Link: Stewart

The Flemings and the Stewart family
Allies and kinsmen, 1204 - 1747

The Stewarts were the family’s oldest and closest allies. The Flemings served them as Stewards of Scotland for more than a century, and then as kings for four more. They married into the royal house three times.

In the Stewards’ following

The connection began in the household of the Stewards of Scotland. Simon Fleming of Kennethmont witnessed a charter of Walter fitz Alan the Steward in 1204, and his son Simon of Lectehtwerling witnessed for Alexander the Steward in 1239. The Barochan Flemings stayed in the Stewards’ following into the fourteenth century. Malcolm Fleming of Fulwood witnessed charters of Walter the Steward in 1315 and 1316. In 1334, holding Dumbarton Castle, he kept the young Robert the Steward safe from the English; Robert later became King Robert II.

Marriages with the royal house

As the Stewarts rose to the throne, the Flemings married into the royal family. Around 1398 Sir Malcolm Fleming of Biggar married Lady Elizabeth Stewart, daughter of Robert, Duke of Albany. In 1525 Malcolm, 3rd Lord Fleming, married Janet Stewart, a natural daughter of James IV, who later became governess to the infant Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1557 their daughter Margaret married John Stewart, 4th Earl of Atholl; the queen herself contributed five hundred pounds to the tocher. John, 2nd Lord Fleming, married Margaret Stewart, and later Flemings married into the Stewarts of Minto and Castlemilk.

Servants of the crown

Under the Stewart kings the Flemings served as ambassadors, hostages, chamberlains and commanders. Sir David Fleming negotiated with Henry IV in 1404 and died escorting the future James I in 1406. Malcolm Fleming was a hostage for James I from 1427 to 1432. John, 2nd Lord, commanded the fleet in 1511–13 and helped guard the infant James V in 1515. John, 5th Lord, led Queen Mary’s party from 1568 to 1572, and Mary Fleming was one of the queen’s Four Marys.

A conditional loyalty

The alliance was not unconditional. The 2nd Lord Fleming backed Alexander, Duke of Albany, against his brother James III, and in 1488 both the 1st and 2nd Lords were among the rebels who defeated and killed James III at Sauchieburn. In 1425 Sir Malcolm Fleming was arrested when James I destroyed the Albany Stewarts, his own in-laws. In the end, though, loyalty to the exiled Stewarts shaped the family’s last generations: the 6th and 7th Earls were Jacobites.