DUKES OF ALBANY, EARLS OF FIFE AND MENTEITH.-110berI, second surviving son of Robert II. and Elizabeth Mare, obtained the earldom of Meuteith by marriage with its heiress, and the earldom of Fife by indenture with his sister-in-law, the countess, and was appointed great chamberlain of Scotland in 1383. He practically exercised the regency during his father's declining years, and continued to wield the supreme authority after the succession of his timid and irresolute brother, Robert III., who bestowed on him the title of duke of Albany—i.e., of all Scotland north•of Forth and Clyde. His unscrupulous ambition led him to get rid of his nephew, the duke of Rothesay, by starving him, in order to pave his way to the throne; and prince James was sent abroad by his father, lest lie shoulil meet a similar fate. On Robert M.'s death, Albany at once became regent of Scotland, and wielded the chief power of the state during the minority and captivity of James I. By his first marriage to Margaret, countess of Menteith, he had a son, Murdoch, who, on his father's decease in 1419, suc ceeded, unchallenged, to the regency. By his second wife, Muriella, daughter of sir William Keith, the marischal, he had, besides two younger sons of whom there was no succession, a son, John, created earl of on whom Charles VII. bestowed the office of constable of France after the battle of Bauge, and who fell at Verneuil, leaving only a daughter, who married the second lord Seton, and is represented by the earl of Eg;livrton. Duke Murdoch married the eldest co-heiress of the earl of Lennox, and had
four sons. On James L's restoration, his vengeance fell on duke Murdoch, his sons Walter and Alexander, and his father-in-law Lennox, who were all put to death, and the dukedom of Albany forfeited to the crown. Murdoch's youngest son, James, gen erally known as " James the gross," escaped to Ireland, where he had a numerous issue by a lady of the family of the lords of the Isles, some of whom were brought to Scot land, and raised to high honors by James II., and received letters of legitimation, which in the 15th c. conferred far more nearly than at a later date the full rights of legitimacy. The eldest, who was created Lord Avandale, enjoyed for life the estates of the earldom of Lennox, which had belonged to his grandmother, to the exclusion of the descendants of that lady's sisters; and we afterward find the earl of Arran, a descendant of the sixth son of James the gross, entering a protest in the parliament of 1585 regarding the per fect legitimacy of the house of Ochiltree. From the youngest son, James (not legiti. mated), sprung the Stuarts of Ardvorlich, Glenbuckie, and others in Balquid&r.