Moray had a varied relationship with his half-brother James V, and was imprisoned for a time.[2] In February 1531, James V gave him a commission to negotiate with rebels in the Scottish Isles and offer them pardons for future obedience.[3]
Moray went to France and was invested in the Order of Saint Michael by the Duke of Vendôme. In April 1536 Francis I of France arranged that James V would marry the Duke of Vendôme's daughter, Mary of Bourbon. Francis sent a courtier, Guillaume d'Yzernay, to the Earl of Moray with the collar and insignia of the Order of Saint Michael to give to James V as a token of his affection and their family union. Moray was instructed to present the collar with the same ceremonies that the Duke had observed at his investiture into the order.[4]
The 16th-century historian John Lesley, Bishop of Ross praised Moray for his diplomatic skills. In 1543 the Earl arranged the accidental destruction of valuable Venetian glass at a banquet to impress Peter Francisco Contarini, Patriarch of Venice, producing another set of glasses after the first was cleared away.[5] Mary's secretary Claude Nau also recorded a version of this story.[6]
According to Lesley, in 1526 Moray protected the young heir of Lachlan Mackintosh of Dunnachtan or Dunachton, his nephew, from his half-brothers Hector and William, who came to Dyke by Darnaway and burnt the countryside and killed several people, and captured Petty Castle belonging to Ogilvy of Durne or Durness. Moray got a commission from James V to raise an army and attack the Mackintosh brothers. Hector Mackintosh was brought back to Forres and beheaded, William Mackintosh was pardoned but murdered soon after in St Andrews. The young Mackintosh heir was brought up by Moray and the Laird of Findlater.[7]
He had homes in Edinburgh, Balnageith near Forres, Elgin and Darnaway Castle. He wrote a will in June 1540, when he was planning to travel to France for the sake of his health.[8]
Family
James Stewart married Lady Elizabeth Campbell, daughter of Colin Campbell, 3rd Earl of Argyll and Lady Jean Gordon, in August 1529. They had one daughter, Lady Mary Stewart, who married John Stewart, Master of Buchan. She obtained a divorce on 12 September 1560 and died childless.
^HMC 6th Report & Appendix: Earl of Moray (London, 1877), p. 670.
^Denys Hay, Letters of James V (Edinburgh, 1954), p. 318.
^Cody ed., John Leslie’s Historie of Scotland translated by Father Dalrymple, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1895), p. 276: Thomson ed., (Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, 1830), p. 179: De Origine Moribus et Rebus Gestis Scotorom (Rome, 1678), p. 449.
^Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 9 (Glasgow, 1915), p. 526 no. 427.
^Thomas Thomson, The History of Scotland: From the Death of King James I, by John Lesley (Edinburgh, 1830), pp. 136-9.
^ abHMC 6th Report & Appendix: Earl of Moray (London, 1877), pp. 670-1.