriage to Alexander Stewart in June 1382.
===Second Marriage - Alexander Stewart===
After his death she married [[Stewart-1007| Alexander Stewart]], known as ''The Wolf of Badenoch'' in July 24 or 25, 1382. Euphemia possessed the Barony of Kingedward in Aberdeenshire and thus, only days after the marriage, Kingedward, a large part of the former Earldom of Buchan, allowed King Robert II to give [[Stewart-1007| Alexander Stewart]] the title of Earl of Buchan. This was simply a marriage of convenience forced on her by the House of Stewart. Alexander Stewart was already "hand-fasted" to Mariota (Mairead inghean Eachann)Called by this name on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mairead_inghean_Eachann wikipedia], and with whom he had a number of children (seven is reported).
This marriage was a scam and held only to gain the titles of Ross. Alexander Stewart was infamous in his treatment of her and her people. The marriage, doomed to fail under went a number of church involvements. Bain[[#S-1]] Robert Bain; page 75 provides that the church ordered "that Lady Euphemia, Countess of Ross, must be restored to Lord Alexander, Seneschal, Earl of Buchan, and Lord of Ross, as her husband and spouse, together with her possessions" and although Stewart was ordered to leave his handfast wife he did not. Further, on 2 Nov 1398, Alexander was ordered to pay restitution and while he did the marriage was dissolved before the year end. There were no children born of this second marriage.
It is believed that Euphemia resigned her titles in favour of her son around 1394 suggesting a birth year of 1370. The birth must have occurred after 1370, as he does not appear on the Parliamentary Record associated with the Earldom of Ross but before 1372. She is then said to have spent her last years as Abbess at Elcho nunnery in the village of Pitmiddle, Perthshire, but this does not appear on the record of the Nunnery. It seems more probable that she remained at Dingwall or in Perth. Bain provides that she became Abbess at Elcho in 1394 but died the same year and buried at Fortrose (on the Black Isle, Highlands) , thus possibly accounting for the lack of record. However also provides that Alexander Stewart, "also dying the same year was buried at Dunkeld". Stewart did not died until June 1405, possibly suggesting 1405 as the date of her resignation and then death. Balfour PaulBalfour Paul, Ed 1904; vol 7, page 241. mentions, in his notes, that "It has been asserted (Hist, of the Priory of Beauly, 197) that the Earl of Buchan being dead in 1394, the Countess took the veil and became Prioress of Elcho, and afterwards built the chapel aisle in Ross Cathedral. But the Earl did not die in that year (and they were no longer married), and the Countess was alive on 8 August 1394, when as Countess she granted a charter to her brother, Sir George Leslie of Rothes; Family of Rose of Kilravock, 122. Besides, the alleged nunship is founded on a mistake, a seal of Euphemia Leslie, Abbess of Elcho, about 1532 and later, being misinterpreted to be that of the Countess and dated in 1394. See the fallacy exposed in Scottish Armorial Seals by W. Rae Macdonald, No. 1620 ; cf. Laing's Seals, ii. No. 1141, where an engraving is given, showing a very different seal from that of the Countess; Scottish Armorial Seals, No. 2333."
Clearly she was alive in Aug 1394 but had died prior to Nov 1398 when her son appears in the role.
=== Sources ===
* The Scots Peerage, Sir James Balfour Paul, Ed., 1910 Vol. 7, p. 239-41. http://www.archive.org/stream/scotspeeragefoun07paul#page/238/mode/2up
* Source S-1}
=== Web Resources ===
: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemia_I,_Countess_of_Ross Euphemia I, Countess of Ross, ''Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia'']
== Acknowledgements ==
This WikiTree profile was created through merging one or more profiles either through imported GedComs or manual entry. Additionally, open profiles of historically significant people are subject to edits from many WikiTree managers.
Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions. If you want to review changes and contributors from pre-merged profiles, you need to access the Changes tab for each of the pre-merged profiles.
Events
| Birth | Abt 1345 | Cromarty, Ross & Cromarty, Scotland | |||
| Birth | Abt 1345 | Cromarty, Cromartyshire, Scotland | |||
| Marriage | 13 Sep 1365 | Sir Walter Leslie | |||
| Marriage | Jun 1382 | Scotland - Alexander "The Wolf of Badenoch" Stewart | |||
| Death | Bef 1398 | Pitmiddle, Perthshire | |||
| Death | Bef 1398 | Pitmiddle, Perthshire, Scotland | |||
| Reference No | 1737925 | ||||
| Reference No | |||||
| Reference No | 60 | ||||
| Reference No | 1764550 |
Families
| Spouse | Sir Walter Leslie (1310 - 1382) |
| Child | Mariota "Countess of Ross" Leslie (1365 - 1440) |
| Child | Alexander "Earl of Ross" Leslie (1375 - 1402) |
| Spouse | Alexander "The Wolf of Badenoch" Stewart (1343 - 1406) |
| Father | William Ross (1309 - 1372) |
| Mother | Mary MacDonald (1318 - 1370) |
| Sibling | Joanna de Ross (1345 - 1400) |