James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray

James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, was an illegitimate half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots, and a leading Protestant nobleman. He served Mary but later rebelled, and after her deposition he became regent for the infant James VI.

Moray defeated Mary’s supporters at Langside and governed during the ensuing civil war. He was assassinated at Linlithgow in 1570, often described as the first head of government killed by a firearm in a planned political attack.

Nigel Tranter’s A Rage of Regents makes Moray the regent governing for the infant James VI after Mary, Queen of Scots’ defeat at Langside and flight to England, placing him at the centre of a kingdom split between the king’s and queen’s parties. Steven Veerapen’s The Queen’s Consort shows the earlier James Stewart as Mary’s powerful half-brother and Protestant political counterweight during the dangerous rise of Lord Darnley. In Warden of the Queen’s March, Tranter sets Moray among the rival nobles whose opposition to Mary shapes Thomas Kerr’s service on the Borders and the wider struggle over the Scottish Reformation.