Mary Stewart, Countess of Buchan

{{Infobox noble

| CoA =

| tenure =

| predecessor =

| successor =

| birth_date = 1434 or 1435

| birth_place = Scotland

| death_date = 20 March 1465

| death_place = Zeeland

| burial_place = Sandenburg, ter Veere, Zeeland

| spouse = Wolfert VI of Borselen (m. 1444)

| father = James I of Scotland

| mother = Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scots

}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}{{Use British English|date=May 2025}}

{{more citations needed|date=April 2008}}

Mary Stewart, Countess of Buchan (1434 or 1435 – 20 March 1465) was the fifth daughter of James I of Scotland and Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scots.{{Cite book |last=Weir |first=Alison |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7nZ90l1_IzAC |title=Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy |date=2011-04-18 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4464-4911-0 |language=en}} She married Wolfert VI of Borselen, a Zeelander nobleman,Poswick, Eugène (1886), [https://ia800304.us.archive.org/22/items/bulletindelinsti19inst/bulletindelinsti19inst_bw.pdf "Histoire du Comté de Fallais"], Bulletin de l'Institut Achéologique Liégeois, vol. XIX, Léon de Thier, Liége, pp. 185–506 and lived in the Netherlands until her death in 1465. She had two children who died young.

Family

Mary had five sisters and twin brothers, one of whom died in infancy. Her surviving brother became James II of Scotland. Her sisters married into various European royal dynasties. Her sister Margaret became the dauphine of France, but died childless at age 20, apparently of fever. Her sister Isabella became the duchess of Brittany and had two daughters. Another sister, Eleanor, married a Habsburg archduke and lived in Austria, but died without any offspring. Her sister Joan, a deaf-mute, stayed in Scotland and married a Scottish earl, leaving four children, and her youngest sister, Annabella, was married twice and divorced twice and had children with her second husband, a Scottish earl.

Marriage

In 1444, Princess Mary married Wolfert VI van BorselenAlso spelled van Borselleen, Borsselen, or Borssele. in Veere, Zeeland, Netherlands. He was the son of Hendrick van Borselen, Count of Grandpré and Jean van Halewyn. The marriage stimulated commercial relations between Scotland and the Low Countries.

The Scottish king granted Mary's husband the title of Earl of Buchan, and so Mary became the Countess of Buchan.McGladdery, Christine, James II (Edinburgh, 2015 revised edn), p. 73 In 1464, her husband was a Marshal of France, and he was later created Wolfart VI, Lord of Veere and Count of Grandpre.

They had two children, who both died young:

  • Charles. died in 1451.
  • Jean.

Death

Mary died on 20 March 1465, 30 to 40 years old, without surviving issue. She was buried in Sandenburg, ter Veere, Zeeland.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

After her death, her husband married Charlotte de Bourbon, daughter of Louis I, Count of Montpensier. Their daughter Anna married a grandson of Philip the Good. Wolfart died 1487.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

The title of Buchan was eventually conferred, in 1469, on her half-brother James Stewart (her mother's son by her second marriage), who was called the 1st Earl of Buchan.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Ancestry

{{ahnentafel

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|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;

|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;

|boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe;

|1= 1. Mary Stewart

|2= 2. James I of Scotland

|3= 3. Joan Beaufort

|4= 4. Robert III of Scotland

|5= 5. Anabella Drummond

|6= 6. John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset

|7= 7. Margaret Holland

|8= 8. Robert II of Scotland

|9= 9. Elizabeth Mure

|10= 10. Sir John Drummond, 11th of Lennox

|11= 11. Mary Montifex

|12= 12. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster

|13= 13. Katherine Swynford

|14= 14. Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent

|15= 15. Alice FitzAlan

|16= 16. Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland

|17= 17. Marjorie Bruce

|18= 18. Sir Adam Mure, 1st of Rowallan

|19= 19. Janet Mure or Joan CunninghamMcAndrew, Scotland's Historic Heraldry, p 173

|20= 20. Sir Malcolm Drummond, 10th of Lennox

|21= 21. Amanda Graham

|22= 22. Sir William de Montifex

|23=

|24= 24. Edward III of England

|25= 25. Philippa of Hainault

|26= 26. Sir Payne de Roet

|27=

|28= 28. Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent

|29= 29. Joan, 4th Countess of Kent

|30= 30. Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel

|31= 31. Eleanor of Lancaster

}}

References